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Victoria is a specialist family law barrister with a practice in both children and financial remedies, and a particular interest in surrogacy law.
Victoria has a BA in Jurisprudence (Law with Law Studies in Europe) from Jesus College, Oxford University.
In 2019 Victoria was appointed as a Recorder. She will be deployed to sit in Family on the South Eastern Circuit. Victoria also sits as a fee-paid Judge of the First-tier Tribunal within the Special Educational Needs and Disability jurisdiction.
In 2014 Victoria was awarded a Pegasus Scholarship and undertook a placement at the Crown Law Office in Wellington, New Zealand. Victoria assisted with a wide range of work, including family cases.
For two terms following pupillage Victoria was the Court of Appeal Judicial Assistant to the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Justice Carnwath (as he then was).
Victoria has undertaken Advocacy and the Vulnerable training, delivered by Middle Temple.
Victoria is able to accept instructions directly from members of the public.
Victoria has considerable experience of care and placement order proceedings representing local authorities, parents, grandparents and children. She has acted in cases involving issues of alleged non-accidental injury, sexual abuse, physical abuse, mental health difficulties, and capacity to conduct the proceedings. Victoria has experience of forced marriage protection orders, secure accommodation orders/deprivation of liberty issues, designation disputes, and the steps that should be taken if a child is abducted whilst in the interim care of a local authority. Victoria regularly appears in public children law cases raising international issues including jurisdiction, and delivers seminars on International Aspects of Care Proceedings for MBL Seminars Limited.
Victoria regularly appears at all stages of private children law proceedings and has a particular interest in proceedings concerning removal of children from the jurisdiction, both on a temporary and permanent basis. Victoria has acted in relocation disputes involving Hague and non-Hague states, and has experience of representing clients in permanent relocation cases raising questions of mirror orders. Earlier in 2019 Victoria co-presented a webinar for Lexis Nexis on recent developments in private children law.
Victoria has a particular strength and specialism in surrogacy law, and appears in and advises upon applications for parental orders following surrogacy arrangements entered into abroad. Victoria has experience of parental order applications raising complicated domicile issues. Victoria co-authored a book 'Surrogacy: Law, Practice and Policy in England and Wales' published by Lexis Nexis in 2018. The book is cited in the Law Commission joint consultation paper 'Building families through surrogacy: a new law' published in June 2019. Victoria regularly presents surrogacy seminars, including a Masterclass on Parental Orders and Surrogacy Arrangements for MBL Seminars Limited. Victoria co-presented a webinar for Lexis Nexis on surrogacy issues in November 2018. Victoria is always pleased to assist and advise from an early stage in preparation for these complex applications.
Victoria appears in and advises upon financial remedy proceedings from first appointment to contested final hearing. Victoria has appeared in cases involving allegations of serious non-disclosure and conduct. Victoria has experience of advising upon variation, enforcement and maintenance pending suit applications. Victoria is also well-versed in applications brought under Schedule 1 Children Act 1989, and child maintenance matters.
Victoria has a keen interest in Court of Protection work, and has co-authored a text 'Dementia and the Law', published by Jordan Publishing in 2014.
Victoria represented the local authority in Re J (A Minor) [2016] EWHC 2595 (Fam), an application for a reporting restriction order following care proceedings. Hayden J decided that the mother should be prevented from speaking in the media about any aspect of 'gender dysphoria or gender identification' in so far as they related to the child.
Victoria appeared as a junior in the case of Birmingham City Council v D [2016] EWCOP 8 concerning deprivation of liberty in relation to 16 and 17 year olds who lack capacity.
'Surrogacy: Law, Practice and Policy in England and Wales' co-author; published by LexisNexis in 2018.
'Dementia and the Law' co-author; published by Jordan Publishing in 2014.
Victoria regularly writes case summaries published by Family Law Week.
Victoria enjoys art, cycling (she has twice completed the annual 100 mile Ride London course), cookery, and collecting second hand books.
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Want some positive blogger buzz about your product or service? Maybe you should just buy it like Bill Gates. To help promote the Zune and get some positive Microsoft buzz, Gates coughed up a dozen round trip plane tickets to Redmond, hotel rooms, and Zunes (of course) for a group of gadget and tech bloggers. He then hung out with the bloggers for an hour and answered one question from each of them. Once you factor in the total cost of this stunt, I wonder how much Gates paid per letter for a handful of blog posts?
So what did Microsoft get in return for all of this? Were the bloggers wooed by Bill's big wallet? Yep.
- Check out the tech-news search engine Techmeme.com. Today their homepage was practically a mural to anything related to Bill Gates, the Zune or Microsoft in general.
- While most reviewers are panning the Zune, blogs like TechCrunch [see post], Micro Persuasion [see post], and GigaOm [see post], are restricting their Zune coverage to DRM issues or posting "feel good" pieces about Microsoft.
Honestly, my criticalness against these other blogs is probably part jealously. Why wasn't MethodShop.com invited out to Redmond? Oh well, I'm an iPod guy anyway and we're too small of a blog to make much of a dent for M$. But I do give some of these bloggers credit. Most of them (not Ryan) were upfront and disclosed that Gates gave them free Zunes and paid for their flights out to Microsoft headquarters.
But on the other hand, should corporate blogs like Micro Persuasion and GigaOm, who have venture-capital financing and/or big name PR firms, really be accepting free stuff and sacrificing their objectivity?
How cheap are your personal ethics?

subset: commoncrawl


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Road Transport Systems: the essential component in Queensland's changing logistics industry
The face of logistics in Queensland and across Australia is changing with the times. With thriving markets for FMCGs, especially in the E-commerce sector, international logistics has become as important as domestic logistics to the country's economy.
But Queensland's logistics industry must integrate all of our air, sea and road transport systems into a smooth machine if we're going to meet our market demand—which means streamlining cartage and container transport between our ports and distribution centres. And while government and industry bodies are making plans to better use all of the country's transportation systems—especially sea freight—road transport is still the key component of our future networks.
The role of road transport is more important than ever: and it's well known that the broad experience of leaders in the sectoris fundamental to meeting the challenges of our changing industry. What's unexpected is how well road transport has adapted to transformations in our markets, and in just how many ways the expertise of road transport providers is benefiting Australia's businesses.
Road transport's evolution with the times
Queensland's ports are bursting at the seams these days, and it's widely understood that road transportation is the key to better integration of all the systems.
To streamline our international logistics systems and prevent congestion in our ports, we need efficient wharf cartage and container transport
which is something that the best road transport providers have been delivering for decades.
The broad experience of well-established road transport providers has turned out to be invaluable in the new global focus of the industry. While warehousing and inventory management has always gone hand in hand with road transportation, it's never been more evident that they've got more experience and deeper knowledge in navigating their customers through issues with customs clearance and shipping regulations, LCL and FCL shipments, and cartage between ports and distribution centres than their counterparts across sea and air ever knew about.
Over the last few decade or two, the industry has been changing fast, and road transport providers have had their finger on the pulse: before anyone knew which direction our markets were going to head in, they were negotiating the gamut of a newborn E-commerce market, and learning how to manage their customer's shipments under new conditions.
While import and export issue management has traditionally been the domain of air and sea systems at the points of departure, good road transport providers have been stepping up in recent times to improve distribution with better and more comprehensive strategies for shipping and cartage, and streamlining the supply chains of the many businesses that service our markets and support our economy.
How road transport helps our ports
A customer's shipments leaving or arriving at the ports is only a small part of the entire supply chain. Without an efficient road transport system, the goods can't be moved fast enough—which means a clagged-up port, and a sluggish pace fulfilment for the business. Getting containers moving in and out of our wharfs fasterand more efficiently is the only way to relieve the burden on our ports—and road transport is the key to achieving it.
Good road transport providers understand the ins and outs of wharf pickups and drop-offs. They can negotiate their way through the heavy restrictions of customs clearance, consolidating their clients' inventories into the safest, fastest, and most cost efficient configurations to help them successfully service their own customer bases. They can save their clients significant time and money, by using their industry insight into the customs regulations for importing and exporting to lower their risk and improve their reliability. And they'll also have the right tools and expertise to get the goods moving where they've got to go—even if it's to the far reaches of our country's regional centres.
It's true that the burden on the road transportation sector is getting heavier under the changing economic functions of the state and the country. But having the right road transport providers—those with the right experience and knowledge—operating through our ports could be the key to improving the overall function of the wider networks.
From wharf to South East Queensland, and to regional centres
The road transportation system is the backbone of our state and national economies. Road transport's long history of traversing the wide expanses of the country has resulted in services that are dependable, efficient, and sustainable, even under the new challenges of our modern markets and environmental concerns.
Good road transport providers understand the unique needs of Australian businesses. They understand how to navigate the many challenges of wharf cartage and container transport in Queensland, and how to achieve seamless integration between their partner transport systems to pave a smooth path for their clients' shipments to come in from or head off overseas.
G&D Partners have been servicing our state for decades, and we're up to the challenge of supporting Queensland's businesses in their international trade endeavours. We've got the skills and experience to deliver flawless logistics services from our ports to our regional centres, whether it's Brisbane to Mt Isa, Cloncurry, or Longreach.


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Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
Research area: Biological Anthropology
Email: email@example.com
My research on nonhuman primates addresses evolutionary questions about how organisms respond to changing environments, and how differences between individuals in these responses are linked to important life outcomes, including health, survival, and reproduction. This work aims not only to uncover important biological processes but ultimately to inform conservation planning. Primates are in the midst of a global extinction crisis that is driven by anthropogenic pressures. Increasingly, conservation biologists, land managers, and governing bodies must integrate complex environmental-change contingencies in their decision-making. To be successful, this task must be informed by integrative research on how individuals, groups, and populations are affected by different forms of environmental variability and change. My work employs a biodemographic perspective that investigates factors that determine mortality and fertility, draws links among these factors to health outcomes and life trajectories, and makes comparisons among these processes in humans to those in other organisms.
Most of my research has been carried out with natural primate populations, mainly white-faced capuchins in the Área de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica, where I maintain an active, field-based research program. Some of my current and ongoing research projects involve savannah baboons in the Amboseli ecosystem of East Africa, and I also do comparative, cross-species research by leveraging a database of primate life history data from several long-term field research sites.
Find out more about my research here: https://campos-lab.net.
Ph.D., University of Calgary, 2014
I am strongly committed to student education and mentorship. I have experience teaching not only in Biological Anthropology but also in Environmental Studies, which, like Anthropology, is field that embraces an interdisciplinary, holistic approach to understanding humanity's place in the natural world. I view teaching, mentorship, and research as synergistic activities that draw strength from each other, and consequently my teaching style emphasizes the integration of teaching with research through discussions, engagement with recent scientific literature, and problem-solving exercises. My foremost goals as an educator are to challenge and inspire students, and to prepare them for rewarding careers.
Prospective students: I plan to accept MA and PhD students to start in Fall 2019. I especially encourage applicants who are interested in carrying out research on wild nonhuman primates at the nexus of behavioral ecology, health, and the environment. Current topics of interest include: effects of climate variability on survival and reproduction; variation in early-life experience and its consequences; aging and biomarkers of health in the wild; climate change contingencies in primate conservation; responses to seasonal and inter-annual environmental stressors; and health and fitness consequences of the quality and quantity of social bonds.
Full list of publications: https://www.campos-lab.net/publication/
2020 – Campos FA, Kalbitzer U, Melin AD, Hogan JD, Cheves SE, Murillo-Chacon E, Guadamuz A, Myers MS, Schaffner CM, Jack KM, Aureli F, Fedigan LM. Differential impact of severe drought on infant mortaliy in two sympatric Neotropical primates. Royal Society Open Science.
2017 – Campos, FA, Morris, WF, Alberts, SC, Altmann, J, Brockman, DK, Cords, M, Pusey, A, Stoinski, TS, Strier, KB, Fedigan, LM. Does climate variability influence the demography of wild primates? Evidence from long-term life-history data in seven species. Global Change Biology, 23 (11).
2017 – Kalbitzer U, Bergstrom ML, Carnegie SD, Wikberg EC, Kawamura S, Campos FA, Jack KM, and Fedigan LM. Female sociality and sexual conflict shape offspring survival in a Neotropical primate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(8), 1892–1897.
2015 – Campos FA, Jack KM, and Fedigan LM. Climate oscillations and conservation measures regulate white-faced population growth and demography in a regenerating tropical dry forest in Costa Rica. Biological Conservation 186: 204–213.
2014 – Campos FA, Bergstrom ML, Childers A, Hogan JD, Jack KM, Melin AD, Mosdossy KN, Myers MS, Parr NA, Sargeant E, Schoof VAM, and Fedigan LM (2014). Drivers of home range characteristics across spatiotemporal scales in a neotropical primate, Cebus capucinus. Animal Behaviour 91: 93–109.
2014 – Campos FA and Fedigan LM. Spatial ecology of perceived predation risk and vigilance behavior in white-faced capuchins. Behavioral Ecology 25(3): 477– 486.
2013 – Campos FA and Jack KM. A potential distribution model and conservation plan for the critically endangered Ecuadorian capuchin, Cebus albifrons aequatorialis. International Journal of Primatology 34(5): 899-916.
2009 – Campos FA and Fedigan LM. Behavioral adaptations to heat stress and water scarcity in white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 138 (1): 101-111.
Main Office: MH 4.03.38
Department of Anthropology
University of Texas at San Antonio
College of Liberal and Fine Arts
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio, TX 78249-1644


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Pipe Dream of Living on a Cruise Ship is Now a Reality
Cruise Line & Cruise Ship Donald Wood March 16, 2015
It is the dream of many travelers who love cruise lines to live on one of the luxury ships, but that hasn't been a viable option for most tourists before. That is until now.
We previously brought you news that luxury cruise ship "The World" had brought veteran cruise executive Pam Conover onboard. In her new role, Conover will serve as president and CEO of a ship that claims to be the first and only residential community at sea for the 120 people who live there. The World is privately owned and is 644 feet long.
Residents who purchase an apartment on the ship are actual part owners of the vessel and can be part of the votes to determine the itineraries. As if waking up in new places every day wasn't intriguing enough for travelers, The World also features several restaurants, pools, bars and plenty of activities unique to the location of the port.
For example, residents will visit 104 ports over 77 days this year alone.
With only 165 residences on board the ship, per The World's official website, the exclusivity makes this a private retreat that will appeal to anyone looking to live in the lap of luxury. As anyone who has traveled at sea will tell you, though, the luxury doesn't come without a big price tag.
There are four types of rooms, including studios, studio apartments (one or two bedroom), two-bedroom apartments and three-bedroom apartments. The one-room studio apartments sell for over $1 million apiece and the high-end rooms can sell for $13 million.
The price is very steep, but it is worth it to many travelers who want to own a piece of a luxury cruise liner and help determine where its next journey takes the residents. If you can afford the luxury, there are few experiences like living on a cruise ship.
For more Cruise Line & Cruise Ship News
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Updated the old and outdated blur method to use the much more efficient dual kawase blur method.
Now with this we can do virtually infinite blur with very very little performance cost.
The dual kawase blur method is basically downscaling and upscaling an image, but combined with the kawase blur shader.
Comparison: https://i.imgur.com/mh6Cw61.png
Left is old, right is new.
Comparison was done with the strongest blur setting in a VM running on an Intel i7-4790 and a GTX980
We can see here that the performance is even better with this new method.
- Reviewers
fredrik graesslin
- Group Reviewers
Plasma KWin
- Commits
- R108:0179f741bbd4: Updated the blur method to use the more efficient dual kawase blur algorithm.
Updated the old and outdated blur method to use the much more efficient dual kawase blur method.
Diff Detail
- Repository
- R108 KWin
- Lint
Automatic diff as part of commit; lint not applicable.
- Unit
Automatic diff as part of commit; unit tests not applicable.
Added a new function to GLRenderTarget called setRenderTargets
With this function I implemented the changes suggested by @fredrik to remove unnecessary gl calls.
We achieve this by pushing all GLRenderTargets at once.
With one of my previous changes I accidentally introduced an extended blur effect.
Now it's corrected.
Is this still needed when qPow() is not used?
Okay, I see what you mean. I think this is a trade-off between two undesirable effects though, because the clamping causes abrupt changes near the edges of the blurred region when a window is moved. You can see this effect pretty clearly in the video you attached when the blur strength is set to strong. It really comes down to what you think is worse though.
But my concern here is that a fullscreen texture consumes at least 8 MB of VRAM with an HD monitor, and 32 MB with a 4K monitor.
I think it would be better to copy the framebuffer to m_renderTexture[0], and apply the clamping as a post-processing effect, using m_renderTexture[0] as both the source and destination, and targeting only the region outside the red rectangle for rendering. Using the same texture as both the source and destination is allowed in OpenGL when GL_ARB_texture_barrier or GL_NV_texture_barrier is supported, but unfortunately not in OpenGL ES.
The taskbar (and other panels) can be identified by calling EffectWindow::isDock().
It looks like that was added by Martin in 111db93e05a55496e7f13788207ead008bac80db.
The first letters in the enumerators should also be capitalized.
This assumes that s_renderTargets is empty when this function is called, which might not be the case.
Made the changes that were suggested by @fredrik
Now only the taskbar doesn't have the extended blur effect.
Now only the taskbar doesn't have the extended blur effect.
GL_ARB_texture_barrier is supported since OpenGL 4.4, but KWin uses 3.0
I guess it's an unpopular opinion, but it's "only" 8 MB and since cards these days have at least like 1 GB of VRAM it's not a big concern.
How do you suggest we handle this?
I'm working on a nicer solution with less magical numbers.
Updated the blur amount value configuration to use less magically numbers and added an explanation comment.
This new method creates an evenly distributed array of blur strength sampled from the minimum and maximum offset values per downsample iteration.
Thanks for the patience going through this! Some reviews do go through a lot of iterations, but it's generally worth it.
I gave it a quick test. Blur part works nicely.
Changing the blur size at runtime didn't seem to have an effect, it all worked after kwin restart.
Your code looks fine, I can see m_downSampleIterations getting updated, but clearly not everything. Can you check that please.
This exact problem is present in the old blur method as well.
In order to get around this problem (without restarting KWin of course) you have to interact with the blurred area, for example move a window near it, right click on it, etc. and it will be updated properly.
How do I force the windows to be updated?
I checked if I have these extensions. Just to make sure it works I included another extension I know my card supports.
qCDebug(KWINEFFECTS) << "NV_texture_barrier:" << hasGLExtension("NV_texture_barrier"); qCDebug(KWINEFFECTS) << "ARB_texture_barrier:" << hasGLExtension("ARB_texture_barrier"); qCDebug(KWINEFFECTS) << "GL_NV_texgen_reflection:" << hasGLExtension("GL_NV_texgen_reflection");
And the output:
kwineffects: NV_texture_barrier: false kwineffects: ARB_texture_barrier: false kwineffects: GL_NV_texgen_reflection: true
If this works so unreliably I don't think we should use this.
Ok I realize now that the extension name begins with GL_ and this is the reason it didn't find them.
The red arrow is where they should be but they aren't present.
So my point still stands.
Fixed a bug where updating the blur strength would not update the blurred area.
With this fix every window gets updated when the blur strength is reconfigured.
Moved a shader variable to a uniform, so that the calculation can be done on the CPU instead.
@fredrik, @mart , @davidedmundson can you give it a review please?
I think it really matured over the last week and is ready for testing.
I haven't looked at everything in detail, but in general I think this looks ready to land.
Just a couple of nitpicks, and a question below.
Nitpick, but it should be <cmath> and std::ceil() in C++.
The 3.1 backend can and does use some GL 4 extensions, but it must have a fallback path for when they are not available.
The NV prefix only tells you which vendor created the extension, not which vendors support it. The AMD drivers in Mesa have supported texture_barrier since 2011, and the i965 driver has supported it since 2015.
But as I said on IRC, don't worry about it if your driver doesn't support it. We can add a path that uses texture_barrier after this has landed.
Typo: iteratoin
Does calling effects->addRepaintFull() also work?
You could also check if s_renderTargets is empty, and just do s_renderTargets = targets when that's the case.
I'll push this for you (I'm interpreting Martin's resignation as withdrawing objections, knock on wood).
@anemeth The patch doesn't apply cleanly to current master. Would you mind rebasing it please? I don't want to introduce errors at this stage by editing code I didn't review.
Rebased to master.
There was a conflict with D9879
This change reverts those changes since it is superseded by this change because caching blur option has been
Why does this patch have unrelated changes? E.g. GLRenderTarget::attachTexture, GLRenderTarget::detachTexture, empty GLRenderTarget constructor, GLRenderTarget::setTextureDirty, etc? They aren't used anywhere.
This was not changed.
It was used by old blur and simple blur.
Looks like it's not used anymore.
This was used by simple blur, but that has been removed in D10181
I left it in in case something might use it in the future.
empty GLRenderTarget constructor
Also was used by simple blur.
I added this because on line (1101 <---> 1124) the disable() function that also sets the texture dirty was moved into a condition.
I don't know where the dirty parameter is used or checked, I didn't go look that far into it.
For functions that are not used feel free to create a patch that removes them.
It does nothing pretty much. https://github.com/KDE/kwin/blob/master/libkwineffects/kwingltexture.cpp#L569
For functions that are not used feel free to create a patch that removes them.
No, I just asked why you added those changes, that's all. :)
Also, I'm not a KWin developer so that's not up to me to decide whether they should be removed. ;-)


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Delicious Occasions
Claire makes stunning, hand-crafted cakes that taste even better than they look (I know hard to imagine). She also runs fab workshops on everything from Flawless Finish to Wired Sugar Flowers
Growing up in Yorkshire with a mother who was the president of her local WI, cakes and baking were always going to be a significant pastime in Claire's household. Sum up her style in a word? Passionate. It all stems from fond memories sat on the kitchen side watching her mother create the masterpiece that was going to make her the envy of all her friends on her birthday. Basically, being bonkers about baking has grown in Claire her whole life.
As an adult Claire always worked with food so, with that background, and her irrepressible love of design, the natural next step was to start up Delicious Occasions, creating handmade bespoke cakes for all occasions. Whether it's your other half's favourite car, or your kiddie's favourite toy, she can magic up virtually anything you want for your celebration. These masterpieces are all about the personal touch and giving someone a cake you simply cannot buy from the shelf.
Better still, she's now running classes at her small and perfectly formed studio in Horsmonden, set in the beautiful Kent countryside with stunning views. It's a really relaxed environment for people to go and learn a new cake skill. Her main passion and skill is in sugar flowers (have you seen this image, above? How clever/realistic/exquisite are those?) Claire promises that, no matter what your baking skills are, anybody can make them – they just need a patient tutor! So check out her upcoming courses if you want to learn an awesome new skill, and seriously impress your friends/family/other mums at the school gates!
07912 370 576


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Terra Cotta Pot DIY
A recent fun DIY I did with my sister!
Recently I found some super cute terra cotta plants on sale for $0.79 at Walmart. Since they were brown and really plain, my sister and I decided to show them a little love! I mean for a cheap price, you can go DIY crazy with it! So why not?!
PLUS, this would be a fun craft to do while you're on spring break!! Go get your supplies!!!
Scroll Down to see how we spruced up these boring ol' terra cotta pots into something fresh and fun!
First off, we started by gathering our supplies. Which consisted of paints, chalk markers, brushes, all the artsy stuff! Of course the terra cotta pot, and then we purchased fake plants such as succulents and cacti to transfer over to our DIY pots, because let's be real, I'm bad about killing plants LOL! This girl doesn't have much of a green thumb. :'D
Next, ya know ya have to Pinterest things up. So, we got some inspo from some lovely accounts and started our project!
This is the part where you get creative. I painted some fun geometric designs on one, while my sister did an adorable little pineapple! This is where you can bring out your inner you! (Or your inner Pinterest haha!) Just have fun with it! ;)
Tip: Make it match your room! I have pastels in my room, therefore I painted mine light colors with baby pinks and blues!
When our pots were all dry, the SUPER fun part came! This is where you pot your plants, (or if you're like me, you pot your Styrofoam and plastic LOL) glue some pretty rocks and burlap twine around the edge and finish it up!
And viola! You have adorable personalized little potted plants! These honestly make me smile every time I look at them because of the fun I had making them, and they just look sa'cute in me and my sister's room! :P
If you recreate any of these or try this out, tag me in social media and send me photos! I'd love to see what you do your pots! Have fun DIY-ing!
God Bless!
Keep Smiling,
rosepetalsandfaith <3


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On the table. Recently cut into pieces and then stitched back up, I was officially in shock. Well, what do they expect is going to happen? They take all the critical parts of your body out, repair them, stick them back in. Nothing is working and everything hurts and I do mean everything, including parts that you weren't aware were even in your body.
Doctors are incapable of admitting they cause actual pain.
"Pain" is what you felt before they got you on the table and repair you. Post-surgery, it's called "surgical discomfort," a thing that often requires massive amounts of ingested drugs, but is not "real" pain because they caused it.
So I was in shock, which happens when you are hit by a tsunami of post-surgical discomfort. I was also not entirely awake, not in any sense of the word which I understand. I'm told my dark side rose from my recumbent body and I tried to take down the nurse. With my fists.
The better part of valor parlayed and voted to put me back into a chemically induced coma.
Yup. Shock.
It sure was.


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Beach Fossils are back in DFW with a FREE show at the Lexus Box Garden at Legacy Hall!
Local homies Hall Johnson are opening the show!
Don't miss Brooklyn invading Plano for this sure to be epic show!
The long-awaited return of Brooklyn's Beach Fossils, Somersault showcases a band in bloom. Charting into new musical territory with a refined songwriting style, it's an album that captures flashes of life in New York grounded in personal experience.
The band's self-titled 2010 debut established a sound that was both minimal and enveloping. With Somersault, the group's first release since 2013's Clash the Truth, Beach Fossils have channeled years of experimentation into expansion and reinvention. Augmented with more complex instrumentation, including string arrangements, piano, harpsichord, flute, and sax, the new songs offer multi-layered pop guided by sharp, poignant, and honest lyrics.
As the band's first release on Dustin Payseur's new label Bayonet Records, which he co-owns with wife Kate Garcia—the group made the most of their newfound independence, investing ample time in expanding its range both musically and lyrically. While Payseur handled the bulk of the songwriting duties in the past, Somersault is a true collaboration between the founding member and bandmates, Jack Doyle Smith and Tommy Davidson. The new songs speak to a more fluid, eclectic sound, filled with lush compositions formed by studio experiments and sam-pling of the band's own recordings.
Orchestral pop gem "Saint Ivy" shines with plucked strings, buoyant basslines and a propulsive, wayward, guitar. "Tangerine," a driving, tightly wound melody, rushes forward and briefly leaves the ground due to the gossamer guest vocals of Slowdive's Rachel Goswell. The effervescent "Rise," which hinges on the spoken word of Gavin Mays (Cities Aviv) discussing a failed rela-tionship, hangs, like many recent breakups, in a sense of suspension. The cloudy, wistful "Soci-al Jetlag," bustling with samples of crowded streets, features the type of candid, off-the-cuff lyr-ics that make the entire effort immediately illuminating.
Recorded at multiple studios across New York City, a cabin in upstate New York, and even Los Angeles (including the home studio of Jonathan Rado of Foxygen, who helped engineer part of the album), Somersault turns the newfound chemistry between the trio into a sonic tapestry. Due to the variety of sessions and recording locations, the album was a Frankenstein-like series of reworking and reimagining songs. As the group pieced together different parts in a cycle of creation and cooption, and built out more elaborate songs track by track, the process became more reminiscent of a record created via sampling and arranging than one built by simply grind-ing out riffs. The long-simmering album, filled with breezy music both melancholic and uplifting, sees the band channeling their voices and honing their craft.
Flowing between shimmering compositions and immersive soundscapes, Somersault evokes the laid-back mood of a warm, breezy city night, the air crackling with humidity and excitement. These songs pulse and pull, capturing a blend of promise and heartache. It's beautiful and lay-ered, a refined, sweeping creation that threads together numerous styles, textures, and themes into a refreshing, singular vision.
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WASHINGTON — Former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis is running for Congress.
Early Monday morning, Davis announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination in Central Texas' 21st District. She is challenging U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a freshman Republican from Austin.
She made her intentions known in a biographical video, narrated in part with archival footage from her late father, Jerry Russell.
"I'm running for Congress because people's voices are still being silenced," she said. "I'm running for our children and grandchildren, so they can live and love and fight for change themselves."
Read more here: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/22/wendy-davis-congress-against-chip-roy/?fbclid=IwAR1Jk9N7aYQ2xSvjnLoMzIrtiA9t8boGtpMDDcoYk7haOP85xxKOn8PQnRQ


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Advancing Basic Science for Humanity
Recent News
06/11/2019 - Dark Matter is Back
By Adam Hadhazy
Background image: Artist's concept of the Milky Way Galaxy. Credit: NASA JPL
Case in point: Just a few years ago, in 2015, one of the most promising trails on dark matter seemingly went cold. Using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, researchers had noticed that the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is inexplicably bright in gamma rays, the most energetic form of light. A tantalizingly plausible reason why? Dark matter, according to theory, could interact with itself in such a way that it would produce normal matter, which would then decay into gamma rays—presto.
Their hopes up, researchers attempted to rule out other, more mundane sources for the excess energy. Alas, further observations instead ruled in run-of-the-mill pulsars—the dense, radiation-spewing remnants of once-mighty stars—as the likely wellspring of the gamma ray glow.
Rebecca Leane and Professor Tracy Slatyer
Not so fast, though. Thanks to recent efforts by Rebecca Leane, a theoretical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a member of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI), the cold case has been reopened. "Dark matter is back in the game!" says Leane.
A study she conducted with fellow MKI member and assistant professor of physics, Tracy Slatyer, suggests that the 2015 analyses overly credit pulsars for the core's extra energy, even in the presence of substantial amounts of dark matter. In other words, even if dark matter were there, the previously taken approach would fail to discover it.
"Our finding shows that because we really don't understand well enough how everything else—the visible matter—behaves in the center of our galaxy, you could come to the potentially wrong conclusion that dark matter isn't powering the excess, even if it really were," says Leane. "This means that dark matter annihilation could potentially explain the long-standing mysterious excess of bright energetic light at the center of our galaxy, after all."
To arrive at this conclusion, Leane and Slatyer first built a model Milky Way. Into this computer-simulated version of our galaxy went the known cosmic ingredients of stars and gas, along with the pulsars already on record in the Milky Way's center. The MKI researchers then tweaked the recipe to include additional, unknown pulsars, as well as varying amounts of dark matter.
Subjecting the virtual Milky Way to the same sort of analyses done in 2015 that ixnayed dark matter revealed those analyses' limitations. The excess gamma rays kept being attributed to pulsars, even when the researchers intentionally plugged in a hypothetical dark matter signal. Furthermore, including that signal alongside vast, little-understood structures known as Fermi bubbles—great balloons of gamma ray-spewing plasma extending above and below the Milky Way's disk, which Slatyer helped uncover back in 2010—threw off the results, again chalking up the excess to pulsars without giving the simulated dark matter any potential due.
"If there is no dark matter in the conclusion of the analysis, even though you simulated it, something has gone wrong," says Leane. "This is what we find."
To be clear, the new results do not provide fresh evidence of dark matter actually being present in the Milky Way, Leane explains. "We've just brought into question one of the key pieces of evidence that was against dark matter," she says.
To attempt to solve the riddle, new ground-based radio telescopes should be able to spot any additional pulsars, beyond Fermi's capabilities, thus potentially (and finally) linking the excess gamma ray glow to prosaic objects. Theorists, meanwhile, will continue to develop their models to seek accordance with fresh observations and help nail down the happenings in the central Milky Way.
Should the pulsar angle not pan out, it's conceivable that scientists have already captured the long-sought sign of dark matter. "The question of the nature of dark matter is one of the most pressing open questions of modern physics," says Leane, "and this could potentially be our first discovery of interactions of dark matter with visible matter."
In a nice bit of cross-Kavli-institute synergy, the original concept of the gamma ray glow being due to dark matter was cooked up in part by Dan Hooper of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics (KICP) at the University of Chicago. It would prove quite the coup if that idea ultimately proved correct.
"If this really a dark matter signal," Leane continues, "it would impact everything about our understanding of the universe as we know it.


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On-Going Campaigns & Outreach
(Please pardon construction. We're crafting copy worthy of our amazing actions and allies!)
Short blurb on range of ways to be involved (actions, events, campaigns)
3.5% statistic blurb and the importance of continual outreach to building mass movements
On-Going Campaigns & Outreach:
Click on accordion section to open and learn more:
Help get the word out
If you know a group that would be interested in attending XR events or partnering with us, please hand out event information. The following links lead to downloadable flyers, which are pre-formatted to print four-to-a-page. (sample at right)
To talk with XR about partnering on events and activities, please reach out to 'contact at xrchicago.org' .
Paint the Streets
Paint the Streets
. Sept 23 +
Join XR in #PaintTheStreets* — an ongoing and international effort to build participation in the Extinction Rebellion and support XR's demand for meaningful and just action on the climate crisis.
Use XR Chicago's
print at home poster kit
Put them up around town on telephone posts, construction fences, coffee shop bulletin boards, in shop and home windows etc. using tape, a staple gun, wheatpaste etc. More designs from XR international here.
share your own art
to be on an XR poster.
Just add to this open-access folder and we'll slot it into our template with XR's info so we keep a consistent look city-wide. The best work may get shared with XR international! We encourage you to get inspiration from the many art resources on XR international's website, including XR's color palette.
Use XR's starter
stencil or share your own.
Find stencil resources in the XR print at home poster kit. We recommend using a sharp x-acto and old wallpaper or transparent vellum to make stencils (print design and put underneath). Use spray chalk if you want to avoid law-breaking.* More designs here.
Put up stickers!
Get some at our meetings, actions or other events by finding Art Coordinators Jenny or Annie. Or make your own!
Stay tuned for an upcoming screen printing workshop for bigger posters, which can be wheat-pasted or slotted into bus stop advertisements.
Do your own thing!
Anyone is allowed and encouraged to act under the XR banner, as long as you are NON-VIOLENT and adhere to XR's 10 principles and in service of our 4 demands. Check out the open-access inspiration folder and follow #PaintTheStreets to see what others have contributed worldwide!
When you put up a poster, stencil, sticker or something we haven't dreamed up yet, share it on social media at @xrchicago and use (and follow!) the hashtags #PaintTheStreets #XRChicago and #ExtinctionRebellion. You can also tag us in an Instagram story and we'll repost!
Get more involved in organizing for XR.
Let us know your interest in joining the Art Working Group by replying to email@example.com with your interest.
How to wheat paste
If you're interested in getting involved or know a group that would be interested in learning more, we'd love to elaborate on our approach, agenda, and welcome new members and collaborators into the fold.
To see about scheduling a talk please reach out to 'contact at xrchicago.org' .


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Secrets and Satin
Barnes & Noble
MacKenzie Security Series Book 3
No one knows heartbreak like Jade Jax. After losing her husband to a tragic death, she doesn't believe love can happen twice. But after years of living a half-life without her husband, her body starts to waken again, and needs she'd forgotten come to the surface.
Max Devlin never thought Jade would want him outside of his dreams, but fate plays a helping hand when they're thrust into a high stakes mission, protecting each other's backs like old times. Max decides he's finally ready to end his bachelor ways, but he learns quickly that happily-ever-after isn't always possible. Because Jade has no desire to ever love again. Not when she knows how painful it can be.
Present Day
"I'm on the roof," Max said. "You've got to be my eyes."
"I've got you in my sights," Elena Nayal said through the tiny bud in his ear. "You've got about a minute and a half until the two Secret Service agents make their way back around the house next door. Otherwise you're clear."
"Plenty of time."
His rubber-soled shoes helped him keep traction as he slid down the sharply pitched roof to the small window on the top floor. Black gloves kept his fingers from being torn to shreds, and the black mask over his face and the matching clothes helped him blend in with the night.
The climb up the side of the Dallas mansion had been the hardest part—not to mention a former president lived in the house next door, and on a night like this, where unfamiliar cars and people lined the street, security was at a peak.
The climb had tested his strength and endurance ten fold, and he was glad he'd pushed himself so hard through rehab. Even now, his leg was aching and he'd had to stop for a few seconds to catch his breath once he'd reached the top.
His feet touched on the tiny lip that jutted from the edge of the roof, and he lowered himself down until his hands had a good grasp on the ledge. His muscles bunched and strained and sweat dripped from his temple from the relentless summer heat. He lowered himself inches at a time and then dropped the rest of the way to the balcony. He landed silently and then took the tools from the zippered pocket of his pants.
"Forty-five seconds," Elena said.
"I've got a visual on the senator," Cade MacKenzie said. "He's dancing with a woman who has a face like a hatchet and a diamond the size of a quail egg on her finger."
Cade was the oldest MacKenzie—there being five in all—and once upon a time, Cade had been one of Max's best DEA agents. At least before the del Fuego cartel had killed Cade's lover right in front of him. Cade had left the DEA and moved to Texas, which was where he'd met the love of his life and settled down to a nice, normal life, where they had a house in a busy neighborhood, a toddler, and another baby on the way. Or at least it was normal if you ignored Cade's highly trained intuition and the ability to protect and defend—no matter what it took.
He and Cade had slipped back into their old routine as if they'd never been separated, and the change he'd made in his life over the past year had felt good. Damned good.
"That would be Martha Sandusky," Max said, taking a slim tool and using it to unlatch the window. "She's the wife of one of Senator Henry's biggest donors." The latch gave and Max slid the window up and slipped inside. "I'm in," he said.
"Just in time," Elena said, her voice soft and slightly accented.
Elena had been adopted by the MacKenzie clan over the past year—much like Max and Jade and a few other team members. Once the MacKenzies decided to bring you into the family fold, there was no point in fighting it. Family was everything. You could always trust family and you knew they'd always have your back. Max had often wished he'd been born a MacKenzie instead of one of the Boston Devlins.
They'd met Elena in Mexico when their team had gone to wipe out the del Fuego cartel once and for all. Elena had been caught in the crosshairs and she'd been kidnapped, beaten and raped repeatedly before Alexander Ramos's men tossed her aside like garbage. She'd survived, and every day was a struggle, but she was a fighter.
Declan MacKenzie had talked her into coming to America and taking the job with Max and Cade in the Texas office of MacKenzie Security. Dec had promised her they'd train her how to fight—how to protect herself no matter what the cost—and he'd promised they'd hunt down every last member of the cartel that had touched her. It had been enough to convince her. And Dec had come through on his promises. There was nothing left of the del Fuego cartel.
Elena had been quiet at first—wary of the men she worked with—and she had a look in her eye that all but broke your heart. But Cade's wife, Bayleigh, had befriended her and had done a lot to help her heal. Therapy and the training she was promised had done more, though she still had a long way to go. Now it felt like Elena had always been there, keeping the office running smoothly and doing the occasional field work when they needed her.
He looked around the small guest bedroom and noticed a few items of clothing and a jewelry case open on the dresser. One of the guests from the party must be staying overnight.
Max stripped off his gloves, pants and shirt, revealing his tuxedo below, and then he peeled off the thick rubber soles on the bottom of his dress shoes. He carried everything into the bathroom and dumped them in the clothes hamper, and then remembered the ski mask and tossed it in as well.
He checked himself in the mirror, making sure the putty he'd used to disguise himself was still in place. His nose was a little longer and his jaw softer. Dark brown contacts covered his normal blue. He straightened his tie and smoothed back the dark wig. He'd let his own hair grow out since the accident, so it was just long enough to pull into a tail at the nape of his neck, and it covered the ridge of scar tissue in the side of his head quite nicely. But for now it was all tucked under the protective cap. Not even his own family would recognize him.
"The senator is moving to the game room," Cade said. "Looks like he's settling in for a round of poker. Bayleigh's going to be mad she missed this. There are almost as many celebrities here as politicians."
Max grunted and opened the bedroom door, looking out into the hallway. Music and the muted sounds of laughter could be heard from the first floor, and he quickly left the bedroom and headed towards the back stairway that was reserved for family.
The halls were deserted and he walked boldly through the second floor family wing towards the senator's office. He tested the doorknob and found it locked, so he used the lock pick tools he'd placed in the inside pockets of his jacket.
"Man, I'm good," he said as the lock snicked and the doorknob turned beneath his hand.
"That's not what I've heard." Cade said. "There was a lovely story about you in the Enquirer last week. Something about Agent Danger and how he should be called Minute Max instead."
"Fuck off, MacKenzie. I'm going to tell your wife you're reading tabloids instead of building those shelves she wants for the baby's room."
As far as the public knew, Max was an ex-DEA agent who was disgruntled with the government after receiving a life threatening injury, and he'd gone back to his wealthy roots like the prodigal son, though his family had been less than happy to welcome him into the fold. No one but a select few knew he'd taken a job with MacKenzie Security—a government funded private firm that was so top secret only a few in power knew of its existence.
It had been Declan MacKenzie's brainchild for the past several years, and he'd been the one with the connections to make it happen. Declan was an interesting man—a secretive man—and whatever he'd done for the CIA had garnered him respect from everyone who'd ever heard his name. Max had worked with him on occasion, and he knew he was a brilliant strategist and an agent who could get the job done. It hadn't taken a lot of convincing for Max to resign as Special Agent in Charge of the DEA and go to work for MacKenzie Security.
Being shot in the head by Alexander Ramos was the best thing that could have happened to him—though it hadn't seemed like it at the time. Society thought Max was spending his days as a playboy, living off his trust fund and going through as much of his family money as possible on anything from cars to real estate to questionable investments. Even his family thought that's what he spent his time doing.
And yes, the tabloids had started calling him Agent Danger—which gave those he worked with unending amusement and ammunition. It didn't matter that he'd never slept with any of the women they'd interviewed or done half the things he'd been accused of. The important thing was that people believed the illusion he presented.
"What kind of language is that?" Cade said. "You're famous now, Agent Danger—like a superhero. You've got to set a good example. Maybe you need a mask. Or some little tights."
"Or maybe I need to kick your ass. It's been a while since you and I stepped into the ring. I think it's time for a rematch."
"Hell, no," Cade said. "Last time I sparred with you, Bayleigh made me sleep on the couch because she couldn't sleep with all the groans. You have an unfair advantage. I still think you cracked one of my ribs."
"Nah, you're just a pussy."
Max did have an unfair advantage in the ring since he'd had MMA training, but Cade made up for the lack of training by fighting dirty. Max had almost as many bruises as Cade, but it had been fun. He locked the office door behind him and went over to the thin laptop on the desk.
"You read me, Elena?"
"I'm here," she said. "I didn't want to interfere with your male bonding time. Go ahead and open it. You'll need to put the device in the USB port, and then I can run it from here."
Max opened up the laptop and watched the screen flicker on. It was password protected, but Elena could get around that. It hadn't taken them very long at all to notice she excelled in technology, and Dec had made sure she'd gotten the extra training she needed for situations just like this one.
Davis Henry was a member of the Senate Defense Committee, and there were enough leaks coming from that office to sink a ship. Too many of the United States' enemies knew too much, and it couldn't be a coincidence any longer. It was a mess the government didn't want to dirty their hands with because Henry held a lot of power, and where there was power, there was money. Always the bottom line when it came to the government. And when the government didn't want to dirty their hands, they called MacKenzie Security.
Their mission was to get into the senator's personal files where they suspected he kept records of what he was selling and to whom. As of yet, they hadn't found a money trail, but it would only be a matter of time.
"This champagne is terrible," Cade said. "You'd think they could bring out the good stuff for five-thousand dollars a plate."
"It must be terrible to rub elbows with the rich and famous while some of us are sweating our asses off in the car," Elena said, her accent thickening with irritation.
"Well, when you put it that way—"
"Could we pretend we're on a mission here?" Max interrupted. "The device is in the USB. Get me the password, Elena."
Numbers scrambled across the screen before he finished the sentence, and one by one the numbers turned into letters until the password was revealed. The screen went black and then the desktop flickered on.
"Go ahead and put the flash drive into the other USB," Elena said. "We're just going to download his entire hard drive, and then I can sort it all out back at the office on our own computers. He's got several encrypted files that are going to take some time."
"Uh, oh," Cade said. "Looks like the senator had a shitty hand. He's headed out of the game room and making his way towards the center stairs."
Max looked up at the door to make sure it was locked and he willed the computer to hurry. He got up and looked around the office. It was bigger than most people's living rooms. Floor to ceiling bookshelves were lined up across the wall at his back and a small sitting area sat directly across the room from his massive oak desk. An ugly painting hung on the wall over the sitting area, and it was so obviously a wall safe Max wondered why the senator even bothered to hide it. If he had more time he'd look inside and see if the senator kept hard copies of his records or a journal.
"He's heading up the stairs," Cade said.
Max went back to the computer to check the progress and did a quick search through the desk drawers while he was waiting. His hands were steady and his search methodical.
"Can you stall him?" Max asked.
"Not without jumping over all these people and making a fool out of myself. My other options are to shoot him in the arm or throw a glass of champagne at his head."
"Maybe you should just stay where you are," Max said dryly. He quickly flipped through a stack of loose papers in the top drawer but didn't find anything of consequence. He closed it softly and opened the next drawer. There was still two minutes until the download was complete.
"Wait a minute," Cade said. "It looks like the governor has a bone to pick with Senator Henry. Neither of them looks very happy."
"Not surprising. They hate each other's guts. The governor is a moron but he has impeccable timing. I just need one more minute."
Max finished looking through the drawers and started on the bookshelves. More than one person had the thought that the best hiding places were those in plain sight.
"It looks like the Secretary of Defense needs an urgent word with Henry as well," Cade said. "The governor has walked off in a huff, and now Henry and the Secretary are headed back down the stairs in a hurry. Something must be wrong."
"Not our problem," Max said.
"It's clear," Elena said. "You can remove the device and shut down."
"Something's going on down here, Max," Cade said. "You should probably hurry. Some kind of political powwow is happening in one of the alcoves. I don't think you'll be surprised to know that every one of them are on our suspected list."
"Elena," Max said. "There's no chance our signal was picked up?"
"No, I would have gotten an alert if there was someone else monitoring the system."
Max grunted and shut down the computer, closing the lid and placing it exactly how he'd found it on the senator's desk. He pocketed the flash drive and the nifty device Elena had given him to transfer the signal from over a mile away, wiped down the surfaces he'd touched, and headed back to the door.
He listened carefully for anyone out in the hallway and then slowly cracked the door open. The hall was clear and he stepped out of the office and made sure the door locked behind him. He straightened his bowtie and then headed for the stairs.
He almost made it.
"Hey! You there," a man's voice called from behind him. "Stop where you are."
Max turned and gave the guard a superior look. Another guard joined him, and Max swore silently as he saw the guard was already talking into his headset to alert security. Max shoved his hands in his pockets casually and adopted a bored expression, not looking like a man who'd just stolen national security files from the senator's computer.
"Are you talking to me?" he asked.
The guard came closer until he was standing just in front of Max. The stairs leading down to the party on the first floor were more than a dozen feet away.
"The senator's office is off limits to guests."
"I wasn't in the senator's office." Max picked at invisible lint on his sleeve and then gave the guard a sheepish look. "I was in that room right there," he said, pointing to the door next to the office. "A lady friend and I had a—meeting. She's familiar with the house and told me where to meet her. But I'd prefer that not get out. Her husband might not like it."
"You're going to need to come with us, sir," the guard said, pointing towards the way Max had originally come—back to the family wing. "Do you have your invitation?"
Max let out an audible sigh and started walking. He stayed relaxed when the other guard flanked him. "I don't think you know who I am," he said indignantly. "I'm not going to be treated like a common criminal in the senator's home."
Max heard footsteps pounding up the back stairway and knew he had to make his move quickly. His foot lashed out and kicked the guard on his right at the side of the knee. A sickening crack sounded and Max covered the guard's mouth with his hand so his scream couldn't be heard over the party below. Max touched the pressure point in the guard's neck and let him fall unconscious to the ground.
The other guard reached for his weapon, and Max grabbed his wrist, twisting it so the bone broke and the gun fell from his useless grasp. He gave him a short punch to the jaw, and the guard crumpled on top of the other one.
"I need a distraction," he said, running towards the stairs at the front of the house.
"I'm on it," Cade said.
An enormous crash sounded below, and Max heard a few screams from the women in the crowd as champagne glasses filled to the rims crashed to the marble floor and splashed their dresses. Cade had come through, and Senator Henry was apologizing to his guests while berating the poor server Cade had tripped.
Max walked at a sedate pace down the wide center stairs at the front of the house as several people moved to stand there while they waited for the mess to be cleaned up. He caught the sight of Cade from the corner of his eye, and he ignored the shouts from upstairs where he'd left the guards. Cade bumped against him in the crowd and Max slipped the flash drive into Cade's pocket before Cade moved on through the throng of people. The front door was only steps away and people were starting to panic from the unknown shouts and the sudden swarm of security everywhere.
"There he is!" Someone yelled from behind him. "Stop him!" He didn't turn around to see who had said it. His training kicked in, and the only thing he worried about was blending. Making himself invisible. None of the people around him could tell who the guards were pointing to.
"I've got an alternative pick up en route," Elena said. "I just got word from Declan about half an hour ago that he's in town and we have extra men. I'm trapped behind a limo. Head east towards the next cross street and they'll meet you there."
Indignant shouts of partygoers echoed in his ears as guards shoved their way through the crowd, and Max slipped out the front door and down the garden path. The front gardens were lush and the fragrant scent of roses reminded him of his grandmother—overpowering and slightly stifling. Each of the estates in the exclusive neighborhood sat on an acre of property that was tree lined and picturesque. Only people with a lot of money could force their lawns to be that green in a Texas summer.
The air was stagnant and smothering and the humidity so thick it felt like breathing water, so the only people outdoors were parking attendants. Max was halfway down the arched driveway before security guards swarmed from each side of the house. He couldn't fight all of them, and he didn't want to kill anyone. They were only doing their jobs. But he knew they wouldn't have any compunction about using their weapons on him, and damned if he felt like taking another bullet anytime soon.
He ran. It was all he could do, and he hoped to God the pick up team was waiting where Elena had said it would be. Yells came from behind him, but he focused on the trees to the east and to the street he knew would be on the opposite side.
The loud crack of a gunshot sounded like it was right next to his ear, and the bark on the tree in front of him exploded, sending tiny shards of wood into his face and neck. Blood ran into his eye and his leg ached as he pushed himself harder and harder. He weaved in and out of the trees, in no particular pattern, making himself a smaller target, but the gunshots didn't stop and if anything, they sounded closer.
He ran out of the cover of trees and straight into the open residential street in front of him. If his driver wasn't there, he was screwed. He heard the squeal of tires before he saw the tiny silver car turn the corner and drive straight toward him. He kept running as the driver's side window opened and a slim hand appeared, holding a semiautomatic handgun.
Shots from the car were fired rapidly as the driver laid down cover for him, and he heard a couple of grunts from too close behind him as the bullets found their target. The driver turned the wheel at the last possible second and the passenger door flung open. Max jumped inside, and the car was speeding back down the street from the direction it had come from before he was able to get the door closed.
"Thanks for the ride," he said.
Jade looked at him out of unreadable green eyes. "It just so happened I was in the neighborhood


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Daljiet Kaur to enter 'Guddan Tumse Na Ho Payega' leading to a Love Triangle
The show is all set to enable new twists with this new entry...
Zee TV's Guddan: Tumse Na Ho Payega continues to be a surprise factor with every passing week and it continues to rake in encouraging numbers too. To keep things interesting in the upcoming track too, the show is all set to enable a new entry.
None other than actress Daljiet Kaur will be entering the show where she will be paired opposite the lead, Nishant Malkani thus facilitating a love triangle between Nishant, Daljiet and Kanika's characters.
Daljiet is best known for her roles in shows like Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon and Kaala Teeka among others.
As known, Guddan... is a story of 20-year old who becomes India's youngest mother-in-law and how she shows how anyone can do anything if they try. The show is produced by Ved Raj's Shoonya Square Productions.
Are you excited to see Daljiet in a new avatar? Leave in your comments below...


text: tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723053928055808211.post400915706174666755..comments2020-08-04T11:07:32.856-07:00Comments on Finding Count St.Germain: Part 2 - Count Saint Germain podcastJessiehttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723053928055808211.post-85389822341917214422017-09-20T16:27:25.857-07:002017-09-20T16:27:25.857-07:00I just got done listening to all three parts of th...I just got done listening to all three parts of this podcast. I had never heard of the Count before this and I am totally fascinated. Thanks for your contribution to the podcast - I was blown away by how well you have researched this topic. Thanks for giving me a new obsession. thomasJamohttps://email@example.com


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How can Blockchain support materials traceability, life cycle management, and supply chain transparency?
The distributed ledger technology blockchain, popularized by the success of the cryptocurrency bitcoin, is among the hottest topics of the year. Some believe that this nascent technology will have a far greater impact than the Internet, with wide-ranging consequences on the way data is shared and exchanged between distributed organizations. However, the exploration of blockchain technology and its successful application to solve real-world business problems is still in the early stages.
In his keynote speech, Joerg Walden will look behind this trending buzzword and detail how blockchain can be turned into a value-creating and trust-increasing business reality. He will discuss how distributed ledger technology can support companies in providing accessibility, verification, and validation concerning the origin of materials and goods, the digital and physical lifecycle of a product, and the production systems and sources that supply the goods. Furthermore, he will highlight limitations as well as key challenges to implementing this technology in these and other contexts.
Short biography
Joerg Walden is Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of iPoint-systems, a leading provider of software and consulting for sustainable products, value chains, and brands. He draws on nearly 30 years of technology industry leadership, software development expertise, and executive management experience. At iPoint, Joerg is responsible for the business strategy, product strategy, and innovation management. Since its founding in 2001 as a small automotive-focused company, he has transformed iPoint into a multinational, globally operating market leader with a clientele of tens of thousands of companies from various industry sectors.
Joerg places great value upon an open, continuous culture of innovation, a high degree of customer focus, a global partner network, and the monitoring of relevant standards and trends in order to provide solutions that are always one step ahead. He is driven by the vision of how today's solutions can contribute to securing a sustainable world for future generations.
Joerg's commitment is frequently recognized and honoured, including the designation as Gartner Cool Vendor in Green IT and Sustainability (2012), the Verdantix Smart Innovators Badge for Product Stewardship Solutions (2015), the TOP Innovator of the Year award (2016), the recognition as one of Germany's 100 top innovators and visionaries by the leading German business newspaper Handelsblatt (2017), and the Verdantix EH&S Innovation Award (2017).
Joerg holds a civil engineering degree in automation from Reutlingen University.


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Using the Area Model to Build Conceptual Understanding of Multiplication
October 8, 2018
1:10 - 2:00
Room B104
This session will illustrate how the AREA model is the foundation model for multiplication of whole numbers, decimals, fractions and mixed numbers. If time, polynomial multiplication (and factoring) will also be explored. Participants will investigate classroom-ready problems that frequently offer a challenge to students.
Session Category : 6th-8th Grades High School Number & Operations SPED


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Book Clubs for Student Engagement
Goldberg and Trott (2012) give a succinct overview of the history of libraries' involvement in book clubs, with a focus on the role book clubs can play in readers advisory and in building community. Notable, perhaps, in the historical overview is the fact that many early book clubs in libraries supported marginalized groups — women in particular — and offered sites and spaces for these groups to discuss public issues. They note, in other words, a democratizing effect of the book clubs, as well as a supportive function for marginalized voices. This resonates with the stated goals of Real Lit[erature] at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Further of interest is their description of a non-fiction non-fiction book club on the Penn State Beaver campus: the ripple effect of hosting an author on student engagement (fundraising for the cause described in the book, writing papers for classes) was remarkable. They conclude with practical advice for campuses starting up, including marketing, collaboration, and other tips.


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Slide 1: Manufacturer & Exporter of Vibrating Equipments Slide 2: About Us Incepted at Chennai An ISO 9001:2000 certified company Total quality assurance Serve to Steel, Ceramics, Plastics & other industries Clientele like TATA, SSS, UCAL & other companies Export to Indian Subcontinent, East Asia & other countries Slide 3: International quality standards Delivery within time frame Experienced R&D department State-of-the-art infrastructure Premium grade raw materials Skilled & qualified workforce Why Us? Slide 4: Vibrating Equipments Magnetic Equipments Separators Magnets Products Slide 5: Gyratory & Horizontal Screen Electro Magnetic & Mechanical Feeder Vibrating Equipments Slide 6: Bin Vibrator Vibrating Table & Motor Anti Blinding Devices Slide 7: Permanent Lifting Magnet Over Band Magnetic Separator Magnetic Head Pulley & Floor Sweeper Drawer in Housing Hopper Grill Magnetic Equipments Slide 8: Cross Belt & Inline Over Belt Separators Liquid Line Separators Magnetic Drum Separators Separators Slide 9: Hump Magnets Plate Magnets Scrap Lifting Magnets Rectangular Lifting Magnets Circular Lifting Magnets Magnets
Showcase Gallery
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Developed and Managed by IndiaMART InterMESH Limited


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I don't get it. I've heard several of my friends and countless blog posts being very cynical about the reason why people all over the world loved the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Why are these people hell bent on convincing themselves and others that fans of the movie are sadists who thoroughly enjoyed themselves mocking the pitiable plight of poverty stricken Indians.
If the movie won the highest honors in film making because the sadists loved it then God help the world. I mean cmon, Do these people really believe that the movie was loved because of the slum children jumping in shit??
Clearly these peopel are ashamed to their bones of accepting the dark side of our country. Yes, we've made strides in the upward direction and yes we are making progress every second of every day but that doesn't mean the dark side no longer exits. It very much does and unless we acknowledge it and do something about it, it's not going to go away. Shoving it under the sheets will only make it worse.
People: Grow Up!! Learn how to accede to reality humbly and acknowledge kudos gracefully.


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%Library.RowSQLQueryclass %Library.RowSQLQuery
extends %SQLQuery
This class is used to implement the 'complete row' SQL query that can be used to return the entire persistent state of an object. This class is not for application use.
Close the query associated with the handle classmethod Execute(ByRef %qHandle As %Binary, id As %String) as %Status
Execute is passed parameters for Query Returns handle for subsequent operations classmethod Fetch(ByRef %qHandle As %Binary, ByRef Row As %List, ByRef AtEnd As %Integer = 0) as %Status
Fetch the next row of data from the query.
qHandle is query-defined data and is typically updated by Fetch.
The Fetch method should set Row to be a $List of values corresponding to the columns of the query. If we are past the end of the data and no row is returned, Row should be set to null string (""). If the non-empty row being returned is the last one, AtEnd could be optionally set to 1, indicating that an additional call to Fetch may be avoided.
Row may also be subscripted. If any of the columns in the row are stream orefs then the oref type information is lost in the Row $list encoded value. To retain the oref type, place the oref into Row(columnNumber). %Library.ResultSet recognizes this form and will extract the column value as the subscripted value.


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Chauffeur services for business and corporate events
Israel occupies a small area by the Mediterranean sea. Israel plays an important role in the business life of the world. Israel is full of various exhibitions and business events. If you are going to Israel, our company will be an excellent logistics partner for you and you will be able to focus exclusively on your business goals. Book the VIP Airport Transfer Service and our chauffeur will take you comfortably to the hotel and then to the event. We know from experience that this route is important for you and for half an hour in the hotel you will be able to take a shower and change clothes from the road. Your mood is our concern, that's why ordering a business tour in ORMAX will save you the troubles, so you will be free to register for the next event.
We know how tedious any flight is, especially if it lasts more than a few hours. That's why our chauffeurs can let you relax and do your business while you go to your destination. With our chauffeur service in Israel, you don't have to worry about traffic or city travel — just sit back in the passenger seat and let a professional chauffeur take you to the designated place.
Are you visiting the city with your colleagues for a conference or other business or corporate event? We will take care of the whole transfer while you can discuss all the details and prepare for the event. We offer comfortable vehicles, which have enough space for big groups from 5 to 50 people.
By working with us you will be able to:
– Enjoy the ride from airport to destination;
– Arrive to any meeting always on time;
– plan your trip before the event and make any stop you need;
– Stay with your group no matter how big it is.
– Relax or work while enjoying the comfort of a luxury car;
– Get advice for choosing the best local hotels, restaurants, etc.


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How to Take a Screenshot on iPhone X
By Conner Carey
Without a Home button, how do you take a screenshot on iPhone? Previous models of iPhone took a screenshot when you clicked both the Home button and Sleep/Wake button (now considered the Side button). But taking a screenshot on iPhone X is slightly different, though not different enough to make it any more of a hassle. With iOS 11, a preview of your screenshot appears in the lower left corner immediately after taking the shot. You can then immediately mark up the image or even delete it if the screenshot was taken by mistake. So we'll cover all the ways you can edit a screenshot you've just taken on your iPhone X. Here's how to take a screenshot on iPhone X and how to edit it with iOS 11.


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China's leaders have brushed aside warnings of an incipient credit crunch in the Chinese economy, determined to purge excesses from the financial system despite falling house prices and the deepest industrial slowdown since the Lehman crisis.
Industrial production dropped 0.4pc in August from a month earlier, a rare event that highlights how quickly China is coming off the boil. The growth of fixed asset investment fell to record lows.
"It is a shockingly sharp deceleration," said Wei Yao, from Societe Generale. "What is surprising is the calm response from Beijing. The new leadership's tolerance for short-term pain seems to have jumped by another big notch."
Electricity output has dropped 2.2pc over the past year as the authorities continue to force dinosaur industries into closure, chipping away at excess capacity.
New credit has fallen 40pc, and there has been an outright contraction of trust loans and undiscounted bankers acceptances over the past two months, the result of a clampdown on parts of the shadow banking nexus. "The shrinking stock of trust loans is particularly dangerous to property developers," she said.
Fleming Nielsen, from Danske Bank, said there are signs of a "credit crunch" – albeit one engineered by regulators – with bond spreads for low grade corporate debt trading at pre-default levels. He said credit has slowed so much over recent months that it is no longer growing faster than nominal GDP, a crucial inflexion point.
The property market remains dazed, with sales down 13.4pc in August. House prices have fallen for the past five months, with the effects spreading to related industries. The output of washing machines is down 7.5pc over the past year.
Chang Chun Hua, from Nomura, said China's central bank will have to step in to prevent overkill, predicting five successive cuts of 50 basis points in the Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR) by the end of next year, and perhaps more radical measures if this fails to do the trick.
The RRR is still 20pc, giving the central bank huge scope for stimulus in a crisis. The rate was in the low single digits in the late 1990. Former rate-setter Li Daokui said a cut to this level today would free up $2 trillion of fresh lending.
Premier Li Keqiang has so far refused to blink, determined to drive through deep reforms and wean the economy off exorbitant levels of debt before the damage becomes irreversible. "We are restructuring instead of expanding the monetary supply," he said last week, warning markets not to expect easy money to ignite a fresh boom this time.
Mark Williams, from Capital Economics, said the reformist regime led by Xi Jinping is willing to tolerate lower growth provided the economy continues to generate jobs, up by a record 9.7m so far this year.
Urban unemployment has remained stable near 5pc, though the latest data from Manpower showed the "employment outlook index" falling to the lowest since 2009. "As long as the labour market remains healthy, significant policy loosening is still unlikely," said Mr Williams.
China's workforce is already shrinking and the flow of rural migrants to the cities is slowing rapidly. It is a sign that the country may be hitting the "Lewis Point" when catch-up growth is exhausted, but it also lowers the risk of a social explosion.
The government's tough line is a major shift in strategy. The Communist Party has until recently responded to each slowdown with a fresh blast of loans, creating ever bigger problems. The ratio of credit to GDP has doubled to 200pc of GDP in five years – or 250pc by some measures – a faster pace of growth than in any other major bubble across the world in the past 100 years.
Credit is no longer gaining traction. The extra output generated by each extra yuan of loans has collapsed from around 0.75 before the Lehman crisis to nearer 0.2 today. It is becoming increasingly dangerous, for little macro-economic benefit.
The Communist Party's decision to rein in credit has global ramifications. The $25 trillion edifice is already as big as the US and Japanese banking systems combined. The effects of China's industrial slowdown is a key reason why iron ore prices have crashed, and global demand for oil keeps falling far short of what was expected.
Whether Xi Jinping's new discipline will last is an open question. The authorities have already relaxed home purchase limits in most cities, and urged banks to loosen mortgage quotas.
Junheng Li, from Warren Capital, said the real scale of horror in the construction industry is disguised by advanced payments that are simply pocketed as cash flow. "This flatters the balance sheet and understates the true leverage," she said.
China's "market Leninists" may find just it as difficult to deflate a housing bubble gently as Japanese and American capitalists before them.


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Isn't it funny how one day you can wake up and realise you have totally changed some of your likes or dislikes without even realising? This happened me last week when I was asked what the favourite parts of my job are and I was surprised to hear myself gush about how much I Ioved more than anything going to networking events, meeting new like-minded business owners and attending inspirational events. It wasn't until I saw my friend wince and say she couldn't think of anything worse that I realised I would have had the exact same reaction just a year or two ago!
I look back and can't help but laugh at what an Awkward Alan I was going to these events. I would book a ticket to a business networking breakfast and then feel physically sick for the entire morning dreading walking into a room full of strangers. If I ever arrived early, I would go for a walk up and down the street outside for a few blocks or hide in the bathroom so I could arrive right on time for the speaker to start and not have to spend one second telling awkward dad jokes to some poor stranger to try and break the ice.
With public speaking appearing as one of the top fears in most people (even over death!), I think it is easy to see why so many people have the same fear of networking. You have to walk into a room of people you don't know and open yourself up to the possibility of being judged and/or criticised. But I am living proof that it can be done, even if you are breaking out in a cold sweat just thinking about doing it right now. It actually gets easier and even enjoyable (I promise!) So how the hell did I go from being the most socially awkward weirdo in the room to not only embracing networking, but loving it?! Here are my top tips for networking for the socially awkward!
#1 Find your prey!
Chances are, you are not the only person to go to this event by themselves. Do a quick scan of the room, find a fellow AA (Awkward Alan) and pounce! Trust me, they will be delighted you struck up conversation as you can guarantee they are feeling just as uncomfortable as you!
#2 Ask a question
Don't see anyone else on their own? Don't panic! It can be very daunting to walk up to a group of people and boldly interrupt to introduce yourself. Instead, ask a question! 'Do you know if we need to register?', 'Do you know what time the event is starting?' once you get your answer, it will be SO much easier to just continue the convo!
#3 Use the 5 second rule for networking
I recently listened to a podcast that featured Mel Robbins and her 5 second rule. It is definitely worth listening to the whole thing as there are some golden nuggets in there. She has some great tips for dealing with stress and anxiety that would be beneficial to any entrepreneur. Her 5 second rule in a nutshell is that you count backwards from 5 before doing something you don't want to do and then just do it! Mel believes that If you have an impulse to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill the idea.
#4 You are not naked!
When you have to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation, all of your senses are heightened. You become incredibly self-aware and feel like the eyes of the entire world are on you and judging you. But guess what? They are not and most people aren't even taking any notice of you at all so try to relax! Most people are feeling just as self-aware and are not paying much attention to whats happening around them. So remember you are not naked or exposed and try to have some fun!
#5 Practice really does make perfect
When I first started putting myself out there for my business, I felt so uncomfortable and out of my comfort zone. But I have since realised, that is the only way to be! How can you possibly grow if you stay safe and don't try things that scare you? I am now delighted any time I am shit scared because it probably means I am on track with where I want to go. The more times you put yourself in uncomfortable situations, the less they feel uncomfortable. You come to realise that it doesn't really matter and it's only your ego that is feeling uncomfortable. So keep doing things that scare you and I promise, you will realise there is nothing to be scared about in the first place.
The longer I have been in business and keep meeting business owners, the more I have come to realise that nobody has their shit together, especially the people that you think do! Everyone is in the exact same boat as you and nobody becomes successful without working hard and doing things that make them uncomfortable. I wish I had realised this sooner and not wasted so much time worrying about what anyone else thinks! So hopefully you can see from this reformed Awkward Alan, that you can do it too!


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I just applied for an internal promotion and suddenly I'm panicking a bit.
Here's the thing: I really like my job, but I also know that in order to move up within the company I can't stay with my current team. This isn't like my last promotion, where pretty much the only things that changed were my title and paycheck; this would be jumping into an entirely new team. Funnily enough, it's a team I've butted heads with over some processes that are a part of my side position. So hopefully they don't take the times I've pestered them or vice versa into account when looking at my resume; because I really like the work they do. I just wish they understood more of what I do in my support role, so they know not to ask for things I'm incapable of getting done for them.
My current boss is great and has been giving me the "you're over qualified for this job" nudge for a while now. But now I'm wondering, even with this not so subtle nudge, if I should have at least waited until she's back from vacation to discuss applying for this position. I had mentioned interest in it during our last meeting, but I didn't decide until today that I 100% want it, and didn't want to waste time if there's a lot of competition. I know in the end my priority should be me and what I want for my career, but I also feel mildly deceptive applying for it without so much as a heads up first.
But I guess now that it's out of my hands, I really hope I get it.


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- Well, first of all, what a day Saturday was, eh? There's enough to talk about for the rest of the week, and just based on the events from Gulfstream, no less those at Santa Anita, and even the Big A. The Derby picture is perceived to be different this morning. It took only portions of two races on opposite coasts to change the outlook - Nobiz Like Shobiz floundering through a slow stretch run in the Fountain of Youth as Stormello, tiring after setting a demanding pace, staggered home through a final furlong of 13.75 seconds. The last 3/8ths took 39.22 as Scat Daddy took advantage of the tiring leaders to get the win.
And at Santa Anita, Great Hunter made a mockery of the Bob Lewis with a startling burst of speed as he flew wide around four helpless opponents as they turned for home. It was only a matter of how much he'd win by, and, in fact, Pletcher's Sam P ran a pretty fine race himself for second just 1 1/2 back. The last 2 1/2 furlongs went in 31.55, a pace of about 25.25 for a quarter, and Great Hunter made up almost four lengths in that time while losing ground on the turn. So I think it was a pretty impressive move.
Now, let's try to put the races in proper perspective. In the case of Great Hunter, I think his race was pretty impressive any way you look at it. You can certainly quibble about the quality of the field; he's a Grade 1 winner who was facing a crew that didn't have a graded-stakes placed horse among them. But it was his first race in four months from a trainer who doesn't necessarily have them fully cranked - and indeed, Doug O'Neill indicated before the race that he wasn't 100% there. And the way he did it, after having lost some significant ground on the first turn, was exactly what you want to see. "The plan today was to kick clear and gallop out strong," [jockey Corey] Nakatani said. "He did just that." [AP]
This horse has some nice foundation - this was his 8th career start and he's never been out of the money - yet seems fresh and fit. The two-prep strategy doesn't seem quite so outrageous with this one; the Derby would be his 10th start. As I've mentioned, I like his pedigree. The only question is his slowish figs, but we'll see what he produced on Saturday.
As for the Fountain of Youth, Barclay Tagg, who was extremely confident about Nobiz Like Shobiz leading up to the race; he seemed rather despondent afterwards:
"I think he's a good horse....I don't know why he ran like that. The jock said he was lugging in at the top of the stretch, and you lose a little ground when you straighten him out. The whole thing surprised me. I thought he'd lay third, then go to the front and win. I thought we'd go to the Wood Memorial (gr. I on April 7), but now I don't know." [Bloodhorse]What does that mean? It sounds like he's considering abandoning the Trail altogether. And just maybe, that would be the best long-term course for a horse that's still learning the game.
On the other hand, I thought there were ample explanations for why "he ran like that." He broke poorly, raced solidly three wide around the first turn, advanced towards the leader as that leader was blazing his second quarter in 22.85, third quarter in 23.83, and was again three-wide on the turn - wider than than turning for home. Then he once again proved to be green, bearing in behind Adore the Gold and having to be taken back off his heels, again checking out the grandstand as if in disbelief of what Stronach has done to it, and finally getting settled on his right lead and mounting a late burst to miss by a half length.
So what was so bad? What he needs most is education and racing experience, and he should have gotten plenty of that. Next time he's faced with some stubborn foes in front of him and closing outside of him, he'll be like, 'oh, I've done this before.' There's nothing wrong with losing if the horse gets something out of it, and it's fair to surmise that he did. The problem as far as the Derby goes, is that I don't know if just one more prep is going to get him where he needs to be. I think that Tagg, who was very casual about the prep schedule, at one point stating that he could go into the Derby off two races, has boxed himself in here. With eight weeks to go, it's too long in my opinion for just one more prep, and too short of a period to get in the two more races that I think would be to his ample benefit. He's a big boy, this Nobiz Like Shobiz, a magnificent specimen, but one with lots to learn, and maybe Tagg has babied him too much.
Turning to the winning Scat Daddy, the incredibly dominant Pletcher's fifth winner of the day (plus a sixth that lost by a nose), the trainer seems to have a real bug up his ass about this horse, doesn't he?
"I never questioned [if he would go two turns]....It was everyone else. The horse wins the Champagne and comes back three weeks later and doesn't fire on what is now, hopefully ... everyone recognizes how Churchill was [speed biased] on that day [of the Breeders' Cup]. And I didn't have enough time between the Champagne and the Breeders' Cup." [Sun-Sentinal]This is after he won the race! Yeah, everyone else doubted his ability to go two turns sooo much that they made him the 7-2 second choice in the Juvenile! And why should this now make us recognize that Churchill was speed biased? The proper perspective of this race is that Pletcher's colt had the most perfect setup he could possibly get, yet still was life and death to nose an exhausted Stormello at the wire. And he's still complaining about the three week gap before the Juvenile, one that was of his doing? It's not like they suddenly moved the Juvenile up a week. All in all, not a very gracious reaction from a guy that's sitting on top of the racing world.
- Seems as if the California contingent needs to be taken quite seriously this year. Stormello and Notional have now proven to be major factors when shipped outside of the state. Last year, the only West Coaster to succeed out east was Bob and John, and that was in the fluky mud of the Wood Memorial. Could the explanation be that both of these colts have been training regularly over the Cushion Track surface at Hollywood?


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4 Key WWDC Takeaways From An Apple Bull
While there were no groundbreaking announcements, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s WWDC keynote address Monday was filled with more product launches than investors anticipated. After the address, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi rated Apple at Outperform and set a $160 price target.
4 Key Highlights
Most of the new product launches seem to be Apple following the leads of other companies, and none of the moves will push them into completely new markets.
To see all of the announcements, check out the WWDC keynote recap from Benzinga.
1. HomePod
The launch of the Apple HomePod, which is a cross between the Sonos Play 1 and the Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)'s Echo, according to Sacconaghi, was the biggest announcement at the WWDC. But, the analyst said it only accounting for $0.5 billion–$2 billion in sales (less than 1 percent of Apple's revenue). Comparably, Amazon's Echo sales are estimated to be about $800 million and Sonos is generating about $1 billion in revenue every year.
"The challenge for HomePod will be that it is more expensive ($349), particularly versus the combination of a Sonos Play 1 ($199 – similar in size to a HomePod) and Amazon Echo Dot ($49), both of which have passionate consumer followings," Sacconaghi said. "Moreover, the HomePod will be marketed more as a speaker than an assistant, and is much later to market than Amazon and Google."
2. AppStore Redesign
Apple announced a redesigned AppStore, as CEO Tim Cook looks to double Services revenue by 2020. The new store will include more content and different gaming tabs in order to make the store more of a destination for its users.
3. Augmented, Virtual Reality: ARKit
Apple announced its initial steps regarding augmented and virtual reality strategies. Specifically, Apple launched the ARKit (an augmented reality development kit) and completed its first virtual reality demo.
4. Financials And Important Figures
Apple only highlighted a few financial and numerical metrics, but the Bernstein report did note that Apple Music subs are higher than Sacconaghi had estimated.
Overall, while the WWDC only provides the world with a glimpse of Apple's future, Sacconaghi said Apple will continue to move in the right direction.
Related Links:
Gene Munster Saw Something 'Revolutionary' In Apple's Event That Most Investors Missed
Everything You Need To Know From Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2017 Keynote Address
Image Credit: "Apple HomePod at WWDC 2017" By Nobuyuki Hayashi [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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