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Beijing & Xi'an
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Monograms has created all-in-one packages a cut above going on your own, while leaving the group behind. Each package comes with hand-selected hotels, plus "they really do that?" service of a Monograms Local Host®-a local expert available throughout your stay. We've arranged sightseeing, exclusive to Monograms guests, complete with VIP access into some of the most incredible attractions (that means you skip the lines). We've arranged transportation and we offer a selection of special excursions. With Monograms, you travel in style independently without going it alone.
Monograms is all about connecting you to your destination with unmatched insider guidance and support to make travel a pleasure. With a team of local experts in each destination, your Monograms vacation includes local assistance and tips that only a local would know.
In addition to an expertly-planned vacation with great hotels and included sightseeing, Monograms means you'll get the VIP treatment from a team of local insiders who help you put your signature on your vacation.
Monograms greets you like a VIP when you arrive at your destination (Yes, that's your name on the welcome board!). You'll feel at ease in an instant.
Forget the stress of finding your way to your hotel. As our guest, we'll whisk you off with a friendly Monograms-operated transfer, which is included when you purchase your flights from Monograms.
Once you arrive at your hotel, your own Monograms Local Host® is there to greet you, help you get checked in, and share lots of destination insights with you to get your vacation started.
Get an insider's look at the must-see sights with the insight and knowledge of an expert Monograms Local Guide. Delight in the stares of regular tourists as they slide you past the line and right into the doorway with VIP access.
Your Monograms Local Host® can provide tips and suggestions and even help you book activities & excursions to make the most of your time at your destination, helping you drink in the local culture in just your style.
What better restaurant recommendations can you find than from a local who knows? From haute cuisine to hidden cafes, from street food to Michelin Stars, your Local Host® can give you the inside scoop on finding your favorite fare.
When your vacation includes traveling from one city to another, we'll get you to your train or plane, stress free with door-to-gate service. Your local Monograms team awaits your arrival at your next destination.
Monograms offers a range of amazing experiences you can add to your trip, vetted by our team and perfectly coordinated with your Monograms package. Add them before you leave or on trip with the help of your Local Host®.
Parting is such sweet sorrow. When you've explored all that you can explore and it's time to head home, your Local Host® will ensure a smooth departure, on time and on point, stress-free.
Welcome to Beijing! Your hotel room is available for mid-afternoon check-in.
This morning, enjoy a PRIVATE GUIDED EXCURSION to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA, which once stretched 4,000 miles across China's barren northern terrain from the Bohai Sea to the Gobi Desert. Walk along the wall and take in the stunning views of this mammoth fortress and the surrounding scenery. Return to Beijing for an afternoon at leisure.
Begin your PRIVATE GUIDED SIGHTSEEING at TIAN'ANMEN SQUARE, the largest public square in the world. Next, stop at the FORBIDDEN CITY, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the world's largest palace complex. Once the home of China's great emperors, today it showcases ancient Chinese architecture, landscaped gardens, and displays of rare art and artifacts. The afternoon is at your leisure.
Fly to Xi'an, an archaeological treasure trove in central China.
Rare discoveries await on your PRIVATE GUIDED TOUR of Xi'an. Start with a visit to the DAYAN PAGODA, built in 652 AD. Afterward, visit the enormous tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, accidentally discovered by local farmers in 1974. Marvel at the legion of TERRACOTTA WARRIORS that has been guarding the burial site for 2,000 years. During lunch, enjoy a NOODLE-MAKING DEMONSTRATION by a master chef and learn how Chinese noodles are made by hand. Last stop is Xi'an's ancient CITY WALL. The remainder of the day is at your leisure.
Your vacation ends with breakfast this morning.
When your vacation includes traveling from one city to another, your local Monograms team makes it an absolute breeze! We'll get to your train or plane, stress free and on time with door-to-gate service. And your local Monograms team awaits your arrival as soon as you pull into your next destination.
Private airport transfers to/from intra-vacation flight; intra-vacation flight not included
Check-in Time: 14:00
Check-out Time: 12:00
Address: 1 Chong Wen Men Xi Da Jie Beijing, China
Located in the heart of the city means that you can explore both the modern metropolis of Beijing and its rich cultural history on foot. In a short walking distance is Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City plus the highly popular shopping strips of Wang Fujing, with the Pearl and Silk markets close by.
Ideally located within walking distance of Ti'ananmen Square and the Forbidden City and across the street from New World shopping mall.
Spacious, contemporary in design, and adaptable, the Novotel room is truly a place for living, perfect for all your needs.
Address: 172 Lian Hu Road Xian, China
Grand Dynasty Culture Hotel beautifully balances the ancient and the new. With world-class facilities and services designed to please even the most seasoned world travelers, the hotel captures the spirit of Xi'an.
Located within ancient urban Xi'an and within easy access of many cultural sites including the Bell Tower, Drum Tower, City Wall of the West Gate, and Muslim Food Street. There is a subway stop in front the hotel, making the city easily accessible.
Each of the hotel's spacious guestrooms feature rich furnishings inspired by classic Chinese style, modern amenities, and spectacular city views.
Monograms offers an impressive choice of hotels pre-selected for their location, amenities and service. When booking your package check to see what other hotels are available for your dates. Some hotels may not be available for this package.
Address: No. 3 Sanfeng North Area Chaoyang District Beijing, China
Perfectly located in the Central Business District, the luxurious Crowne Plaza Beijing Chaoyang U-town fuses modern sophistication with classical Chinese touches.
Located in the Central Business District, near the Sanlitun Bar Street and Silk Market. The Chaoyangmen Subway Station is within a 5-minute walk from the hotel.
Large windows flood each room with natural light highlighting the elegant and sophisticated finishes including plush bedding and granite countertops.
Address: 8 Yong An Dong Li Beijing, China
The Fairmont Beijing Hotel, located in the heart of Beijing, offers top quality amenities, unique architecture, and superlative décor. Guestrooms come primed with first class amenities, including cutting edge technology, hand-selected linens and spa inspired bath products. Whether you indulge at the opulent Willow Stream Spa or dine in one of the award-winning restaurants this luxury hotel is sure to make for a comfortable stay.
Located in Beijing's Central Business District, close to Silk Street Market, China World Trade Center, and Yintai Centre. Minutes to the Forbidden City and the cultural heart of Beijing. Near a main thoroughfare the hotel offers convenient to the city.
Rooms are designed in a blend of traditional and modern Chinese style. High tech amenities include Wi-Fi access, flatscreen TVs, and bathroom with separate bath and rain shower.
Address: 38B Keji Road Xian, China
Return from a day of travel to the elegant interior of the Shangri La Hotel Xian. Enjoy dinner at one of the hotel's restaurant where you can relax and unwind recalling a day of new experiences and life enriching tales. If you choose to stay in for a day, spa services and a swimming pool will revitalize you for your next adventure.
Located in the Gaoxin high-tech development zone the hotel is near many top attractions including the Terracotta Warrior Museum and Xi'an's City Wall.
Deluxe Garden Rooms provide spacious comfort with contemporary decor and views of the impressive landscaped garden or panoramic view of the city. Complimentary Wi-Fi access is included.
Address: No. 1 Zhu Que Zhong Road Xi'an, China
Crowne Plaza Xi'an is centrally located within the tallest building in Xi'an, Shaanxi Xinxi Tower, with easy access to the city's historical sites. Professional, personalized and warm guest service plus attention to detail is the dominant culture of Crowne Plaza Xi'an.
Located near the City Wall with easy access to historical sites like Small Wild Goose Pagoda and the Xi'an History Museum.
Modern rooms feature a flat-screen TV, free WI-FI, and luxurious bedding to ensure a great night's sleep.
No matter what you're into: food, wine, history, art, music or anything else,
we give you the freedom to personalize your vacation with optional excursions that speak to your interests.
When you book your excursions with us, you can be assured that every optional excursion that we offer coordinates with the free time that you'll have in your destination,
so you'll never have conflicts between included and optional activities.
Our team of travel experts carefully selects each optional excursion that we offer to ensure that you receive the highest quality at a great value.
Our tried-and-true partners have a finger on the pulse of the city in which they operate so they deliver the very best experiences.
We offer experiences you cannot create on your own and because you're booking with us, we coordinate all your transportation and timing needs.
The following activities & excursions are examples only for this vacation. These may or may not be offered, and availability is subject to days of operation and seasonality. Please select a departure date to view optional excursions and pricing for a specific date (due to currency fluctuation, pricing shown is subject to change until purchased). Activities and Excursions are available for purchase on our MyMonograms site as soon as initial deposit or payment is received.
As impressive as China's Ming Tombs themselves is the well-preserved Sacred Way (Divine Road), constructed in 1540 as a path to the Imperial Changling Mausoleum. In ancient times, it was said that the emperor, the "Son of the Heaven", would use the Sacred Way to travel back and forth between Heaven and Earth.
Price Range: $$
Experience one of the most beloved theatrical traditions in China! The Legend of Kung Fu Show is a phenomenal fusion of martial arts, theater, dance, and Chinese acrobatics.
Price Range: $$$
No visit to Beijing is complete without sampling delectable Peking duck, the national dish of China.
Price Range: $$$$
Music, drama, dance, martial arts, acrobatics, exquisite costumes, colorful sets ¿ traditional Chinese opera has it all, and is considered one of China's cultural treasures.
Spend a delightful day devoted to one of China's most beloved icons at the world-famous Beijing Zoo.
Journey to a place where Chinese emperors believed Earth and Heaven meet. On this fascinating excursion, we'll introduce you to the mystical Temple of Heaven, dating back to 1420 AD and built by the emperor who commissioned the Forbidden City.
Explore Beijing's labyrinth of ancient alleys (hutongs) on this excursion that highlights the distant past-and current local culture.
Spend a relaxing afternoon with an expert Local Guide, exploring the former Summer Palace, a complex of pavilions, temples, and galleries set among beautifully landscaped grounds on Kunming Lake.
The Tang Dynasty Dinner Show, a wonderful performance of ancient music and dance, is a must when you visit Xi'an.
Monograms provides travellers access to a Local Host®, so you will have someone on hand to answer those vacation questions pertaining to Beijing. No waiting in line at the concierge desk or trying to ask your waitress at breakfast directions to the shopping district. Simply ask your Local Host about Beijing and you'll be on your way in no time. Plus, your Local Host will share local Beijing insights and share suggestions for getting off the beaten path, leaving you more time to create lasting vacation memories that are yours alone.
How can you not love it when showing people from all over the world the breathtaking scenery, the ancient history and the colorful diverse culture of your own country becomes your job! Come and join me for a worry-free vacation in China. You'll find there is so much more than you ever expected.
Whether you want to find designer clothing knock-offs or you just want an entertaining afternoon, a visit to this market is recommended. The bustle and searching is part of the fun, as is the bargaining. In fact, you're expected to haggle and should never take the first (and probably second, and third…) price offered.
For a locally inspired shopping experience, visit this market near Guang Hui Bridge. Don Jiao's has everything from Chinese porcelain, produce, and flowers to electronics and home furnishings. If you walk past a big red gate, peek inside for more shopping. This is a very local experience, one that tourists usually miss. Only cash is accepted.
Houhai Bar Street in the famous Shichahai area is where traditional Chinese and western culture mix. With over 120 unique bars to choose from, visitors from all corners of the world can find one that suits their fancy.
Make sure you experience a traditional tea ceremony before you leave Beijing. It's an opportunity to soak in centuries of history at the same time you relax with a soothing cup. Zhang Yiyuan has earned a reputation over many decades as a purveyor of quality teas, and the building is made up of seven private rooms, offering diverse environs.
Located in the northeastern part of Beijing, Yong He Lama Temple is one of the largest Lamasery temples outside Tibet. Besides the magnificent buildings with both Chinese and Tibetan styles, the temple also had a number of priceless collections of Buddhist treasures, including a standing 26-meter high statue of Buddha Sakyamuni carved out of a single sandalwood tree.
A walk along Houhai Lake offers peaceful views of the distant ancient green-roofed and red-walled imperial palaces. Located at the center of Beijing City and about 5 bus stops from the Tian'anmen Gate, Houhai Lake meets the famous Beihai Lake in the south and faces the Summer Palace and Jing Mountain in the distance.
Monograms provides travellers access to a Local Host®, so you will have someone on hand to answer those vacation questions pertaining to Xi'an. No waiting in line at the concierge desk or trying to ask your waitress at breakfast directions to the shopping district. Simply ask your Local Host® about Xi'an and you'll be on your way in no time. Plus, your Local Host® will share local Xi'an insights and share suggestions for getting off the beaten path, leaving you more time to create lasting vacation memories that are yours alone.
Hello, I am Cici Lee. I am called Li Qian in Chinese—meaning a pretty girl named Li. I graduated from Xi'an Foreign Language University where I majored in tourism and history. Afterwards I worked hard to earn my Senior Grade Qualification Certificate as an English tour guide. I have been working in this industry, for many years, either as a Local Host in Xi'an or as a guide throughout China. I enjoy working to make my guests' stay in Xi'an a pleasant and memorable one with my friendliness, sense of humor, and knowledge on my hometown—Xi'an and China.
The Forest of Stele has a fantastic collection of carved stele (stone or wooden slabs). Founded in 1090 AD during the Song Dynasty the museum now displays over 2,000 carved stele in seven different exhibition halls. There are so many in fact that the word "forest" was added to the museums name! Here you can see magnificent works from dynasties spanning the last 900 years. The museum is located near the south gate of the Xi'an City Wall.
Located close to Confucius Temple in old Xi'an this market focuses on the "Four Treasures of Study" which consist of the brush, ink, paper, and ink stone. Here you will find a variety of arts and crafts ranging from paintings to calligraphy. This is a great place to pick up a few souvenirs of your journey.
To help you plan for your trip, below are weather averages for your destination. While we cannot predict the weather you will encounter while you are there, we want to help you plan for your vacation as best we can!
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Information about how the new Act will affect your care and support and those who work in social services.
The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 (External link) came into force April 2016. It will transform the way social services are delivered, promoting people's independence to give them stronger voice and control.
Members of the public
The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act is a new law that will give you more of a say in the care and support you receive.
To support you to achieve well-being, you will make decisions about your care in partnership with professionals. To help you to do so, you will have easy access to information and advice about what is available in your area.
Carers will have an equal right to be assessed for support, to those that they care for, and more people will be entitled to Direct Payments.
A new assessment process for care and support will be based on what matters to you as an individual. It will consider your personal strengths and the support available to you from your family, friends and others in the community.
The assessment will be simpler and can be carried out by one person on behalf of a range of organisations.
There will be more services to prevent problems getting worse, so the right help is available when you need it.
Stronger powers to keep people safe from abuse or neglect will also be introduced.
The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act comes into force in April 2016. You will take part in the new process at your next scheduled assessment date.
Further information
What matters to you-matters to us video
The Social Services Improvement Agency has produced a video which explains the Act. (External link) You can also watch the case studies to help you understand how the Act will affect you.
Welsh Government website
Welsh Government has produced an easy read version about the Act along with a Children's and Young People's version. Visit the Welsh Government website to find out more. (External link)
Social care workers
The Care Council for Wales is working with a range of partners to develop a national learning and development plan to support the full implementation of the Act.
Getting in on the Act
Getting in on the Act is aimed at social care workers. It ensures you are supported and have all the information you need to deliver social care services in accordance with the law and practice in-line with the principles of the Act.
The hub contains information and resources with learning modules to help you prepare for the changes. It will be updated with training resources in the lead up to April 2016.
Visit the hub (External link) to keep up to date and find out what you need to do to prepare for the changes. You can also keep up to date on Twitter. (External link)

subset: commoncrawl


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Let's face it, pruning is scary! We all know we should be out there pruning our dang fruit trees. But most of us aren't exactly sure how or when. So we'll grab the shears and take a few tentative snips. But the whole time we're terrified of doing more harm than good, right?
Well, fear not!
Orchard favorite Alex Silber of Papaya Tree Nursery is coming by to give us a hands-on demonstration of how to prune with confidence. We'll start at our new Hollywood Orchard Mini Grove, where this past spring we planted seven beautiful specimens of fruit trees that have done some serious growing! Alex will explain his pruning strategy, and since year's end is pretty great timing, he'll take us through some actual pruning of our young saplings, and even walk us up the hill to tackle some more established trees!
Wear some good hiking shoes, pack a water bottle and notepad, and bring your pruning questions. This is gonna get interesting!
If you must drive, please park on Beachwood Drive. We'll be meeting at the end of Glen Green Street. The street veers to the left and ends in a separate cul-de-sac where we started our mini grove. Let's gather there!


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Expanding Relationality, Testing Affect: From Tinkering to (Artificial) Creativity
Cutting edge scientific research normally takes place behind closed doors of labs, either in industrial or commercial settings, or within research and educational institutions. Experimentation, tinkering and research on a personal level driven by plain curiosity and in creative ways not restricted by conventions and institutional rules has become something not only difficult but often impossible to pursue due to legal restrictions or the extremely expensive instruments and tools necessary to work on the molecular or technologically sophisticated levels of experimentation today.
AI and Robotics seem to be too complex to be approached on a DIY and hands on level, and mainly developed to be used for making us more transparent, predictable and replaceable. But examples such as the development of the open source Poppy robots at Flowers Lab in France, the development of an AI assistant at the Snips research lab that protects privacy, or creative AI programs developed by artists to write entire scripts for sci-fi films such as in "Sunspring" show how creativity can lead to disruptive approaches and new insights into the uses and possibilities related to such "technosciences".
Questions about what additional knowledge and experience we can acquire by tinkering with and reflecting on current research in creative ways, and to what extend creativity in machines and artificial intelligence is being explored and developed will be addressed and discussed. Artist Marco Donnarumma will present his new research project as part of the UdK Graduate School Fellowship, developed in collaboration with Manfred Hild from the Neurorobotics Research Lab in Berlin, and Tarek Besold, who researchers the intersection between artificial intelligence, computational creativity, and cognitive systems.
Speakers and Artists
Photo © courtesy Marco Donnarumma


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|trying to show off how the flakies are orange.
I've had "Light Green" for about a year? I've been meaning to wear it but never got around to it. It is super sheer, not worth trying to get opaque. It contains and light yellow flakes as well as subtle teal, light blue shimmer particles (they're not exactly glitter). By applying it over Mint Candy, it did change the color of it, turning it from a slightly dusty, cool-toned green to a springy, warmer green. I've taken photos in both warm and cool lighting conditions so you can see the difference.


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192 pages
Do coaches need to be psychologists, business people or both?
Essential Business Coaching offers a much-needed answer to the question of what makes a good business coach.
The authors draw on 60 years of combined experience to provide an in-depth review of best practice and theory. They provide a thorough examination of the changing nature of work, the need for new sources of competitive advantage and the benefits of investing in coaching. Useful ideas for further reading are found throughout, along with numerous examples of real business coaching situations. The inclusion of interviews with both corporate sponsors and individual clients provide a unique insight into what makes good coaching in practice.
The combination of solid theory and abundant examples make Essential Business Coaching an invaluable tool for all business coaches as well as counsellors, psychotherapists, human resource professionals and senior managers.
Preface. Introduction: Why Do We Need Business Coaching? The Theoretical Framework of Coaching. The Practice of Business Coaching. Coaching for Specific Business Issues. Conversations with Sponsors. Conversations with Clients. Professional Issues in Business Coaching and their Solutions. Conclusions: The Future of Business Coaching. Appendices. Bibliography.
The Essential Coaching Skills and Knowledge series provides an accessible and lively introduction to key areas in the developing field of coaching.
Each book in the series is written by leading coaches with extensive experience and has a strong practical emphasis, including illustrative vignettes, summary boxes, exercises and activities.
Assuming no prior knowledge, these books will appeal to professionals in business, management, human resources, psychology, counselling and psychotherapy, as well as students and tutors of coaching and coaching psychology.


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In 1951 Fooad Haba did an Aliyah. That is to say, his father Sason packed up the family and moved them from their native Iraq to the holy land, Israel. A baker by trade, Sason brought his taboon and established the first Iraqi bakery near Mahane Yehudah Market (referred to as The Shuk) in Jerusalem. Sason also brought with him generations of experience as a baker. Which he would pass on to Fooad. The bakery specialized in the popular Iraqi bread, Laffa.
Eventually Fooad's son, Sasi would settle in Canada. First in Montreal and eventually, Toronto. Having turned his back on his baking heritage Sasi worked many different jobs. In the fall of 2008, while working for a pool company, the jobs ran out. At the urging of his father, he decided to get into the bread business. He brought the taboon with him and his father would teach him the ropes. With his business partner, Yoram Gaby (a baker as well) they opened Dr. Laffa. Serving some of the most authentic Israeli food in the GTA. In fact some say the best anywhere outside Israel.
Dr. Laffa sits in an industrial area just inside Toronto's northern boundry.
There's a fairly small dining room and plenty of room for those there to get take away. The star of the show though is the taboon that's in the open kitchen. So let's get a look at what's cooking.
Laffa, for those who don't know about his unique and rare bread, is of Iraqi heritage and is cooked on a taboon. It's a fair bit larger than a regular pita, is quite light and fluffy on the A side and crisp and golden brown on the B side. It doesn't tear easily and is, if flattened, rather thin. It puffs or blisters, up quite a bit when baked and doesn't have much flavour. It really doesn't need much though, it's more or less a canvas on which other things shine. Seeing as how bread is my favourite food, I still love it.
Your greeted at the table with a selection of pickles. Cucumbers, carrots and cabbage. The slaw is fine as are the carrots. The pickles are quite nice though. They're half sour and have some nice crunch.
Shakshuka is a dish that's North African in origin and very common for breakfast in the Middle East. It's name is derived from a common last name in Tunisia, Chakchouk. That said, Turkey and Yemen also lay claim. Given that it reminded me of the Merguese sausage dish I had at a Tunisian restaurant, I'll go with the former.
Basically, it's eggs poached in a mildly seasoned (with harrisa) tomato broth that's loaded with chilies (mild ones), onions and roasted garlic. Quite frankly, there's a ton going on in this dish.
The Shakshuka Special, which is what I had is the basic dish with the addition of Merges sausage. This Middle Eastern lamb sausage is highly seasoned and incredibly tasty. Pretty much every bite with this dish is different. A deep, rich tomato flavour permeates, sometimes a bit garlicky, other times rich from the egg yolk. A hint of spice once in a while or sweet from a different chili. Just an incredible dish that's comfort food at it's best. Mostly served in the winter months in Israel.
The Shawarma meat was something I've never seen. Instead of the usual chicken, Dr. Laffa was using turkey. The turkey was embedded with lamb fat as it's basting agent. The meat wasn't heavily seasoned but more left to stand on it's own merits. The sandwich was stuffed into a laffa with a nice mixture of sauces and vegetation. I think my bread of choice for shawarma is still pita but this was a nice change. All in all, this was a great sandwich. And big too. No, not big, HUGE!!
In the run up to, and during Chanukah, Jews will often eat things deep fried.
Commemorating the miracle of the temple oil. Sufganiyah (SOOF-gone-ee-AH) are traditional jelly filled donuts that fit this bill nicely. Dough balls are fried, filled with jelly and topped with powdered sugar. These specimens are good but I think could be better. For me, there wasn't enough jelly in them. Outside of that, I really liked them. I found them a bit more savoury than most donuts and to a degree, a bit more like bread than donut. These are totally not like the light, airy Krispy Kreme Original Glaze donuts. They're denser and savoury balanced out the powdered sugar nicely. I rather enjoyed the chewiness.
Baklava is a traditional dessert all over the Middle East. Chopped pistachios are sandwiched between layers of phyllo or, as in the case here, dressed up a bit more nicely. There's plenty of sugar, usually in the form of honey to sweeten these up. While I really like baklava, I don't love it. These specimens here are among the best I've had though.
Well there you have it folks, a little taste of Israel right here in TO.
You can find Dr. Laffa at 401 Magnetic Dr in Toronto.
View Larger Map
You can also find them on the web, facebook and Twitter.
Well that's all for now folks, see ya next time in the food court.


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Nancy Campbell on the Antarctic art of Emma Stibbon
The art of losing isn't hard to master; So many things seem filled with the intent To be lost that their loss is no disaster. ('One Art')
A few weeks after returning from the Arctic, I was discussing travel – or rather, homecoming – with a British friend who had lived in Vienna for several years. I confessed that I felt bereaved by my return to Europe, that I had been stunned by an acute sense of physical loss. She gave me a sharp look. 'For me it wasn't so much bereavement,' she said, 'as unrequited love. Losing a place you never belonged to start with'.
Travel and desire: two states that offer ecstatic heights and a long way to fall. The poet Elizabeth Bishop, born in New England, but living for many years in Brazil, understood the way familiar landscapes melt away. In the villanelle 'One Art' she describes the tendency of objects to disappear:
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, Some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
By the final stanza of this poem, it's apparent that small losses prefigure cataclysmic endings. Bishop wrote that loss is 'no disaster' with deep irony, decades before the loss of rivers and continents became more than mere metaphor.
In contrast, the artist Emma Stibbon views loss as part of an inevitable cycle of change. Stibbon has spent a significant part of the last decade recording depopulated and isolated landscapes, including Antarctica and the Alps.
The long journey from London to the Antarctic via South America is, even in modern times, one that a traveller undertakes knowing they may not return. At best, they return so changed that the familiar self is lost. Stibbon documented her experience, taking photographs of icebergs, ice sheets, ice streams and ocean water from the deck of a Russian liner. She watched mountains rising out of the fog, and passed over Drake's Passage, the dangerously mutable straight where ocean tides converge. This journey, held only in the mind and on a memory card, was recorded back in the artist's studio in the Antarctic drawings.
Humans are compelled to travel. The nomadic instinct is barely quelled by a growing awareness of the environmental consequences of flying. Human movement around the globe is as adamant as the advance of glaciers through mountain ranges during the ice ages. Where communities do settle, people weigh down the land with their lives, as bedrock is compressed by ice.
But Antarctica is almost free of settlers: the only human inhabitants are temporary visitors, the scientists who dispassionately analyse ice at research stations. They will tell you that a trip to Antarctica is a journey across time as well as space, for Europe experienced similar climate conditions during the ice ages, when glacial sheets covered the earth as far south as London and Bristol. There were no human witnesses to these icescapes: Neanderthals had not yet evolved. Today's glaciologists are archaeologists – excavating those past changes in climate – and, increasingly, prophets of the shift in temperature to come.
The study of the cryosphere is aided by recent inventions such as the ice core, a tool that cuts through millennia of ice deposits to collect samples of air trapped between ancient snowflakes. For when snowflakes are buried beneath further snowfalls, they compress and form layers of firn, a granular substance which contains residual atmospheric gases and solid matter such as wind-blown dust, ash and radioactive particles. Deep in the ice the firn is pressed thinner, and annual layers become indistinguishable. At Vostock station in the Antarctic scientists sent down an ice core to a depth of 420,000 years. The ice core revealed evidence from four past glacial cycles: temperature, ocean volume, rainfall, gas composition of the lower atmosphere, volcanic eruptions, solar variability, desert extent and forest fires. Ice is a more effective witness to climate than tree rings or sediment layers. Ice is a substance that can be read.
The ice that Stibbon observed on the Antarctic peninsular is changing. Between 1995 and 2001, warmer melt season temperatures caused the Larsen Ice Shelf (discovered by Captain Larsen of the Jason one hundred years ago during a whaling reconnaissance mission) to lose 2,500km2 of its area; it is now 40 per cent the size of its previous extent. Other Antarctic ice shelves are following this pattern, as are glaciers across the world, including the Alps. Between 2000 and 2005, the World Glacier Monitoring Service examined the terminus of glaciers in France, Switzerland and Austria. All were in retreat. Almost three per cent of Alpine glacial ice (around one metre in depth) is lost each year. In the past, glacial melting occurred when atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) were 280 parts per million. Today's CO2 levels approach 385 parts per million. The disappearance of the glaciers is more dependent on time than on increasing temperature: it is inevitable even if the atmosphere is maintained at current levels.
Stibbon's work is impelled by such statistics. An animation, Retreat (2008), depicts an Alpine glacier moving towards the viewer through a cleft in the mountains. The advance seems to be in fast-forward; within a few seconds the screen is filled with a close-up, at which point the ice itself appears as a cloven, mountainous landscape that diminishes and breaks apart in turn.
Where water is versatile, its frozen form is intransigent. Ice overrides all other objects, forcing rocks ahead of it, splitting mountains. The glacier scores the rock with a white line, as intently as an artist's gouge passes through a woodblock, leaving striations which are only revealed when the ink is rolled out. As glaciers retreat, melting little by little, the valley's contours remember them. Just as the pockets of air trapped within the firn can be interpreted, so the spaces between mountains provide evidence of ice that vanished long ago.
A similarly telling physical correspondence exists between the whaling ship and the body of the whale it hunts. Herman Melville was aware of the irony: 'To me this vast ivory-ribbed chest, with the long, unrelieved spine, extending far away from it in a straight line, not a little resembled the hull of a great ship new-laid upon the stocks' (Moby Dick, 1852). The ships that sailed out to explore Antarctica were motivated by the desire for oil: in 1904, after Larsen had discovered the ice shelf named after him, he founded the first Antarctic whaling corporation, the Argentine Fishing Company. Within a few years whales were being decimated in the Antarctic, where whaling industries produced around 70 per cent of the world's oil.
A century later, offshore oil and natural gas fields have been found in the Ross Sea – although exploitation of mineral resources in the Antarctic is banned until the year 2048 by the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. In the meantime, science is today's form of exploration, the new industry of the polar regions. But what happens when the scientist reaches terra incognita, an area of water so dangerous that normal sea rules do not apply, where a ship will not be rescued if it gets into trouble?
As climate change intensifies, will humans be able to adapt to the hostile environment? Human extinction would appear to be a disaster, unless homo sapiens is seen as an insignificant species in the long natural history of the planet. Such a view is possible in the desolate, unpeopled expanses of Antarctica, which evoke a vaster timescale. But even the concept of 'geological time' betrays human interest, complete with its chart that strives to make æons comprehensible for human imaginations by comparing Earth at 45 billion years to a 45-year-old person – yet illogically one in whose life homo sapiens only emerged in the last second. The designers of the timechart were influenced by the work of the geologist Charles Lyell, who also inspired Charles Darwin's theories of evolution. (Fittingly, the only book that the explorers Scott, Shackleton and Wilson carried on their desperate 1902–3 sled journey across Victoria Land in Antarctica was Darwin's On the Origin of the Species.)
The timechart was designed in the nineteenth-century heyday of geological discovery, which – like the polar exploration of the period – was a paradoxically Eurocentric pursuit. Britain's influence is reflected in the local names chosen to represent global eras: the 'Cambrian' (from Cambria, the Roman name for Wales), the 'Ordovician' and the 'Silurian' (named after ancient Welsh tribes) were periods defined using stratigraphic sequences from Wales. The 'Devonian' era was named after rocks from the period found in Devon, and 'Carboniferous' was simply an adaptation of 'coal measures', also gesturing towards Wales. The 'Cretaceous' (from Latin creta meaning 'chalk') referred to beds of chalk (calcium carbonate) deposited by the shells of marine invertebrates – primitive creatures which may yet prove to outlast humans on the planet. It was in the late Cretaceous period that a continental collision formed the Alps, the first mountain system to be extensively studied by geologists, and subsequently recorded by Stibbon in a series of white chalk drawings on blackboard.
'Nothing can ever be created out of nothing', wrote Lucretius, in De rerum natura. 'Visible objects do not perish utterly, since nature repairs one thing from another and allows nothing to be born without the aid of another's death.' The material that we believe lost is only buried under layers of more recent debris. Eras are defined by their rocky residues. Geologists read stone strata just as climatologists read an ice core. These stories told by stone and ice are set down once more in chalk and graphite. Stibbon employed chalk as a subtle, base medium in the Antarctica series, where the nuances of ice are represented by drawing with graphite, and occasionally watercolour, onto gesso-prepared board. The elements course through these drawings, like sediment trapped in seams of glacial ice. Unlike the resilient artist's gouge, the soft chalk or graphite leaves a part of itself behind as it makes its mark.
In alchemy, sublimation is one of the twelve core processes. A substance is heated to a vapour, then immediately collects as sediment on the neck of the alembic. Separation through sublimation was ruled by Libra (♎), the astrological sign that regulates the balance of the seasons and the length of days.
Ice sublimates in the polar regions, its molecules changing from the solid phase to the gas phase without taking liquid form. Explorers experience mirages and other optical illusions: solid objects disappear in air faster than ice melts and floating islands appear on the horizon during the endless summer nights. Mariners knew these islands as fata morgana, the enchanted palaces to which the sorceress Morgan le Fay lured ships. Their specious paradise cost many lives, as the missions that set out to find once-glimpsed but nonexistent lands sailed off the map, chasing tricks of the light.
The disappearing Antarctic ice is given a reprieve in Stibbon's images. Here ice forms can be captured at the corner of the eye, more like ghosts than glaciers. Stibbon represents elements in their most equivocal phases: the convergence point of solid and liquid, freezing and melting, light and shadow. She records the moment fog descends, the density of condensation, even an intangible drizzle. The images are as illusory and mutable as the phenomena they represent. How can this line on board convey the depth of a mountainside? How can chalk become condensing water? Or ink, air? Pigment, the absence of light in a space? Where does the drawing begin? It begins with a mark. A line. A thought. A journey.
The polar regions challenge Western scientific perception. It is hard to describe glacial ice in any medium. Nearly all explorers, even those duty-bound to provide records, end up expressing only their own inarticulacy in the face of these numinous visions. For example, C. J. Sullivan, in his narrative of Sir James Clark Ross's expedition, recalls:
'Beholding with Silent Surprize the great and wonderful works of nature in this position we had an opportunity to discern the barrier in its Splendid position. Then I wished I was an artist or draughtsman instead of a blacksmith and armourer ... We Set a Side all thoughts of mount Erebus and Victoria Land to bear in mind the more Immaginative thoughts of this rare Phenomena that was lost to human view. In Gone by Ages.'
Stibbon's Antarctic drawings are an oblique record of 'rare Phenomena' which, like stars from distant galaxies, no longer exist by the time their image reaches our eyes. The curator Andreas Telow, writing about Stibbon's German StadtLandschaften series, notes the artist's interest in Albert Speer's 'Theory of Ruin Value': 'According to this theory, the massive buildings of the self-styled "Thousand Year Empire" were planned and materials for them carefully selected, so that they would impress even as ruins'. A culture which plans its ruins for sublime effect shows more ambition and arrogance than even Shelley's Ozymandius ('Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!').
In contrast, in Eskimo Realities (1973), a study of art and perception in the Arctic, the anthropologist Edward Carpenter suggests that in cultures where transience is more evident, process is valued over preservation:
'Art and poetry are verbs, not nouns. Poems are improvised, not memorized; carvings are carved, not saved. The forms of art are familiar to all; examples need not be preserved. When spring comes and igloos melt, old habitation sites are littered with waste, including beautifully designed tools and tiny carvings, not deliberately thrown away, but, with even greater indifference, just lost.'
Emma Stibbon will have a major exhibition – on icebergs – at Galerie Bastian, Berlin, from Friday 16th January, 2015.
Nancy Campbell's poetry and artist's books are a response to the coastal communities of Northern Europe and the Arctic. Since working as Writer in Residence on the remote island of Upernavik in Northwest Greenland in 2010, Nancy has undertaken residencies in Iceland, Denmark, the US and the UK, where she is currently Visual and Performing Artist in Residence at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. Her critical writing is widely published and she is the editor of international contemporary art magazine Printmaking Today. www.nancycampbell.co.uk
Header photo from Captain Scott's Hut, Ross Island, by Velvet Android, licences under Creative Commons.


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It's just been nearly two weeks since Gabe and I were in Vancouver. Although it was a very short trip filled with family gatherings and a second wedding celebration, we were able to sneak away to spend some alone time at my favourite spot called the Deep Cove.
Our stay wouldn't be complete without the famous honey doughnuts, a cold beverage and a bit of sun tanning!
The long weekend is coming up ahead, hope everyone has plans on enjoying it!
xoxo, L


text: The following is an agreement required to book a Model Call Session with Giana Terranova Photography. Please thoroughly read the session agreement form attached bellow to ensure that you are exactly informed what a session entails and that I am able to deliver on your expectations. Signing this form and selecting the "I Agree" button at the bottom of the page means you are prepared to follow everything stated.


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Western Library Terrace Design
A project designed for Western Bank Library Terrace at The University of Sheffield, 2012.
The aim was to redesign the terrace providing a relaxing, open area for people to study or have a break.
A wooden triangular structure covers the Terrace has been measured to scale, the structure is 17m high. It is not only to provide an open shelter in a dramatic way; it also provides a functional seatting area surrounded by vegetation, which is coherent with Western Park. Lights have been integrated throughout the whole terrace, under seats, water feature, structure, and floor to give the structure a warm inviting light.


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Herbal Weight Loss
Herbal Weight Management
At RPV Chiropractic and Sports Medicine we are dedicated to not only helping you lose weight quickly, safely, and sensibly, but most importantly, we are committed to helping you make lifestyle changes to improve your overall health for a lifetime.
We will thoroughly evaluate and establish a weight management plan to specifically cater to what your body needs. Whether you goal is 2 pounds a week or 2 pounds a day, this will be your last Diet plan.


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Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan would take part in an awareness campaign of Andhra Pradesh Government on health issues like maternal and child mortality.
"The Principal Secretary (Health) is going to Mumbai next week. He will meet him (Bachchan) with regard to the campaign which would be mainly on maternal and child mortality. We want a script that suits his functioning to be made by appropriately experienced people," Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas told reporters here on Monday.
The Government had earlier announced the 72-year-old popular actor, who is brand ambassador for polio eradication campaign in India, would be helping the State to highlight health issues.
Meanwhile, Srinivas also said the foundation stone for the proposed AIIMS-like institution in Andhra Pradesh would be laid next month.
He said Union Health Minister J P Nadda has agreed to lay the foundation for the institution, proposed to be located in the Vijayawada-Guntur region, where the new state capital would come up.


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Total DVD
DVD - Reviews - Trailers - Movies
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Top Money Making Business Reviews
After many years of experience within the internet market industry, we at Independent Business Reviews want to provide good quality, honest reviews of the top money making programs currently available online that deliver exactly what they promise. We have spent several months researching and testing the best money making opportunities, to finally arrive at just 3 programs, that in our opinion, we consider offer by far the quickest and easiest route to begin making money online. Below is a list of the 3 reviewed sites that will guarantee your online success – No 1 Top Product - Ultimate Wealth Package The Ultimate Wealth Package offers a little bit of something for everyone and stands alone in its simplicity and refreshingly honest approach. The e-book begins with an overview of highly profitable internet strategies and tips in plain and simple language with no filler. It talks you through how to create and monetize affiliate sites immediately, money making pay per click strategies, simple SEO techniques, selling your own profitable info product and selling on eBay using wholesale suppliers. Also included in the package is 108 bonus items, which include many that you will not find anywhere else, and a free website built for you that would normally cost $400.
If you can inject a small amount of effort and follow clear instructions you cannot fail to make money. No 2 - The Rich Jerk The Rich Jerk is exactly that, very rich and obnoxious but a well respected affiliate marketer and a close contender for our top product. The Rich Jerk's eBook is a clever, well written, and very informative book detailing internet marketing strategies that really work. It covers everything from creating successful affiliate websites, search engine optimization, unique search engine strategies, selling info products and buying wholesale and selling on eBay. Also included is a chapter highlighting a list of programs, books and tools recommended by The Rich Jerk many of which can be beneficial in optimising your profits.
The eBook is not a get rich quick program, neither is it a scam. Thousands of people are making a susbstantial income from following the strategies outlined. This is a great product and well worth the purchase price. No 3 - Forex Enterprise A fairly new marketing course set up by its creator Nick Parks with ideas that can create an opportunity to start earning multiple streams of income from a variety of sources. The program details amongst other things how anyone can create a guaranteed stream of income using Google AdWords and Clickbank, how to buy cheap targeted traffic with great effect and, if on a tight budget an alternative to pay per click advertising. Included in the package is a website with free web hosting where you could sell over 1000 products. This is well worth the purchase price with the potential to set up a virtual online superstore. The Forex Enterprise program offers, like the others, a 100% money back guarantee which you have up to 3 months to try out to see if it works. Another great product that can really deliver. Summary The key to making money online is knowing how and where to start.
Without the right starting point you will waste a great deal of precious time and money. In our opinion, with a little thought and application, all 3 products discussed in our review will guarantee your online success. For more detailed info click on following - http://www.independentbusinessreviews.com.
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Difference between revisions of "Cognotes-Daily Meeting Newspaper"
(No difference)
Latest revision as of 13:00, 28 October 2008
Cognotes is the daily newspaper published and staffed by a group of ALA member volunteers. The Cognotes office is open for submissions from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Thursday through Monday during the Midwinter Meeting in the ALA Office of the Colorado Convention Center.
The publication includes highlights of Midwinter events, important meeting times and room changes, photographs and news items relating to the Meeting. The paper is published Friday through Monday during the Midwinter Meeting, and a special Highlights issue (Issue No.5) will be mailed to all ALA members following the Meeting. Cognotes is available in the registration area at the convention center, in the Cognotes office and at several other locations throughout the convention center.
News and informational contributions will be considered for publication on a daily basis. The deadline for news items is 2:00 p.m. the day before publication. Exhibitors may advertise in Cognotes onsite for $100 (40-word limit). Forms are available in the Cognotes office, and the deadline is 2:00 p.m. the day before publication. There is also the opportunity for exhibitors to submit news items for the Highlights issue mailed to all members.


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Derbie Women's black leather shoe.Shoes for Women black.Lara Black Leather Derbies.These black derbies SKU 6059 are soft and comfortable, they are easy to match with the most colorful outfits, they are also very stylish! During the day, pleasant in winter. Viviano shoes, which are built entirely using traditional techniques, are made in one of the best moccasin shoe factories and undergo a rigorous quality control process. Teams of skilled workers carefully take care of every stage of production. Elegant, timeless and of superior quality, these men's shoes will last a lifetime if they are well maintained.
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The International Conference On Nanomedicine And Nanobiotechnology is an annual gathering that hosts high-profile plenary speakers, world-class researchers, oral and poster presentations, workshops, sponsor exhibits and afterworks. It is a great opportunity to share research findings with a wide audience, promote knowledge exchange, and network.
This year the event, which will take place from 25-27 September at the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, will cover topics of interest such as: targeted drug delivery and nanocarriers; nanomedicine for cancer diagnosis & therapy; biological & medical nanodevices and biosensors and tissue engineering and regenerative nanomedicine.
Confirmed plenary speakers will include:
- Prof. Víctor F. Puntes (ICREA, Spain)
- Prof. Damjana Drobne (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
- Prof. Hak Soo Choi (Harvard Medical School, USA)
- Prof. Philippe Barthélémy (Bordeaux Segalen University, France)
- Prof. Alexander Seifalian (Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine Commercialisation centre, UK)
- Prof. Rachel Auzely (Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolécules Végétales – CNRS, France)
- Dr. Julien Nicolas (Galien Paris-Sud Institute, France)
- Prof. María Vallet Regí (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain)
- Prof. Duncan Craig (UCL School of Pharmacy, UK)
- Prof. Stephan Barcikowski (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany)
- Prof. Rainer Haag (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)
- Prof. María José Alonso (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
Early bird abstract submission ends 14 April – submit now or visit the ICONAN website for more information and the full programme.


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Getting in the way – to #LetThemStay
Our round up of resources, groups and training to get involved in, pathways to action and suggestions for affinity group organising to get in the way, to #LetThemStay
It is an incredible time right now with significant movement momentum gathering around the call to #LetThemStay in relation to the 267 refugees at risk of being deported to Nauru and Manus Island after a recent high court case was unsuccessful in challenging offshore detention.
The response across Australia has been phenomenal – from all sectors of civil society, calling on a need for a moral response, rather than a legal one. Civil disobedience and non-cooperation has hit the mainstream with churches offering sanctuary, and other institutions such as trade hall, and individuals joining that offer as well. Teachers and healthcare workers have been speaking out in recent months, refusing to discharge children who … Read More »
Fierce, radical love
This week I have been thinking about radical love.
A friend asked me this week – what did the word radicalised mean to me? She asked me this before 129 people were killed in Paris. Before 43 people were killed in Beirut. I was mindful even before then about the baggage that comes with this term, but it's something I think is vital to our experiences as activists. Because we need more people to be radicalised in the right way.
We are radicalised when we start to have a sense of our own power.
Both when we see things we love taken from us, and when we realise we can fight for them and win.
In the last few years I have been focusing on training activists. Amongst many other skills, to take nonviolent direct action. I believe deeply in the power of people … Read More »
Honouring the rebel
There is this strange feeling in my gut. It's like a mix of old pain from long ago, and too much caffeine, and an uneasy churn. And it tastes brittle and metallic in my mouth.
It is a quiet unease rising that I don't have the tools to deal with.
It seems to be how I feel about the state of progressive politics in Australia right now.
I'm in a room with 1000 people who are supposed to be our best and brightest and I am shit scared.
Whilst I am fully aware of the unsustainability of working in panic mode, I FEEL LIKE THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE.
More panic? Probably not.
More something? Hell yes.
Our world is being shot down in flames by inequity and arrogance so breathtaking that…it's literally breath taking.
And it feels like we are overwhelmingly unprepared and out gunned. Despite the … Read More »
Melbourne wins hearts
This is a short post. Got to the Melbourne refugee rights rally a little late. Walked out of the Melbourne central train station to a vision of thousands of people crowding the State Library. A beautiful sea of people who were there to claim all of our rights to a better, more compassionate world. I am grateful to have walked amongst you that day. With people who believe that there must be a better way… that dumping refugees on our poor island neighbours and ignoring our international obligations, all for political point scoring… will never be ok.
Our mascot, Luca, was also quite popular with the papparazzi. #pawsforrefugeesWe took a few simple pics, and there are more from other folks here.
And this guy, 'Abe Ape' was great.
"I am a nicer person than Kevin Rudd"
Refugees are not criminals
No more racism
Refugees in, Multinationals … Read More »


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In 1967 a poem entitled Amereida was published in Valparaíso. Texts, maps and poems belonging to various authors were compiled by Godofredo Iommi M. into this great volume that as hinted by its name, intends to be the American Aeneid . His intention was to give America a founding myth in an epic form under the assumption that, in the absence of traditional legends, the continent could not provide its inhabitants with a sense of destiny.
The fact that Amereida is an epic and not a lyrical poem is especially important for understanding the implication of the theoretic and poetic formula of the Travesías. The participants of such Travesía must 'think epically' because it is the only way to fearlessly set out on an endeavour of such vast dimensions and impossible goals. This form of poetry has been named ha lugar because it unites spatial and temporal dimensions and it implies to make place, being place. It is a poem that praises the extension of the American continent and gives reason and meaning to trades and their works. The poetic word points out the primal origin of the continent whereas architecture generates the Form, which is the intimate beginning of all work. The Travesías thus have their origin in this poetic ha lugar that awakens the profound essence of the American land and its territories: mountains and seascapes, plains and landscapes. The Travesías today are still crossing the continent based on these poetic coordinates.
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was born in Viña del Mar, Chile in 1970. He is an Architect from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and he obtained a Ph.D from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid. He is currently professor at the School of Architecture and Design of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso and an active member of the Open City of Ritoque. He has focused his researches on architecture and its surroundings. In the framework of the workshops at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, and since the year 1988, he has made several voyages dedicated to the study and development of Travesías in South America.
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This past month has been pretty brutal for you, between the Swift Boat ads, the Republican Convention and the Vice President saying if you get elected, it would invite another terrorist attack. Have you come to any new conclusions about whom you're running against and what you have to do to win?
I think the President's unwillingness to walk away from those comments makes it clear that he and the Vice President will say anything and do anything to get elected and to hold on to power. It was a shameful and outrageous effort.
But you know, I've been in worse situations in my life. The attacks don't attack me as much as they attack Americans and America. They're trying to distract people from the real issues that matter.
America is not as safe as we ought to be after 9/11. We can do a better job at homeland security. I can fight a more effective war on terror. The standard of living for the average American has gone down. People's incomes have dropped. Five million Americans have lost their health insurance. The deficit is the largest it's been in the history of this country. They're taking money from Social Security and transferring it to the wealthiest people in America to drive us into debt. They're shredding alliances around the world with people we have traditionally been able to rely on. That's what bothers me.
What do you need to do to make this race about what you want it to be about?
Draw the contrast; be crystal clear about it. That's what I've been doing every day. George Bush has made the wrong choices for America. He's leading the country in the wrong direction. John Edwards and I have better choices. We have a health-care plan for all Americans. We're going to stop subsidizing jobs that go overseas and create jobs here in America. We're going to fund education and not leave millions of children behind every day. The trail of broken promises and reversed decisions of this Administration is unlike any I have ever seen at any time that I have been in public life, and I'm going to draw that picture as clear as a bell.
Speaking of clarity, a number of your allies have said that you haven't drawn a clear contrast between yourself and President Bush on Iraq.
The contrast could not be clearer. They spent a lot of money trying to confuse people, but I have been consistent. I would not have taken the country into war the way he did. I would not have put young Americans in harm's way without a plan to win the peace. I would not have interrupted as abruptly the effort to build alliances with other countries. I would not have turned my back on the international community. And Americans are paying a $200 billion cost today because this President rushed to war.
Is the President being as aggressive as he should be in dealing with insurgent strongholds in Iraq?
At this moment in time, I'm not sitting with the generals in front of me for the full briefing. I'm not going to comment on that right now. That is up to the President. It's his decision to make. But I will tell you this, that we've gone backward in Iraq, and we've gone backward on the war on terror. I'm not President until Jan. 20, if America elects me. I don't know what I'll find in Iraq.
But I'll tell you this: I will pursue a far more aggressive, proactive statesmanship role to bring countries to our side in an effort in which they have an interest. Ninety percent of the casualties and costs are being borne by Americans. That's inexcusable.
I believe very deeply that it takes a new President, a new credibility, a fresh start, to change the whole equation in Iraq. I will get countries involved in ways that the President doesn't have them involved today, and I will get our troops home.
How? Diplomats say that it is not in our allies' political interestKERRY
George Bush has made it not in their interest today. There are all sorts of options with respect to Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds in the region that this Administration is not exploring. They have failed in their diplomacy utterly. In fact, they have made it easy for countries to say no, because of their arrogance, because of the way the President chose to go to war.


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Decided to plan an early season styled shoot with Denby, a Hawke's Bay model. With the lush greenery and a cloudless sky we got strong colours, hard shadows and some beauty goodness from the shoot. Hope you enjoy x
Model: Denby Hill
Hair: Loco Hair
Make-up: Jose Benstrum Make-up Artist
Styling: Organic Ash


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EDMONTON — The Alberta government has struck a panel to advise it on the best way to upgrade its energy industry.
Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd said Thursday the seven-member panel will do research, talk to stakeholders and the public, and report back in a year on initiatives such as upgrading and refining.
"We're going to have them look at all of those options,'' said McCuaig-Boyd.
"If there is going to be government policy or programs to help with this, we want to make sure we're strategic.
"We'll defer to the committee on the best advice of what will bring investment.''
An oilfield pumpjack, belonging to Crescent Point Energy, works on an oil well pumping crude near Longview, Alberta on June 18, 2016. The Rocky Mountains are in the distance. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Larry MacDougal
Its co-chairs are Jeanette Patell with General Electric, and Gil McGowan, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.
The panel has a budget of $150,000 and it's not clear yet what its public engagement process will look like.
Adding to and upgrading value for Alberta's oil and gas resources has been a cornerstone policy of Premier Rachel Notley's government.
Wildrose energy critic Leela Sharon Aheer agreed attracting investors should be at the top of the panel's agenda.
But she said the current NDP policy, such as the looming broad-based carbon tax, is working at cross purposes.
"We have to see how it's going to attract investment. That should be at the top of that mandate,'' she said.
"But if you look at past (NDP) policy, it's not intuitive that way.''


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There is more emphasis on lifelong learning and adult training lately. Grassroots advocacy should remain a prime priority to help support and information our efforts within the coming 12 months to develop the framework for the way forward for adult education, together with funding. Our Adult Education program helps adult learners improve fundamental expertise, prepare for high school equivalency exams and transition to a profession or greater education. The lack of a transparent and positive statement on what to expect for 2015-sixteen will add to the rumors and confusion concerning the way forward for the Adult Education. As an adult begins to think about different perspectives they become transformed and learning occurs.
With a large era of baby boomers starting to retire, older adult programs are instrumental to help keep seniors energetic and wholesome in our communities whereas additionally offering societal savings in medical prices. Tim Doyle, assistant director of the San Mateo Adult School, says that due to a price range disaster in the academic system, between 50 and 60 schools had been closed around California. We join adult learners with a certified and skilled teacher for one-on-one, small group and impartial laptop-assisted studying.
In 2009 the California Department of Education gave K-12 faculty districts the flexibleness to divert adult training funds to different instructional purposes. Of most use to researchers in adult education is their resources web page , which includes vital and useful links for a websites, organizations, and studies for over two dozen instructional categories. Alternatively, habits of unhealthy apply can be discovered in maturity, and strategies and processes that have been discovered in a now-dated curriculum will also be tough to shake off for some grownup learners.
She stated 173 handed unanimously on Thursday, April 18th out of the education committee and now goes to appropriations. In an try and stop the bleeding that ensued in our public education system, Schwartzenegger made K12 Adult Schools the blood donors to K12 Districts. This report would be helpful for these investigating issues surrounding adult literacy, education & public policy, and the changing workforce.
Karen Arthur shifted every part when she began the Alliance for California Adult Schools , a web site on Facebook the place Adult Education communities – teachers, workers, admin, students, and supporters from all over the state can share info, experience, and strategies. Please add my voice to the call to incorporate older grownup schooling in the plans to revamp California's adult faculties. It helps people graduate with the assistance of nation's numerous adult education centers and packages. The government has prolonged its patronage and encouragement to adult schooling.


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Love, love, love these Indian-inspired fabrics. I just stumbled upon this site and fell in love with the simplified take on intricate Indian design. Here's a bit about the Tucson-based company Les Indiennes:
"When Mary Mulcahy first developed an interest in Indian textiles, she just wanted fabrics that were as she envisioned them- fresh and simple, authentically Indian yet pleasing to the Western eye.
What were once complex traditional designs with multiple colors, she transformed by extracting and simplifying particular motifs, reducing them to a single color, and elegantly spacing them on a creamy white background. The fabric was so wonderful that Les Indiennes came into being.
We are particularly proud of the fact that Les Indiennes never set out to industrialize or to change the way things are done in India. The production of our fabric does not cause pollution nor does it disrupt the traditional lifestyle of the village where it is made. Les Indiennes provides fair trade employment for over 50 families, raising the standard of living for the entire community, and all the while leaving no environmental or social footprint."
For more, visit: Les Indiennes


text: goodapple 23 Posted December 17, 2008 Which iPod is your favorite throughout all the different models? Like the first iPod in 2002, iPod classic 1G. My personnel favorite is probably the iPod touch, got a lot of great features, but I also like the iPod nano, nice and small with some decent storage capacity. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Welcome to WALDPORT REALTY CO, the premier resource for all real estate information and services in the area. I hope you enjoy your visit and explore everything our realty website has to offer, including Central Oregon Coast real estate listings, information for home buyers and sellers, and more About Us, your professional Waldport Realtors.
Looking for a new home? Use the Search to browse an up-to-date database list of all available properties in the area, or use my Dream Home Finder form and I'll conduct a personalized search for you.
If you would like to view all of the currently listed properties in our local market, you can click on one of the city names on the banner below. These allow you to view homes in given areas at all price ranges.
If you're planning to sell your home in the next few months, nothing is more important than knowing a fair asking price. I would love to help you with a FREE Market Analysis. I will use comparable sold listings to help you determine the accurate market value of your home.
Our staff of realtors has specialized in South Lincoln County homes and properties for over 60 years. We are the oldest continuously operating real estate firm in all of Lincoln County. Check out Our Agents/Brokers page for additional contact information.


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Jean-Paul Gaster the drummer for the band Clutch joins me on Revelator #154.
JP was kind enough to take some time to speak with be before a band rehearsal on a Friday afternoon. JP and I spoke in detail about the bands ever growing catalog of music and prepping for tours both in the states and overseas. The band is currently in Australia. Clutch is gearing up for a big North Americans tour with headliner Lamb Of God and Corrosion Of Conformity.
Jean-Paul also shares a view into his influence from GO-GO music and funk played into the drummer he is today. He also shares a few stories about how the band evolved at the end of the 90's after Pure Rock Fury cycle before leaving a major label. He indicated that going on tour with Marilyn Manson was a big part of the bands growth even though it was not a tour they wanted to do at first.
The newest album Physic Warfare is a great album and Clutch continues to provide a unique experience live.
You can read full live show review and see concert photos from the bands last stop in Nashville here:
For more information about Clutch please visit:


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Google and privacy, just like Facebook and privacy are a 'hot item'. Google recently changed their privacy policies. Which has led to a lot of discussion. Webpronews reported about it and asked Danny Sullivan to explain. See the video below.
About Bas van den Beld
Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.


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Updated Lyrics
I have update the lyrics for the Elektro-Polzei album. I am proud to say that this is the only site with full lyrics for this entire album on the internet!
Also, stay tuned, I should be receiving some photos of Fusspils 11!
Site is under construction, click the logo at the top of the page to enter.


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MySQL is one of the most widely used database management systems among website/server applications. It allows users to store their databases and manage them using SQL commands on various platforms. In this particular tutorial, we will learn how to install MySQL on a Linux server running CentOS 7 operating system using the command line of your server.
What you'll need
Before you begin this guide you'll need the following:
- root access to your server
- CentOS 7 running on your Linux server
Step 1 — Downloading and preparing MySQL repository
Before we start, you should connect to your server via SSH and prepare to put commands to your command line.
- First of all, we must check if our system is updated and update it if it is not. Type command:
sudo yum update
- Wait for the system to be updated. Now it is necessary to download MySQL repositories. The newest release at the end of the year 2016 is
el7-9so we will use it. (You can check other versions here: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/repo/yum/). Type in command:
wget http://dev.mysql.com/get/mysql57-community-release-el7-9.noarch.rpm
- At the end of the download, you should see that .rpm file was saved.
- Now we need to prepare the repository so we could later install MySQL packages from it. Type:
sudo rpm -Uvh mysql57-community-release-el7-9.noarch.rpm
You should be able to see a similar response:
Once you reach 100%, you will be able to install MySQL on your server. You will be further instructed how to do it in Step 2.
Step 2 — Installing MySQL on your server
- You can go right ahead and install MySQL with the command:
sudo yum install mysql-server
- A list of packages will be provided and you will be asked for confirmation to download them. Type
yand press ENTER.
While packages are being downloaded you will see the progress:
- When they finish downloading you will again be asked for confirmation to install them. Type
yand press ENTER.
- Wait for the installation to be completed.
If you see the Complete! message at the end of installation it means that MySQL was installed successfully on your server.
Step 3 — Starting MySQL and checking if it works
- MySQL is not started right after the installation so you need to start it with this command:
sudo systemctl start mysqld
- Wait for a few seconds. You will get no response once MySQL starts, but in order to check if it has successfully started and is working use command:
sudo systemctl status mysqld
Information about MySQL status will be given:
If you see that MySQL is active and running like in the screenshot above, it means that you have successfully installed and started MySQL on your server.
We have learned how to properly install MySQL on your CentOS 7 server so you could store your databases on it and manage them with the help of this great database management system.


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You're not wrong! When I first started Meat Free Keto back in 2012 (time flies!), I was so excited about ketosis and veganism that it's really all I wanted to discuss. As time went on, and I learned more about nutrition, health and finding balance, I realized that I wanted to branch out a little in my posts.
So, I split off this site, which has random nutritional information (still largely relating to vegan keto and low carb diets), and kept all my low carb vegan and vegetarian recipes at Meat Free Keto.


text: Has anyone used the free DCP in Resolve 15? Can you please share your experience? I cannot find any info on how to create a DCP package for theatrical screening for the FREE version, just the paid EasyDCP one. It will be great to hear from someone who went through his exercise.


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'Helping Hands' Lifts STUDENT's Medical School Hopes
As graduation from Pickerington North High School neared, Pheasant Run resident Taylor Williams-Hamilton knew the end was just the beginning.
"Most of my life my family really depended on me for a lot of things. I feel like I had to grow up, quickly. Getting a job, early. Going to college is something they expected me to do and do well," Taylor recalled.
Four years later she has done that – and then some.
A beneficiary of Homeport's partnership with Greater Columbus Community Helping Hands, Taylor in May graduated magna cum laude from the historically black, all-women's liberal arts Spelman College in Atlanta. She plans to enter medical school in 2018.
"I want to practice gynecology. I really think being a participant in the Helping Hands program made me realize the importance of taking care of the community, especially those who are underprivileged and underserved. I want to have my own clinic in a lower income community," Taylor said.
Dorothy Cage-Evans, co-founder of the Helping Hands program with her husband Hank Evans, a Homeport Board of Directors member, said Taylor would be the first Homeport participant in Helping Hands to be accepted to medical school.
"Greater Columbus Community Helping Hands is grateful for our partnerships (like Homeport) which enables us to provide scholarships and support to aspiring youth, especially the underserved in our community," Cage-Evans said. "Students are encouraged to remember their journey and to always give their 'helping hand' to others.''
Twenty-nine Homeport residents have benefitted from the Helping Hands program since the organization connected with Homeport in 2013.
While in high school, the students receive laptop computers with Microsoft software and are schooled in "stepping off to college" skills, from learning how to keep a checkbook to the importance of networking and leadership.
Once in college, the students can seek follow up financial assistance to cover the cost of books and college fees.
Taylor said she is the first college graduate from her extended family, that getting ready for higher education was not something she was prepared for and that she grabbed on to whatever she could to learn.
"When I was getting ready to apply for college I did not know what to do. I didn't have anyone to tell me about classes, scholarships. I was not financially literate about scholarships and grants.
"Then I took this class in financial literacy at the Pheasant Run community center taught by Homeport. And from there I hung around the office, trying to see what more I get out of this.
"The property manager at Pheasant Run told me about Helping Hands. She gave me the packet with information on what to do, but even then it was a little overwhelming. I got stressed. But I applied and took an orientation on what the program was about, the requirements to meet to get the scholarship money. The importance of giving back to the community."
In May, Taylor's hard work – and support from Helping Hands -- paid off.
She wore a cap and gown and graduated Spelman with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. She was magna cum laude (3.6 GPA or higher), Phi Beta Kappa and a member of Biology and Psychology Honors Societies.
She also feels she not only made good grades but a good friend in Mrs. Cage-Evans.
"She calls, 'what do you need? How are you doing?' Whatever I needed she made a way for me to get it. She also helped a friend from Pickerington North study abroad in Ghana, West Africa. For a semester."
One of Taylor's younger brothers, Brian Marshall Hamilton, attends Westminster College in Pennsylvania and has been a Helping Hands beneficiary, too.
"I kind of made him do it. You can't pass up this opportunity," Taylor said.
Taylor's baby brother, Savion Marshall Hamilton, is a high school sophomore. Taylor hopes he participates in Helping Hands. But first things, first, she says. "I am trying to get him to prepare for the SAT and ACT."


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Getting a world-class education is all about investing in yourself and your future. Once you've found the right graduate degree for you, look below to see how much it will cost. Can't afford it? Think again. We offer a wide variety of financial aid options to qualified students because we're committed to helping you access a higher education for a brighter future.
Additional Fees
Application Fee — $50
Graduation Fee — $100
Financial Aid
Our Office of Financial Aid will help you understand your options for making your graduate degree affordable. Please contact us at anytime with questions. We're happy to help!
Here are additional financial resources that you might find helpful:
- Private Loans
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- Montgomery GI Bill: Selected Reserve (MGIB-SR)
- Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP)
- Veterans Educational Assistance Program (VEAP)
- Educational Assistance Test Program (Section 901)
- Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance Program (DEA)
- National Call to Service Program
- Veterans Retraining Assistance Program


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Middlesbrough F.C host SRtRC Educaional Event
On Tuesday 17th November the SRtRC campaign team were at the Riverside Stadium for a full-day educational event
"We have worked with SRtRC for many years and we always receive positive feedback about the sessions they deliver, here at The Riverside Stadium. It is important for the Foundation to support the great work that SRtRC do in the community and we hope by using the football club as an engagement tool we are able help SRtRC achieve their goal in eradicating racism."
Helena Pinder, Head of MFC Foundation
On Tuesday 17th November, Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) held an educational event at the Riverside Stadium and worked in partnership with Middlesbrough F.C to educate local young people about the dangers of racism. Over 85 young people from local primary schools attended the event which saw the Year 5/6's take part in a carousel of workshops. John Emmerson Batty, Handale and Abingdon Primary were the schools that took part in three different workshops.
The first of the workshops was led by Campaign Worker, James Kingett, from SRtRC who delivered a workshop which made young people explore stereotypes and think critically about the way in which we stereotype. The young people engaged in thoughtful and honest conversation with their peers about the dangers of stereotyping.
Watching the @SRTRC_England video with primary school pupils at @Boro pic.twitter.com/8YrWlXaxsr
— Cleveland_PCC (@Cleveland_PCC) November 17, 2015
An all-star panel of guests inc. @Dimster23 & Stewy Downing talking to local children at our @SRTRC_England event! pic.twitter.com/nxCSAqw0d9
— MFC Foundation (@MFCFoundation) November 17, 2015


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Digital Shoebox
Everything saved on the platform is organized all together in one safe place. Because memory keeping today is a digital mess! Memories get buried in our camera rolls, on hard drives, in the cloud and scattered across social media. Memories aren't kept, they are chaos. That's why it's critical to have a home – one home for all the best. Ultimately, this takes all the hassle out of creating books and gifts.
Watch the LittleHoots demo video to see our Creation Engine, Digital Shoebox and Network in action. Imagine how one or all of these capabilities could engage and activate your audience. It's available for both white label and SDK integrations. We do all the heavy lifting to make sure it seamlessly integrates with your mobile or desktop experience.
key benefits
- Drive More Sales
- Increase Engagement
- Deepen Customer Relationships
- Boost Brand Awareness


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Editor's note: Thank you again, Fook, for distilling the big, complicated thing into simple terms.
Update: several missing links in the original article have been filled.
The realisation that I'm not as bad a photographer as I thought I was gave me a huge boost of confidence. And now I'm doing everything I can to improve my photography.
Since first publishing The Sony A7ii taught me to respect the Fujifilm X100s here at ohm, I decided that I should find a reliable way to get my photos online for both critique and support. The usual avenues: Facebook, Flickr, 500px, and of course, hashtag-happy Instagram, were the top on my radar. Below is my crude analysis of each.
First up, Facebook. Many aspiring photographers start here, due in large part to the fact that they are already on it. (Honestly, who doesn't use Facebook nowadays right?) Users can easily show their pictures to their friends and families, as well as to genre, product, hobby specific groups. Private photographic groups set up by other Facebook users exist in order to give support, to obtain information on products, to reference different photographic styles, to offer criticism, and even to sell gear.
For example, I am a part of several photographic groups on Facebook, including Photography World and Australian Photography. Facebook now even handles pretty high-resolution photos. Good critique can be obtained from these sort of posts due to Facebook's 'bump to the top' updating system, which keeps highly commented threads current. These critiques, however, tend to be very simple, lacking feedback on how or where to improve technique. Often, they are positive "high-fives-all-round" reinforcement hop-ons.
In order not to overwhelm, Facebook also tends to limit the amount of things that get posted to people's walls. This means that if you don't post pictures at the right time, nobody will notice what you post. Additionally, if people stop looking at your profile, Facebook stops feeding them updates. As a result, your photos can slip notice. Because of that stuff, I've stopped using Facebook as my primary photography sharing tool.
Next up, professional photo sharing sites.
Two of the most prominent are the hugely popular 500px and Flickr. But why isn't this noob interested in using either one? Here's why. Simply put, 500px and Flickr are a chore to use. If I were to post something on Flickr or 500px, I would also have to share that picture to Facebook in order for my friends and family to view it. Sure, that 500px or Flickr photo may be higher resolution than its Facebook analogue, but still, it is a hassle. Additionally, the majority of people viewing that photograph are enthusiasts, and a much smaller pool. The corollary is that the amount of feedback is super limited.
Flickr, in my opinion, has sort of devolved into a high-res Facebook, but without the convenience. Showing family and friends private photos is next to impossible. Sure I use Flickr to check out the rendering of lenses and how they perform with cameras, but there is no real moderation since most exif data is removed, allowing users to post pictures in several groups (eg. Sony group, Nikon group, canon group, Pentax group. What on earth is the point of doing this?). 500px on the other hand, seems to be a popularity contest, with people liking each other's pictures and getting return likes for the pictures they post. While I may be oversimplifying, both models are problematic and neither one is my first choice.
(At this juncture, I would like to note that I am not interested in Tumblr at all since it feels like a bunch of old content being shared over and over again in a never ending circle.)
Lastly, we have Instagram. Considered by man enthusiastic photographers a mediocre venue to publish, Instagram is littered with selfies, foot pics, food, clouds, etc.- and all of that filtered, smoothed, and hashtagged to death. Still, I managed to find a beam of light: Usability. Sharing photos on Instagram is easy. Photos I share there beam to my Facebook with a press of a button, ensuring I get the reach I desire. I can also easily link photos to other websites, as well as alert people about new blog posts. And, since nearly everyone that has a smartphone has an Instagram account, it is easy for people to find my account and photos. Even if they don't, linking to Facebook is painless, making it easy for my friends and I to share photos.
Interestingly, Instagram's low resolution photos also do their work to protect the photographer. They're not detailed enough to be worth stealing and calling your own. So, I can avoid the watermark. Considering recent scandals on Facebook, upping low-resolution photos seems the best way to go forward.
As to Instagram's riot of mediocre photographs, it's nothing to worry over. I think of myself as a casual photographer. I mean, I process my photos in Lightroom, and forgo the insta-filter look. I even shoot RAW+jpeg in order to get the best out of my A7ii's focus peaking system when shooting manual lenses. But I'm in it for the fun, not the business.
Then there is Instagram's square crop: it is pretty unique. It helps me to really focus in on a subject, almost like a vignette. Sometimes it isn't quite so helpful, but in general, it seems to work for me.
For critique, I will continue posting in Facebook groups, or even just hound my photographer friends. I'm new to this. And honestly, hashtagging is icky, but I know that one day I'll be hashtagging with the rest of them. (Apparently you can put hashtags later on.)
And who knows, I may eventually change my opinion on Instragram, Facebook, and the rest. For now, I am just sniffing out a new medium. And Instagram is my current choice.
Check me out. I'm @centrix898. And, if you like this article, why not follow me?
If you're wondering why my profile is so sparse, here's your answer: only recently have I started to invest time in Instagram. Until this May, I uploaded only sporadically. You can be sure that now I'm going to throw in my chips.


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Listening ~ This week I've been getting re-aquainted with some old favorites, like Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. This album of her's is really great. I couldn't find the song I wanted to share, but this one is a goodie too: twisty, moody and resplendent with her haunting vocals.
Wearing ~ My current favorite piece of Tangleweeds jewelry: the Double Moon Lariat with a Susan Eastman hand-dyed silk blouse. If you're a local to Oakland, Susan sells at the Lake Merritt farmer's market fairly regularly during the spring and summer.
Making ~ Grace earrings. These have proven to be one of my most popular styles of earrings this year. They're friendly on the pocket book too! This is a progress shot, of many different color-ways. (And actually put together by my assistant!)
This weekend I've got the Fairfax Festival keeping me busy. Hope to see some of you there!


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I Am Not Responsible For Your Hate: World Vision, Evangelicals, and Emotional Blackmail
[content note: abusive rhetoric, mentions of domestic violence tactics]
When I was in middle school, I took a journalism class with an ebullient, loud, single woman named Ms. Durham. She was a loving teacher and began my interest in writing for the public, not just for the self. She was also the mother of several adopted children. She had decided at some point, early in her life, that she didn't need to wait to get married to have kids when she had such a passion for raising them now. She was, to my knowledge, a good mother – she had a steady job, she loved, and she took good care of them.
Perhaps this situation was not the evangelical ideal of a mom and a dad and biological children, but that didn't matter to Ms. Durham. These kids had a home where they were safe and fed, which was better than rattling around in the foster care system for years on end.
But to hear Trevin Wax of The Gospel Coalition talk, Ms. Durham doomed her kids to eternal suffering because she refused to get married to a MAN first. Yesterday, World Vision announced a small shift in hiring policy that announced they would be hiring married, gay, Christians to their organization. Employees must still sign a pledge barring them from having premarital sex, if single, and from the sounds of it, only monogamous gay people in already extant partnerships will be considered (how they are legally able to get away with that, I don't know).
Naturally, evangelicals are incensed. Many are starting to search for new organizations that "hold to orthodox Christian standards." Wax writes that while evangelicals search for a new organization to support, children will be the ones who suffer. The implication seems to be that those of us who support this slight shift in recognizing the humanity of gay people are responsible for the withdrawal of support from evangelicals.
Imagine me saying this next line with a Matthew McConaughey twang: Nuh-uh, not so fast, bro.
What Wax is doing here is a quick sleight of hand – he makes those who affirm marriage equality and LGBT rights responsible for the bigoted reactions to progressive movements. It's our fault that children suffer because we gave them no choice but to withdraw support from poor kids. We who affirm that LGBT people are people must deal with the wrath and anger of evangelicals now – after all, if we hadn't moved in this way, they wouldn't have lashed out in response! If only we'd just stayed exactly how they wanted us to stay, if only we'd denied our rights and our humanity, then they wouldn't have to make the children suffer!
Evangelicals, when they take this tack, join a rhetorical crowd that's not really a pleasant one – people who abuse and blame their victims for that abuse. The rhetoric Wax uses throughout his article mirrors that of an angry husband who hits his wife for not making his dinner correctly, and then tells her that he wouldn't have to hit her if she'd just do it right the first time. Evangelicals wouldn't have to withdraw support from World Vision and thus make the children suffer if they'd just continue to cape to our unreasonable demands.
This is nothing short of emotional blackmail, a hamstringing rhetoric that holds the victims responsible for the abuser's actions. It is disturbing and disgusting and should be beneath the church. But for a church that traffics in spiritual abuse day in and day out and sees no problems with using threats to get their way, it's not that surprising.
The first step getting out from under abuse is recognizing what it is. And blaming queer people and our supporters for the bigotry and suffering levied at us is abusive. Full stop.
You chose to withdraw your support; we didn't make you do it.
You chose to make children collateral damage in your ideological quest; we didn't make you do it.
You chose to respond with hate; our existence didn't change that.
It's your decision, not ours. Own it.
Update: According to a report from World Mag, the board at World Vision has decided to reverse its decision, less than two days after the announcement, probably (and unfortunately) in order to placate conservative evangelicals who were withdrawing support. This is extremely disappointing - not because World Vision reversed, but because evangelicals were able to hold this charity hostage for not complying with their narrow-minded bigotry.