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Thursday, June 30, 2016
The Natufian puzzle
One of the biggest surprises in the new Lazaridis et al. preprint is that the Natufians don't show any Sub-Saharan African admixture when poked and prodded directly with formal statistics. However, TreeMix, which runs on formal statistics, doesn't have much trouble finding Sub-Saharan or related ancestry in both the Natufians and Neolithic farmers from the Levant. So what's going on? Also worth noting in the fourth graph is the heavy migration edge from near the base of the East Eurasian Dai/Han branch to the early Neolithic farmers from Iran. My bet is that this is a signal of admixture from a Central Asian forager population, perhaps representing a parallel clade to that of the East Asians? Or is it just Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) admixture? I'll try and investigate that soon.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
German Bell Beakers in the context of the prehistoric Near East
Fascinating stuff, and basically in line with the generally accepted archaeological model of Bell Beaker origins in Iberia. Of course, these TreeMix results don't necessarily mean that German Beakers are a straight two-way mixture between Yamnaya pastoralists and Chalcolithic Iberians; they simply suggest that the ancestors of German Beakers experienced a significant pulse of admixture from an Chalcolithic Iberian-like population. here. Update 30/06/2016: Below is the same graph but with German Corded Ware added to the line up. The German Beakers still receive a significant admixture edge from the base of the Iberia Chalcolithic branch. However, the percentage of this edge as a proportion of their ancestry has fallen to 33%.
Saturday, June 25, 2016
D-stats/nMonte open thread #3
For the latest datasheets with D-stats of the form D(Chimp,Columns)(Mbuti.DG,Rows), featuring samples from Lazaridis et al. 2016, see here, here and here. Datasheets with D-stats of the form D(Chimp,Rows)(Mbuti.DG,Columns) are available here, here and here. D-stats 1 and 1b include Iran_Chalcolithic in both the rows and columns, while D-stats 3 and 3b have Eastern_HG in both the rows and columns. The interesting question is, which of these sheets is the best for estimating admixture proportions, primarily in populations from West Eurasia?
Thursday, June 23, 2016
A moment of clarity
A lot of things now make so much more sense thanks to all of the recently published ancient DNA. For instance, in the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) below, South Central Asians (SC_Asia) finally look like a three-way mixture of Bronze Age steppe pastoralists, early farmers from Iran and surrounds, and indigenous South Asians, which is exactly what they are. here. The samples are from a variety of recent DNA papers and freely available at the Reich Lab site here.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Yamnaya =/= Eastern Hunter-Gatherers + Iran Chalcolithic
The fully public version of the Lazaridis et al. 2016 dataset is now available for download at the Reich Lab website here. Many thanks to the authors for releasing their data before formal publication, and in fact apparently even before the end of the peer review. As usual from this team, it's high quality stuff with hundreds of thousands of SNPs genotyped in most of the 45 ancient samples from the Near East. And to think that only a couple of years ago the idea of getting genome-wide data from even a single ancient individual from hot places like the Near East was just that, an idea. I'm planning to do a lot with this data, but the first issue I want to tackle is the genetic structure of the Yamnaya pastoralists from the Early Bronze Age (EBA) European steppes. Lazaridis et al. show that Early to Middle Bronze Age steppe groups, including Yamnaya, tagged by them as Steppe EMBA, are best modeled with formal statistics as a mixture of Eastern European Hunter-Gatherers (EHG) and Chalcolithic farmers from western Iran. The mixture ratios are 56.8/43.2, respectively. However, they add that a model of Steppe EMBA as a three-way mixture between EHG, the Chalcolithic farmers and Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers (CHG) is also a good fit and plausible. I've looked at the topic before and concluded that Yamnaya had to be in large part of CHG origin, with only minor admixture from early farmers, probably from Eastern Europe (see here and here). After having a chance to study the data from Lazaridis et al. 2016, I stand by my earlier results. Below are a couple of TreeMix graphs featuring Yamnaya alongside a variety of modern and ancient groups, including several potentially relevant to its ancestry, such as Armenia_Chalcolithic and Iran_Chalcolithic from Lazaridis et al. 2016. The full output is available for download here. Now, it is true that TreeMix is a temperamental algorithm. It can react in extreme ways to the types of samples chosen by the user, often showing results that might appear wrong, or at the very least counter-intuitive. On the other hand, my experience shows that it's also exceptionally effective at picking up and characterizing significant and relatively sudden pulses of admixture. Moreover, unlike modeling with formal stats, it's an unsupervised test. Clearly, the graphs below are very much at odds with the claim that Yamnaya might be in large part of Iranian Chalcolithic or similar ancestry. As per my earlier tests, it appears to be overwhelmingly a mixture between EHG and CHG. Modeling Steppe_EMBA The story of mtDNA haplogroup U7 Another look at the genetic structure of Yamnaya
Monday, June 20, 2016
Ancient genomes from the Himalayas
Over at PNAS at this LINK:
Abstract: The high-altitude transverse valleys [>3,000 m above sea level (masl)] of the Himalayan arc from Arunachal Pradesh to Ladahk were among the last habitable places permanently colonized by prehistoric humans due to the challenges of resource scarcity, cold stress, and hypoxia. The modern populations of these valleys, who share cultural and linguistic affinities with peoples found today on the Tibetan plateau, are commonly assumed to be the descendants of the earliest inhabitants of the Himalayan arc. However, this assumption has been challenged by archaeological and osteological evidence suggesting that these valleys may have been originally populated from areas other than the Tibetan plateau, including those at low elevation. To investigate the peopling and early population history of this dynamic high-altitude contact zone, we sequenced the genomes (0.04×–7.25×, mean 2.16×) and mitochondrial genomes (20.8×–1,311.0×, mean 482.1×) of eight individuals dating to three periods with distinct material culture in the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) of Nepal, spanning 3,150–1,250 y before present (yBP). We demonstrate that the region is characterized by long-term stability of the population genetic make-up despite marked changes in material culture. The ancient genomes, uniparental haplotypes, and high-altitude adaptive alleles suggest a high-altitude East Asian origin for prehistoric Himalayan populations.Long-term genetic stability and a high-altitude East Asian origin for the peoples of the high valleys of the Himalayan arc, PNAS June 20, 2016, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1520844113
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Genetics of an early Neolithic pastoralist from western Iran (Gallego Llorente et al. preprint)
Just in at bioRxiv:
Abstract: The agricultural transition profoundly changed human societies. We sequenced and analysed the first genome (1.39x) of an early Neolithic woman from Ganj Dareh, in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, a site with early evidence for an economy based on goat herding,ca. 10,000 BP. We show that Western Iran was inhabited by a population genetically most similar to hunter-gatherers from the Caucasus, but distinct from the Neolithic Anatolian people who later brought food production into Europe. The inhabitants of Ganj Dareh made little direct genetic contribution to modern European populations, suggesting they were somewhat isolated from other populations in the region. Runs of homozygosity are of a similar length to those from Neolithic Anatolians, and shorter than those of Caucasus and Western Hunter-Gatherers, suggesting that the inhabitants of Ganj Dareh did not undergo the large population bottleneck suffered by their northern neighbours. While some degree of cultural diffusion between Anatolia, Western Iran and other neighbouring regions is possible, the genetic dissimilarity of early Anatolian farmers and the inhabitants of Ganj Dareh supports a model in which Neolithic societies in these areas were distinct.Gallego Llorente et al., The genetics of an early Neolithic pastoralist from the Zagros, Iran, bioRxiv prerprint, posted June 18, 2016, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/059568 The same individual, tagged as GD13a by Gallego Llorente et al., is also featured in the new Lazaridis et al. prerprint as I1290 (see here). Not sure if there's much point in two different papers on the same sample, but at least the sequences are different. In any case, here's a very interesting part from the paper dealing with the population history of South Asia:
It is possible that farmers related to GD13a contributed to the eastern diffusion of agriculture from the Near East that reached Turkmenistan (34) by the 6th millennium BP, and continued further east to the Indus Valley (35). However, detecting such a contribution is complicated by a later influx from Steppe populations with Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer ancestry during the Bronze Age. We tested whether the Western Eurasian component found in Indian populations can be better attributed to either of these two sources, GD13a and Kotias (a Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer), using D-statistics to detect gene flow into an ancestral Indian component (represented by the Onge). For all tests where a difference could be detected, Kotias acted a better proxy than GD13a (Fig. S9 and Table S6). This result implies that the majority of the West Eurasian component seen in India derives from the Bronze age migrations; this interpretation is supported by dating of last contact based on patterns of Linkage Disequilibrium (36).Dating admixture events with Linkage Disequilibrium patterns is somewhat controversial, but what they're saying is more or less in agreement with what I've been bleating about on this blog for the last few years (for instance, see here). So I'm very happy to finally see others noticing the same thing. However, I have to say that the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in this paper is off the wall. Many of the ancient samples don't appear to cluster where they should. For instance, most of the European Hunter-Gatherers (HGs) are way too close to present-day samples, and in fact in some cases they're overlapping with them, which is just wrong. Note also the unusual elongated cluster formed by the Neolithic Anatolians, stretching all the way from where they should all cluster (south of the Sardinians), to where they really shouldn't (right next to the North Caucasians). My bet is that the results are affected by missing markers, with the ancient samples with high rates of missing markers being pulled into the middle of the plot (towards 0.00 in both dimensions). Early Neolithic genomes from the eastern Fertile Crescent (Broushaki et al. 2016)
Friday, June 17, 2016
The genetic structure of the world's first farmers (Lazaridis et al. 2016 preprint)
Huge one from the Laz at bioRxiv:
We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 44 ancient Near Easterners ranging in time between ~12,000-1,400 BCE, from Natufian hunter-gatherers to Bronze Age farmers. We show that the earliest populations of the Near East derived around half their ancestry from a 'Basal Eurasian' lineage that had little if any Neanderthal admixture and that separated from other non-African lineages prior to their separation from each other. The first farmers of the southern Levant (Israel and Jordan) and Zagros Mountains (Iran) were strongly genetically differentiated, and each descended from local hunter-gatherers. By the time of the Bronze Age, these two populations and Anatolian-related farmers had mixed with each other and with the hunter-gatherers of Europe to drastically reduce genetic differentiation. The impact of the Near Eastern farmers extended beyond the Near East: farmers related to those of Anatolia spread westward into Europe; farmers related to those of the Levant spread southward into East Africa; farmers related to those from Iran spread northward into the Eurasian steppe; and people related to both the early farmers of Iran and to the pastoralists of the Eurasian steppe spread eastward into South Asia.Lazaridis et al., The genetic structure of the world's first farmers, bioRxiv preprint, posted June 16, 2016, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/059311
Armenia_ChL (Chalcolithic Armenia) I1407: L1a I1632: L1a I1634: L1a Armenia_EBA I1635: R1b1-M415(xM269) Iran_Mesolithic (Hotu Cave) I1293: J(xJ2a1b3, J2b2a1a1) Iran_N I1945: P1(xQ, R1b1a2, R1a1a1b1a1b, R1a1a1b1a3a, R1a1a1b2a2a) My guess here is that this is R2, and hopefully we shall see when the bam files are released. I1949: CT Iran_LN I1671: G2a1(xG2a1a) Iran_ChL (Chalcolithic Iran) I1662: J(xJ1a, J2a1, J2b) I1674: G1a(xG1a1) Natufians I0861: E1b1b1b2(x E1b1b1b2a, E1b1b1b2b) I1069: E1b1(xE1b1a1, E1b1b1b1) I1072: E1b1b1b2(xE1b1b1b2a, E1b1b1b2b) I1685: CT I1690: CT Levant_N I0867: H2 (PPNB) I1414: E(xE2, E1a, E1b1a1a1c2c3b1, E1b1b1b1a1, E1b1b1b2b) (PPNB) I1415: E1b1b1 (PPNB) I1416: CT (PPNB) I1707: T(xT1a1, T1a2a) (PPNB) I1710: E1b1b1(x E1b1b1b1a1, E1b1b1a1b1, E1b1b1a1b2, E1b1b1b2a1c) (PPNB) I1727: CT(xE, G, J, LT, R, Q1a, Q1b) (PPNB) I1700: CT (PPNC) Levant_BA I1705: J1(xJ1a) I1730: J(xJ1, J2a, J2b2a)Update 25/07/2016: The peer-reviewed paper was published at Nature today under the title Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East. See here. See also... A homeland, but not the homeland A moment of clarity Early Neolithic genomes from the eastern Fertile Crescent (Broushaki et al. 2016)
Monday, June 13, 2016
Another ancient genome from Iran coming soon
Update 14/07/2016: Early Neolithic genomes from the eastern Fertile Crescent (Broushaki et al. 2016) ... Very interesting abstract here from a recent genomics conference in London. I do have a few more details from this presentation, but I guess they're not yet online for a reason, so let's just wait until the paper comes out. Suffice to say, the data in this paper is going to be very useful in the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) homeland debate. I just hope that the mixture model chosen by the authors is really solid and doesn't leave too much to the imagination.
Iran is considered a pivotal region in the Fertile Crescent, occupying a central space between Africa and Eurasia, and has thus been extensively studied to infer the development of the earliest human civilizations and farming settlements. From a historical and cultural perspective, this region is also of great interest as the cradle of Zoroastrianism. With reported roots dating back to the second millennium BC in Iran, Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions in the world and is now mainly concentrated in India, Iran, and Southern Pakistan. In this work we present novel genotype data from present-day Zoroastrians from Iran and India, along with a high coverage (10x) early Neolithic sample from Iran (7,455-7,082 BC), comparing these samples to publicly available genome-wide genotypes from >200 modern and ancient groups worldwide to elucidate patterns of shared ancestry. We apply a novel Bayesian mixture model to represent the DNA from modern and ancient groups or individuals as mixtures of that from other sampled groups or individuals, using a haplotype-based approach that is more powerful than commonly-used algorithms. Our mixture model identifies which sampled groups are most related to one another genetically, reflecting shared common ancestry relative to other groups due to e.g. admixture (i.e. intermixing of genetically distinct groups) or other historical processes. Interestingly, analysis of ancestry patterns revealed strong affinities of the Neolithic Iranian sample to modern-day Pakistani and Indian populations, and particularly to Iranian Zoroastrians, in stark contrast to Neolithic samples from Europe. We also identify, describe and date recent admixture events in modern-day Iranian groups that have altered their current genetic make-up relative to these ancient origins.Saioa López et al., The genetic landscape of Iran and the legacy of Zoroastrianism: Comparing haplotype sharing patterns among ancient and modern-day samples using a mixture model, poster presentation, Quantitative Genomics 2016, University College London (UCL) See also... Neolithic genome from Iran SMBE 2016 teaser
Thursday, June 9, 2016
The discrepancy
I posted this in the comments in the previous blog entry [here], but it hasn't received the attention that it deserves, so it's now getting an entry all of its own. I'm also posting Matt's reply, since he motivated me to look at the formal stats from Hofmanova et al. in more detail. I'd like to get to the bottom of this. Any ideas?
Davidski said... Matt, How would you interpret these sets of f4 and D statistics? The f4 stats are from Hofmanova et al., while the D stats were run by me. The first set of D stats uses the highest quality Anatolia Neolithic sample from Barcin from Mathieson et al. and CHG genotypes from Fu Q et al., and the second uses the same Barcin sample plus CHG genotypes from Jones et al. Also, keep in mind that, as far as I can tell, the Barcin genomes from Hofmanova et al. and Mathieson et al. date to the same period. f4 Corded_Ware_LN Bar8 Satsurblia Khomani -0.0367 -8.145 f4 Corded_Ware_LN Bar8 Kotias Khomani -0.0193 -3.437 f4 Spain_MN Bar8 Satsurblia Khomani -0.0327 -5.385 f4 Spain_MN Bar8 Kotias Khomani -0.0182 -3.136 versus... D Corded_Ware_Germany BAR20_I0709 Satsurblia Khomani 0.0215 4.299 D Corded_Ware_Germany BAR20_I0709 Kotias Khomani 0.0205 4.408 D Iberia_MN BAR20_I0709 Satsurblia Khomani -0.0003 -0.06 D Iberia_MN BAR20_I0709 Kotias Khomani -0.0017 -0.339 ... D Corded_Ware_Germany BAR20_I0709 Satsurblia2 Khomani 0.0224 4.38 D Corded_Ware_Germany BAR20_I0709 Kotias2 Khomani 0.0226 5.168 D Iberia_MN BAR20_I0709 Satsurblia2 Khomani 0.0068 1.222 D Iberia_MN BAR20_I0709 Kotias2 Khomani 0 0.004 Clearly, something's horribly wrong. If I made a mistake, my apologies. But I'm pretty sure I didn't make any mistakes. I checked the datasets that I'm using for consistency with the f4 and D stats published in Mathieson et al. and Fu et al., so I can say with confidence that my D stats should not be much different from correctly run f4 stats using the same ancient samples. June 8, 2016 at 7:06 PM
Matt said... @ Davidski, yeah I see what's going on there with the D stats giving a result we would expect from previous work - Anatolia Neolithic and Iberia_MN equally related to CHG, Corded Ware more to CHG - with the stats from this paper being different - Bar8 being more related to CHG than Iberia_MN, and Bar8 even more strongly related to CHG relative to Corded_Ware, also implying Iberia_MN more related to CHG than Corded Ware is. I don't know that there's anything about f4 vs D stats themselves that would explain that difference, and as you say, yours are consistent with the previously published. This is really stuff that should have been in and the resolved in the early print. That's the whole point of the process! June 9, 2016 at 12:13 AMUpdate 12/06/2016: Here are f4 stats using the same data as for the D stats above. They look basically the same as the D stats.
Corded_Ware_Germany BAR20_I0709 Satsurblia Khomani 0.002073 4.294 Corded_Ware_Germany BAR20_I0709 Kotias Khomani 0.001997 4.402 Iberia_MN BAR20_I0709 Satsurblia Khomani -0.00003 -0.06 Iberia_MN BAR20_I0709 Kotias Khomani -0.000157 -0.34 Corded_Ware_Germany BAR20_I0709 Satsurblia2 Khomani 0.0021 4.388 Corded_Ware_Germany BAR20_I0709 Kotias2 Khomani 0.002031 4.971 Iberia_MN BAR20_I0709 Satsurblia2 Khomani 0.000613 1.221 Iberia_MN BAR20_I0709 Kotias2 Khomani 0.000002 0.004
Monday, June 6, 2016
Comic relief from Hofmanova et al. at PNAS
PNAS has a new paper on the Neolithic transition in Europe. I don't know what the authors were puffing on when they computed the inferred mixture coefficients, but they look like crap, with Loschbour-related admixture (in other words, indigenous European ancestry) peaking near the Caspian Sea, including among North Caucasians and Kalmyks, who today live just northwest of the Caspian, but are recent migrants to Europe from Mongolia. Moreover, western Turks appear to show fairly even ratios of Loschbour and early Aegean farmer admixture, which is also strange. I pointed out this problem when the paper was posted for review at bioRxiv (see here), but my comments were ignored. The co-authors responsible for this analysis are Lucy van Dorp, Saioa Lopez and Garrett Hellenthal. The paper was edited by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen. Holy shit! Early farmers from across Europe directly descended from Neolithic Aegeans, PNAS June 6, 2016, 2016, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1523951113 See also... The discrepancy
Friday, June 3, 2016
Neolithic genome from Iran SMBE 2016 teaser
Update 18/06/2016: Genetics of an early Neolithic pastoralist from western Iran (Gallego Llorente et al. preprint) ... The paper is probably coming very soon. This is an abstract of an SMBE 2016 talk to be held in four weeks (emphasis is mine):
The shift from hunter-gathering to food production, the so-called Neolithic Revolution, profoundly changed human societies. Whilst much is known about the mode of spread of people and domesticates into Europe during the Neolithic period, the origin of this cultural package in the Ancient Near East and Anatolia is poorly understood. By sequencing the whole genome (1.39x) of an early Neolithic woman from Ganj Dareh, in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, we show that the eastern part of the Ancient Near East was inhabited by a population genetically most similar to hunter-gatherers from the Caucasus but distinct from the Neolithic Anatolian people who later brought food production into Europe. Despite their key role in developing the Neolithic package, the inhabitants of Ganj Dareh made little direct genetic contribution to modern European populations, suggesting they were somewhat isolated from other populations in this region. Their high frequency of short runs of homozygosity, comparable to other early Neolithic farmers, suggests that they overwintered the Last Glacial Maximum in a climatically favourable area, where they may have received a genetic contribution from a population basal to modern Eurasians. Thus, the Neolithic package was developed by at least two genetically-distinct groups which coexisted next to each other, implying a degree of cultural yet little genetic exchange among them.Gallego Llorente et al., The Neolithic Revolution developed among geographically adjacent but genetically distinct populations, oral presentation (35146), Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Conference 2016 See also... Another ancient genome from Iran coming soon On crop dispersal in prehistoric Central Asia
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Late (Bronze Age?) entry of East Asian dogs into Europe
Open access at Science:
Abstract: The geographic and temporal origins of dogs remain controversial. We generated genetic sequences from 59 ancient dogs and a complete (28x) genome of a late Neolithic dog (dated to ~4800 calendar years before the present) from Ireland. Our analyses revealed a deep split separating modern East Asian and Western Eurasian dogs. Surprisingly, the date of this divergence (~14,000 to 6400 years ago) occurs commensurate with, or several millennia after, the first appearance of dogs in Europe and East Asia. Additional analyses of ancient and modern mitochondrial DNA revealed a sharp discontinuity in haplotype frequencies in Europe. Combined, these results suggest that dogs may have been domesticated independently in Eastern and Western Eurasia from distinct wolf populations. East Eurasian dogs were then possibly transported to Europe with people, where they partially replaced European Paleolithic dogs.Frantz et al., Genomic and archaeological evidence suggests a dual origin of domestic dogs (June 2, 2016) Science 352 (6290), 1228-1231. [doi:10.1126/science.aaf3161] See also... Yamnaya dogs (?)
On crop dispersal in prehistoric Central Asia
Were the Harappans what they ate? If so, they were mostly West Asian. Open access at The Holocene:
Abstract: The period from the late third millennium BC to the start of the first millennium AD witnesses the first steps towards food globalization in which a significant number of important crops and animals, independently domesticated within China, India, Africa and West Asia, traversed Central Asia greatly increasing Eurasian agricultural diversity. This paper utilizes an archaeobotanical database (AsCAD), to explore evidence for these crop translocations along southern and northern routes of interaction between east and west. To begin, crop translocations from the Near East across India and Central Asia are examined for wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) from the eighth to the second millennia BC when they reach China. The case of pulses and flax (Linum usitatissimum) that only complete this journey in Han times (206 BC–AD 220), often never fully adopted, is also addressed. The discussion then turns to the Chinese millets, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica, peaches (Amygdalus persica) and apricots (Armeniaca vulgaris), tracing their movement from the fifth millennium to the second millennium BC when the Panicum miliaceum reaches Europe and Setaria italica Northern India, with peaches and apricots present in Kashmir and Swat. Finally, the translocation of japonica rice from China to India that gave rise to indica rice is considered, possibly dating to the second millennium BC. The routes these crops travelled include those to the north via the Inner Asia Mountain Corridor, across Middle Asia, where there is good evidence for wheat, barley and the Chinese millets. The case for japonica rice, apricots and peaches is less clear, and the northern route is contrasted with that through northeast India, Tibet and west China. Not all these journeys were synchronous, and this paper highlights the selective long-distance transport of crops as an alternative to demic-diffusion of farmers with a defined crop package.Stevens et al., Between China and South Asia: A Middle Asian corridor of crop dispersal and agricultural innovation in the Bronze Age. The Holocene, published online before print June 1, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0959683616650268
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
The man with the flat occiput
The image below is of a skull from a Bell Beaker burial in Bee Low, Derbyshire, England, dated to 2200–2030 calBC. Its "extremely low" oxygen isotope value of 16.2‰ matches that of the Amesbury Archer, and suggests that it may have belonged to a migrant from a place with a cold and "continental" climate, possibly outside of Britain. You can read more about this skull and its unusually flat occiput in a new paper about British Beakers by Pearson et al. at Antiquity here. If you don't have academic access to journals, try the link here. Bell Beaker Blogger also has a useful summary of the paper here.
Abstract: The appearance of the distinctive 'Beaker package' marks an important horizon in British prehistory, but was it associated with immigrants to Britain or with indigenous converts? Analysis of the skeletal remains of 264 individuals from the British Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age is revealing new information about the diet, migration and mobility of those buried with Beaker pottery and related material. Results indicate a considerable degree of mobility between childhood and death, but mostly within Britain rather than from Europe. Both migration and emulation appear to have had an important role in the adoption and spread of the Beaker package.Mike Parker Pearson, Andrew Chamberlain, Mandy Jay, Mike Richards, Alison Sheridan, Neil Curtis, Jane Evans, Alex Gibson, Margaret Hutchison, Patrick Mahoney, Peter Marshall, Janet Montgomery, Stuart Needham, Sandra O'Mahoney, Maura Pellegrini and Neil Wilkin (2016). Beaker people in Britain: migration, mobility and diet. Antiquity, 90, pp 620-637 doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.72 See also... Who's your (proto) daddy Western Europeans?
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Asus-switcheroo xorg.conf.intel
From Hybridgraphics
Section "Module" Load "glx" Load "dri" EndSection Section "Device" BusID "PCI:0:2:0" Identifier "Device0" Driver "intel" # Option "NoAccel" "boolean" ## Disable or enable acceleration. Default: acceleration is enabled. # Option "SWCursor" "boolean" ## Disable or enable software cursor. ## Default: software cursor is disable and a hardware cursor is used for configurations where the hardware cursor is ## available. # Option "ColorKey" "integer" ## This sets the default pixel value for the YUV video overlay key. Default: undefined. # Option "CacheLines" "integer" # This allows the user to change the amount of graphics memory used for 2D acceleration and video when XAA acceleration is enabled. Decreasing this # amount leaves more for 3D textures. Increasing it can improve 2D performance at the expense of 3D performance. Default: depends on the resolution, # depth, and available video memory. The driver attempts to allocate space for at 3 screenfuls of pixmaps plus an HD-sized XV video. The default used for # a specific configuration can be found by examining the Xorg log file. # Option "DRI" "boolean" # Disable or enable DRI support. Default: DRI is enabled for configurations where it is supported. Option "AccelMethod" "UXA" Option "FramebufferCompression" "true" #This option controls whether the framebuffer compression feature is enabled. If possible, the front buffer will be allocated in a tiled format and compressed periodically to save memory bandwidth and power. This option is only available on mobile chipsets. #Default: enabled on supported configurations. Option "Tiling" "true" #This option controls whether memory buffers are allocated in tiled mode. In most cases (especially for complex rendering), tiling dramatically improves performance. #Default: enabled. Option "SwapbuffersWait" "false" #This option controls the behavior of glXSwapBuffers and glXCopySubBufferMESA calls by GL applications. #If enabled, the calls will avoid tearing by making sure the display scanline is outside of the area #to be copied before the copy occurs. If disabled, no scanline synchronization is performed, #meaning tearing will likely occur. Note that when enabled, this option can adversely affect #the framerate of applications that render frames at less than refresh rate. #Default: enabled. Option "XvMC" "true" #Enable XvMC driver. Current support MPEG2 MC on 915/945 and G33 series. User should provide absolute path to libIntelXvMC.so in XvMCConfig file. #Use slightly more energy to improve performance Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy" #Underclock while on battery power Option "DynamicClocks" "on" Option "DCCMode" "off" Option "IgnoreEDID" "on" #don't listen to strangers Option "TripleBuffer" "false" Option "EnablePageFlip" "on" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Intel Screen" Device "Device0" Defaultdepth 24 SubSection "Display" Depth 24 # Virtual 1366 768 Modes "1366x768" "1360x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection EndSection

subset: commoncrawl


text:
MAC All Ages, All Races, All Sexes Collection: Eyeshadows Reviews, Photos, Swatches
MAC All Races Eyeshadow
MAC All Ages, All Races, All Sexes Collection: Eyeshadows Reviews, Photos, Swatches
None of the eyeshadows really spoke to me, which may be more a reflection of them being a little too neutral, too safe and me having more than enough neutral favorites through their permanent line. I suppose my feelings are much like they were with Warm & Cozy from last week — I'd loved to have seen new and different neutrals. I also wish Showstopper would go into retirement for at least a few years! Of the four, my favorite was All Races, and I do think that one is the most worth picking up, because it's not a shade I've seen by MAC at all (no immediate dupes came to mind).
Eyeshadows ($14.50 U.S. / $16.50 CDN)
- All Races is a cool-toned lilac with a little gray edge. It has a matte finish, and it is a creamy, silky matte–no chalky texture here. I can't remember seeing a shade like this by MAC. Maybe once or twice, but nothing I can remember at the moment!
- Banshee is a dirty pink with a little brown to it — it has a silver glitter that makes it a little chunky. It has a lustre finish, which definitely accounts for the glittery feel. I imagine you may have some issues with fall out with this shade.
- Cross-Cultural is a medium-dark chocolate brown with a matte finish. This is definitely a shade you could use to contour your eye space with; it has a nearly neutral finish, not being too cool nor warm. I'd say this is similar to maybe Era/Texture or a lighter version of Espresso.
- Showstopper is an ultra dark charcoal brown with a cool feel to it. This is a shade that's not permanent yet it comes out often enough that it never feels like you need to stock up. This also has a matte finish to it. This is similar to Mystery/Brun.
See photos & swatches!
MAC Banshee Eyeshadow
MAC Cross-Cultural Eyeshadow
MAC Showstopper Eyeshadow
Eyeshadow Swatches: All Races, Banshee
Eyeshadow Swatches: Cross-Cultural, Showstopper


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SAN JOSE — A man who was hit by a vehicle and killed on Highway 101 late Thursday has been identified as Roy Gonzalez, 39, of Sunnyvale.
Gonzalez was on the freeway in the southbound lanes near Old Bayshore Highway when he was struck by at least one vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Fire and medical personnel responded to the scene shortly before 11 p.m. and unsuccessfully tried to save Gonzalez, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 51-year-old Gilroy man driving a 2007 Hyundai involved in the accident pulled over and was not arrested, according to the CHP.
The CHP was investigating Gonzalez's death on Friday, but did not offer any additional information about how it happened or why he was on the roadway.
The CHP is also trying to determine if additional vehicles were involved.
Contact Eric Kurhi at 408-920-5852. Follow him at Twitter.com/erickurhi.


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The synthesizer has an old floppy disc drive and a MIDI input, but I don't know how to use it with my brother's Mac.
migrated from avp.stackexchange.com Jan 24 '14 at 18:30
This question came from our site for engineers, producers, editors, and enthusiasts spanning the fields of video, and media creation.
You can get more sounds either by purchasing disks made specifically for the D-20 or you can get MIDI (.mid) or Sysex (.syx) files to send to your keyboard from your computer via MIDI. You can get a copy of the owners manual here. See chapter 5 of the owners manual volume 2 for instructions on how to transfer/receive data via MIDI.
i would vote you up but i can't yet thanks! – Dan the Man Apr 23 '11 at 20:55
You can buy soundbanks for the Roland D20. For example, try this site. It also includes instructions for how to load them (you don't use the floppy drive, you send them via MIDI from your PC).


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Browse by Medical Category
Friday, August 24, 2012
Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Billy needs a new backpack, and they only have the ones with The Hulk. Billy hates the Hulk. He has never liked green, and he whines up a storm at Target... Billy is 9 years old.
Sally knows that this summer everyone was supposed to read Ender's Game for English class, but she just doesn't like science fiction. She's grumpy now, because it is her last week of summer vacation, and she has to spend it with her nose in a book that she hasn't even picked up from the library yet. Sally is 13 years old.
Aaron has had it. He is NOT going to take AP World History. He's been waiting for four years to take the advanced art class that his high school offers, and now his parents are telling him that he'll never get a job as an artist but that he might get a job if he gets into a good college after taking AP World History. "You coulda told me that before you let me go to art camp this summer," he grumbles. Aaron is 17 years old.
So, no surprises… going back to school is no picnic. Often kids have very mixed emotions. It's exciting to see friends again and to face new challenges, but it can be hard for that excitement to compete with the slower and more mellow pace of summer. In fact, transitions can be pretty tough for lots of kids, but remember that the way in which these transitions are tough is very much a function of how old the kids happen to be. In other words, kids respond to the stressors of going back to school in developmentally distinct ways. And often parents themselves have their own agendas and set of problems with the transition.
In the case of Aaron's parents, so what if he doesn't take AP History? Whose agenda is right? And what is best for the kid in the short and long run? Parents really need to think about knowing who their kid is and to pick their battles. It would be a different story if Aaron said, "Hey, I am not going back to high school. I think I should just get my GED and go to a vocational school in art." Is that realistic for his future and desire to become an artist?
Let's think about Billy. He's not really upset over the backpack. Probably your life will be easier if you can find something that doesn't the Hulk on it, but Billy usually doesn't throw a fit in Target when they don't have the product he wants.
But Billy is 9, and at 9 what you have compared to what your friends have matters. So help Billy to understand what his friends are getting for school supplies. You might even do the back-to-school shopping with that friend. Billy's a lot more likely to hold it together if he remembers that he's not alone in this. In fact, concern about being alone and left out is about as developmentally relevant as it gets for a 9-year-old, so any way you can remind him that he's not on his own will help.
The moral here: try to imagine what a 9-year-old is thinking and feeling about his backpack. YOU might think the Hulk is pretty cool, but if Billy thinks it is way out of line with what his friends think, he may need to know what they actually like or don't like. Frankly, he may not really care what you like! So giving him the opportunity to join with peers, especially at his age, both informs him and informs you about what would be a good solution.
Sally is facing her first summer reading task, and therefore she is facing the first summer reading task that she hasn't done (yet). Part of getting older is wanting to spend more time alone with your friends and wanting to specifically ignore just about anything your parents say, since everything that parents say is heard as somewhere between nagging and annoying. And don't they understand that going back to school is full of stress!!??
Remember that at 13, the stress – maybe even more for girls than for boys – is as much about appearance as it is about increased school work. Give Sally some space. If you ever failed to do your summer reading until the last minute (and I bet you did at least once), tell Sally about it. She might act like she doesn't hear you, but she'll listen. Kids usually look up to their parents even as they act like their parents are more annoying than greenhead flies… she'll take solace in knowing that you were in fact not as perfect as she thinks you claim you were every time you nag her.
As for Enders Game (a darn good book, by the way), see if she can listen to a recorded version. See if her friends will get together for an hour of reading at Starbucks or some similar venue. See if she'll let you draw up a schedule. When you're thirteen, the smallest tasks can seem overwhelming. Helping to organize these tasks, even if she pretends not to listen, can make a big difference. And it may not be the book at all. It may be that Sally has trouble reading; and if that is true, it may not just be that she wants to spend time with friends, but that reading is a hardship. What is her past history in reading and writing? Does she have problems in these areas?
Finally, we have Aaron, the angst-ridden budding artist whose folks want him to take AP World History. Developmentally, Aaron is defining himself. He is artistic, and he finds meaning and self-worth in his art. These are hard qualities to come by in the midst of late adolescence, so when these qualities settle in, don't rock that boat. In more general terms, let Aaron chase his dreams, within reason. That might sound flighty and loosey-goosey, but it's also the best way to help Aaron feel good about who he is. And if Aaron feels good, Aaron will do good. How do you define yourself? What makes you feel good? If Aaron's wishes are not self-destructive or defeating – and they enhance his identity – then let him go for it.
For all kids, here are some general tips or rules of thumb:
These are just some general tips, and every kid is different. One size does not fit all for kids, as they negotiate the turbulent path back into the classroom. Remember that you know your children; remember to separate your agenda from theirs; and remember what you'd expect of someone else the same age.
At the end of the day, there are always good movies to wrap up the year. A family night out to dinner and a show is great way to ring in the excitement of fall. Good luck!
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All-Clad Professional Roast Lifters
- Special Offer
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Easy, hassle-free returns online and in-store for eligible items.Learn More
Earn 5% Back in rewards4 plus free standard shipping3every day when you shop with your Williams Sonoma credit card at Williams Sonoma.Apply Now Learn More
- Summary
No more struggling with unwieldy turkeys or roasts. These stainless-steel lifters with slightly curved, pointed prongs easily lift and turn roasts and poultry for easy transfer from pan to cutting board. They also double as carving forks. From All-Clad, premier makers of professional-quality kitchenware.
- Polished heavy-gauge 18/10 stainless steel is durable and easy to clean.
- Use for lifting large roasts.
- Redesigned ergonomic handle ensures a comfortable, secure grip for every task.
- Dishwasher safe.
- Dimensions & More Info
- 11 1/4" long.
- Made in China.
- Use & Care
- Dishwasher safe.
- Shipping
Shipping Information
UPS can deliver most in-stock items within 3–5 business days. UPS is unable to deliver to P.O. boxes.
Shipping Rates
The shipping rate varies depending on your order total and shipping destination. View Shipping Options and Charges.
Next Day Delivery
For an additional charge of $26 per address, we can expedite delivery to most destinations. This service is not available for some oversize items, items shipped directly from the supplier (including perishable and custom-manufactured items), out-of-stock items and items to be shipped outside the contiguous 48 states.
Orders received by 9:00 p.m. ET Monday through Thursday will arrive the next business day; orders placed Friday through Sunday will arrive on the following Tuesday.
Return Policy
At Williams Sonoma, we take great pride in the quality and craftsmanship of our products. Attention to design, materials, safety and construction are our priority. Upon receipt, please inspect your purchase and notify us of any damage; we will arrange for a prompt replacement.
If within 30 days, you are dissatisfied for any reason, you may return your purchase for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required for all returns and exchanges. Returns with a gift receipt will be refunded in the form of a Merchandise Credit for the amount indicated on the gift receipt. Returns with original receipt will be refunded in the original form of payment, cash and check refunds over $100 will be issued as a company check (may take 14 business days from time of request).
For all cutlery returns (knife sets, single knives, cutting boards, knife sharpeners and knife storage), please contact us at 888.922.4108 to initiate the return.
We cannot accept returns on monogrammed, personalized, special-order items, custom upholstery, food, items shipped direct from the vendor or on items damaged through normal wear and tear. Final sale items ending in .97 or .99 cannot be returned.
Made to Order and Final Sale Furniture items are non-returnable and cannot be cancelled once the order is placed.
For returns of items purchased from your Williams Sonoma Gift Registry, we will gladly provide a refund or exchange for the merchandise within 90 days of your event or within 90 days of purchase, whichever date is later. View Full Returns Policy.
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Rated 5 out of 5 by CulinaryCailliers from Superb Quality We only use these once a month or so but they have held up over the years to many 20+ lb turkeys, hams and roasts.Date published: 2017-06-13Rated 5 out of 5 by Thorgerd from Essential tools Before purchasing these I would flip my roast chicken using a large spoon and fork, or two large spoons, or try the wadded paper towel method. Aaargh! These forks make turning my roasts absolutely easy with minimum damage to the roast. Do keep the package in which they come for storage purposes; those points are sharp.Date published: 2015-04-22Rated 5 out of 5 by PickyPickyPicky from Excellent quality Strong; excellent quality as you would expect from All Clad! Tip: When you remove all of the little rubber tips off (On for safety of course); secure them in a container or bag. I did loose two...because I was a bit frazzled making Thanksgiving Dinner last year and was probably doing too many things at one time!Date published: 2014-10-20Rated 5 out of 5 by kittyb from All-Clad Must Have I purchased these Roast/Turkey lifters when I purchased my small All-Clad Roasting Pan a few years ago for Thanksgiving. I had always used a knife & serving fork but undoubtedly they weren't good enough. So when I saw these lifters I had to purchase them. They are extremely sturdy and the handles are ergonomically superior to a cheaper version that I had purchased prior to these. You get what you pay for. Also they come with plastic tips/covers for each point so there is no worry about cutting yourself when taking them out of the drawer. Also they sit flat on top of each other so they don't take up a lot of space.Date published: 2014-03-30Rated 5 out of 5 by Howd from Excellent product They are very well made, sturdy, tips have a great sharp point.Date published: 2013-11-14Rated 4 out of 5 by DiscriminateShopper from Excited to try For years I have struggled to remove roasts and poultry from roasting pans and the crock pot. I am hoping these are the solution to my problem. I can't wait to break these lifters in on Thanksgiving. In the meantime, they seem well made and sturdy. You can't go wrong with any of the All-Clad products.Date published: 2013-11-11Rated 5 out of 5 by Daisydebcohn from Wonderful customer Service I ordered these forks online as part of a wedding present along with the All Clad Turkey Roaster, I forgot to add the coupon code to receive free shipping, and was charged $25 for shipping. I called to ask for a refund. Although I couldn't actually get refunded until the item shipped (it was back-ordered), the representative gave me her name, phone number and assured me I would be credited. She called back a few days later to let me know she had followed through, and sure enough there was my credit. Very personable, and nice to talk to. She even remembered my name! I will definately keep shopping at Williams-Sonoma. Now, let's hope the bride loves it!Date published: 2013-03-21Rated 5 out of 5 by CandyA from Love these Roast Lifters I ordered one set for myself then ordered 2 more sets for family members for holiday gifts. Just love them! Very well made. Used them to lift a 20+ lb turkey with no problems! Thanks Williams-Sonoma. Great product!Date published: 2013-02-19


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There are 1 item(s) tagged with the keyword "diabetes".
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This year's theme is Eyes on Diabetes. It focuses on early screening for type 2 diabetes and treatment to reduce the risk of serious complications. Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.
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Copyright © 2019 www.mumandbaby.co.nz


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FG Fanatics necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 103 diseños de 14 diseñadores freelance.
This is for a t-shirt company. We are just starting and are looking to create a standard logo to identify our brand that can be used on all of the t-shirts. The brand is called FG and stands for Feelin' Good.
We'd like to create our brand so that it is similar to the Fox Racing or Alpinestar brand. It's going to be used as a subtle logo on tshirts. Our brand is for people who do these extreme sports for fun, not for sponsorship or competition/money. We want to create a brand that promotes "feelin' good" about what they do.
The slogan is "Feelin' Good." Our brand symbol is FG. We'd like to have both included in the design, with FG being more PROMINENT and the "Feelin' Good." being more subtle. Please note that it is Feelin' not Feeling. We're open to either something more plain (like Tiger Woods' symbol, for example, with the "Feelin' Good." underneath the logo in smaller font) or something that uses the FG and the "Feelin' Good." with a newly created image (see Fox Racing's and Alpinestar's logos for examples). This logo is something that would be used for the website, the front of the shirt, perhaps a small one on the sleeve, and the shirt tag.
Look we are going for:
(see attached pic for another one that we really like that would work great with our initials)
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Internet marketing is a pretty broad term – encapsulating a whole host of different techniques.
However, in short, Internet marketing services are ultimately all about ensuring that your business' online presence is one that is effective – successfully converting website traffic into sales.
Acting as an umbrella term for a variety of disciplines, there are a number of Internet marketing services that you might find; here are just some of the most important ones, explained:
Search Engine Optimisation -
Search engine optimisation is one of the most commonly found Internet marketing services out there. In basic terms, SEO is the process of optimizing a website so that it will be indexed higher up on an SERP (search engine results page).
This can involve creating backlinks, editing content so that it is more search engine friendly or editing HTML coding to increase the relevance to the keyword that is ultimately going to improve your rank.
Email Marketing -
Email marketing is a direct example of Internet marketing services, utilising the medium of email to promote a brand's message. Successful email marketing campaigns will see relationships with existing customers significantly enhanced – whilst at the same time leading to the acquisition of new customers.
Campaigns will also promote sales activity amongst that existing customer base, as well as advertising new products.
Pay Per Click Marketing -
Pay per click marketing is another of the most used Internet marketing services. Typically pay per click marketing is a form of Internet advertising that utilises adverts to drive traffic to a website.
Google is one of the most common platforms for pay per click adverts, with ads being displayed on the SERP – depending on the relevance of the ad's keywords to the original search term.
Microsoft adCenter, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdWords are the biggest of the PPC (pay per click) providers out there – operating via a system where a user bids on a keyword that is relevant to their company's market or industry.
Social Media Marketing -
One of the fastest growing areas of Internet marketing, social media marketing is another of those Internet marketing services that has become increasingly vital for businesses looking to grow in stature.
This practice will see advertisers promote new companies, products or services using social media platforms. Whilst many of the techniques that are applied in traditional marketing are present, social media's huge popularity on the Internet makes it possible to reach a much larger market than ever before.
Social media marketing will typically utilise eye-catching content to create a buzz on social networks – such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare – with the ultimate aim of getting that content shared, as a result spreading the message.
Search Analytics -
Internet marketing services will sometimes take data and analyse it to allow a greater understanding of a number of processes – search analytics is just that.
Search analytics involves taking statistics provided by search engines – such as search volume trends, advert spending and keyword monitoring – to improve the overall performance of search engine marketing and search engine optimisation campaigns.


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Atlanta | Stately City Decal
Show your state pride wherever you drive when you place a Stately Decal on your favorite item. Great for phones, tablets, laptops, car windows, cornhole boards or any other smooth flat surface!
Click the "ADD TO CART" button to select your Stately Decal color.
Each decal is made out of long lasting vinyl that is rated for 5+ years (outdoor). This decal is perfect for car windows, laptops or any other smooth flat surface. The size of the decal represents the length or width in inches, whichever is longer. Decals are waterproof and removable. But not reusable. Each decal is die-cut. The background will be the surface that you place the decal on.
3 inch - Cell Phones/Cases
5 inch - Yeti Cups/Car Window
7 inch - Car Window
9 inch - Dorm Window, Car Window
12 inch - Dorm Window, Car Window
18 inch - Rear Car window


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Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin appeared on Spike TV's Guys Choice awards Thursday and proclaimed that "Tang sucks!"
Aldrin was presenting an award to Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver who jumped from space last year, and joked about how jealous he was of Baumgartner's Red Bull sponsorship.
Aldrin said there were no corporate sponsors back when he was piloting the Apollo 11 lunar module and walking on the moon, so he didn't feel too bad about revealing his real opinion of the powdered fruit-flavored drink.
It would appear @TheRealBuzz is not a big fan of Tang. And you thought tonight wouldn't be educational. #GuysChoice— SPIKE TV (@SpikeTV) June 13, 2013
Tang was originally invented in 1957 by the same General Mills food scientist who created Pop Rocks and Cool Whip. Tang was a dud for the company's sales until NASA used the drink on John Glenn's Mercury flight.
Since then, Tang has been associated with U.S. astronauts and spaceflight, even though NASA doesn't use the drink anymore, and vintage television commercials play up the connection.


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SIMI VALLEY, California (CNN) -- President Ronald Reagan was laid to rest at sunset Friday, the culmination of a five-day national farewell full of pomp and somber majesty.
After a final playing of "Hail to the Chief," the 40th president's flag-draped casket was carried by a military honor guard into the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley for an interment service attended by 700 friends and family members.
At the gravesite, with sweeping vistas of the ocean and mountains in the distance, "Taps" was played, military jets flew by in one last salute and his widow, Nancy, a stoic and poignant presence throughout a week of public mourning, received the flag that had been atop his casket and clutched it to her chest.
She then said her final good-bye to the man she called "Ronnie," putting her cheek on the side of the casket and dissolving into tears, as her children comforted her.
The epitaph chosen for Reagan's final resting place, on a wall surrounding his grave, was his own quote: "I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life."
Reagan, 93, died Saturday at his home in Bel Air, California, 10 years after he gracefully slipped from the public's eye with his announcement that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. (Special Report: Ronald Reagan)
Earlier Friday, he had been honored by fellow heads of state not only as the "great communicator" for his political skills, but also as the "great liberator" for his role in ending the Cold War.
But in the Friday twilight, the final tributes were more personal, coming from his three surviving children.
"You know my father as governor, as president, but I knew him as dad," Michael Reagan said. "I was so proud to have the Reagan name and to be Ronald Reagan's son."
"My father never feared death. He never saw it as an ending," Patti Davis said. "I don't know why Alzheimer's was allowed to steal so much of my father before releasing him into the arms of death. But I know that at his last moment, when he opened his eyes -- eyes that had not opened for many, many days -- and looked at my mother, he showed us that neither disease nor death can conquer love."
"He is home now. He is free," said Ron Reagan. "History will record his worth as a leader. We here have long since measured his worth as a man -- honest, compassionate, graceful, brave. He was the most plainly decent man you could ever hope to meet."
At the ceremony's end, U.S. Navy jets flew overhead as a military band played "America the Beautiful."
The motorcade carrying Reagan's casket arrived at the library after traveling a route lined with thousands of admirers. Many drivers stopped and stood beside their cars as the slow-moving motorcade passed by.
Reagan's flag-draped casket was accompanied to California by his family aboard a presidential jet. When the plane touched down at Point Mugu Naval Air Station, it was also greeted by thousands of people waiting to pay their final respects.
Friday morning, in a capital cooled by gray skies and summer rain, Reagan's life and legacy had been celebrated in a funeral service at the National Cathedral, after two days of lying in state at the Capitol, where more than 100,000 people had filed past to pay their respects.
Tributes were laced with laughter and tears as Reagan was hailed as a kind and modest soul who saw the best in America.
"Our 40th president wore his title lightly, and it fit like a white Stetson," said President Bush, offering a graceful nod to Reagan's self-made image as an American cowboy. (Transcript: President Bush)
The former two-term Republican president was remembered by contemporaries, who recalled his firm convictions and gentle spirit, and praised by Bush, who called his life "a great American story."
One of the most moving eulogies came from the first President Bush, who served as Reagan's vice president before winning the White House on his own.
"I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life," Bush said, his voice breaking with emotion. "I learned kindness; we all did. I also learned courage; the nation did."
As president of the United States from 1981 to 1989, Reagan stood firm against communism abroad and battled liberalism at home. Under Reagan, military spending soared -- as did the nation's deficit. Although he often clashed with Congress over budget priorities, his genial personality won him friends even among those who disagreed with his conservative policies.
President Bush had designated Friday, an overcast and drizzly day in Washington, as a day of national mourning, meaning most federal offices were closed. The New York Stock Exchange was also closed. (Reagan ceremonies)
The state funeral in Washington, an elaborate affair carried out with military precision and under tight security, was the first such ceremony since President Lyndon Johnson's service in 1973. It followed services earlier this week in California, where the final scenes in Reagan's last journey will play out Friday evening. In Washington and California, tens of thousands of people passed before Reagan's bier. (Your thoughts)
The mourners represented a who's who of the political world. Former presidents Clinton, Bush, Carter and Ford, along with their wives, sat in the front pews. Key figures from the Reagan administration, including former secretaries of state James Baker and George Shultz, were scattered throughout the vast church. (Interactive: National Cathedral)
About two dozen world leaders, past and present, traveled to Washington for the service. Among them: British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and the presidents of Nigeria, South Africa and Afghanistan.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Reagan's partner in ending the Cold War, sat alongside former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Frail and in poor health, she taped a message months ago honoring Reagan, which was played at the funeral. She accompanied the Reagan family on the trip to California.
"His politics had a freshness and optimism that won converts from every class and every nation, and ultimately from the very heart of the evil empire," Thatcher said, praising Reagan, as others did, as a "great liberator" for standing against the Soviet Union.
The current president praised Reagan as a man of strong convictions and endless optimism.
"He believed the gentleman always does the kindest thing," Bush said. "He believed people were basically good and had the right to be free. He believed that bigotry and prejudice were the worst things that a person could be guilty of. ... He believed America was not just a place in the world, but the hope of the world."
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney recalled Reagan in affectionate terms, speaking about his wit and good humor.
"Ronald Reagan was a president who inspired his nation and transformed the world," he said.
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- appointed to the court by Reagan and its first woman -- read from a 1630 sermon by John Winthrop. That sermon, she noted, had served as the inspiration for Reagan's description of America as a shining "city upon a hill." (Interactive: Hear excerpts from Reagan speeches)
The first President Bush, in his eulogy, spoke of Reagan's humility. He described Reagan in the hospital in 1981, after he was shot in an assassination attempt.
"Days after being shot, weak from wounds, he spilled water from a sink, and entering the hospital room aides saw him on his hands and knees wiping water from the floor," Bush said. "He worried that his nurse would get in trouble."
Reagan, said the first President Bush, personified the American spirit.
"Once he called America hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent and fair," Bush said. "That was America and, yes, our friend."
Reagan's first wife, actress Jane Wyman, broke her silence about her former husband to praise him.
"America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man," Wyman told a close friend, The Desert Sun newspaper in Palm Springs reported.
CNN's Joe Johns, Sean Loughlin, Elaine Quijano, Ed Henry, Ted Barrett and Silvio Carrillo contributed to this report.


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Nation & World
Obama urged to reveal legal linchpins for drone killings
Ten civil and human rights organizations are urging President Barack Obama to make good on a pledge to disclose more details of the administration's targeted killing program by making public the secret legal foundations for drone strikes, ensuring congressional oversight and creating ways of tracking and responding to civilian casualties.
The organizations' call comes as the administration and Congress are beginning to examine the creation of a "legal architecture" to guide future drone strikes, and the White House is considering ending CIA drone operations and shifting them to the Pentagon.
The United States should "take essential steps to ensure meaningful transparency and legal compliance with regard to U.S. targeted killing policies and practices," the groups said in a "statement of shared concerns" they sent to Obama on Thursday and made public on Friday.
Late Friday, Caitlin Hayden, a White House spokeswoman, said senior administration officials had publicly provided "an unprecedented level of transparency into how the government conducts sensitive counterterrorism operations that have undermined terrorists' ability to plot against U.S. interests." (Read Hayden's full statement.)
"We cannot discuss the sensitive details of specific operations but we will continue to disclose as much as we can – as soon as we can – regarding the framework, the standards, and the process through which we approve such operations," Hayden said.
Hayden noted that in February and March the president directed the Justice Department to provide the House and Senate intelligence committees access to classified Office of Legal Counsel advice. However, that came only after repeated requests from the committees for access. Obama, however, has refused to make public the top-secret Justice Department legal opinions outlining the U.S. and international legal justifications for the targeted killing program, on the grounds that they are privileged legal advice to the president.
A Senate Judiciary Committee panel was to have held a hearing on the issue Tuesday. But the session was postponed a week because the White House so far has declined to send a witness, said a congressional aide who requested anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.
CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia are coming under increasing scrutiny amid charges they have claimed hundreds of civilian casualties and violated U.S. and international laws. Critics also contend the strikes ignite popular backlashes that have helped al Qaida and other Islamist groups recruit new militants and eliminate terrorists whose capture could provide critical intelligence.
At least four American extremists – only one of whom was deliberately targeted – are among as many as 3,969 people estimated to have been killed in more than 400 strikes since 2001 by the CIA and the military's Joint Special Operations Command.
On Tuesday, McClatchy published a review of classified U.S. intelligence reports showing that CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal area have killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and "other" militants in marked contrast to the administration's public assurances that only known leaders of al Qaida and allied groups have been targeted.
The nine-page statement sent to Obama was signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and six other groups, including programs at the New York University and Columbia University law schools.
"We call on the administration to: publicly disclose key targeted killing standards and criteria; ensure that U.S. lethal force operations abroad comply with international law; enable meaningful congressional oversight and judicial review; and ensure effective investigations, tracking and response to civilian harm," the statement said.
The groups noted that in his State of the Union speech in February, Obama promised he would make U.S. targeting practices "more transparent to the American people and to the world."
The administration insists that the program complies with U.S. and international laws, including the laws of war and an "inherent right" to self-defense, and is underpinned by a 2001 congressional resolution authorizing the president to use force against al Qaida and associated groups involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It says civilian casualties have been "exceedingly rare."
Obama and top aides contend that drones only have struck "specific senior operational leaders" of al Qaida and associated forces who are known to be plotting imminent violent attacks on Americans and who cannot be captured.
McClatchy's review of the U.S. intelligence reports, however, show that during a one-year period ending in September 2011 at least 265 of up to 482 people estimated to have been killed in CIA drone attacks were not senior al Qaida leaders but instead were "assessed" as lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified "foreign fighters" and "other militants." Drones killed only six top al Qaida leaders in those months, according to news media accounts.
The administration has disclosed only in broad outlines the procedures the CIA and the military's Joint Special Operations Command use in selecting targets, including for so-called "signature strikes" that hit unidentified individuals whose conduct fits patterns of behavior that the U.S. government associates with terrorists.
In their statement, the organizations asserted that the "commitment to the rule of law requires the administration disclose the legal constraints on its lethal targeting operations. Greater disclosure of legal and policy standards, and procedural mechanisms, is a necessary prerequisite to informed assessment and debate by the U.S. public, policymakers charged with conducting oversight, and the international community."


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Please join us for a fun morning at the park! We will be playing at Doerhoefer Park from 10:30 am-12 pm. RSVP on MemberPlanet.
DGAN Social Calendar
The DGAN social calendar is always filled with fun events such as: Ladies Night Out, Book Club, Mom & Tot, Bunco, Family Events, Philanthropy, Couples Date Night, Health & Wellness, Annual Kickoff Party, and New Member Socials. There's something for everyone!
Members must RSVP for DGAN events on MemberPlanet. Please find a MemberPlanet link to RSVP in the event details.
Back to All Events
Earlier Event: May 22Reading Between the Wines
Later Event: June 2Northeast Neighborhood – AROUND THE WORLD Progressive Dinner


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What does "WIIFM" have to do with fostering interfaith and multicultural understanding? This is a question I asked myself when a public relations consultant volunteered to advise the Steering Committee of the Sharon Pluralism Network (SPN). "WIIFM," or "What's in it for me?" refers to the idea that people take interest in activities when they believe that paying attention leads to something of value for them.
Two years ago the SPN was created to bring Sharon's leadership organizations together to support religious, ethnic and cultural pluralism. Its inspiration and direction comes partly from Interfaith Action, Inc., a youth leadership organization started in response to anti-Semitic incidents in town. If you are Jewish, you might know Sharon for its relatively large and diverse Jewish population. What is not widely known is that Sharon also is home to a mosque and a growing Indian Hindu population, as well as several Christian churches and residents who are not affiliated with an organized religion. In addition, Sharon has expanding Chinese and Russian communities. It has been referred to as an "ethnoburb," or multicultural suburb, a concept of growing interest as immigration patterns change in the United States.
Sharon's religious and ethnic diversity reflects the impact of globalization on a local level. Increasingly, we live side-by-side with people who are different from ourselves, but as it turns out, we aren't so good at meeting our neighbors when we see them as unlike us. Robert Putnam, a political scientist and Harvard professor, has written extensively about diversity and the benefits for individuals and society when people can work with their neighbors to invest in their communities. However, in a recent nationwide study in the United States (published in Scandinavian Political Studies, vol. 30, 2007), he found that residents of ethnically diverse communities reported being more isolated and less trusting than residents of homogenous communities. During a radio interview, I heard him express concerns that these findings would be interpreted to suggest that people are better off if they remain separate. He stressed that communities need to actively work to create the "sense of shared citizenship" associated with healthier communities, and that working on the local level is an effective way to build bridges among divergent groups. In other words, people need help to understand their differences, so they do not develop misconceptions and fears that lead to further divisiveness and isolation. Religious, ethnic and cultural differences among people can be a source of personal and civic enrichment and vitality when fostered in the context of openness and understanding.
Not surprisingly, I am frequently met with blank stares when I tell people I am the coordinator of a "pluralism network." The SPN faces several challenges, and as a first step, we have needed to get the word out about the value of pluralism. It is an unfamiliar concept to many people and it differs in important ways from the older idea of our country as "a great melting pot." Pluralism encompasses the process of engaging with and understanding others who are different, while maintaining one's sense of identity and belonging to one's own group.
Our consultant helped us understand that we need to provide opportunities for people to engage in positive experiences of pluralism, to come together to learn about each other in interesting, fun and non-threatening ways. As he would say, "the experience is the product." We decided to start with a medium that holds universal appeal, popular movies. We selected a theme that is relevant across cultures, the struggle between traditional family values and modern society. Through informal discussions and reaching out to members of the various communities, we selected four movies to be shown on separate Sunday evenings. Each featured different ethnic or religious groups in Sharon: Together, about a Chinese child musical prodigy and the complex relationships among people in different social strata; Crossing Delancey, about relationships among first and second generation Jewish immigrants; East-West, a French-produced film about a family who returns to Russia under Stalin; and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, about Hindu and Muslim relations in India. Through contacts with a local rabbi and a member of the Chinese community, we engaged three professors from Brandeis University and one from UMass Boston to discuss the historical and cultural contexts of the movies prior to the viewings. Local community members also spoke about their personal experiences to relate the films to everyday life. A sampling of foods, prepared by local residents and restaurants, provided a gastronomic taste of the featured groups.
The series was very well-received in Sharon and brought capacity crowds to the public library. Animated discussions followed the films and members of the audience from different backgrounds shared similar experiences, sometimes in unexpected ways. For example, when a local resident spoke about her experiences growing up in Stalinist Russia, a member of the audience from Greece related similar feelings growing up during the 1960s Greek military junta. Even when the topic of the film could be quite serious, the food made the evening more festive and helped engage participants in conversations. They were eager to learn the cultural and religious meanings of the dishes, and asked for recipes. We all learned that many cultures have similar dishes, for example, savory pastries come in the form of Chinese dumplings, Jewish knishes, Indian samosas, and Russian vatrushki.
On reflection, the film series was an excellent way to build new connections among diverse community members. Contacts developed in selecting films, coordinating speakers, preparing the foods, and during the evening viewings and discussions. Many attendees asked for another series. In the future, we hope to draw more diverse audiences to the films, since people were more likely to attend the film about their own culture. We have learned that much of the work of bringing people together is about developing personal connections among people across groups, who then can reach out to additional members of their communities.


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I have a dtsx package that fails to run. When I turn on logging I get:
The AcquireConnection method call to the connection manager "MY_DSN" failed with error code 0xC0202009.
MY_DSN is a legitimate DSN and my user has access to the database.
I don't see any messages in the SQL Profiler. I am tracing for the following:
- Audit Login
- Audit Logout
- Existing sessions
- PreConnect Complete
- PreConnect Started.
What other diagnostic tools should I be using to be getting more useful error messages?


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Yes, yes I know.
It has come to my attention that the people who should be posting my blogs have been remiss of late. Shame on them. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize on my, sorry, their behalf. Perhaps they have temporarily run out of witty/wise/timely things to say.
I suggest you go about your business and check back later in the year when the blog muse has returned.
In the meantime, I would like to share two of the "Best of The Season's Catwalk Fashions For Men" posted in today's Guardian. It's almost enough to make me start blogging again.
But I'd have to stop guffawing first.


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This project is an example of how villagers can get access to high-speed broadband networks even in remote and sparsely populated rural areas. It is the winning initiative of the 2019 Rural Inspiration Awards in the 'Rural Revitalisation' category.
Projects & Practice
The Rural Broadband project is a national intervention to close the digital divide in remote and sparsely populated rural 'white areas'.
Developing a herd management tool to optimise efficiency and animal welfare on dairy farms.
A small, remote rural community of around 1 300 inhabitants in Finland launched a Digi-Hub for the elderly.
Five districts in the north of Hesse joined forces to provide fast internet access in a region where no privately financed investment was covering the existing digital divide.
A study financed by the Finnish RDP aimed to find new digital solutions for making reindeer husbandry a more efficient and profitable business.
Developing innovative IT solutions that allow potential clients of a small company to assess the efficiency of the promoted software for emergency services.
A LEADER funded project to expand and upgrade the current transmission network on the small island of Samsø.
Visualising how today's archeological sites and antique remains looked in ancient times using a smartphone application.
A cultural association in remote rural Latvia used LEADER support to foster co-creation in the local community, resulting in a museum exhibition that is unique in the Baltic States.


text: We at Thursday Plantation believe in the pure power of plant oils to restore your skin. From relieving skin abrasions to restoring radiant, healthy looking skin, we have you and your family's health and beauty needs covered. Our products are made and tested to a high standard and are ideal for the whole family to use.


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Hello to all,
This question will probably be closed down as being off-topic faster than one can say "string theory", but here it goes: I've noticed that the problems I'm working on -the structure of derived categories of some interesting surfaces- have a very important physical meaning. Unfortunately, I have in no way any idea as to why. Is there anyone out there who could give a mathematical explanation -or a link to a paper- as to why physicists would be interested in such highly abstract gizmos like derived categories, mutation, orbifolding, tilting...(the list goes on and on)


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Arnie Gundersen: 40 years is not middle age for nuke plants/
This Wednesday, Vermont Yankee will have operated for 40 years. Unlike with people, 40 years old is not middle age for a nuclear power plant. Original documents submitted to the Vermont Public Service Board during the Yankee up-rate hearings showed the plant was designed for 40 years of operation, not 60 years as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is promoting, and not the new 80-year dream the commission is contemplating for implementation on older reactors.
If the 20-year license extension the commission granted to Vermont Yankee —without a valid Certificate for Public Good issued by the state —takes place starting Thursday, Vermont Yankee will be entering that rarified group of truly old nuclear reactors.
In fact, no large commercial nuclear power reactor has operated for more than 47 years. No navy nuclear submarine or nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has lasted 40 years. The reality is that there are no empirical data to suggest nuclear plants can operate reliably as long as the NRC has now licensed VY to operate.
The Oldbury Power Station in England, formerly the oldest operating nuclear reactor, shut down permanently Feb. 29 at 44 years old, and it is expected to take 80 years to decommission.
Vermont Yankee is now within three years of holding the record as the oldest operating nuclear plant in the world.
This Wednesday, which should herald the shut down of this aging reactor, marks a new transition into uncharted territory for Yankee. On Thursday, if VY continues to operate, it becomes one of only a few nuclear plants experimenting with aging issues the nuclear industry has so far managed unsuccessfully.
If Vermont Yankee is able to complete this 20-year NRC license extension, the plant will be 60 years old at its end in March 2032. In the United States, 18 nuclear plants, most of which were younger than Yankee, already have been shut down permanently. Most have been shut down because they were unreliable and too expensive to repair, but two plants, Three Mile Island Unit 2 and Fermi 1, were closed due to nuclear meltdowns.
Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 was a plant very similar to Vermont Yankee before it was the first reactor to explode during last year's triple meltdown following the earthquake and tsunami. When the reactor ruptured March 12, 2011, spewing radioactivity around the northern hemisphere, Fukushima Daiichi had been operating only one month past its 40th birthday.
Nuclear engineers throughout the world are still trying to ascertain why three meltdowns and total containment failures occurred and were totally unanticipated by the nuclear industry and regulators. Weak, structurally inadequate pipes in Unit 1 are expected as one causative factor in its rapid demise.
Like Vermont Yankee, Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 was a boiling water reactor with a Mark 1 containment, and like Yankee, Fukushima had just received its license extension to operate beyond its 40-year design life. When Fukushima Daiichi 1 exploded, it was only 13 months older than Vermont Yankee is now.
A nuclear design that explodes is not considered clean, safe or reliable. Yet all of the significant design features in the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 were identical to those at VY, except that Fukushima was designed to withstand a stronger earthquake.
What can Vermonters expect from Vermont Yankee during the next two decades? Hopefully, the fate of Fukushima Daiichi 1 will be avoided, but aging phenomena certainly will take their course. And, while Vermont might be anticipating a 20-year ongoing relationship with Yankee, there is no long-term commitment by Entergy and VY. The continued operation of Vermont Yankee is very much a year-to-year decision by Entergy's management, based upon how much money is being made for Entergy versus the investments necessary to keep the plant running.
Vermont Yankee's tired condenser, one of the oldest in the US, must be replaced at a cost in excess of $200 million. At about the same time, safety back-fits, anticipated to cost about $100 million and required by the NRC as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdown, will be forced upon the aging plant in 2016.
Will Entergy spend an additional $300 million on such an old plant when the oldest plant has reached only 44 years old? I have always maintained that Entergy and VY are all about economics and profit margins rather than reliability and long-term investment and job creation in Vermont.
I was the first chair of the Vermont Yankee Oversight Panel, which stated in its 2010 report:
"No report written today can state conclusively that Vermont Yankee will or will not be operated reliably for an additional 20 years. ... The Panel also recognizes several key management concerns that have not been rectified or addressed. Moreover, it appears that some of these broad concerns may in fact be as persistent in 2010 as in 2009. Entergy cannot operate VY reliably for an additional 20 years unless it successfully reestablishes a corporate culture where its individual employees and the organization as a whole have a questioning attitude, and where adequate resources are consistently spent on non-safety systems."
Although it might appear the state of Vermont was outspent by Entergy and its lawyers in federal court in its stated desire to operate for 20 more years, the economic reality of operating an old Mark 1 boiling water reactor on the banks of the Connecticut River likely will lead to its shut down much sooner than 2032.
Arnie Gundersen lives in Burlington and is the chief engineer for Fairewinds Associates, a paralegal services and expert witness firm specializing in the review of nuclear engineering, reliability and safety issues. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in nuclear engineering from RPI, was a senior vice president for a nuclear services firm, has a reactor operator's license and holds a nuclear safety patent.
Source: Burlington Free Press


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13 Lowther St
Whanganui, Manawatu-Wanganui, 4500
(06) 343 7957
Maori Postal Aotearoa is a society incorporated under the Charitable Trusts Act, 1957, and functions as a Gospel literature outreach to people throughout Aotearoa. The society produces material that is available to all groups who desire to use it.
CLICK: For Sermons
CLICK: For Radio


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Flag: Croatian
Nationality of Officers:Croatian
Number of Crew: 6
Passenger Capacity: 38
Beam:8,6 m
Adriatic Treasures on Aurora
Split (Croatia) - Split (Croatia)
8 days / 7 nights - Oct 05, 2019
Split, Korcula, Slano, Dubrovnik, Mljet, Hvar, Bol and Milna aboard Aurora
Featuring a nice combination of lovely swim stops and learning lessons this cruise program is worth raising a glass to, with a round trip itinerary from Split that calls on little ports of Dalmatian islands and Dubrovnik. Each stop along the way is a discovery itself; jewels and hideaways that make this route a delight in exploration, culture and romance.
Day 1: SPLIT
Transfer from Split apt to Split harbor where you will be welcomed by our cruise representative. Check in starts from 13:00h. In case your flight arrives earlier, let us take care of your luggage so you can enjoy the beautiful charm of Split on your own till the check in time. Get settled and join welcome reception onboard at 07:30 pm. Captain will wait for all passengers arriving late at night and these guests will be provided with cold dinner.
Overnight in Split.
Day 2: SPLIT – KORCULA
Early in the morning we set sail for the island of Korcula, rich in vineyards, olive groves, small villages with numerous bays and coves. Swim stop in one of the beautiful bays, perfect to enjoy the beautiful atmosphere of the unspoiled nature, lush vegetation and crystal clear sea. Lunch onboard. Afternoon arrival in Korcula. This is said to be the birthplace of Marco Polo and we shall be taken on an interesting tour along the winding streets of this lovely town. After the tour, enjoy some free time to sip a glass of local wine or coffee at an outdoor cafe, take a dip in the sea or just continue walking the streets. Overnight in Korcula.
Meals on board: breakfast, lunch
Day 3: KORCULA - SLANO/STON - DUBROVNIK
Early in the morning we depart to Slano, a small town indented into a 2km long bay. From here we will start our gastro adventure towards Ston, the gastronomic center of the county. The town with the longest walls in Europe is situated near Dubrovnik, and is surrounded by breathtaking scenery which, together with the picturesque city architecture, forms a harmonic entity. Once we are there we will visit oyster farm in Ston where you will learn how oysters and mussels are cultivated in this region, and why they are so delicious. You will enjoy a rustic oyster and mussel tasting with local wine under the shade of the trees. After the tour, we continue our journey to Dubrovnik. Enjoy the sunset dinner while we sail alongside the old city walls. Enjoy the sunset usually only seen on beautiful pictures. This time is for you to make the magnificent photographs and memories that will last a lifetime. Overnight in Dubrovnik.
Meals on board: breakfast, tasting and dinner
Day 4: DUBROVNIK
After breakfast guided tour of the Old Town. After the tour of this stunningly intact walled city on the Adriatic Sea coast, we will take cable car from the Old Town to Sr? mountain, a place with the breathtaking views of the Old City of Dubrovnik, the crystal clear Adriatic Sea, and the numerous islands. Have a drink, snack or a meal at the snack bar or in the restaurant overlooking the Old City. Overnight in Dubrovnik.
Meals on board: breakfast
Day 5: DUBROVNIK – MLJET
Today we sail to Mljet - the most beautiful and most forested island in the Adriatic and one of the most beautiful pearls of the Mediterranean. Mljet is also well known for it's two salted lakes - Veliko and Malo Jezero that are located at the north end of the island. The Benedictine monastery located at one of the most beautiful locations in these areas, on the island of St. Mary on Veliko jezero is also the most visited location and symbol of the National Park. Join the cruise manager on this magnificent tour and check what is the reason this island was a favorite holiday spot for the Greek hero Ulysses. Captain's dinner onboard. Overnight in port Pomena.
Meals on board: breakfast, lunch and dinner
Day 6: MLJET – HVAR
Early in the morning we set sail to Hvar. It's the longest and the sunniest island in Croatia, definitely one of the most beautiful islands in the world. It's the sunniest island in Europe (2724 sunny hours each year)! No island has more UNESCO heritage in the world, and most probably you didn't know the fact that the first public theatre in Europe is located right here on Hvar (older than Shakespeare's theatre in the UK). Your evening is free to explore this amazing holiday spot by yourself. We suggest you to take a jeep safari which will take you away from the popular tourist resorts, on an intoxicating voyage of discovery through the aromatic hills of rosemary and lavender, through the various hilltop villages of the island, and along tracks off-limits to most vehicles.
Meals on board: breakfast and lunch
Note: port of call can be substituted for Stari Grad because of the limited capacity of Hvar harbor. In that case transfer to and from Hvar will be organized by ship manager.
Day 7: HVAR - BOL/MILNA – SPLIT
Next we head to Brac, the largest island in central Dalmatia famous for two things: its radiant white stone, used to build Diocletian's Palace in Split and the White House in Washington, DC, and Zlatni Rat, the long, golden, pebbly beach at Bol that extends lasciviously into the Adriatic. The beach protrudes over 500m out into the Adriatic sea, in a v-shape, surrounded by deep blue water. The shape of the beach changes with the wind, which makes it one of the unique in Croatia. If weather permits swim stop at the Golden Horn as we freshly prepare lunch on board. Enjoy our last day specialties as we sail to our final port Split. Upon arrival, join the walking tour through Split with an expert guide who will bring the past to life and also tell you a lot about Split today. Stroll the streets of Split and learn many interesting facts that make this unique town's history so full of intrigue. Take part of a story of this more than 1700 years old town, founded by a Roman emperor Diocletian who chose this beautiful place for his retirement residence. Let the story of who he was and why he loved Dalmatia so much amaze you! Overnight in Split.
Meals on board: breakfast, lunch
Day 8: SPLIT
After breakfast it's time to disembark. You will be transferred to Split airport.
Meals on board: breakfast
Cruise Rates per person based on double-occupancy.
|Public fares
|Bonus fares
|Lower Deck
|Main/Upper Deck
Additional charges
|Charge type
|3rd pax reduction
|Single supplement - Lower Deck
|Single supplement - Main/Upper Deck
Other notices
RATES INCLUDE: • • • Accommodation in a chosen cabin category on 7 night /8 day cruise with ship's facilities at your disposal
• Breakfast daily, welcome dinner and 6 lunches (3 course menu)
• Captain`s dinner with live entertainment
• Water 0.5l bottle per person per day
• Daily fresh fruit served in the main lounge
• Local tour guides for the walking tours of Split, Korcula, Dubrovnik and Mljet
• Oyster tasting Ston
• Cable car fee Dubrovnik
• One way bus transfer from Dubrovnik port to Old town Dubrovnik for sightseeing tour
• Mljet NP entrance fee
• Professional cruise manager (English speaking)
• Daily cabin service
• Free Wi-Fi on board
• Luggage handling
• Drinks/ beverages from the ship's bar
• Pre/post cruise accommodation ( organized on request )
• Taxes and fees, € 30,00 per person to be paid on board in cash
• Tips or any other items of personal nature
Every effort will be made to adhere to the scheduled itinerary ; however, due to the schedule changes beyond organizer's control, we reserve the right, without prior notice, to change routing or alter shore excursions.
* DELECTA Ltd.reserves the right to change the vessel provider in case of the contracted services are not supplied according to the previously agreed standards.
Bookings are on request and need to be confirmed.
30 % reservation deposit per person based on the total cost of the cruise should be paid within 7 days from our written confirmation.
Deposit is non refundable.
In some ports of call the ship may be moored sideways to other boats. Passengers would need to walk through another boat to reach pier. Assistance will be provided to the passengers with walking difficulties.
All the swim breaks are weather permitting.
Final payment is due 50 days prior to departure.
* up to 50 days prior to the cruise commencement - loss of deposit
49 - 21 days prior to the cruise commencement - 50 % of the cruise rate
20-0 days days prior to the cruise commencement - 100 % of the cruise rate


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Kitakitz.com photo gallery
Photos of current and former clients and or professionals I have been fortunate to train with. Photos also from our various venues and seasonal bootcamp. Mr. MANNY PACQUIAO was NOT a client, but I was given permission to observe his training and consult with his various conditioning and technical trainers including Mr. Freddie Roach.Read More