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real wedding: katie + andrew
We're so excited to bring you this next stylish, downtown Denver wedding of Katie and Andrew! The couple said their vows at the iconic Holy Ghost Catholic church and then danced the night away at the Grand Hyatt, but not before stopping to take photos around our favorite city with Red Shoes Photography. Katie looked absolutely breathtaking in her Lisbon gown by Modern Trousseau, and those flowers by The Perfect Petal are to-die-for {we love those striped bows!}.
Take a look below at more real downtown wedding inspiration!
WEDDING GOWN: modern trousseau {lisbon}
PHOTOGRAPHY: red shoes photography
FLORIST: the perfect petal
VENUE: holy ghost catholic chuch + grand hyatt {denver, co}


text: It's likely that given the sensitive nature of the information it handles, the large number of employees and the profile of the organization, any indiscretions are reported widely. Moreover, the NHS has a legal obligation to disclose every breach to various regulators, In fact, many other organizations, public and private, often experience issues as a result of insecure legacy infrastructure along with a lack of security awareness and technical expertise at all levels. This often leads to poor security practices which in turn leave organizations, open to attacks. All organizations need to focus on four different areas: predication, prevention, detection and response. Security awareness training, both for technical and non-technical people, will also help to reduce staff mistakes.

subset: commoncrawl


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[Previous] | [Session 70] | [Next]
W. Herbst (Wesleyan U.), H. Garavel (Anna Reynolds School, Newington, CT)
An IDEAS grant from NASA was used to purchase a Starlab Portable Planetarium from Learning Technologies, Inc. in May, 1997. One of us (WH) taught a one-week summer workshop for 20 teachers from around the State of Connecticut in July of that year and again last summer. These workshops were sponsored by the Project to Increase Mastery of Mathematics and Science (PIMMS), which is based at Wesleyan University and supports teacher training efforts in math and science state-wide. We made use of the PASS manuals (Lawrence Hall of Science and New York Hall of Science) on activities for portable planetaria, the Universe at Your Fingertips (Fraknoi, ASP) and the extensive handbook created at the Space Center in Alamagordo, New Mexico (K. Hitchcock et al.). The contributions of an experienced high school physics teacher and AAS Teacher Resouce Agent, Joseph Wesney, of Cos Cob Connecticut, also proved pivotal to the success of the one-week workshop. The teachers were at the middle school and high school level and most had little or no previous experience in teaching astronomy. The course, for which they or their districts pay a modest fee, provided them with the UAYF and other resources and guaranteed access to the planetarium in their schools for at least a one week period. Since all locations in CT are within about 1.5 hour driving time of Wesleyan, we have chosen not to deliver the Starlab to the schools but to require the teachers to get it and return in to Wesleyan themselves. We simply schedule its use in one week blocks on a first-come first-served basis. This has worked remarkably well and teachers are continuing to use the Starlab in their schools over multiple years. They usually do programs not just for their own classes, but for the whole school and sometimes also at night for PTO groups. One of us (HG) was a student in the first year and subsequently received a Christa McAuliffe Fellowship to purchase her own starlab and spend a sabbatical year taking it to schools around CT. This has led to the development of additional teaching strategies and activities and, especially, to the recognition that the Starlab can be successfully used in the lower grades - even including grade one. Some of the activities and approaches of the program will be displayed and, perhaps, demonstrated if a Starlab is available. We thank the IDEAS program for their support, without which this program would never have happened.
If the author provided an email address or URL for general inquiries, it is a
s follows:
[Previous] | [Session 70] | [Next]


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In 1972, the C.Y.O. was one of the first camps in Ontario to integrate special needs children into our mainstream camping programs. Our unique "One-to-One" program offers short-term respite care by ensuring that a dedicated counsellor is given special training to handle the responsibility and challenges of providing assisted care to special children while they participate in our C.Y.O. camping programs.
"One-to-One" counsellors assist the child in walking, eating, hygiene requirements, social interactions, as well as taking their medications. Counsellors provide peace-of-mind to these families knowing that their child is receiving a safe and caring supportive service, while offering their child the opportunity to participate in our camping programs and activities along with their able bodied friends.
Over the past 40+ years, over 11, 000 children with special needs, in our community, have benefited from this unique "One-to-One" program.
Please note: As spaces are limited and we would like to allow every child the opportunity to attend, we can only guarantee two weeks, per child. Campers can then enter the waiting list for the remaining weeks, should they wish to attend. Thank you for your understanding.
Our Goal for the "One-to-One Program:
The primary goal of our "One-to-One" program is for the child, who has special needs, to have a safe, rewarding and above all fun and exciting experience while in our care at camp. "One-to-One" counsellors will work with family members to ensure they understand and receive the appropriate respite care instructions and strategies, to deal with each child's unique challenges while they participate in our recreational camping programs.
Our "One-to-One" program also emphasizes life skills by providing opportunities for peer-to-peer relationship building with the other able-bodied children. A safe, secure and fun environment also helps to build the child's self-esteem by giving them positive reinforcements, in an organized and controlled environment. Finally, making new friends for many of these children is a memory that will last a lifetime.
Who uses our "One-to-One" Program:
Our "One-to-One" program is available to families living within the Hamilton-Wentworth and surrounding communities. For many families, the challenges of caring for a loved one are an exhausting part of daily life. Providing additional supportive care can also be cost prohibitive. However, the C.Y.O. understands that offering hope and support is essential to the overall health and well-being of the family and their loved one.
Families that request the use our "One-to-One" program have children with diverse special needs. These children have any combination of the following physical, behavioural and/or developmental disabilities, such as: Spina Bifida, Cerebral Palsy, Hearing & Visually impaired, Angelman Syndrome, Scoliosis, Downs Syndrome, ADD / ADHD and Autism, just to name a few.
Please note that in Hamilton alone, the total percentage of the population with disabilities (18.3 per cent, or 91,440 people) is higher than the provincial average (13.5 per cent, or 1,514,380 people) and the national average (12.4 per cent, or 3,601,270 people) – Statistics Canada 2001.
This fact is evident in all age categories as illustrated below:-Hamilton average: 0 – 14 yr. olds: 4.2%, 15 and over: 21.6%, 65 and over: 60.8% - Provincial average: 0 – 14 yr. olds: 3.5%, 15 and over: 16.0%, 65 and over: 44.9% - National average: 0 – 14 yr. olds: 3.3%, 15 and over: 14.6%, 65 and over: 40.5%
Cost of our "One-to-One" Program:
Annual fundraising activities, as well as camp subsidies are available to ensure that our "One-to-One" Camper families do not pay any more than any other able-bodied camper to participate in our summer camp programs.
The C.Y.O. believes that every person should be treated equally and most importantly that every child deserves to play!
There is no additional fee for the program, therefore families will only need to pay the $150.00 Registration Fee.
How the "One-to-One" Program Works:
Once the family agrees to participate in our camping program, they are asked to complete a registration form. Once the form is received and confirmed, the "One-to-One" program coordinator will call and arrange an in-home meeting with the family, prior to their child's arrival at camp. It is during this in depth interview process that modifications can be made to the existing camp program/route to suit the individual needs and challenges of these unique campers. It is during this introduction to the child, that the program coordinator can determine the right programs for the camper, while matching the child's needs and personality with the appropriate "One-to-One" camp counsellor and experience level. We also listen intently to the family's concerns and ensure that their goals are met.
The weekend prior to the child's week at camp, the "One-to-One" counsellor will personally contact the family introducing themselves and inquiring any further information or details necessary to ensure a successful week of camp is had by all participants.
Many of the children who participate in the C.Y.O.'s "One-to-One" program have limited communication skills to actively participate and comment on the program's design. As such, a letter is sent home from the counsellor at the end of each day detailing the child's successes, challenges and what will be happening the next day at camp.


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Two beers into Saturday morning, two guys,
heads on the metal pillows of a truck bed –
gazing at stars too far from town to drive to,
REMs deep in our brains, every 90 minutes
clicking on how it might taste to French kiss
a day job with the big bucks in the city.
We'd be damned if we'll give up a third
of our lives to nothingness as do old men
in the square who say they do not dream.
We say they do not remember. But not us.
Never do we not exist. Every 90 minutes,
we wonder what it would be like to do
something other than lie here on cold steel –
do it with body painted babes torn from
the new magazine, hitchhiking on the back
of some star to a new town, or to the city.


text:
Imagine that you are speaking at a conference in 90 days. There will be a thousand people at that conference, and ten of them have the power to put you straight into your dream job. What will you do? Most likely, your subconscious will go into overdrive and you will obsess night and day about your presentation. (And freak out — a little or a lot.)
These days, it's impossible to have a conversation with anybody in business without them mentioning at least once how busy they are. "Busy" might feel like a source of pride, a marker of how much we are doing. But busy is also an excuse. It's a conversation blocker. And often, it's a barrier to achieving what is most important to us.
Last week, I suggested that without realising it, many of us are playing a finite game — an endgame —with our most important contracts and customers. This article was inspired by the fabulous Dr Jason Fox, an expert in motivational practice, and his new book Game Changers.
This week, I had the great pleasure of hearing Jason speak. One of the key points I took away from Jason's presentation is that overcommitment is the noblest excuse for failure. It's an alibi that excuses us from poor performance.
In her book Mindset - How You Can Fulfil Your Potential, psychologist Carol Dweck also notes that "it's one thing for a four-year-old to pass up a puzzle. It's another to pass up an opportunity important to your future." But often, by being overcommitted, that's exactly what we are doing.
No one will argue that bids take a heap of time and effort. You've just finish one and the next one rears its head. It's tough to pursue new business while you're running the business. And it can be hard to know what to do proactively, when it feels like it's all about waiting for the RFT.
When we are speaking on a stage, we are acutely aware that all eyes are on us, but in fact bids are no different. Just because a lot of competitors are at that event does not make it any less about you. When the prospect's rating your proposal, you are the only person they are looking at.
Great presentations happen when passion meets preparation. This is your time to shine. So don't wait! Start planning now. Proposals that emerge as the clear winner are really just the bid leader's grand passion brought to life. Let me help you find yours.


text:
Fluorescent Fixture T5 with diffuser 28W
Order code: LI-L2083
48.21 je Stk. .
incl. VAT plus Shipping cost
Decorative lighting batten with plastic cover for T5 tube 28 watt. Protection IP40.
Manufacturer: Galaxi
Manufacturer: Galaxi
With prismatic cover.
Applications: Areas with higher protection requirements: Hospitals, laboratories, passageways, offices.
Available for 1 or 2 fluorescent tubes T5 28W.
(Lamps must be ordered extra).
With flicker-free electronic ballast for low energy consumption and extended lamp life.
Protection class IP40
Chassis sheet steel, white.
Length 1230mm, height 64mm, width 173mm.
Optionally: 12V, 24V supply voltage or with emergency lighting supply.


text:
NEWS| Heohwan Simulation featured in Trendland
Heohwan Simulation SS12 Lookbook
Vauxhall Fashion Scout's Ones to Watch designer has been featured in TrendLand. The blog, which provides readers with a daily dose of fashion, art and photography news/reviews, looks over Heohwan Simulation's SS12 and AW12 collections. Why not refresh your memory of Hwan Heo's AW12 catwalk showcase with our review from February? Keep up to date with all things Heohwan Simulation at http://heohwansimulation.com
By Editor Cass Gowing
Follow her on Twitter @CassGowing
Images from Heohwan Simulation's SS12 lookbook


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Let's talk about life, the universe and everything. No, I'm not talking about Douglas Adams today but a rather clever chap from Gaul (or less likely a different chap from Spain, but historians can't decide) called Sallustius.
Back in the 4th Century Sallustius was very good friends with the Roman Emperor Julian. Julian (Flavius Claudius Julianus Augustus) was a Greek, given the name Julian the Apostate by the Christians as he chose to be a Pagan or 'Hellenist', embracing the Neoplatonic beliefs. He was, in fact, the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire.
Julian was a complicated character, an effective military leader, as well as an intellectual, philosopher and writer. When he was made Emperor in AD 361, he restored Pagan temples and removed the privileges awarded to the Christian bishops by Constantine, his predecessor. His intention was not to destroy Christianity, but to drive it from the Empire and restore Hellenistic Paganism as the state religion. Had he taken a more ruthless and bloody approach, he may have succeeded. Instead, Julian the Philosopher made his case in speeches and essays.
Sallustius (Saturninius Secundus Salustius), now Julian's prefect, wrote 'On the Gods and the Cosmos', probably at the request of, or in support of his friend. The work isn't Pagans v Christians though. Sallustius attempts to argue in defense of the Hellenic religion without attacking the Christian beliefs.
In AD 363, Julian was hit by a Persian arrow and later died. Sallustius was nominated as Julian's successor but he refused. Instead, the job went to Jovian, the Antioch Library burning Christian who waved the white flag at the Persians and reestablished Christianity as the favoured religion, making death the penalty for all Pagan worship.
Jump forward some 1550 years and the charmingly eccentric young genius and fellow of Clare College, Arthur Darby Nock, is asked to translate the Sallustius text. Nock travelled to the Ambrosian Library in Milan and the Vatican Library in Rome to study the manuscripts. The resulting book, published by Cambridge University Press in 1926, was heralded as 'extraordinary'. At the young age of 27, Nock became Professor of the History of Religions at Harvard and was regarded as the leading authority on the subject.
'Concerning the Gods and the Universe' is a wonderfully interesting book, and not only for literary enthusiasts or readers and collectors of philosophy or religious history. It is surprisingly readable and thought provoking, comprising of a lengthy introduction in question and answer form, followed by the translation, with Greek text facing English. There aren't many of these around, and you can buy this one by clicking on the pics below. SORRY, NOW SOLD


text:
Putting PASSION into ACTION.
Clubs and organizations are an important part of the Appalachian experience. Part of the mission of ASU is to help students develop skills so they will become good citizens and strong contributors in the communities they join. Appalachian State University boasts 400+ student clubs and organizations. There are many benefits to getting involved on campus:
Develop Valuable Leadership Skills
Form Lifelong Friendships
Explore your Passions
Establish Relationships with Faculty & Staff
Portal Information
The Office of Campus Activities recognizes that the development of the whole student is achieved through in-class and out-of-class learning opportunities and experiences provided through programs designed to enhance cultural, intellectual, leadership, personal, and professional development.
Through our educational programs and advising we help students FIND their place, EXPLORE their passions, and DISCOVER their purpose. We invite you to join us along the journey...
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
Club Hub - 219 Plemmons Student Union
Please list information about the organizations selection process and include membership requirements if applicable.
We welcome all students to visit us in the McCaskey Center, 244 PSU and Club Hub, 219 PSU to learn about all the exciting leadership and involvement opportunities at ASU!


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CONGESTION has always been a major flow of the prison system. It is worsened by the seeming helplessness of those concerned. This is because past efforts at prison de-congestion have not yielded positive results.
Today, all the nation's prisons, built ages ago, are not only devoid of basic facilities, they are over-crowded. Nigerian prison now pass as human destructive facilities as against being reformatory.
One of the first prisons in the country – the Warri prison – was built in 1805; Azare 1816; Degema 1855 while the newest, Zing was built in 2011.
Worse still, majority of inmates in these prisons are people, whose guilt has not been established. Some have spent years as awaiting trial inmates for offences that ordinarily, would have attracted months' sentence.
By a report of the nation's prisons audit carried out in 2012 by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and some stakeholders, over 80 per cent of inmates in the nation's about 234 prisons, are awaiting trial inmates.
This, no doubt, reflects a failure on the part of the various components of the country's criminal justice system.
Aside that police's investigations are largely crudely conducted, devoid of scientific analysis; but mostly dependent on forced confession, the pace of trial at the nation's court is mostly, at snail speed. It becomes worse when an accused person is without legal representation.
It is in this light that the move by the Legal Aid Council (LAC) to encourage a standardised, well-coordinated and documented pro bono (free legal) services in the country, is heart warming.
LAC Chairman, Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), explained that his council, working with the new Legal Aid Act 2011, has introduced some radical reforms and designed a new framework to guide its activities till 2015.
Speaking in Abuja, Ayorinde said: "We are now ready with a working paper to guide the council. It is entitled: Justice for all: The Attorney General's outlook for the Nigerian Legal Aid Council. It has as its blueprint; 'partnership, accessibility and sustainability.' It is meant to guide the council from 2012 to 2015."
He said having realised that pro bono, is at the very heart of legal aid, his council has initiated plans to bring on board, the private Bar (private lawyers), to encourage them take up a number of pro bono cases, which LAC recommends. "Lawyers in the country already engage in pro bono services. But this time, we want to regulate the provision of pro bono services. We are setting up a system, in the form of collaboration between the private Bar and the LAC.
"We have had consultations with the various Bars, individual lawyers and some Senior Advocates of Nigeria. They are all very excited about this prospect and are looking forward to working with us.
"What we want to do is to properly regulate the provision of this service rather than leaving it to the discretion of the lawyers. The 2011 Act gives LAC the authority to empanel pro bono works for lawyers.
"Its powers to regulate pro bono is contained in sections 14 and 15 of the Act. We shall be giving out case, we shall regulate and monitor.
"We have put a system in place, in the form of peer review mechanism. We will not only give out cases, but also monitor the way they are handled.
"We believe this will help decongest the over populated prisons," Ayoride said.
He said his council was planning a conference for September 19 in Lagos as part of its effort to further enlighten the public and other stakeholders about its plans to standardise pro bono practice in the country.
Ayorinde said the conference, with the theme: "Access to justice: Advancing the frontiers of pro bono," will serve as a platform for the involvement of all stakeholders in the access to justice and justice delivery systems "to meet with us." Another member of LAC management board, Adebayo Adelodun (SAN) said his council's core responsibility is ensuring access to justice by the less privileged, for which pro bono serves as a veritable vehicle.
"Yes, some lawyers provide free services in some cases. But it is the intention of the council to achieve optimum level in the rendering of free legal services in the country. Today, many senior lawyers are not involved in pro bono. They are the ones, who should be," Adelodun said. Adelodun, the Chairman, of the Conference Planning Committee, explained that this year's is designed to build on the gains of the council's maiden conference held in November last year in Abuja.
He said the Lagos conference is aimed at sustaining the awareness and interest of the public in the activities of the LAC in its efforts directed at bringing justice closer to the masses of this country. LAC's Director General, Mrs Joy Bob-Manuel said, more than ever before, the 2011 Act has placed more responsibility on the council to act for thr masses. "It is not enough for lawyers to say they do pro bono. There should be recod. That is why we are empowered under the Act, to empanel and monitor cases where free legal services are rendered. Access to justice is at the heart of the doctrine of rule of law. Poverty should not deprive citizens access to justice, to court and to legal representation," Mrs Bob-Manuel said


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What the kitchen looked like when we moved in. Yikes!
After a minor makeover...
And Now...
Finishing the kitchen is sort of bitter sweet. It was the last project on our house that we got to do before we sell it this summer. We've been going back and forth on whether or not we should keep it and rent it out or just be done and part ways. We finally came to the decision to sell and it's pretty heartbreaking on my pregnant mama heart. But it's the best decision for us so hopefully the next owners will adore this home like we have.
Alright let's get into the nitty gritty of this renovation!
Counters: We knew if we did anything at all it would be to replace the counter top. The previous one was from the 90's and it was bad! We decided to go with a laminate from Wilson Art in Calcutta Marble. We wanted something neutral, nice looking and cheap. For the area we are in putting in stone just wouldn't have the resell value we need. I honestly couldn't be happier with the laminate! I think it looks great in this kitchen. We ordered it from Home Depot and had it measured and then Josh installed it himself, saving us about $500!
Backsplash: I have always loved white subway tile in kitchens and baths. It's clean and fresh looking and easy to maintain! We used the tile sheets at Home Depot to make it easy and went with the color Pewter for the grout. However, in retrospect I wish I would have gone lighter on the grout. I tiled this myself and cannot wait to never have to tile anything ever again! Hahaha.. but really it's a pain. If you can afford to just hire someone to do it. Since we did do it ourselves though that saved us about $400! Subway Tile Sheets: Home Depot
Grout: Home Depot
Sink: We decided to go with a large single basin farmhouse style sink from Ikea. I love the look of apron front sinks and this one fit within out budget at just $185! It's perfect and I love it so far.
Sink: Ikea
Shelf: My husband actually made this shelf and the brackets. He's pretty amazing and can keep up with all my crazy demands ha. I couldn't believe how impossible it was to find a simple L shaped shelf bracket but believe it! They do not make them or sell them at any local hardware/home store. In fact you have to have them special ordered at between $60-$150 a pop! Yep, definitely not in our budget. So Saturday morning I loaded Copeland in the car headed to Metal Mart and purchased a steel rod from their scraps section. I got 8 ft. for $10 you guys!! I was so proud and couldn't wait for Josh to get home to see :)
I cleaned up the rusty rod with some steel wool, cleaned it all up and then spray painted it black. Josh cut the rod into the length we wanted and pounded them out in an L shape to use as shelf brackets. And voila! Two shelf brackets for around 15 bucks!
Flooring: For the flooring we had a dark laminate in the kitchen and dining but once we decided to completely finish the kitchen makeover we also decided to rip up the carpet that ran from the open concept family room and hallway. We replaced the entire flooring (carpet and dark laminate wood) with this new lighter laminate wood. It's not the exact color I wanted but it was pretty and cheap. And again since we are getting ready to sell we didn't want to dish out a ton of money. Just enough to make the house look nice and hopefully help us sell it quickly :)
Laminate Wood Flooring: Home Depot
Other Kitchen Items:
Children's Table (Hobby Lobby in stores)
Dining Table (husband designed and made)
White Dining Bench (husband designed and made)
Bench Pillows (I made/DIY)
Painting (thrift store find)


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STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – House Democratic Leader David Lujan and Assistant House Democratic Leader Kyrsten Sinema will speak at a press conference Friday to encourage census participation among the Latino population.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, a non-profit organization, is holding the press conference as a part of its "ya es hora" Campaign to encourage Latino participation in the 2010 census.
Press Confrence
When: Friday, March 5 at 1 p.m.
Where: House of Representatives Lawn, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix
For more information about the campaign, please visit www.yaeshora.info.


text:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners...
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor (Isaiah 61:1-3).
So many of us don't understand the complexities of grief; however, everyone has experienced loss--the most obvious being the loss of an important person through death. However, losses of those we love due to abandonment, rejections, separation, or divorce can be just as painful. We also often neglect to acknowledge that a loss of part of ourselves (such as body functions, hopes and dreams, a job, childhood losses, and external objects/things of sentimental value) are also legitimate losses. All these losses are sources or pain that contribute to our broken hearts.
Our instinct is to run from grief, not face it head-on. Yet of the key aspects of Jesus' mission on earth was to "bind up the brokenhearted" and to "provide for those who grieve." As Christians, we are called to follow Jesus' example and provide hope and healing for the hurting, yet so often we fail at it.
So, here are some things to keep in mind when you're grieving or ministering to someone who is grieving:
The pain often comes in waves. Just when you think it's gone, it shows up again, stirring up more anxiety, guilt, shame. Some days you might be fine, and other days it may look and feel like you've taken 10 steps back. You don't get to choose when the pain hits next. Sometimes events similar to the original event also have a way of triggering the pain of our original loss. That's just how it works.
Crying is okay. Yes, it's messy, and yes, it looks like you don't have it all together. But crying allows us to flush the hurt out of our hearts. And when the hurt returns, we need to flush it out again. Even Jesus wept. In his tears, we find permission to shed our own.
Grief takes time. Depending on the severity of the loss, it may take a week, a month, or even years (yes, YEARS!) Everyone is different. Every situation is different. The "stages of grief" proposed by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, include a series of emotional stages, including denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. So don't judge someone or tell them that they should be "over it" by now. Grief is a complex process that takes time. Stopping the process prematurely will do even more damage.
Keep confidentiality. Often, the circumstances surrounding the grief are very, very private. At the very least, the emotions surrounding the situation are raw. If someone opens their heart and shares something sensitive with you, keep it to yourself.
Just be there. There are times when you want to be alone and when you need to grieve alone, in private. However, in your grief you need others--Jesus AND people--you can lean on to remind you that you are not alone. Friends who will walk through the suffering with you point you closer to Jesus than anything.
Be a good listener. Pep-talks are not helpful. Sometimes neither is a sermon. Sometimes you hurt so much that you can't read your Bible more--getting out of bed is all you can possibly manage. The last thing someone hurting wants is someone who keeps trying to "fix" them. If they want your advice, they will ask for it. Otherwise, just sit back and listen.
Share your story. This is going to require you to be vulnerable. This is going to force you to re-visit your own grief. This will not be easy; however, one of the reasons why God allows us to suffer, is so He can take the losses we've experienced and build them into a ministry to reflect His glory. Showing empathy is more important than your level of comfort. Sharing grief together will help both of you not feel so alone. It will give hope. It will show you do understand.
Show unconditional love. Grief is not a mental illness, but it sure feels like one sometimes. It can affect mood, cause insomnia, loss of appetite, forgetfulness, and thoughts of suicide. When I'm grieving something, chances are, I might not be that fun to be around. I might not act like the "old" me. I might say or do things that you don't like. You might not agree with the choices I've made. You might not like the "new" me. Get over it. A huge part of healing from grief is knowing that someone has your back and loves you. No matter what.
Any type of loss we experience, causes us some measure of grief and needs to be worked through. How we do it (or whether or not we do it at all) varies tremendously. Pain within the heart can be so overwhelming that every fiber of your being will want to shut it down. And so we develop "coping mechanisms" -- things we do to escape (or at least manage) the pain in order to get through the day. We change the subject. Avoid the issue. Work hard. Drink harder. Stay busy. Stay distant. Don't look back.
But in the long run, your coping mechanisms will prevent you from becoming free. Unless you face the pain by grieving your losses, it will continue to fester, impacting future losses, separations, and attachments. Don't walk away from it. Deal with it.
Go ahead, face your grief. Give yourself time. Permit yourself tears. God understands. He knows the sorrow of a grave. He buried his son. But he also knows the joy of resurrection. And by his power, you will too. - Max Lucado
*******Acknowledgements********Two excellent books with chapters on grief are Olive Shoots Around Your Table by John Visser and Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado.


text:
Workers at the Brattleboro Food Coop have voted to join the Local 1459 of the United Food and Commercial Workers.
The vote was 74 in favor of joining the union and 45 against, in elections held this week. The vote was supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.
Charlie Lewis, a Coop employee, is one of the union organizers. He says the vote signals that a majority of staff want to see changes in employee -management relations.
"I think it will make more equal partners of the staff and management, so that we can work together more collaboratively on whatever we decide the issues are that need to be addressed. So I think we feel like it's a step toward having more of a voice in the process of what happens at the coop,"Lewis said.
Lewis says the next step will be to gather input on the wishes and ideas of all employees, including those who did not want a union.
The new bargaining unit has a year to begin negotiating its first contract.


text: TEN SNOW BUNTINGS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT of a hike up Pendle Hill today. An extensive search of the summit also produced 16 European Golden Plovers, 3 Common Snipe and a Red Grouse, not a bad midwinter walk up there. I remember seeing only Red Grouse on several occasions at this time of year. The Snow Buntings were of the nominate form nivalis so are probably from the continent rather than to the northwest of us. As usual they were flighty and generally unapproachable. Thanks to Neil Mitchell who had already tracked them down to one of their favourite spots. This was the first of many walks up Pendle over the next couple of months!


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Birthdays and brunches are two of my favourite things that begin with the letter 'b'. So for The Burgundy Book's birthday (another favour 'b' letter thing), we – Cat, Bjorn (and yet another fav 'b') and I – took her to brunch at Caravan King's Cross.
The original Caravan is a much smaller space in Exmouth Market, but this industrial looking massive restaurant is located in Granary Square, a short walk from King's X station. Perfect meeting spot if your friends are traveling in from different parts of London!
Prepare to wait for about an hour to get a spot here for weekend brunch. And you know what I am going to say next: it's totally worth the wait! Also if you are with your best friends, the 40-minute wait flies back as you sip on some coffees, gossip at a hundred miles per hour, and unwrap birthday presents.
Caravan has one of those menu's which you read and go, "I want that. And that. And that too. But THIS sounds amazing."While Bjorn and Cat were slightly more decisive, Rema and I ordered half the menu and decided to split it between us. They do some of the meanest avocado toasts in the city. And I have tried many. However, the barbecue baked beans are probably my favourite thing on the menu that we tried.Satisfied and smiling, we tried to use the modern piazza look of the Granary Square for snapping some pictures. Considering were either battling the wind, eating our hair or shivering in the mid-winter blues, this is the only one I'm going to post.


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Seeing Old Things in New Ways
When Secretary of Defense Ash Carter released the Strategy for Operations in the Information Environment in June 2016, he was responding to an ancient reality—the creative use of information in all forms of conflict—while also challenging the men and women in his department to leverage it in new and important ways. To do so, he emphasized the following passage from the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review:
"The operating environment is increasingly enabled by technology, which provides the types of capabilities, once limited to major powers, to a broad range of actors. The rapidly accelerating spread of information is challenging the ability of some governments to control their populations and maintain civil order, while at the same time changing how wars are fought and aiding groups in mobilizing and organizing."[1]
This reminder about the changing global context and the larger information-environment initiative are laudable because they transcend the DoD, challenging the entire Federal Government, along with America's allies and associates, to employ information-environment concepts across the range of instruments of power. The aim is to achieve national security objectives short of armed conflict or, if this proves impossible, to win with maximum effectiveness and minimum loss. In this sense, Carter challenges all of us to look beyond the DoD for creative and deep thinkers who will work together, over sustained periods of time, to develop expertise relating to a particular national-security problem, get ahead of it as far as possible, and offer national decision makers more and better options than just armed conflict. As the Prussian general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz reminds us, war is the result of a failure to resolve differences peacefully. Similarly, Sun Tzu states that the greatest acme of skill is not to win 100 battles, but rather to win without fighting. These aphorisms, though often tossed aside as either obvious or irrelevant, are neither. An effective understanding of the information environment, and the employment of the full range of instruments of power within it, has already yielded many successes at the level of grand (national) strategy. While there is no substitute for preparing to achieve national-security objectives through armed conflict, doing so peacefully is far preferable. This is where an information-environment approach can yield significant advantages--from initial collection and analysis efforts to the development of a formal plan--in bringing conflicts to a conclusion short of war and to the advantage of the United States as well as its allies and associates.
Understanding the Information Environment
To help us build our understanding of the information environment, Carter's strategy document notes that "The Information Environment (IE) is the aggregate of individuals, organizations, and systems that collect, process, disseminate, or act on information. The IE is a heterogeneous global environment where humans and automated systems observe, orient, decide, and act on data, information, and knowledge."[2] Understanding these basic realities helps analysts, planners, operators, and policymakers to determine the kinds of actions that will alter an adversary's decision calculus in such a way that doing so furthers our own aims. Ideally, these actions will also give our target audience at least some of the things they want and reassure them about the things they fear, further reducing the likelihood of armed conflict. The degree to which we can use information to shape others' decision making and actions without resorting to violent means or causing them to do so increases our opportunities for achieving strategic, operational, and tactical objectives at significantly lower human and fiscal costs. These efforts play themselves out across three intertwined dimensions: the physical, composed of command and control systems and their supporting infrastructure; the informational, comprised of the content itself; and the cognitive, comprising the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of decision makers who transmit, receive, respond to, or act upon information. Ultimately, our aim is to leverage or exploit all three of these dimensions by engaging in actions or activities that create strategic effects stemming from the ways in which adversary decision makers choose to act. Doing so is difficult in practice, so if we wish to have any hope at all of succeeding here, we must first understand very clearly our grand (national) strategy and that of our adversary, and how our efforts in the information environment should relate to both.
Grand Strategy and the Information Environment
The point of departure for any effort within the information environment is therefore to ask, "What is the [grand-strategic] problem?" Only after we understand this clearly can we then begin discussing what to do in order to achieve strategic, operational, or tactical aims. This in turn prompts us to approach the problem and potential solutions within a whole-of-government effort. Even as DoD personnel plan for operations down to the tactical level, they must remember at every step of their journey that such efforts are ultimately designed to produce enduring changes at the level of grand strategy—in other words, to give the United States a continuing advantage over its state and non-state competitors, adversaries, and enemies. It does so by bringing together all elements of government and using all instruments of power in careful and properly sequenced ways to achieve strategic aims, through the use of subordinate policy actions. These will generally include DoD activities but transcend them and require a much broader set of players and actions.
One of the major challenges facing us in the information environment, and a key driver within it, is the dramatic and continuing diffusion of technology to both major powers and smaller, often non-state actors. Their ability to do everything from crafting and releasing narratives that preempt our policymakers and operators, to bringing entire peoples or groups to their side, has upended older and more traditional forms of conflict as well as the means for resolving it in a successful manner. The low cost of entry into IE-related operations, whether through social media, the formal press, cyber activities, or some other means, has given the nimbler players on the international stage advantages and policy options that they only have dreamed of even 20 years ago. Their willingness to use these new capabilities in ways unhindered by western ethical or moral considerations, such as the Laws of Armed Conflict, only adds to their comparative advantage.
Even a coordinated, whole of government(s) effort will not suffice if we invert the two questions: "What is the [grand-strategic] problem?" and "What do we do about it?"
With this conundrum in mind, how do we turn an adversary's position of advantage to our own advantage? Although a clear and achievable grand strategy, which by definition exists independent of a specific presidential administration, is the ideal point of departure for analysis related to the information environment, planning, and operations, we rarely have such a luxury. In fact, the most recent grand strategy that was clear, actionable, and persisted for as long as required to defeat an adversary was the Cold War effort, based originally on National Security Council Memorandum 68 and moving forward from there.[3] However, even if there is no formal or actionable grand strategy, we nonetheless understand—or should as military professionals—what the key elements of any such strategy would contain, and to work with our bosses to make each as strong as possible. National survival is a given here, as are the safety and prosperity of the American people. These in turn call for access to and proper use of vital resources such as fossil fuels—something that our allies and associates remain terribly dependent on even as the United States becomes progressively less so.[4] This requires not only close cooperation with allies and associates to deal with this problem and many others, but also a whole-of-government approach within which to do so. The DoD cannot and must not try to act alone in the information environment, and it must not give other departments and agencies—including those of allies and associates—a "pass" in terms of their contributions to the larger effort. Every member of the DoD is therefore both an emissary for and a practitioner within the information environment.
However, even a coordinated, whole of government(s) effort will not suffice if we invert the two questions posed earlier: "What is the [grand-strategic] problem?" and "What do we do about it?" Doing so will all but guarantee an unsuccessful or even disastrous effort to deal with the problem at hand. The very nature of the information environment compels us to act in this way given the great risk involved in acting before we understand the many complexities, nuances, and mysteries inherent within the larger problem set and the adversary's own approach to it. This imperative to understand the adversary, and to think like him to the degree that we can, is also fundamental to any success in the IE, and any resolution of a crisis to our advantage and short of armed conflict. This requires time and expertise among the teams working IE-related plans and operations. Their bosses must fight for the cognitive, organizational, and procedural "maneuver space" required to allow these teams to develop depth of understanding, over time, in given problem sets. Achieving grand-strategic, military-strategic, operational, and tactical objectives short of armed conflict is the "gold standard" in IE efforts, and even if it is not always possible, we must never think of it as a mere bonus. It is at the very heart of what we try to achieve by the effective use of IE concepts and techniques. Without these proper "maneuver spaces" within which to develop the understanding, plans, and operations required to achieve these objectives, war and the failure to achieve our aims are correspondingly more likely.
Putting the Information Environment to Work
Just as technologies are, in effect, extensions of the human body (think of a spear, bullet, or guided missile), the cognitive and procedural approaches we bring to the IE are extensions of the human mind. And because, as the Japanese proverb says, "all of us are smarter than one of us," information-sharing groups become the most fundamental and important basis for all IE-related efforts. These may be formal or informal, but both should include the full range of people with expertise relating to a given problem and the willingness to contribute to its resolution in ways advantageous to the United States. Academe, business, NGOS and IGOs, expatriate groupings, and a range of other organizations and individuals are available to assist with the increasingly complex problems associated with the IE. We must find the right ones and bring them into our efforts, even if at the unclassified and general level.
This active and continuous search for the right players to include in a given information-environment effort is just one aspect of what we might call "IE thinking." What does it mean to be an "IE thinker"? Far beyond seeking out and building information-sharing groups to analyze and plan against various problems, it also requires a clear definition of the problem (a problem statement in DoD parlance); vetted and achievable strategic aims; and a well-articulated and achievable desired end state that envisions the situation at different points during the execution of a given plan. The approach in all cases must be to place favorable resolution of the problem short of armed conflict at the center while also planning for military action should the initial effort fail. This flexibility of mind and planning is crucial to working within the information environment. To become "IE thinkers," analysts, planners, and operators must move out of their cubicles and respective "tribes" into their counterparts' physical and intellectual spaces, working a problem set together from the outset and not just passing products along to one another. Finally, "IE thinkers" must go a step further than understanding the problem and how to go about solving it. There are actions we can or cannot take, those we should or should not take, and those we must or must not take. This hierarchy of the prioritization of actions, and of determining which ones are both right and possible, is of basic importance to any IE effort. The individuals and teams in our information-sharing networks will help us to understand which ideas and actions fall into which of these categories. So will our national-level and other decision makers through policy and planning guidance.
Understanding what we can, should, and must do also relies on a deep understanding of what the adversary will likely do, how he conceptualizes and justifies it, and how he will then try to undermine what we do. Understanding this requires proficiency in working with what the German philosopher Georg Hegel called the dialectic—development of a thesis, antithesis, and synthesis—to determine how we can preempt, prevent, or respond to adversary efforts with maximum effectiveness.[5] We also refer to this as the "action-reaction-counteraction dynamic" because the iterative and highly complex nature of interactions with the adversary requires us to "get ahead" of him in both our thinking and our actions. This effort includes wargaming and red-teaming but also transcends them. The degree to which we understand, preempt, and control an adversary––and thus seize and hold the initiative in the information and operational environments––will determine in large part whether or not we achieve our strategic aims as they relate to that adversary.
Whether or not we approve, our adversaries have also become quite good at operations in the Information Environment.
The post-World War II period is replete with examples of information-environment successes that in turn produced major and enduring grand-strategic advantages. The long conflict we call the Cold War was in itself a case of effective operations within the information environment during a 45-year period. There were many errors, to be sure, but the larger success of the effort involved a deep understanding of the grand-strategic problem and a series of activities designed to solve it. The Berlin Airlift is one case in point, during which the USAF and RAF provided enough food, coal and other goods to keep West Berlin's people healthy and increasingly defiant of Joseph Stalin's plans for them. Not a shot was fired during this year-long effort or in the case of the concurrent and subsequent nuclear-deterrence effort, which was based precisely on the proposition that nuclear weapons not be used. Despite the near failure of that approach during the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy's efforts yielded another sweeping American victory in the information environment and short of war—and in this case a war that would have killed tens or hundreds of millions. More modest efforts such as the British Special Air Service campaign in Oman to help defeat the communist insurgents while bringing the bulk of the Arab Bedouin population back to the side of the young Sultan Qaboos is another case in point, as is the very successful British effort against the ethnic Chinese insurgents who sought to conquer and rule what is now Malaysia. Both countries remain close friends of the British and the Americans, and they stand with us in nearly all matters of regional and global strategy. More recently, the younger Bush administration's successful turning of Libya's Moammar Qaddafi away from his confrontational WMD efforts and support of terrorism and to a role as an important intelligence source was an important IE-related victory. Subsequent efforts regarding Qaddafi and Libya have proven notably less effective for reasons that become obvious when viewed through an information-environment lens.
And whether or not we approve, our adversaries have also become quite good at operations in the IE. ISIS and before it Al Qaeda proved masterful at building a broad and deep allegiance among disaffected Muslims. Russian and Chinese leaders have also played brilliantly on the nationalist, revanchist, and irredentist platforms that continue to resonate with the majority of Russians and Chinese. Tensions in Ukraine, the Baltic States, and the South China Sea are on the rise, and whether or not these crises end or at least stabilize short of armed conflict will depend in large measure on how well we understand, plan against, and outwit these dangerous opponents. If we are to succeed here, the first thing we must do is understand the problem deeply and only then consider how to use an all-of-government and all-IOPs approach, in coordination with our many allies and associates, to seize the initiative and gain a continuing advantage in both the IE and the OE. Saying so is one thing; doing it is quite another.
Developing the depth and flexibility of mind and understanding to work effectively within the information environment, in addition to the operational environment, is challenging. However, given the systemic changes in virtually every field of human activity during the new century, and the threats they may pose to our country's security and prosperity, this is a challenge we must accept. There are number of ways to develop our individual and collective understanding of––and effective efforts within––the information environment. Reading about past uses of information-environment techniques and tools to achieve grand-strategic and other aims is one example. Building enduring and properly staffed and focused information-sharing groups is another. Senior leaders with applicable mission sets should also send subordinates to the DoD (USD/I) Information Environment Advanced Analysis (IEAA) Course, which gives participants a deep dive into IE-related techniques within the framework of real-world practical exercises on Iran, the South China Sea, the Baltics, and (soon) Africa while conferring 1.5 hours of joint credit on military officer graduates. As every great military theorist and virtually every great statesman and military commander has emphasized, understanding past events and using them as analogous cases for addressing current crises is of particular importance if we do it carefully and are measured in the kinds of comparisons and reasoning we draw from them. We must move well beyond DoD-only approaches, interservice rivalries, compartmented analytical and planning efforts, and the misguided notion that the US is better than its allies and associates at various forms of conflict resolution—especially those short of armed conflict. Doing so is the first collective step toward wisdom and effectiveness in the IE and, as a result, a more secure and prosperous United States.
Robert S. Ehlers, Jr., is a former professor of airpower history at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, and former associate professor of history at the Air Force Academy. Dr. Ehlers is the author of Targeting the Third Reich: Air Intelligence and the Allied Bombing Campaigns (2009) and Mediterranean Air War: Airpower and Allied Victory in World War II (2015). He is presently a mentor for the Information Environment Advanced Analysis Course. The opinions expressed are his alone, and do not reflect those of the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
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Header Image: Seffers, George I. "Making Progress Every Single Day on JIE." Signal Magazine, AFCEA, (May 1, 2015)
[1] Department of Defense, Quadrennial Defense Review 2014, p. 3. Located at http://archive.defense.gov/pubs/2014_Quadrennial_Defense_Review.pdf. Accessed 11-27-16.
[2] Department of Defense, DoD Strategy for Operations in the Information Environment, June 2016, p. 3. Located at http://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/DoD-Strategy-for-Operations-in-the-IE-Signed-20160613.pdf. Accessed 11-27-16.
[3] For an excellent review of the entire NSC-68 development process, including the various iterations of the document leading to its publication, and the ways in which it drove Cold War grand strategy, see S. Nelson Drew, ed., NSC-68: Forging the Strategy of Containment (Washington, D.C.: National Defense University, 1994), passim. Located at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/whitehouse/nsc68/nsc68.pdf. Accessed 11-27-16.
[4] See the U.S. Energy Information Administration report, current as of 10-13-16, athttp://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=32&t=6. The U.S. imports 24 percent of its petroleum products––the lowest level since 1970. This compares to between 60 and 95 percent for other developed countries. See the World Bank report at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.COMM.FO.ZS. Both documents accessed on 11-27-16.
[5] For additional insights on Hegel and his ideas, see http://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_hegel.html. Accessed on 11-27-16.


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To visit our site, you must be old enough to drink alcohol, according to the legislation in force in your country of residence.I am of legal age I am not of legal age
A model of organisation, Côte-Rôtie is all finesse and elegance and unqualified charm, sculpted from time and knowledge. Côte-Rôtie, an astounding AOC.Christophe Tassan
No gentle slopes here: on the right-bank of the Rhône, Côte-Rôtie wines draw their character from the extremely steep hillsides that sometimes reach a gradient of over 60°.
The very narrow vineyard is planted on terraces fewer than 50 vines wide. Located a few miles from Lyon, this is the northernmost appellation in the Rhône Valley. Côte-Rôtie is grown, made, and protected by "Probus' centurions": around 100 passionate winemakers that work the vines of these 60 vineyards.
This prestigious cru is made from Syrah grapes that when combined with the viognier produce extraordinarily delicate aromas and remarkably fine tannins.
The wine's beautiful ruby colour, the complex and elegant nose of spices, summer fruits, black fruits, and violet, its robustness and of course its pedigree make this a highly sought after wine... January sees the Ampuis wine market, which since 1928 has been THE unmissable rendezvous for this appellation.
Grape varieties
Côte-Rôtie is the only red cru in the Northern Côtes du Rhône to plant Viognier (up to 20%) alongside the Syrah. The Syrah produces quality wines, with rich colours and tannin content. In Côte-Rôtie, viognier complements the Syrah with finesse and aromas. The cru's colour is a deep ruby red.
Its nose can vary from fruits – red or black – to note of violet and spices. It is a robust, pedigree wine that ages very well, and may display notes of woodland, leather, tobacco, or coffee. With a long finish, it is perfectly balanced and quite fat.
2000 years ago, the Roman authors Pliny the Elder and Martial, and the Greek, Plutarch, sang the praises of Côte-Rôtie wines, which they knew as "wine of Vienne". The first written documents that make mention of Ampuis and Côte-Rôtie date from the 6th century.
During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the 13th century saw the reputation of Ampuis' wines grow even further, and records show wine from Côte-Rôtie being served in the great halls of the princes of England, Russia, Prussia, and, of course, France. The vineyard reached its peak in 1890, with the slightest fold in the hillside that caught the sun being planted.
While it proved resistant to phylloxera and other diseases, the Great War of 1914-1918 claimed 150 winemakers, meaning some of the hillsides fell out of use. In 1960, only 60 hectares of production remained, but the 1980s saw the vineyard's revival. The appellation was given fresh impetus and acquired international renown.
View the decrees granting appellation status (INAO)1940Birth of AOC Côte-Rôtie
Vinisud 2012
Workshops and ideas to improve communication using the Web Over three days, visitors were offered 17 different workshops, led by 25 speakers. Smartphone applications, points for an effective market...Inter Rhône Read this article
The Côte-Rôtie vineyards are located on the hillsides of the Rhône's right-bank, and cover three counties where the wine is made: Saint-Cyr sur Rhône, Ampuis and Tupin-Semons. The vineyards are between 180m and 325m above sea level. There are 73 registered sites among the vineyards.
The appellation is south-facing and not greatly affected by northerly winds, and has a temperate continental climate similar to that of Lyon: winters are mild, summers hot, and rainfall is regular. The "Mediterranean" influence can be felt in the "drying" southerly wind.
Very steep, the hillsides of the Côte-Rôtie can sometimes exceed 60°. Almost all of the vines are planted on metamorphic rocks: pressure and temperature – which are higher in the south of the appellation – have created three different terroirs: mica schists in the north, Gneiss to the south, and migmatite at the south-eastern tip.
In Côte-Rôtie, the parent rock contains a large number of fractures that provide the vines' roots with access to the water and minerals contained therein.
Key Figures
surface area308 hectares
Total production12 606 hl
- 100% Red
Average yield achieved41 hl/ha
*Export figures according to the most recent research
Source : Harvest statement 2016
Claudine Vigier-Barthélemy : "Wine: you take a sniff, are drawn in, and fall madly in love!""
For Claudine, it is not just a job, but something she lives and breathes. "I am a cheese-maker. But I soon began taking an interest in wine. To gain a better understanding, and be able to...Inter Rhône Read this article


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With the 2015 NFL trade deadline less than a mere week away, NFL rumors will begin to swirl like a hurricane as they've been brewing over the past few weeks. This is the last chance teams have to improve their roster as they enter the last stretch of the season. Now, I know the NFL's trade deadline is a sleep show year after year – it's the most irrelevant of the four majors sports. Regardless, this year's venue has the potential to be one of the best in recent memory with some big names that could be on the move:
Matt Forte, RB, Chicago Bears
After the firesale that seemed to be going on in Chicago following their slow start to the season, Matt Forte was one of the names mentioned in players that could be on the move. The 8th year running back's contract expires at the end of the season, and it's unlikely the Bears will re-sign him considering the rebuilding state they're entering. In Forte, you're guaranteed mass production from the backfield as both a runner and a receiver.
Teams that could strike interest are the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos. The Cowboys have had struggles and inconsistencies in the backfield all season long. Joseph Randle hasn't lived up to expectations and they can't rely on Darren McFadden to carry the load like he did this past week. For the Broncos, they're in the same boat as Dallas, but a move would make even more sense for Denver as they are competing for homefield advantage in the AFC – plus, Peyton Manning can't be relied on, as he has proven throughout this season.
Steve Smith, WR, Baltimore Ravens
The most talked about player leading up to the deadline without a doubt will be Steve Smith. The AFC North is slipping away from the Ravens week after week and they don't show any signs of regrouping. Even though Smith and the Ravens have both publicly stated they have no plans of moving, that seems only logical for both parties. Even at 36 years old, Smith still has great talent and could land Baltimore a valuable draft pick.
Entering week 8, Smith is a top 10 receiver and is 3rd with 12 receptions of 20+ yards. The most logical destination would be a return in Carolina with the Panthers as they make their playoff push. Cam Newton is without a true #1 receiver on that offense – Smith would provide that while bringing a much needed veteran presence.
Check out other possible destinations for Smith:
Roddy White, WR, Atlanta Falcons
What a shame it's been for Roddy White as his role has dwindled on Atlanta's offense – he has only 14 catches all season with only 1 TD. Julio Jones and even Leonard Hankerson have stolen the show for the Falcons receiving corps. White's name has come up in possible trade rumors due to his lack of production. However, he has stated that he doesn't want to go anywhere due to his love for Atlanta and Dan Quinn doesn't plan on moving him either.
It's unlikely that Roddy White is actually dealt this season – the Falcons are a big competitor in the NFC and could use his playoff experience. He's a veteran who could be cut in the offseason, though.
Jared Cook, TE, St. Louis Rams
Of all the players on the list, Jared Cook is perhaps the most valuable due to his age and ability. Entering the season, Cook was coming off a great year – but this season, it hasn't been anything like that. With a change at QB, Cook has failed to get into sync which has hurt his production – he is still without a TD this season. Regardless, he has a great combination of size and athleticism which makes him a good threat inside the redzone.
Apparently, Jeff Fisher and the Rams have fielded offers for the tight end over the past couple of weeks, but Fisher has declined to comment on Cook's availability.
Vernon Davis, TE, San Francisco 49ers
Now we get to the most publicized name on the list. The big name would excite a new fan base, but his production wouldn't. Last season Davis suffered the worst statistical year of his career, and he has carried that over into 2015. Many believe the ability is still there, but that his struggles have been cooped with poor play from Kaepernick along with the overhaul of the team. Plus, Jim Tomsula has given him a minimal role in the offense this season.
Regardless, Davis could probably still serve as a good security blanket in a pass-oriented offense with a good QB. The tremendous athletic ability is still there. San Francisco would be wise to trade the veteran, he is unlikely to return next season – the only issue is a team would be unlikely to sacrifice a draft pick while taking on his big contract.


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Exploring A 6 Year Case Study Evolving into World's Best Innovation Practice Behaviors
I thought you might like to know about a highly successful webinar we ran recently "How A Mature International Financial Services Organization Succeeded in Turning Innovation Into A Core Value for Success". The webinar explored how against the most turbulent financial times of recent history, Allianz UK over 6 years built and implemented a powerful innovation ecology that now contributes directly and measurably to the organization's growth and value. It is one of the best examples of innovation practice globally I have come across and have had the pleasure to write and speak about. Interestingly,


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This is a one stop shop for a 3D printable base. This package contains everything you need to build extensive bases for wargaming. The corners, walls, and gates are all matched in size to fit together seamlessly. Additionally, all structures and walls are hollowed as much as possible to save on resin.
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Membership form and processing as at October 1, 2016
1. Download membership form and fill in 2. Hold on to a copy of the completed application form for OAaSIS files. Do not send it to OAaSIS International. 3. Each member is added to the OAaSIS list, and included in the monthly membership report with name and address. 4. Entrance fee of $1,000 is collected … Continue reading
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It says that the happiness is a state of mind, and happiness worth than money. So it means, it is healthy and it is the best way for you to free yourself from pains. Being happy is a very important part in our lives. Happiness is result of small and big things that are happening in our lives that satisfies us.
With this, Forbes magazine published an issue containing a topic about the top 10 lists of happiest countries in the whole world derived from the research and study performed by Legatum Institute in London, England. These are the countries that are stated by the magazine as the happiest countries in the world:
1 – DenmarkDenmark is a country that is famous in for its compassionate policies, which counting as using drugs and prostitution are completely legal. Denmark is also renowned peaceful and welcoming pace, the beautiful structural design of the buildings and establishments, exceptional cuisine and especially the conventional welcome that id given to all the foreign tourists that are visiting the country.
2 – SwitzerlandSwitzerland is considered as one of the most visited tourist destinations in Europe. Maybe it is because of the chocolate and delicious cuisine that they provide, and of course the beautiful sight that people can enjoy to watch. Not only can the people who reside in this country surely enjoy everything that is "Swiss".
3 – AustriaPossibly it is also because of their mouth-watering cuisine, scenic beauty, and their up-to-date technology. And aside from this, Austria happy and content place to be, and a lot of tourists that have been to this country stated the loving welcome they received from this place.
4 – IcelandRegardless of the fact that Icelanders spent a lot of years covers with total darkness, Iceland is now turning out to be very popular because the citizens' generosity and friendliness, and as well because of the background of comfort and happiness. Each tourist is taking pleasure in everything about this country, from their beautiful hot springs to the country's culture, which consists of noteworthy amount of famous publications and books that were made in this country.
5 – The BahamasBahamas has a superb type of weather, a powerful monetary system, and astonishing places added to the comfort of tourists and people who are living here that are enjoying this stunning island destination.
6 – FinlandAlthough Finland is not yet well-developed country, it has a lot of magnificent views. Furthermore it has straight way in to the contemporary life, which differentiates citizens of Finland's way of living. A lot of tourists that have been to this country said that Finland has a rich culture, yet exceptional modernity; which also is the reason why this country has been a very popular tourist destination.
7 – SwedenBecause of Sweden's attractive towns, excellent foods, long parks and relaxing massage parlours, this country draws a lot of tourist each year, and this fact tots up together to make Sweden as one of the happiest countries in the world.
8 – BhutanOne of the reasons why Bhutan id considered as on the happiest countries of the world is because of the magnificence of Himalayas. Aside from the eye-catching natural surroundings, the eternal image of Bhutan for the majority of its tourists is the powerful sympathetic of culture and traditions, which attaches this kingdom and obviously differentiates Bhutan from its other bigger neighbours.
9 – BruneiAside from being a country that is very rich in oil resources, Brunei is also a tax-free country; it is in general a rich country. Citizens of Brunei live in a contented way of life and passionately hail tourists that are from other countries.
10 – CanadaCanada is the largest country in North America, and the second in the whole world. This country is famous all over the world because of its large unharmed scenery and unique customs. Canada is also the one of the world's major tourist destinations. This country is also considered as one of the riches country in the whole world. The Canadian citizens are very friendly on tourists that visiting their land.
Happiness can be extremely prejudiced. Several people are happy when it started to rain, and others are happy when the rain stops and sun started to shine. So how is it measured? It seems that the people at World Database of Happiness consider a number of a lot of things like standard life expectation and most significantly the answer to the following numerous option question "How happy are you?" We by then evaluated "life contentment" attainments to the other dimensions to discover those financial and socio-political realities that had the uppermost and least parallel to happiness.
Contact us or email us with your questions, comments or tips. Read more trending news here at HenSpark!


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Ir. Dexter Goh graduated from University of Bath, UK in 1999 as Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical & Electronics. He subsequently pursued his master's degree at University of Sheffield, where he graduated in 2000 with Master in Control System Engineering. In 2006, he achieved Professional Engineer status and was accepted as a member of The Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). He has been involved in technical design, site management, project management and liaison with authority from 2001 to 2014, during which he completed projects like Hotel Perdana, Giant Hypermarket Klang, E-Tiara condominium and 1-Medini mix development among other notable projects.
From 2005 to 2014, Ir. Dexter Goh took up the role of Marketing Director cum Project Manager in Dexon, during which time, he opened up new market segments. In 2014, he was made Managing Director to spearhead the company's direction. He is a firm believer of the Dexon Code of Honour and continues our Founder's and Chairman's philosophy in pushing our boundaries towards excellence.


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Michelle is an artist who makes porcelain objects and installations. However, different materials such as salt, wax, glass, water, paper and thread have also found their way into her work.
She considers important connections between our physical and emotional landscapes by accessing ideas of place, containment, perception and the nuances of what we see and feel regarding everyday experiences that we are often to busy to appreciate.
As a believer in the importance of quality handmade things in our lives, she also makes tableware that explores her interests in food, design, craftsmanship, simplicity and the characteristics of porcelain.


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Top Ten Intel Software Developer Stories | October
Представлено: Carman, Vicky, опубликовано: 8 октября 2017 г., обновлено: 10 октября 2017 г.
AI Student Ambassador Karandeep Singh Dhillon: Using Deep Learning to Solve Real-World Issues
With an extreme interest in deep learning and a love of coding, Student Ambassador Karandeep is creating parking and safe driving applications using AI.
How to Build a Face Access Control Solution
Use this IoT reference implementation to create a facial recognition application.
FIDGETECH*: Where Technology and Autism Meet
Intel® Software worked with FIDGETECH* to create a Game Jam where young autistic adults were taught game design by professional game developers.
Intel® HPC Developer Conference: For the HPC Practitioner
The Intel HPC Developer Conference 2017 aims to deliver practical, hands-on advice that attendees can apply to their development efforts. Register today!
AI Developers and Students 'Go Big' at Intel® AI Academy DevJam Event
500 attendees at the AI DevJam events worked on sharpening their machine learning skills, as well as engaging with Intel and external AI experts who are part of Intel's Innovator and Student Ambassador programs.
Digital Happiness Taking DreadEye Aim at VR
A haunted high school? Digital Happiness uses VR to amp up the horror with it's new release, DreadEye.
Intel® Xeon® Processor Scalable Family
Learn about how new technical features and micro architectures increase the performance of the latest offering from the Intel® Xeon processor family.
Green Man Gaming* and Intel Help PC Game Developers Grow
Millions of gamers worldwide discuss, discover, and share all things gaming at Green Man Gaming, an eCommerce business that helps independent development studios market their games globally.
Get Started with IoTivity* on Intel Devices
Use this tutorial to get started on IoTivity, a framework that is cross-platform, architecture independent, and an open-source solution for developers to use with their IoT devices.
Spider-Man*: Homecoming Virtual Reality Experience with Intel® Innovator, Justin Lassen
Working with Sony* Pictures VR, Marvel* Studios, and Intel, Justin Lassen created this Spider-Man* virtual reality experience.
Intel® Developer Zone experts, Intel® Software Innovators, and Intel® Black Belt Software Developers contribute hundreds of helpful articles and blog posts every month. From code samples to how-to guides, we gather the most popular software developer stories in one place each month so you don't miss a thing. Missed last month? Read it here.


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Whether you are Catholic, a denominational Christian, you practice some other form of religion, or no religion at all, we are here to serve you. Our primary concern is that you experience the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Our Mission Statement is Simple:
Holy Family Parish strives to be the best version of ourselves as we lift up the fallen, heal the broken and share the love of Christ.


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At NettResults we look at news from an international perspective. Campaigns need to be localized depending upon the target market and we have teams around the world to do exactly that, and then implement the camapign.
In the UK the media is very integrated with social media - which is what this great video from The Guardian shows.


text: December 06, 2009 15 december December 06, 2009/ Sharon Linne Faulk Andy is chasing the garbage truck on his razor. Well, more like following along on the sidewalk. I feel achy today like I spent the night drinking. I had ONE beer. I should have had water. I had to take more ibuprofen during the night.


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Join our lectures
If you want to hear more about the BRC, there are several opportunities to catch up with one of the team members in the next days.
This evening 20th of march at 19:00 in Málaga, Rafa Benjumea will talk about raptor migration in Batumi.
On saturday 21st of March, we'll have a stall at the Dutch Birding Day, where you will find plenty of information how to volunteer or visit Batumi.
Next week, Wouter Vansteelant is on tour in the UK, and will deliver two talks.
On tuesday 24th of March, he will talk about our Raptor Migration Project for the British Georgian Society in London. Georgian wine will be served!
On Thursday 26th March Wouter will give a Spotlight Talk at RSPB headquarters, the Lodge (Potton Road, Sandy, Bedfordshire), House Meeting Room + VMR 3 between 15.00 – 16.00hrs.
We hope to welcome some of you at these events!


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The Prescott Sectional has been a staple in our lineup for many years. It has gorgeous styling including generous arms which make it perfect for lounging. Perfect place to read a book or your tablet. Shown as a 6 seat sectional.
Prescott Sectional
Product Description
Only Available In Stores.
Please Call (877) 337-3307.


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Sunday, November 1, 2009
Organic Garden Dream Board
This feed on organic gardening should keep me in sweet dreams all winter until it's time to put in the seedlings here on Vancouver Island in the Spring...
What to plant in November 2009 by Aussie Organic Gardening
Spring weather has been quite erratic across Australia, and planting will have to be adjusted to suit local microclimates rather than a general climate zone. As the best phase to sow corn in November is from the 26th this year, ...
Aussie Organic Gardening - http://aussieorganicgardening.com/
All About Organic Gardening | my home garden
By admin
all about organic gardening The following article presents the very latest information on organic. If you have a particular interest in organic, then.
my home garden -http://www.myhomegarden.us/
Natural Organic Gardening | Tips on Looking for the Right Tractor ...
Nothing lasts forever even your valuable lawn tractor part devices could wear out. And purchasing one could be such a chore for you. At some point in time, the search for your new mower part could be very hard. ...
Natural Organic Gardening - http://naturalorganicgardening.com/
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Allan Bloom was an elitist. He saw himself as a champion of excellence in an age of vulgarity. While a professor at the University of Chicago between 1979 and 1992, he sought to immerse his students in only the most classic works of philosophy and literature. Someone looking to define the "Western canon" could do worse than to dig up his course syllabi. In his personal style, he embodied high culture nearly to the point of caricature. His friend Saul Bellow captured him in the novel Ravelstein as a man who wore expensive European suits, lived in a Hyde Park apartment lavishly decorated with French art, and bragged of listening to Mozart on a state-of-the-art stereo system. A lifelong Francophile, he made regular jaunts to Paris over the course of four decades. Yet Bloom insisted that for all his erudition, he was merely a product of America's democratic promise. Well into his fifties, he often spoke of himself as a simple "Midwestern boy," the Indiana-born son of Jewish immigrants who received the best gift a meritocratic democracy could offer: a great education. Bloom thought of himself as proof that, thanks to its universities, anyone can make it in America.
So when thirty years ago Bloom addressed a group of Harvard students and faculty as "fellow elitists," he was not being entirely ironic. The quip came in response to controversies surrounding his 1987 best seller The Closing of the American Mind, which defended an idiosyncratic vision of higher education in the United States. Bloom saw the liberal education traditionally offered at exclusive colleges and universities as the fulfillment of democratic ideals, but condemned his fellow professors for having abandoned this crucial responsibility. Closing received an onslaught of criticism for its "elitism," particularly from fellow academics such as Richard Rorty and Martha Nussbaum, who also observed correctly that his book was at times rambling, historically sloppy and philosophically one-sided. Bloom in turn accused his critics of projecting their own intellectual privilege onto him. "'Elite' is not a word I care for very much," Bloom explained. "It is imprecise and smacks of sociological abstraction." But no matter how elites are defined—whether in terms of wealth, prestige or knowledge—it is clear that "bad conscience accompanies the democrat who finds himself part of an elite." Bloom pushed back against this bad conscience by suggesting that academic elitism was in fact healthy for American democracy.
Like Tocqueville, whom he admired and cited incessantly, Bloom aimed to explore the ways in which the democratic principles of liberty and equality shape American society. Unlike the French aristocrat, however, Bloom based his observations on a far smaller sample: college students "materially and spiritually free to do pretty much what they want with the few years of college they are privileged to have—in short, the kind of young persons who populate the twenty or thirty best universities." Bloom believed these students represented the best of a democratic society, mainly because they enjoyed an unparalleled form of liberty. One of the fundamental guarantees of democratic society is the freedom of self-determination, or the "pursuit of happiness." Bloom saw the proper exercise of this freedom as something that a philosophical education can help teach—the pursuit of happiness, after all, presumably involves attempting to know what happiness is. An education in the humanities, like Chicago's Core curriculum, allowed undergraduates to devote four years to literature and philosophy. Under the guidance of wise teachers and classic texts, they learned to challenge their most deeply held beliefs according to the highest standard of reason. This philosophical overhaul of the self, what Bloom referred to as "liberal education," amounted to no less than the perfection of democratic autonomy. Not only, then, could elite college students choose a rewarding professional career after graduation, but more importantly, they had been given the most "authentic liberation" a democracy can provide.
It did not bother Bloom that liberal education was available in practice only to a privileged few. He took for granted that American democracy (or any society, for that matter) would always contain hierarchies of power, knowledge, income and wealth. The question for Bloom was not whether America should or shouldn't have elites, but rather what kind of elite was most compatible with democratic ideals. He followed the ancient Greeks in thinking of liberal education as what separated "free men" from slaves. Like Plato, he believed that those capable of liberating themselves through philosophical education—the "potential knowers," as he put it—were inevitably a small minority. But like many liberals and conservatives in twentieth-century America, Bloom was also a believer in meritocracy. Having studied alongside poor veterans during the days of the GI Bill, he praised the American system for extending what had once been an "aristocratic" education to anyone worthy of it.
For Bloom, then, the university was the most important institution of American democracy. Taking Plato at his word, he believed that the character of a society is best expressed by the people who rule it. It followed that colleges and universities, the training ground for America's elites, had the task of ensuring that the country's leaders embodied the basic principles of its political regime. As long as they practiced genuine liberal education, Bloom believed these institutions could continue to produce "statesmen" trained in the responsible exercise of democratic freedom. Though he praised democracy in principle, he believed it an "intellectual wasteland," indifferent or even hostile to serious thinking. For a democracy to thrive, talented youngsters had to be exposed to a philosophical education that allowed them to transcend the "bourgeois vulgarity" of their surroundings, and to devote themselves to something other than mere self-advancement. If American society could not ensure this, it risked descending into rule by elites who were no better than the uneducated mob, and for this reason perhaps far more dangerous (such was apparently his assessment of the graduates of MBA programs). As a result, Bloom believed that a "crisis of liberal education" would amount to nothing less than "the crisis of our civilization."


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Kalikimaka Cocktail, Christmas Punch & Pirate Eggnog: Your Tiki Bar Christmas Drink Recipes are here!Posted on December 23rd, 2012 4 comments
Every year I try to find some cool new drink recipe to feature for Christmas at the Tiki Bar. Last year I shared my own age-old Eggnog recipe, an easy concoction that starts with store-bought nog and goes crazy from there. I'm adding that in at the end of this post, but first here is this year's featured cocktail,
The Kalikimaka Cocktail
1 oz Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum
1/2 oz Kraken Dark Rum
1 1/2 oz. mulled apple cider (Apple juice will do in a pinch)
1/2 oz. cinnamon syrup (see below)
1/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1 dash bitters
Cinnamon sticks
Throw everything in a shaker with ice and shake it up good. Rim a martini glass lightly with cinnamon, and fill the glass with the chilled booze. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and enjoy the holidays!
Cinnamon Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
4 cinnamon sticks, broken into large pieces
Bring everything to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for 8-10 minutes until sugar has dissolved, stirring frequently. Let cool. Ditch the cinnamon sticks, strain into a clean glass jar and cover. Store refrigerated for up to two weeks.
Chris' Christmas Punch (Non-Alcoholic)
There's nothing worse for kids at Christmas than to watch the adults making special drinks that they aren't allowed to have. So here's something that both adults and kiddies will dig…
1 liter Ginger Ale
2 quarts Apple Cider or Juice
1 cup orange juice
cinnamon sticks
In a punchbowl, combine the ginger ale, juices, and ice. Add about a teaspoon of cinnamon and a half teaspoon of nutmeg and stir well. Slice oranges into wheels and apples into small cubes and float; sprinkle the top with cinnamon. Serve ice cold with a cinnamon stick. Deee-lish.
And of course, the infamous Eggnog.
Keep out of reach of children.
1 quart good quality store-bought eggnog
About 1 1/2 cups Captain Morgan's or Sailor Jerry Rum
2 oz Coconut Rum
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pour the nog into a large bottle and add all ingredients (start with ½ cup of rum and keep adding to taste). Shake vigorously and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours before serving.
Hope this helps with your holiday parties! Merry Christmas!
-Tiki Chris reporting from under the Christmas Tree at Tiki Lounge Talk
Alcohol-Soaked Eggnog for a Very Merry Tiki Bar ChristmasPosted on December 22nd, 2011 3 comments
With Christmas just a few days away I thought I'd give you kats and kittens some retro Egg Nog recipes to get your Christmas shindigs really swingin'! After all, you can't have a retro, mid-century-style Christmas affair without a generous amount of booze flowing. And the easiest way to get your guests sloshed is with a couple of cups of good, strong, traditional eggnog. With these recipes, even the most uptight conformists will have lampshades on their heads before Santa makes an appearance. But be warned…these concoctions have been known to make some guests disappear two-at-a-time (and sometimes three) to darkened, upstairs rooms while the party is in full swing in the parlor!
Easy: Tiki Chris' Pirate-Style Eggnog Recipe
I'm kind of lazy when it comes to Eggnog, so my personal recipe is the kind that uses pre-made non-alcoholic nog kicked up with some good booze and spices.
1 quart good quality store-bought eggnog
About 1 1/2 cups Captain Morgan's or Sailor Jerry Rum
2 oz Coconut Rum
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pour the nog into a large bottle and add all ingredients (start with ½ cup of rum and keep adding to taste). Shake vigorously and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours before serving. That's it…it's delicious.
A little more involved: Vintage Style Eggnog Recipe, from Rumdood.com
Thanks to Hurricane Hayward of TheAtomicGrog.com for turning me on to this kool Eggnog recipe. Check out his blog for lots of great recipes and more…and also check out RumDood's post with four more great winter cocktail recipes.
"Egg Nogg:
.75 oz Brandy
.75 oz Rum
.5 oz Sugar
3 oz Whole Milk or Heavy Cream
1 Whole Egg
Mix rum, brandy, sugar, egg, and milk in a mixing tin. Fill the tin with ice and shake like your life depends on it. Strain into a glass or goblet and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg."
Christmas Yule Eggnog: A complicated but well worth it vintage recipe.
From the Old Mr. Boston Deluxe Official Bartender's Guide (my version is from 1979, the recipe dates back to the late 19th Century:
Beat first the yolks and then, in a separate bowl, the whites of one dozen eggs.
Pour them together and add:
1 pinch baking soda
6 oz. gold rum
2 lbs granulated sugar (yes, that's two pounds)
Beat into stiff batter. Then add:
1 qt fresh milk
1 qt sweet cream
2 qts blended whiskey or bourbon
Stir. Set in the refrigerator overnight. Before serving, stir again and serve in punch cups with sprinkled nutmeg on top. Fannnntabulous stuff.
That should keep you kids hammered through the holidays. Don't forget, you can always add more booze if it's not strong enough!
-Tiki Chris P. reporting from under the Christmas Tree at Tiki Lounge Talk
Looking for a great last minute gift for the retro lover in your life? You can gift an eBook to anyone with an email address from Amazon.com! Why not give your loved ones a fun, spooky, retro-tastic murder mystery ghost story…say, maybe, one written by your favorite Tiki culture blogger! Check out Murder Behind the Closet Door and Murder on Tiki Island, both under $4.oo on Amazon.com!
Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail: The Captain's Eggnog GrogPosted on December 17th, 2010 2 comments
It's that time of year when we start drinking raw eggs with alcohol mixed into them. I don't know who started this krazy idea, but it stuck. Now, this kat right here isn't adverse to cheating a little when it comes to building a drink that starts off with something that takes a lot of effort to create, so my infamous Eggnog Grog is more about what you add to the Nog than how you execute the Nog's state of being, dig?
The Captain's Eggnog Grog
Two quarts good, thick, old-fashioned pasteurized eggnog, preferably fresh (not canned)
One Fifth Captain Morgan Spiced Rum
One Cup Meyer's Dark Rum
One-half Cup Coconut Rum
About Two Tablespoons Cinnamon
About One Tablespoon Nutmeg
One Dozen Chocolate Chip Cookies
One rocks glass
Tiki Mugs
Cinnamon Sticks
Star Fruit
(Note: Be mindful of the date on the eggnog…the booze will kill off most germs for a while longer, but don't take any chances with eggs!)
I am making my batch as I type this so bear with me. Empty the nog into a large bowl for mixing. Pour a shot of Meyer's into the rocks glass and taste. If it's good, add Meyer's Rum, Coconut Rum and spices. Stir. Now add a shot of Captain to the rocks glass and taste. It should be pretttty good, tooo. Blend in Captain Morgan to nog until it tastes really good. This will be about two cupsses. Period…periodical…aly…Ev're coupla minitz test all rums for flavor. yum. stir in allla deez rums in the bowl and tessts for flabor. Pour into a ceramic gallonon jug and refrigfferate for at least toooo days before serving it out up to yer um guestsssz. Granish with a cimminin stik and a slize of starf root.
Merfy Chrissmiss!
-Tiki Chris repforting from under the tree at Tiki Loonge Talk.


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This is my first time here. I've been here six weeks. Actually this isn't my first time here. I was here when my mom was pregnant with me. So maybe I was here 16 years ago. I went to foster care, and then I got back in touch with her some months before I got locked up. I lived with my uncle, my mom's brother, who fostered me and then adopted me until I was 15. I was there most of the time, but then I got kicked out because I argued a lot. I would go live with other people . . . friends. Then I lived with my boyfriend and his mom. I got kicked out and needed somewhere to go. My boyfriend works at a warehouse.
Everything was ok until I was about 13. Every adult I was with said I don't care about you no more.
I was going to school in 12th grade recently. I would go back to school. I do an online school, it's easy. I could either do it from home or at the teen center at 88th and Vermont. I was born with a lot of drugs in my system. Sometimes I process things slower. I smoke weed but that's about it. I tried meth and coke but it wasn't for me. Everything was ok until I was about 13. Every adult I was with said I don't care about you no more. I buried both my parents. It's time for me to take care of myself. When you're on your own you're on your own. When my uncle was in a good mood it was ok, but when he was mad he threw me out of the house in a tank top and shorts with no shoes. I had to call my brother who was in the house to throw me down my shoes. It was winter and I went to my friend's house. He was doing drugs so I just started doing it with him.
You do what you gotta do to survive. It sucks.
This wasn't my first choice, this life. I would do things like babysitting, but selling weed is a lot easier. I use the money for clothes and food. I would stay mostly with friends. It's a rough life, as some would say. If you had the same life, people would understand. But if they haven't had this life, people, they can't believe it. But for someone who's been through the same, it's no big deal. You do what you gotta do to survive. It sucks. It's a world of no Christmas presents and no birthday presents. One night I got chased by somebody with a gun. No shit you could lose your life doing this. But being depressed doesn't hurt anybody but you, so you might as well have a smile on your face.
-L.T., age 17
**Interviews with youth are recorded to the best of our ability. All personal histories and anecdotes are self-reported by the children. To protect confidentiality of the youth, identities have been obscured, initials have been changed, and identifying details have been removed. Interviews have not been edited for content.