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I'm new here and just looking to make contacts/friends to maybe go out for a drink? a dance club? day trip somewhere at the weekend? a meal out that isn't my at my canteen? - open to suggestions. Maybe get a little group together to eat or go to a bar? Are there any bars?
Just don't expect a free English lesson!


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Making excellence a habit
John Hirst was appointed to the Board in October 2018 as Non-Executive Director and became Chairman in January 2019. An accomplished business leader, John has a wealth of experience leading and transforming complex organizations.? His early career was with ICI, beginning in finance before progressing into various leadership roles and serving on the group executive team as Chief Executive of the Speciality Chemicals Division. From there he became Group Chief Executive of Premier Farnell, a FTSE 250 electronics distribution company and in 2007, he joined the UK's Met Office as Chief Executive until 2014.? He is currently a Senior Independent Director of Anglian Water Services and a Non-Executive Director of Ultra Electronics Holdings plc and Marsh Limited.
Howard Kerr was appointed to the Board in November 2008 and assumed the position of Chief Executive in January 2009. After a period at Associated British Ports, his early career was spent in business development roles in the fields of shipping, logistics and B2B marketing with Inchcape PLC in the UK, Japan, China and the Middle East.? Subsequently he joined SHV Holdings NV, where he held general management positions in the energy division, including Chief Executive of Calor Group Ltd, UK, and Senior Vice-President on the International Management Board of SHV Gas in the Netherlands.
Craig Smith joined the Board as Group Finance Director in August 2011. A Chartered Certified Accountant, he began his career in 1985 with Coats Viyella PLC, undertaking finance roles in Australia, Spain, the UK, Morocco, Hungary and Finland. Following his return to the UK in 1997 he worked as European Finance Director for two large American corporations and, immediately prior to joining BSI, he was Group Finance Director of two UK-listed companies, Huntleigh Technology PLC from 2003 to 2007 and Management Consulting Group PLC from 2007 onwards.
Scott Steedman joined the Group in January 2012 and was appointed to the Board in October 2012. An engineer by background, he started his career at the University of Cambridge before moving to industry where he spent over 20 years as a consultant working in the Built Environment sector. He was a Non-Executive Board Member of the Port of London Authority from 2009 to 2015 and served as Vice-President (Policy) for the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) from 2013 to 2017. He is currently Vice-President (Policy) of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Lucinda Riches was appointed advisor to the Board in May 2011, Non-Executive Director in May 2012 and Senior Non-Executive Director in October 2015. She was an investment banker for over 20 years at SG Warburg and its successor firms, ultimately as Global Head of Equity Capital Markets and a Board Member at UBS Investment Bank. She is a Non-Executive Director of the Diverse Income Trust PLC, Ashtead Group PLC, CRH PLC and ICG Enterprise Trust PLC.
Douglas Hurt joined the Board in November 2015 as Non-Executive Director. Douglas started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. From there he joined the GlaxoSmithKline Group, where he held many senior roles including Managing Director, Glaxo Wellcome UK. In 2006 he joined IMI PLC and was Group Finance Director until February 2015. He is currently Senior Independent Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Tate & Lyle PLC, Vesuvius PLC and Countryside Properties PLC.
Ian Lobley joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director on 1 May 2019. Ian is a Managing Partner at 3i Group plc, the FTSE 100 international investor, where he is also a member of the Investment Committee.? He is also a Non-Executive Director of FTSE 250 infrastructure investor 3i Infrastructure plc, AES Engineering and Cirtec Medical within 3i's global portfolio. Since 2012, Ian has been a member of the BVCA UK and European Capital Committee. Ian graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham and, prior to 3i, worked as an engineer for BOC Speciality Gases.
Stephen Page joined the Board in September 2015 as Non-executive Director. Stephen has a wealth of experience in IT transformation and corporate risks such as cyber security and counter-terrorism. At Accenture he had a variety of European and global leadership roles including Managing Director, Strategic IT Effectiveness. For the past ten years he has held a portfolio of Board and senior advisory positions. He is currently a Non-executive Director of the National Crime Agency, the British Library and of TSB Bank PLC. He also advises a number of companies facing the risks and opportunities of the digital age.
Alison Wood joined the Board in September 2014 as Non-Executive Director. She spent nearly 20 years at BAE Systems PLC in a number of strategy and leadership roles, including that of Group Strategic Director, and was the Global Director of Strategy and Corporate Development at National Grid PLC from 2008 to 2013. She has held Non-Executive Director positions with BTG PLC, Thus Group PLC and e2v PLC. She is currently Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee at Cobham PLC, Costain PLC and TT Electronics PLC.
Grainne Brankin joined the Group in June 2017 as General Counsel and Company Secretary. Grainne qualified at Clifford Chance and has experience of a wide range of international corporate and commercial transactions, in particular in technology and media. She has held General Counsel and executive committee positions at Yahoo!, CBS Outdoor, Exterion Media and Centaur Media PLC.?

subset: commoncrawl


text: No? Because it totally happened. She was just a new kind of weirdly dressed pop star and not the international juggernaut she is today! Let's travel back to 2008, a year when we first heard her single "Just Dance." A year she performed the song as all of the Miss Universe contestants strutted down the catwalk in bikinis and made strained, wide-eyed, smiling faces at the camera. Treasure this odd, pop culture moment!


text:
Not long ago, I was chatting with one of my favorite abstract/performance artists, a hopelessly cheery woman who I adore. But I was shocked almost to tears when she accused me of being too negative.
(Here we go again...) Negative?...ME?
"You'll never believe this," I told her, "But I am one of the most optimistic people you will ever meet."
She thought that was pretty funny. After she'd caught her breath and I'd helped her off the floor where she was writhing in convulsive laughter, I attempted to explain myself.
"Look," I said. "Do you know what I think one of the most striking and significant characteristics of an optimistic person is?"
She shook her head dubiously.
"Outrage," I told her. "Controlled and properly applied outrage."
My friend ran her hand across her face as she uncomfortably shifted from foot to foot. "What in the world are you talking about?" she asked. She gazed at me with studied bewilderment.
"Okay... stay with me a minute. Do you mind if I sit down?"
Now she was really worried. "How long is this going to take?"
"Not long. You'll be out of here by noon."
"But it's only nine-thirty!"
"Okay... eleven. Please listen to me... In this crazed world of ours, when we see something happening around us that we think is wrong, we have two choices: we can either act to change them; or we can simply accept them and prepare for the consequences."
She seemed unmoved.
"Only by being outraged, will any of us make the effort or take the time to do the right thing. Outrage led to the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation and Women's Suffrage and the Civil Rights Act. Outrage created the Wilderness Act and the Clean Air Act. It was when people got mad enough... outraged enough to take action, that any of these changes occurred."
"Haven't you written about this before?"
"Probably, but it's a recurring theme that should be re-stated from time to time."
My friend sighed and sat down next to me. "I sort of see your point, but I just can't stand all the pessimism that comes from Gloomy Gus-types like you. It just never stops."
"That's not true and you know it," I said defensively. "First of all, you know that I can be one of the silliest and dumbest individuals you've ever encountered... I offer all kinds of 'comic relief' to soften the grim nature of my oft repeated doomsday predictions."
"Dumb, for sure," she said.
"But second, and much more importantly, do you want me to tell you what a real pessimist sounds like?" I challenged.
"Uh...not really," she replied.
"Okay, I'll tell you anyway. My idea of a pessimist is somebody who hears about a new tram in Moab or another condo development or another bonehead move by a Utah Congressman and hears the outrage from others and puts his hands over his ears and says, 'Like...this is all so NEGATIVE. I think this kind of negative energy is, like, really sad (pronounced saaaaaad). I can find such happiness in my organic garden and taking hikes with my friends and just being, like...happy. I mean, like, I recycle. Why can't you people just be happy? There are still nice places to hike. You can't stop any of this anyway, so, like, why make yourselves miserable?'
"Now that is a pessimistic person... someone in such denial that they refuse to acknowledge the reality around them, and the responsibility to defend the very things that they allegedly find most precious in their lives. It's stumbling through life with blinders on. It's ignoring the obvious. It's outrageous and hypocritical to boot!
"On the other hand, someone who is outraged enough to act believes that things can get better. That positive change is possible. That it's worth the screaming and elevated blood pressure to see something through to its conclusion, win or lose."
"I never say 'like' in a sentence," she glared.
"My dear friend, I'm not even talking about you. Your grasp of the English language is to be commended and I know you have a great passion for right and wrong. I was creating a hyperbolic stereotypical generalization to make a point. Just don't assume that outrage is a bad thing. It has its place."
"So the bottom line is: you're a positive upbeat optimist because you're constantly outraged and annoyed and if the world were similarly infuriated, it would be a better place to live?"
"Something like that."
"Nobody will ever believe it."
"Probably not."
(Jim Stiles is publisher of the "Canyon Country Zephyr -- Planet Earth Edition" now exclusively online. He is also the author of "Brave New West." Both can be found at www.canyoncountryzephyr.com. Stiles lives in San Juan County and can be reached at email@example.com.)


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The battle for the Republican Palace complex on Monday, April 7th, the day the first American tanks appeared in the center of Baghdad, had a symphonic quality. Much of it was boom and bang—heavy concussive thumps from tank fire and bombs, the ripping bursts of rockets—but there was also a rhythmic noise, like a huge steel drum being pounded, and, frequently, a great grinding sound. The light clatter of automatic-weapons fire joined in now and then underneath it all. I was watching the battle from the balcony of a room at the Sheraton Hotel, on the east bank of the Tigris, across the river from the palace grounds, which cover hundreds of acres in central Baghdad. Several times, I heard a loud crackling, like metallic popcorn popping—ammunition dumps exploding. F-18 fighter jets, which had replaced the B-52s that had been dropping bombs on Baghdad for two weeks, hit the palace area and screamed off again. The grinding noise was coming from the guns of low-flying A-10 Warthogs, firing four thousand bullets per minute.
Oil fires had been set on the sandy embankment of the river just opposite the hotel, and by mid-morning black smoke was billowing toward us. Just about then a new dust storm, a turab, started up, and the smoke and the dust melded into a yellow haze that obscured the battle, which continued for most of the day. The Minister of Information, Muhammad Said Al Sahaf, gave a surreal press conference in the Palestine Hotel, next door. He claimed that "there are no American infidels in Baghdad," and said that journalists, particularly those from Al Jazeera, were lying about what they saw. He spoke with bonhomie and apparent conviction. I assume he believed that we were not so different from the citizens of Iraq, who had long since lost the ability to call a lie a lie, or to contradict anything they were told by officials. A bus tour for the press corps was organized, and we drove down Sadoun Street, parallel to the Tigris but out of sight of American tanks. The city was pretty much deserted, except for a few fighters here and there, most of them in civilian clothes, with red-and-white checked head scarves. Some of the men carried rocket-propelled grenade launchers. They flashed us the V sign. The tour lasted only about ten minutes, and I was told that it was to demonstrate that the Ministry of Information hadn't been taken.
Later, when the dust cleared, I could see, through binoculars, an American soldier dangling his legs from the embankment across the river, just in front of two tanks. He gazed at the water, apparently unconcerned about snipers. Another soldier joined him, and they sat there together for a while. Someone shot at the sandy place where Iraqi soldiers had been entrenched earlier in the day, and a fire broke out amid many small explosions. Another ammo dump must have been hit. White sparks and projectiles formed rapid tracers of light and flew off in all directions. Some of them arced high up and out in loops, like fireworks, and landed in the river.
In the middle of the afternoon, my driver, Sabah, said that he would go out and get us some lunch. There were only a couple of restaurants still open in central Baghdad by then, and he decided to go to the Al Saah, a rather garish place in the heart of the Mansour neighborhood, on the west side of the Tigris. A few days earlier, Saddam Hussein had been videotaped walking in the streets of Mansour, high-fiving residents. The clients of the Al Saah are mostly young and upper middle class, but families also go there, as well as military officers. There are usually a few BMWs and a Mercedes or two parked outside. Uday and Qusay, Saddam Hussein's sons, were said to be regulars, although I never saw them there.
Sabah was in the restaurant for about twenty minutes, waiting for our orders of chicken tikka. He paid for the food, then got into his car and drove away. He had gone about half a mile, he said, when there was a tremendous explosion behind him. A bomb had landed next to the Al Saah. He came back to the hotel and picked up me and another journalist, Paul McGeough, of the Sydney Morning Herald, and we went to see what had happened. The windows of the Al Saah, and those of the buildings around it, had been blown out. Clods of earth and debris and shards of glass stretched for blocks. The interiors of stores were covered with powder and looked as if they had been hit by a tornado. Several mannequins in a bridal shop lay next to one another in white satin dresses. Down a side street, about a hundred yards from the restaurant, a crowd had gathered in front of a devastated house, its garden heaped with dirt and chunks of brick and mortar and a broken date palm. A pit about thirty-five feet deep and sixty feet across had been opened up in front of the house. The metal headboard of a bed was in the pit, and an advertisement for a billiard table. I asked an Iraqi man what had been there before the explosion. "Four houses," he said.
A wide-eyed middle-aged woman came up to me. In English, she said that her name was Maria Marcos and that she was a secretary at the German Embassy. She lived just down the block. She believed that nine people had died, although only one body had been retrieved so far. A man wept inconsolably in the arms of another man. Three other men sat on a curb, tears streaming down their faces. An F-18 roared overhead, and people ran down the street in fear. A young man who was standing in the trashed garden of the house next to the pit said that his name was Ayad and that the house belonged to his grandfather. He pointed him out to me: an old man in a bloodstained shirt, his head bandaged, who was wandering around on the veranda. Ayad had heard a roar and had seen a yellow missile, about the size of a date palm, crash and explode in a white light. It had hit the house next door, which belonged to Um Salman, a widow who lived there with her two sons and two daughters. They had run a print shop nearby.
Ayad's mother, Neda, invited us into her father's ravaged home. She said that he was seventy-five and was a retired engineer. He had built the house and had lived there for forty-three years. There was rubble everywhere, and the stairs were filled with broken plaster and concrete. Neda showed us around. "I think this is from God," she said. "I think maybe God wants us to suffer this. I am satisfied." I took her to mean that she was thankful that no one in her immediate family had died, and that she bore no hatred toward anyone for what had happened.
We learned later that Saddam and his sons and other officials were believed to have been meeting there, and that four "bunker buster" bombs had been dropped on the site. There were also reports that Saddam had been having lunch at the Al Saah, but no one seemed to give them much credence, although Sabah told me that he had heard, in the way that Iraqis do, by word of mouth, through friends and neighbors, that Qusay, Saddam's younger son, had eaten lunch in the restaurant the day before.
When I woke up the next morning, a terrific battle was taking place in the palace complex and the nearby neighborhoods. A fireball shot up from the round roof cavity of the Baath Party headquarters, a massive stone building that had been under reconstruction after being destroyed by American and British bombs in 1991 and 1998. There were more blasts near the Al Rashid Hotel, and all up and down the riverbank opposite the Sheraton, between the Jumhuriya Bridge, which crosses the Tigris in front of the palace complex, and the Sinak Bridge, less than a mile north, near the Information Ministry. Everything in that area seemed to be getting bombed, rocketed, strafed, or machine-gunned.
Two Abrams tanks had advanced into the open on the Jumhuriya Bridge. They crouched there like predatory beasts, swivelling their guns to and fro. Bursts of what looked like rocket fire arced into the air toward them, apparently from Iraqi forces. A Warthog looped slowly over the river. On its third or fourth pass, I saw the façade of the Ministry of Planning, a ten-story building, explode into a thousand bursts of white light and flying glass. Then an F-18 appeared, flying low, and bombed a building on the opposite bank. I thought I could hear the sound of helicopter rotor blades.
Someone knocked on my door. It was James, the Sudanese room cleaner. Most hotel services, including laundry and, sometimes, the water and electricity, had been cut off, but James had come to clean my room. He took me to the other side of the hotel, where we looked out a window and saw two Apache gunships circling about five miles away. James said that they were attacking the Al Rashid military garrison, on the east side of town, which has its own airport. I went back to my room and watched the tanks on the bridge, and others hidden behind them, begin a fearsome barrage on the Board of Youth and Sports, one of Uday Hussein's fiefdoms, which was on our side of the river. They seemed to be taking sniper fire from the building, and they fired shells into it, hitting, as far as I could see, most of its floors. They also fired into the edge of the city and the fringe of trees on our side of the bridge. The area around the Al Safeer Hotel, where I used to stay, was hit, as was the riverside block near the street where Karim, my barber, has his little shop.
Someone in the hall yelled that the Palestine had been fired on, and I looked down and saw a crowd of people, mostly journalists, rushing outside. Our elevator wasn't working, so I ran down twelve flights of stairs and over to the Palestine's driveway, which was full of people. The fifteenth floor had been struck by something, no one knew what, and three reporters had been badly wounded. We all milled around in our flak jackets, and then someone else said that the offices of Al Jazeera and of Abu Dhabi television, which were situated in old villas on the opposite bank of the river, between the two bridges where the fighting had been taking place all morning, had also been bombed, and that an Al Jazeera reporter had been killed. A car pulled up, and a friend of mine, a French photographer, Jerome Delay, emerged, sobbing. He had taken a wounded Reuters cameraman, Taras Protsyuk, to the hospital, and Protsyuk had died there. Not long afterward, we learned that the Palestine had been hit by American tank fire. It was claimed that snipers had been firing from the hotel, although the journalists who were living there said that this did not seem to them to be true.
I went with several other reporters to the Al Kindi Hospital, where one of the wounded journalists, José Couso, had been taken. By the time we arrived, he was in the operating room. I had interviewed the head of medical services at the hospital, Dr. Osama Saleh, a few days before, and he recognized me and shook my hand. He said that it was the worst day he had ever spent as a doctor, that even in Iraq's previous wars there had not been injuries on the scale he was now seeing among ordinary civilians. At least a hundred wounded people had been brought in since the morning, and his staff was overwhelmed. Three children had died there that day.
We walked to the morgue, a small building at the rear of the hospital. The concrete pathway was spattered with blood. Several hypodermic needles lay on the ground. Bloody gurneys were parked outside the morgue, and there was a big bloodstain in front of it, along with a clump of black hair. An attendant in filthy clothes was talking to two reporters from Al Jazeera. They had come to identify the body of Tariq Ayoub, the man who had been killed in the attack on the Al Jazeera offices. Ayoub was a Jordanian reporter who had arrived in Baghdad from Amman a couple of days earlier. As a favor, he had brought in some cash for me and several other reporters. His body lay inside with about twenty others in a promiscuous jumble. One of the two Al Jazeera reporters started to talk to me and then began weeping and walked away.
Fifteen or so doctors and nurses were working on patients in adjoining white tiled cubicles with green curtains in the emergency ward. A woman behind one of the curtains was wailing in anguish, and I could hear fists thumping on a wall. Nurses were walking around in tears. A man whose entire body had been burned was lying on a gurney in the corridor, his skin a mass of black and red flesh. His face was covered with bandages. I assumed that he was dead, but then I noticed that he was breathing. A woman who was naked from the waist down and covered with blood was being sponged off by a nurse. As much as the nurse scrubbed, she did not seem to be able to get rid of the blood. The woman's body was a smeared orange color. Two children, a brother and a sister, lay together on a gurney. The girl was bloodied and the boy appeared to be sleeping. A hospital attendant pulled a cloth over their bodies. Their mother was the woman I had heard wailing and hitting the walls. I went outside. The children's father was there, sobbing. Two soldiers rushed up and asked doctors about a friend. Anti-tank rockets stuck out of their backpacks, and they both carried Kalishnikovs. The doctors said that they could come inside if they put their weapons down. They argued about this and then agreed. About ten minutes later, they came out, looking upset and angry, and collected their guns and walked away. Back at the hotel, we heard that José Couso had died. Paul Pasquale, another Reuters journalist who had been injured, was being treated for a severe leg wound. Marines had secured the Al Rashid military garrison and were moving into the city. Another contingent was reported to be coming in from the north. The tanks that had sat all morning on the Jumhuriya Bridge were gone.
There was a cool breeze now, and I sat on the balcony of my hotel room, watching large black long-necked birds wheel around. White terns fluttered near the bulrushes on the Tigris. A hawk, or maybe an eagle, drifted high above. As dusk approached, two F-18s came roaring past and dived repeatedly at the Board of Youth and Sports, sometimes together, sometimes singly. As one of them spiked downward out of the sky, a rocket burst from its pod, plunged into the building, and exploded. The plane lunged upward and away again. There was a sudden whoosh from the trees on the riverbank about three hundred yards west of us, just down Abu Nawas Street. It was a heat-seeking missile, and it swooped up in a white vapor trail, chasing the closest American jet. A few seconds later, it disappeared into the clouds. It had missed. The F-18s stayed around for about forty minutes, then flew away. Night fell. A candlelight vigil was being held for the dead journalists on the front lawn of the Palestine Hotel.
The Palestine had been the Information Ministry's headquarters for several days, but on Wednesday morning no officials showed up, just some low-level minders, and they looked lost. We heard that Saddam City, a large workers' slum in northeastern Baghdad, was being looted, and I drove in that direction with some other journalists, on a divided highway full of cars moving erratically, past the Ministry of Oil and the Ministry of Transport, which were being ransacked by men and boys. Smoke was coming out of the Iraqi Olympic Committee headquarters, a modern office building set away from the main road. Uday Hussein was the director of the Olympic committee, and people were said to have been tortured and killed regularly in the building. Uday had a large stable, and his horses were being stolen, too. A boy on a big black Thoroughbred cantered by, bareback. At an overpass near Saddam City, two dozen athletic-looking young marines wearing helmets and flak jackets and holding weapons, their faces covered with dust, emerged from four or five armored personnel carriers. We said hello and explained who we were, and they all said hello back, but kept their eyes on the chaotic traffic, made up almost entirely of looters, which surged up the road in all directions toward Saddam City. The marines had apparently been instructed to bring this to a halt, and two of them went into the road. Drivers honked and stuck their thumbs up and shouted "Bush good!" but, if they didn't stop, the marines crouched down and pointed their rifles at them. The marines were having a hard time getting things under control. A car that had been ordered to stop kept crawling forward, and one of the marines put his gun in firing position and screeched, "Stop your fucking car right now." The car stopped.
People were waving white flags. Someone leaned out of his car window and ostentatiously tore up a two-hundred-and-fifty-dinar note, embossed with Saddam's portrait. He threw it at the feet of one of the marines, who looked nonplussed. I told him what it was. "Oh, damn," he said. "I was supposed to get one of those as a souvenir for a friend." I told him not to worry, that there were plenty of dinar notes around, and he went back to directing traffic. A boy driving a forklift over which he seemed to have minimal control smiled and made faces at the marines to indicate that he meant no harm. A truck came by pulling a stolen police car, its rear window smashed. Outside the warehouses of the Ministry of Trade, someone had left behind several boxes of sports shoes made in China, and men were trying them on. Most of the boxes contained only one shoe. More marines arrived. They had spray-painted names for each of their tanks and armored personnel carriers on the barrels of their guns: "Assassin," "Carnage," "Cold Steel," "Crazy Train," "Rebel," and one that read, "Got Oil?"
I asked Khifa, my translator, how he felt about what we were seeing. "I am very, very happy," he replied. "But I also feel like I want to cry. This is exactly what happened in 1991, and this is why Saddam was needed afterward. You know why? Because he represented the police station."
We drove back downtown and along Abu Nawas Street. The Al Safeer Hotel's windows had been blown out, but I was gratified to see that it had not been hit in the battle the day before. Near Karim's barbershop, several men were trying to push a brand-new white government-issue Toyota Land Cruiser into a garage. What seemed like the whole neighborhood stood around watching. Some boys on Sadoun Street were carting off rolled-up Persian carpets in a wheelbarrow. The Jumhuriya Bridge was blocked by rubble, and there were some jumpy-seeming boys and young men with guns behind sandbags at the entrance to the Sinak Bridge. We went through a poor district where large numbers of young men lurked in a predatory manner. Sabah was driving, and he became very upset with me, because, he said, in this same place, a couple of hours earlier, a mob had stopped the car of some reporters. They had been beaten, and their equipment, their car, and all their money had been stolen.
We turned left onto one of the colonnaded streets of old Baghdad, trying to find a route into the western part of the city. A man with a limp came up to us and said that the Americans had shot and killed someone who had tried to cross a nearby bridge. He led us to the body of a young man. It was covered with a coarse cloth, and flies were buzzing around it. We heard shots nearby and decided to leave. At a traffic circle that led to another bridge, men in head scarves with automatic weapons and anti-tank rockets made no attempt to stop us. We followed some cars over the bridge and crossed an avenue that led to the Ministry of Justice. About two hundred and fifty yards ahead, we could see the lumbering khaki hulks of American tanks, facing in our direction. A man darted out into the street and waved us back. We turned around quickly, lest the tanks shoot at us, and drove back down the main street leading from the bridge, out of sight of the tanks. We were surrounded almost immediately by a dozen or so men, one of whom said to us that, Saddam or no Saddam, they would fight the Americans. The other men yelled in agreement, and some briefly chanted "Down Bush!" Two men wearing kaffiyehs like head scarves and carrying rocket launchers shouted something and disappeared in the general direction of the American tanks. We turned around and raced back across the bridge. Khifa said that the men were fedayeen, and had yelled "Clear the area," and added that one of the men standing near us had whispered to him, "Get them out of here now."
By the time we got back to the hotel, the marines had arrived, and the approach to the street was blocked by armored personnel carriers. We got out of the car and walked toward them. A man who was standing in a crowd gathered at the side of the road called out to ask us if we were Americans, and when we said yes the whole group began cheering and applauding us, clapping their hands as if they were at a performance in a theatre. Not long afterward, in the traffic circle in front of the hotel, a statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down by soldiers in an armored personnel carrier.
The next morning, the street leading to the Al Wiya Hospital in central Baghdad was full of looters. They were ransacking several other hospitals in the neighborhood. Al Wiya's head doctor, Ali Walid, told me that several raids had been made on the hospital during the night and that another attempt had been made a few minutes before I arrived. They no longer had a sentry. A young man who worked for him had been throwing rocks at the attackers to keep them at bay. The Al Wiya was the only hospital still functioning in the area. All the others had been plundered. In the lobby, two dead men covered with blankets lay on cots, and three badly injured men were nearby. One of them was the driver of a Red Crescent ambulance. He had been, for some inexplicable reason, shot by marines at a roadblock. The damaged ambulance was parked in front of the main door of the hospital.
Paul Pasquale, the British journalist for Reuters who had been shot at the Palestine, was in one of the wards at the Al Wiya. His face was peppered with shrapnel wounds; bigger wounds on his torso had been stitched up. His legs were heavily bandaged. A couple of his Reuters colleagues were staying with him; they were trying to have him evacuated from Baghdad, but they said that this would take a couple of days. Some wounded Palestinian fighters had shared Pasquale's room during the night, but they were gone, which was a relief to Pasquale, who feared that their presence might precipitate an American raid.
I went back to the Palestine and explained the situation at the Al Wiya to the Marine commander in charge, Lieutenant Colonel McCoy, a big strapping man who listened carefully. I told him that there was a British citizen there, a man who had been wounded when the American tank fired on the hotel. He and a junior officer pulled out a military map of Baghdad and I tried to show them where they should go. It seemed difficult to explain, so Sabah and I and a Frenchman working for Première Urgence, an organization that supplies emergency aid to hospitals, led a convoy of four or five Humvees to the hospital. The looting had intensified in our absence. A truck and a refrigerator nearly blocked one side of the road, and Sabah's car just made it through the gap. The Humvee behind us pushed the refrigerator out of the way. When we arrived at the Al Wiya, the marines got into combat stances facing the hospital. I pointed out that it was the hospital that needed to be protected, and they turned around and took up positions at the entrance gate.The commander of the group, Lieutenant Danner, spoke to Dr. Walid and his staff, and before long everyone had calmed down and the soldiers were securing the perimeter of the building. They promised to stay there for the night. As I left, I heard them say that they had found a live grenade outside the wall.
That afternoon, we drove over to Jadriyah, a residential neighborhood in southern Baghdad, where senior Baathist officials, including Tariq Aziz, have villas. We were looking for a palace complex that Uday Hussein was said to have lived in. Several dozen marines had set up ambushes at a traffic circle, where a large bronze statue of Saddam had been toppled. Nearby, the burned-out carcass of an Iraqi ammunition truck was surrounded by hundreds of rockets, some of which looked as though they had not yet exploded. The side streets had been blocked by residents trying to protect their property, and we left our car and driver on the main road and began walking. The people we met along the way seemed wary, but said hello when we did. The marines at the gates of Uday's compound let us through. Inside there were five neoclassical limestone palaces with domes and ostentatious pillared entrances. Two of them had been heavily bombed, and parts of their roofs had collapsed into slag heaps of debris. All the palaces had ornate fretwork, heavy bronze doorknobs, and carved wood door panels, with ornamental brass and enamel inlay. A crystal chandelier had crashed onto the debris in the foyer of one palace, and was covered with gray dust. The place was swarming with marines, looking around, lying in the flower beds, listening to radios. They had arrived the night before, they said. The word "Texas" was scrawled on the entrance wall of one of the palaces.
The rear garden of another palace had a swimming pool and a stone reproduction of the Venus de Milo. Two snarling porcelain leopards guarded the entrance to the palace next door, which had inlaid marble floors and a white marble staircase that divided in two halfway up. A huge portrait of Saddam with his family hung on the landing. The portrait had been constructed out of colored marble. This palace had a private dental clinic, a mauve-and-pink beauty salon, and huge bathrooms with gilded taps and step-down baths. A carved teak loveseat sat in front of a window with a view of the Tigris. Children's scooters lay on the floor in some of the downstairs reception rooms. In one bedroom, there was a brand-new McCulloch chain saw on a sofa next to the bed, its yellow box on the floor. There were four more chain saws, still in their boxes, in a walk-in closet. A refrigerator in another bedroom was stocked with rows of Clarins Extra-Firming Concentrate, Gentle Night Cream, and Eye Contour Gel; there was also a crate of kiwi fruit and tins of Korean Red Ginseng drink.
We moved on to another palace, where a marine told the photographers not to take pictures of the troops because they were "Intel." A Marine officer was reading a copy of Playboy as he defecated into a milk crate. He waved when we passed. Some young marines hanging out around a Humvee festooned with photos from what looked like a perfume ad asked me if I had any news from the war. "We don't have a clue what's going on," one of them said. I told them what I knew; one appeared to be keenly interested, but the others looked bored. A marine who was lying down inside the Humvee asked me whether it was true that Madonna and J.Lo had died together in some accident. Not that I knew of, I said.
As we left the compound, we passed some marines who were sitting on the curb of the palace driveway, consuming Meals Ready-to-Eat and smoking cigars. They waved in a friendly way. "Are those Cuban cigars?" I asked. "From the Man's private stash?" A few of the men smiled and gave me the thumbs-up sign. "Only the best for us," one replied, with a laugh. On the avenue running along the line of riverside villas, thugs in cars, some of them loaded up with loot, cruised by. We heard gunshots here and there. ♦


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Freedom in the World
You are here
2012 Scores
Freedom Rating (1 = best, 7 = worst)
Civil Liberties (1 = best, 7 = worst)
Political Rights (1 = best, 7 = worst)
For the seventh consecutive year, Qatar failed to hold promised parliamentary elections in 2011. In March, authorities detained human rights activist and blogger Sultan al-Khalaifi and released him in April without charge. Twenty-nine citizens were elected, including one woman, in municipal council elections in May.
Qatar gained independence from Britain in 1971. The following year, Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani deposed his cousin, Emir Ahmad bin Ali al-Thani, and ruled for 23 years as an absolute monarch. In 1995, the emir was deposed by his son, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who began a program of gradual political, social, and economic reforms. Hamad dissolved the Ministry of Information shortly after taking power, an action designed to demonstrate his commitment to expanding press freedom.
In 1996, Hamad permitted the creation of Al-Jazeera, which has become one of the most popular Arabic-language satellite television channels in the Middle East. However, Al-Jazeera generally does not cover Qatari politics and focuses instead on regional issues.
The country held its first elections in 1999 for a 29-member Central Municipal Council, a body designed to advise the minister on municipal affairs and agriculture. The poll made Qatar the first state of the Gulf Cooperation Council to introduce widespread voting rights for men and women over 18 years of age. Hamad also accelerated a program to strengthen Qatar's educational institutions, inviting foreign universities to establish branches in the country.
In addition to Central Municipal Council elections in 2003, Qataris voted in a referendum that overwhelmingly approved its first constitution, which came into force in 2005. The new constitution slightly broadened the scope of political participation without eliminating the ruling family's monopoly on power. However, most rights in the new constitution do not apply to noncitizen residents, who form a majority of the population.
Voter turnout for the 2007 Central Municipal Council reached 51 percent, a considerable improvement over 2003, when just 30 percent of the eligible electorate voted. The most recent Municipal Council elections were held in May 2011. Four of the 101 candidates were women; the only woman who had previously served on the Council was re-elected. Voter turnout was 43 percent, with just 13,606 registered voters participating.
Qatar has hosted U.S. military forces for a number of years, and the U.S. presence grew significantly after 2001. The country has faced severe criticism in the region for its ties to the United States and its tentative links with Israel. Qatar was deeply involved in regional politics. It provided military and political support for the revolution in Libya and played a diplomatic role in the Israel-Palestine prisoner swap in October.
Qatar is not an electoral democracy. The head of state is the emir, whose family holds a monopoly on political power. The 2005 constitution states that the emir appoints an heir apparent after consulting with the ruling family and other notables. The emir is also responsible for appointing a prime minister and cabinet. The constitution stipulates the formation of a new elected parliament, the Advisory Council (Majlis Al-Shura). Elections are to be held for 30 of the 45 seats for 4-year terms, while the emir has the power to appoint the other 15 members. Although elections for this body were scheduled for 2010, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani extended the existing 35-member Council's current session until 2013; its members are entirely appointed. Since 1999, voters have elected local government representatives with limited powers to the 29-member Central Municipal Council; these representatives serve four-year terms and report to the appointed minister of municipal affairs and agriculture.
Only a small percentage of the country's population is permitted to vote or hold office. The government does not permit the existence of political parties.
Critics continue to complain of a lack of transparency in government procurement. However, Qatar was ranked 22 out of 183 countries surveyed in Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, making it the best performer in the Middle East.
Although the constitution guarantees freedom of expression, both print and broadcast media content are influenced by leading families. Journalists practice a high degree of self-censorship and face possible jail sentences for slander. In March 2011, state security forces detained human rights activist and regime critic Sultan al-Khalaifi for unknown reasons. Allegations swirled that he was arrested for blogging and for his efforts to have three allegedly detained Qatari citizens released. Authorities released al-Khalaifi in April without charge. In June, Qatar's Cabinet approved the draft of a new media law which will prevent journalists from being detained by authorities without a court order, and allow them to protect their sources unless required to do so by a court. Criticism of the royal family and "friendly countries", as well as discussion of national security, will remain off limits. While the law claims that state censorship is forbidden, journalists will be required to obtain licenses and will be monitored by the Ministry of Arts, Heritage and Culture. The law was not ratified by year's end.
The top five daily newspapers are privately owned, but their owners and boards include members of the ruling family. Although the satellite television channel Al-Jazeera is privately held, the government has reportedly paid for the channel's operating costs since its inception. As a result, Al-Jazeera rarely criticizes the ruling family. Qataris have access to the internet, but the government censors content and blocks access to sites that are deemed pornographic or politically sensitive.
Islam is Qatar's official religion, though the constitution explicitly provides for freedom of worship. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs regulates clerical matters and the construction of mosques. The first two churches to be built for Qatar's Christian community were opened in Doha in 2008 and 2009, while another three remained in the planning or construction phase at the end of 2011. The constitution guarantees freedom of opinion and academic research, but scholars often practice self-censorship on politically sensitive topics.
While the constitution grants freedoms of assembly and association, these rights are limited in practice. Protests are rare, with the government restricting the public's ability to organize demonstrations. In spite of early 2011 Facebook campaign efforts to mobilize protests in Qatar, the country did not experience the "Arab Spring" unrest that took place in other countries in the region during the year. All nongovernmental organizations need state permission to operate, and the government closely monitors the activities of these groups. After hosting the 2007 Conference on Democracy and Reform in Doha, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established the Arab Foundation for Democracy to monitor progress on reform in the region; Sheikh Hamad has contributed $10 million to the foundation. There are no independent human rights organizations, but a government-appointed National Human Rights Committee, which includes members of civil society and government ministries, investigates alleged abuses.
A 2005 labor law expanded some protections for citizens, but restricts the right to form unions and to strike. The only trade union allowed to operate in the country is the General Union of Workers of Qatar, which prohibits the membership of noncitizens or government sector employees. Foreign nationals comprise most of the workforce, but fear of job loss and deportation often prevents them from exercising their limited rights. Many foreign workers face economic abuses including the withholding of salaries or contract manipulation, while others endure poor living conditions and excessive work hours. Female domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
Despite constitutional guarantees, the judiciary is not independent in practice. The majority of Qatar's judges are foreign nationals who are appointed and removed by the emir. The judicial system consists of Sharia (Islamic law) courts, which have jurisdiction over a narrow range of issues including family law, and civil law courts, which have jurisdiction over criminal, commercial, and civil cases. The Supreme Judiciary Council regulates the judiciary. Although the constitution protects individuals from arbitrary arrest and detention and bans torture, a 2002 law allows the suspension of these guarantees for the "protection of society." The law empowers the minister of the interior to detain a defendant for crimes related to national security on the recommendation of the director-general of public security.
While the constitution prohibits discrimination based on nationality, the government discriminates against noncitizens in the areas of education, housing, healthcare, and other services that are offered free of charge to citizens.
The constitution treats women as full and equal persons, and discrimination based on gender, country of origin, language, or religion is banned. In March 2010, Qatar swore in Sheikha Maha Mansour Salman Jassim al-Thani as its first woman judge. In 2006, Qatar implemented a codified family law, which regulates issues such as inheritance, child custody, marriage, and divorce. While this law offers more protections for women than they previously enjoyed, they continue to face some disadvantages, including societal discrimination, and few effective legal mechanisms are available for them to contest incidents of bias. Qatar is a destination for the trafficking of men and women, particularly for forced labor and prostitution.


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Plumeria Sun Kaikamahine (means 'a girl' in
Hawaiian language) pareos are made from High-Quality 100% Rayon with
trim-stitched hems. The chic Polynesian inspired motifs are individually
Hand-painted using Batik technique, which makes the design reversible.
wearing them on the beach or by the pool side in different styles, hanging them as interior decors, or whatever
else you can think of!
Feel the ALOHA with this top-quality pareos!
45" × 70"
High Quality Rayon 100%
[Laundry Direction]
Separately hand wash in cold water/hang dry
This Pareo design studio was born on the beautiful North Shore of Oahu in 2007. The unique and chic designs are inspired by the surroundings of the colorful tropical flowers and Hawaiian-Polynesian culture. Designs are applied by Hand-Painted Batik or Hand-Printed one by one.You can enjoy Plumeria Sun pareos in so many ways, wearing them on the beach, using them as a fast-drying beach blanket, hanging them as interior decor, or whatever else you can think of!
This Pareo design studio was born on the beautiful North Shore of Oahu in 2007. The unique and chic designs are inspired by the surroundings of the colorful tropical flowers and Hawaiian-Polynesian culture. Designs are applied by Hand-Painted Batik or Hand-Printed one by one.You can enjoy Plumeria Sun pareos in so many ways, wearing them on the beach, using them as a fast-drying beach blanket, hanging them as interior decor, or whatever else you can think of!
*Please note the print on the product shown in the image may slightly differ from
the actual product.
You will earn 1 point per $1.00 spend.
*The points you will earn is shown below the price on each item under the item description.
*Points will NOT be earned on shipping & handling charges.
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*The point system rules are subject to change at any time.
You can get $1.00 off your next order for every 100 points spent at the 2nd step
of the checkout.
The points can ONLY be used in increments of 100 at checkout
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Aloha Outlet Select Shop will price match if you find a lower price on an identical
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In preparation for Christmas we are extending the return and exchange policy for anyone wanting to purchase items early. We have extended the return and exchange policy to Jan 15th 2020.
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Casey moves into lead in Ohio
England's Paul Casey stormed into a three-shot lead at the Memorial Tournament on a day which saw Rory McIlroy brought crashing back to earth.
Casey's second successive six-under-par round of 66, which included an eagle, six birdies and just the two dropped shots, left him on 12 under for the tournament and with clear daylight to the chasing pack heading into the weekend.
"I was ecstatic with the way I played," Casey said on www.pgatour.com. "There was a couple of mistakes in there but that's Muirfield Village. It's a tricky golf course and you don't need to do a lot wrong to make a mistake."
In second spot, three shots back after a 69 is Bubba Watson, while Chris Kirk is a further shot adrift in third after a second-round 70.
Casey, Watson and Kirk were all joint second following the first day, which was dominated by McIlroy.
The Northern Irishman boasted a three-shot advantage of his own after shooting a brilliant 63 as he continued the form he showed in winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on Sunday.
However, the 25-year-old had a day to forget on Friday as he carded a six-over-par 78 to tumble down the leaderboard.
Most of the damage was done on a disastrous opening nine where three consecutive double bogeys saw him go out in 43 at Muirfield Village.
Starting on the back nine, McIlroy bogeyed his opening hole, the par-four 10th, before parring 11 and picking the shot back up on 12.
It went rapidly downhill after that, though, as double bogeys followed on 13, 14 and 15 before two pars and a further bogey saw him reach the turn four shots off the lead.
That represented a 12-shot collapse on the back nine from Thursday where he had picked up two eagles, three birdies and a double bogey to record a 31.
McIlroy did manage to turn things round a bit on the back nine, though, picking up birdies on the second and seventh while only dropping the one shot in between as he ended the day on three under par overall.
Despite that partial recovery, McIlroy found himself nine shots behind Casey at the end of the day as the 36-year-old Englishman enjoyed another good round in Ohio.
McIlroy hurt his knee during Thursday's round, but he insisted it did not affect him too badly on Friday.
He said: "T he knee's OK. It was a little bit sore this morning on the range but out on the course it was fine, the painkillers kicked in. I felt it a little bit but it didn't really bother me too much.
"I missed fairways, that was a big thing, I didn't realise how thick the rough was until I got into it today. Obviously that three-hole stretch, 13, 14, 15, didn't help. Take those three holes out of it and it wouldn't actually have been that bad a day.
"It's not disastrous even though I had such a bad day."
After Watson and Kirk, Hideki Matsuyama (67) and Martin Flores (68) were joint fourth on seven under, followed by a group of four on six under - Thorbjorn Olesen, Hunter Mahan, Ryan Moore and Scott Langley.
Justin Rose was among those who failed to make the cut after the former US Open winner added a 72 to his opening-day 73.
Who is your sportstar of the year?
Vote in the Irish Independent Sport Star Awards and you could win the ultimate sports prize.
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PA Media


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Since I had a little time this Christmas-Eve afternoon and was feeling motivated by BZB Trader's excellent post from this morning (now included, see "BZB" below) to get started on this particular New Year's resolution, I fired up Google Docs and here is the result. The embedded table below will be updated dynamically each week, so you may check in on current ranks regularly should you so desire.
Dynamic Weekly Ranks
The mechanical system assumes equity is reinvested once a week (Friday afternoons -- though given the length of holds, I imagine the following Monday should be just fine) in the highest ranked security according to a simple relative strength formula (see orange colored cell). I was somewhat limited by how far I could go with this in Google Docs, so I settled on a simple stop-less model evaluating six select ETFs representing major asset classes featuring varying degrees of inherent risk, as follows:
- SPY - Large Capitalization U.S. Equities
- IWM - Broad Capitalization U.S. Equities
- EEM - Emerging Market Equities
- AGG - Aggregate Bond Index
- DBC - Commodity Basket Index
- UUP - US Dollar Index
Historical Performance
While this is hardly a complete system as presented, you can see that the simple switching model is nonetheless quite tradable and performed admirably during one of the most difficult decades for investors in recent memory. Do note that many of the ETFs only more recently became available, however. In the earliest years it was a contest between IWM and SPY alone.
Nevertheless, with a little money management, I'd imagine one could go quite far with a little system like this, particularly in a 401-K type account. At the very least, it is a terrific way to read the current risk appetite of the markets. I will revisit and improve on the model throughout 2010.
Never Investment Advice


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Newsletter to SPoCs
20 June 2008
Dear SpoCs,
A few updates from the past weeks:
1. Organisational Matters:
New Single Points of Contact: We would like to welcome our new Organisational Node, the World Space Week Association.
2. Resources
On the IYA2009 Official Site you may find a catalogue with some "products" related with IYA2009. The first product that we have to offer to our IYA2009 network is: "Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition" is a suite of High Definition videos that takes viewers through a virtual gallery featuring awe-inspiring, artlike images and science visualizations of the cosmos as well as astronomy-inspired artwork. The "Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition" is directed by Dr. José Francisco Salgado, an astronomer and science visualizer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, USA.
More information on: http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/
Resources Guides
Andrew Fraknoi(Foothill College & the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) put together a set of amazing Resources Guides for IYA2009! We are very grateful to him for this amazing work!
- Galileo: The Man and His Science (A Resource Guide to Materials in English)
- Kepler: His Life and Work (A Resource Guide to Materials in English for Beginners)
- Multicultural Astronomy (The Astronomy of Non-western Cultures: A Resource Guide)
- Music Inspired by Astronomy (A Selected Listing for the International Year of Astronomy 2009)
- Resources for Doing Evaluation Research (In Informal Astronomy Education and Outreach)
These Guides are availabe here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/guides/
Joint Statement on the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy 2009:
The Joint Statement on the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 by the Director-General of UNESCO and the President of the IAU is available here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/documents/detail/documents_jointstatement/
This is a extremely important document for your contacts with your national stakeholders.
3. IYA2009 Special Projects
"400 Years of the Telescope; A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought"
We are proud to announce that "400 Years of the Telescope; A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought" project has been selected as IYA2009 Special Project. The IYA2009 Secretariat would like to express support to Interstellar Studios for the collaboration, effort and dedication to the IYA2009 initiative at all levels. "400 Years of the Telescope; A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought" is a key project in the IYA2009 initiative and of crucial importance to the IYA2009 success. More information:www.400years.org
A Galileoscope prototype was unveiled during the ASP/AAS Meeting in St. Louis. The IYA2009 Galileoscope is now almost ready to start the manufacturing. The kit consists of only 15 individuals parts, is extremely easy to assemble and the optical quality is very good. It is now available for pre-orders. For more information checks the IYA2009 Galileoscope Cornerstone Project page: http://www.astronomy2009.org/globalprojects/cornerstones/galileoscope/
FETTU Liverpool Prototype
The first FETTU Exhibit is taking viewers deep into the Universe at the Albert Dock in Liverpool, UK. The comments received so far are very positive. A sneak preview of the exhibition is available on the FETTU official website: http://www.fromearthtotheuniverse.org/liverpool.php
4. Upcoming IYA2009 meetings:
· JENAM2008 (Wien, Austria) - 8-12 September 2008 - http://www.univie.ac.at/jenam2008/ or http://www.roe.ac.uk/ukatc/test/symposium.html
An invitation from Dr. Thomas Posch (Austrian SPoC and member of the JENAM2008 LOC):
"Dear SPoCs,
Last year's meeting in Athens (CAP 2007) was a great occasion to exchange ideas on the IYA2009. Talking to each other personally repeatedly proves to be a much better means to organize common projects such as the IYA2009 than just exchanging mails. Hence, I'd like to remind you that the symposium no. 2 within JENAM 2008, taking place in Vienna from 11th to 12th of September, is occasion that you should not miss. Also, the boat trip on the Danube, scheduled for the evening of Sept. 10th, will be a good occasion to talk to each other in a relaxed atmosphere.
To register, please visit the symposium webpage: https://www.cosmic-matter.org/indico/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=6
For any questions, don't hesitate to contact me: email@example.com
Kind regards,
Thomas Posch"
Upcoming IYA2009 meetings:
· Global Hands-on Universe Conference (Lisbon, Portugal), 20 – 23 July 2008 - http://ghou2008.globalhou.net/
· APRIM2008 (Kunming, China), 3 - 6 August 2008 - http://aprim.ynao.ac.cn/
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Pedro, Lars and Mariana
IYA2009 Secretariat
Search IYA2009 Updates
National Nodes: 148
Organisational Nodes: 40
Organisational Associates:33
National Websites: 111
Cornerstone Projects: 12
Special Task Groups: 11
Special Projects:16
Official Products:8
Media Partners:22


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Step into the ancient world of Egypt and discover the Great Pyramids. Experience the captivating chaos of Cairo, spend 3-nights gently floating down the river Nile in a traditional Felucca and relax on the beach in Hurghada. A trip to Egypt with Contiki will ensure you have a tour to remember.
Join forces with your group tonight and soak up the excitement of these exotic lands. Tomorrow will be a whole world of discovery, so you'll be thankful for your luxe hotel sleep.
Get ready for a sensory overload of the best possible variety. Markets & mayhem are on every corner, with stops for hummus and tea proving very essential.Of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World only one remains, and today you will be seeing it up close and personal. Get the tissues ready, seeing the iconic Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza in all their 4,600 year old glory will make for a day that stirs you to the very core.Tonight it's an overnight train to Aswan - nothing gives you a more up-close look at a place than riding local!
Today is all about jaw drops from start to end. First up, you'll learn about the famous Obelisk, a symbol of Egypt, and interestingly a monument that is carved in the ground. These pointed needles are a great example of the skills of the ancient Egyptian artisans and our Local Guide will get you in the know on A to Z and everything in-between. Take a stroll along the Nile before grabbing that camera, as we hop aboard a wooden felucca sailboat, the first of our two boating experiences for the day, and watch the local life as you float on by. Tonight is a taste of the high life with a luxury cruise on the River Nile, no less. This is the first of 3-nights we'll spend on the water, soaking up Egypt from its iconic waterway.
Enjoy waking up to the Nile and sand dunes as your backdrop, while you sip your coffee and ponder just how good life is. Next up is your chance to explore Abu Simbel's Temple of Ramses II, one of the world's most iconic sites dating back to 1264 BC. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, this is a must-do for history buffs and those looking to get in the know on this ancient site. Our Local Guide will uncover its history before we gently drift upstream, steering ourselves away from Aswan with our maps open on ancient Edfu.After green fields, the Arabian desert and palm trees aplenty have teased our eyes along the Nile, we'll pull in for a peak at the perfectly symmetrical town of Kom Ombo. This village's famous temple is dedicated to the God of Crocodile, and the God of Falcon and with it's stunning setting right by the Nile is the perfect spot to head on-land for some exploring. Back on the boat you can practice your 'walk like an Egyptian' pose, then take a dip in the pool (yes, as in the boat has a pool) before we dock for the night in Edfu.
A spot of temple time is up for grabs this morning, complete with a Greco-Roman history lesson & plenty of photo ops. Shortly after, we'll cast off in the direction of Luxor.As soon as we step foot on Luxor terrain, we'll start spinning our way into the historical mysteries of this magnificent town including the Avenue of the Sphinxes, an epic lineup of human headed sphinxes spanning 3km, and let's not forget a photographers dream. Tomorrow the Luxor discoveries continue, so there's no need to cram it all in on day one.
Only on a trip to Egypt would ancient royal tombs make a casual appearance on our daily agenda. Venturing to the Valley of the Kings known as 'City of the Dead,' our local guide will take us to some of the 63 royal tombs found here. Later, choose to visit the Temple of Karnak where we can find the world's largest religious structure, the Temple of Amun.Hurghada is all about beachside summer holiday vibes to rival the Mediterranean. With crystal clear waters as far as the eye can see, umbrella-lined beaches, and golden sunsets, this town will be sure to seal the deal on your love for Egypt.
Lovers of exploring by sea could take a cruise of the Red Sea for all new views, or those who prefer life a little more on land could snorkel, sun bake or just relax in paradise this morning. Later, we'll attempt an Arabic goodbye to the beautiful beaches of Hurghada as we make our way back to where our Egyptian escapade kicked off just a week ago.It's our last complete day together on tour, which means we need to make the most of every second and avoid winding down at all costs. Dive back into Cairo and find a mezze haunt to loiter in, or roam the ancient Khan El Khalili bazaar to pick up some final treasures.
Down your last breakfast on us before collapsing into a mess of farewells. Stay strong, there are plenty more exotic lands with Contiki trips written all over them.
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$20.00 $49.00 You Save 59% ($29.00)
Preserve your most memorable date with our classically elegant Gilded Luna necklace that is sure to turn heads and strike up conversations. Perfect for any occasion, this piece is one you will treasure forever. The fine detail of this unique 5/8" lunar phase charm captures the moon's vibrant energy, illuminating in the darkness and shimmering by day. This divine creation is made from hand-polished surgical stainless steel, gilded with 18K gold and dangles from a gorgeous 18" surgical steel 18K gold gilded necklace with a 1" extender as an ever-present reminder of your cherished day. Simply let us know the significant date of your choice and we'll capture the moon as it was on that sacred moment in time.
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Discover the phases of the moon on any given day in history in any part of the world. Simply follow the instructions below.
Collections: Gilded Luna Necklace, Gilded Luna Necklace (N), Necklaces, Waning Gibbous I Moon
Type: Gilded Luna Necklace
Category: 10N


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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UC Santa Barbara mounted threats in both the sixth and seventh innings in Sunday's series finale with Cal State Northridge at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, but couldn't overcome a three-run deficit as the Matadors took an eventual 4-1 sweep-avoiding win.
As it was UCSB's final home tilt of the season, seniors Cameron Cuneo, Jackson Morrow, Travis Israel, and Joey Epperson were honored in a pregame ceremony. The mothers of all players on the team were then invited to join the Gauchos along the third base line for the national anthem in honor of Mother's Day.
Unfortunately for the Gauchos (25-19-1, 9-12 Big West), the good tidings ended soon after the pregame festivities, as the Matadors (18-32, 6-12) parlayed three hits and three UCSB errors into a three-run top of the first inning.
The frame spoiled what was an otherwise solid start from Gauchos freshman righty Shane Bieber, who ended the day with one earned run allowed (four total) in four-plus innings of work.
Bieber was aided by a third-inning double play, but otherwise scattered hits throughout innings two through four. He only ran into trouble again in the fifth, when the Matadors were able to string together back-to-back base hits to start the inning.
In the meantime, UCSB struggled to answer back against CSUN starter Jordan Johnson, who allowed just one run on six hits in a six-inning outing. The righty retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced, keeping the Gauchos bats mostly quiet through the first five innings of the game.
Johnson's sole blemish came in the sixth when junior catcher Campbell Wear ripped a double off the left field wall to open the inning. After a hit by pitch and a strikeout, UCSB then got its first and only run as junior designated hitter/lefty reliever Greg Mahle ripped a pitch through the right side to plate Wear.
Johnson recovered immediately following the Mahle RBI base hit, inducing an inning ending double play ball from Tyler Kuresa.
The UCSB seventh started off just as well for the home team, as Robby Nesovic hit a leadoff double before pinch-hitter Scott Quinlan lined a single into left center to put runners on the corners with nobody out.
At that point, CSUN head coach Greg Moore summoned his closer Shay Maltese. The crafty righty made that a smart decision, stranding both UCSB runners en route to a nine-up, nine-down three-inning save, his seventh of the season.
The save preserved the win for Johnson, who improved to 3-4 on the season. Bieber dropped to 2-4 after getting tagged with the loss.
UCSB had a pair of standout relief performances of its own, as Mahle and sophomore righty Dillon Tate combined to throw five shutout innings.
Mahle, who entered with runners on the corners and nobody out in the fifth, did his best escape act, getting the Matadors to go popout-sac fly-strikeout to end the threat with just one run coming across.
He went on to shut down CSUN for the next two innings before making way for Tate with two outs in the eighth.
Tate, UCSB's sensational closer, pitched the final 1.1 innings, allowing just one hit against one strikeout.
Despite their heavy usage, both Mahle and Tate are sporting impressive scoreless streaks.
Tate has not allowed a run since Apr. 12 against Cal State Fullerton, a span of 11 appearances and 18 innings. Overall this season, Tate has gone unscored upon in 23 of 24 outings.
Mahle has not allowed a run in his last 11.2 innings pitched, and has just one run against in his last 19.2 innings going back to Apr. 17.
In 25 innings of work, UCSB's pitching staff combined to allow one earned run in the series against CSUN, the team's best figure for a 3+ game series this season.
Nesovic led the Gauchos offensively on Sunday, going 2-4. Mahle, Kuresa, Wear, and Quinlan were the only other UCSB batters to collect a hit.
For CSUN, right fielder Chester Pak (3-4, two doubles), second baseman Ryan Raslowsky, and catcher Nick Murphy (two hits apiece) carried the load offensively, while the Matador infield, led by shortstop Brett Balkan, made a number of impressive plays throughout the afternoon.
The Gauchos will be back in action on Tuesday afternoon, as they travel to Pepperdine for the team's final midweek game of the season. In their previous matchup this season on Mar. 11, UCSB came away with a 2-1 win at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium as Andrew Calica delivered a ninth-inning walk-off single against the Waves.
Sophomore lefty Domenic Mazza is scheduled to start for the Gauchos on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m.


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When progressive activists gather next week at the annual America's Future Now conference, frustration and dismay will be widespread. Action on jobs is stalled among mixed signals from the White House. A Democratic Congress pours billions into the war in Afghanistan even as legislation to forestall the unimaginable layoff of 300,000 teachers is derailed in the Senate. The growing calamity of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill only highlights the lack of action on climate change and new energy.
Pollsters talk of an "enthusiasm gap." The tea-party right is on the march. Independents are increasingly skeptical. Turnout is flagging among the "rising electorate" – the young, single women, minorities – the core Obama base that has been hard hit by the recession. If Democrats suffer deep losses in the fall as now predicted, gridlock will grow worse. The challenge now is how progressives will respond.
Mandate and Resistance
Democrats fare badly when the base of the party is disengaged. Progressives were key to forging the majority that allowed Democrats to take back Congress in 2006. Progressives gave Democrats their voice on Iraq. Progressive bloggers helped teach Democrats to confront the right. Progressives built the coalition that stopped Bush's effort to privatize Social Security, and forged the positive agenda – from health care to new energy – that galvanized Democratic and independent voters. That success inspired Obama to run, and he in turn inspired progressive activists to turn out voters in large numbers.
The administration was elected with a mandate for change, in the midst of a crisis that demanded it. The president responded, and progressives largely threw themselves into passing his reform agenda, with significant success: the largest recovery plan in history, comprehensive health care reform, the largest increase in student aid since the GI bill and, soon, the first major financial reform since the Great Depression.
Yet progressives have grown ever more disappointed. The reforms were both historic and insufficient to the cause. The recovery plan was too small. The health care plan was dangerously compromised. Financial reform is too timid. Even the student aid was overwhelmed by the soaring tuitions and severe cuts in programs in the universities. Wall Street was rescued while unemployment rose to 10 percent.
And we've suffered harsh retreats and reverses: Escalation in Afghanistan and compromise on core civil liberties. No movement on worker rights. No movement on comprehensive immigration reform. Delay on Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Retreat on choice. Retreat on climate change and new energy.
What happened?
Surely, the resistance was great. Republicans chose obstruction as a political strategy in the midst of a Great Recession. Entrenched corporate interests mobilized. Conservative Democrats were too easily cowed or corrupted.
But the White House has also been an uncertain trumpet. The president never claimed to be a movement progressive the way Reagan exulted in being a movement conservative. The breath of the president's vision was often not matched by the scope of his program. The reforms proposed were preemptively compromised. The argument for change was often muted in the search for a deal.
Not surprisingly, the Obama presidency sparked a rabid right-wing reaction. But with progressives largely enmeshed in the often squalid legislative debates, the right's faux populism gained traction, focusing public anger at the administration's efforts to staunch the crisis, rather than at the failed conservative policies that caused it.
Time for Progressive to Mobilize
Democrats will not fare well in elections with the progressive base of the party disaffected. Needed reforms will be blocked if the right succeeds in becoming the vehicle for both voter anger and corporate interest.
In this circumstance, it is time for labor and other progressive movements to re-engage our own base, to mobilize independently and challenge the limits of the current debate. The right seeks revival with a more zealous version of the market fundamentalism and bellicose cowboy interventionism that led this country off the cliff. They must be confronted, the bankruptcy of their ideas exposed.
At the same time, conservative Democrats and compromised administrators must learn once more the temper of their own activists. Those who are standing in the way must understand that they will not be given a free pass. Unions and progressives have launched a challenge to Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the Arkansas primary. Already that helped transform her posture in the financial reform debate, while sending a message to the rest of the Senate. Progressives will expand their capacity to hold legislators accountable.
History suggests that progressive movements must organize independently of Democratic administrations to effect change. We must be "off the reservation" as labor was under Roosevelt, and the civil rights movement was under Johnson. President Johnson wanted the Rev. Martin Luther King to shut down the demonstrations, saying that they would make reform impossible. With an independent movement, even King could not do that. Instead he went to Selma, and the resulting confrontation led directly to passage of the Voting Rights Act.
America faces stark challenges. We have to build a new economy out of the ruins of the old. We need to end our addiction to oil and help lead the green industrial revolution that cannot be deferred. Once we recover from the Great Recession, we will face a harsh battle over priorities. A country that squanders trillions on endless wars across the world while failing to provide every child with the nutrition, early education and good schools vital to development is charting its own decline.
None of these reforms can be made with a government and Congress corrupted by entrenched corporate interests and befuddled by failed conservative doctrines. Only limited reform can come from an administration necessarily seeking the best deal it can get. Only independent progressive mobilization can change the balance of forces in Washington. It is time for progressive to lead once more.
Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich say they want to take America back to the policies that proved so ruinous. We say we will take America forward – and revitalize the progressive majority for change that can forge a more perfect Union.


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For the Graduate Card
Learn how to make this card using these free instructions. Handmade graduation cards are the perfect way to show you care, and with these card-making steps, creating this design is easy.
SUPPLIES: Cardstock: (Steel Grey) My Favorite Things; (white) Neenah Paper Patterned paper: (gray chevron from Bright Side 6x6 pad) Lawn Fawn Rubber stamps: (Circle Swirls, Circle Fusion 1) Impression Obsession Clear stamp: (sentiment from Framed Fonts set) Avery Elle Dye ink: (Pool, Soft Pool, Soft Granite) Hero Arts Pigment ink: (Unicorn) Hero Arts Paint: (Pewter) Tim Holtz/Ranger Industries Accents: (rhinestones) Hero Arts Font: (Coopergate Gothic Bold) myfonts.com Dies: (stars) My Favorite Things Other: (note card) Hero Arts; (gift card) Finished size: 5 1/2" x 4 1/4"
1 Stamp sentiment repeatedly on note card.
2 Trim cardstock and patterned paper strips. Adhere patterned paper strip to card.
3 Stamp Circle Swirls and Circle Fusion 1 on cardstock strips. Adhere to card. Note: Adhere edges of some with foam tape to create pocket.
4 Print sentiment on cardstock, trim, and adhere with foam tape.
5 Paint cardstock; let dry.
6 Die-cut stars from painted cardstock and adhere to card with foam tape.
7 Adhere rhinestones and insert gift card.
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Watches of Switzerland's team of 50 highly-trained and approachable staff has a total sum of over 200 years experience in the industry and speak many different languages – including Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and Taiwanese.
With boutiques in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth Watches of Switzerland is Australia's largest authorised Swiss watch retailer.
After 10 years of importing luxury Swiss watches into Australia, Eric van der Griend estabilished Watches of Switzerland in 1996.
Today, Watches of Switzerland is Australia's leading official watch specialty store with 20 brands and over 4,000 references of Swiss watches.
Shop CF30 Canberra Centre
Ainslie Avenue
Canberra 2601, ACT
Phone: 1300 808 135 or 61 2 6248 8842
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
L09, Luxury Precinct, T2 International Terminal
Melbourne Airport 3045, Victoria
Tel: 03 9338 0882
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Opening Hours:
Monday – Sunday 6am – 11pm
Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Serbian assistance available.
294 Collins Street, Melbourne
3000, Victoria
Tel: 03 9671 3388 or 1300 808 135
Email: email@example.com
Opening Hours:
Monday – Saturday 10am – 6pm
Sunday 11am – 5pm
199 George Street, Sydney
2000, New South Wales
Tel: 02 9251 0088 or 1300 808 135
Email: email@example.com
Opening Hours:
Monday – Saturday 10am – 5.30pm
Sunday 11am – 5pm
38 King Street, Perth
6000, Western Australia
Tel: 08 9322 8800 or 1300 808 135
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Opening Hours:
Mon – Fri: 10am – 5.30pm
Sat: 10am – 5pm
Sun: 12pm – 5pm
Watches of Switzerland is Australia's leading and largest official boutique retailer of exclusive luxury watches. Founded by Chairman Eric van der Griend in 1997, Watches of Switzerland remains a family-owned company, with Sam van der Griend (Managing Director) and Ed van der Griend (Brand Manager) involved in the business.