text:
Abridged and excerpted from Brandon Vaughan's forthcoming book.
The first three bonefish that I ever caught on a fly were violently cut in half in bloody, blindingly fast attacks by large hungry barracudas. I was wading a white sandy flat in 20" of transparent water, and each attack was within a rods length of my bare legs as I was preparing to land the bonefish, after fighting long powerful runs, for which bones are so noted. Each attack was so fast and brutal that it's impossible to describe. The barracudas would hover 40 or 50 yards away, zeroed in on the struggling bonefish and just when the fight was near its end, they would accelerate to warp speed, cut the bonefish in half and be 40 or 50 yards past me, all in a fraction of a second. Only a cloud of blood in the water, and a neatly severed bonefish head, still hooked to my fly, were left. And so began my Bonefishing career.
Good friend, Dave Plautz and I were wading in calf deep turquoise water in the middle of a large Caribbean flat that stretched for miles. Schools of bonefish were visible in every direction. Huge barracudas and a variety of black tipped, white tipped and grey reef sharks shadowed each school, and our every move. We were in a true wilderness setting. This was not the typical saltwater fly-fishing resort environment that every hardcore fly-fisherman dreams of and plans for. We were in a remote corner of Belize and despite the fact that we were really roughing it and were without any modern electronics, or safety equipment in a homemade "flats" boat, that we had spent hours in the previous night, adrift in the middle of the Caribbean with only a tiller steer 40 HP Chinese outboard that died and wouldn't re-start…. in the dark…..we were in heaven. The motor eventually started after we spent a couple of hours under the most star studded sky, and above the sea floor, covered in little glow in the dark critters to rival the sky, all while riding gentle Caribbean currents on a beautiful balmy night. You couldn't ask for a better scenario if you had to be aimlessly adrift in the ocean. Never mind that these were truly shark infested waters and that our next stop would've probably been Africa…many months…or years later, had the motor not recovered it's composure.
That first trip to Belize, some 20 years ago, hooked me for life. At the time I was already a life-long, hard core fly-fisherman with many years fishing around the Great Lakes, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Alaska. Belize was a new untried challenge, an exotic fantasy land that had been on my wish list since I was a high school kid. Needless to say, when a friend, that I had met while guiding in Alaska, called and said that he knew of a new "lodge" in the Turneff area of Belize and that he could get a great deal on an all-inclusive week's stay, I jumped at the chance. All we had to do was get ourselves to Belize City on the mainland. Tickets from Detroit, through Miami and on to Belize City were booked faster than you can say "fish on".
That first trip was so full of new experiences, adventure, a fair amount of danger and close calls that it's etched in my mind forever. Thankfully, I lived to tell the tale and can recall it in fine detail. The trip to the "lodge" is a whole story unto itself. Suffice it to say, the "lodge" turned out to be a shack on stilts on a desert island with 50 miles of ocean between us and the safety of civilization. Aside from bottled water that we, through sheer luck, decided to bring from the mainland, the only water was rainwater caught in one large plastic tank, open to the elements. Showers were brackish, and infrequent but we swam every day and got used to being slightly dirty. Luckily we also had the forethought to bring a good supply of Belikin beer, one of the best "leftovers" from British colonial rule in Belize, formally British Honduras. There might not be any better drink than a bottle of Belikin enjoyed on a tropical bonefish flat. (Though I've made the same comment about Avery Brewery's Reverend Ale, drank on the banks of the Big Thompson river just outside of Estes Park Colorado, and about Bell's Two Hearted Ale on the banks of the Two Hearted River in Michigan's upper peninsula, so maybe it's just a beer/fly-fishing…. thing).
Having run a large fly shop for a number of years and having outfitted hundreds of Bone-fisherman who went before me, prior to my first Belize trip, I was fortunate to have a pretty good idea of what to bring and what to expect,. I did, however, learn a lot of valuable lessons on that first trip, not the least of which may have been to do your research. Our "lodge" was really an attempt by a native Belikin (what people from Belize call themselves), to get in on the then burgeoning bone-fishing scene. We were far distant from the more famous Turneff area lodges. We were in a seemingly lawless, trackless, true tropical wilderness, repleate with sharks, crocodiles, drug-runners and what I'm sure were pirates.
"Lodge" owner Fabian was a great guide and he, with the help of his wife, brother and a niece, provided us with the best experience that they could produce, with clean beds, lots of fresh seafood, tropical fruit, eggs and chicken (the little island, which I could throw a rock across at any point, was full of chickens), but this was not a lodge. Gilligan's island looked posh in comparison, but it was white sand, blue water and palm trees and once we figured out how to communicate, (they spoke Creole, a mix of Spanish, French, hardly intelligible English and a hodgepodge of African languages), we got on swimmingly. More gracious hosts couldn't be found anywhere.
They called it Golden Bonefish Lodge, so named due to the somewhat frequent appearance, in the midst of large, mirror colored schools of bonefish, of one or two bright orange, goldfish-colored bonefish. We saw a half dozen of these odd colored bones in our week on the flats. I've told many other fly-fisherman of this anomaly over the years and I'm certain that not one of them believed me. Just recently a network TV fly-fishing show documented the oddity, so I can now mention it again without fearing skepticism. In subsequent trips to the Northern part of Turneff, and the Ambergris region of Belize, I've never seen this strange coloration. I assume it's a form of albinism.
We caught hundreds of bonefish, a few permit and tarpon, a myriad of reef fish and many delicious snappers, and rock lobsters, the latter caught by hand, snorkeling the gin clear water around the reefs during mid-day breaks from casting.
In addition to flats clothing suitable to keep the sun a bay, lots of sunscreen, polarized glasses, flats booties (to guard against sharp coral and sting rays) and toiletries, my gear included a 10' fast action, 4 pc 7 weight G Loomis rod, (also my favorite Steelhead rod), a 4 pc 12 weight Orvis Saltwater rod, and a 4 pc 7' spinning rod. The 7 weight was fast enough to handle an 8 weight line in a pinch. Most bonefish and permit fishing was with a WF 7 intermediate tropical line but I carried a spare spool with an 8WF Intermediate line for the really windy days or when I wanted to punch large crab patterns out to cruising permit. My large Tibor tarpon reel included a spare spool too. The primary rig a WF12 Intermediate sink tarpon taper, for the flats and the spare spool loaded with T-400 Teeny sink tip for fishing the deep water between Mangrove thickets. Most Tarpon were found in deeper water in the mangrove "backcountry" as opposed to the flats, unlike the tarpon fishing found North of the Ambergris area, where the tarpon also tend to be bigger.
Permit can be picky, preferring crab and realistic shrimp patterns, Bonefish seem to be far less picky and bite about anything. Those used to selective trout will be pleasantly surprised at how readily bonefish will take a fly. While not picky, they can be spooked if your false cast is over their heads, or if your cast slaps the fly down hard on top of their heads. When casting, leading the school a good distance and letting your fly sink before the fish converge on the spot is good practice. Don't be afraid to get ahead of a moving school by 20 yards. Bonefish move fast and have great eyesight and will be on top of your fly before you know it. Once it a while they'll veer off in a new direction before they get to your cast, but as long as you don't spook them you can pick up and re-place your cast. My rule of thumb on fly color is to somewhat match the bottom or water color. White, pink, tan, brown, blue, yellow and olive can all produce. Crazy Charlie style flies can be tied in a hundred different color and material combinations and may be the only pattern you really need. Small shrimp, crab and minnow patterns and epoxy flies a great too. Fairly large crab patterns for Permit are the ticket. Traditional tarpon flies in a variety of colors should be packed too. Stu Apte tarpon flies, Deceivers, Seaducers and Clauser style or rabbit strip flies are great. Make sure you have blue/white, red/yellow, pink, and brown/grizzly color combos. Bonefish patterns in size 8 or 6 and permit flies up to size 4 are the ticket, 1/0 and 2/0 SS tarpon flies should be employed. Make sure all your hooks are razor sharp! Tie (or buy) your bonefish flies the traditional way with bead chain or lead eyes for water over 18" deep but tie a selection weightless for skinny water. On a falling tide, bones will rush up into water as shallow as 6" deep to gorge on tidbits being flushed out of the mangroves. With tails and dorsal fins sticking up like so many little chrome-colored sails, this mini regatta is one of the most fun scenarios to fish, but hammering a traditional fly with bead chain eyes can make enough of a commotion that it's possible to blow an entire school right out. It's a neat sight to see when it happens, but it'll end your attempts to hook those fish. A dozen bonefish, when spooked in shallow water can vacate an area so fast that it looks like a bomb was dropped in their midst. Spray erupts into a mist and a literal hole in the water momentarily forms as the school explodes, and you can actually see the hole fill back in with water in the aftermath. Game over but maybe worth the spectacle.
January, February, March and April are ideal months to go, and is when my thoughts are constantly turning to white sand, blue water and palm trees. May, and especially June may be the best time if you're targeting tarpon but it can also be brutally hot, AND buggy. The worst mosquitos I've ever seen (including the close second, Alaska tundra in July), were in Belize in June. I was staying at a facility without mosquito nets on the beds and it was unpleasant though, thankfully I had prepared with a prescription of anti-malaria medication and only suffered some annoyance. I've also been to Belize in January, February and March without ever seeing a bug.
Do your research, check your tackle, tie some flies and book a flight. There's nothing better in February than texting pics of yourself on a white sand beach, to your friends freezing their butts off, back "up-North". And there's no better way to shake off cabin fever than to the sound of a screaming fly reel, while a bonefish rips off 300 ft' of line in a flash. Most destinations in Belize are pretty upscale and nice enough to satisfy "non-adventurers". Sight-seeing, diving, photography, fine-dining and world class fishing are the norm. Being lost at sea is not!
Contact us if you'd like to book a Belize trip. email@example.com
Brandon Vaughan has over 40 years of personal and professional experience in a broad array of hunting and fishing disciplines, from Alaska to Belize. Past professional experience includes working as a professional guide in Alaska and around the Great Lakes region. In addition to hunting and fishing throughout the lower 48, Canada and Central America, Brandon has been an Orvis Endorsed Fly-fishing guide, a fly-fishing and fly-tying instructor, a hunting guide and shooting instructor.


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The Big Boy
Outside Mark's office window was a belly -- a very round soft jiggling belly. The belly belonged to a young man. The young man was clearing ivy and debris from the bank of the hill that grew away from Mark's window up to the parking lot. The young man was wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, but he might as well have been wearing nothing; Mark could admire every curve, every flabby inch of his rotund form under the skin-tight clothes. The boy was squeezed into them like a sausage, and was overflowing them like rising dough. He was a tallish blond kid, handsome -- but appeared to be in very "bad shape." He bulged in every conceivable direction, under the shirt -- stomach hanging to the fore spilling like an avalanche toward his knees, enormous shelves of flesh protruding to the sides of his belly, flesh all around his middle covering the top several inches of his pants. He had tits -- round, soft, pointed, alive. They bounced on top of his mammoth gut like water balloons, as the boy moved up and down the hillside clearing the underbrush.
The boy moved very close to Mark's window again, and began to occupy himself with a clump of ivy at the base of the hill. Mark was no more than two feet from this luscious mammoth pile of meat. He wished for one-way glass in the window, so he could beat off in front of this vision without being seen. He turned his chair around to face the boy. He started to rub his crotch lightly -- perhaps it wouldn't be obvious, if the boy looked straight at him. The boy turned his back on him, at this point -- and turned on him the widest, roundest pair of buns Mark had ever seen. The boy's jeans were worn almost transparent from the pressure of those massive mounds. Each thigh and hip wore a huge pouch of fleshy baggage, and over it all the vast blanket of "spare tire" rode, wobbling.
Mark could barely contain himself. He glanced back to be sure his office door was closed, then turned to look again at the fat young man and his quivering ass. But the boy had turned to face Mark again. And...he was taking off...he was actually taking off his shirt. And wiping his face with it. His torso glistened massively, sweat beading all over its soft rolling expanse. Mark could see the boy's fat collect in folds, rippling and sliding in the places where breast meat became belly-fat, belly-fat surged over the lip of his blue jeans, all of it hanging hugely, round and wobbling like the softest baby's bottom.
And then the boy remained standing shirtless, stomach heaving from exertion, mouth hanging open slightly -- and stared straight back at Mark. Mark snatched his hand away from his crotch immediately. The boy peered, then smiled. He stood still, as if catching his breath, then wiped his thigh with the sweaty shirt. His hands lingered in the area of his own cock. He seemed to thrust his belly out, as if relaxing the muscles of his abdomen...seeming to grow fatter as Mark watched. The boy was still smiling, and now was rubbing his crotch. Then he looked to the right and to the left, then back at Mark, apparently miming the thought "I can't do this out here in the open." The boy pointed at Mark and mimed masturbation.
So Mark pulled out his cock, and while this magnificent fat boy stood inches away beyond the glass, brought himself off in his office chair.
When he was finished, he went up to the window and motioned the young man to come closer. He put his watch up against the window, tapping the number 12 at the top of the dial. He pointed behind the boy, toward the parking lot. Not much more than an hour to go, he thought. The boy nodded agreement, and waved toward the south end of the parking lot, several times -- go all the way to that end, he was indicating.
Mark returned to his work, and the fat young man rolled off to another part of the hill. But several times in the next hour, he passed by Mark's window again, patting his gut, making it shake...Mark's heart beat faster as noon approached.
At five minutes to twelve, he put on his coat and headed toward the extreme south end of the parking lot, near a construction site for an expansion of the office park. Few of his employees parked here, because it was too dusty. He didn't see the young worker at first, and walked around behind a wall -- and there he was, again shirtless, wiping the sweat off his astounding fleshy body with paper towels wet from a nearby faucet. He gleamed; tanned and shining and soft, his folds of fat in constant trembling motion from his vigorous "bath." Mark spoke first.
"I think you could use some lunch. I'll buy. Burgers OK?"
"Sure," the young man said shyly.
"Wait here a minute, I'll bring my car over. Just one minute."
The boy's face darkened, them set impassively. "OK, I'll wait a minute."
He doesn't think I'm coming back, Mark thought. Does he have any idea how appallingly gorgeous he is?
In the car on the way to McDonald's, Mark introduced himself. The boy told him his name was Doug, and he was working for his stepfather's gardening business. He hated it -- he was "way out of shape," and wasn't used to all the stooping and digging and hacking. But his mother had bugged him to get a job, since he'd graduated high school in June and she said he'd need to save some money for college. He started in the fall at the local state university, a music major.
At the restaurant, Doug lunged for the counter and ordered two Big Macs, three cheeseburgers, two regular fries, a shake, and a diet coke (this last item was a sort of a joke, he explained later, between him and the girl at the counter). As Doug devoured his lunch, and Mark picked at his salad, they talked about themselves some more. Doug played the piano, and hoped to perform in college concerts -- he even hoped to do it professionally someday, but his teachers had always warned him he had to overcome a lazy streak. But he loved music, and spent most of the day at the piano (and eating, he added with a wicked grin). As soon as he'd finished his food, he stood up suddenly, and said "Well, I don't get too much time for lunch -- let's go to another place I know."
They drove back behind the hill on which Mark's office building stood, to a wooded area known as the local "lover's lane." Doug led Mark to a secluded spot. He stripped naked, with surprising speed for someone so big. "I guess you like all of this," he said, and drew Mark closer to him. "Put your hand here" he said, and placed Mark's hand on the side of his stomach, where his fat was soft and malleable.
Mark's first touch on the fat boy's body was like an electric shock to him -- sensations of every soft, doughy, moist, yielding thing he'd ever felt or seen flooded him. Mark knelt in front of Doug's belly. He grabbed huge handfuls of flesh, rolling it between his fingers, pushing it back in on itself, molding it like soft clay. He pulled up the great apron of flab hanging around the middle, lifted it and dropped it, over and over, and buried his face in it while it was still jiggling. He bit into the boy's side, working over mouthfuls of soft yielding fat.
Mark took his clothes off and folded them neatly on the grass. Doug ran up and tackled him, and rolled him over and over down the slope. The boy's enormous weight on top of him -- all over him, enclosing him like pillows -- aroused Mark fully erect. His cock was sticking into the crevice between Doug's belly-fat and the bulge above his crotch. Mark had never felt anything so...pussy-like, he had to say, comparing it to the times he'd been with women. He started to fuck the boy's belly, here and there, finding it everywhere penetrable for several inches. The soft fat carressed Mark's dick like lips, slick now with sweat. He found the deep cleft of Doug's belly button, and rammed his cock in harder. Doug rolled over hugely, and Mark noticed the boy's mammoth tits -- and had to fuck them right away. He grabbed them and molded them around his cock, forming a tight slick hole. He plunged in and out, while perched on Doug's belly-mound, riding gently as if on a boat as the waves of fat rocked with him.
Mark knew there wasn't much more time left before the young man had to go back to work -- but he had to get a look at that big fat ass. He sprang off of Doug's stomach, and told him to stand up facing away from him. There in front of Mark was an expanse of meat like none he'd ever seen. From the boy's shoulders he billowed outward to the waist, and out even further below it -- the buttocks were round, smooth with a light dusting of blond hair, pinkish-brown and ... as soft as a baby's, Mark had to say again. The boy's ass seemed to tremble in the wind, fold on fold, hanging and bulging nearly four feet across...Mark had jammed his dick into Doug's crack right away, and though he had a bigger-than average tool, he had to shove brutally against the boy to find his asshole. Inches of soft fat surrounded his cock, carressing...Mark slammed into the boy's cushioned backside again and again, trying to work in deeper before he -- oh god, he had grabbed hold of a hunk of flesh at the boy's side, and he couldn't control it any longer...he came messily in and over the massive butt, kneading Doug's fat between his fingers, reaching around for a handful of breast meat...
In the car on the way back to the office, Mark asked Doug -- "if you don't mind" -- how he got to be so fat. Doug told him this story:
"When I was fourteen, I had a piano teacher, an old lady who was a little eccentric, but she was good. She believed in rewarding and punishing -- and if you did things her way, she gave you cookies and little cakes and ice cream, right there at the piano. She'd feed you with her own hands. I thought it was a little weird, but I improved -- and she gave me rewards more and more, I kind of got to liking it. I was kind of chubby, I guess I weighed around 130, 140 -- at that big-tit stage, you know how guys get at that age, I was kind of self-conscious but not really fat -- anyway, after about a year with this teacher I had put on some weight -- I don't know how much, but you could tell I had put it on, I'd started on this gut and everything, and I remember the gym teacher at school bawling me out and making me run extra laps and stuff. So I got to where I kind of liked it, liked being fat, getting fatter, being fed, getting kidded about it. I remember when it was really hot in the summer I'd go around without a shirt -- the skinny guys could do it, why can't I, so I did. I found out -- I could go around like almost naked, after I put on this weight, and I'd get a bone -- I could almost come just by rubbing my legs up against it, like sitting in the park with my stomach hanging all out and I'd rub myself -- right here -- where it's all soft, like...you know what it's like.
"So anyway, I got to where I could make myself eat lots and lots -- I already did, but I just piled it on, whenever I ate anything I just ate twice as much. I'd hang out at the Burger King and whatever, Wendy's and Pizza Hut and the mall, just eating all day sometimes. So each summer in high school, I'd get -- a whole lot, I mean really massively -- just bigger and fatter. And so when I went back to school everybody went "OOOoohh, you're all fat Doug, you pig" and that was cool, especially when the guys said it. They'd even slap my gut, it's like when you get really fat you're public property and anyone can touch you. In gym we'd play "shirts and skins" in basketball and I like to be "skins" and -- I don't know, like make everybody look. That was it -- I wanted them to see me, see my stomach, see my big fat ass.
"So to make a long story -- so last year I'm over 350, way over, and they send me to this fat kids camp -- you know. And I come back fatter. No, I swear to god, it's true, I just went on strike, and the counselors don't give a shit because they've already got the money, and maybe your folks will send you back again the next year, you know? So I gained 50 pounds at Diet Ranch. This summer I just like pigged out until I couldn't see straight -- I can boost a pound a day, no sweat. 520 pounds last time I looked -- it doesn't matter if I weigh myself, the scale just goes "Tilt" and says "you're really, really fat."
Created: 7-Apr-02
Last Modified: 9-Jan-03

subset: commoncrawl


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On this special Diwali episode of the Art with Soul Podcast, as we celebrate the victory of good over evil, I've got a quick little tip to help you silence your pesky inner critic! Because let's be honest, as an artist and creative, your inner critic can be particularly loud – and mean. And that's never a good thing when you're approaching your craft, is it? You'll find a written transcript of the podcast {edited for readability} below.
Powered by RedCircle
A very Happy Diwlai to you and your loved ones! This is my favorite time of the year – the festival of lights, with the entire house lit up with lamps, marigold flowers and Ashoka leaves adorning the house. I just love it!
As we celebrate the victory of good over evil this Diwali season, I thought this would make for an interesting topic to explore from the perspective of our art and creative practice.
Now before you wonder how art and evil go together, let me assure you, there's nothing remotely evil or even bad about your art practice itself! What is "bad" is the negative thoughts you often have around your art or the time you spend honing your craft.
That negative voice is your inner critic – the one who is constantly telling you that you'll get "it" – whatever "it" is – wrong, that you'll fail, embarrass yourself, or that no one will like or connect with your work.
That voice that always wants to holds you back and keep you feeling small, that's the one I'm talking about!
So, this Diwali, how about a quick tip little for silencing that inner critic?
Now, there are numerous suggestions and ways in which you can quieten your inner critic. I'm sharing the one exercise that had the biggest impact on me when it came to silencing my own inner critic.
And that is, naming your inner critic.
How to identify your inner critic
First, you have to identify her, or him, or it – however your inner critic shows up for you. I tend to use her because that's how I identify my own inner critic.
When it comes to identifying your inner critic, the first thing you need to do is to figure out what she sounds like. Maybe your inner critic sounds like an authority figure – one of your parents, or a teacher you had in school – or maybe your inner critic, like mine, sounds just like….you!
Once you've identified the critic's voice, try and define her. By which I mean, create a character sketch of your inner critic. Is she bossy, prim and proper, holier than thou, a perfectionist?
Based on the voice and the character sketch you created for her, how do you think your inner critic looks? Even if you don't want to imagine a fully-fleshed out figure, try to imagine how she would dress up and carry herself.
Finally, give your inner critic a name. Preferably one that will make her seem less controlling.
Why naming your inner critic helps you to be yourself
Naming your inner critic is an excellent tool to help you quieten its harsh words. It works so well because when you name your inner critic, it loses some of its power over you. You recognize that you're not the problem, and you don't need fixing. The real problem is that you believe everything that darn inner critic is telling you.
When you can recognize that the voice that is constantly holding you back from creating your most authentic art is not you but your inner critic, it makes it much easier to disentangle your vision and ideas from her naysaying.
The exercise in action: Meet my inner critic
Going back to the exercise, here's what came up for me when I was identifying my inner critic.
My inner critic sounds just like me. When I identified her voice, though, she sounded very authoritarian and very prim and propah. I pictured her as miss goody-two-shoes, dressed flawlessly, with not a hair out of place. Pretty much the opposite of me, really!
I named her Prissy Missy.
Every time she reels off with her litany of reasons why I will fail, or how I simply do not have enough artistic or creative ideas and so I should stop thinking of myself as an artist already, I imagine her as the prim and propah little lady that she is, and that breaks some of her tyranny over me.
So the next time you're at the painty table, and your inner critic shows up with all her prophecies of doom and gloom and failure, just say "Oh, that's Prissy Missy, my inner critic". That will help you remember that the inner critic isn't YOU, and allow you to move forward with whatever you're working on without her rants and admonitions holding you back.
I hope this little tip helps you on the art table – and off it!
If you have any suggestions for future podcast episodes, or feedback on the podcast, please leave them in the comment box below! And if you have any tips on how you deal with the inner critic, leave those in the comments too!


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Ever Felt Like This?
Podcast: Ever Felt Like This?
Hosts: Aaron Costello and Gabriel Morton
Category: TV & Movies
Sub-Category: After Shows, Film & TV Reviews
First Episode: 2021
Were you born in the early 80s or early 90s? Does the sight of a freckled ginger child remind you of the paranormal? Does the mere mention of a lighthouse get a song stuck in your head? If so, you may have been exposed to dangerous levels of the children's television program "Round the Twist". Join Accredited Australians Aaron Costello and Gabriel Morton on a quest to rewatch the whole series and finally answer if they have, in fact, ever felt like this.
Website: Keep 'et Classy
Connect: X-Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and YouTube
Listen: Google or Apple or Spotify or RSS


text:
Combine the demands of work and the fever-pitch of the holiday season
and you obtain evaporating days. Left work late, but last night's
commute home presented one of those rare-but-wonderful moments of
cycling nirvana - the uphill car pass.
Rolling homeward, the intersection traffic had increased to
near-gridlock, and auto drivers were jutting forward in 6 to 8 inch
increments with that "dammit! I am not letting THEM in!" attitude of
the chronically delayed. 'Tis the season. I could see that the
freeway was worse off, probably the result of an accident or stall.
That generally puts the hoi-polloi into "Exit & Surface Street"
mode, hence the extra traffic and ebbing forward momentum.
Of course, a bicycle commuter remains immune to this.
In the final miles of my commute, the road begins to incline. Although
a few cars and trucks revved past me on the flattish approach, I could
already see the brakelights before me. As I slid slightly back on the
Brooks saddle to torque the fixed gear, I began to pass them.
With 15 watts of NiteRider HID and a pulsing Cateye LED as my shield, I
continued upward. Cars skimmed by as though they had stopped,
which in fact, they had. The next mile or so went by in a breeze,
buzzing past the idlers. They would move occasionally, but never with
enough speed to match mine.
It was, in short, a marvelous moral victory.
Commute Head Tunes:
X - "Los Angeles"
Been rolling around town on this thing for the past week, so it's high time I admitted to it in a formal setting…
Over the last week, the bits have been getting installed, and a bicycle has begun forming out of the parts.
Hardware in place, but no shifter cables rigged. The sharp-eyed will
note that there is a heckuvalotta clearance for the tire at the
brakes. Good for fitting fenders, to be sure.
So, by last Saturday morning, everything important had been connected,
and the Zeus got wheeled into the crisp sunlight. (And in my haste to
snap some photos, I managed to forget everything ever learned about
backgrounds, composition, etc…)
Darned if it didn't work…
As I set out on the roadway, the bike disappeared underneath me.
Luckily ample padding allowed me to bounce rather than skid. It
reappeared and I began riding again. I found that with
concentration, I could prevent the bicycle from disappearing underneath
me. After a few miles, this became second nature, allowing me to
concentrate upon other aspects of the handling.
Vertical compliance was extraordinary, yet lateral stability remained
quite high. I found that this system could also be "locked out" by
flexing my quadriceps muscle. Locking out did complicate the actual
pedaling motion, so I allowed my knees to use their full travel range.
Two non-flippant observations did occur -
1) this bicycle is a serious low-rider.
2) cornering is frighteningly stable.
Bear in mind that I'd never ridden the Zeus as a 700C (or 27″, but I'm
reasonably sure it was a 700C), so there won't be any rational
discussion of what this conversion has done to the ride. But,
after rolling around for 30 miles or so, I had encountered a few
downhill turns. The bike cornered solidly - to use the railroad
euphamism - like it was on rails. It felt like it could have
easily handled tighter turns or more centrifugal force. Pneumatic
trail as outlined in VBQ? Combined with a loooooowwwww bottom bracket?
The BB height resulting from this conversion has ended up to be 26 cm.
I've only scraped one pedal (slow speed, inverted, tight turn), but I
can very easily toe the ground while in the saddle. I'll post
more complete dimension specs.
The final observation (gotta get to work) was that the gearing has got to be the daffiest ever encountered.
Chainrings: 52/44
Freewheel: 14-16-18-20-22
A quick visit to Sheldon's Gear Calculator will give something like this:
I had tried to find another freewheel with a bit more range (and
suffice to say, obtaining smaller Zeus chainrings is a bit, um,
challenging…), but found that the only ones with wider range had the
wrong threads. The freewheel is an Atom, and I suspect it may be
French threaded. More as time allows.


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Wednesday, March 10, 2010
"Science and Change" by Hillel Cohen
A well written text on Marxist-Leninist philosophy, dialectical materialism, etc. To read/print Click Here.
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Caleb T. Maupin is a resident New York City. He is an activist in Workers World Party and Fight Imperialism - Stand Together. He writes for Workers World Newspaper, and various other publications.


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The Program Coordinators
Within the framework of the university-wide quality management, there are so-called program coordinators. They are the link between the FSR and the students. First and foremost, they deal with all matters concerning the study program. This includes all questions and problems of current and future students concerning the course of studies and the study design. In addition, they are the faculty's evaluation officers and are involved in the program accreditation process. Their presence as a guest in the Studienkommission ensures short lines of communication.
For each study program there is one teacher and one student responsible. (List here)
The official job description of the program coordinators can be found here. Students who are not elected members of the FSR can also serve as program coordinators.
Student program coordinator VIW:
- Jonathan Gut (VIW 17) (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Student program coordinator VWI Bachelor:
- aktuell unbesetzt (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Student program coordinator VWI Master:
- Alexander Volokhov (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Student program coordinator BSI:
- aktuell unbesetzt (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Student program coordinator LuLo:
- Lucas Höfer (VIW 17) (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Student program coordinator EVS:
- Venkatesh Sreedhar (EVS 21) (email@example.com)


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Gladys Bermudez was on the 605 Freeway when a car sideswiped her. A tow-truck driver told Bermudez that he worked with her insurance company.
Within minutes he hooked up her car and hauled it away.
"In that shock of the moment that it just happened, he told me, 'You're not in a good spot. You're going to get hit again,'" Bermudez said.
But Bermudez found out that tow company didn't work with her insurance company. It did tow her car to a shop 20 miles away. The cost for the tow was nearly $1,000.
"It's been emotionally distressful. I feel helpless," Bermudez said. "It still felt like my car was stolen and was being held hostage."
Ja Felin was T-boned at a Wilshire Boulevard intersection.
A tow-truck driver said her insurance company called. But that wasn't true.
"He's like a predator who preys on people who are in horrible, unfortunate situations," Felin said. "They're already victims and he's victimizing them again."
Los Angeles police call what happened to these drivers predatory towing. And it's illegal in LA.
They say tow companies listen for accidents on police scanners and pounce.
Top news of the day
The NBC4 I-Team was with the LAPD who staged an accident, then put it out on scanners.
One tow truck checked out the scene, but then left. Police say some companies know they are watching.
Mike Feuer, the LA City Attorney, is watching too.
His office has filed criminal charges against SoCal Inter City Tow, the company that picked up Felin's car. It was the same company, police said, that were seen checking out the fake accident during the police ride-along.
A court date is pending. Feuer's office says SoCal Inter City Tow has not yet responded to the charges. The company did not respond to NBC4 calls for comment.
"I don't know how someone can do that as their job and live day to day and think everything is OK," Felin said.
The predatory tows are only one part of the story. The other conspirator is the body shop where the cars are towed.
They sometimes charge drivers outrageous, even illegal fees to get their cars back, officials said.
Bermudez said they charged her $260 because they disconnected her battery.
Her bill escalated to $3,100 in eight days. The body shop Autopro charged fees that included tear down for taking off her front bumper and other work the shop said it performed.
Bermudez says she didn't authorize any of it.
"The law is very clear that no work shall be done and no charges shall accrue before authorization to proceed is obtained from the customer," Mathew Gibson, an investigator for the Bureau of Automotive Repair, the agency that regulates body shops.
Gibson, who has not investigated Bermudez' case, said if there's a facility that's engaging in predatory business practices, then his agency seeks to take administrative action to revoke or suspend that registration.
"I was willing to give as much as I could," Bermudez said. "But this is too much."
When the I-Team went with Bermudez to get her car back, Autopro released it, charging her nothing.
The shop declined repeated requests for an interview.
"They're taking advantage of people who are hard working, that are just trying to get by," Bermudez said. "It's not fair. I don't want this to happen to anyone else."
Here's what you need to know if you are caught in a similar situation:
When a tow truck shows up, get the name of the company and how much they are going to charge. By law they have to tell you and that number cannot change. It's best to get this in writing. At the body shop, it can only charge for storage fees. Anything else requires your approval.


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Lem Lawrence
Editor Profile
Lem's career has encompassed 25 years working at some of London's top facilities. Over the last five years Lem has been freelance, working as a Flame Artist and VFX Supervisor for many London based high-end advertising post houses. He is used to working with clients and leading jobs, but is just as happy being a cog in the wheel and helping to get jobs done.
Equally at home building VFX shots, interacting with other specialists across CGI and grading as well as working with clients and producers on briefs to work out the best and most efficient workflows, Lem has a keen eye for detail and is very creative.
He applies his skills to a varied portfolio of work, from commercials, creative promos, music videos and title sequences for a variety of broadcasters such as Channel 4, BBC, Viasat, Nickelodeon and Film4; recent credits include Big Buoy's Toyota C-HR "Leave Ordinary Behind"; to long form hard hitting documentaries such as "True Stories – Bodysnatchers of New York" (which won a Grierson Documentary Award) and critically acclaimed "Sunderland 'til I die".
Lem also owns his own Flame, and can work remotely for trusted clients on grades as well as VFX.
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Clean septic tanks to receive septic tanks in Hanoi - handle odors, renovate septic tanks, dredging biogas tanks. Contact Center for Environmental Sanitation 02466.577.993. Website: https://hutbephotsach.com/ Address: 14 alleys 66, lane 192 Le Trong Tan, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi.
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Gidugu Italic
Gidugu Italic is a Italic OpenType Font. It has been downloaded 7835 times. 7 users have given the font a rating of 4.57 out of 5. You can find more information about Gidugu Italic and it's character map in the sections below. Please verify that you're a human to download the font for free.
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My Destination Singapore www.mydestination.com/Singapore is part of a global franchise system www.mydestination.com with headquarters in London. Over 50 destinations around the world are part of this fast growing online network.
What we do:
1) We provide high quality, unique and free content such as written content, photos and videos for travelers to / in Singapore.
2) We help local businesses such as restaurants, bars, hotels, travel agencies, attractions, event organizer, service provider etc. to reach a global audience.
Where our revenue comes from:
1) Advertisement from local businesses reaching out to tourists and expats
2) Banner placement from google, local and global brands
3) Media production of videos and virtual tours
4) in-app purchases
This is a home-based business, suitable for someone who is looking to run a business in the online tourism industry.
Selling the franchise rights for Singapore (SGD 60K)
Selling majority of shares to someone interested in partnership (full-time working, experienced in Media Sales, min. 5 years experience in local sales position) - $ neg.


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Top PPM and Collaborative Work Management
Trends for 2021
Rego Consulting polls our more than 200 expert consultants every year to listen to what they've heard from clients during the hundreds of implementations, upgrades, training, and organizational change management efforts. This year we dug deeper to create our annual Project Portfolio Management and Collaborative Work Management (CWM) Trends Report. How are organizations adapting to the "new normal" and its redefined rules of business? What changes have we seen in technology due to the pandemic, and what is headed our way? And perhaps most importantly, how can companies use PPM and CWM solutions to drive future success?
Because we base our report on real-world trends and issues, this white paper is designed to give you both insights and actionable steps to keep you ahead of the curve.
We have also prepared a corresponding webinar that you can watch here on demand.


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- IoT LIBRARY
Microsoft acquires CyberX to boost IoT security
- June 24, 2020
- Steve Rogerson
Microsoft is acquiring CyberX, a Massachusetts-based IoT and OT security company.
By integrating the CyberX platform with the Azure IoT stack, Azure Security Center for IoT and Azure Sentinel with native IoT support, Microsoft says it will now provide a simpler approach to unified security governance across both IT and industrial networks, as well as end-to-end security across managed and unmanaged IoT devices, enabling organisations to detect and respond quickly to threats in converged networks.
As enterprises implement digital transformation and Industry 4.0 for greater efficiency and productivity, boards and management teams are increasingly concerned about the financial and liability risk resulting from the deployment of massive numbers of connected IoT and OT devices. Adversaries targeting this expanded attack surface can cause corporate impact including safety and environmental incidents, costly production downtime, and theft of sensitive intellectual property.
"CyberX's technology and team are a great addition to Microsoft," said Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk, Microsoft corporate vice president. "With CyberX's expertise and innovative platform, together with Microsoft's exciting security products, Microsoft is offering a powerful and scalable solution that accelerates digitalisation for enterprises at all phases of their IoT and OT journey."
Founded in 2013, CyberX grew with some of the world's largest enterprises adopting its IoT and OT security platform to secure their facilities. Leveraging patented IoT and OT-aware behavioural analytics, CyberX's agentless technology deploys in minutes to deliver deep visibility into IoT and OT risk, including asset discovery, vulnerability management and continuous threat monitoring, with zero impact due to its passive network traffic analysis approach.
CyberX's founders Nir Giller and Omer Schneider will join Microsoft and the platform will continue to be enhanced and supported by CyberX personnel.
"Nir and I founded CyberX with the goal of delivering a scalable solution that would be easy to deploy and reduce risk for enterprises worldwide," said Schneider, CEO of CyberX. "We're thankful to our loyal customers and partners as well as to our dedicated employees whose innovation and hard work made it possible for us to reach this important milestone, and also to our investors for their on-going support."
Giller, CTO of CyberX, added: "By joining forces with Microsoft, we will rapidly scale our business and technology to securely enable digital transformation for many more organisations. Together, CyberX and Microsoft provide an unbeatable solution for gaining visibility and a holistic understanding of risk for all IoT and OT devices in your enterprise."
Microsoft says it will continue working with CyberX's strategic reseller and technology partners worldwide. The CyberX platform will continue to be available in a hybrid model supporting cloud-connected and air-gapped networks.
CyberX was funded by Norwest Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, Flint Capital, Glilot Capital Partners, Inven Capital and OurCrowd.


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In Missouri S&T's new program for medical lab science certification, students will study in the biological sciences department for three years and then finish their degree with a year of clinical professional study at one of three certified Missouri hospital programs.
This Missouri S&T partnership will allow students to be board certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists as a medical laboratory scientist by the time they graduate. The School of Medical Laboratory Science at North Kansas City Hospital, the School of Medical Laboratory Science at Mercy Hospital Joplin, and the School of Clinical Laboratory Science at Mercy Hospital St. Louis are partnering with S&T in the program. Read more


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Data-driven decision making
In today's business, the way decisions are reached is tremendously important. Let's try and look into the process in our heads, teams, and the whole organization that leads to making these mature choices, often strategic for the company growth.
Recently, more and more has been said that business decisions should be supported by data. The English phrase, data-driven, suggests that they should be almost led or propelled by data. This has become more than just a slogan, especially in the Internet-based or, more widely, the Internet-related tech businesses, that often deal with massive amounts of data. The skilful use of this resource gives young startups a competitive edge over established corporations who may have accumulated more data, but aren't always able to exploit this advantage. Listen to this episode to learn more what are the key elements worth considering while becoming a data-driven organisation.
It is often said that it is hard to correct anything without measuring, and it's surely hard to tell if our correction worked and to what degree. We might intuitively sense positive or negative changes, but our intuition is not enough when we want to measure the improvement according to parameters and estimate its influence on the whole business.
It is also worth remembering that even measuring is not enough. Businesses just don't get better from looking at numbers and indicators. The numbers we obtain and the analyses that we or our specialized units perform, are just an input for conclusions that must be drawn. Only after these conclusions and the resulting recommendations are implemented, improvement chances may begin to take shape. So, keep in mind, just watching numbers can't boost your performance indicators.
By the way, we often fail to see how important it is for growing organizations to keep a good mix of competencies in teams. Isn't it useful when someone casts away guesswork and opens Excel to run a simple analysis of something that seems so trivial but is not so easy to others? Intuition and business instinct must be complemented with solid analytic skills.
Please note, however, that the value of an analytic calculation lies its simplicity. There is a principle "Done is better than perfect". It means that if we succeed in doing something nearly perfectly, it is better than applying lengthy examinations, that hold the project up beyond reason, trying to pursuit absolute flawlessness. The cost of medication can't exceed the expected benefit. Pondering over a solution shouldn't take longer than its implementation and consequences. As an example of a simple and efficient analysis, particularly in the beginning of a decision process, I recommend my podcast titled "Multitude of ideas?". It shows how uncomplicated an analytic tool can be. Sometimes it's just a question of cross-referencing some numbers and sorting some results according to calculated priority score. Just so little brings us so much closer to being data-driven decision makers.
Obviously, our input numbers or output decisions aren't always that simple. The more complicated the case, the more comprehensive the analysis.
It is important, however, that despite their complexity, analyses should be made transparent and widely available to all team members. With efficient data distribution and goal delegation systems, they will find it easier to make data-driven decisions for their organization. To help them, there are BI (business intelligence) tools (such as Periscope) which visualise data much faster than it can be done manually. Not only do they visualise data – they also allow for changing basic criteria and variables, which can be defined in particular graphs, for any data sector. They allow for various segmentations and aggregations of daily, weekly and monthly data, as needed. Other tools, such as Deep BI or programming languages as Luna, facilitate the communication between the analysts and the business data users. They are very useful as they speed up the availability of particular analyses and reduce the response time. If a Board of Director member or a manager knows that a response to his inquiry to the Data Department will arrive in two weeks, he will get discouraged and ask fewer questions. With good tools at hand, such as Deep BI, Luna or Periscope, they will be able to verify lots of their hypotheses within a few minutes. Consequently, as one question leads to another, they will feel encouraged and come up with a lot more questions. Having to wait for too long, they would never do it and the data resources would remain unused.
The business intelligence tools do not only give us cool graphs and charts. What matters, is that they make the problem-spotting and answer-finding process far more informative for the team members and the whole organization. Another process that is facilitated by the business intelligence tools is the sanity check. We know that, whatever input is loaded into Excel, it will produce some result. However, only if we cross-reference this result and try to obtain the same outcome using a different set of input data, we can verify whether our approach is correct.
To illustrate this:
if we analyse our idea using raw, basic data and arrive at more general, larger-scale conclusions, this bottom-up procedure should be then verified by the top-down analysis, starting from macro indicators for a given country, market or region and moving down.
If these two – top-down and bottom-up procedures – yield comparable values, we can say we have performed a sanity check or verification. If our analyses are not subjected to counter-analyses, we might just as well not perform any analytic steps, because we may end up worse off, misguided by premature conclusions.
It's interesting here to have a look at the evolution in the approach to data that took place at AirHelp, which I used to co-lead as its Polish CEO and as a member of its international Management Team. Its Date Department started from one, then grew to a few and finally up to 13 specialists linked to team leaders who were trained at least in a number of basic business cases. The training workshops, which I sometimes personally led, taught how to find relevant business cases to justify the viability of decisions. Those decisions, technical or non-technical, as well as process innovations, did not require any IT developments, but were vital to the company operation.
In my view, if data finding and analysing practices are successfully implemented in a company, together with the awareness of how beneficial data access and analysis can be, it will bear fruit in lots of aspects of corporate life. The transparency of data access will increase the motivation of the whole staff. They will get the sense of the company direction, its strengths and weaknesses, as well as of what things need doing so their organization can do better. This database, or data-driven awareness is indispensable not only for thee Data Department. Analysts alone cannot possibly have a hands-on experience of every company sector. They just examine the data and interpret what they see, sometimes correctly, sometimes not. Only with the competent support of the people focused on the area that is to be affected by a decision, as well as the statisticians and data engineers, can appropriate conclusions be drawn and business decisions made.
Here, it would be useful to have a look at how one of our foreign customers, a great e-grocery company, decides about entering new markets. Their process of expansion market analysis is organized in a very interesting, data-driven way. They do not arrive at their expansion recommendations just relying on their data analysis. As a matter of fact, their ultimate decisions are waiting until multi-aspect expertise on the relevant market is consulted and cross-examined with independent specialists. As you can imagine, a deployment decision is a crucial one for any company, and it seems impossible nowadays to take it without prior top-down and bottom-up data processing.
Bottom-up, starting from the data gathered in our fields of operation and then extrapolating from our observations to new markets. Top-down, using macro data, global and international analyses of export, import, consumer and other markets to cross-reference if our assumed growth or market presence is going to bring the expected results. A lot of other milestone decisions just cry for these top-down and bottom-up procedures.
give it a serious thought if your company decision-making processes are well founded on data. Could the things you do be done better or looked at from a different angle? Maybe it is not necessary to outsource chartered analysts right away. Try and find some people who have an analytical mindset, but operate in other business areas or models, where data have been used in a different way or on a different scale. They might be able to notice what your company members often fail to see.
Well, to conclude this short introduction on analysis and being data-driven, I'd like to urge you once again to derive your decisions from data, as much as you can. Nowadays, it nearly always is a key issue in tech companies, and I hope that I have made it evident to more of you. It is important not only to measure your KPIs (key performance indicators), not only keep an eye on numbers, but draw conclusions from them, that develop the company. As I told you in the beginning, the results will not get better just from staring at numbers.
If the data you have accumulated, analyses you have conducted and the conclusions you have came up with are wisely and widely distributed among your crew, they are very likely to become better motivated and help your business to flourish.
Cheers for now, good luck!.
Click the picture to listen more or record a voice message.


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In Nanka, Nigeria – as in many other areas of the developing world – people are dying in alarming numbers from preventable and treatable diseases due to poverty, lack of health education, and poor healthcare systems. For people who deal with chronic diseases, like high blood pressure or diabetes, lack of health education and access to medical care creates a big problem.
The Nanka School Project (NSP), founded in 2013 by Celine Akoh, a registered pharmacist in Georgia, is working to improve the education, health, and economic opportunities for Nigerians living in the Nanka community. Each year, as part of their ministry, NSP organizes a medical mission to provide critical primary and preventative care for the community. Their 2021 medical outreach event offered free health consultations, blood pressure and blood sugar screenings, and medications that were donated by MAP International.
The medical team served over 270 people at this year's health fair, including Theresa, a 55-year-old woman who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. Both of these conditions require regular medications in order to be managed properly, and can cause other serious health problems if they are left untreated.
During her consultation, Celine discovered that Theresa's blood sugar and blood pressure were both extremely high. Further conversation revealed that Theresa did not understand just how serious her conditions are, and that she could not afford to buy the medicines she needs to manage her health.
Fortunately, the NSP team had brought a supply of medications that were donated by MAP International, and Theresa was able to go home with a month's supply of all the medicines she needed to control her diabetes and high blood pressure.
Theresa was also able to see a doctor at the event, and the NSP team connected her with a local physician who could provide her with regular care to monitor and treat her conditions.
Thanks to Celine's dedication to the Nanka community, and MAP's partnership with NSP, Theresa has been empowered with both knowledge and resources, and is no longer in danger of suffering the severe consequences of uncontrolled diabetes or high blood pressure.


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605, Aryan Worksplace 2, Besides, near Navkar Public School, Natraj Society, Gulbai Tekra, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380006
Virtual CEO for MSME-
D&V Business Consulting
When the growth curve looks like a hockey stick or when someone wants to be in that way, a CEO is need of the hour. Most of the MSMEs don't realize the importance of having a CEO in a company or some may not able to afford a full-time CEO. To provide a solution, D&V Business Consulting launched its innovative service of Virtual CEO. This is an ideal approach for those who haven't reached to scale that demands a full-time CEO but need one to fix the process in organizations. For those MSMEs who are not able to afford a full-time CEO, the virtual one from DVBC would be a boon.One of the Partner at D&V Business Consulting would himself play the role of a CEO for your organization. All the tasks and jobs expected to be carried out by a CEO will be done by the Partner with his core Team of Functional Experts. The primary task of a CEO is to layout the roadmap for the organization to follow. Thereafter the job of continuous monitoring of performance, strategy implementation, taking corrective actions, etc. This is a professional way of managing the organization where the owner of the firm can free himself to invest time and effort in more lucrative activities contributing to revenue generation.


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Aristides of Athens (2nd cent. CE) belongs to the generation of Christian writers known as the Apologists (Apologetics). Throughout the 2nd century CE, they worked for the defense of their coreligionists and of their religion during a period in which they perceived Christianity to be quite misunderstood by the civil authorities and the pagan masses. For a long time, Aristides' name was known only through the testimony of Eusebius of Caesarea (Hist. eccl. 4.3.3; Chron. ad annum 124–125 ed. Karst, ad annum 125 ed. Helm), and hence thro…
Aristides of Athens (3,122 words)
Cite this pagePouderon, Bernard, "Aristides of Athens", in: Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online, General Editor David G. Hunter, Paul J.J. van Geest, Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte. Consulted online on 27 September 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2589-7993_EECO_SIM_00000283>
First published online: 2018
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These beeswax shaped candles can be made for any holiday to give out as gifts. Kids love to shape the beeswax into fun shapes and
Beeswax Candle Making
I had intended on giving these out as gifts, but the kids beg to light one every night. We started out with at least a dozen, and we are now down to 3. So much for gifts.
With a little help from an adult, these are super fun and pretty simple to do.
Let's make sure you have everything that you need for this fun activity. Here's what you'll need to make some fun shaped candles for yourself or for gifts
- Beeswax Sheets – I had some leftover from teaching a colonial unit. But, I remember ordering them online from a company in Canada!
- Cookie Cutters
- Wick – we used the type with a wire so we could stand the wick upright. I bought this at Michael's Craft Store
- Wax Paper
- Scissors
Great Classroom Party Craft – Easy to do, and kids love working with cookie cutter shapes – Adapt it for any Holiday – Just plan ahead and order the colored beeswax sheets, have a cookie cutter for each child.
- Give each child a piece of wax paper as a work mat – This way the candle won't stick to your table
- Stack Beeswax sheets together, using at least 4 pieces.
- Use your cookie cutter as a guide to cut out a square for each cookie cutter. My kids picked out their cookie cutters in advance, and I customized squares to each cookie cutter.
- Then for each square/rectangle separate your Beeswax sheets down the center. You should have before you, 2 squares each with 2 sheets of beeswax.
- Cut your wick so the wick will run down the length of your square and have an inch sticking out of the top.
- Place the wick down the center of one stack of beeswax – I told the kids we were making a wick sandwich!
- Put the 2 halves of beeswax sheets together with the wick in the middle.
- Line up your cookie cutter, and push it down through the 4 sheets of beeswax
- You may need to trim some with scissors. Our cutters did not always cut through the entire shape.
- So many designs! So fun!
~ Melissa – KidFriendlyThingsToDo.Com – A site providing kid friendly recipes, crafts, birthday ideas, and fun ideas! Plus, fun things to do with kids in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts are reviewed including pictures for a better visual!


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There are many times when I'm unsure of what to do when it comes to decisions with one or all of our six children. Or the course of action to take with other relationships, work issues and our future. However when I take time to stop and quiet my heart and mind to seek God for His wisdom, He always leads me to the right course of action, (or no action if God wants me to take my hands off a situation)
We all like to think we're making wise choices. Whether it's in our relationships, difficult decisions or just everyday life. Which is why its beneficial to desire to grow in wisdom. Here are 3 ways wisdom can be established in our lives:
1. Live by the wisdom you have already been given:
God's Word is full of wisdom and it's been given to us. So take the time to read and study it and then do what it says.
Reflect and learn from your experiences and mistakes. Perhaps even start a notebook titled "The things I've learnt" to help you remember. It might become a bestselling book one day:)
"Listen to wisdom, and do your best to understand. Ask for good judgment. Cry out for understanding. Look for wisdom like silver. Search for it like hidden treasure. If you do this, you will understand what it means to respect the Lord, and you will come to know God. The Lord is the source of wisdom; knowledge and understanding come from his mouth.
"Delight is in the law (word) of the Lord, And in His law meditate day and night, then whatever you do shall prosper." (Proverbs 2:1-4; Psalm 1:2-3)
2. Get input and advice from those who demonstrate wisdom:
"Become wise by walking with the wise; Hang out with fools and watch your life fall to pieces." (Proverbs 13:20 The Message)
"Folly is joy to him who lacks sense, But a man of understanding walks straight. Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with counsellors they succeed" (Proverbs 15:22)
3. Be open to correction:
How do you respond to correction? Do you get offended or feel rejected? Do you get defensive and then indulge in a bout of self-pity? When we value and seek wisdom we need people who'll be honest with us. Why? Because we often get blinded by our own motives and ego's. When God corrects or sends someone else to correct us, it's because He wants what's best for us. Be teachable, willing to change, quick to learn and open to wise counsel.
"So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?
My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either.
It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects.
God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children".
(Hebrews 12:4-11 The Message)
I encourage you to choose the way of wisdom today for it is worth far more than precious jewels, silver and gold. For when we value wisdom we"ll also find long life, peace, riches and honour. (Proverbs 3:13-18)
Prayer: Lord help me to increase in wisdom as I grow in my relationship with you and others. I want my life to be filled with understanding, knowledge, peace and joy. In Jesus Name Amen.


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All tattoos tell a story, whether it be something incredibly meaningful or just a spur-of-the-moment decision you had on a random Tuesday.
Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy
When you make that decision to get inked, you may not think about the medical risks right away. But if you have diabetes, getting a tattoo may pose unique risks.
"When you have diabetes, you really have to consider the physical consequences of everything you do," says endocrinologist Shirisha Avadhanula, MD.
How does my blood sugar affect risks associated with tattoos?
To get a tattoo, the skin is pierced between 50 and 3,000 times a minute by a tattoo machine.
"Your skin is a barrier that protects you from infections," says Dr. Avadhanula. "Getting a tattoo breaks this barrier. A tattoo affects the dermis, or the second layer of skin, because the cells of the dermis are more stable than the first layer, or epidermis."
Piercing skin at this level poses unique risks to people with diabetes. If your blood sugars are not in good control, your immune system is also affected — putting you at even higher risk for infection and potential difficulty fighting it off. If you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, you may have a significantly increased risk of developing an infection, too.
Tattooing is under strict hygiene rules from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because of this risk of infection. The needles must only be used once and the tattoo artist must wear gloves while doing the work. According to the FDA, among the most severe infections that can be transmitted is hepatitis.
If you have considered the risk, and still want to get a tattoo, remember to do the following:
- Talk to your doctor first. It's important to discuss your particular case with your doctor so they can assess your individual risk. Involving your doctor is even more important as the American Diabetes Association, which would normally offer guidance, has issued no official position statement at this time about tattoos.
- Make sure your blood sugar is in good control. This means blood glucose tests and hemoglobin A1C, or an index of average blood glucose for the previous three to four months, need to be in the target range. Your hemoglobin A1C should be less than 7%.
- Get your tattoo in a place that isn't susceptible to infection. Feet, shins, ankles and butt are places that can have poor blood circulation, which in turn can make them more susceptible to infection.
- Make sure you are going to a reputable place. Sometimes it's not so clear which places are truly reputable and licensed, especially when there are thousands to choose from in the United States alone. You can find a good place by asking for references and checking with the Better Business Bureau for any complaints filed. Don't be afraid to give them a call and ask questions about their equipment and sanitation practices.
"By taking the right precautions, you can be sure that you are making an informed decision about tattoos and risks involved when you have diabetes," she says. "Taking the time to involve your doctor could prevent future problems. Body art is beautiful, but a healthy body is even more beautiful."


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Attention to detail is what makes the E-Class Coupe & Convertible a sensible choice. Our Sales Manager had the previous generation for 5 years, and it was among the best convertibles I have experienced. The only way it could have been better is more control of cockpit air. That is why two ingenious systems have been added to the new model. The 2021 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet will arrive win AirScarf and AirCap.
Top 50 Best Exotic Cars & Supercars of All Time
I first encountered AirScarf on Mr. duPont's 2012 SLS AMG Roadster. Perfect for cool weather cruising, the seats force warm air down your back and around your head. It is computer-controlled based on speed until 75 mph when it goes full blast. The icing on the cake is the new AirCap. Consisting of a windshield deflector and a partition behind the cockpit, it creates a high-pressure bubble of hot or cold air that prevents turbulence. Not only does this reduce drag at highway speeds, but it will also cut down on wind noise so you can relax with your significant others.


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I just discovered this tune the other day thanks to Skream's twitter stream (so you guys have him to thank for this). You Can Dance by Chilly Gonzales is a really funk number that makes you want to get up and dance – and that's exactly what is going on in the music video!
There's a lot of female rump shaking going on, a similar vein as those Renault Megane adverts from a few years ago. Enjoy.


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Single celled organisms found all around us, they
can survive under many conditions including
A substance which destroys bacteria.
Best before date:
Date mark required on longer life foods that are
not subjected to microbiological spoilage if kept
in the correct storage conditions
A person who harbours, and may transmit,
pathogenic bacteria without showing signs of
Food is contaminated if it contains something
which should not be there, e.g. a stone,
chemicals or bacteria.
Core temperature:
The temperature at the centre of the food
Clean as you go:
The routine of cleaning up as you work, not
leaving all the cleaning to do at the end.
Critical Control Point: A point, step, procedure
where control can be exercised/applied to a
hazard and the hazard eliminated, prevented or
reduced to an acceptable level.
Danger Zone of Bacterial Growth:
The temperature range between +5oC and +63oC in
which bacteria will grow and multiply easily and
A chemical which dissolves grease, it acts as an
aid in cleaning.
A chemical which reduces the level of bacteria to
a safe level.
When bacteria on food are not multiplying; the
temperature is either too hot or too cold to
allow growth. The bacteria are still alive and
will start to grow if the temperature comes back
into the danger zone.
Includes: (a) any substance used, available to be
used or intended to be used, for food or drink by
human persons, and (b) any substance which enters
into or is used in the production, composition or
preparation of these substances, and references
to a particular food or class of food. (S.I No.29
of 1998)
Food handler:
Any person who handles or prepares food whether
open (unwrapped) or packaged, even if physical
contact is only a small part of their work.
Food hygiene:
All measures necessary to ensure the safety and
wholesomeness of food during preparation,
processing, manufacture, storage, transportation,
distribution, handling and offering for sale or
supply to the consumer.
Food Pests:
Rodents and insects which live on and in our
Food Poisoning:
A notifiable illness, usually with symptoms of
diarrhea and/or vomiting caused by eating food
which has been contaminated or which is
poisonous. Food poisoning is infectious and can
be passed on by person to person as well as
through food.
Food Premises:
Areas where food is stored, transported,
prepared, displayed or sold.
Food Spoilage Bacteria:
Bacteria which cause food to rot or decay.
An inflammation of the stomach and intestinal
tract that normally results in diarrhea.
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points. A
management system for ensuring food safety
through the identification, assessment and
control of hazards in the food chain.
Anything that could contaminate food or cause
harm to the consumer.
High-risk activity:
Activities where high-risk ready-to-eat foods are
prepared and where the potential exists to put
vulnerable groups (infants, the frail elderly,
pregnant women and the sick) or large numbers of
consumers at serious risk. Such foods are as
-shellfish, cooked or raw
-fish, cooked or raw
-raw meat such as beef tartar
-cooked meat and meat products
-cooked poultry and poultry products
-cooked-chill and cooked freeze meals
-milk and milk products
-egg and egg products
-cooked rice and cooked pasta
-foods containing any of these examples as
High risk food:
Food which supports the growth of harmful and
potentially harmful microorganisms and which will
not be subjected to any further heat treatment or
processing which would remove or destroy such
microorganisms, prior to consumption.
Ready-to-eat foods are high-risk foods.
Infective dose:
The number of bacteria required to cause illness.
Low-risk activity:
Activity where the potential to cause harm to
consumers is low.
Non-food handler:
A person involved in a food business whose duties
and responsibilities can impinge on food safety,
e.g. managers, maintenance staff, cleaning staff.
Pathogenic bacteria:
Bacteria which cause disease/illness.
Potable water:
Water fit for human consumption taken directly
from rising mains and in compliance with E.C.
Water Directive.
Part of temperature measuring equipment that can
be inserted between packs or into product to
obtain temperature reading.
Ready to eat foods:
Foods that have already gone through most or all
of their preparation steps. There will be a
"high-risk" if these are contaminated
or allowed to deteriorate because there are no
further preparation steps to control the hazard,
e.g. cooked meat and poultry, pates, meat pies,
cooked meat products (e.g. gravy or stock), milk,
cream, custards and dairy produce, shellfish and
other seafood (cooked or intended to be eaten
raw), cooked rice, cooked eggs and products made
with eggs, prepared salads, fruit and vegetables,
soft cheeses, etc.
The probability of a hazard occurring.
A chemical used to both clean equipment and
reduce bacteria to a safe level.
A resistant resting-phase of bacteria, which
protects them against adverse conditions.
Date mark required on highly microbiologically
perishable pre-packed foods. It is an offence to
sell food after its "use-by" date.
(phone) 416-332-8727
%Instructor-Led Class
State-of-the-Art Facilities
Unlimited Lab Time
Labs Open 7-days a Week
Free Repeat
Free Job Placement
Financial Aid Possible
Resume Writing
Interview Skills
© 2008 Ontario College of


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Amethyst Biomat
relieves muscle and joint pain • relaxes muscles • increase circulation
Experience detoxification, rapid healing, and natural pain relief with the Amethyst Biomat, an FDA approved Class II Medical Device.
Single Session: $30.00
10 Sessions: $299.00 (package includes oxygen, color therapy, and Holosync)
What it Is
The core of the Amethyst Biomat technology is a combination of far infrared rays, negative ions, and the conductive properties of amethyst. These three powerful health stimulators provide remarkable benefits.
Benefits of FAR Infrared technology:
- Improves Circulation & Cardiovascular Function
- Improves Immune Functions
- Relieves Pain
- Burns Calories
- Eases Joint Pain and Stiffness
- Reduces Stress and Fatigue
- Improves Skin
- Assists in elimination
Benefits of Direct Conduction Negative Ions
- Regulates blood pH
- Increases cellular nutrient uptake and cellular hydration
- Allows cellular waste materials to be excreted more efficiently
- Creates balance for the body to counteract unhealthy ions in the environment
The Biomat is a safe, alternative treatment approved by the FDA for arthritis pain relief. It delivers warm infrared heat to the affected areas, penetrating into areas that are difficult to reach with creams or patches. This therapy effectively reduces the pain and stiffness associated with arthritis, and deeply relaxes the body and increases mobility.
The warmth of the Biomat also increases blood circulation. This boost in blood flow brings oxygen and nutrients to injury sites, reducing inflammation and promoting the body's natural healing process.


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Experiment 2: Stencil on Leather
Originally uploaded by anselm23
Someone gave me some Celtic-style stencils a while back, and I wanted to make some cool patterns on a leather biker jacket I've had for a long while. So I tried painting some Celtic patterns onto the jacket with white acrylic paint.
I can't exactly call the experiment a success. The stencil moved during the process, and the brush slipped a few times. The result is a slightly messy stencil that doesn't really look the way that I wanted it to.
What did I gain from this failure? Well, 1) I gained some experience in how acrylic behaves on leather. The answer is, it's pretty stable, and works fairly well. 2) I learned that if I want the stencil not to move, and to be able to use both hands to keep the brush steady, I should tape the stencil in place. Another bit of useful experience. 3) Some designs on leather are best handled with a little bit of pre-planning. This stencil is on a section of jacket that isn't going to show to random passers-by while I'm wearing it, but if I want to do something more elaborate… I'm going to have to go about it differently than with a pre-made stencil. The large back panel, for example, is going to require a slightly different plan than just a piece of cardboard with a cut design.
The whole point, though, is that this involved me taking a couple of real, if small, risks. I could have destroyed the jacket, or spilled the paint, or done something that was utterly horrible-looking. Instead, I took a small risk, and learned how some new tools worked, and gained some insight into how to work with new materials and surfaces.
I wonder sometimes if we do our students a disservice. After all, they start off with a box of 64 crayons, some pencils, pens, and other drawing tools in kindergarten. Gradually we introduce them to other tools like rulers and pens. And yet, by the time they get to high schools, we've pared them down to some college-ruled notebooks, some binders for their handouts, and some pens and pencils.
What does the new toolkit look like for analog student pencil cases? And what should be in their digital tool kit to complement that?


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maandag 05 - woensdag 07 november - Agenda archief
2-Day conference from 5-6 November 2018 and Field Excursions on 7 November 2018 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
The 'must attend' event for 2018 and a deep dive into themes as policies, technologies, social acceptation, upscaling production, choice of concepts for local climates and avoiding material rebounds. Inspiring plenary sessions, combined with breakout sessions (e.g. scientific paper presentations, practical workshops) and field excursions on day 3, where you can learn more about production and building locations in The Netherlands.
The first SBE19 NL conference focus on six main themes:
- How to get 250 million homes adopt retrofits?
- Concepts / packages for large scale retrofitting
- Prefab retrofit panel production units and upscaling
- Materials, circular / biobased and CO2 impacts of retrofitting
- Europe wide application versus local limits
- Best practices and learning from the 1st generation H2020 projects, in particularly on deep renovation and how to implement a diverse range of innovations
Visit Retrofit 2018 for the program, speakers, registration, etc.
more information: www.retrofit-europe-2018.nl


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Views: 10 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2019-07-26 Origin: Site
Since the fall, the scorching sun has brought no small challenge to the vast number of employees struggling on the front line of production. On July 26, Yan Shibin, vice chairman of Rugao CPPCC, and Su Xiaoyan, vice chairman of Rugao Federation of Trade Unions, arrived at Jiuding. Jiang Yongjian, chairman of the union of Jiuding Group, accompanied the consolation team to the frontline workers and sent towels and other heatstroke cooling condolences While bringing coolness, I would like to express my cordial condolences and sincere gratitude to them, and the employees are greatly encouraged.
Chairman Yan delivered cool to the employees of the reprocessing workshop of the wheel network
Everywhere, Chairman Yan shook hands with the cadres and employees, he sent a piece of condolences to the employees, kindly said a hard sentence! He also carefully inquired about the current production and operation conditions and the working conditions of his employees. Seeing that employees are still sticking to their posts in high-temperature environments, he urged everyone to ensure their safety in production while doing their own heatstroke prevention and labor protection, reasonable Arrange work and rest time, enhance self-protection awareness, and do well in the work related to peak summer.
The greetings and instructions from the sympathy team and the company moved the front-line employees very much. They expressed that they would tighten the string of safety, do all the precautions, diligently inspect and eliminate hidden dangers, and do a good job in safe construction and safe production in high temperature seasons. , High-quality, high-standard completion of work tasks.


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University of Utah
Oregon Health & Science University
University of Utah College of Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University
Medical Oncology
Treating cancer is a balancing act. In the mix of considerations, Dr. Glenn "Stew" Buchanan puts special emphasis on effective intervention and quality-of-life decisions.
"I feel that the most important goal of any cancer treatment plan is quality of life, both during treatment and after," Dr. Buchanan says.
Open-minded, systematic and determined, Dr. Buchanan always spends time with his patients and their families, striving to understand them and their lifestyles and goals. "I try to get to know them," he says, "not just their medical problems."
Dr. Buchanan practices only in Florence and treats patients with all types of malignancies as well as benign blood disorders.
In his off hours, Dr. Buchanan enjoys spending time with his wife, three daughters and dog. He is fluent in Spanish. He enjoys reading, playing the piano and running ultramarathons.
Phone: 541-683-5001
Fax: 541-683-1422
View location


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Chronology of events re the 'Incident' with professors and staff at the Philosophical Faculty in Belgrade 1974-1981
A highlight of the collection is a dossier named Hronologija događaja u vezi sa 'Slučajem' nastavnika i saradnika Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu 1974-1981 [The Chronology of Events Related to the Case of Professors and Associates of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade 1974-1981]. At that time, in addition to Tadić, the following employees were also removed from the faculty: Zagorka Golubović, Trivo Inđić, Mihailo Marković, Dragoljub Mićunović, Svetozar Stojanovic, Miladin Zivotić, and Nebojša Popov.
The dossier is located in box no. 1, file no. 65, and contains hundreds of pages related to the problems the professors faced while trying to maintain their positions at the faculty. Here, one can gain insight into the arguments professors used to defend themselves and contend with the Teaching—Scientific Council of the Faculty of Philosophy). The Faculty of Philosophy supported the accused by holding that it always advocated for the "further development of the freedom of scientific thought and scientific-teaching work, as the great achievements of our self-managing socialism." Also, in these documents the Faculty explained that it accepted the implementation of the "act on moral-political suitability of instructors", however, it could not find fault in their actions. The Council of the Faculty of Philosophy emphasized that the removal of teachers was a direct assault on the university itself and that it will take "a lot of time and patient work to overcome the consequences of this act."
In the collection, one can also review the laws that the professors referred to in support of their political demands (e.g., Law on change and amendments about the Higher Education). Furthermore, this folder allows us to follow the fight at the Constitutional Court in which the professors initiated the legal procedure to assess the constitutionality of their dismissal, as well as the reaction of the Constitutional Court, which rejected the move.
Last but not least, the material documents support for their struggle from international institutions and prominent individuals from around the world, especially from the field of philosophy. Domestic support was chiefly found from writers of the Praxis journal (as documented in this collection), which was shut down shortly after the court case.
The most valuable document is Obrazloženje predloga odluke o stavljanju na raspolaganje nastavnika i saradnika Filozofskog fakulteta [Explanation of the Proposal for a Decision on Releasing Professors and Associates of the Faculty of Philosophy] of the Executive Council of the Parliament of Serbia (8 January 1975). It states that the activities of the professors were repeatedly criticized by the Alliance of Communists and the Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. It also states that their articles and books had already been banned by the courts several times, thus alleging that they were previously problematic.
This was meant to confirm the discussion in the Serbian Parliament, which had concluded in 1970, when the case of this group was discussed, that "their actions are contrary to the values and practices of our socialist society and the basic principles of the Constitution, self-managing development and politics of the SKJ [League of Communists of Yugoslavia]." Additionally, the Assembly concluded that "the continuous negative political activity of these professors makes them morally and politically responsible for the state of affairs at the Faculty of Philosophy, because they perform the function of upbringing and educating of young generations." It furthermore stated that this group "has abandoned its revolutionary Marxist view of the world by its actions and is in open ideological and political conflict with the League of Communists of Yugoslavia." These were serious accusations at that time.
The League of Communists also stated that the Faculty of Philosophy rejects the assessment of their "negative behavior" and therefore, the Faculty has "disturbed the self-management relations" and "severely damaged general social interests". All this served as an explanation and justification why exactly the Socialist Republic of Serbia's National Assembly had to bring the decision. The goal of such decision was, as they stated, to "create opportunities for overcoming the problems that were experienced at the Faculty and in general". This was an unprecedented event.
Beograd Vase Pelagića 33, Serbia
Rodyti žemėlapyje
- Serbų
Sukūrimo metai
- 1974
kutiji broj 1 – dosije br. 65
box 1 - dossier 65
Charakteringas eksponatas
- Radović, Sanja


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IFBB professional bodybuilder and personal trainer, George Brown, walks us through his fitness routine, motivation strategies and the fuel he reaches for along the way. Scroll on to see what he has to say to get inspired to take your own regime to the next level.
Lively: We're happy to have you with us, George! Can you start by telling us what a day in the life of a professional bodybuilder typically looks like?
George Brown: A day in the life of a bodybuilder typically starts out with fasted cardio. It's a structured day. You have a set amount of meals that you eat every 2 to 3 hours. Then you have either 1 to 2 workouts depending on if you're getting ready for a show or not. So whatever combination works for you, you're pretty much going to have those things involved in a typical day.


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Despite the challenges posed to aviation by the COVID-19 crisis, galley equipment provider Egret Aviation Co., Ltd has established a US office in Dallas and is offering a new equipment lease program as airlines seek to recover from the downturn.
Built in Suzhou, China, near Shanghai, the core products in Egret's portfolio include aircraft cabin service carts, standard containers, oven racks and galley inserts, drawers, folding trolleys and other associated parts and components. It also provides trolleys that meet an airline's branding or design aesthetic using a special finish called sublimation which embeds the colors into the surface metal and protects the cart from scratches.
The company lays claim to being the second largest supplier of aircraft galley carts. A point of differentiation for Egret is that it does not use plastic parts on the areas of the trolley that break easily, including the braking system, to ensure they are robust enough to withstand the rigors of service without becoming distorted.
In a statement announcing its new Dallas office, Egret says many airlines' equipment projects are still moving ahead despite the pandemic, and it has continued to field enquiries from the Americas region. That's why, after setting up a European sales office and warehouse in Hürth, Germany, the company set its sights on creating a presence in Dallas.
Next year, Egret will have "ex-stock" galley equipment located in Dallas, ensuring that equipment can be sent to customers with little or no lead time, except for bespoke designs, according to the firm.
"Our experience and feedback from the regions around America has identified a need for a full service operation," explains Egret director of business, Americas Fran Hume. "Galley equipment is obviously a key part of any airline's daily operation. It can also be a huge headache for airlines, when parts or spare equipment is not available. After all, airlines need this equipment to service their clients constantly."
Hume was personally surprised to find airlines who have experienced aircraft on ground issues due to catering equipment. "It is unacceptable for any aircraft to be held up due to an onboard equipment failure from such a standard product," she says.
In order to service its customers more effectively, and to ease the burden on their finances, Egret has established a number of new initiatives. Its new lease option, a possible first for galley equipment, will provide airlines the option of leasing Egret's products and "saving CapEx for other, more critical projects", explains the firm in a statement.
Egret can also include service contracts at the time of purchase. And, under its swap program, Egret will replace a damaged cart from its pool of stock within 48 hours or less while the equipment is being repaired.
Hume tells Runway Girl Network that Egret already boasts airline clients in North and South America, and around the globe.
In the United States, Egret's expectation "is to be closer to the customers we already support, and our intention of course, is to grow this rapidly", she says.


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Registry Policy - (SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS WE TRANSITION TO SHOPIFY)
We are so excited to make you a beautiful set that will remind you of a very special day every time you open the cupboard! Due to the nature of our handmade small batch production process, it is necessary for registrants to agree upfront to purchase what remains in the registry at the end of the registry process.
We make our own glazes by hand, and as such, there is a certain amount of variation that occurs in our finished pieces. In order to create a matching set in the glazes of your choice, we've found that it's necessary to make and fire all the pieces in the set at the same time as opposed to making them as your guests purchase pieces on your registry. We fire the set together to minimize as many variables that cause glaze variation as possible, which will yield a cohesive collection we will be as proud to make as we hope you are to receive.
This policy allows us to provide happy couples with sets of pottery that they will cherish and use for years to come. If you have any concerns about our policy outlined above, please feel free to contact us at email@example.com, because we would love to find a way to work with you!
We are so excited to make a beautiful set of your choosing that will remind you of a very special day every time you open the cupboard! There are a few things to note as you choose your pieces:
• you will be sent a link that you can forward on to your guests. Our system prompts guests to stay in the Registry, but please note that they must check out within the registry application for your shipping address to be applied to the order. Letting your guests know this will help avoid confusion.
• there is a certain amount of glaze variation that occurs in our finished pieces; please read more about our glazes here.
• all items are made to order from the date of purchase and will be shipped within our lead time window.
• we keep your registry open for two years past your event date- plenty of time to allow for later purchases for your registry guests. We'll give you the opportunity to purchase any remaining items for yourself before it closes.
We look forward to building you a cohesive collection which we are as proud to make as we hope you are to receive. Now let's get started!