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They come in 18 inch with variable concavity levels, perfect flush fitment with guards and finishes to match your vehicle and style. Portrait your personality into an individual custom finished wheel, which is beautifully designed, weight and strength optimised and specifically machined to your order.
Ordered some new rims and tyres for my Ford Courier last week. John went above and beyond to get a great price and also the right style, size and fitment for my fussy requirements. The wheels turned up fitted and balanced and looked a million bucks. I couldn't of asked for a smoother transaction and a better guy to deal with. Thanks a million.
Had been looking at wheels for ages wanting to get great look/fitment. Called up Autocraze and spoke to Mo, he was awesome. Knew his products and put my mind at ease about the fitment. So I got my wheels and tyres (for a great price!) and I'm super happy!
AutoCraze were absolute legends to deal with when I was buying my Speedy Outlaws. Delivery to Queensland was unbelievably quick! Had the wheels fitted within a week of first making contact. Highly recommend!
The fellas at Autocraze helped heaps with the new wheels! Ordered them online and they arrived at my door 2 days later!! Awesome work fellas, cheers for all the help! Will definitely shop here again
Found the boys at Autocraze, top of the class, needed some rims for my Mustang and Mo had it all sorted. Their after sales support was fantastic too, highly recommend the guys, they are true car enthusiasts and take their time with your rims and their machinery is world class!
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Ordered some rims and tires from these guys. Shipped Friday arrived Monday, great to deal with over the phone and the product you order is everybit as good in person. Already recommended to several friends.


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Seattle May Day protest turns violent; 17 arrested
Violence after earlier peaceful immigrant rights march; Mayor McGinn: 'I am disappointed'
A May Day protest in Seattle turned violent Wednesday night and ended with 17 arrests, eight injured police officers and several damaged Capitol Hill storefronts.
Before the melee ended about 9 p.m. police used pepper spray and flash bangs as protesters hurled metal rocks, rocks and fireworks.
Injuries to officers were minor, except for a female officer who was hit on the knee by a fist-sized rock. A woman driving by one of the protests was also hurt when a protester threw a glass bottle at her car, shattering her window. The woman was cut, and medics treated her.
It is not clear how many protesters were injured. Police said damage to businesses and cars were limited, but they did not have a damage estimate.
The violent confrontation followed a much larger – and almost entirely peaceful – march involving thousands of activists supporting immigration reform and workers' rights. The 2013 celebration was a return to form of the large May Day march, which has historically been orderly and non-violent as marchers move through the Central District and downtown Seattle.
Wednesday evening's violence stemmed from a second, unsanctioned protest that began at Seattle Central Community College. A crowd of protesters attempted to force their way into the downtown core but were driven back by police after protestors began hurling rocks and fireworks at officers and bystanders.
By Thursday morning city prosecutors had charged six jailed protesters from the evening action on Capitol Hill with misdemeanor crimes. Among those charged was 27-year-old Bryanna Stander, who hobbled into court on crutches with her wrist splinted.
Stander and several other protesters were released from jail Thursday morning following hearing before Seattle Municipal Court Judge Karen Donohue. A total of nine people were held on suspicion of misdemeanor offenses; six have since been charged, while three others were released.
Five other protesters suspected of more serious crimes remain jailed pending an initial hearing expected to take place Thursday afternoon at King County Jail.
The jailed protesters were arrested during the later demonstration, which saw a group of protesters gather at the Capitol Hill community college shortly after 6 p.m. and take to the streets in an unpermitted march toward downtown.
The violence came after a separate, peaceful immigration-reform rally that proceeded from Judkins Park in the Central District to the Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle. That march received city permits. (Click the following link for a complete story on Seattle's immigration reform march.)
Shortly after 6:30 p.m., protesters on Capitol Hill lit what police called "flares or smoke devices" at East Howell Street and Eleventh Avenue. Police also reported another flare at Broadway and East Pike Street.
A store window was shattered at East Pike Street and Belmont Avenue, and after 7 p.m. protesters began throwing metal bars. The crowd, which included several anarchists, yelled profanities and insults at bike officers who flanked them.
During the march west on Pine Street near the Paramount Theatre, a protester threw a glass jar at police. One of the officers jumped and shattered it with his baton, stopping a potential injury and leaving protesters temporarily stunned.
The demonstration began to intensify as angry protesters reached Niketown at 1500 Sixth Ave., the site of several shattered windows last May Day. One of the black-clad protesters who damaged Niketown last year famously did so in Nike shoes; that and other downtown businesses suffered tens of thousands of dollars damage.
Orange smoke filled the air Wednesday near Niketown, and a police car was dented by protesters. Several chanted "let's go shopping" as they approached, but police held them back, and the store was not damaged.
Police used their bikes at several places to control angry crowds.
The group continued to Westlake Park, lingering for at least 15 minutes at Fourth Avenue and Pine Street. Several yelled obscenities at officers.
The anarchists and others turned increasingly violent after moving down Fourth Avenue to Olive Way. They filled the street to Fifth Avenue, which has the Monorail tracks, and continued yelling at officers. Multiple people were arrested there, and incident commander Capt. Chris Fowler said police responded after protesters intent on creating problems became violent.
Police used "flash bangs" and pepper spray against dozens of protesters who pelted them with rocks and bottles. That was mixed with protesters lighting their own fireworks, which in some cases were pointed at officers.
About 8:15 p.m. in the 1800 block of Fifth Avenue, young women crouching in pain from pepper spray fled in fear from nearby protesters lighting fireworks in small mortar tubes.
"We're a bigger and better city than this," Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said late Wednesday. "I look at this and I am disappointed that this is the picture the world sees of us."
As the angry mob moved back to Capitol Hill, newspaper boxes and trash cans were overturned, and storekeepers were left cleaning the mess. City crews were expected to help early Thursday.
"That first march came downtown. It was absolutely peaceful...it was almost a festive affair and they had some serious messages, too, that they wanted to express. No incidents whatsoever," McGinn said. "The second march was very different, and it wasn't just merely because it was unpermitted. I think it also had to do with the nature of the individuals in it and what they wanted to do."
Several protesters were being held Thursday on suspicion of felony crimes, including assault on a police officer. Six people associated with the protest currently face misdemeanor charges.
In addition to Stander, the following people have been charged with misdemeanor crimes in Seattle Municipal Court for incidents occurring during the evening protest:
- Sebastian Harris, 21, obstruction and resisting arrest.
- Gregory Husted, 22, obstruction and resisting arrest.
- Paul Novasky, 44, obstruction and resisting arrest.
- Justin Gonzalez, 25, property damage and obstruction.
- Devin Bahm, 20, property damage and obstruction.
Three others suspected of misdemeanor crimes were released after posting bail Wednesday night. Seattle City Attorney's Office spokeswoman Kimberly Mills said city prosecutors have yet to decide whether to charge those individuals.
Earlier protests
May Day got off to a peaceful start as immigration-reform protesters completed their march without any arrests or major altercations. The march concluded peacefully in downtown Seattle around 5 p.m.
A brief clash between a group of costumed vigilantes – presumably "Phoenix Jones" and his ilk – and anarchist dressed as clowns was reported shortly after 4 p.m. Police said the clowns began lighting fireworks shortly thereafter, but the event that began in the Central District was otherwise peaceful and relaxed.
The immigration-reform march – the usual centerpiece for the historically tame May Day celebration – started Wednesday afternoon, leaving from the area near Judkins Park shortly before 3 p.m. By 2:30, at least 500 people had gathered.
Other activists had said they would be gathering at Westlake Park and marching from there throughout the day. That didn't happen, and a second rumored action at a downtown Goldman Sachs office never materialized.
At a Wednesday night press briefing, Seattle police showed several rocks, a hammer, discarded small firework mortal tubes, and other makeshift weapons confiscated from violent protesters. During daylight hours, Seattle police said they recovered rocks staged by would-be vandals from both downtown and Capitol Hill.
The heightened tension over Wednesday's events stemmed from last year's May Day protests, which saw several downtown businesses vandalized and the doors to the old federal courthouse smashed. The Seattle Police Department was faulted for its handling of the demonstrations, which were followed by an exhaustive criminal investigation that is still ongoing.
Police promised a stronger response this year should any vandalism occur, while also pledging to respect the rights of non-violent protesters.
Casey McNerthney can be reached at 206-448-8220 or at email@example.com. Follow Casey on Twitter at twitter.com/mcnerthney.

subset: commoncrawl


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Some days, after a good night's rest and a protein-rich breakfast, my brain works wonderfully. It's well wrinkled, filled to the brim with answers and snapping synapses. Other days, after an epic night and a regurgitated breakfast, my brain just doesn't want to be bothered.
It's smooth and thoughtless. How does that damn brain work? ASAP Science analyses the brain by detailing the difference between fast thinking and slow thinking. You're going to think in a whole new way after this. [YouTube]


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From women facing crossroads in their lives to village scandals and a Victorian drama set in the rugged Yorkshire Dales, here are four novels to brighten the dark days ahead.
Invisible Women by Sarah Long
What about me? It's a refrain that will resonate with many women as they head for the big 5-0 birthday.
After what seems a lifetime of taking care of everybody – from children and husbands to parents and in-laws – three women decide it's time to start putting their own desires first.
Age-old themes are embroidered with humour, wisdom, warmth and pitch perfect observation in a sassy, sparkling novel from Sarah Long, a London-based author who knows how to touch the nerves – and the funny bones – of women of a certain age.
Invisible Women is a gorgeous, funny and feelgood story of love, sex, motherhood and sisterhood set amongst a group of friends who are determined to take control of their lives as they approach their mind-focusing half century.
Sandra, Harriet and Tessa have been best friends since school but not one of them is truly happy. Sandra has a naughty secret, Harriet has been ditched with her ailing mother-in-law one time too many and Tessa is desperate for distraction after her youngest flies the nest for university. With their 50th birthdays just around the corner, isn't it about time they put themselves first?
After Tessa responds to a late night Facebook message from an old flame, she finds herself impulsively waiting at the airport for a plane from New York. Will it reunite her with 'The One That Got Away', or land her in a heap of trouble?
And is this the long-awaited moment that Tessa and her friends grab their lives back and start living exactly as they choose?
Irreverent, witty and emotionally charged, Long's rollercoaster ride zones in with exquisite precision and perception on the dreams, despairs and dilemmas of all middle aged women getting ready to say a final goodbye to their youth and looking forward to new beginnings.
Warm, intelligent reading for the autumn nights!
(Zaffre, paperback, £7.99)
The Big Little Festival by Kellie Hailes
Welcome back to Rabbit's Leap, an enchanting Devon town where romance and real life have a habit of colliding in the most delightful way!
Hot on the heels of The Cosy Coffee Shop Promises, author Kellie Hailes is back to seduce us with this entertaining new chapter in the life of a picturesque rural idyll as it prepares to celebrate a landmark 500th anniversary… and a most unexpected romance.
Mother of two boisterous twin boys, Tyler and Jordan, and head of the festival committee, Jody McArthur is panicking. It's only weeks until her picture-perfect town of Rabbit's Leap holds its first ever festival and everything is falling apart.
Desperate to avoid disaster, she brings in notorious London party planner Christian Middlemore to save the day. He's snooty and arrogant but Jody wasn't prepared for just how gorgeous he would be.
Men are off the cards for Jody and surely Christian is the last man she would ever date? But with tensions rising – along with the bunting and home-made scones – she is about to find out if her determination to stay man-free will last the course.
Expect sparks to fly and the best-laid plans to go awry in this fun-filled, drama-packed tale of secrets, gossip, nosy neighbours and glorious romance. Cosy up and enjoy!
(HQ, paperback, £7.99)
City of Friends by Joanna Trollope
Lose yourself in the troubled lives of four women facing crossroads in their lives in a wise and wonderful novel from saga queen Joanna Trollope.
City of Friends is Trollope's twentieth novel, a compelling story which lays bare the fears, frustrations and manifold pressures of women caught up in the maelstrom of modern life.
The day Stacey Grant loses her job feels like the last day of her life. Or at least, the only life she'd ever known. For who was she if not a City high-flyer, senior partner at one of the top private equity firms in London?
Stacey must begin to reconcile her old life with the new… one without professional achievements or meetings but instead long days at home with her dog and her ailing mother, waiting for her successful husband to come home.
But at least Stacey has 'The Girls' to fall back on. Beth, Melissa, Gaby and Stacey – women now rather than girls – have been best friends from the early days of university right through their working lives, and through all the happiness and heartbreaks in between.
But these career women all have personal problems of their own, and when Stacey's redundancy forces a betrayal to emerge, one that was supposed to remain a secret, their long-cherished friendships will be pushed to their limits…
With her trademark warmth, wisdom and insight, Trollope navigates the emotional and psychological journey of four women forced to ask challenging questions not just about themselves but about their friendship and the secret corners of their lives.
Imbued with truth, experience and understanding, this is a story written for every woman facing the slings and arrows of the modern world.
(Pan, paperback, £7.99)
The Windfell Family Secrets by Diane Allen
The green valleys and rugged limestone outcrops of the Yorkshire Dales form the stunning backdrop to another beautiful tale of family ties, love, hope and hardship from popular storyteller Diane Allen.
Allen, whose inspiration comes from the stunning countryside surrounding her home at Long Preston near the historic market town of Settle, has her finger firmly on the pulse of northern saga writing and the hardy Yorkshire folk who have for centuries made their home amongst the hills and dales.
The Windfell Family Secrets is the much anticipated follow up to The Mistress of Windfell Manor, another captivating chapter in the life of Charlotte Booth, whose disastrous marriage to dashing cotton mill owner Joseph Dawson brought her to the edge of despair and destitution.
Twenty-one years have passed since Charlotte fought to keep Ferndale Mill and her home at Windfell Manor following her marriage to Joseph. Now, highly regarded in local society and happily married to her childhood sweetheart Archie Atkinson, she seeks only the best for their children, Isabelle and Danny.
But history has a habit of repeating itself when Danny's head is turned by a local girl of ill repute, despite his promise of marriage to the far more respectable Harriet Armstrong. Meanwhile, the beautiful and secretive Isabelle shares all the traits of her biological father, the notorious Joseph Dawson.
And when she announces that she is to marry John Sidgwick, the owner of High Mill in Skipton, her mother quickly warns her against him. Sidgwick is a former drinking mate of her late father and facing bankruptcy, and Charlotte fears his interest in Isabelle is founded more upon self-preservation than any notions of love.
What she doesn't realise is how far he is willing to go to protect his future…
Allen, an observant and insightful writer, fields a fascinating cast of authentic Yorkshire characters in an enthralling tale packed with emotion, drama and the harsh realities of life in 19th century northern England.
But there is romance here too amidst the grit and grime, the shining light of hope, and proof of the enduring power of love, family and friendship to transform even the darkest days.
(Pan, paperback, £6.99)


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Is there an unsuspected link between today's porn and potency?
Through a fluke of fate, my website has become a hangout for some amazing people, including men determined to wean themselves from porn. Their efforts have taught me more than I ever wanted to know about this subject. A few years ago one wrote,
I am sure that if a study were actually done with honest men, we would see correlation between porn viewing and erectile dysfunction. The porn industry takes advantage of the uninformed public and makes billions. Then the pharmaceutical companies sell us costly sexual enhancement drugs to treat the side effects—and make billions.
Turns out he wasn't an exception.
I've been looking at Internet pornography since I began college 13 years ago. Around age 24, I noticed difficulty getting aroused with real women. Generic Viagra off the Internet allowed me to have real relationships with few problems until the age of 29. Then, it became increasingly difficult to have real sex, even with the pills.
Realizing my problem, I tried several times to give up porn. The longest I lasted without it was 3 weeks. During this time, I could not get aroused thinking about normal sex, so the frustration built. My only escape was to fall back into the only thing that would arouse me: fantasizing about fetishes I developed when watching porn. Then it was back to porn. I need to be cured of this.
As Internet speed has soared, so has masturbation to videos. They are easily accessible, increasingly extreme—and much more stimulating than Playboys of the past. Alas, most experts are not thinking in terms of "degree of stimulation affecting brain chemistry balance/wiring." They're still thinking of all porn as "nothing more than a masturbation aid," and therefore harmless, or even beneficial. Since Internet videos are such a recent trend, it's possible that the standard thinking simply hasn't had time to catch up with the reality of today's porn and its risks.
The porn/potency connection is surprisingly treacherous. Most men's potency isn't affected by porn...until it is. So the problem seems illusory until it catches up with someone—at which point he tends to mistake hotter porn as the cure. More extreme material further desensitizes his brain. At this juncture, most men clutch at any explanation other than porn use for their symptoms, due to their growing dependency.
Often experts assume shame is the cause of such potency problems, but for many men it's likely that brain chemistry desensitization from heavy stimulation is the culprit. Not only have they been using porn quite contentedly for years, but also, if shame were the cause, the problems would likely show up sooner. Many men experience NO problems until years of heavy porn use have passed. Then there is a further decline as their search for more extreme material escalates. (Shame is not always irrelevant, of course. It can make sexual activity more intensely arousing, thus speeding up the desensitization cycle.)
The good news is that erectile dysfunction brought on by heavy porn use is apparently reversible. The painful part is that the sufferer has to surrender his compulsive porn use—a sacrifice that is surprisingly tough.
Here's what men shared:
After years of porn, I was having trouble with erections. It had been getting worse and worse for a couple years. Needed more and more types of porn stimulation, and it still was not helping. I was really worried, but the anxiety just pushed me deeper into porn. Hard to believe, given the progression. I probably used every type of porn image and vid out there except for one: child porn. What scares me is, could I have gone that route, too, one day?
The more I go without porn, masturbation, fantasy and orgasm, the more difficult it becomes to not get an erection. LOL. No ED problems or weak ejaculations like I had just a few months ago. My body has healed. So, if you stay away from porn and masturbation your sexual desire will go up. It will go up in a good way. Giving it up for just this short period of time has been a big step in healing the damage I did to myself. Now the challenge is to find a partner, or a masturbation interval that works.
After a 90-day period of abstinence from porn/masturbation, I noticed that I was more sensitive than before; I didn't need any other stimulation to make me horny. Also the semen leakage stopped. Now that I have returned to some masturbation, I notice that I have been the most interested in women (and have ended up in bed with them) during my experiments with low masturbation frequency.
While I was consuming porn and beating off, I had severe performance anxiety when it came to actual sex. That is gone. I have no problem. It is nice to get aroused by little things: a revealing blouse, some innocent cleavage, a summer dress, or just a woman's flowing, shiny hair and fragrance, instead of "Cum Gurgling sluts" video clips.
I'm glad this porn-ED issue is becoming more recognized. It's gonna help prevent a lot of problems. I've read things about people being able watch porn occasionally and then still perform with a significant other. However, if they went a long stretch without any type of partner sex, and watched a lot of porn with masturbation, then they had difficulties—difficulties they didn't previously have.
According to psychiatrist Norman Doidge, a heavy porn user is not unlike
a drug addict who can no longer get high on the images that once turned him on. And the danger is that this tolerance will carry over into relationships, as it did in patients whom I was seeing, leading to potency problems and new, at times unwelcome, tastes. When pornographers boast that they are pushing the envelope by introducing new, harder themes, what they don't say is that they must, because their customers are building up a tolerance to the content. The back pages of men's risque magazines and Internet porn sites are filled with ads for Viagra-type drugs—medicine developed for older men with erectile problems related to aging and blocked blood vessels in the penis. Today young men who surf porn are tremendously fearful of impotence, or "erectile dysfunction" as it is euphemistically called. The misleading term implies that these men have a problem in their penises, but the problem is in their heads. ... It rarely occurs to them that there may be a relationship between the pornography they are consuming and their impotence.
Here's the bit that most men don't know. A period of discomfort or intense horniness during the days of recovery after intense stimulation seems like a sound reason to self-medicate with another porn binge. But doing so actually worsens the problem. If someone climaxes before his brain is back to balance, he's likely to seek out hotter and hotter stimuli. Why? A primitive part of his brain is still temporarily less responsive. This is why regular sex/porn "isn't doing it for him."
Hotter stimuli produce arousal, but further dysregulate dopamine levels in a key part of his brain. As his hangovers and cravings for hotter relief come to dominate his life, the user can forget what equilibrium felt like. Often he experiences uncharacteristic depression and anxiety—which he won't connect with the changes in his brain brought about by heavy porn use. And because the problem is developing in the brain's wiring, Viagra's temporary fix won't halt the deterioration. (It only addresses blood flow to erections.)
As my visitors discovered, the solution seems to be to stop masturbating to porn. In fact, foregoing masturbation entirely for as long as two months speeds the "unwiring" of the acquired association between arousal and extreme, synthetic erotica. This offers a fresh start, sexually speaking (although the brain is likely to remain very sensitive to porn-related cues indefinitely).
This lengthy, often agonizing, "rebooting" process can be scary. Some men fear their libido will vanish completely. This is not the case. As the brain comes back to balance it tends to become more sensitive and responsive, not less. At first, however, some experience a gray period, during which nothing turns them on because their brains are so desensitized.
As the brain is prevented from pursuing porn-acquired associations, it eventually looks around for other sources of pleasure. It rediscovers the ones it evolved to find: friendly interaction, real mates, time in nature, exercise, accomplishment, and so forth. In fact, many men find exercise particularly beneficial. It improves self-image and eases anxiety and depression while the brain is returning to homeostasis.
Obviously, lots of factors can be at work in performance anxiety. Yet as people learn to regulate their sexual responsiveness to real potential partners using changes in their own behavior, they can more confidently address any other issues contributing to performance anxiety.
Porn up Performance Down
I can add one more data point to this. Yep, I was a classic example of over stimulation (P and M) followed by the use of Viagra to counteract the lows.
Although I recently fell back into my old bad habit patterns with porn and such, I did learn a while back how the sensitivity and healthiness came back while abstaining.
The glimpse of how beautiful and enjoyable it was to be in that state with my wife should have been enough to keep me there but.....alas I fell back into the same stupid pattern and rationalizing all the way to the pit.
Now I am back in the saddle and trying a few new methods to stay on the path with one of the biggest motivators being the blissful feeling of connection and affection in the relationship free of this other side effect.
Thanks again for this article,
I guess it's good
to have corroboration...especially as the problem seems to be temporary with careful management. If any of the rest of you want to add your stories here, even if you've told them elsewhere, feel free.
Why do we all have to learn the hard way?
I'm not sure
I'm not sure why I have to learn the hard way. I am relatively smart, I guess, and "know" what I want and don't want.
I realize what is hurting me and others......and sometimes still fall off the right path.
It's like I still don't get it after hitting bottom....like I still am looking for a deeper bottom?
Humans rarely change without some pain......but how much pain do I need?
I'm just blabbing,
Guess it's worth remembering
that the limbic brain is designed to urge us without thinking, that it serves our genes, not us, and that it evolved when Internet porn wasn't around. If Internet porn HAD been around during our evolution, those with really sensitive reward circuitry would have died out...taking pair bonding, and big-brained babies with them.
This may be a steep learning curve, but once the mainstream is better educated, progress may be faster than we think. At least if we can keep shame and guilt out of the equation.
Everybody's bottoms
are different, some low, some high. One saying I have heard is that you can only go as high as you have been low, so your experience also serves some potential upside down the road.
Keep in mind, if someone had a loaded gun and put it next to your head, and said, don't load that porn site or I will shoot. Could you not load the site, or would you? If your honest, it may be a matter of willingness vs doing. Are you really willing to let it go? You can use the gun next to your head exercise to see. Usually the answer is you could not load the site so it is really a matter of your willingness. If it is truly an addiction and you are dependent upon looking at the images and moving to O, then it may just be that your will power is of insufficient energy to overcome the obstacle. It is like trying to lift 500 lbs. but your muscles are only conditioned to lift about 150 lbs. That is why I think the notion of admitting that you are powerless over addictions and inviting a higher power to step in and take them from you will seems to work. It has for millions in AA where before that 12 step program that addiction was considered hopeless and fatal.
Gary was curious
to see who else writes about this subject. He just found this article by Judith Reisman, a psychologist who wrote a biography about Kinsey, for whom she has very little regard...to put it mildly.
The Impotence Pandemic
link fixed :)
I would be interested to see other commentators on this idea. Reisman is not a psychologist. (Her Ph.D. was in communications.) Also, the World News Daily has a very definate political and social bend to it, to make an understatement. I think a contributor to the World News Daily reported a few yeaers ago that soy makes kids gay. Reisman has also taken some pretty extreme stances against gays.
Thanks for the scoop.
Yes, she can get "right fiery," and I don't agree with some of her conclusions or arguments. For example, as I told her:
I believe we all need to understand the hidden orgasm cycle in sex better...and why the Coolidge Effect can still sneak into a marriage - even where both partners were virgins and "did it all right."
I wish the religious right weren't so naive about their declarations that "following the rules guarantees happiness." It doesn't. It merely improves the odds. If those rules worked, we wouldn't have slipped into this mess. Can't blame it all on Kinsey. Adultery is an old problem. As is wife beating by dissatisfied, irritable, often religious men. As are other addictions, as spouses attempt to self-medicate due to marital dissatisfaction.
I also think the current religious-right discussion about oxytocin binding people to porn is quite superficial. That surge at orgasm doesn't necessarily "bind." If it did, the men would be tied to ("in love with") the image they orgasmed to...instead of constantly seeking novelty. The binding effects of oxytocin may be confined to affection, intimacy, companionship, safe touch, etc.
(The religious folk have been scaring their followers using the "power of oxytocin" to bind us to the wrong things. Mind you, I think promiscuity has hidden costs...by making love less fulfilling, more fragile and therefore more "treacherous-seeming," and thus encouraging pursuit of novelty and other "comforts." But misusing the science doesn't seem like a sound way to go.)
But I also admire Reisman's vision...especially in her calmer moments. If you have time, read this paper that she wrote with Joseph Shepher of UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute. It was written in the 80s, but correctly foresaw the trends in porn, and effects on pair bonds. Pornography: A Sociobiological Attempt at Understanding
From another post
If you look online there are a ton of these posts popping up, all about guys that have watched so much porn they are having ED issues. You have all different types of people, too, being affected. You have guys that had no ED problems for years, starting watching P for a couple months on a daily basis, and boom they have problems.
You have married guys who, when on porn can't satisfy their wife, but when they're off it they're fine. You have guys who have successfully quit P for good, while quitting MB for several weeks, and have also seen great results. Just like on here, you have people that can't get aroused by simple things anymore, it takes more and more hardcore stuff to get them going.
Look all around the internet, there are a lot of guys experiencing ED like symptoms with real women because of porn. This has been parallel with the explosion of free internet porn over the past 5 years. Some of these men never had problems until they started looking at porn and MB for long periods at a time.
Also see: http://www.topix.com/forum/health/erectile-dysfunction/TIMUPUQ2KMIFT983F
When I started porn
in my early puberty, everything seemed arrousing, I mean, only a sexy swimsuit or a little skin was making me very arroused. I was looking at women on the streets and only the thought of having sex with a woman was giving me an erection.
Porn totally desensitized me. At first I was watching solo previews, it escalated to hardcore videos then recently to gay chats and shemale porn.
I developped an HOCD and was totally destroyed by it, it changed my sexual tastes! I never been gay, always loved women, I'm working on abstinence to get back to balance.
Now nothing normal or not shocking turns me on, or only a little bit.
Porn is bad. Point. It should be illegal or really hard to obtain
Flowing Searcher is wondering...
Does anyone know what very early exposure to porn does to the individuals and their future exploration of normal sexual relationships?
It seems to me that this thread /issue is very much geared towards males. I am wondering if there is any data or info on women in the same bind.
Flowing Searcher
most of the bloggers here are male, so we don't yet know a lot of first-hand information about women and porn use. However, if we're right that temporary brain desensitization (neurochemical dysregulation) is the real issue, then both sexes could certainly be affected. Have you read "The Brain that Changes Itself?"
At least one woman recently mentioned here that she thinks her porn use made her less orgasmic with her husband. She stopped the porn, and as far as I know, the problem has resolved itself. Do you want to contact her privately? If so, I'll give you the link to her member page.
What has your experience been?
just some general comments.....
Im on about a month with no porn, MB twice during this time with no fantasy. I can def see things changing for the better. Two great things is i find real women much more attractive, and i think this is going to increase even more over time, and number 2 after a couple of weeks there are urges yes, however they are 10 times easier to get away from. Honestly its like my body has gotten so used to being without MB that i don't even think of doing it anymore.
But a really interesting thing happened to me about 5 days ago, i was talking to a friend of mine, one who i know used P and MB a couple times a week, not nearly as much as i used to. He was telling me how he stopped using the P and won't MB (maybe once a week) because he felt he was becoming an addict and losing his sex drive toward his partner. That was shocking to me. There are just so many cases of porn addiction popping up with porn being so much easier to access.
Yes, Sportsguy,
I recently had a similar conversation with a friend of many years. He does not discuss it in terms of a problem though.....and believes viagra is the best drug ever invented.
I do believe there are lots and lots of folks wrapped up in this bullshit.
That is why, it has to be an individual drive and desire to rid yourself of it.
We only know ourselves and whether we need to quit or not.
The day I "woke up" led me to this site and ever since has been the journey out of the crap.
I'm a "getta bigger hammer" person, by nature,
so I would have prolly fallen for the Viagra course of action, too, if a man.
However, Viagra has definite health risks, and with the powerful pharmaceutical lobby, I'm not sure men are hearing the real story. I've never seen any follow-up on this item, for example: "FDA Investigates Blindness in Viagra Users" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR200505... Yet when I talked to a friend about it, his dad had suddenly gone blind after taking Viagra. I doubt the doctor ever thought to report it because he wouldn't have made the connection. Viagra has also been associated with heart failure, yet we don't hear much about that, either.
If the real problem is "dampening one's pleasure response," then Viagra-type drugs are only stop-gap solutions. It's the brain that needs to return to full sensitivity.
Gray period
Hi Marnia;
I am porn-addict, but clean for 6 weeks and 1 day with ED problems. So far so good for me, but I have some tiny questions. Before asking my questions, I have to thank you for this web-site. I tried to keep away from porn for a mouth, but failed. I did not know that masturbation even without porn is not helpful to solve my problem.
My questions will be about the recovery period and afterwards, which I don't see too much things. I feel like I am in grey area that you mentonned in the text. I gain some sense actually, nothing is so grey. I had full-day erection (but not not a strong one) last week, after a cute girl freind of mine asked me if she can visit me after her summer-school. On the other hand, I had nothing but some loosy morning erections for two weeks. Main reason to get rid of porn is that I had E.D while I was dating with a girl 4 mouths ago. Having ED with a girl beautiful than most pornstars, who tried everything to keep my erection long enough in bed was a terrible experiance. I don't want to live something like that again.
1. What you recommend for the people in gray period to feel better, to fasten things, but keep waiting?
2. So how can I understand my senses is back before having a sexual relation? I am not asking for a full recovery, which seems to be at least 3 mounths (I will wait for it), but how about sexual relation without full-recovery after I am 2 mount clean and hold my erection during sex? It will be better for me or worst?
3. Should I use blue pills to feel comfortable for sometime?
4. As I understand it is like drug-addict or alcoolism and I can get back to porn any time, so when I handdle the ED, what can I do to keep clean from porn afterwards?
(To share my experiance with others, nothing to do with questions) I want to write how I started vicious cycle of porn, because I am not close to loser stereotype sticked to his PC, who is commonly pictured in TVs, journals or Media. I think noone in here is. I beleive it can happen to anyone. I am handsome guy with high IQ, I am very well-educated and I am living in a good social environement. What has happened to me, then? I had two very bad relationships for 4 years followed by very bad 2 years in my career and I sat my home satisfying myself with porn (started 4 years ago). However I think I am not a victim of porn industry nor of my girlfriends. I am in this situation, because I escaped to real world, when I feel blues. If it was not pornography maybe I begun to drink. My advice is to confess yourself that we are porn-addict like a drug-user and your life like mine sucks because you are an addict!
Gray period
I haven't posted here before, but I also am interested in getting these answers. I Masturbated daily for 20 years and have had ED problems all the way back to my first encounter. Porn was never a big issue for me. If I do see some porn, I will probably get an erection, but I rarely get an erection without physical stimulation. I have them upon waking. During my first encounter, I was also on Accutane, which I've heard causes libido problems rarely. Basically I only get an erection 5% of the time with real women. I rarely even try because I'm so tired of the problem. So I'm trying to figure out if my ED problems with real women are due to the masturbation habit, or did the Accutane affect my neurotransmitters/hormones permanently.
I'm on day 37 without masturbation. I think one evening I felt normal libido, but that's it. Any suggestions on how I know when I'm healed? Can someone tell me what's normal as far as libido and erectile ability is for a low 30's guy? If I go 90 days and still have problems, where do I go from there? I've had all my hormones checked and am in good health.
Stress. Failure to be able to get and sustain an erection is due to stress, and if you're an addict this is probably exacerbated by fatigue. In the book on Karezza on this site, the author notes that stock-breeders would not constantly mate their prize bull to exhaustion, and yet that is what many of us men do when we masturbate regularly or have intercourse too often.
Pornography also has a tendency to get weirder as you continue to use it because you need an increasingly stronger form of it to get the same buzz. When you analyzed some of what you look at didn't you ever think about that?
Hug more, caress more, have intercourse less and avoid masturbation. Massage each other, meditate and relax. When you're stressed don't masturbate. Hug someone or, if nobody's around maybe try meditation or talking to a friend on the phone. Avoid the booze though because it can make the desire for sex higher, the likelihood of risky sex higher and with the added drawbacks that you'll get brewers droop on top ...and this can be very frustrating... sorry I've started to reminisce.
thanks for reading,
I wish we knew all the answers
Everything I know about porn and recovery comes from the men who have been visiting here for the last few years, courageously experimenting, and sharing what works and what doesn't.
I suspect that there are no hard and fast schedules for such things as ED, because everyone's nervous system, past emotional hurts, and circumstances are different. I assume you read the Wiki on this subject, right? Erectile Dysfunction and Porn Use - http://www.reuniting.info/node/3287
My intuition says that spending time around women is really beneficial: flirting, laughing, dancing, touching. Maybe don't have intercourse until *you* feel more than READY. In our book, for example, we recommend two weeks of nightly affection, without sex, before moving into gentle intercourse. You might be surprised at how "ready" you feel after that!
Men are getting some really unrealistic ideas about sex from watching porn studs. (And women are trying to fit their behavior to these strange ideas, too. )
You are not machines. Women do not generally like to be "drilled" by a machine. It doesn't make them orgasm more, or better, although it may make it easier to fake it.
There's nothing wrong with slow, affectionate courtship. As long as you let your partner know she's attractive to you, and that you enjoy being with her, and that you find her "sexy," she'll *enjoy* being courted. In fact, you're likely to see a much nicer side of her if you *don't* make her orgasm all the time.
In a new relationship, just tell her that when you've rushed into things in the past, the relationships didn't go well, so you'd like to try a slow approach this time. Men and women can get really high, just on being together. Once you both taste that, sex becomes a lovely addition to the mix, but not the only goal.
Something tells me I drifted away from your actual questions here.
Anyway, my thought is to keep doing what you're doing. You can put the sparkle in your life with exercise, meditation and lots of flirting. All those things can also help keep you away from porn.
And maybe, as you realize that your great lovemaking could have been contributing to those past relationship disasters, you'll forgive those women and yourself, and see the future with more optimism. We really can't keep doing what we've been doing and expect to get different results.
Viagra doesn't work on the reward circuitry, so it's not directly related to your recovery. It's somewhat risky, so use it as little as possible.
One thing I will say is that if it wasn't for Viagra, I would have never been able to have my initial intercourse. After that I was able to without Viagra sometimes. Now if I take like 1/4 of a pill, I'm great. I rarely take it though, because I am determined to function normally. I guess my opinion is it can help those with performance anxiety, but it shouldn't be a long-term solution.
ok thanks for all the tips,
ok thanks for all the tips, I did not expect so much answers... }:)
Honestly my best results came with a 2-3 weeks experiment i did months ago. I found this suggestion online. It was to not look at any P, MB, but also not to look sexually fantasize about women for that time period as well. After that time period i felt like my sex drive was almost reset, in otherwords, things that hadn't turned me on for years were turning me on again. For some reason though i thought i was "cured" and fell back into porn.
More recently i have stopped the P and MB for weeks but i have had alot of sexual fantasy problems, things have gotten better, but not as good as when i stopped sexually fantasizing, i felt like i kind of hit a plateu.
I think sexual fantasy is big in this whole thing. Just cause you stopped looking at P, and just cause u stopped MB, doesn't mean you can just take everyday women and put them in porn scenes, its the same thing. I had a huge problem with the sexual fantasy thing recently, getting them out of my head. But after a day or two of really focusing on getting them out, it becomes alot easier.
I think we are so used to seeing naked bodies and such through porn that regular stuff just doesn't turn us on anymore. So i think a couple weeks of depriving the body of anything sexual, (including sexual fantasy) would possibly truely allow the mind and the body to reset itself.
I'm going to try that
I'm going to try that. Good suggestion.
just wanted to elaborate.....
I saw this example used recently. You have a favorite food, you absolutely love it. However if you ate that food for 3-4 weeks straight, what is bound to happen? Your probably going to eventually get sick of it. However you wait a couple more weeks and what happens? all of a sudden the desire to eat that food is back.
Now i'm in no way comparing women to food, thats not the point. Point is im guessing its how the brain works. It get so used to something that the feeling or "buzz" goes away.
I know it wouldn't be popular, but my point is maybe avoid fantasizing about women for a while would be a good thing. If your having trouble with that maybe even not looking would be even more beneficial. I realized i think alot of porn and MB users stop using the P and MB and they think everything should be fine. That isn't necessarily true, especially if your constantly "checking" on your progress by fantasizing about women in porn scenes.
Honestly i remember in those two weeks, everytime a porn thought or a fantasy about a real women came into my head, i quickly thought of something else, is it tough at first, yes. Eventually though it got easier. In those couple weeks i felt i had no sex drive, but then all of a sudden something just clicked. Things that never turned me on, even while i was using porn, were turning me on again.
After just a week or so in, i could glance at a women and i would feel that sort of buzz returning. Still though the buzz would quickly fade, so i decided to keep going. Depriving myself of all sexual thoughts, and it worked. I didn't realize at the time, but it worked. 2 weeks of no porn, no mb and no fantasy is better than two weeks of no porn no mb, and constant fantasy. I originally thought i was just "horny" because i hadn't MB'ed in two weeks, but their is a difference.
All in all thought, my goal is not to fantasize pretty much at all anymore, i mean what really is the point. It only sets me back, and it ruins all the natural fun and normal sexuality. It doesn't really lead anywhere.
More on ED symptoms
Here's a comment that just appeared on one of my Psychology Today posts. I'll copy it here as some of you may find it interesting.
This is the first article of its kind I've seen in a mainstream publication ["As Porn Goes Up, Performance Goes Down?"].
I've struggled with ED for couple years now, and I'm in my late 40s. I've
often thought there was a connection between excessive porn/masturbation and
ED. The only problem is testing that hypothesis---because it's so damn hard
to quit masturbating and viewing porn! Even for a week. And nobody seems to
address this porn/ED connection. Another factor with my own experience is
that due to my spiritual beliefs, I consider this habit to be a bad thing in
and of itself. So call me a hypocrite or stupid for not following my own
religion, that's just the way it is. Anyways, I'm sure that the subconscious
stress from guilt from a porn habit is also a contributing factor. But I was
somewhat surprised to recently read a forum thread (actually quite a few) at
Men's Health, where guys were discussing their struggles with this (porn/ED),
simply from a practical perspective. Mostly young guys, 20s or so, can't get
it up anymore with a real girl, and they all relate having a serious
porn/masturbation habit. Guys will never openly discuss this with friends,
co-workers, for fear of getting laughed out of town. But when someone tells
their story on a health forum, there are 50, 100 replies from other guys who
struggle with the same thing. This is for real. If I can quit, and the ED
gets better, I'll get back to you and let you know. It could take a while....
Time is a great healer
If you give it time (and granted, that's easier said than done) you will find that your mind tends to crave pornography less and less, especially if during this time you replace the use of pornography with bonding behaviour with a partner. This mutual nurturing behaviour will help to heal your scarred mind and make the recall of pornographic images less likely to occur and therefore the compulsion to masturbate will gradually subside. Learning to love and nurture rather than lust which exhausts your sexual energy, is the key and you need a partner to try this with. You need to have the benefits that you will both gain for this clearly in your mind if you are going to make a success of it though and these are clearly highlighted in Marnia's excellent books. If you don't have a partner but find yourself addicted to sex, you must still find something to replace this behaviour with, something meaningful with which to fill the void, or else you will easily lapse back into your default settings so to speak.
thanks for reading,
Thoughts from another forum member
My porn use has increased beginning in 2000. From that point on, I kept returning to porn much more frequently after quitting, and staying with it for longer periods of time as the years progressed.
It was around that time that I started having problems staying erect. Aside from when I was sick, I had always had no problem staying erect during sex or MB, until I had come. And no problems climaxing either. But around 2000, I started to get tired while having sex and then everything would go limp. I worked not to worry about it much, because I knew about the performance anxiety thing, but it still seemed to persist, and my wife commented on it, which caused some feelings of "I'm not good enough." But I did my best to not let those affect me.
However, I started trying supplements during that time. While some made things worse, some helped, and now I generally don't seem to have a big problem. But I didn't do the one thing that probably would have helped the most: exercise. I needed more physical endurance, that was the real problem. I got worn out too easily.
Anyway, I just noticed the correlation between having trouble staying erect and when my porn use started to rise. It might be the chicken and the egg problem. Did increase in porn use cause me to start having erection problems? Or did erection problems due to lack of physical stamina cause me to seek out porn to stay hard and get that O? I'm not sure of the answer, but thought the fact that the two issues began around the same time might have some linkage.
Comment from forum member
My lover will be 52 next week and he has been known to get an erection from just having his hand on my hip as we walk down the street--but he wasn't like that when we first started seeing each other. The bonding takes time and the karezza really does sensitize you to each other and you will experience that again! (if more men of a certain age would try it, they might find there is no need for certain prescription drugs)


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Plus One Lap used to be all about cyclocross, now it's my dumping grounds for anything cycling.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
This is what I learned this cyclocross season...
I learned that the Portland cyclocross scene is pretty badass. That the competition is super stiff and fast. That singlespeed racing is tough but that it is fun. And wondering what gearing to use is pretty much over when the gun goes off---its just slog it out and go time. That "go time" means something different in Portland than it does in Sacramento. That training like a few hours a week on a base of little training doesnt equal a very good placing or very strong legs.
I learned that being on a team is fun and that teammates cheering can often push you harder than you might have pushed yourself. That beer and cyclocross really do together like peanut butter and chocolate as well as mud and cyclocross. Getting lapped sucks, but getting lapped twice in the same race by the same guy blows. That steel is real.
That I have to enter the next season in better shape to slog it out with the Portland masses.
1 comment:
- Ryan said...
And from your post, I learned that in Portland they have traffic cones the size of full-grown men!
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Yeah, right.
Yeah, right.
... .... .- -.- . / - .... . / -.. . .- - .... / ..-. .-. --- -- / -.-- --- ..- .-. / -... --- -. . ...
Just wait and ask anyone who attends the dinner. He will also be sitting in the VIP boxes on game day so you can go give him a visit.
This sim just lost all realism and is dead to me.
Jesus brings life eternal
Lucas Neill appearance canceled
Nixonstown Daily
Lucas Neill, who was supposed to be a guest at Nitin Dravid's Christmas dinner will not be showing up. Dravid today said to Nixonstown daily that he hasn't had contact with Lucas Neill who said he was going to attend the dinner, but confirm with Dravid on the 18th of Dec.
"When I asked Lucas Neill if he would like to attend my dinner he said he would love and most likely will but he will make it 100% sure on Dec 18. I have been trying to get in contact with him since then, but he hasn't been picking up my calls or called me. I'm really surprised by this." Nitin Dravid told Nixonstown Daily
"I thought it would be better to cancel his appearance right now and let the fans know than go in with a chance of him not showing up at all to the dinner and making all the fans who will attend the dinner upset. If any fans do not wish to attend the dinner because of this misunderstanding between me and Lucas, they can refund their tickets at home games for East Coast Furys. I would like to apologize to everyone who this might have cause inconvenience to."
The attendance number for Nitin Dravid's dinner is expected to drop dramatically.
Time to go International
by Dexter Moon
Tomorrow Cricketweb Land will take the leap into International competition. After a successful introduction into the International Arena on the Cricket Field, they will now target success in the World Game - Football.
People have claimed the move into the International scene of the world of football is like sending someone to the Gallows, However one could hardly be fearful of the first up opponents.
American Samoa; The whipping boys of Oceania football.. In recent times American Samoa have been beaten 10-0, 11-0, 9-1 Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu, All far from being powerhouses in Footballing terms.
So what do we make of Cricketweb Lands chances..
Its quite clear that the American Samoans have some deficiancies in defence, as well as a lack of power up front, but how do Cricketweb Land match up?
In the Defence the likes of Dubb-Lynch, Goff, Rai and Gray have a rock solid defence, although only Gray and Rai have played together before they all play the same style of play...
The midfield will be led by the general Nathan Hoy, who will have a bit of work to do as it is in this area where the Samoans do have the upper hand.
However the danger for the Visitors will be the goalscoring ability of the CW'ers.. Kennett, Gough, and Dravid all have been lethal in the opening stages of the CW Premiership and Kennett is already fielding offers from International clubs..
For me i can see a win for CWLand, and a good lead up for the more important match later in the season against the NZ All Whites.
My Tip: CWLand 3-0
Nice article, Blewy. I'm just wondering, do we have a kit for our international team or have I missed it somewhere?
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text:
Twins foiled by mistakes in Royals' big inning
Correia labors in decisive five-run fourth along with shaky defense
KANSAS CITY -- It didn't take long for manager Ron Gardenhire to sum up Saturday's 5-4 loss to the Royals.
When you don't make the plays in the field, you're asking for heartache and Minnesota got plenty of that in a nightmarish fourth inning that set the stage for the Twins to tumble under the .500 mark.
"We misplayed a ball in right, didn't see one down the third-base line and threw one away on a steal," Gardenhire said as he quickly rattled off the key elements of Kansas City's five-run rally in the fourth. "That's the ballgame. It's a game we felt we should have won if we make the plays we're supposed to make."
Maybe it was an omen when left fielder Jason Kubel lost a routine fly ball in the sun in the second inning, which resulted in an Alex Gordon leadoff double. Twins starter Kevin Correia worked around that defensive problem, but he couldn't withstand all the fielding issues in the fourth.
The Twins had jumped to a 2-0 lead and felt they could have had more against wobbly Royals starter Bruce Chen. Kurt Suzuki homered for the first time in his career as a designated hitter and Correia was off to a good start. But then, the momentum changed following a leadoff single by Gordon in the fourth. Billy Butler, who has been a struggling hitter, launched a ball to right field and converted outfielder Chris Colabello took a step in the wrong direction. Colabello couldn't recover and the ball sailed over his head for a double.
Instead of one on and one out, the Twins were in a mess with runners at second and third and none out. The seeds for a big inning had been planted.
"I took a dropstep in the wrong direction," Colabello said. "I got twisted around and didn't think he had hit it that good. Not too many people feel worse about it than I do."
It appeared briefly that Correia might minimize the damage when Mike Moustakas lifted a sacrifice fly that cut Minnesota's lead to 2-1. Correia had the bottom of the order to deal with and No. 8 hitter Justin Maxwell delivered an RBI single to knot the game at 2. It was the first hit for Maxwell this season.
Correia then hit No. 9 batter Alcides Escobar with a pitch and Nori Aoki lashed an RBI single wide of third that froze Trevor Plouffe, who never saw the ball until it was by him. An RBI single by Omar Infante made it 4-2 and Aoki culminated the rally by stealing third and scoring on catcher Josmil Pinto's throwing error.
"Baseball is a weird game," Colabello said. "We had an inning the other day where we walked eight times and scored six runs. They were able to capitalize on some mistakes. Kevin pitched great. He deserved better than that."
Colabello had another adventure in the outfield when he collided with center fielder Aaron Hicks on a deep drive by Moustakas. Hicks was able to come away with the ball, but it underscored the point that Colabello's outfield play is a work in progress as he makes the transition from first base.
"I try the best I can," Colabello said. "There are obviously some balls that I still need work on. The toughest play for an outfielder is the hard-hit ball right at him. Every day, I get out there and keep working at it. I'm not going to stop trying."
Suzuki got the Twins back in the game with a two-out, two-run single off Chen in the fifth. But once the Royals went to their bullpen, the Twins' offense was stopped cold. Danny Duffy, Wade Davis and Greg Holland combined for four hitless innings with six strikeouts and just one walk to firmly seal the win.
"Duffy throws the living fire out of the ball," Gardenhire said. " We know he can misfire a little bit, but the ball really comes out of his hand. Same thing with the last guy [Holland]. We try to make them throw the ball over the plate. When they do that, it makes it tough on you because they have great stuff."
Suzuki was hopeful his two-run single in the fifth would jumpstart the Twins again after the crazy fourth inning. But as it turned out, their scoring chances completely dried up after Chen was lifted.
"We put ourselves in striking distance," Suzuki said. "But their bullpen did a great job of keeping us down."
Royals manager Ned Yost said he felt in the fifth inning that his bullpen might need to protect a one-run lead the rest of the way.
"The bullpen has been lights out," Yost said. "That was as good as Wade Davis has thrown. He came out of the gate with a 95 mile-per-hour fastball. Holland was at 96-97. And Duffy has been great since we got him up here."


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"Know ye not that ye _______ (your name) are the Temple of God ?
as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them. And I will be their God (Elohim – Mighty One), and they shall be My people . . . !"
I Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19-20
II Corinthians 6:16-18
MARANATHA . . . our Lord and Saviour is returning soon !
We would like to thank each and every one of our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus for your prayers and faith over the last few months. Our Lord and Saviour is doing miracles like never before . . . Continue reading


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Millions of kids were made happy yesterday by getting their favourite toys for Christmas. A smaller amount were left disappointed when their hippie parents left them a newspaper recycler under the tree.
The Bill Nye Paper Recycling Factory lets you take old newspapers and turn them into new paper products such as cards and notepads. Simply turn them into a paste and press them out into whatever shape of paper you want and there you have it: the magic of recycling. Sure, it's not Gears of War 2, but violent video games don't teach you about recycling, now do they? [Discover This via Treehugger]


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|Submit your comments on this article
|Israeli spy planes go on New Year's snooping mission to Lebanon
|[Iran Press TV] Six Israeli military aircraft have penetrated Lebanese airspace and flown over several areas of the country in blatant violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
An Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle entered Lebanese airspace over the southern border town of Alma al-Shaab at 7:45 a.m. local time (0445 GMT) on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by the Lebanese military.
The remote-controlled aircraft carried out surveillance flights over several areas in southern Leb before it left the country's airspace at 3:20 p.m. local time (1220 GMT) while flying over the southern village of Rmeish.
Four Israeli fighter jets crossed into Leb's airspace over the southern border village of Kfar Kila, located 96 kilometers (59 miles) south of Beirut, at 9:50 a.m. local time (0650 GMT).
The warplanes flew over several areas in Leb before leaving Lebanese airspace at 11:00 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) while flying over Alma al-Shaab.
In addition, an Israeli drone crossed into Lebanese airspace over the southern village of al-Naqoura, situated 91 kilometers (57 miles) south of Beirut, at 11:10 a.m. local time (0810 GMT) on Tuesday.
The aircraft made surveillance flights over several areas in southern Leb before it left at 6 p.m. local time (1500 GMT) while flying over al-Naqoura.
|Posted by:Fred
|#2 Glenmore raises a good question.
Does Israel allow Xmas celebrations? Yeah, I thought so. 8^)
|Posted by: AlanC 2013-01-02 10:35
|#1 Just the kids trying out their radio-controlled
|Posted by: Glenmore 2013-01-02 08:06


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In forcing telehealth usage to mirror the pattern of traditional healthcare, the American Medical Association limits the power and scope of this transformative capability. This week the AMA released a telemedicine policy that calls for in-person consultations in some cases and recommends that physicians providing a telehealth consult be licensed in the state where the patient receives treatment.
The organization said these in-person visits could occur via "real-time audio and video technology," which appears solely to negate the possibility of email, text, or instant-messaging consultations between patients and physicians. However, the AMA's recommendation that doctors should be licensed within a patient's state could stifle the many benefits telehealth delivers.
[When it comes to fitness, everyone needs a little motivation now and then. Consider these apps: 9 Mobile Apps To Get You Fit.]
The AMA wrote:
Few would argue practices or individual physicians should open themselves to liability by engaging in telehealth. But requiring doctors to become licensed across state lines will reduce the number of physicians willing and able to participate in this practice. The healthcare community must find ways to remove these hurdles, not create new roadblocks to telehealth adoption across state lines and healthcare organizations' walls.
Consider some ways telehealth is used today:
Healthcare is becoming more transparent. Patients, increasingly known as consumers, have more control over health. Premiums are increasing, and overall awareness, in an age of population health and patient engagement, is on the uptick.
In addition, the flexibility of telehealth empowers physicians who might otherwise have left the field to continue practicing medicine. Dr. Nicole Boxer, for example, shut down her general practice after starting a family. But working as a full-time telehealth physician for American Well allows her to treat patients from any location, as long as she has her lab coat and an Internet connection, she told InformationWeek. With doctor shortages -- especially among general practitioners -- predicted to reach 45,000 by 2020, telehealth provides physicians with a new pathway to treat patients, either through full-time or part-time employment with telehealth providers or as a complementary role to their full-time medical position.
Murkiness surrounds telehealth laws. In May, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) adopted guidelines and provided a roadmap for this approach. The American Telemedicine Association delivered its recommendations for TeleICU operations. With multiple organizations providing their well-meaning suggestions, states following their own rules, and insurers taking various strategies, telehealth adoption is hampered by fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Telehealth providers cannot expand into some regions due to uncertainty. Some physicians won't consult remotely because they're afraid of malpractice or disruption. There is also doubt about when clear-cut guidance will arrive.
The mantra of delivering better care more affordably guides everyone within the healthcare spectrum. Telehealth delivers on both needs -- but not if we force new, disruptive solutions into old patterns.
Download Healthcare IT In The Obamacare Era, the InformationWeek Healthcare digital issue on changes driven by regulation. Modern technology created the opportunity to restructure the healthcare industry around accountable care organizations, but ACOs also put new demands on IT.Alison Diana has written about technology and business for more than 20 years. She was editor, contributors, at Internet Evolution; editor-in-chief of 21st Century IT; and managing editor, sections, at CRN. She has also written for eWeek, Baseline Magazine, Redmond Channel ... View Full Bio


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FORMALIZING INFORMAL STAKEHOLDER INPUTS USING GAP-BRIDGING METHODS by Hasan Kitapci A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (COMPUTER SCIENCE) December 2007 Copyright 2007 Hasan Kitapci
Object Description
|Formalizing informal stakeholder inputs using gap-bridging methods
|Kitapci, Hasan
|Author email
|Doctor of Philosophy
|Document type
|Degree program
|Computer Science
|Viterbi School of Engineering
|Date defended/completed
|Date submitted
|Restricted until
|Date published
|Advisor (committee chair)
|Boehm, Barry W.
|Advisor (committee member)
Medvidovic, Nenad
Settles, F. Stan
|For many software and systems developers, Requirements Engineering is one of the biggest problems they face. Without an accurate, consistent, and complete requirements specification it is very difficult to develop, change, and maintain software. It is now a generally accepted and frequently stated fact that one of the major causes of software development failures is poor requirements engineering. The CHAOS Surveys by the Standish Group report that 15% of the projects fail outright, and 51% are late, run over budget or provide reduced functionality. On average only 54% of the initial project requirements are delivered to the client. Inadequate specification of system requirements is considered to be one of the main causes for project failure.; Good -- sufficiently complete, consistent, well-understood, and testable -- requirements are a prerequisite for successful projects. Without understanding what the stakeholders -- people who have some demands on the product, and hence must be consulted in the requirements gathering activity - really wants and needs, and writing these requirements in a concise, understandable and testable manner, projects not only won't lead to what the stakeholders wanted, but also they probably will fail.; Often, the stakeholders who can contribute the most value and realism to system requirements are the ones with the least time available to participate in the process. Negotiations are crucial in the early stages of the lifecycle to develop a set of mutually satisfactory requirements. We have found the EasyWinWin requirement negotiation method and tools to be an effective way to involve such busy stakeholders. It avoids time-consuming group wordsmithing, but results in relatively informal win-win agreements (e.g., "24/7" or "anytime, anywhere" vs. more precise availability and accessibility requirements). The transition to semi-formal and formal representations is still a challenging problem. While the EasyWinWin improves the identification and negotiation of stakeholders' requirements, the transition to more formal system requirements and further project artifacts is based on intuition and experience.; Requirements problems are present to a certain degree in almost all projects despite the fact that there are available techniques that could address them. The approach of our research is to integrate gap-bridging methods -- template, NLP, keyword analysis, formal experts, and inspection -- with requirements engineering to leverage the benefits of these methods in order to create a better requirements engineering process. The basic idea is that orchestrating gapbridging methods whenever and wherever possible through the requirements engineering process could eliminate requirements related problems. This framework helps consistently elicit the customer needs, save time and cost, and trace the requirements through the entire development life cycle.; We enhance the existing tool EasyWinWin, to improve the results of requirements negotiation process and further to define the requirements specifications with the characteristics of good requirements taken into account. Beginning with the identification of requirements leading to the analysis and negotiation of requirements to the actual generation of requirements specification, the framework combines all requirements engineering activities in order to eliminate problems and provide a good foundation for the later artifacts of software development.
|requirements engineering; requirements negotiation; requirements definition; requirements validation; requirements transformation; gap-bridging methods; hybrid method; winwin methodology; natural language processing; keyword analysis; inspection; template refinement
|Part of collection
|University of Southern California dissertations and theses
|Publisher (of the original version)
|University of Southern California
|Place of publication (of the original version)
|Los Angeles, California
|Publisher (of the digital version)
|University of Southern California. Libraries
|Legacy record ID
|Contributing entity
|University of Southern California
|Kitapci, Hasan
|Repository name
|Libraries, University of Southern California
|Repository address
|Los Angeles, California
|Repository email
|Archival file
|Page 1
|Contributing entity
|University of Southern California
|Repository email
|Full text
|FORMALIZING INFORMAL STAKEHOLDER INPUTS USING GAP-BRIDGING METHODS by Hasan Kitapci A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (COMPUTER SCIENCE) December 2007 Copyright 2007 Hasan Kitapci


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Gayle M. Conley, November 28th , 2018.
There's a great variety of affordable lighting fixtures available. Replace outdated lighting fixtures with new ones from your home improvement store. Electrical projects are best left to professionals, but with some guidance, switching out lighting fixtures shouldn't be difficult for a DIY-er. Be original when upgrading lighting. Bathroom lighting trends include hanging pendants and light bars that diffuse light in a room. Select LED lighting fixtures since they're the most energy efficient and don't heat your bathroom up.
Bathtub is perfect idea if you want to have unique bathroom where you can relax. The look of the bath is very important if you want to achieve perfect relaxing atmosphere. From the following photos you can see that big window with breathtaking view can make the space in the bathroom more unique, calm and perfect for relaxing. But if you can't have big window with a view in the bathroom then you can choose more dark and tone down colors for the bathroom that will make the atmosphere in the bathroom more calm and relaxing.
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Conference Call and Webcast to Follow
WASHINGTON, July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Vanda) (NASDAQ: VNDA), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of products for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, today announced it will release results for the second quarter of 2012 on Thursday, August 2, 2012, before the market opens.
The Company will host a conference call at 10:00 AM ET on Thursday, August 2, 2012, during which Vanda management will discuss the financial results. To participate in the conference call, please dial 1-866-783-2141 (domestic) or 1-857-350-1600 (international) and use passcode 78268423.
The conference call will be broadcast simultaneously and archived on the Company's website, www.vandapharma.com. Investors should go to the website at least 15 minutes early to register, download, and install any necessary audio software.
A replay of the call will be available on Thursday, August 2, 2012, beginning at 12:00 PM ET and will be accessible until Thursday, August 9, 2012, at 5:00 PM ET. The replay call-in number is 1-888-286-8010 for domestic callers and 1-617-801-6888 for international callers. The passcode number is 45753237.
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of products for the treatment of central nervous system disorders. For more on Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., please visit http://www.vandapharma.com.
Company Contact:
Cristina Murphy
Senior Communications Manager
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.
(202) 734-3400
[email protected]
SOURCE Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.


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The weeks leading up to our eight time zone move were… well, let's just say they were busy. It made perfect sense that I added to the work load by helping to co-produce and host a series of short videos about living with multiple sclerosis that we called "MS At Home".
With the help of dear friends (who lent us their home for the shoots), Swedish MS Center, an amazing producer and crew and the folks at Everyday Health, the first of these clips is now up and running!
In our first video, we show a simple recipe that I call "Succotash 2.0". It's a simple dish which requires no cooking at all and can be used as the base for several meals, snacks and side-dishes. The reason we went with this as a theme was the massive fatigue that many living with multiple sclerosis can experience.
The video has been on the EverydayHealth.com home page this week and has even seen a go on the news feed of AOL.com
Toward the end of the cooking segment, Dr James Bowen of the Swedish MS Center at the Swedish Neuro Institute in Seattle, joins me to discuss why it is that people living with MS experience fatigue.
Dr Bowen joins me in a later "cup of coffee" interview (we'll let you know when that posts) about other medical aspects of living with MS. We also shot a series of the interviews with people living with MS along with MS specializing nurse practitioner, Bobbie Severson, from Swedish.
We'll keep you up to date on when those videos are available and when our next round of "MS At Home" makes the rounds.
Wishing you and your family the best of health.
You can also follow me via our Life With MS Facebook page, on Twitter, and in our group on MS Connection.org. Also, check out our bi-monthly MS blog for the United Kingdom, look for our very special new monthly blog for the National MS Society, and don't forget to check out TrevisLGleason.com.


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Hi, my name's Thales Panagides and I'd like to welcome you to Mar Egeu's export division, Brazilian-bikinis.netMore
Gain instant access to high-fashion Brazilian bikinis your customers will love. Fanatical support. Premium quality. Wholesale prices.More
To receive our general introduction email which includes prices and details on how to get started.


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1950 Willys Wagon/1995 Jeep Wrangler - Big Willy Style
Big Tires Make for Small Rocks
When Jake Yeoman couldn't get out of his battle-worn Jeep Wrangler without drawing blood, he knew that it was time for a change. The Jeep Wrangler YJ had a great drivetrain, but the body was definitely beyond its expiration date. Instead of starting over he pulled the tub off of the Jeep Wrangler and replaced it with a Willys cab that he found in a farmer's field.
Jake also has a Trent Fab buggy that he races in King of the Hammers, so the last thing he needed was another project to consume all of his time and money. With the Willys he has a recreational wheeler to scratch his crawling itch. Plus the new sheetmetal drools of style and was a lot less work than building a whole new crawler.
Behind the Willys grille sits a venerable 4.0L Jeep Wrangler engine. While it isn't the most powerful motor option, it just keeps running and hasn't given Jake Yeoman any reason to swap it out. With no inner fenders, all of the related components were mounted to the firewall or directly onto the engine. The A/C compressor has been converted for onboard air to power the ARB Air Locker and air up the huge tires.
Tech Specs
1950 Willys Pickup/ 1995 Jeep Wrangler
Engine: 4.0L I-6
Transmission: NP435 4-speed manual
Transfer case: Advance Adapters Atlas II
Front Axle: Dana 60 with 5.13 gears, ARB Air Locker, Reid Racing knuckles, Yukon chromoly axleshafts, Yukon Super Joints, and Poison Spyder diff cover
Rear Axle: Dana 70 with 5.13 gears, welded differential, Yukon chromoly axleshafts, and Poison Spyder diff cover
Springs & Such: 2-inch-diameter, 14-inch-travel King coilovers and triangulated four-link (front and rear)
Tires & Wheels: 21/49-16.5LT Super Swamper Iroks on recentered 16.5x8.5 Hutchinson Hummer beadlock rims
Steering: Full hydraulic with Trail Gear orbital valve and double-ended ram
Other Stuff: Griffin radiator, A/C compressor converted for onboard air, Viair tank, custom rollcage, MasterCraft Safety seats, Rigid Industries LED rock lights, Bayshore heavy-wall drivelines


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Ep. 2: Empty Houses | Detroit. One House at a Time
Clip | 4m 16s
Soon after setting foot in the front door, the Polks decided that this house would become their home. As family friend Jamal Johnson recalls their first visit, "We didn't even make it upstairs, and I said, 'This is the one.'" ??
Aired: 03/10/17
Problems Playing Video?
Funding for THIS OLD HOUSE is provided by The Home Depot, GMC, State Farm, Gorilla Glue and Marvin Windows and Doors.


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Mob Of The Dead
Black Ops 2: Uprising is now available on PS3
Black Ops 2: Uprising is now available on PS3 in Europe. The content contains the maps Vertigo, Magma, Encore, and Studio along with the Mob of the Dead campaign. Hit up the trailer below for a refresher. Uprising will run you £11.59/€14.49 if you're not a Season Pass holder.
Mob Of The Dead headlines
Black Ops 2: Mob of the Dead gets sentimental trailer
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 developer Treyarch has released a sentimental trailer for its Mob of the Dead zombies campaign. It's weird, as the actual scenario is full of expletives, wisecracks and daft horror.
Black Ops 2 Uprising: Mob of the Dead character bios
The Black Ops 2: Uprising DLC pack brings with zombie mode Mob of the Dead. Four new characters are contained within, to go alongside the zombie horde. Learn a bit about each character in this video that gives a run-down on each of the unsavoury members the gang. Currently only available on 360, Uprising will […]
Black Ops 2: Uprising now available through XBL Marketplace
Black Ops 2: Uprising has arrived on the XBL Marketplace. Time to head to Alcatraz and get your zombie shooting fix with Mob of the Dead. Those not into the whole shooting of the undead, can also play on the Magma, Encore, Vertigo, and Studio maps. Season Pass holders need not drop a thing, while […]
Black Ops 2 video for Mob of the Dead makes Alcatraz look creepy
Activision has released a new Black Ops 2 video for the Mob of the Dead scenario which takes place on Alcatraz. It comes with the Uprising DLC. The pack goes live on Xbox Live April 16.
Black Ops 2 trailer takes a look at the Uprising DLC Map Pack
Black Ops 2 has a new trailer showing off the "Uprising," DLC Map Pack. It includes four new multiplayer maps – Magma, Encore, Vertigo, and Studio – which is a re-imagining of the map Firing Range. It also includes a new Zombies adventure, "Mob of the Dead" which takes place on Alcatraz. It also stars […]
Mob Of The Dead latest
Black Ops 2 video for Mob of the Dead makes Alcatraz look creepy
Black Ops 2 trailer takes a look at the Uprising DLC Map Pack


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Camera Strap & Personalized Dual Lens Cap Pocket Set. SewTamz original design provides functionality with personality. Set includes a long hipster camera strap with a coordinating personalized dual lens cap pocket sleeve customized with the letter of your choice.
Simply slide the lens cap sleeve over the strap cover. It has dual pockets on each side so you can place your lens cap in one pocket and your ID, credit cards, business cards, SD/CF card, lens filter, USB or any other small goodies in the other pocket. Best of all can be used with ANY other SewTamz camera strap or camera strap cover


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19 December 2011 at 2.35pm | 2 Comments
Peter Coleman-Wright as Beckmesser and Sir John Tomlinson as Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg © Clive Barda/ROH 2011
Sir John Tomlinson is full of enthusiasm about his return to The Royal Opera in the revival of Graham Vick's acclaimed production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which sees Tomlinson shift roles from Hans Sachs to Pogner.
Now in his mid-60s, Sir John has enjoyed a stellar career over the past 40 years. After a stint as a civil engineer, the bass singer made his Royal Opera debut in Salome in 1977 and since then has become one of the opera world's most eminent performers, known in particular for his interpretation of Wagner. In the past 34 years, he's trodden the boards of the world's leading opera houses – singing at Bayreuth every year between 1988 and 2004 and receiving a knighthood in 2005. Despite the acclaim he's received he remains extremely down to earth. "I've done far more than I ever thought; I'm still learning stuff all the time". It's clear he relishes his new part in one of the operas he is most closely associated with.
In the course of his career Sir John has taken a wide range of parts: "I've spent the last 20 years singing the best bass parts –from Claggart in Billy Budd to King Philip from Don Carlos, not to mention all those great Wagnerian roles. I've also had the honour of having two great parts written for me for this house by Harrison Birtwistle – the eponymous Minotaur and The Green Knight in Gawain. They're all great parts for a voice like mine. I never expected to do some of them as they're bass baritone parts and never thought my voice would be high enough. Fortunately however, it seems to have worked out well. There are certain parts I haven't done that I'd like to however – Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress for example."
He has over the years, worked with an extraordinary range of artists which reads like a who's who of the operatic and classical world. His first Meistersinger at Covent Garden was in 1993, when he sang the role of Hans Sachs with Thomas Allen as Beckmesser: "Thinking about working with Tom as Beckmesser in particular brings a smile to my face. He's a very human performer and extremely creative, as well as being rather funny when he wants to be. We've had some great times."
Conductors too have also left their mark on Sir John: "Conducting is a very mysterious business. I hugely enjoyed working with Bernard Haitink – he conducted Meistersinger so beautifully. In rehearsal, he doesn't say much but everybody who is there is on the edge of their seats waiting to make great music - he's got this magnetism."
Over the course of his career, the singer has noticed a change in the approach in the approach of conductors: "I've worked with the likes of Von Karajan, Solti and Muti. The old school – Von Karajan and Solti – had the old dictatorial, tyrannical approach. It was very impressive and as a singer you did absolutely what they wanted. They didn't give you much leeway or freedom. These days things are different. Antonio Pappano is conducting this revival and he is a joy to work with, he keeps a perpetual, lively pulse from start to finish of this long piece. No dictator, yet very demanding.
"I was taught a great deal about discipline in particular by the German director Harry Kupfer who I worked with on The Ring at Bayreuth in 1988. He taught me about stillness and intensity – a combination of the two. You don't need to move and if you do it may be a very explosive movement, but stillness doesn't mean deadness, it means even more effort mentally. It took me time to learn that."
"Give audiences pleasure and express emotion. If you'll be famous, you'll be famous," he muses when asked what his advice to younger singers would be, "concentrate on giving excellent performances". Sir John's work ethic and belief in the importance of art seemingly reflects those held by the Meistersingers in the opera.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg opens on Monday 19 December and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on New Years Day at 2:45pm.


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M.A.J.O.R. - I Just Wanna [Unsigned Hype]
From the mixtape "We All In" hosted by DJ Ill Will
& Greg Street,
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