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Do you want to make Advent a truly lovely experience this year?
Let A Gentle Advent™ guide your family on a beautiful exploration of the season.
Daily scripture journaling to draw your hearts into the celebration.
Charlotte Mason inspired studies and activities to delight and inspire.
Time to reflect, to sing, to learn, and to grow in this season of expectation and beauty.
Let your Advent season be soaked in Truth and filled with grace this year.
Does the busyness of the holiday season seem to runaway with you?
Does it feel like Christmas arrives and your entire season is a blur, leaving you wondering if your children really understand why we celebrate? Have you even talked about Jesus outside of church? Have your kids asked what does Advent mean?
I know how that feels. I want my own children to know that Christmas is not about Santa, getting everything on their list, or baking endless sugar cookies, but that we are celebrating the Greatest Gift!
I want Advent to be a time for them to grow close to their Savior.
I desperately wanted a simple approach to help teach them devotion, reflection, generosity, and to enjoy the beauty and the meaning of advent season in all it's glorious expectation.
Can you relate?
A Gentle Advent™ was born from the desire to have a calm and bright celebratory season. A way to stop the season from running away with us. A way to escape the overwhelm that threatens each December. A way to draw our family closer to each other and closer to our Lord.
Unrush your holiday season this year and experience A Gentle Advent.
A Gentle Advent™ contents
A Gentle Advent™ is a hybrid online course containing both digital elements and PDFs for you to print, activities for you to complete, and inspiration to guide you through this season.
When you have purchased A Gentle Advent™, you will see a "My Courses" tab in the main menu. Click there and begin with the Welcome Module for you, the parent, and the links to your 24 daily modules. The activities are mainly Charlotte Mason inspired. The 24 daily modules are for viewing and working through with your children.
The course begins with an Advent Scripture Journal for parents and another for children. The Scripture study is done daily to encourage the habit of devotion. There are printables, recipes, handicrafts, art and poetry studies, hymns and carols, nature studies, an advent calendar and more included in the course. Each PDF printable is linked on it's corresponding day.
These activities are all meant to flow through what our family calls "Holiday Homeschool". We do a light version of homeschool during the holiday season and this allows us to stay in the habit of learning, but also allows us to explore the season. A Gentle Advent™ will work for your family through regular, light, or "take the month of December off" homeschooling.
There is a private Facebook group for families using A Gentle Advent™ to share their projects and ask questions.
We cannot wait to walk through this beautiful season with you!
A Gentle Advent™ Course Details:
This is an online course that contains PDFs for printing and audio and video elements to watch from the course pages. NO physical products will be received.
- If you have trouble downloading the PDFs, please make sure you have Adobe Acrobat installed.
- When you have purchased the course, a tab labeled "My Courses" will appear in the menu bar for access to your course.
- For Co-op, church, or school licenses, please email [email protected].
- Because this is a digital resource, we are unable to offer refunds on this product.


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I spend a lot of my time talking about diabetes from my point of view or from the point of view of other people I know who have diabetes. Not that that's at all unexpected or out of the ordinary, but I wanted to take this post to write about the siblings of those who have diabetes. (I know in my last post I was a bit harsh on the self-proclaimed "Type 1 1/2 diabetic," but that was a very specific scenario where I had some pretty intense feelings on the situation.)
One thing that the Children with Diabetes (CWD) conferences put a lot of emphasis on is siblings. There are sessions specifically for siblings, and I'm really proud to say that my twin brother Zakariyya and one of my best friends Austin both lead a lot of those sessions, especially at the massive Friends for Life conference. I haven't had the opportunity to listen in on any sibling sessions, as obviously these are meant for siblings and not me. However, some of the things I've heard about those sessions have astonished me and made me so grateful for the amazing sibling that I have.
For example, I learned that some siblings are very jealous of their brothers and sisters with diabetes because of all the attention they receive. While it's a legitimate emotion that I'm sure has a number of factors behind it, I couldn't (and still can't) justify that type of thinking. I can't understand how any sibling wouldn't be able to rationalize it in his own head. To simply say to themselves, "I'm jealous of the attention he is getting, but I know that it's only because of the diabetes, so it's not worth it." But again, family dynamics vary from family to family, so perhaps I'm oversimplifying the psychology behind it.
At any rate, knowing that my brother is helping to run that session and help other kids put it all in perspective makes me really proud. I'm so grateful because I've never experienced a situation with any of my three brothers (one twin, two younger) being upset or jealous because I may have received extra attention. Obviously a majority of all this is due to my parents and the way they balanced everything, but credit is also due to my brothers who have always been helpful.
I can't even begin to guess how many times I've asked my brothers to grab my meter for me from my room, grab me a snack, or get whatever other supply I need at the moment. Granted, on a few occasions there may have been a fair share of huffing and puffing, but in general they do it for me in a heartbeat. It's easy to say, "Yeah! That's what they're supposed to do!" Well, true, it may be, but at the same time, I still appreciate them doing it for me without making it a big deal.
The other day I was driving with Zakariyya, and I wasn't sure whether my blood glucose was rising or dropping. I knew I wasn't low because I had checked before leaving the house (don't drive low people!!), but I felt that something was fluctuating. I asked him to check my blood sugar for me while I was driving, and he was such a pro about it. In fact, I had to ask him to keep pushing harder with the pricker because the lancet wasn't actually going in. When I told him to keep squeezing out more blood (just in case he had a hard time getting it onto the strip) he shot back with, "Umm, this is a FreeStyle Flash meter. You don't need all that blood yo." I was so impressed, shocked, touched, and grateful all in one.
It might not seem like that big of a deal, but it really was. Aside from my parents monitoring, no one has ever really checked my blood sugar for me. Having him do it so efficiently and not wince at the sight of blood and say "OH MY GOD! DOES THAT HURT?!?!" was a much needed reminder that my parents aren't the only ones that have been in it with me from the beginning.
While my siblings are more like the linesman of a soccer game and my parents like the referees, my brothers are still just as important. (Did I really just make that analogy? I think Euro 2012 is getting to me.) All the little things they've done for me add up, and I can't imagine having diabetes without them around. They're a huge part of why I have a positive attitude when it comes to diabetes.
I'll never forget my youngest brother Yaseen exclaiming one year that he was grateful for my diabetes, and that because of it, our family gets to go on fun family vacations and have more fun at theme parks because we can skip lines due to our "Guest Assistance" cards. I mean he was genuinely grateful! Hearing him attribute some of our best family memories to diabetes was another one of those times when it hit me just how much I could never wish away diabetes because of all the good it's brought into my life.
I really don't know what my family would be like if I didn't have diabetes. Through diabetes and the CWD conferences, we've changed for the better. It's an awesome feeling to have entire groups of friends from all over the world who are just as equally excited about seeing me as they are about seeing my brothers and parents. It's incredible to see how much my brothers have grown over the years, especially when we see friends that we haven't seen for months at a time.
The latest shock has been our CWD family seeing my brother Abdalla who has quite possibly grown an entire foot since some of them last saw him. I can't believe my 15-year-old brother is actually taller than me. Is it possible to have a pre-pre-midlife crisis at the tender age of 18 going on 19? (Abdalla, if you're reading this, you are NOT taller than me!)
Diabetes has definitely tightened us as a family unit, and I am really so grateful for that. Like I've said before, diabetes is the greatest blessing in disguise to ever fall upon me and my family.
As they say, everything happens for a reason.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tao of Dating Experiment: 'Caution: Construction Zone'
AB: This is The Phoenix's follow-up from the date with the Helmeted Hottie (aka Motorcycle Man). My comments in italics. Easy girl. Don't get too excited just yet. Yes, the date went great and he's even better looking in person….and the conversation was really good…and he seems to be on […]
Categories: Dating for Women Tao of Dating Experiment
Tags: mission, service, Tao of Dating Experiment, yang, yin


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BEIJING - A Chinese woman had twin girls at the age of 60 following IVF treatment after her only child died, making her possibly the oldest person in the country to give birth, state media reported Tuesday.
The case is extremely unusual in China, which has long maintained a one-child policy, because of the woman's age. Worldwide, many countries and clinics impose limits on IVF treatment which is known to become less effective with age, and amid concerns for the resulting children's welfare.
Sheng Hailin, now 63, lost her first daughter, then in her late 20s, in an accidental gas poisoning case in 2009, the China Daily said.
"To survive and free myself of the loneliness, I decided to have another child in my old age," she was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
A military hospital in the eastern city of Hefei agreed to give her and her husband in vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy, the report said.
She gave birth to Zhizhi, who weighed 1.85 kilograms (4.1 pounds), and Huihui, 1.45 kilograms, on May 25, 2010 at the No. 105 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, said the paper.
The oldest woman to give birth anywhere, according to the Guinness Book of Records, was Maria del Carmen Bousada Lara, of Spain, who had twin boys by Caesarean in 2006 aged 66 years 358 days. She died of cancer three years later.
The China Daily did not explain why Sheng was accepted for treatment.
China has implemented its family planning law for over 30 years, sometimes brutally, restricting most parents to only one child, with exceptions including some rural families whose first child is a girl, ethnic minorities, and couples who are both only children.
An estimated one million families nationwide have lost their sole descendant since the measure took effect in the late 1970s, and another four to seven million are expected to do so in the next 20 to 30 years.
Such families face uncertain futures, with no one to help them through the frailties or medical costs of old age, and an unshakeable sense of loss in a culture that emphasizes family.
The report came as China's top legislative committee is set to formalize a wider exception to the one-child limit, to allow couples where only one is an only child to have two offspring.


text: The City of Elgin has made it a priority to be a bicycle friendly community. By developing the Bikeway Master Plan, the city is providing a comprehensive and systematic approach to support and encourage a bicycle network throughout the city and within the region. The plan supports the city's green initiative and stated goal to be a sustainable city.


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Action Camera Comparisons - Action!
Get an Action Camera and Be an Internet Hero, or Use It To Improve Your Car
Related Video
With the creation of YouTube, everyone and his brother is now a Spielberg in training, and crazy in-car or on-car videos are as thick as ticks on a horse. It's just so easy to take dramatic video now, thanks to a handful of tiny video cameras that you can mount nearly anywhere, all for a couple hundred bucks. Even if you've never shot video before, it's super easy to do. In this story, we'll give you an overview of the four most popular cameras and our experiences with them. There's info here for first-timers and for more advanced users.
The Basics
These cameras are small and designed so you can hang them on a car in a position that catches an interesting view. This can be done with commonly available suction-cup mounts, and you can also buy rollbar attachments and helmet rigs. Duct tape and zip-ties work, too. Start recording, then proceed with ludicrous action in the car. Once you're finished, plug the camera into your computer and drag the video file directly to your desktop. Most camera files are user-friendly enough that you can simply double-click them and the videos will play using a program such as Quicktime. (You can download Quicktime from the Internet if it's not already on your computer, though it probably is.) If you want, you can edit the video with any number of programs that you can also download; Macs have iMovie, or you can go advanced with professional software like Final Cut. If you're not a computer guy, you can skip all of that and just upload the video to YouTube.
If you've never used YouTube, it's easy. After creating an account at YouTube.com, you click an upload button, then drag and drop the video file. That's it. You can also do rudimentary editing within YouTube, the easiest of which is trimming off the boring footage from the beginning of the video (after you start the recording but before the big action starts). And now that you have a YouTube account, please go to YouTube.com/HotRodMagazine and subscribe (for free) so you can be notified when we post new HOT ROD videos.
Suggested Camera Angles
There are a number of places you can mount cameras to get interesting videos. The most basic shot is from inside the car, placing the camera somewhere behind the driver, looking over his shoulder. The lenses have a wide enough angle to capture everything from the driver door to about half the dash.
You can also attach the cams outside the car. Try low and on the sides to view a wheel turning or smoking, or place one in the center of the front of the hood looking back at the windshield. It could also point forward at the road, although that tends to be uninteresting unless you're racing wheel-to-wheeland if you're doing that, then a camera on the trunk looking rearward can also be cool. In either case, make sure to put a portion of the car in the frame to provide context. If you just want to look at the road, mount the camera as low as possible (like under the front bumper) to give the impression of speed.
Don't forget that the cameras can also be set on the ground or used on a tripod. Put them at the side of the road or on the yellow line in the middle to get very fast drive-by shots. Finally, some of them can be used in stop-action mode, shooting one frame of video every minute or so, allowing you to capture video over long periods of time and playing it back in a very short time. You can make an entire engine swap look like you did it in 30 seconds.
How To Use Action Cameras To Improve Performance
Most people shoot and post videos just to become Internet stars, but there's also value in these action cameras for analyzing what your car is doing while you're driving. We have mounted cameras under the car, looking at front suspensions during cornering maneuvers and at rear suspensions during dragstrip launches. Watching tires is very interesting, too. If you don't have a playback tach, then use the video camera to watch the gauges for you so you can review later to see what's happening. With a vacuum-secondary carb, mount a camera and a flashlight pointing to the carb linkage to see if the secondaries are opening all the way. Do you think your exhaust is smoking but you don't know if it's under acceleration or deceleration or which side it's coming from? Hang a camera and find out.
Camera Settings
Most of the current high-definition cameras have many image settings, allowing you to easily choose things such as nighttime mode. Most of those options are self-explanatory. Where you might get confused is with the quality settings, which will be listed as WVGA (848x480, 60 fps, standard def), 720p (1280x720, 30 fps), 720p/action (1280x720 at 60 fps), 960p (1280x960, 30 fpsmore of a square frame) and 1080p (1920x1080, 60 fps). The number refers to the number of pixels (picture elements) used on the screen, and the higher the number the greater the image quality, so 1080 is the best. The 720 and 1080 have a widescreen-style aspect ratio. The fps means frames per second; 60 fps captures more data, and though you can't often tell the difference in normal playback, it's the way to go if you wish to use an editing program to create video in slow motion.
Which Camera To Choose?
The most common action camera is the GoPro, then the Drift, Replay, and Contour, all of which we've tested here. In each case, we recommend the HD version. If you are a first-timer, we'd suggest the Drift as the easiest to use and the GoPro because it's the most common and easiest to find.
For more advanced users, HOT ROD wanted to find out which one was best in terms of picture and sound quality, as well as features and ease of use, and rate them all on a bang-for-the-buck scale. All the cameras have an Mpeg-4 file format with h.264 compression, which makes for great picture quality and relatively small files. We tested them set to 1080i at 30 fps. It's best to have Quicktime Player installed on your computer to view the videos, though we've had an issue with Quicktime playing back the footage at half its frame rate on Windows computerseven though it was 30 fps, it played at 15 fps and looked horrible. This is a Quicktime issue rather than a problem with the cameras. If neither Quicktime nor Windows Media Player will play the files properly, a few of the camera manufacturers recommended downloading VLC media player from Videolan.org.
YouTube recognizes the Quicktime and .mp4 files that the cameras produce, so you should be able to upload footage to your computer from the camera then send it straight to YouTube if no editing is necessary. Your experience with editing footage from these cameras will vary based on the software used. Final Cut Pro can import 1080i footage, but it's clunky and slow, requiring a lot of rendering time. Plus, that's an expensive software package. If you need to convert footage so it will go into your video editing program of choice, there are several free conversion programs available, such as Mpeg Streamclip.
All four cameras were fairly simple to use and produced decent action videos in our testing, but to choose a winner we ranked them on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being the worst, and the Replay won out. If you're concerned about focal length, the Drift and GoPro were about even with the widest angle, followed by the Replay and then the Contour as the tightest (longest focal length), but they were all very similar in that regard.
See Hot Rod's Comparison Video
We shot a number of action scenes with these four cameras so you can view the picture quality under identical conditions. See YouTube.com/HotRodMagazine.
Drift HD170
The Drift has a very handy screen that allows you to see exactly where you've pointed the camera (most others don't), and the menus are easily understood to change settings. It's the only one we tested with a remote control, which is cool. The menu on the camera has a low/medium/high setting for the microphone, which we set to low. It picked up details of the engine and turbo on videographer Clint's turbo Talon really well, but it was a bit overpowered by the wind once up to speed. Overall, the volume was much lower than the other cameras, regardless of the setting.
File type: .mov file (Quicktime); H.264 video compression at 12Mbit/second, AAC audio compression at 48k.
Amazon's Price: $264.00
Picture: 4
Sound: 1
Ease of Use: 4
Features: 3
Overall Rating: 3
Source: DriftInnovation.com
Replay XD1080
The Replay was the smallest of the four cameras, and seemed to have the best picture and sound quality. We were unanimous in picking it as our favorite among the four cams tested. The manufacturer supplies little stickers to put over the microphone hole, which worked really well at blocking wind noise, but you lose details in other sounds. The Replay also had, by far, the best nighttime (low light) footage.
File type: .mov file (Quicktime), H.264 video compression at 7.5Mbit/second, AAC audio compression at 48k.
Amazon's Price: $299.00
Picture: 5
Sound: 5
Ease of Use: 3
Features: 2
Overall Rating: 4.5
Source: ReplayXd.com
The Contour's greatest features are an easy on and off switch and an easy-aiming feature. It had a picture and sound quality that ranked it between the GoPro and the Drift. The bummer with it is that you need to break open a computer to adjust its settings, as there is no menu screen on the cam itself. It also didn't do well with wind noise.
File type: .mov file (Quicktime), H.264 video compression at 8.5Mbit/second, AAC audio compression at 48k.
Amazon's Price: $249.00
Picture: 3
Sound: 3
Ease of Use: 4
Features: 2
Overall Rating: 3
Source: Contour.com
GoPro may have started this whole game, and while the basic mounts and lack of a viewing screen are a pain, they can both be rectified. The biggest boon to the GoPro's success, in our opinion, is the add-on (for $79.00) BacPac screen that allows you to see where you're aiming it. The camera comes with two casesone has openings to let sound in, the other is sealed and is to be used in noisy environments and underwater. We used the sealed case for our exterior wind noise tests. It picked up engine noise pretty well (not as well as the Replay), and you could hear some detail (though not as much as with the Drift), but it was overcome by wind once you got up to speed. Wind noise was not nearly as bad as with the Contour, though.
File type: .mp4 file (mpeg 4), H.264 video compression at 15 Mbit/second, AAC audio compression at 48k.
Amazon's Price: $179.00
Picture: 3
Sound: 3
Ease of Use: 2
Features: 3
Overall Rating: 3
Source: GoPro.com
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Lawsuit settled over expansion of Tahoe's Homewood resort
HOMEWOOD, Calif. — After years of public meetings, environmental debates and legal maneuvers, Lake Tahoe developers expect to break ground next spring on a scaled-down renovation to Homewood Mountain Resort.
Resort owner JMA Ventures reached a settlement Thursday with the Friends of the West Shore and Tahoe Area Sierra Club, a year after a federal judge halted the project by ruling that its environmental impact statement needed revision.
The settlement calls for a reduction of 13 housing units — seven from the project's North Base, and six from the south, to be chosen by Homewood. The project's overall square footage remains the same, JMA Ventures founder Art Chapman said Friday, and no proposed building heights will be decreased.
"We'll have 13 fewer units, but the same square footage … which in theory will reduce traffic," Chapman said. "We've been very candid with everyone about the economics of Homewood, and we needed a certain size — we couldn't compromise on the square footage."
The original $500 million Homewood plan included a 5-star hotel with up to 75 rooms, 56 residential condominiums, 47 multi-family condominiums, 48 ski-in ski-out chalets, 16 townhomes, 13 workforce housing apartments and 15,000 square feet of retail space, along with an additional 40 individually owned condos and 30 individually owned penthouse units.
The revamped proposal is being developed and still requires approval from the Placer County Board of Supervisors and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency governing board, something Chapman hopes occurs "within the next 60 days."
As part of the settlement, JMA also must monitor traffic patterns for a minimum of 20 years, with a focus on main entrances from Highway 89, and publish an annual traffic monitoring report that includes vehicle trips vs. other modes of transportation.
Among other compromises, JMA agreed to put certain parcels of land off-limits to development, and to prohibit tennis courts, tennis clubs, ice rinks, roller coasters and athletic fields on the mountain.
"The modified project will have a smaller impact on Lake Tahoe, which has already suffered so much from runaway development," Wendy Park, an attorney with Earthjustice, said Friday. "Any construction project this close to the shores of Lake Tahoe must be considered carefully and all environmental impacts examined closely."
Earthjustice, a public interest law firm, represented the Friends of the West Shore and Tahoe Area Sierra Club in their Jan. 5, 2012, federal lawsuit that named TRPA, JMA Ventures and Placer County as defendants.
The plaintiffs referred to the project as "a wall-to-wall mass of buildings that climb 77 feet up the face of the Homewood ski slope" that doesn't fit with the community, and doesn't protect the lake, according to previous reports.
A Jan. 4, 2013, order from U.S. District Court Judge William B. Shubb put the project on hold when he ruled that Placer County and TRPA improperly analyzed the possibility JMA could have proposed a smaller project upon eventually approving the plan in 2011.
In his 114-page ruling, Shubb rejected JMA's contention it would lose money if it reduced the size of the planned resort, noting that the combined Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Impact Statement failed to consider all streams of income, including condominium and hotel revenues.
"I think as much as anything, the Friends and Sierra Club wanted to know what was going on and feel they were part of the process and that they had input," Chapman said Friday. "… They wanted to have some requests for additional monitoring and measuring, and we absolutely agreed to that."
Aside from upgrades, the project calls for a variety of major environmental upgrades and land use restorations to Homewood's footprint, and is the only mixed-use resort in the U.S., according to TRPA, designed to incorporate gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building certification for neighborhood development design standards.
"The public input process on this was perhaps the most for any project the lake has ever seen," Chapman said. "It took us six years, I may have lost some hair in the process, but the process, it really worked, and I'm happy to say we've reached a point where there seems to be widespread support."
The idea of renovating Homewood's two base areas was first proposed in 2006, before JMA officially submitted an application in 2007.
The project would save the struggling West Shore ski resort — which reportedly has been hard hit by the Great Recession and has been playing catch-up to larger ski areas like Northstar California, Heavenly Mountain Resort and Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows — from closing.
Homewood, located near Tahoe City, has operated as a ski resort since 1962. For more information, visit http://www.skihomewood.com.
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The collapse of the former Soviet Union generated much satisfaction among many Americans, Europeans, and others who, with justification, saw the evils of that empire as proof of the failures of the Communist system on which it was based. No political system hitherto invented provides protection against the worst instincts of rapacious rulers and their acolytes, and many of those who thought that Karl Marx had done so found themselves contemplating their fate in the gulag, where tens of millions perished while Soviet bigwigs partied in their dachas. The theoretical merits of Communism turned out no better in practice than Naziism or Fascism, whether tested in Russia, China, or Cambodia.
But the world may yet come to appreciate the seven decades of Communist control over the Soviet empire for what it did to constrain the Russian reach for global power. Communism's end-justifies-the-means produced conditions under which fear, and hence corruption, suppressed initiative and innovation. Communism's inherent inefficiencies spawned an economic system destined to disintegrate in a globalizing world. The Communist imperialists extended their power over a vast colonial empire reaching from central Asia to central Europe, requiring massive investments in policing as well as armed intervention. Entire populations (for example the Chechens and the Tatars) were exiled to remote desert areas at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, then "pardoned" by more moderate rulers to return to their abandoned abodes where Russians had taken their place. To the wider world, Russia's Cold-War leaders might threaten "we will bury you," but the cost of their ruthless rule inhibited their capacity to do so, and the Cold War stayed cold except in proxy settings.
Now Russia is the "free and open" society that might have emerged from the Revolution a century ago, its lost empire a national preoccupation, its former colonies resentful, its Communist-era settlers abandoned to newly sovereign governments, its allies near and far looking to Moscow for succor. In their unconstrained social-spatial engineering, the dominant Russians of the former U.S.S.R. redrew boundaries and awarded territories and peoples to "republics" of which they were not historically a part on the arrogant assumption that all Soviet member states would be Moscow's vassals in perpetuity. Thus a Soviet dictator in 1954 capriciously transferred the Crimea Peninsula to Ukraine as a reward for Ukraine's contribution to the Soviet Union's well-being, not imagining that, before the end of the century, Ukraine would be a sovereign state in fact rather than in Communist mythology. As a result, millions of Russians today find themselves under the government in Kyyiv (Kiev) rather than Moscow.
The Slavic diaspora in what Russians still call their "near-abroad" continue to arouse nationalist emotions in the new Russia. Millions of Russians have returned to their ancestral home, but many more remain beyond the border, from Kazakhstan to Estonia. And others – Slavs as well as non-Slavs – who allied themselves with the Communist cause during the Soviet period also have Moscow's attention. Indeed, while the current crisis in Georgia has been simmering for years, its escalation relates directly to the last convulsions of another Communist collapse, that of Yugoslavia, and its largest fragment, Serbia.
The devolution of the former Yugoslavia initially yielded five states, of which Serbia was the largest and in many ways the most complex, with Hungarian, Montenegrin, and Kosovar (Albanian) minorities under Belgrade's government. The Hungarian minority in the north did not agitate for secession, but coastal Montenegro left the Serbian fold in 2006 without serious problems and became another of Europe's ministates, with a population below 700,000. The Muslim majority of Kosovo, landlocked leftover of the Ottoman period and numbering about 1.8 million, victims of Serbian subjugation during the devolutionary period and inalterably opposed to further Serbian domination, attained independence in 2008 with the support of the United States and a majority of (but not all) European states. Russia vociferously objected to Kosovo's independence, supporting the Serbian position that Kosovo is a historic part of the former kingdom and vowing to veto any application it might make to join the United Nations.
While the international community's attention was focused on the Kosovo issue, the simmering trouble between Russia and Georgia worsened, and it was no coincidence. Even as Moscow continued to object to Kosovo's recognition, Russian military equipment and troops began to converge on two stretches of Russia's international border: those of Abkhazia, a corner of Georgia on the Black Sea coast, and of South Ossetia, in the Caucasus Mountains. While Georgia was one of the 15 Socialist Soviet "republics," these two pockets of Georgia – as well as a third, Ajaria, also on the Black Sea coast – were simply administrative acknowledgments of ethnic-minority realities. Indeed, the Ossetians straddled the border between Russia and Georgia: North Ossetia lies one small entity removed from Chechnya, and South Ossetians make up just 3 percent of Georgia's population. Russians and Russian military "peacekeepers" strengthen Moscow's presence in this enclave of Russian loyalty, and in Abkhazia, too, the Russian presence outnumbers the 2 percent Abkhazians. Even before the intervention of August 8, 2008, the government of Georgia had little control over either piece of the "near abroad."
It has been the stated objective of the Tbilisi government to assert its jurisdiction over the three minority territories on its margins, but Moscow has obstructed this initiative in various ways, ranging from the closure of transport routes (and thus commercial traffic) between Georgia and Russia to the award of Russian passports to residents of Abkhazia and North Ossetia. Newspapers and other media commentary in Russia ask why, if Kosovo can be wrested from Serbia because locals there want independence, the same rights cannot be accorded to North Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russian commentators are arguing that Georgia's suppression of Ossetians and Abkhazians is no less ruthless than that of Kosovars by Serbia.
But by militarily intervening as the Russians have, including the bombing of targets in Georgia itself, Moscow appears intent on creating a crisis that will demonstrate its capacity and willingness to wage war for its interests in the "near abroad" despite serious risk of potentially uncontrollable escalation. Kosovo may have been part of the kindling, but Russia resented NATO encroachment toward its borders, American-planned construction of missile-defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, EU involvement in Ukraine's long-range plans (Georgia has also proclaimed its hope to join the EU, and you will see the EU flag, beside the flag of Georgia, stand behind President Saakashvili's desk during interviews) and other slights. One question is whether Russian bombers will target the Georgian section of the oil pipeline linking the Caspian Sea reserves to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Another is whether, should Russia impose a naval blockade on Georgia, Ukraine will deny it the use of its Crimean naval bases, potentially drawing Kyyiv into the conflict and creating a motive for Russian action there as well.
A belligerent Russia has already choked off the flow of natural gas to Europe during a dispute over payments, has allowed a murder case (allegedly by a Russian agent in London) to damage relations with the United Kingdom, has turned a blind eye to criminal activity in Moldova, has obstructed efforts to persuade Iran to alter its nuclear practices, has imprisoned business leaders deemed politically inconvenient in ways chillingly reminiscent of gulag times, and has sent bombers flying into airspace in the Cold-War mode. The brutality of its post-Soviet campaigns against Muslim Chechens was seen in context of the wider "war against terror", but the destruction now being visited on Georgia suggests that a new page has been turned.


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Stamped Silverware Markers
how to make these that lives here.
Glass Gem Markers
to make these is here.
Stamped Clay Markers
the Reese Dixon blog that I loved and was planning on making until I saw someone combine clay and what looked like vintage knife handles on Facebook somewhere so I went this direction instead. I love these! I think they are super fun and colorful.
Chalkboard Markers
If you're looking for some more garden bling (plant markers or otherwise) I've got some fun projects from all over the internet pinned on my Garden Crafts pinterest board. I hope you enjoy!
I'm sharing with these great parties:


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Many years ago, I discovered the remarkable array (apparently originally discovered by Ramanujan)
1 3
2 10 15
6 40 105 105
24 196 700 1260 945
which is defined by $S(i,j) = i\ S(i-1,j) + (i+j)\ S(i-1,j-1)$ and $S(0,1)=1$, and $S(i,j)=0$ if $j<1$ or $j>i+1$. This array has the remarkable property that the sum of the numbers in the $i$'th row is $(i+1)^{i+1}$. This is not easy to prove. There are three approaches I know to proving this
- Generating functions.
- Counting subclasses of labeled trees.
- Generalizing to a 3-dimensional array of numbers. There are recurrences on two sets of parallel planes, which intersect in the rows. One set of parallel planes contains the array above, and the other set contains a recurrence from which one can immediately deduce the row sums. Proving that these two different sets of recurrences give the same array is straightforward (albeit tedious without computer algebra) using induction.
(See Peter Shor, Otto G. Ruehr, SIAM Review, Problems and Solutions column, Vol. 21, pp. 258-260 (1979).)
The third approach is reminiscent of Wilf and Zeilberger's A = B theory of combinatorial identities, except there you have 3-dimensional arrays with recurrences on three sets of parallel planes. Wilf and Zeilberger's theory does not appear to shed any light on this recurrence.
My question is: does anybody know any other 3-dimensional arrays which have recurrences on two sets of parallel planes, but which do not fall under the A = B theory (so you cannot find a recurrence on a third set of parallel planes)? I would especially be interested in recurrences whose coefficients are polynomials in the coordinates $i,j,k$.
For more information about the connection with labeled trees, although this isn't directly connected with my question, see the papers Chen and Guo, Bijections behind the Ramanujan polynomials and Guo and Zeng, A generalization of the Ramanujan polynomials and plane trees, as well as the references in them.


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Americans just discovered that cats and dogs are covered under the Affordable Care Act. But the pets are required to have insurance!
The United States government considers pets "people" – at least in terms of healthcare. According to the rules and regulations laid out in Obamacare, cats and dogs will receive free healthcare from the government, but they are mandated to carry vet insurance, or else they will have to pay a penalty.
"Cats and dogs cost the healthcare industry a billion dollars a year in healthcare costs," said Dr. Janice Ross, the White House Advisor in charge of Pet Insurance. "We decided to include pets in the Affordable Care Act because they are members of the family and should be cared for equal to humans."
Sources say President Obama only wanted to cover dogs, but Joe Biden pushed to cover cats too – and Biden one.
"How can you not cover pets and dogs? What kind of society doesn't provide free healthcare to dogs and cats?" reportedly said Vice President Biden.
Some dogs were not happy about being forced to buy health insurance.
The American Veterinary Medical Association represents 82,000 vets. They organization is not happy that vets will be forced to care for dogs and cats that did not have health insurance before Obamacare was passed. "We can't treat every dog and cat in the country. That's impossible," said Dr. Johnson Bingham of Fort Lauderdale.
"Vets have to join in. Do their part. We are all in this together," Joe Biden said.
Lawyers for gerbils, hamsters, fish, snakes and farm animals are reportedly challenging the law, hoping to get their clients covered as well.


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In response to the public disgrace and ruin of New York Times editor Howell Raines, CBS anchor Dan Rather and CNN news director Eason Jordan, liberals are directing all their fury at the blogs. Once derided as people sitting around their living rooms in pajamas, now obscure writers for unknown Web sites are coming under more intensive background checks than CIA agents.
The heretofore-unknown Jeff Gannon of the heretofore-unknown "Talon News Service" was caught red-handed asking friendly questions at a White House press briefing. Now the media is hot on the trail of a gay escort service that Gannon may have run some years ago. Are we supposed to like gay people now, or hate them? Is there a Web site I can go to and find out how the Democrats want me to feel about gay people on a moment-to-moment basis?
Liberals keep rolling out a scrolling series of attacks on Gannon for their Two Minutes Hate, but all their other charges against him fall apart after three seconds of scrutiny. Gannon's only offense is that he may be gay.
First, liberals claimed Gannon was a White House plant who received a press pass so that he could ask softball questions (a perk reserved for New York Times reporters during the Clinton years). Their proof was that while "real" journalists (like Jayson Blair) were being denied press passes, Gannon had one, even though he writes for a Web site that no one has ever heard of — but still big enough to be a target of liberal hatred!
By the way, if writing for a news organization with no audience is grounds for being denied a press pass, why do MSNBC reporters have them?
On the op-ed page of The New York Times, Maureen Dowd openly lied about the press pass, saying: "I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the 'Barberini Faun' is credentialed?"
Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president. Still, it would be suspicious if Dowd were denied a press pass while someone from "Talon News" got one, even if he is a better reporter.
But Dowd was talking about two different passes without telling her readers (a process now known in journalism schools as "Dowdification"). Gannon didn't have a permanent pass; he had only a daily pass. Almost anyone can get a daily pass – even famed Times fantasist Maureen Dowd could have gotten one of those. A daily pass and a permanent pass are altogether different animals. The entire linchpin of Dowd's column was a lie. (And I'm sure the Times' public editor will get right on Dowd's deception.)
Finally, liberals expressed shock and dismay that Gannon's real name is "James Guckert." On MSNBC's "Hardball," Chris Matthews introduced the Gannon scandal this way: "Coming up, how did a fake news reporter from a right-wing Web site get inside the White House press briefings and presidential news conferences?"
Reporter David Shuster then gave a report on "the phony alias Guckert used to play journalist" — as opposed to the real name Shuster uses to play journalist. (You can tell Schuster is a crackerjack journalist because he uses phrases like "phony alias.") With all the subtlety of a gay-bashing skinhead, Matthews spent the rest of the segment seeing how many times he could smear Gannon by mentioning "HotMilitaryStuds.com" and laughing.
Any day now, Matthews will devote entire shows to exposing Larry Zeigler, Gerald Riviera and Michael Weiner — aka Larry King, Geraldo Rivera and Matthews' former MSNBC colleague Michael Savage. As a newspaper reporter, Wolf Blitzer has written under the names Ze'ev Blitzer and Ze'ev Barak. The greatest essayist of modern times was Eric Blair, aka George Orwell. The worst essayist of modern times is "TRB" of The New Republic.
Air America radio host and "Nanny" impersonator "Randi Rhodes" goes by a fake name, and she won't even tell people what her real last name is. (She says for "privacy reasons." It must be a real doozy.) As Insideradio.com describes Rhodes, she refuses "to withhold anything from her listeners" and says conservatives "are less likely to share such things." How about sharing your name, Randi? We promise not to laugh.
Democrats in Congress actually demanded that an independent prosecutor investigate how Gannon got into White House press conferences while writing under an invented name. How did Gary Hartpence, Billy Blythe and John Kohn (Gary Hart, Bill Clinton and John Kerry) run for president under invented names? Admittedly, these men were not reporters for the "Talon News Service"; they were merely Democratic presidential candidates.
Liberals keep telling us not to trust the blogs, but in order to retaliate for the discrediting of major news organizations like The New York Times, CBS News and CNN, all they can do is produce the scalp of an obscure writer for an unknown conservative Web page. And unlike Raines, Rather and Jordan, they can't even get Gannon for incompetence on the job.
(Also unlike Raines, Rather and Jordan, Gannon has appeared on TV and given a series of creditable interviews in his own defense, proving, once again, that our gays are more macho than their straights.)
Gannon didn't write about gays. No "hypocrisy" is being exposed. Liberals' hateful, frothing-at-the-mouth campaign against Gannon consists solely of their claim that he is gay.
4520 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. 64111; (816) 932-6600


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One of the great things about blogs are the connections that get made. For Te Papa this means we get new and interesting links to things in our collections.
Debby Mathews lives in Lewes, near Brighton in the south of England – in the same house in which Gideon Mantell was born, on 3 Feb 1790! The house is timber framed and dates back to 1700. Gideon's father had a shoemaking workshop downstairs and the family lived upstairs.
What's the connection? Well Debby saw our recent post about the fossil iguanodon tooth. It's one of the most significant items in Te Papa's collections and the topic of a recent Tales of Te Papa
Watch Tales of Te Papa – the iguanodon tooth
Gideon Mantell described the fossil in 1825 and it's considered to be the very first fossil to be recognised as being from a dinosaur. On that basis, our resident geologist Hamish Campbell calls the fossil tooth "one of the holy grails of natural science"!
Find out more about the iguanodon tooth on Collections Online
Debby sent us a picture of the house the other day. It's covered in snow right now, as the UK experiences one of the coldest winters in many years!
She is involved in celebrating the work of Gideon Mantell in his home town of Lewes, and organising events for 2010 to commemorate 220 years since his birth. We hope she'll keep up the links with Te Papa and the famous iguanodon tooth that has journeyed all the way out to New Zealand and into our collection.


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Image 1 of 1
San Juan launched its free summer trolley on Friday, June 9. It will operate Friday through Sunday: 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays through Labor Day, running a loop every 20 minutes. You can ride a loop and get photos of people and places. Some residents may use it to get to the beach without a car, as it shares a stop with Dana Point's free trolley, which also began Friday, June 9. Or people staying at hotels in Laguna or Dana Point may hop onto Dana Point's trolley and connect to San Juan's to visit the mission, Los Rios Street or other attractions without having to hunt for parking downtown. Photographed in San Juan Capistrano, CA on Saturday, June 10, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan, Orange County Register/SCNG)
- Copyright
- Orange County Register/SCNG
- Image Size
- 2784x1856 / 528.8KB
- www.ocregister.com
- Contained in galleries
- Hogate Party 2017


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About a year ago, my amazing friend Jen told me her vision for quarterly day-long yoga retreats at her studio. She wanted to theme each one around the season and asked me if I would participate and also cook lunch for the yogis. Jen is one of my very closest friends and one of my favorite people in the world, so even if I hadn't thought it was a good idea, I would have said yes. But I thought it was a terrific idea and the first retreat happened the Saturday before Mother's Day last year. We did one in July, one in October and now, one in February.
Yesterday was the winter one – she called it Moving Into Stillness. Jen emphasized the need for us to embrace winter and find beauty in it, instead of waiting for it hurry past. She mentioned the importance of home at this difficult time of year and welcomed us into hers.
Parents of small children – I know you can understand when I say having a day away is one of life's greatest treasures. Even just being by myself in the car is precious. Then throw in a ferry ride, a challenging and invigorating morning of yoga, a lunch prepared by me, time to just hang with incredible women, and then another yoga class, another ferry ride, and more time in the car by myself. Nirvana or what?
Now that I have done four of these, I have a rhythm down. I get to Jen's house early and unload my car. Everything cold goes in the refrigerator and everything else goes on the counter in groups of how it will be served. The menus I plan need to be as simple as possible in terms of last minute prep because I only have about 45 minutes to get it all out and that includes a shower (Jen teaches hot yoga). Then, I go down to the studio to secure my mat space and Jen and I get a few moments of talking time before she and I are both "on".
If you are lucky, you have had a wonderful teacher in your life. Maybe you have had several. I had a tremendous 3rd grade teacher, a 9th grade English teacher who taught me how to write, math teachers all through high school who sat with me patiently and explained things over and over, and a physics professor in college who gave me a "B" even though I was doing "C" work because I tried hard. And now, Jen. I have taken and taught a lot of yoga classes in my life. I have never had a teacher like her. She manages to make the class extremely challenging and extremely approachable. She gives very clear and yet minimal instructions on the poses and talks more about real life. Honoring yourself. One of my favorite things she says is, "Try easy. We are always told to try harder. Try easy." She speaks in English, not yoga speak and she is very real.
After a morning of intense self-focus using poses and breath, it always feels a bit weird to change into frantic trying-to-get-the-food-out mode. But I know everyone is hungry (including me) so I do my best to hurry. I worry the entire time that I don't have enough food. If I made enough to feed 100 (we were 21 this time), I would still worry.
One thing I never have to worry about is dessert. Things can be made in advance and people are so appreciative of a home-baked treat. Especially after sweating their guts out in a challenging class. This time I made Honey Nut Bars (recipe coming soon) and these cookies.
Sometimes making choices is great and sometimes it is nice to have a choice made for you. This cookie makes a choice for you. Rather than having to decide between a cookie and a brownie, this recipe just combines them for you. Yes, those chunks are brownies. There are lots of nice things about this recipe, one of them being that you only use half the pan of brownies in the cookies. The other half can either be served just as brownies, or you can freeze them for next time.
One Year Ago: Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Brownie-Chunk Cookies
Adapted from Bon Appétit
Makes approximately 30 cookies
Take note that you will need to refrigerate the brownies overnight before using them in the cookies.
2½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
½ recipe (½ sheet) chilled Old Fashioned Brownies (recipe follows), cut into ½-inch pieces
Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk first 3 ingredients in medium bowl. Beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Sir in dry ingredients, then walnuts. Gently fold in brownies cubes (brownies may crumble).
Fill a small bowl with water. Dip ice cream scoop in water, scoop batter; drop onto cookie sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart and dipping scoop as needed. Using moist fingertips, flatten mounds to 1-inch thickness.
Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until just golden – 15 to 18 minutes. Remove cookies to cooling rack.
Old-Fashioned Brownies
Makes one 13×9 – inch brownie sheet
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup flour
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 13x9x2 – inch metal baking pan with foil, leaving overhang. Stir chocolate and butter in heavy large saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool 15 minutes.
Whisk sugar and vanilla into chocolate mixture, then whisk in eggs and salt; stir in flour. Spread batter in prepared pan.
Bake brownies until tester inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 20 minutes. Cool in pan. Cover and chill overnight.
Using foil as aid, lift brownie sheet from pan and cut in half to use in cookies. Serve other half (cut into squares) or wrap well in foil and freeze for up to one month.


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April 22, 2012
What Lack Of Fishing Does To Me
14 comments:
Yeah it does appear that you might be cracking up a little. Excellent art work though. You better get back to the water and get it together before you wander off into Appalachia. Happy Earth DAy to you, the DW, and Lilly.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks. Today's downpour prevented another fishing outing, instead the family celebrated Earth Day by seeing the Lorax.Delete
You did it! I'm telling ya that is a badass blog name.ReplyDeleteReplies
Yeah, we'll see how long it continues...Delete
- AnonymousApril 22, 2012 at 12:56 PM
And, and, you said I was the awesome one!ReplyDeleteReplies
You are the wind beneath my wings.Delete
I'm with you, buddy. Roll on.ReplyDelete
Glad to have you aboard.Delete
please, don't ever not keep this upReplyDeleteReplies
Will do what I can.Delete
- Replies
Many thanks Sanders.Delete
PA Bigfoot Society! AWESOMENESS. Are you taking on satellite clubs? Expanding maybe? I'd like to start one up for the Atlanta area.ReplyDelete
Oh a serious note, there have been several sightings in the S.E. in the last 2 or 3 decades. Bring your bigfoot hunting gear.Replies
Don't they call 'em Skunk Apes in Georgia. Anyway, that's really why I'm coming down, fishing is secondary.Delete


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Super PAC targets House Dems
The YG Action Fund is launching nearly $2 million in television advertisements in Democratic-held districts Monday, the super PAC's first buy of the general election.
The advertisements are in support of Jason Plummer, who is running for a seat in southern Illinois, outside of St. Louis; Richard Tisei, who is trying to topple Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.); and David Rouzer, who is looking to unseat Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.).
The three spots are hard hitting, attempting to paint Plummer's opponent — Bill Enyart — as out of touch, Tierney as an accessory to his wife's illegal activity and McIntyre as having gone Washington.
They also illustrate the role super PACs will play in the general election — they can be far more vicious than a campaign or campaign committee.
And they're not cheap. The group is spending roughly $541,000 against Enyart in the St. Louis media market, nearly $900,000 against Tierney in the Boston market and $541,000 against McIntyre in Raleigh, N.C.
All three spots are narrated by women, and they're all prime pickup opportunities for Republicans.
In the 30-second spot, the group accuses Enyart of saying the economy is improving, and they also try to tie him to imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The spot hitting Tierney — titled "Man Up" — seeks to remind voters that the congressman's wife served time. The advertisement asks voters to "imagine what we don't know," saying that Tierney's family ran an illegal gambling operation and the congressman sat silent in court while his wife was being sentenced.
The McIntyre advertisement paints the lawmaker as acting like a conservative in North Carolina, but a liberal in Washington, adding that he voted for Nancy Pelosi four times for speaker.
The McIntyre and Tierney advertisements do not mention their Republican opponents.


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It's everyone's favorite time of year—the birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, and PornHub has just released a big, ol' sticky mess of data about the country's porn habits. And the conclusion? The MILF is alive and well, Nevada is weirdly into adult film star Anita Queen, and anyone invested in the porn industry needn't worry—America says "yes" to porn.
Among the many interesting little tidbits, the fresh load of data makes us privy to each individual states' top three search terms as well as the—er, duration of an individual's visit to that particular corner of the internet. So, boys and girls, what did we learn?
Kentucky really, really likes to watch anime characters fornicate—a lot. Good for them! We just wish we could say the same for Rhode Island, who barely manages to clock in at a weak 10 minutes per session. We'd suggest imagining your grandmother and her friends running around naked, but given the nation's propensity for MILFs, perhaps best to move straight on down to great-grandmother.
But other than Wyoming's curious interest in dirty deeds done on the "brcc" or "backroom casting couch" and the fact that Utah is lying (to us and to themselves), the same classics that got off your father and your father's father before him still seem to be crowd favorites. You can check out the full set of data over at PornHub, here, and happy browsing. [PornHub]


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TORONTO — CIBC is hiking its friendly takeover offer for Chicago-based PrivateBancorp to $6.8 billion, the second increase in recent weeks.
The Toronto-based bank (TSX:CM) is now offering US$27.20 in cash and 0.4176 of a CIBC common share.
The revised CIBC offer adds US$3 per share in cash or about $200 million to its March 30 bid.
The latest revision comes after the ISS shareholder advisory service concluded that a stand-alone PrivateBancorp would provide more potential upside for PrivateBancorp investors than the CIBC offer on the table at the time.
PrivateBancorp investors are scheduled to meet on May 12 to vote on the takeover offer.
CIBC had originally offer US$18.80 in cash and less stock in its original offer last summer. It says the latest proposal is its "best and final offer to the PrivateBancorp stockholders."
The Canadian Press


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The application pimake is similar in operation to the Unix utility program make, but it is written entirely in Tcl so that it will run anywhere Tcl is installed. Like make, pimake controls the building of one file, the target, from other files. Just as make is controlled by rules in files named Makefile or makefile, pimake is controlled by rules in files named makerules.tcl.
The pimake launch command is:
tclsh oommf.tcl pimake [standard options] \ [-d] [-i] [-k] [-out file] [target]where
There are several targets which may be used as arguments to pimake to achieve different tasks. Each target builds in the current directory and all subdirectories. The standard targets are:


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Dir. Kevin Reynolds
Reviewed by Matt Adcock (@Cleric20)
Read the newspaper version of this review at: The Hemel Gazette
"What frightens you?"
"Being wrong... Wagering eternity on him."
Welcome to one of the biggest and most speculated about events in history. It's 33 A.D. - a key date for the biblical narrative as it was when Jesus / Yeshua (played here with huge amounts of charisma by Cliff 'Fear The Walking Dead' Curtis) was crucified and buried. Yes, Risen is the latest bible-em-up reworking of the resurrection, overlapping and following on from the events in Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ.
"The 'King of the Jews' dying with thieves"
The difference this time is that Director and co-writer Kevin 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' Reynolds retells the events through the eyes of a non-believing Roman Centurion named Clavius (Joseph 'Shakespeare In Love' Fiennes).
As religious fervour threatens to ignite civil unrest across Judea in the wake of the disappearance of Jesus's body, the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate (Peter 'Spooks' Firth) orders an inquiry into what exactly happened. The religious leaders and Pharisees claim that the body had been stolen by Christ's followers, the soldiers tasked with guarding the tomb go into hiding fearing for their lives and the rumours of a resurrection start to spread.
"I never liked you in Harry Potter"
Risen (although possibly the biggest spoiler title for a movie ever) starts off effectively setting the scene with Clavius and his men caught up in a bloody skirmish with Jewish renegades. As the events of the first Easter Weekend unfold, turmoil and uncertainty run rampant through the city and it's well portrayed – and avoids falling into the 'Life of Brian' style farce.
Fiennes is good as the hard bitten Clavius and his journey is compelling as he gets to lead, along with his ambitious aide Lucius (Tom 'Harry Potter' Felton), the manhunt for Yeshua's body.
As a Christian who reviews films, I'm often massively let down by the attempts to bring scripture or overtly 'pro-faith' stories to the medium of film. I really don't want to be 'preached at' any more than the next cinema goer. The fact that Risen actually works as a historical thriller for much of its running time before eventually getting a bit carried away with the 'it must be true' narrative is to the credit of the filmmakers. It's kind of like an ancient times alternative to a Dan Brown novel.
"First hand account"
OK so there is very little screen time for women here, Mary Magdalene (María 'Mad Dogs' Botto) isn't given much to do although being one of the core witnesses in the bible account. There is no Pilate's wife either and Mary - Mother of Jesus has a blink and you'll miss it contribution.
But seeing as the 'did Jesus rise from the dead?' question is one that continues to be asked 2,000 years later, Risen is a thought provoking option for cinema audiences to mull over this Easter.
Out of a potential 5 you have to go with a Darkmatters:
(3 - a historically changed, biblical thriller...)
Awesomeness ööö – The opening battle is a highlight
Laughs ö – Limited mirth here
Horror ööö – Stronger violence than expected
Spiritual Enlightenment öööö - will make you think
Risen opens in the UK on 18 March.
Damaris Media are working with Sony Pictures to produce a free in-depth set of resources for churches and their leaders. Find out more at: www.risen.damarismedia.com


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At SMR Counseling Services, we get your mental health in shape. We work one-on-one with clients acting as "personal mental health trainers" which allows us to respond to the unique needs of each individual.
Our goal is to help you uncover your true potential in order to lead a life that is worth celebrating. While we can't change difficult situations of the past, we can work together to better understand and resolve challenges in your life. By applying complementary therapy approaches and techniques, we will unearth long-standing behavior patterns or negative perceptions that may be holding you back from experiencing a more fulfilling and meaningful life.
If you are looking for a "personal mental health trainer" to provide extra support and guidance through a challenging situation or you are just ready to move in a new direction in your life, we look forward to working with you to achieve your goals.


text:
Choose your language:
Hodoman Timer 6.0 has just been
released! This is a client/server, web-based management software
for Internet Cafes / Cyber Cafes. It provides powerfull and very customizable
features which will allow you to offer your customers a better experience and
make them come back in your Internet Cafe / Cyber Cafe.
Looking for an Internet
Access Management System? STOP searching Check out IAMS v3.0, the
unique clientless solution to selling your Internet connection,
with extra features like International Short Message Service,
Secure Printing Accounting and others
The programs you want your customers to have
access to can be grouped in an unlimited number of categories
(internet web browsers, chat, games, webcam, movies, DTP, music, etc.). This
Internet Cafe Software allows you to define any category you might need and you
may also associate a separate, custom image for each of them. Each category may
have an independent pricing plan according to an unlimited number of time
intervals and also with respect to the day of the week. The pricing plans
you can define with this Internet Cafe Software include:
Packets for longer
sessions (in order to offer the customer a certain discount) ? long-night
packets, long-day packets, etc. Membership accounts for your
customers ? they will gain access based on the username and password they
had chosen and will benefit of discounts for having paid in advance for the
membership. Cards ? although similar to
membership accounts, these can be automatically generated by the administrator
and sold upon by your employees; in this case, access is based on a serial and a
password, both printed on the card.
Packets for longer
sessions (in order to offer the customer a certain discount) ? long-night
packets, long-day packets, etc. Membership accounts for your
customers ? they will gain access based on the username and password they
had chosen and will benefit of discounts for having paid in advance for the
membership. Cards ? although similar to
membership accounts, these can be automatically generated by the administrator
and sold upon by your employees; in this case, access is based on a serial and a
password, both printed on the card.
The client-server architecture has been
implemented using new technologies and paying a great attention to security
issues. You may focus your attention on management and marketing issues, while
this Internet Cafe software keeps track of your cashings.
Your customers may send international SMS
directly from the client-application interface and will be charged according to
your settings.
The server can be installed on a different
computer from the one your employees will operate on and thus obtaining a high
level of security. It can even be installed on the Internet Gateway Computer.
Both you as the Administrator and your employees will be able to access the
server interface with a compatible web browser. You may connect to your Internet
Cafe server from anywhere in the world, through Internet. You will be able to
change settings, passwords or study the reports. On the other hand, this feature
can also be disabled just to make sure unauthorized people don't get access to
the control panel.
Available Support
We offer full 24/7 email support. We offer online support and by phone during
work hours. Feel free to contact us and we'll try to answer your questions
as quickly as
You may also find answers to your questions in our FAQ area. We'll try to
keep up-to-date this database of questions and answers, based on your
sugestions and difficulties.
You should always tell us about the problems you might encounter so that we
could find the corresponding solutions. Please post
your questions using our Trouble Ticket
Hodoman Timer is a complete, fully customizable and powerfull Internet Cafe Software based on a client-server architecture.
....................................................... OS independent server (including Windows, Linux and MacOS)....................................................... international SMS sending feature....................................................... unlimited number of application categories....................................................... unlimited number of time intervals with different prices....................................................... price based on the time of the day....................................................... price based on the day of the week....................................................... packets....................................................... membership accounts....................................................... cards....................................................... remote control over LAN and Internet....................................................... strong security policies....................................................... secure communication....................................................... products and services management with stock control....................................................... shift management with employee accounts....................................................... general and low-level, detailed reports.......................................................
Our Internet Cafe Software has been rated 5 out of 5 by several third party reviewers and has received their 5 star awards.


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Policy Questions on Data Ownership and Access in the Smart Grid
We thank OSTP and NIST for their interest in the public's views on the consumer interface to the Smart Grid. The transition to the Smart Grid promises great benefits for consumers, including lowered energy costs, increased usage of environmentally friendly power sources, and enhanced security against attack and outage. We are pleased to offer our thoughts on the consumer interface to the Smart Grid, and particularly our thoughts on related consumer privacy issues.
From the perspective of consumers, and particularly from the perspective of consumer privacy, we stand at a critical juncture in the development of Smart Grid. First, the emergence of increasingly sophisticated metering technologies is enabling the unprecedented collection of energy consumption data, removing a "latent structural limitation" that previously protected the revelation of intimate details about household activities. Whereas historically a consumer's consumption data may have been collected once a month or less frequently from a traditional meter fixed to the side of a house, in the Smart Grid, sophisticated new systems will collect and record 750 to 3,000 (or more) data points a month, revealing variations in consumption that can reflect specific household activities such as sleep, work, and travel habits.


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OH NOES! Breaking a D.C. gun law in the process. It happens at 9:56:
Legal in Washington D.C.:
Illegal in Washington D.C.:
The law (§ 7-2506.01):
No person in the District shall possess, sell, or transfer any large capacity ammunition feeding device regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm. For the purposes of this subsection, the term "large capacity ammunition feeding device" means a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The term "large capacity ammunition feedingdevice" shall not include an attached tubular device designed to accept, and capable of operating only with, .22 caliber rimfire ammunition.
A person guilty of this charge can be sentenced to a maximum fine of $1000 and/or up to a year imprisonment.
Enjoy your fine or prison sentence. Oh wait, that will never happen. Even if this does get a 2nd glance by law enforcement, MSNBC will likely claim it was a prop magazine not a real one, airsoft, or something similar then it will be swept under the rug. I think the law he violated is ridiculous in the first place, but that's not the point. If they would bring up an average person on charges for possessing a magazine such as that one, then there's no reason he shouldn't at least have to write a check for $1000 at the very least.
Thoughts? Do you guys like double standards as much as I do?
Hat tip: Steven, Josh, Eric


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51A Caswell Road
Northampton NN4 7PW
Caswell Road
Northampton, NN4 7PW
The E4.1L is a highly dynamic, light and cost-effective energy chain for almost all applications. Due to its high stability and stiffness, it can be used for high loads without problems. In addition, the standard modular system offers a great variety of accessory components. That means that the energy chain can be expanded as required and adapted according to the application.
Typical industries and applications: general mechanical engineering, robot technology and handling, sewage plants, material handling...
Many series are also available as tube or half-tube options!
This will take you to our large selection of swarf-resistant but nevertheless openable e-tubes.
Make a contribution towards the reduction of plastic waste and the improvement of recycling in industry.
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Lifetime has decided to cancel their Sunday night drama, The Protector, after one season on the air. The decision doesn't come as a surprise since the writing has been on the wall for awhile. While the Ally Walker series has some devoted fans, the ratings just weren't high enough for a second season.
The Protector follows Gloria Sheppard (Walker), a single mother and detective in the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division. A recent divorcee and single mother, Gloria has to perform her duties as a homicide detective while taking care of her young sons, Nick (Sage Ryan) and Leo (Thomas Robinson). They all move in with her brother, Davey Sheppard (Chris Payne Gilbert), and he helps her raise the boys. At work, Gloria works on some of Los Angeles' most high profile crimes with her partner, Detective Michelle Dulcett (Tisha Campbell-Martin). They work alongside officer Ramon "Romeo" Rush (Terrell Tilford), Detective Buerge (Larry Joe Campbell) and Detective Van Stone (James Hanlon), while being overseen by commanding officer Lieutenant Felix Valdez (Miguel Ferrer).
The drama debuted on Sunday June 12th to 1.89 million viewers and a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Viewership for the following episodes declined and the first six episodes averaged 1.37 million viewers and a 0.4 rating.
In August, Lifetime shifted The Protector to Monday nights at 10pm to make way for another new drama called Against the Wall. The first episode in that new Monday timeslot dropped to just 849,000 viewers with a 0.3 rating. The following week, Lifetime shifted Protector out of primetime to 11pm where the numbers (not surprisingly) dropped again to 600,000 viewers and a 0.2 rating in the demo.
Though there won't be a second season for The Protector, Lifetime has indicated that they will air the two remaining installments, on September 12th and September 19th.
While The Protector has been cancelled, no decision has been made about the fate of Against the Wall. That freshman series has significantly improved on Protector's ratings, despite a decline in Drop Dead Diva's numbers.
What do you think? Will you miss The Protector? Was it worth watching? Should it have been cancelled or renewed for season two?
Image courtesy Lifetime.


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India: Goa
99 Coastal Destinations Rated: Bottom Rated
Score: 41
This beach-lined former Portuguese colony offers wildlife sanctuaries, and its towns and cities feature a style of colonial architecture unique in India. Unfortunately, Goa's reputation for sun-and-sand hedonism often attracts visitors uninterested in the state's natural and cultural heritage.
Here is a representative sampling of additional anonymous comments from the panelists. They are not necessarily the views of the National Geographic Society:
"Overcrowding, pollution, overbuilding, and drug abuse have destroyed one of the world's finest stretches of beach."
"Uncontrolled tourism development with no regard for the local culture or environment. The hotels could be anywhere in the world and cater to European charter tourism focused on cheap, all-inclusive resorts."
"Unplanned development leaves the area with severe problems from lack of sanitation, pollution of waterways, and erosion. This is regrettable because state of Goa features outstanding natural and cultural heritage. Many of the historic structures are giving way to faceless modern architecture."
- Nat Geo Expeditions
"Outside of the main tourist areas the environment is still pristine but is being bought up by developers intent on building unsustainable resorts. There are many foreign-run businesses. There is little encouragement for locals to protect environment and culture."


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JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Peyton Manning saw the soft side of John Elway in March of 2012 when the Denver Broncos executive vice president of football operations took a patient and empathetic approach toward landing the biggest free-agent fish in NFL history.
That soft side was noticeably absent in August when the Seattle Seahawks -- Denver's eventual Super Bowl XLVIII foe -- manhandled the Broncos in a 40-10 preseason drubbing. Elway used that opportunity to send a message to his team about effort and expectations.
"John pretty much laid it on us. He was not happy with that game," Manning said Wednesday. "It was a butt-kicking, whether it was preseason or regular season. He was just sharing his thoughts that that won't be accepted under his reign as kind of leader of this organization along with (owner) Pat Bowlen. I was taking notes; a lot of players were taking notes."
The Broncos ended up capturing the AFC's No. 1 seed and a host of offensive records. Elway knew by training camp that he had assembled a squad capable of reaching the Super Bowl, and he didn't want to see that potential wasted while falling short of its goal for a second consecutive season.
"I think guys got the message. I think if I was reading it the right way, he might have been giving the message to the coaches as well as the players," Manning continued. "And everybody in that room I think got the message. I thought it was important. It was really the first time John had addressed the team. He actually did not address the team the entire time last year."
It's easy to forget now that Elway faced skepticism as a former player with no front-office experience when he was named football czar in 2011. Since then, he's pushed all the right buttons, the most important of which was overcoming long odds to reel in his franchise quarterback a year later.
Manning garners plenty of well-deserved accolades for leadership and extraordinary preparation. As Wednesday's comments attest, though, he has not been alone in setting the proper tone for a Super Bowl run.


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It's not just DREAMers that are getting a reprieve under the Obama administration's revised deportation policies. When the Department of Homeland Security announced last week that in the coming months it will review its roughly 300,000 open deportation cases with the aim of closing low-priority cases, the agency indicated that for the purposes of deportation policy, it will recognize same-sex couples and families as real families.
The news means that queer families facing deportation may win the right to stay in the country under DHS criteria of who constitutes a high priority for removal. The guiding document for who merits the use of prosecutorial discretion is a June 17 memo written by Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton. Morton advised ICE agents and attorneys to consider those who met any of the following characteristics were a low priority for deportation: those who were victims of crime, especially domestic violence or trafficking; those who are long-time lawful permanent residents; those with are veterans or active-duty military personnel and those with strong family ties in the U.S.
Under the Defense of Marriage Act, federal agencies are forbidden from recognizing the partnerships of same-sex couples, and that's extended to the world of federal immigration policy. According to the American Immigration Council there are currently 36,000 bi-national same-sex couples in the country, and DOMA has provided the legal justification for the routine denial of same sex couple's applications for permanent residence, and other immigration benefits like deportation relief, that straight couples are eligible for.
There are encouraging signs that the Obama administration is, at least in some highly publicized cases, attempting to follow through on its policy changes. California couple Doug Gentry and his husband Alex Benshimol, who'd been fighting Benshimol's deportation to Venezuela, will not be separated anytime soon, after a San Francisco immigration judge moved to close Benshimol's removal order in early August, their attorney Lavi Soloway announced today.
Benshimol, who came to the U.S. in 1999 on a visitor visa that expired two years ago, and Gentry got married in 2005 in Connecticut, but under DOMA their marriage was not considered legal and therefore not a consideration in Benshimol's removal proceedings. While the Obama administration and Congress grapples with the constitutionality of DOMA, Benshimol and many other same-sex binational couples have been fighting to stay together in the country.
Benshimol and Gentry are the first same-sex couple to win a deportation stay since the release of the June 17 memo, according to their attorney.
"We are cautiously optimistic after the announcement this week by Secretary Napolitano that all 300,000 pending deportation cases will be reviewed for possible closure, including those impacting LGBT families," Soloway said in a statement. Soloway urged caution though, as advocates wait for the particulars of the policy change, including more information on DHS's timeline and process for evaluating all the deportation cases.
"In the meantime, we must continue to fight for each couple and for an end to DOMA deportations across the board."