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Christian Siefkes
"Christian Siefkes is a software engineer who lives in Berlin, Germany. His main research interest is the emancipatory potential of free software, open hardware, and other forms of commons-based peer production. He blogs at www.keimform.de; publications include "From Exchange to Contributions" (Berlin 2007), "The Emergence of Benefit-driven Production" (Proc. OKCon 2011), "The Boom of Commons-Based Peer Production" (in "The Wealth of the Commons", 2012).
"Dr. Christian Siefkes is a freelance software engineer and author; he lives in Berlin, Germany. His main research interest is exploring the practices and the potential of commons-based peer production, the participatory and commons-oriented way of production that brings us free software, open content projects such as the Wikipedia, and an increasing number of open hardware projects such as RepRap. Co-founder of the bilingual Keimform-Blog (http://www.keimform.de)."
Publications include:
- The Boom of Commons-Based Peer Production (2012, in
The Wealth of the Commons, [1]),
- The Commons— Prosperity by Sharing (2010, with Silke Helfrich, Rainer Kuhlen, Wolfgang Sachs, [2]),
- The Commons of the Future (2009, [3]),
- From Exchange to Contributions (2007, http://peerconomy.org/).
See also:
- http://keimform.de/2011/benefit-driven-production/
- http://wealthofthecommons.org/essay/boom-commons-based-peer-production
- http://keimform.de/2013/not-a-free-supermarket/
More Information
Email: [email protected]fkes.net, homepage: http://www.siefkes.net.


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07 February 2010
Yesterday I did run my newly built Jerobee car!
Last time I drove a Jerobee was way back in 1974, just before it was traded in for an Associated RC-1.
The car worked fine and I drove for 4-5 minutes in the large workshop for full size cars, since it is winter and a lot of snow outside! It was easy to adjust the needle, idle was fine, the engine kept running until I shut it off. I was running 40% nitro with 14% Klotz Super Techniplate. It is a mixture of Castor and Synthetic, maybe this is the key to the clean running?
In the old days, it was all Castor.
Lot´s of memories came to me, starting, sound, the special smell and so on, it was just great.
Here we have a picture of the Jerobee that ran great.

subset: commoncrawl


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Are you looking for a relationship? Whether you want a casual or committed relationship, it can be difficult to meet women. The latest craze is meeting a partner through Tinder. But what if you don't want to spend hours swiping through profiles on an app? What if you want to meet a woman in a more natural, authentic way?
Here are five great places to meet women that don't involve using up data on your phone:
1. Restaurants
Everyone loves a good restaurant! Restaurants are a great place to meet women. If you see a woman sitting by herself at a restaurant, she's either waiting for someone else to arrive or she's there alone and easily approachable. Meeting a woman at a restaurant gives you the opportunity to sit down and talk (if she invites you to take a seat, obviously). It also gives you something that you immediately have in common – the same taste in food!
2. Parks
Parks are not only a beautiful place to spend time, but also a great place to meet women. Whether it be taking a leisurely stroll or working out, you're likely to see lots of women at the park that you can introduce yourself to. If you want to make things even easier, bring your dog to the park. The theory that women gravitate towards men with dogs has a lot of truth to it. If you're taking your dog for a walk at the park, you'll have women approaching you in no time!
3. Networking Events
Networking events are a great place to meet women because they are usually geared towards a particular group or interest. For example, there may be an event for single people who love painting. These events are convenient, because you already know that others are there to meet new people; you won't have to worry about introducing yourself to someone or being intrusive. You also know that you already have something in common with whatever the particular group is.
4. Cooking Classes
Cooking classes can be really fun and also a great place to meet women. While mastering your culinary skills, you can meet a woman who is also interested in cooking. Even if a cooking class isn't particular interesting to you, it's always an important thing to master. Women will also appreciate the fact that you're a man who is willing to cook for himself!
5. Gyms and Yoga Classes
Any type of workout class or gym is a good place to meet women. Women enjoy working out and living a healthy lifestyle. They'll appreciate a man who likes to do the same. Participating in a workout class together will give you something to have in common with these women and something to talk about. Even if you don't meet the girl of your dreams in a workout class, it's still something fun and beneficial to do.


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Best Granite Fabricators Charlotte NC
Best Granite Fabricators Charlotte NC has kitchen counters, bathroom vanities, and fireplace surrounds have been featured in and have won awards at the NC Homebuilders Association Parade of Homes.
Granite Fabricators Charlotte NC is pleased to say that every piece of its world class granite is fabricated using the latest technology available, and then crafted by hand and tailored specifically for each client's needs.
Feel free to contact us for answers to questions concerning the benefit of granite, marble, limestone or other natural stone, or to discuss our competitive pricing.
Our local distributor is minutes away from our plant providing customers an opportunity to view many other actual slabs available for counter-tops. In addition, we have access to many distributors in the Southeast who are always willing to send samples of current stock and will usually send slabs for examination by our customers.
We hope you will take the time to visit our plant and showroom. You will have the unique opportunity to view actual fabrication of granite from our showroom which overlooks the plant operations.
We can usually provide an estimate based on drawings within 24-48 hours.


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"As the President of SAZAND for the 2018-2019 membership year, I look forward to supporting the dietetics community including students, interns and professionals during the upcoming year. The 2018-2019 SAZAND Board has worked hard to develop an exciting and diverse calendar of events which will emphasize professional and community service, networking and professional development. Additionally, we look forward to increasing our engagement with members in the upcoming year through our new monthly newsletter (open to all) and Yahoo Group (for current members only). Please take a moment to learn about your board and be sure to join us this year. Thank you for your membership and welcome to all members new and returning."
President, 2018-2019
Southern Arizona Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Ashlee Linares-Gaffer is Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Arizona. She teaches two courses each semester and in addition to formal instruction, Ashlee is a coordinator of the Department's dietetic internship program known as the Individualized Supervised Practice Pathway. This pathway provides direct training and supervision of 9+ dietetic interns each year, who upon completion of the program, will be eligible to sit for the exam to earn the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Credential. The ISPP Program at UA integrates agricultural education and experiential learning activities in addition to the standard dietetic training areas in order to promote food and agricultural literacy among future nutrition professionals. Ashlee is also a coordinator for SNAC, the academic advising center which serves 650+ undergraduates majoring in nutrition at UA. Under her leadership, the center leads departmental recruitment initiatives, provides numerous academic support services, and facilitates peer networking.
Ashlee is highly active in promoting increased food and agricultural literacy among dietetics students and professionals, as well as in promoting diversity in the profession of dietetics. In addition to serving as the President for the Southern Arizona District of the Arizona Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 2018-2019 membership year, Ashlee also serves as the Diversity Liaison to the Arizona Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AZAND) and the Academy's Member Interest Group, Cultures of Gender and Age (COGA).
Email: email@example.com
Ronnie Mullins is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Arizona where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in sports nutrition and food systems. She is passionate about teaching future Dietitians and was awarded the 2017 Bart Cardon Early Faculty Teaching Award, recognizing and honoring unusual dedication and outstanding performance by a member of the teaching faculty who is within their first 5 years of teaching at the university.
Ronnie has spent her career working with athletes and active individuals. She worked as a sports nutrition specialist at Canyon Ranch Resort Spa in Tucson, Arizona; as the team nutritionist in the National Football League for the Arizona Cardinals; and as a member of the Nutrition Division of the Combined Event Athlete Development Project working with male and female U.S.A. Olympic track and field athletes. After earning her certification as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist from the National Strength and Conditioning Association in 2004, Ronnie worked privately with athletes and active individuals as a personal trainer and nutrition coach. In addition to her work with athletes, Ronnie has written many publications and workshops on nutrition and body composition including co-authoring, Winning Sports Nutrition 2nd Edition, a continuing education course for sports and nutrition professionals published in 2013.
Additionally, Ronnie has a keen interest in food and nutrition issues related to the food system including food culture, food policy, and food insecurity. She is currently teaching an undergraduate course which she developed in sustainable nutrition and food systems. Ronnie is the acting State Policy Representative for the Arizona Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AZ-AND) and the President Elect for the Southern Arizona Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (S-AZAND).
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Dr. Plant has worked as a clinical dietitian for over 15 years in acute care. As a clinical dietitian she provided coverage for many units including Critical Care, Medical, Pediatrics, Oncology, and Surgical units. Her past work experience also has included management of Clinical Nutrition and Diabetes Education. During her time as a clinical dietitian and manager, she had the opportunity to oversee and mentor dietetic interns, nutrition staff and volunteers. Her interest in nutrition and higher education led her to her most current position as Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona Nutritional Sciences Program starting Fall of 2016. She currently also works with the clinical team at Banner University's Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic. Dr. Plant obtained her Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University and a Master's degree and Doctoral Degree in Clinical Nutrition from Rutgers, School of Health Professions.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Megan grew up in Fort Worth, Texas before moving to East Texas to attend Stephen F. Austin State University. There, she earned her Bachelor's in dietetics and Master's in human sciences. She also completed her dietetic internship through SFASU in 2016. She has worked in food service and retail nutrition and is now employed as clinical dietitian for St. Joseph's hospital in Tucson. Megan enjoys trying new restaurants, seeing movies, and serving the Tucson/Davis Monthan community through multiple organizations.
Email: email@example.com
Whitney Wischki is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and has served on the Southern District board for several years. Whitney currently works with members of U.S. Air Force at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ. In addition to serving as the SAZAND treasurer, Whitney is active in AZAND public policy initiatives and advocacy for the profession of dietetics.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Ashley Klewer, RDN, is a newly registered dietitian in Tucson. Ashley received her bachelor's degree in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Arizona. She completed the ISPP internship with the University of Arizona in 2017 and now works with WIC at El Rio Health. Ashley is excited to be more involved with SAZAND as the membership chair and looks forward to supporting its members and promoting the growth of our district chapter.
Email: email@example.com
Eliza Short, RD, is currently a master's student in the Nutritional Sciences Graduate Program at the University of Arizona. She is originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and received her BS in Community-Medical Nutrition and Dietetics from Viterbo University in 2016. She worked one year as a clinical dietitian in the acute care setting until continuing her education at the UA. In her free time, she loves to run, mountain bike, and cook. Eliza is looking forward to becoming more involved in the nutrition professional community in southern Arizona.
Email: email@example.com
Rachel Reid, RD, CEDRD is a registered dietitian and eating disorder specialist. Rachel has a passion for helping people develop a healthy relationship with food and guiding individuals to understand the emotional connection behind their eating choices. Rachel received her bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, majoring in Nutritional Science. She then completed her dietetic internship at Banner University Medical Center in 2016. Rachel is currently employed at Sierra Tucson Treatment Center and also works in the private practice setting specializing in eating disorders. Rachel is the co-chair of the nominating committee of the Southern Arizona chapter of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She looks forward to continuing to promote growth and development within the chapter and board.
Email: email@example.com
Caitlyn Schull, RDN, MEd, is a Tucson native and proud Wildcat. Her education includes a Nutritional Sciences degree as well as a Master's in Education from the University of Arizona. Caitlyn completed the ISPP Dietetic Internship in 2014. She has had experience as a personal trainer, and as a dietitian in multiple hospital, rehab, fitness, and private settings. Caitlyn is enthusiastic about her opportunity to work for Sierra Tucson and continues to meet with patients in her out-patient practice at El Con Health and Wellness. She is excited to bring her extroverted personality to SAZAND to help recruit new members and leaders on the nominating committee!
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Alexandra Mouw graduated from the University of Arizona in 2012 and completed the Maricopa County WIC Track Dietetic Internship in 2015. She will graduate from ASU in December 2018 with her Master of Science in Family and Human Development. Currently, Alexandra works as the senior RD for the Arizona WIC Program in Marana. She is the Southern AZ media liaison for the WIC Program and she is leading her agency's pilot WIC Online program bringing virtual nutrition classes to rural and low-income communities. Alexandra volunteers her time as a preceptor for the UA ISSP Dietetic Internship and the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara with the hopes of sharing her passion for counseling and maternal/child nutrition. She is also the Nominating Committee Co-Chair for the Southern Arizona Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Outside of building her dream career, Alexandra enjoys camping and hiking with her fiancé and their three dogs, petting sting rays at the Sonoran Desert Museum, and working on her vintage Ford Bronco. She is also learning Czech and has plans to obtain her private pilot's license in 2019.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Earn CEUs and network with other nutrition professionals from across the state.
Connect and network online with nutrition professionals across Arizona.
Take advantage of our programs, products and services.
Arizona Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics
Anderson's Nutrition, LLC
Banner Desert Medical Center
Graham County


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Steve Mueller
WI Dept of Workforce Development
Steve Mueller is the CIO for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. He is responsible for application development, infrastructure and operations as well as strategy and leadership for enterprise business analysis, project management, and lean government initiatives.
Steve's value to his business partners comes out of his natural curiosity about technology, a desire to challenge and develop his managers and staff, coupled with an action-oriented approach to deliver business outcomes. One of Steve's core tenets, "optimize before digitize" emphasizes studying business processes before applying automated solutions.
Steve holds a BS in Business Administration, majoring in Finance and Marketing. He has 20+ years of IT management experience in the private and public sectors holding key IT positions in consulting, health care, retail and government organizations. Steve also serves as an Executive Member of the State of Wisconsin IT Directors Council.


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A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet
There are so many good elements to A Promise of Fire, but also so many that made me sit back and say, "Hmm"—and not in a good way.
I thought I was going to get a heroine I really loved here. We open to Cat Fisa, a young woman working as a clairvoyant in a traveling circus who's on the run from something. We don't know what that is yet, but there's enough teasing to make us want to know. She's got interesting powers—like the ability to detect lies—that make her powerful as an asset, but not always powerful as a person. She's snappy, snarky, and easily holds her own against any threat that comes her way.
Until Griffin. Or, as he's referred to for much of the book (and I hate this name but I understand why the royals are referred to like this), Beta Sinta. What that means is he's the second in command of the recently conquered kingdom of Sinta. From the get go, he's described as being huge, muscular, and having a hawk-ish nose. These descriptions are repeated over and over again throughout the book, which was problematic for me. Why? Because I kept accidentally picturing Shan Yu from Mulan.
Let me tell you, he is not the guy you want in your head in a romance novel. Unless you're into it. In which case, have at 'er. Not the case for me, unfortunately. I had to stop and try to think of someone else to take his place. Normally I don't put a real face to a fictional one when I read, but in this case there was no avoiding it. Picturing Richard Armitage helped, but I still couldn't quite get into him as a hero.
All description aside, he and his crew were kind of jerks anyway. They kidnap Cat because she's a powerful asset to their kingdom, but then don't understand why she spends so much time griping. I don't mind the kidnapping trope if it's done well, but in this case it wasn't. Nobody from Beta Team was even slightly repentant. Instead of working through the problem together, at some point Cat just basically got over it. No me gusta.
Like I said, Cat started out strong for me. There were lots of times during the novel that I considered her to be clever, levelheaded, and wise beyond her years. The times when she was hotheaded fit in with her character well and rounded her out. But then there were so many times over the course of the narrative that she acted like an absolute child. She was so back and forth with her feelings about Griffin and the others that a vein nearly began visibly pulsing in my temple. I feel like you can't constantly complain about being a captive and then also be cool with it. You've got to make up your mind.
I did, however, really enjoy the fantasy elements in this book. I liked the idea of the magic and the way magic was dispersed through the kingdoms. And I loved—loved!—the use of Greek mythology. Since I'm not naturally a fantasy reader, having a world that was new but I could at least partially identify with was a huge help.
Writing wise, I didn't have many complaints. For the most part, the prose was enjoyable. I got a bit annoyed with how much the author built up the tension between Cat and Griffin, though. They couldn't look at each other without Cat nearly exploding. It was too much after awhile. While I wasn't totally on board with the romance, the romance scenes weren't bad. I've read better, but I've also read worse. Any enjoyment I had was ruined anytime my carefully placed mental image of Richard Armitage slipped in favour of Shan Yu, which happened quite often since there was near constant references to his hulking frame and muscles.
All that aside, this was a debut novel. And, for a debut novel, it was quite enjoyable. There was enough mystery and suspense to keep me interested in the plot, even if the romance was a bit lost on me. And for that, I'll give it 3.5/5 stars.
Ever considered to add your own voice? We are currently looking for additional reviewers. No previous experience necessary, just a true appreciation for romance. If interested, please drop us an email at firstname.lastname@example.com. We are looking forward to hearing from you!


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Temporary "Vacation" Boarding
Driving to Bend? Driving through Bend? Stop at BentWire Ranch with your horse and rig for a night or a week. You can camp in your rig or in one of several nearby hotels. We have a nice safe comfortable place for your horse while you're here. Lots of great riding right off our property or close by.
- 35 amp electrical for your rig
- Clean shower for you in the barn
- Long rigs have no problem turning around
- Very, very quiet at night- no traffic noise
- Pets welcome but they must be social with other dogs. Please don't let your dogs out of your rig until you get the OK from someone at the Ranch
$30 per trailer, tent or sleeping unit per night
$30 per horse per night
- Stay in your Own Trailer or Motor Home. We have water, a bathroom with a shower, and 30amp power hookup.
- Come, bring your horse, and stay here at the ranch for the night or a couple of nights while on a trip, or even if Bend is your short-term destination.
- Fees for the horses are the same as listed above and are in addition to the listed fee.
- Check In Time: 12 Noon or later
- Check Out Time: 12 Noon or before
- Extra Services- $5.00 each day
- Hay
- Blanketing
- Graining
- Medication
- RV Electrical Hookup
Call or text Lucinda at (541) 977-5611


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Region 15 Links
My School Bucks - lunch accounts
Did you know the PES PTO made $6,698.91 last year from Stop and Shop's A+ Rewards program?
This program costs PES families nothing and is our single biggest source of income!
In 2016-2017, we made $7300 from this program, and the year before that $9400! $9400 would have covered the cost of the chromebook cart and iPad cart we purchased last year, as well as all our cultural enrichment events! We can reach those numbers again, but we need lots of families participate.
If you have a Stop & Shop card, we could really use your help! Please register your card for A+ Rewards. Nothing more is required to help start earning money for the school! Just follow the instructions below...
- If you haven't already registered your Stop & Shop card online, create your account here: https://stopandshop.com/sign-up/
- Once you have an account, visit the household designation page to pick which schools you want to earn rewards for. Search for "Southbury CT" and select "Pomperaug Elementary School". https://stopandshop.com/school-rewards/household-designation/
- Click the "Save and Finish" button.
That's it! You will earn points for our school with every purchase you make from September 7th 2018 to March 16th 2019. Then Stop & Shop will cut a check to the PES PTO. It's that easy and it makes a BIG difference!


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Deborah Howard's opening at Edge Gallery Friday, July 17, displayed works of melded media: Holocaust imagery paired with haunting photos, encaustics juxtaposed with what perhaps unites us all: shoes. Shoes, the elements that tie the entire exhibition together, are gnarled, painted, and sculpted into art at the hands of Howard; they become relics in her care.
The encaustics and shoes make up the bulk of the exhibit and work together to create a mélange of painting and sculpture that seems to take on a different medium altogether. Encaustic is a painting method where color-pigmented beeswax is melted, applied to a surface and reheated to fuse the paint into a smooth or textured finish. In Howard's exhibit, she tends to take the textured approach, which evokes something gruesome and striking in her work, especially when the shoes interact with the canvas itself, whether melted into the canvas or placed in front of it, creating a museum-like quality.
Howard, who displayed her Portrait Project of Holocaust Survivors in 2008, calls to mind this past once again, reminding viewers of the extensive shoe collection displayed in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. She has taken her shoes and placed them on display, re-positioning them as works of art. Beautiful and eerie, they nag at us, make us uncomfortable, and beg us to ask questions: Where did they come from? And more importantly, whom did they come from? I found myself wondering if these shoes were taken or given over as pieces of art.
The encaustics react with the shoes most prominently in Celestial Slipper, where the canvases seem to take the place of the human figure. The only human quality remaining are the shoes, and that is enough for the viewer to infer a human. The fact of the matter is, though, that the shoes' owner (whoever it was) is gone and replaced by material. Finality, beauty, and tragedy seep out from this piece and into the viewer.
Howard heads the painting program at the University of Denver. Her work has been exhibited at Aspen Art Museum, Regis University in Denver, Arvada Arts Center, Peace Museum in Chicago, Tweed Museum in Duluth Minnesota, Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans and City College in New York.
-Jessica Hughes


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Category Archives: Philippines
Jail Talent Show, Davao City, Philippines
Hey Friendfolk,
Some of the interns here in Davao work at the local woman's jail. Its not really a jail – it is where woman are held until they are convicted of tried for a crime – since this is the Philippines- some of these woman have been there for 6 years without being convicted of everything! What a terrible thing. But all these woman are very nice people filled with hope and determined to do good when they get out – they must spend a lot of each day praying. So it makes sense.
But! Since the interns are soon to be leaving – they decided to host a talent show with the woman in the prison. All of the AIESEC interns here in Davao, about 40 of us, all went to the jail, to watch the woman sing, dance, and act. It was a jolly time.
Afterwards we had options to get massages, manicures, pedicures, or hair cuts – since these were the professions of the woman prior to being put in the jail. I got a full body massage…and I am a happy person! 🙂
I went to the mall afterwords and bought lots and lots of dvds for 60P ($1.25) each – I spent $15 Canadian and bought – How I Met Your Mother Season 1-5, House Season 1-5, Rome Season 1, true Blood Season 1-2, and 4 movies; Inception, PS I Love You, The Notebook, and The Hangover! WOWZERS!! I love the affordability of Asia! 🙂
Happy Days
Davao Davao – What is there to do?
Heya Friendfolk,
So I am now working in Davao City, Philippines. It is on Mindanao Island, the most southern part of the Philippines. Davao City is a very large city but it does not feel that way. There are no tall buildings and not a lot to do here. It is a quiet place to be living and working. I live in "My Studio", an apartment building with about 30 other interns working here. I have two Chinese room mates- One speaks great English and the other speaks very minimally.
So what am I doing here? Well I am doing a 2 month CEED for an organization called AIESEC. CEED stands for Cultural Envoy for Exchange Development. I am working with the local AIESEC here in Philippines. My intended job was to be a market consultant and contact companies and raise management/business related internships here in Davao. Since arriving my job as developed more into a marketing consultant for the local members since I will be taking time to train the members on HOW to market to companies since currently the AIESEC has only raised un-paid development internships. Am I ok with this change – yes – it is good practice for me – does this take more time to get started – yes – the locals plan everything which means it goes on Filipino time and not my time. Thats alright! Cultural adjustments! 🙂
Since I had that little fiasco in the Jakarta Airport with the requirement of having a booked onward ticket OUT of the Philippines….I booked a ticket home for September 2nd. But I am now feeling I should go home earlier so that I can spend more time with friends and family and have more time to relax at home prior to returning to Ottawa for a busy semester of University. We'll see if I can make these changes.
So far, 2.5 weeks in, I have gone out for dinner ALOT….and Filipino food is very un-vegetarian friendly…..there are Minimal vegetables here? Atleast that I've found. Feel bad for this poor Vegetarian. haha So there is basically ONLY bbq dinners….EVERYNIGHT! but hey….atleast its still cheap….about $2-$3 a meal. But all I crave is a greek salad! Because of this lack of vegetarian options I have now adopted Chicken into my diet – MAN CHICKEN IS DELICIOUS AFTER SO MANY YEARS NOT EATING IT!!
I've also been wakeboarding and on an island hopping tour. Both were great fun except on the overnight of the island hopping where the roof above ONLY my bed leaked and I got soaking wet and thus the slight cold I had turned into a full on sickness after spending the night sleeping on wet blankets. Ugh.
Happy Life
Manila Philippines!
So I stopped over in Manila Philippines to visit some friends I met in Taiwan! It was a nice relaxing week filled with old city charm and laughter. But getting out of Jakarta was TERRRRRIBLE!
SO I get to the airport in jakarta for my flight and there are these 9 American highschool boys infront of me who are more interested in playing stupid games than actually checking themselves in….it took 50 minutes! 50 MINUTES! to get them checked in…..so I only had about 30 minutes left until boarding….so Its me next I hand over my passport and put my luggage on…..and then the check-in clerk asks "Do you have a visa or on-ward travel plans out of Philippines?"…I reply " No, I don't need a visa I get a free tourist stamp, and I havent booked my ticket home yet, Im staying for for 2 months"….his reply "You may not get on this flight without one or the other of those things please step out of line"….me "WTF ARE YOU JOKING ME?!?!?!?!?" I only have 25 minutes now!! So I ask where there is internet to book myself a flight home to Canada – which is about 1KM away….so I put my ;luggage behind their counter and RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN to the hotel that has internet! I am in no shape to be doing this! I Get there and their internet is closed, so i VERY quickly explain my situation and they let me on – but my visa doesnt work when swiped so I had to run out and get money from an ATM first then come back and pay them I got on and the internet was sooo slowww….I was almost in tears I was so panicked!!! But I finally booked a ticket home off Expedia, printed it, and RANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN that 1KM back to the desk with only 5 minutes to spare and they GLANCE, like SLIGHT SLIGHT SLIGHT GLANCE, at my ticket, and say ok have a good flight. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!??!?!??! And when I arrived in Philippines they NEVERRRRRRR checked or asked for anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW. Hating Jakarta and CEBU airlines for scaring me almost outta my flight!!!! but I arrived PHEW!!
So its 5:30Am, I get off my flight….and nobody is around….hmm??? haha So I find a bistro and try to talk to everybody online but nobody is online cause its 5:30am….so I call Gabe, who is the only one whos number I actually have, but he is in the South oh Philippines in Davao, but he works his magic for me and everybody sorts it out and I meet them on their University campus, De La Salle, which is near the Airport. Woot. And my week was happily ever after. I stayed with an AIESECer in his HUGE mansion of a house in a gated community and just relaxed. Francis took me to Intramurous which is the old walled city and we saw beautiful churches, and I met lots of AIESECers and just hung around Manila 🙂
Now I flew to Davao and life is good. I am in a hostel for a few days before moving into an apartment with other Interns! Just exploring Davao City. 🙂


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1 vs 1 is where two comic books battle it out in a winner takes all contest to see which one I'll continue to purchase and which one gets dropped.… except when I decide to keep reading the second one anyway.
Winner: Three way tie between Red Sonja and Gail Simone and Marguerite Bennett
The Contestants
There are so many first issues out this month with so many interesting story lines it seems overwhelming.
The Favorite(s)
Gail Simone. Not only is the writer for Surviving Megalopolis, she had an amazing run on Red Sonja and coordinated Dynamite's cross over event Swords of Sorrow which set the stage for Marguerite Bennett to begin her run on Red Sonja.
So while only one of these two walks away. Gail Simone has a share in both. So she wins either way. An historic first if this completely made up competition that is less than a year old.
Marguerite Bennett has had what I consider an amazing (and overlooked) run on Marvel's Angela. Both in Angela Assassin of Asgard and Angela Queen of Hel. Angela is a character that is not dissimilar from Red Sonja. And Bennett has done some remarkable storytelling on those titles. Having her follow Simone on the title is equal parts: good fortune and a no brainer.
The Match
- Red Sonja
- Doesn't explain the change in Red Sonja's wardrobe. And it doesn't need to. Good call on Bennett. The last thing the story needs is 6 panel explanation on why a warrior needs to wear cloths. If any explanation is owed it is the previous chain mail bikini that needs to be explained. And not by the writer. By me. To my wife… So this is the first time a print version of Red Sonja made it into my house. (Digital is a totally different story).
- There were a couple pages where I didn't understand the sequence, which took me out of the story as I tried (and failed) to understand what was going on. I don't mind not understanding a sequence, as long as I'm not supposed to understand it based on what I've read. But this had the feel that I should have known.
- Red Sonja's characterization had it's moments, but it also had a few moments where I wondered if Red Sonja was being written too soft. But at the end of the story we begin to see a familiar Red Sonja emerge. There's potential that this could carry through well into the next issue. I hope that's the case, but I've had my hopes crushed before so I won't hope to the point of convincing myself that the second issue will be action packed Red Sonja madness.
- The Art by Aneke was fantastic.
- Surviving Megalopolis
- Little did I know that Surviving Megalopolis is a continuation or follow up to Leaving Megalopolis. It looks brilliant. Both in terms of art and storytelling. It's just not a great place to start the series from.
What Others Think
Red Sonja Vol. 3 sold out. So, retailers have good things to say about Red Sonja. Surviving Megalopolis hasn't received that many reviews, so eh.
Final Thoughts… a Question Really
I noticed the variant covers for the new Dynamite titles can be put side by side to form a larger image. An obvious tactic to cross sell titles. Each of the covers for Surviving Megalopolis are a piece of a larger image. Is this part of Gail Simone's play book?


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Poli-Sci-Fi Radio interview now online
Me and Brian Wood at Comic-Con 2007 (source)
Poli-Sci-Fi Radio celebrated their 100th episode this weekend (congrats, guys!) and I was a guest on their show along with my favorite comic writer Brian Wood, and a few others. Be sure to have a listen and subscribe to their podcast!


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I Samuel 27-30
Ken Onstot
Scriptures: I Samuel 27:1-28:2; 29:1-7
Before I read our second scripture lesson we need to
understand the hole into which David has dug himself. If you remember from last week, King Saul, the king of Israel, is out to kill David because he is afraid that David will take over the throne. So David spends almost all of chapters 21-26 on the run, keeping just one step out of Saul's reach. Finally, David decides that the only way to escape Saul is to defect to the Philistines. The Philistines are the enemies of King Saul, so Saul will never go looking for David among the Philistines.
There is just one problem: the Philistines are also the
enemies of David. Goliath, the giant whom David killed, was a Philistine. Most of David's battles were against the Philistines. In I Samuel 18 after the Israelites win a great victory, the cheering crowd says, "Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands." They are talking about killing Philistines. The Philistines are just as likely to hate David as Saul is, unless David somehow convinces the Philistines that he is now on their side.
David tries to do this by pretending to go on raids against
the Israelites and their allies. He tells the Philistines that he is conducting raids against the people of Judah, one of the tribes of Israel, and against the Kenites and Jerahmeelites who were allies of Israel, and he brings back some of the plunder to prove it. In reality, however, David goes on raids against the Geshurites and the Amalekites, who are enemies of Israel and possible friends of the Philistines. He makes the Philistines think he is attacking their enemies, when in reality he is attacking their friends. But to get away with this he has to kill all the Geshurites and Amalekites, so that none of them will squeal on him. Please note, God does not tell David to do this-any of it. David does all this on his own to deceive the Philistines, cover his tracks, and save his neck.
There is an old saying, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first
we practice to deceive." David weaves a tangled web of deceit to persuade King Achish, one of the Philistine kings, to give him sanctuary from the pursuit of Saul.
But at the beginning of chapter 28, David is caught in his own web.
Verse 1: "In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, 'You know, of course, that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.'"
Now David is caught. If he goes with Achish to fight against Israel,
he will become an enemy of his own people. He will never become the future king of Israel if he fights a war against them. On the other hand, if he refuses, then King Achish will know that David is a traitor-a closet Israelite. Achish will probably have him executed him as a spy. So what will happen? Now we are ready for our second scripture reading: I Samuel 29:1-7.
[Read I Samuel 29:1-7]
David is bailed out by the other Philistine commanders. They tell
Achish, "We don't want this guy going into battle with us against the Israelites. You may trust him, but we don't. Send him home." So David is sent back to Ziklag where he can still be safe from King Saul, but he does not have to fight a war against his own people.
There are so many examples in the Bible and in life of people telling
lies to protect themselves and ending up in a hole from which they cannot escape. Next week in our 365 Bible stories we will read about David's affair with Bathsheba. David has an affair with a married woman. As a king David could take as a wife almost any unmarried woman he wanted, but even a king is not supposed to have an affair with a married woman, especially a woman married to one of his most trusted officers, a soldier named Uriah. David tries to hide the affair, but Bathsheba gets pregnant. Then David tries to cover up his responsibility for the pregnancy by bringing Uriah back from the war zone to sleep with his wife so that everyone will think that Uriah is the father. But Uriah refuses to come home to his wife. He tells David it would be wrong for him to go home and sleep in his own bed with his own wife while his fellow soldiers are huddled in tents risking their lives for their country. Uriah's loyalty to his troops is impressive, which makes David's actions all that more despicable, and hard to cover up. Finally, David arranges to have Uriah killed in battle. Then David can marry his widow and no one will know that he committed adultery with her. Except God knows, and eventually David is confronted by God about what he did.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. In
Spokane I did some counseling with a couple who were not members of the church. The husband had a gambling problem. Like most gamblers he lost money. Even when he won money, he kept playing until he lost it. Then he started charging his credit card to pay his debts. When he could no longer make even the minimum payments, he got a second credit card to make payments on the first. Eventually the second card maxed out, and his wife found out about it because her own credit was blocked. That's when they came in for counseling.
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. I
think of Enron. Enron was a Fortune 500 company that completely imploded when it tried to hide questionable business practices with questionable accounting practices. They dug themselves into a hole from which they could not climb out, except by going to jail.
In David's case he did not need to do that. God had promised to make
David the next king of Israel. David knew that. He also knew that God had repeatedly saved him from Saul in the past. But David quit trusting that promise. He decides that he had take matters into his own hands. He had to save himself by defecting to the Philistines and deceiving them about his true loyalty.
But in our second scripture reading we get a glimpse of God's grace.
It is not just the Philistines commanders who bail David out. God bails him out. Through all of David's complicated lies and cover-ups, God never gave up on him. God never turned away from him, and that is what allowed David eventually to come back and become the king that God intended him to be.
It is a common story: doing something wrong, trying to cover it up,
and digging ourselves into a hole from which we cannot escape. It's a story repeated over and over.
But the good news is that we don't have to do that anymore. We can
quit trusting in lies, because we can trust in God. We don't have to try and cover up what we've done, because God already knows all about it and still loves us. That's what God showed David in this story. We can give up on deception because God will not give up on us.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.
Think how freeing it could be to climb out of that web into God's hands.


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Ordinarily, you'd be at the right spot, but we've recently launched a brand new community website... For the community, by the community.
Yay... Take Me to the Community!
Welcome to the DNN Community Forums, your preferred source of online community support for all things related to DNN.In order to participate you must be a registered DNNizen
I'm hoping this is the right place to post this; if not, please let me know.
How can I disable the use of special characters int the search field? I'm referring to this list, as documented in the last paragraph of the Lucene documentation:
+ - && || ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ " ~ * ? : \
The problem is that in my website many articles have titles containing these special characters, this is particularly true for dashes and colons, and my users expect that if they type something like some_event: it was a success in the search box (which is the title of an article) the search should return that article, while it returns every article and every page in the site.
Can this feature be disabled?
DNN Digest is our monthly email newsletter. It highlights news and content from around the DNN ecosystem, such as new modules and themes, messages from leadership, blog posts and notable tweets. Keep your finger on the pulse of the ecosystem by subscribing.


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linkedin down How will LinkedIn Profile Optimization assist to enhance your personal brand name?
linkedin down LinkedIn is an amazing channel for specific branding and might allow you to produce a competent visibility on one of the most popular social media network with greater than 377 million experts.
LinkedIn might be practical for the pursuit of work, organizing and additionally for lead generation particularly when you are mindful of all hidden tricks along with approaches to LinkedIn Profile Optimization. In case your "Who's Viewed Your Profile" representation is level covering week after week like a body without a beat, right here is a character check rip off sheet as well as couple of tips to enhance the LinkedIn profile that will certainly help bring some life into your account and also produce even more account views linkedin down.
Luckily, there is a free device you could utilize to place yourself as well as your very own brand and it is called LinkedIn!
This is the place you can interface with the possible clients to produce the company, clients that are particularly keen on exactly what you offer the table or even situate the one incredible contract you have actually been seeking.
linkedin down
Branding on LinkedIn essentially implies recognizing how you can showcase what you give the table. With a terrific many records on LinkedIn, without adjusting your "brand", you might come to be blended in the team. Arise from the pack by trembling your very own brand name with these pointers. Here are couple of means you can fabricate your very own brand on LinkedIn by LinkedIn Profile Optimization:
Outline Your Narrative linkedin down
When somebody first interacts with the profile, they will choose a prompt plan to proceed pursuing or hand down to the complying with account that is most likely your rival. Because of this, you've to center around progressing the profile to influence it to emerge.
The issue various individuals confront is that they merely move their resume or toss something together. Which indicates the account is unimpressive or unfocused.
You have the phenomenal position of standing where you are today, regarding just how you got here and also concentrating on where you are going. You get the chance to earn your story.
You obtain the chance to choose which work you put right into your account and which components of those occupations to attribute. All that you place on your profile needs to be collaborated specifically towards the brand name you are making and also for that LinkedIn Profile Optimization is a must.
Include Keywords
It might be foreseeable as well as time-worn – yet the what's what is key words and also the subsequent discover capacity is exactly what affecting the Internet globe to go round. Consider exactly what someone might type into Google if they were hunting down somebody like you.
Think verb, point, equivalent word, as well as phrase. Exactly what is your service name? These are search phrases to use in your account.
Include Your Elevator Speech
You require a lift pitch or speech, and also you need to add it to LinkedIn. linkedin down A "lift speech" is that super brief speech you would provide (pitch) to a main in the middle of the flight approximately his office or down to her auto. You have potentially 30 seconds to pitch an unthinkable tale, publication or assumed to them.
You have to do similarly with your LinkedIn brand. In the occasion that somebody messages you or you need to speak with them concerning your brand, have a suitable lift speech prepared. In the event that it is in online message structure, you could make use of a one section pitch.
Focus on Your Connections
Do they understandably have these countless genuine good friends? Do they truly talk with this numerous individuals?
LinkedIn is a specialist systems management account, so essentially going out and interfacing with your companions truly isn't really essential. Search out people in your field, search for those you appreciate or that speak to their company in a method you like.
Make Use Of the Publisher Tool
Outstanding among various other methods to LinkedIn Profile Optimization in addition to to build the networking capacity and to discover new organisation partners is to make use of the publishing device. Compose web content on the topic you are occupied with. Make a week by week or biweekly blog site because your very own brand. This will certainly assist sustain the direct exposure and also bring added connections. There are a variety of LinkedIn profile optimization instances that you could take a look at as well as these LinkedIn profile optimization instances will assist you to enhance your personal brand name.
Customize URL
When you make a LinkedIn account you will wind up with some overwhelmed wreckage of a URL. It encourages it to emerge on a web page and will help in LinkedIn profile optimization and in enhancement enhance your own brand name.
Sector Photo
Utilize a profile photo that talks to your expert side along with interfaces with the organisation. Scratch the photo of you hanging with companions for a picture talking with your incorporation in business. Try to keep the branding photos constant over the on the internet web pages. This makes it less requiring to view. linkedin down There manies LinkedIn profile optimization instances that you can look and also see just what sort of images they have actually submitted on their profile.
Take advantage of Other Content
You don't usually have to make web content to help your very own brand. In the occasion that you read something that talks with your brand name well, no matter whether you really did not make it yourself, share it and also like it. Others will certainly see this. This can accomplish new links basically to take advantage of the various other material as well as assist in LinkedIn profile optimization.
It does not make a distinction on the occasion that you are at first stages of the company, are merely starting to remove or if you are a steam train and also absolutely nothing can avoid you from progression. By exploiting these pointers, you will see the increased enthusiasm for your account, as well as you will certainly hold your account over the resistance, which is something you have to attain your defined goals.


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Thank you for choosing Coral Springs. Receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2007 and winning the Governor's Sterling Award for Performance Excellence in 1997 and again in 2003 validates our sustained commitment to delivering the highest quality of customer service to our community.
Coral Springs is the first local or state government in the nation to receive the 2007 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for performance excellence. Following the principals, practices and tools of the best run companies in America, the city has been able to improve the way we do business. Aspiring to this level of excellence enables us to respond to our residents' needs in the most responsive and responsible manner. While this award is presented to the city, you, our residents and businesses, are the true beneficiaries.
We are in an era of economic recession. Despite these challenges, the city continues to provide the highest quality of services at the lowest price, as has been our practice for many years. This practice continues to be validated by Wall Street and by our excellent customer satisfaction feedback from you.
Only 18.5 percent of the property taxes you pay to the county property appraiser go to the city of Coral Springs, while the city provides the lion's share of the government services you rely upon on a daily basis; Police, EMS, Fire, Parks, Recreation, and Public Works, just to name a few. And Coral Springs still has the lowest operating millage rate among large, full-service cities in Broward County.
We remain true to our core values, demonstrating a passion for customer service and creating a government that works better and costs less.
On behalf of all the dedicated employees and volunteers serving the citizens of Coral Springs, we remain loyal to the task of making Coral Springs the nation's premier community in which to live, work and raise a family.


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Day 1!!
It was great to meet some motivated folks today! Every evening on our blog, you can find the WOD, scores/times from that day, as well as announcements and updates on the gym. We will also be posting nutrition information, recipes, CrossFit news and videos, and all sorts of other fitness info.


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Hi Friends, Christmas season is coming and you want to make sure you have prepared the gifts to give to little Anna and Timmy, but maybe you're having a problem figuring out what to get, or you want to give, but you choose to make over buy? Well, this tutorial is exactly for that.
I will help you and get you through step by step, on how i make my Christmas gift, which is a table lamp that looks so beautiful. It looks like it contains a rainbow and a cloud inside the bottle, so magical. But more than that, you can even control what color the light is, and how bright it is. Besides looking good to be put on top of the shelf between your books, it's also very nice to be the last light illuminating your room while you sleep the Holy Christmas night.
Well then friends, without further a due, let's get to the building :>
Teacher Notes
Teachers! Did you use this instructable in your classroom?
Add a Teacher Note to share how you incorporated it into your lesson.
Step 1: The Materials
- Glass Bottle
Obviously you can use whatever jar or glass containers you have.
- Doll Filling
This spongy cloud-looking material is the filling that you usually find inside a doll, or you can just buy a bunch from a decorative material store.
- LED lights
Whether you want to use an LED strip or small LED bulbs, make sure it fits the mouth of the bottle .
- Power Source
If you're planning on having the light portable then use a battery, but i recommend having the lamp as a furniture and use an DC Adaptor that plugs to the wall.
- Electronic Parts
This one depends on what kind of effects you want to include in the lamp, i made mine so that it can shift the color from blue to orange so i used a potentiometer to turn the dial to the color i want.
- Switch - A switch is really good when you don't want to keep unplugging the lamp to turn it of if you use an adaptor
- Decoration- Now this one is up to you but the final product will look really good if you do add some decorations :)
Always make sure to use materials that you already have and recycled materials.
Step 2: Preparing the LEDs
LED Strip
If you use an LED Strip, cut it to a little bit less than the double of the height of the bottle so that when you fold the LED strip, that is sticking its sticky part to the other half, we fold the LED Strip, because we want the LEDs to light both sides of the bottle and not only one side. The folded LED will fill the height of the bottle and leaving some space for the clouds. To power the LED strip, use an AC to DC Adaptor, but usually a color shifting LED Strip already comes with a remote and an adaptor to plug into the wall.
LED Bulb
And if you use small bottles (4-6" in height), a 1.5V - 3V LED bulb will work, but you don't get the color shifting effects from the LED strip, unless if you use multiple LEDs (varying colors) and wire them together to a potentiometer i mentioned before, that way you can turn the dial to shift to the other LED and thus changing the color of the cloud.
Step 3: Placing the LED & Cloud Into the Bottle
Now this is the Tricky part, as you need to put in the cloud and the LED in a way that the cloud hides the LED in it.
My way is that i put some cloud first to the bottom of the bottle, then put the LED on it and in the middle of the bottle, and then fill in the room around the LED with more clouds all the way to the top
Be patient in this one and use a small and long object to push the cloud into place in the bottle if your hand can no longer reach it.
Note : The more cloud you use, the harder it will be for the LED light to diffuse out, so use the appropriate amount of cloud for your container that is not too much or too little that the LED is not hidden.
In the end if you do it right, you'll have the wire of the LED poking out of the bottle mouth and the rest of the LED inside the bottle is totally hidden by the clouds.
Step 4: Final Step
Light It Up
Now you need to figure out how to power your lamp, as i've mentioned before, if you use an LED Strip it would be nicer to have it connected to an Adaptor and plug it into the wall,
but if you just use an LED bulb, you can power it over 1.5V - 3V battery, and it would be best if you use a coin cell battery as it has a small size an is easier to conceal later on with the decorative materials.
Now you can add a switch or a potentiometer if you want to, a potentiometer works similarly to a switch but instead of a flick of on and off, it uses a dial that you can turn to brighten or dim the light slowly.
Finally your lamp is finished and it's time to spice it up with some personal touch, because its Christmas season, it placed a pine cone that i previously spray painted gold on top of the bottle, and wrap the part where i stuck the switch and potentiometer with some decorative strings and marbles. Using a glue-gun makes sticking the decorations really convenient and quick.
Step 5: You Are Done :)
Congratulations, you have made a beautiful cloud in a bottle Lamp as a Christmas gift or a personal item to spice up your house and it really does works well with the Christmas theme :)
This project is competing in the "Homemade Gifts" contest, make sure to vote this project and follow me on instructable for more projects like this. Peace.
Participated in the
Furniture Contest 2017
Participated in the
LED Contest 2017
Participated in the
Homemade Gifts Contest 2017
desdelapatria made it!


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TACOP: Always Bring a Knife to a Gunfight
There are some out there that will look at the title of this and say, "Jeff, I think what you meant to say was never bring a knife to a gunfight."
And my response would be, "no, my objective as an instructor and educator is to enable an operator to kill enemy combatants or a concerned private citizen for that matter to stop the threat from harming them or their family members with a firearm, knife or be it unarmed, under extreme stress.
Furthermore, he or she must be able to transition with speed and accuracy from and to any weapon system in that threat environment and survive the conflict.
In order for you to do this effectively, your training must account for a number of critical factors:
- Personal readiness – this is both your mental and physical being.
- Body Stress Response and its affects on you in that high stress environment or situation.
- Tactical readiness – your training must be congruent with the threat environment, and allow you to engage threats with a tactical advantage.
- Environmental readiness – your training must include and account for whatever environmental conditions you may be subjected to in the course of conflict. These may include such things as slippery or wet grounds, gravel, ice, snow, wooded or urban area, low or no light conditions, cold, heat, sweat and more.
This is no easy task for most people. I know from personal experience what sets apart the real world operator from the concerned private citizen, so let's review that first and then move onto empowering you with some of these elements that will help you onto the right path of understanding why you always need to bring a knife to a gunfight.
What sets apart the real world operator that has "killing" experience from the private citizen?
- When your area of operations (AO) is a high threat environment or your job or mission repeatedly places you in a high threat, high stress environment, it changes your entire way of thinking and executing. For example, as an operator, I would have certain tools of the trade with me at all times.These might include a primary weapon system such as a rifle and a handgun as a secondary weapon system. I would also have at least a half dozen blades on me at any given time. However having these weapons on your body does not make you a warrior. You see I would spend inordinate amounts of time thinking about how I would employ those weapons to kill an enemy.
- Next, I would utilize "visualization" to practice different potential scenarios in which an enemy could ambush me and how I would survive, what I would do and of course how I would prevent that ambush from happening in the first place.
- I practiced and rehearsed a great deal. Practiced everything from shooting, gun handling, magazine exchanges, malfunction clearances, getting into supported positions and transitioning from one weapon system to another under stress, movement exercises and what to do in any number of last resort situations.
- We practiced and honed awareness skills on a Jason Bourne like level everyday and night.
- We are constantly self-aware of how we walk, move, and go into and out of doorways and vehicles, how we drive and third party awareness, especially in the way of collateral safety or protection.
- When your AO is a high threat environment for extended periods of time, all these skills get honed every hour of the day and thus you are always thinking about everything from your own movement and body position to presenting a weapon at any moment for the express purpose of killing and not shooting at a target down range at a shooting facility.
- Confidence built on a platform of repeated exposure and constant training that allows you a mindset to survive in the harshest of environments and conditions.
- Experience that has evolved you into a predator that is able to fully function at a high level of intellect and skill and integrate into any environment to complete a mission.
- A predatory mindset backed up with real world skills that can be employed against an enemy target in both a psychological and or direct action way.
As you can see there are a number of key skill sets and facets that the operator attains by "living" practice and rehearsal. I realize of course that for the concerned citizen there are limitations that exist in any number of ways, which would encumber the extent to which they could achieve that operational level of readiness.
The fact is while it would be wonderful to have the time and resources to train on that level, it is unrealistic and unnecessary for most. What is realistic though is for you to gain a better comprehension of how and why you can be more effective in your personal defense and security by having a knife as part of your EDC along with your firearm.
And this brings me back to the main focus of the TACOP, which is to drive you to an understanding of why you need to always bring a knife to a gunfight.
In any conflict there are winners and losers. The big difference is winners are always prepared!
Let's take an example from the operator's playbook first to illustrate how a knife can be very effective along with your full kit. We just breached a building in which we had Intel that a known high value insurgent member was hiding out. As you move around a right corner, an enemy combatant that was concealed immediately ambushes you. You weapon is at ready and you are not running into rooms or exposing yourself to unchecked angles, but still this guy gets the drop on you and quickly grabs your rifle pinning it to your body.
You are in the struggle of your life. You do not want to divert your teammates to assist you, so it is going to be up to you to rapidly eliminate this threat before another one pops up and eliminates you!
At this moment you cannot transition to your secondary weapon system, which would be your handgun in your thigh rig or at your waist.
You are already engaged for control and cannot risk breaking contact to draw your weapon for concern that the enemy will most likely try to pre-empt you from doing so or go for your gun at some point before you are able to direct the muzzle to them.
So what are your options?
A blade can assist you in this situation. Reaching for your blade you can: A. either cause enough injury to the enemy so you can break contact, create space and bring your secondary weapon system into play to eliminate the threat or B. eliminate the threat quickly by targeting specific anatomical targets so you can continue searching and clearing with your primary weapon system.
I am a concerned private citizen and likely won't be searching for terror cells anytime soon so why do I need a knife in a gunfight?
Like an operator your main objective is to stop the threat and survive. Imagine if you will a situation in which you are legally carrying a concealed firearm. Your on your way home from work and your spouse calls you and asks you to please stop on the way home and pick up a prescription as one of your kids is sick.
You exit the store and start walking towards your car, suddenly you feel a strong hand grab your shoulder and spin you around. The attacker is strong but you are able to get your hand on your gun and while you clear your holster, the attacker quickly grabs your gun and pins it against your body.
As you struggle for control you are able to reach your support side pocket where you keep a tactical folder.
Quickly, you deploy it and stab or slash the attacker's abdomen. He immediately ceases the attack and runs away.
A knife can facilitate:
- Speed to eliminate a threat in extreme close quarters
- The ability to transition more efficiently with reduced risk
- The ability to help create space to redirect or deploy your primary weapon.
- Efficient target elimination when an enemy preempts your attempt to draw your weapon.
- Rapid reactive measures for confined space impairment.
- Rapid ambidextrous weapon accessibility.
- When there is no time to clear a malfunction because of a very close proximity threat, a knife can help you create that time and space and give you continuity with the tempo of the fight. It can also maximize man-to-man engagements when there is more than one combatant or attacker.
Should I carry more than one knife? And where?
For the concerned citizen, I always recommend having at least two knives with you and on you at any given time. Let's examine where you will carry that knife.
If for example you are right handed and you carry concealed at your waist on that dominant side, you must consider the fact that if you need to present your gun to a threat and for whatever reason something goes south quickly where you need to draw your knife, carrying it on the same side as your firearm when you are carrying only one blade may not be the best choice.
If your firing hand is gripping your handgun and you are in the scenario we discussed earlier where the attacker grabs your gun and you are struggling for control, you cannot simply let go of your gun with your firing side hand to deploy your blade that you have clipped to your firing side pocket.
However, with one blade on your strong side and one on your weak side, you dramatically increase your chances of deploying that support side blade (with practice of course!) in the event your handgun is in your firing hand and you need rapid assistance to gain control of the situation.
The other choice is to position a blade centerline on your waist that could be drawn either right or left-handed. This works well no matter what side you carry your firearm on, giving you ambidextrous access at a critical time.
There are two challenges associated with carrying in this position; one is weapon retention in any physical confrontation, and the other is a matter of training yourself to draw or reach for that weapon in that position with either hand-this has to be learned by most as it is not a conventional place to carry.
Tactical readiness for the operator must include the cognitive and physical weapon skills and abilities to efficiently move through a CQC environment employing any level of force necessary to neutralize threats
For an operator with full kit, there are a number of options when it comes to carrying a knife. In this circumstance I always recommend carrying a minimum of three blades. Even for the high-speed low drag operator, having multiple blades across their body and gear is an absolute tactical advantage.
There are so many blade options these days that offer lighter weight materials and composites that it is a tactical faux pas to carry only a single blade.
It is certainly feasible to have a blade mounted on the right or left anterior chest of your load-bearing vest depending on if you are right or left hand dominant.
Additionally, you can consider mounting or positioning a blade tip down on your support side front for quick accessibility in reverse grip. This can be accomplished by employing one of the rifle magazine holders on the vest as a basis to affix or anchor the tool inside or out.
Another possibility is a thigh rig on your support side or support side waist carry. And then depending upon your gear, you could have a right and left lateral draw with tips facing the midline and each other so that you draw from reverse grip.
Of course this is all in addition to a dominant side blade, which can also come in handy as a general tool or when a situation goes south very quickly in extreme close quarters where you are in a confined space and its more efficient to draw your knife to eliminate a threat and then transition back to either your SBR or secondary system.
It could be your taking a right corner as a right-handed shooter and you move the handgun to your support hand and draw your blade with your firing side. Or it could just as easily be a situation in which you have your firearm in your strong hand and you have a blade in your support or reactive hand to assist you as you move through a target rich environment.
What if you run out of ammunition?
Sounds crazy I know, but it can happen to the private citizen or even an operator. Let me tell you about a training experience I had that clearly illustrates my point.
I was working with a S.W.A.T. Team and a group of soldiers that had just come back from multiple tours in the sandbox. Of course both sides were eager to prove who was better on the battlefield, but the objective of the program was simply for everyone to improve on their weapon transitions and skills under stress.
The next exercise was a live fire drill where each man had to move from their primary weapon system to their secondary while moving around cover and engaging multiple targets. I figured it was a good time for me to insert myself into the training- a kind of lead by example lesson.
In any case, just prior to the exercise there was a lull in which everyone was reloading there magazines and I had purposely asked a couple of the guys to load me up.
We moved in 2 man cells and I engaged the first target with two rounds from my rifle. As I continued moving onto the next target, I realized very quickly that my "full" magazine ran dry after those two rounds. Without hesitation I went to index a fresh magazine and found it was also "dry." I then rapidly transitioned to my handgun and engaged the next target with two rounds.
As I continued to engage the following target I again was out of ammo. I then indexed what I anticipated was going to be a very limited capacity or dry magazine, dropped out the spent one and inserted the "new" one and shot one round into the target before my slide locked back.
Here I was now without ammo and I was already coming up on my last two targets and what did I do?
What I spent my whole life doing, I very quickly transitioned to the blade on my anterior chest wall and took out the two targets. At that point, some of the men were looking at me like I was insane as I crouched down to lower my center of gravity and literally thrust thru both targets.
Obviously the men were testing me to see if I practice what I preach. I knew I passed muster with everyone by the looks on their faces during the debrief.
One thing I will say here is that if you ever plan to use a handgun and a knife offensively and simultaneously (meaning both drawn at the same time with the intent of firing and slashing and stabbing) in a military application, you must always be cognizant of the muzzle of that gun as well as the cutting edge and tip of your blade as you press and cut or stab!
To that extent the tactics, techniques and procedures to move seamlessly from one weapon system to another and to be able to employ more than one weapon simultaneously, requires constant practice!
From teaching these very tactics and techniques and from experience, I can tell you that it is very easy for either of these weapons to cross paths with your body parts while engaging multiple threats, and if they do, it could take you out of the fight and make you vulnerable to the enemy.
This is of course a very different situation altogether from having your handgun in your hand defensively with an attacker grabbing that firearm while you get out your blade to change his or her level of commitment.
What if you end up on the ground?
Lastly, there may be times in which the concerned citizen or operator finds himself or herself on the ground fighting for positive control of an attacker or an enemy combatant.
Whether you have your weapon out or are attempting to deploy that gun to stop the threat, a blade is an excellent way to deter, stop or control that threat quickly and decisively when necessary.
It has been my experience that in extreme close quarter combat, an enemy is far more likely to grab someone's firearm in an attempt to gain control or stop that person from shooting them than they would grab someone's blade on the cutting edge.
The takeaway here for you is the same as it was for those men during our training exercise… always bring a knife to a gunfight! …Better yet bring several!
Until next time, stay alert, check your six, put your back against the wall and stay safe!
Dr. Jeff Cantor – Kidnap & ransom response specialist, global security expert and high-risk environment tactical and security instructor, professional educator, corporate trainer, published author and noted speaker, Cantor has spent his life in the service of saving lives and protecting people, governments, corporations and organizations from dangerous situations and high-risk threats. With over three decades of real world operational experience in hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, high risk protection and setting up safe houses for asset transport and relocation, he is a subject matter expert (SME) advisor that has trained S.W.A.T. teams, elite members of the military, undercover operatives from federal agencies, foreign presidential protection detail personnel, contractors, law enforcement instructors, NRA instructors, state troopers, prison CERT teams and self-defense instructors. He is the author of more than two dozen books, manuals, apps and papers in the field of kidnap & ransom, covert surveillance, covert reconnaissance, black ops escape & evasion, edged weapons, active shooter defense, travel security, 360-degree situational awareness, tactical pen defense and more.
Copyright 2017 Dr. Jeff Cantor. All Rights Reserved www.cantortactical.com | www.trsig.com
(Photo: Cantor Tactical YouTube)


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That's right, folks. You read it here first. They're the only two things in life that you cannot avoid. Actually, poop is another one, and short shrieking parasites in light-up sneakers every time you go to Walmart. And a whole slew of other things. But death and taxes is so succinct – the way I like most things to be. You know, on the surface, of course. I can also boogie way down in the dirty complications with you. Whatever you need. Us evolved scorpios can do it all. And we're not gonna be driving by your house at 2am with clenched teeth 10 years after you break up with us.
So, two deaths happened in the family week before last, within hours of one another. Viewing dead bodies is grueling. When forced to sit in the same room with them for an extended period of time, they'll catch my eye as I sense that they're on the very edge of movement. Perhaps that same part of my brain that fills the blind spot in my eye with what it knows from experience should be there also expects them to shift to a more comfortable position. It's disquieting when the rest of my brain remembers that they can't. Repeat several times until I finally get to go home.
Sometimes I think it would be a huge relief to be completely insensitive.
Sinister enough for you? Good, because that's the kind of mood I'm in. And I'm gonna try to lay down some brutal truth while I'm here because I'm also in the mood for some of that. First truth: I write better than I speak, that's why I do this. I MUST do this. Otherwise I'd be forever tongue-tied and flustered, especially when I try to share something real.
Dear Friends,
Life is duality. Take the good with the bad and all of that. It's a shame it isn't really that simple. I've made attempt after futile attempt to distill everything down to its simplest form – grocery lists, my wardrobe, what's good, what's bad, other people, my relationships, my emotions, you know. When I was much younger, I didn't know how to manage my emotions. I was happy, but always guarded. I fell too easily into the blackness of feeling misunderstood, mingling with dirty box knives and bruised knuckles and abject confusion. So I put on my big girl panties, ditched those dead-end friends and fashioned myself a prison of simplicity and solitude. I've tricked myself into believing that how I feel doesn't matter, to benefit the greater good of my own comfort and that of those around me. But the old scars are my reminder that superficial ripples hide consuming depths. Now I only skim those depths, alone, and leave without sustaining any scars that would prove I had been there. It's not denial, per se, it's procrastinating the inevitable. Feel it now, or feel it later in ways you wouldn't believe. Whatever it is can't be hidden or hidden from forever.
And the duality of other people. I'm endlessly fascinated by them and scared shitless of them. They cannot be avoided. So I glint across their surfaces, yet dig fervently through the psychic junkyards for the twinkling gems amongst the rotten cores. I'm as patient and determined as a stringy-haired weirdo with a pick axe and a bucket at a touristy corundum mine. These gems are rare and worth the trouble. Funny thing, though – they tend to show up when you're not even looking for them, in places you'd never expect to find them. I've found a few in my lifetime and I instantly recognize them when I do. They glow. Like glittering treasure under a mile of cold debris, a signal of hope, a kindred spirit, a tether to something higher. Like a warm light by which souls can be safely laid bare without uttering a single word. They make a difference, even if they're around for only a short time. We all need these gems. They shouldn't be stolen away or hoarded in dark musty boxes. They should be cherished and allowed to glitter and glow for whomever enjoys their light.
I can't see these gems and cores within myself, I'm too close, too afraid to expose what's beneath my fragile punk-rock shell to myself. I'm my own worst scrutinizer, psychoanalyzer, 24-hour martinizer. This is something I'll leave to you… I know I can count on the warmest and kindest and glowingest of you to help iron me out when I'm beginning to resemble microwaved hell. To say "Hey girl, it'll be okay. Let me show you something good." You probably won't even know you're doing it. And that's fine, it means you're the real thing. To lock myself away from you would be to not know me.
Thanks for the sparkles.


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Eat your way through Real Festival
Find out what food trucks will be at Real and start planning what you're going to eat.
There is just so much to see and do at Real Festival and you're going to need your sustenance to get you through. Luckily we've got your guide to all the food trucks that will be serving delicious food day and night. Whether you're craving something savoury or sweet; you're a vegetarian or like meat – there is something for all tastes and budgets.
Like any good festival there is a decent range of burger options because really, who doesn't love a burger? They are delicious and easily consumed on the go – perfect for when you don't want to miss a moment of the action.
Penrith locals Burger Head will be serving up their signature burgers which are a little bit fancy, and very delicious. Rangers Texas BBQ are serving Beef Brisket Burgers and Pulled Pork Burgers. There's also Chucks Burgers who will have waygu beef and veggie burgers; everyone's favourite Dirty Bird Food Truck with their southern style chicken wings and burgers; and no festival is complete without Potato Corner so we can eat all their chips.
Must Try: There's so much to choose from in this category, but our pick is the Pulled Pork Burger ($14) from Ranger Texas BBQ. It come in a freshly made bun served with their special BBQ sauce and coleslaw. Yum.
Most unique burger: Who needs meat when there's Burger Head's Mike Tyson burger? It's a vegan burger where mushrooms are treated like meat; smoked, pulled and BBQ'd and served with kale and slaw.
International Food
There's Chinese, Italian, Asian, German, Mexican, Turkish and Greek food in abundance at Real Festival so do your tastebuds a favour and give them some international flavour. Anytime is a good time to head to Dumpling Time for their hand-made pan-fried dumplings and delicious natural fresh iced fruit teas. If it's Italian you're craving there's Enzo's Cucina and Urban Pasta, and Lambda Sydney for all your Greek street food needs. Vege 4 Love is Asian style vegetarian fare and what's not to love about that? Mr Shish are serving up everything that's Turkish and delicious; Rolling Schnitzel for everyone's favourite German staple (and let's face it, we'll all be rolling home after all this food) and Raza Central is all about South American food – nachos, burritos, tacos and more!
Must Try: Lambda Sydney's Lamb, chicken or gilled haloumi souvlaki ($14) served with tomato, onion, special sauce and chips wrapped in a warm Greek pita bread. ($14). While you're there you may as well try the loaded chips with feta cheese, oregano and garlic infused oil ($12). It would be rude not to.
Most unique dish: Raza Central's Pupusas are not to be missed. Freshly made soft corn tortillas filled with pork crackle; served with cheese and refried beans or zucchini cheese and jalapeno, and slaw and salsa.
Make sure you keep room for dessert because you're going to want to visit the food trucks serving the sweet stuff. Pimp My Chimney have traditional Hungarian grilled pastry cones with soft serve ice cream, custard and toppings. There's Torch Me Crème Brulee who have put their street style on this fancy French dessert and everyone's favourite Stroopbros waffles - what they do to their waffles is truly amazing. Indulge with a caffeine hit with a difference with PullnShots Coffee in a Cone. Finally Gelato Messina are taking us back to our childhood by serving up Spiders – combining fizzy drinks with gelato is a match made in tastebud heaven. You don't want to miss out.
Must Try: Gelato Messina have created something special for Real Festival, and you're going to want to try it. Check out their Real Festival Spider (inspired by the Peacock Spider illuminated artwork at Real Festival); just like the cute critter pictured above - it's colourful, crazy and all kinds of delicious.
Most unique dish: The Hungarian chimney pastry cones from Pimp My Chimney gets our vote. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and perfectly finished with either a Nutella Brownie or Caramel Fudge toppings and soft serve ice cream or gelato.
If you thought this event couldn't get any better, think again. There's a riverside bar where you relax and can enjoy beverages (with or sans alcohol) food, sweeping views of the river and still be close to all the action. There's plenty to entertain you while you sit down to eat and drink with the bar getting premium views of all the dancing in Silent Disco Dome and the performances on the main stage. Thirsty? Well you will be well hydrated in the bar with a menu of beer, wine, cider and cocktails if you're after something fancier.
Must try: It's bound to be hot and when it's hot, there's nothing quite like a refreshing glass of Pimms to cool you down. Luckily you can pick up a jug of delicious Pimms cocktail at the Real Festival bar to share between friends while enjoying the beautiful views and atmosphere.


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JUBA, Sudan — Philip Geng Nyuol started fighting for independence with his hands.
He eventually graduated to a machete, then Molotov cocktails, then a gun.
"I crossed rivers full of crocodiles," he said. "And slept in camps in Congo. And ate wild fruits in the bush."
That was nearly 50 years ago — Mr. Nyuol was on the ground floor of southern Sudan's independence struggle, before the rebels even had proper weapons. The memories come flooding back to him, bright but patchy, like sun streaming through the trees.
After decades of war and more than two million lives lost, southern Sudan has arrived at the moment it has been yearning for, a referendum on independence. Polls opened on Sunday just after 8 a.m. local time. All signs point to the people here voting overwhelmingly for secession, and the largest country on the continent will then begin the delicate process of splitting in two.
The United States government has played a pivotal role in bringing this moment to fruition, pushing the northern and southern Sudanese to sign a peace treaty in 2005 that set the referendum in motion. A proud, new African country is about to be born, but it will step onto the world stage with shaky legs. As it stands now, southern Sudan is one of the poorest places on earth.
Most people here scrape by on less than 75 cents a day. More than three-quarters of adults cannot read. Decades of civil war and marginalization have left the economy so crushed that just about everything is imported, down to eggs. According to Oxfam, a teenage girl has a higher chance of dying in childbirth than finishing elementary school.
Tens of thousands have flocked back to take part in the referendum, and some analysts, possibly reinforcing stereotypes of Africa as always teetering on the edge, warn south Sudan could be the next Somalia, awash in violence. Already, aid agencies are ringing the alarm about a lack of food, water, health care and sanitation.
"We have an unfolding humanitarian crisis, layered on top of an existing and forsaken one," said the International Rescue Committee, an American aid organization that works in Sudan.
But this is a land of shared sacrifice, and that may be a cohesive force that helps hold southern Sudan together. After all the years of guerrilla warfare and hardship, oppression and persecution at the hands of the Arabs who rule Sudan, people here are deeply invested in holding a peaceful referendum and building the world's newest nation.
"We are underdeveloped, yes, but we will do it," said Gideon Gatpan Thoar, the information minister of Unity State, near the north-south border.
United Nations officials here say something remarkable has already happened. In 2009, ethnic fighting swept the south, with several thousand people killed in military-grade attacks, fueled by longstanding ethnic rivalries and a sudden, suspicious increase in high-powered weaponry. Many southerners suspected that the government in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, was instigating the violence, just as it had in the past when Khartoum fomented a civil war within a civil war.
But in the past six months, there has been almost no major ethnic violence. One of the last holdouts, a renegade general who had been leading a revolt deep in the bush, recently agreed to a cease-fire. "What we are seeing is a real effort for reconciliation," said a United Nations official in Juba, who was not authorized to speak to the news media and spoke anonymously. "All eyes are on the referendum. They're all trying to get along now."
But the official added, "Everybody knows these issues will come up in the future."
Many northern Sudanese who work in the south are now fleeing. Stocks of goods are going down; prices are going up. People are still talking about what-ifs and the possibility of war, because even after the referendum, some very thorny issues need to be carefully handled before the south can peacefully break off. (The actual declaration of independence is scheduled for July.).
The south produces around 75 percent of Sudan's oil, but it is landlocked, so some arrangement will have to be struck for southern oil to keep flowing through the pipeline in the north. The border will also have to be demarcated, including the tinderbox Abyei area, where Arab nomads historically have crossed back and forth. Billions of dollars of debt will have to be shared.
But most southerners are not thinking of technicalities. This is not simply a political moment, a time for a new line on the map or a new seat at the United Nations.
"This is a dream," Mr. Nyuol said, "a dream we always hoped would come true, even if it took one thousand years."
All over the streets of Juba, the capital of the south, brightly colored banners flaunt images of a single open hand, the ballot symbol that stands for secession. In towns across the south, loudspeakers blast messages of freedom. And salvation.
"We are going, we are going, we are going to the promised land," sang a preacher in Yei, about 100 miles southwest of Juba.
The south is filled with people who have paid for this referendum with their own blood. Amputees hobble down the street in Juba with barely a glance up at the new ministries that their lost limbs helped bring to reality.
Veterans are everywhere, reflective of a society in which men, women and children were all mobilized to fight for independence.
Rose Hawa Simon, a copper-skinned woman with a million-dollar smile, never thought she would see this day, or even that she would be alive right now. She was one of the few female tank drivers for the southern rebels, and in March 1997 her tank was hit and she was shot twice fleeing the flaming wreckage. She does not question the sacrifice.
"Our people were suffering, our people were killed," she said. "I said: 'Let me join. Let me go.' I started training on that tank, because my heart was broken."
Alex Taban is another former bush fighter. His son, Jackson, followed in his footsteps and joined the rebellion. Jackson was killed in 1997 and buried on the battlefield. As the referendum approaches, Mr. Taban said, "The thoughts are there."
The British colonizers planted a political minefield in the 1920s when they drew a line across the bottom third of Sudan and declared that northern and southern Sudanese should remain separate. Part of the reason was to check the spread of Islam. To this day, the upper part of Sudan is mainly Muslim and controlled by Arabs; the lower third is mostly animist and Christian, linguistically and culturally more in tune with Kenya, Uganda and central Africa.
A group of southern soldiers mutinied in 1955, a year before Sudan was granted independence. The civil war had begun.
By 1958, Mr. Nyuol, who is in his 70s (though he is not sure of his exact age), was organizing protests at his high school.
"Even then, we could tell what was happening," he said. "They wanted to Islamize us. They were building mosques all over the place. They wanted us to change our names."
He went to the forest in 1963. He laid ambushes. He firebombed the cars of Arabs. In the 1980s, after working as a high school math teacher, he ran underground cells to send food and matériel into the bush.
He planned to show up at the polls at dawn on Sunday, even though voting will continue for one week to allow people in far-flung areas to cast their ballots. He will vote for the open hand, for secession, he said.
"We have waited for this, we have fought for it," he said.
And when the voting is over, he will return to his work building an archive of old pictures of his comrades who died in the 1960s.


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Large successful organizations have a hard time creating large scale innovations. When a company's on the brink of death, they entertain many radical alternatives, but economic health is the enemy of change -- which is one of Microsoft's great problems.
Ray Ozzie, now the Chief Software Architect of Microsoft, was at Lotus development when they dominated PC software. According to my friend and Diamond Fellow, David Reed, Lotus was making a lot of money and investing in R&D, but Ozzie wanted to build his own startup. Because Ozzie had delivered Symphony, an updated version of the 1-2-3 software, Mitch Kapor agreed to help Ozzie find the funding. By late 1984 Ozzie founded Iris corporation, backed by Lotus, because he was convinced that groupware would transform business.
There were a number of interesting features of the deal. First, Lotus agreed to fund Iris's development efforts as long as Iris was using a best efforts basis to develop the software. Second, after Iris declared the product to be substantially complete, Lotus had a brief window in which to exercise their option. Exercising the option meant that Lotus agreed to pay Iris a pre-negotiated per copy royalty on product sales. Third, Lotus committed to market the product on a best efforts basis -- which at the time meant a very big, and legally binding commitment from Lotus. It also meant, that Lotus could not simply buy the option and then kill the Iris product.
This deal structure was radically different than any internal innovation which I have every heard of, and I think there are some very important institutional innovations which Microsoft could learn from.
- First, by structuring the innovation as a separate entity with ownership of the intellectual property, it meant that the funding probably came from the board out of the capital budget, not the operating budget. It took Ozzie longer to develop the product and the market took longer to gestate than he anticipated. Like many innovators, he was a bit too early. If he had been inside Lotus and had been part of the operating budget, this mis-timing might well have have killed the project. His management probably would have been asking for the promised revenue, and his investment level would likely have been cut.
- Second, by being in the capital budget and probably at the board level, he had a completely different organizational dynamic. Each time the senior Lotus executives considered halting the funding, they had to decide if they were willing to let Ozzie and his team take their intellectual capital to a competitor, like Microsoft, and live with their implications of abrogating their contract with Iris. This unleashed the fear that they might regret not investing in this innovation by Ozzie. We know that regret is a much more powerful motivator than fear, as behavioral economists -- including Dan Ariely one of our Diamond Fellows -- have shown so eloquently.
- Third, by getting Lotus to agree to market Notes on best efforts basis, and simultaneously holding onto the intellectual capital in Iris, the structure removed the development risk from Lotus and it was better for them to spend significantly in the product launch for an already created innovation. Together, these aspects of the deal structure created the organizational equivalent of burning the boats of an army invading from the sea.
Today, the ecosystem for software is much more developed than when 1-2-3 was in its heyday. Nowadays, Microsoft has ample budget to fund internal R&D, something that Lotus did not have, and as far as I know Ozzie is working within the normal operating processes of Microsoft. Even in this more developed ecosystem, I'd suggest that Microsoft could benefit from innovating new ownership structures that might help create institutional momentum behind large innovations. For starters, I'd suggest Microsoft create three separate entities which would be structured just like Iris. They would be independent entities and Microsoft would have the right to fund them, but if they did not fund them, the little firm could walk with the intellectual property. If MSFT did exercise its option to buy them, they would have to spend $100,000,000 or more launching the new product. Here's three potential areas to create these new companies:
- a mobile solution company, to compete with Google and Apple;
- a company for their promising Microsoft Surface product, which could reinvent common spaces;
- a company to do new types of search. Bing is too tied to the core business.
If they were willing to perform these institutional innovations for ownership and investment, maybe Ozzie could work his magic again. What do you think, could it work?
Useful links:
- The Calculus of Commerce: Why business models are aging faster and what to do about it. (A paper I wrote with Caroline Calkins.)
- Waiting on Genius: Why business design is so hard. (Blog post.)
- Is This Innovation Too Radical for My Firm? (HBR Blog post)


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