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Health and wellbeing
- Relax your body and mind with a visit to the spa at Nant Ddu Lodge
- Go walking - it's great for your wellbeing
- Get in shape in the gym at Manor Hotel
- Practise meditation techniques at Peterstone Court
The Brecon Beacons National Park offers peace, tranquillity and quiet enjoyment. Many people come here for healthy exercise or for inspiration, relaxation and spiritual renewal.
We have plenty of suggestions for those seeking to improve their health and wellbeing, from cycling, fitness clubs and boot camps to gentle walks, spas and yoga.
Contact with the outdoors in beautiful surroundings can make a real difference, helping you be more active and improving your ability to switch off and relax. It's also a great way to spend time with friends and family and meet new people.
It can stimulate the senses and, of course, it's enjoyable and fun!
Health, fitness and leisure centres in the Brecon Beacons National Park
Dash over to one of our friendly local centres for a workout, a swim or a s...
Spa hotels and alternative therapy centres
Here in the National Park we are lucky to have some fabulous spa hotels, re...
Walking for wellbeing – or just for fun
Statistics show that regular walking can significantly improve your health ...


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Pure refrigerant lubricated bearings from SKF
Using refrigerant as lubricant
Centrifugal compressors using low-viscosity refrigerants have traditionally been gear-driven designs that use hydrodynamic bearings lubricated with an oil-refrigerant mixture. This design requires both a lubrication system and an oil separator to provide an oil-rich mixture to the gears and bearings and a refrigerant-rich mixture to the evaporator and condenser.
Pure refrigerant lubricated bearings from SKF enable a much simpler direct-drive solution – they use the refrigerant as pure lubricant, a breakthrough that allows energy savings of at least 10% versus conventional centrifugal compressor designs. It also helps simplify system design and maintenance requirements.
Field-tested for a decade and counting
- A 10%+ increase in energy efficiency vs. conventional bearings
- Reduced maintenance demands and costs
- No oil residue – zero contamination
- Significant noise reduction

subset: commoncrawl


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SAVANNAH, Ga. – Despite losing 14-1 in the first game of the series on Sunday, the Georgia Southwestern Hurricanes were able to tally twelve hits on Pirate pitchers. The Blue & Gold were looking to build on the positives in their Monday morning double header at Armstrong Atlantic. They would see-saw their way to a split, winning 8-6 before losing 17-7.
GAME ONE: Georgia Southwestern-8 Armstrong Atlantic State University-6
It was once again Armstrong who would score first via a RBI single from the designated hitter R.J. Dennard in the bottom of the first inning. Just when things appeared to be déjà vu for the Hurricanes, Randall Sheffield drove in two runs with a RBI double in the second inning to answer the Pirates. But it would be punch-for-punch in the second inning as Armstrong would answer with two runs of their own to take the 3-2 lead.
The see-saw battle continued into the fifth inning when Michel Coffey would hit a solo home run to tie the game at three runs apiece. Just as they had the entire series, AASU would have an answer. A three-run home half of the six inning gave the home team the commanding 6-3 lead.
Yet the GSW hitters would rekindle the fire in the seventh inning for a four-run output that saw Hurricanes walk, hit and advance on errors. A RBI double by designated hitter Gabby Ramirez would score Beau Parker to cap the inning, which would end with Georgia Southwestern leading 7-6 after seven innings.
The Hurricanes would get an insurance run while missing out on the opportunity for more in the visitor half of the eighth. After opening walks by Randall Sheffield and Michael Sneed, the Hurricanes would load the bases with nobody out. The Blue & Gold would only score one in the inning, which came on the third AASU error of the day.
The door would be officially shut by left hander Matthew Suggs out of the GSW bullpen. Suggs would relieve Ambrosino in the sixth inning and would not allow a hit in nearly four innings of relief. He would get the win in the decision for his first win of the 2012 season.
GAME TWO: Georgia Southwestern-7 Armstrong Atlantic State University-17
After both pitchers retired the side in order in the first inning, Armstrong Atlantic would be the first to score in the game courtesy of a three-run second inning. AASU first baseman Chris Zittrouer would drive in two runs with a double, and Mike Barnhill would drive in Zittrouer two batters later.
It was feast or famine for the GSW offense that was held scoreless through the first four innings before erupting for four runs in the fifth inning. After Randall Sheffield recorded one RBI, the Pirates would elect to intentionally walk Michel Coffey, loading the bases, to face second baseman Beau Parker. Parker would respond with a bases clearing double to put the Hurricanes up 4-3.
The Pirates would match the offensive eruption from GSW with an explosion from their bats. An eight-run fifth inning saw nine AASU batters reach base and five different Pirates record RBI's as they would knock starter Matt Weaver out of the game. Armstrong would take the 11-4 lead and never look back en route to the 17-7 victory over the Hurricanes to take the series two games to one.
The hot bat for Georgia Southwestern for the series was outfielder Michel Coffey. The Dublin native went 7-14 with two doubles, one home run and three RBI's as he will leave the series with a seven-game hit streak intact.
After the split in Savannah, the Georgia Southwestern record stands at 3-15 (2-6 PBC). Coach McLain and company will have a two-day turnaround before traveling again for a mid-week game at Valdosta State University. First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening.


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Samsung i8520 Beam videos
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Samsung i8520 Beam is pretty darn cool considering the DLP Pico projector is actually built into the device and not some crappy add-on. Samsung i8520 Beam a 3.7 WVGA Super AMOLED display, 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, aGPS, Wi-Fi, DNLA, 7.2Mbps up HSDPA (900/1900/2100MHz), 16GB of internal memory, 512MB ROM / 384MB RAM and an 1800 mAh battery
Showing the Samsung i8520 Beam preview, review, unboxing, hands-on and TV Commercial video clips. We update the collection of video in our Samsung i8520 Beam video gallery section daily.


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Delta just sent out an email that will, in their words, "give you a more exclusive experience." Which is to say, you're not going to be happy.
Effective immediately, membership price for Sky Club is $695 annually. They're calling this "Executive Membership" and will continue to allow two complimentary guests.
– For those customers who rarely need guest access, an Individual Membership at the current rate of $450 will be introduced Spring 2014. This membership will allow guest access for $29 per visit.
– Beginning May 1, 2014, all customers who receive complimentary Delta Sky Club access as a benefit of their eligible credit or charge card will no longer receive complimentary guest access. A $29 fee per guest will apply.
That last one means that Amex Platinum holders will now pay $29 to access the Delta club. (EDITORS NOTE: THAT'S WRONG – I MISREAD THE EMAIL. AMEX PLATINUM HOLDERS STILL GET ACCESS, BUT IT'LL COST $29 TO BRING A GUEST.
If you're currently a Club member, they'll give you "Executive Membership" until your current membership is up.
I think Delta sums it up best when they write in the email: "We hope these changes will provide a more comfortable and productive experience for customers like you."
That's funny.


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Panetta was in the front row at Wednesday's weekly general audience in the Vatican auditorium. About 1,000 people were crowded into the room.
After the Pope addressed the gathering, Panetta and several staff members lined up to meet the pontiff, who gave them rosaries.
Panetta kissed the Pope's hand, and the Pope said, "Thank you for helping to protect the world."
The Pentagon boss responded, "Pray for me."
Panetta, a staunch Catholic, is in Rome as part of a weeklong swing across Europe, meeting with defence ministers to talk about ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Mali.
This is expected to be Panetta's last overseas trip as Pentagon chief, as he long has planned to step down once his replacement is confirmed.
The pontiff has been outspoken in pressing for peace, issuing urgent appeals to end the violence in Syria and urging the international community to spare no effort in seeking a political settlement to the conflict. Most recently he used his annual New Year's speech at the Vatican to call for an end to Syria's civil war. He has also pushed for peace in the Middle East, saying he hopes Jerusalem will one day become "a city of peace and not of division."
Wednesday's Vatican visit is Panetta's third papal audience.
The Italian-American Panetta, who was born in California, made the first trip to Italy in the 1950s, travelling with his parents to visit his grandparents. During that trip, Panetta made his first visit to St. Peter's Basilica.
Panetta made subsequent trips to Rome as a member of Congress, and had an audience with Pope John Paul II when he travelled to Rome with then-President Bill Clinton. He later had a second audience with Pope John Paul II in Washington.
While director of the CIA, Panetta visited the Vatican, but did not see the Pope.
On his overseas trips, Panetta often will go to Catholic mass at a local church.
Panetta, who often works his Italian ancestry into his speeches, told reporters travelling with him that this visit to Italy has a "lot of tremendous personal meaning for me, since I'm the son of Italian immigrants."
He often talks about his parents' decision to come to America so that they could provide a better life for their children.
Source: AP


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Once again I had a hard time counting to 10 as I started thinking about my favorite albums of 2011, because I continue to commit the sin of buying whatever music I want, without considering whether it's new or not.
So, here are my here are my top five albums:
1. Tune-Yards – Whokill
Unique album from a talented and creative artist. There's something naive and complicated at the same time about Tune-Yards' African-influenced indie rock. It's as if Merrill Garbus found some uncontacted tribe in the African rainforest and instead of going the Deep Forest ethnic-ambient direction, turned it into something off-kilter and funky. I guess I would have to say this is not for everyone, since a couple of people I tried to turn onto this album didn't seem to take to it. Maybe they'll come around.
2. Rebirth Brass Band – Rebirth of New Orleans.
This was an impulse buy at Waterloo Records. I picked it up last July and I still can't seem to get enough of it. It's a jazzy mix of New Orleans second line, funk and hip hop. Mostly instrumental, but with some great shouted choruses, in songs like "Why Your Feet Hurt" and "I Like It Like That." I gushed about the the band a little bit in in a blog post which includes an awesome video of the band in the streets of New Orleans.
3. Sarah Jarosz – Follow Me Down
Very impressive sophomore album. I love her voice. Her original material continues to impress me, but her covers are amazing, especially her cover of Radiohead's "The Tourist." I also love "Annabelle Lee," adapted from the poem by Edgar Allan Poe. She also has some really good bluegrass musicians backing her up.
4. Pickering Pick – Tiger Balm
This one caught me off guard. Sam released this in June, but I just discovered it a few weeks ago. As always, excellent songwriting, beautiful melodies and sweet vocals. This time he had a new studio and you can really hear it in the production. He's busy updating the equipment, so the next album will sound even better. I love every song on the album, but "Like a River" is truly amazing.
5. Daughters of the Sun – Ghost with Chains
Nice album from one of my surprise discoveries at this year's Psych Fest. And by the way, they are very impressive live. It's partly psych, partly ambient, but with tribal-sounding percussion and shoegaze vocals. To look at them, you expect some kind of heavy metal, but instead you get this hypnotic psychedelia. Catch them if they come to your town.
And here are my top five artists discovered in 2012:
1. Sleepy Sun. I found this group at Psych Fest in Austin back in April. Awesome, trippy, acid-drenched blues. Fever has become one of my favorite albums and it would've made my top five of 2010 if I had discovered it in time. Check out their website which has an embedded live version of "Marina."
2. Atash. Kickass Austin-based group I discovered almost by accident during SXSW. I was hunting for free and cheap shows and was just about to give up when I found them giving a free performance at Central Market on North Lamar. They put on a HELL of a live show. Their music seems to have Gypsy, Persian, Indian, and other influences. I downloaded Republic of Love off Amazon.com and I've really been enjoying it.
3. Chubby Knuckle Choir. A great local find. As I said about them in June, they have such an odd fusion of sounds, yet they sound like roots music, like roots music from a country that never existed – but should have. They are performing in Bastrop, Elgin and in the Austin area. You can hear what they sound like and download some of their tuns on their Reverbnation page.
4. Dana Falconberry. One of the musicians featured in the wonderful documentary Echotone. There were actually several new artists in that soundtrack that impressed me (Belaire was another), but Dana's "Possum Song" was especially wonderful. I got a free soundtrack album from Paste Magazine (I think it still works – enter your e-mail and see) and I've been playing the hell out of it for months. She just came out with an EP, Though I Didn't Call It Came, which I have yet to get my hands on.
5. Jogja Hip Hop Foundation. This was a recent discovery, one of those truly startling discoveries. The idea of melding hip hop with gamelan music never even occurred to me. They've created something unique and vibrant and I think we'll be hearing from these guys for years to come.


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Mercedes-Benz C200 Coupe AMG Line
Car Leasing: £515+VAT Per Month
Key Features
- Understated luxury and quality
- Sharp handling dynamics
- Powerful engine capacity
Vehicle Details
Body Type: Coupe
Fuel: Petrol
Transmission: Automatic
P11d Value: £40,380
Emissions: 147 CO2 g/km
Availability: 10-14 days
Contract Details
Payment Profile: 2 plus 9 months
Monthly Rental: £515.00+VAT
Contract Mileage Allowance: 10000 miles
Excess Mileage Charge: TBC
Road Tax & Road Fund License: Included
Vehicle Maintenance: Included
24hr Roadside Assistance: Included
Flexible Initial Payments Available
We're all about finding perfectly tailored vehicular solutions to match your circumstances and financial situation, which is why we offer the opportunity to try various payment profiles with each of our deals.
To reduce your monthly billing amount, simply use our slider to change the set amount of months you want to pay upfront*. All of our contracts will work out the same cost over the full period.
We also offer options with no upfront payment and the chance to add a non-refundable deposit at the start of contracts.
Select the number of upfront months
Payment Profile:
Monthly Rental:
Deposit amount:
0 months months* 3-month max deposit on 6 and 7-month contracts and 6 months on 12-month contracts.
The Next Step
Everything we do is aimed at making our process as simple and straightforward as possible. If you would like to proceed with this vehicle contract, the next step would be to call our office on 01636 858458 or if you would like more information you can email firstname.lastname@example.com.
We can then advise on lead times and vehicle colours, most vehicles are available for delivery in 10-14 days. We would then need a confirmation of order and proposal form signing and returning. Delivery / Collection will be organised at your convenience.


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Search our database of handpicked sites
Looking for a great physics site? We've tracked down the very best and checked them for accuracy. Just fill out the fields below and we'll do the rest.
You searched for "galaxy"
We found 15 results on physics.org and 29 results in our database of sites
(of which 27 are Websites, 2 are Videos, and 0 are Experiments)
Search results on physics.org
All about... supernovae
A brief history of space
How many planets are there like Earth?
Creative Physics
What is cosmic inflation?
Boobs, Babes and Blood
6 Things you may not know about the afterglow of the big bang
Top 4 Bonkers things about the universe
All about... SETI
Alien spotting comes down to Earth
What is a gravitational wave?
All about... the Venus transit
The physics.org web awards
The Herschel Space Observatory
How to spot an alien Earth
Galaxy Photometry
Information about galaxies and their brightness. Using images of three spiral galaxies to measure galaxy flux.
Seyfert Galaxies
The key to classifying a galaxy as a Seyfert Galaxy is the presence of broad emission lines from the bright, star-like nucleus. They are often strong radio and infrared sources. The first such active ...
Galaxy Zoo
Take part in real astronomy research by joining this public project classifying galaxies and taking part in citizen science.
How to Map a Galaxy When You're Right in the Middle of It
How to draw a map of the galaxy as if viewing it from the outside.
How to weigh a galaxy cluster
Four ways to measure how much stuff there is in a galaxy cluster.
Martin Rees
Martin Rees (1942 - ) has made important contributions to the theories of galaxy formation, galaxy clustering, and the origin of the cosmic background radiation.
Planetquest - 3D Guide to the Galaxy
Explore the milky way in 3D
How old do I look?
A fun game to try to see if you can tell what's older just by looking at it, and how we can tell the age of galaxies from the light they emit.
A Guide to the Center of the Milky Way
A visual tour of our galaxy.
The Hubble Law
Measuring the red shift for several galaxies from spectral lines.


text:
Hi Welcome to Kimore Online Mall. Your Ultimate Online Choice!
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All items purchased will be sent via courier / mail. Options to choose.
Goods sold are not refundable or returnable unless the items is faulty.
Most items purchased from our store may be exchanged or returned within 7 days from the date of receipt.
Products with quality-related issues may be returned for a refund or exchange by contacting Customer Service at email@example.com within 7 days of receiving your order. Kimore online mall would be responsible for the return shipping fee incurred.
Products with no quality-related issues may be returned for a refund or exchange by contacting Customer Service within 7 days of receiving your order. You will be responsible for all return shipping fees incurred. To make sure you order the correct sizing, please email us to inquire about the sizing before ordering.
Terms and conditions for returned items:
Products returned for exchange or refund must be unworn and unwashed, with all original tags attached, and in its original packaging. Returned products with any sign of being worn or washed are classified as unacceptable and will not be refunded.
For hygiene reasons, we do not accept exchange or return of used lingerie.
We would be responsible for the shipping charge incurred for products with quality-related issues. Customer would be responsible for the shipping charge incurred for products with other issues.
You must take photos on the defects and email them to firstname.lastname@example.com for our verification within 7 days of receiving the items in order for the items to be returned.
When sending a return or exchange, it is recommended that you ship the items with UPS, DHL or Fedex that offers a tracking method. If you do not use a courier that offers a way to track the package or offers a return receipt request, our store cannot be held responsible for non-receipt of the return goods.
Return items could be shipped to the designated address given by our customer service after the due verification process is completed.
Credits would be issued within 14 days of receipt of the item. Please include the original order number in the return parcel for us to expedite the process of issuing the credit.
Shipping and handling charges are not refundable. The shipping and handling charges are not refundable but we will not deduct any further cost for the return.
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Discover the best Mercedes GLE-Class car leasing deals only at Britannia Car Leasing.
Here at Britannia Car Leasing we offer a huge range of fantastic Mercedes GLE-Class car leasing deals. All of which come with a full UK manufacturer warranty and have maintenance packages and optional extras available. For more information on any of our Mercedes GLE-Class lease deals, click the links below or contact our friendly leasing specialists on 0161 440 7272


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Joseph Nwaosu, a Nigerian exporter, has yet to acclimate to the winter damp of Guangzhou, on China's southern coast. Over a button-down shirt he usually adds a heavy brown turtleneck sweater and a rumpled tan parka; when necessary, he wears a wool hat. The layers help with his commute. From his apartment, which has a mattress on the floor and rents for forty dollars a month, it takes an hour by bus and a half hour on foot to reach his office, across the street from the Canaan Export Clothes Trading Center, a half-lit market painted a dusty shade of peach. Almost all its customers are merchants from Nigeria, Mali, Ghana, and other African countries. They are arriving in such large numbers that in November Kenya Airways inaugurated mainland China's first non-stop route from Africa, between Nairobi and Guangzhou. Since the Canaan market opened, six years ago, similar markets, filled with African buyers and Chinese sellers, have arisen along the same block. Taxi-drivers call the neighborhood Chocolate City.
The Canaan market opens onto Guangyuan West Road—eight roaring lanes of cars and trucks and scooters on the ground and four more lanes in the air, on concrete spans that block the rain and the sun. Every square foot has been claimed by commerce. Walking to and from work, Nwaosu (I have changed his name) traverses a sidewalk offering a sharpening stone for cleavers, a handheld sewing machine, a mobile-phone card for Africa, an hour of sex, a bundle of socks, an electronic songbird that sings, an eight ball of cocaine, a mold that makes the perfect dumpling. Lining the sidewalks are passport-photo booths, mobile-phone venders, and shops crammed with jeans and T-shirts, alligator-skin cap-toe shoes and made-to-measure suits, soccer jerseys and bulletproof vests (four hundred and ten dollars for blue nylon; five hundred and fifty-six dollars for camouflage). But the real business goes on inside, where merchants cut deals for bogus and factory-reject Prada and Lacoste and Polo. The Canaan economy is all cash and unhindered by borders: "one hundred per cent human hair" extensions are clipped from heads in India, braided by hand in China, and packed for sale in West Africa. The man selling them was, until recently, trading motorbike parts in Singapore, and if the hair business slows down he will move on again. All of Canaan seems determined to get somewhere else.
Nwaosu, at twenty-nine, is spindle thin, with a wary flicker in his eyes. He works out of a tiny, windowless office above a strip of clothing stalls a few hundred feet from the original market. "When I arrived in Guangzhou, this was the first place I came," he said one recent afternoon. Outside the open office door, a stereo was thumping, and someone was straining to seal an overstuffed container of clothes. Inside, ducts and wires slumped from an open ceiling. On one wall—a metal garage door—someone had scrawled a phone number for takeout. The other walls had been covered in leopard-print contact paper. The sole decoration was a large calendar featuring a smiling young Nigerian priest. It had a Scripture citation for every date and an exhortation across the top: "READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR!"
Nwaosu's glasses, metal-framed and often askew, give him a professorial aspect that is rare in the world of the traders. He did not set out to be a businessman in Guangzhou. He had always planned to be a priest. His parents were teachers, with eight children. He studied philosophy at Imo State University, in the Igbo country of southeastern Nigeria. When he was twenty, he joined the seminary. But he developed kidney problems that left him tired and in pain. Because the work of a priest is physically demanding, the seminary asked him to withdraw. "I was devastated," he told me.
He had little confidence in Nigerian hospitals, and doctors told him that treatment would cost at least ten thousand dollars. "But my family couldn't pay that," he said. "I felt like I was going to die the next day. For a whole year, I had no money—I had no bills, no copper. I wrote to the Ford Foundation. But they said they only help groups, not individuals. So I decided I will help myself."
A friend lent Nwaosu cash to buy a mobile-phone card, and he and his sister began charging people to make calls. They moved up to selling the cards, and by the spring of 2006 he had saved enough to consider going abroad. "At first, I wanted to go to Germany," he said. "But the Embassy wouldn't give me an appointment. I tried Holland, but that didn't work." Getting a Chinese visa was far simpler. He paid more than eight hundred and fifty dollars to an agent in Lagos, and a month later he boarded an airplane for the first time in his life, bound for Beijing. When he landed, he hailed a taxi, but he did not know to ask for the meter to be turned on. "It should have been thirty yuan. He charged me four hundred and fifty," he said.
Medical care in China was inexpensive, and Nwaosu was successfully treated for his ailment, but when he was unable to make a living in Beijing he headed south to Guangzhou, the trading port formerly known as Canton. He had nothing but the scribbled number of a stranger—a soft-spoken Nigerian trader who had arrived four months earlier. "He taught me the nature of the place," Nwaosu said. "The most important thing he taught me was to believe in myself—and to believe in God, too."
For his first deal at Canaan, Nwaosu ordered two thousand dollars' worth of computer components to be delivered to his sister, who would sell them in Lagos. When the shipment was delivered, he learned why a trader should not pay for goods without examining them first. They were the wrong parts; he couldn't give them away. "I felt the whole world was collapsing," he said. "All my savings had vanished. How was I going to pay for food? I was stranded again. Some days I didn't eat anything."
He tried his luck in the DVD business, a popular niche around Canaan, where stalls have pirated-movie catalogues as thick as phone books. Traders can buy movies for thirty-four cents each. "With a thousand-dollar investment, we could get a return of threefold," he said. "It wasn't much, but it was enough to get started."
In the ecosystem of the market, Nwaosu is a hustler—a word with largely positive connotations in Canaan patois, a patchwork of English, French, Chinese, Igbo, and other African languages. He spends part of his time canvassing stalls for bargains and haggling with factories. His office is not strictly his; he borrows space in a small freight-forwarding company, taking turns with other traders at a single desk, sharing a computer, a calculator, and a Kleenex dispenser. In return for the use of the office, he pays the company to ship his freight, under a system of patronage with roots in Nigeria. On the day of my visit, Nwaosu fingered the keys of the calculator like worry beads. Around him lay great mounds of plastic bags, smothered in tape and scrawled with phone numbers. All day, men drifted in and out, adding more bundles to the pile. The freightforwarding company ships big or small, retail or wholesale, a single cell phone or a carpet-size roll of leather to be sliced into shoes and handbags. When I asked Nwaosu what he is allowed to ship from China to Africa, he said, "Anything—as long as it's not contraband."
Every Sunday afternoon, Nwaosu slips out of the market and takes the bus across town to the Sacred Heart Stone House Cathedral, a Gothic-style structure, for Mass. It has stained-glass Caucasian saints peering down on a Chinese priest and a polyglot flock. The three-thirty service is the only English Mass of the week, and in the past few years the crowd has become almost entirely African. Hundreds of people squeeze into the pews, hip to hip; others line the walls, crouching on plastic stools. Still more cram the back, and the last arrivals huddle outside the door, hearing snatches of the Gospel and glimpsing a distant altar, where a wooden crucifix is topped with a neon bulb as a halo. After Mass, hundreds of Nigerians repair to a rickety side building for a charismatic prayer service that thunders with drums and guitars. They throw their arms in the air, singing and swaying and speaking in tongues, until long after dark.
Nwaosu rarely ventures far from Canaan or the church. "I don't have much social life," he said. His peers are almost uniformly young, male, and ambitious—"bachelor sojourners," as immigration historians call them. At least nineteen countries are represented among the traders at Canaan, though Nigerians make up nearly half the total, according to surveys. African Muslims are as visible at the Huaisheng Mosque as Christians are at the Stone House Cathedral. The arrivals have established a web of committees on behalf of their home nations and states, to solve disputes and collect money for funerals and weddings. ("Wherever there are ten or twenty Nigerians, they will organize into a committee," a Nigerian businessman told me.) There are now so many committees that they spend part of their time squabbling over which organization is the most powerful. Some issue identification cards to keep track of their people. A summer soccer league helps blow off steam and awards a silver cup to the winning country's team. Some of the migrants have been in China long enough to cultivate the connections to obtain residency permits, and they have brought their families; some of their children have enrolled in Chinese colleges.
For decades, the Chinese courted Africans with Cold War alliances in the name of liberation, but it was capitalism that ultimately aligned their interests. Between 2002 and 2007, Chinese and African trade—mainly oil, timber, copper, and diamonds—increased by about seven hundred per cent, to seventy-three billion dollars, ranking China as Africa's second-largest trading partner, behind the United States. The African population in Guangzhou, the largest city in southern China, began to climb in 1998, when an Asian financial crisis drove African merchants from Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur in search of the next frontier. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of Africans arriving on tourist visas quintupled, to nearly thirty-two thousand. Today, the city is believed to have some twenty thousand African residents, more than the African populations of Beijing and Shanghai combined. They constitute the largest foreign enclave in Guangzhou.
Economic growth brought mounting pressure to accommodate migrants, and in 2004 Chinese authorities unveiled a Chinese green card, which entitled holders to stay for ten years without renewal. But on the day it was announced a spokesman for the ministry in charge made clear that this was no invitation to huddled masses: "China is not a migrationtargeted country, and the new regulations are aimed at attracting high-level foreign personnel." Today, China has all but stopped giving Nigerians visas for longer than three months. Most of them can't get residency, so they stay illegally.
The path to legalization remains obscure: Chinese employers and universities, and overseas companies, can sponsor foreigners for renewable residency permits. Independent merchants, such as Nwaosu, struggle to find sponsors. Like many in the African community, he has long overstayed his visa and become, in Chinese police terms, a Triple-Illegal Person—illegal to enter, illegal to reside, and illegal to work. (Last year, local newspapers reported, the number of TripleIllegal Persons reached ten thousand.)
Around the market, police and immigration raids have become a constant subject of discussion. In an Igbo-language pop song about life in China, a Nigerian singer named Oluaka described the mood: "They are chasing Africans like sheep without a shepherd." Nwaosu prefers to compare police pressure to the weather: "Sometimes it's very hot. Sometimes it's mild. Or it's cold." And yet he has no plans to leave. "When you go to the United States or Europe, there isn't much opportunity. You are going to get a menial job, with barely enough to send home," he said. "But here we don't have jobs. We set ourselves up."
Even so, for all the opportunities that China affords, Nwaosu and his friends nurse a wounded pride that so many men from the great nation of Nigeria should need to settle in China to make a living. "I am proud of my country," he said. "I am proud of my lineage. I want to see my country functioning."
Racism has a long history in China, and in Canaan the Chinese venders often complain that the Africans demand discounts that are too large to leave much profit. "Many of our friends won't do business with the Africans," a hatmaker who operates out of a stall in Canaan told me. "They say it's not worth it."
Apartment buildings have begun to discourage the ethnic "invasion," as one property agent called it, by raising rents and adopting restrictive covenants. (The mistrust is mutual: when a survey asked African traders if they wanted to share communities with the Chinese, more than two-thirds said no.)
Racial typologies in China are rooted in traditional Chinese thought. In the fourth century B.C., the Zuozhuan, a founding historical text, warned, "If he is not of our race, he is sure to have a different mind." Fair skin indicated intelligence and beauty: the princess in the Shijing, China's earliest collection of poems, had fingers "like the blades of the young white grass" and skin "like congealed ointment." Peasants who toiled in the sun were the "black-headed people." As Frank Dikötter writes in "The Discourse of Race in Modern China," dark skin came to signify inferiority. Chinese writers likened Africa to hundun, a folkloric primeval chaos. At the turn of the twentieth century, some of China's most reform-minded thinkers embraced scientific racism with the same enthusiasm with which Francis Galton and other Victorian scientists were promoting the new field of eugenics. Kang Youwei, one of China's leading philosophers, described a rigid hierarchy of races, with "white" and "yellow" at the top, and suggested that the "monstrously ugly black" be whitened by changes in diet, intermarriage, and sterilization.
Chairman Mao challenged feudalera racial stereotypes and applauded the American civil-rights movement as a struggle for liberation. But the change was short-lived; his reformist successors celebrated economic success, not egalitarianism. On Chinese campuses, African exchange students, once treated as comrades in revolution, became symbols of their ailing home countries, and they encountered animosity. Throughout the nineteen-eighties, Chinese and African students clashed on campuses across the country, often triggered by sensitivities over Chinese women dating African men. The tension culminated on Christmas Eve, 1988, at Nanjing's Hehai University, when guards required two black students to register their Chinese dates. It escalated into a riot that left eleven Chinese and two Africans wounded. The next day, Chinese students attacked the Africans' dorm, shouting, "Kill the black devils!" While the Africans fled, thousands of Chinese demonstrated in Nanjing's streets for five nights, chanting racial epithets and demanding retribution. Discrimination was commonplace. When Barry Sautman, a political scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, surveyed Chinese students, intellectuals, and civil servants in 1992, he asked them to rank various foreign groups by intelligence, industriousness, and other virtues. Africans came out at the bottom of the rankings. Foreign reporters at the time quoted African diplomats and businessmen describing daily acts of discrimination.
Today, Chinese campuses aren't marked by racial tension, and in recent surveys Sautman has found substantial declines in incidents of discrimination. Many black expatriates credit the improved atmosphere to an influx of images of diversity. "The N.B.A. has been a de-facto P.R. campaign for black people—especially black Americans—in China," Ron Sims II, a thirty-year-old Web designer who is black and spent two and a half years teaching English in China, told me. "When I tried to explain where I was from in the U.S., no one ever knew Cleveland, but they knew LeBron James."
Still, there isn't much evidence of racial sophistication. In 2006, Sims conducted an informal sidewalk experiment in Fuzhou, a large southern city, in which he asked people to identify photographs of famous black Americans by race. Oprah was identified as Indian; Lena Horne didn't "have the lips of black people"; Beyoncé was white, as was Benjamin Davis, the commander of the Tuskegee Airmen. (The results, called "The Race Game," are on YouTube.) That unfamiliarity exists in China's most cosmopolitan cities, where migrant laborers have come in search of work. John Pollock, a twenty-three-year-old from Atlanta who is studying at Beijing Language and Culture University, said that new arrivals to the city have asked him, " 'Do you take showers?' 'Does the color of your skin rub off?' You know, 'Can I touch your hair?' "
As Mass let out at the Stone House Cathedral one Sunday in November, the Nigerians stayed for a while to say a prayer for a countryman, a businessman who had recently collapsed and died. They mounted a collection to fly his body home. The logistics fell to Ojukwu Emma, a man of medium build, with a heavy-lidded calmness to his face, who often wears a dark leather coat that belts in the back. He is married to a Chinese woman, drives a shiny black sedan, and enjoys the kind of settled life that new arrivals envy. He is the president of the Nigerian Community China, an organization based in Guangzhou. His role would be familiar to any immigrant community—the prominenti in Little Italy, the kiu ling in Chinatown—and he works long hours. One evening, he postponed a scheduled meeting with me until ten o'clock, so that he could escort the Nigerian Ambassador on a visit to their countrymen who were in jail awaiting deportation. He works a short drive from the Canaan market, in a dimly lit office with the Nigerian and Chinese flags standing in the corner, giving the room the air of a makeshift embassy. Once, when I asked him about the businessman whose body he was arranging to fly home, he paused and asked, "Which one?" He was handling six other corpses at the same time.
Emma is a shoe man by training. He first came to do business in China ten years ago, and had achieved modest success by 2004, when he placed a large order—ten shipping containers of shoes—only to discover, upon delivery, that his supplier had used cheap glue. En route from China to Nigeria, the shoes had disintegrated. "I couldn't even salvage one container," he said. He started over, by moving to China full time to oversee every detail of his trades. He was elected to head the Nigerian community, which he estimates at five thousand to seven thousand people, in Guangzhou. His first task was to defuse China's growing impatience with his people. "Five years ago," he said, "you would come in, drink tea, and then twenty minutes later they put the stamp in your passport."
In the African community, there is a thriving underground market in passports. Traders routinely accuse one another of turning people in to immigration authorities for money or favors. The fear and anonymity are atomizing. "I bought a passport in Malaysia, a look-alike, and I came here with that," a trader with bloodshot eyes who called himself Lucky Okeke told me. "On Thai Air, the flight was so low I thought we would have an accident. I was thinking, Nobody would know what happened to me, because it wasn't even my passport."
As Emma sees it, Guangzhou has become a victim of its own allure. In Lagos and Abuja, local visa agents prey on Nigerians who are desperate to believe in what China might offer them. "The agents, all they want is money. They say, 'You'll get to Guangzhou airport,' and they give you a bus number. And they tell you to go to the Igboezuo"—the Igbo district—"and then a man pays a big amount of money. And then he gets here and he has nothing."
Emma frequently visits hospitals to handle paperwork for Nigerians injured while fleeing immigration police. "We have so many cases of people jumping off the balconies, and they break their legs," he said. Another two hundred Nigerians are in jail awaiting deportation, he says. "They are sending them home every week. Ten or fifteen or twenty." I asked him why he thought his community had ended up in crisis. "Sometimes we look at ourselves and we say, 'The Chinese are racist because we are black.' And sure there are stupid people who might feel that way. But we are also doing things to make it worse," he said.
"GUANGZHOU'S FOREIGNERS' CRIME RATE RISES" was the headline not long ago in the Guangzhou Daily, a state-run paper that often chronicles the arrests of Africans on drug-trafficking, fraud, and immigration charges. Emma believes that his people have created their own image problem, and they need to fix it. "That is why we are fighting to unite ourselves and stop breaking the law," he said. "And then maybe it will go back to the old days." One night in September, he got a call telling him that a Nigerian trader had been hospitalized with head injuries after a run-in with Chinese security guards. As the Nigerian press later described it, the trader, Ojide Ekene, had been looking for a place to urinate at the entrance to a subway station when guards struck him with batons and he fell, hitting his head. After thirteen days in the hospital, Ekene died, on October 8th. That day, Nigerians protested outside the subway station and the hospital. News of the death and photographs of the body circulated online, with a bitter string of comments about China's treatment of immigrants. "Nigerian government please do something positive before it becomes uncontrollable," someone wrote, on a message board frequented by Nigerians. Emma urged calm, and, in the end, it held. "I thank God that we could control our people," he told me.
Emma is lobbying the Nigerian government to open a consulate in Guangzhou, to manage relations, and he wants to set up a system requiring Nigerians to have a specific business plan before getting to China. One day, he hopes, they will have African music concerts, a magazine, a Nigerian Day festival. "We want what they have in other countries. They always have a Chinatown," he said. "In Nigeria, they have seven Chinatowns. That is my dream. We want to have that in China."
A couple of hours' drive southeast from Canaan lies the city of Shenzhen. In March, 2004, the Shenzhen Daily ran a short feature about a foreigner with an exotic name—Mark Ndesandjo—who had become a frequent volunteer at a local orphanage, teaching music and donating equipment. "The children here don't need food, but there is no art or music to appreciate," he told the paper, which ran a photograph of a tall black man seated at a piano in a crowd of kids. After Barack Obama began his Presidential campaign, Ndesandjo was back in the news. With Obama's face peering out from banners and tank tops in Canaan's shopwindows, and traders wearing Obama lapel pins, reporters discovered that the man at the Shenzhen orphanage was Obama's younger half brother—born in Nairobi to their shared father, Barack Obama, Sr., and his third wife, an American named Ruth Ndesandjo. While Barack was growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, Mark was growing up in Kenya. When Obama first glimpsed his half brother, during his 1988 visit to Kenya, it was "like looking into a foggy mirror"—"a black man of my height and complexion with a bushy Afro and horn-rimmed glasses," he wrote in "Dreams from My Father." Yet when the two men sat down to flip through a photo album of Ndesandjo's life in Kenya, Obama was unnerved: "They were happy scenes, all of them, and all strangely familiar, as if I were glimpsing some alternative universe that had played itself out behind my back." It was an uneasy meeting; Obama had returned to Africa in search of his roots, but Ndesandjo was uninterested in making his life in what he called "just another poor African country."
When I contacted Ndesandjo in Shenzhen, he was feeling bruised by the press—the Times of London had written, "Barack Obama's half-brother has been helping to promote cheap Chinese exports." He suggested that Sui Zhengjun, his friend and business partner, meet me instead. Sui was tall and stylish, with a trace of brawn from the days he spent as a security guard before he went into business. He said that he met Ndesandjo through friends six years ago and was impressed by his interest in the orphanage and his attempts to study Chinese and read the classic "Dream of the Red Chamber." Ndesandjo had come to Shenzhen on an exchange program in 2002, after attending Brown, Stanford, and business school at Emory, and decided to stay, Sui said. The next year, the two friends opened a small consulting company called WorldNEXUS, which helps Chinese companies market to foreign firms. They had invested in a chain of cafés called Cabin Barbecue, he said. Ndesandjo had recently married his longtime Chinese girlfriend, and showed no intention of leaving China.
Before meeting Ndesandjo, Sui had never had a black friend. He said, "I thought they were low-quality people, with little education. You could say my impression was only so-so." He went on, "Most Chinese think of black people this way, because it's a fact. Of course, some black people are well educated. They are talented in sports and music, but, generally, they are not as good in science and culture."
One night after the market closed, Joseph Nwaosu and I went to dinner at one of the small African places tucked among the market buildings. It had Chinese waitresses serving African standbys—jollof rice, fufu, fish stew, okra—and almost every table was taken by African men or mixed couples. Nwaosu was quiet until he brought up an issue that had been on his mind, recently, regarding his future.
"I'm four years out of seminary, and I still dream of being a priest," he said. "The urge to be a priest should have died now," he went on. "Physically I resolved it, but spiritually it's a dilemma."
For months, he had been struggling with whether to try to go back to the seminary. To help make the decision, he was waiting for a sign. He called it "the event." And until it came he was in China, pursuing his other, lesser faith—the market. "My first goal is to make money and wait for the event," he said. "The event will find me. I will not find the event."
After dinner, I dropped him off at his apartment, in a quiet fishing village far from the bustle around Canaan. He lived in a single room the size of his office, lit by a naked fluorescent bulb. The walls were bare, except for a three-inch pink paper palm tree slung from a string around the light switch. A small, squat electric space heater faced out from one corner. His treasured computer, a smudged gray secondhand NEC desktop with a Sony monitor, rested on a narrow table. I sat on his only chair.
The room felt cramped yet empty, and I could not help imagining how silent it would be after I left. But Nwaosu, swaddled in his sweater and parka and sitting on his mattress, seemed resolute. He had mastered the angles. "Sometimes we get cheated, sometimes we cheat others," he said matter-of-factly. Eight months after entering Canaan, he was no longer a rookie. ♦


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5th August 2011
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18th August 2017
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You can follow the discussion on 2 Days in Hanoi Vietnam without having to leave a comment. Cool, huh? Just enter your email address in the form here below and you're all set.
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We've all experienced irrational pangs of envy and, as the saying goes, jealousy is an ugly trait. Turn your green-eyed monster into emerald-eyed beauty this Valentine's Day with Artdeco's Soft Kajal Liner in Fir Tree, £7.25 from JCmakeup.com.
It looks great when applied along your lower eyeline and the shade is bang on trend; you need only take a look at the dresses which appeared on the Grammy Awards Red Carpet this year to know that the colour green is de rigueur at the moment.
For more seductive products, read the rest of Yesterface's Valentine's Day Beauty Guide as inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins.


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All major aspects of U.S. aerospace - air, space, and national defense - continually rely on the investments in research & development for their cutting-edge technologies, products, and applications.
Few other U.S. industries are as heavily dependent on the on-going work in research & development (R&D) as is the aerospace industry. And as a result, few other industries are as reliant on finding and retaining top scientific and professional talent.
This R&D emphasis permeates both the federal agency and commercial business involvement in aerospace.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the lead federal agency for numerous aeronautics R&D activities and support. NASA partners with industry and academia, as well as other federal, state, regional, and local entities to perform breakthrough research and develop new technologies, to help incorporate these into commercially viable products.
Within the federal sphere, other agencies that support aerospace R&D include:
Within the corporate sector, most large, mid-sized, and small U.S. aerospace firms are continually engaged in R&D activities.
And when it comes to jobs and careers - the "bottom-line" is that thousands of new scientific, professional, and technical career opportunities open-up in Aerospace Research & Development each year.
The following site has information on research and development. We highlight the sites and the content we think you'll find useful as you explore your career options in this area of aerospace.
For a quick overview of what the site below offers, click the link.
Sources: U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF); U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).


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Dismissing a pregnant employee is challenging enough; firing her the day after she breaks the news doesn't exactly ameliorate your plight.
When Ontario based BNA Smart Payment Systems recruited Pauline Kooner-Rilcoff as a sales representative for British Columbia, it had high hopes. Kooner-Rilcoff presented impressive experience capped by several awards for achieving top sales in Canada. Having enjoyed several banner years in Ontario, Matthew Moore, BNA's president and owner, anticipated she would replicate that success in the western market.
However, shortly after Kooner-Rilcoff joined the company, its fortunes in Ontario experienced an unexpected and abrupt downturn. The company laid off three employees, but continued with its expansion plans. Convinced B.C. required a different strategy, he promoted Kooner-Rilcoff to vice-president of sales, Western Canada and charged her with creating and managing a team of sales employees.
Kooner-Rilcoff energetically carried out her mandate. Her recruitment efforts yielded six commission sales representatives in contrast to only one or two in Ontario. Moore discussed turning them into salary-based employees with Kooner-Rilcoff whom he referred to as the company's top sales person in Western Canada. His approbations prompted Kooner-Rilcoff to turn down another job offer.
However, Moore was becoming impatient with the low results from the West. A lot of money was being expended with little return and overall sales were declining. But because Moore did not communicate this dissatisfaction Kooner-Rilcoff had no reason to believe her future was in doubt.
When Kooner-Rilcoff learned she was pregnant, she called Moore to share the good news. He offered congratulations and talked about his experience as a father. The very next day, Moore informed Kooner-Rilcoff the B.C. operation was being closed and as a result she was being let go.
Kooner-Rilcoff accused him of discrimination, but Moore said the pregnancy had no bearing on the decision. She responded with a complaint to the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.
At the hearing, Moore claimed his vice-president of marketing had booked a trip to Vancouver to notify Kooner-Rilcoff of her termination before she announced her pregnancy. But the adjudicator, Robert Bassina, was skeptical. He noted that Moore did not produce a copy of the itinerary nor did he call the vice-president as a witness.
While acknowledging that the expansion was not generating revenue and necessitated cost cutting, the adjudicator found the company had not provided a non-discriminatory reason for terminating Kooner-Rilcoff immediately after she announced her pregnancy. The pregnancy, he concluded, had spurred the company to act sooner than it had planned, which was a form of discrimination. As a result, BNA was directed to pay damages for lost wages and injury to Kooner-Rilcoff's dignity.
Terminating a pregnant employee requires careful preparation to refute and defeat the inevitable allegations of discrimination. The strategy I recommend includes:
Candidly speak with staff If a business is not doing well, employees should be told. Not only was Kooner-Rilcoff never blamed for the poor results in B.C., she was given no inkling her employment was in jeopardy as a result of the overall company condition. Instead, the company was praising her at the same time it was considering eliminating her position.
Document decision-making If an employer is deciding to terminate an employee for bona fide reasons, notes should be taken of the deliberations. Had BNA recorded its discussions about the proposed changes in British Columbia before Kooner-Rilcoff announced her pregnancy, it could have had persuasive evidence its decision was unrelated.
A matter of timing The dismissal should not be communicated within hours of a pregnancy announcement. Not only will a court or tribunal find that cruel, a nexus will be drawn between the notification and the decision. The burden of proof will be particularly exacting.
Don't single out a pregnant employee If a business is reducing staff, including a pregnant employee, effect the terminations of everyone at the same time. This is another way of rebutting an argument of discrimination.
Postpone, if possible If an employer can afford to wait, it should consider doing so until well after a pregnancy leave is up. It can then avoid battles for alleged violations of maternity leave provisions.
Howard Levitt is senior partner of Levitt LLP, employment and labour lawyers. He practises employment law in eight provinces and is author of The Law of Hiring in Canada.


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-=Together Forever
-=Together Forever
Every night I dream that we will be together forever,
and every moment I spend with you is one I treasure.
I've always wanted someone like you for my wife.
And now that I found you we can live our life.
For you have completed me.
That is why when I'm with you I feel free.
If I had to I would die for you,
Because my love for you is so true.
My heart and soul belong to you,
And one day everything else I have to offer you will too.
Our life would be great just you and me,
But sooner or later we would become three.
After that we could go for four,
But I'll leave it up to you if you want more.
Our family would be beautiful just like you,
And when we grow old I won't leave you.
You will be my wife and I will be your husband,
And we will make it through.
This may just be my fantasy,
But there is one thing I want you to see.
Our life together would be amazing if we would never sever,
Because we could have everything we wanted if we remained Together forever.


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At the end of this year I'm on a tour of Cambodia and Vietnam. I have a few days in Bangkok before the tour starts and want to see as much as possible. What would you recommend to see and eat? - Lisa
Lonely Planet's Sarah Bennett and Lee Slater write:
Bangkok is an exciting mix of old and new. It's best to explore both, which can be achieved easily in a few days.
On your first day, get up as early as you can and take the Chao Phraya Express north to Nonthaburi Market. On your way back, hop off at Tha Chang to explore the museums and temples of Ko Ratanakosin, followed by lunch in Banglamphu.
Get a different perspective with sunset cocktails at one of the many rooftop bars, followed by an upscale Thai dinner at Nahm, the best Thai restaurant in Bangkok and known for its exotic and adventurous dishes.
On your second day, board the BTS (Skytrain) to be whisked off to shopping destinations, or visit Jim Thompson House, former home of the American silk entrepreneur and art collector. Lunch at MBK, the granddaddy of Bangkok food courts, then wrap up the daylight hours with a traditional Thai massage. After dark, work off those calories at the dance clubs on Royal City Avenue. Spend day three at Chatuchak Weekend Market or if it's a weekday try a cookery course like Khao.
We are a family of four, with kids aged nine and 11, looking to do a family OE in Europe. The major expense is accommodation, particularly in Italy and France. Do you have any ideas? We will stay in a few regions for up to seven days. - Anne
Lonely Planet's Sarah Bennett and Lee Slater write:
Accommodation in Italy ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous with prices to match. Hotels and pensioni make up the bulk of the offerings, covering options from cheap sleeps near the train station to luxury hotels.
B&Bs are a burgeoning sector of the Italian accommodation market. Located throughout the country in both urban and rural settings, options cover everything from restored farmhouses, city palazzi (mansions) and seaside bungalows to rooms in family houses.
Campgrounds are a well-priced option in both Italy and France. Good resources for Italy include campeggi.com and camping.it for Italy. In France, try camping.fr and campingfrance.com.
Remember that an apartment or studio will allow you to self-cater, representing a big saving. Check out homelidays.com and holidaylettings.co.uk.


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The ultimate reality TV: How the 2014 NanoDays Physical kit came to be!!!
March 18, 2014
In 2014, our operation became so large that we had to take kit fabrication out of both the Science Museum of Minnesota's shop and warehouse. We rented another warehouse offsite, where kit assembly consumed the space for over a month. Some days you couldn't even walk through the space there was some much going on!
Here we show you a high-speed version of our labor – five weeks wrapped up in two-minutes and twenty-two seconds!!!
Enjoy: https://vimeo.com/89432550


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Kidney disease usually progresses silently, often destroying most of the kidney function before causing any symptoms. There are two key tests which are used to detect kidney damage and to assess how well your kidneys are functioning at removing toxins and waste products from your blood.Blood testA blood test is used to measure your serum creatinine level which helps to indicate how well the kidneys are filtering the blood. Creatinine is a waste product made from muscle use and the breakdown of the protein you eat. As the blood creatinine rises, kidney function decreases. Decreased kidney function means that your kidneys are not able to remove the toxins and waste products from your blood as well as someone with normal kidney function.The estimate (or percentage) of kidney function is called the glomerular !ltration rate (GFR). Sometimes the GFR is also referred to as the estimated glomerular !ltration rate (eGFR). Glomeruli are tiny blood vessels in the kidney that help to filter waste. The GFR is a way of measuring how well the kidneys are working by determining the rate at which the glomeruli are filtering waste products from your blood. The eGFR is the most common way to measure kidney function at kidney clinics.UrinalysisSimple laboratory tests such as urinalysis (a urine dipstick), which looks for blood and a protein called albumin in the urine, are also useful in detecting kidney damage at an early stage and determining your risk of losing more kidney function. The filters of the kidney do not normally allow protein in the urine so if protein (albumin) is detected, it is a sign that the filters of the kidney are being damaged. The more albumin that you have in your urine, the greater the risk of losing kidney function over time. Other blood tests, X-rays, kidney ultrasound or a kidney biopsy may also be needed to diagnose the specific type of kidney disease and to determine the appropriate treatment.
The Kidney Foundation of Canada is proud to have launched Canada's first national targeted screening program for chronic kidney disease (CKD). The program, titled "See Kidney Disease" or SeeKD, will enable The Kidney Foundation to fulfill one of its cornerstone mandates: early detection and prevention of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Read more about the SeeKD program
Quebec Branch - 2300 René Lévesque Blvd. West, Montreal, QC H3H 2R5 - Tel.: (514) 938-4515 / 1-800-565-4515 within QuebecCharitable Registration Number: 107567398RR0001


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CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALSCheck out what some of our customers have to say:
I find your organization and service very easy to work with....thanks for your care!
New York, NY
Thank you so much for the awesome customer service that you have provided. It is greatly appreciated.
- Goodlettsville, TN
I am a firm believer in pointing out a job well done and it is that that I must mention here. I recently ordered a set of Sony MDR-V700 headphones that I needed to replace due to an accidental breakage on the job. As a DJ, they are the most valuable piece of equipment I own. I placed the order as soon as I could with your company, primarily because the merchandise was much less expensive that your competitors. After placing the order, I had contacted a representative to ensure delivery prior to a certain date since they needed to arrive in a timely fashion. I was replied to within a matter of an hour via e mail and reassured that the product would arrive. Sure enough, they were here when I had returned back in town a couple days later. Moral of the story...THANK you for all of your pricing, service, and support. Your company shines in these areas above many other. I will continue to do business with you and have already put the word out that this is one site to shop from (even the Fed Ex guy, LITERALLY!) Thank you for proving to be a company that DOES care about it's customers. I encourage you to post this where others can read it so they too can have the experience I had.
Rochester, NY
Wow! That is phenomenal customer service!! Very much appreciated!!
Littleton, CO
Thank you for your time and prompt communication. I really appreciate you checking into it further and updating the status for me. It is nice to get good service!
Dundee, MI
WOW! I am really impressed with your folks level of service!
Longview, TX
Hello, I just wanted to drop you a quick line to say that i am very pleased w/your company....my order came extremly fast and well packaged. I think you should commend people who give good service so hats off to you guys. I order alot of items over the net and had some very bad experiences in the past. You guys are changing my mind about ordering online. Thanks again guys (or girls) I will definitely recommend your company to my other friends/family
Alsip, IL
Very Impressive! Thank you so much for the quick response and thanks for getting that item on it's way to me. So many companies on the net will tell you that they have an item in stock when they don't that I get suspicious when I don't get confirmation. Looking forward to doing more business with you.
Lake Havasu City, AZ
Thank you for "bailing" me out of trouble. I wanted to order a Sony battery charger for my Sony digital camera and really needed it for this weekend. You mentioned that this would not be available for a while. However you were able to supply another brand NOW that would work. More surprisingly is the time factor. It arrived here today, just 2 days after it was ordered. And yes it works. It will also be available to be used with my Panasonic video camera.....one less thing in which to pack next time. Great job. And thanks again.
Walla Walla, WA
Thank you so much. I'm so shocked to find this kind of service on the Web! I will be recommending you to my friends.
Edmond, OK
You Guys are amazing!! Thank you all!!
Silver City, NM
I will continue to shop with you as your level of customer service has been superb!!
Queensbury, NY
Although I am sorry that the device did not work, I must tell you that I am most pleased with the way in which Go Electonic handled the return and credit. I will indeed keep you folks on my "must shop" list for future video and other electronic devices.
Mountain View, CA
I guarantee I will return and use your company for further electronic business, as I appreciate when I am treated as a priority by customer service.
Coppell, TX
I have received my order in good time and in perfect condition - you guys are great!! I really could not ask for better treatment. Your replies where speedy and very informative - for that I thank you!
Malvern, ZA
Thank you very much for your prompt response and providing the credit. It is a true demonstration of ensuring customer satisfaction.
Downington, PA
The Casio portable TV & adapter plug arrived today (apparently, they were shipped earlier this morning). I didn't expect them for another day or two -- thanks! Will be happy to use your company again.
Los Angeles, CA
Received my shipment via FedEx within 18 hrs of placing my order over the Internet and requesting standard delivery. That's impressive.
Green Valley, AZ
I just wanted to let you know how happy I am with my purchase from goelectronic.com! Not only were you guys timely with your service the site was a breeze to navigate. I will definitely be back, and I will recommend the site to my friends. Thanks again…it is nice to see some people still believe in customer service!!
Hahira, GA
You guys are great and I love your competitive prices. Looks like I will be ordering again from you in future!
Silver Spring, MD
Thank you very much. Your effort to fill my order is appreciated. I order a lot of electronics and this is my 1st order with you. I shall not forget the service that I have received thus far.
Owings Mills, MD
I thank you for excellence in product, price and service.
Philadelphia, PA
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your help. The review I read about your company said that you have terrific customer service, and I now must agree! I'll keep your website in case I want something else later on.
Phoenix, AZ
Thanks very much, your company is a pleasure to deal with, fast, efficient, and easy.
Berkeley, CA


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Greetings my friends.
Guys just a note to let you all know about playing fair on this forum. Play fair and be nice. Over the years there has been a lot of crap and people losing the cool (myself included) There has been peace, with people chatting about about re-enactment stuff, as it should be. A few threads have started that are a little out of order and have been removed to keep the peace on this site, As all of you know a lot of people read this forum so what do we want them to see?
Please be nice to each other


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Brother TD-2020 Printer (200 dpi)
Increasing productivity and reducing costs are priorities in any workplace. And when it comes to label printing, the TD-2020 combines proven desktop printer performance with new levels of efficiency to help you do more for less.
- Up to 6 inches per second print speed
- 203dpi print resolution
- USB and serial connectivity
- 32MB RAM, 16MB Flash
- ZPL II printer language
- P-touch Editor 5 software - works on Windows
Compatible with all Windows based Toughbook/Toughpad


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Herbal Oils - Infused
Displaying 1 to 4 (of 4 products)
Result Pages: 1
Calendula Herbal OilCalendula oil has been used for centuries to heal minor skin irritations. This botanical member of the marigold family will help heal minor cuts, scrapes and ra...Price: $8.50
Comfrey Herbal OilComfrey's ability to promote the healing of bruises, sprains, fractures and broken bones have been known for thousands of years. It encourages ligaments and bo...Price: $8.50
Muscle Mender Massage OilEffective for treating overworked, sore muscles & tendons. Can be used prior to workouts to help prevent strain & soreness. Formulated with ...Price: $8.50
Rosemary Herbal OilRosemary oil can be used as a rejuvinating rub for muscular pain, gout and rheumatism. When massaged into scalp, it is also good for dandruff, itchy scalp and e...Price: $8.50
Displaying 1 to 4 (of 4 products)
Result Pages: 1


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Are Our Kids Targeted by Spammers?
Are Our Kids Targeted by Spammers?There is a big push right now by the spammers to target kids with attractive email messages, containing well known cartoon characters, colorful lettering, etc Why kids? Because they are an easy target, like "taking candy from a baby". Our children are very adept in finding their way on the computer and sooner than later they will click on the wrong email message.
Risking the Loss of Our Personal InformationAnd, just like that with a one click, we can not only loose our precious pictures, family videos and our personal information, there is even bigger price to pay. Many people suffer for years to come, from thieves using their personal identities. Your credit is at stake, monetary loss is at stake, and to fix and correct all of this can be a mind boggling task, requiring hiring professionals and a lot of wasted time and energy.
What Are the Objectives of Spammers Sending Email Viruses?The are many objectives spammers may have to attach email viruses, and they would include:
- Forcing others to react in a certain way
- Peddling a product
- Building a list of customers
- To spread a computer virus (to damage or to steal your data)
- To inflict fear and pain
- To hold power over large segments of people, events and things
The Hackers and Spammers Different From TerroristsIf anybody's argument going to be that the "BIG" difference is, the terrorists are not in it for the money? If that is your reasoning, then the logical next question would be, what gives you the most power in this world? The answer is Money!
Can you buy nuclear technology without money? or Can you purchase arms, explosives, knowledge and the list goes on..., without money? Of course, not.
The ends will always justify the means to these people, whether it is a cyber terror or an explosion in the subway.
I would like to know, your opinion on this subject, whether the cyber spammers, responsible for malicious emails, and hackers should be classified as terrorists? Should we have our Justice Systems changed, regarding the classification of cyber terrorists in the eyes of the "Law", across the world to address this rapidly growing problem? We would perhaps breath a little easier?
Is There A Solution For Us Right Now?The answer is yes. After looking at various software and tools trying to address this problem, the best option is to keep your emails away from your computer, without being tied down to any specific service. You should be able to use your current email system, whatever it is and be able to get rid off and suspicious looking emails before they even get to your computer.
Some email messages you don't even have to click on for the virus to execute automatically. When you think about it, the danger is more REAL than most people realize and it would be crazy not to have a strong email security tool to protect your computer or a network, but many of us don't even think about it. You are welcome to see what are the best solutions available right now at my site.
BIOAndrew Thomas is a dedicated fighter against any digital pests, spam distribution and email viruses. The mission is to halt dishonest promotion efforts and spammers and to get rid of any digital garbage from our digital space. His personal story and recommendations are at www.webbaster.com


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Terracotta Accentstone Panel
Accentstone™ veneer panels incorporate larger stones into each panel, for a more textured overall appearance. Ideal for both small and large scale applications, the panels have a smooth, linear finish, while the larger stones bring a rich texture and just the right amount of depth.
- Product Size: 6"x 24"
- Stone Type: Slate
- Finish: Split Face
- Usage: Interior,Exterior,Walls,Water Feature,Commercial,Residential
- Available Accessories: Corners,Natural Ends
- more info:
- Order a Sample:


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The FCC continues to make agency reform a top priority. A key focus of this reform has been carrying out our statutory mission in a way that recognizes changes in technology and the marketplace and reduces burdens on business and industry while promoting incentives for investment and promoting economic growth.
Last year, the President issued an Executive Order to the heads of all independent agencies, including the FCC. The new Executive Order builds on the President's January 2011 Executive Order on Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, and asks independent agencies to conduct both retrospective and prospective regulatory analyses, consistent with law. Chairman Genachowski has said the agency would act in accordance with the new Executive Order, and that he expects all FCC Bureaus and Offices will perform their responsibilities consistent with the order.
In November 2011, we developed a Preliminary Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules, which recognized the importance of retrospective analysis and identified numerous Commission proceedings that predated the Executive Order, as the FCC historically has incorporated retrospective review into its rulemaking process. The Preliminary Plan also described the ongoing agency-wide process of identifying outmoded or counterproductive rules.
Today, the agency releases our Final Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing Rules. The Final Plan represents the Commission's strategy for incorporating retrospective analysis into the agency's processes for reviewing its rules.
To date, more than 210 outdated regulations have already been deleted as part of Chairman Genachowski's robust regulatory review process. Moreover, the FCC has significantly reduced Commission backlogs, including a 52% reduction in satellite licensing applications and a 30% reduction in broadcast licensing applications. The agency has also reduced the number of open dockets by 43%, including by closing 999 dormant proceedings. We have sought public comment on closing hundreds more. The FCC also is looking at the possible elimination of 25 sets of data collections from industry that may no longer be necessary.
Under Chairman Genachowski's leadership, we are proud of the progress we have made so far. Every part of the Commission is involved in efforts to eliminate outdated regulations and to promote private investment and innovation that creates jobs and spurs economic growth.
Our work is not done. We will continue to promote innovation inside and outside government and to spur economic growth and job creation, while ensuring that the benefits of our rules and policies outweigh the costs and burdens. We encourage comments and suggestions from the public and industry on our ongoing regulatory reform efforts at our dedicated email address firstname.lastname@example.com.


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YouTube Says, Downloading Your Own Videos is Legal
Based on dozens of incoming posts about "Now Download Your YouTube Videos Legally" for last two days, I'm so confused at the first sight. Since these Flash videos on YouTube are not streaming via Real Time Messaging Protocol like Hulu, we're always downloading these videos into our browser cache when watching them online. So are these totally illegal? Certainly not. And copyright infringement happens only if the downloaded videos are reused as commerical, I guess.
Then I read carefully about such advancement on YouTube offical announcement. LOL! The simple story is, now you can download your uploaded YouTube videos as MP4 files thru a button "Download MP4". Holy crap, downloading your own uploaded videos is usually the right thing on earth. Jesus, it's not legal or not. It's just a free MPEG-4 video conversion feature provided by YouTube!
Actually, the upside here is MP4 formats are widely accepted by iPod or most video players, so such free conversion is relatively useful. However, those "so-called illegal YouTube downloaders", such as vixy.net, have better options for downloading our own videos.
Some friends usually asked me about the copyright issues on YouTube videos. I donno. But just watching the videos on YouTube, whatever online streaming or downloading to local disk, is definitely legal as we're free to see anything unknown. Right?
William Peterson
My Late Review for Acrobat.com – Adobe's Silly Trick over Online Presentations
For Adobe's newborn Online Presentations on Acrobat.com Labs, a lot of details could be read thru Digital Inspiration's first look: "Adobe Introduces Acrobat.com Presentations – Create Impressive Slides Online". I'm definitely late for this big mashup from Adobe. But when I found out the truth on the experimental product, "oh my god", it was not what I expect.
No connection to Microsoft PowerPoint slides just makes it a Flash-based slide designer toy. No sounds, no transitions, but Flash Video embedded? It's immature. All the competitors from Google Docs, Zoho Show to ThinkFree have their right concept for users. I can't believe that it's our brother Adobe's homework…
Last point, this toolkit just let you export slides as PDF? Oh, okay, it's all about Acrobat. We know that now. More and more brilliant ideas are coming from our great Adobe Labs, but how about any serious evolution later?
Presentation Veteran
William Peterson
[Referral] 5 Ways to Convert PowerPoint to Video
=== my friend Judith recommended her masterpiece for everyone who wants his PowerPoint presentation as video show. the article might be published anywhere else, and all rights reserved for Judith. ===
There is a famous PowerPoint called death by PowerPoint spread widely on the website. In this presentation, the author indicates that people do 30 presentations everyday but 50% of them are unbearable. Another data shows that in January 2008 alone, nearly 79 million users had made over 3 billion video views on YouTube, compared with PowerPoint presentation, video is easier for sharing and delivering. When searching news or information, we disposed to accept the videos because it is very concrete. But when we want to show our opinions we usually make a PowerPoint presentation because it is easier than making a video.
There are 5 ways for you to convert your PowerPoint to video.
1. Using Wondershare PPT to Video to convert PowerPoint to video with animations, transitions, sounds, video clips retained in the output.
2. Using windows movie maker to create a PowerPoint video if there are no dynamic elements in your computer.
3. Log in the slideshare.com and create a PowerPoint video online.
4. Using some screen recorder such as Camtasia to record your PowerPoint.
5. Make QuickTime movie on Mac.
Now there are the details of these 5 methods.
Continued »
Enrich Your Presentation: Yet Another Note about Video Sharing on PowerPoint
Rolling back to a year ago, right here I alleged that "Why Not Add YouTube Flash Video in Your Next PowerPoint Presentation", as well as something more about rich media in presentation topics, such as "Best Practices for Playing and Controlling More in PowerPoint Presentations" or "Make Your Live Homepage in PowerPoint Slides. Maybe my old tips of YouTube video on PowerPoint is kinda obsolete now, and luckily Microsoft PowerPoint Team released its own illustrated tutorial on a blog post "How to insert that funny clip you found online". Yeah, not late to learn more about this, as video sharing is still hot on the air.
Certainly the core technologies on this is simple, if you know Developer tab and Controls in PowerPoint. Something new I got, is now we can embed and play 720p HD (High Definition) YouTube video. It's still easy to catch up: add "&ap=%2526fmt%3D22" at the end of the URL of the video file, making it look like "http://www.youtube.com/v/zlfKdbWwruY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&ap=%2526fmt%3D22". Enjoy our video sharing in every presentation!
William Peterson
Presentation Veteran
Keynote Remote: Easier iPhone Presentation via Wi-Fi
I talked about "Ideas about Showing PowerPoint Presentations on iPhone" days ago to make our PowerPoint slides over the iPhone. Sadly, as a Mac dummy, I totally forget Apple's own presentation software, Keynote in iWork '09. And the latest Keynote already supports a feature to use iPhone to control the presentations remotely. Here's the official description:
Keynote Remote lets you use your iPhone or iPod touch to control your presentation from anywhere in the room using Wi-Fi. See your slide with notes or both the current slide and the next slide in the palm of your hand. Just swipe to advance.
All we need is a tiny app for iPhone called Keynote Remote (¢99 on App Store). Now your iPhone can control your Keynote slides by going previous/next slide remotely via Wi-Fi network. It's really simple to use, and its Note mode is greatly handy to help presenters recall any keynote points when presenting.
Such advanced feature is nice anyway, however, it could be better if the remote control is based on Bluetooth not Wi-Fi, as we know Wi-Fi is not easily available anywhere. Good luck!
William Peterson
Presentation Veteran
[REFERRAL] Please, for Your Audience's Sake, Use PowerPoint Animation Well
Please, for Your Audience's Sake, Use PowerPoint Animation Well
How many times have you seen terrible PowerPoint presentations that use those horrible fly-in animations along with the unbearable screeching tires sound effect? That's not a presentation—that's a disaster….
Highly recommended for any PowerPoint users. The author Aaron Stannard is community outreach manager at SmartDraw, the world's most popular business graphics software. But this article is not a product promotion for their smart PowerPoint integration with fantastic graphics. He indicated that, the systematic misuse of PowerPoint's capabilities caused that well-known "Death by PowerPoint" syndrome around the world. And using PowerPoint animation wisely could make presenters out of trouble.
• Animation lets you present your ideas in a logical sequence, when done correctly.
• Animation helps your audience relate to an idea by focusing their attention on one point of order at a time.
• Animation builds up to your punch lines.
We're making a public show for our business advancement, so we shouldn't make business presentation boring anyway. That's my idea.
William Peterson
Presentation Veteran
No News is Good News for Microsoft PowerPoint in Office 14
PowerPoint 2007 offers a lot of surprises to us when she made her debut with ribbon coat and SmartArt accessories years ago, however, those tremendous changes lead a lot of problems, such as incompatibility. Since Office 14 is going its way from alpha to beta at Microsoft labs, my only expectation on potential PowerPoint 14 is the full-featured Web presentation.
Among those leaked Office 14 "alpha" screenshots and new feature rumors, I can't find too much information about our PowerPoint baby. So how will Microsoft treat the leading presentation software in the world? Frankly speaking, Microsoft's PowerPoint has changed little over the years, while competitor Apple's Keynote coming with more improvements like "cinematic transitions".
Right, SmartArt in PowerPoint 2007 is just sort of luxury accessories for a presentation. Microsoft should focus more classic elements like transitions, animations, since the ribbon and SmartArt are already well done. Hopefully Microsoft is working on kinda this, so no news about PowerPoint 14 yet.
The selection of presentation software is important, because we can easily tell the difference between PowerPoint and Keynote presentations. Intriguingly Microsoft shows a little interest in Web apps recently, and we can see these Web PowerPoint fantasies from last PDC weeks ago. Get all elements done in online editing of Web PowerPoint, better than those free services online to reveal your power, okay? This is my another request on our estimated PowerPoint 14 to Microsoft.
William Peterson
Presentation Veteran
Valentine's Day Special: Your Personal Presentation about LOVE
I'm not asking you to prepare a LOVE related presentation as your Valentine's gift, unless your he/she is a completely geeky baby. But just think over this, the celebration of Valentine's Day between lovers is kind of showtime of one's heart, which could be described as a personal presentation about the love, and the relationship. All premium presentation skills could be applied on this project for the specified audience.
This is not a lesson to teach how to improve your skills in love, but your presentations for Valentine's Day would be one good impression anyway. Here are some ways on presentations for kinda love, although usually I don't think E-Cards are one great way to express our ardor.
Valentine Card Maker by PresentationHelper
Create and Send Greeting Cards with authorSTREAM!
Valentine's eCards: Live, Laugh, Love by American Greetings
William Peterson
Presentation Veteran
Know the Audience, No Other Rules on My Presentation
As the golden rule for preparing a presentation, "practice, practice, and practice" is an essential skill to everybody. And I agree that the more I practice, the better I get, because it's never an easy job to demonstrate and explain something in front of different audience. Making a presentation involves public speaking, which can be seriously scary. Famously, speaking in public has been voted scarier than dying (which says something about its lack of popularity). So if we make enough practices before, the confidence and courage is fearless.
Since we know the importance of practice, we should know more about our audience. I usually ask myself some questions in hehearsing, such as what's the instant reaction from audience to my words. It's easy to do a piece of research of those potential audience. Once I know some information about them, like genders, ages, or interests, I may add the considerations into my practice.
Practice is an essential, not a rule on presentation skills. Knowing a little about audience is the tip of such a game in which audience and me are players. Then no scary anymore. Like what's quoted in the book The Art of War on 6 century BC: "If you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles".
William Peterson
Why I am Interested in Flash on Mobile Devices Like iPhone or BlackBerry
My previous posts about Adobe Flash support on Apple iPhone:
When Apple's iPhone Becomes Rich: The Road to Flash or Silverlight on iPhone
Adobe Flash on iPhone/iPod Touch, Another Advancement for Mobile Business
Maybe it's somewhat off-topic to discuss this old problem at the 3rd time, as Flash is just an old-fashioned tool for Web development. However, most multimedia animations in current Web sites are built on Flash technology, so what I'm talking about is Web enhancement on mobile devices.
Nowadays those smartphones such as iPhone or BlackBerry provide us the better Web-based usabilities. If Java and Flash are perfectly supported on those devices, the mobile business could be boosted as an alternative to our desktops over Internet.
Days ago, in an interview with Bloomberg at the Davos, Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen mentioned this issue.
"It's a hard technical challenge, and that's part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating," he says. "The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver."
Since Flash Lite is too feature-limited, and standard Flash is kind of crash-maker, the balanced solution is not easy to implement. As an end user, I just want to surf the Internet on mobile as normal as I can do on any computer.
William Peterson