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Note: while this discusses a particular book, it is not a review. It's an essay talking about the way we frame books like this, discuss them, rec them, promote them, and especially, review them. This was originally posted at xanwest.wordpress.com.
(As a heads up, this post contains discussions and examples of bullying, sexual harassment, outing, and sexual violence. It also discusses erasure of and silence around these things.)
Yesterday I read a queer YA book that has been almost universally described as cute, fun, and fluffy. It's told from the POV of a gay main character who is bullied, outed, and sexually harassed.
The book I'm referring to is Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.
Are there aspects of the story that are cute, fun, and fluffy? Definitely. The tone is generally lighthearted and humorous. One of the central aspects of the story is Simon's involvement in the production of a musical. The gay MC has a rather sweet family, a supportive friendship group, and a central romantic arc, all of which get ample focus in the novel.
That said, the book centers around Simon getting bullied, which includes him getting outed and sexually harassed, and which drives the core of the plot. It is threaded throughout the story, intertwined with the majority of the cute and humorous bits, all the way to the end.
I'm going to ask you to take a moment to recall what you've heard about Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, if anything. It definitely got a huge buzz, won a bunch of awards. What I heard over and over was: cute, fun, fluffy, adorable, sweet, funny.
That did not match my reading experience.
My reading experience was deeply shaped by the bullying Simon experiences throughout the book, the sexual harassment, being outed. These things may have been mostly framed by a light tone and jokes, but they did not feel light to read. As a bullying survivor, and as a queer survivor of sexual violence, when I read about this happening to Simon, I felt deeply for him, connected with him. I also recognized that he likely was joking about these things because that was how he was getting through the day, not because he took them lightly.
I am troubled that so much of the discussion of this book frames it as solely fun, fluffy and cute, and seems to erase the bullying and sexual harassment Simon experiences. This essay is about unpacking that, and discussing why it is important to be careful when characterizing this book (and books like it) as purely fluff.
I am invested in this partly because I think fluff is really important, as a resource, especially for marginalized readers. I want queer teens to be able to find queer stories that are cute, fun, and fluffy, and not be surprised that they depict bullying, outing, and sexual harassment in detail. I want queer readers (including myself) to be able to find these kinds of fluffy queer stories, especially on a hard day when they are needed most. When we talk about books, as readers, its to help other readers know about them, and make choices about what to read and when. Calling Simon vs fluff, in an uncomplicated way, without mentioning the bullying and sexual harassment, isn't helping readers make these choices.
I'm going to start by describing the nature of the bullying and harassment in Simon vs, which means some spoilers. I'm doing this because it feels like these elements of the story are perhaps not being perceived as bullying and sexual harassment, and that's why they aren't being discussed that way. It feels important to name them, to be clear about them.
The next two sections include spoilers, particularly the next one.
What does the bullying, harassment and outing look like in this book?
The novel begins with another student, Marty, having read Simon's email exchanges with another closeted gay boy (with whom Simon has a romance arc). Marty has taken a screen shot of the emails, and uses that as a weapon to threaten to out Simon (and possibly the boy he is emailing with)…unless Simon helps him get together with one of Simon's friends. This is referred to as "blackmail" in both the book blurb and in the text, which is told from Simon's POV. Most of the book elapses before Marty openly admits that this is blackmail, even though he persistently threatens Simon over a long period of time.
The thing is, I got why Simon used the word blackmail. But I never thought of it as blackmail, exactly. This is a allocishet guy threatening to out a gay guy unless he does what he wants. It's not just blackmail, it's bullying. It's targeting a queer person, threatening him, and using his queerness as a weapon against him. And it's really just the beginning of the bullying, because it escalates.
Marty does more than threaten Simon. He also outs him, publicly, on an open internet forum for all his peers to see. He doesn't just out him, either. He does it in a particularly loaded and awful way. He posts something on the internet where he pretends to be Simon, uses his full name, and invites all the boys in the school to have "anal buttsex" with him. This is more than just outing Simon. It's sexual harassment. It's evoking queer hatred that uses slut shaming to target gay men. It paints a target on Simon's back for further sexual and queer hating harassment and bullying. Which then occurs throughout the rest of the book, as a constant part of Simon's school experience. The book describes incidents of bullying and sexual harassment that include: a group of boys joking about taking turns sexually assaulting him, lewd gestures and comments, constant comments as he walks the halls, queer hating slurs used to deface pictures of him. The bullying and sexual harassment is so widespread that Simon doesn't even try to identify which people are doing it, and it's pretty clearly implied that we as readers only hear about some of what happens to Simon at school.
Simon being outed is important in the story; it drives a good portion of the rest of the book. And being outed is an intense and awful thing for him. But how he gets outed, that it involves sexual harassment of this nature, that it's the culmination of bullying, and sets him up as a target for more bullying by others…those pieces are also very important. It feels like the text minimizes them. I'm going to unpack how I think the text does that.
When Simon tells Marty off, he focuses on getting outed and how that is not ok. He doesn't hold him fully accountable for the bullying, for the sexual harassment, for placing a target on his back for other bullies. Simon's sister doesn't name how it's more than just outing, and neither do his friends. When his friend finds out about the blackmail, she doesn't name how this is bullying and not ok, she gets angry with him for what he was forced to do. Marty doesn't hold himself fully accountable, either. He makes a ton of excuses for most of the book, attempts to elide what he is doing. Later on, the text gives a bunch of space to Marty apologizing, at length, multiple times, with a ton of explanation. He never names the sexual harassment aspect of this, or takes responsibility for setting Simon up to be targeted by other bullies. In my read, it feels more like the text is asking the reader to empathize with Marty than that it's attempting to hold him accountable for his actions.
Some of the bullying Simon experienced from others in school does get challenged textually and by other characters, including an adult in the school, and the outing gets challenged, but that's really it. A lot of it gets elided, feels minimized, ignored, especially the sexual harassment aspect. Which might be what Simon is doing to survive it (although it's not framed that way, textually). In my reading experience, because there is nothing in the text that challenges the sexual harassment, not even a hint or a moment, something to show the impact on Simon, someone to say that part of it was wrong and violating, it felt like the text treated it as if it wasn't real or important, didn't need to be challenged. Like the "real" problem was only that he got outed, and that he was "blackmailed".
This translated into the reviews, I think. The book doesn't frame it (or challenge it) as sexual harassment or bullying, in the text or the blurb, and most reviews don't do that either (a few reference bullying). Many of the reviews that do reference bullying seem to only refer to one incident of it, one that was challenged by several other characters in the book, including an adult at the school. When I read the book, I saw a pattern of bullying targeting Simon that traced throughout the story, beginning with the threats and "blackmail", and escalating as the story went on. It makes me wonder what folks think bullying is? Does the absence of physical violence mean that folks don't think of things like this as bullying? Does what Simon experienced from Martin somehow not count? What about the multiple things that happen to him at school after he is outed?
Some of the reviews I read gave trigger warnings. The ones that did include trigger warnings generally listed that a character gets outed and often listed blackmail and homophobia. They didn't talk about sexual harassment or bullying. And these reviews pretty much all framed the story as solely cute, fluffy, and fun.
What does it mean to frame stories like this as purely fluffy, fun and cute?
Here's the thing. Bullying, harassment, and violence targeting queer people often include sexual harassment and sexual violence. That is incredibly common, and a very important aspect of the experience, for survivors. This is something we need to talk more about; it's often erased or minimized when talking about the way queer folks are targeted by violence.
When stories that include this kind of content are painted purely as light, fluffy, fun and cute, it sends a message to survivors. A familiar one, that's often sent, about bullying, sexual harassment and anti-queer violence: that it will be ignored, that people will pretend it away, that it's not ok to talk about it. I finished this book, and went back to reread a bunch of the reviews, seeing fluffy, fun, cute over and over and no mention of the sexual harassment, no reviews that use the word bullying. It felt like this oh so familiar blanket of silence. I know this blanket of silence well, as a survivor of bullying, sexual assault, sexual abuse and sexual harassment, including in the context of queer and trans hatred.
I worry in particular that the sexual harassment isn't challenged in the book, or named in reviews. I wonder…if there was a book where a character posted something like this about a girl, on an open internet forum for all her peers to see, someone pretending to be her, using her full name that invited all the boys in the school to have sex with her…would that be challenged in the book? Would that be named in a trigger warning as sexual harassment? I have a feeling that it would be. It's worth considering why it wasn't here.
I am going to take this hypothetical one more step. This kind of sexual harassment is really common, and girls are frequently targeted by it. What might it be like to be a teen girl who has been or is currently being targeted in this way, and to read Simon vs, to see how nothing in the book names this or challenges it as sexual harassment, how it's not in trigger warnings, how almost everyone calls the book cute, fluffy, and fun? Are you worried about this hypothetical teen girl reader, and the message she might take from this?
I worry about the message that any and all survivors take from this, especially teen survivors. Please don't only worry about the girls. Trust me, they are not the only survivors.
I will tell you this: as a queer and trans survivor reader who is an adult, it was hurtful to me that this has been left out of the way folks talk about this book. And I have many years in the trauma field to bring to my understanding of why this might be left out, elided, erased. Teen readers who are survivors of sexual violence, who deal with this kind of bullying and sexual harassment…they are reading these reviews, listening to this buzz, checking out this promo. What message does this erasure send?
What does it say to teen readers who are survivors of bullying, that this story is solely painted as adorable?
What does it say to teen readers who are survivors of sexual harassment and sexual assault, that this story is discussed as purely fluffy?
What does it say to queer teen readers that this story is presented as a just a cute fun light read?
For that matter, what does cute, fluffy and fun mean for queer MCs in YA? Does it always include bullying, violence, outing, or sexual harassment? Does this story feel so fun to readers because it's fluffy and cute alongside those things instead of just bleakly only about those things?
Ideas for ways to discuss books that are complex like this
There may be fluff and cuteness in Simon vs, but that's not all there is. Even though the tone of the book is generally full of humor, this not just a fluffy story. We need ways to talk about stories like this. Queer stories that include romance, humor and friendship, and also include hard things like bullying, sexual harassment, and being outed.
I can tell you how I talk about books like this. For me, one of the keys is holding the complexity, holding both aspects of the story in how I talk about it. I often talk about the way stories like this balance humor with the hard things, and are able to hold them both. I talk about the different strands of the story—the romance arc, the bullying, the relationships Simon has with his friends, the play, and how they intertwine. I talk about the tone, the voice, and how it felt to have hard things framed with humor. I name the kinds of violence and trauma that are part of the story, often not just in trigger warnings, but definitely in those.
For me the key questions are:
- How can my review be clear about the fact that the story is both humorous/fluffy and also has difficult intense content?
- How can my review give other readers the information they need about the content of the book? (I especially consider readers who share experiences depicted in the story, like queer teen readers and teen bullying survivor readers in the case of Simon vs.)
- How can my review avoid erasing/minimizing/eliding experiences of violence depicted in the book?
We each review and discuss books in different ways, ways that suit our own style and interests. I'm not suggesting mine is "the right way". I'm talking about how I do this, to offer one set of ideas to bounce off of. I want to hear yours.
What ideas do you have? How do you approach stories like this? What are you hoping from reviews of stories like this?


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subset: commoncrawl


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In all my years of thrifting, I don't think I've ever been more excited for a find. And only $3.50!!
The others shoppers got to witness my impromptu and highly necessary photo shoot.
Definitely a little snug, but no way I was passing up on it.
One of Selleck's top 15 performances in a sport-related film set in the 1990s.
It's hard to imagine a used VHS costing $9.99.
Even I couldn't bring myself to buy this.
Five of the six Star Trek films on the greatest video media of all: VHS. Surrounded by two other great classics: Titanic and Wayne's World.
Especially for only $2.00.
This is now in my kitchen.
I think I'll be making a lot more pancakes from now on.
I really wish I had this as a kid. So much incentive to drink milk.
Nirds of a feather…
Who'd give away this priceless shirt? #bigbootybitches
100% sexual.
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Being an Aunt
It's never easy for any relationship to be apart from each other. Things get lost... forgotten... have to built up every time you do get to reconnect. For me, It's important to me that when my neices and nephews think of "Aunt Diana" they think of someone who is REALLY happy to see them and they know that I love them. I LOVE talking on the phone to them even if all they can say is repetition of the sibling of mine in the background. :D I love nothing more than a tiny voice saying "Hi, Aunt Di-nana" or "I-dana" or "Ji-tana." :D
Part of the joy I get from being an Aunt surely stems from the joy I get from being a sister. It's so fun to hear about their accomplishments from my sisters and brother (though hers is more of a blind commentary at the mo) :D and sisters-in-law and yes, even brothers-in-law. It is fun to comiserate and compare notes and just share the joy of raising children together. I love guessing which cousins will be the closest friends... by age, by personality, by name... how do their names sound together when you're looking for the two of them? :D We don't get to see all of our cousins all of the time, but we talk about them and to them and say their names often enough that they are not strangers.
There is something wonderful about being an Aunt! :D
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Happy New Year! (I promise, I tried to come up with a more interesting title!)
This is for all of you who read blogs instead of your email. :D (And also so I have a record of it for future reference.) If you don't get this in your email, it means I don't have your email address, PLEASE get in touch with me if you don't want to miss other equally stimulating reading experiences as the following. :D
Hi, Everyone!
Rebecca is about to turn 9, which is a miracle all its own. We are so glad to have such a precious child in our midst and we love taking care of her and basking in her glow. :D We have struggled a lot with increased seizures as the school year started, but we have finally settled on a medication combination that seems to work for us. Hallelujah for that! :D Becca's new school is excellent and with 4 nurses on staff, my heart has been much more at ease while she is away from me during the school day. :) She LOVES school! She's a very happy and content little girl.
The Sagers


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Word derivation for "timid" :
Basque = herabe, Finnish = arka
Miresua = areke
Another Basque word for timid is lotsati. Another Finnish word for timid is pelokas.
The word timid appears three times in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In addition, timidly occurs nine times.
Alice felt so desperate that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, "If you please, sir--" The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.


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Currently on iPhone Summer16, if you click the address on the summary of the work order it takes you straight to Apple Maps.
It would be great if the app could detect which mapping apps you have installed, such as Google Maps and Waze, and give you the choice of which app to use. Taking that a step further, if you could store a favourite in your smx app settings it would prevent the user from having to make a choice for every work order.
Are you referring to selecting map provider for turn-by-turn directions or any time when a native map app is invoked?
Selecting the map provider for turn by turn directions when clicking the little folded map icon on the work order summary screen in the iPhone app
This is on the roadmap for the FSA Phone.
This feature is available on ServiceMax Go app
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Introducing hardware-software combination to make more precise monitor correction available to a much wider audience
VALHALLA, N.Y., August 19, 2013 – FUJIFILM North America Corporation and SpectraCal, Inc. announced today a strategic joint initiative to expand the usability of precise monitor correction solutions for the professional video production and post-production industries using Fujifilm's IS-mini image processor and SpectraCal's CalMAN Studio software. Fujifilm's engineers worked closely with SpectraCal's engineers to utilize its innovations and help make the IS-mini's power available to a much wider market.
The Fujifilm IS-mini's software monitor calibration function brings a new level of automation to end users without needing vast technical knowledge; but the collaboration of IS-mini and CalMAN expands the IS-mini's operation to any probe type that CalMAN supports along with more detailed reporting functionality. A new version of CalMAN Studio now directly controls Fujifilm's new IS-mini to create a Color Cube (generally known as a 3D LUT) to correct video signals. Movie and television production professionals use the Color Cube to make extremely precise color adjustments to video reference monitors. Color Cube correction has previously required tools many times more expensive than the IS-mini and CalMAN Studio.
"While the IS-mini was originally created as one piece of a larger color management solution, working with SpectraCal helped us increase its potential, and opened up the IS-Mini's power to every industry professional who absolutely depends on the image fidelity of their monitors," said Michael Bulbenko, marketing and sales development manager, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Imaging Division.
Colorists and others in production who need to know that monitors are displaying the exact colors specified by industry standards use Color Cubes to make more precise corrections than the monitors' built-in controls allow.
"Color Cubes let you iron out any non-linear behaviors in the display, so that you know you can trust it at every luminance and color saturation level," said Derek Smith, founder and CTO, SpectraCal.
SpectraCal's software measures numerous points in a color space and creates a Color Cube that brings the monitor as close to the specified standard as possible, then checks the applied result and provides a comprehensive report on the monitor's accuracy. The report can be printed out or managed in a database of monitor performance.
IS-mini support is available as part of CalMAN Studio 5.2. To download CalMAN for evaluation, please go to: http://studio.spectracal.com/support/downloads.html.
For more information about Fujifilm, go to: Fujifilm Motion Picture Products.
About Fujifilm
FUJIFILM North America Corporation, a marketing subsidiary of FUJIFILM Holdings America Corporation consists of four operating divisions and one subsidiary company. The Imaging Division provides consumer and commercial photographic products and services, including: photographic paper; digital printing equipment, along with service and support; personalized photo products; film; and one-time-use cameras; and also markets motion picture archival film and on-set color management solutions to the motion picture, broadcast and production industries. The Electronic Imaging Division markets consumer digital cameras, and the Graphic Systems Division supplies products and services to the graphic printing industry. The Optical Devices Division provides optical lenses for the broadcast, cinematography, closed circuit television, videography and industrial markets, and also markets binoculars. FUJIFILM Canada Inc. sells and markets a range of Fujifilm products and services in Canada. For more information, please visit www.fujifilmusa.com/northamerica, go to www.twitter.com/fujifilmus to follow Fujifilm on Twitter, or go to www.facebook.com/FujifilmNorthAmerica to Like Fujifilm on Facebook. To receive news and information direct from Fujifilm via RSS, subscribe at www.fujifilmusa.com/rss.
FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, brings continuous innovation and leading-edge products to a broad spectrum of industries, including electronic imaging, digital printing equipment, medical systems, life sciences, graphic arts, flat panel display materials, and office products, based on a vast portfolio of digital, optical, fine chemical and thin film coating technologies. The company was among the top 10 companies around the world granted U.S. patents in 2012, and in the year ended March 31, 2013, had global revenues of $26.7 billion*. Fujifilm is committed to environmental stewardship and good corporate citizenship. For more information, please visit www.fujifilmholdings.com.
* At an exchange rate of 83 yen to the dollar.
About SpectraCal
SpectraCal is the worldwide leader in image fidelity solutions. SpectraCal provides everything needed for calibrating video displays in broadcast, production, post-production, commercial A/V, home theater, and industry. SpectraCal's flagship product CalMAN is the mostly widely used video calibration software in the world. Please visit www.spectracal.com for more information.
For more information, please contact:
Diane Rainey
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.


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text: All food supply chains and stores will be under strict monitoring during the Norouz (Iranian New Year) holidays starting March 17, said Health Minister Hassan Hashemi. "Over 4,500 health inspectors in 1,700 teams organized by the Health Ministry will inspect food and beverages supplied during the Norouz festivities," he said, ILNA reported. The plan aims to secure food supplies and safeguard travelers' health by checking on public places, restaurants, accommodation facilities, gas stations, and roadside facilities. The hotlines 1490 and 190 have been set up for people to report any violations of the health regulations.


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Source: Marriage Equality USA
Sometimes a story comes along which is so huge, it compels me to break the subject matter of this blog and talk about it.
Yesterday a Federal Judge struck down Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage, a state constitutional amendment that passed in 2008 with 52% of the vote. Judge Vaugn R. Walker's ruling concluded that the ban violated the Federal Constitution's guarantees of due process and equal protection of the laws. The decision will be appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and possibly to the Supreme Court of the United States.
This is a huge victory for everyone in the LGBT community and for everyone who celebrates a more free and tolerant society. Make no mistake, equal rights for sexual minorities is the civil rights issue of our time, equivalent in significance to the epic struggle for equal rights for "racial" minorities.
Notice that the California Constitution can be amended with a simple majority vote of the people. That makes it far too easy, and bad legislation like Prop 8 will continue to plague us until we get this fixed.
Congratulations! This is a great day!


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Last night, Katy and I went to see Spiderwick Chronicles at the Opry Mills IMAX. It wasn't a waste of 2 hours of my life, but I can't help but feel as though it had a certain…soullessness.
See, all of the fairies and goblins are CGI. Yeah, yeah, they look realistic and they can swing on ropes, but in a movie so rich in texture and dust-covered old stuff, I would have liked to have seen Muppets instead of pixels. Muppets worked fine in Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, and I don't recall hearing anyone say, "yeah, that was good, but it needed more rope-swinging." Muppets probably would have been cheaper, and they have a realness that CGI just doesn't have. Maybe I'm just old.
Another point of contention was some of the acting, particularly that of the girl playing the older sister. Unrealistic reactions, occasional overreactions…she messed up my suspension of disbelief a few times. Then there was this guy:
Is it Ben Kingsley? Is it Dustin Hoffman? Wrong! It's David Strathairn, the unsettling, illegitimate spawn of the two!
Oh….and here's this thing that arrived in my email…


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Fully Licensed & Bonded
Property Location With a stay at Apartamento Coral Bay in La Oliva (Corralejo), you'll be convenient to Las Agujas Beach and Acua Water Park. This apartment is within close proximity
Looking for something a bit different? Check out our selection of cultural & adventure holidays or if you're looking to go it alone then see our selection of solo holidays.


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My School Portal's Custom Forms feature can help reduce your school's office paperwork and helps keep everything organised. This feature can help gather responses in one convenient place, and many different types of forms can be set up in the portal. Some examples of forms that your school can set up include:
- Admissions forms
- Medical information forms
- Consent forms
- Dietary requirement forms
- And many more!
Parents and guardians can see any forms assigned to their children, and the progress of each form. Custom Forms also integrates with our trip and event booking system, and can thus require that forms are filled out and submitted, before booking a trip. This integration ensures that all required permission and medical forms are filled out before a parent or guardian can book a trip or event, meaning that everything can be recorded and kept in one place. This feature works seamlessly on all mobile devices so parents and guardians can fill out and submit forms from anywhere! .
For Admin users, creating forms is simple and straightforward. There are set question types, and clear question logic to help users create easy-to-use, simple to complete forms in the portal. The custom forms can be configured to relate to specific year groups or forms, or even individual students.
In keeping with the high level of security built in to the rest of our portal, schools can restrict access for custom forms making sure that only the relevant staff can see the form responses, get notifications on form submissions, or export form responses.
Here's how one of our schools found the our Custom Forms module helpful:
"Release 63 is amazing especially for Custom Forms, I have been using this feature in MSP to replace our current system. This process has been made a lot easier with the help of the support team who have listened and implemented a lot of changes that I discussed with them.
The forms are an easy, straight forward process for all those involved, simple to set up for staff, clear and not burdensome for parents to complete with the confidence that their data remains secure within the platform.
At Berkhamsted we are reaping the benefits of less amount of admin time and paperwork, higher levels of data protection and parent satisfaction all from this one feature, it's fantastic!"
Deji Agun Digital Learning Platform Manager, Berkhamstead School


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Fed Monetary Assistance Not Easing Soon
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will provide Congress its biannual "Humphrey-Hawkins" monetary policy report tomorrow. The Fed continues to provide monetary assistance in part due to the President's failed fiscal policies.
For the first month of 2013, the Labor Department announced an increase in the unemployment rate to 7.9 percent. The national unemployment rate has been hovering around eight percent for more than a year now. All indications are there will be little to no sizable relief for years.
The Fed's response to the weakest recovery in history
In response to the recession, and the subsequent weak recovery, the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee took significant action to boost the economy.
Interest Rates: In December 2008, the Committee lowered its target federal funds rate effectively to zero. At the Committee's meeting this January, it predicted this exceptionally low rate will continue at least as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6.5 percent and inflation estimates projected for one to two years do not rise above 2.5 percent.
Asset Purchases: In December 2012, the Committee said it remained concerned that without sufficient policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions. In an attempt to support a stronger economic recovery, the Committee said it will continue to purchase additional mortgage-backed securities at a rate of $40 billion per month. This piece of its asset buying program began in September 2012. Last month, the Fed added another asset-buying program and announced that it will purchase longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion per month. Purchasing long-term assets allows the Fed to further ease credit conditions, lowering long-term rates, while its short-term rate is stuck at zero.
According to the central bank, the Fed's total assets stand at more than $3 trillion. The chart below shows the dramatic increase in the Fed's asset buying. There was a slight uptick following the 9/11 attacks, then sizeable asset purchases starting in 2008.
Short-term focus raises long-term concerns
Observers are increasingly concerned about the impact of the Fed's asset buying program on the economy. Kansas City Fed President Esther George and others have criticized the asset buying program and low federal funds rate policy, arguing that these actions by the central bank could overheat the economy and lead to inflation.
Another concern is that the Fed's low rates are pushing more businesses to increase their cash contributions into pension funds. Companies are required to keep pensions funded in part by calculating the value of their bond yields. As the Fed pushes down rates, the liabilities for companies go up. This drains cash from businesses. At the same time the Fed's monetary policy is encouraging them to borrow to stimulate hiring and investment.
Ms. George, a new voting member of the Open Markets Committee, also has voiced concern over the eventual sale of the Fed's holdings. She worries that it could disrupt markets as trillions of dollars in securities are absorbed. As it does sell long-term assets, the Fed could take a loss on those securities.
When will unemployment reach the Fed target rate of 6.5 percent?
How long can we expect our economy to remain sluggish? How long can we expect the Fed to continue its aggressive bond buying purchases? In response to these questions, the Atlanta Fed created an employment calculator to predict the total number of jobs needed to be created to arrive at the Fed's target unemployment rate of 6.5 percent.
In 2012, an average of 181,000 jobs were created each month. At that rate, it will take another 27 months, or more than two years, to reach the target rate. However, if our monthly increase in employment was 125,000, our average rate for the last 30 years, it would take 96 months -- or eight years -- before national unemployment reached 6.5 percent. Of equal concern, the employment calculator looks only at net job creation. It doesn't factor in real (U-6) unemployment: the number of under-employed Americans, those seeking full-time employment but only finding part-time jobs, or those who have left the workforce discouraged.
And unfortunately, the unemployment rate should be even higher. The Wall Street Journal attributed a major portion of the decline in the national unemployment rate to the fact that the labor force – people either working or looking for work – increased more slowly than the overall working-age population. In fact, had the labor force been the same in January 2013 as it was in January 2009, when President Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 10.8 percent.
The Fed wants to continue its aggressive monetary policies until unemployment comes back down to more reasonable levels. But the Obama Administration continues its anti-growth policies that make those job creation goals harder to reach. The longer the Fed has to keep up its monetary policies to balance the President failed fiscal policies, the greater the risks its actions pose to our economy's long-term health.
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Simon turns 7
Our sweet little Simon turned 7 and is excited to have reached the age requirement for parkour class. He starts the next round of classes with his brothers in a couple weeks.
He's growing up but still our little guy!
Here he is on a most excellent art piece at the Winningstad theater in Portland. We recently saw Zombie in Love, put on by the Oregon Children's Theatre.
His celebration with all the cousins and a few friends. His cake looks a little boring but it was the applesauce cake with a dollop of freshly made cinnamon whipped cream. They all ate it up and approved. Whew!
Next up for birthdays is Isaac, turning the big 13!


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Good Points: Clean. Change bench. Nappy bins. Sink with soap dispenser. Sign on the door indicating a Parent Room. Single cute artwork on one wall.
Bad Points: So hard to find! Door difficult to open. No toilet. Very dark. No privacy as door cannot be locked. Toilet paper mounted on both sides of change table – huh?? Hard uncomfortable chairs. No additional powerpoints. No microwave. No bottle warmer. No toys or activity centre. Paper towel on opposite wall to sink, soap and bin.
What a MASSIVE disappointment!! Chatswood Chase is always promoting itself as being so incredibly fabulous, having undergone renovations recently and carrying high-profile brands. But it is sooooo pathetic when it comes to essential basics like Parent Rooms and even Parents With Prams car parking. If you happen to pick up the 2011 Centre Directory, read the blurb about Parent Rooms……and then laugh at it because it is such rubbish!!
According to the Directory, the Parent Rooms are private and have a microwave oven. Hmmm…….no they aren't and no they don't. And the maps on the Directory are totally inaccurate too. The map doesn't show one on Level LG but there is one at the Archer Street end, just so you know 🙂
None of the Toilet signs in this place tell you whether or not there's a Parent Room, so you have to figure it out yourself by going down every single Toilet corridor and checking the blank doors, Female and Disabled Toilets. Then if you're really lucky, around the last corner you might find a room with a laminated blu-tacked poster saying 'Parent Room'. You're so relieved to finally find one, but know it's not going to be good inside.
Today we reviewed the only Parent Room we could find on the sprawling LG level. And this was not an easy task. We came up the travelator from a lower level car park and arrived at K-mart. Looking around we found the Dining Court (sounds more posh than Food Court), and to the right there's a hallway of shops (including A&R; and Smiggle) leading to a set of escalators heading up to Level G.
We headed towards the escalators and found the Toilets sign on the left, pointing to a corridor between the Medical Centre and Chinese Massage store. The sign just had the Male, Female and Disabled Toilet symbols. From previous experience, I've learnt not to trust what the signs say and to check for baby change facilities…..just in case.
So winding around the corridor, which would be hard going with a pram, I checked the Disabled Toilet – no change table there. Next stop, the Female Toilets – nothing there. Hmmm…….maybe there isn't – there it is!!! Around the last corner, at the end of the hall is a door with a laminated blu-tacked poster saying 'PARENTS ROOM'.
I was definitely glad to see one, but the office printout sign didn't fill me with much confidence. Sadly, I was more disappointed than pleasantly surprised by what's inside.
The first problem is the door. It's the usual budget pressure-swing door which, when you are juggling a pram and children, you need a bit of strength to open and keep open while you lug everything inside. And it's quite a narrow space making moving around the room a little difficult if you have a pram or more than one child with you.
Considering the rest of the shopping centre, including Toilets, have had a makeover I had hoped this would have been extended to the Parents Room. Hasn't happened.
This room is badly lit, especially over the nappy change bench located in the far end of the room. The only nice soothing element is the cute animal cartoon artwork on the main wall. The rest of the place is just plain old uninviting.
The change bench has one change bay, with enough bench space on either side to store your nappy bag and shopping. For some bizarre reason, there's two toilet roll dispensers mounted on either side of the change bench. Why????
The nappy bins, which would be better placed under the change bench, are located underneath the soap dispenser next to the sink. This means you have to turn away from your baby to dispose of the nappy, instead of being able to just reach down and chuck it in a bin under the bench.
For feeding your baby, be aware the room is not private (although the Directory would like you to think it is!). The door to the room does not have a lock, and there is nothing to ensure your privacy inside the room. For safety and privacy, I would rather head up to Westfield or at least feed covered on one of the benches throughout the shopping centre.
If you do want to feed in this room, just know you're not going to be too comfortable. The chairs are hard plastic and they're not very clean either.
If you are bottle feeding, then prepare for another disappointment. Although the Directory says the Parent Rooms have microwaves, they actually don't! And I didn't even see a powerpoint where one could be connected anyway.
So for mums who need to warm up a bottle or any baby food, ask one of the cafes in the Dining Court.
The last thing, and probably the best, is probably the bench on the other wall which holds the sink. It's clean, the bench is big enough to hold nappy bags and shopping, and the soap dispenser is within easy reach of the sink. That said, the paper towel dispenser is on the opposite wall, next to the artwork.
Whoever designed this room needs a wake-up call. It can't have been designed by a woman who has had children. It's such a joke, seriously.
I am hoping hoping hoping to find better Parent Rooms elsewhere in Chatswood Chase during upcoming visits, but after today I'm not overly confident. If you have found better at the Chase, please do tell me because I would looooove to know. For such a glam, high-profile centre, I expected a whole lot more from the Parent Rooms. Especially considering the high number of gorgeous mums with bubs I saw shopping there today. I wonder if they knew how much better the facilities are at Westfield just a few metres up the road, if there money would end up being spent there instead of the Chase. Something for the centre owners to think about hey.


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Promenade Shoes: Right On Choosing The Important Type For You
1960s trend was bi-polar in nearly every way. It can generally be a really frustrating experience for a full figured woman to search out that good Plus Measurement Marriage ceremony Gown. Number one Style Essential : Tiered Dresses Take advantage of all the little advantages that you may acquire as a shopper. That's the easiest way to save money when purchasing online for sneakers.
Lengthy earlier than Lee hit the streets with his assortment, Rob Dyrdek was earning his popularity as a skateboarder. In the industry spotlight, Dyrdek befriended the owners of Droors Clothing, which quickly became DC Footwear, famous internationally and throughout the UK. Dyrdek and DC Sneakers developed one of many first ever skateboarding footwear tailor-made for the world of skaters. Harvesting a largely unused market, The Dyrdek1 resulted in success. People found the design modern and especially wanted, with no other firm combining skateboarding footwear with athletic support ? why had no one considered this before?
Some nice luggage are making an appearance for the 2009 season in the way of small clutch purses and evening baggage that go perfectly with the little black dress. One such merchandise is the crystal evening bag. As you'll be able to well think about, crystals are a great accent to black and may really make a dress stand out from the group. Most of the baggage we are seeing this season are adorned with Swarovski crystals and black, which matches superbly. Another choice is crystal with a steel, both gold … Read More


text: The Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) is a unique earth observation satellite constellation that delivers high frequency imaging anywhere on the globe from a long established collection of satellites built by SSTL and which are each independently owned and controlled by a DMC Consortium member. The constellation is coordinated by DMCii, a commercial imaging company, to deliver high quality commercial earth imaging services. Daily Imaging capability The first generation DMC was launched in 2002-3 to create the first constellation designed to deliver daily repeat high resolution imaging. Four satellites in phased sun-synchronous orbit delivered 650km wide multispectral imagery with 32metre ground sample distance (GSD). An additional satellite was launched in 2005, providing even greater imaging capacity, and a third 32metre sensor was added in 2012. AlSat-1B BilSat-1 UK-DMC1 NigeriaSat-1 Beijing-1 UK-DMC2 Deimos-1 NigeriaSat-2 Enhanced resolution The second generation of enhanced DMC satellites (launched 2009) provides hugely increased imaging capacity, retaining the same 650km swath width, but with twice the pixel density at 22metre GSD. Radiometry has been greatly enhanced to provide improved MTF and S/N. The satellites are routinely cross-calibrated within 1% of Landsat. Data continuity is assured with the launch of additional capacity scheduled in 2014/5 to add 60 million km2 of imagery per day. Very High Resolution The DMC delivers Very High Resolution (VHR) capability with 2.5metre GSD panchromatic and 5metre GSD multispectral imagery. International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' In addition to commercial activity the DMC works actively within the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' to provide free satellite imagery for humanitarian use in the event of major international disasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, fires and flooding. The DMC is represented by the UK Space Agency on the Charter Board and by DMCii in the Executive Secretariat.


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Welcome to my Minecraft medieval Docks and Harbour World Download. In this video I will be doing a short tour of what we have built so far in this Tutorial build series. This world is far from finished but as a thank you for all the support in this series I decided to give you guys the world download to get a closer look at everything.
I hope you guys enjoy it, if you do you might enjoy my other build tutorials and let's play series on my Minecraft Youtube channel – BlueNerd Minecraft
Minecraft Medieval Harbour


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UPDATE 10:00 p.m. | According to police, the car chase ended near 18th and Jackson in KCMO. The suspect is in police custody.
.@kcpolice en route to homicide 9th & Hardesty-1shooting vic deceased 1 in critical condition. Several kids in vehicle hurt when car crashed
— chiefforte (@ChiefForte) September 16, 2015
Police are now chasing one of the suspect's cars, heading westbound on I-70 toward KCK.
.@kcpolice homicide suspect vehicle being pursued by KCPD.Tire deflation device struck by suspect's vehicle. I anticipate quick apprehension
— chiefforte (@ChiefForte) September 16, 2015
According to reports, police are chasing a suspect car after a shooting near 9th and Hardesty Ave.
Police responded to a call just after 9:00 p.m. on a reported shooting at the location.
When police arrived on scene, they located more than one victim suffering from bullet wounds.
Police say one victim is dead and another is in critical condition.
Police say there were eight victims total. According to reports, six children were hurt in a crash associated with the shooting.
Reports say victims were transferred to Children's Mercy Hospital.
We'll update this story as more details become available.
Follow 41 Action News on Twitter:


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Mobile handset assembling is set to expand further in the country as a fifth company is set to officially announce its enrolment today with its own "5 Star Mobile" brand.
Al Amin Brothers, a local company which has been importing handsets for over two decades, set up its plant in Gazipur near National University investing about Tk 30 crore.
Telecom and ICT Minister Mustafa Jabbar will inaugurate the plant, said the company's managing director, Md Oliullah.
He said they would initially assemble low-cost feature phones and gradually move towards smartphones.
"We have been running this business since 1996, mostly importing from China, and now it is time to move for assembling," Oliullah added.
Though the plant has the capacity to assemble about four lakh handsets a month using five production lines, its initial monthly production target was about 1.5 lakh pieces.
Walton was the first company to take up assembling. They have been producing different types of handsets for the past one year. Meanwhile market leader Symphony started assembling last month aiming to cater to the local market.
Both said they were now assembling a few lakh pieces in total every month and aimed to take the figure to about five lakh.
Symphony opened its factory in Ashulia on the outskirts of Dhaka and is planning to set up a second one in Bangabandhu Hi-Tech City in Gazipur's Kaliakoir within the next two years.
Samsung, one of the top global players, also started assembling and marketing their products from a few months back. The Korean brand is currently assembling a couple of lakh smartphones of a few models from its Narsingdi plant every month. Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Transsion Holdings also started running its handset assembly plant in Gazipur last month.
They were yet to start supplying to the market for they were waiting for a VAT rebate issue to be resolved, said Rezwanul Haque, its chief executive officer.
Transsion's plant has the capacity to assemble five lakh handsets every month and they were now making both feature phones and smartphones.
The five companies took licences from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission right after the government offered huge tax benefits for mobile assembling in the 2017-18 budget. A couple of interested companies have applied to the telecom regulator for licences and are preparing to set up plants.
Industry insiders say the five plants would jointly assemble 10 to 12 lakh mobile sets every month and production volume would increase by a large extent when all processes were complete. The entrepreneurs said they were now importing all the raw materials from China and would move in to manufacture some of the component here within the next one year. Last year about 3.4 crore mobile handsets were imported through legal channels, of which 82 lakh were smartphones, according to Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association.
In the first half of 2018, the figures stood at 1.55 crore units and 37.89 lakh units respectively.
Industry sources say the country spends over Tk 10,000 crore every year for importing these devices. With assembling starting in full swing, the figures were expected to come down, saving a huge amount of foreign currency.


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In 1974 Muhammad Ali pulled off a masterful match against George Foreman in which Ali allowed Foreman to flail away on Ali while he was against the ropes in the ring. Subsequently, Foreman used up much of his energy without doing much damage to Ali.
"Rope a Dope" comes to mind with the FDA and Zohydro.
The highly addictive and potentially deadly Zohydro was approved by the FDA in spite of an advisory panel recommending against approval and a public outcry against the product.
My blog from 12/11/2012 revealed the FDA orchestration for Zohydro http://www.prescriptionaddictionradio.com/blog/from-the-1211-show-the-fda-is-brilliant-zohydro-meeting-for-the-gullible
However, there was a twist I did not know. Purdue Pharma has been working on a timed released hydrocodone product. http://www.purduepharma.com/news-media/2014/03/purdue-pharma-l-p-announces-positive-phase-3-clinical-trial-results-of-once-daily-hydrocodone-bitartrate-extended-release-tablets/
The deference the FDA has shown Purdue since the introduction of OxyContin and tens of thousands of lives lost is well documented for speculation on the special relationship Purdue has with the FDA.
The Rope a Dope begins with the public outcry from all the organizations that garner publicity from being part of the "safe as prescribed" crowd. OxyContin, Vicodin, Adderall, Dilaudid, Opana, Duragesic, etc are all "safe as prescribed". But, OMG Zohydro is dangerous!!!!
As a reminder, all the legal narcotics are addictive. The outcry from the "safe as prescribed" groups is not from the addiction potential of Zohydro, but the fact that it can be crushed.
Fact: Few people die from overdose deaths that include the crushing of pills!
The FDA script couldn't have been better planned. Recently, the FDA Rope a Dope ingenuity led members of congress to propose banning Zohydro. http://www.medpagetoday.com/PainManagement/PainManagement/44772?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=house-and-senate-bills-call-for-zohydro-ban
The issue in Congress isn't that high doses of hydrocodone are inherently dangerous, but that Zohydro is not "abuse resistant".
Bouncing off the ropes is the FDA and Purdue Pharma. Purdue's timed release hydrocodone "abuse resistant" (not "addictive resistant") will be ready for approval in the coming year.
In the coming months, the energy against the timed release high dose of hydrocodone in the formulation of Zohydro will be spent by the "safe as prescribed" crowd.
The FDA "listened" to the public outcry and Purdue will win quick approval with their "OxyContin Cousin" and little outcry from the "safe as prescribed" groups.
The FDA mastered the Rope a Dope strategy to perfection.


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Nicaragua, 1961–1990 Volume 1: The Downfall of the Somosa Dictatorship
David Francois is a Frenchman in 'militant communism'. Considering France its experience therewith in Vietnam as background, makes his curiosity for the battle in Nicaragua of the 'red' Sandinists against a by the Occident helped dictator, understandable.
My interest arouse during a visit to this country short after the Contra period. Seeing with my own eyes how this nation and country were suffering after such an extensive battle in which the population were forcefully engaged was an appalling experience!
This first volume tells about how the Somoza's, with generous support of the VS could settle as family business in Nicaragua, with the Guardia Nacional as private army to safeguard– and therewith also the American anti-communist interests. Looking back with the eyes and knowledge of the present, it is hard to imagine that we have been so blind for the results of consequent denial what a through and through corrupt regime does with the minds of its people.
After the victory of Castro on colleague dictator Batista on Cuba, the genie also left the bottle in Nicaragua: the nation started to believe that supporting the Sandinists had chance to succeed, and this is how David seized his chance to defeat Goliath!
This book(let) reports in detail the course of that battle in which the Sandinist, with solid trust in the end victory, combined with Russian but especially Cuban support, managed to downfall the much stronger Somoza army. At the expense of 75.000 civilian lives though..
Lots of photos and 'colour pictures' of the on both sides deployed arms and for the aviation interested also a lot of details about the deploy of a variety of airplane types and helicopters.
This volume ends with the fleeing of Nicaragua by the Somoza family and confidants.
Because America couldn't stand an on the Soviet-Union aimed regime in Middle America, the Contras were recruited out of the Somoza confidants. Their deploy for an 'anti-guearilla' is set out in volume 2.


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This was published 2 years ago
Comedian Jo Brand calls out all-male TV panel for joking about sexual harassment
Jo Brand has earned praise from viewers after calling out an all-male TV panel for making light of sexual harassment.
The comedian was hosting the BBC panel show Have I Got News For You, when focus turned to the current harassment scandal plaguing British politics.
The scandal - which has already claimed defense secretary Michael Fallon, forced to resign after admitting he'd made inappropriate advances towards a female journalist in 2002 - emerged off the back of the Harvey Weinstein-inspired #MeToo movement, which saw women online exposing the harassment they've faced from men in the workplace.
It has centred on a "dirty dossier" making the rounds on social media and among journalists, highlighting countless Westminster names accused of various forms of sexual misconduct, ranging from allegations of assault and harassment to inappropriate consensual relationships.
The show's panel joked about a recent article on the scandal headlined, 'Tory MP takes his personal trainer to the cinema'.
"Some of this is not high-level crime, is it?" quipped show regular, journalist Ian Hislop.
Brand quickly stepped in to address the brusque comment.
"Can I just say, as the only representative of the female gender here today, it doesn't have to be high level for women to feel under siege in somewhere like the House of Commons," she told the panel.
"And actually for women, if you're constantly being harassed, even in a small way, that builds up and that wears you down."
The studio audience broke into loud applause following the address, and Brand earned praise across social media for correcting the male panellists' offhand dismissal of the issue.
"Thank f--- for Jo Brand, or it would've been a bunch of blokes minimising, normalising and laughing at sexual harassment," one viral comment read.
"Well said, Jo Brand. I don't think men will ever understand the build up of their 'low level' crimes against women," another added.
Broadcaster BBC were also criticised for having only one woman on the panel to discuss the scandal - a fact Hislop acknowledged following Brand's comments.
"As you point out, with four blokes sitting around you, we're hardly in a position to say, 'That's rubbish'," he said.
Robert Moran is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age


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I'm to the point where I can draw no other conclusion than our government isn't interested in solving the problem of high gasoline prices. The evidence for this goes back well prior to the current wave of price hikes, and we've written about these factors here several times.
More recent examples of the anti-energy attitude on the part of our government… Democrats, and liberal Republicans, mostly, is found in this morning's Wall Street Journal:
A tiny corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge contains an estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil and would be the largest producing oil field in the Northern Hemisphere. Yet the Senate blocked that development as recently as last month. The Outer Continental Shelf is estimated to contain some 86 billion barrels of oil, plus 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Yet of the shelf's 1.76 billion acres, 85% is off-limits and 97% is undeveloped.
Engineers recently perfected refining solid shale rock into diesel or gas, which may amount to the largest oil supply in the world – perhaps as much as 1.8 trillion barrels in the American West. That's enough to meet current U.S. oil demand for more than two centuries. Yet as late as 2007, Democrats attached a rider to the energy bill that prohibits leasing the federal interior lands that contain at least 80% of America's oil shale. The key vote was cast by liberal Senator Ken Salazar from Colorado, of all places.
These supply guesses are probably conservative, because the only way to know for sure is to drill exploratory wells. Yet most of Alaska and offshore are cut off even from modern seismic testing. Many areas haven't been examined since the 1960s, when exploration technology was far more primitive. This has led to the believe-it-or-not situation in which the Chinese are prepping to drill in Cuban waters less than 60 miles off the Florida coast. American companies are banned from drilling in American waters nearby.
But even those huge indicators aside… and regardless of any other factor, there are still price forces in play on Gasoline that the government could wipe out with the stroke of a pen… if they were really serious about lowering gasoline prices at the pump. They could be eliminating cafeteria and seasonal blends, at least until such time as we have enough refining capacity to deal with the luxury the various blendings offer us. Which of course would require added refining capacity be built. Yes, thes are mostly handled at the state level, but is there anyone who does not now understand that our economic security demands energy? This should be taken as a national security imperative deserving immidiate action by the congress and barring that, an execuitive order.
We could also lower the price of crude world-wide, and thereby further lower costs at the pump, by simply committing ourselves to domestic drilling. Sure, the stuff won't be online for ten years, but I'm telling you, the response from OPEC will be to lower the costs per bbl by enough to keep the domestic fields unprofitable, in an attempt by them to maintain their operational monopoly on oil production. They'll do that before the echo dies from congress opening up ANWR. (Yes, I'm aware of the speculation that OPEC coesn't have the ability to raise their output, but it's untrue. Did you note that they did raise their output the other day… AFTER telling Bush a few weeks ago they saw no need? Apparently they have more capacity than some are now saying) And anyway, we heard these excuses from Clinton when he vetoed ANWR… we'd not have the capacity online for around 10 years. Well, it's 10 years on. think Clinton made the correct chocie back then, America?
All that's required in both cases, is the courage to do so. Remember that the added capacity, the domestic drilling, the blending nonsense, all of it… we pointed oout these price increasing factors several YEARS prior to the current wave of price hikes. Any political 'plan' to deal with high gasoline prices that does not include these action cannot be taken seriously. If the government were serious about dealing with high gas prices, they'd have taken such actions a long time ago.
I think we need to pressure McCain on these matters. His stand on ANWR is totally unacceptable, and he has made no serious move to get government out from between the oil companies and our transportation. That would be the mark of a true conservative, and McCain could go a long way toward recouping his conservative creds by making such a move. It is unarguably govenmental policy that has caused most of the problems we now suffer at the pump, and Mccain will benefit greatly from it's reversal, as would the Republicans in Congress… whichever decides to grow up first and pursue these matters. Obama is even worse, having already signaled he likes us paying these kind of prices for getting back and forth to work. He likes that our vacations are being ruined. He likes that our economic security is suffering under the weight of these prices.
And I'm telling you, the party that signs onto cutting fuel prices by getting government and the enviro-whackjobs out of the way, drilling in ANWR and anywhere else there's oil, and allow the refiner's efforts in adding refining capacity, will win this next election, bigtime. We as a country have put up with the vain posturings of the greenies for 30 years. We need to get away from them stepping in at every opportunity and costing us our livelyhoods, our transportation, and our money.
Does it make any sense for us to be shutting off our own oil supplies while screaming about how OPEC isn't pumping enough?
That move away from the enviro-whackjobs, that move away from governmental micro-management that has demonstraby caused all these problems is the "change" the people want. Get government out of the way. And frankly, the ones that do not pursue that change, deserve whatever they get at the hands of the voters.
Team McCain, are you listening?
Addendum: (David L)
As the Microsoft salesman would say, "Heck Lady, this ain't no bug, it's a feature." 'Rats don't see over four dollar a gallon gasoline as a problem. They see it as a solution. Their only problem is how to trick Americans into accepting over priced motor fuels as if they were somehow good.
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air, has posted a video of BO saying in essence the only problem with four dollar five cents gasoline is that we boiled the frog too fast.
Tags: american waters, arctic national wildlife refuge, Congress, cuban waters, exploration technology, exploratory wells, gas, gasoline prices, liberal republicans, liberal senator, national wildlife refuge, northern hemisphere, oil demand, oil shale, OPEC, outer continental shelf, price hikes, pump, senator ken salazar, tiny corner, Wall Street, wall street journal


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Well, this is interesting. Tucker Carlson revealed some stunning information tonight on his TV show. Former Trump Campaign CEO Paul Manafort worked for John and Tony Podesta, while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, and assisted in gaining Russian benefits via influence over State Department policy.
…And there's much, much more. WATCH:
This research and ongoing story continues tomorrow night with more information.


text: When it comes to planning your wedding what is the first thing you need to do? Pick a venue! With so many great options it can be hard to choose. Some of our favorite photos are sunsets. There is nothing like a perfect sunset on your wedding day. Especially the ones that are down at the shore. We pink and violet hues you can't help but fall in love. The Sunset Ballroom which is located at the Lobster Shanty is the perfect place for your wedding. We love that that you can have you ceremony and reception in the same location with an absolutely spectacular view. The Sunset Ballroom in right in Point Pleasant Beach and is just steps from the ocean. There are so many great spots to take photos. From the docks to the iconic boardwalk. We love everything this venue has to offer. From the food to the views, to the staff the Lobster Shanty is a venue to consider for your big day. Love the beach? You can tie the knot on the Point Pleasant beach right beside the inlet. Such a great place for the newlyweds to say "I Do" with all of their family and friends witnessing their love. If you are looking at beach venues, take a look at the Lobster Shanty. Here are just a few reasons why we love the Sunset Ballroom. Happy Planning!


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The Apak Uras Law Firm has opened its doors, founded by former Gur Law Firm partners Sena Apak and Selin Uras.
Apak and Uras, who will share management responsibilities, are joined by three other ex-Gur lawyers, Berk Can Biren, Derya Apaydin, and Ecem Yildirım, and two trainees.
According to co-Managing Partner Sena Apek, "we are a full-service commercial law firm assisting and representing clients both in Turkey and internationally. Our main practices areas consist of: Corporate and M&A, Shipping & Transportation, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Banking & Finance, Real Estate & Construction, Employment, Immigration, Energy, Debt Recovery, General Tax Consultancy, Data Protection, Intellectual Property, Competition, Capital Markets and Regulation & Trade."
The firm has offices in both the European and Asian parts of Istanbul.


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A Small Mixed Adenocarcinoma and Neuroendocrine Tumor of the Duodenum with Multiple Liver Metastases Abstract #685
Introduction: Mixed adenocarcinoma and neuroendocrine cancers (MANECs) are rare specific type of tumors that are composed of two histologic components: a neuroendocrine carcinoma and an adenocarcinoma. There are only a few reports regarding MANEC of the stomach, colon and rectum in the literature.
Aim(s): We present a unique case of a small duodenal MANEC with multiple liver metastases at presentation.
Materials and methods: A 59 y/o female presented with abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting and weight loss. Abdominal sonograpgy showed lymphadenopathies in celiac plexus and porta hepatis area and multiple hypoechoic nodules in liver. Abdominal CT scan without contrast showed multiple hyper dense lesions in liver and lymphadenopathies in porta hepatis area. Upper GI endoscopy revealed a 5 mm small nodular lesion in duodenum. Biopsies of both duodenal and liver lesions were performed and pathologic findings and IHC study on both of them showed a mixed adenocarcinoma/neuroendocrine tumor.
Conference: 10th Annual ENETS Conference 2013 (2013)
Category: Basic Science - Genetics, epigenetics, miRNAs
Presenting Author: Dr Nasim Valizadeh
Authors: Eishi Oskuie A, Valizadeh N, Shateri K
Keywords: MANECs, adenocarcinoma, neuroendocrine tumor, mixed, metastases
To read results and conclusion, please login ...
Further abstracts you may be interested in
#16 Endoglin as indicator of metastatic neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas
Introduction: Neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas are rare, highly vascularized tumors. Endoglin, a Transforming Growth Factor-β co-receptor, is a marker for angiogenic endothelial cells. Angiogenesis is required for tumor progression and the development of metastases. Recently, endoglin expression was found to be a prognostic marker in pancreatic carcinomas. However, the role of endoglin in neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors has so far not been studied.
Conference: 7th Annual ENETS Conference (2010)
Category: Basic
Presenting Author: Patricia Kuiper
Authors: Kuiper P, Verspaget H W, de Jonge-Muller E S M, Hawinkels L J A C, ...
Keywords: endoglin, pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, angiogenesis, metastases
#20 Paraneoplastic antigen Ma2 (PNMA2) auto-antibodies as biomarkers for early small intestine neuroendocrine tumors detection
Introduction: Small intestine neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) comprise well-differentiated NET (benign carcinoid), well-differentiated neuroendocrine carcinoma (malignant carcinoid) and poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC). The majority of NET patients have developed liver metastases at the time of diagnosis and surgery is then seldom curative. Novel predictive, diagnostic and prognostic markers are thus needed to improve our capabilities to diagnose and cure these tumors. We have previously identified six novel marker genes for neuroendocrine tumor cells by using Affymetrix microarrays and advanced bioinformatics. One of this markers, the paraneoplastic antigen Ma2 (PNMA2), which is normally expressed only in nervous tissue, can in the process of carcinogenesis be detected in tumors located outside the nervous system. The finding that Ma2 is expressed in small intestine neuroendocrine primary tumors and their metastases made it interesting to screen whether antibodies against Ma2 are present in the serum of NET patients.
Conference: 7th Annual ENETS Conference (2010)
Category: Basic
Presenting Author: PhD Valeria Giandomenico
#68 Serum chromogranin A as tumor marker in neuroendocrine tumors
Introduction: Serum chromogranin A (CgA) is used as a tumor marker for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).
Conference: 7th Annual ENETS Conference (2010)
Category: Clinical
Presenting Author: Dr. Svenja Nölting
Authors: Nölting S, Kuttner A, Lauseker M, Vogeser M, ...
#76 Role of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography in the differential diagnosis of the pancreatic and hepatic lesions
Introduction: Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) is a new promising tool for the characterization of pancreatic lesions. This technique allows for highlighting the micro-vascularization of a lesion, especially with the use of second generation contrast media, characterized by harmonic responses at low acoustic pressures. Pancreatic endocrine tumors (PET)s were reported to have a peculiar behavior at CEUS, consisting of a higher enhancement compared to normal pancreas in the arterial phase and a rapid washout.
Conference: 7th Annual ENETS Conference (2010)
Category: Clinical
Presenting Author: Dr Francesco Milone
Authors: Milone F, Di Sarno A, Faggiano A, Farella N, ...
#109 Transarterial chemoebolization (TACE) of liver metastases derived from neuroendocrine tumors is an effective treatment only in patients with low or mediate hepatic tumor burden
Introduction: The onset of metastases in patients with neuroendocrine tumors of the gastrointestinal tract (GEP-NET) represents a negative predictor of survival and tumor-associated complications. Thereby, most of these patients develop liver metastases during their disease. Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) has been shown before to be an effective and safe treatment of liver metastases. However, the optimal time point in treatment of liver metastases has not yet been determined, especially in patients with non-functional GEP-NET.
Conference: 7th Annual ENETS Conference (2010)
Category: Clinical
Presenting Author: Dr Anja Rinke
Keywords: neuroendocrine tumor, chemoembolization, tumor burden


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We finished a brief tour of the north country in November. During which we cram seven people and a whole bunch of stuff in the minivan and brace ourselves.
We had Thanksgiving with my sister this year. Here we are at her place shooting in the backyard. (Their backyard is cooler than mine.) This is Reuben's friend Grant going over gun safety with Jael.
Out of all the children she is the one most excited about guns.
La Femme Nikita showing her how it's done.
Eating at Sister Sarah's. She didn't have a table big enough for everyone but she made up for it with the food. I did not have a single thing I did not love. I want to do it again.
Post-dinner recovery.
Followed by an evening pedicure by my sister. It's the kind of treatment I'm used to. 🙂
The next day the boys went out to Idgi and Geoff's property. I distinctly remember spending most of my childhood outside freezing to death. But my boys think it's great.
The faces of hardened backwoodsmen.
My parents both love clearing brush. Jael already has this association of Grandma Sandy with bonfires. Jael insists that it is her favorite thing to do as well. Whenever I get some ill-advised high and head out to do yard work she can barely contain herself. If only her mother cleaned the yard more than once a year….
What I think it is is that they're both borderline pyromaniacs. Dad has had the fire department out to the house several times this summer. And I'm pretty sure my mother sits in her office thinking about what she's going to burn that weekend. And how she's going to get it past my brother without him noticing….
Reuben and his colt Sassafras. Jael was sorry she didn't get to ride this trip. Which reminds me, I distinctly remember spending my entire childhood freezing to death outside while getting bucked off half-wild horses. Jael, on the other hand, thinks it's great.
Gideon spent the entire vacation packing around what amounted to a bowie knife. Then Grandpa then gave him an axe and let him chop down trees. It was the most fun he ever had.
There, he's gone feral.
I think their cousin Mia started it. This was a Friday and my mother had taken all the girls to Dayton, Washington for their Christmas festival. Except for Mia. Because she would rather freeze to death in the woods with the boys than go shopping. Meet everyone's new favorite cousin.
As soon as the boys got home and in the door they kidnapped their cousin Ben as an unsuspecting chaperon and headed for the top of the mountain.
I don't think they made it very far before Ben realized the boys really were headed to the to top, with or without him. And that he was sadly outnumbered.
He eventually had to promise the boys a dollar, and that he would let them beat him up when they got home, if only they would turn around. A bargain few could resist, I'm sure.
Sounding the retreat.
Will they make it home alive?
Run Forest, Run!
My parents also gave Jehu his early birthday present. It was a chest handmade by my dad's dad, full of his high school treasures, odds and ends, and miscellaneous tools.
The boys were stoked.
Decorating the Christmas tree with Aunt Nancy. (The notorious disarmer of little boys.)
Reading books with Idgi.
Battle scars.
Reuben and Natalie trying to heat mold a Kydex sheath for the knife Reuben made that weekend.
The finished product.
It's at this point that I always like to mention that my brother is single. Just saying.
The next day the boys were still devastated that they didn't get to make it to the top of the hill, or beat up Ben, incidentally. So their father, being the nice man that he is, volunteered to escort them to the top. They called me when they were sitting on top of the "D" and I ran out and took their picture. You can barely see them.
Natalie and the babies.
Saturday we had a nice dinner out in the woodshop. My friend Mackenzie came with her brood.
The result being that the real people were entirely outnumbered.
Another one of my friends made the trek out to Deary to say hi as well. My mother is one of the most hospitable people I know. Every time I come out we think up some kind of shin-dig and I invite everyone I know. I remember the Thanksgiving we she invited the entire foreign exchange program.
At the end of the party the baby escaped from her high chair and made a bee-line for the jello.
I looked at her and thought, "What the hey." Although Ben did point out later that he would have liked to have had seconds. I told him Judith would share but he wasn't interested. You snooze you lose bro.
Baby takes no prisoners.
In the evening Gideon tried out Grandad's leather working tools. He was immediately enchanted. So Uncle Reuben piled them in Jehu's new toolbox to bring home. If Daddy Boy gets home early enough one of these days we are going to move their workbench inside so they can tool around by the fire.
Right before we left we took a whole bunch of pictures in front of the tree. None of which turned out.
We'll see you again after the thaw. 😉


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Stacy Bestard is an entrepreneur. Like a true entrepreneur, she is disrupting her industry by finding new and innovative ways to provide goods and services to her clients. The twist? Her clients don't pay.
At Kiwassa Neighbourhood House, a community house in East Vancouver, Stacy runs the kitchen, which provides about 250 children and seniors with breakfast Monday through Friday during the school year. Faced with inadequate government funding (less than 60 per cent comes from government sources), Stacy "recovers" food otherwise not pretty enough for produce stores. She turns free ingredients like scarred cabbage (often the good stuff is just a layer down!) and overripe limes (which make incredible limeade) from generous distributors like VanWhole Produce -- into creative meals for her regulars.
"Recovered food" is getting lots of attention these days: from mainstream stories like the Cannes award-winning campaign for French supermarket chain Intermarché's Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables and independent films such as "Just Eat It" to the more fringe freeganism movement. And the attention is for good reason; in these heady days of waste reduction and sustainable food production, food recovery tackles our most bourgeois societal needs for perfect looking produce.
For decades, North Americans have been turning their noses up at apple wormholes and rusty romaine lettuce, and produce retailers have caught on. The Intermarché campaign states that 300 million tons of fruit and vegetables are thrown away each year worldwide. As the "Just Eat It" filmmakers point out, almost 50 per cent of produce in North America is discarded. This is difficult to reconcile with some very serious food security issues here at home.
The term food security is used in a variety of ways but essentially describes access to food needed for survival. At large it may address a region's inability to feed its inhabitants for internal and external reasons: political instability, poor economic health and natural forces. We may read that a war or drought threatens food security in Africa. Closer to home, we know that some four million Canadians, including 1.15 million children, experienced food insecurity at home last year -- that's one in 11 households.
Whatever the lens, we know that 842 million people worldwide suffered from chronic hunger last year.
My family's experience with food security
In the early 1950s, our family experienced issues with food security. My grandfather was a successful businessman who lived and worked in the Hastings Sunrise area of Vancouver's Eastside, the neighbourhood that Kiwassa House serves. A stone's throw from where we operate a business today, he owned a general store in the 2500 block East Hastings. Further north at New Brighton Beach, he also ran his ship-chandler business, running supplies out to the commercial boats anchored in Burrard Inlet.
My father recalls, at a very early age, riding in the skiff that delivered goods to the boat crews, who, having been at sea for long periods without the novelty of children around, would give him special treatment and show him around the ships -- a thrill for him I sense to this day.
The family lore is that my grandfather was building a back stairway at one of the family homes (he owned two) when it fell on him and knocked him out. Whatever the result, his behaviour changed dramatically; he became very religious, eventually leaving his business and family to preach to the homeless and passersby downtown.
After enough time, the businesses had to be closed and the homes were sold for taxes. With the family broken, his mother took his two older sisters to an apartment; my father was entrusted to his absent father and older brother (at the time 13).
The two brothers remained in the house alone, long after the lights had gone out and the heat turned off. My dad describes a variety of survival tactics he and his brother used to find food -- early forms of "food recovery" to be sure -- but the situation came to a head when he fainted in class due to hunger.
Food security affects us all
Kiwassa House was formed in 1949, and has been serving the neighbourhood's at-risk for more than 60 years. So Stacy is a bit of a personal hero. And here's what she's taught me.
Firstly, government alone is not going to solve all our social issues. PROOF's 2012 report on household food security found 70 per cent of Canadian households that required social assistance were classified as food insecure. Non-profits, like Kiwassa will do the heavy lifting, but for-profit businesses are going to have to play a part.
If they can't do it directly -- as we've done with Stacy (see the "Recovered Taco" from her Sustenance Festival) -- then at least through CSR programs that re-allocate a percentage of profits back into the communities that support those businesses.
At our corporate food concierge company, we are partnering with Potluck in Vancouver and Foodshare in Toronto, not just to grow their business into corporate catering, but also to build their relationships with corporate clients seeking to expand their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs in the communities they serve and do business in.
Secondly, food security affects us all. There are a variety of reasons why someone shows up at Stacy's kitchen and none of them are laziness or lack of desire for something better. In my first couple of hours at Kiwassa House, I saw seniors, children and people with mental and physical challenges who have nowhere else to go for a square meal.
For my own part, we now think my grandfather's head injury resulted in damage to his temporal lobe, an area often associated with hyper-religiosity. But because we didn't understand, we had no relationship with him even until he died in 2001. So that non-diagnosis altered my family history.
My grandfather's head injury was a random happening and it illustrates how all of us, no matter how secure we might feel, are just a turn away from facing the same food security issues my father did.
So in the end, Stacy employs a kind of social capitalism. Not the in-vogue social entrepreneurship that leverages technology or crowd-sourcing platforms, but her own unique brand that focuses on under-exploited resources to quietly attack social issues, like food security, head-on.
Ultimately, for-profit businesses are also made up of individuals. And everyone has something they are passionate about. So get involved at work. If you work at a big company, investigate the CSR programs and help out. If there aren't any, start the conversation and get the ball rolling. Whether it's CSR or personal volunteerism, there are ample resources and creative ways out there to solve big problems.
Ryan Spong is CEO of Food.ee and co-owner of Tacofino Cantina. To learn more about Kiwassa Neighbourhood House, Potluck Catering or Foodshare, follow the hyperlinks in the text. To donate on behalf of mental health, visit my page at: http://ca.movember.com/team/1791617


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I don't often find television ads amusing these days, but the Carlton Draught Big Ad which aired recently had me chuckling – very witty.
'What does that have to do with home based business?' I hear you ask. Well, not much, unless like me you think of the fridge in the kitchen of the home based business as the corporate bar to be opened at about 6pm for a refreshing ale or glass of wine at the end of a working day.
But I was prompted to look for the Big Ad because I came across a story of a 'home based business' that appears to be brewing the best beer – or one of the best – in the world. This is the Abbey of St Sixtus in Westvleteren in Belgium, home to some thirty Cistercian or 'Trappist' monks, who, in the words of the Scotsman.com article I found today, 'lead a life of seclusion, prayer – and brewing'. It's an amusing article with an amusing title which would be transparent to Aussies, Scots, Irish, Brits but probably not to others – 'Prayers come before brewing for the monks with no beer'.
I am indebted for this gem of the Belgium monks' beer to Dallas Texas based Iraqi-Australian Fayrouz Hancock and her Fay's Catholic Thoughts blog – Fay is also publisher of the Iraqi in America blog which has some interesting and often sobering thoughts on current developments and prospects in Iraq (ain't the blogosphere wonderful in its multifarious connections?)
OK, not to be discourteous to American, Canadian and other readers, the headline in the Scotsman.com article is a play on the title of the Australian country song 'The Pub with no Beer', which has the mordant line, resonant with meaning for dedicated beer drinkers, 'But there's nothing so lonesome, mournful or drear, as to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer.' The song was apparently written by an Irishman, in a pub in North Queensland, Australia, in 1943 after some American servicemen had drunk the bar dry.
Latest posts by Des Walsh (see all)
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We have returned to regular business hours and will be following the recommended Ohio health department guidelines. For the safety of all of our customers and staff, we request that everyone have the courtesy to wear a mask in the store. Curbside pick-up and delivery may also be available - please call for details.
There are no classes scheduled at this time. We will have further information on classes as soon as we can safely work out the details.


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Don't miss a classic movie shown outdoors when you visit us at Alcazar Court. Cinema Under The Stars is our neighborhood screen gem, and with its retractable roof, infrared heaters and reclining chaise lounges offers big screen entertainment rain or shine.
Check the schedule and catch a flick!
4040 Goldfinch Street in Mission Hills


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As a huge DWJ fan I wasn't all that impressed by this book. I'm not saying that it wasn't good because it was, it was really good but it wasn't absolutely amazing like Howl's Moving Castle or Fire and Hemlock. Since I know what the author is capable of, I was sort of let down by the story. It is still excellent and by far better than most fantasy novels written today but I know what Diana Wynne Jones looks like at her best and this just wasn't it. It lacked something, just a little something that would make me fall instantly in love with the story.
The novel takes place at the beginning of WWII when children were evacuated to the countryside. One of them was a girl called Vivian Smith who finds herself kidnapped by a boy called Jonathan and taken to Time City which exists outside of history. She is literally taken from the train station where she was supposed to meet her aunt and then she enters Time City by walking through a brick wall (ses, this book was written before Harry Potter). There she teams up with Jonathan and Sam, who is boy genius, and together they try to save the city from ruin. The story cointans lots of time travel, funny dialogues and intriguing characters. Once again the children try to save the world and they end up doing quite the opposite.
Sam was probably my favourite character because he is such a lazy genius; he can invent and do so much yet he craves butter pies and ends up eating so many of them that he gets sick for days (then again he is only eight years old). The plot twist was rather unexpected and so were the villains, I kept wondering who could be at fault but I didn't guess right, not once! Diana Wynne Jones always surprises me like that. I didn't love the characters as much as I did in her other novels though and I thinks that is why I didn't give 5 stars to this book.
The second part of the story which contains visits of different time periods (all of them in the far future) was a bit boring, I wasn't really interested in the variety of scenarios but the ending was fast paced (perhaps a bit too much) and it kept me on my toes at all times. I would've liked to have seen more of that before the final 50 pages which were filled with action and revelations.
The introduction to this edition was written by Ursula Le Guin who passed away two day ago. Like Diana Wynne Jones she was also a queen of fantasy and science fiction and in my opinion both of them deserved more appraisal and recognition. Le Guin herself stated in her articles that being a woman fantasy/science fiction writer meant that you were overlooked and underappreciated in literary circles. I think that is a terrible shame because both of these authors were so talented, prolific and inventive.