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GDPR is a privacy policy that has affected many businesses. This European-based law created marketing restrictions in order to help better safeguard customer data. One limitation on marketing outreach has been the need to acquire customer consent when collecting any customer information that could be used for marketing purposes. This has a far-reaching impact on modern forms of advertising, such as digital marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and more.
Why companies need to refocus their marketing efforts in the wake of GDPR.
While many businesses and agencies rethink their marketing strategies, many have begun to emphasize the importance of direct marketing in this new age of advertising. Mass or blanket advertising – banners on a homepage, magazine spreads, billboards – aren't subject to GDPR regulations as they can appear to all consumers. Most other marketing is – all the information that a firm would use to disseminate information, such as location, IP addresses, age, etc., are all opt-in pieces of information. A customer has to give a business permission to collect and use this information to reach back out to them. Direct marketing efforts, then, become more crucial – they are now allowed to go to a much smaller number of people, and therefore their effect and impact must be more meaningful.
How GDPR is already changing marketing techniques.
What is direct marketing?
Direct marketing is described as a way to present a product or service directly to the consumer through the means of advertising. Over time it has become a cost-effective way of segmenting an audience and distributing different types of relevant messaging to the group of consumers identified as the most likely to be interested. Instead of spamming people with mailers and emails and catalogs and banner ads that might not be interesting to them or their purchasing history, companies can use customer data to better understand how, when, and where to distribute their marketing message.
Direct marketing usually allows brands to see a better response to their outreach, as it allows for more direct targeting of an audience where the message is likely to resonate and drive action.
What are the best direct marketing techniques?
Here are some ways to reach customers with direct marketing strategies, as well as some tips to help make them pop more in an age when GDPR has created a smaller potential audience.
1. Flyers, Catalogs, and other direct mail:
Flyers and catalogs can end up in the trash, but with a powerful message, headline, or image, you can attract the kind of attention that keeps your mail in someone's hands and inspires action. Some businesses have even turned to send boxes with a built-in video display to potential top-tier customers, this kind of direct mail is expensive, but it's sure to have an impact and if it's big enough, it can turn into a huge ROI.
2. Email Campaigns
One of the best ways to create impactful email campaigns is by not sending customers an influx of messages. Too many emails can be a deterrent to engaging with a brand, so a steady stream of communication is better.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing should also be engaging, tying it into current news, holidays, or other events can help your social media advertising stay relevant.
4. Banner Ads
Banner ads are best used when retargeting a customer if they have opted in to let you capture their information, it's easy to have banner ads appear that will remind them of your brand and help you stay top of mind.
Direct marketing certainly isn't going away, but it's become even more important to do it right. Every part counts more including the images, the copy, the timeline all matter, as it creates a message that will drive action. With fewer people to distribute to, marketers need to be more deliberate, more data-driven, and more creative than ever before.


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Kitchen and bathroom designer Yasmin Motovalli from Uckfield has been chosen to take part in the finals of the Miss England contest.
Yasmin, aged 23, won her place after competing against 19 other girls in the final of the South East Beauty Awards which began with 200 auditioning for a place.
Yasmin, pictured here, designed and modelled her own Eco Wear created from high street carrier bags as part of the competition held in Guildford. She also modelled sportswear in a cat walk presentation.
Yasmin works in Burgess Hill but lives in Browns Lane with partner Chris Robson, who plays football for Framfield and Blackboys and works at Perception Kayaks, on the Bellbrook Business Park, Uckfield. Her parents Bahram and Deirdre live in Ridgewood.
Yasmin will be taking part in sports activities in a Miss England Boot Camp in the run up to the Miss England Finals which will be held on July 18 and 19 at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole. She said: "I'm looking forward to the boot camp because I'm quite sporty."
Yasmin thinks she will also be designing another eco outfit using recycled materials.
She is delighted to be through to the Miss England Finals. She has been taking part in beauty contests since 2008 always finishing in second or third place so is excited to think she now has the chance of becoming Miss England and possibly after that … Miss World.
See also:
Man dies in accident at Hopfield Gardens, Uckfield

subset: commoncrawl


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10 Awesomely Extreme French Fries
Behold these exceptional, incredible fries! Classic potato french fries are upgraded to bold, glorious new heights, decked out with additions from spicy buffalo chicken to savory steak and cheese. Check out these ridiculous, awesome takes on this snack food favorite and never look at your plain old fries the same way again.
Buffalo Chicken Bacon Cheese Fries from Katie's Cucina
Carne Asada Fries from Damn Delicious
Bacon Wrapped Sweet Potato Fries from Cup of Sugar, Pinch of Salt
Galbi Poutine from Cherry on my Sundae
Loaded Maple Bacon Donut Fries from Beyond Frosting
Skillet Oven Fries with Cheddar, Bacon, Pickled Jalapeños, & Ranch from Yes to Yolks
Southern Cheese Fries With BBQ Pork from Spicy Southern Kitchen
French Fry Bourbon Burgers from Half Baked Harvest
New York Strip Poutine with Gorgonzola Sauce from A Couple of Foodies in Tacoma
Cheesy Cajun Fries with Grilled Corn Guacamole, Bacon and Fried Eggs from Half Baked Harvest


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Anyone who has been a Rotarian for even a short time probably has been asked more than once, "What IS Rotary?"
Most people have at least heard of the organization, or perhaps seen the familiar Rotary emblem on a signpost at the entrance to a town, or even noticed something in a local newspaper or on TV about a Rotary project benefiting the community.
While we can try explaining Rotary to them, you've probably found its reach is so broad and its activities so varied that providing a full description is quite a chore in a simple conversation.
Because we live in such a technological and visual time, Rotary International and some of its individual districts and clubs continuously create videos explaining Rotary from a variety of viewpoints.
We have, from time to time, posted such videos here for you to share with friends, families, colleagues, and anyone curious about what we do. Now, however, we've put together a formal collection of such videos that went live today, a collection we'll expand and update from time to time.
Just click here to take a look at our starter collection. When someone asks about Rotary, you can tell them what you like about it, then point them to SRCrotary.org for the full story about the Southern Rensselaer County club.
NOTE: We particularly recommend the first video, titled "Why Rotary Now?" It speaks to some reasons younger people in business enjoy participating in Rotary despite the pressures of family and work that others often cite as reasons not to join us.


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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Foundation Online Training
Find out about everything you need to know about GDPR and its implications to your organisation.
What is the GDPR?
The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on 25 May 2018, by which date all organisations must be able to demonstrate and evidence compliance. The GDPR replaces the Data Protection Act (DPA) which was introduced in 1998.
Why is GDPR important to education providers?
Educational establishments collect a large amount of personal data from students, employees, job applicants and volunteers. Furthermore, schools also handle special category data such as race, religion, health, ethnic origin and biometrics data. Therefore education providers need to get to grips with the new data protection regulation quickly.
Evidencing compliance is one of the most important changes from the previous regulation, and is also the one that schools will need to focus the most resources on. This means that education providers don't just need to comply with the regulations, they must be able to demonstrate that all data processes have been considered and recorded and every staff member understands both the individual's rights provided under GDPR and the rules about the protection of personal data.
Who should take this course?
With so much emphasis on accountability, staff training is crucial for anyone who handles personal data. This includes but is not limited to school administrators, classroom teachers and accommodation managers.
What will I learn from this course?
This course covers a complete foundation for the principles, responsibilities, processes and rights under the GDPR. This is a certified course, on completion of which you will receive an official GT certificate demonstrating your knowledge.
How long will this course take to complete?
This course will take around 2 hours to complete.


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5 of the Many Benefits of Working Remotely
A decade ago, working from home was not a common practice. Now, with the millennial shift in the workforce, working from your own space is not only more common, but it is more beneficial for you and your business as a whole!
1. Increased Productivity
With productivity costs at an all time high, large and small businesses alike are searching for ways to get rid of distractions in the traditional office environment. Telecommuting eliminates all office distractions like gossip, drama, and face-to-face disagreement. With employees on their own schedule, they don't have to worry about the physical commute and can sit down when they feel they can complete the most work.
2. Better for Health and Environment
The physical commute has many drawbacks including gas emissions. Increasing remote employee activity would help your company go green and eliminate one of your employees' reasons for stressing.
3. Keeping Older Generations
More and more people over the age of 65 either do not have enough funds or prefer to keep busy – either way, there is a large untapped workforce available. With employees working remotely, this allows flexibility for that older generation to contribute to your business without the commute.
4. Decreasing Costs
With employees' ability to telecommute, you don't have to worry about traditional office costs like rent or technology because all employees would be required to have their own technology. You also don't have to worry about office maintenance.
5. Decreasing Turnover
The cost of a new employee can be almost $4,000 depending on their role. The introduction of telecommuting can decrease this cost and even eliminate it completely. Telecommunicating employees are more likely to work overtime which can cover the work that a new employee would have needed to do in a traditional office.
Your employees will also understand that if the volume of work they submit is not up to par, they will be let go. There is more accountability and less excuse.
While some may consider this a millennial trend, others are harnessing the benefits of telecommuting and benefitting greatly. If you have ever considered this method, try putting it into practice with a few employees and see the results. Experiment with the numbers. Imagine new possibilities.


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The Board of Selectmen are being asked to evaluate the town administrator tonight based on his goals and the goals of the selectmen from 2015, so I thought it might be useful for people to see what those goals were stated to be.
The selectmen prepared its goals first in October 2015, with selectman DeSorgher crafting the final combination for each of our separate inputs into the consensus document below. Then Mike drafted his goals in November 2015, which essentially track the selectmen goals.


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Commitment to Equity
On March 12, 2019, the District 97 Board of Education unanimously approved the district's equity policy. During the two years prior to that, we worked closely and collaboratively with our students, staff, families and community members to develop this policy, which affirms our steadfast commitment to racial equity, seeks to promote a strong sense of belonging in all of our schools, and is aimed at ensuring that every student we serve has access to an excellent and equitable educational experience.
While the policy went into effect following its approval on March 12, its official implementation will begin at the start of the 2019-20 school year. In the months leading up to this date, we will work with the community on the development of an implementation plan that will include priorities, milestones and opportunities for stakeholder engagement. We will use a variety of resources (email, website, social media, etc.) to keep people updated on the status of the planning process and the ways they can help. We will use those same resources to share the final version of the plan.
Below is a link to the full equity policy. There is also a link to executive summary that includes information about the creation of the policy, as well as details about our goals/objectives, areas and focus and next steps.
Equity Policy - Executive Summary


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This Fire Safety Training Course is designed to provide employers and employees with adequate knowledge of the risks associated with workplace fires, going into detail about the causes of fire, undertaking a risk assessment and how you can ensure that appropriate fire safety precautions are in place.
Fire safety is incredibly important and failure to comply with government fire safety regulations could potentially lead to prosecution, fines or legal claims. Training in fire safety is therefore compulsory for all organisations.
The course has been developed by a British Safety Council member with over 30 years professional experience in health and safety management.
Ensures compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 and the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010.
Developed by Health & Safety Professionals
CPD and RoSPA Accredited Course
High Quality Training Experience
Fully Online Course, Instant Access
High Quality Certificate posted the next working day
Who Should take this course
Under UK government legislation, all employees are required to take adequate fire safety training, regardless of the industry they work in. This online Fire Safety Course provides suitable training for all levels of employees, including managers, supervisors, full-time and part-time staff.
Employers are required to ensure that all new employees undergo fire safety training when they first start work and that existing employees have their training refreshed if any new fire risks are identified by the risk assessment.
On successful completion of the course a high quality, personalised certificate will be posted to you the next working day. This can be used to provide evidence for compliance and audit.
All of our courses are accredited by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to universally accepted Continuous Professional Development (CPD) guidelines.
This course is also accredited by RoSPA, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, as providing quality and content-approved training.
The course is divided into four accessible, interactive modules and also includes an assessment at the end.
The online assessment is taken on completion of the training material. You will be asked 15 multiple choice questions with a pass mark of 75%. The answers are marked automatically so that you'll instantly know whether you passed. If you don't pass don't worry! You can take the test as many times as you need with no extra charge.
It takes approximately 1 hour to complete the course in full. This can be spread out over multiple sessions or completed in a single session. There is no time limit for completion.
CPDme, Business First, Liverpool Road, Burnley, Lancashire, England, BB12 6HH
CPDme Ⓒ 2009 - 2020. CPDme Ⓡ and CPDcloud Ⓡ are a trading division of HootCloud Ltd. EU Trademarked and Registered Company in England No. 10947245


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It's been six years since Kaipara residents last had the chance to vote in a district council. Alexandra Newlove spoke to candidate Greg Gent bout his pragmatic attitude to the mayoralty.
Local politics was never an ambition for Greg Gent.
But when 17 community members turned up at his Ruawai front door, asking him to help the depressingly indebted Kaipara District Council, the farmer and businessman considered it a "defining moment".
A bit of gentle prodding from wife Ann Flood sealed the deal.
"I was half thinking, how is this [election] going to go?" Mr Gent says. "Ann was saying if this goes back down a hole, you aren't allowed to complain if you didn't put your hand up and try and do something to try and stop it."
There will be no grand campaign promises or flashy billboards. Just a series of advertisements in the local paper, stating Mr Gent's aims and qualifications: Twenty years' governance experience including roles as chair of Northland Dairy and Kiwi Dairy companies, and deputy chair of Fonterra.
"I guess the one thing I think I can bring is experience around governance and this [the mayoral job] would be on the smaller end of what I've done," Mr Gent said. "My weakness would be around the community side. I've lived here all my life but I work away a fair bit... I do feel a bit removed from the community so I'll rely heavily on councillors for that part of it."
While he currently chairs Southern Cross Health Group and FMG, he says he would need to tone down his commitments outside Kaipara were he elected.
And if that happens, Mr Gent says people can look forward to a council that's well-run, takes care of the basics, trains up future leaders and reduces the $65 million debt behemoth - largely a result of the botched Mangawhai sewage scheme.
"I also would initiate some changes around how the money's run, which would be difficult for future councils to undo," Mr Gent says of Kaipara's return to democracy after its four-year stint under Government-appointment commissioners.
Mr Gent in fact led the three person review of KDC which resulted in the commissioner roles, after the elected council stood down.
"It was actually a sad experience if I'm truthful. Everywhere you looked there were issues... I knew it was going to define us for a long time because that debt was there, and still is.
"The opportunities for us aren't massive at the moment, it's just running the ship well, which is slightly boring, but important."
He said "good people out of their depth" caused the current problems. Preventing a repeat lies in strong leadership and good succession training.
"It's a $50 million business, employs over 100 staff and has massive complexity... Running big business through democracy is not easy. The outputs are social, but it still has to run commercially."


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Andrew Ryan at the Laughing Horse New Act Final 2009
Note: This review is from 2009
Irishman Andrew Ryan starts with that most tried-and-tested comedy staple: telling us which celebrity he resembles. But, to be fair, he REALLY does look like Ardal O'Hanlon. The similarities don't end at the physical, either, as they both share an unaffected warmth, a slight bemusement at the world, and a vulnerable likeability that has the audience immediately on-side. His line about his pal Liam is an inspired classic, and even that old comedy fallback of going through dating ads is brought to life by his easy-charm. One to watch, for sure.
Review date: 9 Jun 2009
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett


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Personalised pure cotton tea towel with a message beautifully embroidered of your choice to make this a completely unique gift.
We use 100% natural cotton tea towels with a thick weave which makes them very absorbent. Hemmed on all the sides. A good size tea towel at approx 52cm wide x 72cm long.
You can choose the fabric you want from a White Cotton Tea Towel, a beige coloured Natural Cotton Tea Towel, a dyed Black Cotton Tea Towel or a luxury 100% Linen Tea Towel.
Enter the Text you want and choose the thread colour and font style.
Our example reads Dads Turn to Dry, however you can have any name or little message you want in place of this! Sewn towards the bottom hem.
We will produce your gift especially to order and ship your unique gift to you or your chosen recipient.
At Amys Gifts we do all our own embroidery work especially made to order and do our best to get all orders dispatched within 48 hours.


text: "Let's talk applicators. Have a small area that needs touching up? Want an ultra-smooth finish to a rolled-on paint? Maybe you have a very tight spot that needs painting or you simply hate putting up tape to paint? Not to worry! The Paint Store at AW Meyer has all the applicators you need to get your project done quickly and easily!"


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Jolene Smells
Our beloved Jolene Denise Smells, 50, who's Crow name "Butterfly Woman" was given to her by Robert Flat Lip, passed on to the other camp, Tuesday January 29, 2019 at St. Vincent's Healthcare Hospital. She was born August 2, 1968, in Crow Agency, Montana a daughter of Joseph and Clara (Rides Horse) Smells.
Jolene was a proud member of the Native American Church and the Catholic Church. She was a "Bilikóoshe" Whistling Water clan and a "Ashkap'kawiia" Bad War Deeds child. Jolene was a of a direct descendent of Chief Plenty Coups on her maternal side and a direct descendent of Chief Bellrock on her paternal side. She received her early education in San Diego, California, Pryor, Montana and graduated from Plenty Coups High School. Jolene grew up the only girl among many brothers, this molded her into becoming a rough and tumble tomboy which lead her to become the only girl on the high school football team. From the time she was young, she enjoyed adventurous outdoor hunting, fishing and camping activities with her whole family. The brothers always voted her the holder of the spotlight during late night hunting trips, but she would have none of that and proved herself to be an excellent marksman alongside her brothers.
In her early years Jolene frequently participated in the Native American Church and was an avid sundancer. She often traveled out of state and to local areas for peyote meetings with her parents. She enjoyed cooking and preparing for peyote meetings that her parents put on or setting up camp at the various sundances the family participated in.
Anyone who knew Jolene knew she was a very free-spirited individual with a big heart. She grew up to be tough, however her brother, Artie still called her "frady cat", and looked after her because he knew loud claps of thunder always scared her. She loved to laugh, was often mischievous and was always light hearted in everything she did. Jolene knew the importance of her faith and family and was often called to check on or check in with everyone. Although she couldn't be a part of their daily lives, she loved her children dearly and often said how proud she was of each of them.
She is preceded in death by her parents; her sister Jenny Smells and brothers Timothy Smells, Sr., Carlos Monroy and Nathan Old Dwarf and her aunt Theresa Haun.
She is survived by her sons Jo-Jo and Owen Smells and Joseph Waters; her daughter LouisaJo; her brothers Artie Smells, Sr. Lyndon (Doreen) Rides Horse, Richard Monroy, Darrin (Bobbi Jo) Old Coyote, Gene (Brenda) Sherwood and John (Sherrie) Smells; her sisters Devona Lambert, Jennifer (Ceivert) LaForge, Nicole Lambert, Carla Ann (James) Wilson and Kathy Haun; her uncles George (Johann) Reed, Les Not Afraid, Marlin (Reva) and Garland Not Afraid and Robert Flat Lip; her aunts Peggy (Melton) Spotted Bear, Sr., Sharon Smells, Reed and Snell Women; her nephews Timothy (Tasha) Smells, Jr., Bill( Olive) Smells, Lane Shae Rides Horse, Brandon and Shannon Old Dwarf, Melton (Jolene) Spotted Bear, Jr., Neal Beaumont, Jr., Ethan Lambert, Artie Smells, Jr, Terrell Nez Perce, Lyndon Rides Horse, Jr., Darnell (Cerissa) Not Afraid and Edmond Old Crow; her nieces Autumn Smells, Yolanda Good Voice, Cynthia Smells, Chelsey Not Afraid, Makyla Rides Horse, Patricia LaForge, Ashlee Lambert; adopted aunts Mary (Gale) Three Irons, Geneva Whiteman and Sophia Pretty on Top; her extended family includes the Dust, Crooked Arm, Comes Up, Rides Horse, Big Day, Lion Shows, Howe, Brown, and Not Afraid. Our family is large if we have missed you, pleae accept our apology.
Services for Jolene will be Saturday, February 2nd at 10:00 am in the St. Charles Catholic Church in Pryor. Rosary will be recited at 7:00 pm Friday February 1, 2019. Burial will follow in the Pryor Cemetery. Bullis Mortuary has been entrusted with the arrangements.


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"Previous straws are more crucial than the last one. Take one away and the last loses its power." (From an old Tweeted proverb of mine based on the much more ancient original proverb about that unfortunate mammal.) I recently realized from my own experience that sources of stress can be like those straws. They pile up in layers one at a time, each obscuring the previous ones yet taking a deeper and deeper cumulative toll. We sort of "get used to" each straw and try to ignore it or shrug it off best we can, especially while dealing with the latest incoming one. We lose track of our tally of how many straws have accumulated and to what extent each exacts its price, and this suppression of our awareness is what threatens our well being.
Let us ask ourselves, How many straws are we bearing now? Perhaps the first one is a family estrangement from 20 years ala Jacob and Esau. The second one might be credit card debt that never is completely cleared from month to month. Others vying for recent provenance might be watching Death stalk a family member, ready to snatch him from behind, or having to discontinue a work or personal relationship that has more and more dysfunction and less and less benefit. And then to top it off, bronchitis might come around to make a call on one of us.
As the straws gather up like the increasing numbers of leaves now stealthily taking over the ground, we habituate to the point that we forget about the first covering of leaves, never mind the ground itself.
No one can advise us which straw to tackle first, but it does not have to be in order of their arrival. Simply becoming more self-aware of the whole conglomeration of 'em will help us in analyzing which one we should topple off first, making us like the lucky camel.


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Effects of osmolytes and macromolecular crowders on stable GAAA tetraloops and their preference for a CG closing base pair
- Published
- Accepted
- Received
- Academic Editor
- Alla Kostyukova
- Subject Areas
- Biochemistry, Biophysics
- Keywords
- Macromolecular crowding, GNRA, GAAA, Osmolytes, Nucleic acid structure, RNA folding, Polyethelyne glycol, Hairpins
- Copyright
- © 2018 Leonard and Blose
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Effects of osmolytes and macromolecular crowders on stable GAAA tetraloops and their preference for a CG closing base pair. PeerJ 6:e4236 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4236
Osmolytes and macromolecular crowders have the potential to influence the stability of secondary structure motifs and alter preferences for conserved nucleic acid sequences in vivo. To further understand the cellular function of RNA we observed the effects of a model osmolyte, polyethylene glycol (PEG) 200, and a model macromolecular crowding agent, PEG 8000, on the GAAA tetraloop motif. GAAA tetraloops are conserved, stable tetraloops, and are critical participants in RNA tertiary structure. They also have a thermodynamic preference for a CG closing base pair. The thermal denaturation of model hairpins containing GAAA loops was monitored using UV-Vis spectroscopy in the presence and absence of PEG 200 or PEG 8000. Both of the cosolutes tested influenced the thermodynamic preference for a CG base pair by destabilizing the loop with a CG closing base pair relative to the loop with a GC closing base pair. This result also extended to a related DNA triloop, which provides further evidence that the interactions between the loop and closing base pair are identical for the d(GCA) triloop and the GAAA tetraloop. Our results suggest that in the presence of model PEG molecules, loops with a GC closing base pair may retain some preferential interactions with the cosolutes that are lost in the presence of the CG closing base pair. These results reveal that relatively small structural changes could influence how neutral cosolutes tune the stability and function of secondary structure motifs in vivo.
The cellular environment is a chemically complex medium compared to the dilute solution conditions used in many typical biochemical analyses. Large macromolecules crowd the cell and can concentrate to nearly 40% (w/v) (Zimmerman & Trach, 1991; Ellis, 2001). In addition, osmolytes, which are small, chemically diverse neutral cosolutes such as amino acids and polyols, accumulate in response to environmental stresses such as changes in temperature, pressure, and salinity (Bolen, 2001; Burg & Ferraris, 2008). Osmolyte concentration is dependent on the type of cell and the type of stress experienced (Yancey et al., 1982; Yancey, 2005; Burg & Ferraris, 2008; Khan et al., 2010). Despite their chemical diversity, protecting osmolytes stabilize proteins via the common mechanism of preferential exclusion (Bolen, 2001; Burg & Ferraris, 2008). Protecting osmolytes are excluded from protein surfaces which destabilizes the unfolded state relative to the folded state. Thus, osmolyte concentrations are carefully regulated to preserve protein structure (Record et al., 1998).
In contrast to their effects on protein structures, the effects of macromolecular crowders and osmolytes on nucleic acid structures have been shown to be rather complex and have significant dependencies on the chemical and structural properties of both the nucleic acid and the cosolute (Spink & Chaires, 1999; Lambert & Draper, 2007; Downey et al., 2007; Nakano et al., 2012; Nakano et al., 2008; Nakano et al., 2009; Kilburn et al., 2010; Lambert, Leipply & Draper, 2010; Hart, Harris & Testa, 2010; Knowles et al., 2011; Blose et al., 2011; Pramanik et al., 2011; Gu et al., 2013). Osmolytes and crowders have been shown repeatedly to destabilize some secondary structures (Spink & Chaires, 1999; Lambert & Draper, 2007; Nakano et al., 2008; Nakano et al., 2012; Lambert, Leipply & Draper, 2010; Hart, Harris & Testa, 2010; Knowles et al., 2011; Blose et al., 2011; Pramanik et al., 2011; Gu et al., 2013; Strulson et al., 2013) while either stabilizing or destabilizing multi-stranded or more complex, higher-order structures (Spink & Chaires, 1999; Lambert & Draper, 2007; Downey et al., 2007; Lambert, Leipply & Draper, 2010; Strulson et al., 2014). Some osmolytes and macromolecular crowders have also been shown to facilitate folding and function of catalytic RNA (Nakano et al., 2009; Nakano et al., 2014; Kilburn et al., 2010; Strulson et al., 2013). The effects observed for nucleic acid folding and function in the presence of these neutral cosolutes arise from a complex combination of changes in hydration, in preferential interactions between nucleic acids and osmolytes, in excluded volume, and in solution dielectric constant. In order to add to our understanding of how neutral cosolutes influence the folding and function of RNA, we chose to study their influence on the stability of model hairpins containing GAAA tetraloops.
The most common RNA hairpin loops are tetraloops, and approximately 50% of the hairpin structures in ribosomal RNA contain tetraloops (Woese, Winker & Gutell, 1990; Wolters, 1992; Gutell, 1993). In addition, loops of the GNRA family, where N is any nucleotide and R is a purine, along with UNCG motif are some of the most common and most stable (Woese, Winker & Gutell, 1990; Wolters, 1992; Gutell, 1993). GNRA loops possess increased thermodynamic stability in the presence of a CG closing base pair (Antao & Tinoco Jr, 1992; Moody, Feerrar & Bevilacqua, 2004; Blose et al., 2009; Blose, Lloyd & Bevilacqua, 2009) and have been extensively studied (Varani, 1995; Bevilacqua & Blose, 2008; Bottaro & Lindorff-Larsen, 2017) due to their participation in critical RNA tertiary interactions, which have been reviewed elsewhere (Butcher & Pyle, 2011; Fiore & Nesbitt, 2013; Bisaria & Herschlag, 2015). Moreover, GNRA loops are now used to facilitate solving of RNA crystal structures and are benchmark structures for computational predictions of RNA structure, folding, and dynamics (Coonrod, Lohman & Berglund, 2012; Kührová et al., 2013; Chen & Garcia, 2013; Haldar et al., 2015).
Given the significant role for GNRA loops in RNA folding, they make an excellent system to further the investigations of the influence of cosolutes on RNA secondary structures. Here we have used model RNA hairpins containing the common GAAA version of a GNRA tetraloop to determine not just the influence of cosolutes on the stability of the loop, but also on the thermodynamic preference for a CG closing base pair. This work would serve to complement prior studies on GNRA loops that focused on how cosolutes influence the tertiary interactions of the loops rather than the secondary structures (Dupuis, Holmstrom & Nesbitt, 2014; Holmstrom, Dupuis & Nesbitt, 2015). By monitoring the denaturation of the model hairpins in the presence and absence model PEG cosolutes, we elucidated the effects of the cosolutes on the loop itself and on the preference for a CG closing base pair. We found that polyethylene glycols significantly destabilized the tetraloop with a CG closing base pair relative to a tetraloop with a GC closing base pair. This effect was linear with increasing PEG 200 concentration and suggested that cosolutes may retain preferential interactions with the loop nucleobases with a GC closing base pair.
Hairpin synthesis
The RNA hairpins and associated DNA hairpins used in this study were synthesized by Integrated DNA Technologies (Coralville, IA, USA) and were diluted to a concentration of 1 mM using 10 mM Tris, 0.1 mM EDTA pH 7.5 buffer for storage. The RNA hairpin sequences studied were 1cg: 5′-GGACGAAAGUCC-3′; 1gc: 5′-GGAGGAAACUCC-3′; 2cg: 5′-GAACGAAAGUUC-3′; and 2gc: 5′-GAAGGAAACUUC-3′. Each hairpin contains a GAAA tetraloop (underlined), a CG or GC closing base pair (bolded), and an additional three base pairs in the stem that contains one or two AU pairs (italicized). The DNA hairpin sequences studied were d2cg: 5′-GAACGCAGTTC-3′; and d2gc: 5′-GAAGGCACTTC-3′. In this case both sequences contain a DNA triloop (underlined). Thus, sequences are labeled according to whether the loop closing base pair is a CG or GC pair and if the stem contains one or two AU or AT pairs. Two different stems were utilized to account for non-nearest-neighbor effects that potentially could have contributed to the observed trends in stability for the GAAA tetraloops. The stem with two AT pairs also helped lower the TM of the DNA hairpin to improve upper baselines in the denaturation studies as well as to compare with previous experiments (Blose, Lloyd & Bevilacqua, 2009). This is also why the DNA loop sequence of GCA was used instead of GAA (Blose, Lloyd & Bevilacqua, 2009).
Preparation of cosolute solutions
Forty percent (w/v) solutions of cosolutes in 10 mM sodium phosphate pH 7 were prepared. Both the masses and volumes of solution components measured during solution preparation so that the concentration of the solutions could be expressed in additional concentration units, such as molal (m) as needed for comparison between studies. PEG 200 was used as a model osmolyte as it has been shown to influence the preference for a CG closing pair for related stable RNA hairpins (Whittum & Blose, 2017), and PEG 8000 was used as a larger cosolute and potential crowding agent.
Thermal denaturation of hairpins
The nucleic acid concentrations of the denatured samples ranged from 3 to 45 µM. All melts contained 10 mM sodium phosphate pH 7 and 0–40% (w/v) osmolyte. Thermal denaturation of the model hairpins was performed using an Evolution 260 Bio spectrophotometer or a Chirascan CD spectrophotometer in absorbance mode. Sample absorbance was recorded at 260 and 280 nm for the RNA hairpins and 260 nm for the DNA hairpins to compare to the literature (Blose et al., 2009; Blose, Lloyd & Bevilacqua, 2009). The absorbance was recorded over a temperature range of 10 °C–90 °C using a temperature ramp of 1 °C min−1 as needed to obtain baselines for fits. Data were fit to a two-state model using sloping baselines and analyzed using a Levenberg-Marquadt algorithm for nonlinear curve fitting in QtiPlot v. 0.9.8.3 (http://www.qtiplot.com/).
Thermodynamic analysis
Thermodynamic parameters and uncertainties for hairpin folding are from the average and standard deviations of data from at least three independently prepared samples. The TM was found to be independent of nucleic acid strand concentrations as expected. Previous studies on these sequences have shown that under the relatively low nucleic acid and buffer concentrations used in this study that our model sequences disfavor duplex formation and adopt the hairpin structure via intramolecular folding (Blose et al., 2009; Blose, Lloyd & Bevilacqua, 2009). To determine the influence of cosolutes on the stability of the stable hairpin loops and the thermodynamic preference for a CG closing base pair, ΔG°37 values were compared among sequences and solution conditions as modeled in Fig. 1. The change in folding stability due to the presence of a cosolute was quantified by (1) where ΔG°37(cosolute) − ΔG°37(nocosolute) are for the folding of the same hairpin sequence in the presence and absence of PEG 200 or PEG 8000, respectively. The change in folding stability due to the change of CG to a GC closing base pair was determined by (2) where ΔG°37(gc) and ΔG°37(cg) are for the folding of a hairpin with a GC and a CG closing base pair, respectively, under the same solution conditions. Equation (3) was used to determine the influence of the closing base pair change directly on the nucleic acid loops, (3) where the small factor of 0.16 kcal mol−1 accounts for the contribution of the change in stacking of the GC compared to the CG (Blose et al., 2009). Finally, the change in loop stability due to the switch from a CG to a GC closing base pair in the presence of a cosolute as compared to dilute buffer conditions is quantified in Eq. (4). (4) The ΔΔΔG°37(loop,cosolute) parameter quantifies how PEG 200 or PEG 2000 effects the stability of the loop motif based on the selection of the loop closing base pair, and reveals both how the sequence preference may be influenced by cosolute and how small changes in sequence may influence cosolute-tuning of loop stability.
Results and Discussion
The CG closing base pair is thermodynamically preferred with both stems
Thermal denaturation experiments were performed for RNA hairpins containing a CG or GC closing base pair in the context of stem 1 or stem 2, which contain one or two AU pairs respectively. Parameters determined directly from the fit of these data along with uncertainties are found in Table 1, whereas further analysis along with the sum of squares propagated error (Harris, 2003) are summarized in Table 2. The comparison of hairpin folding with two different stems was performed to determine if non-nearest-neighbor effects influenced relative loop stability of GAAA loops with a CG versus a GC closing base pair in our model hairpins. It has been shown for related, stable GNRA loops that in addition to the closing base pair, the first non-nearest neighbor and to a lesser extent the second non-nearest neighbor to the tetraloop can affect loop stability (Sheehy, Davis & Znosko, 2010). For stem 1 the second non-nearest neighbor is a GC, and for stem 2 the second non-nearest neighbor is an AU. However, we only see minor effects on loop thermodynamics. Under our buffer conditions ΔΔG°37(loop) is 1.47 kcal mol−1 and 1.36 kcal mol−1 for stem 1 and stem 2, respectively (Table 2, Column 4). Second non-nearest-neighbors have also been shown to have no significant on the stability of a stable DNA triloop d(GCA) in 10 mM sodium phosphate buffer (Blose, Lloyd & Bevilacqua, 2009). Moreover, our value of ΔΔG°37(loop) agrees with previous work (1.33 vs. 1.38 kcal mol−1) on this model system (Blose, Lloyd & Bevilacqua, 2009). Thus, our observations suggest that the changes we observe in loop stability are not influenced by the stem outside of the closing base pair.
|ΔH° (kcal mol−1)
|ΔS° (e.u.)
|ΔG°37b (kcal mol−1)
|RNA hairpins
|No cosolute
|67.9 ± 0.6
|−42.2 ± 1.0
|−123.7 ± 3.1
|−3.82 ± 0.04
|56.4 ± 0.4
|−37.1 ± 0.9
|−112.6 ± 2.2
|−2.19 ± 0.05
|53.7 ± 0.4
|−37.0 ± 1.0
|−113.3 ± 3.0
|−1.89 ± 0.05
|41.2 ± 0.5
|−28.2 ± 1.6
|−89.7 ± 5.0
|−0.37 ± 0.04
|54.8 ± 0.6
|−36.8 ± 1.3
|−112.3 ± 4.1
|−2.00 ± 0.05
|46.4 ± 0.5
|−34.3 ± 1.8
|−107.7 ± 5.9
|−1.00 ± 0.05
|39.8 ± 0.5
|−29.5 ± 1.4
|−94.1 ± 4.6
|−0.26 ± 0.04
|30.2 ± 0.6
|−30.7 ± 1.1
|−101.3 ± 3.6
|0.69 ± 0.06
|64.7 ± 0.3
|−35.8 ± 0.8
|−106.9 ± 2.5
|−2.93 ± 0.06
|55.0 ± 0.4
|−34.3 ± 1.3
|−104.5 ± 4.0
|−1.87 ± 0.04
|DNA hairpins
|No cosolute
|68.9 ± 0.5
|−29.9 ± 0.9
|−87.3 ± 2.6
|−2.80 ± 0.05
|48.9 ± 0.4
|−23.4 ± 0.7
|−72.5 ± 2.3
|−0.87 ± 0.03
|45.7 ± 0.5
|−27.3 ± 0.9
|−85.6 ± 2.8
|−0.74 ± 0.04
|30.2 ± 0.3
|−26.3 ± 0.8
|−86.6 ± 2.7
|0.59 ± 0.03
|Cosolutea/ Hairpin
|ΔG°37b (kcal mol−1)
|ΔΔG°37(gc−cg)c (kcal mol−1)
|ΔΔG°37(loop)c (kcal mol−1)
|ΔΔG°37(cosolute)c (kcal mol−1)
|ΔΔΔG°37(loop,cosolute)c (kcal mol−1)
|RNA hairpins
|No Cosolute
|−3.82 ± 0.04
|−2.19 ± 0.05
|1.63 ± 0.06
|1.47 ± 0.06
|−1.89 ± 0.05
|−0.37 ± 0.04
|1.52 ± 0.06
|1.36 ± 0.06
|−2.00 ± 0.05
|1.82 ± 0.06
|−1.00 ± 0.05
|1.00 ± 0.07
|0.84 ± 0.07
|1.19 ± 0.07
|0.63 ± 0.09
|−0.26 ± 0.04
|1.63 ± 0.06
|0.69 ± 0.06
|0.95 ± 0.07
|0.79 ± 0.07
|1.06 ± 0.07
|0.57 ± 0.09
|−2.93 ± 0.06
|0.89 ± 0.07
|−1.87 ± 0.04
|1.06 ± 0.07
|0.90 ± 0.07
|0.32 ± 0.06
|0.57 ± 0.09
|DNA hairpins
|No cosolute
|−2.80 ± 0.05
|−0.87 ± 0.03
|1.93 ± 0.06
|1.77 ± 0.06
|−0.74 ± 0.04
|2.06 ± 0.07
|0.59 ± 0.03
|1.33 ± 0.05
|1.17 ± 0.05
|1.46 ± 0.04
|0.60 ± 0.08
Model cosolutes destabilize hairpins with stable GAAA tetraloops
In order to add to the understanding of how osmolytes and crowders might influence the stability of the GAAA tetraloops we utilized presence and absence of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 200 and PEG 8000. We chose polyethylene glycols as they have been used extensively as neutral cosolutes to study a wide variety of nucleic acid structures including hairpins, duplexes, triplexes, and quadruplexes, and Z-DNA (Spink & Chaires, 1999; Spink, Garbett & Chaires, 2007; Miller et al., 2010; Knowles et al., 2011; Pramanik et al., 2011; Nakano et al., 2012; Gu et al., 2013; Strulson et al., 2013; Leamy, Yennawar & Bevilacqua, 2017). Moreover, it was found that PEG 200 influences not just the stability of but the preference for the CG closing base pair in UUCG tetraloops (Whittum & Blose, 2017).
Denaturation experiments were carried out for the RNA hairpins in the presence and absence of 40% (w/v) neutral cosolute and example denaturation curves are shown in Fig. 2. The cosolute concentration was chosen as it has been used in previous studies of cosolutes and nucleic acids as a high concentration limit for osmolytes and macromolecular crowders, and is representative of the high cellular concentration range for osmolytes (Khan et al., 2010). For the RNA hairpins, the presence of PEG 200 destabilizes the structures as can be seen qualitatively with the shift of the denaturation curves to lower temperatures (Fig. 2) and quantitatively in the positive values for ΔΔG°37(cosolute) (Table 2). PEG 200 destabilized the 2cg and 2gc hairpins to nearly the same extent as for the 1cg and 1gc hairpins with differences of 0.19 and 0.13 kcal mol−1 for the cg and gc sequences, respectively. This provides further evidence that that second non-nearest neighbor effects are minor for the hairpins.
The destabilizing effects of PEG 200 on the GAAA loops are large and significant as ΔΔG°37(cosolute) values exceeded 1 kcal mol−1 for all GAAA hairpin sequences. This is especially notable when the PEG 200 destabilization of the GAAA hairpin is compared to the nonprotecting osmolyte denaturation of a hairpin with an unstructured loop. For example, the PEG 200 destabilization of the 1cg hairpin is 1.5 times that for urea destabilization of a hairpin with an unstructured tetraloop and a cg closing base pair when compared on a per molal basis (0.59 kcal mol m−1 vs. 0.38 kcal mol m−1) (Lambert & Draper, 2007). Although small differences in concentrations of monovalent cations present in the experimental solutions may contribute to this observation, the major contributing factor to the destabilization of the GAAA hairpins is likely the significant stacking and hydrogen bonding present in the GAAA loop that is absent in the less stable tetraloop (Deng & Cieplak, 2010). These additional interactions present in the folded tetraloop would consequently limit the interactions of PEG 200 with the nucleobases as compared to the unfolded state.
The addition of PEG 8000 also destabilized the 1cg and 1gc hairpins, ΔΔG°37(cosolute) (Table 2), but 0.9–1 kcal mol−1 less than for PEG 200. It has been found for a DNA hairpin that as the size of a PEG-based cosolute increases, direct interactions between the DNA hairpin and cosolute decrease and excluded volume effects increase (Knowles et al., 2011). Thus, the destabilization observed due to larger molecular weight PEG molecules is less than that for smaller molecular weight PEG molecules (Knowles et al., 2011). Given the destabilization for PEG 8000 is less than for PEG 200, especially for 1gc, we did not further purse its effects on the stem 2 hairpins.
Model cosolutes preferentially destabilizes GAAA loops with a CG closing base pair
Both PEG 200 and PEG 8000 preferentially destabilize the RNA tetraloops with a CG closing base pair relative to those with a GC closing base pair as quantified by ΔΔΔG°37(loop,cosolute) (Table 2, column 6). The preferential destabilization with a CG closing base pair decreases the free energy difference between the CG and GC loops by over 40% when one compares ΔΔΔG°37(loop,cosolute) to ΔΔG°37(loop). The value of ΔΔΔG°37(loop,cosolute) is the same for both stem 1 and stem 2 within error for PEG 200, and more remarkably, it is the same within error in the presence of PEG 8000. Even though the overall destabilization of the RNA hairpins by PEG 8000 is significantly less than that for PEG 200, the difference in destabilization between sequences with CG and GC closing base pairs is the same within error. Moreover, the magnitude of ΔΔΔG°37(loop,cosolute) when expressed on a per molal basis (∼0.20 kcal mol−1 m −1) is on the same order of magnitude as the actual m-value for other cosolutes such as glycerol for an unstructured RNA loop (Lambert & Draper, 2007). This result suggests that the influence of the model cosolutes on the closing base pair preference is significant.
It has been suggested previously that although the loops are structurally dissimilar that the UUCG and GAAA loops mimic each other in how they present functional groups to and interact with their closing base pairs (Blose et al., 2009). PEG 200 destabilizes UUCG loops to a greater extent than GAAA loops, and the destabilization by PEG 200 is approximately 1.0 kcal mol−1 more for a UUCG loops than for GAAA loops with the same stem. For example, 1cg with a UUCG loop was destabilized by 2.84 kcal mol−1 by 40% PEG 200 (Whittum & Blose, 2017), but 1cg with a GAAA loop was destabilized by 1.82 kcal mol−1 (Table 2). Although the destabilization of the GAAA loops is less than observed for the UUCG loops, the relative impact on the preference for a CG closing base pair is similar. The ΔΔΔG°37(loop,cosolute) values for GAAA loops are about 75% of that for UUCG. For example, ΔΔΔG°37(loop,cosolute) is 0.63 kcal mol−1 for GAAA with the 1 cg stem whereas it is 0.80 kcal mol−1 for UUCG with the 1 cg stem (Whittum & Blose, 2017). This difference is just outside of the error on the two measurements, but this similarity in response of the closing base pair preference suggests that while UUCG and GAAA are structurally dissimilar, they are similar in how they interact with their closing base pairs, and in how osmolytes influence that preference.
To further investigate the difference in destabilization of the GAAA loops, additional PEG 200 concentrations were utilized for the representative 1cg and 1gc sequences and a plot of ΔG°37 vs. PEG 200% with data for 1cg and 1gc is provided in Fig. 3. There are distinctly linear trends in ΔG°37 with increasing PEG 200 concentration for both 1cg and 1gc (R2 > 0.9940) suggesting that the stability of the loops via PEG 200 is linearly tunable even at high at the highest cosolute concentrations.
PEG 200 preferentially destabilizes d(GNA) Triloops with a CG closing base pair
Previous work on stable DNA triloops from the d(GNA) family has suggested that due to the similar interactions of the loop with its closing that this motif is portable across polymer type and loop size (Blose, Lloyd & Bevilacqua, 2009). Previously, analysis of the loop-closing base pair interaction included nucleotide and functional group modifications as well examining the salt dependence of the folding energies. Now, our PEG 200 comparisons add to this observation. If we compare ΔΔΔG°37(loop,cosolute) for d(GNA) to that from the GNRA the values agree well within error (Table 2). This result suggests that in spite of differences in polymer type and properties that the interactions between the loops and closing base pairs is similar and that neutral cosolutes will tune stability based on those structural similarities.
PEG 200 preferential destabilization is likely due to differences in the folded hairpin structure
It has been shown previously that cosolutes generally destabilize nucleic acid secondary structure via preferential interactions of the cosolute with the nucleobases in the unfolded state (Lambert & Draper, 2007; Knowles et al., 2011), and differences in observed m-values are then due to differences in the chemistry of specific interactions of the cosolutes with given sequences. For example, betaine prefers G-C pairs, urea prefers A-T pairs, whereas polyethylene glycols have previously shown no distinct sequence preference (Nordstrom et al., 2006; Spink, Garbett & Chaires, 2007; Knowles et al., 2011; Schwinefus et al., 2013). In determining these dependences, large global changes are often made; whereas for our RNA hairpin model system our sequence changes are small. The change from one to two AU pairs in the stem has no large, observable influence on the preference for a CG closing base pair by either of the RNA or DNA model systems. The change from a CG to a GC closing base pair is also minimal from a sequence perspective; only the location of the C and the G is changing in the unfolded strand. Given that polyethylene glycols have not revealed a sequence preference for their interactions and that the sequence change is small, it suggests that the difference in PEG-based destabilization of the model hairpin loops is not due to sequence differences or interactions in the unfolded state alone.
Previous experiments on GAAA tetraloops have shown an electrostatic contribution for the preference of a CG closing base pair, and the results suggest that potential clashes between the loop and closing base pair are enhanced with a GC closing base pair (Blose et al., 2009). If PEG 200 were exerting its influence based on preferential solvation of the unfolded state alone or via dielectric effects, there should be no change or an enhancement of the preference for the CG closing base pair as the lower dielectric should further stabilize the favorable interactions and destabilize the clashes. This is counter to our observation that 1 cg and 2 cg are destabilized relative to 1 gc and 2 gc. One potential way to explain this observation, however, is to consider the accessible surface area of the loops. For GAAA the loop with the GC closing basepair is less compact than the loop with a CG closing basepair (Blose et al., 2009), and this additional accessible surface area in the presence of a GC closing pair may allow some nucleobase-cosolute interactions to be maintained in the folded state as compared to a loop with a CG closing base pair.
In this study, we examined the thermodynamics of GAAA tetraloops as a function of the stem sequence, the choice of closing base pair, and the presence of osmolytes. We found that non-nearest neighbor effects do not influence the relative stability of the GAAA loop or the preference for a CG closing base pair. Both PEG 200 and PEG 8000 destabilized the RNA hairpins, but the destabilization was greater than observed for a similar hairpin system with an unstructured tetraloop (Lambert & Draper, 2007). For both PEG 200 and PEG 8000, the extent of destabilization was dependent on the loop closing base pair as GAAA loops with the thermodynamically preferred CG closing base pair were destabilized to a greater extent. Moreover, the free energy gap in loop stability due to the presence of the CG closing base pair is decreased over 40% in 40% (w/v) cosolute. The decreases in thermodynamic preference for the CG closing base pair did not depend on the cosolute size or the nucleic acid polymer as we observed similar results for a DNA triloop. Further experiments revealed that the destabilization of the hairpins as well the decreasing energetic advantage of the CG closing base pair have a linear relationship with PEG 200 concentration. These results taken along with considerations of dielectric effects and similarities of the single-stranded sequences suggest that it is likely that the difference in observed stabilities may be due to PEG 200 interactions with the folded state. Literature observations of increased accessible surface area in the presence of a GC closing base suggest that they may be able to retain interactions with specific cosolutes in the folded structure (Blose et al., 2009). It has been suggested that RNA structures may have evolved to respond to the presence of specific osmolytes (Lambert & Draper, 2007), and it has been shown that cosolutes can promote the cooperative folding of secondary and tertiary structure in functional RNA to enhance stability in vivo (Strulson et al., 2014). Our results provide evidence that minimal to non-perturbing sequence changes of even one base pair can significantly influence how cosolutes can influence the stability and folding of RNA structures in vivo.


text: Garbage disposals are great, but only up to the point when they stop working. What will you do when it stops working and you don't have a way to properly dispose of the garbage? Do you just hope it corrects itself? You know that won't happen and instead, you will […] Read more »


text:
Ages 6+
Most competitive students spend more than five hours in the dance studio each week, they learn to prioritize and time manage as they take on a more challenging training process. Students in this division will not only further their dance technique and abilities but will also develop lasting friendships and gain self confidence in an atmosphere that melds performance with self-expression.
Our students work hard and are rewarded with recognition throughout the world. Our students have participated at:
Within the company, dancers will have a set amount of hours outside of their weekly classes to learn routines they are invited into. In addition to group routines, all students in the Competitive Company are also offered the chance to compete with a duet, trio or, solo! The Competitive Company competes in 3+ Winnipeg competitions with the option to compete in more competitions. Students who qualify for any National competitions will also have the option to travel and represent RDC.
Participation in this program is restricted to students who are ready to make achieving their personal best a priority. Our approach is a whole learning experience aimed at not only improving dance skills but also the overall education of each student. Placement classes will be available for booking throughout August and early September.
Designed for advanced students who display exemplary technique and high development potential, the Competitive Division focuses on the most determined dancer. Training is more extensive ensuring progress, while encouraging fluidity of movement and strengthening the dancers overall abilities. Students are more challenged and focused on their technique and performance readying them to participate in various dance competitions throughout the season.
Studio Hours
By Appointment Only
What Our Dancers Are Saying
"I love Royal Dance Conservatory because I feel like I am accepted and like I am with family. It is my favourite place to be. I feel like I have had a special connection with all of my dance teachers and they have helped me grow as a dancer and person." -Hannah L (Age 11)
Contact Us
Dance To Express Not Impress
Royal Dance Conservatory
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text: RLW 0 Report post Posted December 26, 2018 For Sale is a Top of the Line North Radical Shore Stunt Kite from the now defunct San Diego company. Not a kite expert but it is missing one of the black (not sure what it is called) bars, easy enough to replace as I have been told. Located near Daytona, Florida. Please private message for more information. best offer (I know what it is worth but not greedy and need to sell), have more pictures but not letting me upload them, can email them if interested. Thank you Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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We finally picked up the keys to our new house at 7:45pm last night (thanks to a kindly local estate agent who was willing to drive them over out of hours).
We were due to get them by 1pm on Monday and had taken time off work in anticipation, arriving in the area early to be nearby when we got "the call".
At 1pm we were told a moving van had turned up late and that they needed another hour. Fair enough.
At 3pm we were told the van they had been sent was too small, that another was being sent, but that we were definitely getting in before 5pm (which is the time when the solicitor's office closed, making completion impossible). Annoying, but ok - we'll sit here singing Christmas Carols to pass the time ...
At 5pm we were sat in our car at the top of their road clearly able to see that they were nowhere near finishing packing.
Deflated, we arranged to return first thing Tuesday morning to collect the keys and race to work (Frances having used up her final available day's holiday) and asked our solicitor to request that they reimburse us for our incurred expenses.
So we were there at first light to meet the poor estate agent who had agreed to come over especially early to let us confirm that the property had been property vacated. Apparently they had finally moved out by ... 1am.
A quick check confirmed that all was in order, we placed the call to our solicitor to have her release the money and confirm completion ... only to be told that they were refusing to reimburse us a penny for Monday. (Even if you ignore the value of the wasted day off work, we had incurred additional legal fees, and spent a fortune on petrol, parking and train fares due to their error.)
We asked our solicitor to push back and there followed an hour and a half of confusion, frustration and anger until, at 10:30am, we found out that the seller's solicitor had actually been unable to get in touch with them all morning (they were asleep after their late night!) so we raced off to work desperately hoping that people there would forgive us for missing most of the morning.
Everything was resolved during the day and we finally completed at 4pm, collecting the keys when we could get there after work.
The joy is only matched by the relief that the process is over and we can begin building our new life here in earnest.
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
Making a House a Home - Getting in the Door
Labels: Home, House Projects
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Update On Thunder Ridge
Published: December 3, 2014 12:31 pm ET
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On Tuesday, December 2, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission approved a measure which will see Keeneland take over the assets of harness racetrack Thunder Ridge Raceway and 'move' the track to another location where Quarter Horse racing is expected to take place.
News of the KHRC's decision comes courtesy of a report by the Lexington Herald-Leader which explains that the commission still has to approve other details of the plan.
The article has cited Keeneland Vice President Vince Gabbert as saying that his organization is looking to move the track to the Corbin area and that they hope live racing can take place at the new track by the summer of 2016.
The Tuesday meeting also saw the commission approve Keeneland and the Red Mile's amended application for the jointly-operated Instant Racing expansion at the Red Mile.
(With files from the Lexington Herald-Leader)


text:
4.25" small design two-way loudspeaker , white
The Maze coffee shop in Attica (Greece) recently has been installed with Apart MASK4 and MASK6 loudspeakers. The two SUB2400 subwoofers take care of the bass in the coffee shop.
Also for the electronics Apart was chosen by the installer. The PA8250 power amplifier combined with a PM1122 multifunctional stereo pre-amplifier allows the owner of the bar to have different volume levels and/or different sound sources in the coffee shop.


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Is there a way to change the language to e.g. english?
Unfortunately the Swedish translation has a lot of strange expressions that I'm not comfortable with.
If you need help with the translation, I might be able to help you.
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This is my first Too Late for Made4Math Monday Tuesday! submission:
I totally stole this idea from Sam. Although I started making a set of official "math teacher" cards for parents, when I saw Sam's post I decided to make the cards more fun and a tool to use with students.
The design I came up with will allow me to customize the message with a sharpie.
What can I use these for? Well....pretty much anything! All I have to do is fill in the blanks. Homework pass? Extra points? Seat change? Feel free to make suggestions.
I designed this at VistaPrint.Com.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Too late for Made4Math Monday Tuesday! Submission
Posted by Mr. R. at 8:28 AM
3 comments:
I love this idea! It could be a "caught being good" pass too! Could be redeemed for something out of the "prize box" (candy, pencil, etc) or bonus points.ReplyDelete
Love this idea! Especially like the fact that you can fill in the blank and make it whatever you want! Definitely stealing this idea! Thanks for sharing!ReplyDelete
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POW/MIA Update: August 13, 2014
AMERICANS ACCOUNTED FOR: There are still 1,641 personnel listed by the Department of Defense as missing and unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War, a number that changed with release in late July of the name of Col Thomas W. Dugan, USAF, listed as MIA in Laos on December 13, 1968. Colonel Dugan's remains were recovered June 6, 2012, and identified as part of a group ID on August 28, 2013. The number of Americans announced by DoD as returned and identified since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 is now 942. Another 63 US personnel, recovered by the US and ID'd before the end of the war, bring the official total of US personnel accounted for from the Vietnam War to 1,005. Of the 1,641 missing and unaccounted-for personnel, 90% were lost in Vietnam or in areas of Cambodia and Laos under Vietnam's wartime control: Vietnam-1,275 (VN-469, VS-806); Laos-306; Cambodia-53; PRC territorial waters-7. Over-water losses on DoD's list of No Further Pursuit cases number well over 600.
ONGOING REORGANIZATION: Senior DoD civilian, Alisa Stack, is continuing work as the head of a transition team, the Personnel Accounting Consolidation Task Force (PACT). Reportedly, the PACT includes government specialists in each area to be addressed, from structure of the new agency, to the number of personnel, budget requirements, interface with other departments and agencies, and communication with the families. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations & Low Intensity Conflict (ASD/SOLIC) Michael Lumpkin both stated that communication with the families must be a very high priority consideration in how the new agency performs. Since her appointment, Ms. Stack and PACT members have been actively interviewing interested people, in and out of government, plus appear to be focused on ensuring that a wide variety of voices are heard, responsible and irresponsible, rational and irrational, so the outcome will be interesting.
An outside firm, The Clearing, was contracted to obtain input from family members from all wars on their personal experiences in dealing with various accounting community organizations. In addition to DPMO, JPAC and LSEL (specifically named in the restructure directive and by Congress), these include the Service Casualty Offices, AFDIL and DIA's Stony Beach POW/MIA team. The Clearing is seeking views from all who are willing and can be reached by emailing [email protected]. Family members from all wars are urged to provide their views and, in light of the comparatively small number of Vietnam War family members, the League is hopeful that ALL Vietnam War families take this opportunity to remind members of PACT, The Clearing and senior DoD officials that uncertainty about Vietnam War missing men is still a significant factor for the families, much more so than remains recoveries of known dead from earlier wars and conflicts. The League supports accounting for losses in WWII, Korean War and Cold War, but in addition to focusing priority on Vietnam War accounting, not to its detriment.
Following review and approval by newly confirmed Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (USD-P) Christine Wormuth, the PACT recommendations will be provided to Deputy Secretary of Defense (DepSecDef) Robert Work. That presentation is anticipated this week and, once he has approved, final recommendations should go to Secretary Hagel. In the interim, ASD/SOLIC Lumpkin testified before the House Armed Services Committee's (HASC's) Subcommittee on Military Personnel on July 15th, along with the newly named head of DoD's Cost Assessment & Program Evaluation (CAPE) office, Dr. Jamie Morin. Dr. Morin, very recently confirmed, reported on CAPE's findings from their lengthy investigation. ASD Lumpkin testified about ongoing efforts to restructure the accounting community, pledging continued efforts by JPAC, DPMO, LSEL and others as the consolidation and restructuring occurs. He provided the date of January 1, 2015 as the initial start date for the new POW/MIA Accounting Agency, assuring the Subcommittee of full implementation in place by January 1, 2016.
FIELD OPERATIONS: JPAC had planned to conduct a Joint Field Activity (JFA) in Laos in October-November of last year, but it was cancelled due to complications related to receipt of timely funding. Three Recovery Teams (RTs) and one Investigation Team (IT), augmented by the DIA Stony Beach specialist, conducted a JFA January 15-February 17th. A longer JFA began March 4th and concluded April 14th; but only one RT and one IT were deployed. The next JFA was conducted May 9th to June 22nd, with only two RTs, due to the lack of deployable scientific personnel. JPAC will host bi-annual POW/MIA Consultations with Laos on August 26th in Hawaii.
Operations in Cambodia by one RT and one Underwater Recovery Team (URT), postponed twice in 2013, finally took place January 28th – April 2nd. The Stony Beach specialist is permanently in-country and conducts investigations when and where needed, so ITs are not routinely scheduled in conjunction with JPAC's Cambodia operations. There are no identified sites currently awaiting excavation/recovery; therefore, no JFAs are scheduled in Cambodia until early 2015. The 2013 cancellations had little to do with funding shortages and much to do with internal mishandling of contractual authorities by some in JPAC with no mission-related experience in SEA. Objections were raised to the payment authorization process that had been in place for over 20 years. As a result, all operations were halted while a solution was found that was satisfactory to puzzled Cambodian leaders, the US Ambassador and his staff. An "Order for Services" document was devised that satisfied previously unimportant/ignored criteria, and the Cambodians, always accommodating, agreed to the new process. For the first time in over 20 years, technical level talks will not be held with Cambodia in FY2014, but plans are being considered for senior level discussions with Cambodia's POW/MIA Committee leadership before the end of the calendar year.
Four RTs conducted operations in Vietnam February 28th – March 27th. Two ITs also deployed on that JFA, plus the RIT (Research Investigation Team) and a Field Forensic Review (FFR) at the end of the JFA. Only three RTs and two ITs were deployed to Vietnam for the May 20th – June 22nd JFA. An underwater operation previously scheduled along the coast of northern Vietnam was cancelled, again reportedly due to lack of available funding. A JFA in Vietnam. August 5th to September 7th, involves four RTs, one Vietnamese Recovery Team (VRT), one IT, and the RIT will again conduct interviews and investigations on LKA cases. On September 23rd, JPAC will host annual Technical Talks with Vietnamese counterparts in Hawaii.
Worldwide: While Vietnam War-related accounting missions slowed, six RTs worked in Germany from April 1st to May 18th on WWII recoveries. In addition to returning to Germany May 10th – June 21st, and overlapping June 15th to July 23rd, working on the same two large WWII bomber sites, there was one IT in Burma from April 28th to May 29th. A special RT recently concluded work on a 1952 US loss being exposed by a melting glacier in Alaska. On this unusual site, there have already been 17 remains recovered and identified, and prospects for additional accountability are high. There was an underwater recovery in Botwood Bay, a harbor in Canada, of a WWII "flying boat" that crashed on take-off. One RT in the Solomon Islands to recover WWII remains began July 8th and concluded August 6th.
Chairman's Comment: With the above record of on-again, off-again field operations, is it any wonder that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are questioning US commitment to the accounting mission? The relatively well-developed working relationship that has evolved since the first joint recovery in Laos in 1984 should mean that field operations are conducted at the pace and scope necessary to achieve long-stated accounting objectives, but such is not the case. There are multiple reasons, initially from congressionally-imposed sequestration, to mandatory budget cuts that hit JPAC disproportionately, due to PACOM "borrowing" some of JPAC's funding for other uses. Cutbacks and cancellations are also due to an inadequate number of deployable JPAC forensic anthropologists, weather restrictions in some areas, often complicated by lack of specialists needed for specific recoveries, and the list goes on and on, with many complications that can arise unexpectedly. Of immediate concern is the need to change existing policy concerning deployable scientific personnel for field operations. If not changed, there will continue to be sporadic reductions in Vietnam War accounting operations, due to competing attention to WWII recoveries in the congressionally-mandated quest for higher numbers of IDs.
Check the League Website: www.pow-miafamilies.org


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Monday, September 14, 2009
Writer's High
People often refer to 'Runner's High' to describe that euphoric feeling they get after doing a run. I've experienced it myself. And now, thanks to my participation in the 3-Day Novel Contest (http://www.3daynovel.com/), I've experienced 'Writer's High'. Who'd have thought you can get the same energy, excitement, and endorphins out of sitting in a chair for 3 days straight as you can running a marathon? Alright, I've only ever actually ran a half-marathon but this was a marathon of writing!
With a mixture of fear and excitement, I approached the contest weekend. Labour Day. Every year, I'd thought about entering the contest, just to see if I could do it, write an entire novel in 3 days. But every year, the dying summer called out to me, whispering of warm, sunny days filled with friends, outdoor adventure, playing, and reveling in the weather before the chill of fall made me put away the shorts and bathing suits and dig my long underwear out of storage. So every year I thought, "next year" and made my getaway plans. This year though, I have dedicated myself, more than ever, to my creative writing so I did it – sent in my registration and the entry fee. No turning back now because I'm too well-trained to pay the money and not do the work. I told friends, family, and my classmates at SFU's Writer's Studio I was doing the contest. I announced it online. I left myself no way to save face if I chickened out. I was eager and excited!
I was also obsessive-compulsive, surpassing even the limits I, in my detail-oriented Virgo brain, knew I was capable of. I painstakingly planned my story, using an idea I'd worked up at a novel-writing intensive course last summer at UBC but had never written. I pulled out the storyboard I use to plan some of my short stories. Not able to find my notes from the course, I started from scratch again. I was on a mission. I wrote character worksheets, created an index card for each major scene, made notes about setting and the plot.
I created a food list, knowing no one else would be around to feed me and I put in comfort foods and ones that needed, at most, a quick few minutes in the microwave to be edible. I bought protein powder with greens in it, for energy. I added chocolate and chips to the list to feed my sweet and salt cravings and even managed to pile in some fruits, vegetables, herbal teas, and sparking mineral waters to keep myself hydrated and thinking clearly. (Later on in the contest, I would realize that thinking clearly is a relative thing, but it sounded good at the time).
I made up a schedule of meals and an overall schedule for the weekend, including writing, eating, sleeping, and yes, even a short exercise break for each day. (Those of you who have done the contest will realize how naively optimistic I was being.) A writing friend gave me some great advice and I took the schedule and superimposed it on my scene cards, adding different colored notes to show where in the story I should be at the end of Day 1, at 6 pm on Day 2 (when the contest website says you should be halfway), at the end of Day 2 and, of course, when I should finish on Day 3. (Knowing this helped me see I was on target and relax and enjoy the writing.)
Then, the first challenge arose, even before the contest started. A friend of mine was going away for the long weekend and needed someone to look after the cats in her house. I'd planned on sequestering myself in my apartment and taking occasional view breaks from the balcony, but she really needed someone. And her house is lovely and comfortable and I'd be able to write in several spots inside it and on her deck, just by moving my laptop around. But I'd be interrupted midday on the Monday to make my way home and finish, once she returned. I weighed the options. I added in packup and move time into my Monday schedule, thinking I should just about be finished my first draft when she got back and I secured her promise to transport me and my car back to my apartment if I was too sleep-deprived or too lost in my story-world to be able to drive safely. And my friend took my shopping list and stocked her cupboards and fridge for me. So, it was settled.
I arrived at her house Friday night. I set up my storyboard and my laptop, turning her dining room into my work area. I had brought a bouquet of sunflowers, a 'Power Card' to boost my self-esteem in moments of writing despair and a couple of 'Angel Cards' that I picked from my deck – love and adventure (fitting for both my own endeavour and, it turned out for my protagonist too). I found her CD player and moved it within easy reach and stacked the CDs I'd brought with me on the table. I put snacks (raw almonds and a banana) within easy reach. I ensured the lighting was good, the ergonomic keyboard was plugged into my laptop, and I could access my friend's internet. All good. I cleared a space in the living room and spread my yoga mat on the floor, thinking I'd need to stretch and pry my body out of 'computing posture' from time to time. I was ready to start writing. I just needed to wait for the weekend to start.
I took a picture of my computer with the word processing program open – to the infamous blank page. Then I figured out how to set my friend's alarm clock, climbed into her bed about 11 pm, and fell asleep. I woke about 2:30 am Saturday morning, got up with my brain buzzing, and wrote some more notes on the characters, then went back to bed just after 3. At 3:30, I realized I'd finished sleeping for the time being and got up to have breakfast and make coffee. I put a load of laundry I'd brought into the washing machine. I'm not sure whether I was thinking I had time to multitask or if I was just stalling, afraid to start.
About 4, I began writing. It took me 3 hours to write 5 pages. I told myself the beginning is always hard and it's important to get it right to set the scene and 'hook' the reader. At 7 am I realized I was just too tired and went back to bed, getting up again at 8, feeling better. I wrote, taking many more short breaks than scheduled as I felt my body cramping – behind my right shoulder blade, my neck, my shoulders, my lower back. At various times I stretched out on my mat, relaxed into the child pose, did my morning salutation, a few downward-facing dogs and some cat stretches. I paced around the room, turned the music up full blast and danced around the room, breaking a sweat and breathing hard. I put my hand against the wall at the doorways and stepped through, stretching my shoulders back. I had short naps. I drank litres of coffee, tea, water, and ate lunch and dinner and snacks. I even allowed myself a 25 minute walk outside when it had nearly stopped raining. I posted status updates on my profile online about what I was going through and where in the story I was, to encourage myself and let my friends encourage me as well. It was an amazing support. I narrowly missed letting two furry black and white critters into the house that evening, instead of one - the one who did get in was my friend's cat; the other was a striped skunk who happened to be wandering through the backyard at the same time.
But mostly, I wrote. I allowed myself only 15 minutes of editing, between 5:45 pm and 6, tired of hearing the editor in my brain yelling. "How do you know it's any good? What about the sentence structure? Do you even remember what you wrote this morning? How about that character development, hey – how do you think that's going?" I think she was just feeling left out, since I usually give her free rein to jump in any time and overrule my writer. This time though, my writer was in her glory, flying down one track, unsure if it would take her where she needed to go but knowing she just had to go there and see. There wasn't time to think about it too much. Her fingers flew across the keyboard and she felt great. At times, she didn't stop typing to think, just leapt and waited to see where she'd land. The story took on a life of its own. The characters did as they damn well pleased. My writer was playing and running and laughing. She was free.
I love being in 'the zone' like that when I'm writing and I realized I don't often enough give myself the freedom to get there. This time though, the thought of the deadline and my schedule kept me from overanalyzing and second-guessing. At one point (on Day 2), I got back from a break and sat down, surprised the story had stopped when I stopped writing. I'd been like a child listening to someone else tell me a story and I thought I'd be able to just read from where I'd left off. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before and I was thrilled because it meant my story was a living thing and that its own momentum would help me carry it forward. At 10 pm, I stopped writing for the day, having finished Day 1 with Chapter 4 and 40 pages.
The next day was much the same. The cat woke me to get out at 3:30 and I chose to sleep some more after I played cat doorman. I woke and started at 6:30 am but, from the start, it felt harder. The weather was on my side though. All weekend it rained, alternating between a light mist and pouring, the water falling with such force from the sky that it bounced a foot back up in the air, coming down in sheets and drumming on the house. I was grateful for the lack of tempting sunshine, feeling safe and cocooned inside (once I turned on the fireplace and the heat to take the chill off). The rain even found its way into my story, drenching my protagonist and helping to make her adventure more challenging.
My friend's downstairs tenant and his friend came home Sunday afternoon. They left me alone to write except for an hour in the evening, for which I will be forever grateful. For that hour, they came upstairs, poured me a glass of wine, massaged my tired arms, and cooked me a lovely BBQ steak dinner. We ate and talked and I had a break that refreshed both my brain and body. They were wonderful. I wrote until 11:30 and finished Day 2 with 63 pages.
On Day 3, I finally needed the alarm clock to wake up. It went off at 6:19 and I shut it off, noticing the cat was still snoring softly and had no intention of going outside. I woke again just before 8 am in a panic, the way you do when you realize you went back to sleep after the alarm and are now late for work. I jumped up, put breakfast beside the computer and was typing by 8. The adrenaline coursing through me made me an effective writer and I had just reached the beginning of the novel's climax when my friend and her companions arrived home. It was noon, perfect timing.
From 12 to 1:30 I packed everything up, came home, ate lunch, set up, and was back at my computer by 1:30, about to bring my story to its most exciting point. I wrote for an hour, took a half hour nap, then got up and finished the first draft. Just after 4:30 on Monday I was done the writing!
I cleaned myself up and went for a walk down by the beach. The rain had finally stopped and the sun was out. A walk that usually takes about an hour was done in 35 minutes. I was so high on the experience that I couldn't slow down. A man jumped down onto the seawall in front of me and started slowly jogging. Despite having to stop and tie my shoe, I stayed the same distance behind him the whole way, him jogging, me walking. He kept looking back at me and was wondering, I'm sure, why I was walking so fast but I couldn't help it. I also couldn't help the huge smile on my face. People looked at me and smiled and said hello. Their eyes followed me as I went by. Later I would check myself in the mirror to make sure I didn't look completely outlandish somehow to attract so much attention. But I looked normal, except for the fact that I was grinning from ear-to-ear and floating about 6 inches above the ground. I was feeling happy and amazed, powerful and beautiful, and incredibly wound up.
After my walk, I came back and sat down to edit. I did a spell check, and a cursory edit to ensure my character's eyes didn't change color and no one came back from the dead. I filled in a few blanks for my reader, realized it needed a thorough edit that wouldn't be part of this initial process and, just after 11 pm Monday, I saved the file.
89 pages and 10 chapters. I opened the bottle of champagne I'd put in the fridge before all this started, toasted the origin of my writing, my friends and family (for supporting me), my characters, and myself. I don't often drink alone but somehow this time it seemed appropriate. I had given a life to my story and added an incredible story to my own life. I had written a novel!
Posted by writer girl at 4:31 PM
Labels: 3-Day Novel, writing
1 comment:
- Adel said...
What a beautiful story Christine! The cat, despite the "in and out" schedule looks so cute :-)
I admire what you do and wish I'll have the time to write too!
Cheers from Montreal
- October 21, 2009 at 8:15 PM
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Sometimes when I read the news I want to cry out in frustration.
According to Cheshire Police Darren Carnochan, Macclesfield's most prolific burglar, whose crime spree spans two decades, was finally brought to justice when a judge jailed him for two years at Chester Crown Court. Sounds like a fair result and a victory for law and order until you discover that Mr Carnochan is a heroin addict committing crimes to fund his addiction. What's the point of sending an addict to prison where there's more drug trafficking than there is on the streets?
If, after all the billions we've spent fighting the drugs war, we cannot keep narcotics out of a totally controlled environment like prison what makes us think we can ban drugs from the streets? It's total folly.
All we are doing is driving addicts like Mr Carnochan to commit crime (against us) and creating a deadly violent distribution system that shows mercy to no one. Surely we need to decriminalize addicts and manage their addiction from Government clinics eliminating the market for dealers and gangsters.
Whatever we are doing now just isn't working.


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The golden age of TV is happening now.
With fast-growing and endless technological advancements, 52 percent of viewers say it's better to be a TV fan now more than ever, according to TVGuide.com's Fall 2011 TV Survey. And why not? Between new apps, gadgets and social TV features, like our very own Watchlist, fans have more ways to watch their favorite shows and stay connected with friends and fellow couch potatoes.
It also helps that the content itself is top-notch, as 36 percent say that this TV season is better than last year's. Among users' favorite new shows: Revenge, Person of Interest and Terra Nova.
Our Watchlist users also have a lot to gloat about because they correctly predicted this season's new hits: Eight of the top 10 most-added freshmen series have been picked up for full seasons (and ABC just ordered five new scripts of another, Pan Am). Who said watching TV makes you dumb? Clearly, it's made TVGuide.com users smarter.
The complete results of the survey (also embedded below), which surveyed 5,897 respondents in October 2011, were presented by TVGuide.com at Friday's Mashable Media Summit in New York.
Tell us how TV has made you smarter.
The golden age of TV is happening now.
(Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.)


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Patt-O-Rama 8363; postmarked 1967; Sheath Dress and Jacket Knitting Pattern
Featured in Basic Fashion Spring & Summer 1967
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Today, as you know, is release day for McMahon Five Designs and as such I have a fun card to show you! I decided to use one of Fairy Doodler's images this week which happens to be a dancing fairy (see link to the image below). I adore this image...she makes me happy, kinda like the sentiment says. I just used some paper and embellies that were in my stash. The layout is from CPS this week. I can't wait to see this off to someone!
Below is the rest of the release and design team's artwork. Be sure to visit them on their blogs and leave some love!
Have a wonderful day everyone!


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Buy Miami Dolphins Football Tickets | Call To Order 1-800-396-7328
Dolphins Jets Football Tickets
By www.miamidolphinsfootballtickets.com
The Miami Dolphins and New York Jets are rivals in the AFC East Division.
Miami Dolphins New York Jets Rivalry
Both the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets have long histories and are storied franchises in the NFL making Dolphins Jets Tickets a hot item in Miami.
The Miami Dolphins are home to 2 Super Bowl Titles and the New York Jets have 1 Super Bowl to their name. The Dolphins Jets rivalry goes back to the old days of the NFL and has continued in the AFC East Division.
The New York Jets have built a strong franchise in recent years after a few down seasons. Head Coach Rex Ryan has assembled some quality players through free agency, trading, and drafting. They are looking to contend for the AFC East for years to come. The Miami Dolphins will have to step up and play their top game to take down the New York Jets.
Miami Dolphins New York Jets Tickets
Dolphins Jets Tickets always go quick so if you're interested you need to purchase fast! Come to Sun Life Stadium and check out the Miami Dolphins take on the New York Jets! It's a game you are sure to remember for years to come.


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The Unity House PROS program can help!
What is PROS? The acronym stands for Personalized Recovery Oriented Systems. It's a program designed to be a person-centered path to recovery for adults with mental illness. Unity House's program is available for those seeking a holistic approach in their recovery with mental illness.
The Mayo Clinic defines mental illness as "… a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors. Many people have mental health concerns from time to time" (Oct, 2015). Unfortunately, the term 'mental illness' can carry a stigma that turns many people away from getting the help they need; even though many people have mental health concerns.
The team in the Unity House PROS program can help. They offer classes on a wide variety of common barriers that interfere with people reaching their personal goals. Staff do not create goals for program participants. Rather, they help people establish their own goals and help people in pursuit of these goals.
Staff in the Unity House PROS program includes a licensed social worker, licensed mental health counselors, supported employment specialists, a registered nurse, and peer advocates.
We invite you to learn more about Unity House PROS!
Please contact PROS Program Director Harlan Hall at (518) 274-2607 ext. 4172 or email@example.com for discussion and tour of the Unity House PROS program located at 2431 Sixth Avenue in Troy, NY 12180.


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A beautiful holiday villa in beautiful surroundings isn't a dream anymore if you turn to Residence du Soleil. The villas offered by us are from owners who have given great care off designing their property to offer you the best holiday ever. These villas located in the rolling wine country of the Languedoc with in fifteen minutes from the beautiful nature of the Montagne Noir, a one and a half hour drive from the impressive mountains of the Pyrenees and of course, close to the deep blue Mediterranean Sea with its wonderful sandy beaches, are carefully chosen by us for you. By looking and finding your holiday villa begins already the fun.
Find your house on our map or choose your house:
Villa Rosa
This modern villa for 6 people is completed early may 2018. The wooded area, the heated private pool and the complete, contemporary villa with its two bathrooms and three bedrooms give you a wonderful, luxurious, feeling of freedom what you still will enjoy long after your holiday. Sitting on the covered terrace you overlook the garden with views and on the heated swimming pool. Location: 11120 Pouzols-Minervois
L'ancienne Cave
This original building was before the whereabouts of a wine grower and is fully converted into a beautiful house with large swimming pool, spacious living room, covered terrace and of course plenty of privacy. You are only a few steps from the village centre and there you can feel the real life of the South of French. Location: 11200 Canet d'Aude
Le Pavillon + studio
A perfect location for this wonderful villa with studio for 10 people. The large garden, the great views, beautiful large terraces, the heated swimming pool and of course the complete, spacious villa make this place ideal for your well deserved holiday. The rolling countryside, the wooded area and the typical villages make the picture complete. Location: 11120 Bize-Minervois
Villa Les belles vues
This beautiful, large tastefully furnished villa is situated in the hills of a village, with great views over the village and the beautiful mountain ridges. The cozy village has many shops, restaurants, a spa, bar and a casino. The village is known as health resort, has its own Golf course and is situated in a beautiful surrounded area where one can enjoy hiking, cycling and many other outdoor activities can practice. The villa is surrounded by a spacious garden with a heated private swimming pool. Location: 34240 Lamalou-les-Bains
Villa Chérie Bibi
This characteristic French House is located a nice French village at the foot of the montagne noir. The attractive terrace, large swimming pool and authentically decorated House makes your holiday a real French experience. Within walking distance you can in the morning buy your delicious fresh croissants or pain au raisin at the real Bakery. During a walk through the village you imagine yourself to be in the old France and just outside the village is the great beautiful nature and the beautiful landscape of the montagne noir. Place: 34210 la Livinière


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Mativa to compete in Miss South Pacific Pageant
By Charlina Tone APIA, Samoa (Samoa Observer, Nov. 14,2010) - Born and raised in the small and secluded island of Tokelau, Meleka Mativa never dreamt she would one day be given the chance to promote her home to the world.
Next month, she will get just that opportunity when she flies to Papua New Guinea to take part in the prestigious Miss South Pacific pageant.
"Coming from a tiny island, this is all very exciting for me and is going to be an eye opener," Ms. Mativa told the Sunday Samoan. "I look forward to participating in the upcoming pageant to share my unique culture with my sisters and likewise learning from them too."
The 18-year-old beauty queen said she is honored to represent the hidden jewel of the Pacific.
She is very excited about the chance to contest the crown and it will make her only the second Miss Tokelau to take part in the event.
She said it will be a great learning curve for her, and gives her the chance to be a role model to young people.
Mativa is grateful to the people of Tokelau for presenting her with this once in a lifetime opportunity.
"We are a very small island with a lot to offer. This will give me the chance to promote our beautiful island to the world."
She is a student of the University of the South Pacific, Fakaofo Campus, and is studying towards entry requirements into the Fiji School of Medicine.
On Friday night, the Tokelau community in Samoa hosted a special function for Mativa before she leaves for PNG.


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I forgot my admin login, i have cpanel access kindly help me retrive my admin username and/or password.
If you remember your username, go to 'forgot password' and retrieve your password from there.
If you don't remeber your username either, login to your CPanel, go to PhpMyAdmin and access the database for your installation. I am not sure which table but, you can view your username there. Maybe it is something like 'users entity', not sure ... then retrieve the password with the method mentioned above.
Security issues should be reported to firstname.lastname@example.com!
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