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LocationMianyang, Sichuan, China
Lead ArchitectsWendy Saunders, Vincent de Graaf, German Roig, Ivan Yu, Leonardo Colluci, Allan Yang, Claudia Juhre, Zoe Zhu, June Deng, Andrew Irwin, Shelley Mock, Dongker, Liat Goldman, Ted Zhang, Kno Zhuang, Daniel Duan, Toni Pavic, Jiao Yan
ClientOnesun LTD
Area5820.0 m2
Project Year2015
Text description provided by the architects. Tucked below the foothills of the Luo Fu Shan range, in Sichuan, China, lies Fushengyu Hot springs Resort. A visit to Sichuan isn't necessary to realize the stunning beauty of the region (but we definitely recommend it!) but from our first visit, it was clear the landscape would be a great influence on the site and its design.
Architecturally speaking, the spa site is an ensemble project. There is a main spa building, villas, small apartments, and a building we call MuWeCo. Set slightly to the side of the grounds, but no less important, this building is a multi-functional structure that houses a wedding hall, a small museum, and a conference space.
The vaulted roof is striking against the natural landscape, and evokes the feeling of being under big tent, rather than inside a big building, which suits a stay in the mountains.
The dramatic entrance and lobby provides a strong sense of place, however, and eventually opens the vantage point with a large deck with 360 degree views to the spa and surrounding natural area.
There's space for a party or a quiet moment with a view under this big top – the sophisticated, warm interiors and excellent views invite both.
Planks of timber and cork line the walls, and local river stones are pressed into the flooring so no matter where guests are, they are never distanced from the great outdoors.
AIM was responsible for the architecture, planning, design, and interior design for this site, and it remains a strong example of the kind of full-scale concepts we have brought to life over the last 10 years. People visit spas for rest and relaxation, and this design opportunity allowed us to re-imagine nature and landscape as public spaces, and our relationship to both. The architecture provides a contrast for the stunning scenery, and has proven to be a lasting and beautiful space for wellness.


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- Details
Every day, people are reaching their get-up-or-give-up moments and resolving to change. And they're realizing that running is the simplest, cheapest, and most effective way to lose weight, gain confidence, and relieve stress. For newcomers, the obstacles are fierce. There are fears of pain and embarrassment. There are schedules jam-packed with stressful jobs, long commutes, endless meetings, and sticky-fingered toddlers.
The Runner's World Big Book of Running for Beginners: Exclusive Expanded Edition provides all the information neophytes need to take their first steps, as well as inspiration for staying motivated. The book presents readers with tips for smart nutrition and injury prevention and includes realistic training plans that enable beginning runners to achieve gradual progress (by gearing up for a 30-minute run, a 5-K, or even a 5-miler). Above all, it will show newbies just how fun and rewarding the sport can be, thanks to the help of several "real runner" testimonials.
In this Exclusive Expanded Edition, you will receive All 5 Steps in the Training Program to becoming a better runner:
Step 1 — Start Walking: Get into a routine, build your leg strength
Step 2 — Start Running: Introduce short bursts of running and avoid injury
Step 3 — Run Nonstop: Learn how to run 30 minutes nonstop
Step 4 — Run Farther: Develop the endurance to run 6 miles straight
Step 5 — Run Faster: Build your speed so you can toe the starting line with confidence.
See the video below of how one editor went from being unable to fathom running a mile to competing in the New York City Marathon! Read her inspiring story about how running changed her life!

subset: commoncrawl


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You're Custom Text Here
Mason is young, and he hangs out with kids that are into bad music and bad haircuts. He lives in sunny California, where he spends his nights acting stupid in punk rock clubs and his days aimlessly reading comics and listening to tunes. The two most important things in his life are the girl who makes his heart beat at erratic speeds and the band with the strange boy he knows from high school-both of whom lead lives far more interesting than the one he leads himself. Unfortunately, his life is about to come crashing down on him in a barrage of angry fists and stomping feet. Everything is going to change. The debut novel by former Oni editor-in-chief Jamie S. Rich is finally back in print. Featuring illustrations by Scott Morse, Andi Watson, Judd Winick, Renee French, and Chynna Clugston. Cover by Mike Allred (X-Statix).
Diamond™ Order Code: JUN02 2442


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Roll-up doors go together with containers like peanut butter and jelly. Containers come with two swing doors on one short end of the container, but often that simply isn't enough. Many people need to access the container from multiple points or don't want to deal with tight container doors that can sometimes require a bit of strength to open or close. (Although if you're having problems with that, check out our hints from this post.) One easy solution is to add a roll-up door onto the container.
Roll-up doors come in various widths - 4', 5', 6', 7', 8', 9' wide. They can be made to fit a standard 8'6" high standard container or a 9'6" high-cube container. This means there is pretty much a door to fit whatever you want to do with the container. One popular spot to put a container is in the opposite end of the container from the container doors. This allows access from either end, so nothing is too far from the door. Also, the corner posts make a great foundation for putting the door tracks onto the container.
We have roll-up door kits so you can add a roll-up door on your own. We also can add roll-ups in various shops we have located throughout the US.
If a roll-up isn't exactly what you want, we also have man-doors and barn-door kits. Check out here for man-doors and here for barn-doors.
Here are some pictures of roll-up doors to show you some possibilities.


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This is my Catalog Essay for WHEN YOU SLEEP, Shizu Saldamando's new survey of work at the VIncent Price Art Museum in East Los Angeles. The show opened on September 21, 2013 and you should check it out if you're in LA.
What Is Revealed When You Sleep
It is in this space of Shizu Saldamando's When You Sleep where we hear the dissonance in our minds; of who we are in the sobering stirring of the morning after, where escapist strategies had uninhibitedly reigned supreme. Shizu presents a visual record that explores the nocturnal meanderings of youthful discrepancy; the social experiments gone sublimely awry. That is probably why you bob your head as the silent receivers of Shizu's images; there is music there, of course, and recognition.
Whenever Shizu is out at a party in LA's Highland Park or a fun karaoke night at a Little Tokyo bar, at least one of the night's walking somnambulists will make it into her artwork. As someone who has been one of the many butches immortalized in her work, I have seen Shizu wielding the always present camera and snapping away capturing moments that seem like booze-fueled throwaway scenes that you'd hate to be tagged in the morning after on the social media against your will. Except when she renders the subject—or rather her friends or people she knows using a mix of materials within the process such as wood, bed sheets, color pencil, washi paper and ball point pen, to give nod to the varying contexts and situations she depicts—she strips the party/rock show/gallery/outdoor festival context and casts a wash of ontological purity that brings the deeper, darker serenity floating inside each person to the surface. And each person may not be aware of such forces at play, for this is what we the viewer—or rather the receiver—see When You Sleep.
The bulk of Shizu's work has focused on making youth cultures she has been a part of for the last twenty years visible in such a way that expresses an ontology of the ordinary; a visual murmur that reveals a lot without revealing the secrets of our complicated public identities and the scary abyss within our very private selves. That Shizu is still a part of these youth-oriented social spheres also puts forth the idea that youth can be extrapolated away from aging or demographic information. Youth in Shizu's hands becomes an internalized endeavor.
Shizu's project relies on magnifying her subjects by way of creating a negative space around the individual(s) that gleans more from the absence of spatialized context than the environment they occupy could ever reveal. Shizu creates an oblique portraiture that is about the people who surpass their contexts as an invitation to the viewer to activate their own queries and conjecture onto the subjects—maybe mutual friends—in the work. In conventional portraiture there is a direct and formal engagement with the subject's deliberate self-fashioning. That formality is consistently avoided in Shizu's haphazard snapshots. That gives way to Shizu fostering a found representation of her subjects creating an alternative formality where individuals are more complex than language and place and moreso when their choices reflect and betray those complexities. Or can at least be read that way in a work such as Carm's Crew.
In Carm's Crew, three distinct articulations of female gender are present in the bodies of three friends bound by a genre of affinity. The two young women flank another young woman wearing a black sweatshirt, with hoodie placed over her head and are ensconced deep in the corner of Shizu's framing which creates (or complicates) an intimacy so powerful that Shizu hurls rays of goldleaf and glitter like outward halos that keeps predators, emotional vampires or other banal haters at arm's length. The hoodie in Shizu's hands becomes a feminist project; a tool against the patriarchy as it already creates a sense of gendered ambuguity. In relation to the triad of friends or sisters from other misters the hoodie creates the playful middle in the spectrum that disrupts the relation between and opposition with femininity and masculinity. Everyone in Carm's Crew doesn't trip on who's sexually oriented to whom making loyalty a currency as valuable as gold.
Over the course of her career, Shizu's use of negative space is one that enables a radical speculative about the subjects in her images. Unlike the world-making that emerges in John Valadez' Car Show (2001), where every bit of sky and peek of a car's front hood is imagining and interconnecting with a complicated Chicano identity as much as the men and women that people that reality, we see the possibility for a different kind of subjective self-possession in Shizu's work that is weighty in that it is not contingent on an expositional context.
However, the negative space is not always the whiteness of canvas or weighted paper. Bed sheets, for example, create a sense of superbly intimate settings for subjects intwined and engaged in amorous quietude. And Shizu renders another possibility of what happens When You Sleep, but others are wide awake.
Despite the hushed sweetness of the couples in Grandstar, Chinatown or Ripples, Long Beach one might not be able to resist projecting a set of narratives onto these images—perhaps the first couple met on Craigslist and after a series of successful and titillating G-chat sessions decided to take their virtual flirting into the material world. Or maybe at the Blur concert in 1996, except they were there with different partners. What if they are a few degrees removed from the same ex? To quote Blur's popular genderqueer club anthem "Girls and Boys": love in the nineties is paranoid.
However, what is so covetous is the lack of paranoia here, even as the couple is presented as pieces of an otherwise unseen public. One in which Shizu illustrates to a romantic degree a space that is often antagonistic. These moments on the bed sheet softly intimate that we adjust our way of seeing so that we can locate hope that the public space be not only merciful but kind towards the lovers we observe, who not so incidentally happen to inhabit vulnerable subjectivities in the social schema.
But let's imagine going beyond the banality of intimacy here and offer another reading that brings intimacy to a rapturous register even when it is failure that acts as the anchor. Let's bring it back to the state of fandom, of being fanatical, of being the #1 fan. That set of feelings that come with gushing, twitching and stalking the object of our admiration and affections. Have you ever seen early Morrissey live performance videos where fans bum rush the stage as though they were seeking absolution? Seeing the people in Shizu's work makes one self-cognizant of how we make good, rabid fans, especially since as adolescents we tend to offset our outsider feelings of robust alienation with quiet, desperate longing.
A first foray into fandom takes place in private—by pushing play on the CD deck, the iPod, and even, the turntable. For many of us, this experience began in the bedroom with a Kenwood system and headphones handed down to us by older siblings. The bedroom has a bed and that bed has sheets that witness, enshroud, embody the most intimate of acts.
Shizu's use of the bed sheet transforms their function as they now operate as the placeholder of a secret affection transpiring between the couples in her work. She moves towards creating the bedroom as a site of connection instead of one of consumption, as seen in Edouard Manet's Olympia (1865), whose female subject's defiant stare was one of the first to trouble the social order in pre-La Belle Époque France. However, the impact in Olympia's returning gaze is still tempered by her nude passivity which abounds for male gazing. The bedroom also poses an alternative to alienation; Chris Burden's Bed Piece (1972), where he eschewed all human contact favoring lying nude in his bed for three weeks comes to mind as the artistic prototype for estrangement (Tilda Swinton having done the same for a mere twenty four hours earlier in 2013 at the MOMA in New York to some fanfare).
The private sphere of the bedroom is a place where many an awkward youth have reigned supreme be that with hairbrush in the mirror singing along to some stubborn torch song (like the young lad in Morrissey's "Last of The Famous International Playboys" video) or making love to the mirror in Saturday Night Live-originated Superstar-style with the hopes of attracting a mate (just like the howling desire felt in "How Soon Is Now?"). Who of us that haven't spent hours of practicing our Blue Steel gazes can cast the first stone?
Even through mere
implication of its absence in her media, the bedroom is cast as the site of
self-formational transgression as a private domain for youth; the last bastion
before stepping into hostile domestic and public spaces shared by family
members and ordinary citizens. It is the last over-the-shoulder peek at the
The private and the public meet in Shizu's work—the imaginary longing finding its tangible parallel in public and challenging invisibility with a stolen kiss, a tender moment, an embrace kept intact, never broken by what public spatial implications tend to do to its wary young denizens.
We make good fans because we act out emotional misfires and general fuckery on those that we love and that do not love us back. Most of our unwilling receptacles of our adoration nary have good reason for such worship; these crushes don't sing, dance, act or write but we deem them crushworthy nonetheless. Morrissey offers in the form of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" (1986) a vehicle needed to indulge in the melancholic search for sweet oblivion.
Shizu captures that oblivion in When You Sleep. Even in the title alone, as evidenced in the piece Backyard Hardcore, sleep here becomes two sites of surrender in the post-haze of youthful revelry. But even with the people in these works, we get to experience a whole world of their making even when they themselves are not awake to be there. In Backyard Hardcore, we see the back of a punk passed out from a night of drinking but his waking chaos is nowhere to be found. Instead he lies nestled against what one can imagine to be a tree trunk or maybe a sand dune. His sleep catching him away from the comfort and familiarity of his bed, though we can imagine a sense of freedom that enshrouds the young person into feeling safe, even when he or she is vulnerable and subject to the laws that rule public space, under the stars.
Through Shizu's work, we are given space to imagine the events that lead to oblivion (the search for music and people who are young and alive). The space has been as ample as Shizu's artistic latitude and it give us the opening to project our own narratives onto the worlds she creates. These are worlds we imbue with a sense of our own curiousities, contradictions, and varying degrees of liberation that produce the dream of belonging even and especially when no one else is around.


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BNC SalesData: Report On Canadian Book Sales
F2010 Q3 (July – September 2010)
TORONTO – November 15, 2010 – In the third quarter of 2010, both volume and value were down again overall compared to 2009. Fiction and non-fiction were down in both volume and value. Juvenile was also down in both units and dollars, but much less than in the previous quarter.
Total market (All):
Volume: -3.31%
Value: -4.30%
Fiction (All):
Volume: -4.15%
Value: -4.22%
Non-Fiction (All):
Volume: -5.17%
Value: -7.22%
Juvenile (All):
Volume: -2.56%
Value: -2.03%
All figures for this report have been drawn from BookNet Canada's national book sales tracking system, BNC SalesData, using the year-over-year sales from a fixed panel of 665 retail locations from across the country.
We maintain this 665-store subset of our 1600 reporting stores, also known as a ring fence, which includes only stores that have been contributing data since 06-07. These are the only stores we look at for year-over-year comparisons. Any stores that have been added since 2007 are excluded from year-over-year calculations. This means that the addition of new stores in the past two years is not a factor in any reported change in market performance.
BNC SalesData tracks approximately 75% of the Canadian book market with data from over 1,500 retail sources, including chains, independents, online, college/university stores, and non-traditional bookstores, such as specialty and discount stores.
For more market analysis and information on BookNet Canada and BNC SalesData, please visit BookNet Canada's website at www.booknetcanada.ca.
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text: Eunice Cho, Founder & Creative Director of Aella I love ilovecreatives' Creative Profiles. It's basically a curated (and vetted) resource for great talent. As a small start-up, I am in constant need to find creative freelancers. Instead of spending hours on Indeed.com going through resumes, LinkedIn, or expensive services like 24/7, I can come to ilovecreatives to find professionals. What's especially awesome about the profile section is the kind of talent it attracts: people who have a lot of creative integrity and drive to make awesome work they believe in, as opposed to just a source for a quick buck. I've found an amazing photographer through this site. Highly recommend! — Eunice Cho, Founder & Creative Director of Aella Creative ProfilesilovecreativesAugust 25, 2015 Facebook0 Twitter Pinterest0 0 Likes


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Thanks for popping by from Instagram! I'm a writer living in Northern California with my husband and three littles.
I love to share my passion for motherhood, living well, and life after loss. I'm glad you're here, head over to THE BLOG and peek around. Would love to get to know you!


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I don't normally write non portrait photography related blog posts, but I'm making an exception for my last post of the year....
Well, 2016, what a year you were. I think I can honestly say that 2016 was one of the most challenging years I've lived through. With Brexit and the US election (and being in the corresponding country when the election results came in), and hearing all the hatred that has been spouted on social media, graffitied on walls, and shouted by people in the streets, it's a wonder that we all don't just hate humanity at the moment.
But through the troubles and the heartache comes a new wave of people wanting to build everyone up. Wanting to offer support and love and doing what they can to make this world a better place.
Offering help and support doesn't just mean giving money to or volunteering for charities and organizations that need your help right now, it means standing up for those that are being discriminated against and bullied. It means being an ally and not an enemy. It means rising above the hatred and being inclusive of everyone, no matter their race, sexuality, gender or religion.
I've built my portrait photography business based on these inclusive values, and I'm proud to say that I've loved photographing every single one of you that's come on a photo adventure with me this year. Running your own business is HARD. It's hard to know when to switch off and take a break. It's hard dealing with the fact that you're the artist, web designer, bookkeeper, marketing strategist and sales associate for your business. But it's SO rewarding doing what you love every day and seeing the look on clients faces when they see their images for the first time. My personal favorite is when people cry because they're so happy! There's nothing more flattering than knowing that people love your art. Everything I do is for the happiness of my clients.
So to finish off, THANK YOU for all your continued support. Your messages, words of encouragement, social media follows/likes/comments mean the world to me. I'm blown away by the love from you all. Hope you all had a WONDERFUL holiday season and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let's hope 2017 embraces love, kindness and respect.
TL;DR: Bye 2016, you sucked. Hello 2017, please be awesome. Thank you friends, family and clients! YOU ARE THE BEST!


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Thanks to a weather delay, the final round of the penultimate PGA playoff event is going down today in the Chicago area.
Tiger Woods came into today's final round just four shots back of leader Jim Furyk. On his first hole he had a 120 yards to the green for second shot. He went over the green, made a bogey, and that was pretty much that.
Through 12 holes, he's +1 on the day putting him 6 shots back of the leader, who is still Furyk.
The Golf Channel's twitter feed that follows Tiger on every hole says, "I think if he could fast forward his life about 90 minutes, he'd do it."
He looks indifferent, and his back might be bothering him.
It didn't have to be like this, though. Woods has played the course pretty well this week. He should be in contention instead of walking around like he wants to leave.
But for some reason, Woods is struggling in the final round of tournaments.
During his round, Golf Channel flashed the follow graphic that shows he's 120th on the tour in final round scoring.
He's won 5 times this year, so it's not like this is a killer. Still, it's weird that he struggles to close out events with a good final round.


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Monday, May 19, 2008
LA Looks at Recycling Sewage for Tap Water
Pound360, based in LA, could care less if water coming out of the tap is recycled sewage. Isn't all water sewage if you go back far enough?
One reason people go crazy over issues like this is (the press) printing stuff like "cleansing sewage for drinking water." We understand they have papers to sell. But come on. Drinking water? How many people actually drink tap water anymore? How many in LA?
Besides, according to a chart at drinktap.org, 20 percent of tap water is used for showers/baths, 22 percent is used for washing clothes, and the plurality of it (27 percent) is used by toilets. In the end, just 16 percent is used by "faucets." And how much of that is washing hands, washing dishes or something else other than drinking? In the end, we'd bet around 2 percent of tap water is actually drank. Does anyone have a chart on that?
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- Brand Official discount store said...
Ancona is a city and Jimmy Choo Heels a sea port in the Marche, a region of central Italy. The city is the centre of the province of Ancona and the capital of the region. It is the busy administrative capital of the Marche and the largest city Karen Millen Black in the region. The city is mostly known as a modern port, not a tourist town. Jimmy Choo Red Shoes The name Ancona means elbow, referring to the shape of its geographical positionAncona is a great place to visit if your purpose is to see how an unspoiled Italian city lives. The port Gucci Quotes of Ancona is one of the most important on the Adriatic coast offering travellers the chance to board ferries Jimmy Choo Designer to Croatia and Greece.The best way to get around Snap Back Hat Store the city is on foot. The city centre is compact Snapback Hat World and is full of monuments. Trattoria la Moretta restaurant was started in 1897 Jimmy Choo Shoes by Santa Maguini, and is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the city.On the last Sunday of every month there is an antiques market in Piazza Cavour. The old town also has the most interesting shops where antiques and gifts can be purchased. The oldest part of town straddles Colle Guasco, the hill above the port. On its peak, high above the agitation of the modern city, stands Ancona's finest church. The locals of the city say that Gucci Belts Sale the city offers a tame night life. Usually they chill out and chat in bars and restaurants of the city centre until 10pm. Restaurants are plentiful and serve great meat dishes. The cuisine of this area is mostly meat based. Ancient historians and naturalist praises the local wines, Gucci Quotes especially the ones in the area of Ancona. Today, the region has a great territory, spacious hill areas, and is heading in a positive direction for its wine industry.The Natural Park of the Conero was established in 1987, is a magnificent area where respect and safeguard of the environment prevails. It protects one third of the regions plant species, and also has a great variety of animal life living there.The Cathedral church of St. Ciriaco was consecrated in 1128 and completed in 1189. An early restoration was completed in 1234. It is a fine Romanesque building in grey stone, built in the form of a Greek cross, with a KarenMillens dodecagonal dome over the centre slightly altered by Margaritone d'Arezzo in 1270. The fasade has a Gothic portal, ascribed to Giorgio da Como in 1228.
Pound360 Archive
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About Me
- pound360
- I started pound360 to channel my obsession with vitamins, running and the five senses. Eventually, I got bored focusing on all that stuff, so I came back from a one month hiatus in May of 2007 (one year after launching Pound360) and broadened my mumblings here to include all science.


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All Concerts. All Sports. All Theater And Other Event Tickets – All The Time – EZ-Ticket.com
Born in 1947, NASCAR has grown to become the premier motorsports organization. NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. Known for its passionate fan base, one-of-a-kind playoff format (Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup), development of the modern sports sponsorship and commitment to enhancing auto racing through technology, NASCAR produces many of the most highly attended sporting events in the world. NASCAR did not gain the success or popularity it has today overnight. The sport has evolved to entertain its fans and continuously prosper.
|The following events match the category you've chosen. To sort the list, click on the column header. To find tickets for the given event, date & time, click the tickets link in that row.
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With the 'screed scientist' at the helm of our business, it is little wonder that education has always figured high on CSC's agenda. Be it educating the industry through our 'screed scientist' initiative or honing the skills of our work force through constant training, CSC's always kept itself active on the education front. And it's no less than a matter of pride to us that CSC carried out the screeding for 35 schools across the UK in the past year, with 14 schools in Greater London alone.
Our 'school bag' came with an assorted medley of projects last year, with projects ranging from plain old school floors with traditional screed to sports halls and eco-builds with modified/fast drying screed over insulation and underfloor heating. Though the screeding work in itself was relatively less tedious than some of the highly challenging screeding projects we carried out last year for the Olympic Park, Sushi Samba and the like – the school projects did put our skills to test in terms of planning and attention to little details. And, we have to say our brilliant teams came out of the exam halls carrying some well-deserved As!
For some of the schools, our teams had to work their way through quirky access routes and unpleasant weather to get the floors screeded and ready on time for tiny tots heading for their first day at school. But, good planning and the right screed protection helped us score full marks for these rather tricky challenges!
For some of the other schools, the challenge lay in carrying out our work during regular school hours with little busy bodies bustling around. But thanks to the sound Health and Safety system we have in place, we could carry out our work smoothly while keeping the site safe for all the inquisitive little Handy Mannys and Bob the Builders who were keen to lend a hand in fixing the floors. And we are really pleased that our clients Lend Lease chose to adopt our site safety precautions at Waverley School as an example for their future projects.
Another interesting project that we are happy to have been part of was – The Canvey Island Skills Campus project – a state of the art Vocational Training Centre offering courses from bricklaying and carpentry to building services to performing arts. The £36m campus with world class facilities is mainly aimed at providing underprivileged youth with further education, apprenticeships and the skills and qualifications they would need to gain employment. A very worthy facet of education we found that to be!
We also laid the screed for the new extension for the Royal College of Radiologists, and we're currently embarked on a whole new list of interesting projects and some innovative screed construction techniques as well. The latest in the group is the floors of West Acton School, where two of our teams are laying a new screed and steel composite system called Lewis Decking using dovetailed Lewis metal sheets and fast drying floor screed, FlexiDry.
We'll keep you updated on all our interesting new projects. Do watch this space for more, and meanwhile don't forget to visit our Screed Scientist website for informative screeding tips and techniques.


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Mr. Brainwash is not your average artist with skeptics suggesting his work is part of an extravagant prank staged by Banksy. Lauren Howe catches up with the pop artist.
Mr. Brainwash interviewed by Lauren Howe on Breakfast Television, July 12, 2019.
Street artist Theirry Guetta talks about his larger than life murals that have been enjoyed by millions, including A-list celebrities.
Mr. Brainwash Interviewd by Global News on the Morning Show, July 10, 2019.
Taglialatella Galleries is pleased to announce our collaboration with the Danish born, Los Angeles based street artsit, Mikael B.
L.A. Times, Meet an Artist: Mikael B, February 25, 2019.
Juxtapoz, Mikael B Seizes the Day with his new show "Never Tomorrow" in Copenhagen, October 6, 2018
On January 9, 2019, Music and Art joined forces to honor valued members of the Palm Beach community who do so much to make sure the world hears our uniquely American popular music.
Blouin Art Info, Anti-Hero by Jerkface at Taglialatella Galleries, November 12, 2018.
HypeBeast, Jerkface Announces New Anti-Hero Exhibition, October 31, 2018.
Juxtapoz, The Anti-Hero: Jerkface Bastardized Cartoon & Comic Icons, November 15, 2018.
Blouin Art Info, Rubem Robierb's "Metamorphosis" at Taglialatella Galleries, New York, September 24, 2018
Taglialatella Galleries is pleased to announce the exclusive release of new "Ovaltine" print series by the world renowned street artist, Jerkface.
Hypebeast, Jerkface to Release "Krusty the Clown" Works Alongside Two New Prints, August 5, 2018.
Hypebeast, Best Art Drops: Ron English x Compound 'Police Grin,' Jerkface Print & More, August 7, 2018.
"As the popularity of art fairs surges, the thirst for sophistication and true curatorial vision grows. For the last 5-10 years, Hamptonites have been migrating upstate alongside the city's tastemakers. These three galleries lead the way, as we transition away from the mass-market model and trim the fat to REVEAL a new Art Fair for like-minded collectors in the Contemporary market."
No. 3 Magazine, Chelsea Galleries Flock to REVEAL in Saratoga, July 5, 2018.
Toronto Guardian interview's Taglialatella artist, Russell Young, before attending the official opening event of Taglialatella Galleries' new location in Toronto.
June 28th, 2018 (Toronto, ON) – INK Entertainment and Taglialatella Galleries are pleased to announce the gallery's first Canadian location will officially open Friday, July 13th at 99 Yorkville Avenue in Toronto's coveted Yorkville neighborhood.
Canada's first Taglialatella Galleries will feature works from world-renowned artists Banksy, Jeff Koons, Warhol and more!
BlogTO, "Famous New York Art Gallery Opening Toronto Location," May 30, 2018.
Daily Hive, "Renowned art gallery opening its first Canadian location in Toronto," May 30, 2018.
Taglialatella Galleries and INK Entertainment are pleased to announce they have partnered to launch Canada's first Taglialatella Galleries location this June in Yorkville, Toronto. Adjacent to INK Entertainment's new fine-dining Italian restaurant Sofia, the space is an elixir of fine art, design and entertainment, transcending the usual gallery experience.
(Follow the link below to read the full Press Release)
BlogTO, Toronto's source for local news and culture annouces the opening of Taglialatella's first Canadian location in Toronto, in partnership with Ink Entertainment.
Daily Hive Toronto announces the opening of Taglialatella Galleries' first Canadian location in collaboration with Ink Entertainment.
ArtNews, "$45.3 M. Basquiat Is Top Lot in Robust $131.6 M. Phillips Sale of 20th-Century and Contemporary Art," May 17, 2018.
The Art Newspaper, "Basquiat's $20m work takes centre stage in Phillips sale,"May 4, 2018.
Art & Object, "Phillips to Offer Basquiat's "Flexible" for First Time at Auction," March 30, 2018.
Bloomberg, Basquiat's "'Flesh and Spirit' Fetches $30.7 Million at Sotheby's," May 16, 2018.
New York Times, "Contested Auction of Basquiat Painting Can Proceed, Judge Rules," May 8, 2018.
Artnet News, "Judge Throws Out a Collector's Claim to Halt Sotheby's Planned Sale of a $30 Million Basquiat," May 8, 2018.
Gang's all here! That was the sentiment shared last night at an intimate dinner celebrating the new Off-White x Jimmy Choo collaboration as every major model of the moment from Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid to Kaia Gerber and Hailey Baldwin came out to the Taglialatella Galleries in Chelsea to fete the most exciting new thing to happen below the ankle in quite some time.
Sunday, February 12, Taglialatella Galleries located in Chelsea, New York hosted a celebratory event, which honored the recent collaboration between two iconic fashion labels: Off-White and Jimmy Choo. In the middle of New York Fashion Week, the star-studded guest list included names like Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Naomie Campbell, Kaia Gerber and Hailey Baldwin, among others.
Considering the people whose portraits Nancy Ellison has shot, it's no surprise that she has a fund of stories to tell. Sting. Sharon Stone. Jack Nicholson. Mick Jagger. Grace Jones. They're not all in Nancy Ellison: Nancy - Off Color, the show with which Taglialatella Galleries will celebrate the grand opening Thursday through Jan. 17 of Taglialatella Galleries Due, its new second space in Via Bice. Whether or not the subjects are juicy, the stories always are.
Last month, Taglialatella Galleries hosted an opening reception at its flagship New York City location for Burton Morris' "Painting Playboy," the latest in the artist's Icon Series. "Usually my message has been based on what is going on in pop culture," the artist told Playboy ahead of the exhibition's opening.
The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Playboy is likely naked ladies, not art. But the magazine's historical ties to the art world—specifically within the realm of pop art—are actually quite rich, with artists from Keith Haring and James Rosenquist to Patrick Nagel and Salvadore Dalí (who once posed for the rag in 1973) having created work for Playboy's pages. Founder Hugh Hefner, who passed away in September, was a cartoonist himself before launching his empire in 1953, and Art Paul, Playboy's founding art director and the man behind the iconic bunny logo, commissioned tons of illustrators and artists to contribute works to the publication throughout his 30-year career. Now, Playboy, currently helmed by Hefner's son, Cooper, can add another artist collaboration to its roster: Burton Morris.
Burton Morris is many things—an American pop artist in the tradition of fellow Pittsburgh native and Carnegie Mellon alum Andy Warhol, a former advertising art director and a lifelong devotee of comic superheroes, which he taught himself to draw at the age of three, when a well-intentioned attempt to imitate Tarzan on the monkey bars put the budding artist in a full-body cast for two and a half months. And come this fall, Morris can add "Playboy artist" to the list. On November 9, the artist will debut an original collection of Playboy-inspired work at Taglialatella gallery in New York City.
Taglialatella Galleries is pleased to present Zevs: Liquid Assets, an exhibition of iconic original and limited edition works by influential graffiti and pop artist Cristophe Schwarz, aka Zevs. Featuring paintings on canvas and board, sculpture, and select works on paper, the exhibition will open on September 14th, 2017 at the gallery location in Chelsea, NY.
Our Summer Hours, and the next showing at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek...featuring Nancy Ellison!
Taglialatella Galleries' latest exhibition, "GAME ON! The Art of Invader", opens May 11, 2017.
An overview of limited edition prints and original works by street artist Invader...
Press via BLOUIN ARTINFO.
Don't miss your chance to buy beautiful contemporary artworks for a good cause! Learn more...
Please join us at SCOPE Miami (# D27), to celebrate the exclusive release of the new Russell Young canvases
in his Kate Moss: Superstar series...


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In a recent interview from Playstation.blog, director of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Naoki Yoshida explains this new feature in Patch 3.2 designed to enhance the experience that newcomers have with this MMO's community. Students of the mentor program qualify if their playtime is less than 40 hours. Experience points bonuses are awarded to both the new mentor and the student when they form a party together. Additional bonuses will be awarded to the mentor for their participation, so that's another plus.
The idea behind the concept is to develop the community of Final Fantasy XIV by also making it a mutually beneficial deal for veterans and rookies. I've had a couple friends ask me time and again if I'll ever give FFXIV a shot and maybe now I've run out of my last excuse.
Yoshida offers up tons more details in this interview including the listed requirements to qualify as a mentor.


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Indulge me. It was a long road, and I spent a long time on that road, so I had a lot of time to think! And these are the thoughts that I thunk…
kim penstone
Ticker Taper Parade
I don't know why runners hate to taper. I'm loving the lazy life, eating up a storm. It will be a miracle if I manage to drag my ass up Chapman's Peak.
Let's talk Lycra…
There's a reason the Athleisure trend never featured a single pair of cycling shorts.
Running out of enthusiasm
You know you're getting a little bored of your training routine when you download an app called Zombies Run!
Socially awkward
What is it about social media that makes even the least social among us want to share our innermost thoughts with 434 people, 400 of whom we haven't seen since primary school?
Unbox your mom
When was the last time you heard a dad described as either a "working dad" or a "full time dad", as we so blithely box the moms around us?
Bent out of shape – When runners do yoga
They say that every runner should cross train. But finding the perfect complementary activity can leave even the most dedicated of us a little bent out of shape.
I had a dream…
How do you let go of a dream? Even if it's based on the wispy tendrils of a wing and a prayer? Even if, in your heart of hearts, you knew it was the remotest of remote possibilities? I entered Comrades this year. I know. 88km. 12 hours. So very, very far. And I know […]
So THAT'S a marathon!
The Cycling Husband and I ran our second marathon yesterday, but it's fair to say that this was the first real one. Because New York just doesn't count. If you really want to understand what it feels like to run a marathon, you need to do it in the East Rand. Ok, so Edenvale. It's […]
A storm in a pee cup
I love everything about running. I love the way running makes me feel alive. I love the way it makes me feel strong, and capable. I love the lumo kit. I love the super bling shoes. I love running with my friends so we can vent about the small stuff and get it out our systems […]


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How to deal with a bad boss
There are all kinds of bad bosses out there, but reading the Gervais Principle has warped my mind a little bit. I can't help but see organizations in terms of this model now and it is sort of freaky. If you haven't read this, I'll give you enough for this article to make sense, but I highly recommend it.
The Gervais Principal is based on this sketch by Hugh McLeod which explains an organization in terms of three kinds of people. There are the losers at the bottom who have made a financial trade off for any number of reasons but usually it is stability, the clueless on top of that who are basically incompetent, and on top of that are the sociopaths of create their own ethic based on self-interest alone.
Really though, I wanted to talk about some of the ways you can deal with working with a person like this.
1) Quit your job and find something better. This is an immediate, albeit risky solution to your problem. There is some risk for this solution though, you might be jumping into another equally bad situation.
2) Become a low performing loser in your company doing just enough to get by and keep your job. If you choose this path, you'll probably want to make an effort to continue developing your skills outside of work. Most tech jobs don't last forever and sabotaging yourself isn't a good thing.
3) Go independent, be a consultant. Michael Church added a fourth layer to the model, the technocrat. The technocrat is driven to good work and to serve. The goal of the technocrat is a mutually beneficial relationship, their life isn't dependent on the failures of others. I think the independent / consultant tech worker can potentially fit nicely into this role.
4) Have you ever had one of those managers that liked to act as a shield from all the bad stuff that rolled down from management? Finding one of those might help you out. They can at least provide a layer between you and the sociopath. Maybe you can find one of these in your company and transfer under that person.
5) Learn the secret language of the sociopath, power talk. This might leave you feeling a bit icky, but at least you'll will be armed to navigate the kind of conversations that surround you.
I think I know what I'd choose given these options, how about you?


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Hey, welcome. Consider following MSV on Twitter and subscribing to the RSS feed, or sign up for email updates right over here.
Four years of MSV! I hope you're as jazzed as I am. Let's eat dessert. And let's not spend too much effort making it.
In fact, ease has been a major theme on MSV over the past year. When I started MSV, I had been vegan for only a year. This blog gave me a place to direct my energy and figure out a new way of eating. I had endless patience—enthusiasm, even—for experimentation.
Four years later, I have less patience, but more experience. I still screw up in the kitchen, of course, but I generally have a better sense of what works for me. One thing that hasn't changed in these four years is my fundamental preference for freshness, but the way I pursue that now looks much different than the way I did it back then. Now I'm much more focused on offering everyday foods, stuff you can take for lunch—important tools to help people keep plants at the center of their diet. And though the protein question is sometimes tossed around as a tiresome inquiry, I don't mind taking the question at face value and answering it two weeks out of the month, or whenever I come up with a good answer.
That's the public part of the way I've come to shape this blog. Privately, I'm a little more focused on working pleasing food into my life rather than making food my main hobby. That means spending less time in the kitchen without sacrificing pleasure by recognizing that sweet spot of low effort and high return.
Enter this lovely pear tart. Pie dough actually isn't a big deal. Once the sleeves are rolled up, there's nothing to it but to do it. And the end result is so good. But for some reason, I dread the idea of making it. And so this dead-simple shortbread-style press-in crust (you may have noticed) has become my go-to crust. It's rich, it has a wonderfully firm texture that shatters satisfyingly under tooth, and it takes stunningly little effort to make. I add cornmeal for a little texture and extra flavor, and because I never stop putting cornmeal in all my baked goods for a little texture and extra flavor.
This really is designed to scratch the pie itch without having to touch the rolling pin. To do that, you'll essentially marry a tart with a fruit crisp. The crumble topping is lovely and effortless, but the flavor and richness is bolstered by the addition of almond flour. For the filling, thinly sliced pears are tossed with apricot jam to give the fruit that, well, jammy quality that's usually achieved in a pie by baking fresh fruit with starch under the top crust. Buy the best apricot jam you're willing to spring for, and you're all set. Here's a tip: choose the least expensive apricot jam with apricots listed as the first ingredient. For the best flavor, skip anything that lists sugar first.
And there you have it. Easy enough for your kids to help you make it (if you have those), and good enough to entertain with.
Here's to four years! I can't thank you enough for being here. —Amanda
Dead Simple Pear Tart
serves 6-8
For the crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 TBSP natural cane sugar (evaporated cane juice)
1/2 tsp fine sea or kosher salt
1/3 cup melted refined coconut oil
For the filling:
2 medium just-ripe green pears, thinly sliced
1/4 cup apricot jam
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch fine sea or kosher salt
For the topping:
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup blanched almond meal
1 TBSP turbinado
1 TBSP melted refined coconut oil
pinch fine sea or kosher salt
Heat oven to 375.
Begin with the crust. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Add coconut oil and mix until sandy and uniform. Press into a 14x4-inch nonstick rectangular tart pan. Bake 13-15 minutes. The crust will go from done to burned with speed, so watch—and smell—carefully.
Meanwhile, toss filling ingredients until uniformly coated. In another bowl, stir all topping ingredients together with a fork until uniformly coated.
When the crust is done, remove from oven and reduce heat to 350. Add pears evenly to crust. Sprinkle topping over pears. Bake until pears are tender and topping is golden, 17-20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool in the pan. Remove tart pan sides after tart has cooled. Serve at room temperature.


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If you have a teenager who is the age to drive, it is probably a time met with some anxiety and fear as you release your child onto the roads with this new freedom that requires a great deal of maturity and responsibility on their part. Finding a safe car or truck is probably a high priority for you, and you have come to the right place.
According to AAA, "each year, more teens die in car crashes than from any other cause-including disease, drugs, suicide or homicide." This statistic isn't meant to scare you more…it is however meant to reinforce the importance of finding a safe car for your child. Once you have found the best car for your child, there are some important rules and boundaries you can place to keep them safe behind the wheel. We have provided some suggestions for you here:
- Make sure your teen driver wears a seatbelt at all times. For whatever reason it can be seen as "un-cool" to buckle up but if you really share with your child the dangers than can result from a lack of wearing it they may be more likely to follow through with this law.
- Limit the number of passengers they are allowed to have. Passengers are a distraction and can cause serious accidents.
- Have strict rules against cell phone use while driving. Familiarize your teen with popular campaigns regarding cell phone use. Many of these public service announcements and campaigns are very encouraging and empowering to young drivers today and can make a difference.
If you are looking for a new truck for you teen driver, come check out our great selection of GMC trucks in Thunder Bay at Dominion Motors. We hope you enjoy this exciting time for both you and your child. As with any new milestone in life, it can be both scary and rewarding. Congratulations to you and your new teenage driver!


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I had the pleasure to photograph the UrbanDaddyDC hosted private affair at the popular gastro pub AGAINN in Washington, DC onTuesday night featuring Johnnie Walker specialty cocktails. If you are a real Scotch whisky drinker, you'd never insult this exceptional product by ordering it in cocktail form, you instead, taste it straight up, or if need be, on the rocks.
I must admit that I haven't drank much whisky over the years, but this whisky smelled great. Unfortunately, when I am the photographer at an event like this, I don't allow myself to drink anything stronger than a Diet Coke.
The entire restaurant was filled with holiday cheer and many of the usual suspects including: UrbanDaddy CEO Lance Broumand (in from NYC HQ), Christina Sevilla, Niki Schwab, Katy Adams, Liberty Jones, Quincy Jones, Samy K, Occasions Caterers Ellen Cutler, Mauro Farinelli, Todd Flournoy, Allison Prescott, Erik Huey, Lee Brenner, Anna Kimsey, Matt Landsberg, Victoria Michael, Tommy McFly, Genie Saleh, Audrey Slade, and Holly Thomas.
In between sipping Johnnie Walker and noshing on passed pretzel bites and grabs from the oyster bar, the group meshed and hobnobbed from room to room, comparing holiday social plans, upcoming vacations, new babies, and the rest of the busy month.
Posted by Washington, DC Event and Portrait Photographer Len Spoden


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Three groups of subjects with neck pain: One group did specific strength training (SST) for the neck and shoulders, the second group did high-intensity general fitness training (GFT) on a bicycle, and the control group did nothing.
The results: The GFT group showed a small decrease in neck muscle pain only immediately after exercise; the SST group showed a marked decrease in pain with a lasting effect after the training ended. The control group had no change.
A quote from the study, Strength Training Of Neck Muscles Relieves Chronic Pain: "The reduction in pain occurred gradually in the SST group, with trapezius muscle pain gradually decreasing as muscle strength increased. Although the GFT decreased the pain only temporarily, the authors note that even minor decreases in pain may be enough motivation to overcome barriers to exercise, and the resulting increase in fitness may benefit overall long-term health."
Pain leads to less inclination to engage in physical activity. Inactivity starts a vicious cycle of deteriorating health and fitness followed by more aches and pains. The trick to reverse that cycle is to do exercise that will not exacerbate injury and cause more pain.
To restate: "even minor decreases in pain may be enough motivation to overcome barriers to exercise". This leads to a positive cycle. It's been our experience at Austin Strength Training and New Orleans Strength Training that proper exercise with the right equipment will alleviate pain. We an extensive line of MedX equipment, the most technologically advanced fitness, sports and medical/rehabilitation equipment available and experienced trainers to work with those overcoming injuries or those with limiting conditions. One of our machines you are not likely to find at most gyms - our neck exercise machine.


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Art Under $100 2018
Art Under 100 holiday sale
At the Seattle Design Center 5701 6th Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98108
Saturday Dec 8th 2-8pm
VIP hour from 1-2 $20
Art Under 100 holiday sale
At the Seattle Design Center 5701 6th Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98108
Saturday Dec 8th 2-8pm
VIP hour from 1-2 $20
July 13-15
Join us for the 36th annual West Seattle Summer Fest, July 13-15, 2018! Summer Fest offers fun activities for the whole family, including shopping, live music, dining, beer gardens, and a kids play area. Don't miss out on one of Seattle's best things to do this summer!
Spring Fest, Saturday & Sunday, April 22 & 23 is our NEWEST adventure, recreating the model of the August Festival on a smaller scale. Featuring a variety of regional booth artisans, Spring Fest will fill the Depot grounds with art and crafts in all different mediums…all free to the public. Spring Fest will include live music – food trucks, wine & beer – youth activities – and demonstrating artists.
Art Under $100 held at the Seattle Design Center is this Saturday from 2-8pm. This year I am going to have a full selection of limited edition Giclee prints in the $50 and $100 sizes and 5 larger $200 Giclees that will be available first come first served for $100. I'll also have paper prints, stickers, sketchbooks, and buttons.
Come check all the great vendors selling their work for under $100. This event is a lot of fun and has an awesome raffle, food trucks, drinks, music, and stuff for kids to do too. It's a good excuse to go out in Georgetown and support the local arts.
Hope to see you there!
Saturday from 2- 8 at the Seattle Design Center.
VIP hour starts at 1:00 VIP tickets
Across from Cost Plus World Market in Bellevue
Join me on the first Thursday in May at Artifact Gallery/ Pioneer Square as I unveil my newest body of work.
"Art Under 100" A one night event at the Seattle Design Center. Local Artists will be gathering together to sell their works. Everything will be priced under $100. I'll be using this event to clean out my studio storage. I have a large stock of Giclees with 1/2" deep stretchers which i no longer display since I've switched the the gallery bars. I'll be selling these pieces, some of them quite large, at a major discount. First come first serve. I'll also be selling open edition prints on paper.
Issaquah, WA
Bumbershoot music and arts Festival, Seattle, WA
Bellevue WA
Salem Oregon
Seattle's Freemont neighborhood's Art Fair
Seattle's Folklife Music Festival.
Seattle's University District Street Fair
On Saturday, December 6th I'll be selling paper prints along side an amazing group of artists and crafters at the the South Park Art under $100 event. Stop by and get some really cool stuff.
A solo exhibition exploring the idea of nature being the source of spiritual renewal in the Pacific Northwest.
At Black Rapid studios - Queen Anne, Seattle. Across from the Space Needle.
Saturday, November 22nd.
is a juried arts and crafts fair located just across Lake Washington from Seattle. Its prime location by Cost Plus World Market just north of Bellevue Square, is in the heart of a vibrant city. Produced by the Craft Cooperative of the Northwest and organized by artists it continues to support a variety of non-profits with proceeds from the festival. Visit the newsletter page for those details. Now celebrating its 30th year it features 200 of the most talented and popular artisans, musicians and craftspeople from the Northwest and beyond. Estimated attendance is 75,000. The Bellevue Festival of the Arts takes place the last full weekend in July in downtown Bellevue, Washington along with two other art fairs, Bellevue Art Museum's ARTSfair and Bellevue's 6th Street Fair.
Together these three fairs are known as Bellevue Arts Fair Weekend.
"Of the Sun" New works by Jesse Link. @ Archangel Gallery, Palm Springs California. Opening Event April 17th


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We're Open Saturdays and After School Hours!
New Patient Registration
Welcome to our family of beautiful, healthy smiles and thank you for choosing us.
For your convenience, we have made our new patient forms available online on a secure SSL server (highly recommended). Click Online Registration to the right.
Remember, your first appointment is complimentary! We highly encourage you to fill in the forms on your smart phone, iPad or desktop to save you time when you visit us.
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And Call or TEXT us at (520) 889-1100 for your braces exam appointment. Text us for faster response.
5121 South Calle Santa Cruz #105 Tucson, AZ 85706
We're located in the Tucson Spectrum Mall, at the SW corner of I-19 & Irvington.
We are in the same building as Jerry Bob's Restaurant, Bath & Body Works and Old Navy, right across from Target. If you are unfamiliar with this vibrant shopping mecca, please refer to the Google Map for directions.
Other stores in the Tucson Spectrum includes Ross, Home Depot, Marshalls, Anna's Linens, Michaels, Food City, Starbucks, McDonalds, Subway, AT&T, Verizon, Harkins Theatres, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, JC Penny, Party City, Carters, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, PetSmart, Peter Pipers, Cold Stone, The City yogurt, Tilly's, SuperCuts, Lane Bryant, Wet Seal, EyeMaster, Kirklands, Five Guys, and more...


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I grew up longing to be sent away to a boarding school in India. Fed by images of romantic school settings, mostly based on the books of British author Enid Blyton, I dreamed of "tuck" boxes and packages of goodies sent from home. I also had direct, first hand accounts of life at a boarding school – my father and uncle had both attended a boarding school as young teens, a school to which they both to this day, credit with much of their blossoming.
Most boarding schools in India are set on low mountainous regions, and there is a sense of seclusion about them. Many of them were established by Christian missionaries, and several were a way for British colonists to ensure a quality education for their children, but the concept of being sent away for schooling is familiar and far more ancient than the advent of any foreign group – the Hindu gurukul system is precisely this – a family away from one's own, where one lives with a guru and learns ways of being and is educated.
We visited quite a few boarding schools on our holiday sojourns.To my mind, fed by British books, and the tales of my relatives, as well as our short visits, they also seemed to be like something out of a dream – brick or stone campuses, almost castle like, mists rolling in, with horse riding as an after school extracurricular choice.
The most seductive thing about the idea of boarding school, was not just the imagined goodies or freedom it might bring, but the idea that I would be with a community of peers ALL DAY LONG – that there would be no break from them, no separate home to come back to from which one might venture forth on play dates, but instead a shared room or dorm and joined meals, with time spent with hundreds of one's compatriots, all day long, forever and with no parental supervision – or so I imagined. So what if might we might fade into the sunset – we would still be a united body, glued together by our shared experience of school.
Alas, this was not to be, and I went to school in the wild tumult of an urban metropolis. But several of my peers, did go to boarding schools in India. Their stories of life on campus floated back to me, and fed my romanticized image of life away from home. No one really talked about the lousy food or the rats running across hallways. As an adult, I can see both the pluses and minuses, and settling my younger niece in to just one such boarding school four years ago in south India, did much to dispel any last remnants of enchantment.
There is one image, though, one practice, dare I say spiritual practice, that continues to have a grip on my imagination. It is a practice insisted upon by the founder of several boarding schools – J. Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti was the hailed leader of a group of theosophists, but eventually came to denounce his proclaimed divinity, and in fact proceeded to to argue against organized religion. He established many boarding schools, all over the world.
At the boarding school he started in South India, the entire student community, all 360 of them, from 4th grade to 12th, are made to go as a collective body to watch the sunset every day from a particular vista point. In Krishnamurti's words, describing the purpose of such a school:
This means giving the child the opportunity to flower in goodness so that he or she is rightly related to people, things and ideas, to the whole of life. To live is to be related. There is no right relationship to anything if there is not the right feeling for beauty, a response to nature, to music and art – a highly developed aesthetic sense.
My friends who went to this school describe this forced experience with a mixture of resentment and gratitude; they recall all to well their reluctance to leave their games unfinished to charge up the mountain to settle in to watch the sunset; but as one voice, they all acknowledge the slow feeling of gratitude that came over them as the sun set.
I can think of no better way to stay connected to the Earth, and to one another. What if all 800+ of us (520 adult members and 300 or so kids), were to go somewhere, everyday, to watch the sunset? I wonder what it would do to our sense of belonging and inter-ness to one another and the earth.
Will you go with me?


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Global Nuclear Generation Capacity Falls
Due to increasing costs of production, a slowed demand for electricity, and fresh memories of disaster in Japan, production of nuclear power fell in 2011, according to the latest Vital Signs Online (VSO) report from the Worldwatch Institute. Despite reaching record levels the previous year, global installed nuclear capacity—the potential power generation from all existing plants—declined to 366.5 gigawatts (GW) in 2011, from 375.5 GW at the end of 2010.
Not surprisingly, this drop in installed capacity corresponds with a decline in global consumption of nuclear energy. Nuclear's share of world commercial primary energy usage fell to around 5 percent in 2010, having peaked at about 6 percent in 2001 and 2002. Only four countries—the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom—increased their share of nuclear power by over 1 percentage point between 2009 and 2010.
Much of the decline in installed capacity is the result of halted reactor construction around the world. Although construction on 16 new reactors began in 2010—the highest number in over two decades—that number fell to just two in 2011, with India and Pakistan each starting construction on a plant. In addition to this dramatically slowed rate of construction, the first 10 months of 2011 saw the closing of 13 nuclear reactors, reducing the total number of reactors in operation around the world from 441 at the beginning of the year to 433.
China is an exception to the global slump in nuclear electricity generation, in terms of both the number of plants being built and installment capacity levels. The country accounted for 10 of the 16 reactor construction starts in 2010, and that year it initiated the installment of nearly 10 GW of capacity, representing 62 percent of capacity construction worldwide. China currently is home to 27 reactors and has some 27 GW of capacity under construction.
The United States, too, does not appear to be abandoning nuclear power just yet. In 2010, the Obama administration approved $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for construction of nuclear reactors; in February of 2011, the administration's budget proposal upped that amount by an additional $36 billion.
The current global decline in installed nuclear power capacity stands in stark contrast to nuclear's surge in popularity throughout the 2000s. Although many factors are behind the decline, it is largely the result of high costs, slowed electricity demand, and lower natural gas prices in recent months. The reactor meltdown at Japan's Fukushima plant seven months ago also likely added to the severity of the decline. Only 10 of Japan's 54 reactors are currently connected to the grid, China froze construction on 25 reactors immediately after the Fukushima explosions, and both Germany and Switzerland announced plans to phase out nuclear power following the disaster.
Although nuclear power remains an important energy source for many countries, including Russia and France, it is likely that its prominence will continue to decrease. To maintain current generation levels, the world would need to install an additional 18 GW by 2015 and another 175 GW by 2025. In the aftermath of Fukushima and in the context of a fragile global economy, an increase that sharp is improbable.
Further highlights from the report:
- Together, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and South Korea have contributed around 5 GW of new installed capacity since the beginning of 2010. During this same period, nearly 11.5 GW of installed capacity has been shut down in France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
- Germany alone has taken around 8 GW of installed nuclear capacity offline this year.
- Currently, 65 reactors are under construction around the world; however, 20 of these have been under construction for more than 20 years.
- Construction on the first nuclear power plant to be built in France in 15 years has been delayed until 2016, and its projected cost has grown from €3.3 billion (Approximately USD 4.4 billion) to €6 billion (Approximately USD 8 billion).
- The average age of decommissioned reactors worldwide has risen to 23 years.
- In 2009, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission received 26 nuclear reactor permit applications, but only four of those sites have plans for construction.
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As the premier youth wind ensemble in the Atlanta metropolitan area, the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony provides positive and transformative musical experiences for talented high school musicians through high-quality instruction and exceptional music-making opportunities.
The Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony (AYWS) aspires to enhance the lives of its members and those in the Atlanta community by promoting musical excellence, cultivating a lifelong appreciation for music, and collectively serving as a cultural ambassador and advocate throughout the United States and the world. By challenging and nurturing its members musically, socially, and intellectually, the AYWS seeks to foster the development of sophisticated musical skills and strong values among its members in an artistic, non-competitive, and inclusive environment.


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The French government is working to contain a wave of factory strikes by private-sector workers not normally known for taking to the barricades, including ice-cream makers, supermarket staff, hairdressers and L'Oréal employees.
Factory staff have taken increasingly hardline measures, with some holding their managers hostage for days over plant closures and job cuts.
This week the tyre giant Michelin continued talks over the closure of a plant in Toul, eastern France, after a government-appointed mediator secured the release of two managers whom workers had locked in a room for three days. It follows an incident last month when workers outraged at planned job cuts at the Miko ice-cream factory in Saint-Dizier locked up their British manager, Prakash Patel.
This week, staff at a Ford plant near Bordeaux blockaded their factory and L'Oréal cosmetics staff took to the streets under the banner "because we're worth it", asking for pay rises after their company's good financial results.
Unions from plants making products including skis, glass and steel also raised the spectre of job cuts and closures. One logistics firm in the Landes caused controversy yesterday by offering staff €1,000 (£756) if they promised not to strike. Around half accepted, but unions denounced the sweeteners as anti-democratic.
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who plunged to a new low in the polls yesterday, will today travel to Pas de Calais to address workers from France's north-eastern rust belt over the decline of the industrial heartlands.
He is trying to limit the damage of images of burning braziers and barricades in the run-up to next month's local elections. The employment minister, Xavier Bertrand, promised that he understood workers' fears, saying "a France without industry" was not the way to build a future for French children.
Since 2001, more jobs have been lost than created in French industry, with more than 500,000 posts scrapped. But although other parts of the private sector have seen a rise in job growth, workers remain disgruntled.
Targeted industrial action has spiralled as workers including hairdressers, taxi drivers and printers have downed tools over working practices, low salaries and a lack of the "spending power", which Sarkozy promised to boost. The percentage of a low-paid worker's income taken up by necessities such as food and bills increased from 50% to 75% between 2001 and 2006.
Researchers noted that private-sector workers in areas that did not traditionally see strike action were now joining in. Photographers have even threatened to stop taking passport photos and to blockade automatic photo machines in protest at government plans to issue free photographs for biometric passports.
Olivier Besancenot, spokesman for France's Communist Revolutionary League, said renewed industrial action was rebounding on the president "in a nasty boomerang effect".


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This is an update to my February 2011 post on "Event Contracts" – http://wp.me/pUCM2-4P
Just to refresh your memory – the term "Event Contract" is big EDOMITE money strategically invested to reap a huge profit following a devastating event that is in reality CAUSED by the investor. Like certain people on Wall Street (not Osama bin Laden) short-selling United and American Airline stock days before 9-11. This is also called "P-R-S" (Problem, Reaction, Solution) – all designed to make large profits.
The Rothschild cartel made their empire on an "Event Contract" – advanced insider knowledge on the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo – which allowed Rotshchild to corner the City of London stock market.
Since authoring this post, I have had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Ms. Andrea Psoras. She truly is a remarkable and courageous woman. She asked me to clarify her position in this matter – and so, for the record, here is what she has clarified in her own words:
"I didn't call Alex [Jones], although had provided comment to the
CFTC on event driven contracts. I opposed them and knew their abuse
was also where there's little transparency on the contracts and banks
write those for their clients who ask for specifics and then if the
client has the power to have or know when something like the weather
weapons would be used, they could profit from that or have the power
to have the OP pulled off after getting the OTC derivatives contract
from the bank.. it's perverse that that could happen, however that was
my concern.
It's not a conspiracy theory and the military contractors have close
relationships with the nsa, the nro and the pentagon all with tech in
the sky that manipulates the weather patterns, earth via squid, or
haarp, etc. and the military contractors do business with the banks
which write those contracts.
I am not the party Alex cut off and if someone is trashing Jeff Boss,
it's NSA perps. —— The nsa is like that nazi 3rd/4th
reich whore/bastard demon attempting to steal the wealth of people.
For example, normal people, the apparatus makes the people sick with
the food; the person goes to the doctor. the medical system is the
Mengele (Dr. Josef) medical system and the person's insurance that is tapped for
the expense feeds the volume based revenue model medical system in
the US. If it's an old person, they'll have them in the hospital, or
nursing home and kill them after bleeding their means, and then the
house often is sold and assets move… the wealthy if there are
children, the nsa are all over that… it's probably part of the nazi
4th reich commercial and cultural war against the US."
Well said, Andrea – I couldn't have put it any clearer. Keep up the good work. We need more whistle blowers!!


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There are few things nastier to clean than a clogged toilet with an unreliable plunger.
Having a quality plunger may not be the highest on the list of must-haves, but when you are face to face with a clog, it could be the best purchase you ever make.
The materials and design of a plunger are very important in molding to the drain of your toilet. A good toilet plunger will give you a strong seal to do the job quickly and without a mess.
|Korky 99-4A 99-1AM Beehive Max...
|Buy on Amazon
|simplehuman Toilet Plunger and...
|Buy on Amazon
|Neiko 60166A Toilet Plunger with...
|Buy on Amazon
|SurePlunge Automatic Toilet...
|Buy on Amazon
|OXO Good Grips Hideaway Toilet...
|Buy on Amazon
Last update on 2019-09-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
6 Best Toilet Plunger Reviews
#1. Neiko 60100A Toilet Plunger
The Neiko features a heavy-duty design that will get at the clog in your toilet for a reasonable price.
The cup on this toilet plunger is made with an industrial grade rubber cup that is designed with a "tiered" ridge along the bottom of the cup. I prefer this type of cup because it creates a stronger seal with the toilet drain.
A stronger seal means you will spend less time pushing to get the clog dislodged. This cup is also flexible enough to work with most sized toilets so if you decide to redo your bathroom, you won't need to replace your plunger.
The handle of the Neiko is made with a strong aluminum that will hold up to a strong clog and the muscle necessary to get rid of it.
One of the nice things about aluminum is that it is rust and corrosion resistant if it gets wet often. It also won't absorb bacteria and germs that come with contact with a toilet.
Easy to use
The design of this toilet plunger makes it easy to control while you are using it, as long as you have created a good seal.
The handle is sturdy and doesn't feel like you are going to break it with too much force, so you can feel comfortable pushing it at any angle to get right in the toilet drain.
- The plunger is lightweight so it doesn't require a lot of muscle to use effectively
- The material always stays in the same shape unlike some plungers which end up inverted after plunging
- There is no reservoir along the bottom of the plunger so water doesn't pool which makes it easier to clean
- The aluminum handle prevents bacteria from sticking to the surface
- The rubber head of plunger has a bad chemical smell
- The handle can cause pain to your hand if you need to put some muscle behind your plunges
- Has a tendency to send water spraying from the toilet as a proper seal is not made
#2. Korky 99-4A Performance Plunger
The Korky is a smaller sized accordion plunger that is specially designed to fit most newer toilet styles.
Korky's beehive accordion design will fit almost any toilet, new or old. The problem with unclogging a modern toilet is that the bowls are oblong and will only fit a narrow design plunger.
The Korky plunger was made for these toilets but the benefit is that it will still effectively create a seal in older style toilets.
I like the handle on the Korky because it is made with a heavy-duty plastic so bacteria and mold won't stick to it and it is easily cleaned. It also won't lose anything in appearance because of regular cleaning like aluminum handles can.
The T-shaped top of the handle gives a little more to hold onto when pushing into a clog and there is a hole in the handle that allows you to hook it up inside the bathroom cabinet.
The cup on Korky has no lip around the bottom so you won't have to worry about dirty water collecting and causing a mess when you lift it. There is also very little chance of it becoming inverted and then having to reach in to fix it.
- Beehive design works with old and modern toilet bowls to create a great seal
- The rubber material is flexible enough to create a sturdy seal and also allow for a strong plunge
- Plastic handle is t-shaped to allow you to hang up the plunger after use
- The material on the plunger can become inverted and then you need to touch it with your hand to unstick it
- The design will not fit all toilets and collapses after moderate use
- If not properly sealed, the plunger will send dirty water splashing up while you are using it
#3. Simplehuman Toilet Plunger and caddy
The simplehuman toilet plunger is easily one of the nicest looking toilet plungers I have ever seen.
I would gladly display this unit in my bathroom.
The magnetic caddy that comes with this toilet plunger is by far my favorite feature. The magnets create a collar around the handle of the plunger so when you need to transport it from the toilet to the sink to clean it, there is no danger of water splashing onto the floor.
It is mess free and also hides the front of the plunger with a pleasing exterior for when guests are over. The back of the caddy is open so you can easily access the unit when you need it.
The handle of this plunger is stainless steel so it stays rust and corrosion resistant through all kinds of use in dirty toilet water.
The stainless steel is also tough so that when you are putting force behind the plunger you don't feel like it is going to break off in your hands.
I like the stainless-steel rod because it also has a nice appearance to go with the rest of the plunger design.
The design of this toilet plunger is narrow and elongated to fit any modern toilet drain but also will create a seal with older toilets too.
This is a pretty handy feature to have if you have several different types of toilets in your home. Carrying this toilet plunger to another toilet without making a mess is also possible because of the caddy design.
- Magnetic caddy allows you to carry the plunger from the toilet to the sink without any dirty water hitting the ground
- The narrow design will fit most modern toilets and is easy to use
- The uniquely shaped handle makes plunging easier and not painful on the hands
- Rod is made of stainless steel, which will resist bacteria, mold, and rust
- Stainless steel handle has a tendency to rust after a few uses
- Handle design can make the plunger difficult to center on the drain
- Has a strong scent which can irritate sensitive noses
#4. Rubber Toilet Plunger for Bathroom, Sink & Drain Clogs – Best Sink Plunger
One extra that this toilet plunger comes with that I thought needed mentioning is the e-book "How to Poop Like a Pro" which you will get with the plunger after ordering it online at Amazon.
The handle of this toilet plunger is only 21' tall, which makes this easier to store under cabinets or behind the toilet and out of sight.
The handle is also made with a durable plastic that is comfortable to use when pushing into a toilet drain. It is easy to clean and won't collect mold, bacteria, and germs associated with toilets.
I like the flexibility the cup of this plunger has to work with all of the drains in your home. The rubber will stretch out at the bottom so that it creates a strong seal in the toilet, but also changes into a regular sink cup.
The cup is made with soft rubber that can be molded to any surface easily.
You can use this toilet plunger to take care of clogs throughout the entire house because of the cup design and short handle. The cup will actually turn into a standard sink cup for the other drains that need some attention.
The handle is short enough at 21' so that you can comfortably stand over the sink and get enough power to dislodge a tough clog.
- Cup design is versatile enough to use in all drains of the house
- Plastic handle is short enough to be stored under cabinets
- The material on a handle is easily cleaned and doesn't attract mold or bacteria
- Design of the rubber tends to get debris lodged in it and can only be cleaned by using your hands to stretch it out
- Short handle causes a lot of splash-back on the person using it
- There is a strong rubbery odor to the plunger that is not pleasant
- The handle is flimsy and doesn't provide enough support for strong use
#5. Kleen Freak Antibacterial Toilet Plunger with Holder
The antibacterial feature is unique to the Kleen Freak and is the only toilet plunger in this category that claims to clean your toilet without spreading germs.
The plastic material on the Kleen Freak holder tray kills germs associated with the bathroom and toilet.
This material will eliminate the worry of mold and bacteria spreading after you use it to get rid of a clog. The rubber on the cup also kills bacteria while it is cleaning your toilet bowl.
The cup is a lovely teal color and is made of flexible rubber that creates a strong seal in most toilets, new or old. I like the design because it doesn't collect toilet water in a flap so you need to use your hand to clean it.
Drip tray
The storage tray that comes with this toilet plunger makes it easy to stand the plunger up after using it without causing water to get everywhere.
It also provides a cleaner option for taking the plunger from the toilet to the sink to wash it. The tray is sturdy and holds the plunger securely so it doesn't fall and spray dirty water all over the bathroom floor.
- Antibacterial feature on toilet plunger means that it doesn't spread germs after use
- Storage tray is convenient for storing the plunger after use without dripping water on the floor
- The handle is comfortable to use and sturdy enough to put some force behind plunging
- Design of cup creates a strong seal around most toilet bowls
- Cup has a tendency to invert if pushed too hard into the toilet bowl
- The handle is not made with the strongest material and can break with use
- Plunger tray is not very attractive to have displayed in the washroom
#6. Mr. Clean 440436 Turbo Plunger and Bowl Brush Caddy Set
- For smooth and easy cleaning, it has large round brush.
- Made by natural rubber and Durable Plastic
- It has rubber grip handle and extended rubber plunger
What To Look For When Buying A Toilet Plunger
There are three types of plungers available to dislodge a household clog.
Cup plunger
These are not designed for toilets because they don't create a good seal with the drain and won't have enough strength to dislodge toilet debris.
Although some people do use this type of plunger for their toilets, these plungers are better suited for sinks and bathtubs.
Accordion plungers
These plungers are named because of the accordion style rubber head that can be very effective in dislodging tough clogs in most toilets. The cups are small in design and create a nice seal over the drain of the toilet.
Industry reports state that the majority of new toilets that are being bought are low-flow toilets, which are narrower in the bowl. The accordion plungers are very effective for this type of toilet.
Toilet plungers
These plungers look like cup plungers that have extra rubber on the bottom of the cup. These plungers consist of a flap forms a seal around the toilet drain and makes it easier to get the necessary force to unclog any toilet.
Most plungers will come with a plastic or aluminum handle to stop bacteria from sticking to the surface and spreading germs.
It is also important that the handle is lightweight enough to carry the plunger easily but also strong enough to put some force behind it while getting at the nasty clogs.
The difference in the handles for most toilet plungers is in the shape and how comfortable it is to hold while plunging.
Some plungers will have a T-shaped handle while others will have a larger rounded handle. It is a personal preference on which you find the most comfortable.
With the popularity of low-flow modern toilets finding a toilet plunger that is narrow enough to fit the drain and create a good seal can be challenging.
Depending on how old and wide your toilet is, the design of the plunger can make a big difference in how strong a seal it makes with your toilet. A weak seal is ineffective at dislodging a touch clog and can also cause "splash-back" of dirty toilet water.
Drip Tray
With all of that dirty water and debris that gets stuck to the bottom of a toilet plunger, having a tray to sit it in after the job is done is a definite plus.
Some plungers will come with trays that can easily be transported from the toilet to the sink, ensuring that there isn't a dirty trail of water along the floor when it is moved.
Other Factors to Consideration
- Easy to use– while all plungers say they are easy to use, some can hurt your hands if you have put some force behind it
- Aesthetics – if your bathroom has no good place to store a toilet plunger, then the nicer it looks the better
- Price – some plungers can be pricey because of additional features like magnetic trays and aluminum handles
How To UNCLOG A Toilet With A Plunger
Clear Winner & Final Thoughts
The winner is the simplehuman toilet plunger and caddy because of the attractive and effective design.
The narrow, elongated design makes this effective at creating a seal with modern low-flow toilets that tend to be a little smaller than older toilets.
The handle is made of high-quality stainless steel, which is unique to other plungers in this category and does the best job at eliminating corrosion and rust, especially with a tool that is constantly being used in water.
This toilet plunger has a very modern and attractive look which will add to the décor of your bathroom if you are at a premium for space.


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Welcome to Renew Communities!
I wanted to thank you for joining us this Sunday for our Central Gathering. We know just attending a church service can sometimes feel risky and so we hope you felt right at home and made some good connections with God and others.
There's always more information available at our website, renewcommunities.com and you can see some videos of the ways God's been working in and through our church over the past few years.
We're always available if you have questions or just want more information. Please feel free to contact email@example.com or call 440-973-6396.
Thanks for coming and we hope to see you again very soon!
Andy Sikora
Lead Pastor


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Introduce your drastic UI changes... slowly/
We are in the middle of a somewhat sudden rebranding exercise. One of the main colours that was used prominently in the previous theme of the website is now being retired as the UI is simplified.
So here is what we have right now:
And here is where we're going (currently in development).
Where's the Yellow?
In every case where we ask one of our existing users the first response is always: Where's the "Company Yellow"?
There's of course a marketing message that will go out with our latest release.
But here's the secret developer compromise.
We can reduce the yellow, slowly, overtime
The old header background will remain. But in the Javascript that's run on every page, we introduce a small piece of script that modifies the opacity of the background header.
var days = (new Date("2013-08-20") - new Date()) / (24*60*60*1000); // remaining days until 2013-08-20
var opacity = (days > 0) ? (0.5 * (days / 14)) : 0; // starts from 0.5 opacity to 0
$(".header-banner").css("opacity", opacity);
What this does, is that over the course of two weeks, the yellow's opacity reduces from the original (50% at this next release) to 0%. So as days go on, the yellow header begins to fade, and after two weeks, it will simply disappear!
I wonder what'd be the water cooler conversation. Each person will wonder what happened to the yellow as it slowly faded out of our lives.


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Startup Nation Infographic
Australia might not be top of mind as a hot spot for digital innovation but with Aussie companies like Kaggle, Atlassian and 99Dresses making a dent in the digital universe it's only a matter of time before Australia is as well known for digital startups as it is for swimmers and world class rugby teams. To shine some light on the Australian startup ecosystem we just released the Startup Nation map, the first interactive map of digital startups down under: www.floqapp.com/startupnationv2
The Startup Nation map shows startups from throughout Australia and across categories; from digital marketplaces and ecommerce websites to social apps and mobile games. Startup founders, teams, venture capitalists, co-working spaces and incubators have filled out the survey. The map updates itself daily and is compiled from our ongoing survey: floq.co/0jhIC
The survey is constantly open, so if you want to add yourself to the Startup Nation map click through. If you just want to go on the map just answer the questions to do with the map, and if you're happy to add to our anonymous study on digital startups complete as much as possible. The survey/study is designed to see how supportive digital entrepeneurs have found the Australian ecosystem, and to test if the long held view that areas with more supportive ecosystems have a higher success rate for startups.
Our second aim is to see if the guys and girls building pixels that do more mingling, and live in cities or suburbs that foster more random meet ups, track any different. Does having a coffee with colleagues really help foster bigger ideas and better companies? We're still working on this part.
Members of the startup community were asked to rate how supportive are your friends, family, mentors, investors and your city overall, on a seven point scale from very helpful to very unhelpful.
This first set of results show that mentors and advisors are the most supportive aspect of the startup community. Friends follow and then family and cities. Investors come out as the least supportive aspect of the Australian startup ecosystem. The infographic shows a breakdown of the major cities and how they fared in each of the above categories.
Based on the total scores Sydney comes out top of the pack in terms of supportiveness across all five aspects (city, family, friends, mentors and investors). Followed by Melbourne and Perth. Tasmania, Brisbane and Adelaide's response numbers are at this stage too small to be properly ranked – however early indications show Tasmania ranking well. City rankings by total Floq score were:
- Sydney: 22.24 (50 respondents)
- Tasmania: 22 (2 respondents)
- Melbourne: 21.8 (40 respondents)
- Perth: 19.81 (18 respondents)
- Brisbane: 19.735 (4 respondents)
- Adelaide: 16.5 (7 respondents)
The supportive ranking for the five aspects of the startup community by total Floq score were:
- Mentors: 4.8
- Friends: 4.6
- Family: 4.4
- City: 3.9
- Investors: 3.7
The map and first survey on community and success are a part of a bigger Floq initiative, Startup Nation, which the team at Floq hopes will become a definitive resource for the Australian tech startup community.
Through quarterly pulse surveys we aim to create a picture of the different factors that contribute to a vibrant startup community in Australia. We'll do this by using the Floq platform to publish and distribute simple pulse surveys to the industry, and then publish our findings through the interactive map, infographics and white papers.
We hope the resource will help Australian startups get a clearer picture of where they stand and what they need to do to create an environment in which the next Facebook could flourish. It's no secret that Silicon Valley has an unbelievably supportive network driven by everyone's that no doubt contributed to the success of startups like Facebook. The data we've now got gives us a clearer idea of just how supportive our country is for tech startups," he said.
We know we're missing a lot of data because not every startup and those associated with them have filled out the survey but judging from this initial data, it's questionable whether we do have an ecosystem in Australia to support the next Facebook.
The big gap sees to be in the seed financing of startups, and while the cost of getting the next Instagram off the ground is dropping startups still need bold investors to put cash into innovative products. I think the data points at why many Aussie startups feel they should look for more enthusiastic investors and good deal terms in the US.
We hope that will change dramatically over the next few years as more emphasis is put on the importance of a digital economy. Who knows, one of these startups may be the next Facebook – really why not!


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Queen Latifah Girlfriend Jeanette Jenkins
From 1993 to 1998, Latifah had a starring role on Living Single, the FOX sitcom, which gained high ratings among black audiences; she also wrote and performed its theme music. Her mother Rita played her mother on-screen. She began her film career in supporting roles in the 1991 and 1992 films House Party 2, Juice and Jungle Fever. She also had her own talk show, The Queen Latifah Show, from 1999 to 2001 and revamped in 2013. On January 6, 2014, The Queen Latifah Show was renewed for a second season. However, on November 21, 2014, Sony Pictures Television canceled Latifah's show due to declining ratings. Production of the series closed down, taking effect on December 18, 2014, leaving new episodes that were broadcast until March 6, 2015. Moreover, She has guest starred in 2 episodes during the second season (1991–1992) of the NBC hit The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She made a guest role as herself on Hangin' with Mr. Cooper in 1993. Latifah appeared in the 1996 box-office hit, Set It Off, and had a supporting role in the Holly Hunter film Living Out Loud (1998). She played the role of Thelma in the 1999 movie The Bone Collector, alongside Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.
queen, queen elizabeth 2, queen band, queen mary 2, queen of the south, queen live aid, queen victoria von england, queen of the south staffel 4,


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The Chateau de Mus is located in Murviel-Les-Beziers in the Languedoc region. It is home to a gorgeous Renaissance-style castle.
The Julien Family has been working hard in the vineyards, in the cellars, but they also have a restoration project for the chapel and the castle located on the property. Today, Yannick and Brice are representing the 5th generation of winemakers in the Family.
Brothers Yannick and Brice JULIEN
Dating back at least 800 BC, the Château de Mus represents one of the largest archaeological sites in Hérault, illustrating the prehistoric, Celtic, Roman, Greek and Etruscan ages. The estate was named after an ancient fortified place called « Murus » («city wall» in Latin), built up on a promontory over the Orb river. At MUS, a Romanesque church was built in 1070 (today its restoration is in progress) such as one of the six first castles of the area. Twice destroyed during the crusade against the Cathars in the 13th C. the former mansion was replaced in 1848 by a Renaissance-style castle, prefiguring the great times of the "wine chateaux" in Languedoc.
The JULIEN'S bought the CHATEAU DE MUS in 2004
The vineyard is planted to traditional grape varieties of the Languedoc's AOP, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, in the estate's AOP area, and also of a range of different French varieties planted in the Vin de Pays area: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Carmenere, Chardonnay, Cinsault, Grenache, Merlot, Mourvedre, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Tannat, Marselan, Muscat, Grenache Gris, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Vermentino, Viognier, Roussanne.
Soil: 3 differents soils - clay limestone / boulder / silty.
Climate: Mediterranean, hot, warm and dry.
The region of production is called Occitanie (former Languedoc-Roussillon)
The winery is modern and the temperature controlled vinification is a huge part of the quality process. Concrete tanks, stainless steel and open top fermenters are used for almost all of their wines.