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Pastel Palette in an Historic Home
A modern renovation relaxes an historic home
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Call her sentimental—she won't mind. Catherine Fleetwood wasn't about to box up and hide her grandmother's delicate porcelain bird sculptures, hand-painted urns, and English antique furniture. The dyed-in-the-wool Southerner admits the treasures might seem old-fashioned to some (even many of her own family members have said, "No thanks"), but she adores them.
"I know they look like old-lady things to some people, but I've grown up with and love them," says Catherine, who, with husband Thomas, tapped architect Norman Askins and interior designers Heather Dewberry and Will Huff to weave family treasures and character into their home in the Buckhead district of Atlanta.
When the Fleetwoods bought the 1930s, early-Federal-style home, it was sorely in need of updating (the kitchen was original to the house), but tearing it down was not an option. "We wanted to save the integrity of the old house," Catherine says.
Built on a flat plot of land (a rarity in Atlanta) on top of a hill, the house "had a lot going for it," the architect agreed. "It had an unusually nice entrance hall and good-sized living and dining rooms. The rooms were not big but well-proportioned, with nice windows," Askins says. "Catherine's mantra was keep the charm. She wanted charming and old-fashioned, but not old lady."
Askins punched up the house's street appeal, adding a columned portico on the front and three arched dormers on the slate roof. Inside, the house was torn down to the studs so wiring, heating and cooling, plumbing, and other mechanicals could be updated. Rooms basically stayed in the same configuration, but some door ways were shifted or eliminated to create better flow, and Askins beefed up the trim, adding deep baseboards, crown moldings, and other details in keeping with the original architecture. New walnut plank floors were installed on the main level and second-level oak floors were refinished.
A two-story brick addition on the back of the house gave the Fleetwoods a new kitchen, family room, office, laundry room, powder room, and improved back entry. A new master suite with separate his-and-her baths was installed above the family room-kitchen.
Rooms in the original second story were reconfigured to add new bathrooms. (Old ones were turned into walk-in closets.) "We were able to make the house flow a bit better and be more spacious. Nothing in the house is huge. It just feels generous," Askins says.
Meanwhile, Dewberry and Huff took the charm mantra and ran with it. Catherine and the designers selected fabrics and wallcoverings in classic patterns—toiles, checks, florals, and trellises—but in fresh and lively color combos. A blue-and-celadon toile "gave an extra kick" to the master suite, Dewberry says, especially when mixed with two sizes of blue-checked fabric on chairs and the bed's upholstered headboard. "We thought about solid fabrics for chairs but then said, let's go for it," Dewberry recalls. "I think the room is more welcoming and charming with the patterns."
At Catherine's behest, Dewberry drew on her experience with legendary Atlanta decorator Dan Carithers. "I told Heather that she'd have to replicate Dan's best work in my house," says Catherine, who has long admired the now-retired designer. Dewberry, who worked for Carithers early in her career, relished the oppor-tunity. "I pulled out all my best Dan tricks," she laughs, including lush draperies with goblet- and inverted Empire-pleated valances. "Dan was wonderful with window treatments, and we loved that we were able to do so many in this house."
Dewberry also credits Carithers for the subtle tone-on-tone yellow-striped wallcovering in the living room. "In a room with a lot of openings, the wallcovering grounds the space and ties things together," she explains. "I saw Dan do this all the time."
The living and dining rooms' gentle blue, yellow, and green color palette came directly from Catherine's antique porcelain pieces, many of them birds designed by Dorothy Doughty and produced by Royal Worcester in the mid-1900s.
"We loved that she wanted to use these family pieces," says Dewberry, who admits to her own fondness for antique porcelain. "The colors are so beautiful and vivid."
Noting that curating is the key to keeping a collection from becoming clutter, the designers selected only a handful of the porcelains. Platters and plates are hung on walls throughout the house, including those of bedrooms and hallways, and the sculptures are showcased on simple painted brackets mounted at eye level (better for appreciating the intricate details).
Two of the Doughty birds are set off by the delicate floral-and-vine wallcovering in the dining room. Brackets were painted ivory and not gilded, Dewberry says, to make them seem less formal.
"Catherine and Thomas didn't want the house to feel hands-off. They wanted it to be very warm and welcoming," she says. "Most of the floor coverings are simple with not a lot of pattern, and that helps to keep things relaxed." The designers purposely brought in robust-scaled Italian and French furnishings in a variety of painted and stained finishes to "loosen up" the dainty and more formal English antiques.
In the living room, two modern sofas covered in a soft chenille keep the room from feeling overly formal or serious—especially with the addition of pillows in a big yellow check. "We thought the room could use a little kick," says Dewberry.
A custom-designed coffee table was topped with quartz surfacing rather than a stone slab. "They really use this living room for entertaining and family, and we didn't want them to have to worry about coffee or wine stains on a stone table," the designer explains.
Making friends and family comfortable was always part of the plan. "The Fleetwoods are effortless entertainers. They don't sweat the small stuff," Dewberry says. Multiple French doors open to the bluestone patio and courtyard gardens, and when they entertain, doors stand open and people spill outside. "This is such a relaxed and comfortable home," she says. "No one ever wants to leave."
Architect: Norman Askins, Norman Davenport Askins Architect, 2995 Lookout Place N.E., Atlanta, GA 30305; 404/233-6565, normanaskins.com.
Interior design: Will Huff and Heather Zarrett Dewberry, Huff-Dewberry Inc., 2300 Peachtree Road N.W., Suite B-201, Atlanta, GA 30309; 404/355-7600, huffdewberry.com.
Kitchen and bath design: Beth Barfield, Beth Barfield Designs, 3055 Westminster Circle N.W., Atlanta, GA 30327; 404/867-1725, bethbarfielddesigns.com.
Produced by Lisa Mowry
Photography: Emily Jenkins Followill
Wallpaper ("Hurstwood Stripe"/Beige #7934-04, by Colefax and Fowler): Cowtan & Tout, cowtan.com.
Drapery ("Stanton" #18); Taffard Fabrics, 212/213-4670, taffard.com.
Drapery trim ("Le Musee Silk Scallop Braid"): Samuel & Sons, samuelandsons.com.
Upholstered sofas: Baker, bakerfurniture.com.
Yellow-checked pillows ("Chequers" #NCF3641-03, by Nina Campbell): Osborne & Little, osborneandlittle.com.
Coffee table (custom): Huff-Dewberry, huffdewberry.com.
Area rug (Oushak): Moattar Ltd., moattar.com.
Tables flanking mantel; mirror over mantel; art flanking mantel: (antique): owner's collection.
Table lamps; yellow table lamp: for similar, Edgar-Reeves Lighting & Antiques, edgar-reeves.com.
A wall at the end of the center hall was eliminated to allow for views through the house. Black-painted baseboards and a Circa chandelier add a bit of drama.
Paint: custom mixed on site.
Hanging lantern: owner's collection.
Carpet on stairs: Myers Carpet, myerscarpet.com.
Sconce on stairs ("Chandler" #TOB2110, by Thomas O'Brien): Circa Lighting, circalighting.com.
Dining Room
An arrangement of framed intaglios complements the blue-and-white wallcovering. The Fleetwoods inherited the antique crystal chandelier and hung it above the pedestal dining table from Baker. Striped Carlton V silk draperies with goblet pleats hang from hand-painted rods.
Wallpaper (#ZNTP06002, discontinued): Zoffany, zoffany.com.
Ceiling and trim paint ("White Dove" #OC-17): Benjamin Moore & Co., benjaminmoore.com.
Drapery ("Aladdin"/Celadon #IS131-4): Carleton V Ltd., carletonvltd.com.
Drapery hardware (custom): through Huff-Dewberry, huffdewberry.com.
Framed intaglios: for similar, The Stalls Antiques, thestalls.com.
Sisal rug: Myers Carpet, myerscarpet.com.
Dining table: Baker, bakerfurniture.com.
Chairs; chandelier (antique): owner's collection.
Dining Room Credenza
Porcelain birds perch on brackets above an Italian table.
Console table; mirror (antique); benches under console: owner's collection.
Lamps on console: Edgar-Reeves Lighting & Antiques, edgar-reeves.com.
Wall brackets: Fabulous Things Ltd., 404/350-0916.
A pair of bouillotte lamps were wired into the walnut-topped island. The Wolf range is tucked into a marble-lined niche. Rustic beams above the range and on the ceiling add a sense of age.
Cabinets (custom): Morgan Creek Cabinet Co., morgancreekcabinets.com.
Countertops and backsplash: Crema Delicato marble.
Island countertops: Black Walnut.
Bouillotte lamps on counter (custom); hanging lanterns: Edgar-Reeves Lighting & Antiques, edgar-reeves.com.
Sink; faucet; pot-filler faucet: Rohl, rohlhome.com.
Range (by Wolf); refrigerator (by Sub-Zero): Sub-Zero/Wolf, subzero-wolf.com.
Window treatment ("Vanessa's Folly"/Brown #79746-874, colorway discontinued): Brunschwig & Fils, brunschwig.com.
Valance trim ("Warwick Picot Braid"/Denim): Samuel & Sons, samuelandsons.com.
Paint: custom mixed on site.
Bar stools: owner's collection.
Butler's Pantry
Wooden cabinetry is tucked into an alcove outside the kitchen for extra prep and storage space.
Large windows flood the kitchen with light.
Family Room Dining Area
Antique side chairs are covered in a Cowtan & Tout check. The chest, painting, and plates on the wall are family antiques.
Table (antique); dining chairs (antique); chest (antique); lamps on chest (antique): owner's collection.
Dining-chair fabric ("Lidgate Check"/Blue #F3210-01, by Colefax and Fowler) Cowtan & Tout, cowtan.com.
Paint: custom mixed on site.
Family Room
In the new family room addition, matched seating groups face off in front of the limestone fireplace. The custom coffee table was inspired by Italian trestle tables. The chandelier is by Edgar-Reeves.
Sofa (#540, Travis Upholstery): Travis & Co., travisandcompany.com.
Sofa fabric ("Oakdale"/Blue Smoke #PW54071, by Old World Weavers, discontinued): Stark, starkcarpet.com.
Sofa pillows ("Du Midi"/Bleu #33310-5, colorway discontinued): Clarence House, clarencehouse.com.
Lounge chairs (#766, Travis Upholstery): Travis & Co., travisandcompany.com.
Leather chairs by mantel (antique): owner's collection.
Lounge-chair fabric ("Treillage"/Pecan #10888-06), plaid fabric on leather chairs ("Lidgate Check"/Blue #F3210-01, by Colefax and Fowler): Cowtan & Tout, cowtan.com.
Benches (antique); tables flanking sofa; table lamps: owner's collection.
Bench fabric ("Livingstone"/Blue #F1406/07, by Colefax and Fowler): Cowtan & Tout, cowtan.com.
Art over mantel (by Tracey Lane): Pryor Fine Art, pryorfineart.com.
Bookshelf sconces ("Dorchester 18-inch Picture Light" #CHD5137): Circa Lighting, circalighting.com.
Drapery ("Vanessa's Folly"/Brown #BR-79746.874, colorway discontinued): Brunschwig & Fils, brunschwig.com.
Drapery trim ("Warwick Picot Braid"/Denim): Samuel & Sons, samuelandsons.com.
Area rug (sisal): Myers Carpet, myerscarpet.com.
Coffee tables (custom): Holland & Co, hollandandcompany.com.
Chandelier: Edgar-Reeves Lighting & Antiques, edgar-reeves.com.
The home's brick exterior and black shutters reinforces the interior's classic charm.
Family Portrait
Thomas and Catherine Fleetwood with their daughters, Caroline, 12, and Elizabeth, 9.
Master Bedroom Sitting Area
The master bedroom's fireplace boasts a herringbone-patterned hearth, which complements the lines on the wallcovering and checked fabrics.
See more of this room on the following slides.
Chaise: owner's collection. Fauteuil; settee at end of bed: antique.
Celadon garden stool by chaise; mirror over mantel: owner's collection.
Celadon chargers and Asian accessories: Hill Street Warehouse, hillstreetwarehouse.com.
Master Bedroom
A fresh celadon-and-blue toile from Vervain and two sizes of Schumacher checks mix with a trellis wallcovering from Thibaut. Tassel trim is from Fabricut.
Wallpaper ("Molinia Trellis"/Aqua #T1925W-006): Thibaut, thibautdesign.com.
Bed (custom): through Huff-Dewberry, huffdewberry.com.
Drapery, bed drapery and settee-front fabric ("Charlene"/Lagoon): Vervain, vervain.com.
Large checked fabric on headboard, bed skirt, and chaise ("Camden Cotton Check"/Aqua #63037); small checked fabric on bed-skirt and chaise trim, bed-drapery lining, settee back, and fauteuil ("Elton Cotton Check"/Aqua #63057): Schumacher, fschumacher.com.
Drapery and bed-drapery tassel trim ("Pansy 01"): Fabricut, fabricut.com.
Armoire (antique); bedside chest (antique); chandelier (antique): owner's collection.
Table lamps: Mrs. Howard, phoebehoward.net.
Area rug ("Corsica" #92501-0004): Eve & Staron Studio, eveandstaronstudio.com.
Bed linens ("Embroidered Scallop," Classic Collection): Jane Wilner Designs, janewilnerdesigns.net.
Master Bedroom Details
Dainty details, like monogrammed chair backs, lend charm to the bedroom.
Master Bath
Draperies made of Fabricut linen skim the tub deck, adding to the luxurious feel of the bath. The tub faucet is by Rohl; wallcovering is from Farrow & Ball.
See more of the master bath on the following slide.
Wallpaper ("Ringwold" #BP 1637): Farrow & Ball, farrow-ball.com.
Drapery ("Fellas"/Mist #2423718): Fabricut, fabricut.com.
Chandelier (antique): owner's collection.
Towels: Jane Wilner Designs, janewilnerdesigns.net.
Bath faucets: Rohl, rohlhome.com.
Dressing Area
Creamy marble and a tall gilt mirror lend glamour to the dressing area.
Dressing table (custom): Morgan Creek Cabinet Co., morgancreekcabinets.com.
Dressing-table top, flooring: Crema Delicato marble.
Bench (antique): owner's collection.
Bench fabric ("Elton Cotton Check"/Aqua #63057): Schumacher, fschumacher.com.
Sconces flanking mirror ("Arlington" #381-PN): Hudson Valley Lighting, hudsonvalleylighting.com.
Pink Bedroom
A bedroom with twin beds and a perfectly pink palette is accented with girly floral prints and a pretty chandelier.
Beds (custom): M. Southern Design Concepts, macksoutherndesign.com.
Headboard and bed-skirt fabric; drapery; bed linens: Jane Wilner Designs, janewilnerdesigns.net.
Drapery trim: Samuel & Sons, samuelandsons.com.
Table between beds (antique); table lamp; chandelier; botanical prints; accessories: owner's collection.
Stair Landing
The Fleetwoods inherited the shield-back settee, which sits in front of a window draped in "Acanthus Vine" fabric from Jane Shelton.
Paint: custom mixed on site.
Drapery ("Acanthus Vine"/Aqua #6217-2): Jane Shelton, janeshelton.com.
Settee (antique): owner's collection.
Settee fabric ("Dart Stripe"/Aqua #F3514-04, by Colefax and Fowler): Cowtan & Tout, cowtan.com.
Wall sconce ("Chandler Single Sconce" #TOB2110, by Thomas O'Brien): Circa Lighting, circalighting.com.
Guest Suite Bed
The new garage has an upstairs guest suite with a masculine attitude. Built-in shelves create a bed niche with an acrylic-backed Kravet fabric wallcovering. Noir's "Bourbon" bench is upholstered in a robust Vervain fabric.
See more of this suite on the following slides.
Bed ("Isabelle Headboard"): Noir, noirfurniturela.com.
Bed linens Jane Wilner Designs, janewilnerdesigns.net.
Wall fabric behind bed, bed pillow fabric ("Latika Delta" #Latika.516): Kravet, kravet.com.
Mirror above bed: owner's collection.
Built-in shelves: custom.
Table lamps on shelves: Edgar-Reeves Lighting & Antiques, edgar-reeves.com.
Bench ("Bourbon Bench"/Hand-Rubbed Black #GBEN114-2HB): Noir, noirfurniturela.com.
Bench fabric; bed-skirt ("Beaucastel"/Indigo): Vervain, vervain.com.
Guest Suite Alcove
The slanted walls and ceilings created space for a cozy window seat. The blue-checked cushion and drapery fabric is from Thibaut.
Checked fabric for drapery and window-seat cushion ("Netherlands Check"/Blue #W8307): Thibaut, thibautdesign.com.
Guest Suite Bath
Walls are covered in an exuberant ikat paper from Thibaut. "Using something so patterned camouflaged the angles and eaves more than if we'd painted," notes designer Heather Dewberry.
Wallpaper ("Island Ikat"/Blue #T9169): Thibaut, thibautdesign.com.
Window treatment (discontinued): Fabricut, fabricut.com.
Faucets: Rohl, rohlhome.com.
Candle sconce ("Large Kate Wall Sconce"#SP2005): Circa Lighting, circalighting.com.
Flooring: Materials Marketing, mstoneandtile.com.


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Top Ten Business Tips For Newbies
1. Love That Which You Do
It's wise to pick a place which you have a desire for, for several reasons. You have some understanding and expertise in this region that is invaluable and also you will not always be beginning on your own. Should you chose a place that is already of great interest for you it will not always seem like work, particularly when the going will get tough. Whichever company chose you'll unquestionably have rough patches, at these times you're more likely to persevere as you have an attachment, a personal desire along with a passion. For those who have no interest you'll be more prone to give up in the first hint of problems.
2. Make a Strategic Business Plan
A strategic business plan isn't just a thing that you have to prepare to exhibit to banks for a financial loan in order to investors. A strategic business plan is essential and helpful because it also works as a help guide to operate by. It's a terrific way to set goals, measure progress and achievements and keeps yourself on track with spending. Stay organised and make up a folder on your pc where keep the strategic business plan along with other relevant documents that you will be using regularly, just like an invoice template or perhaps your sales documents.
3. Set Realistic Expectations
Pricier miracles instantly. Searching the web you will find lots of people claiming to possess generated millions instantly with one scam or any other. Genuine small business ventures take some time, care and chronic. There's no such factor as simple money or money for free, cliche but true, whether it were that simple everybody could be doing the work. Realize that you will see obstacles and difficulties to beat from the beginning.
4. Simply Do It
The easiest method to gain understanding and discover, is as simple as doing. Read all of the books, take all of the courses, study and research for a long time but before you take that initial step you may never really know. It's like your driving practise, you possess an instructor with you in every lesson using their safety pedals like a support. You learn all of the technicalities of driving however the real learning only starts whenever you head out to the road on your own. Nothing and no-one can get you prepared for every eventuality. Research and become knowledgeable inside your selected field go ahead and but there should never be the right time enter into. Even though you have a really small walk into your venture, the earlier you receive began the earlier you will be on the way.
5. Think about Why
Exercise why you need to get into business on your own. You must have a great list of all of the why's before getting began. This exercise may also be used as the goal indicator. If you are searching to possess additional time on your own for example, your company venture could require annually or even more an email psychic reading some time for your and yourself family and if that's your primary focus you might get disheartened while you start to construct your business, whenever you understand your spare time isn't just limited but you've got a lot a smaller amount of it. Beginning a brand new clients are not your typical 9-5, it's much more of a start whenever you wake, finish whenever your mind hits the pillow. Should you get ready with this, it will not be this type of shock somewhere.
6. Budget and Finance
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7. Building your Network
Networking is vital running a business whether online or personally. Every contact will be an possible client, or might be somebody who has advice or inspiration for you personally. You will be surprised at the quantity of effective business proprietors and entrepreneurs who will be ready to impart valuable tips and advice and may point you within the right direction for every type of services. There's a whole treasure chest of supportive business proprietors online, read blogs, inquire in forums etc and it is all free of charge.
8. Understanding how to Adapt
Make sure that you set a practical plan for from your online connection lower to stock or billable hrs. Each and every cent counts. There is no reason for spending thousands on advertising if you are not visiting a return, you might want to return to the look stages. This really is a part of your learning, so try out strategies and do not hesitate to adjust to the weather. You will find all kinds of things that may impact a companies growth and earnings and when your company is not attentive to the marketplace or technology for example this might set you back very much.
9. Focus
It is easy to become side-tracked, there are plenty of ideas and new ventures available, so concentrating on the goals you initially specified by your strategic business plan are very important. Concentrate on one task at any given time. You could make notes for ideas and projects you want to occupy later on but remain focused, or else you may fall foul of stalling, searching at many different ideas and also at the finish during the day help you find haven't achieved anything or really done any work.
10. Have confidence in yourself
Self-Belief goes a lengthy way, this isn't unique advice this really is fact, if you do not have confidence in yourself and your products or services then you definitely cannot expect other people to. It might appear difficult particularly when beginning out but you need to learn how to have confidence in yourself, this can impact every facet of your company, from creating your Strategic business plan right lower to networking. If you do not believe what you are this will show in all you do.
If you think maybe it, you are able to Do it!
Best Of Luck!
Read Also: Top Ten Best Ways To Market Your Business With Top 10 Lists
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"Prometheus" and "Madagascar 3" Europe's Most Wanted" provided a box-office power surge Friday.
Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic rocketed to $21.4 million and DreamWorks Animation's "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" did $20.4 milion in their first day of release.
The family-friendly "Madagascar 3" appears to have the edge for the weekend and could hit the $60 million mark, with the kids likely coming out on Saturday and Sunday. Audiences broke down 56 percent female and 54 percent under 25. They loved the film, giving it an "A" CinemaScore. Paramount is distributing.
Fox's R-rated "Prometheus," spiked by $3.5 million from Thursday midnight shows, is on track for a weekend in the $52 million-$54 million range. Much of its business came from its 2,649 3D locations. It's at 3,396 locations in all, inclluding 300 Imax screens.
Also read: 'Prometheus' Grosses Bloody Good $3.56M in Midnight Shows
Last week's No. 1 film, "Snow White and the Huntsman," took in $7.5 million Friday, putting it on pace for a $24.1 million weekend and raising its domestic gross to date to $99.6 million.
"Men in Black 3" took in $4.2 million Friday from 3,792 locations, upping its overall domestic gross to $126.2 million and its worldwide total to more than $441.8 million.
Earlier …
For the first time this summer, Hollywood's not sure who's going to win the weekend box office.
Whether it's to the deep-space terror of Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" or the wise-cracking critters of "Madagascar 3," it's clear the current No. 1, "Snow White and the Huntsman," is going down.
"Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" might have a slight edge, analysts and insiders say, but it's too close to call. Both movies are expected to make about $50 million between Friday and Sunday, with "Snow White" dropping to the mid-$20 million range.
It should be quite a duel, all the more intriguing since the summer box office has had an air of inevitability since "The Avengers" landed. Both films have been well-received by the critics and both could exceed expectations analysts say, though tracking on family films can be dicey.
Also read: The Blockbuster That Ate Hollywood: Why 'Avengers' Is Crowding the Box Office
DreamWorks Animation's "Madagascar 3" will be the first animated movie to hit theaters since Sony opened 'Pirates! Band of Misfits" in April, and the first CGI film since Universal's "The Lorax" opened to $70 million in March.
"That's a long time to go without a real family film," Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations.com told TheWrap Thursday. "You have to think there's some pent-up demand there."
"Prometheus" has had the sci-fi universe buzzing since 2010, when Ridley Scott announced his return to the legacy of his 1979 horror classic "Alien," and comes in having already banked $46 million overseas since bowing in 15 territories last week.
"The hardcore fan base is going to be there," Boxoffice.com editor-in-chief Phil Contrino told TheWrap Thursday. "The question is whether Fox has sold the average moviegoer in Middle America and convinced them to see it in 3D or at Imax."
Fox will launch the R-rated "Prometheus" on 3,396 screens, including 2,649 3D and 300 Imax locations. DWA will send out "Madagascar 3" at 4,200 locations, all digital.
"Madagascar 3" follows the gang, refugees from a New York zoo, as they try to make their way back to the Big Apple from Europe and join a traveling circus. Frances McDormand, Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston and Martin Short have joined the voice cast, along with returnees Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith and David Schwimmer. Noah Baumbach ("Fantastic Mr. Fox") comes aboard as a co-writer with Eric Darnell, who directs.
Also read: 'Madagascar 3' Review: Third Time Really is the Charm for These Animated Animals
DWA is also debuting the film on the same day in 22 foreign countries, including Russia, China, India, Brazil and France. The franchise's two earlier installments made much more aboard than at home.
The first "Madagascar" film opened domestically to $47.2 million in 2005 and went on to gross $532 million worldwide, $339 million from overseas. The sequel, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," bowed to $63.1 million in the U.S. in 2008 and went to ring up $603 million in global grosses, $423 million from foreign sales.
DWA is predicting a $45 million weekend for "Madagascar 3," comparing its tracking to that of its "Kung Fu Panda 2," which opened to $47 million in May of 2011, and "Ice Age 3,' which bowed to $41 million in July 2009.
The studio puts the production budget on "Madagascar 3" at $145 million, but the box office will be just a part of the bottom line. The studio has signed a slew of promotional partners for "Madagascar 3," ranging from Zynga apps to specially stamped Dole bananas — 100 million of them.
The critics liked it. MovieReviewIntelligence.com has 72.9 percent positive reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 74 percent. Metacritic gives it a 66 rating.
"Prometheus" is set in the 21st Century and chronicles the journey of spaceship crew following a star map discovered among the remnants of several ancient Earth civilizations. Seeking the origins of humanity, they instead discover a threat that could cause the extinction of the human race.
Also read: 'Prometheus' Review: Serviceable Sci-Fi Flick Doesn't Live Up to 'Alien' Legacy
Scott produced and directed from a script co-written by Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts. Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba and Guy Pearce star. Lindelof and Tony Scott are also producers. The studio put the production budget at $130 million and said Thursday that it is looking for a $30 million first weekend.
The reviews are strong. Seventy-four percent of the Rotten Tomatoes reviews are positive; 72 percent were positive on MovieReviewIntelligence.com. Metacritic gave it a 66 rating.
Universal's "Snow White and the Huntsman" is looking at a roughly 50 percent drop from its surprisingly strong $56 million opening last week, analysts say. It could face the double whammy of losing young males to "Prometheus" and older females who may be taking their kids to "Madagascar 3."
"If they can come in at the high-twenties it would be quite a feat," said Bock, "and if they do, it could take a toll on 'Prometheus.'"
Sony's "Men in Black 3" returns for its third week, having rung up $426 million worldwide, $307 million of which has come from overseas.
Focus Features is expanding Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" into 96 theaters this weekend. That could be enough for it to join another specialty film surprise, Fox Searchlight's "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," in the top ten.
Arthouse audiences will find a steamy French drama and three R-rated comedies vying for their attention.
"Twilight" heartthrob Robert Pattinson is front and center in "Bel Ami," a period drama based on the 1885 novel by Guy de Maupassant. He plays a young man who rises to power in Paris after manipulating the city's most influential women. Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, Colm Meaney and Kristen Scott Thomas co-star. Magnolia is opening the film, which is already available on video-on-demand, in 15 theaters.
"Peace, Love and Misunderstanding," a comedy from BCDF Pictures, opens in 28 theaters via distributor IFC. Catherine Keener plays an uptight New York lawyer who takes her two teenagers to visit her hippie mother (Jane Fonda) at her upstate farmhouse. Elizabeth Olsen and Nat Wolff co-star
Film District is opening the sci-fi comedy "Safety Not Guaranteed" at nine locations. Aubrey Plaza, Jake M. Johnson and Karan Soni star in Derek Connolly's tale of three magazine writers who encounter a man offering time-travel trips.
Fox Searchlight is opening "Lola Versus" at four theaters. Greta Gerwig stars as a woman dumped by her boyfriend weeks before their marriage who comes to grips with being single as she approaches 30. Zoe Lister Jones, Bill Pullman, Hamish Linklater, Debra Winger and Joel Kinnaman co-star.
Also read: Can 'Prometheus' and 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' Revive the R-Rated Blockbuster?
Also read: 10 Highest Grossing R-Rated Movies of All Time
Also read: Box Office Preview: 'Prometheus' vs. 'Madagascar 3' Is Too Close to Call


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Wondrous complexity … salted butter caramels.According to the Larousse Gastronomique, caramel is simply melted sugar browned by heating. Technically, it is that simple.
However, to explain the wondrous complexities of caramel, food scientist Harold McGee is more forthcoming: "Start with pure table sugar, a single kind of molecule, colourless, odourless and simply sweet. Add heat and you create caramel: many hundreds of new molecules, brown colour, rich aroma, sweet, tart and bitter."
There are two basic ways to make caramel: the dry method, when sugar is heated until it reaches melting point and starts to brown; and the wet method, when sugar is dissolved in water, then brought to the boil until it starts to brown.
Dissolving the sugar first is easier for less-experienced cooks, but either way, caramel must be constantly watched as once it starts to brown, it can easily burn. Have a bowl of cold water ready to cool the pan down, as this will stop it cooking further.
I prefer the dry method, as it is quick and the caramel can be stirred all the time. With the wet method, once the sugar has dissolved and started to boil, it should not be stirred, as this can encourage crystals to form.
A clean pastry brush dipped in water is also needed to brush down the sides of the pot, to prevent crystals forming.
Whichever method you choose, there are plenty of wonderful recipes to make use of caramel. Here are three of my favourites.Salted butter caramels
These caramels can be made with any type of sugar and butter, although the flavour is better with quality ingredients.
375g raw castor sugar 250g good-quality salted butter, diced and chilled, plus extra for greasing 5 tbsp creme fraiche Sea salt flakes to garnish
Grease and line a 20-centimetre square slice tin with baking paper. In a heavy-based saucepan, place the sugar over a medium heat. Cook to quite a dark caramel. Turn the heat down low and carefully add the butter, a few cubes at a time, making sure it is all incorporated before adding more. Stir in creme fraiche and continue to cook until thickened (118C on a digital or sugar thermometer). Pour into tray and sprinkle over salt flakes. Allow to cool, then refrigerate until set. Cut into squares to serve.Caramelised pork belly
Inspired by MasterChef contestant Alvin Quah's recipe, the caramel sauce for the pork belly is flavoured by the Chinese master stock.
Chinese master stock
6L water 3 cloves garlic, sliced 1 knob ginger, sliced 1 handful green onion ends 1 cinnamon stick 2 star anise 375ml light soy sauce 375ml shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine) 75g chinese rock sugar
1 kg pork belly 2 eschalots, finely sliced 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar 300g brown sugar 1 tbsp fish sauce 2 tbsp lime juice Handful fresh coriander leaves 1 long red chilli, deseeded and sliced 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
For master stock, place all ingredients in a large stockpot and bring to the boil. Taste stock for balance of flavours and adjust as required. Add pork belly to master stock and gently simmer for one hour. Remove and set aside to cool. Soak eschalots in vinegar.
Heat brown sugar in deep-sided frying pan, stir and cook over medium heat until caramelised. Add one cup master stock, fish sauce and lime juice. Cook over high heat until reduced and thickened. Cut pork belly into slices and add to sauce. Mix together the coriander leaves, eschalots and chilli. Place slices of caramelised pork neatly on a plate, garnish with salad and sprinkle over sesame seeds.
Serves 4
To store master stock, allow it to cool. Strain through a fine sieve and refrigerate until needed. Once cooled, strained and refrigerated, master stock can be used again and again. Replenish the stock with fresh garlic, ginger, green onions and aromatics each time you use it and the flavour will continue to intensify. This stock can also be frozen.Caramel bananas with dulce de leche ice-cream
My childhood treat of caramel bananas gets a makeover, with the addition of a super-easy ice-cream and the bitter crunch of praline. Can you ever have too much caramel?
4 over-ripe bananas 1 cup dulce de leche*
3/4 cup caster sugar 1/2 cup almonds
60g butter 1/2 cup brown sugar 4 ripe bananas, peeled and cut in thick slices on an angle
For ice-cream, blend bananas in a food processor until smooth. Add dulce de leche and blend. Pour into a plastic container and place in freezer for four hours until firm. For praline, line a baking tray with baking paper. Heat a heavy-based frying pan over high heat. Slowly sprinkle in the sugar, allowing it to melt before adding more. As it melts, stir with a wooden spoon to ensure it doesn't burn. Keep adding the sugar and stirring until it is a dark golden-brown colour. Quickly add the almonds and pour the mixture onto the tray.
Allow to cool, then break into large chunks and place in a food processor. Pulse until roughly crushed. For bananas, melt butter in a pan over medium heat, add brown sugar and stir. Cook for five minutes or so, stirring, until caramel forms. Add sliced banana and continue to cook until banana is soft and golden. Remove from heat. Serve bananas drizzled with any extra caramel from the pan. Add a scoop of ice-cream and sprinkle with praline.
Serves 4
To make dulce de leche, place unopened tin of condensed milk in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for two hours, topping up with extra water to keep the tin covered. Remove and allow to cool.Follow Cuisine on Twitter
This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.


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One thing is for sure; we all know that we need a roof over our head. In most peoples case they end up having to pay either Rent for this roof or a Mortgage payment, unless of course you have a rich family that can offer you FREE or Reduced Rent. The point is, we ALL have to pay for a roof over our heads. Real Estate has always been considered a Long-Term Investment. The real question you need to ask yourself; do I really want to pay RENT for the rest of my life? Generally, a home makes financial sense if you are going to live in it for at least three, four, or preferably five years. When you buy you need to take into consideration the costs involved in buying and selling a home, from appraisal fees and home inspection to real estate commissions, all must be taken into consideration. When people lose money in the real estate market it is usually because they did not own it long enough, they sold to quickly. This usually means within the first 3 years of the purchase. You cannot depend on making any real profit in real estate in the first 3 years. In fact, the market may fall after you buy your home. However, also keep in mind; the longer you own your property, history has shown us, you can be sure it will have increased in value when you come to sell. Real estate has proven to be one of the most stable long-term investments there is. It is your guarantee of retirement security. Overall, it is far better to own your own home than rent. Not only for the pride of ownership but because it is your only long-term hedge against inflation. With rental rates increase constantly, there is no guarantee you will be able to afford them as the years go by.


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Wednesday was his last day at school. We are sad to see that several teachers & staff have decided to not return next year. Thus is the life of a charter school but we are grateful that they were there for the beginning of Andre's education. They have definitely made an impact. They won't be forgotten either.
We will miss you Ms. Song & Mr. Hendricks!
Friday was Andre's big 7th birthday! I have always had a birthday party for him but this year we decided not to. We still celebrated (for 2 days) LOL Ever since Legoland Westchester opened up this spring, I knew that Andre would love to party there. Initially I wanted to rent a party room but I felt the packages were quite expensive. Instead I opted to invite a few friends from school to meet us there in the morning to play. It may sound expensive as well, but I had a great coupon that offered a Buy 1 Adult ticket Get 1 Child FREE. There's no redemption code so you can literally use it again. I used various family members email address & computers to buy them. I saved money & I was able to pay for the parents as well.
The kids had a blast! As soon as we walked in, Andre hugged me tightly and exclaimed "This is the best birthday ever Mom!" I was touched & relieved. I knew it would be a good day for him.
The day before my husband's birthday, his grandfather passed away. He was the patriarch of his family and a great man. He was 97 years old so he did indeed live a full life. One we can only hope to as well. It was hard saying goodbye and returning him back home to Haiti. Our hearts are heavy but we know he's where he has wanted to be for a long time.
Nou manke ou Granpapa
There's so much to talk about that I can't put it all in this one post. So stay tuned for some giveaways and reviews. Sorry for being so late! Also look out for my new look!
Disclosure: All opinions expressed are 100% my own


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Subscribe To The Voice and Revolution Help NBC Win Premiere Week Updates
I've already subscribed
For the first time in almost a decade, NBC has pulled through to win premiere week. At least, well, sort of. During premiere week, NBC pulled in the highest numbers in the coveted 18-49 demographic, which is good for garnering advertising money, and good for the network itself, which hasn't won in nine years. However, NBC did not win when it came to total viewers, a trophy that, unsurprisingly, went to CBS.
According to EW, both networks are stating they have won the week, although NBC's victory is probably more impressive, as they have both pulled an underdog victory and won the hearts of advertisers, everywhere. Because of this, we'll toss CBS' normal ratings crushing aside and focus on NBC and what this week's victory means for the network.
Namely, it doesn't mean much. While it will be pretty cool for the peacock network to send out press releases over the next couple of weeks denoting their ratings shares during premiere week, if the numbers don't continue to perform solidly, NBC will be back toward the bottom of the barrel. At least the network can always dominate the CW's numbers, though.
If we look at NBC's two biggest programs right now, they are probably the NFL's Sunday Night Football and The Voice. The network is up 12% from last fall, but football was also up 23% last week, so that didn't hurt. Additionally, The Voice tends to suffer once the audition rounds are over, and new premieres that are faring well like Revolution and Go On have to keep their numbers up over the next few weeks as audiences settle in. NBC may not dominate as the season progresses, but the network still has at least a few programs that should endear audiences and bring people in. They haven't won the war, yet, but they are starting to turn around the battle.


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"GLEE: The Music, The Power of Madonna" Album Hits No. 1
FOX will once again pay homage to Madonna and her music with a special encore airing of GLEE's "The Power of Madonna" episode Friday, April 23 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
In "The Power of Madonna" episode, MR. SCHUESTER (Matthew Morrison) is concerned that the girls in the glee club are being disrespected and bullied by the male members. Looking to Madonna and her musical message of equality as inspiration, he challenges the entire team to choose Madonna songs as their next assignment in the hopes that the girls embrace Madonna's strength, independence and confidence so that the guys will see the errors of their misogynistic ways. The glee club takes the assignment to heart and performs some of Madonna's greatest hits, including "Express Yourself" and "Like a Prayer." Meanwhile, KURT (Chris Colfer) and MERCEDES (Amber Riley) give SUE (Jane Lynch) a vote of confidence with a Madonna makeover that is definitely in "Vogue."
"GLEE: The Music, The Power of Madonna" album, released Tuesday, April 20, is currently the No. 1 album on iTunes. The album features the series' distinctive and unique take on such classics as "Like A Virgin," "Express Yourself," "Vogue," "4 Minutes" and more.
Television's most award-winning new series, GLEE was recently honored with a Peabody Award; a Golden Globe for Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical; a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series; and a People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy. The music from GLEE is an international sensation with "Glee: The Music, Volume 1" and "Glee: The Music, Volume 2" topping charts in Australia, the U.K., New Zealand, Ireland and Canada. In the U.S., over 5 million songs have been downloaded, and both albums have been certified Gold for sales in excess of 500,000 units.
Following its spring return earlier this month, GLEE is currently this season's No. 1 new scripted series among young adults and Teens and is tied as the No. 1 new scripted series among Adults 18-49. In addition, GLEE's spring premiere was broadcast television's highest rated telecast of a scripted series this season.
GLEE follows an optimistic teacher who � against all odds and a malicious cheerleading coach � inspires McKinley High's Glee Club to conquer the world one singing competition at a time. GLEE stars Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Jessalyn Gilsig, Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Matthew Morrison, Amber Riley, Mark Salling and Jenna Ushkowitz.
GLEE is produced by Ryan Murphy Television in association with 20th Century Fox Television. Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan are co-creators of the series. Murphy, Falchuk and Dante Di Loreto serve as executive producers, while Ian Brennan serves as co-executive producer.
[EDITOR'S NOTE 1: The special encore airing of GLEE (GLE-115) replaces the previously announced episode of KITCHEN NIGHTMARES.]


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When Do You Submit A Project To A Financier?/
I have been producing movies for about twenty-five years. And it still is a thrill when an executive asks me to submit a project. But does a simple request mean you should send the project you have slaved over on in to them?
I have never had a company actually finance a project that is not either already somewhat packaged with cast or has pre-sales done on it. I have to remind myself over and over. Good acquisitions execs craft all sorts of arguments of why I should submit my projects early -- and sometimes I fall for it. I think when they succeed in suckering me in they too honestly believe that they can get it made without already being fully realized (short of execution); but they soon learn they can't. Which is not to say that they can't get it set up, but that is often a far cry from getting it made.
Acquistions executives job is to bring projects in, period. So they ask. And often we comply. If the sign of insanity is to repeat the same action over and over, expecting the result to change, are we insane to keep doing this practice?
It would be wonderful if the corporately backed entities truly were able to climb aboard projects in the midst of becoming and enhance them with their status, capital, and expertise. I guess they do sometimes, provided the project is generated by one of the top ten or twenty directors who have produced a hit of recent times. But where does this leave the rest of us?
I understand the why though: we make movies because we are the type of people who believe magic can happen. Yet, as much as I believe we can engineer the likelihood of serendipity happening, I don't think we can summon it. I might test the waters along the way occasionally, sharing a taste with a well-chosen partner who has earned the offering somehow, but I am going to keep on trying to keep my cards close to my vest, until I know my hand can win. I do count the cards after all.


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Though it may take a miracle for my Bulldogs to muster up a win in Tuscaloosa Saturday, the bulldog nation has FAITH! This is the first time in years that both Bama and MSU have faced each other with undefeated seasons. (Bama ranked #1; MSU ranked #11).
Here are just a few pictures I've seen via Facebook and Twitter. Love it.
And HERE'S how I would love for the game to end! This was in 1980, when Bama was, yet again #1.


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This site has been created for the express purpose of bringing together those who are unfamiliar with Asatru and those who are seeking to connect with other Heathens in Canada.
First to those who have never heard of Asatru before or perhaps have a friend or loved one who is interested in Asatru. Here you will find the basics of what Asatru is and what it isn't. This site is dedicated solely to giving you the straight forward truth, no more and no less.
To the heathens that live within Canada, welcome to perhaps the only site dedicated solely to Canadian Asatru. This site is non-ideological, nonpartisan, and apolitical so that all heathens can benefit from it.
A fresh round of updates are coming to Asatru.ca, updating and adding new links and information, in the meantime have a visit to the Heathenry in Canada Wiki which has been created as a communal resource for Heathenry in Canada.
Posted in Update | Comments Off


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4.07 (820 reviews)1 Deal
PVR is one of the largest and the most premium film and retail entertainment companies in India. The brand has redefined the way entertainment is consumed in the country. Operating a cinema circuit comprising of over 500 screens across 100+ properties in more than 40 cities pan India, PVR continuously strives to enhance your cinema and entertainment experience.
PVR Value Voucher worth 500500 500
Deal TnCs
Buy for 500
- Valid on Movie Tickets and FnB
- Upon purchase, you will receive a voucher with a unique code. Visit the website - www.pvrcinemas.com. Offer is non-cancellable.
- Select the seats & Show of your choice. Then select food and beverage of your choice (if required).
- Go to payment page and click on the OFFERS TAB then select the PROMO CODE TAB and then apply the Code. Now a discount of Rs.500 (as per purchased voucher) will reflect in your transaction amount.
- Any promotional code applied while purchasing this offer will credit cashback to customer's little account
- All promotional offers are valid till stocks last. Not Valid at PVR Director's Cut & PVR Oppulent Mall. Can be used for Offline purchases at PVR's Box Office.
- 1 Voucher valid for 1 transaction only. Vouchers can be redeemed online on the PVR website and directly at the Box Office too.
- Discount is not applicable on CONVENIENCE CHARGE & SERVICE TAX. Vouchers once purchased cannot be cancelled
- Vouchers must be used before the validity date mentioned on the voucher. Not valid on PVR Directors Cut Vasant Kun, PVR Opulent Mall, DT Saket & DT Savitri GK1.
- Can be used for Online (www.pvrcinemas.com) as well as Offline purchases at PVR's Box Office. All the terms and conditions as mentioned at pvrcinemas.com shall be applicable and binding on the customers.
- All the disputes in connection with the offer to the User/ customer shall be governed by & construed in accordance with the applicable laws in India. Any dispute including any dispute arising out of all matters with respect to the contest are subject to the jurisdiction of the Courts at Delhi only
Expires on 1st Jul 2019
How to redeem the Deal
Once you are at the outlet, present your voucher code (available in My Orders) to the merchant. Remember to present the voucher before placing your order.
Terms & Conditions
- Vouchers can be redeemed online on the PVR website and directly at the Box Office too.
- Not valid on PVR Directors Cut Vasant Kunj, PVR Opulent Mall, DT Saket & DT Savitri GK1.
- Can be used for Online (www.pvrcinemas.com) as well as Offline purchases at PVR's Box Office.
Soul space Spirit Mall 4th Floor Bellandur village Varthur Hobli bellandur, Bengaluru 560053


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We all know that the cornerstone of remaining a strong, viable union is through organizing. We must, and we will continue to dedicate ourselves to getting our message across and in doing so, we will reap a lion's share of the workforce by organizing.
From our humble beginning with a few good men holding meetings in Exchange Alley, we have grown to a membership of over a thousand in the beautiful building on Ridgelake Drive that we now call home. And we've done it together!
I.B.E.W. Local Union 130 is committed to providing excellent working conditions, better wages and benefits as well as safety in the work place. Our goal is to have each and every brother and sister in Local 130 gainfully employed, thereby making it possible for you to enjoy a safe, secure lifestyle, which you so richly deserve.


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Broadway Elementary principal Susan Wang could not speak English when she arrived in California from Taiwan, aged 16.
Now 49, she heads a school offering US children a similar experience, plunging them into a Chinese world. Her establishment is part of a rapid expansion of "immersion" Mandarin language programs in the US, helped notably by Beijing providing low-cost native-speaker teachers to cash-strapped US schools.
Pupils as young as five at her Broadway Elementary School in Venice, west of Los Angeles, take classes entirely in Chinese, in a project so successful that it is having to move to a new campus.
"The single most exciting thing has to be watching the kids learn, and how they learn, and how fast they pick up another language, it's just amazing," she said. "I didn't speak English when I came, so when it comes to dual language and language learning ... it's something close to my heart."
Chinese immersion programs are not new in US schools, but China's rapidly expanding world role has fueled growing demand for Mandarin language skills, mirroring Washington's diplomatic pivot across the Pacific.
Mandarin teaching has expanded nationwide over the past decade, in contrast to other foreign languages, which have steadily decreased, according to data compiled by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL).
"Mandarin is really taking off ... Chinese was one of the few languages that increased, most other language offerings decreased, including French, German and Japanese," Nancy Rhodes of the Washington-based CAL said.
Beijing's education ministry is also helping, by sending native-speaker teachers effectively for free to work in US schools.
"Schools are of course experiencing huge budget cuts, so the offer of free or low-cost native-speaker teachers from China to teach language classes really looks good," Rhodes said.
California has been in the forefront, both geographically and historically, ever since huge numbers of Chinese workers helped build the US railroad system. San Francisco and Los Angeles have the biggest Chinese communities after New York.
Traditionally, families with one or both parents from Chinese backgrounds have put children into Mandarin-language schools to bolster their cultural "heritage," or communicate with grandparents back home.
However, increasingly, parents cite economic and career-prospect reasons for having their offspring able to speak Chinese.
"I wanted them to have the opportunity to be able to leave the US if they wished to go and seek employment somewhere else," said Julie Wang, an Australian who came to the US when she was 25.
In the classroom at Broadway, the linguistic immersion is total. The walls are plastered with pictures and signs entirely in Chinese, the textbooks are in Mandarin and the teacher will not accept a word of English.
And while some children have a Chinese parent or grandparents, the eager faces around the room are from all backgrounds.
Many do not speak a word of Mandarin when they arrive.
"At the beginning, it is difficult," kindergarten teacher Carol Chan said, adding that at first, she has to use a lot of gestures, visual aids — and a lot of games.
First-grader Grace Ehlers says that it was tough at first, but that she is now equally confident in both languages.
"It's the same, or maybe a little bit easier in Chinese because my dad speaks many languages and sometimes he teaches me a little bit of it," she said.


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Tombstone Tuesday - 14 Sep 2010 - Smith Grandparents Post 8
On the 22 Jun 2020 for Tombstone Tuesday I reported on recording my Smith Grandparents on Find A Grave (William - Ellen). Last Tuesday, I shared the obituary of Grandpa William as recorded in my Aunt LVene's family history from the local Coon Rapids Enterprise. Today, I will share the obituary, same source, for Grandma Ellen.
From the Coon Rapids Enterprise (via LVene Thomas Smith family history book)
Mrs. Wm Smith Dies in Hospital
Devoted Wife and Mother Called by Death Last Week
Mrs. Ellen Preston Smith, wife of Mr. Wm. Smith, died last week in the hospital at Carroll soon after an operation for gallstones with which she had bee afflicted seemingly for years. She will be remembered by early settlers as the daughter ofd Mrs. Ella Preston, mother of Harry and other Preston boys, and a most exemplary young woman. She graduated from our public schools, as did also her eldest son, Grant Ballard, by her first husband, Mr. Ballard. She was the mother of ten children, two having preceded her, leaving eight, with husband and other near relatives, and many friends to mourn her death. She was an affectionate wife and mother and highly esteemed neighbor. The following obituary was read by Rev. Koehler at the funeral services at the M.E. church Saturday afternoon, the services being largely attended for town and country.:
Ellen Rebecca Preston was born April 12th 1880 in Deer Lodge, Montana. In 1898 she was united in marriage to Mont G. Ballard of Blair, Nebraska. To this union one son was born.
December 30, 1900 her husband passed to his eternal reward. May 11th 1904, she was united in marriage to her now sorrowing husband, Wm. Smith. To this union nine children were born, five girls and four boys. Two of the boy preceded the mother to the heavenly home.
Mrs. Smith was a member of the Presbyterian Church. She was a devoted mother and a kind and affectionate wife. For the past two years she has been in poor health. She passed out of this life in the hospital at Carroll Thursday evening June 28. to mourn her loss she leaves a sorrowing husband, eight children and two brothers, and many friends and acquaintances.
Families are Forever! ;-)


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瑞典乐透+ 小组玩法俱乐部参与规则?
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Caching is just one strategy that you can use to make your Discoverer reports run faster. It is a bit like bribing a wayward child. You give it some cash and it will get on with the job a bit quicker. But the performance improvement doesn't come for free. You have to load your cache first and keep it ready for the Discoverer report to use which will use additional resource.
Caching is big a topic; too big to cover in a single post. There are different levels where you can cache data for Discoverer reports. You can use OracleAS Web cache to hold HTML web pages generated by Discoverer Viewer. You can cache data in the database ready for use by Discoverer. You can schedule Discoverer workbooks to run so that the results are cached ready for the user to access.
This time I will look at how you can cache data in the database where you hold records in a cache ready for Discoverer to use. Before I go into the details I think it is important to say that caching is not a technique you should use to make a badly written report run faster. If it badly written and inefficient the solution is to fix it, not add more complexity by caching data to try and make it run faster. Nor should you use caching to try and make one tricky report run a bit faster. It is something you need to design into your Discoverer environment at the beginning to give you the maximum benefit.
Caching data in the database is where records are cached in the database ready for Discoverer to use. Again there are many techniques you can use; some of these techniques depend on new features introduced in Oracle 11g. A database cache can make a big difference to the performance of your reports as it will enable Discoverer to run simpler SQL for the reports which will it turn give better performance. But, like with all performance work, it all depends on many factors; a database cache could make no difference or make your report run slower. It is all about using the right technique for the right situation.
Basically there are four points where data can be cached for a Discoverer report:
- Before the user logs on
- When the user logs on
- On-the-fly when a report runs
- In a SQL result cache
Caching data before the user logs on
Here the data is cached overnight or at regular intervals so that it is available when a user logs on.
The traditional technique is used is a materialized view. Materialized views (MVs) have two really cool features. Firstly, they can be automatically refreshed either on commit, or periodically or on demand. Secondly, they can use query redirection where an SQL statement that references the underlying tables but which only requires summary information is re-directed to the MV.
Oracle 11g introduces some new features for materialized views which could be very useful for Discoverer developers. One of the most interesting is that you can set up an OLAP cube in the database that summaries your data and then use a MV to redirect queries to the OLAP cube. Hence you could use the Discoverer relational tools to gain the benefits of running against an OLAP cube without having to switch to the Discoverer OLAP product.
Having said that, I would avoid using MVs and would only use them as a last resort. Here are some of the reasons why:
- Normally, you cannot use an 'on commit' refresh on the MVs and therefore the information in the MVs is always older than the underlying tables. This means the results obtained from MVs are always slightly out of date.
- Also, often you cannot use an incremental refresh on the MVs because this requires a primary key defined on the underlying tables. So the MVs are often completely refreshed periodically and this needs a lot of database resource.
- When the MV is refreshed you don't know which users will be accessing the information and therefore it is difficult to ensure the data security available in the underlying tables is replicated in the MVs.
- Frequently the query used to define the MV is complex and therefore the database is not able to use query redirection because the database must be able to match query being redirected to the query defining the MV.
I have seen a number of projects come unstuck because they have tried to improve performance by making some of their reports into MVs. The result is many complex MVs which are constantly out of date and need huge database resources to refresh.
I have found the best approach is to design a small number of simple MVs that summarise some core tables that can be used by many reports.
Caching data when the user logs on
Here the data is cached when the user logs onto Discoverer. The mechanism that you use to run a PL/SQL procedure to cache the data will depend on your environment but could be either:
- a database trigger that checks whether the current session is a Discoverer session
- the Oracle Applications 11i 'Initialization SQL Statement – Custom' system profile can be used to run an initialization PL/SQL procedure for Discoverer sessions
- an eul_trigger$post_login trigger is used to run a PL/SQL procedure.
When the session initialization process runs it can run SQL to cache data from the session which then can be used in all subsequent Discoverer reports. There are different places that you can cache data in the database.
Database Contexts – This is useful for storing session parameters that you can use in subsequent database queries.
Temporary Tables – You use one or more temporary tables as a cache for the Discoverer. The table then can be used within the Discoverer reports or as a base table for a list of values. The data in the temporary tables will only be visible to the current Discoverer session so is useful for storing information specific to the user that can be used to improve performance in reports.
PL/SQL arrays – This is useful for caching data that is required by the PL/SQL functions run from Discoverer. See the next section for more details of this technique.
For example, if many of your queries need to use an ORG_ID associated with a user then create a context namespace using:
Then in the process initialisation obtain the ORG_ID for the user and set the context using:
dbms_session.set_context('DISCO', 'ORG_ID', v_org_id);
You can then check the context in a condition in your view or Discoverer folder using SYS_CONTEXT('DISCO', 'ORG_ID') .
If you have lots of contexts that you need to set at initialisation then it is useful to put all the queries to obtain the contexts values in a view then you can set all the contexts using:
FOR xcon IN (SELECT context_name, context_value
FROM xxmod_dis_context_value_v)
dbms_session.set_context('DISCO', xcon.context_name, xcon.context_value);
Then any changes to the context set up can be accommodated by simply changing the view.
However, where you need to save many ORG_IDs or, for example, a list of PRODUCT_IDs that a user can see then the technique to a temporary table. For example, you can create the temporary table using:
Then just insert the product ids into the table in the initialisation PL/SQL procedure and use the table in a Discoverer folder or view just like a normal table. When the session finishes the data is deleted.
Caching Data on-the-fly
Here data is loaded by the first call to a PL/SQL function into a PL/SQL array. Subsequent calls to the function use data from the internal array. This technique is very useful for converting internal codes into text descriptions that are required in a report. For example, in an Oracle Applications 11i environment where you need to make repeated lookups into tables such as FND_FLEX_VALUES_VL and FND_LOOKUP_VALUES to obtain segment and attribute descriptions. It can also be used to store values that are hard to obtain but need to be used many times in a report.
Taking a generic approach using a single cache_lookup function gives the best results. The cache_lookup function can be defined like this:
FUNCTION cache_lookup(lookup_type IN VARCHAR2,
lookup_code1 IN VARCHAR2) RETURN VARCHAR2
The lookup_type parameter determines which SQL statement is used to obtain the data for the cache. The lookup_code1 is a bind variable for the SQL statement. The cache_lookup function is overlaid with multiple versions with different numbers of bind variables, because some lookups require multiple bind variables. For example, the call to
cache_lookup('LOOKUP_MEANING', 'MAR_STATUS', papf.marital_status)
obtains the marital status text from the FND_LOOKUP_VALUES table.
The function actually works by using DBMS_UTILITY.get_hash_value to hash all the input parameters together and check in a BINARY_INTEGER indexed PL/SQL array to see whether the value is in the cache. If it is not then the SQL statement is run and the value is added to the cache. Subsequent calls to the function with the same parameters retrieve the value directly from the cache.
Oracle 11g introduces the concept of a function result cache which provides similar functionality so this could be the way to go if you are using 11g.
There is always a trade-off between the overheads of making a call to a PL/SQL function against the benefits of caching the data also bearing in mind that the Oracle database is often very efficient at caching data internally when processing SQL statements.
However here are four reasons why I often use PL/SQL caching:
- It's quicker. Joining lookup tables in to query often makes finding an efficient execution plan difficult for the optimiser. The most efficient SQL is often to use a scalar query within the SELECT statement but this is not supported by Discoverer or in a materialized view. An alternative is to outer join the lookup tables but the outer join always generates less efficient SQL and cannot be used with an OR condition. Using a PL/SQL cache can be quicker because it removes all the lookup tables from the main SQL giving the optimiser the best chance of finding an efficient execution plan. But really it all depends on the complexity of the lookups as to whether you will see a performance improvement using a PL/SQL cache.
- It's quicker again. A Pl/SQL caches lasts for the duration of a session. Often running ad-hoc Discoverer involves run using similar queries many times. Your caches is loaded on the first query so subsequent queries are quicker.
- Better instrumentation. This is the big bonus of using a PL/SQL cache. Especially, with Oracle Applications there are often errors encountered when processing the lookups. Sometimes, there is more than one description for the lookup code, or no description is found when one is needed. Finding the row that has caused the problem can be very difficult. With a PL/SQL cache you can build in instrumentation code that raises a meaningful exception when an error is encountered. Even better you can make this behaviour configurable so that for normal users lookup errors are ignored.
- Less code. Less code is always good. By using a generic lookup function you can put all your lookups in one place. This function can then be called in views, Discoverer calculations and anywhere else where you need to convert a code to text.
Caching data in SQL result cache
This is a Oracle 11g technique that allows you to save the results of an SQL query (or subquery within a query) in an SQL cache located in the SGA. This is probably most useful to cache the results from a complex query fragment within your Discoverer views. For example, if the results from dept are complex and difficult to obtain you might define a view based on a query like this:
SELECT employee_name, dept_id …
FROM emp_table
, (SELECT /*+ result_cache */ dept_id, dept_name, …
FROM dept) dept
WHERE emp.dept_id = dept.dept_id
I haven't had a chance to benchmark this feature so cannot make any claims for performance improvement but I believe it would help in some situations.


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ACA in Oregon: Failed exchange
Oregon and Washington state strongly embraced Obamacare and opened their own health insurance exchanges. The states are similar, not just geographically but politically, economically and demographically. As the first enrollment season winds down, Washington has some of the best results in the country. Next door, Oregon's exchange website is still broken.
SALEM, Ore. — Oregon had all the right ingredients for a sparkling Obamacare success story: a Democratic doctor as governor, an eager Legislature and a history of health care innovation.
Story Continued Below
It ended up with Obamacare's biggest technological disaster.
CoverOregon.com, the state's equivalent of HealthCare.gov, is the only insurance exchange in the country on which people still cannot buy coverage entirely online. The flaws are so deep that Gov. John Kitzhaber concedes the state may give up on its own exchange and move to the federal HealthCare.gov next year. The challenges were so persistent that the state received federal permission to add a full month to its open enrollment season. The deadline for most of the country to become covered is 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Monday; here, enrollment will run through April.
The finger-pointing and political posturing have escalated as the exchange story has unfolded. Now, as states like Washington to the north and California to the south celebrate their progress, Oregon's controversy is in full eruption. Kitzhaber, who is running for reelection this fall, faces mounting questions over whether he could have stopped the disaster. And the exchange board is hunting for its third leader since December.
( WATCH: Confusion, little information on Obamacare in Mississippi)
Oregon — a liberal state with an independent, hipster culture that embraces handlebar mustaches, composting and vintage shops — set sky-high expectations for what it could do with the Affordable Care Act. But Oregonians involved with the build-out interviewed here described a process that went awry early on: exchange designers who overreached, a contractor that didn't complete the job and state officials who didn't recognize the calamity unfolding right in front of them. That simple vision of expanding health care morphed into a byzantine mess of broken technology and political recrimination.
The glimmer of good news in Oregon's Affordable Care Act story is that the exchange has managed to get health coverage to about 175,000 people, about 52,000 in private insurance and the rest in Medicaid, according to the most recent figures. Another 130,000 got Medicaid through a separate fast-track sign-up system. Compared with other states, Oregon did land in the middle of the pack on insurance coverage, partly because of sustained community outreach efforts. One recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation ranked the state 29th out of 50.
It could have been outstanding
A scathing outside analyst report released this month shows that Cover Oregon suffered a cavalcade of mistakes early on: poor management and governance; bad communication; flawed planning and goals; and a strained, inadequately structured relationship with Oracle, its contractor, that failed to align expectations and payments.
( Also on POLITICO: Obamacare in Washington state: 'No frills' success)
The troubles don't end there. The Government Accountability Office is investigating the exchange and $300 million in federal funds that the U.S. government authorized for the project. The state's two Democratic senators and a GOP congressman had all requested that the GAO do so.
"I don't think anyone's happy with where we are," Bruce Goldberg, a physician and the interim executive director of Cover Oregon, said in an interview last month, before resigning. "We'd like to see us be in a different place. We'd like to have us have an operating website. But [305,000] people with health care in our small state is pretty dramatic."
Those who made it through the protracted sign-up process are grateful. Sheri Hendrix, 59, of Grants Pass, got covered Jan. 1 — and fell down the stairs and broke her ankle five days later. Still, the system was so balky that it took Hendrix nearly two weeks to confirm that her application had gone through the troubled exchange and that she wasn't on the hook for the $32,000 her treatment cost, including surgery to piece her ankle back together with pins and plates.
( Also on POLITICO: The Obamacare enthusiasm gap)
Long before Congress passed the Affordable Care Act four years ago, Oregon had put a premium on health care. Kitzhaber is both a former emergency physician and nationally recognized health policy expert who has made health his signature issue in and out of government. And for years, the state has been a trailblazer in testing ideas that could improve quality and lower cost, often through Medicaid innovation. With that in mind, the federal government sent money to Oregon and a handful of other states to get them started working on an Obamacare exchange back in 2011, when the law was just a year old. The theory was that they'd be the early adopters. Other states could learn from them.
Setting the bar high
Cover Oregon set high expectations with residents, too. It ran catchy television ads last summer in a nearly $10 million campaign. Local musicians sang about "the best care that a state can get" and "long live Oregonians."
( CARTOONS: Matt Wuerker on Obamacare)
But on Oct. 1, the website failed. Weeks went by, new deadlines came and went, and the public furor grew. Cover Oregon couldn't accurately calculate tax credit or residency eligibility online, among other fatal errors. The exchange began instructing people to use paper applications.
Exchange officials had identified at least 48 critical errors on the website when its director, Rocky King, stepped down in December. Three weeks later, Oregon Health Authority IT manager Carolyn Lawson said she too was leaving.


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Legacy: Margaret Bourke-WhitePosted Jun 19, 2012
American photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904 – 1971), who would have been 108 last week, approached documentary photography with a zeal that left many of her LIFE contemporaries jealous of her "scoops."
Initially gaining notice from her pictures of economic crisis in 1930s United States, she was the only American photographer in Russia when the Germans bombed Moscow in 1941, and was given access to photograph Joseph Stalin, who she later stated was her most difficult subject because he stood like a stone.
Bourke-White followed stories around Europe, from Italy into Africa. Not known for traveling light, the photographer carried up to 600 pounds of equipment on assignment until all her gear was lost when her ship was torpedoed en route to Africa in December of 1942. After surviving the sinking but unable to save her equipment, she downgraded to only 250 pounds but continued to favor larger format cameras due to the negatives' detail.
Throughout Germany she followed the Allied advance and captured shocking, iconic images at the Buchenwald concentration camp in April, 1945. In India, Bourke-White shifted from the aftermath of war to a peaceful 1946 portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, who required her to learn how to use a spinning wheel before she was allowed to photograph him.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts wishes a happy belated birthday to a photographer whose commitment to capturing the best images affected not only her own life and career, but continues to inspire photographers today.
Jen Dolen, Photography & New Media intern


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WASHINGTON, March 16 (UPI) -- Washington's Martell Webster poured in a career-high 34 points Saturday and the Wizards blew out Phoenix 127-105.
Webster hit seven shots from 3-point territory for the Wizards, who fired in 66.7 percent of their field goal tries en route to the one-sided victory.
Emeka Okafor (17 points, 10 rebounds) and John Wall (17, 11 assists) also helped out as Washington snapped a 10-game skid against the Suns.
Phoenix got 21 points off the bench from Michael Beasley but it wasn't enough to prevent a fourth straight loss.
Jared Dudley contributed 16 points for the Suns.


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Babies born in Summit, Jan. 2013
Jan. 3Ezra James Zoeller was born to James & Emily Zoeller of BreckenridgeJan. 11Holton Lee Connelly was born to Shawn & Valerie Connelly of SilverthorneJan. 16Jacob Horacio Gomez Baray was born to Estefania Baray and Carlos Gomez of BreckenridgeJan. 18Lars Matthew Kugler was born to Matthew & Johanna Kugler of LeadvilleJan. 21Makenna Rose Klabon was born to Bill & Lori Klabon of BreckenridgeAidan Samuel Butson was born to Sean and Kathy Butson of DillonJan. 22Varin Evo Joyce was born to Juli and Franklin Joyce of FriscoJan. 26Eliza Irene Byrne was born to Rachelle Hawkinson and Aaron Byrne of SilverthorneNichole Elydia Frausto was born to Erika Frausto of LeadvilleVivian Alice Morgan was born to Stacy Ackerman & Jeromie Morgan of GeorgetownJan. 27Estrella Raye` Serna was born to Olrando J. Serna and Monica A. Vigil of LeadvilleCastian Edward Deegan was born to Angelica DeShincoe and Martin Deegan of BreckenridgeJan. 30Kevin Sanchez Rodriguez was born to Maria Rodriguez and Jamie Sanchez of BreckenridgeSofia Alessandra Figueroa-Ramirez was born to Alejandro Figueroa and Sindy Ramirez of FriscoBergen Nevia Anderson was born to Katrin Laird Anderson and Mark Anderson of Frisco
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Kremmling's Hotel Eastin named Business of the Month
Kremmling, CO Colorado
The Hotel Eastin in Kremmling, which has been under new management by Maryann and Walt Van Lue since June of last year, was awarded Business of the Month honors by the Kremmling Chamber of Commerce for the month of January.
The hotel, which began operation as a sarsaparilla factory and boarding house in 1906, has been part of Kremmling's rich history for over a century, and the Van Lues have embraced and enhanced the historical image of the hotel.
The Van Lues have been completing themed rooms that have helped to preserve the history of the hotel and offer guests a glimpse of the past. They are also in the process of creating a Zane Grey-themed room. Grey, a western writer, received inspiration for his novel The Mysterious Rider after seeing a lone rider on the cliffs surrounding the hotel while staying there.
The Van Lues are also planning to hold a Zane Grey festival sometime this summer where there will be numerous activities including demonstrations and lessons by local artists who practice chainsaw carving, artistic iron work, and of course a demonstration from Walt about how to care for and repair antiques. They are also trying to organize gunfight reenactments for the festival.
The historic Hotel Eastin is the perfect place for the Van Lues to call home as Walt operates an antique restoration business called the Antiques Hospital, where he restores a broad range of antiques.
The Van Lues, who moved to Kremmling from Estes Park where Maryann operated a lodge for 13 years and Walt restored antiques, brought some holiday traditions with them to Kremmling.
Every Christmas Walt dons a Santa costume and transforms the Antiques Hospital into Santa's Workshop, where children can come help Santa get ready for the big day.
The Van Lues brought the holiday tradition with them from Estes Park, where it was a staple of the holiday festivities for nearly 12 years. They also plan to expand the Christmas tradition next with real reindeer that a local rancher has planned to purchase, and an old time sleigh.
The Van Lues have been busy operating the hotel, which has seen a steady flow of guests and received some positive reviews online, though they still try to escape every once in awhile to enjoy the beautiful area they now call home.
"When we do get a chance to take a half day, we go out and enjoy the beautiful countryside." said Maryann. "There are so many hidden secrets here."
The Van Lues will be offering special rates during the 16th Annual Wolford Mountain Reservoir Ice Fishing Contest, scheduled to take place Saturday, Feb. 16.
They are also offering deals until May that include: Stay two nights and receive the second night at half price, and stay three nights and receive the third night free.
You can get more information about the hotel, upcoming events, or place a reservation by calling the Van Lues at 970-724-3261, or by visiting http://www.hoteleastincolorado.com.
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Social Processes: Methodology · Types of test
The Thematic Apperception Test' or TAT is a projective personality measure. Historically, the Thematic Apperception Test or TAT has been amongst the most widely used, researched, and taught projective psychological tests. Its adherents claim that it taps a subject's unconscious to reveal repressed aspects of personality, motives and needs for achievement, power and intimacy, and problem-solving abilities.
The TAT is popularly known as the picture interpretation technique because it uses a standard series of 30 provocative yet ambiguous pictures about which the subject must tell a story. In the case of adults and adolescents of average intelligence, a subject is asked to tell as dramatic a story as they can for each picture, including:
- what has led up to the event shown
- what is happening at the moment
- what the characters are feeling and thinking, and
- what the outcome of the story was.
For children or individuals of limited cognitive abilities, instructions ask that the subject tell a story including what happened before and what is happening now, what the people are feeling and thinking and how it will come out.
The 30 cards are meant to be divided into two "series" of 15 pictures each, with the pictures of the second series being purposely more unusual, dramatic, and bizarre than those of the first. Suggested administration involves one full hour being devoted to a series, with the two sessions being separated by a day or more.
Several cards in the test are present in order to ensure that the subject is able to be provided with cards picturing individuals of the same gender. Eleven cards (including the blank card) have been found suitable for both sexes, by portraying no human figures, an individual of each sex, or an individual of ambiguous gender.
Scoring SystemsEdit
The TAT is a projective test in that, like the Rorschach test, its assessment of the subject is based on what he or she projects onto the ambiguous images. Therefore, to complete the assessment each story created by a subject must be carefully analyzed to uncover underlying needs, attitudes, and patterns of reaction. Several formal scoring systems have been developed for analyzing TAT stories systemmatically and consistently. Two common methods that are currently used in research are the:
- Defense Mechanisms Manual DMM[1]. This assesses three defense mechanisms: denial (least mature), projection (intermediate), and identification (most mature).
- Social Cognition and Object Relations SCOR[2] scale. This assesses four different dimensions of object relations: Complexity of Representations of People, Affect-Tone of Relationship Paradigms, Capacity for Emotional Investment in Relationships and Moral Standards, and Understanding of Social Causality.
TAT was developed by the American psychologists Henry A. Murray and Christiana D. Morgan at Harvard during the 1930s to explore the underlying dynamics of personality, such as internal conflicts, dominant drives, interests, and motives.
After World War II, the TAT was adopted more broadly by psychoanalysts and clinicians to evaluate emotionally disturbed patients.
Later, in the 1970s, the Human Potential Movement encouraged psychologists to use the TAT to help their clients understand themselves better and stimulate personal growth.
Declining adherence to the Freudian principle of repression on which the test is based has caused the TAT to be criticised as false or outdated by many professional psychologists. Their criticisms are that the TAT is unscientific because it cannot be proved to be valid (ie that it actually measures what it claims to measure), or reliable, (ie that gives consistent results over time, due to the challenge of standardising interpretations of the stories produced by subjects). Some critics of the TAT cards have observed that the characters and environments are dated, even 'old-fashioned,' creating a 'cultural or psychosocial distance' between the patients and these stimuli that makes identifying with them less likely [3]. Also, in researching the responses of subjects given photographs versus the TAT, researchers found that the TAT cards evoked more 'deviant' stories (i.e., more negative) than photographs, leading them to conclude that the difference was due to the differences in the characteristics of the images used as stimuli. In a 2005 dissertation Matthew Narron, Psy.D.[4] attempted to address these issues by reproducing a Bellak 10 card set photographically and performing an outcome study. The results concluded that the old TAT elicited answers that included many more specific time references than the new TAT.
Contemporary applications of TATEdit
Nevertheless, the TAT remains widely used as a tool for research around areas of psychology such as dreams, fantasies, mate selection and what motivates people to choose their occupation. Sometimes it is used in a psychiatric context to assess disordered thinking, in forensic examinations to evaluate crime suspects, or to screen candidates for high-stress occupations.
TAT is widely used in France and Argentina following the "French School" concepts.
There is also a British and a Roman School.
Israeli army uses the test for evaluating potential officers.
It is also used by Service Selection Board, India
See alsoEdit
Related topicsEdit
- ↑ Cramer, P (1991). The Development of Defense Mechanisms: Theory, Research, and Assessment, New York: Springer-Verlag.
- ↑ Westen, Drew. Clinical Assessment of Object Relations Using the TAT, Journal of Personality Assessment, Volume 56, Issue 1 February 1991 , pages 56 - 74.
- ↑ Holmstrom, R.W., Silber, D.E., & Karp, S.A. (1990). Development of the Apperceptive Personality Test. Journal of Personality Assessment, 54 (1 & 2), 252-264.
- ↑ Narron, M. C. (2005). Updating the TAT: A Photographic Revision of the Thematic Apperception Test, Dissertations Abstract International, DAI-B 66/01, p. 568, Jul 2005
External linksEdit
- Book review of Storytelling, Narrative, and the Thematic Apperception Test
- Research into the origins of imagery used in the TAT
- Information about the Thematic Apperception Test from Thomson Gale
- Textbook by Van Brunt on the Thematic Apperception Test
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).


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LODGING TAX: Tax Rates and Collections by Local Governments, Calendar Year 2014*
The Ohio Revised Code permits local governments to levy a tax on lodging furnished to transient guests by hotels and motels within that local jurisdiction. Municipalities or townships may levy a lodging tax of up to 3.0 percent, plus an additional tax of up to 3.0 percent if they are not located (wholly or partly) in a county that has not levied a lodging tax. Counties may levy a lodging tax of up to 3.0 percent, but may not levy such a tax in any municipality or township that has already levied the additional lodging tax.
In addition, Ohio law permitted the enactment of several special lodging tax levies to fund designated purposes or projects (see Lodging Tax chapter in the Ohio Department of Taxation's Annual Report for more information on special levies).
The maximum combined tax rate permitted in most locations is 6.00 percent. However, due to the enactment of special lodging taxes, in some counties the maximum combined tax rate exceeds 6.00 percent. These counties and the highest combined tax rates (as of December 31, 2014) are: Ashtabula (8.00%), Cuyahoga (12.50%), Fairfield (7.50%), Franklin (10.00%), Guernsey (9.00%), Hamilton (10.50%), Lucas (10.00%), Mahoning (8.0%), Muskingum (10.00%), Ross (7.25%), Summit (8.50%), and Trumbull (8.00%).
For most municipalities and townships, revenue from the lodging tax goes to the general revenue fund. However, for municipalities or townships that levy the additional tax of up to 3.0 percent, at least 50 percent of the revenues from the additional tax are provided to the county for a convention and visitor's bureau operating within the county and the remainder goes to the municipal or township general fund. To those municipalities and townships within the county that do not levy a lodging tax, counties are required to return a uniform percentage (not to exceed 33 1/3 percent) of the revenue from the county lodging tax generated within such municipalities or townships. The remainder of the revenue is deposited in a separate fund to be used for county convention and visitors' bureau expenses.
Including the 38* localities that did not report calendar year 2014 lodging tax data, 67 counties (including convention facility authorities), 145 townships and 207 municipalities are shown in this table as having a lodging tax: a total of 419 localities. Of the lodging taxes reported, 80.9 percent were levied at a 3.00 percent rate.
Incorporating prior year's data for those localities that did not respond and for jurisdictions that produced revenue, lodging tax collections for calendar year 2014 ranged from $3 in the Village of Chippewa Lake (Medina County) to $20,105,309 for the Franklin County CFA. It is estimated that the statewide total was $172,183,153; up 7.7 percent from calendar year 2013. Forty-eight localities with a lodging tax (or 11.5% of taxes currently in effect) reported no revenue for calendar year 2014.
* For those localities that did not submit data for calendar year 2014, previous year's data was used.


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Female Lackland trainer gets jail sentence
A female Air Force instructor who had sex with a recruit was sentenced to three months in jail Thursday, but will remain in the service for now.
The judge, Col. Donald Eller Jr., also gave Staff Sgt. Emily Allen 30 days' hard labor and busted her to airman first class.
Allen is the first woman to be tried in an ongoing sex scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. The Air Force could move to discharge her after she's released from jail.
Allen maintained her military bearing as she stood at attention and was sentenced.
During a sentencing hearing earlier, she broke down as her father talked on the stand.
"I can't say enough about her," said Anthony Allen of Essex, Mass. "She's ... always been a good kid."
Prosecutors sought harsh punishment for Allen, telling the judge she had no business being in the Air Force.
But Allen's military defense team bashed the prosecution's call for six months in jail, a bad-conduct discharge and reduction to airman first class.
They asked for restriction to base or hard labor but no jail time, and that Eller give her a chance to rebuild her career.
Allen pleaded guilty to having sex in 2011 with an airman in training at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Miss., seeking to have a liaison with a second airman she met in basic training and having unprofessional social relationships with a pair of female airmen.
Capt. Lauren Shure, one of her attorneys, stressed that Allen's record was a mix of good and bad, of highs and lows.
She pointed to Allen as a sterling trainer who earned a top performance rating after leaving the Air Force's instructor corps. Allen also had been named "Dental Airman of the Year" by the U.S. Air Forces Europe.
Asked about Allen's potential for rehabilitation, one of her supervisors, Tech Sgt. Jacquline Foulkes, said: "It's awesome."
In a twist, Eller told the court the NCO who participated in Allen's excellent enlisted performance evaluation had been the bailiff for her trial.
"My preference is for transparency," he said before handing down the sentence.
Prosecutors sketched a picture of an NCO out of control. A fellow trainer ordered a recruit identified as Airman 4 to admit in front of his flight, and Allen, that he wanted to take her to lunch after basic training.
"She said, 'Am I not good enough for dinner?'" he testified.
Later, Allen appeared to pursue Airman 4, calling him on a dormitory intercom, arranging a laundry room encounter and, finally, meeting with him three times during a technical training course.
In her car during their second meeting, he told the court, "She asked if I wanted to have sex and I said, 'No, I didn't have a condom.'"
Allen, the single mother of a 7-year-old girl, blamed her downfall on feelings of insecurity.
"I know I do not deserve your mercy, but I ask for it," she told the judge.


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Additional Information
|Model No.
|Main Stone
|925 Silver
|Gross Metal Weight (gms)
|Net Metal Weight (gms)
|Total Stone Weight (cts)
Chakras are the energy vortices that exist within the subtle or etheric body, not the physical body. They are not only the ?Energy Gates? of the aura but the centers of energy also ? right from balancing to storage and distribution These vortices transmit energy to the body.
Each Chakra governs specific functions of organs in the body close to the place where they are situated. Read more ..
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