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Candy Julie · (514)679-7699 · Montreal Escort
Dear sir, my name is Candy Julie. I live in the city of Montreal, in the French part of Canada (province of Quebec).
My first language is French. I speak English fluently with my sexy French accent.
I like to laugh, I like adventure and I am a lover first. Why travel to Texas? Because it's hot there, there are nice cars and I am a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. Seriously, I am an anthropologist and I just love to travel. I am a living, loving, spontaneous, genuine and curious person. I also need some adventure and adrenaline before starting my nursing studies.
I receive you in a smoke and drug free environment. I invite you to take a look at my website that I update regularly. Until that time, dream about the wonderful things I could whisper in your ear with my sexy French accent...
Tenderly yours,

subset: commoncrawl


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I forgot to take a photo of this before eating it, and I don't think a photo of my empty plate would quite have the same effect! It was excellent.
2 salmon fillets
½ cup uncooked white or brown rice (125 ml by volume)
1 small red onion
2 cloves garlic
1 block frozen ginger (or similar amount of grated, fresh ginger, or even ½ tsp dried powder)
1 piece turmeric root (optional, but I had some to use up)
1 fresh chilli (if you don't have one, use dried or powder)
A large amount (I can't be more specific - a soup mugful?) of frozen peas, sweetcorn and broad beans. You could, of course, substitute other vegetables - broccoli would be nice, or mangetout, or whatever you fancy.
2 eggs
Chinese seasonings of your choice (soya sauce, 5-spice powder, whatever else)
Cook your rice as you usually do. Meanwhile, stir-fry the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and turmeric root, if using, fresh vegetables if you're using them, and the frozen veg. You can either fry the salmon in a separate pan, or cut it into chunks and stir-fry it with everything else, up to you.
Beat up the eggs with the seasoning, and add the cooked rice (you can cook this in advance, if you like - isn't it supposed to reduce the carb content? - but if you do, make very, very, very sure you chill it thoroughly and quickly) and eggs. Stir until the eggs are cooked and everything is piping hot. Serve at once, with chopsticks.


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Y'all, I'm on a roll with these new recipes aren't I?? I celebrated Valentine's Day by submitting my DICAS dietetic internship application, meaning my free-time went from 0 to 100 really fast. Outside of work, the last couple of months have been filled with personal statement-writing, resume editing, GRE cramming, and finally application submitting. Needless to say, it is a great feeling to have all of that behind me.
6 cups kale, stems removed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup shredded cheese of choice (naturally I chose pecorino romano as it was all I had on hand, but parmesan would be a great easy-to-find alternative!)
1) Preheat oven to 375*F
2) Wash kale and pat dry. If not already in small, bite-size pieces, roughly chop (or tear) so it is. I bought a bag of it already in smaller pieces.
3) In a large bowl, toss kale leaves with 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.
4) Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil before transferring leaves to it in a single layer. Aluminum foil = less clean up!
5) Evenly sprinkle the garlic powder and shredded cheese on top of the kale leaves, tossing to coat if desired.
6) Bake kale leaves for roughly 15 minutes, or until kale is crisp and turning brown, with some green color still visible.
7) Enjoy!..once removed from oven and cooled 😉
I stored mine in an airtight container in my pantry overnight before having more the next evening, and they had gotten a little…I don't want to say "soggy", but…soggy. You could try lightening up on the amount of olive oil used, or just pop them back in the oven at 300* for 2-3 minutes until they crisp back up again. Good as new!
ciao down,


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The new show is a success. Yes, a success! Look at his face after the show at Les Ardentes Summer Festival in Liége, Belgium. Mika did a fantastic, relaxed performance and the Belgian audience loved it. What a great night it was. I've seen the new stage setting four times, in Compiégne, in Liége, in Corsica and finally last Saturday in Nyon. I saw it really well and properly for the first time in Liége, so I wanted to describe it with a few words in this Liége gig review post.
A show can be created in two ways. The first way is to have a huge amount of small ideas and elements, gather them all together and combine them as one big colorful show. He did that at his previous tour. It's a bit messy way, but not actually bad, just unstructured needing a lot of work. I loved some of those show elements a lot, I still do and would do everything to see them again (the drumming scene and the space walking with the news flash just to mention a couple of these elements). It was fascinating especially for a fan to watch many shows in row and literally see in front of your own eyes how the show evolved and got better time after time. Loved the whole process.
Another way is to take one clear basic idea and to build the show around it adding smaller details all related to the main idea. This is what he has done with the new Marie Antoinette theme and it's a very structured way to build a new show and makes him look organized and more mature. The audience can follow the show more easily and it makes the show successful from the start, there's a big difference. I genuinely think this is the best show he has created. I realized it already in Compiégne but seeing it better in Liége made me very proud of him, really.
The new stage setting is very simple in a good way. There are a few big canvases with painting motives in them, hanging in two rows: Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, fighting scenes etc (some of them creepy, lol) and two big chandeliers. That's it, and it works perfectly both at historical venues and at huge festivals. I've seen his awesome team building it up very quickly, and not sure if it is really that easy but at least they make it look easy. It's simple, but there are numerous small details in the painting pictures, and you don't get bored with it during one tour. Two big chandeliers are my favorites (just because I love chandeliers). See the stage in the picture below. I have more pictures of paintings, I will post them as soon as I have time to organize my pics. And see, he has gathered a court around him!
On the (Marie Antoinette style) background he has added fantastic costumes by Mrs Penniman and some relevant theater elements: undressing Ida's and iMMa's huge skirts and showing their fabulous, colorful "underwear" under them (they both look gorgeous/this is not about the Victorian age so why not), the horse mask scene with iMMa and playing Napoleon in his dark jacket. Finally, there are two new French songs and one very theatrical new English song and the setting is more than perfect to them all. The new show is very controlled, really enjoyed it.
The Liége show was well done without any of those technical problems we saw/heard in Compiégne. It's always amazing to see a big festival audience who doesn't necessarily know his music so well enjoying his show this much. And even I think he did especially BIOTW better in Corsica and Nyon I still enjoyed all his new songs in Liége. Watch Karen below:


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« view all Gay Barcelona • Luxury Hotels
Plaça de la Rosa del Vents 1, Barcelona, Spain | map
Why this hotel? Beachfront location. Gay-popular hotel. It's the "W"
8.88 Excellent - based on 11582 reviews
Virtually every gay traveller who spends more than a couple of hundred euros per night on a hotel room will be intimately familiar with the W Concept.
The high-rise W Barcelona, the first W to open in Europe, designed by renowned Ricrod Bofill, offers amazing views over the Mediterranean and Barcelona shoreline.
The W has 473 guest rooms and suites with all its signature W features including the W bed, munchie box and Bliss spa products.
Location-wise, the W is next to the San Sebastià and Barceloneta beaches, although some distance from the night-time gay scene and the Mar Bella gay beach. Having said that, if you can afford the W, then you can afford the taxi.
venue: Hotel (旅馆) | features: bar, cafe, restaurant, shop, internet access, swimming pool, massage, sauna, jacuzzi / hot pool, gym, spa (酒吧, 咖啡馆, 餐厅, 铺子, 互联网, 游泳池, 按摩, 桑拿, 温泉池, 健身房, 温泉)
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Near the gay nightlife. Stylish design Value for money. | click here
Excellent location. Stylish rooms Walk to gay bars in Eixample. | click here
Close to Eixample gay scene. Free access to Holmes Place gym Great value. | click here
Close to the gay scene. Rooftop bar & terrace Great value. | click here


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The Labor Department today reported that business productivity surged to a revised 4.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter of the year. That's impressive. It's nearly double the 2.2 gain previously reported. It's also well ahead of forecasts. So why did stocks tumble and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fall more than 300 points?
Because it's finally dawning on investors that Americans don't have the purchasing power to keep the economy going. A separate report today from the Department shows a steadily weakening labor market. The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped by 15,000 last week, to a seasonally-adjusted 444,000. That's much higher than anticipated. We'll know tomorrow whether employers continued to shed jobs in August, as they've done in the prior seven months.
Remember, productivity measures hourly output per worker. When firms lay off their workers or cut the number of hours they work, the firms often get more output per hour from them. This is often because employees are pushed harder to generate more output in fewer hours — understanding that if they don't, they'll be the next ones on the chopping block. Or because each who remains is overseeing more machinery than before. (This may result in lower-quality products and services, but the productivity figures don't measure quality of output.)
Higher productivity keeps inflation in check. When companies can produce more stuff with fewer workers, their unit costs drop. And they face even less pressure to raise wages — even in the face of rising costs of living — because average employees have virtually no bargaining power. This also helps boost corporate profits.
But this also means less purchasing power by consumers whose paychecks are getting even smaller and jobs even less stable, and who have reached the end of their lines of credit because the housing bubble has burst. The result? Employers can't sell as much as before, so they reduce their payrolls by cutting hours and laying off more workers.
Retailers are the canaries in this mine. Their sales are sharply down. (Today Nordstrom and other retailers posted big disappointments for August sales.)
Unless or until America's broad middle class has more money in its pockets — because we get a more progressive tax system, because unions become more powerful and push prevailing wages upward, because employers finally understand what Henry Ford understood a century ago (unless workers have enough money to buy the products they're making, the products won't sell) — this downturn is likely to last a long time.
Originally published at Robert Reich's Weblog and reproduced here with the author's permission.


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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My name is Meghan Chase.My thoughts:
I thought it was over. That my time with the fey, the impossible choices I had to make, the sacrifices of those I loved, was behind me. But a storm is approaching, an army of Iron fey that will drag me back, kicking and screaming. Drag me away from the banished prince who's sworn to stand by my side. Drag me into the core of conflict so powerful, I'm not sure anyone can survive it.
This time, there will be no turning back.
I intentionally waited a while to write my book review because I KNOW there are not enough appropriate words to really describe how much I loved every single page.
I hoped maybe time would give me more perspective, that I would be able to eloquently and intelligently tell you how fantabulous it was in great detail, but alas, all I want to do is gush and force everyone to read it, so I've come to the conclusion that it just isn't possible for me. I'm too giddy.
Here's what I can tell you: Julie keeps raising the bar for this series...I've loved each book even more than the last, which hardly seems possible since she had me hooked with the first one.
I've told all my booky friends about it out of a selfish need to addict others and have someone talk to about the series. I like it that much. (And everyone I've convinced to get it so far has loved it as well!)
And I won't lie, this one had me crying like a baby. There were many tears and strange looks given to me by the husband as I read into the wee hours of the night.
The end, in my mind, was absolutely perfect. I'm not a big fan of spoilers, so I will give nothing away. Just know to have the kleenex ready.
Now comes the dreaded wait....how much longer???
View all my reviews
Have you read this series? What are your thoughts? Do you love each book more than the last?
AND if you haven't started it yet, what are you waiting for?


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Western novelist Elmer Kelton, whose book "The Good Old Boys" was made into a TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones, has died of natural causes in San Angelo, Texas. He was 83.
Kelton wrote 62 fiction and nonfiction books. "The Good Old Boys" was made into a 1995 movie for the TNT cable network. Kelton also was known for "The Man Who Rode Midnight" and "The Time It Never Rained."
His first novel, "Hot Iron," was published in 1956, and he recently finished his last book, "Texas Standoff," due out next year. Another novel, "Other Men's Horses," will be released this fall.
Born in Crane, Texas, Kelton grew up on the McElroy Ranch in west Texas. He served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946 and saw combat in Europe during World War II.


text:
|Use this URL to cite or link to this record in EThOS:
|The development of organolead reagents in organic synthesis
|Wright, Emma
|Awarding Body:
|University of Oxford
|Current Institution:
|University of Oxford
|Date of Award:
|Availability of Full Text:
This thesis describes the synthesis of novel lead(IV) tetracarboxylates and the development of their use in carbon-carbon bond formation processes, with a particular emphasis on the construction of chiral, quaternary centres. Organolead(IV) tricarboxylates have been widely used in the functionalisation of a range of β-dicarbonyl compounds, and the available evidence suggests that these reactions occur by a ligand coupling mechanism. For this reason, by using chiral lead(IV) compounds, it may be possible to achieve a transfer of asymmetry in the bond formation reaction. A variety of achiral and chiral dicarboxylic acid ligands were synthesised, either by reaction of phthalic or camphoric anhydride with a range of diols, or by elaboration of the camphoric acid skeleton directly. A range of novel lead(IV) compounds were constructed using these ligands, both as bis-complexes and as mixed ligand complexes. The complexes were characterised by a combination of IR and NMR techniques, including 207Pb NMR spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. The reactivity of some of the complexes was demonstrated via reaction with allyltributyltm. The lead(IV) complexes were used in the α-phenylation of a range of β-dicarbonyl substrates. Yields ranged from poor to excellent, but in all cases the enantiomeric excesses of the reactions were found to be no greater than 12%. Studies of these complexes by 207Pb NMR spectroscopy revealed that each complex was present as more than one species in solution, which is thought to be the reason for the poor overall transfer of chirality in the phenylation reactions. The arylation procedure uses catalytic mercury(II) acetate, which can in turn introduce further potential ligands to the exchanging system. It was found that alternative catalysts, such as mercury(II) chloride, could be used successfully in the α-phenylation reaction.
|Moloney, Mark G.
|Not available
|Qualification Name:
|Thesis (Ph.D.)
|Qualification Level:
|EThOS ID:
|Not available
|Carboxylic acids ; Synthesis ; Chirality ; Carbonyl compounds ; derivatives


text:
Finding Faith Donation Bundle
|Make your tax deductible donation of $20.00 or more and Safe Surfin' will send you: Finding Faith Film on DVD – A powerful story inspired by actual events, and Behind Finding Faith– Behind the scenes book with special features on the characters, andInternet Safety Guide – Use this booklet and DVD to teach children the best ways of protecting themselves from online sexual predators. Great for youth groups, scout troops, Sunday schools, homeschoolers and more!
Moose Proud DVD
|Moose Proud
Show your pride!
Share your history!
"Moose Proud" is an insightful documentary the delves into the history of this fraternal organization and the great successes that live on today.
For your tax deductible $15.00 donation to the Safe Surfin' Foundation, you can relive the history and share the "Moose Proud" story of your commitment to our children, our elders and our communities throughout the country!


text:
The newly minted "American Idol" judge Ellen DeGeneres has become a break-dancing elf — and she dragged wife Portia de Rossi, mother Betty and DJ Tony into it.
Do we think DeGeneres consulted the "American Idol" publicity crew before she decided to don an elf outfit and break-dance with three of her buddies? We've got video below Ellen and crew; the Elf Yourself part starts around the 2:30 mark.
Actually, we think it's kind of cool that Ellen did this. Elf Yourself is an hilarious website to get your friends and family in the holiday spirit. All you do is submit pictures of the four people you want to "elf" and the website does the rest. The best Elf Yourself dances we've seen involved professors. You haven't lived until you've seen your Constitutional Law professor break-dance in an elf costume.
Follow Zap2It Idol on Twitter and follow Zap2It on Twitter for all your movies, TV and celebrity news
Related Links
Adam Lambert's Out interview
Kris Allen's album press tour
Carrie Underwood's holiday special interview


text:
Galatta Cinema magazine is the largest circulating English cinema magazine in India for South Indian movies. It offers a complete picture of the movie industry in the 4 Southern states of India – an exciting, urban, interesting and full-colour, glossy read any way you look at it!
Galatta Cinema assures an iPhone/iPad rich reading experience of all its 100+ pages in high fidelity that can be viewed anywhere in the planet where you read the replica of the latest print version of the magazine that is on the stands.
Flip through the pages, zoom in and zoom out to see your favorite columns and articles and drool over the amazing pictures that we have created especially for you.
We shall be continuously improving our Galatta Cinema iPhone experience so, please email us with your feedback at email@example.com or post your reviews for our fledgling app.
We shall be continuously improving our Galatta Cinema experience and so, please email us any feedback at email@example.com or post your reviews for our app.
Happy iReading…
Magazine Subscriptions are available for purchase inside this app.
Six months subscription - $5.99 (automatically renewed until canceled)
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Your subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period.
Your iTunes account will automatically be charged at the same price for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period unless you change your subscription preferences in your account settings.
You can manage your subscriptions through your account settings after purchase on your device.
No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during active subscription period.
Please visit http://www.magzter.com/privacy-policy for our Privacy Policy and http://www.magzter.com/terms-and-conditions for our Terms & Conditions


text:
Whether one is visiting friends or relatives, one must avoid unnecessary requests that may inconvenience the host. For example, using the phone, going to the toilet or performing ablution.
Good manners dictate that you should be considerate, for not every house may have facilities prepared for the use of guests. The condition or location may cause embarrassment or inconvinience to the host or the family of the host.
One should prepare for things before leaving home, in order to minimise the potential inconvience or burden on the host. A host can only be pleased at a burden-free, non-embarrassing visit; and will enjoy your visit more as a result. One should always consider the convenience and appropriateness of ones actions when visiting.


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The 6mm Traveller campaign is still ticking over - I have been working out the Order of Battle for both the defenders and the attackers on the colony world of Auru, which has meant that I have had to look at Imperial and Geithurian Republic Star Fleets.The background design work is almost complete, and gives me the option to fight out fleet encounters as well as dirtside operations. I'm even looking at possibly using the Classic Traveller High Guard combat rules with the Trillion Credit Squadron updates for this side of the campaign.
|Bugbear Shaman or Spellcaster
|Bugbears and Human Warrior (also from Splintered Light)
The 20mm Bugbears appear to have been on-sold to CP Models in the UK.
The players trialing Kings of War in 15mm are using WRG style basing (40mm x 20mm for Infantry, 40mm x 30mm for Cavalry) so they can use either historical figures, or figures based up for Hordes of the Things (WRG's Fantasy rules). With that in mind, I based up my 12 Bugbear warriors as four elements (3 figures to the element) of Infantry - the first basing I've done in this style for many years - and I was pleasantly pleased with the result.
|Bugbear Warband with Shaman/Spell Caster
The Army Lists have a very Warhammerish feel about them which makes me go slightly "meh", but them seem reasonably easy to customize. Currently, I'm thinking of a sort of Evil Alliance, led by a Sorcerer, with Dark Elves and Orcs. Support being provided by allies or mercenaries, such as the Bugbears, a band of Gnolls I still have to paint, some trolls and some Ogres. As I have more than enough single mounted figures for Dungeons and Dragons or Skirmish Gaming, I will quite enjoy basing up the rest on element bases.


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Meat and produce price falls lead to 12-month dip
4:00 AM Saturday Jun 12, 2010
For the first time in nearly six years, food prices have fallen from levels of a year earlier.
Figures from Statistics New Zealand yesterday showed a 0.7 per cent fall in food prices last month helped food prices for the year to May fall 0.5 per cent - the first annual fall since the year to July 2004.
In the year to May, prices in the meat, poultry, and fish category, and the fruit and vegetables category fell 4.5 per cent. Prices for the meat, poultry, and fish subgroup had returned to levels last seen in September 2008 and were 7.1 per cent lower than their peak last year, SNZ said.
Fresh chicken prices fell 11.5 per cent over the year, porterhouse/sirloin beef steak fell 10.6 per cent, bacon fell 7.4 per cent and bananas were down 9.1 per cent.
Price rises over the year included a 6.8 per cent lift in soft drink prices, a 5.1 per cent lift in fresh milk, 28.9 per cent lift in butter, and 9.9 per cent gain in cheddar cheese. In May, prices in the meat, poultry, and fish subgroup fell 2.4 per cent, with porterhouse/sirloin beef steak down 16.2 per cent, and fresh chicken down 5 per cent.
Grocery food prices fell 0.7 per cent in May, largely due to a 5.8 per cent fall in prices for potato crisps, and a 4.4 per cent fall in chocolate bars and blocks.
From here.


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About Me
Daniel I. Russell is the author of Entertaining Demons, Samhane, Retard, Come Into Darkness, Critique, The Collector Book 1: Mana Leak, Mother's Boys and the huge collection Tricks, Mischief and Mayhem. Daniel is a HWA active member and represented by the Tobias Literary Agency, NYC. Daniel has also been the vice-president of the Australian Horror Writers' Association, special guest editor of Midnight Echo, associate and technical editor for Necrotic Tissue, and Shadow Awards judge.
Recent Posts
Review: Children of No One by Nicole Cushing
May 2009
Template By Caz
Read Daniel in...
Friday, November 26, 2010Samhane, Festive Fear and Ghost Writer Publications
*Author note: I must apologise to those with bad eye sight. No matter what I do to change the font size, blogger is making it small when I publish. You might have to use your inbuilt zoom function (ie, move closer to the screen).
The school reports have been written (but I could've tried harder and shown more determination) and after I spend this weekend marking chemistry coursework, I'm pretty much done for the year. Two weeks of fun projects and a couple of days on the dvd wagon and I'm finished.
We are gifted here with the twin tales of Donald, a fledgling writer whose new-used laptop holds a file that drags him off the grid into an underground organization specializing in torture for the amusement of paid subscribers, and Brian, a professional monster hunter who has found that the simple ghoul squishing he has been hired to do is a bit more…complicated. Now, Donald's wife and best friend have been brutally murdered and Brian's son, his only real reason for living, has been carried off by the world's filthiest clown.
Most people are satisfied with sticking to one type of monster, be it vampire, werewolf or centuries old mummified cucumber, but Daniel I. Russell is definitely not most people. Within the first quarter of the book, you see a serial killer, a forest ghoul, what may be a were-blob and a giant centipede, and that is before you get to meet the evils of a corporation, genetic engineering, biomechanics and a bad ass iridescent god of chaos. This variety works against the story as much as for it early on, with a first half that feels too fractured to be part of a coherent whole. But, if you stick it out, Danny boy brings it all together into a neatly sutured beast that satisfies quite nicely.
I'm particularly impressed with his ability and willingness to walk the line of acceptability. Without diving face first into full Hardcore mode, Russell does away with the usual expected sense of safety. No character, no matter how nice or seemingly important is completely safe, but the bleeding isn't egregious. Also, as much as he does love the ultraviolence and gore (my, oh my does it get wet within these pages, dear friends), he also shows a remarkable amount of restraint and willingness to allow implication to work on its own. It's a tricky balancing act that he pulls off with panache.
Speaking of implications, there is something in the ending that goes completely unspoken but carries marvelously chilling possibilities. I can't say it. Musn't say it. To speak such things would ruin…
I'll shut up right now before I do.
The original review can be found here .
If the review has tickled your fancy, feel free to click here for purchasing information.
In other book news, Festive Fear Global Edition is currently in the mail, ready to provide some...well, festive fear ready for Christmas! Again, if you snoozed you losed (appalling word use for a writer, yes?) as these babies are now very hard to come by and have sold out.
Labels: blog, fear, festive, ghost, magazine, publications, samhane, shroud, tour, writer
Friday, November 19, 2010Blog tour date 5: Blame Canada!
After spending the day in temperatures of the high 90s, and once again regretting that I live on a steep hill during the walk home from work, it will be nice to visit some cooler climates.
Unfortunately, eager to hop on my trans-Pacific flight, I forgot to change. I attracted a wary glance from many lumberjacks, mounties and mooses (Meese? Moosi?) as I disembarked in thongs, a wifebeater and a hat with corks on it.
Having successfully stereotyped and insulted two nations in one small paragraph, I headed deeper into Canada (in my opinion the greatest US state). Things are to be expected here. The long cold. Rugged men. The French. It's a melting pot for the weird and violent.
So, on the verge of unconsciousness, exhausted, trudging though the snow with my penis trying to burrow back inside my body like a purple-headed tick, I stumbled to the door of the Man Eating Bookworm. Hmm. Giant worms? Sounds familiar...
The man Eating Bookworm, called Andrew, thankfully was a gallant chap, who invited me in to his warm abode. He had dvds by the million, all horror and (thank Christ) the right region. So we shoved in a copy of JAWS and had a chat over a can of Molston.
See what happened HERE!
Thursday, November 18, 2010Friday Night in Beast House by Richard Laymon
This book has been a bit of a bugbear for me in recent years. I ADORE the Beast House trilogy of The Cellar, The Beast House and the Midnight Tour. Friday Night in Beast House, rather than be the forth book in the series, can be considered as a bonus: a long short story that sits in with the ethos of the series.
My bugbear was that this was so overly priced for a book that was about 140 pages. As I've discussed with fellow avid reader Jim McLeod over at The Ginger Nuts of Horror, a certain dollar/page ratio needs to be considered when purchasing a book. Why spend the same money on a short novella that might last you a few hours when you can buy long, long novel for the same price? This was my issue with this book for a long time. As much as I wanted to buy it, the price could not justify a purchase.
I'm glad I held back, as Leisure have rereleased the book, and with a lower cover price and additional novella, this makes it a much more reasonable purchase. Am I cheap? No. I buy too many books to squander money on expensive editions!
We have Mark, a randy (this is Laymon) yet studious boy who wants to score a date with Alison. Alison readily agrees, but on one condition: he has to get them inside the Beast House at Midnight on Friday night. As readers will know, The Beast House is a chamber of horrors type attraction in Malcasa Point. Three books have added to the horror there of albino beasts that rip men apart and rape every female they come across. Will Mark rise to the occasion?
It has been many years since my last trip into the Beast House. I think I was still a teenager in fact. Dipping into this novella was like visiting a place you'd been to on holiday a long time ago. It was great to revisit the wax work exhibits, go into the cellar and even the Beast tunnels. However, you do not have to be a follower to enjoy this book. It stands on its own quite nicely.
The horror is surprisingly light. This is more a story of lucky breaks, chances taken and a boy trying to pass the time. It is a good, fast read, but most of the novella is concerned with Mark getting into, and staying inside, the Beast House undetected by the staff. The Metal Gear Solid of the Beast House books, if you will. Will there be beasts? It could go either way. They haven't been spotted since the 70s. But maybe...just maybe...
For those that read my reviews on a regular basis, you know how much I have mentioned Laymon's obsession with camping and the mountains. With the bonus novella, The Wilds, we follow a chap who is...camping in the mountains! A first person POV piece, told via diary entries, this is a nice change from Laymon's usual style, but still covers the traditional areas. It again is a super fast read. In fact, I read the entire book, cover to cover, in a single day. And that was on my 30th Birthday. Something to tell the grand kids.
So there we have it. A quick review for a quick book. Not his best book, but a nice addition.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010Blog World Tour date 4: Ohio
After Shaun Jeffrey's warm hearth and cold beer, I've hopped on a rickety plane, crossed the pond and ended up in Ohio.
So what's the deal with Ohio? Here's some facts:
5. Ohio is the only state that has four letters and starts and ends with an O.
6. Ohio is blue and has a big face.
Sunday, November 14, 2010Samhane cover revealed
Well folks, here it is. The draft cover for the English/U.S. version of Samhane, available in print very soon.
This isn't the finished version. Our layout demi-god Danny Evarts of Shroud Magazine and It's Okay to be a Zombie infamy, is still tinkering with the fonts and shades and lighting and all the other stuff I have no idea about. We also have a blurb to put on the cover. But generally, should you wish (and please, do) to part with your well-earned cash on a copy, this is what will be gracing your shelves. The cover image is by Patrick McWhorter, an artist I have raved about on here in the past. See the older posts for more of his stunning work.
The book should be available on prerelease over the next couple of days over at Necrotic Tissue , with Amazon not too far behind. The book should be officially out in the next few weeks.
As for the German edition of Samhane, pictured to the left, well, what can I say? Thank you to Torsten Scheib and Michael Preissl for all the work they've put in, and a big thank you to German readers who have already ordered their copy and said such kind things about their interest. I hope the book meets your expectations. And also thank you to Werner Placho for recommending me in the first place, and also singing like Marilyn Monroe.
The GERMAN edition can be ordered right now at Voodoo Press or from Amazon Germany .
So what else has been happening? Not a lot to be honest. What with my students having finished their exams (and my science kids did great on the whole. Well done, guys) and this weekend being my 30th Birthday, I've been taking it easy, as per the photo below which was taken in my new hammock. Great thing is that I can actually write while in it! I'm afraid the level of comfort achieved may influence my future works. Goodbye extreme horror, hello light hearted yarns about idiot girls trying to find love in the big city.
As with any birthday, my to be read pile has grown once again with books by Richard Laymon, Bentley Little, John Ajvide Lindquist (a nice Hardback at that!), Peter Straub and S.D. Hintz. Already finished one of the Laymons. Another review to write, I guess!
A lot of my writing time has been taken up by the blog tour, and I would again like to thank Jim McLeod at Ginger Nuts of Horror , Sarah Masters at her blog page and Shaun Jeffrey's IN The Shadows thus far for putting up with me on their blogs. The next stop, which is moved to the States, should be up in the next few days. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm glad it's going to continue through the month.
I'm off for more relaxation, Old Speckled Hen and cake. See you for the Ohio blog stop!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010World Blog Tour date 3: North England
Seems that members of the Cult of Zandathru are on my trail, so odd that fate has another kind of Kult in store for me.
With the hire car making an odd ticking sound from underneath (and an even weirder crunching and slobbering from something in the glove box that smelled of ammonia. Who knows what they put in there. It seemed to be feeding on the A to Z of the Midlands, and I was quite content to leave it to its own devices), I decided to take the train up through Birmingham and onto Wigan and Ormskirk. Surely my old haunts would be safe?
In Wigan, the Tudor pub was full of pale, pierced and tattooed weirdies, who glared at me over their snakebite and blacks. Ordinarily, there's nothing abnormal about this, but this WASN'T a Friday night! Concerned, I fled to the bus station and grabbed a 395 to Ormskirk. Things weren't that much better, as this being the town that Samhane is based on, all kinds of freaks were walking the streets. Geoff, the pensioner on roller-blades (I'm not making this up! Research it.) sped away from a ravenous pack of zombies (okay, the zombies I made up, a little), and the Passage to India, rather than serving up fine Indian cuisine, was providing a passage to a fiery hell. It may have been the Vindaloo that caused it: too many finger chillies. It took a team of us, armed with lager, naan breads and toilet paper, to close the flaming gateway.
But for how long?
Needing to rest and stay one step ahead of the followers of Zandathru, I hopped on a train again and arrived at the mecca of trainspotters, Crewe.
Here I was taken in by a decorated fellow who lived beside a cemetery. He knew exactly how I felt, having been on the same journey for longer. He'd just got back from California, where his own creations had literally come to life before his very eyes! The man was Shaun Jeffrey, writer of such esteemed books as The Kult and Deadfall, both from Leucrota Press. As night descended, we shared a drop of the good stuff and discussed this crazy writer journey. Here's what transpired In the Shadows.
Labels: blog, book, deadfall, horror, jeffrey, kult, ormskirk, samhane, shaun, tour, tudor, wigan
The Keeneathon continues with his 2006 book, The Conqueror Worms. Now, when people mention Brian, they usually ask if you've read The Rising. The Rising is considered to be his 'hit', but after fellow readers have enquired about The Rising, the next one, I've found, is The Conqueror Worms.
I thought that The Rising was okay. My preferred Keene book so far has been The Ghoul, which was reviewed earlier this month. Could Worms take the crown?
Teddy, and 80 year old man living alone in West Pennsylvania, is writing. Cold, wet and injured, he intends to record his story before his injuries take his life. What a story he has to tell. The rains started all over the world over a month ago. Tsunamis destroyed the coastlines, and most of the mainland has flooded, leaving bands of survivors stranded on mountain peaks or the tops of high rises. The rains aren't just the only thing that has come: sea monsters have emerged from the depths, and from the earth come the giant worms.
The Conqueror Worms is a very intimate story, and we stick close to Teddy for the first and final acts. We have an elderly man, alone and afraid, trying to survive. It doesn't get any simpler. And to have an old man as the hero, it adds to the characterisation in spades. He's suffering from nicotine withdrawal and the usual aches and pains of old age. Plus, he has to deal with the probable loss of his children and grandchildren as well as watching the rains destroy his house and the keepsakes of his marriage. To be honest, the giant creatures and action were a bonus. Teddy's plight had meat enough to keep this reader turning the pages.
Keene's cast of supporting characters are well above average here. Carl, Teddy's best friend, is likeable enough, and Earl next door is a crazy, shotgun toting, conspirator theorist. Good stuff.
Things change in the second act as we leave Teddy and co on the moment fending off the worms. Now we see how a band of survivors in a coastal city have fared. There are two rival groups: a bunch of peaceful people living in the top few floors of a hotel, and the group they've dubbed the Satanists. The Satanists are into chants and human sacrifice.
Welcome to the Lovecraft lite! This part of the story in particular is very, very Lovecraft (thing Dagon) and Keene succeeds in putting his own stamp on things. You can see that this is Lovecraft inspired, not Lovecraft ripped off. While this bit may be seen like padding, a digressing romp to get the story up to novel length, I loved it. It actually worked to get away from the worms before it got repetitive, deal with the sea monsters, and then get back to some finale wormage. For me it worked.
The only thing that annoyed me here is Keene's insistence on putting gang members into every situation. The yo, yo, yo, dawg dialogue gets very annoying very quickly. Maybe this was why I enjoyed The Ghoul so much, it was set before hip hop.
The Conqueror Worms ends nice and satisfying, yet still has the legs for a sequel (no pun intended). A few strands of the story were not fully explained and their potential not leapt upon, very similar to Sarah Pinborough's Breeding Ground which I reviewed this week. Two post-apocalyptic novels back to back? Yes, it's all been doom and gloom! Funnily enough, since I started The Conqueror Worms two days ago, it's done nothing but rain…
In answer to my earlier question, yes, I think that The Conqueror Worms is by far my favourite Brian Keene book thus far. I think I read the first 100 pages in one uninterrupted sitting. I hate to say this, as I'm against this kind of thing, but if this book was twice as long and more 'literary', it really could have made some waves in the mainstream. As it stands now, we have a fast paced cracker that's as tight as…well…an asshole in a bucket of worms.Tickled your fancy? The link to buy is on the left.
Labels: book, brian keene, conqueror, horror, review, worms
Sunday, November 07, 2010Breeding Ground by Sarah Pinborough
Drum roll please...
AS followers of my reviews will know (and without being sexist), I'm constantly on the look out for a female writer who can stand shoulder to shoulder with the big boys, a writer who is not afraid of violence or gore or plain out shocking terror!
I've read another book from Pinborough, The Reckoning, and while it was an enjoyable ride with some great moments (and I'll never look at an ant the same way again) I felt there was still another horror gear that Sarah could slip into...probably with an easier transition than her horror-writing sisters.
Breeding Ground...I'd heard rumours about, I'd heard that this book is harrowing, so was keen to get hold of a copy. Is Pinborough the queen of balls to the wall horror?
Based on my reading, and for the moment, I'd have to say yes. But tenuously.
Breeding Ground follows a young professional couple, Matt, a mortgage advisor, and Chloe, a barrister (what no writer? Pinborough is awarded a point already!). The apocalypse comes slow, and through the women of the world. With their wifes, partners, mothers and sisters growing fat and displaying very odd symptoms of pregnancy, the men are too concerned with what's going on in their own homes rather than seeing the bigger picture. The governments are deathly silent, as they don't have a clue what's going on. Most men hide in the bliss of ignorance, or the bottle. Matt has bigger concerns, not only for the health of Cloe, but for their unborn baby.
Soon (within the first 50 pages) the severely altered females of the world give birth to spidery creatures. The earth now has a new dominant species. Matt flees, desperate to find survivors, but how will they survive this harsh new world?
The one thing I adore about this book is what I call the fake mirror shot. Every watched a horror film and the scream queen on screen (try saying that one five times fast!) is getting ready for a shower, for example. She opens the medicine cabinet mirror, closes it and then...! No, hang on. The killer ISN'T standing behind her in the reflection? Sneaky buggers! Sarah does this in spades as at times, you're 100% sure which way things are going to go, and then they simply don't. For example, the merry band of survivors (including a few women, but we'll come to that later) come across a military installation containing a few males survivors. 28 Days Later, I hear you cry? Soldiers wanting to rape the women? Yeah, that's what I thought. But no, Sarah stays away from the normal conventions.
In fact she has a very well thought yarn here. Some aspects you really don't see coming, including the quite bizarre but possibly solution to their problems. One of my problems with the novel though are that some questions remained unanswered. For example, while the cause of the spider epidemic is touched on, it's never explained. Nor is the sudden and extreme change of the English climate (although this review theorised how one was responsible for the other). And again, some women survive, and some merely take a lot longer to be infected. One reason for this was very apparent but what about the others.
Hopefully, this will all be rectified in the follow up book, Feeding Ground, which I'll have to get my grubby mits on, because the biggest problem with the book is the ending. It doesn't really have an ending. Like some of the characters discuss in the novel, this might only be the first phase. Who knows where it's going to go? Breeding Ground as it stands just kind of stops after the last big revelation...but boy...is it a corker of a revelation!
And yes, we have a female writer who can really dish out the gore! The first act of the book, Chloe's transformation, the birth of the spiders and Matt's first outing into the post apocalyptic world really are harrowing. An early scene, wherein Matt discovers his first widow (the term later adopted to the spiders) is truly tense and disturbing. Sarah also produces one of the most hated villains I've read in a long time. You don't need to have your bad guy be the master mind behind it all, etc. Sarah has created a character that was so easy to hate and have fun doing it!
In summary, while there is the odd problem (again, hopefully filled in by Feeding Ground, and speaking of filling in, why did the nice guy protagonist have sex with 75% of the fenale characters?) Breeding Ground is definitely worth a buy. Creature horror at its best - horrific, chilling and visceral.
Labels: book, breeding ground, horror, review, sarah pinborough
Saturday, November 06, 2010Samhane blog tour date 2 - Southern England
Okay, so this is weird.
After narrowly escaping the clutches of Jim and his Ginger Nuts of horror on the first blog date (see archives), I drove the hell out of Scotland, intending to stop in my home town of Wigan in the north west of England. However, and you know how it goes, I got distracted and made a few wrong turns. Being a man and thus REFUSING to ask for directions, I accidentally ended up in...the deep south, which for England is the posh bit.
Which is kinda convenient, as that was due to be the location of the massive Samhane World Blog Tour second date!
But then things got reeeeally weird. I roll into the blog, being fashionably late and still aching from the long drive, and what am I told? I'm too late. They've already got somebody else.
I thought I'd sit and wait for an hour or two, you know, in case they could fit me in at the end? Hell, most of the time in Scotland was spent tied to a chair, so waiting was no problem. I watched as an immaculately dressed man clutching a laptop went inside. Hmmm. I was SURE I recognised his face.
I snuck closer and listened at the door. It sounded like an infomercial was being recorded. Had I been bumped for a salesman?
It transpired that something a lot dodgier was taking place, and someone was going through a lot of trouble to spread some horrific propaganda about yours truly. Take a look...over at Sarah Master's blog page.
It can be very easy to typecast writers, especially horror writers. Peter Benchley wrote Jaws and The Deep and was from then on marine-horror guy. Can it be that to read two books with a similar theme by the same author means to place them in a box? If so, I hope readers thinking of sampling the works of Jack Ketchum will swap and choose. Should you read Offspring and Off Season, both great reads, one might think that Ketchum is cannibal-guy. In this case, should the two books in question be The Girl Next Door and Right to Life, well...
I wouldn't want to see what Jack has in his basement.
Right to Life is a novella of about 140 pages from Edge Books. Sara is in a loving relationship with Greg, which is all well and good if you don't consider his wife and son. Matters are even more complicated as Sara is 3 months pregnant with his child. It's the logical choice to have an abortion is it not? What kind of life would this child have? Sara is determined to go through the procedure, even if she has to walk past the Pro-life protesters with their signs and chants outside the clinic.
Only Sara doesn't get to make her choice as she is grabbed, drugged and bundled into a car. She awakes in her underwear, locked in a long, wooden box. She's in the home of Stephen and Kath Teach, and teaching is exactly what's on their mind. Sara will learn that some people can't have children, and those that can should show more respect to the life growing inside them. She'll also learn to obey at all times, no matter what. Stephen is very keen on that...
We're entering the basement of Ketchum's mind once more in a very, very similar vein to The Girl Next Door. The biggest difference of course is the setting. We're in the last few years rather than the 50's. This doesn't really bode well for poor Sara, as nowadays you can buy plenty of bondage gear online, cashiers in sex shops barely bat an eyelid, and with all the shows on DIY, even an amateur can build the most rudimentary of torture devices (and even more bad news...Stephen is a carpenter!). So the continuous (and I do mean continuous!) pain and humiliation gets a facelift.
But far from this being a one trick pony, Ketchum does infuse a little deep thinking in there, especially regarding the title of the book. The topic of abortion is clearly addressed, with Ketchum showing both sides of the argument fairly equally. Okay, his Pro-life couple may be absolutely crazy, but that's just the sauce on the meat.
I actually thought this was an uplifting book, rather than the doom and gloom of Girl Next Door (which in it's own right is a tremendously dark and touching novel). You're really hoping that Sara will pull through, despite her weaknesses. The gore is severely reduced compared to some other of Jack's novels, which shows that he can restrain himself when necessary. Sure, there is violence and suffering, but it's not wall to wall blood.
My only gripe, as with Next Door, is that the antagonists deserve more justice come the conclusion.
The two bonus short stories in this edition are the standard Ketchum high quality. Brave Girl is a very quick read, that is kinda the opposite story to the main feature. Again, Ketchum shows his serious side and highlights issues in a more subtle manner. I think that some of his critics (in the bio it states that The Village Voice reviewed Off Season with simply YECHH) should read his very thoughtful and poignant shorter works. Returns is a story I've read before and confirms my thoughts that Jack is definitely a cat person.
I read this novella in a single morning. I had to. I usually read at the school and while my son does his karate class, but I felt that the cover (naked, pregnant lady, gagged and blindfolded with a tight leather belt across her nipples) might not be suitable, especially for the head of science.
Like Girl Next Door? You'll adore this. If not, I would recommend it first and then get this...if you're kinky like that.
Labels: book, horror, jack, ketchum, review, right to life
Wednesday, November 03, 2010Blog tour 1st stop - Scotland!
On a day like today (when the temperature nearly reach 95 and it's the middle of Spring, mind you), it's nice to travel to cooler climates. So I'm travelling from Perth, Australia to Perth, Scotland...traveling south, past Dundee and Dunfermline...to...
Well, I can't disclose the physical location. There is a strong following of Zandathru God of Chaos here. The inhabitants are known to obliterate creatures, dismember the corpses, grind up the internal organs and stick it in the stomach. After the membranous bag is boiled, the followers then eat it and wash it down with a cold quaff of Tennants Super. Yes, we're in the Highlands now.
Having been knocked out in a dark alleyway, trying to listen to a couple of women converse with their luscious accents, I was clubbed and awoke, dazed and confused, in a pleasant front room. An angry man with a long beard held a poker in the fire, which he then waved threateningly before my face. He had questions...many questions...
Find out what happened at the Gingernuts of Horror!
Monday, November 01, 2010Ghoul by Brian Keene
It's time for me to start on my Brian Keene backlog. Following The Rising, Castaways and Urban Gothic, it's now time for...
The Ghoul!
Timmy lives with his parents next to an old church with an ancient graveyard. His friend Barrie is the son of the cemetery caretaker, and his other friend Doug lives with his alcoholic mother. It's the summer of 1984, and while the boys have plans to sit around listening to Slade and the newer bands like Metallica, playing Atari and generally goofing around, fate has different ideas. Barrie's heavily alcoholic and violent father has broken a stone tablet in the graveyard that kept a creature sleeping beneath the ground. Now that creature is out, feasting on the dead and searching for a female...
I don't know what it was about the opener, but I got the impression that I wouldn't enjoy this book. It bordered on tacky, but in hindsight, perhaps was written this way on purpose, as it read like a scene from one of the many slasher flicks predominant at the time. The dialogue is grown worthy, and the plot of two young lovers getting it on under the moon in a graveyard? Seeing a figure that isn't there a split second later? I was hoping that the rest of the novel wasn't like this.
And it wasn't! The main characters are very sympathetic and surprisingly likable. In one scene, Timmy's world is destroyed by his father, and I don't mean with violence or anything sexual...but by god it hits you. You're there and know that something similar happened to you with your parents at that age.
The gore is there, but lighter compared to other Keene books. The Ghoul himself is actually quite likable as antagonist. He even speaks like Thor at times, which is always a plus for me.He has simple needs and just wants to get on with his existence, even if that means eating corpses and raping women in tunnels (no pun intended).
My favourite chapter of the book follows the ghoul as he eats the corpses in the graveyard, telling the lives of each one, be them good or bad, and how they all ended up with the same fate: dead and food for the ghoul.
There's a great spirit of adventure and preadolescent awakening in the trio of boys, and I think this is why the book works so well. With, say three teenagers on camp dealing with this, or three 20 somethings at college discovering a ghoul...this book might have been a flop. It's not the creature, nor the setting that make this novel, it's those boys. Most of us had that one perfect summer when we were around 12, and this book brings back all those memories. Not that I had to fight a ghoul back in Wigan in 1992, you understand.
This was a startling little gem of a book, with better character development than other Keene books (even the supporting characters have their interesting quirks) and a story that pulls you in. It was a perfect read for Halloween and certainly worth a look. Keene fans should certainly have this towards the top end of their favourites.
Labels: brian, ghoul, keene, review


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Spiritual Wholeness And The Somatic Body: Daylong with Rik Center
When: Saturday, August 26th 10:00am - 5:00pm.
In this daylong, you will begin to understand the importance of integrating mindfulness with the somatic body so that we may inhabit the wholeness of our spiritual-self and life.
This unique daylong will combine mindfulness practices, reflective teachings and understanding the emotional & somatic body. Demo's will include how to work with and move through unresolved anxieties that often keep us feeling distant and disconnected from our bodies.
Together we'll take a look at how we can bring our intellectual, physical, emotionally and spiritual self into alignment. These practices help connect us to our innate wholeness and ability to contain both comfort and discomfort within the neurophysiology of the body.
"It has been through my meditation & embodied practices that united the somatic and emotional elements of my physiology that have brought a spiritual wholeness into my life that I had felt was possible early on in my childhood." ~Rik Center
The MCC is supported by the practice of shared generosity and the daylong is offered on a dana/donation basis. No one turned away due to lack of funds. Our programs here are for everyone to gain new insights into life, themselves and inner healing.
"What have you got to lose other than yourself? What have you got to gain other than yourself?"
"Connecting to our bodies allows us to come into our spiritual wholeness. It's not about going away and ignoring the body it's about bringing our whole-selves into the present "here and now." We do have the ability to accept everything as it is without feeling crushed and overwhelmed." ~Rik Center
Rik began his spiritual journey early in life attending a private orthodox school and temple. From a young age through his teens, he met illness and death and turned to looking at life from an atheistic viewpoint. Through needing to meet his own pained body after a traumatic hang-gliding accident in his 20's, Rik's healing journey brought him back home to his embodied-self, learning a deeper sense of spirituality was found by being with what is happening "here and now" with versus looking somewhere other than the life we are living. Rik will share his path of learning in how to meet the body of spiritual wholeness which offers us a mind of calmness, compassion and kindness.
Rik Center is Co-Founder of the MCC/Mindfulness Care Center. He's a trained and certified SE/Somatic Experiencing Stress and Trauma Counselor/Practitioner and Mindfulness Meditation Teacher utilizing embodied practices in the healing process. He began a Buddhist mindful meditation practice in the late 80's and leads the ongoing MCC Tuesday Evening Mediation Group. He's assisted SE/Somatic Experiencing trainings and traveled to New Orleans and Baton Rouge after Hurricane Katrina in support with others around SE in supporting trainings and to offer sessions to those still affected by the aftermath of the hurricanes. Rik served as a Buddhist/Interfaith Chaplain at San Francisco General Hospital and he presently sits on the Professional Advisory Group for Spiritual Care at the CPMC/Sutter Health Hospitals in San Francisco. He works one-on-one with clients in his private practice which focuses on healing high levels of stress, unresolved traumatic anxiety and PTSD along with offering grief and spiritual counseling. Rik is a member of the USABP/United States Association Of Body Psychotherapy.


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Kakutou Bijin Wulong Description:
Plot Summary: Mao Lan is a girl who has mastered her family's style of martial arts, despite her looks. One day, her grandfather fooled her into signing up for the Prime Mat, a competition that consists of a series of fights against other female competitors. Mao Lan eventually begins her journey towards winning Prime Mat, a path that's full of hardships and rigorous training.
Genres: action, comedy, tournament
Kakutou Bijin Wulong Episodes:


text: Hungry for baking hacks you haven't read tens of times on the internet? I know what you're thinking: "Isn't this another web page with reworded versions of 20-something hacks I've seen on dozens of blogs online?" You know what? I felt that way, too. I like finding more of them, but reading rehashed tips online […] Read More


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|Japanese title
|Release date(s)
|Arcade, MSX, Commodore 64/128, Amstrad CPC
|Followed by
|Blast Off
|Bosconian Channel
|YouTube Gaming
|Bosconian Channel
Bosconian is a multi-directional shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1981 and licensed to Midway Games for U.S. manufacture and distribution. It runs on Namco Galaga hardware (three Zilog Z80 microprocessors running at 3.125 MHz), and was the last of three pre-M6809 games from the company whose score displays did not roll over at 1,000,000. After Namco succeeded in improving their own Rally-X with the release of New Rally-X, Namco investigated what other forms of gameplay could be developed to exploit the hardware that New Rally-X ran on. The result was Bosconian. One notable feature of the game is its use of digitized voice samples, which Namco had first developed for their own King and Balloon. Another is that it was the first arcade game to offer a continue feature, which can be turned off by the arcade operator if he wants to prevent overspending.
The focus of Bosconian is to fly around through space in search of the large green enemy bases, and blow them up. You pilot a ship that can fire in two directions; in front and behind. But the enemy doesn't simply let you destroy their valuable stations. They will send a variety of missiles at you, some in formations, in an attempt to stop you from succeeding in your one-man mission.
Despite being picked up by Midway Games for distribution in the United States, Bosconian never developed a large following outside of Japan. As a result, the only home conversions that it saw were for popular Japanese home computers like the MSX and the Sharp X68000 (which received an altered, graphically enhanced version of the game). A sequel to this game named Blast Off was released in 1989 in Japan. It was a vertical scrolling shooter, and had more in common with Namco's Dragon Spirit than with its predecessor. The story of Bosconian was followed up by Namco's Famicom entry Star Luster, which has completely different gameplay (and a Vs. System game), but takes place several hundred years after the Bosconian Wars took place.
How the Bosconian Wars started, no one knows. The Federal Council suffered massive losses to the Bosconian enemy's seemingly impenetrable enemy base fortress. But the Federal Council's luck was about to change. A daring plan to send a spy in among the Bosconians finally paid off. The building plans for the enemy bases were finally revealed. The Council set about constructing a prototype Star Fighter, which was armed with the capability to exploit the enemy bases' weaknesses. With only so much material, and so little time, they could only prepare a few of these precious ships. In order to attract a little attention as possible, they would go in one at a time, and try to launch a strike against the enemy base in each sector of space before the enemy could realize what was happening and retaliate. The Bosconian War was about the close...
Table of Contents
Gameplay summary[edit]
- You pilot the Star Fighter, which can fly in eight directions (the first Namco character to do so), and fire simultaneously in two; in front and behind.
- Each round contains a number of Enemy Bases that are visible on the radar, which is located on the right side of the screen (much like Rally-X).
- In order to advance to the next round, all Enemy Bases must be destroyed, either by hitting all six cannons on the outside, or blowing up the core.
- The Enemy Bases will defend themselves with shots, and later on, missiles. In addition enemy missiles will appear to destroy your Star Fighter.
- Your Star Fighter will lose a life if it is flown into by an enemy missile or spy ship, or if it flies into an enemy bullet, asteroid, mine or Enemy Base.
- The combat computer will alert you to the formations' presences ("Battle Stations!"), or if you have been detected by a spy ship ("Condition Red!").


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The Department of Justice has sued First Choice Armor & Equipment Inc. and its founder, Edward Dovner, for submitting false claims about its bulletproof vests purchased for federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.
The company, in a statement released Aug. 6, has denied that Zylon vests it produced from 2000-2005 were defective and said it would challenge the DOJ in court.
"At no time has any First Choice body armor vest failed to protect law enforcement officers, including those models that contained the component Zylon (made by Toyobo) and that were discontinued by First Choice in 2005 and withdrawn from the market," according to a statement from Dan Walsh, First Armor's president. "The claims asserted yesterday by the Department of Justice are completely without merit. Additionally, not a single First Choice vest has ever failed to protect the individual wearing it."
First Choice, which manufactured and sold bullet-proof vests containing Zylon fiber from 2000-2005, marketed its vests to law enforcement agencies as a thinner and more lightweight alternative to other bullet-proof vests.
The federal complaint alleges that the company and its founder knew of significant manufacturing and degradation problems in the Zylon fiber that rendered the material unsafe for ballistic use. When the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) tested eight of First Choice's bullet-proof vests in 2005, all failed, according to the complaint.
"By providing defective bulletproof vests to the nation's law enforcement officers, First Choice put the lives of those officers at risk," stated Tony West, assistant attorney general for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. "The government's investigation has determined that bulletproof vest manufacturers, such as First Choice, wasted taxpayer dollars by failing to address these problems even after they were warned about them."
The federal government is also pursuing legal action against the company's founders and Japanese manufacturer. The DOJ has sued Dovner and Karen Herman, Dovner's wife and First Choice's president, for a fraudulent conveyance—a transfer of property that is made to swindle, hinder, or delay a creditor, or to put such property beyond his or her reach—in violation of the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act.
The government alleges that after learning of the investigation into Zylon bullet-proof vests, Dovner and Herman removed more than $5 million from First Choice. Dovner then purchased a Ferrari, a Maserati and a private jet through various shell companies.
The federal government is already pursuing lawsuits against Toyobo Co., the manufacturer of the Zylon fiber used in the First Choice bullet-proof vests, as well as Second Chance Body Armor and Honeywell International Inc., two other companies that manufactured Zylon vests or components for those vests.
In his statement, Walsh said Toyobo misled First Armor.
"Unfortunately, much of the information provided by Toyobo turned out to be false," he said. "In fact, the Department of Justice has sued the Toyobo entities in part for supplying false information to, and concealing material information from, U.S. based armor manufacturers, including First Choice."
The government has previously settled for more than $47 million with five other entities that allegedly were involved in the manufacture or sale of defective Zylon vests.


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This second floor two bedroom apartment, perfect for first time buyers, boasts open plan kitchen/living/dining room, two double bedrooms, a family bathroom, two private balconies and allocated parking.
AC - Airing cupboard
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W - Fitted wardobes
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text:
We economists get a lot of attention at cocktail parties.We do so by explaining that more sex can lead to safer sex, by complaining that the "drug war" makes drug use more dangerous, by noting that mandated fuel-economy standards cause more highway fatalities and, generally, by pointing out the many ways in which basic economic reasoning produces startling counterintuitive realities.
Startling counterintuitive conclusions, when clearly explained, reveal the power of the economic way of thinking. Economics is to our understanding of society what Copernican astronomy is to our understanding of the cosmos -- obvious first impressions are often flat wrong.Just as our untutored senses tell us that a still Earth is orbited by a revolving sun ("It's obvious!"), our senses tell us that minimum-wage legislation makes poor workers richer, that foreign aid to poor countries makes people in poor countries richer and that prohibitions on price-gouging make consumers richer.
In all of these cases, though, our untutored senses are spectacularly misleading.
And the chief reason why our senses so often mislead us about economic matters is that, when untutored in economics, we focus excessively on money and monetary prices. A good economist, in contrast, understands that money and prices often tell only part of the story.
Take foreign aid. If wealth were truly and mainly money, then governments of rich nations could easily make citizens of poor nations richer simply by giving more money to poor nations.
If wealth is money and money is wealth, then it's easy to overlook questions of how to produce the actual goods and services that people use money to buy. The typical American knows that if someone gave him an extra $10 million, he would indeed be much richer. He'd imagine himself going to a Mercedes dealership and driving away in a new sedan to the toniest neighborhood in town to buy a luxurious mansion that he would then fill with state-of-the-art appliances and consumer electronics.
For the typical American, more dollars does indeed mean more wealth.
But this typical American seldom pauses to ask just why it is that other people are willing to turn over to him high-performance automobiles and beautiful mansions in exchange for nothing more than paper -- for nothing more than lots of monochrome-green portraits of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and other dead statesmen from America's past.
Suppliers can sell for money only that which exists to be sold. So automobiles, houses, consumer electronics (and food, furniture and formal education; the list goes on and on) must first be produced in order to be sold and produced in great abundance in order to be enjoyed by the masses.
The mass production that is a hallmark of modern market economies is made possible not chiefly by money but by culture and institutions.
Security of property rights, along with a reasonably respected rule of law and toleration of economic change, form the nonmonetary foundations of our prosperity. Nations without this foundation will never prosper, regardless of how much financial aid is tossed on them.
Indeed, money plays a vital economic role. But wealth is not money (it's what money can buy) and wealth is not generated by money (it's generated by sound institutions and culture).


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Advancement and recognition is a fundamental tradition of the Scouting program. As one of the methods that delivers the Aims of Scouting, advancement teaches Scouts self-confidence, responsibility, goal-setting, and achievement.
The Dan Beard Council offers many opportunities for Scouts to advance on the unit, district, and council levels. The Council Advancement Committee adminsters and promotes the advancement programs and ensures a quality experience for all Scouts.
This site is designed to be a resource for Scouts, leaders, and parents to understand the Cub Sciuting, Boy Scouting, and Venturing advancement programs. Explore the menu above for information on advancement, awards, policies, and advancement related events and opportunities.


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Europe is one of the smallest tourist destinations that attracts millions of travellers from all over the world. Be it a trip to a single place like Switzerland or a trip to Europe, tourists loves to be here. And, the reasons are many. Americans and Canadian travellers are very much common here, and the reason is open borders and safety. Yes, Americans and Canadian people are free to visit Europe without any Visa and the best thing for them is, Europe is counted as one of the safest places so there is no problem exploring it. In a period of 6 months, 90 days are allowed for Americans and Canadians to explore Europe.
As already stated, Europe is a smallest place; in fact, it is just one third of Asia, but with many countries to visit. Due to its compact geometry, it is easier and faster for travellers to explore it in a short period. Adding to the compact geometry, the convenient transport system makes it enjoyable for travellers to explore different countries and cities within the countries. Trains, trams, buses, and trolleys are easily available providing travellers the most convenient way to live their life to the fullest.
Apart from geography and transport, travellers love to get around the culture of Europe, Cuisine, and especially wines that are famous in the whole world. If you are in Europe then you must want to feel the beauty of Switzerland. You must want to feel the real taste of wine in Porto & Douro Valley. In Europe, you will be loving Catholic Church and classical music. In addition to these, you are open to get around the real nightlife fun at pubs and bars. Apart from all these, you will love to visit the Countryside of France, Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Iceland. So, step down to Europe and live your life to the fullest.


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When I visit a new congregation for the first time, I always ask about who the singles are. Frequently, the minister or elders say, "we don't really have singles here". This statement perplexes me as I know research shows that 51% of the U. S. population is not married. When I push for answers, I sometimes hear the following, "well, Mrs. Jones is a widow and has 3 kids but they are in high school and don't attend regularly." "We have a divorced man and his kids come when he has visitation". "We have 4 or 5 college kids but they are dating". "Barbara has two kids but she isn't living the single life". So, the conclusion is that you have some singles that you don't do much for and don't go out of your way to get others into the flock. Sounds harsh, doesn't it? Except that it is a true statement. So, who are those single parents?
- The divorced lady with the unruly son
- The never married young lady who made a "mistake".
- The YOUNG widow and widower who make everyone else uncomfortable.
- The older widow who just wants to get out of the house.
- The military spouse (yes, married but alone) who needs extra involvement.
- The parent of the special needs child.
James wrote that pure religion is taking care of the widows and orphans….time to start!


text: Turn off the wireless function can protect the router from lightning( during storm weather usually in summer )? Or unplug the power line is the best way? For example: I have 6 APs in 6 building as a WDS. These 6 APs are indoor, just nearby the windows, located at 5th and 7th floor of 14-floors-buildings. To protect them from lightning, Can I remotely turn off the wireless function or shut down the Tomato of 6 APs? Thanks Bingji


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Most of the modern cars have a sound system. It should have high-quality sound, provide a range of radio waves, read from a variety of media. New Rolsen car stereo RCR-116 have all of the above options. The special features of the car stereos are an MP3 decoder, a highly sensitive FM tuner, a fixed front panel, blue or green button illumination.
It can play music content from SD/MMC and USB drivers. Simple strict design perfectly integrates with the panel of any car, and the power output of 4x45Vt delivers great sound.


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Below are all the predictions for john_oconnor13.
Only matches and bonus questions that can't be changed are shown here.
bonus questions
51. Indiana inside 10 yard line success rate in non-garbage time – Over/Under 39.9%0 points
answer: Under
73. Indiana non-game-winning field goal attempts on 4th and 4 or fewer – Over/Under 0.50 points
answer: ...
75. IU total passing plus all-purpose yards from Indiana natives – Over/Under 79.50 points
answer: ...
76. Anthony McFarland rushing yards minus Stevie Scott rushing yards – Over/Under 19.50 points
answer: ...


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La campagne publicitaire « Love Affair » de FIAT :
Love Affair par TBTC_
Agence de publicité : Doner, Detroit
The brand has a way of seducing one's heart from the get go. Whether it's the performance of the 124 Spider or the 500X; prepare to be enchanted.
FIAT has been offering customers affordable yet innovative solutions to meet their mobility needs for more than a century. The brand's mission is to combine the Italian passion for design and originality with efficiency and versatility to simplify everyday life with the joyful usefulness of its products. If you have questions about our products or would like to contact directly, please use the « Contact Us » option from our website: www.fiatusa.com.


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Wednesday, June 12, 2013
dead beauty
sought it,
championed it,
would have liked to wade right into it, if he could.
"You little troll," said his wife.
She had once been a dancer, but was now a horror,
sucking on black cigarettes,
and as wrinkled around the lips and eyes
as if she had kept them open while kissing Decay on the mouth.
Professor Keskesay could have forgiven her churlish bad temper.
He could have forgiven her grasping, shallow nature;
but her ugliness pained him to his core.
It seemed to him that the beauties of an earlier era
possessed a rare charm that had been somehow lost over time.
How they shone!
How their sepia faces made his heart quicken
and his soul expand!
Why would they not speak to him?
Finally, he could stand it no longer.
Sharp at midnight, he went to the famous cemetery where the beautiful slept.
He passed the poets, disregarded the financiers,
and strode straight to the marker of Babette Jolie-Fille
the celebrated star of the silents.
He dug her up.
"Still enchanting! Still a goddess!" he exclaimed,
casting away his shovel in order to embrace her.
From then on, the joyous Professor Keskesay could be seen
tooling about town in his 1929 convertible,
with Babette leaning against him, her scarves flowing in the wind.
Shyly, blushing like a girl, he confessed to her
that she made him feel more alive than he had felt in years!
How his fine sensitivity had been wasted on his gruesome wife!
He thanked her with diamonds, stoles, and endless passionate desire!
Though she never spoke, he understood her perfectly.
She was the Queen of the Silent Screen,
and to speak would only ruin everything.
How wise she was, in addition to her matchless beauty!
The Professor presently divorced his hideous cow of a wife,
and married Babette, in a necessarily private ceremony.
So composed she always was,
knowing how just the right pose and poise
could bring the world to her doorstep--
a dazzled Mountain coming, hat in hand, to her,
the most voluptuous and female Mohammed ever to grace the garden
where Professor Keskesay liked most to place her chair.
Together, of an evening,
they would watch melting, disintegrating celluloid reels
of Babette in her heyday,
the Professor scarcely glancing at the screen, but rather,
gazing continuously at her, seeing only her fineness and her pulchritude.
After many years of this, the Professor died--
his love had built to such a pitch, that his heart simply burst,
and he keeled over at Babette's tiny feet.
The silent vixen was buried in the cemetery for the famous,
with Professor Keskesay beside her--
her second interment, his first.
Some said she was rotted away,
nothing but bones and gray tendons in a bejeweled gown;
but to the Professor, she was always the ideal of feminine perfection,
and because of this, as any woman who's been truly loved could tell you,
she really was,
and their souls still entwine
demurely out of the sight of unbelievers.
for Izy's Out of Standard at Toads.
25 comments:
- L. Edgar Otto said...
Most Excellent and even more to think about...
- June 12, 2013 at 6:44 PM
- Sherry Blue Sky said...
Oh you can spin a tale. I love the clip of the silent film actress......back in the Day, the hidden added allure and mystique. I have been away from the Love Train so long, I dont know if mystique even still exists. But I hope it does.
- June 12, 2013 at 6:53 PM
- Hannah said...
Your characters and tale are super-rich...I just knew you'd rock the heck out of this one, Shay! Much enjoyed as always. :)
- June 12, 2013 at 6:54 PM
- hedgewitch said...
Nothing less than I would have expected here indeed--surreal sweetness, love unconquered by death or time(or inconvenient reality) an eternal faith and perfect affinity between two meant for each other, all in the most bizarre of frameworks imaginable, which only makes everything more beautiful, really. Love the Prof's name, and the clip as well. I'm leaving humming that old song, 'Beautiful madness, wake unto me...'
- June 12, 2013 at 7:24 PM
- Sioux said...
An incredible tale, and how did you include that clip that just kept playing?
You can write poems. You can write stories. And you've mastered the techno-crap part of blogging.
- June 12, 2013 at 8:29 PM
- Kay L. Davies said...
Love this, Shay, love the names and the whole hilarious premise, but mostly "so composed" !!
Giggling outrageously here, having a wonderful time.
- June 12, 2013 at 9:59 PM
- Helen said...
What a story! The film clip is the perfect companion piece ....
- June 12, 2013 at 10:57 PM
- Susie Clevenger said...
What a love story. I think there is such allure in the fantasy of beauty...thank goodness my husband doesn't see what I see in the mirror. :) Great writing as always!!
- June 12, 2013 at 11:01 PM
- Isadora Gruye said...
some said this was richy, so I will choose another adjective: velvety delicious in it's villainry. At one point, I want to hate the professor for his vanity, but then I also want to pat him on the back or help him out of a rocking fetal position. I love how the narrator in the poem never speaks to babette's decay until after the professor was dead, as if he cast a glamour over the entire poem. In fact, the only time we see babette decaying while in his company is on celluid, as if those images are nothing to him because he has the real thing.
So well done! Viva la
- June 12, 2013 at 11:16 PM
- Poet Laundry said...
That final stanza speaks the truth. The film "Death Becomes Her" came to mind as I read this...all that dark-comedy-fantasy of your extraordinary imagination!
- June 12, 2013 at 11:34 PM
- Patricia A. McGoldrick said...
Quite a story! Beauty is truly in the eyes of the beholder.
- June 13, 2013 at 12:28 AM
- Maggie Grace said...
Now THAT is creative writing! Love all your word plays in your captivating descriptions.
- June 13, 2013 at 12:41 AM
- Alice said...
I enjoyed this a great deal, especially the last two stanzas. "Together, of an evening" was such perfect phrasing. It almost made me giddy.
I also love this:
"Though she never spoke, he understood her perfectly.
She was the Queen of the Silent Screen,
and to speak would only ruin everything.
How wise she was, in addition to her matchless beauty!"
You made me laugh many times. :)
Like here:
"and married Babette, in a necessarily private ceremony"
And here:
"and married Babette, in a necessarily private ceremony"
What a fun and well-executed story-poem. Superb.
- June 13, 2013 at 1:35 AM
- Alice said...
Oops, that last quote was supposed to be this:
"a dazzled Mountain coming, hat in hand, to her,
the most voluptuous and female Mohammed ever to grace the garden
where Professor Keskesay liked most to place her chair."
- June 13, 2013 at 1:36 AM
- juzta mum said...
Love the story, love the love in the story.And the touch of that clip..awesome
- June 13, 2013 at 9:00 AM
- Kerry O'Connor said...
I sneaked in earlier at work to read this, and it really made my day.
I love the way you have put across the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and taken to the bizarre extreme with dear Professor Keskesay makes it no less true. The way you ended your tale is sheer brilliance. Therein lies the real gift of the story-teller.
- June 13, 2013 at 9:12 AM
- Mama Zen said...
This is so unexpectedly sweet and tender. Wow, Shay.
- June 13, 2013 at 9:14 AM
Nicely done. Not overwritten and clearly, concisely put together.
- June 13, 2013 at 9:18 AM
- Hannah Stephenson said...
What a deliciously creepy story, Shay. Have you ever read the story "Sea Oak" by George Saunders? It's one of my favorites, and very demented--I think you would love it :).
- June 13, 2013 at 9:48 AM
- Daryl said...
i love all your writing but i adore, totally adore the longer ones .. this is no exception
- June 13, 2013 at 10:15 AM
- Lolamouse said...
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yes? And to be adored is to feel beautiful. I love "kissing Decay on the mouth!"
- June 13, 2013 at 10:50 AM
- TALON said...
Oh, but your creativity is a wonder, Shay. :)
- June 13, 2013 at 1:37 PM
- Susan said...
I love this. I was afraid you'd give him a moment of revelation before dying, but you didn't. Cool.
- June 13, 2013 at 2:41 PM
It's Naked Lunch without the gratuitous grotesquery and self-indulgence, which is to say awfully damn good.
- June 13, 2013 at 9:19 PM
you can be one sick woman sometimes, my dear ~ i LOVE it!
i had to google "pulchritude" which is the WORST word ever for beauty ~ though it does go nicely with what one can imagine Babette looked like to everyone other than Keskesay... oh, wait... that's "putrid", isn't it?
- June 20, 2013 at 2:18 AM


text:
The Afilias Registry has announced the following downtime:
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During the above maintenance window, you would not be able to Register, Renew, Transfer, Manage Afilias domain names with Purohits.com.
This outage shall have no impact on the resolution/working of your already registered domain names. Please feel free to get in touch with our Support Team at http://www.purohits.com/support.html, in case of any queries/doubts.


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text:
Updated: Star Lord's father has been revealed in this latest rumor
UPDATE: James Gunn has issued a rebuttle to this scoop, saying that it's false. Read his full statement HERE, but the gist is below:
"All right. From this moment on I'm going to stop commenting on any rumors surrounding Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, because, eventually, someone is going to come up with a spoiler that has some truth to it. That said, the rumors surrounding Quill's parentage at the present moment are completely false, and aren't even close to the truth. I don't know how people come up with this stuff, but it certainly isn't through legitimate sources."
The mystery of Star Lord/Peter Quill's father was teased at the end of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and is sure to be a plot point in the upcoming VOL. 2. Director James Gunn stated that the films would not be following the source material, and now that mystery may have been revealed thanks to Heroic Hollywood. For those of you looking to keep things a surprise, there are some MAJOR SPOILERS regarding Peter Quill's father and his place in the Marvel-verse. You have been warned!
As El Mayimbe reports, Peter Quill's father in the Marvel cinematic universe may be that of Captain Marvel, or rather, Captain Mar-Vell. Read on!
So, a bit of a history lesson for those unfamiliar. The first Captain Marvel, created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan in Marvel Super-Heroes #12, was an alien military officer. Captain Mar-Vell, of the Kree Imperial Militia, was sent to observe planet Earth as the Kree were developing technology to travel into space. Mar-Vell eventually allied himself with Earth, and the Kree Empire branded him a traitor. From then on, Mar-Vell fought to protect Earth.
Now, for those of you curious on how this will connect to the Captain Marvel movie featuring Carol Danvers, Mar-Vell will evidently gift superpowers her way. Given that director James Gunn prides himself on the GUARDIANS flicks standing apart from the rest of the Marvel movies, I imagine we may not get too much into the Carol Danvers side of things until her solo flick comes out. In the meantime, this will be a cool way to set up a future superhero, as well as reference an alien race that audiences are familiar with. Here's hoping that Gunn can introduce the type of Kree that seems more like a living, breathing creature rather than CG fodder.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5, 2017.
|Heroic Hollywood


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|Chevys Hope Foundation
In Memory of Chevy
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Donate up to 30% of your purchase price to Chevy's Hope Foundation when you shop at 1700+ popular online retailers using Giving Assistant! Its easy. Giving Assistant pays you cash back, and you choose how much of it youd like to donate to us. Try it now and find great deals like Macys Coupon, as well as savings at great places like Michaels.com and Banggood.com!


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Klaus Komenda takes us through the history of development patterns of JavaScript demonstrating the pros and cons. Taking a typical JavaScript feature he starts with the old-school global functions method and iterates through a Singleton, Module Pattern, Revealing Module Pattern, Custom Objects and Lazy Function Definitions bringing the same feature up-to-date.
Jonathan Snook demonstrates when JavaScript passes by reference or passes by value. Essentially, primitive types are passed by value, objects are passed by reference. Passing functions however, makes things look like a pass by value if the
this keyword is being used in the code. Snook offers workarounds to this by passing objects so that the context is correct, or using the
call() function to ensure the context is correct.
Tim describes another two different approaches to using the Module Pattern (a way of creating Singletons). The first example takes advantage of the natural indentation to clearly see which methods are private and which are public. The second is a curried function, a function that returns another function.
Christian Heilmann offers another incremental improvement to the Module Pattern, and calls it the Revealing Module Pattern. This defines an anonymous object that contains a list of methods and properties that are publicly available. Christian notes that this method also allows you to set up a public property that's privately generated by a method. Christian's improvement makes it quickly clear which properties and methods are public.
Christian Heilmann compares the Object Literal to Douglas Crockford's Module pattern and finds that the Module pattern fixes a major problem of the object literal - the difficult choice of using this or fully qualified references to functions in the same block. Christian also covers the improvements in the Module Pattern, like the decluttering of the return block, which makes the resulting a little easier to work with.
Klaus Komenda discusses a number of ways of encapsulating JavaScript functions into objects and namespaces, and shows how to use each pattern. He covers Singletons, Douglas Crockford's Module Pattern and Custom Objects, building the same functionality with each technique.


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Dakota Life: Boss Cowman Square
Last Updated by
Boss Cowman Square A new art installation dedicated to Lemmon's namesake.
DAKOTA LIFE tells the story behind Boss Cowman Square, a new art installation that celebrates Lemmon, South Dakota's agricultural heritage and the legendary cowboy-turned-cattle baron who gave it his name. Sculptor Lopez created a larger-than-life sculpture of Ed Lemmon seated on his horse for the project. Nigerian artists Dotun Popoola and Jonathan Imafidor painted a pastoral mural that depicts Lemmon's men leading cattle across the Missouri River.
You can read more about Dotun and Jonathan here.
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A unique concept since 1993
MILLESIME BIO 2018: 29-31 January 2018
Each exhibitor has exactly the same equipment to present their wines: a table, two chairs, a white tablecloth, a spittoon, tasting glasses, ice and a display. This is a competition to judge and compare wines, not a competition on the exhibition techniques of wines! Here, all exhibitors are on an equal footing to present their products.
The stands are not grouped by region or appellation but randomly distributed. This feature of Millésime Bio is a deliberate wish of the organisers to promote encounters and curiosity. This may seem confusing at first, but the signposting and reception staff are there to guide you through your tasting journey.
The vast majority of exhibitors are able to present the newest of the vintages of the year.
Before the trade show, the organisers have strictly checked the compliance with legislation of all exhibits. The wines presented are all certified organic. Each exhibitor must provide copies of certificates of conformity with the organic production method issued by an accredited certification body for all the wines presented.
Bonne dégustation, as we say!
(fonte: https://www.millesime-bio.com/)


text:
Today, we will show you 2 ways to analyze the soil of the farm without having to do an in-depth analysis, being only necessary the sight and the touch.
The first method we are going to use is watching the color of the soil. All we need is to observe the tone of the soil in its natural state:
1. If the soil has a dark color, it indicates a high level of humus or organic materials.
2. If the soils are red and yellow, they indicate high levels of iron oxide. It is also an indicator that the soil is well drained, not too moist and fertile.
3. A yellowish grey or brown color may be indicative of a high oxygen level. Almost all soils with these characteristics have low fertility.
4. If the soil is characterized by a white or clear color, it informs us about the presence of quartz, carbonates or gypsum. In this case it indicates little presence of organic materials.
Soil fertilization is a combination of all soil characteristics (texture, pH, level of organic matter, etc.), and the level of soil indicates the facility in which the plant extracts from the soil the chemical elements it needs for its development .
The next method is by touch, observing the texture of the farm soil. In this case we will moisten a soil sample and press it in our palm to try to shape any figure:
1. If the soil slips without spotting and without letting us create any figure, the soil is sandy. These soils are characterized by being easy to work , but also by having few nutrients.
2. We will have loam soil when the it leaves color in the hands. This type of soil is rich in humus and holds the nutrients well. They are soft and sticky soils, therefore they are very easy to work.
3. When the soil is totally maleable, we will have a soil of clay texture. These soils are high in nutrients but are heavy and difficult to work with.
It should be noted that sandy soils do not allow large amounts of fertilizer so they must be fertilized frequently and in small quantities. On the other hand the clay soils demand the opposite,: few and abundant applications.
Once we know what kind of soil we have, we can give it the products that it demands. We have to be careful with the soils with few nutrients since they need an external contribution (fertilizers) and with heavy soils, since they need a greater labor.


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Cause: .CHK files are created by the SCANDISK and CHKDSK utilities when they scan the system for lost allocation units.
Solution: You can safely delete all .CHK files after searching for them. It's only when the PC is not shut down properly that these .CHK files are created by the two scanning utilities. Hence, always switch off the PC properly, i.e., don't reboot the machine by pressing the reset button on the front panel.