text:
Tag: #Lorenza Izzo
Lorenza and Eli – Engaged
by Geoff on Feb.16, 2014, under Other Musings
365 would like to congratulate Lorenza Izzo and Eli Roth on their engagement. What a perfect couple and such a romantic weekend for a proposal. We raise a glass to their future!
Scream Queens: A brief history
by Geoff on Aug.20, 2013, under Other Musings
Scream Queens have been adorning our screens ever since the first celluloid was projected at our houses of cinematic holiness, through the wars of Betamax and VHS, DVD to the glory of Blu-Ray and Hi-Def, these girls have graced our screens. From Brigitte Helm in Metropolis as the multiple contrasting roles showing lustful fun loving devil as created by the hands of man through technology and witchcraft. Elsa Lanchester was the Bride of Frankenstein, empowering the female through a role which mutilates the female form, again at the hand of man and technology but one which gives the Bride the choice of groom which she strongly refuses. Both of these characters allow the scream queen to be worshiped and glorified as figures and ultimately, the prime media promotion of the films. Does this undermine the role of the female or exploit sex to sell? The very question suggests that actresses have no choice in the roles which they choose and that they are open to be used and abused at the hands of any such film maker.
A similar role can be seen in Cronenberg's 75 classic, Shivers(It came from Within) which depicts a biological outbreak in a luxury apartment complex, one which transforms clean cut citizens into sex crazed zombies. Lynn Lowry is our Scream Queen here, a character who owns the film from start to finish, one that oozes sex appeal. But what Cronenberg offers is a character that knows what she wants. Her opening scene suggests she is out to get her man, shows love and desire and true passion whilst those around her are almost emotionally dead until the outbreak. The finale is one of the greatest in cinematic history, as Nurse Forsythe gets her man in an intensely dramatic scene.
Whilst horror and scream queens go hand in hand, it is important to introduce the ultimate grounding of where the modern scream queen was born. Russ Meyer: a name which offers connotations of sexism and exploitation. If these terms come to mind, then go and watch one of his films as you are judging the unknown. Meyer empowers women, both in form and in character. From making films
with casts mainly made up dominantly of female leads, these are strong dramatic characters which emphasis all scales of the spectrum of human emotion, especially at a time in recent history, but even by todays standards, there are very few female dominant films across any genre. Meyer exposes the female as a sexual one, but one of intelligence, power, and danger.
The '80's saw a whole array of Scream Queens grace the screens. Fred Olen Ray continues what Meyer started but bumped the whole concept up a notch by giving his girls chainsaws. Linnea Quigley and Michelle Bauer battled for the Scream Queen crown and both came out with royal accreditation. Quigley, famously remembered for the naked graveyard dance in Return of the Living Dead reinforced her crown with the 88 classic, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers and is still actively making films.
So, whilst all this was going on, a young director was taking a slightly different approach. Wes Craven empowers his leading actresses and has some of the prime Scream Queens of the latter 20th Century, but what differs Craven's depiction of the female to that of Olen Ray and Meyer is that he took the all American girl-next-door, and allowed her to witness some atrocious moments of horror, to learn, grow and empower to the point of defeating the evil. This all began with '72, Last House on the Left, although we have a slightly bleaker ending here, he followed up his concept in Hills Have Eyes, Deadly Blessing, Elm Street, and hit gold with Scream. All these films depict the lead female as an empowered champion who will defeat all challenges. Neve Campbell holds the crown here.
Whilst Craven offered us the concept origin in Last House, Tobe Hooper followed this up with a dirty little film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Marilyn Burns, the protagonist takes on Leatherface and all other dangers that come her way for the ultimate in female empowerment. Burns will always be my ultimate Scream Queen.
So where are we by today's standards? Things have changed drastically over the past decade. From a Scream Queen point of view we have them overflowing out of every basic film script that has used the original design which Craven, Hooper and Meyers et al gave us. Super empowered lead females who use every inch of their toned bodies to defeat the threat, but out of this crowded green room of young talent, some Scream Queens stand out a little more than others.
Jessica Cameron has owned the crown for the past few years with super dominant roles, Hell-O-Ween, Black Dahlia Haunting and Silent Night, but has broken into the industry with her own production company and directed her debut, 'Truth or Dare'. Cameron has seen an opening and has taken the opportunity to let her Scream Queen persona expand as one of filmmaker. There are numerous bright shining actresses battling for the recognition. Some gain the crown after a debut such as Meghan Chadeayne who looks like she will take the world by storm in her role as Barbara in Naked Zombie Girl, a short by Rickey Bird Jr. Jenny Spain was impressive in Deadgirl but looks to be stunning in American Girls, Lorenza Izzo is the girl of the moment with her amazing screen presence in Hemlock Grove. Eli Roth's Aftershock and the Green Inferno with catapult this girl's career and crown her Scream Queen of 2013. I've attempted to explain the rational behind the term Scream Queen, to emphasize that empowerment and dominant strength of character can be used alongside female form and even nudity without exposing the actress to gratuitous sexism. Giving the girl a chainsaw and showing some flesh does not account for scream queen status, but emphasis a true strong female character as a lead with a plot that indulges and realistically recognizes a demand for weapon wielding nudity is the epitome of feminism itself.
Long Live the Scream Queen!
Article first published at Invest In Zombies.
Hemlock Grove
by Geoff on Mar.07, 2013, under Other Musings
Lorenza Izzo – Scream Queen
by Geoff on Mar.07, 2013, under Other Musings
Lorenza Izzo is a name which is gonna rock the horror genre. The Chilean model has bagged 3 scorching horror roles which are gonna crash our screen later this year under the guidance of Eli Roth. Hemlock Grove is a monster TV show; we've had vampires, pretty much done to death, (although True Blood is still hitting the bar of originality) we've also had werewolves, Hemlock will give us something altogether different as far as 'Werewolves' are concerned. Based on McGreevy's novel of the same name, Netflix are due to premiere April 19, 2013.
Next up is Aftershock – disaster movie stroke massacre gore fest directed by Nicolås Løpez with Roth in production and lead acting duties. This sounds like a crazy flick, a two for one roller-coaster of mayhem.
Finally, Roth's homage to Cannibal Holocaust, 'The Green Inferno', see's Roth back in the director hot seat. This is gonna be some film and what expectations we have, as if anyone can honour Deodato's 1980's controversial bloodbath, Roth is our man.
Izzo looks to set her reputation and take the crown as 2013's scream queen.
Hemlock Grove is due 19th April, Aftershock May 10th, The Green Inferno will hit screens later in the year.


text:
DES MOINES, Iowa – Insurance agent Joe Williams is trying, like so many others, to get lucky with Powerball.
Williams, of Middleton, Wis., won $500 several years ago and now wants to score a little higher. He'll have his chance Wednesday with the latest drawing for the Powerball jackpot. It's ballooned to an estimated $360 million, with a cash value of $229.2 million, making it the third largest Powerball jackpot and the seventh largest jackpot ever.
Williams doesn't necessarily spend more when the prize is high. But his $4 investment in the quick-pick option means he does spend. "I know rationally it makes no sense," he said. "But at the same time, without a ticket, I have zero chance."
Ervin Torok, a truck driver from Sioux Falls, S.D., also is looking for his second chance. He won a $500 prize a few years back. "You never know," Torok, 52, said while checking some lottery tickets from a gas station. "Maybe one day you'll get lucky and win."
Thanks in part to a game redesign in January 2012, players don't necessarily have to strike big to get lucky. A $1 increase and new $1 million and $2 million prizes means the odds of winning something have increased. Just last Saturday, there was no Powerball jackpot winner, but more than a dozen tickets won $1 million prizes in 10 states.
Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, one of the founding Powerball states, said the "cross-selling" of Powerball and Mega Millions tickets in January 2010 began the jump to bigger jackpots because more people had access to tickets. She called large jackpots "the new normal" and said she expects them to keep surpassing all-time jackpot records set years ago.
In fact, more than half of the all-time jackpot records have been reached in the last three years. The top two all-time jackpots – $656 million from a Mega Millions jackpot and $587.5 million from a Powerball jackpot – were achieved in 2012.
Wednesday's Sports Digest: Mariners drop second straight in Newfoundland
Wednesday's NHL roundup: Vegas stays hot with 3-2 win over Islanders
Wednesday's NBA roundup: Pacers close in on Bucks in Central with victory
Boston Celtics
Irving heats up in OT as Celtics win seventh straight
Life & Culture
At his first Christmas show, Portland's new organist will show you exactly how he makes music on the Kotzschmar

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Ross responds
Ross McKitrick has responded (in considerable detail) to some of the criticisms of his T3 tax proposal in a paper posted at his website.
Click images for more details
A few sites I've stumbled across recently....
Ross McKitrick has responded (in considerable detail) to some of the criticisms of his T3 tax proposal in a paper posted at his website.
Google news gives one result for Ross's work with "gwpf" as a search term. It gives three results searching on "Ross McKitrick", one of which is a ReutersAlertNet blog item.
Were any members of the press at the presentation?
NBY, El Reg's Orlowski was there - and he reported on what he heard including confirmation (not that any was needed!) of Josh's excellent cartoonerizations of Worthington's and Rapley's desperate attempts to move the measuring goalposts, so to speak:
Hitch climate tax to the ACTUAL CLIMATE, says top economist
The warmer the planet, the higher the green taxes get
Attending the talk, [...], were Chris Rapley and Bryony (now Baroness) Worthington (BA, Eng.Lit.), the climate activist seconded to DEFRA from Greenpeace to write the UK's Climate Change Act for Ed Miliband, then DEFRA minister. Both asked the same question of McKitrick: why not use a different measure of climate response? Worthington suggested using Arctic ice melt figures.
"90 per cent of the energy inbalance goes into ocean so why not use that?" asked Chris Rapley, a former head of the Antarctic Survey. McKitrick said that it risked being too slow.
What about sea levels instead? Rapley said the rate of sea level rise had been constant for 2,000 years and suddenly shot up, while oceans provided a rapid indicator of global warming. (Which must be why that elusive ocean warming is so hard to find)
Thanks Hilary - I'm in the UK and it seems to me this topic is ripe for serious treatment by a UK financial or political journalist. At the moment I don't see anything coming through the wires - maybe a Sunday edition will pick it up in the context of the WMO Report.
I've not read the report but interestingly there looks to be a century old precedent for some current temps:
Fame at last. I suggested a window tax (tongue in cheek). A window tax would in fact be fairer and simpler. You could buy coloured tax discs and display them in, er, the taxed window. Tax inspectors could have sniper rifles with telescopic sights and check the tax disc before shooting out untaxed windows.
The money would of course all go to "front line services" like schools and hospitals and hospital-schools and school-hospitals. Think of the children.
Rapley suggests sea level rise as a metric. NOAA 's Battery tide gauge at the end of Manhattan shows a constant sea level rise for about 160 years. Therefore, there should be no tax.
Ross, I understand your position on this completely. But its like playing chess against the school bully. Intellect will not win.
You will be forever misquoted on this: "Ross likes carbon taxes".
You need to watch the episode of Scooby-Doo where Fred spots a reporter's trap: "You want to trick me into saying that Coolsville sucks". On TV that night they show the footage of Fred saying "Coolsville sucks".
The tax rate increases as a function of increasing temperatures. How is the scale factor set?
For example, I propose an initial tax of $0/ton.
If the temperature increases by 0.1 C (annual, running average, whatever), then the tax for the following year increases to $1/ton.
Or $10/ton.
Or $100/ton.
Or $0.1/ton.
The scaling factor needs to be informed by the perceived negative impact of the temperature rise. But this is a core disagreement in climate policy, because it may even be a positive impact at current global temperatures.
Or is the scaling factor being set by the new futures market?
Also, it seems like the proposed carbon tax is rectified (in an electrical engineering sense), i.e. it cannot drop below zero. Why is this? Why shouldn't there be a carbon rebate when carbon emissions have a net positive impact?
Three commenters asked "What happens if the temperature rises but CO2 is not the cause?"
McKitrick's response (his point 9) is:
"it actually makes sense for the tax rate to be higher if there is [sic] has been an increase in the temperature measure even if it was due to natural warming: because the tax is meant to price the marginal damage of CO2-induced warming..."
Wha? The supposition was that CO2 does NOT "induce warming". Given that this is somewhat unlikely, still it is not entirely unreasonable. Just look at the history of the world before the introduction of fossil fuels. The question deserves dealing with on its merits. A rise in temperature will increase the carbon tax but not deal with the actual cause.
Perhaps recognizing the weakness of the response, Ross goes on to say something like "but what if it cools? Then the tax will go to zero." That's great, but the tax should also go to zero even if the temperature increases, provided that CO2 is not the cause.
Lance, when it comes to taxing, there is no room for doubt. All doubt is banished with a "when you don't have to pay a tax, why are you asking questions?"
I rather like the idea and Ross explains it in clear terms, but I fear it will overturn too many apple carts and gravy trains for it to be embraced by the powers that be, i.e. the powers that tax.
They are completely out of control, folks.
When will people learn not to concede on new taxes as they never go away?
Ross McKitrick,
Thank you for your responses to the main criticisms posed on BH and WUWT. An issue not yet mentioned is what would be the compliance cost of this, or probably any, carbon pricing scheme? This is an issue that seems to be largely ignored in the economic analyses to date (eg, Nordhaus, Tol). I doubt the compliance cost would be trivial.
I suspect the compliance cost for any carbon pricing scheme will become substantial over time. I expect it would increase as more and more, and smaller and smaller, emissions sources are required to be included.
I expect the compliance cost would relate more to the size of the emission sources and the complexity of measuring emissions from those sources, rather than the quantity of total emissions covered. (For example, it is cheaper per tonne to measure emissions from a large power station than from a paint factory or a farm (see comment below regarding compliance issues for a paint factory). So, the compliance cost per tone would increase as the participation rate increases.
I also expect that, over time, any carbon pricing scheme would tend towards requiring more and more participation; i.e. more countries included, more emissions sources included, more of the twenty-three Kyoto greenhouse gases included and lower threshold for inclusion. Any carbon pricing scheme will tend towards requiring every GHG emissions source in every country be included and the emissions measurements must be as precise and accurate as they are for trade, including international trade, in any other commodity we trade. At the limit, the emissions from every cow, sheep and goat in every country (e.g. including Eretria, Ethiopia, Mogadishu and Somalia) will have to be measured and reported.
"The ultimate compliance cost of the ETS" http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13578 suggests some of the cost items that need to be estimated.
Contributors to compliance cost
Question: what would be the compliance cost for carbon pricing once it is fully implemented and running at the level of financial integrity that will be expected?
For example, what would be the annual cost for a country (e.g. Australia) for:
– Bureaucracies (e.g. for Australia these bureaucracies would have a role: Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCCEE), Treasury, Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Australian Federal Police, state police forces, state bureaucracies, Attorneys' General Departments, Federal Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, Bureau of Energy and Resources Economics (BREE), the equivalent state departments of energy, resources, agriculture, forestry, environment, Prime Minister and Cabinet, State departments of Premier and Cabinet, the law courts, High Court, jails, any others I haven't thought of?
– The businesses that have to report their emissions - what is the cost to implement and maintain the monitoring equipment and to report? See the EPA monitoring requirements: http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/business/ecmps/docs/ECMPSEMRI2009Q2.pdf and http://www.epa.gov/airmarkt/emissions/docs/plain_english_guide_par75_final_rule.pdf
– What is the cost to update and replace equipment, reporting systems and legacy data each time the rules change (as they do every few years; see history of past changes in US EPA's monitoring requirements: http://www.epa.gov/airmarkt/emissions/docs/plain_english_guide_par75_final_rule.pdf , Section 1.2)?
– Farmers and all the upstream and downstream industries (farming will be included eventually)
– Accountants, lawyers, law courts?
– Firms that use the data, analyse it and report? What is the cost for them to have to maintain and continually update their systems and legacy data?
– Cost of monitoring the compliance of international carbon credit schemes?
A real world example of the compliance cost of carbon pricing:
Comment by an engineer, Graeme No.3: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=13578#235297
I've retired from all that estimation but was involved when it started in NSW when I worked for a paint Company making some resins. The short answer is that we didn't know what specific fuel types or amounts were combusted in our after burner (to reduce all emissions to CO2 and some nitrogen oxides).
Firstly, a portion of the resin ingredients were chemically changed during reaction, and a mixture of the reactants and the changed substances went straight to the oil fired after burner. It was a complex and variable mixture, and analysing each reaction would have been a nightmare of complexity.
Also into the afterburner went volatiles from the paint production. As there were over 6,000 products and hundreds of volatile ingredients it was impossible to calculate emissions.
The 4 "methods" put forward by the public servants ranged from idiotic to bizarre. (No-one in the paint industry could supply the answer, but were threatened with fines if they didn't).
I moved on, thankfully, and my successor was a practical (unscrupulous) fellow who responded by generating a vast spread sheet of over 600MB. 16 pages of calculations, I've forgotten how many pages of information on composition, tonnage produced, batch sizes and frequency of manufacture. All in 10 point Arial font with no graphics. Factors were assumed and buried in obscure corners with no explanations.
One resin might be spread over 200 products. And with 6000 rows and 120 columns on a page, try following through that, esp. with references from page to page to another page. It looked impressive, but trying to check it was nigh on impossible, but the public servants were pleased and even recommended that other paint companies consult him! His view was that he retired in 5 years and they wouldn't figure it out in that time.His comment was "Brains baffle b*llsh*t".
This I add happened more than 5 years ago.
Graeme No.3 posted four other interesting comments on the subject and finally this one: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=13578#235415
curious how the old memories come back.
At the time it seemed a clash of cultures; there wanted something and couldn't see why it wasn't supplied a.s.a.p. The public servants weren't interested in our difficulties, they expected us to drop everything and comply with their demands. Almost feudal, like a Baron addressing serfs.
The original demand came with a deadline, and threatened us with fines and/or imprisonment if we didn't supply the information on time and guarantee its accuracy.
I don't think that the question of the costs of compliance ever crossed the minds of this government or its advisors. For over 50 years the amount of paperwork they've demanded from industry has grown and grown. Each Department assumes their demands are reasonable and not much work (forgetting that collecting data takes far more time than filing it) and not allowing for other departments demands.
The howl from industry has been loud and clear for years, yet ignored. The burden is becoming too great, and will be resolved by either of two methods - that of the Israelites departing Egypt, or the French peasants revolting. For companies the first is in vogue.
That we might have other priorities wasn't considered, but even then the firm was trimming staff. We were down about 40 from 4 years before, and had about 170-180 working there.
I lost contact but I know that there are now less than 50 there. Drastic cuts have been made because they are struggling to compete with overseas competitors, yet they were exporting quite large volumes when I was there.
These comments illustrate some of the real compliance costs of carbon pricing. It's important to recognise that once carbon pricing is begun the participation rate will increase over time to include smaller and smaller emissions sources. Eventually, when full international carbon pricing is in pace, most emissions source in every country will have to be measured And they measurements will be required to be precise and accurate.
My Question: What will be the compliance cost for carbon pricing one it is implemented to the standard that will eventually be required?
Peter, the proposals I have seen involve a tax on the fuel itself in relative proportion to its carbon content, with the tax applied at the point where it enters the market for combustion purposes (as opposed for use in making plastic or other petrochemicals). So it would be applied at the wellhead or the minehead, with exemptions for the portion exported.
The examples you gave above refer to reporting conventional air contaminants like VOCs and NOx, where the amount emitted depends on minute details about the combustion process. As you note, that's very onerous for firms. CO2 is different because the level of CO2 emissions is almost completely determined by the volume of the fuel used, not by how it is burned. Firms wouldn't report their emissions at all. The tax would simply be built into the price of the fuel they purchase.
Thus it would be no more costly than adjusting the rates on existing fuel taxes. In fact, since there are already taxes on motor fuels, you could just relabel the existing motor fuel tax a "carbon tax" and adjust the excise tax rates on natural gas, heating oil and coal to the correct relative proportions and you're done. Then there'd be no change in the price of petrol, almost no change (I think) in the price of heating oil, some increase in the price of coal and perhaps even a reduction in the tax on natural gas.
Ross McKitrick,
OK. Now I understand. Thank you. Is the British Columbia's 'carbon tax' an example of how you would suggest it works?
[link for benefit of other readers: http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/tbs/tp/climate/carbon_tax.htm ]
Ross McKitrick,
I presume fuel taxes would have to be applied uniformly throughout the world? If not, wouldn't they be highly distorting?
[Please don't feel obliged to answer my probably trivial questions if you don't have time.]
Ross McKitrick,
Further to my question about the need for a uniform price throughout the world - and to the need for a high level of participation - I'd be interested in your comments on the points I raised in my article posted on 'Quadrant Online' this morning:
Carbon pricing – why it will not succeed
Supporters of carbon pricing argue it is the cheapest way to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, their assumptions are unlikely to be achieved in practice, as it is unlikely such a program can be implemented and sustained for the considerable time required for it to work. With the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) representing a key difference between … , this article examines the underlying logic and argues that it can never succeed and should be repealed without delay.
The article is here: 'No gain and lots of pain with the ETS'
Dear Peter
The BC carbon tax (as best I understand it -- there may be hidden details) is close to what I have in mind. But while they avoided some bad policy moves by opting for it (for instance they didn't go the Ontario route of wind mills and solar) they still have dumb rules alongside it, such as requirements for carbon neutrality by public entities. That stuff should go, otherwise the tax does not yield efficiency. And of course it gets adjusted over time in an arbitrary manner, rather than following a meaningful state variable.
If a country imposes a unilateral carbon tax of large magnitude then it risks loss of competitiveness. But low carbon taxes coupled with reductions in other taxes can be unilaterally beneficial, depending on the details of a country's pre-existing tax system. But only at low levels, not enough to reduce emissions appreciably. The main advantage of a county unilaterally imposing my carbon tax is the creation of a climate futures market that the rest of the world could observe. In other words it would only require one country to implement the tax to reveal the objective, market-based expectations path for global climate, which I suspect looks nothing like the array of GCM output that feeds into climate models.
I'll try to have a look at your Quadrant piece some time.
Ross McKitrick,
Thank you for your reply. It is greatly appreciated experts like you, Richard Tol and others can take the time to answer questions on blog sites. Bishop Hill and a few other sites have been great for having experts respond to bloggers comments. So, thank you for your detailed response to the original comments and for your replies on this thread.
There is a great deal to like about your proposal. It's a pity it wasn't seriously considered as an option over the past two decades (when the main debate was between trading schemes and taxes on GHG emissions as distinct from tax on fossil fuels). However, even if it had been we still would have got all the green energy schemes, so such a proposal would, inevitably, have been in just as much of a mess today as the ETS (cap and trade) and carbon tax schemes.
I need to think some more, but in the meantime:
But low carbon taxes coupled with reductions in other taxes can be unilaterally beneficial, depending on the details of a country's pre-existing tax system. But only at low levels, not enough to reduce emissions appreciably.
I accept that theoretically it is possible to apply a tax to fossil fuels and achieve a net beneficial outcome for the economy, but I am sceptical that it could be achieved in practice. Most new tax systems (such as the GST in Australia and Canada) had to be significantly compromised in order to win sufficient support to get them legislated. I also suspect that any fuel tax would inevitable have major issues, such as causing distortions, because it does not include all greenhouse gases.
The main advantage of a county unilaterally imposing my carbon tax is the creation of a climate futures market that the rest of the world could observe. In other words it would only require one country to implement the tax to reveal the objective, market-based expectations path for global climate, which I suspect looks nothing like the array of GCM output that feeds into climate models.
On the other hand, and example of what happens in the real world: The Australian Government, led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, went to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference convinced we knew how to save the planet and Australia would set an example the whole world would follow. The Government and its supporters were sure Australia had the right solution and were confident the world would follow our example. Luckily for the world, China, India and US Congress were wise enough to say "no thank you, Australia". Richard Tol makes a persuasive case in this article that the world is unlikely to agree to a global carbon pricing scheme. I understand your argument that if one country demonstrates your proposal it will convince the rest to follow, and I understand your many good reasons for believing this could be the case. However, …
There is a lot to like about your proposal. I am certainly interested.
Ross McKitrick,
My article 'No gain and lots of pain with the ETS' uses work by William Nordhaus, Richard Tol and Australian Treasury to make these points:
- carbon pricing cannot succeed unless it is global;
- global carbon pricing is unlikely to be achieved; and
- the Australian carbon pricing scheme, if continued, would be high cost and deliver little or no benefit.
I recognise your proposal is substantially different to the carbon tax and ETS schemes that have been the main focus of policy analysis and debate for the past two decades. However, I would be interested in feedback about whether the arguments I presented (based on Nordhaus and Tol) about the need for high participation rate for any scheme to succeed also applies for your proposed scheme.


text:
Watch Young Buck's "Refill" video.
Young Buck just got some unfortunate news about his allegedly faked drug test, namely that he could spend up to five years behind bars for it. But for the time being, let's focus on the music instead. Here's his new video for "Refill," a track taken from May's 10 Bricks tape.
Pulling up to a local liquor store in Tennessee, Buck hops out the whip in a Titans hat and matching bandana and proceeds to convince us that his supply of work never runs out. The collection of cars shown throughout is really something else, so if you're a coupe enthusiast, this is a must-watch.


text:
Parvis Dental are pleased to offer our patients dentures in Coventry. "False teeth" or denture are appliances that you can take in and out of your mouth and are used to replace missing teeth. They can be made of acrylic or metal- cobalt chrome. Sometimes they replace all the teeth in which case they are know as full dentures and sometimes only a few teeth and are called partial dentures.
Reasons to have dentures include improving appearance , speaking and ability to eat .


text:
You have taken the first step towards a debt-free life!
Here is a brief introduction as to what you can expect:
Free Consultation
By completing the form, one of our Certified IAPDA Debt Consultants will be contacting you to provide a free consultation to go over debt relief options for your unique situation.
After the Free Consultation, we provide you a customized plan tailored specifically for you. By making the decision to enroll in the program, we will get to work on your behalf.
With our Debt Relief Programs, we provide a savings plan, negotiate, and settle your unsecured debts as expeditiously as possible for a fraction of what you owe, saving you money in the process.
Completion and Financial Recovery
Upon successful settlements of all your enrolled debts, you will complete the program and be on the way to financial recovery to improving your credit worthiness.
Contacting Us
Toll Free
If you don't want to wait for someone to respond to the form you submitted, please call us toll free at 1-877-973-3287.
Please use our Live Online Chat to connect with a Certified Debt Consultant. Our debt relief consultants are available from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
You will receive an invitation to subscribe to our newsletter. Please click the confirmation link inside the e-mail you will receive. If you do not want to subscribe, simply do nothing, however, we encourage you to do so to stay up to date with company news, industry trends, and most importantly to stay motivated!
Thank You
Disclaimer: Some programs and services may not be available in all 50 U.S. States. The information provided is for informational purposes only. No communication should be considered legal advice. Individual results may vary based on program terms, ability to save sufficient funds, underwriting guidelines, the creditors in your individual profile, and the willingness of creditors to negotiate. Individuals depicted in images and videos may or may not be employees, and some are actors or models, all of whom do not necessarily endorse or support Financial Rescue, LLC. Financial Rescue, LLC, does not assume any debt, make monthly payments to creditors or provide tax, bankruptcy, or legal advice.


text:
The power outage that affected the Northeastern U.S. and much of Ontario also left Cleveland and Detroit without electricity. The Detroit Free Press
reported that most of the rest of Michigan was blissfully sanguine:
There's only one problem: they forgot Lansing, the state capital. Lansing's city-owned utility, the Board of Water and Light, did lose power. The BWL also serves some areas outside the city, including East Lansing. (Michigan State University makes its own power which remained on.)
The outage caught Governor Granholm in the middle of a staff meeting and affected state office buildings. GM had to shut down automotive production. (Lansing hosts major GM factories.) Lansing City Hall was evacuated. The Lansing State Journal had to borrow the news room of the MSU newspaper, the State News, in order to produce a single skinny section of the Friday paper.
In short, the capital was as dark last night as Detroit was.
You can imagine how the Freep made this error: the reporter, Sheryl James, called a PR flack at Consumers Energy, and asked what other parts of the state were affected. (Consumers and DTE are the main electric utilities in Michigan.) Consumers said "actually things are pretty good." James obviously didn't bother to ask anyone in state government -- who certainly would've known the lights were out -- or the Freep's own Lansing bureau.
The New York Times managed to produce a complete, thick Friday edition and get it delivered to the Lansing area. It includes a map showing all major cities with reported outages. Lansing and Kalamazoo are listed, along with Ann Arbor and SE Michigan. Gee, if the Times (whose newsroom ran on generators overnight) can report accurately on Michigan cities, shouldn't the Freep be able to as well?


text:
Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Yields: 4 Servings
Patrick Riley, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, submitted this recipe for Stirrin' It Up: Kids Edition. He believes that the sauce plays an important role in food which inspires him to experiment with different flavors. Patrick attends Parkview Baptist School.
Ingredients for Aúoli Sauce:
2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsps chopped chives
2 tbsps chopped cilantro
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp adobo sauce
Method for Aioli Sauce:
In a food processor, combine chipotle chiles, garlic, mayonnaise, chives, cilantro, lime juice and adobo sauce. Puree until smooth. Transfer sauce to a small bowl, cover and refrigerate while preparing the sandwich.
Ingredients for Club:
1 loaf focaccia bread
4 slices smoked ham
4 slices smoked turkey
4 slices bacon
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup sliced yellow onions
1 (8-oz) can black olives, sliced
1/4 cup sliced red onions
1 jalapeNo, sliced
4 slices smoked mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
Method for Club:
In a saute pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add yellow onions and saute 1-2 minutes then set aside. Divide the focaccia bread in half, spread the aúoli sauce on both sides. Stack one side of the sandwich with ham, turkey, bacon, yellow onions, olives, red onions, jalapeno and cheese then top with the other slice of bread. Drizzle olive oil on top of the sandwich and place in a panini press until the cheese melts. NOTE: A conventional oven set at 375 degrees F can also be used to toast the sandwich and melt the cheese.


text:
I am a somewhat disillusioned fan of vampire fiction. I have a few hundred vampire books and have read a few hundred more than that. The days when I would buy a book just because it was vampire fiction are long gone given the sheer quantity of them out there and the average quality, which seems to sink every year. In the last week I just happen to have read three vampire books over the last week or so and this one, 'Running Dry' by M. Christian, made me think: Oh, right. This is what I loved about vampire fiction all along.
And I should probably make clear is that we are not talking about bats, tuxedos and mock-European-accent type vampire cliches here. The very essence of the vampire mythos is having to take something from someone else to live, take so much that they die. That is the monster inside the man, that is the dilemma. Modern vampires who have immortality, angst and superpowers but no real down side to their state pale in comparison to this.
The basic story is about Doud, a conflicted man trying to reconcile what he needs to do to live his long life with his respect for human life. Shelly is his friend, a middle-age gallery owner who has to confront a few of her own personal demons when she finds out what Doud really is. And finally the story starts with the return of Doud's old lover Sergio who had every reason to want Doud dead. The kind of creature Doud really is would take a little long to explain. He needs to feed off others but his nature springs from the author's unique vision and has none of the surface features of the stock blood-sucking monster.
There really is very little to complain about in this book. I do think some of the events in the last third of the book could have been described at more length to help us setting into the twists and turns and to add pathos to the ending which could (should?) have had more emotional impact. But this is a quibble. The characters are likeable without being particularly heroic or virtuous (like real people). The story pulls you along with something new unfolding in every chapter. More than anything the writing is effortless to read, so it is more like watching the story through a window than wading through a swamp of words (this being the greatest difference between this book and the others I read this week). Based on my experience of M. Christian's writing so far (this book and his anthology 'Filthy') my main advice is this, if a book has his name on it you should buy it.
If you like fiction with gay themes their presence here is a bonus, but the reason to buy this book is because this book is good.


text:
Reframing The Question Of Gun Control In The Context Of A School Shooting
by Francesca
I'm not writing this to outline specific steps you should take next, but instead to reframe the discussion that we have after every school shooting to something more real and directed at mass-murderers as a phenomenon. I want to start by summing up the two official American political party positions on mass-murder and school shootings so that I can then compare them to an anarchist's position on the same thing.
Two Popular Positions
So the two basic ready-made stances, as prepared by most media outlets fall under two opposing ideas:
1. "The constitution grants me rights to a gun to use for sport, defense against barbarians/ foreigners, and/ or defense against a future dystopic tyrannical (liberal?) government."
2. "Nobody should have a lethal weapon in their possession who isn't a trained law enforcer and therefore major gun reform should restrict our access to them."
The first position follows some assumptions about patriotism and a pure American ethic, a few narratives surrounding what is perceived to be the rebellious origins of the United States, and then some more narratives about freedom, heritage, and human nature. The second position also begins with a couple of faith-based assumptions, mainly regarding the good intentions and noble purpose of law enforcement, since they would be exempt from this gun critique. Similar to the conservative position, the liberal position starts by assuming that there is sometimes an unavoidable evil that spontaneously bubbles out of a person, with no traceable source or reason, and turns them into a school shooter. The basic difference between the two camps is the answer to the question "Who gets to shoot bad guys, cops or me?"
So if we follow each position to its conclusion we have two timelines: in a Democrat voter's United States, all school shooters are replaced with kids that wish they were school shooters, if only the government would let them buy the tools, which it won't. Those kids would (and in our current timeline, often do) become cops since cops can still legally use guns, and as we know, legally kill. In a Republican voter's United States, kids who want to become school shooters get to try, and theoretically get shot by a teacher, another student, or also maybe by a cop. Either way, both voters have started by accepting that some kids want to be school shooters and that's an unavoidable part of life.
An Anarchists Position
In any media-constructed false dichotomy like this one, we have to imagine that a third position exists and that it rejects the terms of the question in the first place. I would argue that our position has to be that one, and it can't begin with "Mass murder is an unavoidable spontaneously occurring human desire" or end at "Who gets to shoot the bad guys?" That's because we haven't considered that school shooters aren't born, but instead are grown. School shooters are a product of schools that function like jails, media that functions like church, and nuclear family structures that function like cults.
I can only speak for myself when I say that I'm not a mystic and I don't believe that brains do unexplainable things. So now that that's out of the way, you should know that I reject the idea that an impulse can spontaneously bubble into a person's brain without conditioning. Before a kid decides to do mass murder, either because he hates black people, or Jews, or because women won't fuck him, or because he just has inexplicable hatred directed at everyone around him, he has to be conditioned.
I'm not going to claim that I understand exactly when or where in a classroom, on a news channel, or on a fishing trip with your dad's friends that the seed is planted. And I can't claim to fully understand the thought process that clicks into place that tells a brain what it needs to know about the worth of a human life that would enable a school shooter or any other kind of mass murderer. I will, however, say that all of us know that schools resemble prisons at worst and office buildings at best, in order to prepare kids to accept their shitty futures in one of the two, depending on your tax bracket. I did grow up in a household, like a lot of us did, that had the news on at least one T.V. at all times. I would see how they portrayed poverty-stricken criminals in this country, or people living in a country the US was dropping bombs on, as subhuman. I could go on, you get the idea.
I will say though, that I am interested in sharing an anti-mass-murder stance with both state sanctioned parties. I'm against mass murder via school shootings. I'm against the mass murder of 1,187 people formally murdered by police in 2017. I'm against the softer, less direct murder of 45,000 people (according to a study out of Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance anyway, I'm sure it's higher) a year in this country due to denied access to medicine via poverty. And I'm against the mass murder of between 19 and 30 million people in wars the US has waged in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sudan, during the Korean and Vietnam wars, and between two Iraq wars.
I think it's essential and right to be against mass murder and I'm suspicious of any claimed anti-mass-murder stance that thinks that it's not a problem when it's done by cops, soldiers, or by artificial scarcity. I think you would have to believe that criminals, non-Americans, and poor people are less human to also believe that legal mass murder is an exception to your anti-mass-murder position. I think the imposed dichotomy between gun laws and no gun laws misses the point of any anti-mass-murder position which has got to first answer the question "Why does a mass-murderer decide to mass murder" and that we have to be genuinely interested in what the answer to that question is if we are going to claim to genuinely want solutions that can change more than just a law.
I believe that schools, as they are, are people-factories that breed the next generation of school shooters, army generals, cops, wife beaters, etc. I think we can create something better than what we now know of as schools, something that eliminates the line that modern schools draw between learning and living, for instance. I believe that nuclear families, as they are, promote isolation and foster some early and basic "us and them" thoughts that are dangerous. I think prisons should be abolished and people should no longer be policed and that our education system and other clunky institutions shouldn't operate with the intent to separate people into criminals and home-owners. I see that positions are taken by people after school shootings that non-coincidentally mirror exactly the positions of major news anchors and non-coincidentally only pose questions that risk keeping things basically the same. And I understand that it's tempting to reject the idea of fundamental change in favor of making some more laws, because that route doesn't require responsibility on our part over our own lives and it really is just an easier path of lesser resistance.
However, the standard response to any larger scale societal critique like this one (which is usually something between "that's not realistic" or charitably "Okay sure but I want to know what I can do NOW?") isn't necessarily a bad impulse. We should look at the situations we're in and mindfully act immediately. I've seen punks turn their music venues and communal houses into "Really Really Free Markets" that brought neighbors together after a workday, instead of splintering quietly off into their separate houses at 5:00 pm. I've seen kids raised with communal help that learn more empathy by 9 years old than I had at 19. I think we have to create different ways of relating to each other that doesn't begin and end with school bells or work schedules, and I think we do that by getting ahold of spaces to congregate in, expanding our families into networks of care and help, and sharing our lives with each other in ways that are truly dangerous to a government, a landlord or a boss. Whether your mass-murderer talking point is an amateur white supremacist, wears a badge, or holds office, I think the desire to become any one of those is planted in the anti-social home, to school, to prison/career pipeline and should be eliminated at the source. As corny as it sounds, I want to build bridges and take down walls because I think gaps and walls are the main ingredients in recipes for mass murder. I think the question of why kids become mass murderers is something that the gun reform framework can't and doesn't intend to answer.
Anonymous (not verified)
Thu, 02/22/2018 - 13:58
Not a bad intro article and
Not a bad intro article and probably good reading for the kydz.
Although you did use the word THIRD POSITION!
Anonymous (not verified)
Thu, 02/22/2018 - 21:20
to Be fair it looks like it
to Be fair it looks like it was written to be basic intro material so maybe 'third position' wouldn't ring a bell for the people this is intended for? That's pretty unfortunate wording though
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 22:25
Not any third position is the
Not any third position is the Third Position, brah. I decide to buy neither Coke or Pepsi, so that makes me a Nazi? lol
Third Position came from 1930s fascist and Nazis for their grand "solution" beyond capitalism and communism. Especially after the Crash and the failure of the Bolshevik revolution, it became very resonant, even if it was really juist a hardcore consolidation of capital.
Thu, 02/22/2018 - 17:19
16,000 people were killed by
16,000 people were killed by guns in the US in 2017, over 60% were suicides. 346 people were killed in mass shootings in the US in 2017. I didn't grab the link but the stats are readily available.
Not a whole fuck of a lot when you look at the bigger picture. It sucks for them and those who cared about them, sure. But on the list of deadly symptoms - and that is what this is, a symptom - its like a low grade fever, hardly registers.
It is the spectacular aspect of these shootings that gets people all giddy in the head and when it happens at schools...well, killing kids is never going to be popular.
If you want to talk about guns and deaths, you need to do a lot more homework and leave out the straw men and oversimplified statements you attribute to the dems and repubs.
If anarchists are going to put their foot into this tedious and endlessly absurd argument, best to keep it farther from the mouth.
Redpanther/Bad Kitty (not verified)
Thu, 02/22/2018 - 19:25
very good
The right-wingers are RIGHT when they say the liberal media LOVES mass killings. Aside from all the gun manufacturer's profits, what is funding this dispute is a split in the capitalist oligarchy. The liberal wing wants the State to have a monopoly on crushing the rest of us if we get out of line. The right wing of the oligarchy wants to keep it's options open, to include the hire of private mercenaries (like Blackwater and the Security Industry) to do the job. And as we ALL know, the Private Sector is SO much more efficient.
Anonymouse (not verified)
Thu, 02/22/2018 - 23:21
Who goes to prison for owning guns?
A hell of a lot of Black and Brown people get thrown into prison for owning guns in places where gun control laws favor whites, and this will now get worse. If gun control takes off Trump's regime not be aggressive in disarming Nazis but they will be damned aggressive about disarming people of color. Thus Trump+gun control equals a direct threat, an attempt to tilt the balance of power in favor of rich urban whites and neo-Nazis alike.
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 06:20
Not sure where you live, but
Not sure where you live, but there is already "gun control". The libs frame it your way because it suits their agenda. The call is for MORE gun control, primarily military grade weapons. Though many on the leftish side would like no guns in the hands of their sheep. As to your prediction..play out how that's gonna go down, if you can. Sounds like some serious hyperbole to support your own agenda.
Gun control to me means a sharp eye and steady hand whilst aiming at the right target.
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 15:06
To quote Clint Eastwood
"I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it."
Do not let progressives get away with state controlled management. This essentially played role in fucking over 60s-70s radicals. There will come another age where the anarchicly preferable will want to organize arms. Think a generation or two down the road and do not feed any legislative logic. The only things libertarians should be for is legal nullification.
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 00:18
"That's because we haven't
"That's because we haven't considered that school shooters aren't born, but instead are grown. School shooters are a product of schools that function like jails, media that functions like church, and nuclear family structures that function like cults."
Who hasn't considered mass killers aren't born into a mass killer? How mass killers grew up and their surroundings is a common consideration into trying to figure out why they killed a bunch of people. If that's the "third position" it's a pretty common one and didn't reframe anything.
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 17:33
As a British person, I
would hate to live in the USA. The home of the free and the brave!!! What a lie. A disgusting culture which has forced its way all over the world. There is no special relationship between many many people in Britain and the USA. We're sick of your violent racist culture. You consume the planet. You're deluded. You're hated. How's that for reframing? GROTESQUE.
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 18:28
That's all quite rich coming
That's all quite rich coming from a fucking brit.
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 18:43
WTF? The Brit Empire raped
WTF? The Brit Empire raped and pillaged most of the known world for almost 300 yrs. The only good thing to come out of there were Swift, Orwell, Wilde and the water-colorist Turner, and a few other pompous intellectuals.
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 19:05
Ale. Fish n chips.
Ale. Fish n chips.
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 20:25
Well yes, those things also.
Well yes, those things also.
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 22:38
don't know about ale, but
don't know about ale, but beer was invented/discovered in Mesopotamia soon after grain became a cultivated crop. battered fried fish was brought to England by sephardic Jews in the 17th century, chips being added in the 1860s (one story is that it was another Jew who did it first, another is that it was a Brit).
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 22:32
Lord Byron and Lady Lovelace,
Lord Byron and Lady Lovelace, as well as trhe Shelleys were cool, tho. Byron was the first establishment guy to denounce prisons.
Anonymous (not verified)
Fri, 02/23/2018 - 22:30
17:33... That, coming from a
17:33... That, coming from a subject of the British monarchy!? Hahaha
Also your comment is loaded with "Us vs Them" sillyness. You're not a "We", you know? That's one of the main dumb mistakes Americans did back in 1776.
Anonymous (not verified)
Sat, 02/24/2018 - 02:53
Interesting response... not one of you
said yes, the USA is consuming the planet, does use force everywhere, is racist, is violent. Instead, you implicitly defended the criticisms made. Sort of like what white people do when their white privilege is made crystal clear to them.
Anonymous (not verified)
Sat, 02/24/2018 - 13:15
you've got to be kidding me..
you've got to be kidding me...
nikolas cruz, like so many of the other mass shooters of the past few decades - isla vista, columbine, san ysidro... - is a white male supremacist.
the state is still hunting down black people for defending themselves in charlottesville, while atomwaffen are running around doing terrorist training camps and their members and fellow travelers are murdering people from coast to coast, singly and in batches. we are still being treated to the expressions of bafflement about the las vegas shooter, "what could his motive have been?????" as if rich white males aren't structurally conditioned to be sociopathic.
do we have a gun problem? a mental health problem? or above all, a white male supremacy problem?
what is mental health in a fucking society like this anyway?
Anonymous (not verified)
Sat, 02/24/2018 - 15:54
The socio-psychopathic
The socio-psychopathic condition is a mostly unintentional outcome of urban populations, a byproduct of myriad toxic social relationships which accumulate in fractured dysfunctional societies. Suicide is the most common psychological result where the hate has been turned into self-loathing and depression. Widespread substance abuse exacerbates the illness.
Sat, 02/24/2018 - 16:50
"The socio-psychopathic
"The socio-psychopathic condition"... enough of the psychobabble, bro. medicalizing behavior is rather authoritarian. besides that, you ignore the deliberate creation, maintenance, and extension of institutions of domination and exploitation (you know, those trivial things called capitalism and the state, topped with a dense frosting of white supremacy) at your own peril, as well as that of your alleged analysis. yes, living in an urban context (this is the definition of civilization) produces broken hate-filled people. yes, toxic social relations are the norm. yes, suicide and despair are rampant. yes, widespread substance abuse exacerbates this situation. but by positing such things as "unintentional" you're making an analytical error, essentially promoting the (neo)liberal notion of individual adaptation and overcoming of adversity, while *intentionally* ignoring the institutional infrastructure designed to break and ultimately destroy people and the natural world.
Anonymous (not verified)
Sat, 02/24/2018 - 18:06
san ysidro, an anti-latin@
san ysidro, an anti-latin@ attack by a white man in 1984, was the deadliest mass shooting until the killeen tx massacre which began with a white man yelling "all women are vipers!" even charles whitman, the original modern mass shooter, killed his mother and wife before heading up to the clock tower at UT austin.


text:
Unfortunately while all the sound files were done, there was problems when it came to editing together the separate pieces of our title sequence it didn't quite work out right. I feel that this sort of takes away from the sequence.
I am however happy with how the piece has turned out as a whole, here it is:


text:
Generally speaking I'm not the girl you want at your company-wide mandatory meeting. Chances are I will be late, I will be checking my emails the entire time, I will make fun of the speaker with my neighbor, and I probably will have to leave early. I blame it on undiagnosed ADHD. It really has very little to do with the quality of the information delivered or the effectiveness of the speaker (although I have been known to cut some dismal speakers out at the knees). It's really just that I literally cannot sit still that long – again I blame the ADHD.
Oddly enough, no one seems to have gotten the message as I continue to be invited to these events. And this week's meeting was turning out to be par for the course. Until the last set of speakers got up to talk. Management may have finally figured out how to keep me in line: bring in a couple of Navy Seals and an arsenal of guns. I kid you not, corporate brought in two Navy Seals to talk to us about something called Operational Alpha and how to apply it to our teams to make us more effective – blah, blah, blah, blah.
First thing I noticed is that not only did I shut up and give them my undivided attention but so did every other person in the room. I swear you could hear a pin drop. I couldnt' figure out if it was the peaker's demeanor, the fact that he could kill us with his bar hands, or the arsenal fo guns that kept us all in line but all I knew is that I wanted me some of that.
I spent the next hour trying to figure out how to steal some of their operational alpha for use at home. I had visions of standing in front of my two squirrels – er sons – and commanding their rapt attention. I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it now! As the Seals talked I had fantasies of my two monsters at home obeying every order I barked out just like the Seals had us doing. My heart races even now contemplating the possibilities: pick up your room, brush your teeth, stop hitting your brother. To never have to utter the words "because I said so" again is cause for celebration. I sat there trying to figure out how to get what they have – command and control.
Then they showed us how they got their mojo – or operational alpha – by showing us clips from Hell Week. Which if you haven't seen before is, well, exactly what it sounds like: http://youtu.be/3DeSyl1CGIQ
So I've decided to take my chances with the squirrels and leave the heavy lifting (and Hell Week) to the professionals.


text:
Q2 Member Engagement Update
A word from our Member Engagement & Volunteer Director – Sandy Bell! I am very excited to report a few preliminary results from the 2017... Read More →
TLT partners with Non-Profit in Q2
Impact NW is a Portland-based Non-Profit whose mission is to help people who are struggling with poverty to prosper through a network of community support. Over... Read More →
Q1 TLT Meeting focuses on Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
A word from our TLT Director – Julie Milner! Our very own TLT member, Karl Hunrick, shared his expertise in Emotional Intelligence with our TLT during... Read More →
Coming Soon – Chapter Sponsorship Opportunities!
Special thanks to our members that responded to our recent membership survey. We look forward to sharing the key themes in our next newsletter after we have some time... Read More →
2017 Board Elections – Nominations Close Friday, 4/28
We're excited to announce that the ACMP PNW Regional Network Board is looking for FIVE new board members for this election cycle! As a Chapter,... Read More →


text:
Hybrid Tabs: WordPress Plugin
Many of you have asked that I incorporate tabbed widgets into the Hybrid theme much like what exists in Options, Structure, and Visionary. I knew from the moment of building the theme that this was something I'd never want to do.
So, I decided on a compromise — a plugin.
Features of the tabbed widget plugin
This widget is a bit more advanced than the one you've seen before in my themes, but the basic concept and usage is the same.
- Custom stylesheets for Hybrid and each of its child themes.
- Ability to have up to 10 tabbed widgets on a page.
- Can have up to 6 tabs per widget (if it fits within your design/layout).
- Bookmarks/Links are separated by link category, so you can create custom lists from your WordPress dashboard.
- Filters so that more advanced users can override the default functionality.
Get the Hybrid Tabs plugin
This is a release for exclusive members only.
It's still in its beta stage, so I hope some of you can help me find any potential bugs. Most of the testing has been in Firefox, so we'll need to check out those other browsers as well.
You can currently view a demo of the tabs on the Leviathan theme demo.


text:
Movado Amorosa Ladies Stainless & Gold-tone Diamond Bangle Watch - Black Dial
Your Price: sign-in or create your account
Because we are Authorized Movado retailers, we must ask that you sign-in or create an account to view Movado prices. Don't worry - it's fast and free and we won't send marketing emails without your permission. If you do not wish to create an account, please contact us for price and ordering information: 1-800-223-0452 or Email
- Contemporary bangle bracelet style in polished stainless steel with gold-plated accents
- 9 genuine high-quality diamonds are an elegant accent above and below the face for a total of 18 diamonds
- Jewelry style clasp.
- Black Museum dial with concave dot
- Sapphire crystal is virtually scratchproof
- High-quality Swiss quartz movement
- Water-resistant to 30 meters
- In addition to the standard two-year Movado warranty, Movado guarantees the gold plating against peeling or chipping for 5 years.
Princeton Watches is an Authorized Online Retailer for Movado. Your purchase will include a Movado 2 Year Manufacturer's Warranty.
In stock items ordered by 4pm Eastern time ship the same day.
All orders $50.00 or more qualify for FREE UPS Ground delivery. Watch orders $149.00 or more qualify for FREE UPS 2nd Day Air delivery. Please note that FREE 2nd Day Air Delivery does not apply to clocks.
We Also Recommend


text:
I am a doctoral candidate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My research is broadly concerned with political ecology and alternative economic networks in the Commonwealth of Dominica, Eastern Caribbean. Specifically, I am interested in the interplay between contemporary global change and endogenous systems of food production and exchange.
For more detail on my research, please visit RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP
For academic accomplishments and history, ACCESS MY CV.
My areas of interest include…Political Ecology, Development, Sustainability, Agriculture, Food Networks, Alternative Economies, Gender, Kinship and Social Networks, Food Sovereignty and Food Justice, Economic Anthropology, Feminist Theory, Decolonial Theory, Visual and Multimedia Ethnography, Cultural and Media Studies


text:
In securing the Republican presidential nomination, Ronald Reagan bested some high ranking Senate Republicans, including the then-minority leader, a victory which would come back to haunt him. "Several of these senators had contested Reagan for the GOP nomination in 1980 and were unchastened by their rout, chiefly because they thought themselves better qualified to sit in the oval office," Steven F. Hayward writes in The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution 1980-1989. "Reagan once remonstrated Howard Baker, 'Remember, Howard, I'm president and you're not.'"
Hayward, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, will be the featured speaker at Accuracy in Academia's next author's night on November 5, 2009 @ Armand's on Capitol Hill from 6-8 PM.
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.


text:
Retaining Wall and Patio Installation for Steilacoom Home and Business
Is your lot unevenly elevated?
Do you have an area that you want to turn into a lovely patio? Nasim & Sons Inc. has been in the landscaping business for over 19 years and counting and we know that to maximize any commercial or residential lawn landscapes picturesque view, it also necessitates hardscapes.
We also provide our Steilacoom clients with retaining wall installation, patio installation and paver stones.
We have an artistically creative team who will provide you with retaining wall installation or patio installation with vision and style, giving any house or infrastructure a symmetry with the hardscape designs to make it look more elegant.
Retaining Wall Installation • Retaining Walls
We provide retaining wall installation for all commercial or residential projects.
With retaining walls, our clients never have to worry about any soil sliding on any pavements and form dirt, and it also helps to keep planted plants or flowers on the elevated portions of your lawn intact.
Nasim & Sons Inc. offers many retaining walls design to meet the preferences of our Steilacoom clients that will surely add elegance to your commercial or residential property.
Call us now to choose the best designs for your retaining walls and for all your retaining wall installation requirements.
Patio Installation Services for Steilacoom
Do you have a bare space on your Steilacoom property? We can turn your Steilacoom bare space or bare area in your lawn into a functional patio. We have a skilled and creative team to provide you with any type of patio installation services to dress up any existing space in your Steilacoom property.
Nasim & Sons Inc. has the tools and over 19 years of knowledge and experience to turn your patio into a stylish gathering area with our patio installation services.
Paver Stones for Patios or Retaining Walls
Nasim & Sons Inc. offers paver stones for patios and retaining walls to give your patio or retaining walls that distinctive appearance that greatly adds beauty to your landscaping and patios.
We also have a creative team who can design the paver stones in patterns that are pleasing to the eyes and adds positive overall impact to your patio or retaining walls.
With our paver stone for patios or retaining walls services, walking in your patios will never be boring and your retaining walls will look interesting and keeps the soil from sliding onto your pavements or on the wonderfully cut and maintained lawn.
Call Nasim & Sons Inc. at 253-777-3881 for paver stones for your patios and retaining walls design.


text: Has anyone seen the official images and thumbnails of Animated Rodimus Prime's alt-mode? If you see them, please let me know and post them up as soon as possible. I'm eager to see what Rodimus would look like in his alt-mode for the Transformers: Animated series. Note: In Animated, Prime is name of a rank, and not part of the character's name. So, I suppose that Roddy is a car and not a truck.


text:
Hookah Bars In NYC
The hookah bars in New York are as diverse as the city itself. New York City is an amalgam of culture and a hookah bar in Queens is different from the fashionable spots in Manhattan. The magic of New York City is in finding your favorite spot in a place beaming with choices.
- Habibi Lounge. Tucked away in Alphabet City, this hookah bar houses a mix crowd of young and old. The lounge is pretty small but the hookahs are relatively cheap for New York City and dishes range from Egyptian hummus to Mexican beef burrito. Hookah flavors are equally diverse, including "Sex on the Beach" and "Bahama Mama." Best to come after midnight when it picks up and a belly dancer struts her stuff around 1 a.m. Habibi Lounge: 198 Ave. A. New York, NY 10009. (212) 982-0932
- Le Souk Harem. Right smack in Greenwich Village and accessible to various subway stops, this hookah bar boasts of a male belly dancer, good music, tons of eye candy and a private lounge for parties. Le Souk is very New York and that means expensive. Be ready to spend. Le Souk Harem: 510 Laguardia Place. New York, NY 10012. (212) 677-1120
- Cozy Café. The alcoholic choices are limited only to wine, champagne and beer, but it makes up for its 69 flavors of hookahwith special blends such as Cognac, Apple Martini and Egyptian Pharaoh. This hookah bar has no cover charge and has belly dancers on weekends. The outdoor patio is great for summer nights and the Egyptian motif means your nestled in draped fabrics. Cozy Café: 43 E. 1st St. New York, NY 10003. (212) 475-0177
- Falucka. Named after the small boats on the Nile in Egypt, is a small but cozy hookah bar in Greenwich Village. Weeknights are often very chill and weekends are crowded with fashionably underdressed young professionals. The DJ plays a mix of international music, including hip hop, Arabic songs and even some reggae. Falucka: 162 Bleecker St. New York, NY 10012. (212) 777-4555
- Luxor Café. This is a petite and laidback hookah bar in the New York University area. It offers a wide range of flavors including typical favorites such as apple, apricot and mint. Luxor Café: 128 MacDougal St. New York, NY 10012. (212) 979-1004
- Egyptian Coffee Shop. Located in Astoria, Queens, this place is worth the trip. Anyone who has ever been to Cairo and loved it will appreciate this hookah bar's simple interiors, local Egyptians playing dominos or watching TV, strong coffee and tea, and good hookah without the steep price. Egyptian Coffee Shop: 2509 Steinway St. Astoria, NY 11102. (718) 777-5517
- Sultana Cafe. Just beside the Egyptian Coffee Shop, this hookah bar has an outdoor patio, a DJ and great affordable hookah. The place offers no alcoholic beverages and is meant for hanging out and enjoying conversations. It is also cash only. Sultana Cafe: 25-03 Steinway St. Astoria, NY 11103. (718) 274-0040
- Layali Beirut. Dimly lit, cheap but good hookah, small space and no alcoholic beverages. This is the real deal. Layali Beirut: 2560 Steinway St. Astoria, NY 11102. (718) 777-2111
- Le Caire Lounge. here is a happy hour for drinks and dinner specials from Sunday to Thursday. This is hookah bar is spacious enough to accommodate groups and events, including a downstairs area, but a reservation is required. 189 E. 3rd St. New York, NY 10009. (212) 777-7447
- Horus Lounge. A hookah bar meant for dancing, smoking and loud music. It offers a full bar and a semi-VIP lounge upstairs. Horus Lounge: 510 Laguardia Pl. New York, NY 10003. (212) 677-1120
show comments


text:
Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of Bangladesh's opposition leader and former premier Khaleda Zia was sentenced to seven years in prison for laundering nearly USD 2.5 million on Thursday (July 21) by the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
The High Court Division bench of justices M Enayetur Rahim and Amir Hossain gave its decision on an appeal by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) by overturning the trial court's verdict that acquitted Tarique Rahman, 48, from money laundering charges. The court sentenced him to seven years in prison and slapped a Taka 200 million fine. The court also upheld the seven year sentence and fined Tk 400 million to Rahman's business partner, Giasuddin Al Mamun.
Tarique's counsel Barrister Mahbubuddin Khokon said that they were taken aback by the verdict. "We are astonished and shocked."
The matter of challenging the verdict of Tarique will be decided later since he is abroad, said another defence counsel Md Jalaluddin.
Khurshid Alam Khan, counsel for the ANti Corruption Commission (ACC) however, said that Tarique has to surrender before filing an appeal. "He has to turn himself in first. He will get 30 days to challenge the verdict."
In his reaction over the verdict, Khan said that it once again endorsed that no one is above the law.
"The court said that it's now time to rethink these matters as power and money laundering is linked."


text:
General News
Officers Position Election
Below are the list of Candidates that are running for a officers position. To vote fill out the google form: http://goo.gl/forms/1AtY3FsBVA
Maker Battles
Back in October 28th (2015), we had a competition to see who could 3D design the best "dog". Competitors had a time limit of an hour to 3D model. Then, pictures were displayed on the screen and the "dogs" entered an intense judging phase.
It was pretty hilarious! Here's the 3D modeled "dog" that had the most points in total:
All hail the Cheeto Dog. I swear it looks nicer if it's zoomed out.
Congrats to Nick Mizera (for winning the first unofficially official "Maker Battle"!
"I don't always make Cheeto Dogs. But when I do, there's cheddar." -Nick Mizera 2015
We're looking forward to more awesome creations when the second battle is initiated! Sharpen your weapons.
2016 - 2017 Year
Our club will include a variety of technologies, including programming, robotics, and even technology entrepreneurship. Here is what we do at state competitions: [ click this link for info ]
Finally, our focus is always on the beginners and what we can do for them! If you are interested at TSA, and have little or no knowledge, you are our primary concern. Please give it a try!
1-3 of 3


text:
Mini-docs (A YouTube Thread)
Just watching this awesome little thing that Stay+ have done for their new EP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN6E_7gOyRI
Was wondering if you've seen any other good things like this lately? Stuff that's less than half an hour, that gives you a glimpse, no matter how cryptic, into the world of a band or scene.
Actually, feel free to include any longer docs that are up on Youtube because whenever I hook my laptop up to my telly I usually like to watch longer things.
I've noticed that since YouTube added an on-demand store, things like About a Son seem to have vanished from their system https://www.youtube.com/movie?v=Oa8GYihRPwE&ob=av1e&feature=mv_sr
Yeah I loved these?
Did they stop now? I think I only saw Bristol, Chicago and Berlin.


text:
Turning on the other side of me
Okay, so I'm not a pro at the whole relaxation thing.
It's true. I put too much on my plate and I want to be the best at just about everything and maybe even more so, I want to be everything. Overachieving is no stranger to me. There are rarely paths chosen that don't have purpose. I like my means to get to an end. This is not bragging, this is admitting a fault.
This is the reason I have to get away sometimes.
It's sort of like going for a good run or sitting on the patio with a drink, but more of an extreme. When I schedule time away, the only purpose is to not have a purpose. I need to get away and get out of my head for a while. I need to tap into the certain parts of me that are pushed aside to work, work out and get the job done.
I think a lot of people understand this. The part they have trouble with is that I don't mind doing it all alone. I don't mind walking down a street alone or reading my own map. I don't mind having a drink alone or making friends with strangers alone; this is how I've met some of the most incredible people I know.
I don't know what makes me okay with it. I don't know the point in time when I decided that I didn't need someone with me in order to experience something. Granted, some things only get better when you can share it with another human being, but it doesn't mean that you should forego that experience altogether. Imagine what you'd be missing.
Traveling, whether it's just up the road or across the country, can be freeing. It's one of the only ways I know to get some perspective. To slow down. I don't have to deal with any deadlines or expectations. No one's asking for a presentation at the last minute and there are no "database emergencies." I don't have a clock or a schedule, just the rising and setting of the sun. I can be in the moment without having to try. When I can find a little time to get away, I think I am the most natural version of me.
One of my favorite quotes is: "I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it."*
So when this week is over and all the charity events have wrapped up, the presentation is given, the birthday parties are thrown and the beast-like test has been taken, I will be more than happy leave it all behind for a few days. Not because I don't like the work and not because I don't have fun doing it, but rather, because there's another side to me that is only on when everything else is off.
*For the life of me, I don't know who this quote belongs to. If someone does, let me know and I'll give credit where it's due. UPDATE: Quote is from one Rosalia de Castro. Thank you Ginger Breadman.


text:
Blue Rock Golf Schools
Blue Rock Golf Schools
Blue Rock Golf Schools
Blue Rock Golf Schools
Welcome to Blue Rock Golf Academy
The Blue Rock Golf Academy is devoted to providing golfers with individualized, high-quality instruction in a professional and comfortable environment. We are passionate about creating a unique experience on every visit.
The Blue Rock Academy experience is informative and not intimidating. We present a traditional approach to golf instruction while incorporating today's technology and are able to cater to golfers of all abilities by using V1 Pro video analysis software and the ES 14 Advanced Launch Monitor. Led by Patrick Fannon, Blue Rock is a leader in Cape Cod golf lessons. We cater to newer, inexperienced golfers with player development programs and offer private lessons for our more experienced players.
Patrick's Teaching Philosophy
Patrick believes in crafting a personalized approach to your game. Golf is played for many reasons, and his objective is to establish your "Why?" and deliver individual golf instruction that meets and exceeds your goals. His approach is to alleviate excess movements and simplify your swing with proper fundamentals and a consistent approach. Pat focuses on positive imagery and a balanced outcome; this allows golfers to improve and maintain consistency.
A 20-year member of the PGA, Patrick refined his knowledge and skills as a Teaching Professional and passed the PGA Teaching & Coaching Certification course in 2016. With this elite certification, he has become one of only 535 Certified PGA Professionals in the field of Teaching & Coaching out of 27,000 PGA members nationwide.
Patrick looks forward to working with you and improving your game this season. For lessons or more information on golf schools, contact him at 508-398-9295 or firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
My name is Rebecca, and I am an adoptee. I say that proudly, because my adoptive parents have not let a day go by without showing me love and sharing with me how grateful they are to have me in their lives. I was adopted from The Children's Home of Pittsburgh when I was only 3 months old. I grew up with an amazing family and an older brother that was also adopted through The Children's Home. We were always open about the fact we were adopted and that our parents "choose" us. It made us feel proud! Although, as I grew older, I started forming more and more questions about my birth story and where I came from. I had a single picture of my birthparents that would always keep me wondering who I looked like, where they were now, were they still together?
In college I was pushed over the edge to finally take that first step towards my search as personal challenges came and went. I got in touch with The Children's Home of Pittsburgh to inquire about searching for my birthparents. This was it, I was going to go through with the search. At first I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I had no clue the people I would meet or how they would affect my life.
A few short weeks later I got an email from the social worker that said she believed she found the current addresses to my birthparents and I was to write letters to them summarizing who I was and why I was searching. She sent my letter off and within days I got my first email from my birthfather. Pictures were shared and short life stories through while we got to know each other a little before meeting. I don't think I breathed for those few days when we were emailing back and forth. My heart was constantly pounding and tears constantly flowing and we emailed several times a day. By the end of the week, we FaceTimed for the first time. I finally was looking at the only person I knew that had the same DNA as me, and I looked like him!
We met for the first time at The Children's Home of Pittsburgh and I finally got to hear bits and pieces of how I came to be and how much my birthfather loved my birthmother but were not able to stay together. Since then, he has a family of his own that is so loving and supportive! Over the last year and a half we have spent a lot of hours together getting to know each other and watching his sons play sports.
Being an adoptee can have its ups and downs and emotions. It isn't always easy to accept the fact that your birthparents weren't able to keep you at the time of your birth, for whatever reason. Any void I had with these emotions were filled by the love and warmth of my adoptive parents. At the end of the day, I am proud to be adopted and now knowing the story behind my adoption makes me realize I should be happy with where life has taken me and whose hands I have been placed in.
On Saturday, March 29, 2014, I had the opportunity to share my story with hundreds of people at The Children's Home of Pittsburgh's Shake Your Booties Annual Gala that raises money the programs they offer, including the adoption program. My very close family and friends came together to support me in the amazing night that I got to share how blessed my life is and how my life has been touched by adoption. I will never forget that amazing opportunity and how I was able to touch the lives of the people that attended.


text:
Football Tour
Dear football enthusiasts! Transnistria Tour invites you to visit the famous sport complex "Sheriff", that is a training base of the football champion of Moldova FC "Sheriff". The construction of the sport complex began in summer 2000 on the edge of Tiraspol-City. In August 2002 the FIFA-President Joseph Blatter visited the sport complex and assessed it very high. The complex is situated on the 40 ha big territory. Apart from main arena it has small arena, 8 training fields, covered arena, hotel complex for players of FC "Sheriff", the 5*-hotel and football academy for young players. Many foreign companies participated in construction of the sport complex, e.g. the Canadian company "FieldTurf"( artificial fields), the Swiss company "Motomatik" (drainage, irrigation, natural fields). The leading European companies delivered the lightning and sound systems for stadiums.
Tour program:
- Main Arena (history, characteristics).
- Small Arena (history, characteristics).
- Training fields (visiting).
- Covered Arena.
- Rehabilitaion centre.
- Football academy (history and development).
- Hotel complex of FC "Sheriff".
- Fan Shop of FC "Sheriff".
Tour costs:
- 30€* - Offer for the group from 1 to 4 persons.
- 25€* - Offer for the group from 5 to 18 persons.
- * - for 1 person.
In tour included:
- Guiding.
- Transport in Tiraspol.
- Visiting the sport complex "Sheriff".
- Taking pictures allowed.
Tour duration:
- 1,5 hours.


text: Please support the author by visiting her site to see more "I am an illustrator in New York City. As a constant traveler and a native from China, I am interested in capturing interesting facts about culture through illustration that reflect humanity, diversity and fun. Besides illustrating for magazines and telling stories in the tradition form, I enjoy making maps, guidebooks and insider notes about different places through travel and research." Site [http://www.yaoxiaoart.com/] Information about the artwork, in the order it appears: 1. Made for the celebration of Chinese Mid-autumn Festival/Moon Festival for all the studying-abroad students who cannot make it home for the holiday. 2. Based on a poem by John O'Mara about an antique store. 3. Based on the book 'Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave to a 19th Century Addiction' by Steve Martin. A memoir about opium addiction developed from an interest in antique collection.


text:
Time has passed in the land of the ginger zombies. Though the sugary horror continues, the unrelenting march of the seasons continues. Spring turns to summer, which bleeds into autumn, which in turn changes to winter. The cycle continues, on and on, while the ginger zombies continue their domination of the world.
Sarah, the reluctant hero of our holiday tales, was last seen in Romania, running a zombie carnival with her lumberjack-crush, Jon. Though the zombies were entertained for a time, the shaky peace was soon shattered, and the two found themselves on the run from the ginger zombies once more.
Jon and Sarah wandered to the English countryside, where long abandoned manor houses dotted a wild landscape. The zombie population was low (with most of them having moved on to more populated regions of the cookie world), the homes were stately, and our heroes were weary. They soon set up camp in Frostingshire Manor, and things seemed peaceful.
For a time.
Unfortunately, peace doesn't last in a time of sweet monsters. When their new friend Darryl came back from a supply run, he brought more than food back to our lumberjack-and-jill. And now chaos has overtaken Frostingshire Manor, while our heroes once again fight for their lives.
Jon has taken up his trusty chainsaw once more, dismembering one of the deadly sugar zombies on his front walk:
At his feet sits a second Molotov cocktail, the first of which he threw at a zombie lurking near one of the large trees on the estate. The zombie has yet to realize she will be burnt sugar in but a few moments:
But as prepared as Jon may seem, he needs to be careful. A third ginger zombie has crept onto the second story balcony, ready to leap down on an unsuspecting cookie at ANY TIME:
After a rough start (in which an eye was lost to a hungry zombie mouth), Sarah has come into her own over by Darryl's truck. The memory of her time as a lumberjill has flowed into her arm, and while she may not be wearing plaid, she IS wielding her axe with deadly precision. Darryl's truck bed, once loaded with supplies, is now piled high with the remains of the zombies that have crossed Sarah's path:
Unfortunately, the owner of that truck was… not so lucky. Darryl met a tragic end when he tripped, fell into the pond… and was the first to discover that even the local wildlife has succumbed to the sugary zombie virus:
Nearby, another zombie skips rope with Darryl's intestines, which is rude, even for a zombie:
Watching over all this is the first zombie to attack the manor, a zombie Jon strung up as a warning to the others. A warning they promptly ignored, but it was a valiant attempt:
Will Jon and Sarah repel the zombies once more? Will Sarah get a really cool eyepatch now? Is that duck an ominous portent of things to come? Will the world be overrun by zombie ANIMALS too? Tune in next year to find out!


text:
EDASC's business retention and expansion (BRE) program works to identify, analyze, propose, and implement programs and practices that facilitate the expansion and retention of existing businesses and encourage entrepreneurial initiatives across and within existing business clusters and ecosystems. At its core, the EDASC BRE program is a planning-to-action initiative that continually reaches out to existing businesses to understand their needs, directly engage in problem solving, and increase their awareness of resources to help resolve issues and take advantage of opportunities to thrive and expand.
Industry Cluster Working Groups
As part of its BRE program, EDASC convenes meetings that bring together members of Skagit County's primary industry clusters to identify, articulate, align, and leverage collective strengths that will support sustained economic growth and enhanced business environment in Skagit County. These cluster working groups include:
- Ag, Value-added Ag & Food
- Manufacturing & Clean Tech
- Retail
- Financial & Professional Services
- Maritime
- Critical Infrastructure, IT, Logistics & Transportation
- Arts, Culture, Events & Entertainment
- Tourism & Hospitality
- Outdoor Recreation
- Conservation, Natural Resources & Environment
- Construction & Real Estate
- Non-profits & NGOs
- Healthcare & Public Wellness
For more information, contact Sean Connell, Director of Business Development and Global Competitiveness.


text:
You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'busy-ness' tag.
I heard the first Christmas carol on November l4. I remember being 1) confused and startled – Is that "Silent Night"? Why in the world is "Silent Night" playing on the radio? – then 2) resentful – What in the world are they thinking?! It's only November l4th! – and then resigned; after all, hadn't the stores already been decorated for Christmas for two weeks? Why should I be surprised by a little premature carol-playing?
As they say, Christmas comes earlier every year. I confess, I've grown weary of the whole event. By that, I don't just mean the rampant consumerism, the endless messages that suggest that we adults must give, give, give to prove our love and devotion, and the endless messages pumped out to our children that their job is to ask, ask, ask for more. (The number of items on my youngest son's Christmas list is fast approaching thirty.) I've grown weary as well of the anti-consumerism messages. The simplicity messages. The "real meaning" of Christmas messages that have become so clichéd as to be meaningless themselves.
By the way, in the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that this article is supposed to be about … simplicity at Christmas. Yet, whenever I think about Christmas, what comes to mind is a big to-do list – and backgrounding that list is an inventory that plays in my mind regardless of the season: 5 graduate school classes, 2 jobs, 2 small children, 2 aging parents – and somewhere in there is my poor spouse. There is no way to simplify this formula, especially at Christmas.
We like to reduce the advent and nativity story to a tale of sentimental simplicity. But was it? Think about Mary: according to Luke, twice in her pregnancy she made two long and arduous and perhaps dangerous journeys, first to see her kinswoman Elizabeth, and then to Bethlehem, with Joseph. She was pregnant and young and unmarried. She had been told that she was going to bear the son of God, of all things. None of this could have been "simple." But what I love about Mary is that, despite what must have been overwhelming and frightening and terribly uncertain circumstances – she showed up. She believed. But she didn't believe unthinkingly – she pondered these things in her heart.
I cannot bring simplicity into my world, for as is true for most of us, it is a busy, complex, often overwhelming and uncertain and sometimes frightening place. I can't make Christmas "simple." But I can show up. I can believe the Good News. I can ponder in my heart the love I have for my family – and for a baby boy whose coming into the world changed everything, forever. I can know the joy I receive from this is real, as my life – as all our lives – spiral toward return and completion in the Messiah.
Karen Richardson Dunn writes for Morvian Roots and Wings, even though she is a a wife and mother, a full-time student at Wake Forest Divinity School, and serves at Fairview Moravian Church as a worship intern.


text:
<< -- 2 -- Lawrence Budmen COMPELLING PERFORMANCES
Carlisle Floyd (born 1926) is one of America's best known opera composers. His Susannah and Of Mice and Men have become American classics. Willie Stark, Floyd's setting of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men may be a neglected masterpiece. In the early 1970s Floyd composed Pilgrimage, a biblical song cycle, for the late American bass Norman Treigle. A thoughtfully conceived, accessible work, Pilgrimage is not first class Floyd. Much of the score brings to mind Aaron Copland on one of his less inspired days. Yet Floyd's hymn-like setting of Psalms 148-149 Praise the Lord, O my Soul is marvelously stirring. The concluding 'For I am Persuaded' (Romans 8) is warmly lyrical, pure Americana. There is surprising dissonance and astringency (for Floyd) in 'Save me, O Lord, for the waters are come unto my soul'. This Festival Miami revival was a welcome opportunity to explore the byways of a celebrated American composer's creative oeuvre. Bass baritone Donnie Ray Albert imbued each of the five sections with intense, dramatic power. Except for some strain at the upper reaches of his voluminous voice, Albert sang with a dark, golden, evenly produced flow of tonal beauty. (Albert was an impressive Rigoletto at Miami's Florida Grand Opera a decade ago. More recently he has played Wotan in Wagner's Ring cycle. A specialist in contemporary opera, Albert is now in rehearsal for the première of William Bolcom's A Wedding -- based on the Robert Altman film -- at Lyric Opera of Chicago.) Floyd could not have wished for a more dedicated interpreter. Albert's performance was memorable! Sleeper's idiomatic support was admirable. The orchestra played the score with fluency and remarkable professionalism.
Donnie Ray Albert
While Richard Strauss's Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) Op 24 may not seem like typical repertoire for a student orchestra, Sleeper and his eager musicians gave a surprisingly accomplished performance of this moving Strauss showpiece. While there were prominent fluffs in the brass, the wind playing was strong. Beautifully articulated solos by the first chair oboe and flute riveted attention. The first violin, viola, and cello played the Viennesse chamber music section with warmth and stylish schmaltz. Sleeper commanded a remarkably large, solid tone from the strings (with shimmering harp glissandos). Strauss's gorgeous peaks of sound were well served. Sleeper is a first class Strauss conductor! His thoughtfully conceived, powerfully shaped reading often achieved eloquence and beauty. His affinity for Strauss's long limbed melodies was special. The moving power of Strauss's beautiful score was well served!
Thomas Sleeper
Festival Miami again brought students and veteran professionals together for a stimulating evening of music. With the combination of an interesting revival by a prominent American composer and compelling performances of serene masterworks from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Festival Miami's second decade is off and running. A worthy evening of fine music making!