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Today's post is a part of my quest to hone my photography skills.
In order to take a good picture you need to of course know how to use your camera (which I'm still in the process of doing), BUT you also need to have something great to photograph.
The recipes I see on food blogs I follow have amazing pictures. Which makes sense: if you want people to make the food you've created you need to make them believe it's good/tasty/worth it!
I by no means consider myself a food blogger, and will never live up to the likes of Kristin or Kath (and her ability to make oatmeal look gorgeous). That being said I found myself eager to learn some tips & tricks that could help me better capture my kitchen creations.
If there's one thing I've learned from food bloggers it's: find the right light.
That's where today's project comes in: an at home photo studio!
A few pieces of poster board are all you need to create a portable light-reflecting "studio."
- 3 pieces of foam board (I got this Elmer's Brand 3-pack at Target)
- 1 small sheet of thin poster board
- duct tape
Simply arrange foam board into a three-sided box.
Use duct tape to secure edges.
Place next to a window (natural light is the best), grab your camera, and shoot!
A white background is one of the best ways to make an object/food stand out.
Another trick I came across was the use of a "sweep" which will remove the distinct line in the background where the boards intersect. This is when the thin piece of poster board comes into play.
Attach it with a piece of tape and place object at the bottom. Voila! Line gone!
You can also take that same concept and get crazy with patterned fabric, felt, dish towels, etc. The background you choose can drastically alter the feel of the picture.
I found these felt pieces at Hobby Lobby. 50 cents each? Don't mind if I do.
I used my new "photo studio" to shoot my Pumpkin Pie Protein Bar recipe.
Z walked in and found me like this:
Sure it's a tight space, but the window and small table make it an ideal location! (Please pay no attention to my "outfit" and by outfit I mean "blanket skirt". That's a whole other story…)
So far I'm having lots of fun learning more about photography and experimenting as I go along. I'll continue sharing what I learn with all of you!
Like this post? You may also be interested in:
October Photo Challenge
Week 1 Recap, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4


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"I was especially happy to be exposed to using tools (e.g. Dgroups, blogs, etc) which I had only seen, but never quite understood how they worked. I am glad we have been able to start one D-group as a result of this workshop. I'll now be looking to identify & advise on areas where we can apply these tools to work more efficiently."
"Acquérir des nouvelles connaissances ou techniques en ce domaine précis me réconforte dans mes activités; étant appelé à faciliter les contacts au sein des réseaux local et national en information agricole. J'ai découvert d'autres outils de diffusion de l'information que le blog que je mettrai à profit."
"Lots of what was shared and taught was in some way already known, however bringing things into perspective for online groups was most insightful. I will take away from the workshop the clear image that so long as the purpose of the group is kept constantly in focus then the facilitator can find paths to get there."
"This workshop has been an eye-opener and I am very glad to have participated. Building trust as you get to know the people is still important for successful work."
"I am now a little more confident about participating in online discussions and may even try now to link up with the group I met previously."

subset: commoncrawl


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They must have put some effort into this, because the platform is available in about every thinkable language.
Si les sites de rencontres connus du grand public sont souvent les sites généralistes, d'autres sites, dans une logique de stratégie de niche, se sont spécialisés pour les cougars, les échangistes, les infidèles, les gays, les musulmans, les célibataires exigeants, les bears ou encore les afro-descendants.
He then started a solo career and released his first solo EP on 2003.
And if helping in the kitchen for a few minutes would distract Hermione from Mum's horribly sexist ideas, well… He crossed his arms and leaned against one of the tables and didn't look anything like a bloke who was about to take on four (well, really three because, as I said before, George wasn't a part of this and I'm already firmly on Harry's side in this matter) of his girlfriend's older brothers. I took a step forward, just to kind of calm things down, but Harry shook his head at me so I stopped. "I expected better from you, really." Then Harry did something that was either really brave or really stupid and turned his back on Bill, leaving him sputtering while he tried to find something to say. "If I don't promise to stay away from your sister, you're going to feed me to your dragons, right? She knows things, and she obviously knew something was going on. There is one more thing, though," I said, turning back to the hanging trio.


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Monday, 24 September 2007
The Curse of the Bromley Boys?
Now I'm not superstitious. Actually, that's a lie -- of course I'm superstitious, I'm a football fan. And I can't help noticing that since taking on The Bromley Boys, my own football team, York City, have started taking on Bromley Boys type characteristics. Having narrowly failed to reach the Wembley play-off final back in May, they're now down among the dead man of the Conference (I can't bring myself to call it the Blue Square Premier). Their record so far this season reads
P11 W2 D2 L7 GD-9 Pts8.
I would say that if this goes on, they'll be playing Bromley themselves next season. Except that regional differences means that York would be relegated to the Conference North division. And besides, Bromley, currently lying in 6th place in the Conference South division may well be promoted in their place.
Next time, I'm doing a book on Manchester United...
Posted by Tom Bromley at 07:39
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In its broad outlines the current financial crisis was foreseen, though not in its specific detail. Virtually all of the major central banks and international financial institutions had been warning about the underpricing of risk and excessive leveraging by 2006/7. the BIS had been warning about it for years. Admittedly few outside the banks themselves knew about the growth and extent of the grey, or shadow, banking system in the guise of conduits, SIVs, etc., and, since a main rationale for this shadowy sub-system was regulatory arbitrage, the banks were not loudly advertising such activities.
So I very much doubt whether insufficient information was a major problem in this crisis. And even if the central banks had had more information, what could they have done with it? There are those who believe that public warnings, based on better information, would help. But I remember Robin Leigh-Pemberton warning the British banks in 1988/89 against making more property loans. And did it make a blind bit of difference? Even if Mother Teresa, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope were to warn against a certain line of bank activities, it would do no good; indeed probably the reverse because immoral actions are usually short-term fun and profitable.
The problem is not information, but the lack of instruments that can be used to counter the bubbles in asset prices and bank lending that precede and create the subsequent bust (and also the will to use such few prudential instruments as may be available to temper an asset price bubble). When I served Eddie George as an adviser on prudential matters, the Bank of England had a financial stability committee, meant in some ways to be the counterpart of the Monetary Policy Committee. But it was not, of course. The MPC sets the interest rate; it has a role and a function. The FSC set nothing; it had nothing it could set; it was just a talking shop, rehearsing potential fragilities and dangers in the financial system, to be later revealed to a public, awaiting with anxious trepidation, in the Bank's Financial Stability Review.
Now this is better than nothing, but not much. The Bank's FSC, the BIS and the IMF can warn till they are blue in the face, with the benefit of more and more information, but it will not do much good. What we need are counter-cyclical instruments.
Can we use the one counter-cyclical instrument that Central Banks now have, the interest rate, to counter asset price bubbles? Most economists say, 'no'; interest rates should be predicated to achieving price stability. Broadly I agree, but I would make two points. First, should not a proper definition of price stability include housing prices; currently excluded from the European CPI; and second even if interest rates were to lean a little against asset price bubbles, (and those in bank lending), for example via Otmar Issing's second pillar, it probably would not be enough to flatten a strong bubble and bust in asset markets by much.
What else have Central Banks got to counter asset price, and bank lending fluctuations? Most regulation is currently pro-cyclical. The combination of Basel II and mark-to-market accounting further drives the procyclical spiral. Most official, and unofficial, studies of the financial turmoil have been silent on the responsibility of the regulatory system for our present troubles.
At least when the bust does finally come, central banks can help pick up the pieces with liquidity support. But here there are problems too. First there is the stigma issue. Because of this many of the supposed first-round defences, for example lending at the discount-window, or upper band, became largely unusable. Second, when push came to shove, Central Banks were effectively forced to lend to all systemic parts of the financial system on the basis of whatever the latter had available. Is there not a moral hazard in that? Why should commercial banks hold low-yielding safe assets in good times, if central banks will lend on anything that banks can rustle up in bad times?
Central banks did nothing during the asset price and leveraged credit bubble prior to 2007, because there was almost nothing that they could do. And now there are suggestions that central banks should be made statutorily responsible, at least in the USA and UK, for systemic financial stability. You may have heard the phrase, normally attributed to newspaper magnates, that 'power without responsibility is the prerogative of the harlot'. Well, 'responsibility without power is the prerogative of a eunuch'. Not only are our Central Banks currently eunuchs in this case, but the life of a harlot probably involves more fun and better earnings than the life of a eunuch.
So, what needs to be done to give our central bank some balls? In broad terms capital and liquidity requirements have, somehow, to be made counter-cyclical, and I would add maximum, time-varying, loan-to-value ratios reintroduced. There are four generic counter-arguments against doing all that:-
First, it raises the cost of borrowing in good times, and hurts in particular the first-time buyer in the housing chain then;
Second, if introduced separately in an individual country, it will just drive the business off-shore;
Third, it may greatly increase the informational burden on banks; and
Fourth, by imposing greater costs on commercial banks during expansionary phases, it will even further enhance the incentive to off-load assets onto associated off-balance sheet entities.
These arguments will be deployed; and central banks need to respond robustly. Moreover the penalties for failure to disclose all associated off-balance sheet business entities need to be reinforced.
Perhaps the most problematical issue is liquidity, because a central bank, as we have now graphically seen, will lend against almost anything when a real crisis hits. My view is that a central bank cannot possibly commit to stand aside in such a case. But it may be able to commit to vary the rate at which it lends depending on the prior history of liquidity maintenance by each bank. If you add to that a Special Resolution Regime such that banks that find higher priced emergency lending driving them towards insolvency can be taken over quickly enough by the authorities, then maybe we can devise enough carrots and sticks to devise a time-varying liquidity scheme. I have already tried my hand at one such proposal in my paper on 'Liquidity and Money Market Operations: A Proposal', available on the Financial Markets Group website at LSE. No doubt that can be much improved. Please do so.
Similarly a time-varying LTV needs to be supported by legal restrictions on second mortgages and home equity loans. Germany, I believe, does this. Should anyone, ever, be able to borrow more than, say, 97% of the current value of a property? If not 97%, what would be your preferred figure? 125% as Northern Rock did? And should appraisers of housing values somehow be made legally responsible, or at the very least independent of mortgage lenders and other interested parties in the deal?
As you mostly know, Avinash Persaud and I have proposed time-vary CARs based on growth rates of asset prices and bank lending, and we have further work to do on that, to fill in many of the important details.
So let me conclude. What does a Financial Stability Committee need to give it potency? What I believe that it must have is the power to revise liquidity arrangements, capital requirements and LTVs on a time-varying counter-cyclical basis. One of the war-time slogans in the UK was 'Give us the tools and we will finish the job'. Currently there are no such proper tools; let us construct them.


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After murdering the mother of his three children in a drunken rage, Antrim man Philip Hull tenderly held his estranged wife's body and decided that he could not bear to live without her, the Coroner heard last week.
Battling drink and depression, Philip Hull's once idyllic life with childhood sweetheart Sharon had ended in acrimony - and then boiled over into terrifying violence.
Both grieving families were forced to endure a horrific account of just what happened in the early hours of October 2, 2010 when two promising young lives were cut senselessly short.
The court heard that 34-year-old Mr. Hull had refused to accept the marriage was over. Then, faced with the agonizing prospect of life without Sharon, he chose to end it all.
(Source: Antrim Guardian)
A pensioner was killed following a single vehicle road accident in Newry last weekend. The accident happened on the Armagh Road shortly before 12.30am on Saturday.
The 70-year-old man was taken to hospital, but died a short time later. No-one else was involved in the accident.
(Source: Crossexmainer.co.uk)
A terrified Carlow teenager is convinced she escaped "another Larry Murphy" when a stranger punctured her tyre, then chillingly began to follow her home in his car.
The 19-year-old from south Carlow, who works in a drive thru restaurant in Kilkenny City, was petrified when a man lay in wait outside the fast-food outlet, and then disturbingly watched as she got into her car and began to follow her.
The quick-thinking teen rang 999 and Gardaí directed her in to Kilkenny city, where they pounced on the sick stalker, who was still following behind her in his sliver Nissan jeep.
The terrifying night began on Tuesday 14 February at 11.20pm while the girl was working at the drive thru hatch.
But 20 minutes later, the Carlow girl noticed the man's jeep still parked in the restaurant's car park and, a short distance away, the man was standing beside her car, staring into it.
When he saw the young woman looking out from the restaurant, the man crouched down to the ground, near her front wheel.
A few minutes later, he moved his jeep, parking it beside the teen's car.
However, when they were closing the restaurant, the stranger appeared to be gone. But just as her male colleague left, the Carlow teen noticed the stalker again.
Kilkenny Gardaí arrested the man and investigations are continuing.
(Source: The Carlow Nationalist)
Irish owned company Comfort Keepers Homecare has created over 500 new jobs nationwide, 26 of which will be in Cavan. Within Cavan they are looking for one full-time employee and 25 part-time carers. Comfort Keepers provide people with both medical and non-medical assonance in people's homes.
The news comes as the HSE confirms that there has been a 4.7% reduction in the allocation for home help hours in Cavan and Monaghan this year.
(Source: The Anglo Celt)
Members of the Doolin Coast Guard executed an unusual rescue last Tuesday when they abseiled down a sea cliff to rescue a puppy trapped on a ledge 65ft above water.
Boxer pup Rosie and her mum, Ruby, had gone missing from the farm of Pat and Margaret Considine at Rehy near the mouth of the River Shannon on Monday. The dogs accompanied a group of people taking part in a farm walk on the land but are thought to have wandered off after picking up the scent of a herd of wild goats.
(Source: The Clare Champion)
A replacement 250 capacity prison for Cork may be built on the current site to reduce chronic overcrowding. Justice Minister Alan Shatter announced plans to build a new facility close to the current site on Rathmore Road on the North side of the city, in the current prison car park.
Source: (Cork Independent)
One of the major festivals planned for Derry's City of Culture year will now not go ahead.
The WOMAD world music festival was due to take place in the city as part of the 2013 culture celebrations.
But after feasibility study undertaken by the Culture Company - the body organizing events in 2013 - the festival will not go ahead due to financial risk.
The North's deputy first minister Martin McGuinness says he is disappointed the festival is off the 2013 calendar.
(Source: Derry Journal)
Bundoran Town Council proceedings stooped to a new low when the Mayor, Cllr. Michael McMahon, was branded "an asshole" by council colleague, Cllr. Florence Doherty.
The outburst occurred while members were considering the Draft Fraud and Corruption Policies for Donegal Local Authorities.
There was a general consensus that the Draft Policies should be approved without discussion but Cllr. Florence Doherty felt the issue merited further discussion. Things got heated and words were exchanged.
(Source: Donegal Democrat)
A doctor who sexually assaulted three nurses was hired by the Southern Health and Social Care Trust to work in Daisy Hill.
Dr. Satpal Jabbal was hired to work in Daisy Hill Hospital for a year despite the fact that he was under investigation for three different sexual assaults on staff in a hospital he previously worked in.
The doctor's bizarre behavior came to light after a General Medical Council (GMC) fitness to practice panel launched an investigation into him.
In a written statement one nurse told how in 2001 Dr. Jabbal "freaked out" in a staff room when she playfully grabbed a remote control from his hand.
The nurse's report tells how Dr. Jabbal grabbed her left breast after she attempted to change the channel of the television.
He then stamped on a bag of crisps the nurse had, threw a cup of hot coffee over her and pushed the television off its stand.
The GMC also heard how he subjected another nurse to a continuous campaign of harassment between March 2006 and February 2007 and grabbed the breast of a third nurse as she tended to a patient who was under anesthetic.
(Source: Newry Democrat)
A Garda sergeant is facing the sack after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a female colleague while on duty at a Dublin Garda station.
The veteran officer, who is in his 40s and had an "unblemished record", had pleaded not guilty at Dublin District Court to two counts of sexually assaulting his colleague, who was then on her first Garda station posting, on dates in March and June 2010.
Reporting restrictions were imposed earlier to prevent the identification of the complainant. This included an order prohibiting publication of the defendant's name, place of work and where the incidents allegedly occurred.
During the non-jury trial, now retired Garda Inspector James Flood told Judge Bridget Reilly that he investigated the claims and the defendant's attitude was "it never took place, he denied both allegations
(Source: The Evening Herald)
A high risk pedophile who travelled across Northern Ireland to go bathing in a holiday center has admitted doing so in breach of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
The 63-year-old child molester Robert John Liddle admitted travelling from his Co Fermanagh home to the Silver Cliffs Holiday Village in Co Antrim last July "which afforded him access to a child or young person".
Under the SOPO, Liddle, of Moorlough Road, Lisnaskea, should have obtained "consent from his designated risk manager" before making the unauthorized trip to the Clare Road holiday village in Ballycastle on July 11 last year.
Liddle, who has convictions for sexually abusing children as young as six and in 2000 was described as a "high risk" and a "danger to young girls" when jailed for two years for indecently assaulting an 11-year-old.
(Source: Belfast Telegraph)
The commitment of the engineering and business faculties at NUI Galway to engage with local enterprises was a key factor in the decision by an indigenous cloud computing firm to create 80 new jobs in the city.
SourceDogg, who announced the 80 new jobs last week, have decided to move most of their operations to the IDA Business Park in Dangan just over two years after the company began operating in Dublin.
Company founders John Quigley and NUI Galway graduate Mark Scanlon are to maintain their development team in the capital, but otherwise they see their long-term future in Galway after beginning the process of moving to the West last September.
(Source: Galway Bay FM)
A man whose wife died more than two months after undergoing brain surgery has partially settled his High Court action arising from her death.
Dermot Finn's wife Noreen (58) died at Cork University Hospital in April 1997. Arising from her death, he sued the Southern Health Board; two neurosurgeons – Timothy Buckley and Charles Marks – of Cork University Hospital; and a Killarney GP, Dr. Miriam McCarthy.
When the case came before Mr. Justice Éamon de Valera last week, Eoin McCullough SC, for the neurosurgeons and GP, said there was a partial concession of liability in relation to the medics and an open offer of €300,000, plus costs, was being made to Mr. Finn.
(Source: Irish Times)
A violent criminal and his teenage pal were shot dead when gunmen stormed a house last week.
The killers opened up indiscriminately with a shotgun and an automatic handgun, killing gangland figure Andy Barry and the teenager from Lithuania at the house in Co Kildare.
Two others in the house at Kilcock were wounded in the crossfire, one seriously.
There are fears of a savage retaliation after the killing of Barry (30), a nephew of notorious crime suspect Troy Jordan.
Two other men who were in the house at Rochford Avenue in Kilcock at 10.20pm last Tuesday night were seriously injured in the gun attack. The killings unfolded in the downstairs area of the house when it was stormed by masked gunmen.
Murdered Barry, a drug dealer, was at the center of a bitter feud that has seen numerous violent incidents in the Tallaght area over the past two months.
(Source: Evening Herald)
Dozens of small and medium sized Kilkenny businesses are expected to remain in business and prosper thanks to a new fund.
Reacting to criticism to the way the EU funds small food producers, Phil Hogan, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has announced that five million euros will be provided to support the creation and development of Agri-Food enterprises in rural Ireland.
Based on recent research conducted by the Local Development sector this funding has the potential to create more than 200 jobs directly as well as sustaining a number of jobs currently available in the sector.
(Source: Kilkenny People)
Walkers on a daily stroll in the picturesque grounds of Emo Court were shocked to discover a dead horse in their path.
The young horse is believed to have been dumped sometime last Tuesday night in the old avenue up to Emo Court, Willowtonian Avenue.
It is believed that the dead animal was ferried to the popular walking spot in a horsebox. A tree was used as an improvised anchor to yank the dead animal out of the horsebox after one of the hind legs was tied to it.
(Source: Leinster Express)
Images of Blacklion and Co Cavan will be beamed into the homes of over two million Americans this St Patrick's Day.
Footage was captured last week in Co Cavan and across the island of Ireland for a series of short film clips, which will be aired on the NBC TV network during its live coverage of the New York St Patrick's Day parade, which is being sponsored by Tourism Ireland. The footage will focus on themes like culinary Ireland and our world-class food; Christian Heritage and the St Patrick's Trail; i2012 and the extensive program of events and historic anniversaries taking place in Northern Ireland this year; adventure and outdoor activity in the west of Ireland; and genealogy.
During their time in Blacklion, a village on the border of Co Fermanagh and Co Leitrim, the NBC crew visited the award-winning MacNean House in Blacklion, where they captured footage of celebrity chef Neven Maguire, who cooked a delicious trio of Irish lamb, showcasing the high standard of Irish cuisine and helping to raise awareness of Ireland as a superb food tourism destination.
(Source: Leitrim Observer)
A study undertaken by researchers at the University of Limerick has found that teenage girls spend an average of 19 hours a day either sitting or lying down.
Over 100 girls aged between 15 and 18 took part in the study which measured how much time they spent sitting, standing or lying down using a small accelerometer device.
The researchers found that the total amount of time spent sitting and lying down was the same on weekdays as on Saturdays and Sundays.
However, the results of the study show that on weekdays the total amount of time spent sitting or lying down was accumulated through longer periods of inactivity lasting 20 minutes or more.
The research found that these long periods of sitting were more frequent on days when the girls were attending school.
(Source: Limerick Leader)
Gardaí are investigating an incident in which a man who appeared at last week's sitting (Tuesday, March 6) of Longford District Court escaped from a patrol car in Ballyfermot while being transferred to a Dublin prison on a committal warrant.
The man, who appeared at Longford District Court charged in connection with a theft charge, escaped from Garda custody when the vehicle he was traveling in was set upon by a number of men and is now deemed to be "unlawfully at large" by Gardaí.
The prisoner, who was released on bail following his appearance in Longford District Court on Tuesday, had been served with a committal warrant in respect of a separate matter.
(Source: Longford Leader)
Three inquiries are taking place into the suicide of Shane Rogers, who had been charged with the murder of Crossmaglen GAA star James Hughes.
Rogers (32), Deery Terrace, Inniskeen took his own life in a holding cell following a court appearance at Cloverhill District Court in Dublin.
The inquest into his death has been taking place at Dublin Coroner's Court.
Rogers had been charged with the murder James Hughes a few days before he took his own life late last year.
Mr. Hughes was in a taxi with an ex-girlfriend of Mr. Rogers, Trish Byrne, in Dundalk, when Mr. Rogers opened fire several times with a shotgun. Ms. Byrne was injured in the incident.
(Source: Dundalk Democrat)
Corrib gas protestor claims his car window was smashed by a Garda baton as he attempted to move his vehicle to the side of the road, as directed. Longtime campaigner, and spokesman for Pobal Chill Chomáin, John Monaghan told The Mayo News that 'raw video footage' he has delivered to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, as part of a formal complaint, revealed clearly that he was attempting to comply with the Garda direction when his side-window was smashed.
He said the video also records the same Garda threatening to pepper-spray him during the incident, which occurred shortly after midday on February 22 last. The Garda was on-duty on the rural road with two other Gardaí near Glengad, the site of Shell works for the final phase of the project.
(Source: The Mayo News)
Emigration is being blamed for a stark drop in the numbers claiming welfare benefits in one County Meath town.
Of the 110 people who left the county's dole queues last month, 106 of them were in Trim, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have revealed.
This huge drop in numbers signing on at the social welfare office in Trim is not reflected in other parts of the county.
While the numbers on the live register dropped by just one in Navan and by three in Kells, Trim experienced a massive drop with 106 less people claiming benefits there in February compared with January.
(Source: The Meath Chronicle)
Three students have brought a High Court challenge to an "unfair and unjust" decision by the Minister for Education to cut their maintenance grants.
Their action is regarded as a test case brought on behalf of students attending third-level colleges, and is supported by the Union of Students of Ireland (USI).
The students are Medb McCarthy, a student at NUI Galway, from Murtyclough, Burrin, Co Clare; Robert Johnson, studying at Dundalk IT and living in Lattonalbany, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan; and Iesha Rowan, a mature student at Galway-Mayo IT, from Ashbrook, Oranmore, Co Galway.
(Source: Irish Times)
An exciting new initiative to create and improve the business environment in Edenderry has been launched in a bid to provide a support network for the town's business people.
The new group, Edenderry Credit Union Business Support [ECUBS] was established and up and running since October and it is the brain child of the Board of Edenderry Credit Union after they identified a gap in Edenderry and the surrounding area for a group to be formed involving all in the local business community.
ECUBS will now provide a meeting place for business people to meet, exchange ideas, provide support to fellow business people, identify areas to improve the business environment and provide educational and informative sessions.
(Source: Offaly Express)
Two brothers were laid to rest after they both died of cancer within two hours of each other in Gloucester.
In a packed St Peter's Catholic Church, the coffins of Father Patrick James Walsh, 76, and Tony Walsh, 83, laid side-by-side after they died on February 19.
The brothers, originally from Roscommon, Ireland, were very close throughout their lives and it was not a shock to those who knew them that they died within minutes of each other.
Canon Liam Slattery said Tony moved to Gloucester in 1949.
He settled in the city, marrying Jean and together they had five children, Maureen, Kevin, Eamon, Nigel and Paul.
Father Patrick James, known affectionately as PJ or Father Pat, moved to Gloucester several years after.
(Source: Gloustershire.co.uk)
A hunt is underway for an armed gang from Northern Ireland that has struck in Sligo for the second time in the space of two weeks.
Two young men with what appeared to be a real gun burst into the kiosk of the Excol petrol pumps outside Collins' pub at Rathcormack on the main Sligo to Donegal road shortly 9 p.m. last Monday where an attendant was getting ready to close up. A third gang member waited in a silver Opel Omega car. The raiders were wearing boiler suits and balaclavas.
(Source: The Sligo Champion)
A Templemore farmer whose beautiful snow white lambs were bludgeoned to death by intruders using an iron bar, last week told The Tipperary Star that he would have had no hesitation in shooting the perpetrators had he arrived on the scene at the time of the attack.
John Percy, Talavera, Templemore admitted that he was fortunate he didn't come on the attack on Thursday night last as two of his young lambs were tied up and beaten to death by the intruders. His wife Annie discovered the bloodied scene early last Friday morning when she found a number of shed doors open and the animals in a distressed state
(Source: Tipperary Star)
Two hoax alerts in two consecutive days have caused "big disruption" to people living in the Co Tyrone town of Strabane.
The first suspicious device was discovered in Ballycolman Avenue last Monday.
A number of homes were evacuated as the army bomb squad carried out investigations on the item, which turned out to be an elaborate hoax.
A similar sequence of events happened on Tuesday when another device was found in the Butcher Street area.
(Source: Belfast Telegraph)
A new aftercare service, in the city, that gives young people who have left State care a place they can call home was launched by Focus Ireland and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald, last Monday.
The service started in December and half of the eight spaces have been filled already.
(Source: Waterford News & Star)
There has been an increase in the number of vacant shops and offices in the traditional commercial heart of Athlone during the last year, with more than one in four units now lying idle.
Last Monday, the Westmeath Independent carried out an informal survey of commercial units on the town's most prominent streets.
We covered the length of Sean Costello Street and continued through Mardyke Street, Dublingate Street, Church Street, Custume Place, Barrack Street, Pearse Street and Connaught Street.
It was the second time we had carried out this survey to assess the level of retail vacancies in the town's commercial core.
(Source: Westmeath Independent)
A visitor and exhibition center is to be developed at the Kennedy ancestral home in Dunganstown, near New Ross, Co Wexford.
It is hoped the new center, for which a planning application has been lodged with Wexford County Council, will be completed by next year, the 50th anniversary of the visit to the homestead by late US president John F Kennedy.
(Source: The Irish Times)
Two men who ran in front of a moving coach and shouted at Gardaí have been fined €500 apiece.
John Kavanagh (23), 10 Springfield Heights, Newtownmountkennedy, and Evan Ryan (19), 80A Mountain View, Ballyguile, Wicklow, appeared in Bray District Court last Thursday.
Inspector Tom Finnerty told Judge John Coughlan that Gardaí were on mobile patrol on Church Road, Greystones on October 31 2011. Kavanagh ran across the road and jumped in front of the coach, then became abusive to Gardaí. He said that the circumstances surrounding Ryan were similar and arose from the same incident.
(Source: The Wicklow People)


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2010. It ends tonight. Today is the last day of the year, officially. But really, it doesn't feel all that different from any other day... ever. Tomorrow, the sun will rise. Tomorrow I'll be doing so much homework I can barely stay awake. I'll be fitting a vacations worth of homework into two days. Tomorrow won't be anything special, and to be honest, today isn't either.
Until I got a happy little event notification on facebook, I was blissfully unaware that tonight was New Years Eve... I thought that it was days away, but alas, I was wrong. Tonight is the last day of the year. I'll be at a party, like most people, watching the new year come as the ball drops in New York City. Want to know something cool? It's already tomorrow in Australia. The United States and Australia are in two different years at the moment. That's pretty cool.
But that got me thinking about a lot of things concerning time. According to Doctor Who, "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect... but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff." Which makes me wonder: If you were to have a baby in Australia at exactly midnight, and immediately take off on a flight towards JFK Airport in New York City with your new baby, wouldn't you be technically going back and putting your child in an alternate time? Twelve hours later, sitting in JFK airport you would turn to your child and say to them, "Now it's your birthday." How old would your child be considered?
Or how about this one: People talk about 2012 being catastrophic. "Oh no! The world is going to end!" and all of that crap. But which time zone are we talking about? If we're talking about December 21st, 2012 in Australia, that means it'll still be December 20th, 2012 in New York City. Well, that sucks, because then all the happy little New Yorkers got cheated out of a bit of life, didn't they?
However, if this is the case, is it correct to assume that people in Australia have been living for longer than we have? Technically, a child born at midnight on December 31st in Australia and a child born at midnight on December 31st in New York City would be born twelve hours apart. Now, relatively speaking, this isn't a great difference. But their birth certificates would read the same time, even if they were from two different locations.
Now let's think about hovercrafts. If one were in a hovercraft, hovering around, zooming to and fro, that would be awesome, would it not? However, would the hovercraft in question be crippled by the effects of our atmosphere? If it would, the hovercraft would move as the earth did, both around the sun and on the earth's axis. But, if the hovercraft was a true hovercraft, and if someone were to leave it sitting in his backyard for a full year, the hovercraft would seem to slowly move, and would at one point leave our atmosphere all together. That being said, 365 days later it would be back where it was.
See how much fun science can be? Hooray! I kind of wish that I was taking a science class this year. But more than that, I wish that my science teacher would be like Professor Zachary from Strange Days at Blake Holsey High. I just watched all of the series online (I used to watch it on Discovery Kids back in middle school, but I never finished it or found out what happened... I was curious.) I wish that Danbury High School was like that... It'd be so fantastic. Sure there'd be the occasional worm hole splurge, and the danger of using something from Pearadyme Industries, but... It's all in good fun, correct?
Well, I'm going to a New Years Eve party now. I'm quite happy to put this year behind me, but I'll list out my goals and all that schtuff tomorrow. After my homework, of course...
Loading 2011 ███████████████]99%
Friday, December 31, 2010
Goodbye, 2010
2010. It ends tonight. Today is the last day of the year, officially. But really, it doesn't feel all that different from any other day... ever. Tomorrow, the sun will rise. Tomorrow I'll be doing so much homework I can barely stay awake. I'll be fitting a vacations worth of homework into two days. Tomorrow won't be anything special, and to be honest, today isn't either.
Posted by Siobhán Kathleen at 10:24 AM 0 comments
Monday, December 6, 2010
I'm Off To Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance.
I have a slight obsession with things being perfect, like... perfectly perfect. PENCILS, WHY AREN'T YOU IN RAINBOW ORDER!!!???!!!??? Etc. Like, I don't understand why when you open a Crayola box, all of the colors are popping up in opposite corners of the freaking globe... You'd think, that the Crayola people would be all: "Of course we'll put them in rainbow order. That makes perfect sense!" But... again, that makes too much sense... Look:
Now, does that look like rainbow order to me? Because last time I checked, it went ROY G BIV, not orange, green, purple, another orange, yellow. But maybe I'm wrong, and the rainbow is screwed up like the rest of the world out there.
Right now I should be reading some of The Great Gatsby, but I find it more entertaining to be writing on my blog and schtuff. Also, I don't wanna... However, I could really go for a can of seltzer right now.
Which reminds me: Whenever I go out to like, lunch or something then I go order my drink, I'll be like "Can I have a club soda." and they just stare at me, like I'm some kind of Benjamin Button old person, I just happen to have the body of a sixteen year old. I like the taste of the bubbles in soda, just without all the crappy sugary crap that rots your teeth and makes you fat. Or something like that...
So, I've been watching this youtuber named Tobuscus. My friend Grace found him when we were looking at the Harry Potter trailer, and he does like literal trailers and stuff. He's absolutely hilarious. Pretty much everything that I love in comedy can be found on his channel. He's so blunt, and he does like, different voices and stuff. Jeese, he's funny.
And now it's time for some late night TV and club soda, and then off to bed with a good old book.
The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.
Posted by Siobhán Kathleen at 2:23 PM 0 comments
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Oh I Love Birds!
Actually, I really don't. Anyone who knows me well... at all knows that I have like, the worst phobia of birds ever. It's called "Ornithophobia". It's actually really bad. I can see like, pictures of birds, but even videos creep me out, and if I actually see one, forget about it. I like, tense up. But that point aside, I wanted to tell everyone about the most amazing day I had yesterday, and then the epic dream that I had last night, not to mention the crazy amounts of... craziness that went along with the past little while.
So, yesterday was supposed to go like this: Go see Harry Potter 7a with one of my bestest friends in the whole world, Grace, and then I was supposed to have lunch with her and then go home and change and go to my friend Bella's party. Well, I feel bad, but I wasn't feeling all that great, and I wasn't in the mood to go to a party, really. Don't get me wrong, I love Bella to death, and if was her birthday, I would have gone, but... it wasn't her birthday. So I saw 7a, and then Grace and I walked to Applebees. Well, the waiter didn't like us apparently, because he decided to take his sweet time taking our drink order, and then our regular order. I'll call him Spinny Waiter Man, because he kept walking past us and spinning the menus on his finger, like some kind of elitest basketball player. I bet he sucks at basketball. He definitely sucked at waiting.
So once he finally decided to pay our table a visit, we ordered, and the food came pretty quickly. We then went back to Grace's house, where we watched part of the Harry Potter marathon on ABC Family; you know, the one where they add in all the deleted scenes? I freaking love Harry Potter weekends. In addition I played some Call of Duty against her little brother, who liked to like, slice my throat... What a sweetheart.
Then, the coolest thing happened: Grace's mom wanted Grace to have a party, and Grace was like "Eh, Mom... You know how I hate having parties." and I offered to have the party at their house, because Grace's mom wanted to plan it and schtuff. So I'm having a party! Wahoo!
Well, by the time I was able to go home, it was like, close to nine, and my mom didn't want to come get me, so I just stayed there. It was nice in the basement, and I slept really, really well.
And that was when I had the most epic dream ever. It took place in Grace's house, and it was during a party, though I don't think it was my party... but whatever. I was in a room that is really the bathroom, but in my dream it was some random sitting area, and some girl that I don't like was talking, so I wasn't paying attention, and I was looking out the window. And that's when I saw a giant purple spaceship. Like, a huge freaking spaceship! You know in that Spyro game, where they have the flying saucers and the little bubble type things in the middle where the aliens live? Yeah, it was one of those, and it was purple.
So, I was like "Oh my god. Did anyone else just see that giant purple space ship?" And they're all like "Yeah, no big deal." But, obviously I thought it was a big deal, because I looked outside and there were hundreds of them, like that movie called like Skyline or something with the giant blue spaceships and the human vacuums? Yeah, it was like that, except they were just sitting there... all purple.
I then went downstairs, and my friends Chris and Louis were downstairs playing Call of Duty. I was like "Oh my God, guys, there's like, a hundred purple space ships outside taking over the planet." And they were like "Hold on, Siobhan, we're a little busy right now." And I was like "Guys, let's have some perspective... Giant. Purple. Spaceships." But they didn't really care.
So then my Mom came to pick me up and she was like "Come on, Siobhan, we packed up everything we own and we're going to Canada." And I was like "Aren't there purple space ships there too?" And she said no, because the Canadians love everyone, and the US always pokes into places where they shouldn't, including other universes. Then we had a random dance break, where the aim was to make a friend of mine jealous, because it's quite amusing when he's jealous.
Anyway, then there was something about trying to find my shoes and my friend Joe wearing them, and that was it!
Quite the exciting dream, wouldn't you say? Now I have to go write a memoir about Pokemon yellow. It's going to be a good one.
Posted by Siobhán Kathleen at 2:20 PM 0 comments


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Other Hot Gimmick Characters
These are various other characters who do not
live in the company complex but do play a part in the story.
RELEVANCE: Mariko has served in the Tachibana household as their maid since
she was a young girl. She has known Ryoki since he was in elementary school, which explains their closeness. She might be
one of the few people that really understands him. She acts more like a mother than his own mother. Even though Hatsumi is
jealous of Ryoki and Mariko's closeness, Mariko often helps Hatsumi and Ryoki understand each other.
LOVE LIFE: She is in love with Shuichiro Tachibana, which also explains her
loyalty to the family.


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Smoke Control Systems
A range of standard or bespoke panels, switchgear and sensors to provide automatic control of virtually any smoke or natural ventilation requirement.
Fire Safety is a major concern for any building owner, but employers and commercial facilities managers have a responsibility for ensuring the safety of all staff and visitors to their buildings.
Aluminium Door Supplies provide a maintenance service on all new and existing fire control systems. We only employ experienced staff who are specifically trained to ensure that building comply with the relevant fire safety regulations.
Smoke control systems comprise of control panels and automated opening and closing mechanisms. Single or multi-zone panels can be designed and purpose made on request.
A well designed smoke control system protects property and save lives.
Aluminium Door Supplies offer a comprehensive range of either standard or purpose made panels, switches and sensors to automatically control virtually every smoke or natural ventilation requirement.
The Smoke Control Systems from Aluminium Door Supplies enable facilities managers and building owners to comply with the statutory requirements governing smoke ventilation in both commercial property and dwellings such as nursing or care homes or similar.
Whether these are automatic opening vents in stairwells, rooflights or simple high level windows, our smoke control systems can provide you with effective smoke control solutions.
We can offer a bespoke service and consultation on smoke control ventilation including taking care of items such as fire alarm signals, break glass call points, smoke and heat detectors and Fireman's override switchgear.


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I think this is my third or fourth website I've developed for Richard Eaton of AlphaBio Centrix. … read more about BioEnergyShop.com
WordPress Video Tutorial – Tweaking Your Title Tags for Better SEO
This video shows you a quick an easy way for you to give your WordPress website's blog posts and pages the potential to do better in Google searches by creating custom document titles. Basically tweaking your sites title tags.
Also, in this tutorial I made reference to a WordPress plugin, All in One SEO Pack.
You can learn more about that plugin here:


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The next lesson I'll show you a possibility of designing the abstract background for Valentine's Day, made very stylish.
Begin by creating a file of 1024×768 px and 72 dpi.
Select the Rectangle Tool (U) on the tools' panel to represent a rectangle.
Next choose Blending Options and here Gradient Overlay selection:
Set the gradient's parameters:
And this is what we get at this moment:
Next we'll select the Custom Shape Tool (U) and out of the presented table we'll choose the element shown below:
Select also white color, stretching out the figure the way demonstrated next image:
Fill 0% on the layer and select again Blending Options with Gradient Overlay.
Set the colors by following the codes demonstrated below:
Working with the background is finished. It's time to start representing the picture's main elements. In this case we'll take again Custom Shape Tool (U) and here we'll select the small heart, the same one from below:
We need to represent the heart in a way for the rays to come out the central part of it.
Gradient Overlay:
Set Blending Options/Stroke with the same parameters presented below:
Next we shall draw another heart inside the first one that we have already represented.
Select Gradient Overlay for it with the same parameters, but this time we need to fix the Scale option on 150.
Draw another heart, bu smaller one and place it the same way as the next picture indicates it:
Blending OptionsGradient Overlay:
Set the colors exatly the next codes indicate it.
We need to apply Stroke option for the last heart too.
It's the picture we need to get on this stage:
Now we'll try drawing one more heart, but a little bigger that the previous one and situate it the same way shown below.
Gradient Overlay
Set the colors, following the next codes:
Now we have to select another type of heart figure, using again the Custom Shape Tool (U) and its possibilities.
We shall draw four heart's elements, placing them as below:
We shal number them out just not to mix the parameters that are characteristic for one or another. Here we have Blending Options for the first heart. Gradient Overlay:
The parameters for the second heart: Gradient Overlay:
The parameters for the third heard: Gradient Overlay:
Finally the parameters for the last fourth heart. Gradient Overlay:
Next we shall draw more heart's elements and give them the same colors with those presented next picture:
It's time to choose the Pen Tool (P) and represent a kind of train under the hearts.
We'll represent the train behind the third heart too.
We need repeating the same operation, but this time with the fourth heart.
The Gradient Overlay option from bellow needs to be applied for the second heart's train:
Next Gradient Overlay option will be applied for the train belonging to the third heart:
Finally we have to apply the next shown parameters for the train that is situated behind the fourth heart.
Next stage includes drawing one more heart that should be placed behind the main big heart, drawn at the beginning.
Fill 0% on the layer and apply Stroke option with the parameters demonstrated next table:
Make several copies of the last made heart, getting the same result as that one, presented below:
Now we shall use again the Custom Shape Tool (U) with its table that gives us the possibility to select the needed element.
The new figure is colored with #7D9DE5 and situated the position from below:
Apply for the new element Stroke option again:
At this moment we need to draw several more elements like the last one and position them out the same way as below:
Try to represent one more figure like this one, giving its layer this option Fill – 0%.
Select Stroke option with the same parameters from below:
We shall take now the Ellipse Tool (U) and represent a rounded element.
Gradient Overlay:
Make a copy of our last made circle, minimize it with Free Transform selection and place it the way shown next image:
Make one more copy of the same element:
Select Gradient's parameters and change the shown colors with those indicated in the next picture:
Try to draw two more rounded elements with the colors' codes from next picture:
The last stage includes downloading out of Internet a set of brushes, named Floral for picturing the next ornament. The brush containing the butterfly's figure is numbered 1068.
The brush having the heart's figure has the number 1276.
The final picture is the next one!
The abstract background for Valentine's Day is finished, so the lesson is! Good luck with your inpiration!
View full size here.


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I am so excited about this! While cleaning out the former department chair's closet I came across a set of books for Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-How. If you haven't read this book, here's your chance to join my Language Arts department in our first book study of the year! {I know members of my department reading this right now are thrilled to learn of the book study this way :) }
In this book, Aimee Buckner takes the reader through keeping a writer's notebook with a very realistic and applicable way to use it in your curriculum. I was rereading it last night and taking notes all the while thinking, "Why am I not doing this with my writer's notebooks???"
So, if you are interested in participating in this book study with my department, go get a copy of Notebook Know-How (or dust off the copy on your shelf!) and keep up with my blog for updates for the book study. We'll be meeting on Twitter #ladeptreads. I hope you'll join us! CTMS LA teachers: get ready!


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By: Jeff Klein Issue: Conscious Capitalism Section: Opinion
The Missing Chapter
True to form, in his new documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, director Michael Moore amplifies the lies, abuses, and manipulations underlying the recent and ongoing financial crisis. In some ways appropriately, Moore points accusatory fingers at Wall Street titans and their well-placed allies in government. In the context of ICOSA, we can recognize and perhaps celebrate the role of connection and collaboration in facilitating the bail out of the finance, auto, and other related industries.
But there is a chapter missing from Michael Moore's story, which reveals a very different conclusion and inspires optimism and engagement, rather than pessimism and despair. This new chapter in the story of capitalism reflects a distinctly different kind of connection and collaboration.
While some capitalists work on Wall Street, and some of those Wall Street capitalists focus on money and their personal wealth at the exclusion of nearly every other thing, many other capitalists build and run companies that focus on creating value for more than just themselves. Furthermore, many of the capitalists on Wall Street invest in companies for reasons beyond their own self-interest.
The missing chapter of the Love Story reveals a growing cadre of entrepreneurs, executives and investors dedicated to practicing Conscious Capitalism, dedicated to creating conscious companies, which are purpose-driven and deliver great value to all of their stakeholders, including their customers, employees, investors, vendors and the communities where they do business.
At its core, capitalism is about voluntary association and collaboration, which is one of the reasons capitalism works, why it won the battle with socialism in the 20th Century, and why it continues to persist and flourish, in spite of its flaws and manipulations by some of its practitioners. At its core, in a market-based economy, no one forces us to decide what to buy or where to buy it, where to work and under what conditions, or where to invest and on what terms. For the marketplace to work, participants need to be connected through language, culture, proximity or technology and to collaborate to facilitate transactions and value exchange. Without connection and collaboration, there is no marketplace or capitalism. While to some extent the financial markets function in their own realm, their foundation rests on the companies, commodities and other things that we value or that create value. No customers, no business. No business, no stock market.
While capitalism is about much more than Wall Street, the ecosystem of capitalism requires capital. Just as we require food and drink to survive, grow and flourish, businesses need capital to fuel their growth and development, and often the rate of capital required outstrips a business's ability to generate through its revenues. A start up, like an infant, requires nourishment from the outside to feed its launch into life.
Thus investors are one important stakeholder in the ecosystem of a business, but not the only one. Conscious investors recognize that for their capital to have the greatest effect and to yield the best return, best including their considerations other than financial, such as healthy companies, communities and environments, among other things, the business needs to deliver value to the other stakeholders and they need to collaborate with management to ensure a healthy stakeholder system.
The marketplace is increasingly saying "yes!" to environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, peace and opportunity for all, and business is responding. Consumers, employees, investors and others expect businesses to participate in addressing social issues, and they look to business as a source of inspiration, meaning and purpose as well as a platform for personal growth and societal evolution.
So, how does the marketplace reward conscious companies? In their ground-breaking book, Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose (Wharton School Publishing: 2007) authors Jag Seth, Raj Sisodia and David Wolfe assess long-term and short-term stock performance of 30 companies who practice versions of conscious capitalism. The companies substantially outperform the S & P 500. The 100 Best Places to Work similarly outperform the market.
By having a clear, meaningful purpose, creating value for all stakeholders, explicitly and purposefully fostering collaboration within and between its stakeholder groups, companies and their leaders cultivate vigorous ecosystems with great energy and information flow. In the process, conscious capitalists will create healthy, sustainable, purpose-driven companies based on strong, resilient relationships with engaged stakeholders. As a result of an increasing number of conscious companies, we will advance the evolution of the marketplace as a tool to facilitate human interaction and development and a more Conscious Capitalism will emerge.
While Michael Moore wants the Love Story to end, there are new suitors entering the story and their offerings are not only appealing, they are delicious, nutritious, and sustainable. If capitalism is dead or dying, it is only to be reborn. From the compost of Greed-based Capitalism (which has never been the only face of capitalism), Conscious Capitalism is sprouting. Let's all play a role – as consumers, employees, entrepreneurs, leaders, investors, communities, citizens – in celebrating and tending its growth and development.
Jeff Klein is CEO of Cause Alliance Marketing, President of the Conscious Capitalism Alliance, and author of Working for Good; Making a Difference While Making a Living.


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Alberto's Pizza Closes in Adams Morgan
Thanks to a reader for sending the photo above, he writes:
"Looks like albertos on 18th may have closed. Their hours were pretty funky lately."
Another reader adds:
"I walked by Alberto's on 18th Street last night, and the place was gutted. Either they're doing a remodel, or it has closed. Given the hours of operation (rarely open when I walk by on my way home from work at around 7 PM), I'm guessing they've closed for good. Really too bad, as it's the only decent slice I've found in AdMo.
I tried to look for confirmation on their website, but it no longer exists. I wonder if the P Street location is still open?"
Alberto's was located at 2438 18th St NW and indeed their Web site is no longer active and their phone remains unanswered.
And the 2010 P Street NW location (in Dupont) phone goes unanswered as well. Anyone happen to know if that location is still open?
Regarding the 2nd note but not pizza in general, just Adams Morgan pizza options – will you miss Alberto's?


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Directed by Bridget Besaw
Category: Documentary Short
Year: 2016
Run Time: 19 min
Synopsis: GUIDED profiles the gentle spirit of Maine wilderness guide Ray Reitze, in his element amidst the whispering pines, singing crickets and croaking frogs of the North Maine Woods. Ray shares his philosophy of how to live in harmony with the outdoors to the next generation of guides, grappling with his own mortality as he transitions from the physical world of guiding to a more spiritual understanding of nature and our ephemeral place in it.
Screenings: New Hampshire Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Maine Short Film Festival
Saturday, April 15, 11:00 AM
(Documentary Shorts Program)
$5 / $4 Students and Over Age 54
$3 Foothills Film Society Members


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Here is the recipe for the delicious corn bread my sister served with her "Not So Spicy Crock Pot Chili". She got the chili recipe and this corn bread recipe from her neighbor. It is so sweet and buttery, and so easy to make. Ummmm, I can taste it now.
Cathy's Buttery Corn Bread
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups milk
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, combine eggs and milk. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with egg mixture. (Or if you're like me, just put it all in the bowl and mix together!) Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan and bake at 400 for 22 - 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cut into squares and serve.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Cathy's Buttery Corn Bread
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Impaired Driving
You May Have Technical Defences
Drunk driving can be referred to as DUI, DWI, over .08, impaired driving, and refusal (to provide a sample). It all comes from S. 253 and 254 of the Criminal Code of Canada. They are highly technical offences with a vast and ever-changing technical and legal issues. We are on top of the latest case law and defences. Criminal defence law is all we do here at Advocate Law.
This Can Be Life Changing
If you enter a guilty plea or are convicted of drunk driving you will face, at the very least, a fine, a 1 year driving prohibition, a criminal record, and skyrocketing insurance costs. Depending on your unique facts you could go to jail. You will be suspended from driving until your matter is resolved in Court. If you're charged with drunk driving right now, you are already considering all of negative effects a conviction will have. We will discuss all of this with openly and for free.


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People with anxiety are often at greater risk for suicide than depressed patients, because the latter usually lack the energy and motivation to kill themselves. "Anxiety, however, drives people to do things to get rid of the discomfort," says Kenneth Robbins, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Fears that aren't real
On Sunday nights, Michelle Roe's body went through a ritual: She got pain in her stomach, her fingertips went numb, her face and neck felt flushed and prickly, and she would run into the bathroom to dry heave. "I thought I was going to die if I went to work," says the 32-year-old resident of Adrian, Mich. "I was an accountant, so it was not like my job was dangerous."
Roe sought treatment from her obstetrician, her primary care doctor, and a psychologist that her employer paid for. She cycled through several medications, including Prozac and Celexa, and eventually learned to manage her panic attacks and paralyzing fears through self-help books and support from her husband. "I still have fear," she says, "but I am able to step back and see that it's not real. I realize that nothing is going to hurt me."
The challenge of diagnosing anxiety disorders is that everybody has some degree of anxiety, unless they are in a coma or are a psychopath, says Sally Winston, PsyD, codirector of the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland in Towson. "It's disordered when it interferes with life or causes a lot of distress."
Stress and hormones are common triggers for anxiety disorders. There is also a strong genetic predisposition, says Winston, that is independent of behavior that can be learned from an anxious family member, such as obsessive hand washing. People with a disorder often experience their first episodes of disabling anxiety during adolescence, after the loss of a job, or after the birth of a child.
Brooke Cooper, 27, of Selmer, Tenn., gave birth to a premature baby boy in the spring of 2007 and found herself in the throes of anxiety. Any mother would be worried, but she was obsessive. "I wouldn't even close my eyes, because I was scared. 'What if he stops breathing?' I had vivid images of going to his bassinet and see that he is not breathing. What if I trip and drop him?"
She consulted her primary care physician and began seeing a therapist, but the anxiety may have compromised Cooper's ability to further her treatment, because she put her son's welfare over her own. "I wasn't comfortable going on medication, even though they say that it saves," she says. "I worried about taking any risks with him."
High risk of substance abuse
Research suggests that a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication can help control symptoms and lead to complete remission in some people.
Unfortunately, many people with anxiety disorders also drink or abuse prescription drugs to tamp down their symptoms, which can complicate treatment. "The connection between serious anxiety disorders and substance abuse is very high," says Winston. "Studies have shown that one-third of the people who have anxiety disorders struggle with substance abuse, and that one-third of substance abusers also have an anxiety disorder."
Source: http://www.health.com


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John Maynard Keynes
The raising of prices
from The Means to Prosperity
This is an incredible article on political economy written in 1933 for The Times by a person that will be later known, erroneously, as the saviour of capitalism. In this text Keynes shows that he, implicitly, accepts a series of political assumptions that have nothing to do not just with capitalism but with simple sound economics.
The assumptions uphold by Keynes are:
- the raising of prices by the government (in other words, the manipulation of the market by the state)
- the increase of loan-expenditure by the government (each and every government on earth) just on the basis of political will
- currency depreciation and tariffs (again, tools for manipulating the market) as acceptable and useful weapons of political economy
- the provision of cheap and abundant bank credit as a political objective, without any connection to production (the central bank printing press working at full speed)
- the reaching of a level of state expenditure comparable to that put into being when the state is at war.
All this clearly had/has nothing to do with sound economics and it was/is only a way to try to save statism (state politicians and state bureaucrats) from the usual economic mess they engineer on a regular basis in their parasitic pursuit of power and money. The result, as we now know, was a protracted depression to which only a war and a post-war (partial) economic liberalization will put an end.
We are at the present back to that situation and the remedies currently suggested and implemented are exactly the ones prescribed by Keynes in this amazing piece of political economy crap. The results will probably be the same: a protracted depression.
However, times are different: in many quarters Keynes is rightly seen as the crackpot he has always been; moreover, information is not any longer in the hands of state radio or state subservient newspapers.
It is then quite possible that this crisis will mark the beginning of the end for statism and its bankrupt policies of boom and bust, inflation and depression, heavy taxation and high state appropriation and squandering of resources. In the meanwhile all rational individuals should put in place the tools to bypass the state (for instance, alternative ways of payments, as in the form of voluntary virtual vouchers) in such a way that during the next crisis statism (state corporatism) will be promptly dismissed as a failed ideology and an obnoxious practice as it has been the case for state communism.
To judge from some utterances of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he has been attracted to the idea of raising the prices of commodities by restricting their supply. Now, it may well benefit the producers of a particular article to combine restrict its output. Equally it may benefit a particular country though at the expense of the rest of the world, to restrict supply of a commodity which it is in a position to control. It may even, very occasionally, benefit the world as a whole to organise the restriction of output of a particular commodity, the supply of which is seriously out of balance with the supply of other things. But as an all-round remedy restriction is worse than useless. For the community as a whole it reduces demand, by destroying the income of the retrenched producers, just as much as it reduces supply. So far from being a means to diminish unemployment it is, rather, a method of distributing more evenly what unemployment there is, at the cost of somewhat increasing it.
How, then, are we to raise prices? It may help us to think clearly, if I proceed by means of a series of very simple, but fundamental propositions.
(1) For commodities as a whole there can be no possible means of raising their prices except by increasing expenditure upon them more rapidly than their supply comes upon the market.
(2) Expenditure can only be increased if the public spend a larger proportion of the incomes they already have, or if their aggregate spending power is increased in some other way.
(3) There are narrow limits to increasing expenditure out of existing incomes - whether by saving less or by increased personal expenditure of a capital nature. Incomes are so curtailed today and taxation so much increased, that many people are already, in the effort to maintain their standard of life, saving less than sound personal habits require. Anyone who can afford to spend more should be encouraged to do so, particularly if he has opportunities to spend on new capital or semi-capital objects. But it is an evasion of the magnitude of the problem to believe that we can solve it in this way. It follows, therefore, that we must aim at increasing aggregate spending power. If we can achieve this, it will partly serve to raise prices and partly to increase employment.
(4) Putting on one side the special case of people who can earn their incomes by actually producing gold, it is broadly true to say that aggregate spending power within a country can only be raised either (i) by increasing the loan-expenditure of the community; or (ii) by improving the foreign balance so that a larger proportion of current expenditure again becomes income in the hands of home producers. By means of public works the Labour government in Great Britain - though rather half-heartedly and in adverse attendant circumstances - attempted the first. The National government has successfully attempted the second. We have not yet tried both at once.
(5) But there is a great difference between the two methods, inasmuch as only the first is valid for the world as a whole. The second method merely means that one country is withdrawing employment and spending power from the rest of the world. For when one country improves its foreign balance, it follows that the foreign balance of some other country is diminished. Thus we cannot increase total output in this way or raise world prices, unless, as a by-product, it serves to increase loan expenditure by strengthening confidence in a financial centre such as Great Britain and so making it a more ready lender both at home and abroad.
Currency depreciation and tariffs were weapons which Great Britain had in hand until recently as a means of self-protection. A moment came when we were compelled to use them, and they have served us well. But competitive currency depreciations and competitive tariffs, and more artificial means of improving an individual country's foreign balance such as exchange restrictions, import prohibitions, and quotas, help no one and injure each, if they are applied all round.
We are left, therefore, with the broad conclusion that there is no effective means of raising world prices except by increasing loan-expenditure throughout the world. It was, indeed, the collapse of expenditure financed out of loans advanced by the United States, for use both at home and abroad, which was the chief agency in starting the slump.
A number of popular remedies are rightly popular because they tend to facilitate loan-expenditure. But there are several stages in the task of increasing loan-expenditure; and, if there is a breakdown at anyone of them, we shall fail to attain our object. I must ask the reader, therefore, to be patient with a further attempt at orderly analysis.
(1) The first necessity is that bank credit should be cheap and abundant. This is only possible if each central bank is freed from anxiety by feeling itself to possess adequate reserve of international money. The loss of confidence in bank balances held in leading financial centres as constituting international money for this purpose, has greatly aggravated the shortage of reserves. So has the accumulation of a large proportion of world's gold in a few central banks. On the other hand, we all welcome an increased output of the gold mines or a reduction in India's sterile hoards, because the quantity of reserve money is thus increased. The devaluation of national currencies in terms of gold is another remedy belonging to this category. Or, again, the abandonment of rigid gold parities may help the case, since a central bank which can, if necessary, relieve a strain by allowing the foreign exchanges to move against it, will be satisfied with a smaller reserve of international money. The abatement of the legal proportion of international money, which a bank must hold against its note issue, might also help on a minor scale.
But this is only the first stage. In the early phase of recovery there is not much loan-expenditure which can be safely financed by short-term bank credit. The role of bank credit is to finance the restoration of working capital after business recovery has definitely set in. In ordinary times we were able to rely on the first stage leading automatically to the subsequent stages. But not in the conditions of today.
(2) The second stage, therefore, must be reached, at which the long-term rate of interest is low for all reasonably sound borrowers. This requires a combination of manoeuvres by the government and the central bank in the shape of open-market operations by the bank, of well-judged conversion scheme by the treasury, and of a restoration of financial confidence by a budget policy approved by public opinion and in other ways. It is at this stage that a certain dilemma exists; since it may be true, for psychological reasons, that a temporary reduction of loan-expenditure plays a necessary part in effecting the transition to a lower long-term rate of interest. Since, however, the whole object of the policy is to promote loan-expenditure, we must obviously be careful not to continue its temporary curtailment a day longer than we need.
A few countries have reached the first stage. But Great Britain alone has reached the second stage. It is a great achievement of the Treasury and the Bank of England to have effected so successfully a transition which France and the United States, for whom the task was, until recently, much easier, have bungled so badly.
(3) But there remains a third stage. For even when we have reached the second stage, it is unlikely that private enterprise will, on its own initiative, undertake new loan-expenditure on a sufficient scale. Business enterprise will not seek to expand until after profits have begun to recover. Increased working capital will not be required until after output is increasing. Moreover, in modern communities a very large proportion of our normal programmes of loan-expenditure are undertaken by public and-semi-public bodies. The new loan-expenditure which trade and industry require in a year is comparatively small even in good times. Building, transport, and public utilities are responsible at all times for a very large proportion of current loan-expenditure.
Thus the first step has to be taken on the initiative of public authority; and it probably has to be on a large scale and organised with determination, if it is to be sufficient to break the vicious circle and to stem the progressive deterioration, as firm after firm throws up the sponge and ceases to produce at a loss in the seemingly vain hope that perseverance will be rewarded.
Some cynics, who have followed the argument thus far conclude that nothing except a war can bring a major slump to its conclusion. For hitherto war has been the only object of governmental loan-expenditure on a large scale which governments have considered respectable. In all the issues of peace they are timid, over-cautious, half-hearted, without perseverance or determination, thinking of a loan as a liability and not as a link in the transformation of the community's surplus resources, which will otherwise be wasted, into useful capital assets.
I hope that her government will show that Great Britain can be energetic even in the tasks of peace. It should not be difficult to perceive that 100,000 houses are a national asset and 1 million unemployed men a national liability.
(4) Yet if we are to raise world prices, which is our theme, there is yet a fourth stage. Loan-expenditure must spread its beneficent influence round the world.


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Final Eco/372
1. the market where business sell goods and services to households and the government is called a.goods market XXX
b.factor market
c.capital market
d.money market
2. Real gross domestic product is best defined as
a.the market value of intermediate goods and services produced in an economy including exports b.all goods and services produced in an economy, stated in prices in a given year and multiplied by quantity c.the market value of all final goods and services produced in an economy stated in the prices of a given year XXX d.the market value of goods and services produced in an economy stated in current year prices
3. underemployment includes
a.who work off the books to avoid paying taxes
b.who are working part time or not using all their skills at a fulltime job XXX c.who are tired of looking for a job so they quit looking but still want one d.whose skills are not in demand anymore
4. .The bureau of economic analysis is responsible for which of the following a.setting interest rates
b.managing the money supply
c.calculating the US gross domestic product XXX
d.paying unemployment benefits
5. The federal reserve provides which of the following data
a.federal funds rate XXX
b.stock price of GE
c.bond yields of corporation
d.debt to GDP of Ireland
6. Consider if the government instituted a 10% income tax surcharge. In terms of the AS/AD model this change should have a.shifted the AD curve to the left XXX
b.shifted the AD curve to the right
c.made the AD curve flatter
7. The largest source of household income is in the U.S. is obtained a.stock dividends
b.wages and salaries XXX
c.interest earnings
d.rental income
8. If the depreciation of a country's currency increases it aggregate expenditures by 20, the AD curve will a.shift right by more than 20 XXX
b.shift right by less than 20
c.shift right by exactly 20
d.not shift at all
9. Aggregate demand management policies are designed most directly to a.minimize unemployment
b.minimize inflation
c.control the aggregate level of spending in the economy XXX d.prevent budget deficits or surpluses
10. Suppose that consumer spending is expected to decrease in the near future. If output is at potential output, which of the following policies is most appropriate according to the AS/AD model a.an increase in government spending XXX
b.an increase in taxes
c.a reduction in government spending
d.no change in taxes or government spending.
11. According to Keynes, market economies
A. never experience significant declines in aggregate demand B. quickly recover after they experience a significant decline in aggregate demand C. may recover slowly after they experience a significant decline in aggregate demand XXX D. are constantly experiencing significant declines in aggregate demand
12. The laissez-faire policy prescription to eliminate unemployment was to
A. eliminate labor unions and government policies that hold real wages too high XXX B. strengthen unions and government regulations protecting unions and workers C. increase real wages so that people are encouraged to work D. have government guarantee jobs for everyone
13. In the AS/AD model, an expansionary monetary policy has the greatest effect on the price level when it
A. increases both nominal and real income XXX
B. increases real income but not nominal income
C. increases nominal income but not real income
D. doesn't increase real or nominal income
14. The Federal funds rate
A. is always slightly higher than the discount rate
B. can never be close to zero
C. may sometimes have to be targeted at zero XXX
D. is an intermediate target
15. What tool of monetary policy will the Federal Reserve use to increase the federal funds rate from 1% to 1.25%?
A. Open-market operations
B. The discount...
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Zombie's are a mainstay of horror movies and Halloween. There is something about a re-animated corpse that frightens us, no matter how unlikely the chances of it happening. But, could it happen?
Phil Plait (aka @BadAstronomer on Twitter) writes the Bad Astronomy Blog for Discover Magazine and host's "Phil Plait's Bad Universe" on the Discovery channel is an astronomer and certified science-fiction nut. Taking his cues for the abundance of zombie movies airing on television this time of the year, and the premiere of AMC's The Walking Dead series on Halloween, he decided to delve a little deeper into what makes a zombie. And most importantly, are zombie's even scientifically possible?
Therefore, he decided to write an article for Blastr about the scientific possibility of re-animating the dead. Read the article below, and feel free to chew on the fat.
It's Halloween, and I'm a geek, which means BRRAAAAIIIINNNNSSSS …
Pardon me [stifles a belch]. I of course meant zombies. I like all kinds of monsters (with maybe the exception of vampires, which never really appealed to me, sparkly or otherwise), but there's just something about zombies that make them truly creepy.
Their popularity is on the rise, too, and with this resurgence of shambling brain-eating walking dead comes the annoyance I get every time I start a new zombie book or movie: Are these guys going to be supernatural or scientific?
Don't get me wrong: Even as a dyed-in-the-lab-coat skeptical scientist, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief long enough to enjoy a good tale or two. But the problem is, too many zombie stories are inconsistent, wrenching me away from the fantasy and back into our sadly zombie-deficient real world.
When it comes to zombies, you really have only two choices: the dead walk the earth due to some mystical power that we cannot fathom, or through some ultimately scientifically testable manner such as a virus, cranial computer chip or radiation. But each has implications, and these routinely get ignored.
Now let me back up a sec here and ask a funny question: What exactly is a zombie, anyway?
Don't laugh! It's not all that easy to answer. Ignore all the mumbo-jumbo history of where the word came from and all that (though it's interesting and worth reading about); I mean in stories, what makes something a zombie? If it's just a body that's been reanimated, then technically Frankenstein's monster is a zombie, and I don't think that would sit well with anyone. So maybe it's a reanimated corpse that eats brains? Well, I'm not sure that fits either. The bad guys in 28 Days Later were generally thought of as zombies, but it wasn't clear they ate their victims; they just tore them apart. Same goes for I Am Legend.
I'll also spare you the shambling-versus-running slow/fast zombie wars. I think it's a cool twist that zombies—whatever they turn out to be—can run quickly. Shuffling zombies are only scary in large numbers or enclosed spaces, limiting their ability to hunt you down and eat whatever organs they happen to prefer.
Whatever they are, maybe we need to define them as "know them when we see them." Trying to nail down a definition is as hard as defining what a planet is, and don't get me started with that! Let's just say they were once people, but have been changed somehow through death or attrition or some other vector that makes them more animalistic and willing to partake of long pork.
No matter what, the important thing is how they got where they are, and what you should do if you happen to be running from one or a horde of them. And that depends on whether they're sciency or supernatural.
As an example: in the classic Night of the Living Dead, George Romero wisely avoids the science/supernatural issue, only giving oblique reference to radiation from a downed spacecraft. Since it's issued as a news report, it may be a total red herring.
His zombies move slowly, eat anything they can and die if the brain is destroyed. Sawing a Living Dead zombie in half might slow it down, but it'll still use its arms to crawl after you. And even severed heads have been known to snap at the still-living.
But does that make sense? Scientifically, well, no. Our brains are power hogs. They need a lot of energy to run: your brain uses about 20 percent of the energy budget of your entire body, despite being only 2 percent of your weight. That means a brain needs a lot of oxygen if it hopes to work at all.
Now, perhaps in a zombie the amount of power a brain consumes is lessened somewhat; it's not like they need a huge energy reserve to bumble around and mutter "brraaaaiiiinssss" and eat people. Still, a brain does need an energy source, and that comes from oxygen and nutrients in blood. No heart and no lungs makes Fido a dead zombie. Dead dead.
So if you want a scientifically viable zombie, there must be something else powering the brain. But what, exactly? It's not like there's a zombie that can run on a gas engine or solar cells. Max Brooks gets around this somewhat in his World War Z zombies, positing a virus that somehow kills the host but still animates it, mutating the brain into a new organ, but even then the details of an energy source are never clear.
Even assuming an energy source for the brain, there's still the matter of the energy needed to move, digest the ill-gotten human meat, and so on. I'll note that in a lot of zombie stories, the corpse will rot. That much, at least, is true: Without an active immune system, any number of bacteria, parasites, symbionts and such in your body will happily consume your corpus delectable. But if the story features a decaying zombie, it also tends to ignore the other implications of an inactive cardiovascular system.
I suppose, then, the only way to have a scientific zombie (and by that I mean a scientifically viable one, not a zombie in a white lab coat peering through a microscope) is for all the major organs to be working, so that the brain can get the energy it needs. In that case, a shot to the heart, or the spleen, or piercing a major artery, will bring it down as well as a head shot.
… but you may see the problem here. If all the major organs work, and the brain works, it's not really a zombie, is it? In that case, we're back to the poor things in 28 Days Later. Not really zombies, but kinda sorta resembling them. In the "brain-eating-walking-dead" category, then, I suppose there's no such thing as a science-based zombie.
So if science has abandoned us, that leaves supernatural. I'm all for that, but still. If you assume some sort of magical potion or incantation or otherworldly energy source is what gives zombies their lethargic zest for flesh, then again why the head shot to kill them? If it's really magic, they should be good without a head, just as they would without a heart or lungs or spleen.
To be fair, that's been the case in some movies. Who can forget Carl Hill's decapitated corpse in Re-Animator? I won't go into details about what it does, but the head does appear to have some, uh, earthly passions, and the body has some will of its own as well. That movie is scientific in its depiction—it's a potion that does the zombification—despite the clearly unscientific premise. We still have the same brain power issue … not to mention the problem of how a severed head talks.
[Badly. Badda bing!]
Going through my list of books and movies, I haven't seen any that have classic reanimated-corpse-style zombies that treat them correctly and consistently. Maybe there's simply no way to do it and make a good story. Or maybe no one's tried yet.
Or, it's possible I just missed it. I can't watch and read every zombie story that comes along. If I've missed one, then please—to paraphrase Return of the Living Dead—send more ideas.
Phil Plait is an astronomer, geek and sometimes-movie-curmudgeon. If he ever writes a zombie novel, one of the characters will be named Sarah Bellum.


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The Armenian National Committee of America, Western Region, is accepting applications for the fall session of its internship program—an intensive 10-week program that prepares the youth for a professional work environment while learning the intricacies of public policy and advocacy.
"The internship program is an enriching journey which provides ambitious and motivated individuals interested in the political process with an opportunity to gain firsthand experience in the organization and functionality of organized interest groups. By interning for the largest and most influential Armenian-American political grassroots organization in the U.S., young adults with a passion for activism stand to gain valuable knowledge and experience while working in an environment that fosters personal and professional growth," said 2017 summer intern from Colorado, Nicholas Portnoy.
Interns will learn the minutiae of community organizing through workshops, lectures and assignments ranging from assisting organizational committees that implement policy to registering community members to vote.
During the 2017 summer, interns attended high-profile events such as Politicon, movie premieres and press conferences. The multi-faceted internship compounds professional skill-building with networking opportunities to provide an in-depth understanding of community issues as well as advocacy efforts on local, regional and federal levels.
In addition, the interns had the unique opportunity to meet elected officials including U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff, State Senator Anthony Portantino, State Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, L.A. City Councilmember Paul Kerkorian and Glendale City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian.
The fall session of the internship program will run from October 2 to December 8. Applicants must be high school graduates, aged 18 years or older and be able to devote 15-20 hours a week. Interested individuals may apply online at ancawr.org/internship by September 20.


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"Atelié Cheri" is currently placed at Kristiansand´s cultural center Odderøya, Norway, an island where Marte Valbeland participate in an artist community of various art concepts. Her contemporary artwork involves medium expressions of fine art photography, painting and installations.
For many years she has been teaching in high level practical and theoretical studies, involving subjects
such as; methods of creative processes, interior design, graphical design and fine arts.
fineart & photography
As an autodidact Fine Art Photographer, Marte Valbeland is constantly investigating the possibilities to expand her artistic expression. Photography as her artistic medium started slowly during the year of 2013 and has today become her dominant choice.
The work originates from a fertile and imaginative thought process, a stream of consciousness, that is clearly evident. Deeper questions in the themes of Universal female forces, Time and Timelessness are central. The female characters in the images are often self portraits.
Installation Works combinates object, light, sound, text and digital picture in an ambient Black Box Room.
An educational experience of Fine Arts (Bath Spa University, England) established Marte Valbelands artistic interest in painting. In the early years her use of «Symbolism» was central, years afterwards she was inspired by realism. Her painted expressions frequently displays a collection of ordinary objects, resting in an empty space. The atmosphere shows an absence just as significant as the presence.
Copyright © All Rights Reserved


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There's no love like this dog looking out for his owner in the 'scary' shower
Frightened? I'll bring you a toy.
If you need more proof that humans don't deserve dogs, look no further.
On Saturday, Twitter user Rebecca Weaver shared that her adorable mini Goldendoodle named Clark worried about her when she took a shower.
Clark assumes Rebecca must hate showers because he detests thems himself, so he regularly brings his favourite toy to comfort her while she's washing.
The adorable photos have been retweeted over 190,000 times, making Clark somewhat of an internet star.
Twitter users had a few questions about the photos, including what Clark's motives were in bringing his toy and why Rebecca had her phone in the shower.
Worry not, she had explanations for it all.
The world can seem tough sometimes, but just remember, Clark loves you.
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