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How big is the climactic Jon Snow vs. Ramsay Bolton face-off? This big.
We've been told the Battle of the Bastards is Game of Thrones' biggest battle ever.
But how big is big, exactly? What went into making the upcoming Snow vs. Bolton face-off in episode 9 (the photos for which are getting us very excited)?
Here's what it took to pull off the battle sequence in Sunday's episode, which is directed by Miguel Sapochnik ("Hardhome"):
600 crew members
Crew can include everything from cameramen to prop masters to costume department.
500 extras
The performers filled out the Snow and Bolton armies, playing wildlings, archers, swordsmen, spearmen, etc. The armies were trained separately to create a competitve off-screen rivalry that would hopefully then become apparent on camera during the fighting scenes. Visual effects were then used to expand the armies into the thousands.
160 tons of gravel
Heavy rain made the production's field in Northern Ireland extremely muddy. Horses don't like mud. So gravel had to be brought in to give the horses some traction. Which leads us to…
70 horses
One of the most difficult aspects of making the battle. You typically only see horses in a war sequence nowadays in a major big-budget Hollywood film as the animals are notoriously difficult to coordinate — and quite expensive. Adding horses typically makes the process of shooting a scene take twice as long.
25 stuntmen and women
Somebody's gotta fall off those horses and endure Kit Harington's beatings.
25 shooting days
To get a sense of how long this is, most TV dramas are shot in 8-to-12 days. And that's for a full episode, whereas Thrones spent 25 days on this battle sequence alone (the sequence isn't all fighting — there's some sideline drama as well).
4 camera crews
This one is pretty self explanatory.
$$$ dollars
How much did this episode cost? We don't have an exact figure for you. But Thrones season 6 cost north of $10 million per episode and that's considered very much an average – the price per hour varies and "BOB" is presumably the season's most expensive episode. So go ahead and guess (and you might even be right).
Here's one more number we're wondering: How many major characters, if any, will perish? Tune into the BastardBowl on Sunday and then come to EW.com for full coverage.
Better yet: Pick up this week's issue of EW, which goes behind the scenes of the battle in Northern Ireland, get the issue here.
The "Battle of the Bastards" episode has been heavily submitted by HBO for this year's Emmys — here's exactly which GoT actors and episodes were submitted for which categories. Check out BOB photos and the trailer here. And while you wait for Sunday, here's our coverage of episode 8, "No One": Read our deep-dive recap with our thoughts on the episode, plus our Q&A with Maisie Williams about Arya's face-off with The Waif (hey, that's a pun!), and our chat with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gwendoline Christie talking about Jaime and Brienne's touching reunion. Our latest Game of Thrones Weekly podcast episode is now live for "No One" too, subscribe now and listen below.
|Complete Coverage
|Available For Streaming On

subset: commoncrawl


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2017 Predictor and Trivia winners announced
We're happy to announce our grand prize winners for the final seasons of our FIFA Predictor and FIFA Ultimate Trivia games.
Take the World11 Predictor Challenge!
With The Best FIFA Football Awards 2017 coming up fast and the 55 nominees for the FIFA FIFPRO World11 already known, try your hand at predicting the final line-up and you could win some impressive prizes.
Be There With Hyundai Winners Announced!
Your voices have been heard, and your votes counted. We have our eight winners for the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017 Be There with Hyundai Contest!
Shortlists revealed. VOTE NOW!
Voting for the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017 Be There With Hyundai Contest is now open! 24 slogans submitted by FIFA Club members have made the final shortlist.
New Predictor and Trivia seasons underway!
The new seasons of the popular FIFA.com Club games Predictor and Trivia are now officially open, and there are some excellent prizes in store!
The Best experience for lucky fans
FIFA.com speaks to three competition winners from FIFA's Digital platforms who will be making their way to Zurich for the FIFA Football Awards, joining eight other fans making the trip of a lifetime to the ceremony.
FIFA opens its doors to fans from around the world
Last week 50 football fans from around the world were brought to the Home of FIFA to share their thoughts about issues within the game and how best FIFA can continue to engage with them.
FIFA fan survey engages fans globally
In August, FIFA launched a fan survey aimed at gaining different insights from fans around the world, which was promoted on FIFA.com, Facebook and Twitter for three weeks. We received an overwhelming response from more than 26,000 fans from over 200 Member Associations.
England 1966 stories, videos and prizes!
We're celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the 1966 FIFA World Cup™ with a Facebook contest!
Win prizes as we celebrate another FIFA World Cup Anniversary!
We're celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ with a Facebook contest!
Celebrate Mexico 1986, win prizes!
FIFA.com is celebrating 30 years since the 1986 FIFA World Cup with exclusive content and prizes.


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Everybody knows Coca‑Cola yet less is known about all of the things the company does behind the scenes. The sustainability report, which was published for the first time this year, tells many exciting stories spanning Coca‑Cola's 75-year history in Switzerland.
Fact 1: Switzerland and Coca‑Cola. Produced here, consumed here.
With more than 1,000 employees, the company produces over 90% of its 22 branded beverages in its own bottling companies in Bolligen (BE), Dietlikon (ZH) and Vals (GR). This range of drinks comprises not just Coca‑Cola but other classics like Fanta, Sprite, Nestea and Valser. With just a few exceptions, the beverages' added value is generated in Switzerland.
Fact 2: More choices, fewer calories, active lifestyle
Because Coca‑Cola focuses on the needs and well-being of its consumers, it continuously launches new innovations on the market. One example of this is Nestea Green Tea Citrus which contains the sweetener stevia and 30% less sugar. All in all, the total caloric value of the company's product range has been reduced by more than 10% over the past 7 years. Ever since it was invented in the 19th century, Coca‑Cola has been manufactured without artificial aromas or added preservatives. Moreover, the company supports numerous sporting events and promotes a healthy, active lifestyle.
Fact 3: Responsible marketing
Coca‑Cola respects the responsibility of parents. As a result, the company does not advertise its products to children under 12 years of age. Classrooms are ad-free zones and absolutely no promotions are conducted at schools. Vending machines are only installed at the express wish of the school's administration.
Fact 4: More drinks, less PET
The production volume has risen by 1% over the previous year. Despite this increase, PET requirements were cut by 1.5%. In the case of 500 ml PET bottles, for instance, a shorter neck and optimised use of materials achieved a 3-g reduction in bottle weight. Calculated for an entire truck load of bottles, that comes to a total of 57 kg less PET packaging.
Fact 5: Coolers that think
Coca‑Cola is relying on intelligent coolers to help it reduce its CO2 footprint even further. The device registers how it is being used and adjusts its cooling capacity accordingly. It turns itself off after the store closes, for instance, and only turns itself on two hours before the store opens. This kind of cooler is up to 63% more energy efficient than a model from 2004.
Fact 6: Award-winning human resource management
The magazine HR Today as well as the Personal Swiss trade fair both distinguished Coca‑Cola for the second time in a row: in 2011 for its employee development process and for its efforts in the area of human resources in 2012. That makes Coca‑Cola one of four Swiss corporations to have been presented with the Swiss HR label. The company also counts on woman power: women held 5 of 16 senior management positions in 2011. Gender-specific differences in salaries have also been eliminated.
Fact 7: No occupational accidents
In 2011 Coca‑Cola achieved the lowest number of lost days due to occupational accidents in the company's history. Its vision is to achieve zero occupational accidents by 2020. The company is also banking on a good work-life balance within the scope of its efforts to promote occupational health. Maternity leave has been extended to 16 weeks and expecting fathers have five days of paid leave. All employees can take advantage of the assistance offered by familyservice®.
Fact 8: A date with Coke
Coca‑Cola has developed an innovative platform for recruiting new employees: Job Dating Day. This gives the company an opportunity to meet with future employees on equal footing during several "dates". The concept focuses not only on checking an employee's hard and soft skills but also their cultural fit or, in other words, whether they are a good cultural match to the Coke family. At the end of the day both decide whether they could imagine a future together.
Fact 9: Fewer resources used per litre
Compared to 2001, Coca‑Cola now requires 27% less water to produce one litre of its beverages. The goal is to reduce this consumption to just 1.5 litres of water by 2020. Energy consumption was also cut by 11% compared to four years ago.
Fact 10: Recycling pioneer
In Switzerland, more than 1.5 billion PET bottles enter into circulation every year. Coca‑Cola is an active founding and board member of PET-Recycling Schweiz. This association created the conditions needed to achieve today's recycling rate of over 80%. In addition, Coca‑Cola's PET bottles are already composed of up to 50% recycled PET material. This reduces the energy required to produce a bottle by half.
These are just a few figures and examples that represent a comprehensive sustainability strategy. The latest CSR Report 2011 can be downloaded at www.coca-colahellenic.ch/CSR
Media Contact
Patrick Bossart, Public Affairs & Communications Manager
Direct +41 44 835 99 10, firstname.lastname@example.com
Coca‑Cola HBC Switzerland is Switzerland's leading producer of non-alcoholic beverages. Together with over 60,000 partners in the catering and retail sectors, the company refreshes Switzerland with some 500 million litres of beverages every year. Its portfolio comprises 22 different brands including Coca‑Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Nestea, Valser, Powerade and Monster. The company has been firmly rooted in Switzerland since 1936 and currently employs over 1,000 people at its head office in Brüttisellen as well as the production sites in Dietlikon ZH, Bolligen BE and Vals GR. Coca‑Cola also wants to set the tone when it comes to sustainability: It actively pursues numerous efforts in the area of environmental protection, assumes its social responsibility as a major employer and supports a healthy, active lifestyle. Coca‑Cola HBC Switzerland Ltd is a subsidiary of Coca‑Cola Hellenic Bottling Company S.A., the largest bottler of products from The Coca‑Cola Company in Europe.


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Overnight rain showers will continue to cause a nuisance throughout Tuesday morning.
Temperatures will start out in the mid 60s with mostly cloudy skies. Shower activity should wind down around midday.
A little bit of sunshine will try to sneak in by the afternoon with temperatures peaking in the 80s. Temperatures should cool off in the evening.


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Mar 20, 2018 | ISBN 9780525573579
Mar 30, 2010 | 284 Minutes
"There is no man I admire more than Nelson Mandela. Rick Stengel's wise and moving book captures the Nelson Mandela I have been privileged to know. But reading Mandela's Way gave me new insights and inspiration. I am confident it will give the same gifts to others. I was inspired anew, and I know others will be too."
—President Bill Clinton
"This delightfully inspiring book is a philosophical guide to how we can aspire to achieve Mandela's grace and how we can draw upon his greatness as a model for the comportment of our lives each day."
—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
"Nelson Mandela has lived every word of his teaching, whatever the cost. His abiding lesson is about forgiveness. Mandela's Way takes us into the inner life of one of the most of important heroes of the century. There are lessons here that could radically change the way you live your life."
—Deepak Chopra, author of The Ultimate Happiness Prescription
"Mandela's Way is a timely and welcome reminder of this great man's political genius, personal integrity, and peerless instinct for survival and triumph. Every world leader should keep Mandela's Way within easy reach."
—Tom Brokaw
"Here is the wisdom of the world's greatest moral leader brilliantly distilled by a wonderful writer. From the time they spent working closely together on Mandela's memoirs, Rick Stengel draws fifteen big life lessons plus hundreds of smaller insights, while also giving us an intimate and astonishingly honest look at this inspiring human being."
—Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and Einstein
"Mandela's Way is an electrically exciting, direct, and vivid way of making greatness tangible, human and complex. Richard Stengel has honed all the elegance and lucidity of thirty years of brilliant cultural and political writing into a book to illuminate, to inspire—and to endure."
—Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road and The Lady and the Monk


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Hello all,
I need to ask for advise,
PCI problem W / OS9.XX on Sawtooth G4- 450 MHZ. 1 GIG RAM Tested good..
I have several PCI cards that worked with my 9600 which will not migrate to my Sawtooth G4.
*Orange Micro Firewire / USB / PCI card...No start-up in G4
*Dual USB PCI Card... doesn't work...
*Miles UW PCI Card ...doesn't work..
All used with OS 9.xx
LED's light on cards at start-up
These cards all work in my 9600 with and without G3 upgrade.
Is there something I am missing besides my brain?
Possible Bad PCI Slots in the G4 ? or something I missed.???
Thanks All!


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Hi, my name is Eoghann. I have Achondroplasia and I am about 4ft /105cms tall. I live near Fraserburgh in the northeast and at the moment I am attending 3rd year of secondary education at Mintlaw Academy, but at least it is mainstream education and they did not send me to a special school.
So what is it like being a person of Short Stature? To be honest, in my opinion, it is not very good – at least not at the moment. The biggest problem is the aches and pains in the lower back and legs, which stop me getting about like other people of my age group. I have special transport to school; it just takes a little longer, which makes it a very long day.
The other main problem is reaching things. The easiest way to get over this is to use a step. This gives you height, but if something is at the back of a shelf or worktop, I have to climb a little.
The best piece of special equipment is a set of plastic steps or stools. It helps you do all types of things that you want to do. Another piece of equipment that I have is a trike recommended by a social worker, but I never use it on the road. Our roads are not very good and I cannot ride it very far, because of my legs. I am allowed to use the lifts in school as I have difficult in climbing stairs. They did get me a platform and a special automatic chair, but I do not use them because they are too tall for the tables the school uses. The best chair I use is the one that the school crafts teacher fitted an extra bar on to rest my feet. If you need help with equipment, ask the people who know, the ones who have short stature problems themselves. Occupation Therapists can help, but don't always understand the problems.
I receive a lot of name-calling and bullying, but mainly from my own age group, which stems from a lack of understanding and general ignorance. Many adults just have a look and then ignore me. I have had to learn to ignore it, but it still hurts.
The various conditions that cause short stature can also stop you doing some things like sport and some activities at school, but I will be able to take my driving test next year – a year earlier than the average person can and that will make them take notice.
There are good things about being short, not many, except when I meet with people with the same problems, then there is no difference and we all muck in together and try to help each other out.


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Toll Free: 1-800-905-6743 (9-5 CST Mon-Fri)
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July 12, 1996, Section A, Page 4Buy Reprints
Invoking a clause in the Immigration and Naturalization Act that makes anyone who has "assisted or abetted" drug trafficking ineligible to visit the United States, the State Department said today that it had canceled the visa of President Ernesto Samper of Colombia.
"People who knowingly assist narco trafficking are no longer welcome in this country," said the State Department spokesman, Nicholas Burns, who announced the decision at a press conference in Washington.
Mr. Burns said the United States had information that drug traffickers had made donations to Mr. Samper's 1994 presidential campaign. In exchange, he said, Mr. Samper had embarked on policies to favor drug traffickers.
Investigations by Colombian officials into illegal donations continue despite the fact that Congress exonerated Mr. Samper last month, a ruling that was widely criticized.
Mr. Samper's former campaign treasurer, Santiago Medina, who has testified to receiving $6 million from two Cali drug traffickers, Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, was sentenced today to five and a half years in prison on those charges.


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Pro-Clean Janitorial Services has provided businesses and buildings alike, with professional cleaning solutions for over 20 years. Our service area covers much of Southern Ontario, including the Greater Toronto Area, Mississauga, Vaughan, Scarborough, Pickering, Markham, Brampton, Malton, Oakville and more. We provide all these areas with our full list of custom-tailored solutions.
Servicing the Greater Toronto Area including the downtown core, east to Scarborough, west to Mimico and above to North York.
Covering all of Mississauga and Peel Region, including the Square One area, Brampton, Malton, Oakville to Etobicoke.
Helping clients throughout Markham, west to Richmond Hill, to east of Pickering, and South to Scarborough.
Servicing clients across the Region of Vaughan, including Concord, Maple, Woodbridge to Nashville and Richmond Hill.


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Wall Heroes
Ocean Tide Panel Print
Ocean Tide Adhesive Panel Print
*Please note: Each panel print is 1 single panel and 4 ft. tall.
- Printed on High Quality Indoor Vinyl Material.
- Bright and Bold Water-Based, Kid Friendly Inks.
- Guaranteed Easy & Non-Damaging Removal.
- Printed in sunny Chandler, Arizona.
- Shipped in protective cardboard carton.
- Made to Order.
- Processing Time: 5-7 business days.
Note: *Actual print colors might be slightly different from product image due to different display monitors.*


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Application Process
Step 1. Determine Eligibility
Be sure you have read the Supplemental Grant Overview and Eligibility Requirements sections (outlined above) and the Areas of Funding section of our website before submitting an application. If you have any questions, uncertainties, or concerns, contact the Hind Foundation.
Step 2: Create New Account or Log In
To begin the application process, click the Apply Now button (on the right navigation or found throughout the site), and Create a New Account or Log In if you already have an account previously.
Step 3: Complete an Online Application
Once you create an account, you may begin the online application process, providing detailed information about your organization and your project or program. You may log in at any time to work on your application. If you do not make significant updates to your draft application for more than four weeks it will be considered inactive and a grant will be denied.
Once your application is complete, the Hind Foundation will begin the evaluation process and will notify you when it is accepted or denied. You may log in to your account at any time to check on its status.


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© 2014 Grace Baptist Mission CIO -
Grace Baptist Mission CIO
12 Abbey Close, Abingdon
Oxon, OX14 3JD, UK
Summer is a great time to do gospel work, whether you're a student with a long summer vacation, or someone who can take time off work to serve the Lord. GBM's Envision programme provides lots of opportunities for adults of all ages to get involved in world mission at the sharp end. This summer we are running three Envision teams, each either a week or ten days long, and more volunteers are needed.
Latvia -
This year we are running our third Envision Team to Latvia. Malcolm and Ruth Firth are leading Mezciems International Baptist Church, in the East of Riga where they live. They have seen significant encouragements in recent years, including a growing work among Chinese migrants. The Envision team will support their outreach to international students as they arrive to start university. Their church draws together Latvians (both Latvian and Russian speaking) and people from a range of other nations who have come to live in Latvia.
The team programme will include: training in evangelism, sharing your faith personally (in English) with International Students as they arrive in Riga, working with the local 'Agape Studenti' staff. You will also be taking part in special evangelistic evenings, and participating in the Church's Sunday services.
Estimated cost (all-
Closing date for applications: Monday 3 April 2017
Interview Date (in Abingdon): Friday 21 April 2017
The Isle of Man -
This year we are running our first British Envision team to the Isle of Man. In the
1970s GBM was involved in helping to plant and strengthen the work of the gospel
on the Isle of Man, and we have been invited back to help the churches there this
summer. We are keen to encourage the churches with a week of evangelism to adults
and children. The team programme will include training in evangelism, sharing your
faith personally through book-
Estimated cost (all-
Closing date for applications: Monday 3 April 2017
Interview Date (in Abingdon): Friday 21 April 2017
Poland Team 22-
A week of evangelism and children's work with Andrzej and Monika Kempczynski in Legionowo, near Warsaw.
This team is now full, though an additional place can be found if you are a Polish speaker.
If you are interested in serving on any of these three teams, please contact GBM Mission Centre for an application form.


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Greyhound Relocates to Santa Fe Passenger Depot in Fresno, CA
Grand opening ceremony to be hosted by Greyhound and City of Fresno on Dec. 15
DALLAS (Dec 11, 2015) – Greyhound, the largest provider of intercity bus transportation, will start operations from a new location in Fresno on Thursday, Dec. 17. Greyhound customers will conveniently board at the Santa Fe Passenger Depot, located at 2660 Tulare St., less than a mile from Greyhound's former location at 1033 H St.
The company will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the momentous occasion on Tuesday, Dec. 15, in which the Mayor of Fresno and Greyhound executives will be in attendance, including Myron Watkins, vice president of customer experience.
"Greyhound is excited to partner with the City of Fresno to offer customers a more convenient location just in time for the Christmas holiday," said Dave Leach, president and CEO, Greyhound Lines, Inc. "We appreciate the City's dedication and commitment to this project, and with their assistance, we're now able to operate from this new location with our affordable, reliable and convenient service. It will also offer seamless connectivity between regional intercity bus service and Amtrak under one roof, and Greyhound's network of 3,800 destinations across North America.
From the new location, Greyhound offers 26 daily schedules to destinations across the United States, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento, Calif. This location is open 24 hours per day, seven days per week and provides convenient access to a convenience store, Yosemite Freeway and Greyhound Package Express®. For ticket information, call 1-800-231-2222.
Greyhound is the largest North American provider of intercity bus transportation, serving more than 3,800 destinations across the continent. The company also provides Greyhound Package Express (GPX) and charter services. For fare and schedule information and to buy tickets call 1-800-661-8747 or visit the website at www.greyhound.com. For the latest news and travel deals, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GreyhoundBus, Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GreyhoundBus, follow us on Instagram at www.instagram.com/greyhoundlines, download a high resolution photo at www.bit.ly/GreyhoundBusPhotos, or follow our award-winning blog, The Hound, at http://www.bloggreyhound.com.
Contact: Lanesha Gipson at 214-849-7846
Contact: Ashley Sears at 214-849-6826Back


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JMN Logistics
1-877-566-4285 JMN Logistics
2050 Creve Coeur Mill Road Maryland Heights, MO 63043 – USA
With the increased number of people importing cars, trucks, motorcycles etc, many companies have come up to offer hauling and freighting services. However, it is not everyday that you will find a company that delivers just as it promises to. This is not the same with JMN Logistics. In fact you are better off getting the services of JMN Logistics than any other hauling and freighting company. Question is, 'why would I let JMN Logistics ship my car to me?' There are many answers to this question.
For starters, JMN Logistics has been around for many years now, 35 years to be precise, shipping trucks, ATV's, RV's, boats and even motorcycles. With all this experience nothing can ever go wrong. This is coupled by the fact that JMN Logistics has staff members who are very experienced and boast of the knowledge and professionalism to have the job done to the best every time. With all this professionalism, the rates are still affordable.
JMN Logistics is committed to offer all its customers with services that are up to their expectations
and at the same time create a shipping experience that is comfortable and seamless by working closely with the clients to ensure that the vehicles they are having shipped are treated and transported according to the specifications given by them. The fact that JMN Logistics embraces the idea that customer relationships are important means that only qualified individuals are employed by the company. They need to be intelligent and open to the needs of the company's clients.
You can be sure that your car will be safe when you ship it using services of JMN Logistics. There is always a written contract that has all the details including the car make and model, its origin and destination, dates of shipment and the total cost, all these prior to the shipping of the car. This way the clients are well informed on matters regarding the vehicle being shipped. Repeat clients are also offered special rates. Such rates also apply to military personnel, those shipping more than one vehicle and service men and women.
There are many services offered by JMN Logistics that may not be offered by competitors. Even if they offer these services they can not do it as well as JMN Logistics can. These include:Enclosed Car ShippingDoor-to-Door ServicesOpen Auto TransportTerminal to TerminalAuto Transport ServicesMotorcycle ShippingBoat TransportationInternational Auto Shipping
With the number of years JMN Logistics has been in the field,
you can be sure to get the highest quality and most reliable services when it comes to shipping your car. This is due to the fact that JMN Logistics is among the largest and most trusted shipping companies with the capacity to handle all the steps of the vehicles movement from the pick up to the destination of choice. It is therefore wise to use JMN Logistics for all your shipping needs and not only when you want to ship a car. We offer the best services to our clients.
JMN Logistics
http://jmnlogistics.info/ 1-877-566-4285


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Libba Bray and the elite
Now, I have to admit I never understood the concept of 'hey, I can see having a beer with this guy, I should vote for him for president'. First, not so sure the President should be a big drinker. Two, I know lots ofpeopleI can drink with and I'm really not sure any of them have what it takes to be President. And Three, I just think it takes brains, not beer-drinking to be President. Today a friend link me to an essay by Libba Bray on why she wants a smart President. Now I've enjoied her novels ( I have one left) and reviewed them here, but this is a well written essay. She asks the question lots of people I know have been asking, "When did being smart and educated become a bad thing"?
Rebel Angels
Ok, so this isn't really a book review , just a note to say I am really enjoying the second book in the Gemma Doyle series by Libba Bray; Rebel Angels. I am reading it much slower than the first one. Life , it gets in the way of reading . ButI had to share one short paragraph.
"I am quite able to look after myself,"I say. I turn smartly on my heel and smack directly into a wall,raising a bump upon my forehead that will probably remain forever.
If I did something like that now, I'd laugh. At Gemma's age – utter embarrassment. And I think Libba Bray does an excellent job of capturing that feeling in a very few words
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Last night I read A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. It is a Gothic, adolescent drama that takes place in a boarding school in Victorian England. It has all the good elements of a good boarding school tale. A mean headmistress, a nasty clique, and a mysterious, horrible, half-told story of the past. In the book there is a deep understanding of the place of the well brought up woman in Victorian society. The supernatural brings both joy and horror to the story.
The characters feel surprisingly real. I read one review that thought the girls were inconsistent – but that felt very real to me.
The story is a page turner. I suppose I didn't have to finish it last night, but what else was I going to do, sleep?
I need the next two books in the series now.


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Reduce Headache, Minimize Consumer Effort with Automation
Best Practice: Use AI for complex but repetitive tasks like Start/Stop Service.
Deregulation, cost pressures, changing customer expectations… Utility providers can't rely on low service costs alone to stay ahead of competition. Implementing call center AI can significantly improve the cost-efficiency of your company by shifting repetitive yet complex tasks from CSRs to AI agents. In this way, live agents can focus on more sophisticated requests while clients enjoy seamless customer self-service, creating the loyalty your company strives to establish.
What we can automate for you
Challenges Facing Utility Providers
Customers seek 24/7 access to their account status and other important information
Providing an easy and convenient way for customers to start, stop, suspend, and transfer service
Providing an effortless means of communicating with your company, especially to report and receive updates about power outages
Working out payment arrangements
Timely notification to customers regarding upcoming or overdue payments
Alerting customers of impending service disconnections, as required by law
You can use intelligent virtual agents to handle these utilities processes:
Automation streamlines the billing process by giving customers easy access to invoices. Turning these tasks over to AI Bots:
Improves customer access to account information, e.g. payable balance, due dates, payment history, etc.
Facilitates the update of contact information
Gives customers 24/7 access to their accounts
Provides quick, easy, and secure bill pay
Allows agents to handle "moments of truth"
Starting, Stopping, Suspending, & Transferring Services
According to the US Census, the average American will move approximately 11.4 times in their lifetime. Manage this challenge and keep customers loyal with an AI-based self-service option that:
Automates address capture, switches payment dates, outlines specific service offerings, etc.
Relieves headaches associated with relocating services
Offers clients an easy means to transfer or cancel services
Outage Reporting
Outages affect nearly 20 million people in the US and they generally elicit similar reactions: a barrage of calls. Combat this with an automated outbound solution that:
Updates customers of the disrupted service and predicted duration of downtime
Gives users peace of mind by letting them voice their concerns
Allows manpower to be redirected towards resolving the situation
Appointment Reminders
Truck rolls are costly. It is important to reduce the probability of a no-show by offering customers appointment reminders with call center automation. In this way:
Ensure clients are home and ready to meet with field technicians
Enable speedier service calls with fewer delays
Let clients reschedule service conflicts on the same outbound call or text conversation
Payment Reminders & Disconnect Notices
Even the most meticulous customers miss payments when life gets hectic. With call center AI:
Customers can multitask – e.g. check-in while at the baggage claim, on the car ride over, etc
Guests are happier, as they save time they otherwise would have lost standing in queues
Service desks experience less congestion and employees can better serve the needs of their clientele


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A gorgeous, vintage inspired wedding at the incredible Abbotsford Convent would have me weak at the knees at the best of times but the wedding of Julian and Catherine was made even more special for a multitude of reasons. Let me explain why. Julian and Catherine both hail from my home town of Brisbane and Julian and I have crossed paths previously as Julian is part of an infamous Brisbane (now Melbourne) based band, Greenthief and for those in the know, I used to specialise in music photography. Aside from my fateful brush with Julian all those years ago, I really came to know this lovely couple better after I photographed (and subsequently befriended), Tammy and Eitam so being part of their beautiful day was even more special!
Okay, so aside from all those cool tidbits, there is still plenty more awesome stuff to fill you in on about this wedding! I initially caught up with Catherine (and her business partner in crime Claire) as they started putting together plans to take over the world set up their wedding planning business Will & Jac. As we shared war stories about starting and growing small businesses, Catherine asked me to shoot her own wedding, so knowing what I was going to be working with, I leapt at the chance to be a part of it all! This wedding day was not Catherine's first time at the rodeo, she has extensive experience working at wedding venues across Brisbane and Melbourne, so she knew exactly how to make her and Julian's vision for their wedding day come to life in the most perfect way. Luckily for everyone else, Claire and Catherine have properly launched Will & Jac and are ready to work their magic for happy couples everywhere!
Don't be fooled, it wasn't all just immaculate styling and vintage details, it also featured themes of the couple's cultural backgrounds. Julian's family is Jewish and it was beautiful to see a touch of his heritage introduced after the main ceremony, Catherine also made last minute changes to her bridal outfit after being gifted a heirloom headpiece worn since the 18th century from Julian's family. There were so many layers of story and detail in Julian and Catherine's wedding day that it is virtually impossible to touch on all of them in this post, so you will just have to check out the photos. I should probably also warn you to only check it out after you've eaten as it features the most epic, mouth wateringly delicious cheese buffet I've ever laid eyes on! Those guys at Milk the Cow really know what they are doing and provided a seemingly endless array of delicious treats for the lucky guests to enjoy. It's the stuff (cheese) dreams are made of!!


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All my supplies arrived and I was in the garage practicing enameling! That's my new endeavor. I'm starting off with enamel over copper since my practice pieces definitely show that I'll need some time to do it well. Here is a picture of some domed copper pieces I enameled.
My attempts to enamel copper washers was quite a flop. In all cases the enamel would flake off. I may need to do washers in the standard way - bring the torch to the piece. I did these domed pieces using the method Joseph Spencer started - bring the piece to the torch. I learned more about this technique by reading Barbara Lewis' book - torch-fired enamel jewelry. So I'm starting off simple though I am going to try headpins tomorrow ... With these disks and some equally bright headpins I could make some cute little flowers. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I can actually enamel some pieces to use in designs. I'm looking forward to using the glass threads and millifiori disks I got in the designs.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
A couple of new designs
I've been reading up on a new design medium and gathering together supplies so I can start making things. I haven't yet gotten everything so I'll hold back on telling you what I'm up to until I can share the beginning creations with you! In the meantime I did make a few new things ...
Black agate, onyx and substantial basketweave sterling silver earrings
Black agate, onyx and substantial basketweave sterling silver earrings
Hammered, textured and shaped copper, turquoise and sterling silver earrings
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Just found out about a cool giveaway!
I'm subscribed to Melissa Muir's blog and just read about the giveaway she's having. She's giving away some cool tools! Since I'm always on the lookout for new tools and free ones are even better I'm getting as many entries to the giveaway as I can. One way is to share her giveaway on my blog - so here it is - I'm sharing! You can read all the details on the giveaway here - Giveaway!. Now if you are going to enter - please let her know that you heard about it from my blog post! You'll get an entry and I'll get one more entry! And while you're over there reading about the giveaway check out all the beautiful designs Melissa makes!
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Just a little bit of wire here and there ...
A friend of mine gave me a picture of some earrings she liked, could no longer buy (they aren't made anymore) and she wanted some changes made in the designs anyway .... So from the picture she gave me I initially made an example in copper with the same size beads that I would use in the final design. Here's the mockup I made
She approved the mock up design so I then did the final design in gold fill with turquoise seed beads and salmon pink coral drops. Here's the final design.
She approved the mock up design so I then did the final design in gold fill with turquoise seed beads and salmon pink coral drops. Here's the final design.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Random new things to start out June
I decided to set some of the pretty opals I bought in Tucson (so it takes me months to get around to things - what can I say!). Here's a pretty pair in sterling silver.
These mint and pearl earrings are available in my ArtFire studio.
It is very hard to catch the flash with the camera. This pair has nice red (actually orange) and green flash in them. These beautiful opal earrings are available in my Etsy studio.
And I finally got some decent pictures of this pen. I love the organic look of the handmade lampwork beads!
And I made these pretty earrings with these gorgeous mint green lampwork beads with little cameo looking roses all around them.
Happy June!
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We're loving 92YTribeca's current retrospective devoted to Sultan of Synth Giorgio Moroder, the man who helped shape the sound of western civilization in the 1980s through his work on soundtracks for movies like Top Gun and Flashdance.
Tonight, the latter screens as part of the through-April-30 series Electronic Dreams: Giorgio Moroder Film + Music (which also includes live music inspired by the Moroder sound) so we have to ask: When's the last time you saw Jennifer Beals and her army of dance body doubles—including b-boy stalwart (and leader of the hip-hop dancing Rock Steady Crew) Crazy Legs, who subs for Beals in the audition's breakdance sequence—on a big screen? Yep, you're overdue.
Quick plot recap (Flashdance does actually have a plot, flimsy though it may be): Pittsburgh, early 1980s. Alex "My Name Sounds Not Coincidentally Like a Dude's" Owens—lone chick welder by day, exotic dancer by night—dreams of being a real dancer one day, the non-exotic kind: She wants to dance at (pinkies up!) the ballet. After hacking the necklines out of her sweatshirts and bedding older rich guy Michael Nouri, Alex gives the stuffy audition panel a taste of her fresh, non-ballet-ish dance moves, and everyone lives happily ever after, more or less.
But none of this matters, because Flashdance –directed by Adrian Lyne—is basically an extremely longform music video (made when the form itself was still nascent), backed with tunes produced by Moroder: "Lady, Lady, Lady," "Seduce Me Tonight" and the Irene Cara career highlight "Flashdance ... What a Feeling," which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. All of which makes you realize that the 1980s were a decade in which songs carried more heft in movies. Who's the Moroder of today? We can't think of one.
92YTribeca presents the movies in a "glorious 35mm print and with the sound cranked for maximum enjoyment." Yes please.
Flashdance (1983), Thursday, April 14, 7PM at 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street; $12, tickets available here.


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Rockbox mail archiveSubject: Re: Cowon IAUDIO X5L 30GB onn ebay
Re: Cowon IAUDIO X5L 30GB onn ebay
From: Scott J. Lopez <scottjl_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 10:56:56 -0500
a few weeks ago there was a blow-up on the list about people and their
i for one didn't know about the X5L players and after the large
On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Robert Menes
> Yes, you told us about them already. Once is enough. :)
Page was last modified "Jan 10 2012" The Rockbox Crew


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A diverse fusion of arts and technology is being showcased by 16 postgraduate De Montfort University (DMU) students at a gallery located in Leicester's Cultural Quarter this weekend.
A taste of Tiffany's photography
Demonstrating the breadth of work developed during the Fine Art and Digital Arts MA programmes, the exhibition gives students valuable experience in curating for a public event and the chance to unveil their final projects.
Held at Two Queens, an artist-led gallery co-established by a recent DMU graduate, it is open to the public on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 September from 12-6pm.
Award-winning Fine Art student Tiffany Tangen is showcasing the latest in her documentary-style portrait photography, which focusses on builders and is edited to look like paintings.
The 23-year-old from Leicester said: "I enjoy capturing the ordinary in a way that makes it more beautiful. My work involves hours of editing and the tonal quality that emerges naturally is what determines the final colours of each piece."
An example of Paige's windmill installation
As one the many participating students who has benefitted from a Vice-Chancellor's 2020 Scholarship – offering PG tuition fee discounts of up to 50 per cent - Tiffany added: "Not only has DMU given me the chance to develop my art, it's also enabled me to exhibit professionally.
"This year alone I've been lucky enough to hold 17 exhibitions, including at leading galleries in London and Brighton."
Digital Arts student Paige Uttley-Plunkett is sharing an installation which captivates audiences through memories inspired by her grandfather, who used to create windmills as a hobby in his shed.
"DMU has developed my practice over the past four years, allowing me to realise my passion for building environments for the purpose of the audience's experience," said the 22-year-old from Middlesbrough.
"The course also taught me how to code using Arduino and Processing which has been crucial to my recent work and has definitely impacted on my interest in working with technology.
"I'm very excited to be showing my work at Two Queens. Having the opportunity to exhibit in a professional gallery environment is an amazing end to my degree."
Doll catwalk, from Rebecca's documenting of play with her daughter
Two of the other Fine Art students taking part in the exhibition are 24-year-old Niahm Meehan from Ireland and 38-year-old Rebecca Hobbs from Leicestershire.
Niahm, who is showcasing performance work based on the written and spoken word, said: "My work explores the inaccessibility of language based on conversations I've overheard and questions that I have.
"It's a scripted durational piece, but will not be solely vocally performed. A piece of written matter will also feature somewhere in the performance, as text has always been important in my practice."
RELATED NEWSDiscover what DMU has to offer at our next Open DayArt studio residency to kick-start Indre's freelance futureFine Art grad to exhibit work at world famous Saatchi Gallery
Having completed an Art and Design (Foundation Studies) followed by a Fine Art BA, Rebecca's challenging exploration of her relationship with her young daughter is the culmination of six years at DMU. Her film, drawings and book document playtime with her now nine-year-old.
"I was a single mum when I started university, brought up by a single mum myself. In a society which idolises mothers, it's still seen as taboo to talk about motherhood challenges which aren't rose-tinted," she said.
"Admitting that I didn't feel able to play with my daughter was hard as it should be such a natural ability. But by taking something autobiographical and turning it into something more abstract, I'm hoping people will find elements they can identify with."
Fashion photography will form part of Emmer's interactive projection
Digital Arts students participating include Cathie Taylor, a 49-year-old mother from Leicester, and 24-year old Emmer Cooksey from Middlesborough.
Cathie's audio work is a powerfully personal account of her own mental health, based on a series of descriptive accounts outlining a "manic episode" caused by her bipolar disorder.
The Media Production graduate, who is providing an immersive experience by combining audio with a 360 degree photograph, said: "I'm hoping to raise some awareness of mental health issues. They affect one in four people to varying degrees, yet it's still spoken about in hushed tones."
Using 35mm film, Emmer's is an interactive projection piece which utilises facial recognition technology to change colours depending on people's reactions.
"I shot fashion photography on 35mm black and white film, which I developed and scanned in. It loops around like an Instagram post and I've deliberately left in coding glitches and errors to intrigue viewers," she said.
"DMU has helped open a lot of doors for me. Thanks to the good facilities I've been able to focus on my passion for analogue photography and develop my digital skills alongside it."
DMU is a dynamic university, read about what we have been up to in our latest news section.
At DMU there is always something to do or see, check out our events for yourself.
Read about our mission and vision and how these create a supportive and exciting learning environment.


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Glenn Greenwald notes that – in the face of Trump and Brexit (which were primarily caused by economic policies which have created massive inequality) – the Democratic National committee is trying to blame everybody and everything but their own status quo policies and candidates which rig the system for the fatcats and hurt the little guy:
The indisputable fact is that prevailing institutions of authority in the West, for decades, have relentlessly and with complete indifference stomped on the economic welfare and social security of hundreds of millions of people. While elite circles gorged themselves on globalism, free trade, Wall Street casino gambling, and endless wars (wars that enriched the perpetrators and sent the poorest and most marginalized to bear all their burdens), they completely ignored the victims of their gluttony, except when those victims piped up a bit too much — when they caused a ruckus — and were then scornfully condemned as troglodytes who were the deserved losers in the glorious, global game of meritocracy.
A short, incredibly insightful, and now more relevant than ever post-Brexit Facebook note by the Los Angeles Times's Vincent Bevins … wrote that "both Brexit and Trumpism are the very, very wrong answers to legitimate questions that urban elites have refused to ask for 30 years." Bevins went on: "Since the 1980s the elites in rich countries have overplayed their hand, taking all the gains for themselves and just covering their ears when anyone else talks, and now they are watching in horror as voters revolt."
For those who tried to remove themselves from the self-affirming, vehemently pro-Clinton elite echo chamber of 2016, the warning signs that Brexit screechingly announced were not hard to see. Two short passages from a Slate interview I gave in July summarized those grave dangers: that opinion-making elites were so clustered, so incestuous, so far removed from the people who would decide this election — so contemptuous of them — that they were not only incapable of seeing the trends toward Trump but were unwittingly accelerating those trends with their own condescending, self-glorifying behavior.
The warning lights were flashing in neon for a long time, but they were in seedy places that elites studiously avoid. The few people who purposely went to those places and listened, such as Chris Arnade, saw and heard them loud and clear. The ongoing failure to take heed of this intense but invisible resentment and suffering guarantees that it will fester and strengthen. This was the last paragraph of my July article on the Brexit fallout:
Instead of acknowledging and addressing the fundamental flaws within themselves, [elites] are devoting their energies to demonizing the victims of their corruption, all in order to delegitimize those grievances and thus relieve themselves of responsibility to meaningfully address them. That reaction only serves to bolster, if not vindicate, the animating perceptions that these elite institutions are hopelessly self-interested, toxic, and destructive and thus cannot be reformed but rather must be destroyed. That, in turn, only ensures there will be many more Brexits, and Trumps, in our collective future.
Democrats have already begun flailing around trying to blame anyone and everyone they can find — everyone except themselves — for last night's crushing defeat of their party.
You know the drearily predictable list of their scapegoats: Russia, WikiLeaks, James Comey, Jill Stein, Bernie Bros, The Media, news outlets (including, perhaps especially, The Intercept) that sinned by reporting negatively on Hillary Clinton. Anyone who thinks that what happened last night in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Michigan can be blamed on any of that is drowning in self-protective ignorance so deep that it's impossible to express in words.
Put simply, Democrats knowingly chose to nominate a deeply unpopular, extremely vulnerable, scandal-plagued candidate, who — for very good reason — was widely perceived to be a protector and beneficiary of all the worst components of status quo elite corruption. It's astonishing that those of us who tried frantically to warn Democrats that nominating Hillary Clinton was a huge and scary gamble — that all empirical evidence showed that she could lose to anyone and Bernie Sanders would be a much stronger candidate, especially in this climate — are now the ones being blamed: by the very same people who insisted on ignoring all that data and nominating her anyway.
But that's just basic blame shifting and self-preservation. Far more significant is what this shows about the mentality of the Democratic Party. Just think about who they nominated: someone who — when she wasn't dining with Saudi monarchs and being feted in Davos by tyrants who gave million-dollar checks — spent the last several years piggishly running around to Wall Street banks and major corporations cashing in with $250,000 fees for 45-minute secret speeches even though she had already become unimaginably rich with book advances while her husband already made tens of millions playing these same games. She did all that without the slightest apparent concern for how that would feed into all the perceptions and resentments of her and the Democratic Party as corrupt, status quo-protecting, aristocratic tools of the rich and powerful: exactly the worst possible behavior for this post-2008-economic-crisis era of globalism and destroyed industries.
Trump vowed to destroy the system that elites love (for good reason) and the masses hate (for equally good reason), while Clinton vowed to manage it more efficiently. That, as Matt Stoller's indispensable article in The Atlantic three weeks ago documented, is the conniving choice the Democratic Party made decades ago: to abandon populism and become the party of technocratically proficient, mildly benevolent managers of elite power. Those are the cynical, self-interested seeds they planted, and now the crop has sprouted.
Indeed, the Dems re-elected Mrs. Status Quo – Nancy Pelosi – as minority leader. And Pelosi claims:
I don't think people want a new direction.
Similarly, outgoing Senate minority leader Harry Reid says:
I don't think the Democratic Party is in that big of trouble.
I mean, if Comey kept his mouth shut, we would have picked up a couple more Senate seats and we probably would have elected Hillary.
Of course, the whole claim that Russia hacked the U.S. election is baseless … as is the whole hysterical claim that Russian propaganda swung the election.
But it's not just America …
After Brexit and Italexit – with a potential Frexit looming on the horizon – the status quo in Europe is also trying to shift attention (look, squirrel!) from their failed policies to boogeymen.
For example, European leaders are also claiming that Russian propaganda is interfering with European values.
And Germany's incredibly unpopular Social Democratic party is claiming that that Russia might hack its election.
Indeed, Washington Post national security reporter at Adam Entous told BBC this week that a CIA official claims that Russia hacked the Brexit vote, and the vote in Ukraine (starting around 1:09:58).
What's next … the status quo starts blaming their electoral losses on aliens?


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back to overview
BGP configuration resources
A lot of times, I get questions like "how do I configure BGP on my 2800-series router". As so much has been written about this topic, I'd just like to give you a list of resources:
Everyone else can buy the same set of remote lab exercises from NIL Data Communications.Note: this article is part of You've asked for it series.
- Cisco has published excellent in-depth document as part of Cisco IOS documentation
- A lot of BGP technical documents can be found in BGP resource center on CCO, including a simple document on BGP multihoming.
- Someone has put together a comprehensive list of BGP-related books on Amazon.com
- ... out of those books, the Internet Routing Architectures is a must-have.
- If you'd like to know more about BGP, attending a Configuring BGP course might be a good idea (more so as passing the corresponding exam counts toward your CCIP certification).
- If you're a Cisco partner, you can get BGP-related remote labs free of charge:
- Start Partner e-learning connection.
- After landing on the main PEC page, click here.
By Ivan Pepelnjak
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Which infection causes minimal change nephrotic syndrome to go into remission without steroid therapy?
1,796 points Approved user
Infection with measles virus can lead to remission of minimal change nephrotic syndrome. In two patient measles was used to treat nephrotic syndrome.
Reason probably is due to decreased T cell immunity, in measles that balances high lymphocyte T activity in MCD that causes it to remit.
Get access to your account and question


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Date(s) - 11/02/2018
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Turned Tides is a brand-new murder mystery play written by local CITC actor, Karen Kay. Directed by Lexi Hubb. Four guests come to a small island resort and stay at the Famous Pony Inn (sound familiar?). Their reservations are previously unknown to one another, but troubled pasts reveal themselves and tensions arise immediately upon arrival. Especially when one of them is found dead, (or rather murdered) in the parlor… which is very inconvenient to the two lady owners! A classic "whodunnit," no one is clearly innocent, but no one is obviously guilty either. The murderer is anyone's guess! Held at the CCA Community Center for the Arts, 6309 Church Street.
For a complete list of Island events & activities CLICK HERE


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I joined Sarah Fit's Diet Bet 4 weeks ago. Everyone who wanted to "play" put in $15 and was challenged to lose 4% of their weight.
For me that was 6.5 pounds. Yes, it was a lot. My weight has been up since January, hence the reason why I wanted to join in the first place.
The bet started on July 18th, a Wednesday. I didn't weigh in the first week out because I was on my period. Yes, I'm sure you didn't want to know that, but if you want to know all the rest of my business you're getting that info too.
Results: I didn't lose any weight – actually, I gained. I lost 1 pound in 2 weeks, but now am back up 2 pounds. So, according to the scale, I've gained one pound from 4 weeks ago.
Dieting over the last 10 years and working as a trainer for the last year and a half, have taught me that the scale fluctuates A LOT. And it fluctuates more for some people than others. If I weighed myself every day for a week it would be different every single day – some days by 3 pounds or more.
I drink over a gallon of water a day and eat a lot of salt (I kinda have to eat a lot of salt given my water intake and I'm happy with that). So, I'm not going to berate myself over it. But, I am disappointed.
I don't think I "earned" a big weight loss, but I did make a legitimate effort to clean up my diet. I didn't earn a gain either.
My diet strategy for the 4 weeks was to:
1. Track my food – but not count calories. I just wanted to observe and report what I was currently doing and clean up the junk. <- The not counting calories is obviously dumb if you're trying to lose weight. I didn't want to get too obsessive about it, and I was hoping the small tweaks would be enough. But counting is what I would have to do if I wanted to actually lose weight. Shocking.
2. Stop afternoon grazing. <- I was really good about having one afternoon snack instead of eating 4 different things scrounging around the kitchen.
3. Not eat after 8pm. <- I did better on this, when I wanted to eat at night I tried to have cherries or 2 pieces of dark chocolate or something similar.
The progress I made is good and these points are realistic, long term changes – so that's good! But, it's not enough for me to lose weight.
Since I was at least writing down most of my food intake I don't believe I actually gained a pound of fat or muscle or toenails in the last 4 weeks. Logically, I realize it's very unlikely given my journal.
I do think my thyroid must have something to do with the challenges I've been having with my weight. I tested low for my T3 thyroid a while back when I realized I was gaining. My primary care doc gave me a very low dose of a T3 supplement and referred me to a specialist – but I can't get an appt with him until OCTOBER. Boo.
This morning after I weighed in I got myself to the gym and work out the frustration and had a really good strength session!
Going forward I am going to continue to weigh myself on Wednesdays and I'm going to keep journaling – maybe even with calorie counts, genius right?! (I do still believe in IE, but there is something wrong with the fact that I am gaining weight despite being in my 20s, active and eating relatively healthy. I am not binging, I don't have "junk food" in the house, I indulge like most other "normal" people.)
I like a mid-week weigh in since I used to do it on Friday and then go crazy on the weekends. Roni has called Wed – "Weigh In Wednesday" for years and reports her weight on her site. Last week she invited others to weigh in with her and I like that idea.
I won't always report my weight here since there are a lot of people with eating disorders perusing the internet machine. If you think you have an issue please talk with a doctor, therapist, ventriloquist, paleontologist and/or RD. Better yet, talk to all of them.


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Ukraine Four Years After the Euromaidan
By Kostiantyn Fedorenko
Kennan Institute Focus Ukraine Blog, November 21, 2017
It has been four years since the mass protests in Ukraine, which eventually led to regime change, began. People protested against a foreign policy shift to Russia; they were eventually beaten up by the police. As the violence escalated and protesters did not give up, despite sustaining numerous casualties, Yanukovych fled the country, and the regime fell.
Now, four years later, Ukraine has definitely changed in many ways. There are, however, different takes on whether these changes have been positive, and on their causes. In this article, I look briefly at what happened to Ukraine in the last four years and where the country stands now.
Trump, Putin Discuss Need For Peace in Syria, Ukraine in Phone Call
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, November 22, 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed the need to bring peace to Syria and Ukraine among other matters, the White House said.
Trump's hourlong phone call on November 21 with the Russian president came a day after Putin met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the Black Sea resort of Sochi and ahead of a summit on November 22 in the same location with Turkey and Iran on the Syrian conflict.
The White House said Trump and Putin discussed the need to revive UN negotiations "to peacefully resolve the Syrian civil war, end the humanitarian crisis, allow displaced Syrians to return home, and ensure the stability of a unified Syria free of malign intervention and terrorist safe havens."
Read the full article here.
Assad and Putin Meet, as Russia Pushes to End Syrian War
By Anne Barnard
New York Times, November 21, 2017
Thanking Russia for the military intervention he credited for "saving Syria," President Bashar al-Assad met with President Vladimir V. Putin amid preparations for new talks aimed at ending the civil war.
Mr. Assad's visit on Monday to the Russian resort town of Sochi was made public on Tuesday, a day before a summit meeting there for the leaders of Iran, Turkey and Russia, who have taken an increasingly prominent role in diplomacy with Syria while the United States has put Mr. Assad's fate on the back burner.
Russian officials have said that their aim is to ensure Mr. Assad's support for a political process to end a conflict that began more than six years ago. But Mr. Assad has consistently resisted compromise with his Syrian opponents, and doubts remain about how much Russia is willing, or able, to push him to accept significant changes like substantive power sharing or reforms.
Preparatory Program for Jews of the Former Soviet Union Goes Online
By Tamara Zieve
Jerusalem Post, November 19, 2017
For the past year-and-a-half, the Triguboff Institute has provided conversion classes for people making aliya from the former Soviet Union in order to ease the process by helping them get started while they are still in their home countries.
Now, the institute has taken the project, Maslul, a step further by launching online classes in Ukraine and Russia to expand its reach.
Shalom Norman, director of the Triguboff Institute, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that while those who live in the big cities can attend the face-to-face classes, it's a long journey for those who live in the peripheries, a situation that's exacerbated by circumstances such as harsh weather conditions.
"We are talking about huge distances," explained Alon Lembrtsky, one of the teachers of the online course. "People can't always leave the home," he added, giving the example of mothers who need to take care of their children. "In our day, we don't need to physically get to a place."
Hundreds of Teens Gather in Ukraine for Leadership Conference
Some 350 Jewish teenagers and young adult leaders from the former Soviet Union gathered in Kharkov, Ukraine, over the weekend at a conference aimed at strengthening Jewish life across the globe.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's fourth annual Active Jewish Teens (AJT) Conference was attended by participants from JDC and BBYO youth networks in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia and Israel. For the first time, American teenagers in BBYO joined as part of JDC and BBYO's global partnership, which is focused on building a worldwide movement of Jewish young people.
According to the JDC, the annual conference is the largest gathering of Jewish teenagers from the former Soviet Union.
George Soros blasts Hungarian government survey of his views on refugees
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 20, 2017
Jewish-American billionaire George Soros blasted the Hungarian government's national survey about his views on allowing refugees into the country.
Responding to a questionnaire mailed to the European nation's 8 million eligible voters, the Hungarian-born Soros said in a "Rebuttal" on his website that statements in the document "contain distortions and outright lies that deliberately mislead Hungarians" about his views on migrants and refugees.
Soros said in a detailed op-ed in 2015 that the European Union should be taking in 1 million migrants and refugees a year and sharing the burden of paying for them, something the Hungarian government now calls the "Soros Plan."
"With Hungary's health care and education systems in distress and corruption rife, the current government has sought to create an outside enemy to distract citizens," Soros charges in his response. "The government selected George Soros for this purpose, launching a massive anti-Soros media campaign costing tens of millions of euros in taxpayer money, stoking anti-Muslim sentiment, and employing anti-Semitic tropes reminiscent of the 1930s."
Warsaw slams EU official for calling Polish marchers 'neo-Nazi'
Times of Israel/Agence France-Presse, November 17, 2017
Poland's president on Friday slammed remarks by a senior European Parliament member who called the tens of thousands of people at a controversial Polish Independence Day march "fascists" and "neo-Nazis."
President Andrzej Duda termed "absolutely scandalous" and "inadmissible" the remarks made by European Parliament liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt during a Wednesday debate in the chamber.
Ex-Belgian premier Verhofstadt said that "on Saturday 60,000 fascists marched in the streets of Warsaw –- neo-Nazis, white supremacists."
"I'm not talking about Charlottesville in America, I'm talking about Warsaw, Poland, 300 kilometres (186 miles) more or less from (World War II Nazi German death camps) Auschwitz and Birkenau," he added.
Polish prosecutors open racism probe of far-right march
The Associated Press/ABC News, November 20, 2017
Prosecutors in Poland opened an investigation Monday to determine if statements expressed during a march by far-right nationalists in Warsaw this month violated laws against propagating racism.
The march held on Nov. 11, Poland's Independence Day, drew an estimated 60,000 participants. Many marchers carried Poland's national flags, while some had flags with Celtic crosses, a white supremacist symbol, or banners with slogans like "White Europe of brotherly nations."
Warsaw prosecutors spokeswoman Magdalena Sowa said the investigation would focus on whether criminal charges should be brought for the "public propagating of fascism and calls for hatred," offenses punishable by up two years in prison.
The march's organizers and the people who held provocative banners are the focus of the investigation, she said.
Polish Jewish leaders, ruling party chief at odds over what they talked about in meeting
By Cnaan Lipshiz
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 21, 2017
Leaders of Polish Jewry said they flagged what they termed rising intolerance in their country at a meeting with a ruling party politician, but the party chief denied the subject was broached.
Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and Leslaw Piszewski, the president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland, met Friday with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a founder of the Law and Justice party, to discuss various topics, including the "issue of growing intolerance towards various minorities, including the Jews," Schudrich told JTA on Monday.
But in an interview with the PAP news agency, Kaczynski denied the issue ever came up.
"We talked about the safety of Jewish communities and objects, but there was absolutely no mention of any growing climate of intolerance in Poland," he was quoted as saying.
Eastern Europe's Dark Past Could Hinder Its Future
By Izabella Tabarovsky
National Interest, November 15, 2017
Ruta Vanagaite, the enfant terrible of Lithuania's historical memory politics, has done it again: she has gone and cast doubt on yet another national hero in Lithuania by bringing up for public viewing some uncomfortable information about his past. When I caught up with her last Friday, she was in Brussels, fearing that being home in Lithuania might not be safe.
Vanagaite's specific crime was to question whether the celebrated partisan Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, who Lithuanians honor for his struggle against the Soviet occupation, was an appropriate choice as a symbol for 2018—the year the nation will be celebrating the centennial of its original independence.
Vanagaite's archival research showed that his story may be less neat than the official narrative suggested: he may not have been tortured in Soviet prisons as the official story claimed and may, in fact, have worked as a KGB informer. She also told me that the Wiesenthal Center believes that his unit may have participated in the murder of Lithuanian Jews during the Holocaust.


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CNN Money, that most astute of websites, tracked down recent blog retiree and superstar Andrew Sullivan, who gave an interview, probably, prefacing the publication of his book, which will keep him in the media crosshairs:
Andrew Sullivan: Blogging nearly killed me
Tom Kludt / CNNMoney
For years, Andrew Sullivan blogged at a prolific rate. — His prodigious output was supplemented by dispatches from readers, public debates with fellow bloggers and ruminations on everything from the Geneva Conventions to "South Park."
Timing: he announced his "retirement" from blogging on Wednesday, January 28th, and this is the followup story by the same reporter on Monday, March 30th. That's 61 Julian Days.* Or precisely two average months.
[* January 28th was Julian Day 2,457,050. March 30th is Julian Day 2,457,111.
61 days.
[To make it easier, throw out 2,457, 000 days and just subtract 50 from 111.
[This little trick comes in handy for figuring out days occupied, thirty, sixty and ninety day values, etcetera. Little tax time tallying tip. and here's a handy dandy Julian Date Converter from the US Naval Observatory, which your tax dollars fund, and note that Julian Dates are not actually Julian Dates, but are actually Julian Figs, as in try to Fig-ure out what they did by resetting the Julian clock back to "noon Universal Time on January 1, 4713 BCE (on the Julian calendar)" There are Gregorian dates, as in today is Gregorian Day 735,687 of the "Common Era" or "The Calendar formerly known as Anno Domini" or "A.D." which is now "CE" as "BCE" is what used to be called "Before Christ" or "B.C." This has caused stiff resistance by cartoonist J0hnny Hart who refuses to rename his daily strip about cavemen living in harmony with pterodactyls—too many t-shorts, evidently, having been sold.]
Here's the pithy quote (don't they proofread this stuff?):
"[Andrew]Sullivan has been lying low since he penned his farewell post for "The Dish," the politics and culture blog he founded in 2000. "
Evidently, the more self-employed he was, the bigger slavedriver his boss became.
No one could stand that strain. Wisely, he resigned for his health.
We wish him well. Ness.


text:
Dan Berg's Wreck Valley Collection
The Divers Guide to
Shipwrecks around the State of Florida and the Florida Keys.
over 240
illustrations comprised of 151 color photos, 83 black and
white historical images, 8 dynamic u/w sketches.
How to
SHIPWRECK DIVING Guide By Capt
Dan Berg
The true identity of the wreck known locally as the Gumbar or Gumbor
is the Norwegian steamship Gunvor. The Gunvor was built in 1935 by
Trondhjems Mek Verksted of Trondheim and owned by Bachke & Co. She
was 277.7 feet long, had a 43.2 foot beam, displaced 1,942 gross
tons and was powered by a 214 nhp double compound steam engine with
low pressure exhaust turbine. Sources say the Gunvor was on a voyage
from Mobile to Trinidad with a general cargo when she was lost in a
U.S. mine field on June 15, 1942. Others claim she was sunk on June
10, due to a torpedo attack from a German submarine, but after
careful research, we feel confident that this ship was sunk by a
U.S. mine.
Marine life at the wreck site, which is also known as the Danish
Freighter, abounds. Depth to the sand is 60 feet, and the wreck
rises to within 40 feet of the surface. Billy Deans reports that the
wreck is scattered but lies east to west.
Photo: The Norwegian
steamship Gunvor was227.7 feet long and had a43.2 foot beam. Photo
courtesy R. Scozafava, William Schell collection.
Basic shipwreck
information and images for this section of this site was taken with
permission from the book Florida Shipwrecks by Daniel Berg. You are
invited to submit your shipwreck related articles, images and
information. As long as the text, photographs, sketches etc are of
professional quality we will showcase them. Full credit will be
provided and a same page link to your web site can be arranged.
Buy Now
only $9.95
10.2 MB instant download, printable PDF file
By Dan and Denise Berg, 180 pages. Shipwrecks are an
important complement to the natural coral reefs as a sport diving attraction
in Florida. From the barley discernable ballast piles of the 1733 fleet to
the almost perfectly intact modern ships sunk specifically as artificial
reefs throughout the state, shipwrecks inspire an aura of mystery and
fascination. Florida Shipwrecks is the most comprehensive, accurate,
illustrated collection of information, photographs, sketches and stories
ever written about the shipwrecks around the state of Florida. This
downloadable ebook
contains a wealth of enlightening information that gives the readers a
nostalgic glimpse into the history and present condition of over 235
shipwrecks. Florida Shipwrecks includes over 240 illustrations comprised of
151 color photos, 83 black and white historical images, 8 dynamic u/w
sketches. Divers , snorkelers, marine historians, armchair sailors or anyone
with a general interest in history diving or the sea will surely find this
ebook fascinating, as well as indispensable.
photographs, sketches, images and text
Capt. Dan Berg / Aqua Explorers Inc
Cheshire Dr
Baldwin NY 11510
E-Mail firstname.lastname@example.com
Shipwreck Chart Art
New York/ New Jersey
New England
North Carolina
South Carolina
Florida Keys
Florida East Coast
Florida West Coast
Caribbean Shipwrecks
Cayman Islands
How To Guide to
Bikini guide
Water Sport Guide
Link Exchange


text:
Not Available to Ship to California
Grand Rock introduces their PowerFlow Dual Stack Y Pipe Kit. A high performance exhaust system with the "Big Rig" look and style for your truck. Take a big bold step up in looks and performance with a dual exhaust stack kit. (tips sold separately)
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This is a universal kit. Built in the USA. 1 Year Limited Warranty.
Please note: Your Grand Rock stack kits will be made-to-order at Grand Rock's facility in Ohio, so delivery time for your Y Pipe kit can vary. Grand Rock Y Pipe kits usually ship within 5-10 days and delivery is via FedEx Ground.


text:
Carole King/James Taylor: Troubadours - The Rise of The... DVD
Documentary tracing the early days of the American west-coast singer-songwriter movement, and in particular the career of two of its leading lights, Carole King and James Taylor.
Using archive footage and contributions from among others Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Bonnie Raitt, Roger McGuinn and Elton John, the film charts the singers rise to fame playing at the Troubadour club in L.A. in the early 1970s, culminating in their appearance together at the venue's 50th anniversary celebrations.
- Format: DVD
- Region: 2
- Certification: (Ex)
- Catalogue number: 7232877
- Studio: Universal Music
- Release date: 04/07/2011
- Genre: Music/Performing Arts
- Colour: Colour
Free Home Delivery
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text: Traditional Christening gowns are often passed down through families and there are many designers who specialise in Christenings/Baptisms. Sometimes a formal gown isn't what you want. Many of our 'Classic' designs will translate beautifully into a special outfit for boy or girl, whatever their ages. Please allow 3-4 weeks to be made.