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Today in this overview I am going to demonstrate you how to collect Free Gifts for FarmVille 2, one of the most popular games in the world at the moment.
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- Fez
- CLR [rating:5.0]
Release Date: April 13th, 2012
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Developer: Polytron Corporation
Publisher: Polytron and Trapdoor Inc.
Genre: Puzzle-Platformer Perspective Parable
ESRB: E for Everyone
Auteur Attached: Phil Fish
Cube N' Pixel Catharsis
What must it be like to be a 2D being? How do you perceive of a world without depth? What is the experience of it all?
It's an idea that (as far as I know) was only explored once in literature. In the novella Flatland by Edwin Abbot, the lead character was a square who encountered a Sphere from the 3rd dimension, which baffles him until he meets points stuck in the 1st dimension and realizes that he cannot be conceived of in a similar manner to his inability to understand the Sphere. The story ends bleakly, with the Square branded a heretic and imprisoned for preaching the possibility that there may exist another dimension beyond his own, and furthermore, beyond even that one. Why, it might even be dimensions all the way up!
It's a wonderful, uncomplicated read and a great way to introduce the idea of 4th dimensionality to a child (as was my father's goal when he gave it to me). But it also introduced another, far more important, concept: How we perceive the world can be fundamentally incorrect, so it's best to keep an open mind about one's reality. You never know when a visitor from the next level's going to show up and prove everything you believe to be false.
Fez, the recent downloadable by Phil Fish and Polytron, is Flatland writ into code and put on your Xbox. A colorful, mysterious, transcendental meditation on revelation that's simply remarkable in its totality and singular in its purpose, Fez is at least an achievement on par with the hundred year old novel. What's really surprising though, is that it might even be better!
Starting Fez loads you into a pixelated, and very two dimensional world with a bright and varied color palette. Our avatar is Gomez, a young boy that resembles an upright albino Tarepanda, replete with wide head and droopy countenance. All is familiar, all is flat.
Then, for no reason other than it being "Gomez Time," an old adventurer introduces our hero to something beyond the limits of comprehension, a cube! A talking cube, in fact! This cube exposits at length in a cubic tongue, speaking undoubtedly of cubic concerns, before granting Gomez the titular headwear and exploding so hard reality requires a reboot.
Upon waking up from this seeming impossibility, Gomez still has the little red hat and the mysterious power it contains. Soon, a spritely multi-colored tesseract appears and informs Gomez that the situation is dire indeed. The cube's explosion is causing reality to rip apart at the seams, and it needs to be reformed or existence will cease!
Rebuilding the megacube consists of gathering a multitude of smaller cubes, cube bits, and anti-cubes. This may seem like a collect-o-thon, mostly because it is. But that's fine since gathering a bunch of MacGuffins is par for the course in the platforming genre Fez dwells in.
Yes, along with many other indie game darlings, Fez is a foray into that ubiquitous and universal genre of running around levels jumping on things. A field so staid and conventional that it's essentially (as one observer pointed out) a Tabula rasa of gaming – a total blank slate. A null for developers to add high concept ideas or mechanics and have them stand out because they deviate from expectation.
Which is perfect for Fez, as Gomez' adventure isn't so much about complex platforming or deadly hazards; it has these elements, but they aren't the focus. No, as the title suggests it's about the Shriner headwear and its ability to shift your perspective on reality. Literally, as once donned, Gomez can rotate his view of the world by ninety degree increments. This flipping mechanic works on a different level than mere camera rotation, for it moves the world itself, which isn't as two dimensional as it first appears.
By using building blocks they call "trixels", Polytron is able to craft levels that appear as (and have the properties of) a 2D space but are in fact 3D objects. Once a turn is complete, the level regains its original property of flatness, and again lacking depth, all objects rest on the same plane. Which, since that is the plane of the two dimensional Gomez, he can now walk upon and interact with.
With a mere press of a button, gaps along a path rotate and cease to exist, for they are in the background. What was once a narrow platform is turned to reveal a walkway leading in a new direction entirely. An object or location in the distance can be instantly brought closer. Optical illusions that M.C. Escher would be proud of are at your fingertips, and you use them to traverse the world itself!
While not completely original (Paper Mario and Echochrome both used similar mechanics) the concept has never been more meaningfully implemented than in Fez. Not only is it a neat way to make this game different from other platformers, but it's also a metaphor of the theme of the game – changing your perspective on life in order to achieve enlightenment.
Essentially, the flipping technique creates a two dimensional perspective on three dimensional space. That is, Gomez's perspective, but as he simply isn't built for the third dimension, everything settles back into the flat 2D plane after a rotation/flash of insight. Nailing this theme to the metaphorical wall is the fact that once you complete the game and unify much of the megacube – a transdimensional being of great power – Gomez receives a pair of shades that allow him to see third dimensionally in the New Game + feature.
You know, sort of like attaining a state of Nirvana?
It's this theme that takes the central premise of Flatland and reinforces it with a concept of transcendence that elevates Fez more than any other aspect. Even over its excellent level design or neat gimmick.
Of course, I could be wrong. I could be extrapolating much of my own understanding of philosophy onto an undeserving Mario Bros. clone. But seeing as every other aspect of the game reinforces these core concepts, it's unlikely.
Certainly the overly vibrant colors reminiscent of Pepperland used on top of minimalist designs, the animated hypercube kaleidoscope in loading screens, and the laid back, half psychedelic, half chiptune soundtrack all contribute to create a meandering tone of wonder. The very forgiving respawn system removes threat and pressure of death. Combined, the mood created is of contemplation at a languid pace.
A necessary mood, as Fez's puzzles are very old-school in their unforgiving obscurity and any serious pressure would engender mass frustration. Basic cube collecting is standard timing and less standard spatial manipulation, but that only scratches the surface. There are three different symbol sets for the fictional cubic language that require actual code breaking, several stumpers that require Meta knowledge and QR codes that lead to input codes that lead to codex's.
This ridiculously layered complexity hidden just underneath the surface ties directly into the main theme of altering perspective, as it's necessary to do exactly that in order to figure out the tougher puzzles.
Sure, it's easy to look at Fez, see a pretentiously arty, but rather bland platformer and leave it at that. But should you delve deeper? Then you're staying up nights consulting handwritten translations of an imaginary alphabet to answer riddles in this geometric tongue. When that's going on, Fez goes well past Mario, or even LIMBO and becomes something else entirely.
Fez is definitely far, far, more than a simple platformer. In fact, due to its extended development cycle, it's become something of a legend in the indie gaming scene. Heck, IFC even made a freaking movie about it and creator Phil Fish!
Lengthy development time does carry immense benefits of course. Its craftsmanship reeks of the polish and care you would expect of Valve or Nintendo, the levels are impeccably designed from start to finish, and it has perfect "game feel"; that tactile sensation that you get from a confluence of spot on controls, "just right" physics, and charming, expressive animation. First and foremost, Fez is just a really fun game.
Yet this result – a highly polished, really fun experience – may have been expected. What wasn't though was the fact that Phil Fish and Polytron decided to make a game that attempts to legitimately say something interesting. To attempt to make the player consider life, the universe, everything!
Obviously, I found this a worthy attempt, and I highly recommend that anyone who can play Fez do so to see for themselves. Even if you don't find an effective statement on perceptional awareness, or a natural progression of the ideas found in Flatland as I do, you're still getting one hell of a good platformer. For cheap too – it's only ten bucks at full price!
Changing an audience's perspective is the ultimate victory of an artist, but it's also a rare one, especially in gaming. Really, the unfortunate truth is that while many games are certainly engaging, few try to challenge the player on the fundamental levels of perception or consciousness. Few try to mean anything.
Fez tries. It tries very hard to be a game worthy of having a big idea, of the wait, and of your consideration. I think it succeeds beyond Polytron's wildest dreams. For in Fez, I find not only a game worth playing for the experience, but an experience that proves games are worth playing.
[youtube width="560″ height="340″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfpKTclOnfI[/youtube]

subset: commoncrawl


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Q: In the DefensePAC, there are three products that are all natural bacteria. Are all three really necessary?
Julie – Sandwood, SC
A: Bacteria is bacteria, right? Well, no, not really. In nature, thousands of bacteria species perform many important jobs. The specific strains used in the DefensePAC® were chosen for their unique ability to break down suspended debris and sunken muck in pond water. And they're really good at what they do.
The three different aerobic natural bacteria products found in DefensePAC® play different roles in your pond. Here's a bit more about what they are and how they work to keep your water crystal clear.
Nature's Defense®
The bacteria in Nature's Defense® are designed to attack organic debris that's suspended in the water column, like fish waste, uneaten food and leaves. To use, you simply toss the water-soluble packets in the water. The bacteria will immediately go to work breaking down the excess nutrients like phosphates and nitrogen, and multiply every 20 to 40 minutes. We recommend using Nature's Defense® in conjunction with Muck Defense® in the summer. The result: crystal clear water.
Muck Defense®
To attack the accumulated organic debris that builds up at the bottom of your pond, Muck Defense® comes in bacteria-packed tablets that sink straight down. Upon application, the tablets release bacteria that instantly begin to break down and digest hard-to-reach muck and sludge from the bottom of gravel and rock pond bottoms. We recommend using Muck Defense® in conjunction with Nature's Defense® in the summer. The result: reduced muck and no pond odor.
Seasonal Defense®
The bacteria in Seasonal Defense® prefer cooler water temperatures, like those in the spring and fall. While Nature's Defense® and Muck Defense® can be used when the water is above 50 degrees F, Seasonal Defense® is designed to be used when the water is below 50 degrees F. It accelerates the decomposition of leaves, scum and sediment that create pond muck during the fall and winter months, and jump starts the bacteria population in your pond the in spring.
Though Nature's Defense®, Muck Defense® and Seasonal Defense® all contain beneficial bacteria, they're designed to do different things in your pond. Are all three necessary? Yes indeed! When used together, you'll enjoy clear water, a clean pond and reduced muck and odor all year long.
Pond Talk: How long do you spend cleaning your pond from organic debris?
Filed under: Season-Long Control, Seasonal Care, Water Gardens & Features, Water Quality Issues | Tagged: bacteria treatments, cloudy water, how to get rid of muck, Muck Defense, Nature's Defense, seasonal defense |


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Largo, FL
Tampa, FL
Gesner Estate Jewelry is a family owned firm that has been in business since 1972. We specialize in antique & vintage gold and platinum jewelry from the turn of the 20th century to the late 1930's. Learn More»
We offer several options to help you purchase fine jewelry. If you would like to make a purchase for a holiday, birthday, or other special occasion. Learn More»
You may return your purchased jewelry for any reason, for a full refund! Learn More»


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Managers often assume that improving customer satisfaction and financial performance go hand in hand. The reality, however, is much more complex.
"Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back." That business promise has been made to consumers since 1875, when Montgomery Ward used it to differentiate his mail-order catalog from other retailers. Commitment to customer satisfaction is now a vow many businesses make. It is common to find mission statements and marketing plans that specifically address customer satisfaction; compensation systems that incorporate satisfaction metrics into their bonus criteria; and advertisements that trumpet customer satisfaction awards.
Customer satisfaction has become the most widely used metric in companies' efforts to measure and manage customer loyalty.1 The assumption is simple and intuitive: Highly satisfied customers are good for business.
However, the reality has not proven nearly so simple. In fact, we have found that if you look across industries at the correlation between companies' customer-satisfaction levels for a given year and the corresponding stock performance of these companies for that same year, on average, satisfaction explains only 1% of the variation in a company's market return.
Another recent examination of the relationship between satisfaction and stock performance by Bloomberg Businessweek reported even worse results than our own. In a 2013 article entitled "Proof That It Pays to Be America's Most-Hated Companies," the magazine reported that "customer-service scores have no relevance to stock market returns … the most-hated companies perform better than their beloved peers … Your contempt really, truly doesn't matter … If anything, it might hurt company profits to spend money making customers happy."2 These findings were so unexpected that comedian Stephen Colbert offered American corporations his faux help to "get those customer satisfaction ratings right in the toilet."3
Admittedly, the above examples represent overly simplistic examinations of the relationship between satisfaction and stock performance. You would expect customer satisfaction to impact performance over time, so simply looking at satisfaction and stock performance levels for the same year is not going to accurately capture the complete relationship.


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At The Weekly Standard, Chris Deaton writes that the White House's plan to cut $15.4 billion in spending "is a drop in a bucket floating on a sea" — and the real amount it would lop off the deficit is an estimated $3 billion. The other $12 billion "comes from a combination of expired, zombie funds still on the books, and budget authority that was untapped as of May."
More from Deaton:
"House majority leader Kevin McCarthy wrote this week in the Washington Examiner that the de facto $3-billion rescission amounted to 'a much-needed spring cleaning.' Perhaps—of one corner of one room in a rather large mansion. … [F]or any simple argument of accountability, efficiency, or transparency, there is a larger and better argument for not passing $1.3 trillion budgets harum-scarum in the first place. Doing so is the result of Congress lacking an orderly budget and appropriations process—which is to say nothing of Washington lacking a spine to make Medicare and Social Security sustainable in the long run. There is an irony here: Defining fiscal responsibility down to rescinding money that never was going to be spent and sounding the alarm of an impending debt crisis are unmistakably related."


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Players, Padres Packs highlight FanFest
Feb. 8 event to include annual Garage Sale, access to field, new bullpen
SAN DIEGO -- The Padres on Thursday announced details regarding their annual FanFest event, which is presented by State Farm and will be held Feb. 8 at Petco Park.
Fans will have the first opportunity to purchase Padres Packs, with options for three, six or nine games. Any purchase of Padres Packs comes with first access to also purchase tickets to the Padres' Opening Day game against the Dodgers on March 30.
FanFest will again be free and open to the public with the gates scheduled to open to the general public at 10 a.m. PT. Padres Members receive exclusive early access from 8:30-9:30 a.m. Members will be sent instructions through email on how to print their early-access passes.
Starting Thursday, fans who are not Padres Members can register at no cost at www.padres.com/fanfest for a special pass allowing them to enter the ballpark at 9:30 a.m.
FanFest will run until 4 p.m. and free parking will be provided in four locations: three surface lots along Imperial Avenue (southeast side of Petco Park) and the Padres Parkade garage (10th Avenue and J Street).
More than two dozen current Padres players will be in attendance as well as former players, broadcasters and members of the front office.
Fans attending the event will have the opportunity to get autographs, tour the clubhouse, run the bases and catch fly balls in the outfield. New this year, fans will get the opportunity to throw in the Padres' redesigned home bullpen.
In memory of Jerry Coleman, there will be an opportunity during FanFest for fans to visit his statue at the East Village gate to record a message about the Hall of Fame-honored broadcaster or a memory of their favorite Coleman call. Coleman passed away Jan. 5 at the age of 89.
In addition, the Padres Foundation will host its annual Garage Sale inside the Park Boulevard Gate. Fans will have the opportunity to purchase rare, one-of-a-kind Padres items, including game-used jerseys and batting helmets, with proceeds going to the Padres Foundation.
Last year, the Garage Sale raised over $64,000 for the Padres Foundation.
The team is encouraging fans to arrive early at FanFest to get their first choice of the 5,000 autograph session vouchers and Garage Sale merchandise. A full schedule of the day's events, as well as a list of participants, will be released next week. The most up-to-date information can be found online at www.padres.com/fanfest.
In terms of Padres Packs, they may only be purchased on site at FanFest, near the visitor's dugout. Visit www.padres.com/schedule for the complete 2014 schedule, including game times (subject to change). Members receive the best seats, prices and benefits. Blue, Gold and Platinum Memberships are on sale now.


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Sometimes it truly is the quiet ones. Frightened Rabbit are testament to this. Two years after the (first) release of their debut album Sing The Greys, a good album but by no means a classic, and infrequent trips around the UK toilet circuit the Selkirk, Scotland-based four-piece have, from nowhere, released one of 2008's truly great indie-pop albums. Michael Stipe, take note.
On their sophomore offering the band have shaven off the instrumental passages that snaked through their first release and created 14 blissfully simple pop songs. Opener 'The Modern Leper' and recent single 'Heads Roll Off' yearn for Radio 1 A-List inclusion, all witty turns of phrase and soaring, catchy choruses, and yet they still have an undeniably rustic, scruffy quality, aided by Scott Hutchinson's wailing vocals and the substitution of a bass guitar for a second acoustic guitar playing lower notes.
It is on 'I Feel Better' that this mix of cohesive songwriting and clumsy delivery is at its most potent; a decidedly up-tempo number that has the same high-octane caterwaul-led feel to it as that on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's more jaunty moments, but transposed into the near-orchestral resplendence of The Hidden Cameras.
But the beauty of The Midnight Organ Fight is that it works in any location and/or situation. It is of such a substantial quality throughout that it can last through repeated full spins on lonely train journeys through idyllic landscapes, yet still has a high enough ratio of glorious pop hooks and distinctive ideas per song to not be ruined by a click of a 'random' or 'shuffle' button.
Although this album could very well catapult Frightened Rabbit into the mainstream, and deservedly so, it is evident this is by no means intentional. The Midnight Organ Fight is neither a genuine 'safe' option for the band nor a blatant fan-base builder which obscures the band's own charms as has been the case for fellow countrymen Biffy Clyro and (sort of – they're based in Glasgow) Snow Patrol.
Here there can be no snobbish derision and calls of 'selling out' or playing to the average man; in creating an album showcasing the very best of the band's talents they have created one so perfectly fit for, as Scott so vividly puts, "the soft, soft static" of popular radio. A happy coincidence, then.
9Jordan Dowling's Score
10User Score


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Fire emblem is great
Last Activity: Yesterday 12:15 PM
About Me
- About Superbird
- Biography
- Hi. I'm Superbird, the resident bird lover here at The Cave. Now you're obviously here to learn about my personal life. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to tell you. What a shame.
- Location
- North Carolina
- Interests
- Programming
- Occupation
- School
- Preferred Pronoun
- He
- Avatar Credit
- Arkeis
- ASB profile link
- http://asb.dragonflycave.com/trainers/2-superbird
- Visit my art website - Monitors of Modern Art! Updates weekly.
If I'm reffing your ASB battle, you can find my reffing scale in this document. Mostly it involves details on stat modifications and status conditions, as well as my interpretation of the damage formula, other clarifications regarding the specifics of certain attacks.
...[random]|||Quote:Originally Posted by Pokémon Showdown VGC[20:47:57] +Superbird: quick someone what's the integral of tan(x)
[20:48:07] +Tomsta17: 857
[20:48:08] @dingram: -lncosx
[20:48:12] +Superbird: wrong
[20:48:16] +Superbird: -lncosx + c
Superbird was muted by dingram for 7 minutes.
[20:48:20] +Tomsta17: ya
[20:48:23] +Squidero: rekt imo
Superbird was unmuted by dingram.
[20:48:28] +Squidero: unrekt imo
[20:48:28] +Destinylife: Aww
[20:48:32] +Superbird: lolQuote:Originally Posted by Pokémon Showdown VGC[23:53:13] +0riginalTrainer: This is a direct result of the patriarchy.
[23:53:51] +J.D.Deuce: feminism is awesome
[23:53:52] +Viscereal: uh please address me by my pronouns
[23:53:59] +Viscereal: loom/looms/loomself
[23:54:35] +0riginalTrainer: You white male cis scum, check you privilege. No matter how many documents you throw in front of me, the wage gap is real.
[23:54:58] +J.D.Deuce: you've been warned lol
[23:55:14] +B1SHARP: So you believe that fathers deserve the same leave after they have an at home newborn as mothers?
[23:55:40] +0riginalTrainer: So you believe that women should be drafted too?
[23:55:45] +B1SHARP: Yes
[23:55:45] +Viscereal: yes, when they have a baby shove itself through their dick they can get work off
[23:55:47] +Takron Galtos: I'd settle just for at-home leave actually be guarunteed without penalties for mothers.
[23:55:51] +Superbird: you know what we need right now
[23:55:53] +Takron Galtos: That's not even standard yet.
[23:56:00] +0riginalTrainer: What I hate about feminism is that it turns a lot of male issues into female issues, then calls it feminism.
[23:56:02] +Viscereal: challenge cup round robin?
[23:56:03] +Superbird: a tourney to distract everyone from controvertial discussion
[23:56:03] @amr97: another tournament
[23:56:06] @amr97: hurry hurry
[23:56:08] +Superbird: NAILED IT
[23:56:11] +KillerOrcas: woah there what happened here
Battle Spot Doubles (VGC 2015) Single Elimination Tournament created.Quote:Originally Posted by Pokémon Showdown VGC[02:22:35] +Superbird: ok seriously tho can I get some opinions on modern art
[02:22:42] +Superbird: its important
[02:23:18] @amr97: Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era.
[02:23:20] @amr97: The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation.
[02:24:26] +Superbird: opinions, amr97, not definitions
[02:24:49] @amr97: oh
[02:24:52] @amr97: i don't get it
[02:24:56] @amr97: is my opinion
[02:25:04] +Superbird: oh ffs
[02:25:28] +Superbird: maybe i should give up and try a different room
[02:25:32] @amr97: probably tbh
[02:26:19] @SamVGC: i think this chatroom
[02:26:22] @SamVGC: is an art form
[02:26:26] @Dog-for-Dinner: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Opinions+on+Modern+Art
[02:26:47] +Superbird: dong-for-dinner that is not a thing to be goggled
[02:26:50] +Superbird: *dog
[02:26:51] +Superbird: *google
[02:27:02] @amr97: dong-for-dinner lmao
[02:27:07] @amr97: that had to be intentional
[02:27:18] +Superbird: 100% wasn't
[02:27:28] +Superbird: i'm so used to typing dingram's name that
[02:27:45] +Superbird: anything starting with the same first letter
[02:28:17] @Dog-for-Dinner: why is it not a thing to be googled
[02:28:23] @Dog-for-Dinner: google is the story of my high school
[02:28:33] +Superbird: you dont google opinions
[02:28:36] +Superbird: you google facts
[02:28:52] @Dog-for-Dinner: seems like a science student is trying to study humanities
[02:28:56] @Dog-for-Dinner: and is having a hard time
[02:29:00] +Superbird: ^Quote:Originally Posted by Pokémon Showdown VGC[00:31:16] @dingram: makiri an you make someone a driver real quick
[00:31:19] #makiri: why
[00:31:19] @dingram: just so they can say something
[00:31:21] @dingram: and demote them
[00:31:26] +Superbird: inb4 demotes dingram to driver
[00:31:26] @dingram: i want to see if my bot logs the message
[00:31:32] @dingram: no it cant be me
[00:31:45] #makiri: who am i drivering
[00:31:47] +AnotherDimension$$: Me
[00:31:49] @dingram: uh Superbird
[00:31:51] +Kirito11: me lol
[00:32:12] +Superbird: wait rly
[00:32:18] @dingram: i just chose a random active user
[00:32:23] @dingram: just say something
Superbird was promoted to Room Driver by makiri.
[00:32:24] @dingram: anything
[00:32:32] %Superbird: cool
[00:32:34] %Superbird: yay
[00:32:34] @dingram: ok done
[00:32:36] %Superbird: this feels awesome
[00:32:37] @dingram: ty makiri
[00:32:38] %Superbird: while it lasts
[00:32:41] +z2porygon: lol screen shot
[00:32:54] @dingram: you can demote now :3
[00:32:57] +AnotherDimension$$: Superbird
[00:32:59] +AnotherDimension$$: Warn me
Superbird was promoted to Room Voice by makiri.
[00:33:02] @dingram: just doing testing with bot
[00:33:05] +Superbird: well that was fun while it lasted
[00:33:12] @dingram: im glad you didnt like mute anyone
[00:33:13] @dingram: or anything
[00:33:16] +z2porygon: lol
[00:33:21] +Superbird: i shouldve though
[00:33:24] @dingram: no
[00:33:24] +Superbird: ill make a note for next time
[00:33:25] @dingram: ;-;Quote:Originally Posted by Pokémon Showdown VGC[23:36:02] ConcertofMadness: Shrekt
ConcertofMadness was muted by BoTTT Junior for 7 minutes. (Contained banned phrase)
[23:36:15] +Chuppa Cross: oh dingram
[23:36:20] +Chuppa Cross: can we ban rekt too
[23:36:25] @dingram: but i use rekt :(
[23:36:32] +Chuppa Cross: you shouldn't :(
[23:36:52] +Chuppa Cross: you cant ban shrekt and then still use rekt lol
Chuppa Cross was muted by BoTTT Junior for 7 minutes. (Contained banned phrase)
[23:37:00] Superbird: #REKT
[23:37:01] @dingram: noobs getting muted
[23:37:02] NeuroRapter: lmao
[23:37:03] @dingram: get rekt
[23:37:06] stealthfox2: lol
ConcertofMadness was unmuted by dingram.
Chuppa Cross was unmuted by dingram.
[23:37:13] ConcertofMadness: Freedom
[23:37:18] +Chuppa Cross: i walked into that
[23:37:20] paintcanz: chuppa was muted?
Chuppa Cross was muted by makiri for 7 minutes.
Showing Friends 1 to 10 of 34
- ....
- Butterfree
- Aethelstan
- Murderer of Words
- Aletheia
- King Koopa
- Autumn
- bye
- BOOM! Headshot
- Sentient Stationary
- brandman
- ^ pretty amazing
- Chief Zackrai
- pingpong wixard
- Chopsuey
- Willst du?
- Glace
- booming system
- hyphen
- no do not find me


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Farm Kitchen
Beautifully reproduced from the original watercolour painting by Tracy Hall of a busy farmhouse kitchen at lambing time.
SMALL PRINT - mounted / matted in cream to fit an 8" x 10" standard frame. £10.00.
MEDIUM PRINT - Shipped rolled. Paper size 19" x 13" (with white border around image). £30.00
GREETING CARD - Supplied individually with envelope in bag. Size 6" x 4". Blank inside. £2.00
Also available as a LARGE print by special order. Please get in touch.


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The Absurdity Of Rejecting Transgender Identities: A Response To Widely-Circulated Harmful Bigotry
This is a response to the wildly transphobic Public Discourse piece, "The Absurdity of Transgenderism: A Stern but Necessary Critique," by Carlos Flores, president of the UC Santa Barbara Anscombe Society, an organization that takes conservative (read: anti-LGBT, among other things) positions on "family, marriage, and sexual integrity."
Flores basically argues that there is no such thing as transgender identities. They should not be socially affirmed, they should not receive affirmative therapy and treatment, and they should not receive legal protections. Needless to say, it's a fairly problematic essay. I responded on Twitter by claiming that its authors and promoters have blood on their hands, which Erick Erickson was all too happy to boast about (but no citation to me, Erick? Come on!).
I confronted Flores on Twitter, and he confirmed to me that he has only met one transgender person ever, whom he misgenders. Despite this severe lack of context, he proclaims himself expert enough on transgender identities to reject them outright.
He challenged me on Twitter to write a point-by-point rebuttal. As I sit in the lobby of Creating Change, surrounded by hundreds of trans people, this seems like a very simple errand. I know trans people exist because I believe them when they tell me they're trans. And unlike Flores, I've met a lot of them. I've heard countless stories. I write about them all the time. I consider myself a proud friend and ally to the trans community, and the feedback I get from them is that I'm doing a pretty good job at advocating on their behalf. (I'm not worried about the implications of saying "I have trans friends" here since my support for them hopefully isn't in question.)
But Flores wants a point-by-point rebuttal, so let's get to it. I'll otherwise follow his points in order, but I want to start with this one:
"What is medicine? Here is a plausible answer: medicine is the enterprise of restoring bodily faculties to their proper function."
That's a reasonable sounding answer, but it's a skewed and incomplete one. I find a better model for the answer is the Hippocratic Oath. Its commitment that patients "suffer no hurt or damage," its promise to not "administer poison," and its vow to "willingly refrain from doing any injury or wrong from falsehood" present a much better guide for understanding what it means to help someone. The Psychotherapist's Oath more specifically calls on professionals to promote "healing and well-being," "respect the integrity" of patients, and "provide a safe and trusting haven for healing." The well-being of the patient is a much more plausible answer for the purpose of medicine, and one that does not grant the premise Flores uses to reject transgender people and their experiences.
Indeed, I find this rationale to be the core flaw in everything that Flores argues, which is why I mentioned it first. Flores' obsession with what he sees as "natural" ignores what is actually very natural for transgender people: their gender identity. He pays no heed to what might actually be best for the welfare of trans people, instead imposing his own assumptions at their expense. With this in mind, it's quite hard to see his piece as anything but a call to erase transgender people and disregard their lives; in fact, he makes no claim to actually wanting to help transgender people. Indeed, he does just the opposite. I'll say more about it as I address his other points.
"Why think that what one "identifies as" is significant at all, especially to the extent that others should actively recognize or cater to such an identity, and especially when the identity one adopts is contrary to reality?"
Flores rejects the idea that sex and gender are different components of identity. He doesn't actually substantiate this rejection; he just asserts it. (This will be a recurring theme.) This, more than anything, reinforces how little he actually knows about what it means to be trans. Even the World Health Organization, which unfortunately still treats transgender identities as a mental disorder, nevertheless appreciates the sex/gender distinction. A recent study on the valid way young transgender children experience their gender demonstrates that biological sex does not always determine gender.
This distinction is essential for understanding what trans people experience. The reason that many trans people face mental health challenges associated with gender dysphoria is because of the gap between their sex and how they experience their gender. It is these consequences that must be addressed. Depression, anxiety, and their more extreme consequences are what mental health professionals seek to rectify. It is not being trans that causes them, it is not being able to experience gender as one feels it. That's why a consensus of medical professionals support affirmation, and why transitioning improves the mental health of transgender people. That's medicine working.
"No amount of surgical mutilation of body parts, effeminate behaviors, or artificial female appearances can make a man a woman."
Oh hey, another assertion without evidence based on a flawed assumption. But the real reason Flores is wrong here is because he is ignoring the actual experience of transgender people. If a transgender person feels more whole, more complete, or more authentic with a body that represents the person they think they should see in the mirror, that benefits the mental health of that person. Not only does Flores not grant that premise, he insists that it's wrong on mere principle. The use of words like "mutilation" and "artificial" judges what is very real and very crucial to a trans person's everyday life, to what allows them to function, prosper, and contribute equally to society. Each trans person finds peace of mind in a different way; transition means something different for each of them. However a person transitions, however, it is not about changing their gender, but confirming their gender. Helping them achieve that peace of mind should be the goal not only of medical professionals, but for all of us.
The Analogies: "Suppose that a Caucasian man from Finland—call him Gunther—suddenly decided that he identifies as being of Sub-Saharan African descent."
I'm always amazed by conservatives who invent hypotheticals that don't actually exist in reality to criticize something actually does exist. Ethnicity does not function in the same way as gender identity. Flores has already demonstrated that he doesn't understand gender identity, so there's not much to dismantle here. There is no such thing as "transethnic" nor a community of people persecuted for that identity. The analogy is simply irrelevant.
The Analogies: "Similarly, suppose that a seventy-year-old man—call him Bob—comes to identify as a sixteen-year-old."
There's no such thing as "transage" either. I can't even quite conceive of what it would mean for Bob to "identify as a sixteen-year-old," but hey, I applaud him for staying young at heart.
The Analogies: "It is for this reason that we can make sense of mental disorders such as anorexia nervosa as disorders: they involve persons' having persistent, false beliefs about their identity or how they really are."
Here again the priority of well-being is important to keep in mind. People with anorexia face negative health consequences for trying to change their bodies to match their perceptions. Transgender people face negative health consequences if they don't. That's besides the fact that body image, like ethnicity and age, functions differently from gender. This analogy does not serve Flores's purposes because anorexia represents the exact opposite kind of problem from what transgender people face.
"Now, put to one side the fact that 70-80 percent of children who report having transgender feelings come to lose such feelings."
Put to one side that Flores links to Paul McHugh's article here. We'll get to McHugh soon enough.
There is actually truth in the fact that not all young people who explore or experiment with gender ultimately conclude that they are transgender. But so what? Nothing is lost in the process of that exploration. Even those young people who take the step of delaying the onset of puberty to allow extra time to make such a decision face no consequences. Affirming young people however they might express their gender spares them the mental health consequences of forcing them to deny it.
"And because love compels us to seek the good for another, it is thus a grave evil to condone such surgical procedures."
This is, unsurprisingly, another example of pure conjecture, but I have to call it out separately for revealing Flores's bias against transgender people. "Grave evil" is quite a dark description. I don't know how he defines "evil," but I would think it would have to in some way entail a promotion of harm in the world. He describes transition-related surgeries as harm, except they serve the exact opposite purpose of supporting trans people's mental health. I'd counter that the real grave evil is encouraging the rejection of transgender people, especially if done in the name of love. If evil means promoting harm as he seems to intend it, then he is the one guilty of evil.
"Dr. Paul McHugh's words here are particularly incisive."
Opponents of transgender equality cite Paul McHugh all of the time because he is the only doctor that actually supports their position. It doesn't matter that the consensus of major medical organizations support affirmative therapy for transgender people. It doesn't matter that McHugh's interpretation of the research on transgender people has been thoroughly debunked. It doesn't matter that McHugh's biases against all LGBT people, rejecting decades of scientific research even on sexual orientation, have been thoroughly documented. He's a person with a title who says things that they want to hear.
McHugh is not an expert on transgender people; he is an expert on rejecting transgender people. It's unsurprising that he is the only authority Flores cites in his essay.
"The suggestion, then, that gender identity disorder therapy should be criminalized is as absurd as the suggestion that therapy to eliminate anorexia should be criminalized."
Given there is ample evidence that rejecting trans identities is harmful, considerable evidence that transgender identities have biological components, and absolutely no evidence that a a person can be cured of being transgender, Flores's ardent defense of ex-trans therapy is incredibly problematic. Moreover, it reveals how uninformed he is about transgender people. The American Psychiatric Association no longer defines being transgender as a disorder, so his continued reference to a "disordered transgender identity" reflects either his bias, the fact he's using information that's now at least two years old, or quite likely both.
"If habitually watching pornography can change a man's brain so significantly, then it should hardly be surprising that through intentionally and habitually behaving like a woman a man's brain would too change to some extent. But again, this does not thereby show that such a man is a woman after all; all it shows is that through habituated action of some sort, the man's brain behavior has changed."
The tangent about brains largely doesn't make much sense. What's worth pointing out here is that people don't habitually act like a gender and then claim to be trans. It's actually the other way around. The two-year-old who knows her gender didn't condition her brain to be like a girl's brain. She knows because it may already be that way. Of course, brains only offer one clue into the biological components that underlie a trans identity and hardly tell the whole story. Thus, little is gained from further humoring Flores' sideline on this matter.
"Cases in which an individual is intersex, however, are exceedingly rare. Indeed, even granting the point, it would not be unfair to say that in 99.99 percent of cases (and even this might be too low a percentage), a person is either male or female."
It's worth flagging Flores here. Intersex people are real regardless of how few he thinks there are. If your assertion that genitalia is a deciding factor, then you can't just rule out people whose genitalia defies the binary you rely on. The mere variety of intersex identities and the complex way these individuals arrive at their gender identities — especially when they were surgically "fixed" as infants without their consent — paints an incredibly vibrant picture of gender that Flores can not so easily disregard. According to the Intersex Society of North America, intersex conditions occur in about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births. That number jibes with his percentage, but I think it makes it sound quite a lot more people than his percentage suggests.
"But, alas, LGBT activists are actively working to make it the case that the state and private businesses cover "gender-reassignment" surgeries, that men who identify as women be able to use women's restrooms, that girls who identify as boys be able to play on male sports teams, that we consider it immoral to refer to infants as male or female lest we insidiously impose upon them a "gender" they might not identify with, that we ban therapy to treat gender dysphoria, and that we generally co-opt language and social norms to reflect pernicious falsehoods about the human body."
Here is where Flores lays out all of the trans protections he opposes. He doesn't want businesses to have to cover procedures that could be essential to the health of transgender people. He reinforces the myth that trans women are somehow predatory by default; you never hear about letting "women who identify as men use the men's restroom," and I don't think they want my trans brothers who are bald and have beards walking into the women's restroom. Girls can already play on some male sports teams like wrestling and football, so I don't know what's so profound about his objection to trans boys doing the same. I don't know of any legislation trying to ban gendering children, but I do think it's harmful to reject a gender identity a child asserts. As for that last complaint, it sounds like Flores will just be pissed people will disagree with him. I'm personally not worried about offending his sensibilities when there are lives on the line.
"What is relevant is whether we will make public policy and encourage social norms that reflect the truth about the human person and sexuality, or whether we will obfuscate the truth about such matters and sow the seeds of sexual confusion in future generations for years to come."
You know how kids get confused? When you try to force them to be something that they're not. As referenced above, the kids who know they're trans are not confused at all. It's only a society that rejects what they know about themselves that creates that problem. And it's essays like this one that unabashedly promote that rejection.
So there you go, Carlos. You told me that I made too many bare assertions on Twitter and that you wouldn't take my perspective seriously unless I charitably responded point-by-point. I do consider it charity, because this weekend I'm surrounded by a gorgeous mix of genderqueer, transgender, gender non-conforming people at the Creating Change conference, people you only wish you were lucky enough to ever meet. But I decided that your words, now shared over 17,000 times, were so dangerous to their well-being that I'd take the time to explain why you were just so, so wrong.
And, chances are, you might not care, and your mind might not be changed in the least. But, if you even bothered to read my response, you at least can't unread it. And whether it has any effect on you or not, hopefully others will see how baseless and bigoted your assertions were and choose to ignore them.


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I would like to be known as the pharmaceutical industry's Official Worst Nightmare. Why, you ask? Because as I am typing I can feel tiny popping sensations in my brain, cleverly called "brain zaps" in the medical community. Breathing is an effort. My heart is desperately trying to escape my chest. That's not an attempt at a meaningful, poetic statement. I mean my chest is literally pounding up and down, as if my heart is going to break through my ribcage.
Let's put it this way: if I was not aware that I was experiencing the withdrawal effects of Effexor – a medication usually used to treat depression, but which was prescribed to me to help wean me off the anxiety medication Ativan – I would take a five hundred dollar ambulance ride to the nearest hospital right now. This, my friends, is the cost of placing your precious health in the hands of Big Pharma in my home country of the USA. I am guilty (guilty makes it sound like it's my fault… let's go with "blissfully unaware") of falling in love with my collection of prescription bottles.
It is no exaggeration to say that I would discuss these prescription bottles, in the past, with barely concealed pride – almost as though being heavily medicated made me darkly cool and eccentric. But I've recently come to the conclusion that if being hip means taking not just Effexor, but Adderall for ADHD, Wellbutrin for depression, the aforementioned Ativan, and any number of others for sleep, concentration, side effects of other medication and more, then I would rather be the dorkiest person in the universe.
My transition from "pill enthusiast" to "will taking another Advil harm my liver?" hasn't been easy. Medi-Katie (medicated Katie) roamed this planet for five years, making careless decisions and throwing keys (or whatever was in reach) at unsuspecting boyfriends. When I first made the decision to quit, I did a Google search about the withdrawal symptoms. I craved stories written by real people with no agenda other than helping others feel less like a crazy person. And I wanted to add to the discussion.
I want to go deeper than the possible negative side effects you hear in TV commercials in America: "mild nausea, stomach cramping, headache… death." Wait, what? Did you just say death? Yes, but don't worry about it – just look how happy everyone in the advert looks now.
First of all, when death is casually thrown into a list of side effects like it's as innocuous as a stomach cramp, shouldn't every viewer stop checking Reddit and throw their remote at their television? When did "we the people" decide, collectively, that it was okay to advertise a potentially fatal pill between episodes of American Idol or The Mindy Project? The same subtle psychology and soft music convincing you to buy a new car or take that dream vacation is coupled with the happy side-effect-listing-guy, a beautiful girl riding her bike and going on a trendy brunch outing, and a deep voiced announcing promising you'll never feel sad, or afraid, or sexually inadequate again. Talk about a recipe for brainwashing success.
So how does this mechanism play out in real life, when your doctor's office is portrayed on TV and in magazines like a veritable candy store? Well, in my personal experience, it's pretty much exactly like this:
Patient: Um, yeah. I saw an ad for a new anxiety medication and I want to try it.
Doctor: Great! Here's a script for a 90-day supply.
And that covers it. In my five years of "pill shopping" I almost always left my appointments with the prescription that I suggested, and I barely passed high school chemistry. Not once did any of my doctors attempt to talk me out of trying that great new drug, that hot new pill I thought I'd check out. They simply nodded and wrote me out of the office. America: home of the free, the brave, the permanently doped.
A few years ago, I was enjoying a pancake breakfast in a New York City diner and the guy behind me was loudly chatting with his friend about his own personal stack of meds. What really disturbed me about his conversation, apart from the fact that it was generally irritating, was that I knew way too much about every single drug he named (and there were quite a few). That's just how it goes in the States. Tired? Anxious? Sad? Hey, there's a pill for that! We are a nation in a love affair with quick fixes, overly familiar with them as household names. And this romance is quite literally killing us.
Since I have stopped my prescriptions, I am much more in tune with my body and what goes into it. On drugs, I couldn't have cared less. Fast food, soda, and in some cases, overdosing, were all fair game. If I had a really rough day, it wasn't abnormal for me to pop four Ativan instead of the prescribed one every eight hours (or my favourite: "as needed"). Addicts, surprisingly enough, have trouble knowing when to stop – and when your supplier is so happy to be lied to, it makes it all the easier. Walk in there, recite: "I'm doing great! The drugs are really helping! But I do think I need a higher dosage – my anxiety is crazy right now," and you're in. The only problem? Another classic addict hiccup: it's horrendously expensive. If insurance doesn't cover your mental healthcare, then you're looking at a very expensive bill for a ten minute joke of an appointment. I'm saving over $300 a month nowadays by eliminating medication checkups and prescriptions alone. Think about how much that money really means, multiplied across the nation.
The problem with our prescriptions is that they begin to control us, even change us, when we take it too far. I was insecure and sheepish before I started coming off my prescriptions. That's not who I am! I'm a delusional drama queen with the kind of naïve confidence that makes me think I can easily become famous but I just haven't found the right avenue yet (film? Television? Theatre? These are the difficult choices I still currently face). And guess what? I LIKE that Katie. She is the girl lucky enough to have seven awesome siblings, a cross-eyed cat with a heart of gold, and a hot, bearded boyfriend with whom she credits a portion of her new-found happiness (just a portion, now – girl power is still important to me.)
Sure, I sometimes still get extremely anxious in social situations. I am easily distracted. I often think of twenty things at once. And there was a time when I became convinced that these aspects of my (fully functioning) personality were in fact symptoms of multiple mental illnesses. But Big Pharma — Wyeth, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, and Sandoz, to name a very small few — can keep its daily dose of lethargy, indifference and passivity now. I refuse to bury my negative feelings in addictive drugs that are sold as miracle cures for every minor human inconvenience. The price of buying into them is just too high.
I'm not advocating never taking a single pill for a legitimate mental illness, or relying on poultices and ancient remedies to regulate the imbalances of the four humours. Medicine has its place and it saves lives everyday. But here in the US, we deserve to be better informed about the pros and cons of the things we put into our bodies rather than blindly marketed a vast array of quick fixes that promise to smooth us out into easy, emotionless cardboard cut-outs with hundreds of pill bottles stored up in our bathroom cabinets.
Is that too much to ask? (If you answered 'no' then I think we're on the same wavelength here, so let's maybe hang out and talk about this over coffee. The only side effect you'll experience is fun! Yeah, I was trying to go for a cute ending. Just go with it.)
-Katie S


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A beautiful park near Al Corniche Qatar.
It's perfect for families and friends bonding.
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This morning in church we had the founder of Global Eye Mission speak about his experiences as a medical missionary and how he has seen the provision of medical care to those in need open doors to share the gospel where it would never have been received otherwise. He told the story of when he was called to be part of a mission team in Tanzania.
He went to a predominantly Muslim village where evangelists of the Gospel regularly had stones thrown at them and where a Muslim converting to Christianity would typically experience death threats often carried out. His role was as an ophthalmologist who performed numerous cataract surgeries that restored sight to people who had been blind for years.
After several days of providing this much-needed medical aid, he attended a gathering at which the evangelist in the group presented a bold statement of the Gospel of grace. He remembered thinking that surely this was going to cause a riot and some stones being thrown. But instead, when asked if they would like to learn more about Christ, dozens of Muslims in the audience raised their hands.
Last week we had another missionary give our sermon message. He and his wife were involved full time with Eastern European Missions. His emotional and moving story of how this organization brings light into a world darkened by three generations of communism and atheism was incredible.
He shared how this whole mission had been started by a church in a small town in northern Minnesota that invited some teachers and students from Russia to visit them. By showing these people love and care, they were able to pave the way for the Gospel to be shared where it was illegal for so many years.
These missionaries are examples of people who have given up a comfortable life here in the United States to go out to a world in need of both creature comforts and the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. It is a challenging life, to be sure. But when you hear missionaries like this speak it is easy to see that the reward they receive is well worth the sacrifice.
As I listened to the Global Eye Mission speaker this morning, I wondered to myself why it is so hard for me to share with those close to me what these missionaries travel halfway around the world to share. They show incredible courage as they face possible persecution and death at every turn, going into places violently hostile to the Gospel. Why then do I lack the courage to share the love of Christ and His offer of forgiveness of sins with my own family and friends who don't know Him?
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Isaiah 6:8 (NIV).


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Quid-a-day Reg nosh posse chap faces starvation diet
780 calories a day, Toby? You must be joking
As the El Reg Quid-a-Day Nosh Posse's Live Below the Line challenge enters its fourth day, we're delighted to report that team member Toby Sibley has resurfaced - albeit looking a little thinner than when we last spoke to him.
At the beginning of the week, Toby expressed doubts that he'd spend his £5 food budget wisely:
Since then, he's been subsisting on meagre rations, including a tempting "lentil and carrot surprise". He admitted: "The surprise bit was really missing for this meal."
No surprise here
Toby's soon-to-be sister-in-law (he's getting hitched on Saturday) described the dish as "a delicately hand-peeled carrot, nestling on a melange of rice and lentilles vertes", and here's the same thing avec oeuf frit:
An effective way to fritter away your waistline
He noted: "For those wishing to recreate this masterpiece and want to know the recipe then all they need to do is donate some money and I will personally talk them through how I made it."
That's quite an offer, but it's doubtful he'll have sufficient strength to talk. Toby did a quick calculation of his food stockpile's total Calories* (click for a bigger version)...
...and that led him to a figure of 779.8 Calories a day. He head-scratched: "I'm not sure that can be right given that an average man needs 2,500 Calories each day to survive. The meagre calorie count would however account for why I'm feeling a bit lethargic and my brain seems to have gone down a couple of gears.
"Starvation is certainly on the horizon. I just hope I don't end up doing a girly swoon during the wedding ceremony due to a lack of calories. I'm currently thinking more about the wedding lunch than the ceremony itself."
A hungry Toby concluded: "I'm going to trust that as a professional journalist of the highest standing that you won't include that in your update or I will be in trouble and strife with the soon to be wife."
No problem mate, my lips are sealed.
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13 Shortest Celebrity Marriages: 'Til Death Do Us Part ... at Least For 72 Days
There's a faction among us who might say that people like Michael Sam would ruin the sanctity of marriage should gay marriage be made legal nationwide.
But those people obviously aren't looking at the frequent break-ups taking place in Hollywood. Stars who make it more than a year in a marriage are something of a novelty.


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I am naked without my clothes
I have no idea what transpired in the two weeks since writing my last column, but apparently nothing remotely amusing or noteworthy. So, to the archives I went. I found several past columns that amused me, but selected this one from almost exactly five years ago. Ben and Sarah and Rosie, Taylor and Caroline will be coming home in a few weeks, and we'll all be heading to the cottage. This column should serve as a reminder to David: Don't let history repeat itself!
By COLLEEN LEDDY
Never let a man pack a car.
Isn't that what your mother always told you?
It's a sexist thing to say. So let me be just a tad more specific: Never let David Green pack your car.
We were in a rush. I was setting things in the entryway to take on a quick overnight family gathering at David's sister's cottage on Gun Lake. The celebration would acknowledge two birthdays, an anniversary and Father's Day, and the adventure would include a trip to Sam's Joint—home of the most delectable barbecued chicken strips and potato wedges on the planet.
My hastily packed suitcase was lined up, ready to go, full to the brim, equipped for all manner of Michigan weather: hot day/cool night (shorts, T-shirt, lightweight but long sleeve pajamas), cool day/cool night (long sleeve shirt, jeans, long johns and heavyweight long sleeve shirt), hot day/hot night (lightweight nightshirt)—and activity: running shorts, bathing suit, grungy jeans for geocaching.
We weren't sure exactly where we would slumber, so we added sleeping bags and mats to the pile. I threw some beach towels, bagged sneakers and sandals, a scarf, sweatshirt and jacket, and the toiletries bag into a laundry basket. Loaded up some groceries and added the bags to the collection. While I whirled some basil into pesto, David filled the car with our belongings.
Never let a man pack a car.
We arrived in time for an early dinner at Sam's and in the chilly air-conditioned restaurant, I kept thinking how nice it would be to slip into my thick Polartec long-johns (which I'd brought along as pajamas) when we got back to the cottage.
Remember Friday night? Was it cool here in Morenci? It was chilly at Gun Lake, but that didn't deter the rest of the crowd from stopping at the Curly Cone for ice cream. I passed on the ice cream; I just really wanted to get into those warm long-johns.
Back at the cottage, we unloaded the car.
Never let a man pack a car.
It's OK to let a man unpack a car. What harm can he do? Take things out, carry them inside. Plop 'em down. Maybe he'll put them in the wrong place. But that's not so bad. You can move them to a better location. But let a man pack a car?
"Hey, where's my suitcase?"
"What suitcase? I didn't put a suitcase in the car."
"You didn't put my suitcase in the car?"
"This is an overnight. Who packs a suitcase for an overnight?"
"You really didn't pack my suitcase? You're kidding, right?"
"I'm not kidding. There's no suitcase in the car."
"But I had my suitcase right there in the entryway with all the stuff to pack into the car."
"I didn't pack it."
"You really didn't pack my suitcase? You didn't put my suitcase in the car? You're kidding right?"
He had to be kidding. But this joke was going on too long and his face looked too serious. Still, he had to be kidding. I am naked without my clothes. I need my clothes. I'd covered all the bases. I was prepared for any possible weather condition I might encounter, any activity we might engage in for the 24 hours we'd spend away from my closet and dresser drawers.
"How could you possibly not pack my suitcase?" I was containing my outrage pretty well, I thought. I was going to accept this situation. But I was still incredulous. My suitcase was sitting right there, among the rest of the flotsam and jetsam.
"Your suitcase had been sitting in the entryway all week after you got back from Berea. We were only going on an overnight so I didn't think it was supposed to go to the cottage."
"So you picked it up and actually moved it out of the way?"
OK, I am guilty of not putting the suitcase away after my quick trip to Berea, Ky., to drop Rozee off for a month's work as a camp counselor. But it had been gone from the entryway for at least two days before I packed it again. Besides, the trip to Berea had been an overnight, so his reasoning made no sense.
He can't redeem himself. He'll be in hot water until my steam blows off. He's just lucky my sister-in-law Ginny offered me a mini-wardrobe of her own clothes (like any good woman, she overpacks). But I opted to wear my daughter Maddie's extra sweatpants and t-shirt (like a good daughter, she overpacks).
Ginny was able to offer perspective on the situation with a packing tale of her own.
Her overnight suitcase for her wedding night was stowed in her car during the wedding. She engaged her brother to drive the car alone to the reception, but on the way there, it died. He abandoned the car (and suitcase within) on a street in St. Paul, and hitched out to the reception. As they were leaving the reception, Ginny learned her suitcase had never arrived. So she and Thom headed off to the B&B with no luggage. And in the morning, she had no choice but to wear her wedding dress to breakfast.
Maybe our mothers should have told us: Never trust any man with your luggage.


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Sri Chinmoy: There is a great difference between seeing God and realising God. When we see God, we can see him as an individual or as an object or as something else. But we do not consciously and continuously embody Him and feel that He is our very own. When we see God, it is like seeing a tree. We do not at that time consciously embody the tree-consciousness. And since we do not embody it, we cannot reveal or manifest it. But when we realise something, at that time it becomes part and parcel of our life. We may see a flower, but only when we realise the flower do we actually become one with the consciousness of the flower.
When we merely see something, we cannot claim it as our very own, and that particular thing also will not claim us. Seeing is on the physical plane, while realising is on the inner plane. Seeing does not last, whereas realising does remain with us. If we see something, the vision may last for a short while; but when we realise something, this realisation lasts forever.


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Trained by Tom Albertrani for Godolphin Racing, Romansh shadowed the early pace set by Percussion.
When jockey Jose Ortiz asked his mount for run around the far turn, the colt responded by promptly overtaking the pacesetter to open up a narrow advantage entering the stretch, but was soon confronted by a surging Long River.
At the eighth pole, it appeared Long River was poised to draw off to victory, but Romansh was resolute along the inside, battling his stablemate all the way to the wire to prevail by a neck.
"[When Long River] came to him, I was just happy to be second to his entrymate," said Albertrani. "When I saw him coming back on again that made it even sweeter."
The Godolphin-owned colt commenced his 4-year-old year with an uncharacteristically dull effort in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park that left his connections perplexed.
On Saturday, he left little doubt he had reclaimed the form he displayed when taking the Grade 3 Discovery Handicap by 9 ¼ lengths last fall at the Big A.
"I was just hoping he'd redeem himself," said Albertrani. "His last race was so confusing."
The victory, Romansh's third stakes win, is certainly something his connections hope he can build off of.
The son of Bernardini boosted his career bankroll to $373,580. His record now stands at 5-2-0 through 10 starts.
Ticket info for 2014 Belmont
Tickets to the 146th running of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, the third jewel of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, will be available for purchase beginning March 31.
Belmont Stakes Day, Saturday, June 7, is the second richest day of racing on the North American racing calendar, featuring a 13-race card worth $8 million, including 10 stakes races.
New for 2014 is the reduction in price of hundreds of second-floor grandstand seats - from $120 to $95.
Many other prices remain at 2013 levels, including Grandstand admission, which will again be $10, and a large selection of third-floor upper-tier reserved seats where prices will again range from $20 to $65, including admission. In all, nearly 30 percent of reserved seats on Belmont Stakes Day will be equal to or lower than last year's prices.
The remaining third floor seats in the clubhouse and grandstand will have modest increases of $10-$20 each. Clubhouse admission for June 7 will rise from $20 to $30, the first increase in admission prices for the "Test of the Champion" since 2005.


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EBT At Farmers Markets
Thirteen farmers markets in Minneapolis now accept EBT and offer a Market Bucks coupon to help low-income residents purchase more healthy, fresh food at affordable prices.
Did You Know?
- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) is delivered via an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card. Currently, over 30 farmers markets across Minnesota accept EBT.
- SNAP redemptions at farmers markets across the country increased more than 55% between 2010 and 2011! Despite this success, less than 2% of all SNAP purchases were made at a farmers market, which means there is room for significant improvement and outreach to encourage more SNAP recipients to shop for healthy foods at a local market.
Intervention Description:
In 2010, the Minneapolis Health Department (MHD), Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross), and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy worked together to make Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) services available at the Minneapolis Farmers Market and Northeast Farmers Markets. These two markets joined the Midtown Farmers Market, which has accepted EBT since 2006. Partners also launched an incentive program called "Market Bucks" to encourage EBT customers to use their benefits at the markets. Customers who spent at least $5 in EBT received an additional $5 in Market Bucks, essentially doubling their purchasing power for healthy foods.
Having EBT and Market Bucks at farmers markets allows Minnesotans who receive food support - as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as "food stamps") - to purchase fresh, healthy foods. In addition to expanding customers' purchasing power and increasing healthy eating, the EBT and Market Bucks program benefits local farmers and the local economy by capturing federal SNAP dollars and bringing them into the community.
In 2011, MHD and Blue Cross expanded EBT and Market Bucks to the West Broadway market and the West Bank farmers markets at Augsburg and Brian Coyle. For the 2012 season, eight new markets were added for a total of 13 locations in Minneapolis! The markets currently offering EBT and Market Bucks include:
- Minneapolis Municipal Farmers Market
- Midtown Farmers Market
- Northeast Farmers Market
- Audubon Mini Market
- West Broadway Farmers Market
- Camden Mini Market
- St. Olaf Mini Market
- Heritage Commons Mini Market
- West Bank Markets at Brian Coyle Community Center and Augsburg College
- Kingfield Farmers Market
- Fulton Farmers Market
- Stevens Square Mini Market
Accomplishments and Results:
- Customers are excited to use EBT at the farmers markets saying: "Fruits and vegetables are more affordable here than the grocery stores. I can feed my children better at the farmers market with my EBT benefits" and "It's a wonderful opportunity for people with EBT to get fresh fruits and vegetables."
- The 2012 Minneapolis-Specific EBT and Market Bucks Initiative summary report is completed and found here!
If your organization would like to help promote EBT at Minneapolis Farmers Markets, please print and distribute any of the following materials:
- 2012 EBT Brochure
[English] [Spanish] [Hmong] [Somali]
- 2012 EBT Flier
[English] [Spanish] [Hmong] [Somali]
- 2012 EBT Postcard
[English] [Spanish] [Hmong] [Somali]
Should you require a reasonable accommodation in order to fully participate, or information in an alternative format, please contact 612-673-2301.
Para asistencia 612-673-2700 - Rau kev pab 612-673-2800 - Hadii aad Caawimaad u baahantahay 612-673-3500.
Last updated Dec 11, 2018


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Celebrity life is full of stories, adventures, and of course, not to mentions Scandal! When we are talking about scandals then the very first and foremost mention is celebrity Nudes- A symbol of Filth, Fortune and Fame. Leaked celebrity nude images have been inspiring instant buzz, fascination from fans and adoration from the masses. Most of the viewers of such images are sexually frustrated enough to care about the image of these celebrities.
The strange thing is this has become a trend nowadays and celebrities in order to gain popularity or get famous are using these tactics. In earlier days when celebrities like Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe were the leading ladies of the industry, there was not even a single case when they used to pose nude for photographs. They had high self esteem and reputation in the heart of their fans. However, with the advancement of technologies and wonderful cameras, phones and video recording devices, the world has turned into a planet that has no religion and feels the pride to capture the celebrity nude images. These images are highly viewed and shared over various social media platforms.
When the world is loaded with information and viewers having a very short attention span, scandals like Celebrity Nude have become a trend. In fact, they are being used as media feeds to create sensational news for their audience. These images act like a supernova that burns bright with high glare and fade after a few split moments. Right from personal lives to movies, showbiz to tour images, we are regularly being exposed to scandalous incidents that are slated to make headlines for a few days and the disappear leaving no traces behind.
There are times and instances when such graphics and images manage to freeze and focus the daily overflow of the information over the world wide web and lave a long lasting impression on the mind of the viewers. While most of the celebrities take utmost care while sharing their personal information or their own devices, it is inevitable to avoid breaches to their privacy. While there have been instances when celebrities themselves leaked their images, but there are people who hack into their phones or social media accounts and share their personal images and nudes to the world.
Naked celebrity images whether leaked or hacked are everywhere and can be found online. It is like a norm nowadays. The advent of sex videos and images has added a new element to the sex deprived world and minds. Those who want to watch the private images from the lives of famous people benefit from such images. Besides, they are also a great channel to boost the overall image of the celebrity and increase their value, bring them social media attention just with few naughty pictures and what more they are just so normal now! These photographs have helped us to know and rise of celebrities who were just unknown faces from industry earlier.


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Our slide deck from a seminar on technology marketing for NISPConnect in the Northern Ireland Science Park. A really enjoyable seminar, very positive feedback from the audience, and we got to visit the Titanic centre in Belfast afterwards!
Our slide deck from a seminar on technology marketing for NISPConnect in the Northern Ireland Science Park. A really enjoyable seminar, very positive feedback from the audience, and we got to visit the Titanic centre in Belfast afterwards!
When you are picking keyword phrase to target, using the "AllInTitle" filter can be a good way to assess the level of competition for a keyword. (We have a guide to Search Engine Optimization here ).
How do you decide which keyword phrases you should target with your website? When we do this for a client our first step is to generate ideas based on the products and services they sell. Next, we use tools like the Google Keyword Planner to generate more ideas for keywords. If the client has been running Google Pay-per-click ads for a while then we will look at these too, checking to see which keywords have good search volumes, good click through rates (CTRs) and good conversions (e.g. the percentage of people who register on a landing page after clicking through on an ad).
When you have a long list of candidate keywords, you need to whittle it down. You can only target so many keyword – about 3 phrases per page on your website – so you have to make some choices. We make the selection using 3 filters.
The first filter we use is search volume – how many people typically search for this term month-by-month? Google's keyword planner can give you a rough indication of search volumes for a keyword phrase. Generally you don't want to target keywords that have a low volume of search traffic – if not many people search for the term there is no point optimizing your site for it.
The next filter is "relevance" – is the keyword phrase really closely related to what we sell? Is it too generic? Could it be misunderstood as relating to another business? We usually mark each keyword as High, Medium or Low for relevance so we can sort them later.
The next filter is "competition". This is one of the biggest factors in determining which keywords you should target. If there are tens of thousands of other websites targeting the exact same phrase then it will be really hard for you to get to page one of the search results.
You can use Google's keyword planner to get an idea of the level of competition for a particular keyword phrase. However, we also do a quick search on the phrase using 'AllInTitle:keyword phrase' in Google. The 'AllInTitle' modifier tells Google to show you how many pages on the web have a Page Title tag that matches your search phrase. Since most people who are optimizing a page to target a keyword phrase will put that phrase in the Title, then the 'AllInTitle' search results give you a pretty good idea of how many people are trying to target the same keyword.
For example, if you enter "allintitle:tomato ketchup" into the Google search box, it will show you the total number of pages it finds with 'tomato ketchup' in the Title tag.
Our rule of thumb is that if there are less than 5,000 results using the same phrase in the title then you have a chance to compete for page 1. Between 5,000 and 7,500 is going to be tough, and more than 7,500 other pages will make it very tough.
If you build up a spreadsheet of keywords that includes the search traffic volumes, relevance and the number you get from the 'AllInTitle' search then you will start to see which keywords show the most potential. You are looking for keyword phrases with high search, strong relevance and low competition.
If you'd like to learn more about keyword competitor analysis, there's a great article on the Wordstream blog.
Michael White is co-founder and Managing Director of Motarme, the Marketing Automation vendor. You can find him on Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.
What should you spend your marketing budget on? In a previous post, "How much should I spend on Marketing?" I looked at how you can calculate your marketing budget based on industry averages and your own previous marketing expenditure and output. Once you have identified roughly how much you want to spend, the next question is what you should spend it on.
Here are some of the typical items you can include in a B2B marketing budget:
Michael White is co-founder and Managing Director of Motarme, the Sales and Marketing Automation vendor. You can find him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Lead Nurturing refers to building regular, automated interactions with sales leads in order to develop a relationship and encourage a purchase. This guide explains what Lead Nurturing is, and the benefits you can obtain such as converting an extra 20% of leads to sales. We also describe step-by-step how to setup your first lead nurturing program.
Michael White is co-founder and Managing Director of Motarme, the Marketing Automation vendor. You can find him on Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Most of us want to know how we compare with our peers or competitors, and that's true in Business-to-Business (B2B) web marketing too. A lot of our clients want to know if there is any benchmark data for B2B conversion rates and traffic volumes. In this post I'll outline some recent stats.
To start, we should be clear about what we mean by "conversion". It can potentially cover a broad range of visitor actions, from clicking on a button through to completing an on-line purchase. In Business-to-Consumer (B2C) marketing conversions often equate to sales e.g. how many visitors to the website of a shoe retailer bought a pair of their shoes. B2C conversion rates can be very high depending on the type of product and the purchase price (I quote some examples at the end of this post).
However, in Business-to-Business marketing conversions are generally not direct purchases but contact registrations of some form. People usually don't visit a website, take out their credit card and buy $80k of engineering components. But a proportion will visit and download a technical specification or submit a contact form as the first step in their evaluation and purchase process. So when I talk about B2B conversion rates I mean someone completing a contact form, registering for a white paper or subscribing for a newsletter with their email address.
In our experience, conversion rates for these kind of B2B conversions (i.e. a web visitor signing up on a registration page) are typically in the 4% to 8% range. That is, on average, for every 100 visitors to a website we should be able to persuade between 4 and 8 of them to register or provide their contact details. The actual conversion rate for a company will depend on a lot of factors including your industry, your web page design, what you are selling, your typical sale price etc.
There are some published stats available too. The first item comes from MarketingSherpa, a great research firm focused on B2B technology marketing. In October 2012 they published a chart showing average website conversion rates per industry
The figures range from 2% for non-profits up to 10% for Professional services. However, the problem with these figures is that the definition of what survey respondents meant by 'conversion' may not have been consistent.
A second useful post, What's a Good Website Conversion Rate, comes from Blue Corona, a web marketing and conversion optimization agency. They think visit-to-lead conversion rates for B2B service companies should be around 5-8%. In comparison, their estimate for B2C home services like heating, ventilation and air conditioning is around 15%. For higher ticket price or non-necessary home services (B2C) they expect the rate to be around 1 to 4.5%. BlueCorona also make the point that if businesses have less than 500 visitors per month then it will be difficult to determine what your visit-to-conversion rate is – they estimate about 1500 visitors or more per month as being a reasonable rate of traffic. I agree – if you are a B2B business generating less than 1,000 visitors per month then you need to focus on driving more traffic before you worry about conversion rates.
The third post I thought interesting comes from MarketingExperiments, a sister company of MarketingSherpa. In their post MarketingResearch: average conversion rates they have a chart showing the range of conversion rates reported by survey respondents for organic web traffic (i.e. visitors arriving from an ordinary search rather than a paid ad). The conversion rates vary from just over 0% to 60%, with an average of 8% and (probably more useful) a median of 4%. So again these rates seem similar to our own experience. The conversion rates for visitors arriving from paid search traffic range from 1% to 60%, with an average of 8.4% and a median of 3.5%.
We came across a LinkedIn discussion on the topic of conversion rates in the "Smart Insights Digital Marketing" group and the rates quoted there are generally quite low – 1% to 3%, but contributors point out that optimization can push these rates up higher.
Optify published their "2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report" earlier in 2013, based on analysis of 600 small and medium-sized B2B firms. They reported an overall conversion rate of 1.6% across email, paid and unpaid search. The rate for organic visitors was 1.65%. In this case conversion was defined as the percentage of visitors submitting a form during a single visit. This conversion rate seems a little low, but it is based on actual recent data. They also make the point that there is huge variability across companies. Another interesting stat from that report was that average site traffic was 1,784 visitors per month among the 600 companies surveyed.
This leads to a related question – what volume of visitors should a B2B company expect to get? There is a post from digital marketing consultancy NetworkIntellect that provides a range of expected visitor volumes, which they say is based on data collected from almost 1500 websites. According to Network Intellect, B2B companies with 11-25 employees should generate approximately 270 visitors per week (1080 per month), companies with 26-50 employees should generate about 510 visitors per week (2040 per month) and those with 51-200 employees should have about 710 per week (2840 per month).
So, we have some average figures for B2B web conversion and they range from 1% to about 10%. This doesn't mean you can relax if you're obtaining a 4% or 5% conversion rate. For particular industries and products you should be able to drive the conversion rates much higher. And if you want to set yourself an ambitious target, look at what some of the top performing B2C retailers achieve. In a 2009 analysis of stats from Nielsen Online and MegaView Retail, MarketingCharts reported that online food retailer Schwan's had a conversion rate of 50.5%, while the other top retailers that year had rates ranging from 27.2% (FTD.com) to 18.5% (QVC)
Finally, if you're a benchmarking junkie you should find this post interesting – "The essential benchmarks for all B2B Marketers" . Figures include typical B2B marketing budget as percentage of revenue, email response rates and online display ad response rates.
I would be really interested in any other good statistics you can point out for B2B website conversion rates, website traffic rates and other metrics, so please get in touch if you have some interesting numbers.
Michael White is co-founder and Managing Director of Motarme, the Marketing Automation vendor. You can find him on Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.


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PHRplus EOP
National Health Accounts
Community-Based Health Financing
Infectious Disease Surveillance
Systemwide Effects of the Fund
HSAN Meeting
What's New
Home | About | Focus Areas | Countries | Publications | Contact Us | Search
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Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.
Copyright © 2006 ~ Abt Associates Inc.
Send mail to: Website Manager


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RTMNU BBA, BCA All Sem Results Summer Published online: Nagpur University BBA, BCA All Sem Exam Result 2019: Nagpur University conducted its examination for various courses of UG. Nagpur University Conducting its exams regularly for Summer session and this time university published its Summer Results for Examinations. Students who want result for the examination of Nagpur University need to follow below given Results.
Nagpur University Results Examination for BBA, BCA All Sem :
|University Name
|Nagpur University
|Name of Exam
|BBA, BCA All Sem
|Result Status
|Official Website
About University
Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, formerly Nagpur University, is a public university in the city of Nagpur in the central Indian state of Maharashtra. It is one of India's oldest universities, the second oldest in Maharashtra.
Other important details like results, score card, cut off marks, latest syllabus, old and new question papers are also mentioned in this page and university main website (www.nagpuruniversity.org/) and our portal www.exam2result.com regularly. So keep Visiting this page for latest updates and "All the best for your Career"
Nagpur University Highlights :
|University Name
|Nagpur University
|Type of University
|University Grants Commission
|University Contact Number
|University Main Result Link
|Course Name
|BBA, BCA All Sem
|University Address
|Amravati Rd, Ram Nagar, Nagpur, Maharashtra 440033
|Published Date
How to Check Your Results
*Step 1: Go to University Main website through by url (www.nagpuruniversity.org/).
*Step 2: search for Results tab in university main website or search in notifications.
*Step 3: after you get the Results tab search for course or subject Result given and open it.
*Step 4: Download or save the given Results as it is in PDF or text format
Official website Links for Results
Official website: www.nagpuruniversity.org/
Results Main: >>Click here
Results BBA, BCA All Sem: >>Click here


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Desert Operations online registration. Play the game MiraMagiya online. Online game online MiraMagia
Desert Operations online registration. Play the game MiraMagiya online. Online game online MiraMagia
Online Games:
MMORPG Games Online:
Online game: Desert Operations
Alternative names: Desert Operations
Desert Operations is a browser-based online game, created in the style of modern military strategy that will not make anyone miss the computer. Join in the game Desert Operations is the first in what has to go to everyone who wishes to play this gameshow a detailed description of Play / Register
Videos and screenshots for the game Desert Operations
Play the same
American Samoa Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Australia Bahamas The Barbados Belize Bermuda Bhutan Botswana British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Cameroon Canada Cayman Islands Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Cook Islands Dominica Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Fiji Gambia The Ghana Gibraltar Grenada Guam Guernsey Guyana Hong Kong India Ireland Isle of Man Jamaica Jersey Kenya Kiribati Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Malta Marshall Islands Mauritius Montserrat Namibia Nauru Netherlands Antilles New Zealand Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Palau Papua New Guinea Philippines Pitcairn Puerto Rico Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Solomon Islands South Africa Suriname Swaziland Tanzania Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda United Kingdom United States United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges Vanuatu Virgin Islands Zambia Zimbabwe


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Sean gave Rick Reilly's column a thorough fisking earlier, but here's one more thing. Remember: The conceit is that these are Dennis Rodman's hypothetical reports from present-day global hot spots. Emphasis mine:
"This place is big, dude. And yet no P.F. Chang's. LOL!
"No, seriously, a lot of good dudes here. They were so friendly! They wanted me to see the China Cabinet, but I said, 'Dude, my mom made me paint her China cabinet once, so, nah, I'm good.'
"Kind of a weird place, though. They kept saying, 'Hu wants to meet you.'
"And I kept saying, 'I don't know, who?'
"And they kept saying, 'That's why you should meet him.'
"And I said, 'What?'
"And they said "No, Wat is his cousin."
"Anyway, cool people. Good wall builders."
Rick Reilly, making jokes about Dennis Rodman's cultural and geopolitical ignorance, seems to be implying that Hu Jintao is still Chinese president.
(Also, Wat is not a Chinese name.)


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Suvitcha Nativivat
Bangkok, Thailand
Class Year:
Prior Education:
LL.B., Chulalongkorn University
LL.B. (Hons.), University of London
B.B.A., Sukhothai Thammathirat University
What I Did Before Law School:
Upon graduation from my law school, I practiced corporate and commercial law in a law firm in Bangkok and worked as a law lecturer teaching international trade law at a university in Bangkok before I came to Penn Law.
Why I Chose Penn Law:
I have attended several schools and colleges—some had masses of students; some had few—and my experience was completely different in the school which had smaller class: I got to know everyone, I understood lessons better, and the relationship with the professors is more than being one of their one hundred students in the class. Other factors are chances to take business courses at Wharton (which I really did with joy) and enjoying the prestige of studying in one of the Ivy League schools.
My Best Experience at Penn Law:
Hanging out with my marvelous friends, enjoying the sun in Summer Program, thanksgiving dinner at my friend's house, parties (yeah, lots and lots of them).
Professor Who Influenced Me Most:
Tough question—because all of the professors here are nicer than you ever imagined before you came here and each has influenced me in some ways: Professor William Ewald with his calmness and kindness in teaching his class; Professor Michael Knoll with his creative and intriguing ways of teaching; and Professor William Burke-White with his brilliance, inspirations, and generosities when I asked for his help in my writing engagement (which has nothing to do with his class).
My Favorite Course:
Negotiations. Our school's negotiation curriculum and instructors are considered as one of the best negotiation classes in the States. This is a very fun, useful, and practical course that I think every human being should take. It exposed me to the new paradigm that will prevent (or lessen) unfortunate (and usually costly) experience to occur in my life.
My Favorite Philadelphia Moment:
Attending Philadelphia Orchestra concerts and ballets performed by the finest artists and musicians in the U.S., who happen to live in Philly and, surprisingly did not feel like falling asleep; Exploring Thai restaurants in Philadelphia to find the best Pad Thai, but, surprisingly again, found the best one in a Malaysian restaurant!
What I'm Most Proud Of:
I am most proud of being elected by my classmates to be the LLM Graduation Speaker.
My Extracurricular Activities at Penn Law:
Being the Vice President of the '07 LL.M. class offered me lots of opportunities to make things happen and contribute something to the small community I belong. Others are APALSA, Real Estate Club, and Boxing Club.
My Favorite Place or Activity on the University Campus:
Savoring Chicken Fajitas and a glass of beer at New Deck Tavern with my friends; Strolling on the Locust Walk in Winter; and dry cleaners (it always feels good when you don't have to do your own laundry once in a while).
Should I go to Penn Law or other schools?
I used to ask myself (and others) this question seriously in March 2006 (and here I am). The only thing I can tell you is that I never regret once.


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- 1
Traditional Japanese Matchmaker's High Success Rate
Most matchmaking services in the US or other western countries define their success based on the number of dates they have enabled. The number of dates is most likely used as a barometer of their success due to the fact that this will be a much higher number than the number of marriages. This higher number will be more effective in their marketing campaigns than a lower number. On the other end of the spectrum, the matchmaking industries in Japan count the number of couples that get married as a measure of their success. Obviously, it will take ...
- 2
MJL's Events in July 2017 were Big Success!!!
On July 1st and 2nd 2017, we had three events: Make Happy Babies Seminar for Female Members Finding Love Strategy Discussion for Female Members Only Meet and Greet in Tokyo for Our Male and Female Members Over 2 days we had 3 events and over 100 people attended. And the events gave participants a big boost in learning about marriage and relationships. 1. Make Happy Babies Seminar for Female Members: We invited a doctor who is an obstetrician and a gynecologist to speak. He is also a specialist of infertility treatments and the author of a book about Infertility. ...


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Date(s) - 02/16/2019
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Beads, Inc.
Our Open Basics Class covers all of the basic necessary techniques to make beautiful beaded jewelry. If you would like to brush up on your skills or you have never beaded before, we can help! Through crimping and wire-wrapping, you will learn the core basics of jewelry making, and you will leave with all the knowledge and power to make beautiful bracelets, necklaces and earrings. We guarantee it! In the class you will make a bracelet and a pair of earrings. The project is pre-selected. You do not need to bring any tools or supplies. If you wish to buy the set, it is $20, but you are not required to purchase.
This event is fully booked.


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Comparing the House and Senate federal budget proposals should make the decision a no-brainer. Do we want a $7 billion surplus per the Republican budget or a $566 billion deficit per the Democratic budget? This would be simple except that the American government is literally controlled by the "no brain" administration of President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Peggy Alley, Baltimore


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Gahhh, sorry that took so long; real life's been bad to me lately. I haven't finished all the answers yet; the rest are forthcoming.
I've only drawn the first three panels of my next comic so far, so don't expect it for a while...
CwDeici wrote:Darn, I'm tempted to give my questions to Kranic, but I'm not going to.
Cope wrote:
Cope wrote:
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