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Celebrating illustration, design, cartoon and comic art of the mid-20th century.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Rockwell to Parker: Praise for the Little Things
Little did I know that David Apatoff had enlisted the aid of the inimitable Jaleen Grove to hunt down that image at all costs. This past weekend I was surprised and delighted to receive the scans below, along with a note from David and Jaleen:
"Since you are the one who introduced me to the Rockwell letter and you raised the issue, it seems fitting to hand this image back to you to complete the circuit with your readers." wrote David.
"It is not at all what I expected, and I still want to think a bit about why this particular picture moved Rockwell to write. At a minimum, I give Rockwell credit for being more open minded than I would have supposed."
Jaleen added, "I too am wondering what exactly Rockwell was awed by. A strong composition, yes - I like the vase shape echoing the figure - and the radical angle of the pole, and maybe even the model's weird pose - but I don't think I would have paused in page-flipping had I not known about Rockwell's letter."
Jaleen, who has the great fortune to spend some time each month with Walt Reed at the Illustration House, happened to be there at the time of her writing:
"Walt just walked by," wrote Jaleen, "and I solicited his opinion."
"He figures Rockwell had been meaning to write Al for a long time and just found the issuing of this picture to be a convenient moment. Walt says he went to a talk Rockwell gave "quite a few years before" 1948, when Al was just starting out. There, Rockwell praised Al, particularly for the "small things he did" - like that pipe on the window ledge, the odd pose. Walt thinks it looks spontaneous enough to have been done from life."
David brought the discussion to a conclusion with this well-reasoned theory:
"After a little reflection, I guess I would refine my thoughts on the Rockwell fan letter as follows: By the time Rockwell wrote that letter he had spent nearly 40 years painting with oil paints on large canvases. He worked 6 days a week using a laborious, 15 stage progress with a variety of chemicals and drying agents. Despite Rockwell's magnificent achievement, he must have looked somewhat wistfully at the young Al Parker painting light, spontaneous, unconventional paintings with water based casein and gouache on small illustration boards. I'm sure Rockwell couldn't help but think about all the time he had spent waiting for paint to dry over the last 40 years, and all of the airy brush strokes, such as Parker's, that had been buried in layers of underpainting. The new world of illustration would be one where far less time was spent on implementation and far more time was spent on the imaginative and conceptual parts of the job. I'm guessing Rockwell understood the potential significance of that changing ratio. Parker didn't ask for permission to change the world, he took it. And I think Rockwell must have respected that, too. So perhaps this letter is symbollic of Rockwell's blessing for the future of illustration."
"It's all rampant speculation, of course, but Jaleen and I were both struck by the fact that Parker's illustration didn't seem like the kind of dazzling artistic performance that would inspire the second fan letter of Rockwell's life. On the other hand, if you look at the white space, the stream of pages that integrate the illustration by flowing from the background for the story's title into rough pencil sketches in the illustration itself, the unusual angle on the woman, the conspicuous brush strokes left in place-- Rockwell must have felt like the last neanderthal peering out of the woods at this strange new life form, the cromagnon man standing in the glen. I think it is a measure of Rockwell's quality as a person and an artist that he didn't think, "In my day, artists really had to work..." nor did he think, "If I were starting out today, I could be so much more prolific and have so much more fun...." He didn't even think, "how many brain cells have I lost by inhaling turpentine fumes for the past 40 years?" No, he thought, "what a wonderful, lively new aproach." That's someone who truly loves art."
How about you, dear reader... what do you think?
*ADDENDUM* Tom Watson sent a comment that requires a visual accompaniment, so for those who have been following th]e flow of the discussion, you might want to read the comments section first, then return here to read and consider the following...
Tom writes, "When I saw the Al Parker 1948 LHJ cover, it reminded me of the Norman Rockwell 1939 Saturday EP cover, painted over 9 years before Parker's cover. Both have vignette figures, and both have type designed around the figures. This was quite advanced for 1939, and I'm fairly certain Rockwell designed and lettered the type as he did on occasions for other illustration assignments."
"IMO, it is as innovative in concept and well designed as Al Parker's version. I can't say for sure that Parker was influenced by anything Rockwell did, but this would be a remarkable coincidence, if he was unaware of Rockwell's innovative designing of figures and type, which was not just a one time shot. I think Chad Sterling was accurate in his assessment of Parker's LHJ cover- "The image of mother and daughter for example is very reminiscent of a Rockwell illustration in composition and spirit". I hope you agree with me, that in spite of Rockwell's corn-ball subject matter, his creativity wasn't so behind the times.. for a "Neanderthal". ;-) "
"I think posting the comparisons would be interesting to your viewers."
* There's more to see and read as this week's CAWS "goes wild" at Charlie Allen's Blog
* And the long lost artwork of a Toronto illustration legend is finally unearthed at Storyboard Central
* Finally, with Hallowe'en fast approaching, get in a ghoulish mood with Simon Peng's twisted tale, "Something Gory" at Leifdrawing 101
21 comments:
I think Rockwell admired Parker's economy of means. Parker says a lot with a few shapes and does it in a sophisticated, seemingly spontaneous manner. Rockwell was great but tended to employ brute force to render his ideas. He may have envied Parker's lighter approach.ReplyDelete
When you mentioned Walt's memory of a lecture in which Norman Rockwell commended Al Parker's work, it made me think of an audio recording I had once heard. Below are some quotes from Rockwell's 1949 lecture at the Art Center College of Design. The audio recording these quotes derive from is a part of the archival collection here at the Norman Rockwell Museum.ReplyDelete
"Al Parker I believe, is the most creative illustrator we've had for many, many years now. I think he's got too damn many imitators, and I'm very sour about it too. I could give a whole lecture about what I think about people that imitate Al Parker."
"Al Parker has all this vitality and all this inventiveness and all this creativeness. I think he has the most of any illustrator maybe we've ever had. Geez-he's invented the close-up and all these things. He isn't following anybody else's funeral."
It was likely a matter of flattery that prompted Rockwell to note in his letter to Parker that it was "the second fan letter" of his life. He wrote letters of praise to other artists too-Ellen Pyle among them.
- Charlie Allen4:57 PM
Not sure why the 'Journal' cover was the first scan....but thanks....it's one I'd never seen. All of Parker's work is just 'monster', and it's great to see something new. Walt Reed's and David Apatoff's conjectures are right on. Parker demonstrates again that 'change' I keep harping on. Sometime in the 40's he shook up the illustration world of the 20's, 30's, and early 40's....and kept shaking it throughout his career. The illustration of the girl, the odd position, the pole, etc. is a great example. Too bad (at least in the scan) the center gutter spoils the composition. I agree, Rockwell was no doubt moved to write by that, but also admiration for Parker's illustrative genius and apparent 'freedom'. Rockwell came along at a time when oils were the primary medium used by illustrators....and his work was always superb. But then gouache became easily available....and caseins, then acrylics. Thanks again, Leif, and to the many contributors who keep TI the interesting blog that it is.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous5:10 PM
I agree with Michael. The pose is amazing. Perhaps Rockwell simply understood how difficult it was to achieve what Parker had done in that illustration.ReplyDelete
I've heard that same tape that CorryK mentioned, and I was amazed how many times Rockwell mentioned Parker--and what Rockwell called "the fine art men." Rockwell's own work during the late 40s shows an influence from Parker's compositional innovations--a lot of daring croppings and color treatments which perhaps ultimately derive from Degas.ReplyDelete
Although Rockwell was a life long committed literal traditional illustrator, he was very aware of modern directions in both the illustration and fine art world. That included new theories of composition and color, and even the abstract movement. Although, with much reluctance, he used photography to stay current with methods and techniques in illustration of the day.. by the late 1930's. Many other illustrators refused to use photography, and considered it a sinful. The fact that he admired and acknowledged Al Parker as a great rising star, was no surprise if you've read Rockwell's autobiography and other recollections from those that knew him. Although he had a tremendous reputation since the 1920's, he was very humble about his success, and always worried about how long he could compete with each new direction in illustration. It is clear to me that in his letter, he knew his style of illustration was in jeopardy, along with other traditional illustrators, but felt Parker deserved his encouragement for changing the look of illustration. Rockwell was not the hopeless stuck-in-the-past, unsophisticated oaf that painted folksy subject matter because he didn't know any better, as some writings on him have suggested. I think that if Rockwell had tried to jump on the new wave band wagon that Parker and others were leading, it would have nearly ended his career in illustration, as it did with many that tried to become new wave illustrators.ReplyDelete
Tom Watson
It's lovely to see this post and the replies! I should clarify that these are not scans but snapshots with my camera, from bound volumes of the magazine, which is why the uneven coloration and the deep gutter. Best I could do at the NYPL, I'm afraid.ReplyDelete
And another note related to what Walt says re: Rockwell's admiration of "the little things" - in the Famous Artists School lessons, Rockwell talks with characteristic modesty about how the satisfactory completion of his own work is due to the little details, and advises students to take note of them in their own work.
And I guess I want to point out that I think Parker was an amazing innovator, and my initial response to this picture was that I found it merely typical of his usual excellence, when I was expecting Extra Special innovative excellence, as I have seen in other pictures of his - which is by no means to say this one isn't good. It is. (boy, convoluted sentence! sorry. It's late.)
And thanks for the Wes Chapman link!!!
Leif, thanks for another great post. I've learned from the insights of your audience, particularly Mr. Gurney's observation that Rockwell did make some changes in the late 40s (which would make sense, as he was haunted by the fate of his predecessor Leyendecker who became obsolete before his time) combined with Tom Watson's point (with which I agree) that if Rockwell had tried to change too much it would have ended his career.ReplyDelete
Also, please allow me a moment of pride at how seamlessly the comrades of illustration combined the various pieces of this puzzle. You started the ball rolling by unearthing an obscure letter and posing the question to your audience; Jaleen did the hard work of tracking down the illustration, photographing it and circulating her photographs along with her insights to the larger group. Then Walt Reed added his unique contribution as the eyewitness who knew both Rockwell and Parker. Finally, you brought everything back together for your larger audience. (I of course played my customary role of innocent bystander.) Nice teamwork!
- Rich2:48 AM
Great post once more, Leif!ReplyDelete
Trying to find out what Norman Rockwell so much admired in these two samples by Al Parker...
well, that in itself is finest art education.
That letter is a part of Washington University in St. Louis' Modern Graphic History Library - I'm a senior there!ReplyDelete
- Chad Sterling8:37 PM
I wonder if Rockwell recognised in Parker some shared vision of things and in a sense was anointing his successor.The image of mother and daughter for example is very reminiscent of a Rockwell illustration in composition and spirit. Clearly, Parker was the coming force, and was the future most palatable to the past master.ReplyDelete
First of all,the cover art is beautiful,so it probably had an added effect on Rockwell.ReplyDelete
I think he reacted to the people in the paintings,because his focus was
more on human interest than flash.I like the inside painting.It's well drawn,staged,composed,colored.The layout was modern without being overwhelming.Rockwell knew enough about that stuff to appreciate the integrity of the work.That probably combined with his long time appreciation of Parker's work.
You, Mr Apatoff? Innocent?? ;-)ReplyDelete
I too really like how this collaborative post happened. I'm glad to see folks from the NR Museum here, as well as from St Louis. Which leads me to get on with proposing something I've been thinking of for a while.
The national Pop Culture Association conference is going to be in St Louis next year. How about people submit papers to the Visual Culture section, and see if we can't get enough of us together to have a panel of our own? St Loius, after all, has that excellent new graphic arts library...
Jaleen, I must confess I was unfamiliar with the national Pop Culture Association but I followed your link to their web site and I see that they will have groups on "Fat Studies" (chaired by someone with an email address of "goddess"), Horror, Disaster, Tarot, Vampires, Punk Culture, and dozens of others. With variety like that to choose from, are you sure you want to propose this under the dry heading of "Visual Culture"? I am guessing you could lure more of Leif's readership with one of the juicier categories.ReplyDelete
I'd take Rockwell at face value here: he admired what Parker did in "Wayward Pilgrim" because he couldn't do it himself. [Yeah I know I'm partially contradicting Walt here... but who else would try to get away with that?]ReplyDelete
Aren't we always most impressed by what we can't imagine being able to do?
Of all the extraordinary aspects of Rockwell's painting, he comes from the era of the stage-managed picture, indeed was always striving for the most telling pose, not the most natural one. The casual, candid pose (or the illusion of such) was something he couldn't do. At least, I can't think of a single one he did do.
Parker must have asked his model to get comfortable and she found that she would fall off the bench without the pole, so he let her keep it! What is it anyway, one of those poles models lean on? That's a nice twist: it must be deliberately posed after all. Or at least deliberately improvised.
Roger, when you said Rockwell didn't strive for the "natural" pose, it sent up a little red flag. ;-) My first thought was that pose looked to me to be anything but "natural".. casual looking and even spontaneous, maybe. Not only did it look unorthodox to me, but quite uncomfortable. I tried getting into that pose, and, although I am not young and limber like the model, I can't imagine anyone choosing to bend their legs like that, unless they are practicing the Lotus position, or doing stretching exercises. As an illustrator, on occasions I would ask the model to pose in a very uncomfortable position for photos, but it looked natural in the finished illustration.. so I understand what Parker was doing. My point is that Rockwell on occasion, actually did choose "normal" casual poses when he thought it would work best, as well as his typical exaggerated "stage managed" poses, which the latter contributed greatly to his immense popularity with the general public. However, there were skills that Rockwell did fall short- like mural painting, or certain decorative or stylized painting techniques, but IMO he was quite capable of painting "normal" casual poses, as I have found in a book I have, featuring all of his SE Post covers in color.ReplyDelete
I think Parker extended the arm and added the pole as a design feature, to crop into the drawings hanging on the wall.. creating more interest, and a more effective composition.
Regardless, both illustrators certainly deserved the admiration and praise they received.
Tom Watson
While I lack the breadth or depth of either Roger Reed or Tom Watson in this field, and I certainly have the highest esteem for both Rockwell and Parker, I do agree with the notion that Rockwell tended to specialize in the archetypal, staged pose, while Parker (and Briggs and Fuchs) specialized in candid, impromptu positions. This doesn't mean that Rockwell's poses look unnatural-- in fact, they seem to be carefully selected as the theatrical embodiment of a natural pose, while Parker and his successors captured awkward slouches and casual, in-between moments that seem more-real-than-real.ReplyDelete
This evolution seems to continue a long trend that began in the 19th century when Manet and others abandoned the prototypical heroic poses of the academy and began focusing on the hired help in informal poses, causing the kind of ruckus that surrounded Manet's "Bar at the Folies Bergere." By the time the baton was handed off to Rockwell, artists had no trouble placing hobos and scullery maids at the center of pictures but Rockwell still seemed to believe that the picture should focus on a pose at the apogee on an arc, rather than some offhand moment on the way up or down that arc.
David, I think you make an excellent point, and your analysis is quite accurate. I would only add that for magazine covers, the message had to be crystal clear to communicate the idea. Story illustrations could be more vague and subtle. We don't have to know exactly what is happening in a story illustration, but it should function as a lure to seduce us into reading the story, which ultimately brings clarity to the illustration. Parker's cover illustration poses were never awkward or odd looking (that I recall), but not necessarily at the very top of the arc. I just want to be clear that I don't think one approach is better or worse than the other if done well.. different solutions for different venues, and "different strokes for different folks".ReplyDelete
Tom Watson
Tom, I agree with you 100% that one approach is no better or worse than the other, if done well. We are indeed fortunate to have this diversity of approaches to tickle our palates and, by contrasting one approach with another, to instruct us.ReplyDelete
Hmm Well I was just searching on Google for some Tarot readings of some Tarot readerReplyDelete
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France's president says French troops could start pulling out of Mali by the end of March
PARIS – President Francois Hollande says France may start pulling out its troops from a military intervention in Mali against Islamist extremists at the end of March.
Government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said Wednesday that at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, President Francois Hollande "confirmed that if all goes as planned, by the end of March the number of French troops engaged in Mali can begin to diminish."
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We're back on Phillies Talk - the podcast after a 2 week hiatus, and this week we are joined by MLB.com's Todd Zolecki, who writes daily about the Phillies. Todd's new book is coming out soon and it's called 'The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly: Philadelphia Phillies. Heart Pounding, jaw dropping, gut wrenching moments from Philadelphia Phillies history."
We also talk with Todd about the upcoming Spring Training season and 2010 upcoming regular season for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Phillies Talk Podcast - Todd Zolecki from MLB.com joins us on tonight's show
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Posted by Rich Baxter at 8:56 PM
2 comments:
I just picked up Todd's book. I was skimming it over lunch as looks really great. A nice quick review for new fans or a refresher for us old ones. Some fun laugh out loud player stories (Bowa and the Bull) the I never heard before. Todd always writes well too.ReplyDelete
Yes, he does write very well. I liked him at the Inquirer, and he excels at MLB.com.ReplyDelete
I am trying to get some time to read the whole book, maybe over the weekend.
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Frequent flights to Nairobi
British Airways offers five flights to Nairobi a week – the perfect way to reach Kenya.
Flights to Nairobi
From€596 returnBook
British Airways offers five flights to Nairobi a week – the perfect way to reach Kenya.
From€596 returnBook
Nairobi is always hot and sunny – locals refer to it as the 'City in the Sun' – but after dark is when it really sizzles. With bountiful nightclubs and bars, especially in the district of Westlands, every night feels like the weekend and making new friends incredibly easy.
While Nairobi's urban sprawl can be intimidating (vast economic disparity means petty theft is a problem, and walking downtown requires a degree of caution), there are some green spaces to enjoy. A particular highlight is the Nairobi National Park, 43 square miles of plains, cliffs and forest surrounding the city. It offers prime game watching (including lion and cheetah), and all with a shimmering urban skyline as a backdrop. Just outside the city, the Karen Blixen Museum, the Out of Africa author's former farm at the foot of the Ngong Hills, is fascinating and its gardens lovely to explore. At the weekend, head out to pretty Lake Navaisha – a popular hangout spot for locals.
Find a British Airways flight for less, we'll refund the difference.
Low price finder and low initial deposits.
Fly with British Airways and enjoy award-winning service and excellent value for money.
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Spring has finally hit everywhere around the country and this week we're highlighting an invitation from our Dauphine Press custom collection that is the embodiment of spring itself: Citron.
This award-winning design was created by Katrina McHugh and prints in three colors: buttercup, leaf and espresso. On press, we capture a very high level of detail in the lemon branch image which derives from a vintage engraving. The Citron invitation won an International Design Award from How Magazine in 2009.
The Citron invitation sprung from a project we did for the esteemed Paula LeDuc catering in Emeryville, California. Paula wanted a bonbon box as a takeaway for their tastings and events. The company's identity and stationery was restrained and classic, they had never before used a graphic image on any branded materials. But the lyrical lemon branch image resonated with Paula, and we designed the bonbon box that first introduced the image to their clients. We later developed an invitation for an event Paula le Duc held at Beaulieu Garden which evolved into our Citron wedding invitation.
Inspiration comes from so many unexpected places! We hope your spring brings new inspired ideas to your world.


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Beyer Hall Pool is the site of Cyclone home swimming meets. The facility houses a six-lane, T-shaped, 25-yard competitive pool with an attached diving well. The pool has permanent spectator seating for approximately 800 people.
The competitive pool has a variable depth bottom and turbulence reducing gutters. Beyer pool is also equipped with a
Beyer's diving well has two 1-meter diving boards, two 3-meter diving boards and a 5-meter platform. The 5-meter platform and 1-meter diving boards are on concrete stands. The 3-meter boards are on Durafirm stands and all diving boards are Maxiflex model "B" springboards.
Next to the diving well are a trampoline and a dry-board that is fully equipped with a spotting rig designed to help divers learn and perfect somersaulting and twisting dives.
The pool also has two TIVO video systems that capture
dives off each board and platform allowing divers to quickly view the dive they just performed.
Beyer has been the home of two NCAA meets (1963, 1971) and numerous conference championships.


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Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
Cultural studies examines the complex ways in which societal beliefs are formed. It is particularly valuable for teachers of multicultural literature because it focuses on the social divisions of class, gender, ethnicity, and race. Cultural studies looks at the ways in which meanings, stereotypes, and identities (both collective and individual) are generated within these social groups. The practice of cultural studies almost always involves the combination of otherwise discrete disciplines, including literature, sociology, education, history, philosophy, communications studies, and anthropology. An interdisciplinary approach is key to an understanding of these issues, because it allows students to study and compare multiple, varied texts that deal with the culture and history of a particular group.
Impact on teaching literature
In the classroom, a cultural studies approach usually combines literary readings with social and historical analysis. By reading texts in this way, students achieve a deeper understanding of how historical circumstances, social traditions, and the media work together to create a cultural milieu in which certain sets of beliefs are either reinforced or questioned. When the right texts are brought together, students can begin to see literature as a social product with a specific history and a particular agenda.
Incorporating cultural studies in the classroom
The central teaching strategy of cultural studies is intertextual reading: comparing each literary text to culturally related texts. By reading literature in the context of other cultural works, students learn how the literature they study both creates and reflects cultural beliefs.
Texts for this practice may be drawn from almost any source: advertising, television, historical documents, visual artwork, legal documents, theological writing, etc. It's best to contextualize literature with primary sources or compilations of primary sources. Teachers should also look for texts that raise issues with which their students can identify. For example, in this session, Ishmael Reed's poetry and Graciela Limón's novel both look at transformative journeys, which students may relate to their own experiences.
When using this intertextual approach, teachers will want to brief students before giving them materials to read. It's usually helpful to explain that students will be asked to look for ways in which the different texts address similar issues; it's also useful to explain that students will be asked how these texts reinforce or challenge our ideas about those issues. Teachers may also want to offer general information about the texts: when they were written, by whom, for what purpose, etc. Finally, teachers may want to provide background about the characters and images they'll find. For example, when teaching Reed's "Railroad Bill, A Conjure Man," teachers can describe the trickster figure and his role in African stories, African American folklore, and legends before encouraging students to look for trickster references in the poem.
Benefits and challenges of using a cultural studies approach
Cultural studies exposes students to a wider range of texts and media than traditional literary studies; it can also help them to focus more completely on the issues affecting one particular culture or social group. Moreover, by examining the social and political forces that have impacted a particular text, students learn to question the social and political forces that impact their daily lives.
Ultimately, a cultural studies approach aims to give students choices. By recognizing how beliefs and mores have come to seem natural in a given cultural context, students are better able to reflect on the cultural messages they encounter in their own lives.
Culminating projects for assessment may consist of papers, multimedia projects or performances that combine research with literary analysis, ethnographies (including interviews and observation), and personal reflections.
© Annenberg Foundation 2017. All rights reserved. Legal Policy


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Decorating Tips from Interior Designer Eileen Kathryn Boyd
Love color? You'll love these tips from designer Eileen Kathryn Boyd
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Eileen Kathryn Boyd
Huntington, New York–based designer Eileen Kathryn Boyd is one of the design stars of the New York area—and that's saying a lot. She has written that among the places she looks for inspiration is the world of fashion, which perhaps indicates why color plays such an important role in her design work.
Lighting Design Options
Lighting, an essential element in a home's design, can present challenges in a tight area with no side tables or console. Wall-mounted swing-arm lamps are a great solution. They provide soft ambient light to an otherwise dim corner—no table needed.
Decorate with Groupings
Individually any one of these gilt mirrors lends itself to a more formal setting. But displayed en masse the pieces become a unique collection that serves as an interesting wall sculpture with a whimsical, informal effect. Consider a grouping of small like objects of varying shapes for a powerful statement.
Decorative Wood Flooring
Think outside the area rug. For a less predictable flooring solution, create a bold geometric pattern in the wood floor itself. The geometric grid complements this room's gorgeous proportions and traditional bones. But it can serve equally well for any design sensibility, modern or traditional. It's too pretty to cover with a carpet.
Layer Your Designs
Create a one-of-a-kind functional furnishing by fitting a Parsons table over an ottoman for an extra design layer. This hybrid offers the versatility of function and style. It is also a beautiful study in contrasts: dark and light, soft and hard.
Bring Fen Shui to the Bath
Plant good feng shui by placing an indoor garden of succulents in the corner of a sun-filled shower space. The layering of stone and greenery makes a notoriously hard room feel supple and alive.
Add Dressmaker Details to Draperies
Channeling the fashion runways, details on draperies add a dressmaker's touch to an otherwise ordinary panel. Edge a curtain panel vertically with a fabric of a contrasting color or texture. The effect is distinct but not overpowering.
Create an Easy-Does-It Color Palette
Work with the dark beams and light walls of your home to create a study of black and white, then punctuate it with bold color accents for richness. Make sure the dark notes are dotted throughout the room on fabrics and finishes for balance and visual comfort.
Make a Fashion Statement on Your Window Treatments
Transform a clothing detail into drapery couture. The buttons on the leading edge of this panel suggest a cufflink clasping the ruffle much as it would on a blouse.
Build an Energetic Palette with Art
Underscore your most dramatic artworks by continuing their color story on the windows, area rug, and furnishings. The inspired pizzazz of this colorful space began with the art. The textiles continue the bold, vibrant brushstrokes for a supremely confident style.
Arrange Art En Masse
Create high decorative impact by grouping arrangements of inexpensive art. Not everyone can curate a collection of fine art for their home. En masse arrangements in identical frames are an alternative worth exploring. The oversized mattes in colorful frames used here showcase simple geometrics in a grand way.
Define the Bones of Your Home
Stretch a dark-color grosgrain ribbon underneath a light-painted crown molding to give the molding a shout-out. In a room with tall ceilings, the ribbon outline breaks up the expanse of pale wall, helping the lower portion of the room to feel less weighted and better balanced.
Use Neutrals to Balance Bright Colors
Balance your palette's primary colors with plenty of neutrals. When you decorate with saturated primary colors like the yellow and blue shown here, create relief for the eye with heavy use of a neutral color in-between. This prevents the palette from being too potent.


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Nellie Akalp is a serial entrepreneur, small business advocate, speaker and author. Her first business was started with $100 and sold eight years later for $20 million. Today, she is the founder & CEO of CorpNet.com, an online legal document filing service, where she helps entrepreneurs start a business, incorporate, form an LLC, set up Sole Proprietorships (DBAs) and more for their businesses. Recently CorpNet launched a partner program to help business professionals streamline the incorporation process for their clients.
Nellie has been named a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends the last five years and CorpNet.com has been recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing privately-held companies in America in 2015 and 2016.


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First there was Jennifer Lopez "The Back-Up Plan," then the indie-turn in "The Kids Are Alright."
Stay tuned for the next movie about sperm donation -- "The Switch."
As the latest movie moved into its press day over the weekend, Jennifer Aniston and her co-stars in the artificial insemination romantic comedy admitted there must be something in the water. There are a lot of these movies out there suddenly.
"We read this three years ago," Aniston said, assuring all that it isn't a case of copy cat. "Now there are just more stories able to be told."
Co-director Will Speck said "there is definitely something in the zeitgeist."
But he assured the movie-going public that there are plenty of stories to be told in the growing sperm-donation genre.
"There's a lot of different versions of that story," he said. "We thought we had a really unique way for a romantic comedy."
"The Switch" takes its own turn, focusing on Jason Bateman's quest to find a place in his best friend (and single-mother) Aniston's mini-family -- all told with a seven-year-old kid who is the byproduct of a mysterious artificial insemination in Aniston's past.
"' The Kids Are All Right' " is almost our movie in reverse," said Speck. "There they are tracking down the donor when the kids have already grown up." In this movie, the apparent donor is tracking down his family.
The famously single Aniston called the movie "timely and progressive."


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Public Remarks:
Up To 22,000 Square Feet Of Mezzanine Space Available In Busy Plaza Above Sobeys. Plaza Has Many National Co-Tenants, Ample Parking, And Is Surrounded By Dense Residential Neighbourhoods. Space Is Suitable For Office, Some Recreation, Education.
Whether you are searching for your dream home to buy or doing your assignment to sell your own home or looking for a business to provide income for your family, eHomz Realty Brokerage is here for you to help. eHomz provides you a comprehensive inventory of 320 homes, condos, townhouses and businesses for sale and rent in Ajax with the strong search tools to help you find what fits your need.
eHomz has the most up-to-date set of Ajax real estate listings and gives you the power of searching within the latest Ajax MLS for nearby cities and neighborhoods. If you are interested in the Ajax real estate market and how Ajax has changed over the years, ehomz team of experts who has tremendous experiences working in Ajax area will be in touch with you and send you the accurate and documented statistics.
Ajax MLS data shows that the average Ajax home will sell for $580,971 and will be on the market for 2 days. Get in touch with one of our experts to find out more about your dream home today. Find Home in Markham real estate for sale as well as search for homes for sale in Vaughan Real Estate and within the Mississauga and Brampron Real Estate � MLS Listings on eHomz.
Use eHomz search to narrow down the properties by type, price, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garage, parking, basement, size, or other keywords to find the target home. Also you can explore more records in different categories such as Ajax condos or houses for sale in Ajax. Ajax is home to 365 neighbourhoods and communities accommodating people who are interested either in Ajax Rentals to rent Houses for sale in Ajax to own their dream homes. If you're looking for Condo apartments for rent in Ajax or houses for rent in Toronto, we have you covered.


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More flower photos:-
My New Toy- Air Fryer
1 hour ago
This is not real , it is just like in the heaven !
The garden is amazing! The river view is so nice and unreal. Like Bakeling said, it's like heaven!
Bakeling and Colin, yes, it's just like in heaven, your die die must go at least once in your life time.
Ha ha ha ! I must save $$$$$$$$$ for buying the air ticket !
The photographer used some pretty good angles! Very pleasing to the eye!
wow!!how great if i have all this flowers in my garden...( dreaming ~) haha !!
Felvinc, you only can have plastic tulip in your garden, hahaha.
yalor... can consider buy plastic tulip... :D
WOW, I'm amazed!


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Photos: Pride, passion, music and fireworks at Paralympic...
The Games are over and the athletes and ...
Vancouver transit beefed up to handle Sunday's huge Olympic crowds
Robson Street is a sea of people as far as one can see by this shot taken on Feb. 17. 2010.
Photograph by: Nigel Horsley , Special to the Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER -- Tens of thousands of people are expected to pour into the downtown core Sunday as Vancouver winds down the 2010 Games with a triple finale: the men's gold hockey game, the closing ceremony and the extinguishing of the Olympic flame.
In a bid to manage the crowds, the city will close the Cambie Bridge to vehicle traffic — pedestrians and cyclists can still use it — from 8 a.m. to midnight, along with closures along Beatty Street between Smithe and Dunsmuir and Robson Street between Cambie and Beatty.
TransLink will also pull out all the stops this weekend with every SkyTrain, SeaBus, West Coast Express and bus in service.
"We're expecting a repeat of last weekend where we'll be stretched to the max," said Doug Kelsey, president and CEO of Transit BC, saying he doesn't expect predicted rainshowers for the weekend to dampen the crowds. "Even during the first few days [of the Games] we had rain but that wasn't holding people back. We have to be ready no matter what."
TransLink experienced record crowds last weekend as spectators and visitors took advantage of the sunshine and clear skies to head into town for free concerts, hockey, Olympic events and to visit the various pavilions.
According to the city, the Canada Line reached a peak of almost 290,000 riders a week ago Friday, while the SeaBus had almost 60,000 boardings on the same day, and the Olympic streetcar made almost 25,000 trips.
Dale Bracewell, the city's director of Olympic transportation, said the final day of the Olympics is expected to be "one of the busiest days" because it'll be the last opportunity for the public to visit the LiveSites and most of the pavilions.
Kelsey agreed and said TransLink was focused on ensuring its staff was rested and its equipment well maintained to ensure everything goes smoothly.
"We're not on the podium, but we can see it; we've got to stay focused," he said.
The transportation authority was already bracing for increased crowds Friday, with Coast Mountain Bus Company and West Van Transit adding extra buses to handle increased foot passenger loads on BC Ferries.
Transit users were urged to check the TransLink website as several buses were expected to be rerouted Sunday to avoid the massive crowds on Howe Street. Other street closures will also affect North Shore buses, which will use Richards and Pender to turn around. TransLink suggests the best bet for catching buses to West and North Vancouver is in front of The Bay.
Canada Line will also operate Waterfront-YVR/Airport runs overnight Sunday to deal with a crush of customers expected to fly out on Monday. This overnight service will not run to Aberdeen, Lansdowne and Brighouse stations in Richmond, but passengers can transfer to the N 10 bus at Bridgeport Station.
TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie noted there have been many first-time transit users during the Games and said they should see fewer crowds and better service after the Games. Although transit services will return to pre-Games levels with one less SeaBus and no weekend West Coast Express Service next week, the system was bolstered just before the Olympics with more SkyTrain cars and buses available.
The Olympic Streetcar, meanwhile, will continue running through the Paralympics until March 21.
"Quite a lot of what they've had so far [during the Olympics] is going to be there after the Games," Hardie said.
But competing with transit is the fact several main roads are slated to reopen Tuesday, including the Olympic Lanes and roads around Canada Place, Pacific Coliseum and the Richmond Olympic Oval.
Roads around BC Place and Canada Hockey Place — including Pacific and Expo Boulevards and the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts — are set to reopen Wednesday. However, Abbott Street, from Expo to Pacific, will remain closed until March 14 while Terry Fox Way from Expo to Pacific, will be closed until March 26.
Around the Vancouver Olympic Centre, which is hosting the curling, roads will also reopen Wednesday although more closures will be in effect on March 10 for the Paralympics.
Bracewell said further closures may also come into effect and the public should check out: http://olympichostcity.vancouver.ca/gettingaround/road-parking-restrictions/venue-area-road-closures.htm#1
On the Sea to Sky Highway, the checkpoints will no longer be in effect after Sunday but there will only be one-way traffic northbound, starting Tuesday and running until March 23.
Canada Border Services Agency said regular service at the four Lower Mainland border crossings will resume on Monday. Douglas, Pacific Highway, and Huntingdon will remain open 24 hours a day, while Aldergrove, which had been opening at 5 a.m. during the Games will go back to operating from 8 a.m. to midnight.
Continued road closures:
— roads around Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Village until March 24,
— First Avenue from Quebec to Wylie closed until March 31.
— UBC Thunderbird Arena closures phased in and out until March 21
— Roads around the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Village until March 24.
Proposed temporary parking and stopping restrictions in effect to March 21:
— Hastings between Main and Burrard
— Smithe between Expo and Howe
— Nelson between Thurlow and Beatty
— King Edward between Oak and Sophia
— Cambie between King Edward and 37th Avenue
— East Second/West Sixth Avenue between Hemlock to Main
— Main from Second Avenue to Terminal Avenue


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Home > Rainbow Trugs® > 2.2 Litre Rainbow Mini-Tub®
Stock Code: RT02PSBrand: Rainbow Trug
Weight: 135g
In stock, immediate despatch
Spend More, Save More Discount
Applies to purchases of Trugs and Trug-Lids. Spend over £50 to receive 10% discount, over £100 for 15% and over £200 for a massive 20% discount.
They're cute, they're colourful and very very useful.......
An absolutely brilliant flexi tub that is multi-purpose with a variety of uses around the home, garden, school, office and more. Mini-tub's are made from 100% Food Grade material so can be used in the kitchen or for serving party snacks. Perfectly safe for children and animals as they are 100% free from harmful phthalates which some manufacturers use to increase the flexibility of their products. Truly useful containers, no home should be without flexible Mini-Tubs!
Height to the rim – 122mm (approx 4 3/4 inches)
Diameter at rim – 182mm (approx 7 1/4 inches)
Capacity – 2.27 Litres/0.5 Gallons
Weight – (approx 150g)
- Party food container
- Desk Tidy
- Plant Pot
- Storing Arts and Crafts
- Toy Tidy
- Fruit Bowl
- Paint Pot
- Bathroom Accessories
Delivery charges are dependant on size and location however we do offer FREE standard delivery subject to a varying minimum spend. If you have any questions about delivery, please feel free to contact us.
Saturday or Sunday Delivery
Order before 1pm Friday
Scottish Highlands and Islands
DPD 2 Day Delivery
£16.99 or Free on orders over £120 - 2 Working Days
Two Working Days £16.99 or Free on orders over £120
A 2 to 3 day delivery service £12.50 GBP or FREE on orders over £60
A 2 to 3 day delivery service £10.00 GBP or FREE on orders over £50
A 2 to 3 day delivery service £12.00 GBP or FREE on orders over £60
A 2 to 3 day delivery service £14.00 GBP or FREE on orders over £80
A 3 to 4 day delivery service £16.00 GBP or FREE on orders over £100
A 3 to 4 day delivery service £14.00 GBP or FREE on orders over £80
We love our Rainbow Trugs and hope that you do too. However should you order an item and choose to return it, you can. Please follow the procedure below.
Our returns and cancellation policy is based on the UK Consumer Contracts Regulations 2014. You can cancel an order for goods from the moment you place your order and up to 14 days from the day you receive your goods. This 14 day period is the time you have to decide whether to keep any or all the items you have ordered. You then have a further 14 days to actually send the goods back. You are responsible for the cost and risk of loss or damage when returning the goods, so you should take out enough postal insurance to cover their value. Firstly, email us at firstname.lastname@example.com requesting a returns number and stating your reason for return. We will email you a returns number and a specific returns address. Once we receive any items returned by you, we will process a refund within 14 days. A deduction can be made if the value of the goods has been reduced as a result of you handling the goods more than was necessary and any direct delivery costs incurred by us in fulfilment of your order.
Outside of the initial 14 day period described above, returns requests due to extenuating circumstances are handled on a case by case basis, as are claims under our 12 month warranty against manufacturing faults. In these instances email us at email@example.com stating your reasons for the request or details of your warranty claim.
This returns policy does not affect your rights when we are at fault. Any goods returned should be in saleable condition.
These terms apply to your order. We may change our terms and conditions at any time, so please do not assume that the same terms will apply in the future.
None of these terms affect your legal rights and these are not diminished in any way. If any term is held to be invalid under any applicable statute or rule of law, that term is automatically omitted from the terms to minimum extent necessary to comply with the law and without affecting the validity or enforceability of the remainder.
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The theory of evolution, which is taught as a fact in our public school textbooks, tax-supported parks, museums, and public television programs, is actually not a harmless theory but a dangerous religious belief. I have dedicated my life to help people learn the truth needed to expose evolutionism as being largely responsible for molding the thinking of hosts of people like Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot of the Khmer in Cambodia, Margaret Sanger, and Karl Marx, who have caused untold suffering in our world. Evolution as it is being taught is dangerous for several reasons.
- At stake is the credibility of Jesus. He cited Genesis twenty-five times and said the creation of Adam was "the beginning" (Matthew 19:4). Evolution and creation represent worldviews that are polar opposites—one of them is wrong! Also at stake are the morals of our children, because if evolution is true, there are no moral absolutes and only the strongest have a right to survive. If evolution is true, abortion, euthanasia, pornography, genocide, homosexuality, adultery, incest, etc., are all permissible.
- Evolution is positively anti-science. Science deals with things that are testable, observable, and demonstrable; and evolution has none of those qualities. To call evolution "science" is to confuse fairy tales with facts. True, evolution has been mixed with science for the last 140 years, but that does not mean that it is the same as science. Beer is often advertised during sporting events but the two subjects have no logical connection and evolution has no more to do with science than beer has to do with sports.
- Real science, not evolution, should be taught in the science classes. Teaching the pagan religion of evolutionism is a waste of valuable class time and textbook space. It is also one of the reasons American kids don't test as well in science as kids in other parts of the world.
- Government should not sponsor religion. Teaching the theory of evolution as fact in tax-supported schools violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Why should all taxpayers support one religion over all others in our schools? Efforts must be made on all fronts to inform people that evolution is only a religion and that tax-supported institutions should not teach it as fact.


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On Memorial Day, Richard Morrison went fishing in the warm water of Choctawhatchee Bay just east of Niceville. Four days later he was dead, victim of vibrio vulnificus, a bacterium that occurs naturally in warm Gulf Coast waters.
On Memorial Day, Richard Morrison went fishing in the warm water of Choctawhatchee Bay just east of Niceville.
Four days later he was dead, victim of vibrio vulnificus, a bacterium that occurs naturally in warm Gulf Coast waters.
His widow, Sue Morrison, said her husband first demonstrated signs of illness on Wednesday when he suffered chills and a fever.
By Thursday he had been admitted to Sacred Heart Hospital in serious condition, diagnosed with blood clots in his leg and lung.
His leg was amputated that day and on the following evening he succumbed to the infection that had invaded his lungs.
�Never did I think he had what he had,� Sue Morrison said.
After speaking to Morrison�s family, as well as the family of Valparaiso resident Perry Davis, who survived vibrio vulnificus in 2011, Okaloosa County Health Department director Karen Chapman has initiated a campaign to educate health care providers and the public about the bacterium.
�I don�t want to scare anybody, it�s just that these families, myself and the Florida Department of Health want to educate people,� Chapman said.
Vibrio vulnificus is found in marine and estuarine waters and is associated with marine species that include shellfish, crustaceans and finfish, according to a news release from the Florida Department of Health.
See the Health Department warning. >>
Infection is not common, but between January of 2004 and this June, 50 cases had been confirmed in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton and Escambia counties, the release states.
The bacterium gains entry to the body in one of two ways. It can be ingested by eating raw or undercooked seafood, or it can enter the body through an open wound, the release states.
Chapman said the most vulnerable to vibrio vulnificus are those with a weakened immune system and those with liver disease.
People over the age of 50, whose immune systems are not as strong as those of younger people, are also more likely to fall victim, Chapman said.
Morrison was 65 when vibrio vulnificus took his life. His only known illnesses were high blood pressure and a slight problem with circulation in his feet.
Chapman said the Davis and Morrison families contacted her and agreed to tell their stories because both are concerned area residents don�t know enough about vibrio vulnificus.
Sue Morrison said her entire family � �all fishing people� � refuse to enter Choctawhatchee Bay since Richard Morrison�s death.
�I�ve been telling people who go into the water, �take precautions,� � Morrison said. �If you get an infection, go to the hospital and tell them you�ve been in the water.�
Perry Davis, a Valparaiso resident, was a close friend of Richard Morrison�s. The two grew up on the water and Davis, like Morrison, enjoyed net fishing and other forms of the sport that put him in contact with the water of Choctawhatchee Bay.
Davis, who has Lupus, was fishing on July 9, 2011, when the bacterium infiltrated his skin, apparently through an open wound.
�I went to church Sunday and to a lodge meeting Monday,� he said. �Monday night, I woke up and my leg was kinda bothering me. I pulled the cover back and the leg was almost completely black.�
Luckily for him, Davis said, his doctor had cared for two other patients with the bacterial infection.
�He started treating it immediately,� he said.
Davis managed to beat the infection, but not before undergoing four surgeries and spending an estimated 43 days under hospital care.
The Florida Department of Health said education is the best way to lessen the number of infections, and fatalities, caused by vibrio vulnificus.
Those who for medical reasons would be considered at risk for infection are advised to avoid eating raw or undercooked seafood.
Also, staying out of the Gulf of Mexico and its salt water estuaries when open wounds are present is strongly advised, the health department said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.


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Today's guest blog post is by AAA member, Richard Wilk of the Global Climate Change Task Force. Dr. Wilk is Provost Professor at Indiana University.
Looking Back on Today
By Richard Wilk
How are we going to be remembered in a century, in two hundred or five hundred years? Not as individuals – even the most famous people will be long forgotten. But what about our civilization and our way of life? As a trained archaeologist, I ask whether our time will be called a golden age, an epoch of art, learning and enlightenment, or a dark and troubled era of wastefulness, decline and division.
Archaeologists have tried to purge the more obvious value judgments from their snapshots of past times. They no longer call epochs "decadent" or "formative" though terms like "classic" and "high civilization" are still used for the times when a culture hit its peak of power, built its most magnificent cities, made the most beautiful and elaborate arts and crafts, or conquered neighbors and welded them into a vast empire.
And they can also point to genuine examples of decline and failure. The Norse, for example, successfully colonized Greenland in 986 AD, and grew to 16 parishes led by a Catholic bishop in 1350. But when their trade with Europe was cut off by the Black Plague a hundred years later, and colder climate cut down on their pastures, the colonies failed and everyone sailed back to Iceland and Norway (see Stull 1990). The people of the American Southwest, in Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon and a series of other cultural centers settled there for centuries, yet suffered a painful decline and dispersal between 1100 and the 1400 with continual raiding, warfare, migration and ultimately abandonment of sequential regional areas.
So what about our era, the rise of Western capitalism and its diffusion in the form of globalized trade and material aspirations? Pundits and preachers tell us we are at the edge of the cliff, about to fall into oblivion. Others claim just as certainly that we are entering a new period of growth and prosperity, as democracy and freedom spread and we transition into a sustainable economy based on green technology.
For a moment let's just step back and look at one thing we have built our civilization upon – oil. The amount we use is so large that the numbers are meaningless to most of us. Artist Chris Jordan uses huge canvases to help us really feel what 28,000 42-gallon barrels–the amount consumed in the USA every two minutes– looks like. As he says, it is "equal to the flow of a medium sized river" running 24 hours a day.
Maybe in 50 years but certainly in a century, free oil from the ground is going to be very scarce and a lot more precious. There will be expensive substitutes from natural gas, algae, genetically modified palm trees and the like, but the idea that you could once pump oil and sell it for $100 a barrel is going to sound ridiculous. So looking back on today, from the distant future, the idea that people would burn the precious stuff just to drive around 'sightseeing' or on holiday, in a private vehicle, for fun, seems somewhat short-sighted. A lot of the time these cars are not even full.
And why were their towns and cities spread out across the land, so people had to burn oil just to go to work or buy groceries? I have tried to explain this to European visitors several times, with little success. I somehow doubt that people in 100 years are going to have more sympathy. They are just going to think we were crazed, insane, and unbelievably wasteful; and that we were unable to understand what our own scientists were telling us.
At least the ancient Romans had an excuse when they poisoned themselves with lead in their water, food and wine. They had no idea that lead was responsible for their declining intelligence, miscarriages, memory loss and bad digestion. But look at all the poisons we ingest every day in our air, water, food and drink, despite dire warnings. How can we explain that in rational terms?
I just hope that none of our distant descendants ever runs across a catalog from Skymall or Hammacher-Schlemmer. Like our giant yachts, trophy mansions and vanity museums, these catalogs demonstrate a rococo form of consumerism that has no pretense of being for or about anything, beyond the tiniest quantum of health or comfort. Are you ready to justify spending resources on an "indoor flameless marshmallow roaster" to your great-great grandchildren, who are living in a world where oceans have risen to inundate most coastal cities, because of the fossil fuels we burned?
If these things were exceptional, my argument would be trivial. But our entire consumer culture has spun into a kind of 'babes in toyland' phase, that feels like one last big blow-out party where we try to recapture the innocent joy of a time when we didn't know that our fun was wrecking the place. The only difference is that in this case, it is the kids, not the parents, who are going to be asking, "What were you possibly thinking to leave us such a huge mess?"
Bloggers, political pundits, and social scientists have noted that the hallmark of the Anthropocene is that it is the only geological epoch where the active force in creating change (us, that is) consciously know that we are affecting the planet; the question is whether humans have the interest and political will to do anything about it (Palsson et al 2012). So far we have not heard any serious proposals to limit or control the wildest and most wasteful kinds of consumerism.
Palsson, G., et al., Reconceptualizing the 'Anthropos' in the Anthropocene: Integrating the social sciences and humanities in global environmental change research. Environ. Sci. Policy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2012.11.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2012.11.004
Stull, Scott 1990 Colonization in a Marginal Zone: The Norse in Greenland. Crosscurrents 4:1-15. http://www.academia.edu/637940/Colonization_in_a_Marginal_Zone_the_Norse_in_Greenland
Chris Jordan: http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#oil-barrels


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While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, President Barack Obama famously remarked on "bitter" blue-collar Pennsylvanians who "cling to guns or religion."
Now Obama, in the wake of the mass murder of schoolchildren at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut a month ago, is exploring tighter gun restrictions. Gun control proponents already have introduced bills in the new Congress.
One generally conservative group, evangelical pastors largely agree (73 percent) that more regulation is needed, according to the December Evangelical Leaders Survey by the National Association of Evangelicals.
"The evangelical leaders who responded to the NAE survey support the Second Amendment right to bear arms, but also want our laws to prevent the slaughter of children," said NAE president Leith Anderson.
Public support for tighter gun laws has grown since the Newtown shooting, with 58 percent backing tougher restrictions, according to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll. That's up from 43 percent in October 2011.
"Most of my experience with guns has been as a hunter in the great Wisconsin outdoors," said Bill Lenz, senior pastor of Christ the Rock Community Church. "I do not believe that guns are the heart of the problem, but there should be strong regulations on who can bear arms. The easy access to guns has undoubtedly contributed to horrible tragedies."
There are many approaches to take, Lenz said, and gun control is one of them.
The NAE reports that the 27 percent of evangelical leaders who don't supported tighter controls said there are better solutions to the problem of gun violence — better enforcement of existing gun laws, reform of the mental health system, regulation of media violence and "spiritual renewal."


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Military families and the life of the cautiously carefree child
By Capt. Megan Hoffmann April 18, 2017
CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Children are typically carefree, no job, no bills to pay, no worries. However, that is not true for the military child.
Military children don't typically fall into the carefree category. At any given time their lives can be in a state of change; living in a single-parent or no-parent household with parents deployed or geographically separated due to military obligations, changing schools and living in turmoil are just a few things military children deal with on a regular basis.
April marks the Month of the Military child, which aims to honor military children and the sacrifices they make.
On April 6 the Wyoming National Guard hosted the Month of the Military Child kickoff at Storey Gym, in Cheyenne, with remarks from Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead about the unique nature of the lives of military children.
"We estimate in the state of Wyoming there are about 5,000 military children," Mead said. "Another way to think about that is we have 5,000 reasons to be thankful. These children represent courage, bravery and do the most important thing by supporting mom or dad and their mission. We are so proud of these kids and what they do.
"I would tell you that as my job as governor I get the privilege of getting to spend time with our local military. On every occasion I am so impressed with what they do . . . In the same way we recognize those who are serving, we should also recognize the families and in particular the children."
Gov. Mead then went on to tell a story about a little boy whom his father had been deployed for so long that every time he was told his father was coming home, he didn't believe it. It wasn't until his father walked in the door and he was able to physically embrace him that he believed.
The struggles these children face are well known and understood by the personnel working in Service Member, Family and Employer Readiness Support Team.
The S-FERST team provides programs and support focused on families, children and youth in a variety of arenas. One such program, the Yellow Ribbon, is aimed at providing pre and post-deployment support for children and family members.
Staff Sgt. Mikki Munson, a human resources sergeant, formerly the Yellow Ribbon program coordinator from 2012-2014 for the Wyoming Army National Guard, understands the importance of the S-FERST program and the services it provides. As a 15-year veteran of the Wyoming Army National Guard, mother of three and wife of a retired active duty Air Force master sergeant, she wears many hats and recognizes one of the most difficult aspects of military life is the toll is takes on the children.
"The sustainment and resiliency events are so crucial," Munson said. "Every child reacts differently to a parent having to leave for a deployment and training, and then readjusting when they return home. These services are especially critical for the kiddos as we often overlook them, thinking because they are young they don't truly understand the ramifications of having a parent(s) leave. They not only understand, but sometimes they are more deeply impacted than a spouse or adult."
Employed for two years with the Yellow Ribbon program, Munson was in charge of planning pre-deployment, during, and post-deployment events for families to help connect them with local resources.
"We would have 30, 60, 90, and 330-day resiliency and sustainment events. At the 30-day event we would ask spouses, children and family members of deployed members what they wanted or needed during the deployed member's absence or what they were struggling with. We would then take that information and structure the sustainment events to reflect the needs of those families," said Munson.
Amy Wilson, child and youth program coordinator for the Wyoming National Guard since 2013 said the services that S-FERST offers to military members and their families are too numerous to explain all of them. In the child and youth arena, S-FERST offers resiliency training for teens, day and summer camps, family events such as father/daughter dance, referrals for free tutoring or childcare assistance, activity grants and community trainings explaining the life of military children and how they are affected by separations.
"The most important aspect of the child and youth program is providing events with fun life-skill building activities and making sure families have the resources and information they need to navigate military life," Wilson said.
In Wyoming, 5,000 military children who can't be carefree are seen as reasons to be thankful and simply say 'thank you,' for the sacrifices made day-in and day-out.


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I was listening to a preacher on the radio the other day, making what he thought was a good case against evolution. He spent some time scoffing at the idea that "lots of time" was in any way a key to understanding Darwin's theory. He gave this example: "Suppose I take all the parts that make up a watch, and put them in a bag, and just shake them up. They won't just assemble themselves into a watch. Now, suppose I shake that bag for a long, long time. See what I mean? It just doesn't work."
No, Barney, it doesn't work. But then, again, this is a popular creationist argument (a version of Hoyle's self-assembling 747 argument — listen to Richard Dawkin's refutation of this argument here).
When confronted with this kind of "argument", it's difficult to know where to begin, as the weeds of ignorance are so thick and so tall that they almost have to be attacked in multiple directions at once. But writing (like conversation and argument) is linear, so I must take them on one at a time.
Let's take the most glaring example of bad logic employed in this argument (so bad, in fact, I wonder if it's fair to call it "logic" at all). The preacher is using a mechanical device (a watch — presumably a classic "wind-up" watch) to stand in for a biological process. Now, to be clear, there are mechanical processes to be found and described in biology, and there are chemical processes to be found in machinery (at least on the level of the metal parts of the watch being acted upon by the corrosive effects of exposure to air, or the energy stored and released by a main spring, or the transfer of electrons that can occur between dissimilar metals) but none of these processes have much of anything to do with the physical act of actually assembling a wound-up and functioning watch.
And biology can build "machines", in the sense that an organ such as the heart works in a manner similar to a mechanical pump, or bacterium grow flagellum that can "corkscrew" their bodies forward through fluids. And it is also true that both the metal gears of a pocket watch and the living heart are built up out of the same storehouse of elements that make up our planet. But, again, these are not the kinds of things the radio preacher is considering. For no matter how clever the analogy sounds, the gears of a pocket watch are never going to be the product of biological actions. They are manufactured by humans through a series of mechanical steps, from mining to smelting to design then machining or casting, to polishing and final assembly.
The dubious intellectual leap that almost always accompanies the crap analogies that are the bread and butter of the anti-science crowd is this fallacious assumption of equivalency between human technological creation and biological processes. Perhaps this error is rendered too easy for us because science almost always has to draw on metaphor to communicate it's discoveries. Hence the heart is the "pump", the venous system the "pipes", the brain the "computer", the bones the "levers" and the muscles the "pulleys", but always only in a metaphorical sense. Too many of us, it would seem, invest too heavily in the metaphor — we take the description of the thing for the thing itself.
Regardless, this is what this flavor of fallacious argument does: it conveniently substitutes one kind of thing for another, then breezily jumps to a false conclusion. In this case, the preacher touches on one of the genuine conditions for the theory of evolution to work, namely: time. But he then jumps from evolution (the mutational changes over life forms over time) to "origin of life" questions (where did the parts of the watch come from in the first place?), something that evolution has nothing to do with. Evolution is the description of how (once begun) biological life blossomed into so many different forms over time. Evolution has nothing to say about how, when, or where biological life began. But that is of no concern to this kind of creationist, as he or she has the ability to leap back and forth between arguments with no regard to whether they are addressing genuine science or not (frequently "moving the goalposts" of their "argument" in the process).
So let's get back to the watch analogy. Clearly, the dismembered pocket watch is a stand-in for the "primordial stew" that is thought to have produced life. But the comparison does not hold. For the primordial stew involves liquid water, elements, chemical reactions and the input of energy (be it solar or terrestrial heat, or the energy of lightning — all of these produced by processes that science has been able to describe). And in this area, experiments have shown that rudimentary life could, indeed, begin this way. (In fact, the way the research seems to be going, I have the sense that we are going to find out that the starting up of life is not really all that hard, given the right circumstances. We already suspect that life had to begin untold numbers of times on the planet, most all of which were short-lived events — ended by the various catastrophes that have befallen our globe since it cooled enough to form a crust).
But the preacher ignores this key difference, and sincerely thinks that the "soup of life" is the same as a collection of manufactured and machined metal gears, pins, screws and glass. True, the parts-in-a-bag scenario does at least include the input of some energy (you or I "shaking" the bag), but that is hardly the same as solar or thermal energy working on dissolved elements within a watery environment, fueling chain after chain of chemical reactions. (If, on the other hand, the preacher were to put the actual elements of life into his rhetorical "bag" and shake it with some solar energy, he might be very surprised to open it up and find it filled with the slime of early "life").
Why do people buy these illogical anti-science arguments? I don't think that question is all that hard to answer, as we see examples of this every day. We humans are deeply susceptible to false positives when it comes to causal relationships. We are, in fact, crap at making the kinds of distinctions between "causal" and "casual" that is the very basis of science. But, then, that is why we developed science: to finally figure reality out. After centuries of making guesses about why this or that occurred, we finally found a way to reliably outwit our own intellectual limitations.
But science is challenging to our natural (and cherished) intuitive faculties, not least of all because it is really good at giving very specific answers to very specific questions under very specific conditions (which, it should be noted, is not the way most of us frame our questions about "life"). And this is as it should be. After all, to eliminate the possibility of bias or interference (a huge issue for humans), conditions that might affect an experiment must be tightly controlled, and all possible inputs carefully limited. And, hence, a new scientific discovery might be hailed as a sweeping new truth by the media, even as the scientific community remains deeply circumspect, qualifying their discoveries with "Well, we now know that under conditions x or y, this or that can occur".
A lot of people, I think, find this kind of qualification (and precision) damn frustrating. This is perhaps most prevalent in "health news", where we are often left asking: "Well, should I drink soda or not???" And the answer is generally a qualified one, with a mix of yes and no, depending.
And so there will always be those who can preach the simple path to certainty that unqualified assertions can pave for the frustrated human psyche. You can see this with almost any article having to do with evolution, where you can count on someone posting a variation of the comment that "There is absolutely zero proof for evolution. None."
This, of course, is just about as absurd as a modern human can get. Like the radio preacher who then went on to say that no "missing link" had ever been found, going down the "cherry-picking" laundry list of the most notorious scientific frauds (such as the "Piltdown Man" and others), ignoring the reality that for every one of those frauds, there are, literally, millions of fossils that are genuine (not to mention the fact that it was other scientists who discovered the frauds). Again, the most glaring flaw in this argument is that every single fossil ever found is a "missing link" between at two different species (with the exception of a specimen of a species preserved at the moment it went extinct). If evolution is understood on even the most rudimentary level, then you must realize that every living thing is a transitional species between it's ancestors and future descendants. (Even the preacher himself)!
That preacher also expresses the familiar misconception that the fossil preservation of past life works like a scrapbook you might keep of your children's growth — with page after sequential page of photos and clippings of all of the years of that child's growth. And therefore (if evolution is true) we should find all sorts of "missing links" in the fossil record. Well, of course, this is just what we find when we are lucky enough to explore sedimentary deposits that have occurred in perfect conditions (which generally means landscapes that are subsiding at the edges of bodies of water — where sediments eroded from land can be laid down on the sea floor, burying dead critters, layer upon layer that are not then lifted up again to be eroded away by water and weather — at least not until scientists find them eons later). But, the Earth being as geologically active as it is, these "perfect" conditions can only exist in certain locations for a limited period of time — like strips of images torn from a much longer movie (or from thousands and thousands of movies of all of the different ecosystems and locales that are filled with life). And we will never know how many fine fossil deposits have been worn away into dust, or remain buried too deep underground for us to find.
I recently visited the La Brea Tar Pits in central Los Angeles. Those natural tar seeps were almost perfect traps for every kind of living thing that lived in the local environment for the last 40,000 years. They have pulled thousands and thousands of fossils out of that site, including sloths, mammoths and saber-toothed cats, but also birds and bugs and micro-fossils. But that was one small site in one locale that only got into the "scrapbook" game after the last ice age. It is a wonderful window into Southern California's recent past, but it doesn't tell us what was happening just over the mountains to the east, or further north or south.
But this is how fossilization works: the conditions have to be right, and then the fossils have to be exposed again through later geologic action or human digging. Most animals die in places where their carcasses are consumed by other life forms or broken down to nothing by the corrosive effects of air, sun and water. Even with our practice of human burial, look how few human remains we have found of our ancient ancestors (and we know there were a lot more humans alive in history than we have ever found).
The hard truth is that, despite the ever-increasing number and variety of fossilized species that come to light every year, most of every lion, tiger, bear, dinosaur or ancestral human that ever lived will never be found. Creationists see this as a dodge, but only because they have such an astoundingly simplistic view of the way the earth (and biology) actually work (as well an apparent ignorance of the sheer volume of fossils residing in the museums of the world). This ignorance is unfortunate, and difficult to eradicate, as I get the sense that a lot of public school teachers aren't all that enthused about the workings of evolution themselves (I know that my education on that score was mostly a self-guided adult exercise). Add into that the active campaign to oppose the acceptance of evolution (and science in general), and there remains a ready audience for the radio preacher I have used as my example today.
(This is why I support The National Center for Science Education).
I think that part of what we are really discovering is that the process of evolution (as well as the wide variety of life forms it "creates") is not so strange or incomprehensible is it is made out to be. It is actually a very simple process that appears complicated only because we are so used to seeing ourselves as different from all other life forms. I can tell you that dinosaurs no longer look strange at all to my eyes. To me a Hadrosaur is pretty much the "wild cow of the Cretaceous", and the T-Rex is a giant toothed bird sort of thing. Look up pictures of the strange-looking animals that live today (you can Google "ugliest animals"), and you will see any number of living critters whose weirdness tests both our intellect and stomach.
But, of course, these strange critters exist. Just like you and I exist. And this is the greatest testimony the the reality of evolution: it happened.
The preacher said that evolution is not a "fact" like gravity is a "fact" (because he could see gravity in action in a way he could not witness evolution at work). I'm sorry his imaginative capacity is so limited, because evolution is on display all around us. True, we can't see it happening (like we can see ice melt or gravity break the glass we drop on the kitchen floor) but the simple fact that we need a different flu shot every year should tell us something about the mutations ("guided" by natural selection) that allow species to adapt to changing life conditions. Plus, I hate to tell the preacher that gravity, like evolution, is also a descriptive theory of a certain physical reality, and that gravity is no more (or no less) a fact than Darwin's theory of evolution.
t.n.s.r. bob


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Coupon API - Source Code
The Coupon API supported by Stage of Life provides access to a large number of discounts on U.S. based brands by partnering with hundreds of national companies. These coupons range anywhere from 5% to 50% off specific products, and are stored in the Stage of Life merchant offer database. The database can be accessed via a REST interface to return an XML feed that enables developers to integrate membership perks, loyalty rewards, and other discount distribution programs into a web or mobile application. The system uses smart ways of "tagging" data to increase segmentation for marketing and business goals. Discounts can be grouped into the following example categories: Entertainment Offers, Student Offers, Small Business Offers, Mobile-Friendly Offers, In-Store Offers, Family Offers, Shopping Offers, etc. All categories can be included, or the API consumer may choose to only include certain categories and only specific merchants.


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RICHMOND, Va. – The NBA draft is just over two months away, but the journey to having the dreams come true started this past weekend for many players.
The 60th annual Portsmouth Invitational Tournament was played this past weekend and former VCU standout Bradford Burgess was among those who impressed the boatload of NBA scouts that descended upon the Tidewater area.
"It was a great opportunity for myself and many other players to showcase ourselves in front of many scouts and hopefully give us a chance at a future at the professional level," Burgess said. "There's a ton of history with the tournament and the players that have played down here, it was just a huge opportunity that I was grateful to be a part of."
Here's a quick recap of Burgess' three games with his squad, the Portsmouth Partnership.
Game 1 – Portsmouth Partnership 85, Mike Duman 79: Despite having a plethora of BCS players at the tournament, Burgess did what he always has done and started the opening round game in his team's 85-79 win over the Mike Duman squad. The Midlothian, Va. native played a team-high 31 minutes.
Burgess' Game 1 Stat Line: 9 points, 8 rebounds, 2-of-7 shooting, 1-of-3 from beyond the arc, 3 assists, 1 block
Game 2 – Roger Brown's 93, Portsmouth Partnership 73: The NCAA all-time leader in consecutive starts played yet another steady game in the second round loss to the eventual champion, Roger Brown's. He played 25 minutes, but didn't get many looks late when the game got out of hand.
Burgess' Game 2 Stat Line: 7 points, 3 rebounds, 3-of-7 shooting, 1-of-2 from beyond the arc, 1 assist, 1 steal
Game 3 –Portsmouth Partnership 78, Cherry Bekart & Holland 75: Burgess saved his best for last, leading all scorers with 19 points in 35 minutes of action. His squad would need every bit of his output in a back-and-forth battle and eventual win in the third-place game over the Cherry, Bekart & Holand squad.
Burgess' Game 3 Stat Line: 19 points, 7 rebounds, 6-of-10 shooting, 3-of-5 from beyond the arc, 1 steal
The Final Stat Line for Burgess:
11.7 points per game, 6.0 rebounds per game, 11-of-24 shooting, 5-of-10 from beyond the arc, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 30.3 minutes per game