text:
04 September, 2011
A Tutorial: Pottery Barn Inspired Frenchy Pillow
As soon as I saw this photo on Pottery Barn's web site, I knew I had to have this one! Only one problem…they don't seem to sell it! I couldn't find it anywhere, so I decided to make my own version of it.
(Update: I did find it in the catalog for $39 plus $7 to monogram.)
We are working outside this morning since it is a little cooler. However, my co-hostess Miss Kitty seems more interested in the view from the swing set, so I guess I will be going it alone!
I think theirs is linen, but I used Osnaburg, a cheaper alternative at about $2.50 a yard at Hobby Lobby with a coupon. I cut two 15 x 21 inch pieces for the pillow itself. Then I found a font that I liked for the monogram. I chose this one because it's so...well...vintage French! It's called Paris and only seems to exist on embroidery web sites. I printed it in the size I wanted, colored the back with artist's charcoal and then traced over it on the fabric. Next, I filled in the outline with fabric paint in a matte white.
While the paint was drying, I made the flowers. I actually used linen scraps for these because they seemed to have more body. There were two kinds...roses and daisies. The roses were easy. I just cut a 2 inch wide strip of fabric, folded it in half and tied a knot at one end. The size of the flower is determined by the length of the strip, so you can judge accordingly. Next, I twisted the strip, winding it around the knot as I went. Then I secured it in several places with hot glue. The look is a little shabbier and more vintage-looking than the original, but that's what I wanted. Sorry there are no photos of the flower in progress, but you have to have both hands working!
The daisies were a little more difficult. They also have a shabbier look than the Pottery Barn flowers…but I think I like it better!
1.) For each flower, I cut six 1 1/2 inch wide by 3 inch long strips. Next, I rounded the edges and folded them in half.
2.) Then I hand-stitched along the fold, gathering and connecting the petals as I went and then sewed them together at the ends.
3.) Next, I traced around a small cup to create a circle, hand-stitched around the edges and gathered to form a puffy ball.
4.) Finally, I flattened the ball and stitched in a few creases, then attached it to the petals.
I stitched the pillow, right sides together, leaving a gap at the bottom to insert the pillow form and then turned it right-side out and pressed it. I hot-glued the flowers, following the pattern of the PB pillow as closely as possible. Finally, I inserted the pillow form and hand-stitched it closed. And...taa daa! And best of all...it was free! I already had everything I needed. The scraps of Osnaburg and linen were from previous projects and I had a previously-purchased $2.50 14 x 20 pillow form from Goodwill.
And here it is in its new home…my Parisian-style bedroom! I think I like it! It adds a really feminine touch and vintage Art Nouveau look to my chair and goes great with my drop cloth reupholstered seat! What do you think? Did I come close to matching the Pottery Barn pillow?
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed a little peek at my project! Please visit these wonderful bloggers and their beautiful blogs to see what they are up to and to find a list of this week's participants!
Stephanie Lynn at Under the Table and Dreaming for the Sunday Showcase Party
Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday
Mary at Boogieboard Cottage for Masterpiece Monday
Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick for Before and After Monday (first Monday of the month)
Beth at The Stories of A2Z for Tutorials and Tips Tuesday
Linda at Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Kim at Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays
Judy at DIY by Design for Sizzle into Summer
Gina at The Shabby Creek Cottage for Transformation Thursdays
Jill at French Cupboard for Voilà! French Inspiration on Thursdays
Sherry at No Minimalist Here for the Open House Party on Thursdays
Honey at 2805 for Potpourri Friday
Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday
Courtney at French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday
Diann at The Thrifty Groove for Thrifty Things Friday
Debra at Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Fridays
Sherry at The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday
Donna at Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special
See you next time! A la prochaine!
95 comments:
Hi Debbie,ReplyDelete
Love your pretty pillow. It's prettier than the PB one.
Love that sweet Miss Kitty too.
This is really pretty, Debbie. Thanks for the tutorial..ChristineReplyDelete
Great job, Debbie!! I love it!ReplyDelete
I think it turned out great!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 4, 2011 at 8:03 PM
Gorgeous Debbie!!ReplyDelete
What a wonderful project! I think your pillow is better than the PB one. I love it! Thanks for posting this tutorial. I bet my daughter could make this!ReplyDelete
You can't make too many pillows. Your pillow is beautiful and thanks so much for showing us how you made it.ReplyDelete
What a gorgeous pillow! It is really sweet~ perfect!ReplyDelete
Debbie, you have really become the crafting queen. It's a gorgeous pillow. Say hi to the staff for me!ReplyDelete
xo, Bonnie
Debbie, is there anything you can't do? How creative you are! This pillow turned out to be better than the one you found for inspiration. Way to go!ReplyDelete
I don't know if I could pick a favorite of the pillows you've made recently.
Happy Labor Day! ~ Sarah
Love the pillow! I think it turned out better than the PB pillow. I'm sure the fact that Miss Kitty supervised also had something to do with it.ReplyDelete
What a little beauty...love everything about your pillow!!! Have a beautiful week!!!ReplyDelete
Love the pillow! What a sweetie with hearts!ReplyDelete
You are no end of surprises and talents! It looks great.ReplyDelete
I love this pillow!!! So precious!!ReplyDelete
Clever One, you never cease to amaze me. I think I like yours much better because it does not look factory made.ReplyDelete
Very, very well done!ReplyDelete
Give Miss Kitty snuzzles from my babies!
I love your frenchy design. You are so talented. I've enjoyed looking at your other creations. Keep it up!ReplyDelete
Debbie, you are a genius at copying things you see. I look at it all and don't have a clue. I love this pillow and the flowers are just wonderful. It looks beautiful in your room. Hugs MartyReplyDelete
Oh it is very pretty....you did a fantastic job...just wait, Pottery Barn will hire you, to make 25000 more of them!! No prob!!!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 4, 2011 at 10:48 PM
Hi Debbie! You are on a burlap roll! I love your sweet pillow and I think it's much prettier than the PB one!ReplyDelete
You're so good. Maybe you need to share with us the vitamins you're taking! :)
Be a sweetie,
shelia ;)
Love it and I think it is prettier than the Pottery Barn one anyway.ReplyDelete
That is "sew" darn cute! can't wait to put it into the top ten this week. I love that your kitties are always in your posts, I added Coocoo this week to mine. I think I'm going to make it a regular thing as well. Mary :O)ReplyDelete
That is another pretty pillow. I love this one too.And it looks so lovely in your French style bedroom in which I love those curtains too. GOrgeous.ReplyDelete
Have a great week.
Beautiful! I love the fabric, monogram and the cute flowers you created.ReplyDelete
Your pretty pillow is is even better than the inspirational pillow simply because it was made with love.ReplyDelete
I LOVE it, Debbie! Don't you hate when they do that? I copied something I saw in a PB catalog once after searching through it three times just thinking I wasn't seeing it. You did a great job and since my last name monogram is a "P", I love it even more! : )ReplyDelete
Wow, Debbie ... I love it! You truly are the pillow making Queen ... thanks for sharing your fabulous tips, too!ReplyDelete
Hi Debbie, please, do not stop. Where can I buy your guest towels?ReplyDelete
I love this pillow.It's adorable and so is Miss Kitty.
You are just so talented! I think an Etsy shop is in your future.ReplyDelete
Your gorgeous Pottery Barn copy pillow is the perfect finishing touch for your Parisian-style bedroom. What a great job on the pillow and great tutorial too. Love the curtains on the window........ReplyDelete
The French Hutch
Oh my goodness! That is one beautiful pillow! Darn...I wish I could sew!ReplyDelete
Debbie this pillow is gorgeous! I like it much better then the PB one! Enjoy your week! hugs, LindaReplyDelete
What do I think????!!!!! I think this is stunning Debbie, as good if not better than the PB example. Adding this to my list of blog must do's. Thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete
Fantastique, Debbie! I have admired that same pillow and never investigated it enought to realize that it wasn't for sale. However, your reproduction is soooooo fabulous and so wonderfully explained, that why would anyone want to buy the PB version, even if they could?! You are quite the sewing Plate Addict! LindaReplyDelete
I agree, I like it better than the PB one also. Beautiful job and thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete
Debbie, You take the prize for creativity and talent for making beautiful things for your home. Everything you make is gorgeous! Hugs and thanks for the tutorial for your beautiful pillow.ReplyDelete
Love your beautiful pillow. Looks great in your bedroom.ReplyDelete
Isn't it fun to create something that you didn't have to purchase and it turns out better than the original?
I also love that baby on the swing set.
Please come my and see my new pillows on my 8/26 bedroom reveal. I am enjoying pillows just now also.
Hugs, Ginger
Debbie, what an incredibly beautiful pillow! You are one creative and clever lady and I wish I had an bit of your creativity! I have missed reading your awesome blog and glad I'm back!ReplyDelete
You are just so talented! The pillow is beautiful!ReplyDelete
I will lift my coffee mug and toast to us tomorrow , the first day of school here!
Oh~la~la...magnificient darling!
Miss Kitty knew you wouldn't need her assistance, so she might as well amuse herself! A vision of loveliness...the pillow and your Staff!
Your pillow is precious. So cute, thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete
A fantastic take on a PB pillow. So fun and whimsical.ReplyDelete
Wow, Debbie! your pillow is AWESOME!!! It looks wonderful on the chair!ReplyDelete
Thank you for sharing how you did it...I will definitely be trying this.
I am visiting from Thrifty Decor Chick, and I must say that your pillow is really beautiful! I think it's better than the PB pillow! :) Great job!!ReplyDelete
It's gorgeous Debbie! That's my initial too!ReplyDelete
Beautiful! It's not my usual style at all, and I'm STILL inspired to try it. :) Great, easy-to-follow tutorial, too. Thanks for posting!ReplyDelete
Tami@still crazy after all these years
Love it. So beautiful!ReplyDelete
Fondly, Tami
Gorgeous Debbie!! You've done it once again. You're so creative and can do anything!ReplyDelete
Going out to buy some burlap! Love it all ThanksReplyDelete
Hi Jo...It's not burlap...it's Osnaburg and linen. I'm not sure how easy it would be to make the flowers with burlap. Let me know how it turns out! :-)....DebbieReplyDelete
That looks absolutely beautiful. Better than the original. Thanks so much for sharing at my Sizzle into Summer party.ReplyDelete
Debbie, you are so talented...beautiful pillow!ReplyDelete
I love this pillow! I did a monogram pillow with buttons but it's lacking something. I think your flowers might be just what my pillow needs! Thank you for sharing.ReplyDelete
Fabulous pillow! I love it.ReplyDelete
I just love your pillow and am amazed at how close it looks to your inspiration piece! So pretty!!!ReplyDelete
This is absolutely fabulous! Thanks so much for showing me how to do it!ReplyDelete
What a fabulous pillow, Debbie! I love it! Great job and I like it better than your inspiration pillow.ReplyDelete
Debbie, absolutely divine!!ReplyDelete
I LOVE it Debra! And I think it is WAY prettier than the Pottery Barn pillow!!ReplyDelete
I may have to try this one myself!
Lou Cinda :)
- AnonymousSeptember 8, 2011 at 5:12 PM
Love your pillow Debbie! I have several that are so in need of a new facelift. Actually tossed one of them in the trash as it was so worn out!ReplyDelete
bee blessed
Another wonderful knockoff Debbie! You are on a great creative roll! I love it. Thank you for joining TTF and have a fun weekend!ReplyDelete
Oh WOW! Love that pillow. Better than PB. Great job. I am going to try and copy it. Thanks for the directions and for sharing. KarieReplyDelete
Your pillow is so lovely - much better than the PB one! Oh how I love making pillows but haven't in a month or so. This gets me excited about getting back to it. Thanks for sharing at Thrifty Groove :)ReplyDelete
GF - you hit it out of the ball park with this one. In fact, I love your version a hundred times better than the PB one. I think PB needs to take a cue and create a knock-off of YOUR pillow! :)ReplyDelete
I'm amazed at how beautiful your pillow is!! Great job! And your insturctions are clear and precise. Visiting from French Country Cottage. Have a great weekend.ReplyDelete
wow I love it! gorgeous!ReplyDelete
Awesome Job on the remake, Super cute! I am always looking at things I can make for my home. Thank You for the inspiration! Kudos!ReplyDelete
B Meredith - Becky's Basket Bags
This is a wonderful project and you did a fabulous job. As another poster commented, I think your version is even better than the PB, and yours is the best kind of project (and my particular favorite!): Something made from Nothing! Enjoy your new pillow, it looks great in your room. C'est magnifique!ReplyDelete
You did a great job matching the pillow. Very cute! Thank you for linking it to Home Sweet Home!
A beautiful pillow, looks better than PB. You are talented. I also like your "team" on the sidebar. Visiting from 2805. xo,ReplyDelete
It's nice to get another looks at this special pillow!ReplyDelete
I am so pleased that you linked to Potpourri Friday. Your participation certainly makes the party more successful . I appreciate you, the most! I hope you will make this one of your regular stops each week!
This is a darn good knock off! I love the details...they make all the difference. Thanks for linking up to Open House Party!ReplyDelete
You rocked it girl. But then with all your projects you always do. Thanks for sharing- I love all your transformations.ReplyDelete
wow..PB should be asking you for ideas...yours is so pretty!...Thanks for sharing!ReplyDelete
Hi Debbie, You can never have enough pillows! I love your newest creation.ReplyDelete
Drop. Dead. Gorgeous! It's casual and elegant all in one fell swoop.ReplyDelete
Had to share it on FJI Facebook for SNS 98. :)
Great tutorial Deb. Beautiful pillow! I adore it!ReplyDelete
Such a pretty pillow! Thank you for the tutorial.ReplyDelete
This is so pretty i love the flower details its absolutely gorgeousReplyDelete
This is a pillow to be proud of....I love it. What a sweet cat.ReplyDelete
I like yours better ...thanks for sharing. I think I'm going to try it.ReplyDelete
We liked this so much over at Copycat Crafts that we have decided to feature it today! You can view it hereReplyDelete
We'd love it if you'd like to display a featured button! You can grab your button on the right hand side of your post. Thanks!
I absolutely love your frenchy monogram pillow, and I think it's better than the PB version. Your flowers are much nicer. Do you make them for others? I'm crafty, but I don't have a sewing machine. Please let me know.
Thank you, Barbara
I love the pillow and am exited to give it a try. Great job!ReplyDelete
Great project.... love it.ReplyDelete
I'm jealous about your talents! I have obsession with 3D cushions. I am a verge of buying a sewing machine (don't have one yet). I think I may get the "cushion syndrome" also when I get started. Let's see how it goes!ReplyDelete
What a beautiful project! I am so glad I found it through Pinterest. I've pinned from your site to my board. I'm sure you've been enjoying having this in your home. MeganReplyDelete
The Pillow came out Awesome it my has my Initial lolReplyDelete
I think it Looks Better than the Pottery Barn Pillow
Oh and by the way I Love Your Babies!! All your catsReplyDelete
they are such Loving Loyal Family Members
Great tutorial! I love the white letter on the natural fabric, and the font is fabulous!!!ReplyDelete
Absolutely love the monogram pillow. I have to make one. It will give me just the punch I'm looking for on my bed. Thanks for sharing your techniques.ReplyDelete
Hi Debbie I haven't tried this yet but love all your ideas.Thank for sharingReplyDelete
Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment! I appreciate my wonderful readers!... Debbie


text:
DUAYAW: Blue, Red & Green Woven Fan
These colourful handwoven fans certainly come in handy in their hot, Ghanaian motherland, but they'll also deliver a refreshing splash of West African colour to the walls of your home. DUAYAW is an abstract mix of blue, red and green, bound to bring a touch of ethical charm and cheer to any room!
Choose something totally unique for yourself or a loved one: these brightly patterned, handwoven Bolga fans are all strikingly different, so you'll be taking home - and protecting - a piece of African culture when you purchase one from The Basket Room.
The majority of the weavers who create woven fans are men, having been taught the traditional craft of basket weaving from their own mothers and fathers. Most of these men work in agriculture, but the dry seasons make farming increasingly difficult and unpredictable. Basket weaving brings these people the opportunity to earn a flexible second income.
It is our mission to build relationships with the most talented weavers across Africa, and we're so happy to be offering more work to these artisans as our Ghanaian collection expands to include these incredible handwoven fans. Want to know more about these weavers? Click here.
Material: VETA VERA GRASS
Dimensions: 45cm L x 31cm W
Please note, as this is a handmade product, dimensions & colour may vary from those shown in the photographs.
Our Ghanaian woven baskets are a celebration of Northern Ghana's abundant natural raw material, and the age-old weaving skills of its people: sustainable style and ethical production, through and through. In our ongoing commitment to fair trade, our baskets are produced from natural materials indigenous to the region they are woven in.Home of the hardy veta vera grass, Ghana is where our collections of sturdier, stiffer baskets are made: woven bike baskets, square, rectangular and circular storage baskets, bolga shopping baskets, dog baskets and baby Moses baskets. Where Kenyan sisal grass creates supple and pliable baskets and bags, Ghanaian veta vera grass produces more structured baskets.
We partner with 24 weaving cooperatives and over 1000 weavers in Ghana, both male and female. This portable and flexible craft means that weavers can take their work home with them if preferred, completing their weaving around other household tasks and duties to create truly fair trade baskets. Bicycle baskets and storage baskets generally take around three days to complete, and the process – as you will see from the pictures – is meticulous.
"We wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to the customers who buy our baskets, which create employment for our women in Ghana. We say thank you and we wish to continue to do business with you next year." - Asabila, Cooperative Manager – Ghana
Shop the Log Basket Collection here.
Shop the Art Basket Collection here.
Shop the Bike Basket collection here.
Shop the Square, Rectangular and Circular Floor Storage Basket collection here.
Shop the Moses Basket Collection here.
Shop the Bolga Shopping Basket collection here.
Shop the Dog Basket collection here.

subset: commoncrawl


text: A new study found that minority children who are exposed to more racism and discrimination often experience more symptoms of depression. The study was presented May 2 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. "Unfortunately, minority children perceive discrimination often in their lives," said Lee M. Pachter, DO, co-author of the study and professor of pediatrics at Drexel University College of Medicine and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. "Fifty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights movement, racism is still common in their lives." Dr. Pachter and his colleagues surveyed 277 minority children ages 9-18 years to determine the contexts in which they perceive racism and the relationship between discrimination, depression and self-esteem. Participants filled out questionnaires that included 23 scenarios in which they might perceive discrimination, such as being followed by a store security guard, getting poor service in a restaurant or being accused of doing something wrong at school. About two-thirds of the children were Latino or African American, and 19 percent were multiracial. Results showed that 88 percent had at least one experience with racism, and nearly 12 percent had experienced racial discrimination in at least half of the situations described in the survey. The most common forms of discrimination were racial remarks, being called insulting names and being followed by security guards in stores. Experiences were similar for Latinos and African Americans, boys and girls, and younger and older children. "Not only do most minority children experience discrimination, but they experience it in multiple contexts: in schools, in the community, with adults and with peers." Dr. Pachter said. "It's kind of like the elephant in the corner of the room. It's there, but nobody really talks about it. And it may have significant mental and physical health consequences in these children's lives." Researchers also administered the Child Depression Inventory and the Rosenberg Self Esteem Questionnaire to 52 minority children. They found a significant correlation between perceived racism and depression, self-esteem and depression, but not between racism and self-esteem. The next step is to look at whether discrimination creates stress that leads to racial/ethnic disparities in physical and mental health, Dr. Pachter said.


text:
Story highlights
Scores killed, at least 124 injured in explosion, police say
Blast happened at about 6:45 a.m. at bus station on outskirts of Abuja as commuters were on way to work
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan visited blast site
No one has claimed responsibility but attack bears hallmarks of Islamist militant group Boko Haram
At least 71 people were killed when a parked vehicle exploded at a bus station in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Monday morning, Nigerian officials said.
Another 133 people were injured in the explosion on the outskirts of the city, national police spokesman Frank Mba said.
The attack happened at about 6.45 a.m., as the Nyanya Motor Park bus station was crowded with early morning commuters. One first responder at the scene told CNN "bodies were scattered everywhere."
"We're still treating people with injuries and collecting data," said Ishaya Isah Chonoko, zone coordinator at the National Emergency Management Agency in Abuja.
Information about what caused the blast wasn't immediately available. Charles Otegbade, the emergency management agency's search and rescue chief, said the explosion came from a vehicle that was parked at the station.
Interpol, which has offered its assistance to the team investigating the explosion, condemned what it called a "senseless and cowardly terrorist attack."
"This slaughter of innocent members of the public will have appalled citizens of all countries," the organization's Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said in a statement. "Interpol condemns this mass murder in the strongest possible terms and we express our solidarity with the people of Nigeria at this difficult time."
No individual or organization has so far come forward to claim responsibility for the blast, but it is believed to bear the hallmarks of Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group that has waged a campaign of violence in Nigeria in recent years.
Visiting the scene of the explosion, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan spoke of overcoming the militants.
"The issue of Boko Haram is quite an ugly history within this period of our own development … but we will get over it," he said. "… The issue of Boko Haram is temporary."
Nigeria's Islamist insurgency has claimed more than 3,000 lives since it began in 2009, according to Human Rights Watch.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in West Africa's Hausa-Fulani language, is fighting for the imposition of stricter Sharia law across the country, and has launched a self-styled "war on Christians" in Nigeria.
The group is designated a "terrorist organization" by the U.S. State Department;
U.N. refugee agencies estimate that more than 8,000 Nigerians have fled into neighboring Cameroon to escape escalating violence sparked by the militants, while another 5,000 have become internally displaced.
Until now, Boko Haram's focus has mainly been concentrated on areas of Nigeria's northeast, where the group has launched bomb, gun and arson attacks on homes, schools, markets and even whole villages.
But it is not the first time Abuja has been targeted; in 2011 a Boko Haram suicide attack on the United Nations building in the city killed at least 25 people.
Security forces in the capital are now said to be on alert after Monday's blast in Abuja raised concerns the insurgency could be spreading further afield.
The World Economic Forum is due to meet in Abuja at the beginning of May.
READ: Opinion: Nigerians don't care about their 'new economy'
READ: Dozens killed in spate of Nigeria attacks
READ: Year of attacks linked to Nigeria's Boko Haram
Journalist Aminu Abubakar contributed to this report.


text:
Materials Data on Ca2Al3Si3HO13 (SG:62) [electronic resource] / by Materials Project
- Published:
- Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences, 2014.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy
- Additional Creators:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, United States. Department of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Access Online
- Restrictions on Access:
- Free-to-read Unrestricted online access
- Summary:
- Computed materials data using density functional theory calculations. These calculations determine the electronic structure of bulk materials by solving approximations to the Schrodinger equation. For more information, see https://materialsproject.org/docs/calculations
- Report Numbers:
- E 1.99:mp-23915
- Subject(s):
- Other Subject(s):
- Note:
- Published through SciTech Connect.
Kristin Persson.
LBNL Materials Project
- Funding Information:
View MARC record | catkey: 24503391


text:
Illustrator and Photoshop work extremely well together. In this tutorial we will use both apps to produce elegant leafy lettering that can be used for a variety of projects. Let's get started!
Step 1
The first thing we need to do is sketch the layout. When it comes to sketching out my ideas, I used pencil and paper as an extremely basic guide for my layout and composition. Most of the sketching that makes it into the final design is done in Photoshop. I do this because I like to be able to create each letter on a separate layer. That way, I may move around the contents until the composition is just right. So in this first step, you need to draw a very basic layout for your composition. In this case, the letters are the foundation for, so we draw them first. I've left some inactive space on purpose, even thought the design may look a bit unbalanced right now. This is because we'll fill that space up later with leaves.
Step 2
As soon as I'm done sketching, I drag the sketch into illustrator. I prefer to clean up my sketch in illustrator, by using the pen tool and tracing over the sketch. In this case, I've created a simple single stroke. This is done in Illustrator because using the pen tool and path system here enables you to easily correct any composition errors you may have made.
Step 3
Copy the path and paste it back into Photoshop. It's time to use a pen tablet with pressure sensitivity enabled. Draw along the stroke and add thickness to it as seen below. Alternatively, you can remain in Illustrator and do this here. It's all up to preference. I like to alternate from program to program and use the best of each.
Step 4
Copy a merged version of the canvas in Photoshop (Command/Ctrl + Option + C) and paste it yet again into illustrator. In this screenshot, I've hidden the screenshot and replaced it the strokes we created in step 2. What you are doing though, is creating new shapes that follow the varying width done in Step 3.
Step 5
Continue this process and create about 3-5 blades of grass per letter. Make sure to not cross the same path over itself, as it will cause problems later. Instead of doing that, fade the path into another one by making it look like it's twisting around and over the previous.
Step 6
Repeat this process for the remaining letters. It's also a good idea to add a 0.5 white stroke to the blades, in order to see how they wrap around and under each other. This is important for later.
Step 7
This is the part where you step out of the original sketch and begin to add other, thinner blades. Make sure to make them at least 40% thinner, or they will make the letters confusing or impossible to read.
Step 8
We're now going to transform each thicker blade of grass (portions of the original letters) into a folded blade. First, trace a path (no fill color, just stroke) along the center of a blade.
Step 9
Select the stroke you've just made and the blade underneath that you want cut. Go to your pathfinder and hit the bottom-left icon. This will slice the blade in two, by using and eliminating the stroke on top.
Step 10
Repeat the process for the rest of the letters.
Step 11
It's now time to add the leaves. Make sure to draw each one separately and to fill in the composition to a rectangular layout.
Step 12
Make sure to draw each one separately and to fill in the composition to a rectangular layout.
Step 13
In your swatches panel, select the gray radial gradient and apply it to all the shapes.
Step 14
Bring up your Gradient menu and change the colors to a light green (#DEFA57), medium green (#6CBE45) and dark blue (#002945).
Step 15
Grab the gradient tool (G) and drag a new position for each of the leaves. Try to maintain a light source that is common to all the leaves.
Step 16
In order to keep the colors less predictable, I added a shade of red to certain leaves. You can do this simply by selecting a few leaves and changing the light green to red (#FF3600).
Step 17
Repeat this process and change colors here and there, just enough to make it more interesting.
Step 18
Copy all the objects and paste them in a different location on the canvas. Press 'D' to reset the colors, then change the stroke width to 0.5 pt. Copy it all.
Step 19
Go back into Photoshop. Create an A2 poster (or whatever size you're aiming for) at 300 dpi and paste the paths as raster image. Blur them by 0.7 px by going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.
Step 20
Duplicate the layer, then change the layer's blending mode to Multiply. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. Change the gradient to Black-White and drag the white pin's location to 50%. Group this layer and duplicate it. Hide the previous one.
Step 21
In the newly duplicated group, we're making a second version of the same process. Hide the Gradient Map layer. Blur the second image layer by about 4 px and duplicate the layer until the stroke that's visible becomes thick. Blur the top layer even more until you get a similar result.
Step 22
Reactivate the Gradient Map layer and change the white to 50% gray (#898989).
Step 23
Merge each group separately (Command/Ctrl + E). Change the grey stroke layer to 'Overlay' and change the layer Opacity to 50%. Mask it inside the leaves layer you pasted from Illustrator.
Step 24
Activate the first white stroke layer you created, and change the layer style to Color Burn.
Step 25
It's now time to add shadows. All these should masked and only visible inside the leaves layer. Make a polygonal selection of the area that would have a shadow cast, and paint in that area using a very large, soft brush with black. Make sure you change the Opacity of the layer to about 70% after that, as it can be a bit too contrasting.
Step 26
Repeat the process throughout the composition. This may take a while.
Step 27
Create a new layer and fill it with 50% gray (#878787). Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise and add a generous amount of noise.
Step 28
Change the layer style to Overlay and Opacity to 30%.
Step 29
We're now going to add a few Adjustment Layers to alter the contrast and color of the composition. Keep these masked and only visible inside the leaves as well. Fill the background layer with a very light green (#e5f1d4). For the first change, add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer. Drag the white pin's location to 90%. Add another pin at 70% and change the color to a medium gray (#bbbbbb). Change this layer's blending mode to Luminosity.
Step 30
We're now going to add a bit of variance to the colors of the leaves by adding another Gradient Map Adjustment Layer. This time, use these colors: violet (#6f156c), blue (#001d60) and dark yellow (#847921).
Step 31
With the new colors in, I wanted to brighten it up a bit more. This time I used a Curves Adjustment Layer.
Step 32
Time to change the shadows and make them a bit more dynamic. Shadows are never simply black, the take on the shade of the base color. Add a Selective Color Adjustment Layer and find the shadows tab in the drop-down menu. Change the settings as seen below.
Step 33
And finally, change the greens to this slightly more dark version.
Final Image
And we are finally finished. The technique is something you can apply to all sorts of lettering. It doesn't have to be as formal as this one. Show me what you do with it by dropping me a line via Twitter.


text:
Yes. There is a maximum of 6 adults per cycle. Please be aware adults cannot sit next to each other.
Articles in this section
- What is Merlin's Apprentice Ride?
- Is there an age or height restriction?
- Can children ride by themselves?
- Can adults go on this ride?
- Do I need to wear shoes?
- How many people can ride in a carriage?
- Is the ride wheelchair accessible?
- Can I go on this ride more than once during my visit?
- The ride wasn't working when I visited - Can I get a refund?


text:
Yesterday my 15-year-old son and I made brief stop at the Micro Center in Cambridge, looking at what it might take (and cost) to build a Linux/Windows desktop computer from the ground up—something that had been an interest of his for the last couple of years. (Mine too, actually.) The answer, price-wise (at least there), was more than we wanted to spend, so we decided to stop looking and head out.
But there were plenty of distractions in the store, so I paused at a few counters, tables and bins to examine stuff like cheap ($2.99) optical mice, flat-screen monitors (mine are old and fading), and various kinds of outboard drives. (Two of mine crapped out last week, and our first stop of the day had been dropping them off at a repair shop.)
As it happens we were on our way back from a hike in the Blue Hills Reservation, where the kid's patience had already been stretched by my tendency to pause to munch and reminisce at every huckleberry patch (I grew up spending summers among them), plus a half-hour stop at the observatory and science center at the crest of Blue Hill itself. So he was glad when we finally walked out of the store, and, presumably, to the car and then home.
But there was a Trader Joe's in the same lot, and I wanted to make a quick stop there to pick up a few supplies. The kid groaned.
"I promise to shop like a man," I said. "Fast as I can." Then I began to sing that rhyme to the tune of the Four Season's "Walk Like a Man." Shop like a man, fast as you can. Shop like a man, my son…
He replied, "The true man shops without stopping."
It then took us less than two minutes to get what we wanted (yogurt for smoothies, peppermint tea, a couple other things), check out and leave. The kid calls this "speed shopping." Also "powering through" a store. Rob Becker, whose Defending the Caveman is a required theater experience (go as a couple—it'll help), puts it this way in an interview:
Q: What does the title of your show refer to?
A: The show is about an average guy's response to all the anger that is coming at him. It goes back to the beginning of time. The image of the caveman is that of a guy bopping a woman on the head and dragging her back to his cave. But no serious anthropologist believes that. The caveman thought women were magical. But the caveman, to me, became a symbol of man being misunderstood.
Q: What were our primitive roles, and what effect do they have on our behavior today?
A: Men were hunters; women were gatherers. The hunter locks in on one thing, which is why guys have a narrow focus, whether it's watching TV, reading the newspaper or driving. They block everything else out because, as hunters, they had to focus on the rear end of an animal. On the other hand, women, as gatherers, had to take in the whole landscape. Their field of vision is wider.
Q: How do these differences manifest themselves in a shopping mall?
A: The hunter tracks one thing. If I need a shirt, I go and kill a shirt with my credit card and drag it home. The gatherer doesn't know what she's going for because she doesn't know what's going to be ripe or in bloom. She's open to the environment. When I go shopping with my wife, I keep bugging her about what she's looking for, and she says, "Don't bother me; I'll know it when I see it."
Q: Do men and women respond differently to an empty bowl of potato chips?
A: Women cooperate, men negotiate. If six women are sitting around a bowl and it gets low, they all get up and go to the kitchen as a pack. And while they're there, they'll make more dip. With six guys, it's completely different. One guy will say, "It's my house; I'm not going to refill it." Another will say, "Yeah, but I bought 'em." Another will say, "But we used my car." I've seen it come down to their using a tape measure so the guy closest to the kitchen had to go.
The italics are mine. The kid's too.


text:
Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.
One box for everything
Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages.
Thumbnails of your top sites
Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab.
Incognito mode
Don't want pages you visit to show up in your web history? Choose incognito mode for private browsing.
Safe browsing
Google Chrome warns you if you're about to visit a suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe website.
* Updated V8 - 188.8.131.52
* Continued work on Print Preview
* Making progress on rel:preload
* Crash fixes
For information about alpha and developer builds, check out the Chrome dev channel here.
Download: Google Chrome 13.0.772.0 Beta Dev Channel (Choose language) | 22.2 MB (Freeware)


text:
A MS Windows port of LBA1. This will allow you to play LBA1 as a windows native game using DirectX.
This website is the home for all LBA utilities created by Alexfont.
These include:
It also has a couple of mods for the games that change certain elements.
Relentless Movie Project (RMP) is going to create a computer graphics generated movie based on the first LBA game. The project has over 50 members each contributing a part.
Various opensource tools to edit the game files. Most of the tools are mirrored in our download section.
The site's main focus is on translation of the LBA games into other languages. It also has tutorials on how to edit the text and font of the games.
A opensource reimplementation of the LBA (Little Big Adventure, aka relentless) game engine.
It's ultimate goal is to write an opensource and OS independed engine for both LBA games.


text:
Three and a half years after the Great Recession officially ended, unemployment in the United States remains stubbornly high. Yet many employers still struggle to fill certain types of vacancies, especially for so-called middle-skills jobs—in computer technology, nursing, high-skill manufacturing, and other fields—that require postsecondary technical education and training and, in some cases, college math courses or degrees. Currently in the U.S. about 69 million people work in middle-skills jobs, representing roughly 48% of the labor force.
No aggregate estimate of the shortage of middle-skills workers exists, but the number is expected to grow substantially as more baby boomers retire. The problem is most acute in the utilities and aerospace sectors—50% to 60% of whose workforces are eligible to retire by 2020 or likely to leave for other reasons—but it afflicts other industries as well. Although the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn't publish estimates of job openings by skill category, combining government data on education and training requirements leads labor market experts to estimate that as many as 25 million, or 47%, of all new job openings from 2010 to 2020 will fall into the middle-skills range. (See the exhibit "The Middle-Skills Employment Landscape.") Shortages of workers for these types of jobs are already undermining U.S. competitiveness and causing firms to shift their operations abroad. Figuring out how to train people to fill those well-paid jobs could help remedy the wage stagnation gripping the country and close the growing gap between high- and low-income households.
The big obstacle is execution. For the past three decades, U.S. businesses and government have focused on overhauling K–12 science, math, and reading education and on addressing persistently high dropout rates in inner cities (see "Rethinking School," HBR March 2012). We certainly recognize the need for such reforms, but progress has been too slow to remedy the looming skills shortages.
With political gridlock and a focus on deficit reduction likely to continue in Congress, the federal government probably won't launch major new education and training initiatives anytime soon. It's more likely that Congress will cut already-limited job-training and other nonentitlement programs. This would extend the weakness in federal support for job training since 1995. Indeed, as the U.S. population has grown since then, funding on a per capita basis has sharply declined.
We think that companies can and should take the lead in training workers to fill the middle-skills gap. Realistically, that can happen on a large enough scale only if business leaders cooperate with one another, unions, and educational institutions, both regionally and nationally. The key words are cooperate and nationally.
The Middle-Skills Employment Landscape
Credible data on what businesses spend on training are scarce, but companies are known to target HR investments first when cutting budgets. Many firms fear that if they invest in training on their own, competitors that don't make similar investments will lure away their workers. Collaborative programs reduce that risk. Several models are already proving effective in the U.S. and in countries with similar economies, such as the UK, Australia, and Sweden (see "Enriching the Ecosystem," HBR March 2012).
Our article has two aims: to help business leaders understand these models so that they can choose the right one for their organization, and to highlight best practices from programs that have achieved a measure of success. We believe that the solution to the middle-skills gap is to learn from local and state efforts and to use carefully targeted federal-funding incentives to aggressively expand their numbers and size. We focus on the U.S., but some models we discuss are being—or could be—used in other countries.
The Skills Landscape Has Changed
For most of the 20th century, people obtained marketable skills and achieved prosperity in one of two ways. The first was on the job. By promoting from within, firms enabled workers to progress to higher-level occupations. Unions negotiated career ladders that were linked to skills and seniority, and they joined employers at an occupation or industry level to host apprenticeship and other training programs. That system ensured an adequate flow of new talent equipped with state-of-the-art skills.
But as unions declined, so did apprenticeships, other union-employer training programs, and promotion from within. (Only 12% of the total U.S. workforce and 7% of the private-sector workforce is now unionized.) At the same time, the kinds of skills needed by employers changed from incremental new ones that can easily be learned on the job to those that require advanced technical and behavioral skills (in problem solving, communication, teamwork, and leadership) that existing production and employment paradigms lacked.
The second path to skills acquisition was through college. Young people were told that the key to the American dream was to play by the rules and major in a field that suited your interests and talents. But demand for people with liberal arts degrees has dropped sharply. Only 15% of U.S. college graduates major in science, technology, engineering, or math—a percentage that has remained constant for two decades even as demand for these skills has grown.
Consequently, the capacity of the U.S. system to nurture midlevel skills is in decline, just as a shift to flatter, team-based structures is increasing the need for them and automation is reducing the demand for less-skilled workers. Nevertheless, forward-looking local initiatives are making progress in addressing the skills gaps in their regions. They embody at least one of the following attributes:
1. Multiple employers in the region or industry sector cooperate with one another and with educational institutions to design and fund initiatives and to train and hire graduates.
2. Classroom education is integrated with opportunities to apply new concepts and skills in actual or simulated work settings—an approach proven to be the way adults learn best.
3. Training focuses on offering workers career pathways, not just skills for the initial job.
Let's examine the practices that have made several types of programs effective.
Apprenticeships and Other Union-Employer Programs
Apprenticeships—the vast majority of which are at unionized companies and are jointly run by unions and management—are the most trial-tested way for firms to address their current and future skills needs. More than 360,000 people are registered in apprenticeship programs that combine classroom learning with on-the-job experience and that are designated by the U.S. Department of Labor or a state-agency equivalent as meeting agreed-upon standards. Unfortunately, the number of apprenticeship programs in the U.S. has shrunk by 36% since 1998, and enrollments have dropped by 16% since a peak in 2003—in large part because of declining union membership.
Completing a registered apprenticeship program pays off substantially for both workers and employers. The most recent studies estimate that graduates enjoy a $250,000 increase in lifetime earnings and that employers get a 38% return on their investment in the form of lower recruitment costs and a reduced need for expensive contractors. Employers also consistently report high satisfaction with graduates' skills, performance, and reliability.
Some industries—especially those facing the imminent retirement of a large proportion of their workforces—have been embracing apprenticeship programs. The programs are most successful when a group of companies in an industry collaborate with one or more unions or when a company is a dominant employer in its industry or region and therefore doesn't have to worry that other companies will poach its workers.
The number of apprenticeship programs in the U.S. has shrunk by 36% since 1998.
One example of such cooperation is a collection of training programs created under the auspices of the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD). Formed in 2006 to deal with the utility industry's pending demographic cliff, the CEWD is a nonprofit consortium formed by the electric, natural gas, and nuclear utilities; their trade associations; and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Firms leading this effort—including Duke Energy, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Georgia Power—report that their collaborative programs are creating a pipeline of workers to fill line-technician and other skilled positions. The result: reduced costs for hiring and training. (See the exhibit "Streamlining Recruitment and Training.")
Streamlining Recruitment and Training
The training programs of the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee (AJAC) in Washington State show how the efforts of one leading company and a union can leverage state resources to strengthen a regional supply base. In 1988 Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) together studied other best-practice joint training programs and then set aside 14 cents per work hour in the union contract to build a joint training fund. That program blossomed to feed Boeing's need for machinists, tool-and-die workers, computer technicians, and other jobs. In 2009 Boeing and the IAMAW linked with the state of Washington, regional community colleges, and local employers in its supply base to form the AJAC. Together these parties have developed common certification standards and curricula for each critical category of workers. The program plans to expand enrollment from 200 to 500 in the next two years, thereby helping to offset retirements and allowing Boeing and its suppliers to expand operations in the Puget Sound area.
Although not registered as formal apprenticeship programs, other union-management training efforts have built on this model. In the health care industry, two prominent programs are negotiated and jointly administered: one by the 1199 Service Employees International Union and New York City's League of Voluntary Hospitals, and the other by Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. These programs give people the skills for hard-to-fill nursing and other technical jobs, and provide time off and replacement income for trainees.
The Kaiser program, launched in 2005, is an example of coordination between a large single employer (with about 60,000 workers) and unions—in this case, nine unions that represent service employees, technicians, and nurses. Kaiser and the union coalition now offer 79 programs in nursing, health-technician training, and basic language, math, and communications skills to more than 2,000 people. Program participants who advanced from licensed practical nurse to registered nurse achieved a wage increase that was 18% higher, on average, than the across-the-board increase for all employees. In addition to providing the skills that Kaiser needs, the program has made it easier to retain workers. For example, 95% of the RNs produced by the program were retained for more than two years after graduation (versus 85% of newly hired RNs).
Graduates of apprenticeship programs enjoy an estimated $250,000 increase in lifetime earnings, and employers get a 38% return on their investment.
The lesson is clear: Firms with similar challenges should recruit others in their industry or regional supply base to join them. Big unionized firms that, like Kaiser, pay industry-leading wages don't have to worry that others will poach their employees. However, they must create a common fund with unions and occupational groups to get buy-in from all parties for upgrading workers' skills.
Sector-Based Regional Initiatives
Nonunionized businesses can develop workers' skills by cooperating with other local employers in their industry sector. Unlike Germany, Singapore, and the UK, the United States has generally failed to develop widely accepted skills standards for particular sectors. However, recent local and regional experiments—many funded by the National Network for Workforce Solutions, a nonprofit alliance of state and local policy makers, businesses, labor groups, researchers, foundations, and other stakeholders—suggest that sector-based strategies can succeed in the U.S. The evidence points to the potential for improving disadvantaged workers' career prospects more than traditional offerings from the U.S. public workforce-development system do. Here are four examples:
The Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative, founded in 2004, unites local governments, community colleges, and businesses in the San Francisco area. It has trained more than 700 unskilled and displaced workers for well-paid jobs with defined career ladders in the biotech and health care sectors.
Boston-based SkillWorks, founded in 2001, has placed more than half of the 500 displaced workers it has trained in new jobs. It has also upgraded the skills of more than 1,000 incumbent workers in the health care, hospitality, property services, automotive services, and green industries.
New York and Chicago have recently created "one-stop career centers" in the transportation, construction, services, and manufacturing sectors to meet specialized skills-training needs. One-stops are the main federal vehicle for assisting unemployed workers, but they typically lack the resources or capabilities to focus on sector-specific needs.
The Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership of unions, companies, and educational institutions provides 40- to 160-hour programs in technical and general-skills training for manufacturing, construction, and health care jobs. An experiment found that people who took part in WRTP or other similar sector-based training had better outcomes than those in a control group of comparable people who were not in the WRTP: The WRTP participants were more likely to find steady jobs, work more hours, and earn a higher hourly wage. Indeed, they earned 29% more, on average, in the year after the training than the controls did.
From such sector-based experiments in the U.S. (and similar ones in Australia, Scotland, and Sweden), important lessons about how to build sustainable skills ecosystems have emerged:
Start from positions of strength—and common pain and interest.
It's hard to get every stakeholder in a local area to collaborate. Chances of success are greatest in a sector where firms believe their biggest competitors for talent are elsewhere in the world rather than local.
The problem is often not skills supply. Some pilot experiments have revealed that persistent skills shortages—for example, in nursing and other medical specialties—sometimes were due not to a lack of qualified professionals but rather to ways of organizing work that led to high turnover. Redesigning jobs to attract a new generation of employees significantly improved retention.
Identify a network integrator.
Perhaps the key factor in establishing skills ecosystems is to find one person in an organization who can unite a wide range of stakeholders, including companies, local policy makers, and skills providers (such as community colleges, vocational schools, universities, and private training organizations). That person must have strong credibility with the various actors and a proven track record in fostering cooperation.
Building skills ecosystems takes time.
Solutions involve more than designing a few new courses. They may not be very expensive to create, but they require at least three to five years of steady funding.
Unfortunately, some recent federal initiatives to stimulate the development of sector-based partnerships failed to heed these lessons. A case in point: 39 three-year local pilot efforts funded by the federal Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development initiative. Starting in 2006, WIRED gave $325 million to those pilots, but many lacked sufficient focus. For instance, they spread their limited resources thinly across several sectors. They also struggled with funding restrictions: When lots of skilled workers were displaced because of downsizing or plant closures, the WIRED recipients were not permitted to spend money on attracting new employers or supporting start-ups that could use these skills. What's more, the grants ran out just as the Great Recession prompted a need for new sector-based approaches to workforce development.
Federal Expenditures on Training
Higher-Education Consortia with Strong Industry Ties
Another collaborative training model involves programs that employers build with several types of postsecondary educational entities.
Community colleges.
The enormous scale of these institutions makes them well suited to train people for middle-skills positions such as technicians, health care professionals, and advanced manufacturing trades. Of the 8 million students enrolled in credit courses and another 4 million in noncredit courses, nearly 40% are older than 24 and 60% attend school part-time. Compared with four-year colleges, these schools have more minority, self-supporting, and first-generation college students. Obtaining an associate's degree increases earnings, on average, by 13% for men and a remarkable 39% for women. The challenge is that nationally only 15.5% of the students complete their programs within three years of initial enrollment, and nearly half never receive any degree or certificate. That's a wasted opportunity, both for the students and for employers in need of talent.
An associate's degree increases earnings by an average of 13% for men and 39% for women.
To avoid these losses, employers must work intensively with students and faculty at community colleges. Two programs that have achieved high retention, completion, and placement rates in this way are Project Quest, a network of programs linked to the Industrial Areas Foundation in Texas and Arizona, and BioWorks, a consortium of life-sciences firms and community colleges in North Carolina.
Project Quest, which the Aspen Institute and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government have singled out as a potential national model, helps people land their first middle-skills jobs at member companies. Its hallmarks are the high level of personal support that it provides and the strong collaboration among community groups, churches, businesses, and community colleges that it fosters. The programs in the network collaborate with local firms to identify job openings. Employers also provide information about their evolving staffing requirements, cooperate in curriculum development, and offer financial or other support to the trainees and the colleges.
Project Quest's dropout rates are low (about 10%), because counselors from the community organizations stay in touch with the schools and try to address students' challenges early, in part with tutoring services and mandatory motivational group sessions called VIP meetings (for vision, initiative, and persistence). Counselors track the progress of students, give them updates, advise them on budgeting their resources, make them aware of other available private and public aid, and administer support (for tuition, books, child care, transportation, and emergency aid for other living expenses). The combination of strong employer commitment, cooperation with community colleges, and student support has led to considerable wage gains for participants. An evaluation by one of us (Osterman) found that the earnings of people who completed a Quest-backed community college program rose by an average of $5,000 a year; if they landed middle-skills jobs, the figure rose to $10,000 a year.
In North Carolina, the community colleges in the BioWorks consortium train workers for initial jobs at more than 200 member firms in the life-sciences industry and also help retrain those companies' existing employees. The program has helped to attract new companies to the state.
Key to its success are the state-of-the-art equipment and space for satellite training labs provided to the colleges by leading firms such as Novo Nordisk, Hospira, and Talecris. In return, these companies send some of their current workers to the programs for specialized training during scheduled maintenance shutdowns—a win-win-win arrangement for the employees, businesses, and schools. Proximity also allows company managers and engineers to visit classes, advise students on career opportunities, and discuss technical and organizational issues that students will face when they finish the programs. This intensive and extensive exchange of ideas, equipment, and personnel helps these programs keep up with new and constantly changing skills requirements.
Internships and cooperative education.
One of the best ways to ensure that new university graduates can meet the needs of employers is to build well-designed internships or cooperative degree programs (called co-ops). This "try before we buy" approach allows many employers to assess the skills, work ethic, and attitudes of prospective workers and to give them training tailored to firms' specific needs. Internships and co-ops help students earn credit toward graduation, relevant work experience, and a chance to apply classroom learning in the real world.
A handful of universities have built international reputations for their superb co-op programs. For example, Northeastern, in metropolitan Boston, enrolls 93% of its students in co-op programs with 2,500 companies in 69 countries. Indeed, Northeastern is now expanding its program by opening its first campus outside Massachusetts—in Charlotte, North Carolina. Online education, which allows students to do internships far from campus, has made it easier for co-op programs to thrive.
MIT's Leaders for Global Operations program sets its sights higher than middle-skills jobs, but it nonetheless illustrates how industry leaders can help initiate and sustain a university-industry consortium. Inspired by MIT's Made in America project, MIT faculty in the 1980s reached out to several major firms—including Boeing, United Technologies, General Motors, Intel, and Dell—to develop an industry-funded joint engineering and management curriculum, tailored to those firms' state-of-the-art production, HR, and product-development practices. Companies now nominate employees to enroll in the MIT program, host interns for six-month projects and thesis work, and have first dibs on recruiting students not already employed by a partner company. (MIT retains the right to make final selections and to admit people with no ties to the participating firms.) Industry executives serve on the program's governing board and operating committee, and alumni actively recruit, mentor, and supervise student interns. The program has produced more than 1,000 graduates since its inception, and more than half of the students who had no previous ties to the participating companies have been hired by them.
Online education.
For-profit, nonprofit, and public universities, including those in the top tier, are offering or developing exclusively web-based degree and certificate programs. For example, Stanford, Princeton, and the University of Michigan are members of for-profit Coursera, and MIT, Harvard, and the University of California, Berkeley, are involved in edX, which creates free online courses. This movement represents a breakthrough in broadening access to education worldwide, and employers should seize the chance to help shape it to meet their needs.
Only 15% of U.S. college graduates major in science, technology, engineering, or math.
Employers with workforce shortages of critical skills could partner with universities to provide online courses for entry-level professionals and on-the-job opportunities to apply the new skills. This approach would offer a powerful second chance for underemployed or unemployed graduates with nontechnical degrees who have the intellectual capacity to learn the basic engineering, math, and IT skills that are in short supply. Employers would simply need to collaborate with these new online entities in the same way that manufacturing firms have worked with MIT since the 1980s.
People who completed a Quest-backed community college program and landed a middle-skills job raised their annual earnings by an average of $10,000.
From Best Practices to a National Strategy
A national, one-size-fits-all training system will not work in a country as diverse as the United States. But the approaches highlighted in this article provide many options that collectively could train enough people to fill the growing number of openings for middle-skills jobs. The challenge is to scale up sufficiently. We believe that the federal government has not only a role to play but also a model to use: its current Race to the Top funding incentives for K–12 education reform. Such a model could seed funding for consortia of businesses, educational institutions, unions, community groups, worker centers, and other labor-market intermediaries to develop the specific skills that employers verify are in short supply in their region or industry.
Toward that end, the U.S. Commerce Department has invited regional consortia of employers, educational institutions, and nonprofits to bid for a $30 million grant to test the Obama administration's proposal to invest $1 billion in a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. The grant specifically calls for the types of engagement and coordinated efforts we have described—to educate people, place them in jobs, and provide them with ongoing career-related training in advanced manufacturing skills.
The bottom line: The U.S. can—and must—close the middle-skills gap to remain competitive, remedy wage stagnation, and raise living standards. That will take leadership and innovation from various constituencies—business (individual firms, but especially industry associations), education, and labor—and targeted federal funding and incentives. Government incentives, informed by examples that have already demonstrated proof of concept, can serve as a catalyst to spread innovation, but success ultimately depends on leadership and cooperation from the private sector.


text:
There are no reviews yet.
Ball and chain
One of the benefits of the OriginalFLEA sculptures being handmade is that each one is unique. We are the only ones that touch the OriginalFLEA sculptures. We do no subcontracting, nor do we use any mass production methods or processes.
Approx Size:
2.5″W x 4″H x 1.5″D
There are no reviews yet.


text:
** Please note: this game requires an active internet connection! **
Return to the famed and mystical island of Isola and be drawn into the latest sequel in the beloved Virtual Villagers series! In the wake of a volcanic terror on the neighboring island of Asura, a family has made their way to Isola, seeking a new home. As their boat lands on the beach, they are greeted by a strange man and begin to explore this mysterious new world.
The beautiful and curious island of Isola was once a paradise home to a thriving civilization but has gone to ruin and untamed jungle. The twists and turns will leave you discovering new, interactive, magical moments at every turn!
Here are some of the amazing features we can't wait to share!!
– Be the master of your own village: With real-time simulation, the ability to customize your villagers' names and game-changing, random island events, no two tribes will ever be quite the same!
– Train villagers to become proficient at various skills to perform tasks around the island and survive their new-found world.
– Explore the charmed island to solve all-new puzzles, and uncover mysterious island secrets.
– Gather and combine resources from around your new virtual home to craft rare resources and unlock rewards from completed collections.
– Breed, heal and care for your beloved village children and families; build a sustainable village up from ruins; unlock improved food sources with farming and fishing; craft unique resources for puzzles and collections; and so much more!
– Power-up villagers with magical necklaces, and improve productivity, life expectancy and much more for your entire village with magical totems and potions!
– Acquire homes for two unique island pets that will help weed out pests and discover magical items around the island.
– Reincarnate cherished villagers with all their skills.
– Earn daily rewards!
Also available in the Last Day of Work franchise:
– Virtual Villagers Series (Origins, A New Home, New Believers, Lost Children, Secret City and The Tree of Life)
– Virtual Families 2 Series
– Virtual Town
– Fish Tycoon Series
– Plant Tycoon
– San Francisco Zoo
New languages
Screenshots Of Virtual Villagers Origins 2 Mod Apk v1.5.20
Game Requirements:
Android – 4.2+
Version – 1.5.20
Size – 65 MB


text:
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Yes, I said no rest weeks
Probably because of the success that Joe Friel's "Triathlon Training Bible" had when it came out, the concepts associated with traditional periodization schemes are very in-grained in the triathlon community. Therefore, it became that the "right" way of training was to structure mesocycles (training periods roughly corresponding to one month) as 2 or 3 weeks of "build" and one week of "rest". This week of "rest" as per the "Bible" is a week where you decrease training load considerably, sometimes less than 50% of the biggest "build" week. This culture of the rest week has gotten us to a point that most athletes feel they need the rest week in order to improve. Other athletes (and coaches), use the rest week as some kind of sponge, wishfully cleaning away the ill-effects of a poorly designed training cycle.
The culture of the rest week has you think that unless you rest, you won't improve. So not incorporating rest weeks can be extremely dangerous, since it might prevent you from improving. However, this way of thinking denotes a poor understanding of the way the human body adapts to endurance training in particular, and to stress in general. Whenever a new stimulus is imposed that causes stress, the body will work in order to adapt to the new level of stress. It seems simple enough to understand. Another thing that is simple to understand is that you don't need to have a cyclic, extended period of rest in order to adapt to a new stress. Let's pick three examples from normal life:
- You get a new job that means more hours and more responsibility. The first weeks are hard for you to cope with the increased workload. After 3 weeks, do you walk into your boss' office, and ask for a week where you only work afternoons in order to adapt to the new job?
- You join the Marines and go through boot camp. Everyday is very hard and you think about quitting. After 2 weeks, do you ask the drill sergeant for a week of leave in order to adapt to boot camp?
- A new baby is born in your house. That means a change of routine and a lot of lost sleep. After three weeks, do you go ask your partner for a week off in order to adapt?
These three situations, and many more that could be mentioned, serve to highlight that humans have a remarkable capacity to adapt to a new stress while that stress is imposed. Obviously recovery is an important part of the adaptation process, but again very simply put, it can be said that recovery occurs at all times that stress is not applied, and that adaptation to stress occurs at all times.
Obviously not having rest weeks impacts the way you should plan your training. As I mentioned in a previous post, the training stimulus should be changed every 6 to 8 weeks, by manipulating either volume or intensity individually, or both at the same time. Not having weeks where training load goes down considerably means that training load will be more even inside a training cycle. This will also mean that you'll be more consistent with your training from week to week. But more importantly, it means that through this consistency, you will be able to train more over the entire cycle. And we all know that more is MORE.
11 comments:
- khai said...
I like to use my time in LC as a "rest week"... :)
- December 18, 2007 at 11:46 AM
- Judy said...
I am cracking up at your analogies.... :-D
- December 18, 2007 at 1:45 PM
- Lee said...
I wish I would've known about rest weeks when I had that job shoveling asphalt. I don't know if I could've convinced my boss though... maybe if I dropped the line "it's in the bible".
- December 18, 2007 at 5:05 PM
- Kurt P. said...
I have heard this before..I think I was looking for a Starbucks in Cambridge?
- December 18, 2007 at 6:59 PM
- Mark said...
I enjoyed the latest article, although for once I am actually not sure if I totally agree with you or not. I can completely understand what you are saying, however, then I see "one-off" scenarios which make me wonder. For instance, we have a mutual "friend" who is a hard core trainer. Now he is a large volume kind of guy and has been for years. He broke his pelvis in the spring and had very limited training all summer. In other words, forced rest. This fall he pulls off a serious PB and really smokes the late season races he entered. Now, I don't have all the information of course, however, it really got me thinking that in his case, his body may have been screaming for a period of non-activity in order to really heal itself and become stronger than he was previous.
But then I always think about the races I raced last year where I went into them with no taper and an ever increasing training load and I felt better and for the most part did better in all them. So colour me confused.
Anyway, just kind of thinking out loud.
- December 19, 2007 at 8:08 AM
- Paulo Sousa said...
Even though the situation you describe is pretty common, it is hard to know what exactly happened in the case of the athlete you mention. One possibility is that athlete raced in a state of overreaching for all these years, and the forced rest caused him to finally adapt to all the training he did throughout the years.
You also mention a situation that was not covered in my post, which is racing without a taper. The "no rest weeks" concept applies to training outside the racing season and I would not extrapolate it to when you are preparing to race. When it comes to racing, I often advocate either a full taper or no taper at all. But that's probably going to be the subject of a future post.
- December 19, 2007 at 12:05 PM
- Andrew said...
You are SO going to hell...
- December 19, 2007 at 7:48 PM
- gnicholson said...
"no rest weeks"?
I'm on the "no rest days, unless you really need one, or are forced to take one (travel, etc.)" program.
- December 20, 2007 at 10:45 PM
- terrence said...
- December 21, 2007 at 9:23 AM
- Matt Calarco said...
Well put. I'm sending this to every athlete I coach--especially the whiners. ;-)
- December 21, 2007 at 3:36 PM
- Duncan said...
Years after I read a mention of it in some seminar appraisal by Gordo, more evidence that Bompa's "three weeks on one week off" regime was all about drugs cycles, as provided by Victor Conte: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/athletics/7403158.stm
- May 16, 2008 at 1:37 PM


text:
Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
The Metro Home Improvement Program is a collaborative effort of eight metro cities with the purpose to preserve affordable housing stock in these communities. The participating cities are Ankeny, Altoona, Grimes, Urbandale, West Des Moines, Bondurant, Polk City, and Windsor Heights. The program has a Management Committee consisting of one representative per city which oversees the policies and decisions for the program.
Assistance is for housing repairs and correcting code violations. The awards are in the form of a five-year forgivable loan to eligible households with an income of less than 80% of the Area Median Income. Eligible property types are single-family dwellings and do not include mobile homes, homes being purchased on contract, duplexes or rental units. The house assisted must be the primary residence of the applicant.
The Metro Home Improvement Program is administered by the City of West Des Moines and is funded by the participating cities and the Polk County Housing Trust Fund.
For further information, contact Christine Gordon or Kay Schoon, of West Des Moines, at 515-273-0770.


text:
Watch Vanessa Williams Discuss the Making of 'Stand for Change' on Broadway Profiles
The newest episode of Broadway Profiles features an interview with Tony nominee and Black Theatre United co-founder Vanessa Williams. "After George Floyd, I got a call from Audra McDonald, who reached out to all her friends and said 'Guys, what can we do?'," Williams told Tamsen Fadal regarding the creation of BTU. "We've got mentorships. We've been able to do these amazing town halls, which we started out with when we first came together in June. We want to be an advocate for taking action and making change."
Most recently, the advocacy group released a powerful anthem "Stand for Change," along with a starry music video. "'Stand for Change' came to me from one of my dear friends who wrote one of my biggest hits, 'Save the Best for Last,' Phil Galdston, who is a professor at Steinhardt at NYU. Dave Schroeder, another professor at Steinhardt, wrote the song after we were all grieving and stunned about George Floyd and said, 'I had Black Theatre United in mind. Do you think you'd like this?'" Williams recalled. "I played it for our founders, and we all loved it and thought it would completely line up with our mission."
Williams also discussed the making of the moving single. "We all recorded it—COVID style. We broke everyone's lines down, and then Karen Ford, who's one of our members and one of the only Black female sound mixers on Broadway, produced all of it and had to sync up all of the vocals and mix them," she said. "It was definitely a family production."
Learn more about the making of "Stand for Change" in the video below, and head here to check your local listings for Broadway Profiles. Hosted by Fadal and powered by Broadway.com, it is the only nationally syndicated weekly theater news program.


text:
Story highlights
Britain's foreign secretary voices support for anti-Assad coalition
France also supports rebels who recently unified
Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasts certain foreign countries for equipping terrorists
For months, the rebels fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were considered by the global community to be unorganized. But that appears to be changing, after the leaders of various fighting units agreed to move forward in lockstep with a uniform military plan.
And now France and the United Kingdom are giving help to those rebels and their unified opposition organization.
Though the United States has not made any kind of statement, France's and the United Kingdom's declarations of support could mark major progress toward international intervention and, perhaps in turn, an end to the fighting that has killed more than 37,000 people since March 2011.
The Assad family has controlled Syria for four decades. Rebels blame the country's current leader and his forces for killing scores of innocent people, including entire families. Al-Assad blames the violence on "terrorists." On Tuesday, for example, government-controlled SANA news agency reported that "terrorists" shelled a publishing outlet in Damascus.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague told members of parliament Tuesday that the National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces was the "sole legitimate representative" of the Syrian people, calling it a "credible" alternative to al-Assad.
Hague said he'd still like to work through diplomatic channels to end the bloodshed in Syria, but that the United Kingdom will remain open to other options.
Hague said the Syrian opposition would be asked to appoint a political representative to the United Kingdom, and Britain will also help the rebel coalition with political and humanitarian challenges.
French President François Hollande announced last week that it would support the new coalition and would even consider arming the opposition to hasten the end of the war.
Hollande met with the newly elected leader of the coalition, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, in Paris Saturday.
Al-Khatib is a former cleric of the historic Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and is a respected figure in Syria.
At a meeting in Brussels Monday, European Commission High Representative Catherine Ashton said the body "welcomed the agreement to create the new opposition coalition."
Ashton said she met with al-Khatib in Cairo, Egypt, last week.
"We called for a long time for the opposition to unite," Ashton said. "We consider the coalition legitimate representatives of the aspirations of the Syrian people."
But she conveyed cautious optimism.
"It's important that the coalition works for full inclusiveness, human rights and democracy, engaging with all opposition groups and with civil society," Ashton explained.
Winter is approaching and the need to help people who are displaced or do not have heat in their bombarded neighborhoods is a serious concern, she said.
So far Tuesday, at least 122 people, including two children and two women, were killed across the country, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria.
And just as the West backed the coalition, Iran urged the opposition to talk rather than continue to fight. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted certain foreign countries for equipping "terrorists" in Syria and said the only way to settle the crisis is to prevent the shipment of arms to the rebels, the Iranian government-controlled FARS news agency reported.
Khamenei said that the "arrogant powers want to weaken and annihilate Syria as main ring in the chain of resistance through arming terrorists in the country," FARS reported. "But they will fail in their attempt."
His remarks came after Iran hosted a meeting between the Syrian government and opposition forces in Tehran Sunday with representatives of different opposition and political groups.
Addressing the participants, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi described the discussion as "an important step" toward peace in Syria, and said Iran strongly supports any move which can lead to the restoration of peace and stability in the Muslim country.
Salehi said the meeting was intended to also revive Syria's anti-Israeli position in the region.


text:
July 6, 2011
Offline Maps and Transit Navigation in Google Maps for Android
For instance, Google Maps 5.7 for Android combined Google Maps Navigation with transit directions and introduced an innovative feature called Transit Navigation. "Now, GPS turn-by-turn (or in this case, stop-by-stop) navigation is available for public transit directions in 400+ cities around the globe with Transit Navigation. Transit Navigation uses GPS to determine your current location along your route and alerts you when it's time to get off or make a transfer. This is particularly helpful if you're in a city where you don't speak the language and can't read the route maps or understand the announcements."
It's a really useful feature and the coverage is continually expanding. I suspect that Google Maps will find other clever ways to use notifications: location-based reminders, recommendation alerts ("notify me when I'm near an Italian restaurant"), social alerts ("notify me when I'm near a restaurant recommended by my friends").
Google Maps for Android also added a navigation icon next to the driving and walking directions, a photo viewer for Google Places pages and icons that categorize search suggestions.
Probably the most useful new feature is buried inside Google Maps Labs: on-demand maps caching. Tap the "menu" button, select "More" and then "Labs". Enable "download map area", long press on the map around the area you want save, tap on the bubble and select "Download map area". Google Maps will download the map area within 10 miles (16.09 kilometers) of the selected location and outline it. This feature only saves map tiles, so you won't be able to see satellite imagery, Street View images or get driving directions while offline.
The 10 miles limit can't be changed, but at least you can manage your downloaded maps. Use the "Cache settings" option from the menu and select "Downloaded map areas". You can rename map areas, delete them and quickly visualize them.
20 comments:
Could someone upload the apk somewhere perdy please :)ReplyDelete
note that with the new Android app update, Latitude sends check-in updates to Google+ and not Buzz.ReplyDelete
Market is saying "Improved battery power management for Navigation (Beta)"ReplyDelete
Anyone know what this entails?
I'd love to be able to cache the satellite pic as well as or instead of the map - for hiking for example.ReplyDelete
When will Google start Navigation service in India :(ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 7, 2011 at 12:49 AM
No option "download map area" at labs with 5.7. What is the reason?ReplyDelete
- HenrikJuly 7, 2011 at 1:29 AM
I have the same problem as Anonymous - only two options in the Labs list: "Measure" and "Scale Bar" - no "Download map" :-(ReplyDelete
- Still no offline maps in AndroidJuly 7, 2011 at 3:13 AM
Offline maps? No, sorry but offline caching is not the same as offline maps, this is what keeps me holding on to my Nokia with free offline maps, including satellite maps! When it comes to offline maps you folks at Google are underachievers.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 7, 2011 at 5:57 AM
Offline maps needs to be enabled under Labs in Maps 5.7.ReplyDelete
Maps has been automatically caching map areas that have been viewed since last year. I have 91mb of cached maps and these seem to have a long life (months). So despite the hype I'm not sure this new feature will add much; perhaps some extra certainty that the map area will be available because it has been manually stored..
I don't see the labs feature either. I read on a few other websites that other users with a Wildfire are experiencing the same issues. So I think this labs feature is not supported on a Wildfire? :-(ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 7, 2011 at 5:33 PM
Yeah, sticking to nokia as well until there's a free real offline navigation solution for android.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 8, 2011 at 2:55 AM
Check out Map Droyd for free off-line mapsReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 8, 2011 at 3:44 AM
Download map area option shows in the labs but its for the gingerbread only I suppose.it shows on my desire hd as well as on Motorola milestone but my girlfriend's wildfire with froyo doesn't seem to have it even after she installed version 5.7ReplyDelete
it just made so much sense to have offline access to map data...it should have been here sooner. when abroad i often need maps and the data costs a fortune.ReplyDelete
hey m8. so this means that its a full gps navigation system, without using gsm network for nav?ReplyDelete
- sliverboyOctober 24, 2011 at 9:58 AM
google maps is still way behind when it comes to maps. Ovi maps are leading here and navigation users are still holding their nokias for it has real offline maps and free navigation. If google maps will be as advanced as ovi it will sure kill nokia. For me google maps is just another dedicated browser for google maps.ReplyDelete
How can i implement Feature Like "Precache Map Area" as like Google Map??ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 4, 2012 at 6:51 AM
You can't this isn't true "offline" navigation.ReplyDelete
Go buy a Nokia Windows Phone if you want that.
You can't "start" a trip unless your online... This is horrible
30 days are max on the maps, then they self destruct... You better be ready for that because they don't inform you.
for offline navigation..there is overland ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simvex.overland.free ) , that also caches up the data from google maps , and keeps them in your device forever. It also downloads waypoints directly -with no need for cables , etc - from a huge waypoints database. IMHO it is too much oriented for expeditions and explorations than for normal travelling , but I still find it more convenient. The geolocalized news system is also pretty cool and entertaining !.ReplyDelete
In various surveys i found that Maps – Navigation & Transit Android App is top most downloaded application in United States of America (USA) and Canada after Facebook Android App and Google Play ServicesReplyDelete


text:
Triumphal Entry
This was the shout of the throngs as Jesus entered Jerusalem or His last week of public ministry. Even though the multitudes were shouting His adoration, these were the same throngs that would be calling for His crucifixion just a few days later. Nevertheless, as they welcomed Him into Jerusalem that day, spreading palm branches and their own garments in His path, little did they know that they were fulfilling an ancient prophecy. "Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: ... Blessed be He that comes in the name of the LORD" (Psalm 118:25,26), they cried.
"Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord," is essentially the meaning of "Hosanna." The crowds were acknowledging Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Son of David, and the "chief priests and scribes ... were sore displeased" at this (Matthew 21:15). But this also had been predicted in the Psalm: "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the LORDs doing; It is marvelous in our eyes" (Psalm 118:22-23).
It was these "builders""the chief priests and elders" who "persuaded the multitude that they should ask for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus" (Matthew 27:20). As a result of this repudiation by these leaders of His people, the Lord wept over Jerusalem, and was forced to prophesy its coming judgment, quoting once again this ancient prophecy: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ... Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matthew 23:37-39).
One day He will, indeed, be made the great "head stone of the corner," and all His people will acknowledge Him in that day. In the meantime, the prayer of the prophecy is appropriate for each unsaved person to pray today: "Save now, O Lord," thus acknowledging that Jesus has, indeed, come in the Lords name.
"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Corinthians 6:2). - HMM


text:
Why Catholics Are Right
Why Catholics Are Right
A practicing Catholic defends the faith and offers a passionate response to current anti-Catholic opinion.
In Why Catholics Are Right, author, columnist, and practicing Catholic Michael Coren examines four main aspects of Catholicism as they are encountered, understood, and more importantly, misunderstood today. Beginning with a frank examination of the tragedy of the Catholic clergy abuse scandal, Coren addresses some of them most common attacks on Catholics and Catholicism. Tracing Catholic history, he deconstructs popular and frequent anti-Catholic arguments regarding the Church and the Crusades, the Inquisition, Galileo, and the Holocaust. He examines Catholic theology and central pillars of Catholic belief, explaining why Catholics believe what they do: papal infallibility, immaculate conception, the Church rather than Bible alone. Finally, he explores the dignity of life argument and why it is so important to Catholicism.
In this challenging and thought-provoking book, Michael Coren demolishes often propagated myths about the Church's beliefs and teachings, and in doing so, opens a window onto Catholicism, which, he writes, "is as important now as it ever was and perhaps even more necessary."
From the Hardcover edition.Michael Coren
SKU: 181563n0nn1nWWW | ISBN: 9780771023224
Number of pages
Publication date


text:
During routine eye checks in my 40s, I became alerted to the fact that I had high eye pressure (with 10-20 mmHg considered a healthy reading, mine were consistently 28 mmHg in the left eye and 29 mmHg in the right). Although there is no history of glaucoma in my family, I was referred to hospital for monitoring.
However, I wanted to avoid using eyedrops, particularly after reading your articles on drugs for glaucoma (WDDTY vol 13 no 12 and vol 14 no 4). The hospital kept threatening me with them but, as no eye damage had yet occurred, I had a temporary 'stay of execution'.
I started using Coleus forskohlii, as highlighted in your articles. The particular brand I used was standardised CF, containing 18 per cent forskolin, or 9 mg per capsule. I have been taking one capsule twice a day for nine months, with a three-week break after six months.
Six months later, in January, after being on the herb for nine months, my readings plummeted to 16 mmHg in the left eye and 20 mmHg in the right. The consultant kept re-taking the readings as she could not believe that I had achieved this level of improvement without being on their drops.
Naturally, I am delighted with the results. My readings are now within the healthy range. But I need some guidance on how to continue. My consultant detected some damage to my field of vision in the right eye at the last visit, and the pressure in that eye is still not as good as that in the left.
Should I continue taking the CF at the same dosage, or should I take a lower dose for maintenance? Is it possible to lower the pressure too much? Do I take a three-week break after every six-month period? What else can I do to help the right eye in particular? Is it possible to use CF drops instead of capsules?
I have also increased my vitamin C intake to 2500 mg/day, and I'm taking bilberry and magnesium, plus my regular intake of good-quality multivitamins/ minerals, vitamin E and evening primrose oil. – CS, Kings Langley
WDDTY replies: We are very pleased to hear that your glaucoma has responded so well to a herbal remedy. But considering the seriousness of the condition, the best advice we can give you is to make an appointment with a naturopathic physician, who will be able to answer your questions and advise you as to the best course that should now be taken, but only after giving you a thorough checkup.


text:
Collins International Primary Maths supports best practice in primary maths teaching, whilst encouraging teacher professionalism and autonomy. A wealth of supporting digital assets are provided for every lesson, including slideshows, tools and games to ensure they are rich, lively and engaging. Each lesson is based on a 'big idea', providing an engaging, exciting theme which is anchored in a real-life international context.
Activities, exercises and investigations provide opportunities for learners to apply their knowledge, skills and understanding of the mathematics they are learning. The course develops learners' Thinking and Working Mathematically skills and offers opportunities for group and individual learning. The series also supports Cambridge Global Perspectives (TM) with activities that develop and practise key skills.
Provides learner support as part of a set of resources for the Cambridge Primary curriculum framework (0096) from 2020. We are working with Cambridge Assessment International Education towards endorsement of this series.


text:
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie wasted no time yesterday in vetoing two tax increases passed by the Democratic legislature. Christie signed his disapproval of the measures reinstating an expired surcharge on "millionaires" almost before the ink was even dry on their pages. Video here.
State Senate President Steve Sweeney, who is also a private sector union boss, let his thuggish ways show just a bit after Christie rejected the bills. Sweeney taunted the governor from the back of the room. "We'll be back, Governor."
Christie dismissed him, "Okay. We'll see," he said.
This little bit of political theater comes in the midst of a raging budget battle in the Garden State. Christie, acting on a campaign pledge, has refused to accept any tax increases to close a nearly $11 billion budget deficit. In case that number is not shocking enough, consider that the entire budget of the state is just under $30 billion.
The so-called "millionaire's tax" is actually a surcharge on individuals earning over $400,000 a year. The tax expired on December 31, 2009, two months after Christie defeated former governor Jon Corzine. Corzine and his fellow Democrats did not make the expiring tax an issue in the fall campaign. Nor did they attempt to extend the tax in either the lame-duck session of the legislature or in the first two weeks of the new session, during which time Corzine remained governor and would certainly have signed it.
Democrats are reintroducing the tax now simply to try and make Christie look like a heartless protector of the "rich" at the expense of the middle class and the poor. They know it. Christie knows it.
But Christie doesn't care.
Here's what the governor had to say about the Democrats' tax increase:
"While I have little doubt that the sponsors and supporters of this bill sincerely believe that the state can tax its way out of this financial crisis, I believe that this bill does nothing more than repeat the failed, irresponsible and unsustainable fiscal policies of the past," wrote Christie in his veto statement. "Now is not the time for more of the same. Ultimately, another tax increase will punish the state's struggling small businesses and set our economy further back from recovery."
Christie knows that the people of New Jersey are on his side. Just last month, voters in record numbers heeded his call to vote down their local school budgets, rejecting a record 60% of school district spending plans statewide. They did this despite an ugly and desperate campaign by the NJEA – the state teacher's union – and the predictable caturwalling of Democrats. Anyone remotely familiar with New Jersey politics knows just what a momentous occurance this was. New Jersey teacher's unions have never been publicly rebuked like this.
Now the public sector unions have stepped up for their turn, and Democrats in the state legislature are right there to carry their water. Sweeney will make good on his promise. Democrats will be back with their tax increase. But in the end, Governor Christie will get his budget largely intact.
The rules of the game have changed in Trenton. The old ways of doing business are no longer operative. It may take a few more public shamings, but Democrats will soon come to realize that in New Jersey there is only one rule to follow: Don't mess with Christie.