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Regular price
Valerian 0.8% Valeric Acid Extract Powder
Botanical Name: Valeriana officinalis. Other Common Names: Valerian root, garden valerian, tobacco root, garden heliotrope, all-heal, phu (Galen), great wild valerian, amantilla, setwall, setewale capon's tail.
*Products sold on this site are not FDA approved. No claims regarding these products nor directions on the use of these products are stated or implied. Products sold on this site have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). None of these products are intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. Furthermore, testimonials and product reviews reflect individual's unique experiences and opinions and are not nor should they be a substitute for professional medical advice and/or treatment for any specific medical condition.*


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In this class students will learn the Four Fundamental Firearms Safety rules and how they are applied both on and off the range. We will discuss the various parts and controls of handguns, rifles, and shotguns. We will explain what actually happens inside a firearm during the shot process. We will discuss basic ammunition construction and terminology. Finally, different options for safe storage of firearms will be discussed. Students will leave feeling more confident in their understanding of firearms and how to handle one safely.
This is a non-shooting class conducted solely in the classroom. Students do not need to bring anything but a willingness to learn. Firearms and live ammunition are not permitted in the classroom.

subset: commoncrawl


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I was a plucky little girl, but I never related to the rough-and-tumble icons of children's lit, like Pippi Longstocking or Harriet the Spy. Even Ramona Quimby, who seemed cool, wasn't somebody who truly spoke to me. She was scrawny and scrappy, and I was soft and sarcastic. I connected instead to Miss-never "Ms."-Piggy; the comedienne extraordinaire who'd swoon over girly stuff like chocolate, feather boas or random words pronounced in French, then on a dime, lower her voice to "Don't fuck with me, fellas" decibel when slighted. She was hugely feminine, boldly ambitious, and hilariously violent when she didn't get her way whether it was in work, love, or life. And even though she was a pig puppet voiced by a man with a hand up her ass, she was the fiercest feminist I'd ever seen.
As a kid, I took my cues from Piggy, chasing every would-be Kermit in my vicinity with porcine voracity and what I thought was feminine charm. I wasn't the girl who couldn't say no — I was the girl who wouldn't hear it. I left valentines on the desk of my first-grade crush, Jake Zucker. I cornered Avi Kaplan in the hallway and tried to make him kiss me. (I am Jewish, by the way.)
At the time, I thought of myself as a pig fatale. Miss Piggy wanted what I did, which was to be famous and fabulous and to be loved by her one true frog and occasionally Charles Grodin. But looking back, I realize Kermit was, for lack of a better term, just not that into her.
So much about Kermit the Frog is intrinsically lovable: his sense of humor, his loyalty to his friends, his charm and confidence in who he is despite the challenges of being green. But at the same time, Kermit has a distinct indifference to the overtures of Piggy that I came to expect from the boys who crossed my path from grade school on. I think watching Piggy chase Kermit gave me an odd sense of what men and women do in real life, when they're adults. I figured that if you — glamorous, hilarious, fabulous you — find a boy who's funny and popular and charming and adorable and shy and you want him, you just go out and "Hi-Ya" yourself into his favor. Piggy and Kermit represented the quintessential romance to me. And I don't know how healthy that was.
Watching The Muppet Movie again recently gave me a feeling of déjà vu, and not in the way you expect when you watch a movie you loved as a kid. As I watched Kermit biking down the street without a care in the world about to be smushed between two steamrollers, I thought, "Oh my God. I know that guy. I've dated him."
Remember how content Kermit was, just strumming his banjo on a tree trunk in the swamp? That's the guy I've chased my whole life, killing myself trying to show him how fabulous I am. Remember how, on The Muppet Show, Kermit used to politely laugh at Miss Piggy's pleas for some kissy-kissy, or fend off her jealousy after he flirted right in front of her? With Madeline friggin' Kahn? Kermit never appreciated what he had in Piggy, because she was just one great thing about his awesome life. He had the attitude women's magazines try to sell to its audience: that significant others are only the frosting on the cake of life. But everybody knows that cake without frosting is just a muffin.
Kermit never wanted to devote his life to making Piggy happy — he just wanted to host his show and enjoy hanging out with his friends. Anything more she'd ask of him would elicit a gulp. And just as I strove to emulate Piggy-resplendent in feather boas, lavender mules and rings over opera gloves — I wonder how many guys from my generation looked to Kermit as an example of what the coolest guy in the room looks like. How maybe they think it's fine to defer the advances of the fabulous women they know will always be there, while they dreamily pursue creative endeavors and dabble with other contenders. How maybe they learned the value of bromance from Kermit's constant emphasis on his obligations to his friends before his ball and chain. And how maybe they figured out that if you're soft-spoken and shy, but you know how to play a musical instrument, girls will come in droves. You just keep your creativity flowing and your guy friends close, and you'll have to beat the ladies down with a stick.
If Kermithood is the model of modern masculinity, it doesn't match the matehood expectations of a generation of Miss Piggys who, at least eventually, want more. Since we were little, we were taught that the only point of chasing frogs is the hope that they turn into men when you kiss them.
When I look back at who I was as a little girl, I wish I'd been able to get a gentle nudge in the direction of more self-preserving romantic endeavors. I wish I'd been told that if you want to be the star of a show, you should make your own eff'ing show. Or that you need to walk away from a guy who doesn't care that you're jealous when he flirts with other people in front of you. Or maybe you'll just find out one day that instead of a popular charmer with a talent for playing the banjo, what you really want is a guy who digs you like crazy; who makes you feel like the star.
This piece is an excerpt from Julie Klausner's book, I Don't Care about Your Band: What I Learned from Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Faux Sensitive Hipsters, Felons, and Other Guys I've Dated, (Gotham Books) available at B&N, Amazon and Indiebound. Republished with permission.


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The New York Times, a grandfather clock that tells you what time it was five minutes ago, roused itself to a state of drowsy confusion on Tuesday to recount Kentucky coach John Calipari's long history of violating NCAA rules and escaping consequences.
The piece, by Michael Powell (who once described the New York Marathon as a "glorious cross-city sprint"), cops a tone that is both scolding and titillated, simultaneously, like a furious FCC complaint about the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show lingering creepily on a description of Janet Jackson's boobs. This reflects not so much a thoughtful ambivalence toward Calipari as it does the Times—as ever more concerned with triangulating the safest position than with saying anything worth saying—being forced by the exigencies of a single-elimination tournament to publish its John Calipari take before history has had a chance to render the adopting of an actual position on the man safely irrelevant, and just going, "Zuh?"
This is an awkward moment to steer for a safe median in the discussion of college sports. The culture is increasingly aware that the NCAA itself is a vast mechanized scam whose perpetrators and enforcers rightly belong in jail; this awareness abuts more immediately and precariously than ever the annual enthusiasm for March Madness, the orchestrated collective swoon over the idea of hard-working amateurs who do it for the love of the game, man. If opposition to vast worker's comp avoidance schemes whose lifeblood is the toil of underpaid teenagers turns out to be incompatible with throwing on your alma mater's sweatshirt and participating in the office bracket pool, that hasn't stopped most of us from trying both; which one the culture will choose, long-term, isn't at all clear. In any case, the ground's a-movin', and the familiar old moral alignment of the thing—Coach K over here Doing It Right, Jerry Tarkanian over there Being Satan—is all scrambled now. Nowhere is the scrambling more apparent than when we talk about John Calipari. Lumbering journalistic oafs like the ones at the Times aren't the only ones that struggle with it.
Is Calipari—quite possibly the most brazen and upwardly mobile serial flouter of the NCAA's rules, ever—cheating scum, or an outlaw visionary? Is he insurgent cool or car-salesman sleazy? Is he the scourge of the NCAA? Or an opportunistic shithead? If we can agree that the NCAA is little more than a racketeering outfit with cooler highlight footage, is a guy who scoffs at its warped rules and transparently self-serving morality a hero?
The first thing to do is to parse Calipari's NCAA rules violations from his actual sins; they're two different and only indirectly related things. As for the rules violations: basically, in his stops at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Memphis, Calipari-run basketball programs, probably acting under his direction, arranged or permitted or allowed via intentional or unintentional inattention prohibited benefits for recruits and players. The specifics differ—Derrick Rose got a shady SAT result swept under the rug, Marcus Camby got laid, and so on—but, yeah, broadly, Calipari's players were getting and doing shit the NCAA says they're not allowed to get or do. Pretty much nobody disputes that.
Given that the NCAA is in the actual day-to-day business of stealing money from teenagers who do all the valuable work and giving it to old white dudes who do none of it, and thus has no right to exist, these rules violations are pretty easy to dismiss. Calipari played some role or another in some of his basketball players receiving compensation for their work. Thbpbpbbpppbpbpbbpt. To whatever extent Mike Krzyzewski's Molder Of Men shtick isn't just a smarmy branding facade slapped on similar rule-breaking practices, this makes Calipari less of a crook and a cheat than Coach K, not more of one.
Even if you pretend to believe Calipari's denials of his own personal involvement in the rules violations at UMass and Memphis (and, c'mon, almost certainly at Kentucky, too), he's still offering players a more honest arrangement than they'll get at Krzyzewski's Character-Building Academy. Calipari, at least, is honest about why everybody's there: the players are there because the NBA's preference for a free minor league means they're not allowed to go pro yet, and he's there because he wants to win basketball games and make a lot of money. So they give him a year (or sometimes two) of dunking on fools, and he gets them drafted into the NBA, and they all live happily ever after.
Except for the ones who don't. Take Alex Poythress, who came to Kentucky as one of the top high school players in the country in 2012, averaging an impressive 11 and 6 and looking every bit the part of a Calipari-era Kentucky star that first year in Lexington. Watch him go bananas against Duke in only his second official game as a college basketball player.
He's ferocious, springy-explosive, and skilled in that video, like Thaddeus Young but with actual game, and he's 19 years old. After a strong freshman season, he could have been a lottery pick in the weak 2013 NBA draft, but made a questionable bet, electing to return to Kentucky after what had been a down year for the program. His minutes and touches plunged the next season, though, as the program made room for Julius Randle and other incoming star freshmen. After a disappointing sophomore season, Poythress elected to return again as a junior.
It's important to remember that Poythress already had essentially lost millions of dollars by this point, both in the damage done to his draft stock and in the wages he missed out on by delaying his professional career by a year. If he hoped to restore his reputation with a strong junior season, that's understandable, but the decision backfired horribly. In a practice this past December, Poythress tore his ACL on an uncontested layup, ending his season. Alex Poythress is fucked now.
Returning to Kentucky for another year would be ludicrous; Calipari will wear a burlap potato sack on the sideline of a nationally televised game before he will hold back a one-and-done freshman star to carve out meaningful minutes for a senior with a jacked-up leg. But also, Poythress's odds of being drafted anywhere in the first round—or at all—in 2015 essentially now don't exist. While John Calipari is leading the undefeated Wildcats through the tournament, Alex Poythress is rehabbing his knee and hoping for a long-shot camp invite from some NBA team over the summer so that he won't have to move overseas to play basketball. Poythress took John Calipari's honest deal of his own free will—but, when he didn't play it exactly right, when he didn't cash out at the precise right moment, they reverted to the familiar roles: a young guy who got fucked by his participation in the college athletics scam, and a middle-aged millionaire who got his money anyway. If you're looking for a Robin Hood, keep looking.
And if this isn't precisely John Calipari's fault—he's neither the architect of the NCAA's fucked up system, nor in position to topple it—it's also John Calipari's career in microcosm, and a neat illustration of why, for however much schadenfreude you might feel watching the NCAA grasp helplessly at air in his wake, he's no goddamn hero. Because in the deal he made with Alex Poythress—like in his relationship with the many players he couldn't fit in his lifeboat when he escaped UMass and Memphis just ahead of NCAA sanctions—all the risk, literally all of it, went to the players, and all of the money went to him. He's profiting, immensely, off of a system that forces players to play college basketball if they want professional careers, and in this respect, he's not different from the NCAA itself, not even one bit.
What good is his flouting of the NCAA's fraudulent morality when the consequences never adhere to him, but only to 19-year-olds who make questionable choices, or whom he leaves behind? In recent days word has gotten out that Calipari, who failed miserably in an earlier stint as an NBA coach, "desperately" wants to return to the pros. If he turns out to time that leap to carry him free of a Kentucky-aimed NCAA sanction-blast at the last possible moment, who'll be surprised? And if, two or three years later, he returns triumphantly to the college ranks—at UCLA, inevitably, on some I just couldn't pass up the challenge of restoring this great program to its rightful glory—who'll account for the downgraded prospects and diminished outlooks of the Kentucky recruits who bore the full force of that blast in his stead?
This is where the Times gets it wrong by failing to note and parse the difference between rules violations and real sins. John Calipari's real sin isn't that he defies NCAA rules, but that he profits from them. But it's also where those of us who applaud the anti-establishment bravado of an inveterate rule-breaker get it wrong, too. If John Calipari is more honest than his pious competitors about the nature of the arrangement he makes with players, it's a difference of degree, not of kind, and at bottom, it's still the same arrangement. The players take all the risk, and he takes all the money.
"Players First," Calipari's self-professed organizing principle, sounds great—Oh, he puts the players first!—when Anthony Davis or Derrick Rose is putting on a hat next to the NBA commissioner. But, consider Alex Poythress, or the myriad players who've fallen into the NCAA enforcement sinkholes he's left behind him, who risked more on John Calipari than he ever will on them, and then ask: First to what?
Photo via Getty


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Adventure Time - Sugary Shorts Mathematical Edition - Vol. 2
Ryan North, Braden Lamb
Fun for Starters Student's Book provides full-colour preparation material for the Cambridge Young Learners English Test: Starters. Fun activities balanced with exam-style questions practise all the areas of the syllabus in a communicative way. The material is specifically designed to focus on those areas most likely to cause problems for young learners at this level. An Audio CD, available separately, includes listening material to accompany the Student's Book. The website to accompany the Fun for Starters, Movers, Flyers series includes interactive versions of some activities from the Student's Books.
CEF Level: A1
Ryan North, Braden Lamb
Suzanne Gottlieb
Rihito Takarai
Jessica Cunsolo
Dave Pelzer
John Ajvide Lindqvist


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Scientists measure changing lake depths on Titan
On Earth, lake levels rise and fall with the seasons and with longer-term climate changes, as precipitation, evaporation, and runoff add and remove liquid. Now, for the first time, scientists have found compelling evidence for similar lake-level changes on Saturn's largest moon, Titan—the only other place in the solar system seen to have a hydrological cycle with standing liquid on the surface.
Using data gathered by NASA's Cassini spacecraft over a span of four years, the researchers—led by graduate student Alexander G. Hayes of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Oded Aharonson, associate professor of planetary science at Caltech—have obtained two separate lines of evidence showing roughly a 1 meter per year drop in the levels of lakes in Titan's southern hemisphere. The decrease is the result of the seasonal evaporation of liquid methane from the lakes—which, because of Titan's frigid temperatures (roughly minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit at the poles), are composed largely of liquid methane, ethane, and propane.
"It's really exciting because, on this distant object, we're able to see this meter-scale drop in lake depth," says Hayes. "We didn't know Cassini would even be able to see these things."
One of the lakes—Ontario Lacus (named after Earth's Lake Ontario, which is of comparable size) —is the southern hemisphere's largest lake, and was the first lake to be observed on the moon. In a paper submitted to the journal Icarus, Hayes, Aharonson, and their colleagues report that the shoreline of Ontario Lacus receded by about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from June 2005 to July 2009, a period of time that represents mid-summer to fall in Titan's southern hemisphere. (One Titan year lasts 29.5 Earth years.)
Ontario Lacus and other southern-hemisphere lakes were analyzed using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image data from the Cassini spacecraft. In radar data, smooth features—such as lakes—appear as dark areas, while rougher features—such as mountain belts—appear bright. The intensity of the radar backscatter provides information about the composition and roughness of surface features. In addition to the SAR data, radar altimetry—which measures the time it takes for microwave signals bouncing off a surface to arrive back at the spacecraft—was collected across a transect of Ontario Lacus in December 2008.
"The combination of SAR and altimetry measurements across the transect gave information about the absorptive properties of the liquid, and argues that the liquids are relatively pure hydrocarbons made up of methane and ethane and not a gunky tar," Aharonson says.
"The liquid is not highly attenuating," explains Hayes, "which means it is fairly clear to radar energy—that is, transparent, like liquid natural gas." Because of this, radar can see through the liquid in Titan's lakes to a depth of several meters. "Then the radar hits the floor, and bounces back," he says. "Or, if the lake is deeper than a few meters, the radar is completely absorbed, producing a 'black' signature."
Once the liquid's optical properties were known, the researchers could use the radar data to "see" the lakebed underneath the liquid—at least, down to the depth where the signal is completely attenuated. "How far offshore you can see is determined by the local slope of the lakebed, or bathymetry," says Hayes. "This gave us the ability to take changes in radar signals and convert them to depths," and thus to calculate the slope of the lakebed around the entire lake.
"We were able to determine the bathymetry of the lake out to a depth of about 8 meters," he says. The lake is shallowest and most gently sloped along its southern edge, in areas where sediment is accumulating. Along its eastern shore, the slope of the lake is somewhat steeper. "This is what we are calling the 'beachhead,'" Hayes says. The slope is very steep along the lake's northern boundary, where it butts up against a range of mountains.
"The slope changes we see are consistent with the geology around the lake," Hayes says.
The bathymetry measurements and their geologic correlations are discussed in a separate paper by Hayes, Aharonson, and colleagues, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR).
The researchers compared lake images obtained four years apart, and found that Ontario had shrunk. "The extent to which the lake has receded is related to the slope—i.e., where the lake is shallow, the liquid will have receded more," Hayes says. "This allows us to deduce the vertical height by which the lake depth has dropped, which is about 1 meter per year."
The researchers also analyzed the evaporation of methane from nearby lakes by comparing the radar signatures of these lakes as measured in December 2007 with data obtained in May 2009. Over that period, the "apparent darkness" of the lakes—indicating the presence of a radar-attenuating liquid—either decreased or disappeared entirely, which means that their liquid levels had been reduced. The researchers were able to calculate the drop in lake depth, "and we got the same result: 1 meter per year of liquid loss," Aharonson says.
Lakes in Titan's northern hemisphere—which is now entering spring—have also been covered multiple times by radar instruments, but so far no analogous changes have been conclusively detected.
That doesn't mean the changes haven't occurred, however. "We would expect it will happen, but we don't know how it would manifest in the data if the lakes in the north are significantly deeper. We'll continue to look for this effect with future radar images, to disentangle the seasonal variations from longer-term climate variations we previously have proposed." Aharonson says.
More information: The work was described in the two papers—"Transient Surface Liquid in Titan's Polar Regions from Cassini," which was submitted to Icarus, and "Bathymetry and Absorptivity of Titan's Ontario Lacus," which was accepted by JGR.
Provided by California Institute of Technology


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Mar 302012
I'll review Day Three a bit later but for now let's jump straight to the night of revelry that was the Conference Dinner.
Around 240 happy genealogists attended the Conference Dinner held at the Convention Centre. After making our way past the very young looking students, in terribly high heels, who were attending their Year 12 Forma,l we made our way to our area. The Centre must be well soundproofed as I never heard a sound from the other event.
The main sponsor of the evening was the New South Wales Justice Department who have since inception registered over 18 million events. Surely some of our missing people must be in there somewhere?
To whet your appetites the Appetiser was a Continental antipasto platter which contained some very nice pate, roast pork, olives, sun dried tomatoes and two types of sausage. The Main was a herb crust chicken roulade with fresh asparagus and saffron cream sauce followed by a selection of mini desserts.
I am not a wine drinker but there were bottles of Tolley Elite Chardonnay Adelaide Hills 2011 and Krondorf Shiraz Barossa Valley 2010 as well as soft drinks, orange juice and mineral water.
We were well entertained by a demonstration of bush dancing and then some brave souls from the audience joined in, including our own Geneablogger, Seonaid Lewis from Auckland, Robyn Williams also from New Zealand, Lesley Silvester and another five brave participants. A great job they did too!!
|Bush Dancers
|Seonaid Lewis strutting her stuff!
|Lesley Silvester dancing the night away
Then we had the AFFHO Meritorious Service Award for Family History which was awarded to June Penny,from Canberra, a most deserving recipient.
There was no announcement of where the 15th Congress will be held, perhaps that will be announced tomorrow at the closing ceremony.
We were ably entertained over a selection of desserts by Dan Poffenberger first with his rendition of the Jim Reeves song "He'll Have to Go' and then with his 'Twenty Shocking Lessons of Old English Life You've probably Never Learned Before'
These included such things as names with Sarah Porch as she was found on the porch, Thomas Barn found in or near a barn, William the son of Anne by God Knows Who?
appropriate or maybe not so appropriate occupational names such as a surgeon named Mr Killer, who would perhaps not be my first choice of doctor!
Dan had found some wonderful examples of direct descriptions in the parish registers: an ugly woman over 40, people who were buried in pieces, the two duelling men who killed each other and whom the king decreed should be buried together for eternity. There was also the not so artistic clerk who decided for some unknown reason to draw a mermaid in the register! And many more wonderful examples.
Dan made a great dinner presentation which was appreciated by all.
The evening was ably tweeted by table 18 which contained Shauna Hicks, Seonaid Lewis and Jill Ball. I was a lone voice on table 21 and a number of my tweets disappeared into the ether.
A good time was had by all. Now off to sleep to be ready for day Four and the final day of the conference.
2 Responses to "AFFHO 2012 Congress Dinner"
Sounds like it's been a fun conference Helen with some interesting talks and displays. We heard Dan Poffenberger here last weeken and I could see him being an entertaining dinner speaker…never an easy task. he's very knowledgeable.
He is an excellent speaker. Lots of fun was had by all.


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The Changing of the Guard
The ruling Chinese Communist Party wrapped up its 18th Congress with the resignation of the country's President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao from their top party posts to make way for the next generation of leaders to be unveiled on Thursday.
Hu stepped down to make way for Vice President Xi Jinping, while Premier Wen Jiabao left his post to Vice Premier Li Keqiang as more than 2,000 hand-picked Party delegates cast their votes for the three top policy-making bodies in the ruling party: the Central Committee, the Politburo, and the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee.
Xi and Li were both elected to the party's Central Committee at the end of the week-long meeting, according to state news agency Xinhua, setting the stage for them to be president and prime minister respectively.
The two, who have long been predicted to take over, are expected to be confirmed as president and prime minister when parliament meets for its annual session in March, completing the party's second orderly succession since it took power in 1949.
The full list of the Central Committee well as the Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee is expected to be released on Thursday, when Xi is expected to be officially announced as the party's top leader.
All eyes will be on the Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest decision-making body which currently has nine members but is widely expected to be cut to just seven seats, according to veteran China political analyst Willy Wo-lap Lam.
"Whether inside China or overseas, the main thing people are concerned with at this congress has been the personnel changes, which will be announced at a meeting [on Thursday]," Lam said.
"But it is very clear that there has been a setback for intra-party democracy, because a lot of the retired leaders, especially Jiang Zemin, have been clearly involved in the selection of top personnel," as delegates rarely vote against leadership guidelines.
"It was Jiang Zemin who put forward Xi Jinping's name at the last 17th Party Congress as the successor to Hu Jintao," he said.
'Scientific development' theory
The close of Hu's political tenure has resulted in his theory of "scientific development" being entered into the Party's constitution alongside Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, and the "Three Represents" of Party elder and former president Jiang Zemin.
Political commentator Cai Yongmei, a former editor of the Hong Kong-based magazine Kaifang, said the congress and the inscription of Hu's theories into the Party canon served as a stark reinforcement of China's rule of man, as opposed to rule of law.
"If [a leader] has a lot of political influence, then their theories are likely to last longer," Cai said. "In a society ruled by man [not law], all of the top leaders see themselves as playing a similar role to the founder of a religion."
Conservative retrenchment
Cai said the congress had shown the world unequivocally that there would be no political reforms in China, in spite of a growing chorus of calls in favor, although it was still unclear exactly what the world could expect from the new administration.
"Now the old guard ... have to sit back and enjoy the show, and it will take a while for us to see what the new leadership will be like after it has been fully revealed," she said.
"The tone of the 18th Party Congress wasn't [necessarily] the tone that will be struck by the new leadership."
Overall, Cai said there had been a conservative retrenchment in Chinese politics since the military crackdown on the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square.
"The Chinese Communist Party has faced its biggest challenges at this congress since June 4," including the scandal surrounding former rising political star Bo Xilai who was linked to the murder of a British businessman, she said.
"I think they have a very keen sense of crisis, so they want to ensure that they hang onto power smoothly and completely; they have used all manner of security measures and held it behind closed doors."
Hu's legacy
Lam said the inscription of Hu's "scientific development" theories into the canon of the constitution were becoming a courtesy nod to outgoing leaders.
"This means that Jiang Zemin had the 'three represents' from his era, and now we have the so-called values of 'scientific development' from Hu Jintao's tenure," said
"I think that Hu Jintao is very concerned about his position in history now that he is retiring from public life."
"His views on how to run the country now must get inscribed into the Party constitution," Lam said, adding that there was little substance to Hu's "theories."
"It's not very meaningful for China's future development," he said.
According to Wong Yiu-chung, director of the politics department at Hong Kong's Lingnan University, Jiang's high-profile role in this congress had put pressure on outgoing president Hu Jintao, who may not succeed in retaining his post as head of the armed forces.
"If he doesn't stay on [as chairman of the Central Military Commission], I think it'll be because he was forced out," Wong said.
"Jiang Zemin's high-profile role has put a lot of pressure on Hu."
Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service and by Grace Kei Lai-see for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.


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Undefinable yet immediately recognizable, there's no sense in wasting many words attempting to define it; it's a sentiment communicated through taste instead of language. Comfort food is a concept that transcends all cultural and temporal boundaries, no matter what final form it may take. Seasonings change and dishes vary, but the ability to instantly transport an eater to a happier place, at least for the duration of a meal, that remains the same, from the first bite to the last crumb. That's why it's never a bad time to delve into Allison Rivers Samson's lovingly crafted ebook, Comfortably Yum. A short but sweet compilation of her ten most soul-soothing recipes, Allison manages to cover a wealth of common cravings without wasting a single digital page.
Incredibly, for a category traditionally laden with fats, sugars, and often processed foods, Comfortably Yum avoids those dietary pitfalls by making every recipe gluten-free or adaptable, and only employing the use of coconut sugar as a sweetener.
Call me biased, but I already knew I was in for a treat with this ebook, since I had previously made and photographed Allison's fresh take on Caesar Salad for VegNews Magazine two years ago. Yes, salad can be comfort food too, and it's a refreshing to find someone else who agrees! This rendition on the classic leafy blend comes the closest to my childhood memories, skipping all the fussy fare and focusing in on crisp, garlicky croutons and a creamy dressing, boasting a gently oceanic flavor thanks to the addition of briny capers and nori. Who needs anchovy paste when you have such excellent plant-based alternatives?
Vegan Egg Salad is a classic recipe that every cruelty-free cook should have in their arsenal, and this tofu-based interpretation makes a strong case for taking that spot of honor. Naturally, preparation couldn't be simpler; an effortless dump-and-stir affair brings together a rich blend of vegan mayonnaise, kala namak, and basic seasonings to coat crumbled bean curd and crunchy cubes of celery. The powerfully eggy flavor borne of that combination is unreal, rivaling the aroma of freshly cracked hard boiled eggs. Served on crackers or between bread, I daresay that only the most astute omnivores would even detect a difference.
Finally, for dessert, I couldn't resist the siren song of the Chocolate Salted-Caramel Pudding Parfaits. Regrettably, perhaps out of impatience or a lack of finesse, mine refused to form the neat, even layers as photographed in the ebook, but none of that mattered when it came time to dig in. Swirls of coconut sugar custard interlaced with cocoa pudding, creating a flavor sensation sure to delight anyone with a sweet tooth. For anyone who fears traditional caramel-making, take heart: The coconut sugar does all the work for you here, bearing a naturally toasted flavor similar to that of burnt white sugar.
Whether you're staring down a string of snowy days in the forecast or simply want a taste of comfort any day of the week, Comfortably Yum has got your cravings covered.
In this winter of particular extremes, Allison has very generously offered to spread the warm, cozy feelings and wants to share a free copy of her ebook with one lucky winner! To enter, leave a comment on this post and tell me about which recipe you'd most like to recreate first. (You can see the full listing if you scroll down here.) Speak up before February 2nd, midnight EST, and I'll chose a lucky recipient shortly thereafter.
UPDATE: Always ready and willing to help, the random number generator has spoken, and has proclaimed that the winner should be…
The owner of comment #25: greatveganexpectations!
There's a golden lining to this contest, even if it wasn't your lucky day. Allison was so delighted by the positive response that she has very kindly extended a $5-off promotion for anyone who purchases her ebook! Don't wait too long to secure your copy, because this is a limited-time offer. Enter the code "HBCY24" from now until February 10th to make the most of this delicious opportunity.


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Find your AV Sender
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text:
aja monet
aja monet is a Caribbean-American poet, performer, and educator from Brooklyn. She has been awarded the Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry and the Nuyorican Poet's Café Grand Slam title, as well as the New York City YWCA's "One to Watch Award." She is the author of The Black Unicorn Sings and the co-editor, with Saul Williams, of Chorus: A Literary Mixtape. She lives in Little Haiti, Miami, where she is a co-founder of Smoke Signals Studio and dedicates her time merging arts and culture in community organizing with the Dream Defenders and the Community Justice Project.


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$800 for the new iPhone 5, anyone?
While efficient bargain shopping is often dictated by the economic tide, many merchants faithfully follow certain annual sale trends. Better understanding of these trends means a steady stream of savings for consumers.
So, at dealnews, we've mined our extensive archives of sales, coupons, and individual products from the past few summers to find patterns that can guide your buying experience in August. Here's what we found. (See also: Shopping Calendar: The Best Time to Buy Anything)
According to our deals from last year, August is the best summer month to get discounts on back-to-school items. Numerous deals that we saw in July will continue in August, with most offering even deeper discounts. For example, college-friendly apparel retailers like Aeropostale and Abercrombie & Fitch offered their best sale of the year (up until that point) during the month of August, and we expect to see similar trends in 2012.
Also keep an eye out for dorm furniture from retailers like Walmart — which offered futons for as low as $89 last year, as well as computer desks for $34 — and special sales on backpacks and computer cases for under $10. As for back-to-school laptops, consider taking advantage of special promotions that bundle your purchase with gift cards, gaming consoles, and printers.
Savvy shoppers looking to book a vacation would do well to consider a cruise, specifically one from Carnival Cruises. We have consistently seen from Carnival some of the lowest prices possible on tropical routes to locations like the Caribbean. In fact, 41% of cruise deals this year have been from Carnival. If you're browsing for a cruise, you'd do well to start with the provider that caters to travelers looking for a party-like atmosphere.
As we near the end of the summer season, retailers will begin to get even more aggressive with their clothing discounts as they try to make room for autumn apparel. In fact, in the final days of July, we saw numerous Editors' Choice deals trickle in that offered enormous stacking coupons that took an extra 30% to 50% off already-discounted sale items. We expect to see much of the same in August; last year, Eddie Bauer, Converse, French Connection, Dickies, Patagonia, Nautica, Kenneth Cole, and Old Navy offered among the best sales of the month.
Although you can lump this into the general summer apparel category, it's important to note that after August, you'll be hard-pressed to find any swimwear deals. For the past two years, the number of swim sales have significantly decreased come September, suggesting that most stores do a good job of clearing their inventory in August. Look for sales that take up to 70% off or more from retailers likeVictoria's Secret, Lands' End, and Kohl's.
We mentioned last month that although you will see many sales for summer patio furniture, a savvy shopper would benefit by waiting until September or October for the best deals. Several patio sets and gardening items from Sears, Amazon, and other merchants hit their lowest prices in October, as they were available for significantly less than we had seen them at over the summer.
There are rumors that Amazon will be releasing the Kindle Fire 2 in the coming weeks. This means that it's not a smart time to buy the current Fire tablet. As we postulated earlier this month, Amazon will likely debut the updated Fire for $199, to remain competitive with the new Google Nexus 7, but keep the original around at a lower price. We predict it will drop to at least $169, if not lower.
Speaking of rumored tech releases, here's another to keep in mind: Supposedly, Apple is releasing the iPhone 5 in late September or early October. If you're an Apple fan that always needs the latest and greatest, you'll want to hold off on an iPhone purchase for the time being. But even those who don't mind an older model should hold tight; after the last update to the iPhone 4S, Apple kept its 3GS and 4 around at reduced prices. This time around, the now-free 3GS will probably be discontinued, but it's very likely that the 4 and 4S will stick around and see newly-reduced starting prices.
If you are in fact considering buying the iPhone 5, you'll want to hold off on buying any new dock accessories as well. Although in the past these have generally been universal use across iPhone models, the newest Apple smartphone is rumored to have a smaller, 19-pin dock connector. Although Apple will likely sell an adapter, you can bet it won't be cheap. Plus, there's a possibility that other brands will be forced to buy a chip from Apple in order to make their own accessories and adapters compatible, so who knows if stores like Meritline will have the typical uber-cheap alternatives?
If you have no interest in upgrading to the iPhone 5 though, and you're content with your older model (or if you plan to buy one of them at the aforementioned lower prices), then the coming months will actually be a great time to take advantage of retailers that are trying to clear out their stock of soon-to-be-outdated accessories.
If you've waited patiently to buy a grill this year, you may be rewarded with a much larger pool of deals to choose from. The number of grill deals we saw last year in August was 30% higher than that of July, suggesting that retailers begin taking more widespread cuts this month. Look to vendors like hhgregg, Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Lowe's, Sears, and Walmart for sales and discounts.
The final weeks of summer generally don't see many notable HDTV sales. However, if you're shopping for a new HDTV this August, there are two categories you can't afford to miss. First, name-brand 46" 1080p LCD HDTVs are at an all-time low. In July we saw a 46" Samsung hit $449. That's a $51 drop from June's best deal for a TV this size and the least-expensive 46" name-brand TV we've ever seen. Shoppers should look for deals at or below $449.
Likewise, 55" 3D HDTVs also experienced a price dip in July, dropping to $999 (a price we hadn't seen since Black Friday 2011). As a result we recommend TV shoppers look at 55" 3D LCD HDTVs at or below $999.
Even if you're not going to college, your chances of scoring a laptop bundle in August are pretty high. While some deals may require a valid .edu email, others (such as deals from newegg, OfficeMax, and the Sony Store) do not require any credentials. Keep your eye on laptop and console bundles as well as laptop and printer bundles. These deals will stretch your dollar further and get you two products for the price of one. If you prefer an individual laptop, Ivy Bridge-based systems hit a new low in July ($548), so we recommend looking at 14" to 16" Ivy Bridge systems from Lenovo, Dell, and HP in that price range.
As far as standalone notebooks go, Sandy Bridge-based desktop replacements deals have been stagnant for the last two months (with prices at $800), so we wouldn't be surprised if these systems took a slight dip in August in preparation for back to school sales. And lastly, Apple's MacBook Air (Sandy Bridge model) has seen some aggressive discounts this summer. If you don't mind having last year's model, look for prices on the 11" MacBook Air 2011 model starting at $740. If you've had your eyes on the new Retina MacBook Pro, deals on that machine have hit as low as $1,999, though they typically sell out fast, so jump on the first Retina deal you see.
Set up an email alert with dealnews now to keep abreast of any and all of these best buys in August. And for more price trend information, check out our consumer shopping research page.
This is a guest post by Dealnews.
Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.
Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.


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Seat Unique
Seat Unique is an approved reseller of Manchester United Matchday Hospitality.
Matchday Hospitality at Manchester United can only be purchased direct through the Club, or through a handful of selected resellers. As an authorised provider, Seat Unique are authorised to market and sell Matchday Hospitality packages; this is done to ensure that all elements of the delivery are controlled whilst ensuring customers receive the best possible experience.
When booking hospitality, an authorised reseller can provide seat numbers and locations at any time as they own the packages and tickets that they sell. You will be guaranteed official match tickets and hospitality that is operated by Manchester United.
This accreditation is your reassurance that Seat Unique is a trusted reseller of Manchester United hospitality packages. It is essential that you know what you are booking, and it is vital that you understand the difference between authorised and unauthorised providers. Should you have any queries in respect of whether a ticket or hospitality package is authentic, please do not hesitate to contact Paul Adkin from the Matchday Hospitality team on 0161 868 8496.
Contact us
Seat Unique
2nd Floor, Three Tuns House
109 Borough High St


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For Immediate Release
October 8, 2002
Press Gaggle with Ari Fleischer
Aboard Air Force One
En Route to Knoxville, Tennessee
MR. FLEISCHER: The President this morning had his usual intelligence briefings. Our first event in Tennessee will be a speech the President will give, and he will also seek to build support for the campaign -- the Congress -- Van Hilleary for Governor, Lamar Alexander for Senator, Janice Bowling for the United States Congress. The first event is sponsored by the Tennessee Republican Party.
The second event will be a fundraiser at the Van Hilleary for Governor Luncheon, which is expected to raise one million dollars, with $750,000 going to Hilleary's campaign and $250,000 going to Victory 2002.
That is it for the President's schedule today, and with that I'm happy to take your questions.
Q Victory 2002, is that the Tennessee --
MR. FLEISCHER: Republican State Party.
Q You said the first event is sponsored by the Republican Party, so that none of this is official travel?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's correct.
Q Why is that? Welcome rallies in the past have been official travel. Is there some attempt now to pick up more of the political costs from the political parties?
MR. FLEISCHER: As the -- go through the election, I think the President is going to focus on those candidates who support his agenda, so that he'll have better prospects for passage of legislation to improve education, to protect people's pensions, to create jobs. And so if it's an official event, the President cannot directly endorse the candidacies of various people -- and this now will afford him the opportunity to do so.
Q Where do we stand on the port dispute, Ari?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President looks forward to receiving the report from a bill that he named. He expects to receive the report sometime today, and he will review the report once he receives it.
Q Is he inclined to invoke Taft-Hartley and to get them back to work?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'll just leave it at he wants to read their report, after he receives the report. If he has anything to say, we'll keep you advised.
Q Anything on the fact now -- the terror that sniper in Washington is expanding to school kids and so on? Does the President have anything to say to people who live in Washington about that?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President issued a statement last night about this directly; and he's talked to the Attorney General about it. This is a very important issue of great concern. This is traumatic for the families and the communities that have been affected, and it's scary.
And let me walk you through some of the actions that the federal government has been taking to assist. And as you can see from a lot of the comments that are being made by local officials, there is a very close working relationship already between the federal government and the local government. The local government deserves help and the federal government is going to provide it.
The FBI is assisting in the profiling of the shooter or shooters. The FBI has put people in command posts in Montgomery County and other sites. The FBI is providing helicopter support. The FBI has provided assistance with the rapid start program. That's a program used to assist in tracking all of the hundreds of leads. They put this information in a computer and they correlate and prioritize the information. It's a case management tool.
The FBI is offering agents to covering leads as requested. And the FBI has offered assistance from local field offices, labs or computer systems in any way needed.
I think I have some additional -- the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and FireArms has also been assisting in providing ballistics help and other types of help. And last night the President directed the Department of Education to work with the local schools and the counselors, the principals and the administrators to provide them with the assistance they need to help counsel the students.
It's a trying time, and the President wants to make the resources of the federal government available to help the community.
Q Can you tell us about the conversation that he had with the Attorney General? When was it? I assume they spoke on the phone? What did they talk about specifically?
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me try to get you more information on that -- I dont have a lot,
Q Do you know anything about the two Marines who opened fire in Kuwait, killing a couple of Kuwaitis, apparently?
MR. FLEISCHER: The Pentagon is looking into this incident to determine what the cause is, what was involved, and I would anticipate any statements, if there are any to be made today, would come from the Pentagon.
Q Any information that they were responding to terrorist attack, anything like that?
MR. FLEISCHER: The Pentagon is looking into this now, and I dont want to characterize it.
Q Ari, is this the first all political trip he's done?
MR. FLEISCHER: No.
Q Others recently, or --
MR. FLEISCHER: Friday, last week.
Q Oh, okay. Do you have any information on tonight's event?
MR. FLEISCHER: Tonight, the President will go speak to the Eagles, who are gathering at the Willard Hotel.
Q Is that a fundraiser or that's --
MR. FLEISCHER: -- speech.
Q Why is that closed to press coverage?
MR. FLEISCHER : I dont know, let me look into it.
Q Ari, last night the President said that by complying with demands that he laid out for Iraq, that it could "change the nature of the regime itself." Does this amount to a revision of the policy of regime change?
MR. FLEISCHER: No, it's a repeat of what he said at the United Nations. In his speech at the United Nations, the President had the six "if" paragraphs. He six times referred to "if a regime in a Iraq will," "if the regime in Iraq will," "if the regime in Iraq will." And his point was if the regime in Iraq will abide by international laws, disarm, stop repression of minorities, stop hostility toward its neighbors, the President's six specific "if" clauses, then the regime would have changed its very nature. And that's a reiteration of that message.
The bottom line is, the world needs the Iraqi regime to disarm, to stop using hostility as a method of dealing with its neighbors; to stop repression of minorities; to give an accounting of the people its held as prisoners. And the regime under Saddam Hussein has shown no inclination of a desire to do that. And the President knows the importance of having it done.
Q Does he believe that regime change can be accomplished without Saddam Hussein's removal?
MR. FLEISCHER: There is no history of Saddam Hussein showing any inclination to do the things the world expects. And the President is being realistic.
Q Is the President disappointed that the three major networks ended up not carrying his speech live last night? And what do you make of them deciding not to?
MR. FLEISCHER: Absolutely not. The White House did not request them to do so, so I think it would be unreasonable for anybody to think they should have. The White House deliberately did not ask them to do so, because, one, given the substantive amount of information that was new in the speech, in good conscience we did not think we should ask the networks to do so, even though it was an important and newsworthy address.
Two, it was our conclusion that if on Friday -- on Thursday, when we announced the speech, we had said we were requesting live coverage, despite every effort we possibly could have made to keep expectations realistic and accurate, the rumor-mongering that had become uncontrollable, and it would have suggested that war is imminent -- and we did not think that was a proper or wise course to take.
Q So why schedule it at 8:01 p.m., a time that's generally used when giving an address to -- live on the networks?
MR. FLEISCHER: Quite frankly, it reaches more Americans that way.
Q -- got your message across?
MR. FLEISCHER: Clearly, I think the -- we dont know how many people watched it, but for the many millions who did they had an opportunity to hear and see the President, in totality themselves, which is always important for the country to hear the President unedited. And, obviously, the newspapers and wires and others have followed it closely.
Questions of war and peace are weighty and serious issues for democracies and for all the world. But particularly in a democracy, it is the responsibility of the Commander in Chief to openly and publicly discuss all sides of the issues that people raise. It is not a light issue. And the President takes that responsibility seriously. He will continue to speak out, the administration will continue to reach out. It's what democracies do; it's what keeps us free.
Q Has he had any reaction from either other world leaders or anybody in Congress to the speech last night?
MR. FLEISCHER: The reaction that we have first heard has been from congressional leaders, has been very encouraging. People have welcomed his remarks and they thought it was a wise course.
Q Anyone in particular?
MR. FLEISCHER -- to speak to the members that were traveling with the President last night, traveling with the President today. We'll probably take a more detailed look at various statements from Democrats or Republicans alike. I think Congressman McDermott again spoke out; i look forward to reading his transcript.
Q Any overseas reaction at all, especially to the unmanned vehicles and the other things he brought up in the speech?
MR. FLEISCHER: I have not got any overseas briefings yet on what foreign leaders said. Keep in mind, the timing of the speech, of course in Europe it would have been 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. in the morning. And this morning, just quickly, i just haven't received anything yet.
Q I think this morning they're quoted as saying it's all lies. I assume that's just a predictable response?
MR. FLEISCHER: Of course, Iraq denied it invaded Kuwait, so why listen to them?
Q Can you give us some sense on the timing of the report from the board of inquiry? Do you know when, approximately, Bush receives it?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'll try to let you know. I think it's going to be midday, midday-ish.
Q Do you mean noon, or 2:00 p.m. or --
MR. FLEISCHER: Noon is a good description of midday. (Laughter.) That's why I said it as artfully and as accordion-like as I could: midday-ish, i-s-h.
Q What's your broad definition of midday, Ari?
MR. FLEISCHER: Generally, it begins sometime in the mid- to late morning, and travels through to the early to mid-afternoon, with the forefront being clearly in the center. (Laughter.)
Q Ten to 2:00 p.m., or would it be more like 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.?
MR. FLEISCHER: Ten to 2:00 p.m., working hours for West Wing staff; 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. is OEOB staff. (Laughter.)
Q -- wise-ass portion of the briefing? That's wise-ass. (Laughter.)
MR. FLEISCHER: That was none other than Sandra.
Q Is the President going to talk about the economy today, and, if so, what's his message?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President will talk about the economy today. The President will talk about the importance of creating jobs for the American people; about why he's pleased the unemployment rate, for example, came down a small amount last month -- it's not good enough. More action has to be taken to help the economy, which continues to ooch along. And the President believes that there are two key provisions Congress can pass that would be very helpful to workers right now.
One is pension protections, and the second is job creating passage of terrorism insurance. And we'll just have to see what the Congress does. It is reaching that -- it is reaching that biennial point where Congress gets ready to adjourn, and it's anybody's guess about whether adjournment would create a rush to actually legislate and get things done, or whether we will mark a year of inactivity.
There are a lot of issues that are stuck in the Congress right now and nobody knows what the Congress is going to do.
Q I'm sorry, is that biannual, as in twice a year? Or biennial, as in once every two years? (Laughter.)
MR. FLEISCHER: I'd like to thank you for the wise question. (Laughter.) That would be it happens once every two years.
Q So biennial.
MR. FLEISCHER: I'll get back to you midday on -- (laughter.)
Q Ari, do you think there is now overwhelming support in Congress for a joint resolution?
MR. FLEISCHER: Based on what the President has heard from Democrats and Republicans alike, it appears that there is overwhelming support and a likelihood of a significant bipartisan vote for the resolution that the President has proposed and that has been introduced in the House by Congressmen Hastert, Gephardt, as well as in the Senate by Senators Lieberman and McCain.
Anything else? I would like to take this opportunity to say "bye."


text:
Moscow Police Detain 40 as Gays push for Parade
MOSCOW (AP) — Gay activists tried to stage two demonstrations in Moscow on Sunday to demand the right to hold a gay pride parade in the Russian capital, but they were blocked first by Orthodox Christian opponents and then by police, who detained a total of about 40 people from both sides.
The gay activists first gathered outside the city council building, where a few scuffles occurred as their opponents tried to disrupt the demonstration, decrying homosexuality as a sin. After police broke up that protest, another group tried to stage a second protest at city hall, but once again police moved in and detained participants, including prominent gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev.
The majority of those detained were gay activists, but some of the Christian demonstrators also were pushed into police buses. Police said about 40 people were detained in all.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but anti-gay sentiment remains strong.
Activists have long petitioned the Moscow government for permission to stage such a parade, but have always been denied. Former Mayor Yuri Luzhkov described gay parades as "satanic," while current Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has said he disapproves of gay gatherings because they could offend the religious beliefs of many Russians.
Gay activist Galina Kaptur criticized city authorities for treating homosexuality as a contagious disease that would be spread through society if gays were allowed to hold a parade.
"It's as if they thought that if all left-handed people held a parade, then afterward everyone would become left-handed," Kaptur said. "This is wrong."
Among the opponents of gay rights was Dmitry Tsarionov, who spoke to the crowd in front of a sign that said "Moscow is not Sodom."
"I will not allow perverts to bring the wrath of God onto our city," he said. "I want our children to live in a country where a sin that so awfully distorts human nature is not preached in schools."
This month, Alexeyev became the first person convicted under a new law in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, which makes it a crime to spread "gay propaganda" among minors. Alexeyev was charged after he picketed St. Petersburg's city hall with a placard that said "homosexuality is not a perversion." He was fined 5,000 rubles (about $170).
The Russian parliament is considering extending the measure nationwide, which gay activists say would make it even easier to ban their public demonstrations.


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Automotive Group
2905 Premiere Parkway, Suite
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Directions Greensboro, NC 27407
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"This comprehensive publication enables readers the critical perspectives to be able to evaluate the world market for hand tools. The publication provides the market size, growth and forecasts at the global level as well as for the following countries:
Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam
The market data covers the years 2007-2018. The major questions answered in this comprehensive publication include:
What is the global market size for hand tools?
What is the hand tool market size in different countries around the world?
Are the markets growing or decreasing?
How are the markets divided into different kinds of products?
How are different product groups developing?
How are the markets forecast to develop in the future?
Which are the most potential countries and markets?
The market information includes the total market size for hand tools as well as the market size and trends for the following kinds of products:
Electric hand drills
Electric hand saws
Other electric hand tools
Pneumatic hand tools (rotary type)
Other pneumatic hand tools
Chain saws
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Parts of chain saws
Parts of pneumatic hand tools
Parts of other hand tools
The publication is designed for companies who want to gain a comprehensive perspective on the global hand tool market. This publication makes it easy to compare across different countries and product groups to be able to find new market opportunities and make more profitable business decisions."


text:
Story highlights
Remains have been found at the site where Jenni Rivera's plane is believed to have crashed
Investigators cannot say whose remains they are yet and wouldn't describe their condition
DNA tests are under way; results could take from a day to weeks, official says
Investigators have found human remains at the site of a crash in northern Mexico believed to have killed Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera, but the family continues to hold on to a sliver of hope for a miracle.
Civil aviation officials say they believe no one survived the crash. Yet Rivera's family says hope is the last thing to go.
Authorities would not describe the condition of the remains, but said they do not know how many people they belong to.
The remains were found Tuesday at the site of the wreckage and were transported to Monterrey, the same city the private Learjet took off from, said Priscila Rivas, spokeswoman for the state's public ministry.
It is too early to tell if Rivera's remains were among those found, Rivas said, but DNA tests are under way. Test results could take anywhere from a day to weeks, she said.
Rivera's brother, Lupillo, arrived in Monterrey from the family's home in Lakewood, California. Before he left California, he described the situation as "95% bad news," but added that the family is clinging to the small hope that Jenni Rivera somehow survived.
A makeshift altar with flowers, balloons and candles appeared on the family's front lawn.
"I trust in God, and he gives me strength," said Rivera's mother, Rosa Rivera. "I know that if indeed (she's dead), I would thank God for the time he shared her with me, for the precious time she called me Mother."
Six others, including two pilots, were thought to be on board the plane, which lost contact with air traffic controllers soon after takeoff.
Born in Long Beach, California, to Mexican immigrant parents, Rivera, 43, released her debut album in 1999, according to her website. She sings traditional Mexican ballads, and was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in 2002 in the category of "Best Banda Album."
In October, People en Espanol named Rivera to its list of the 25 most powerful women.
Famous for her music, she is also known for her tumultuous personal life. The singer was a single mom at the age of 15 and is the mother of five, her website said.
Rivera's "I Love Jenni" reality show began airing on Telemundo's mun2 network last year.
She is a judge on the popular TV show "The Voice Mexico," which was scheduled to air Sunday night on Televisa. Noting its concern for Rivera, Televisa said it would air a special report on the singer instead.
"To all her fans who are suffering, I say thank you, and don't suffer. Soon we will have news of her," Rosa Rivera said.
CNN's Jaqueline Hurtado and CNNMexico.com contributed to this report.


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Recipes + 5 SmartPts + Under 100 Calories
Below is a list of all the recipes on Snack Girl. Need less than 100 calories or a sweet snack? Choose one of the terms below to refine your search.
Points values are calculated by Snack Girl and are provided for information only. Recipes and products are not endorsed, sponsored or approved by Weight Watchers International, Inc.
Turn Strawberry Shortcake Into Strawberry Healthycake
Have you ever made a traditional Strawberry Shortcake? Well, I have and the "shortcake" part calls for cream AND butter. Wowza!
May 30, 2017 31 Comments
Replace Mayo With This Healthy Spread
Seems like it is time to take on mayonnaise. I love the stuff, but when you start adding it to sandwiches, the calories sky rocket...
October 26, 2010 25 Comments


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Want to list your company in our directory?
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1) Simply click on the "Add To Cart" button below to purchase your listing.
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text:
✅ Subscribe to our YouTube Channel – @Dr. Scott Silverii talks about 1 Corinthians 11 – Crushing Woke Culture and Head Cover 1 Corinthians 11 (NKJV)Worship and the Lord's Supper 11 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. Head Coverings 2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. 5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. 6 For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man. 9 Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. 10 For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. 12 For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God. 13 Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. 16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God. Conduct at the Lord's Supper 17 Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19 For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. 21 For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. Institution of the Lord's Supper 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Examine Yourself 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. 33 Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.
There is freedom waiting for you on the other side of tough times. I'm praying that you begin to identify the blessings in your life and focus on them until you breakthrough into a new, anointed light. PLEASE do not hesitate to reach out to me if you need someone to walk through the process with you.
Make sure to get connected at Five Stones Church – we have an incredible community and small groups.
Blessings and Honor,
STOP BY OUR SHOP – Every penny goes to ministry!
Categories: Dr. Scott Silverii


text: By Jason Whitlock 15 Mar 2012 Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock wrote about the end of Los Angeles' Southwest College football program in his Feb. 11, 2012 column. Located in South Central L.A., the program, headed by coach Henry Washington, had helped kids find a path away from the pervasive gang activity in the area. It was being cut due to budget problems. Albert "Rocky" Pimentel '77 read the column and decided to do something to help, even though he'd never heard of Henry Washington or the Southwest Cougars before. His selfless act inspired Whitlock to write the following: People care. That's the takeaway from the Henry Washington and Southwest College Cougars story. If people believe you're making a sincere effort to help yourself, people care, and they'll help. Last month, we thought coach Henry Washington's South Central Los Angeles football program had died, a victim of California's budget crisis, Title IX political correctness, indifference, and a tone deaf school president. We eulogized Washington and his Cougars in a Feb. 12, 2012 column. Rocky Pimentel, a 56-year-old executive at Silicon Valley's Seagate Technology, read the column and sent an email inquiry. He wanted to know how to get in contact with coach Washington. Pimentel cared. He wanted to help. Pimentel has no connection to Los Angeles. Years ago, he played baseball at Santa Clara University. He's not a bleeding-heart liberal who has devoted his life to charity. "Honestly, I've never voted for a Democrat presidential candidate in my life," he said with a chuckle. Pimentel liked Washington's story, his three decades of devotion to a community many people fear, most don't understand, and some wish would just go away. With football as his bait, coach Washington fishes for kids looking for a best last chance at a college education and a path away from the gang activity that plagues the neighborhoods surrounding Southwest College. A community college football program that services 70 to 80 kids a year on a $110,000 annual budget had been marked for death. Pimentel emailed the story about Washington and the Cougars to other executives at Seagate Technology. People at Seagate started pledging thousands of dollars to a football program and a coach they'd never heard of, much less seen play. In a few short weeks, Pimentel's email was being passed around the Bay Area. An astronaut and San Francisco 49ers legends were pledging money to keep the Cougars alive. Thanks to public pressure applied by Washington, local ministers, and community leaders, Southwest College president Jack Daniels had been forced to give the coach until the end of February to raise $100,000 to keep the program alive. Pimentel and the Bay Area angels beat the deadline and exceeded the goal. The Cougars are going to play football in 2012. "We've been really blessed," gushed Washington. People care. We live in a cynical era. We all give in to it. We need reminders that we care about each other, that we haven't surrendered to our most base survival instincts, that there is great joy and satisfaction in lending a helping hand. The beauty of this story is its organic, pure nature. Henry Washington did not seek out the media. I was at a friend's house when I overheard a conversation about the demise of Southwest College football. The person telling the story had no idea I was a sportswriter. Two days later, I asked a friend from Jim Brown's Amer-I-Can Program to take me to Southwest College to meet Henry Washington. I wrote the column hoping to provide some perspective on the deification of Joe Paterno. I've always believed the real coaching heroes are the men and women who toil away from the spotlight and the shoe contracts and the 70,000-seat stadiums. I also wanted to point out there's a price to pay for America's love affair with incarceration and its right-hand man, the immoral "war on drugs." California can't properly finance education primarily because incarceration is three times more expensive. The column wasn't a plea for help. It was an indictment of our collective hypocrisy and stupidity. Thank God for Rocky Pimentel and the Bay Area angels. They ignored my anger and seized an opportunity to spread some love. They did it without seeking recognition. They asked that I not mention how much money they gave. Rocky did not want to be identified or quoted in this story. I convinced him that I had to identify at least one person to tell this story. It's an important story. We need to spread more love. We need reminders about the importance of helping people who first help themselves and that there are Henry Washingtons and Rocky Pimentels in the world. See the original column here and the follow-up column here. Share


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Lifestyle & Belief
Greek Town Adopting System of 'Bartering on Steroids'
The World
June 14, 2012 · 1:00 PM EDT
Lisa Mullins
Clark Boyd
Buyers and sellers gather in a sweltering, previously abandoned building in the Greek city of Volos, some 200 miles north of Athens. There's a bit of everything available here – books, eggs, clothes, kids' toys, and even an old fax machine. But there isn't a euro in sight. On the eve of a vote which may determine whether Greece stays in the euro zone, these Greeks have moved beyond the euro, at least here. This market is the brainchild of a network of people who have chucked the euro in favor of the TEM – the Greek shorthand for "Alternative Local Currency." "In the network, people can trade their goods and services. They don't need money for that. They just need time and the desire to do it," said Christos Papaioannou, one of the network's founders. It's kind of like bartering on steroids, he added. "We can see it as exchanging favors, if I do a service for you, then you owe me a favour, and I can use that favour to get some service from someone else. So, we don't have to exchange directly, I can get it from some third person." Let's say someone offers a haircut. The network determines that's worth 10 credits. (To make it easier to set prices, one TEM is valued at one euro.) The haircutter can then spend those credits on products at the market, or on services offered by someone else. To be clear, there is no real "currency" that changes hands – no scrip. Instead, credits are tracked, goods and services are listed, offered and accepted, through an open-source computer program designed for this kind of "community banking." The original idea for the network predates the economic crisis, said Papaioannou, adding it's about coming up with different ways for people to interact economically, so "that people do things together, and take things in their own hands, basically." It's an idea that appeals to Euripides Siouras, who joined the TEM network in December 2010. "I thought that the existing economic system was something like a war. It wasn't made for the citizens," Siouras said. And what services does he offer? "Massages, back remedies, and general alternative therapies," Hueras said – things that more and more Greeks could probably use these days, especially in Volos. The city has been hit hard by the crisis, said Volos Mayor Panos Skotiniotis. When construction fell off, the region's cement and metal industries suffered. Unemployment is rising, and local funding from the Greek state is down 40 percent over the past three years. Skotiniotis said the municipality can't support the TEM network in any official way. But he certainly sees its value. "It goes without saying that this currency is not substituting for the official state currency, the euro," said the mayor. "But it's a supplement for people who can't meet their own needs." Back at the market, I'm told the TEM network in Volos is growing quickly. More than 1,000 people have joined or are waiting to join in this city of 150,000. Katarina, who joined a month and half ago, is selling homemade liqueurs, jams and sweets. For her, the network isn't just about creating an alternative social structure. It's about survival. She uses her credits to buy staples – vegetables, fruits and eggs – from others in the network. She said she wishes the TEM network were bigger – she wants to be able to buy things like olive oil and meat. Katarina said she's been unemployed for five months now. When I asked if she's received any help from the local government, she laughed. "The state is completely absent. All of our politicians are cheats. They robbed us." Then she added: "You go tell Obama that." Nearby, 18-year-old Olina is helping her mother sell some of the family's clothes. "I don't think that clothes matter now, at this moment, with all the crisis. I think food is more important," Olina said. She said she's studying communication and would like to write for a fashion magazine like Vogue someday. For now, being in the TEM network has helped her family put food on the table. Like almost all of the people I spoke to in Volos, Olina said she doesn't expect Sunday's elections to change much, no matter who wins. Little wonder then that Volos' alternative currency idea, or something like it, is now catching on in 7 or 8 other cities and towns in Greece. The only question, it seems, is if the TEM will be an alternative for the euro – or the drachma.
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text:
Faydra in Gainesville, Florida lives in an apartment complex she describes as "a step above dorm living" — 85 females total, all of them coming and going at all hours. Faydra's next-door neighbors kicked things off (with the most frightening clip art extravaganza ever) and things devolved from there. In chronological order:
related: A fancy feast


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What's more fun than gummy bears? Drunk gummy bears, duh. So this says fun in a lot of ways:
The instructions are simple: cover gummy bears with vodka, leave in the fridge for a week. The hard part, as I found out, is not eating all the gummy bears before you can try the recipe.
Um, oops. There weren't that many left for me to liquor up. But I forged on.
I stuck it in the fridge for a week. And then my family came over and helped me test them. The general consensus: "Blargh!" None of us are the kind of girly girls who cough and choke when we take a swig of vodka and whine, "It buuuuurns!," but these things were pretty liquory. Also, then I had to hide them because my nieces were about to come over and I didn't want them to get all excited about gummy bears and then go, "Ew. These smell like Auntie."
So, I probably won't make these again.


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Bystanders became heroes last week as they rushed to save the life of a woman who had fallen off a Ucluelet dock.
The woman, a West Coast resident, fell into the ocean while attempting to board a canoe at Ucluelet's 52 Steps Dock on Nov. 1 around 5 p.m. and the man she was with was unable to pull her back onto the dock by himself, according to Sgt. Steve Mancini of the Ucluelet RCMP.
Neither were wearing life-jackets.
READ MORE: Top 10 things you didn't know about life-jackets
"Fortunately, some bystanders in the area heard the screams for help and were able to attend and pull the female in from the water," Mancini said.
He said RCMP were joined at the scene by Emergency Health Services and Ucluelet Volunteer Fire Department members and the woman was transported to Tofino Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
He added that alcohol was a factor in the incident.
READ MORE: Alcohol consumption on the rise on Vancouver Island
"When you mix alcohol and docks, or any sort of water activity, it's a recipe for disaster. We strongly encourage people not to do that," he said. "We don't want to see anybody get hurt because of a mistake."
Mancini noted a woman was found deceased in the waters around Ucluelet's Whiskey Dock on Oct. 19 and said police are urging residents and visitors to be safe and wear life-jackets.
READ MORE: Woman found dead in Ucluelet harbour
"When you're on the docks, life-jackets are advised, whether you're a child or an adult," he said. "This time of year the water is cold. This was a situation where we were fortunate enough to be able to have a positive result at the end, but it's a reminder that we need to be safe on docks and properly equipped when we're on them."
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Cards, announcements and Invitiations
Create your own announcements, invitations, holiday or note cards using your photos and/or artwork. The cards are printed on a heavyweight linen stock. Each card I create is custom designed to your specifications. Cards can be printed front, back and/or inside, with no extra charge. Choose your colors and fonts. Cards are available as flat or folded cards in 3 sizes: 4 x 5.5, 5 x 5 and 5 x 7. The cards come in packages of 25 and include envelopes.Read More
Contact me for pricing.
Contact me for pricing.