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An anonymous artist has covertly delivered ten paper sculptures to Scottish cultural institutions since March 2011. Now a touring exhibition of this work is returning to where it all unfolded – Edinburgh. Two people at the heart of this mystery, Robyn Marsack and Abby Cunnane, recall the amazing story.
In March last year, an unannounced gift arrived at the Scottish Poetry Library — a tiny paper tree complete with nesting birds, which seemed to be growing from a book. Beside it sat an eggshell lined with gold-leaf, and a string of paper bunting made from the words of Edwin Morgan's poem, A Trace of Wings. It appeared as if from nowhere, and like all the best gifts, was accompanied by a gift tag which did not explain, but added to the mystery of its coming:
It started with your name @ByLeavesWeLive and became a tree… We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books…a book is so much more than pages full of words…This is for you, in support of Libraries, books, words and ideas…
The Poetree was the first of ten anonymously gifted sculptures, all intricately crafted from books, and covertly left throughout 2011 at arts and cultural institutions around Edinburgh. An online community of book lovers was immediately captivated, and remained so throughout the gradual revelation of the story.
Each work came with a gift tag message addressed to the institution. The theme of "libraries, books, words and ideas" remained consistent, but grew to encompass also a celebration of festivals, magic, stories, tea and cake…all the things readers love most.
The first and last of the ten in the series were given to the Scottish Poetry Library, and they make inspired references to poems by Edwin Morgan and by Norman MacCaig. A host of other literary references appear in each work. The Edinburgh Writers Museum received a sculpture based on a specific scene from R L Stevenson's novel The Mysterious Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, while the National Museum of Scotland's sculpture is a transformed edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, complete with rampaging paper T-Rex bursting from its pages.
The message is always deftly layered, and the artist clearly not only knows her local literature intimately, but enjoys playing with visual and text puns. The works have something serious to say too. The sculpture for the National Library of Scotland, based on Ian Rankin's Exit Music, calls attention to the threat to libraries — are they on their way out? "In support of libraries, books, words and ideas… (and against their exit)," the note read.
The Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature Trust received James Hogg's gothic classic Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner; that book came with this caption invoking the importance of a nurturing environment for a young child – and reader :
To @EdinCityofLit - a gift LOST (albeit in a good book) This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas. 'No infant has the power of deciding by what circumstances (they) shall be surrounded' - Robert Owen
Every sculpture reflects each institution's ongoing act of 'magic': providing free public access to public treasures. A note accompanying the final work in the series revealed the identity of the artist as a woman, and a subsequent statement from the artist unassumingly explained her intentions for the project: a woman, who had been a girl, whose life would have been less rich had she been unable to wander freely into libraries, art galleries and museums. A woman who, now all grown, still wants access to these places and yes, wants them for her children…
Almost every day since they started appearing, the Scottish Poetry Library has fielded questions from visitors on the paper sculptures' trail: "Do you know who the sculptor is?" and "When can we see them all together?" The idea of taking all ten works on tour became the obvious next chapter, and this year Creative Scotland and an appropriately anonymous donor have enabled the library to do so, in partnership with Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature Trust.
A book was published by Polygon to accompany the tour, and tell the story in more detail. By this time a line of communication had been established with the artist – an e-mail address which retained her anonymity. Logistics for the exhibition tour and publication required some contact, but it has always been important to everyone involved that the mystery remains intact: this is far too fine a story to spoil.
The anonymity of the works has been a vital ingredient of its attraction as a story, something the live encounter with the works makes all the more pressing – who can it be that has the time, the spatial genius, the skill, the fingers to pull off such intricately crafted gestures? Between August and November the Gifted exhibition has visited five venues across Scotland, involving 12 installations and pack-downs, any number of events and workshops, and miles and miles of winding Scottish roads. It was opened to the public at Aberdeen Central Library, after which it travelled to Dundee Central Library in September, the Wigtown Book Festival later that month, and then Glasgow's Mitchell Library in October. Dunfermline's Carnegie Library has hosted the exhibition this month, bringing the visitor total to over 40,000 at last count.
The sculptures on tour were accompanied by their ten hefty display plinths, by exhibition banners, books and print material, and other boxes containing various tool kits, paint for plinth touch-ups, handling gloves, spirit levels, and all the hundreds of other minuscule things you need to take an exhibition on the road. A conservator came too, checking the light levels and conditions at each venue were the best possible for their preservation. An entourage: it was hard not to see the quiet, anonymously gifted sculptures as tiny paper rock-stars on tour.
The works have been the central characters in a story involving countless others, each visitor supporting what libraries and publicly accessible cultural institutions do. They've been followed by thousands on Twitter, established their own community on Facebook, while some visitors have returned to the exhibition multiple times. They have won librarians' hearts up and down the country, and further afield through a number of blogs and endlessly circulating images online. They've shown us again and again the power of a good story (and good looks!), and the impact of a small-scale gesture of huge generosity.
This chapter of the sculptures' story is about to come to a close, with a homecoming exhibition back at the Scottish Poetry Library, opening at 1pm tomorrow, to coincide with the eve of Book Week Scotland. With the season of gifts nearly here, it seems a good time to celebrate one of last year's best. The two-week exhibition will be a final opportunity for Edinburgh to see these works together before they are returned to their home institutions.
Everyone at the Scottish Poetry Library will be thrilled and relieved in equal measure to have their own sculptures back for good – the Poetree which started the whole story back in spring 2011 and the Cap and Gloves, the final in the series. Books are for lending, sharing, taking on the road certainly, and the story will go on, but these books have their real home in the library down Crichton's Close.
• Robyn Marsack is director of the Scottish Poetry Library and Abby Cunnane is project manager of the Gifted tour.
• Gifted: The Edinburgh Book Tour 2012 is on display at The Scottish Poetry Library from tomorrow until 8 December. Gifted: The Tale of 10 Mysterious Book Sculptures Gifted to the City of Words and Ideas is available now to coincide with a national tour of the sculptures. Published by Polygon £9.99.


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Boston Red Sox, American professional baseball team based in Boston. One of the most-storied franchises in American sports, the Red Sox have won nine World Series titles and 14 American League (AL) pennants.
Founded in 1901, the franchise (then unofficially known as the Boston Americans) was one of the eight charter members of the American League. The team played at the Huntington Avenue Grounds from 1901 to 1911 and moved to Fenway Park in 1912. The oldest of all current major league ballparks, Fenway is known for its quirky features, the most famous of which is the 37-foot 2-inch (11.3-metre) left field wall known as the "Green Monster." The team officially took the name Boston Red Sox ("BoSox" or "Sox" for short) in 1908, adapting it from the Boston Red Stockings, the original name of Boston's first professional baseball team (now the Atlanta Braves).
Boston enjoyed immediate success with its superstar Cy Young, the premiere pitcher of his generation, and their talented third baseman and manager, Jimmy Collins. Boston won the very first World Series, in 1903, by defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates and continued its successful run in the 1910s, winning four more championships (1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918) with lineups that included centre fielder Tris Speaker (1907–15), pitcher Smokey Joe Wood (1908–15), and a young pitcher-turned-outfielder named Babe Ruth (1914–19).
The team's fortunes changed dramatically in 1920, however, with the notorious sale of Ruth to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee. This was the genesis of the Red Sox–Yankees rivalry and of the supposed "Curse of the Bambino" ("Bambino" was one of Ruth's nicknames), cited by many Red Sox fans as the reason the team failed to win another World Series in the 20th century while the Yankees went on to become baseball's most successful franchise. After losing Ruth and other star players as well as their capable manager, Ed Barrow, to the Yankees, the Red Sox suffered through abysmal season after season over the next two decades.
Finally, in 2004, the Red Sox emerged triumphant after 86 years of frustration, winning the World Series in four games against the St. Louis Cardinals behind the pitching of Curt Schilling and the batting of Ramirez and David Ortiz. Just as important to Red Sox fans, they had vanquished their nemesis, the Yankees, in the American League Championship Series (ALCS), coming back from a 3–0 series deficit to win 4–3, the first team in baseball history to stage such a comeback in the postseason. The Red Sox—led by standout pitching performances by Josh Beckett, Jonathan Papelbon, and rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka—captured another World Series title in 2007, sweeping the Colorado Rockies in four games.
The Red Sox lost a seven-game ALCS to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008 but remained one of baseball's most-dominant teams through the end of the decade. However, in 2011 the spectre of past failures was raised when the Red Sox lost a nine-game lead in the Wild Card standings over the course of the final month of the regular season—the worst September collapse in the history of Major League Baseball. In 2012 Boston lost 95 games—the most for the team in 48 years—but a substantially rebuilt team immediately rebounded in 2013 to post an AL-best 97 wins and return to the World Series, where the team beat the Cardinals in six games to capture its eighth championship. The team's seesaw tendencies continued into 2014, when the Red Sox plummeted from the peak of the sport to lose 91 games and finish last in their division.
In 2016 a rebuilt Red Sox team returned to the postseason by winning a division title. Both that squad and the following year's team lost in the division series, but the 2018 Red Sox broke through, winning a franchise-record 108 games during the regular season and cruising through the postseason, losing just three games across three play-off series en route to another World Series title.

subset: commoncrawl


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Lynx pull away from Silver Stars in second half
Minneapolis, MN – Lindsay Whalen filled the stat sheet with 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists as the Minnesota Lynx downed the San Antonio Silver Stars, 87-72, at Target Center.
Maya Moore added 19 points and nine rebounds while Seimone Augustus and Monica Wright chipped in 18 and 16 points, respectively, for the Lynx, who have won eight straight home games against their Western Conference rival.
Shenise Johnson had a team-high 16 points for the Silver Stars, who have lost their first two road games of the season.
A back-and-forth first half featured 12 lead changes and 10 ties and ended with the Silver Stars clinging to a 36-35 lead.
The Lynx ended the third quarter on a 12-6 run to take a 60-53 cushion into the fourth, which they began with a 10-1 flurry to all but put the game away.


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It's been pointed out that as we're at the 'bleeding edge', visions for deep mapping are still highly personal. As we don't yet have a shared definition I don't want to misrepresent people's ideas by summarising them, so I'm just posting my current definition of deep maps:
A deep map contains geolocated information from multiple sources that convey their source, contingency and context of creation; it is both integrated and queryable through indexes of time and space.
Essential characteristics: it can be a product, whether as a snapshot static map or as layers of interpretation with signposts and pre-set interactions and narrative, but is always visibly a process. It allows open-ended exploration (within the limitations of the data available and the curation processes and research questions behind it) and supports serendipitous discovery of content. It supports curiosity. It supports arguments but allows them to be interrogated through the mapped content. It supports layers of spatial narratives but does not require them. It should be compatible with humanities work: it's citable (e.g. provides URL that shows view used to construct argument) and provides access to its sources, whether as data downloads or citations. It can include different map layers (e.g. historic maps) as well as different data sources. It could be topological as well as cartographic. It must be usable at different scales: e.g. in user interface - when zoomed out provides sense of density of information within; e.g. as space - can deal with different levels of granularity.
Essential functions: it must be queryable and browseable. It must support large, variable, complex, messy, fuzzy, multi-scalar data. It should be able to include entities such as real and imaginary people and events as well as places within spaces. It should support both use for presentation of content and analytic use. It should be compelling - people should want to explore other places, times, relationships or sources. It should be intellectually immersive and support 'flow'.
For me, this Institute has been a chance to hang out with ace people with similar interests and different backgrounds - it might mean we spend some time trying to negotiate discipline-specific language but it also makes for a richer experience. It's a chance to work with wonderfully messy humanities data, and to work out how digital tools and interfaces can support ambiguous, subjective, uncertain, imprecise, rich, experiential content alongside the highly structured data GIS systems are good at. It's also a chance to test these ideas by putting them into practice with a dataset on religion in Indianapolis and learn more about deep maps by trying to build one (albeit in three days).
As part of thinking about what I think a deep map is, I found myself going back to an embarrassingly dated post on ideas for location-linked cultural heritage projects:
I've always been fascinated with the idea of making the invisible and intangible layers of history linked to any one location visible again. Millions of lives, ordinary or notable, have been lived in London (and in your city); imagine waiting at your local bus stop and having access to the countless stories and events that happened around you over the centuries. ... The nice thing about local data is that there are lots of people making content; the not nice thing about local data is that it's scattered all over the web, in all kinds of formats with all kinds of 'trustability', from museums/libraries/archives, to local councils to local enthusiasts and the occasional raving lunatic. ... Location-linked data isn't only about official cultural heritage data; it could be used to display, preserve and commemorate histories that aren't 'notable' or 'historic' enough for recording officially, whether that's grime pirate radio stations in East London high-rise roofs or the sites of Turkish social clubs that are now new apartment buildings. Museums might not generate that data, but we could look at how it fits with user-generated content and with our collecting policies.Amusingly, four years ago my obsession with 'open sourcing history' was apparently already well-developed and I was asking questions about authority and trust that eventually informed my PhD - questions I hope we can start to answer as we try to make a deep map. Fun!
Finally, my thanks to the NEH and the Institute organisers and the support staff at the Polis Center and IUPUI for the opportunity to attend.


text: Don't know if there already is an official UFC thread, I tried searching but came up with nothing. If there is please just merge them thanks. UFC 96 is tonight starting at 10 Eastern time. Looks like a pretty good card. I'm in Ft. Lauderdale, usually I watch at Geronimo's in Davie but I may be flying solo so if anyone wants to come out or is watchin it anywhere else let me know. Anyone that likes the Dolphins is cool with me.


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Christmas in October with Bing Crosby
By: Linnea Crowther
6 years ago
I'm not trying to rush Christmas, and I know full well (even if the big box stores – with aisles of red and green already abutting the spooky sea of black and orange – do not) that we have to wait until Halloween is over before the Christmas decorations go up. But today is the 35th anniversary of Bing Crosby's death Oct. 14, 1977, and that overwhelmingly means one thing…
It's a great time to listen to "White Christmas."
Penned by Irving Berlin, it was Crosby's biggest hit, and with good reason – and it encapsulates everything we love about the holiday season. You've got nostalgia: "just like the ones I used to know." Communicating with old friends: "with every Christmas card I write." The joy of watching kids enjoy the holiday: "and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow." And, of course, snow!
Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" was massively popular when it was released in 1941, and then the following year when it was featured in the hit film Holiday Inn starring Crosby and Fred Astaire. The song was so popular, in fact, that within six years, the master recording was completely worn out after being duplicated so many times. In 1947 Crosby had to re-record the song, striving to come as close as possible to the original. The subtle changes didn't hurt the song's success, and by 1955 it had become the world's best-selling single, thanks in part to another popular Crosby movie released in 1954. The film costarred Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen and was aptly-titled White Christmas.
Today, amazingly, "White Christmas" is still the top-selling single of all time. With more than 50 million copies sold, it's millions of pressings ahead of the next-best-seller, Elton John's "Candle in the Wind." And that's not the song's only distinction. It's also far and away the most-recorded Christmas song of all time, with more than 500 versions in existence from stars such as Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Ernest Tubb, Andy Williams and Doris Day and Bob Marley and Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift and even the New Kids on the Block.
But there's one version that is, without a doubt, the very best. I think we all know which one it is.
Written by Linnea Crowther


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I am returning to Arch Linux after being away for about a year. I have finally had a chance to install Arch on my new laptop. Since I am new to systemd and the new installation process I followed the beginners guide very closely.
*Description of the Steps I followed and the Error I encountered*
When I came the the "Configure the Network" Portion of the Beginners' Guide, I chose to follow the net-auto-wired setup. This was partly because I found the warning to be confusing and could not understand why the Guide included a command that "won't work". Additionally I the "net-auto-wired" method seemed given the language of the Guide to be the superior alternative. So I followed the following steps:
# pacman -S ifplugd
# cd /etc/network.d
# ln -s examples/ethernet-dhcp .
# systemctl enable net-auto-wired.service
These commands returned no errors, nor did the net-auto-wired daemon fail to initialize on reboot. I simply did not have a connection with the internet, even after confirming that all the wires were securely plugged in.
*Question for the Forum*
I was able to establish a connection with via several means as well I will likely be installing dbus and wicd to manage my internet connections. So my question is less about how to get connected and more (a) how to trouble shoot net-auto-wired and (b) what language and procedures can we change to the Beginners' Guide so that this issue is not encountered by beginners in the future.
*Information I have Uncovered*
When the net-auto-wired daemon failed to establish a connection. I immediately tried running the following command:
# systemctl enable firstname.lastname@example.com
The output of this command (what is following) showed me what the warning was talking about, how it rename the symbolic link to eth0.service and not enp4s0f2.service as it should have.
ln -s '/usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpcd@.service' '/email@example.com'
I attempted to resolve this issue by creating the symbolic link with the following command
# ln -s /usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpcd@.service /firstname.lastname@example.com
After reboot, the appropriately started the dhcpcd@ deamon and established an internet connection.
It also hit me that the netcfg profile "ethernet-dhcp" would be pointing to the wrong interface. I edited the profile to interface with the enp4s0f2 not eth0 and was able to establish a connection manually with the following command but net-auto-wired still failed to work.
# netcfg ethernet-dhcp
At this point I checked the status of the of the net-auto-wired daemon with the following command which uncovered what is most certainly the issue.
# systemctl status net-auto-wired
net-auto-wired.service - Provides automatic netcfg wired connection
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/net-auto-wired.service; disabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2013-01-24 14:47:12 EST; 36s ago
Main PID: 421 (ifplugd)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/net-auto-wired.service
421 /usr/bin/ifpluged -i eth0 -r /etc/ifplugd/netcfg.action -fIns
Jan 24 14:47:12 ragnarok systemd[1]: Started Provides automatic netcfg wired connection.
Jan 24 14:47:12 ragnarok ifplugd[421]: ifplugd 0.28 initializing.
Jan 24 14:47:12 ragnarok ifplugd[421]: Using interface eth0
Jan 24 14:47:12 ragnarok ifplugd[421]: Initalization complete, link beat not detected.
Obviously the issues with this are it use of eth0 and not enp4s0f2.
I do not know where to go from here but I am curious if the issue of dhcpcd@ misnaming the symlink is some how related to this issue.
Thanks for all your insight and responses.
PS. This is the third time I have written this post. I finally typed it out in a separate text editor and then copied it in. Twice my login has timed out before I could submit and thus when I submitted I was logged out and my post lost. I do not post often with the forums but I was just frustrated to have lost so much effort. Has anyone else encountered this?
Last edited by jash (2013-01-25 17:29:49)
So, you have set enp4s0f2 on /etc/conf.d/netcfg, right?
About the forum, no, it let me stay connected until I click Logout.
"open source is about choice"
Open source is about opening the source code complying with this conditions, period. The ability to choose among several packages is just a nice side effect.
PS. This is the third time I have written this post. I finally typed it out in a separate text editor and then copied it in. Twice my login has timed out before I could submit and thus when I submitted I was logged out and my post lost. I do not post often with the forums but I was just frustrated to have lost so much effort. Has anyone else encountered this?
Yes, it seems that after a period of inactivity (5 minutes ?) the forum software automatically logs someone out.
After that happened to me for the zillionth time, i installed the firefox addon ReloadEvery .
Now i always open 2 tabs for arch forums : 1 that just shows the index, and has reloadevery enabled with a time of 1 minute.
The 2nd tab is for reading/answering etc.
Haven't been logged out automatically since.
Multi-init booting with apg Openrc and systemd coexisting
Automounting : not needed, i prefer pmount
Aur helpers : makepkg + my own local repo === rarely need them
Thank you very much chris_I and Lone_Wolf
No I had not edited that config. My first time working with netcfg and I was unaware of it. I did so and now it is working correctly. Perhaps this should be added the the net-auto-wired portion of the Beginners Guide, at least as a contingency to your device not being eth0.
After changing that config net-auto-wired is working well.
An intriguing work around I will look into that myself.
Thank you both for your replies.
Thanks, jash,
*Information I have Uncovered*
helped me to get an internet connection after a new install!


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Today at a mobile industry conference, Google's Andy Rubin explained that Google isn't going to favor Motorola over any other Android reseller.
As The Verge reports, he told reporters that Android and Motorola are so completely separate, he "doesn't even know who's running" Motorola once the acquisition is complete.
(Andy, meet Dennis Woodside. Dennis, meet Andy. You guys know each other?)
But leaving aside that meaningless claim -- Rubin's boss Larry Page knows exactly what's going on in both divisions and is free to make any strategic decision he likes -- the part that really stuck out was when Rubin said it would be "physically difficult for me to advantage somebody" because of Android's open source nature.
What a load.
Google itself admits that:
- Google picks a favored hardware partner to work closely with for each Android release. This is the "lead device" concept that came out in a leaked document last year. These favored partners put out the first Android phone for each release. For Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, it was Samsung -- who put out the Galaxy Nexus S. For Android 3.0, Honeycomb, which was made for tablets, it was Motorola -- the Motorola Xoom.
- Google controls the schedule for source code releases. Android is open source, but it's not community driven. From Rubin himself: "We take submissions from the community, but it's a much more controlled way in how it comes out."
All Google would have to do is pick Motorola to be its favored partner on each future Android update. Early access to source code, plus guidance about where Android is headed and how to develop apps for it, would absolutely give Motorola a huge advantage over all its competitors.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Rubin said that he wouldn't do this anyway because Motorola has such small market share. "Even if I was completely insane, it wouldn't make any sense for me to think that we could get Motorola to be 90 plus percent marketshare."
Apparently, Rubin doesn't share Larry Page's mandate to think big.
(Also: what about 50% share? Or 30% share?)
The truth will come out over the next year or two. Maybe Google really will continue to treat all its Android partners equally -- but then why did it drop $12.5 billion on a hardware company that's going to drag down its margins? Was it really just for the patents?
Get the latest Google stock price here.
Get the latest Microsoft stock price here.


text:
Indoctrination at it's finest...This has to qualify as child abuse, and the worst kind. They are creating people that are handicapped in questioning and rational thinking. The first years of human life, he/she believes anything that is told by an authority figure...these people are exploiting that aspect of development...So low... I recommend watching "Jesus Camp" to those who have not seen it yet...it's pretty much something like this.
Views: 142


text:
7 September 2013 at 4.52pm | Comment on this article
Japan, Australia, Russia and Ecuador - It's a testament to the enduring appeal of 'Va pensiero' that so many of you from across the globe heeded our call earlier this year in the run up to Royal Opera LIVE and submitted performances of the famous chorus from Verdi's Nabucco.
As well as creating an inspiring video for the day of live-streaming, the vision was to create a unique immersive experience for this year's Stephen Fry-curated Deloitte Ignite festival. That's where I come in, using some of the submissions, as well as additional recordings featuring the Youth Opera Company and Thurrock Community Chorus and ambient sounds to create something unique.
Especially interesting were the performances in outdoor settings such as the Imperial Gardens in Kyoto. Each has a unique ambience but one of my favourites is from YouTube sensation Maestro Wenarto in Seattle who performed his extract with a karaoke backing!
During the process I came to the opening night of Nabucco at Covent Garden where Sound Engineer Francis Gardner and I made ambient recordings of the pre-performance buzz in the foyer and I hope that these sounds give the sense of excitement that a new production brings with it. The piece features recordings of opening night ticket holders. I was lucky enough to speak to one audience member, Vania Barbara, who grew up in Italy and shared her personal stories about 'Va pensiero'. I recorded her speaking about the significance of the chorus to Italians, as well as Verdi's life, and these recollections are now weaved throughout the piece.
The piece is mixed in quadraphonic surround sound which should make for a great experience with some interesting interplay between recordings made at different speeds - I was able to create some interesting blurred harmonies with several choirs singing the same section coming from different speakers at different speeds.
One of the technical challenges was working with recordings of different qualities and volumes. This became a way of creating variation of texture in the piece, for example combining a full-sounding five-microphone recording of a choir with a compressed and slightly crackly YouTube recording.
During Deloitte Ignite the installation will be showcased in the magnificent space of the Crush Room, with its red plush furniture and chandeliers that make it feel like an extension of the main auditorium. Listeners can move around to experience the installation from different angles.
It's been fantastic have the opportunity to meet and work with so many people creating this installation and I hope that audiences enjoy the experience of hearing a classic opera chorus in a new and refreshing way.
Listen to an extract from the installation (mixed for stereo instead of quadrophonic sound):
Experience Elspeth's Brooke's 'Va pensiero' installation in the Crush Room at Stephen Fry's Deloitte Ignite on 8 and 22 September 2013.


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text:
Star Wars casting almost complete
The cast of the new Star Wars film is almost complete, according to Disney Studios.
Studios chairman Alan Horn also revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that shooting has already started on Episode VII, which is being directed by JJ Abrams.
He said of the cast: "We have a lot of them [in place]. We're just not completely done yet."
It isn't known who will star in the next instalment of the sci-fi saga although big names linked to the movie include Lupita Nyong'o, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ed Speleers, Gary Oldman, Ryan Gosling, Leonardo DiCaprio, Saoirse Ronan, Alex Pettyfer, Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael B Jordan.
Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill are also tipped to be returning to reprise their roles from the original trilogy.
Horn also confirmed that it hadn't all been plain-sailing when it came to perfecting the script for the film, which will be set 30 years after Return Of The Jedi.
"It's all about the screenplay. It has to be screenplay, screenplay, screenplay," he said.
But when asked whether the script was now where it should be, he confirmed: "It actually is now."
Episode VII is set for release in December 2015.
PA Media


text: Pop! Vinyl Marv from Home AloneMouse over image or click to enlarge Pop! Vinyl Marv from Home Alone Be the first to review this product SKU: 21799 Stands 3.75 inches in height. Availability: In stock $10.99 Qty: Add to Cart Email to a Friend | Add to Compare Share This Product Tweet Product Description Additional Information Product's Review Product Tags Product Description Details Celebrate this Christmas Classic with Marv from the Wet Bandits! Stands 3.75 inches in height. Additional Information Additional Information Gaming No Music No Product's Review Write Your Own Review You're reviewing: Pop! Vinyl Marv from Home Alone *Nickname *Summary of Your Review *Review Submit Review Product Tags Add Your Tags: Add Tags Use spaces to separate tags. Use single quotes (') for phrases. CMS tab You may also be interested in the following product(s) Set of 2 Turtle Dove Ornaments inspired by Home Alone 2 $24.99 $19.99 Kevin McCallister Themed Hat from Home Alone $14.99 Pop! Vinyl Harry from Home Alone $10.99 Pop! Vinyl Kevin from Home Alone $10.99


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Reviewed by Tillie Q. (age 8)
Steve finds out and tries running away two times and fails. Get this book and see how Steve gets free from his jail.
The Hockey Machine is like other books by Matt Christopher because they are about hockey. He also wrote other books about other sports. In all of his hockey books, the players are boys.
The Hockey Machine is special from all of the other hockey books by Matt Christopher because the boy, Steve, gets kidnapped. He also is braver than all the other players in his other books.
As I read this book, I felt all different feelings for Steve. I felt happy, sad, and sorry for him. I felt happy for Steve when he won his game at the beginning of the story. I loved the book because it is so realistic and true.
I recommend this book to first through third graders. People who like hockey and people who like adventure would like this book.


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Understanding Basic Horse Care by Michael Ball. This book helps both the first-time and the experienced horse owner. Chapters include basic horse handling, housing, grooming and feeding/preventative medicine. With a forward by George Morris.
Because Every Round Counts, by George Morris. A selection of George Morris' 50 best columns from The Chronicle of the Horse. "...for horsemen and women who are committed to training themselves and their horses correctly." 282 pp. Paperback.
This book begins with the history of bits and continues to modern uses. A must have for the complete understanding of this complex subject. Hardcover, 184 pages
Build Confidence Over Fences, by Holly Hugo Vidal. Ms. Hugo-Vidal has written the perfect book for riders who want to do well over fences but get in their own way. She takes you on a step-by-step guide to ""Build Confidence Over Fences."" 150 pp. Paperback.
Common Sense Dressage by Sally O'Connor. Ms. O'Connor is a Chef d'Equipe for the USET. Her book covers every aspect of dressage from groundwork to piaffe and passage. Her text ""...explains the challenges of dressage in a straight-forward, easy to understand fashion,...the graphics are marvelous."" The Chronicle of the Horse. A must have for every dressage enthusiast! 170 pp. Hardcover.
Be organized in style and fashion. This 7 1/2" x 5" x 2" day planner comes in three vibrant colors - sky blue, hot pink and olive green. The six ring binder comes with a calendar, birthday/anniversary page, To do/to call and address pages. There is room for your checkbook, pen and other notes to self! The sky blue planner is a smooth lush leather and the hot pink and olive green are in a pebbled leather exterior.


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Jmez Warbringer The Warlord
Well I figured Since I was In on Pimpin on People for there Mugs On Creep Side I'd Toss mine in there
Oh yeah And My little Warg Baby Yogi Bear there on the Couch next to me He's Viscious! He's Got Lazer Beam Eyes that Stun Burgz On first Glance
Knalin 60 R7 Champ/ Knorgrim 48 R1 Guard/ KnalinU 20 Rk
Knorgash R7 BA/ GreenDotLeader R4 WL/ DeathStorm R4 RvR/ KnoBark AllBite R4 warg/Knorgazim R2 Def/ GenieaSaurusRex Unranked WvR
And The Beautiful Wife Who Hardly Plays Her Minnie Mandowyn
Last edited by knate007; Oct 16 2009 at 05:19 AM.
Your choice of verbage smacks of that which you railed against Evil for.
@ Rangergirl
Nice pic! You are not scary at all....why is it every time I look upon you I find myself feared? I don't understand...
@ Knor.....
Cool, and Mandy is your wife? Even cooler that you all play together. She's a good mini, hope you don't hold it against me when I try to consume your wife for a late nite snack (try being the operative word...since she's no pushover mini)
there was another minnie called mandowyn who used to play in the moors all the time but i think she went to meneldor with her bf bryion? not positive.
[COLOR="Silver"]Protector of Toft[/COLOR]
[COLOR="SandyBrown"]Umbril r4 Minstrel[/COLOR] [COLOR="RoyalBlue"]Unwyn r3 LM[/COLOR][COLOR="SlateGray"] [COLOR="YellowGreen"]Nautica baby burg![/COLOR] Paprikash r4 wargie[/COLOR][COLOR="Pink"] [COLOR="DarkOliveGreen"]Toft r5 WL[/COLOR][/COLOR]
WTB more pics of Vanette!
..for Prancey:
Ok sorry for sounding like a ****. I just don't want to see a friendly, cool thread devolve into silly video game arguments and get deleted. I have nothing against other video games. I play a bunch of different games myself (BF FTW!).
Jeffaman-Guarding Hobbit Jeffro-Burgling Hobbit Tinulaurien-Elf Lore Master Cephus-Champion of Men Lilnooblet-Hunting Hobbit Jeffrandir-Snooty Elf Rune-keeper- All of Brandywine
Long live the halflings! Praise them with great praise!
RIP Nidor - Brandywine's bravest warrior
@Nidor: I have been crited for 1,600 of sever finger waging dmg.
Bad enough you 2 have to double team me at the SOP,now you have to do it here too? /sigh.....Spiders.
Southpaws FTW!!
Nice pictures everyone.
and you've never been a part of a group that has ganged up on a solo creep (myself included) w/superior numbers when they've been wandering around solo...
It wasn't like I crowed about beating you anywhere when Evil and I hunted you down and killed you at SOP. Solo, I might make mention of the win as an accomplishment...you being outnumbered...meh...just another freep of many who died that night and not really worthy of mention because you were outnumbered. I don't really crow about wins where the freep is outnumbered.
also, silly burg, 1600 server finger wagging damage? weavers can't crit that high, DUH
Sickofitall R11 Something with a sword and bad breath.
Dreyden R9 Girl Scout
And As for ManDy She's Said thankx For the Compliment But It's Not the Mins Your Thinking About
She's MAN DOWYN (Man Down) <<< I laugh @ this everytime Cuz I helped Her Pick It Is possibly the Best Minnie Name Ever
The One you Are thinking Of Is Mandowynn She's Play In the Moors Or well Use to And On the Other Hand Mine Does Not she's to Scured To play PvP just Yet
think my best was 562 on some rk and was shocked to see that .
Twas on a Summoned root at the SoP, must have almost 0 mit's and armour
Most on a freep was 432 on a RK...
Anyway, BACK ON TOPIC. Moar pics, I want to know who I kill!
@ Nidor- I sitll want a good 1v1 with you yet! I know you will win with all of your spiderlings! I am the mini you consume on a regular basis in the Moors. Although long ago, back in the day, there was more than one Mandy running around these parts
@ Aksara- ahhh thank you! Warg Power.
@ Knuggs- If I was the Mandy who helped with book five your welcome anytime you need a healer just let me know!
@ Knorgash- I love the multiple Mandy's
@ Blackmagick- that is cool wonder if she plays too?
For all the free people that still protest, you're welcome, We protect you and you are protected by the best. Your voice is strong and loud, but who will fight for you? No one standing in your crowd.
I did NOT lie! I AM old!
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As the NFL plays its Pro Bowl today, we look back at an earlier game convention that has fallen by the wayside.
Today, all players wear their individual team helmets with their conference uniforms. That wasn't always the case - before the early 1990s, players would wear dark helmets with white conference logos - blue for the NFC, red for the AFC. For a period before the NFL/AFL merger, Pro Bowlers from both teams wore gold helmets, with the NFL logo on each side and center stripes in the conference color (Western Conference teams such as the Packers wore blue and white stripes, while representatives of the Eastern Conference wore red and white stripes).
In those days, players brought their own helmets to the Pro Bowl which were then altered, such as this helmet worn by Forrest Gregg in the 1968 Pro Bowl game:
What's particularly interesting about this helmet is what it tells us about the Packers' iconic helmet logo. You can clearly see that it is comprised of two separate decals - the green ellipse and white "G" each stand out in relief under the gold spray paint (the team decals were removed entirely from the left side).
I don't know when the Packers moved to the single-layer decal they wear now, but it appears to have been after 1968.
UPDATE 02/17: Helmet Hut has a great article about this helmet on their website, including a color photo of Gregg in the 1968 Pro Bowl.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Forrest Gregg's 1968 Pro Bowl helmet
Posted by Chance Michaels at 10:16 AM
Labels: 1960s, helmet logo, helmets, Pro Bowl
1 comment:
- Tom said...
I would have never guessed that they brought their own helmets in those days. But with such an important piece of equipment, it makes sense.
Great find, Chance!
- January 31, 2010 at 1:56 PM
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The Shins, Wu-Tang, Crowded House Set For Bumbershoot
The Shins, the Wu-Tang Clan, Panic! At The Disco, the reformed Crowded House and Lupe Fiasco lead the initial lineup for the 2007 installment of Bumbershoot: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival. The event will be held Sept. 1-3 throughout the Seattle Center. Steve Earle, Devotchka, Devendra Banhart, Roky Erickson, Allison Moorer and Magnolia Electric Company are also on the bill.
Rounding out the lineup are Gogol Bordello, Kill Hannah, Norma Jean, Plain White T's, the Gourds, Lyrics Born and the Holmes Brothers, with scores of acts to be announced. This year's Bumbershoot will be the first since organizers One Reel linked with AEG Live to bolster talent buying and sponsorship resources.
"They have been a great sounding board on our mainstage talent, since we were pretty far along in our bookings when we officially entered into our collaboration with AEG," One Reel artistic director Michele Scoleri tells Billboard.biz. "Our mutual focus this year has been to maintain Bumbershoot's unique identity. I think people will find we did just that this year while simultaneously making our lineup among the heaviest hitting to date."
Bumbershoot's non-musical activities will include three stages of comedy (up from two last year), the Flatstock poster art fair, readings from writers Miranda July and "This American Life" contributor Davy Rothbart, visual arts exhibitions, dance and theatre performances and the 1 Reel Film Festival.
"The foremost thing that distinguishes Bumbershoot is our pairing of the arts with popular music," Scoleri says. "We are still the only festival doing contemporary dance, theater and literary arts. Bumbershoot is urban, which lends itself to a much different experience because we have both indoor and outdoor venues. If you come to Bumbershoot, you have the chance to discover the next Modest Mouse or Death Cab For Cutie, two Northwest bands that have played Bumbershoot since the beginning of their careers."
Bumbershoot three-day passes can be ordered through the event's Web site for $75 through Aug. 17, after which the price increases to $95. Single-day tickets are $30 and go on sale July 13.


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The Benu is Moritz Grossmann's first and flagship watch. This timepiece is an example of high-quality, refined watchmaking that unites the most modern technology with an elegant look. Over 240 individually hand-finished components come together to bring precision and beauty to the Benu Tourbillon.
Minimalist design, advanced mechanics: The Atum's aesthetic catapults classic watchmaking into the 21st century. The Atum Pure M grants the wearer a view of the movement through its partially transparent dial. The theme of this line is straightforwardness.
High-quality watchmaking is also a question of design, which the Tefnut proves in an impressive manner. Simplicity and straightforwardness define the look of this line. Ladies haven't been forgotten, either: Moritz Grossmann utilizes diamonds, mother-of-pearl dials, and a radial guilloché pattern in the Tefnut Lady.


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Grilled banana split
Grilled banana split Serves 4 Ingredients: 4 ripe yet firm bananas, halved lengthwise with the skin on 1 pint vanilla ice cream Favorite store-bought chocolate sauce 1 cup fresh blueberries 1 cup fresh sliced strawberries Whipped cream and toasted sliced almonds, for garnish 1. Prepare a very hot charcoal fire or preheat a gas grill to high (450 F to 500 F). 2. Place the bananas, cut side down, directly over the hot fire and grill for about 2 to 3 minutes on the cut side only, until there are some grill marks. 3. Peel the bananas and cut in half again, and arrange in 4 shallow or sundae bowls. Put a scoop of ice cream in the center of each dish of bananas. Spoon the warm sauce over the top, garnish with berries, whipped cream and almonds, and serve.
Photo by Ben Frank/TMS
Copyright © 2019, Daily Press


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Want to make what you think is a smart investment decision, and lose your life savings? I can show you how.
After 18 years in the investment industry, I've watched people lose money in almost every way imaginable. The most devastating losses are what I call Code Red losses; the kind you can't recover from.
Code Red losses can be avoided. It takes a little knowledge — and a lot of common sense. Eight of the 10 investment decisions below are Code Red mistakes; two aren't.
Read on to learn how to recognize a Code Red investment decision:
1. Believe in a stock
The company you work for is doing well. You understand the potential of the business. You should own a lot of company stock. After all, it shows your level of commitment, right?
For several years I worked in a CPA firm that had a lot of clients who worked for Intel. One of the Intel executives owned 150,000 shares of Intel. At the time Intel was trading at about $73 a share. This persona had $11 million — the majority of their wealth — in a single stock. Although some of it was restricted stock, the majority of the shares could be sold at any time.
We had numerous discussions about the risk of holding so much wealth in a single stock. To our dismay, our advice fell on deaf ears. Feeling helpless, we watched Intel go down, and down. For the last year it has been trading in the low to mid 20s. At $22 a share the same 150,000 shares are worth $3.3 million. Three million is still a decent sum of money, but it won't deliver the standard of living that $11 million will.
You can lock in lifestyle by taking risk off the table. If trusted advisers are telling you to reduce risk, listen. You can't take your "belief" in your company stock to the bank. Owning a lot of company stock doesn't demonstrate a commitment to your company; it demonstrates a lack of commitment to your own personal financial planning.
Code red? Yes.


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Jason Derulo Crashes a Prom
When you're a pop star, sometimes you have to give up life milestones along the way. In Jason Derulo's case, he didn't get to go to his prom, but he totally made up for that by crashing Culver City High School's big dance in Los Angeles!
'The Other Side' singer performed some of his acrobatics for the students and sweat up such a storm he had to take his shirt off. We're sure the ladies really hated that.
But Jason didn't just perform for the students, he even helped to crown the Prom King and Queen! A lot of the students were obviously excited to have a pop star perform at their prom. One girl remarked, "I was so surprised! I didn't know our school had connections like that. I didn't know we could do that." Now c'mon and give your school some credit!


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Well, I used to feel lucky that I had no major complications with my friends and family when I came out Atheist. But, 15 minutes after Obama was re-elected I was defriended on Facebook by my cousin and her husband. I honestly could have cared less about my cousin's husband since he is quite stand offish and the only time I ever see him is at the dinner table on Xmas night (he spends the rest of the day alone in the basement watching tv). However, when my cousin did it, I'll admit, it hurt. I guess her excuse is that she doesn't want to be friends with people who don't share her values. It's pretty sad since there are ways of blocking certain posts, etc... The worst part about all this is she used to be a Protestant Xtian but converted to Mormonism when she got married. My entire protestant family was so mad and scared for her. They thought she was buying a one way ticket to Hell (and they probably still do). The only two people in my entire family who supported her decision was my Atheist brother and I, also an Atheist. When my mom tried to use this defense with my Aunt my Aunt just said, "Well, at least they both (my cousin and her husband) still believe in a god." Quite and ignorant response for such a loving act. I think all of their beliefs are crazy but you'll never hear me put down their beliefs to their faces. They're family and that kind of attitude shouldn't infiltrate the family dynamic and it's just so absolutely sad that this kind of attitude can come from me voting for the wrong person or not believing in the same gods that someone else does. They're both such non issues when it come to family and it is just so hard for me to believe that people can be like this. My anger has since subsided and now I just feel sorry for them that they could be so narrow minded and ignorant. I especially feel sorry for their 3 young kids, one of which has a rather serious brain disorder. When I voted I feel like I voted for this family where Obamacare and stem cell research can help their sick child, Lily Ledbetter for my cousin who is also a teacher and will now have more opportunities to work, her husband who works in the auto industry which has been resurrected by Obama, and expanded Pell Grants for all three kids (and likely more) to be able to afford a college education.
I apologize if this just sounds like puke but I didn't have anything planned out, I just needed to put it out there. It's hard to talk to anyone about this since it seems that the majority of my family thinks I'm just the scum of the Earth for voting for Obama. Thanks for reading!
Views: 514
RE: "But you might not be as Machiavellian as I...."
Oh yes I AM --!
Well, I've never been a faker. I hid my ideas while my deconversion was in process but I'm sure not going to be censoring myself to make them happy, they certainly don't do the same. And actually, they probably would rather I never said a word about my liberalism and Atheism...sad.
Yeah, facebook and put this huge rift in my family, whether it's one cousin defriending me or another making assumptions about my drug use and sexuality. It been loads of assumptions without any talking straight to my face....I already have my settings where no one who's not my friend can see anything I do, that's more of an overall security thing though. But, hey, come xmas I'm just going to be as kind and friendly as ever. No reason to make what has always been a fun time into some religious/political discussion. I'm just going to let them all be a bigoted and ignorant as they want while I continue to be kind and loving no matter what.
I'm just lucky, I guess. The only family members with whom I am in regular contact are my brother and his wife. My brother is typical of most Americans, in that he doesn't give religion any thought at all, one way or the other. My sister-in-law is a devout Catholic; and true Catholics rarely discuss religion philosophically at all. If she ever did decide to try to influence me or convert me, I would be very sad, because, although she is a very nice person whom I don't want to hurt or antagonize, I would vigorously defend my atheist point of view. Fortunately, I think she knows that and so we both assiduously avoid the subject. Neither of us have any interest in pushing our beliefs onto others. That's why I love it when J.W.'s and Mormons come to my door. No holds barred, then.
I read this post with a distant viewpoint, then thought about the fact that I hadn't heard from my mother since the election. I called to confirm we didn't have a problem, and thankfully, we didn't.
And so, I feel lucky for me and your post reminds me that although I also have a polarized family, our politics have not intimated themselves between elections.
I have not developed this on purpose, but perhaps speaking to your family about a separation between church and state inside your own relationships could help. Romney was obviously not God's chosen candidate because if he was he would have won by 100%, right? Or at least won. Does God choose a candidate for every election in the world, in the universe? These should be uncomfortable questions for the self-righteous.
@Strega and @archaeopteryx also make good points. Family is hardly ever about having the logical high ground. It is about supporting the people you care about when they are in trouble and in need, not when they are on a high horse.
Yeah, my brother had to go to the hospital recently while I was at work. He's diabetic and what he was going through didn't give him the capability to call 911 on his own. My aunt and uncle (this cousin's parents) were actually much closer to our apartment than I was but they came up with some bullshit excuse as to why they couldn't come over and just be with him until the ambulance arrived. So, no one's getting the logical high ground and no one's going to care for us when we're in need. Good things to know.
My mother is the exception and the only reason she couldn't be here was because she lives 7 hours away.
Petty, childish actions. Not by you, by them. All I can do is take solace knowing that I would never do the same thing, no matter what nonsense they decide to spout on facebook....


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5 Solid Tips for Marketing Your Small Business Now
Feb 20 2011
Following is a guest post by Maria Rainier. Maria is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education where she writes about education, online universities, and what an online degree means in an increasingly technological world. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.
As the only employee of an entrepreneur who has recently started renting space for her growing business, I know how important marketing can be. She's still at the small business stage and wants to keep it that way, but her increased sales can be traced directly to recently implemented marketing strategies that every small business can use. I have been responsible for the majority of the marketing ploys we've been using and would like to share the top five with you. Even with a low (or nonexistent) marketing budget, you can still use these tips to generate more sales for your small business.
1. Get a Professional Logo & Letterhead
You might already have a logo in mind, but consulting with a graphic artist is the best way to ensure that you start things off well. You don't want to use a half-baked logo that ends up being changed a year or two down the road. Commit time and energy to getting the perfect logo and letterhead designs because this decision will pay off for years to come. If you don't have enough of a marketing budget to hire a graphic designer, try bartering. Talk to friends to see if they know any graphic artists who could use your services in return for theirs. You can even post an ad on Craigslist to see if you get any takers. No matter how you make it happen, having a professional logo and letterhead is an important priority.
2. Start and Regularly Update a Business Blog
A blog is one of the best marketing tools a small business can have, but like most online marketing strategies, it requires regular attention if it's going to be truly successful. It's pretty tough to update a blog too often, but many people make the mistake of updating too infrequently. Let your readers know about you, your staff, your business, and even your life philosophy. With small businesses, it's all about being personable and putting a face (or several faces) on your products and services. Include regular photo updates, write a few survey posts to find out how customers are reacting to your products and services, and request topics from readers so you can write about what they want to know. You'll be surprised at how well your membership starts to grow.
3. Use Social Media Consistently
Get a Facebook page, start using Twitter, and add yourself to LinkedIn. Spend a few minutes every day on each of these so you can connect with users, let them know that you're available to answer questions, and update your status or send a quick Tweet to get some attention. Increasing your visibility on these sites can encourage existing customers to interact with you, purchase more products and services, and recommend you to others. It can also attract new customers who search for you on these sites or see your activity on friends' pages.
4. Send a Monthly Newsletter with Discounts & Special Offers
You can use any email marketing site to do this, but in my experience with Constant Contact, I've been impressed with the quantity and quality of newsletters and other emails I can send to customers for a low membership rate. You can try it free of charge for 60 days to see if you think you would use it on a regular basis. If not, there's no commitment. The most inexpensive plan, which is the one I use, costs $15 per month and lets you send emails to a maximum of 500 contacts. Simply put together a monthly newsletter, preferably with at least one photo and a special offer or coupon code along with an interesting bit of news about your business, then send it to your contacts. To build your contact list, collect email addresses and permission to send a newsletter when customers place orders with you.
5. Synthesize and Brand
Now, connect the dots. Use that logo and letterhead to brand the banner of your blog and website along with the top section of your newsletter. Use the free ColorCop tool to pull the exact colors from your logo so you can use them in HTML for your blog, website, and newsletters. These details really do matter and will increase the likelihood of recognition for your business based on a certain color palette and logo. You should also link to your social media pages from your blog, website, and newsletter so current customers can easily find and "follow" or "like" your business. Finally, create an email signature with links to your social media sites, your website, and your blog. It's also a good idea to insert a link that takes customers to a sign-up page for your newsletter. These strategies will generate new revenue as well as increased profit from existing customers, so get started today and do something great for your small business.Author: Aruni | Filed under: entrepreneurship, guest post, marketing | Tags: guest post, maria rainier, marketing your small business | 3 Comments »


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static pageon November 11, 2013 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Comic
This weekly schedule for "Bad Mile" is too much on my plate. BUT it is maybe-who-knows not a dead project. A three legged horse can still limp.
I maye someday post more comics as I write and draw them, which might not be for years, but when you're at the bottom, all you have left is hope, so hold it tight.
Here's the RSS if you are the optimistic type. Otherwise, I have no advice. Drink until you forget the dazzling brilliance. or try to remember to check back occasionally.


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© 1998-2019, Palestinian Media Watch, All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction permitted, with the following attribution:
© Palestinian Media Watch – www.palwatch.org
PMW Bulletins
PA TV teaches children to make political map that turns all of Israel into "Palestine"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
May 9, 2012
PA TV teaches children to make political map
that turns all of Israel into "Palestine"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
A children's program teaching arts and crafts on official Palestinian Authority TV instructed children how to make models of "Palestine." The shape of the map of "Palestine," which was cut out of paper, included all of Israel. Adding a political message, PA TV taught the children to cover the entire model with the colors of the Palestinian flag, symbolizing Palestinian sovereignty over the whole area.
Click to view
Palestinian Media Watch
has documented that the official PA
maps erase all of Israel
defining it as "Palestine."
The international community has criticized the Palestinian Authority for this practice. Before he was elected to office, President Barack Obama said that he viewed the use of these maps that present a world without Israel as a security threat to Israel:
"I will never compromise when it comes to Israel's security... Not when there are maps across the Middle East that don't even acknowledge Israel's existence." [AIPAC Conference, June 4, 2008]
Maps that "don't even acknowledge Israel's existence" are still the
official maps
in the Palestinian Authority.
Another example of a political map that erases Israel was recently broadcast during a PA TV report on an event for youth sponsored by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education. A map displayed at the event likewise showed the Palestinian flag covering and accordingly erasing Israel. Above the map is the word "Palestine" and to the right of the map is the date "Nov. 15, 1988," the date that Yasser Arafat declared Palestinian statehood.
[PA TV (Fatah), April 29, 2012]
The following is the text from the PA TV program showing children how to make a model of "Palestine" erasing all of Israel:
Child host:
"Hello friends, today we will learn how to make a model of the map of Palestine so that we continue to remember our country, Palestine...
Of course, all my friends know how to draw the map of Palestine. Here, the map of Palestine is ready, in its historic area."
[PA TV (Fatah), March 30, 2012]
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Monday, 19 October 2009
Most Haunted's Pendle Witch Hunt: A Sceptic's Guide
Halloween, 2004
Living TV's Most Haunted investigated several farmhouses around Newchurch in Pendle in search of the ghosts of the Pendle Witches of 1612. Their team of ghost hunters not only claimed to have had a direct encounter with the Pendle Witch "coven" in an old house on Lower Well Head Farm, but that the spirit of Old Demdike attempted to strangle TV psychic Derek Acorah, who has since been outed as a fake.
While I realise that the people most likely to read this blog take TV psychics with a healthy dose of scepticism in the first place, Halloween seems to drag out all kinds of ghoulish speculation about historical witches and cunning folk in a way that is not only historically inaccurate but disrespectful. The Pendle Witches were not ghouls. They were real living people who were held for months in a lightless dungeon in Lancaster Castle, chained to a ring in the stone floor, before being tried without any barrister and then hanged.
It doesn't help matters that reference sites such as Wikipedia mention the Most Haunted series in the same paragraph as William Ainsworth's delightfully gothic novel, The Lancashire Witches, first published in 1849, that revived the Pendle Witch story after it had lain dormant for two centuries.
Derek Acorah's bad acting notwithstanding, Most Haunted's Pendle Witch programme was full of inaccuracies.
1. The programme, investigating paranormal activity at a number of sites around Newchurch, can't even get the name of the village right. They refer to it as "Newham," just as Derek Acorah claims to channel "Elizabeth Southworth"--Mother Demdike's real name was Elizabeth Southerns. The Lancaster Witch Trials of 1612, under the reign of James I, are referred to as a "Tudor witch trial." I could go on and on. Each viewing reveals more bloopers.
2. Yvette Fielding makes a big deal about the noise of barking dogs as an indicator of paranormal activity and lurking evil. The real reason for the dog noise is quite banal. Lower Well Head Farm is situated next door to Meadow Top Boarding Kennel where one may hear barking dogs at any hour of the day or night.
3. Derek Acorah claims to psychically sense Demdike and Chattox gathering at Lower Well Head Farm in 1610 to work magic with the rest of their "coven." There are two major errors here.
English cunning folk appeared to work alone or in small family groups but there is no evidence that they worked in covens, which appeared to be a Contintental European concept first popularised in Britain by King James I in his book, Daemonologie, a witch-hunter's handbook and required reading for local magistrates. Shakespeare's play Macbeth, originally performed for James I and his court in 1605, presents the first depiction of a witches coven in English literature.
The second major error is that all recorded confessions in the Pendle Witch trials seem to indicate that Demdike and Chattox were bitter enemies in 1610 and unlikely to meet up to collaborate on any kind of magical working.
During the live "investigation," Most Haunted's viewers were invited to text their answer to the either-or-question: Where the Pendle Witches innocent victims or were they real witches with real powers? The superficiality of this question is an insult to the historical realities of cunning folk who lived in an era when everyone, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, believed that magic was real.
Cunning craft was the family trade for both Demdike (Elizabeth Southerns) and Chattox (Anne Whittle). Of course, they believed they had powers. Their very livelihood depended on it. Of course, they owned up to Roger Nowell, the prosecuting magistrate, about their familiar spirits. Without their familiars, they would have no powers and they would be revealed to be bigger fakes than Derek Acorah! How could a cunning woman bless and heal without the aid of her spirit--her otherworldly ally?
Were they innocent victims? How does one define innocence in the complex world of Jacobean witch-hunts? Anne Whittle, aka Chattox, confessed to bewitching to death her landlord's son, her motive being that he attempted to rape her daughter, Anne Redfearn, and to drive her entire family out of their cottage. In a time and place where there was a different law for the rich than for the poor and where the wealthy knew they could get away with rape, a fierce reputation as a cunning woman may have been the only power an impoverished woman could hope to wield. Was Chattox an evil witch for wanting to protect her daughter? Family love seemed to guide her every action. In the 1612 trial, she broke down and confessed her crime, then tearfully pleaded her daughter's innocence and begged the gentlemen of the court to let Anne Redfearn go free. But Anne was hanged alongside her mother.
As for Elizabeth Southerns, aka Old Demdike, the trial transcripts reveal that local farmers called on her to heal their children and their cattle. She was a cunning woman of long standing before she finally died in Lancaster Prison, aged "foure-score yeares," ie eighty years old, according to Court Clerk Thomas Potts. What is amazing is not that the magistrate finally arrested her but that she practised her craft for decades and none in her community spoke against her until the very end.
It is my belief that the Elizabeth Southerns, Anne Whittle, and the other accused witches live on in Pendle as part of the undying spirit of the landscape. They are the strong cunning folk who will never be banished. But you won't find them channeled by bad TV psychics. Walk the land instead, listen to the language the land speaks, the wind and rain, the dance of the seasons. That is where the real magic begins.
For a more nuanced view on the Pendle Witches than what you will find in Most Haunted, I recommend the following books:
Primary Source:
The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster by Thomas Potts
Daemonologie by James I
Secondary Sources:
The Lancashire Witch-Craze by Jonathan Lumby
The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories, edited by Robert Poole
The Trials of the Lancashire Witches by Edgar Peel and Pat Southern
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Women diagnosed with cervical cancer through a smear test "have a far better chance of being cured than women who do not go for tests," BBC News has today reported.
The news is based on Swedish research that looked at 1,230 women diagnosed with cervical cancer, examining patterns between how their disease was detected and how likely it was they would be cured and survive. Following them for an average of 8.5 years after diagnosis, it found that the cure rate was 92% among those whose cancer was detected through cervical screening and 66% among those who were diagnosed after they developed symptoms. Of note, they found a lower chance of being cured among women with symptoms who were overdue for screening.
These findings are perhaps unsurprising, as women who have developed cancer symptoms generally would be expected to have a more advanced stage of cancer than women whose cancer is detected at screening and is not yet causing them symptoms. As such, women identified through symptoms, rather than screening, may be expected to have a lower chance of being cured. The study's results support the value of the UK's current cervical screening programme and the importance of attending screening.
Where did the story come from?
The study was carried out by researchers from Uppsala University, the County Council of Gävleborg and other institutions in Sweden. Funding was provided by grants from the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the Gävle Cancer Fund, and the Centre for Research and Development, Uppsala University and the County Council of Gävleborg. The study was published in the peer-reviewed British Medical Journal.
News coverage has reflected the findings of this research.
What kind of research was this?
This was a nationwide population-based cohort study looking at whether detection of cervical cancer through screening improves cancer cure and survival rates. Cure rates are of particular interest as it has been suggested that cervical screening may have the apparent effect of prolonging survival times simply because the cancer is detected at an earlier stage than it otherwise would have been (i.e. screening could cause women to just live for longer with a diagnosis of cancer). If screening actually improves cure rates this would be an important finding (though arguably this could still be just because being diagnosed at an earlier stage the cancer is more likely to be curable).
Using a cohort study to answer this question has some limitations, as the outcomes in a cohort study may be influenced by other health and lifestyle differences between those women who chose to attend screening and those who did not. These differences may be the cause of any relationship seen, meaning in this case we cannot be certain that screening is the only factor affecting survival rates.
Ideally this sort of question would be addressed using a randomised controlled trial that randomised people into different screening practices and then followed them up over time looking at cancer outcomes and cure rates. However, as cervical screening is already offered in countries such as Sweden and the UK, carrying out a randomised trial that withheld cervical screening would not be considered ethical.
What did the research involve?
The Swedish cervical screening programme invites women for screening every three years among those aged 23-50, and every five years for women aged 51-60. In the UK it is every three years between 25 and 49, and every five years between 50 and 64.
The current study linked all women with cervical cancer in Sweden diagnosed between 1999 and 2001 to the national Swedish causes of death register. The researchers then followed the women to the end of 2006 to check survival in the years following diagnosis.
The researchers analysed women separately according to their age at diagnosis (23-65 years old), including those with a diagnosis more than five years beyond the last invitation to screening (66 years or above). Screening-detected cancers were defined as cancers in women who had an abnormal smear test result recorded between one and six months prior to their diagnosis. The remaining women who did not have an abnormal smear test between one and six months prior to their diagnosis were classed as having had a 'symptomatic diagnosis', i.e. a diagnosis based on detectable symptoms rather than screening. Abnormal smear tests taken within one month of diagnosis were also not considered to be screen-detected, as it was considered this might have been part of the diagnostic assessment in women with symptoms of cancer.
The researchers also looked at women with symptomatic cancer who were diagnosed more than six months after their last smear test and outside of the recommended screening interval of 3.5 years if they were under the age of 54; or an interval of 5.5 years if they were 55 or over. These women were considered to be overdue for having their screening test and were compared with women who were not overdue their screening test when they were diagnosed symptomatically.
The outcomes examined were survival rates (survival in the cohort compared with expected survival in the general female population); and 'statistical cure' rates (defined as the women no longer experiencing any greater risk of death compared with the general female population).
What were the basic results?
This cohort of 1,230 women was followed for an average of 8.5 years after diagnosis of cervical cancer. Five years after their diagnoses 440 of the women had died, 373 of these deaths were recorded as being due to cervical cancer (31 died from other cancers, and 36 from a non-cancer cause).
The proportion for women with screen-detected cancer who survived for at least five years was 95% (95% confidence interval [CI] 92 to 97%), whereas for women with symptomatic cancers it was 69% (95% CI 65 to 73%). The cure rate for screen-detected cancers was 92% (95% CI 75 to 98%) compared with 66% (95% CI 62 to 70%) for symptomatic cancers. This 26% difference in cure rate was statistically significant.
Among women with symptomatic cancers, the proportion cured was significantly lower among those overdue for screening compared to those who had been last screened within the recommended interval (difference in cure 14%, 95% CI 6 to 23%).
Cure proportions were related to the stage of the cancer at the time of diagnosis, but even after taking into account stage at diagnosis, cure rates still remained higher among screen-detected cancers than symptomatic cancers.
How did the researchers interpret the results?
The researchers conclude that screening is associated with improved rates of curing cervical cancer. They note that they cannot rule out the possibility that factors other than screening may have contributed to the differences observed. They also said that using cure as an outcome removes the problem of 'lead time bias' that occurs when looking at length of survival as an outcome of screening (discussed in the conclusion section below).
They recommend that further evaluations of cervical screening programmes should consider using a similar approach of looking at the proportions of women with cancer who are cured.
As the researchers discuss, women with cervical cancers detected by screening are known to have an improved chance of surviving their cancer. The study's apparent improvement in survival outcome may be partly due to a phenomenon known as 'lead time bias', meaning that women diagnosed through screening are simply diagnosed at an earlier stage than they would have been if they waited for symptoms to develop. That is to say, that they might not live any longer, just live for longer knowing they had cancer, having detected it at a point before outward symptoms appear. This cohort study aimed to see whether screening improves cure rates, which the researchers hoped would avoid this problem.
A cohort study isn't the best type of study design to assess the effect of a screening or therapeutic practice against disease outcome, as in a cohort there may be other health and lifestyle differences between women who chose to attend screening or not. The researchers themselves acknowledge that the possibility of such confounding cannot be ruled out. A more reliable way to assess this question would be a randomised controlled trial that randomly assigned women different screening practices and then followed them up over time looking at cancer outcomes and cure rates. However, as cervical screening is already offered in countries such as Sweden and the UK, blocking women access to cervical screening would not be considered ethical, and such a study is highly unlikely to be approved.
These findings are perhaps unsurprising. Women who have developed cancer symptoms are likely to have a more advanced stage of cancer than women whose cancer was detected incidentally through screening. As such, symptomatic women may have a lower chance of cure than women detected at an earlier stage. The fact that there was a lower chance of cure among symptomatic women who were overdue for screening further supports this.
However, the researchers' further analyses suggested that this was not simply a case of the cancers being diagnosed at an early stage: though cure rate was related to cancer stage, taking into account stage at diagnosis did not remove the difference in cure rates between screen-detected and symptomatic-detected women. The reasons for this cannot be explained by this study, and as the researchers conclude, further evaluations of the benefit of cervical screening programmes should consider looking at cure proportions.
The UK has a slightly different schedule for cervical screening than Sweden, where this study was carried out. The Swedish cervical screening programme invites women for screening every three years among those aged 23-50, and every five years for women aged 51-60, while in the UK it is three-yearly between 25 and 49, and five-yearly between 50 and 64. This and other differences between the countries may mean that the results may not be representative of the UK. However, they generally appear to support the value of cervical screening programmes and the importance of women attending such screenings.
Analysis by Bazian
Edited by NHS Website
Links to the headlines
Smear tests raise chances of beating cervical cancer to 9 in 10
The Daily Telegraph, 2 March 2012
Smear tests 'boost cure chances'
BBC News, 2 March 2012
Links to the science
Andrae B, Andersson TML, Lambert PC et al.
Screening and cervical cancer cure: population based cohort study


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