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Monday, December 19, 2011
SPY - Rate of Descent - According to Plan
I suspect that the market may see a bounce soon into Dec 21st. From that date into Dec 23rd looks weak again. Dec 27th looks more positive and then Dec 28th, 29th, and 30th all look very negative in the cycle analysis system.
I suspect that the market flattens off somewhat and manages a few bounces around Christmas. The expectation is for an acceleration down Dec 28th to Dec 30th to maintain the same rate of descent overall.
Daily Chart
NDX has continued to lead down, and is currently trading at approximately 1160 SPX on a performance comparison basis since October.
Once the yellow line breaks, look for an acceleration down.
60min Chart
27 comments:
thanks for the analysis SCReplyDelete
what does your cycle analysis predict to be the bottom date?
first week of January? or Mid-late? i know these are the 2 predicted by most systems out there
January 6th at the earliest. That is 4 weeks from the Dec 7th top. The decline into Aug 9th was 2 weeks. So this rate of descent is half the pace with a similar size of move in both cases off the high.ReplyDelete
Gold/Silver rallying sharply up from the lows. There is good upside in coming days into Dec 27th.ReplyDelete
The next charts will show the short term picture for Gold and Silver, and the rate of ascent up to the $2020 Gold and $37 Silver targets. Gold is a steady rise and Silver goes parabolic up.
Thanks SC for your continued analysis!ReplyDelete
Here is my current take: http://screencast.com/t/qdfZGG67Y
Swapped out ERY/FAZ for ERX/TNA yesterday. Still holding AGQ....good to see /SI perky this morning.
Weather is sweet in ABQ this morning, here is a shot out of my office window:
SC waiting for your silver chart and thanks a lot for your great analysis!ReplyDelete
Very nice ABQ!ReplyDelete
Hi SC, where do you see this rally ending on the SPX before resuming the downtrend. 1230 to to be around about the top or are you looking at more upside?ReplyDelete
Thanks SC
From tomorrow until Dec 23rd looks weak again, Dec 27th looks quite positive. I'll be watching around 1241 which is where that horizontal pink line rests.ReplyDelete
nice works.
The 1973 analog points to a rebound from 16/19 Dec to 22 Dec, pull back to 27 Dec, another advance to 29 Dec, then drop off to 6 Jan.
Thanks Timer, those dates are quite similar as well.ReplyDelete
took 1/2 off here....ReplyDelete
Filled Sell ERX Market 43.3101 -- -- 10:48:15 12/20/11 Order No. 8287164254
Filled Buy ERX Market 39.069 -- -- 15:56:34 12/19/11
Nicely done ABQ!ReplyDelete
Thanks SC, what a squeeze! Hoping to get another pop here to get short:ReplyDelete
Interesting confluence @ blue backtest line on SI. Should be interesting to see what develops.ReplyDelete
you have made quite a few great calls in the recent past., do you think you could be kind enough to post some real time trades for benefit of others who may chose to get some ideas( at their own risk)
thank you
phantom, sure...will post when I can. We hit the 261 fib & TL, but not expecting much of a selloff...today's volume has held the bullish line all day. Regardless, took a small FAZ position for short term trade, cycle appears to be bottoming on the 27th. http://screencast.com/t/ur0ie97Rv1zReplyDelete
Our cycle is looking for a top in the 1251-1255 area to reposition intermediate short, ~23rd-27th. So, patiently waiting & will day trade some ETFs at various levels.
I put this TF fractal study together and will see how small caps react around the 735 area, the MACD is very bullish.
ABQ - do you have your own blog? Love your charts! Cheers.ReplyDelete
ABQ, you seem to agree with SC Re: market top Dec 23/27. What is your pull back target/cycle low date?ReplyDelete
SC, very interesting stuff, what kind of selloff are you thinking from 12/28-12/30? A large 5-10% selloff? Just curious as to how you think the year will end. Thanks.ReplyDelete
rs, I have something very important to say about this actually. Stay tuned.ReplyDelete
Looking forward to it after today's ramp job.ReplyDelete
I'm now wondering if HVU is the way to play the drop. In looking at the one year chart, and looking at the VIX 3 year chart, there comes a point in time when the VIX is desensitized to negativity in the market and doesn't react well. Anyone else have thoughts on this? I'm wondering if HSD is the better way to play this...of course, the potential attractive returns if the VIX does go off is what I'm toying with...........again though, if the market trades sideways the next 3 days, HVU could drop another 6-12%.....ReplyDelete
Tom - No, I don't have a blog....thanks for the chart comment.ReplyDelete
Sold FAZ in premarket @ the 161.8. Bought FAS at E of the diagonal. http://screencast.com/t/e25gnRRtXup2
The potential H&S just got invalidated - broke the neckline. 1251-1255 is what where we are looking to position short.
Steve121 - Have 3 downside senario's that we are eyeing. The highest probability, in comparison to the 2008 analog, is topping tomorrow @ 1251-1255, final bottom 1/20/12. Remains to be seen how the fractals set up. Targets are: 1181/1041/983. 1041 associates w/Jan 6th, 983 associates with Jan 20th.ReplyDelete
SS76 - I am also looking to leverage volatility via TVIX. Do you have an opionion vs. HVU?ReplyDelete
Hi ABQ. I do not have an opinion on TVIX, other than my concerns with HVU are doubled with TVIX, lol. Was looking at the VXX 3 year chart, and what it taught me, is the fees and contago effects on the VIX futures is insane, so never buy and hold this stuff or you will guaranteed lose money, despite the wild price swings. That said, if you can buy in close to the time when it spikes, then you should be in good shape. I'm wondering if that time is coming for HVU but my recent research has made me much less sure. I think I'll split my short position on Tuesday between HSD and HVU.ReplyDelete
Steve121 - per our cycle, we tagged the projected short zone, although could make a nominal new high today/tomorrow. cycle bottom re: 01/20'is:ReplyDelete


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|PTSanbe Farma
Country: Indonesia
City: bandung
Address: Jln taman sari no 10 Bandung 40116
Phone: 623822800028
Fax: 620224207725
Number of company employees : 1000+
Approximate annual sales : USD$10,000,000
Percentage of exports : 30%
Website: www.sanbe-farma.com
|Catagory:Medical Sub-categories: Medical Supplies Vaccines
|We can verify that PTSanbe Farma has been registered with ExportBureau
from 31/08/2010 to today 05/12/2019 for a period of 9 years and 99 days.
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Thank you ! We have sent your message.
The mid-market rates shown here are neither "buy" rates nor "sell" rates. Mid-market rates are derived from mid-point between the buy and sell rates of large-value transactions in the global currency markets. Actual ExportBureau member rates are often better.
|This report should be used only as a guide to build a more informed opinion on potential international trading partners.
click here to update this company information

subset: commoncrawl


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Jessica Simpson Shows Off Post-Baby Body In Sexy Wench Costume
Look at that tiny waist! Jessica flaunts her impressive 60-pound weight loss in a racy Halloween costume, with fiance Eric by her side as Braveheart and baby Maxwell as an adorable rooster.
Jessica Simpson showed off her hot post-baby body in a tight bustier and short skirt just in time for Halloween! The Fashion Star host chose a sexy wench costume to showcase her ample cleavage and fit figure less than six months after giving birth to her first baby, Maxwell Drew Johnson.
She shared the family pic on Twitter, and wrote "Happy Halloween!!!" on Oct. 31.
Her fiance Eric Johnson was dressed in a matching-themed costume as Braveheart, and their daughter Maxwell, who turns 6 months old on Nov. 1, donned an adorable rooster getup.
Jessica's weight-loss plan with Weight Watchers — where she was reportedly paid $3 million — is paying off, and the new mom is already down 60 pounds.
"There is a lot of pressure to lose weight. I want to be healthy for my daughter," Jessica told Katie Couric on her talk show Katie during an appearance on Sept. 10. ""Motherhood is a dream, it really is absolutely amazing. My life is very different now."
Do YOU like Jessica's costume HollyMoms?
— Christina Stiehl
More Jessica Simpson news:
- Jessica Simpson: Her 5-Point Plan Used To Shed 60 Lbs. Of Baby Weight
- Jennifer Hudson Disses Jessica Simpson's Weight Loss
- Most Impressive Before & After Post-Baby Bodies


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[googlefont font="Noto Sans" size="24px" margin="10px 0 20px 0″]
Young People[/googlefont]
[googlefont font="Arimo" size="14px" margin="10px 0 20px 0″]
NCNS works with young people in schools, centres and neighbourhoods across Penrith. This small, but active team's current motto is "the object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives". The Youth Team are advocates for the young people they work with, nurturing, supporting and affirming their innate resilience and providing activities big and small that will challenge and inspire them. They have a particular emphasis on working with vulnerable young people in the public housing estate areas of Cranebrook and Kingswood Park, with Aboriginal young people and with young people in Glenmore Park.
In addition to the generalist youth programs, NCNS also provide the Student Wellbeing program (like school chaplain, but secular) in Cranebrook High School, the Penrith Adolescent Centre and Mulgoa Public School. Casework Support for young people at risk of homelessness is also available via the YHS project and our staff member who is employed solely for this project.
Programs include: (Click here for more information on each program)
- Drop In at Glenmore Park Youth Centre (2 days per week)
- School Holiday programs
- In School, evidence-based Resilience programs (Rock & Water, Friends for Life, Girls Can Do Anything, RAGE)
- Boys Rites program at Glenmore Park High School
- Youth Outreach in Kingswood Park (1 night per week)
- Nepean Young Pregnancy Support Group
- Aboriginal Young Women's Art Group
- Indigenous Young Mum's group
- Digital Multimedia Workshops in partnership with Information Cultural Exchange
- Koori Games – active sports program for Koori kids and their friends at Kingswood Park & Cranebrook
- Casework Support for Young People at Risk of Homelessness
- Making Tracks Aboriginal Mentoring program at Cranebrook High School
- Student Wellbeing Support programs – Penrith Adolescent Centre, Cranebrook High & Mulgoa
- Work Development Orders for young people to repay fines and state debts
- Partnering with Cranebrook High School on the Maths Deadlies


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Join The Cause!
The Rotaract Club of Barrie and Move it for Young Minds presents Move it for Young Minds Mental Health Carnival. This event combines active stations with carnival fun. The proceeds from this event will go to the Simcoe Muskoka Regional Child and Youth Mental Health Program at RVH. Our fundraising goal is $10,000 and can be achieved with your help! Right now, an estimated 1.2 million Canadian children and youth are affected by mental illness, but less than 20 percent will receive appropriate treatment (Mental Health Commission of Canada).
September 22nd from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm: 5th Annual MFYM event. Bring your family out for this unique event that combines exercise stations and carnival fun scattered throughout Tyndale Park. People of all ages and abilities are invited to join this very important cause. Our goal is to have a minimum of 200 participants and to raise over $10,000 with 100% of the profits going to RVH to help them run their children and youth mental health programs. Click here for tickets.


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"Raising Up Culturally-Relevant Youth Leaders"
How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. — Psalm 119:9
Do you enjoy working with teenagers? Do you have a passion for student ministry? Do you see students as the future generations worth investing in? Do you love their high energy along with their longing to understand who they are and what their purpose in life is?
If that is you, then our Youth Ministry program may be just for you. It will teach you how to effectively minister to students, in order to lead them to Christ and/or to disciple them in their relationship with the Lord. You will develop a biblical model, along with practical strategies, to lead them well.
We know that seventy to eighty percent of people come to Christ before age 21. That is a significant number! That is why we at Kingswood believe in training up youth pastors and leaders to reach teenagers now. APPLY NOW!
Creatively Blending...
Kingswood University strives for academic excellence by offering a core set of courses unique to each accredited program, along with the Bible and theology courses required for the B.A. in Ministry degree.
Introduction to Youth Ministry
Do you want to learn how to reach teenagers for Christ? This course teaches you to how to minister to students within your current context. You will learn to develop a biblical philosophy of student ministry. You will learn specific strategies of how to put this into practice.
Models and Theology of Youth Ministry
Youth pastors need to learn how to reach both churched and unchurched youth. This course will explore and evaluate various models of ministering to both groups of teens. You will develop a model of ministry that works for you.
Adolescent Psychology
It is important to understand how teenagers grow and develop. This course will discuss adolescent development. You will also investigate some of the problems and challenges teenagers face. You will be shown ways of how you can help teenagers in these tough situations.
Pastoral Ministry
What does it mean to be a pastor? Preaching might be the obvious task associated with the calling. However, there is so much more to pastoring. This course will teach you about both the "up-front/public" and "behind-the-scenes" aspects of the calling. You will even have opportunities to visit with pastors in various leading-edge churches.
Church Health, Growth, and Leadership
Do you dream of one day pastoring a healthy, growing church? This course will teach you how a local church can grow not just in numbers but also in spiritual maturity. You will learn practical strategies on how to lead, based on what the Bible teaches.
Note: If you wish to view further details regarding the program, you may check out our catalogue.
Along with academic excellence, Kingswood University seeks to incorporate practical ministry experience into all our programs.
- You will participate in a Practicum Assignment for each school year. This will entail doing practical ministry for three hours each week for the semester, under the direction of an approved student ministry supervisor.
- As a Youth Ministry major, you will embark on a Supervised Ministry Experience, the major practical component of your program. This internship will be completed in your fourth year and will last for approximately four months. You will work with an experienced youth ministry leader in a local church or parachurch context, as you immerse yourself fully into ministering to young people.
- You will have opportunity to attend youth rallies, camps, and conferences including Kingswood's Encounter youth rally that happens each year in the fall.
- For certain class assignments, you will be expected to be involved in a youth group.
An education at Kingswood University would not be complete without making an intentional effort to form students holistically—head, heart, hands, and habits.
- Professor Dongell will host regular Youth Ministry lunches for you and those in your program to talk about life and ministry. Sometimes a special guest may attend and chat with you about youth ministry.
- You may be part of a student ministry team, helping lead at youth camps and rallies during the summer months and throughout the school year.
- You will have opportunity to spend time with Professor Dongell through informal, fun get-togethers. He will also meet with you one-on-one to mentor you spiritually. He very much believes in investing in you personally and will prayerfully encourage you throughout your time here.


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Friday, March 22, 2013
Pup Toy Box and PPF
13 comments:
What a great idea!! I love the pup toy box, Lexi and Bella are so lucky :)ReplyDelete
What a great idea, I know my pup would love this! HPPF!ReplyDelete
Oh, these toy boxes are so cute! Love the colours on the second one!ReplyDelete
Oh my word! Firstly, your pups are so cute!! Obviously I'm biaised towards westies having two of them but I love scottie dogs too! Secondly, I want one of those two boxes!! They are fantastic! You should totally market them as I'm sure dog owners the world over would love them. We use a wooden laundry box to store our dogs' toys but I'd far rather have one of your boxes!!ReplyDelete
Wow...so super-charming.. absolutely beautiful..fantastic creation!Love the colors..and love the dogs..fabulous idea..works perfect..brilliant!ReplyDelete
Happy PPF
So sweet! :)ReplyDelete
We had Westies growing up. :)
Happy PPF!!
Mixed-Media Map Art
Loving your cute dogs and the toy box you decorated for them is fab. I agree you should definitely market them.ReplyDelete
Happy PPF, Annette x
Wow! Fantastic eefect. So creative and inspiring. Thank you for sharing. Happy PPF!!!ReplyDelete
Oh so adorable...when we had two dogs at a time....we had this many toys too...could have used one of these!! Your babies are adorable...I love little dogs so much!! Great little piece of useful furniture!! Nicely done!ReplyDelete
Hugs Giggles
That is genius... I have a basket for Mushu's toys but I think your dogs have even more toys than he does... and that blue green stain is wonderful...xxReplyDelete
Brilliant toy box, love it, beautifully done! Your puppies are just adorable <3ReplyDelete
what a great idea! Love that blue/green stain and the pup silhouettes. Happy PPF on Saturday!ReplyDelete
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Parents do you need a night without the kids? Bring them to our Kids Night Out AKA Parent's night out every Friday night! Now you can try that restaurant you've heard so much about, catch a movie, hang out with friends or just have a quiet night in. No need to feel guilty, your kids are enjoying an active and fun filled evening of pizza, themed games, crafts, gymnastics and MORE!
Kids Night Out is held every Friday night for children 6 to 10 years old. It is a great way to start the weekend and a great opportunity for your kiddo(s) to have fun with other kids while you enjoy some time to yourself. Pizza dinner included and an optional movie after all of the games and activities! Space is limited to 30 children so register today!
Enroll before Friday for $20 Regular Friday price $25.


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New features
- Upload Media Assets directly to Video, Document, and Presentation activities within the Syllabus Builder. Uploaded assets will also be available within the Media Library for usage within other courses.
- New Custom Template Manager to enable easily uploading, downloading, deleting, and viewing your customizations.
- When attempting to delete a group that is selected as the default group for SSO or URL Authentication, display a warning and allow selecting a different group to be the new default group.
- Scheduled sections now count towards a learner's course progress calculation.
- API v2 endpoint for listing Activities within a Course.
- Events API v2 endpoint includes page view events for the My Courses Page and Cover Pages.
- Option for Customer.io that deletes profiles from Customer.io when they are deleted from Northpass.
- Filter Media Assets in the Media Library by status.
- Rename an uploaded Media Asset to more easily find and re-use assets.
- Add checks for successful configuration of Virtual Events and Customer.io apps to ensure proper configuration.
- Filter by Submitted On date range on the Assignment Submissions table.
Bug fixes
- Fixes for image positioning and cursor jumping in Rich Text Editor in Internet Explorer 11.
- In the new Learning Experience, unordered list bullet points were being hidden when a discussion board was enabled on an activity.
- The link to share a Group was not clickable from a Group show page.
- Spacing fixes for the new Learning Experience footer when milestones were used on quizzes.
- Allow deleting an Admin or Instructor who had created a credential.
- Fix an issue in a Linear Course where when previewing courses as a Learner, video milestones did not always register as completed.
- When a Learner was added to an SSO school via API endpoint, Northpass will now populate their learner details when the Learner authenticates for the first time.
- Apply uniform padding to all Syllabus Builder activity types.
- Fix a bug where the Courses API endpoint was incorrectly populating the "next" link on the last page of results.
- Fix an issue where filtering the Quiz Scores report by a Course and a Quiz would not allow downloading the results.
- Sometimes after re-ordering activities in the Syllabus Builder, the new order would not save.
- The MailChimp app could not be configured and would always return an error message that the credentials were invalid. Additionally, if using over 10 lists and attempting to configure a List ID after the first 10, the configuration would not be successful.
- Improve availability of API docs pages.


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Software Advice, Client Success Coordinator, Application Deadline, BTT Gateway Job ID 8381
Sat, June 7, 2014
We're looking for someone who:
- Is crazy organized and detail oriented. You're comfortable jumping from one project to another and back without letting anything slip through the cracks.
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Prof. J. Owen Lewis
The role of the Vice-President is to be concerned with the general trends of the activities of the Society, and to bring any matter relating to these activities before Council or the Board of Management of the Council, should it be deemed necessary. The current Vice-President of the Society is Prof. J. Owen Lewis.
Prof. Lewis joined the RDS in 1994. A Member of the Board of management since 2009 Prof. Lewis has been Chair since 2012.
Emeritus Professor of Architectural Science, UCD Dublin, Prof. Lewis was Chief Executive of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) 2009-2012.
For further information, please contact:
Cliona Deegan
Dublin 4
Tel: +353 (0) 1 240 7221
Fax: +353 (0) 1 660 4014
Email: email@example.com
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text:
A friend just shared a really inspired quote with me.
"It never gets easier, you just go faster." Greg LeMond
This makes me happy because I know I'm going to be better than I am now on my bike, in the way of healthy eating and in other areas as well. It also makes me happy that Joe thought this was an appropriate quote to share with me. 🙂
I'm going to keep working hard…


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Kocaman replaces Daum at Fenerbahçe
Saturday 26 June 2010
Article summary
Christoph Daum said Fenerbahçe SK would always have a place in his heart after his second spell at the club was ended, with Aykut Kocaman swiftly named as his successor.
Article top media content
Article body
Fenerbahçe SK have put their faith in Aykut Kocaman to lead them into the UEFA Champions League group stages after cancelling coach Christoph Daum's contract.
A Fenerbahçe player between 1988 and 1996, the 45-year-old Kocaman is much revered in Kadikoy. Although limited to a handful of international appearances he was only the fifth player to score 200 goals in Turkish football, 140 of them coming in 212 league games for Fenerbahçe.
The Yellow Canaries won titles in his first and final seasons at the club, and after spells coaching İstanbulspor AŞ, Malatyaspor, Konyaspor and Ankaraspor AŞ, he returned to the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium last summer to take up the post of director of football. His first challenge as coach will come at the end of July when Fenerbahçe kick off their UEFA Champions League campaign in the third qualifying round.
He inherits a side that came so near yet so far last term, a season of great hope that instead brought great frustration. The Istanbul outfit lost the Turkish Cup final to Trabzonspor AŞ and were in pole position in the Super League until the last day of the season when a 1-1 draw with Trabzonspor handed the title to unfancied Bursaspor. They also topped their UEFA Europa League group, only to be eliminated by LOSC Lille Métropole in the round of 32.
Kocaman's appointment confirms a premature end to Daum's second spell at the helm. The 56-year-old, who guided Fenerbahçe to two titles in his first spell between 2003 and 2006, returned to the club in June 2009 on a three-year contract. "
Fenerbahçe have always been a part of my life and they will remain so," said Daum. "I wish them all the best for their UEFA Champions League campaign."


text: Hi, For discussion about pci root bus hotplug related stuff. 1. bus number allocation. 2. pci root bus hot add/remove 3. ioapic hot add/remove 4. iommu hot add/remove. 5. mmcfg related. already had draft patches, but need more review. need them to support hotplug for our new platform with intel new cpu. Thanks Yinghai


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The chairman of New Zealand's Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) Dean McKenzie will take on the role of executive director once current chief executive John Allen steps down at the end of 2019.
Just under one in six Australians aged 16-17 gambled in the past year, according to the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children's (LSAC) annual statistical report.
British media giant News UK has appointed Gaming Realms co-founder Simon Collins as its new managing director for betting and gaming.
Researchers in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) have warned the state needs to have a serious discussion about the role of gambling in society after estimating that as much as 14% of its population has been negatively affected by gambling.
Norway's state-owned totalisator betting business Norsk Rikstoto has proposed establishing a mandatory monthly spending limit for all customers, with the country's gambling regulator speaking out in favour of the proposal.
Kindred Group has made a significant investment in #GoRacingGreen, a new initiative that aims to make horse racing accessible for racegoers that suffer from mental health issues.
Rebecca Pow has been reappointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Arts, Heritage and Tourism at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), with responsibility for gambling, lotteries and horse racing.
The Jockey Club, the operator of 15 major UK racecourses, has named former BT Sport and Sky executive Delia Bushell as its new group chief executive.
Sandy Dudgeon, newly appointed senior steward of UK commercial horse racing organisation The Jockey Club, has issued a call for greater collaboration among stakeholders and interested parties to help the sport overcome challenges and make the most of growth opportunities.
The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) and Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) are to be wound up and replaced by the Betting and Gaming Council, a new UK-facing operator body that aims to act as the industry's mouthpiece. British Beer & Pub Association chief executive Brigid Simmonds will lead the new body.
Betting technology provider Sportech has named its interim executive chairman Richard McGuire as its new chief executive officer.
Sportech has made a number of changes to the leadership of the betting technology provider's B2B division, which sees a number of staff from the recently acquired ilottery business Lot.to take on key positions.
Racecourse owners and breeders organisation Together for the Tote has named Mark Kemp, formerly of Ladbrokes Coral Group, as its new UK managing director.
Women in Racing, an organisation committed to developing the profile of women in the sport of horse racing, has signed up as a strategic partner of the All-in Diversity Project.
The Jockey Club, the largest commercial horse racing organisation in the UK, has revealed that Simon Bazalgette will leave his role as group chief executive by the end of 2019.
Clarion Gaming's inaugural edition of ICE North America, which takes place in Boston from May 13 to 15, will feature a keynote presentation from iconic boxer and Olympic champion Sugar Ray Leonard.
International Game Technology (IGT) has appointed Ian Freeman as vice president of global business development and commercial at its PlayDigital division.
Online sports betting advocates have until April 1 to convince a reluctant Governor Andrew Cuomo to include mobile sports betting in the state budget. Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr tells iGamingBusiness.com why a market restricted to in-person wagering would be a mistake.
The Gambling Commission, responsible for regulating gambling in England, Scotland and Wales, has reported a slight decline in the prevalence of problem gambling in 2018, though there were clear signs that public perception of the industry is worsening.
In the second part of iGaming Business' deep dive into the revised Wire Act opinion, ICE Sports Betting USA speakers stress the need for clarity from the Department of Justice as they look to work out the best way to interpret the ruling.


text: One more Formula One season starts tomorrow and once more, there are no women competing on the circuit. The Formula One world is a male-dominated sport. How many women do you remember making it into F1? I will help, six. Only six women have driven during Prix weekends and of those just two participated in the


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August 11, 2015 •
Online Content, Summer 2015 Blog, Summer Blogs •
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BY JINCHEN ZOU We stood in a circle, holding hands. The early morning dew clung to and soaked the bottoms of my shoes, and I shivered from the wind and the excitement at welcoming the day with the people of Sólheimar. My eyes followed the...
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Our Approach
Your home should reflect you and your lifestyle. We spend time getting to know what that looks and feels like.
Chic is in the details, but spaces also need to be functional.
Our designs consider how you use your home, to ensure you'll love it for many years to come. And our commitment to style extends to our commitment to stay within your budget.


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Project Location
Palatine, IL
Charles Sparks + Company
Case Study: Starbucks Coffee
In December 1999, the Chicago suburb of Palatine revitalized their suburban downtown with row houses, condominiums, shops and a railway station. DLK Civic Design, an architecture firm based in Chicago, designed the Palatine Metra station house in 2001. The red-bricked transit hub looks like it was built in the 1890s, with its imposing clock tower and cross-gables that rise above a sloping hipped roof.
A pedestrian concourse, concession facilities and decorative canopies complete the passenger experience. Of note is the Starbucks café that travelers can access inside, through a single track sliding, four-panel NanaWall HSW66.
The Starbucks entrance needed the opening glass wall because of the extremely tight floor space, says Paul Ng, director of information services for Charles Sparks & Co., which oversaw the design of Starbucks. "The NanaWall allows for a more open space," he says. "The store had a tight square footage. We consulted with a NanaWall engineer, and NanaWall fit our design."
The Aesthetic of Wood
The design firm looked at other operable glass walls, but chose NanaWall because it "is one of the only companies that offers a wood finish" of exceptional quality, says Ng. The firm needed to match the other walnut stains on the floorboards, shelves, and counterpaces. Ng further comments, "After looking at its competitors, we saw that NanaWall had the best wood options." Moreover, the team and Charles Sparks – a firm known for visual branding – was impressed with NanaWall's presentation, particularly because they came in with a wide array of wood samples.
When the NanaWall opening is completely retracted, customers and staff become occupants of the extraordinary interior civic space DLK created in the waiting room. The cathedral ceilings, expansive natural lighting and arching vaults are a relaxing setting to sip warm coffee and read The Chicago Tribune.


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Despite the positive impact of bariatric-metabolic surgery, only 1% of qualified patients receive surgery because of limited access, patient preference, risks, and cost of surgery.1 Given this low utilization rate of surgery and limited efficacy of life-style and pharmacological interventions, a significant gap exists in our current approach to obesity contributing to unprecedented rates of the disease and escalation of co-morbid conditions resulting in an enormous economic burden on our health care system.2 Endoscopic bariatric therapies (EBTs) can potentially offer effective weight loss intervention at lower cost, and higher patient acceptability, potentially bridging the current obesity management gap.3 Multiple EBTs have targeted the stomach by reducing its volume or restricting its accommodation. The stomach plays a key role in appetite regulation.4 Furthermore, gastric volume reduction through creation of restrictive sleeves or pouches is an important component of bariatric surgical procedures such as Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) or sleeve gastrectomy.
Dayyeh.jpg [1]
Early attempts at endoscopic gastric suturing for weight loss used superficial endoscopic suturing devices that only replicated the anatomic manipulation of marginally effective bariatric surgical procedures such as the vertical banded gastroplasty. 5, 6 Although these techniques and devices had limited clinical adoption, they paved the way for newer full thickness suturing systems and demonstrated the feasibility of endoscopic reduction of the gastric reservoir for management of obesity.
Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) is a transoral endoscopic gastric volume reduction technique that reduces gastric capacity by creating an endoscopic sleeve (Figure 1). This is accomplished by a series of endoluminally placed full-thickness sutures through the gastric wall, extending from the antrum to the gastroesophageal junction. This technique reduces the entire stomach along the greater curvature, creating a sleeve.
Figure 1.jpg [2]
ESG is created by using a commercially available endoscopic suturing device (Overstitch; Apollo Endosurgery, Austin, Tex) that requires a double-channel therapeutic gastroscope to operate. Full-thickness suture placement is aided by the use of a tissue helix device that captures the targeted suture placement site on the gastric wall and retracts it into the suturing arm of the device (Figure 2).
Figure 2.jpg [3]
We first demonstrated the feasibility of this technique at Mayo Clinic in humans in 2013.7 Since then multiple other groups demonstrated the safety and efficacy of this technique.8-10 A prospective Spanish study of 50 patients with baseline body mass index of 37.7 kg/m² showed a %excess weight loss of 53% and 57% at 6 and 12 months, respectively, with no serious adverse events. 9 Another multicenter study of 82 patients with BMI of 36.2 kg/m² demonstrated a %total body weight loss (%TBWL) of 17.8% and 19% at 6 and 12 months, respectively.10
Since these initial reports, we have been offering ESG clinically at the Mayo Clinic and found it to be a well-tolerated outpatient intervention, requiring less than two hours of endoscopy time after a short initial learning curve, with the majority of patients returning to a fully functional status within 1-3 days after the intervention. We have found the majority of suture plications to be intact at repeat endoscopy after three months with formation of fibrotic bridges (Figure 3).
Figure 3.jpg [4]
Finally, we have been studying the physiological perturbations resulting from creation of the ESG and demonstrated that ESG is associated with impairment of gastric emptying, increased satiation and metabolic effects that are potentially important to control the metabolic dysregulation associated with obesity.11
In our experience, ESG may have an important role in the treatment of patient with obesity who do not qualify or wish to undergo bariatric surgery. Thus, it may offer a paradigm shift in our management of obesity that targets current gaps in therapy and may allow us to gain ground in our losing battle against obesity.
Literature citing
- Mechanick JI, Youdim A, Jones DB, Timothy Garvey W, Hurley DL, Molly McMahon M, Heinberg LJ, Kushner R, Adams TD, Shikora S, Dixon JB, Brethauer S. Clinical practice guidelines for the perioperative nutritional, metabolic, and nonsurgical support of the bariatric surgery patient--2013 update: cosponsored by American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the Obesity Society, and American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery. Surgery for obesity and related diseases : official journal of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery 2013;9:159-91.
- Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Flegal KM. Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. JAMA 2014;311:806-14.
- Abu Dayyeh BK, Edmundowicz SA, Jonnalagadda S, Kumar N, Larsen M, Sullivan S, Thompson CC, Banerjee S. Endoscopic bariatric therapies. Gastrointestinal endoscopy 2015;81:1073-86.
- Cummings DE, Overduin J. Gastrointestinal regulation of food intake. The Journal of clinical investigation 2007;117:13-23.
- Fogel R, De Fogel J, Bonilla Y, De La Fuente R. Clinical experience of transoral suturing for an endoluminal vertical gastroplasty: 1-year follow-up in 64 patients. Gastrointestinal endoscopy 2008;68:51-8.
- Brethauer SA, Chand B, Schauer PR, Thompson CC. Transoral gastric volume reduction as intervention for weight management: 12-month follow-up of TRIM trial. Surgery for obesity and related diseases : official journal of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery 2012;8:296-303.
- Abu Dayyeh BK, Rajan E, Gostout CJ. Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty: a potential endoscopic alternative to surgical sleeve gastrectomy for treatment of obesity. Gastrointestinal endoscopy 2013;78:530-5.
- Sharaiha RZ, Kedia P, Kumta N, DeFilippis EM, Gaidhane M, Shukla A, Aronne LJ, Kahaleh M. Initial experience with endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty: technical success and reproducibility in the bariatric population. Endoscopy 2015;47:164-6.
- Lopez-Nava G, Galvao MP, Bautista-Castano I, Jimenez-Banos A, Fernandez-Corbelle JP. Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty: How I Do It? Obesity surgery 2015;25:1534-8.
- Kumar N, Lopez-Nava G, Sahdala HNP, Manoel GN, Sharaiha RZ, Wilson EB, Shaikh S, Gomez E, Ryan MB, Zundel N, Thompson CC. Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty: Multicenter Weight Loss Results. Gastroenterology 2015;148:S179-S179.
- Abu Dayyeh BK, Acosta A, Topazian M, Rajan E, Camilleri M, Gostout CJ. One-Year Follow-Up and Physiological Alterations Following Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty for Treatment of Obesity. Gastroenterology 2015;148:S11-S12.


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Fighting Terror With Terror
Well ladies and gentlemen, more than a month after General Stanley McChrystal's strategic assessment over Afghanistan, the Obama administration is still deciding what the best way forward should be. Meanwhile, another eight American soldiers have lost their lives in two separate IED attacks, the day after another fourteen Americans (including three DEA agents) were killed in two separate helicopter collisions. October is now the deadliest month for U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion, and the security situation is only getting worse as Afghan politicians are preparing for the November 7 election-runoff. Oooh, and did I mention that President Obama is still mulling over his approach?
Out of both academic amusement and sheer determination, I have attempted to place myself in President Obama's shoes. Sitting in the Oval Office, I ask an internal question; what should the United States do to curb the Taliban insurgency? For space issues, I have neglected to discuss the endemic problems facing Afghan society; after all, I would think that after eight-years of warfare, most Americans recognize how fragile and divisive Afghanistan is (corruption, sectarianism, drug production, Islamic radicalism, etc).
Instead, I think long and hard about a new and comprehensive Afghan war-plan, one that replaces Washington partisanship with an approach that would best serve our troops on the ground (and seriously, I actually did think "long and hard." Let's just say seniors in college have a lot of free time on their hands). And this is what I came up with: counterinsurgency for major population centers in Afghanistan, and guerilla-type attacks in the Afghan countryside.
To some readers, this hybrid plan seems rather strange and unworkable. How could we possibly defeat an insurgency by relying on insurgent tactics; such as hit-and-run assaults, roadside bombs, decentralized forces, and small tactical units? My answer is pretty simple; when the war-effort has been going in the wrong direction for the past eight years, and when the Taliban Movement is strengthening at the expense of the western-backed Kabul government, dire straits call for dire measures.
Just think about the plan for a moment. In the cities, the U.S. Military- with the help of reconstruction teams from USAID and civilians from the State Department- would embark upon a rigorous campaign aimed at protecting the Afghan population from Taliban intimidation. This is classic counterinsurgency, a method that has thus far been neglected by the United States in the "Af-Pak" region (as General McChrystal amply notices). And Washington must not forget that this same counterinsurgency doctrine worked wonders in and around Baghdad, reinvigorating America's chances for success in a seemingly hostile environment.
I truly understand that Iraq is different from Afghanistan in a number of respects (literacy levels, ethnic make-up, and history to name a few), but we must realize the inherent similarities between the two countries as well. Both are riddled with corruption at the highest-levels of government; citizens of both states are forced to live their lives (at times) with minimal resources; Afghans and Iraqis are deeply susceptible to tribal violence and inter-state warfare; and lastly, both populations seem intent on forging a new way forward for their respective societies. The United States can learn from these comparisons, and possibly draw the same conclusions (with some modifications).
Now to the controversial part of my strategy; fight terror with terror. Of course, this seems quite uncivilized. Western Governments often cringe at the words "terror, civilian casualties," and "war crimes," especially against an enemy that is so irrational, if not downright nihilistic. But, like I said earlier, there comes a certain point when an unconventional strategy needs to be implemented…both for the sake of our troops and for the sake of the mission's success. If there is anything that can be learned from the American experience in the War on Terrorism, it is the fact that perception matters. Wars are often one when the armies fighting firmly believe they are on the victorious end of history. Take the U.S. victory in World War II and the coalition's success in the 1991 Gulf War as contemporary examples.
It may be time for the United States to act in accordance with its superpower image. I do not propose over-using heavy artillery, sophisticated technology, and repeated air-strikes to accomplish this goal; this would undoubtedly create more insurgents than it destroys and make Islamic fundamentalism all that more attractive. To the contrary, I am referring to the innovation and resolve that makes a country such as the United States the world's last remaining superpower. Adapt to the enemy, know his mindset, understand his logic (or lack thereof) and success will come all that closer. Show your adversary that the methods he considers clever will eventually lead to his own demise.
In World War II, the United States and its European allies defeated Nazi Germany by capitalizing on Adolf Hitler's misjudgment. As the Vietnam War drew to a close, the United States was able to improve the situation to the point of an American withdrawal. In the Gulf War, coalition forces took advantage of Saddam Hussein's disenfranchised army, quickly driving them out of Kuwait. Even in Afghanistan, Washington bypassed the operations of conventional armies, providing support to indigenous groups who were angry with Taliban rule.
What is stopping us from continuing this precedent? Sometimes in extraordinary cases, continuing the status-quo is better than deliberating for weeks on end. Maybe this is why I am not the President of the United States.
-Daniel R. DePetris
The Pakistani Smack-Down
With all of the hype surrounding Pakistan's military operation in Waziristan- the militant stronghold that has caused so many problems for the United States in the region- it is tempting to automatically assume that the raid will result in nothing but total and absolute victory.
While it is certainly difficult to restrain from feelings of overt accomplishment in the War on Terror, it would be rather premature for the United States to expect anything substantial from the Pakistani offensive. After all, the Pakistani Government has launched very similar operations in the past, all to no avail. In each circumstance, the Pakistani Army was demoralized to the point that the generals would strike a truce with Islamic militants to the west; not only conceding territory to the insurgency, but allowing some of the most dangerous elements in Pakistani society to fight for another day.
Despite recurring structural problems within the Pakistani army in general,, this Waziristan offensive differs from previous missions in a number of respects. First and foremost, over 60 percent of the Pakistani public supports the army's efforts. Secondly, the intense barrage of terrorist acts across Pakistan- including a devastating attack on the army headquarters- is quickly persuading Islamabad to actually crack-down on fundamentalist activity. And finally, the United States and Pakistan are deepening their military relationship against Islamic terror.
Therefore, while the capturing of Osama bin-Laden is out of the question, there is still some benefits that might result from Islamabad's operation in the western-half of the country. Realistically speaking, killing or capturing bin-Laden probably would not make much of a difference anyway, considering AQ's decentralized character over the past couple of years.
-Daniel R. DePetris
Academics Just Don't Get It
As I was reading a few of Marc Lynch's posts, one quotation in particular caught me by surprise. According to the influential Middle-East expert, President Obama's "hands-off" approach is starting to gain dividends throughout the Muslim World; both in terms of America's image and in terms of public popularity. More specifically, the foreignpolicy.com blogger decided to base his case-study exclusively on Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslim population, yet one in which I know very little about:
"Andrew Higgins has a very good piece in the Washington Post today about the fortunes of Islamic moderates in Indonesia. It demonstrates how overt American attempts to promote "moderate Muslims" or "liberal Islam" routinely backfire — and offers more evidence in support of the Obama administration's hands-off, disaggregated approach to what used to be called the "war of ideas". I've seen this again and again in the Arab world, and its fascinating to see how it is playing out in Indonesia (a case I follow much less closely). His account offers considerable support to the argument I've often made that less is more when it comes to America's role in intra-Islamic battles. And his story shows the value of moving away from sharp binary oppositions defined by "violent extremism" towards a more nuanced and disaggregated approach defined by, as they say, mutual interests and mutual respect.
Higgins writes that there are many reasons why Indonesia favorable views of the U.S. have gone from 15% in 2003 to 63% today, that al-Qaeda's terrorism is generally viewed with revulsion, and that moderate Islam is a normal part of the political system."
At first glance, I agreed somewhat to Lynch's proposal. After all, the Muslim community is beginning to view the United States in a less hostile-light. Yet, as I started to read between the lines, I could not help but notice that a few of Dr. Lynch's claims are based in sheer fantasy.
While I understand that President Obama's "hands-on" approach is starting to result in some significant behavioral changes within the Muslim world, I am still quite skeptical of its effectiveness in the long-run. U.S. research grants and American donations to Indonesia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Afghanistan can only go so far. There comes a point in time when "soft-power"- that all too infamous phrase in the American diplomatic arsenal- needs to be employed for the sake of U.S. interests in the Muslim community. Sure, the jump from 15 percent to 63 percent in Indonesia is amazing, considering President Bush's profound global unpopularity just last year. However, as is often true in politics, public opinion does not necessarily tell the whole story.
It seems like Dr. Lynch is denouncing "soft-power" in general; that all-too important tool striving to better the American image through democratic values and "mutual respect." And by American image I mean a rise in popularity, accompanied by a change in foreign-policy (and as we all know, Muslim Governments have not exactly modified their policies). Anyone remotely interested in the diplomatic process recognizes that winning the battle of ideas is one of the primary objectives.
Likewise, a hands-off approach may work well in Indonesia, but not necessarily in other areas of the Islamic world; some of which are a heck-of-a-lot more violent and fragmented. Do you suggest that President Obama stop intruding in Afghanistan, or Iraq? The answer is no, because this would be a terrible mistake; only strengthening the jihadist movement at the expense of Islamic pragmatism. Just because Indonesia is a good-example of a hands-off strategy does not necessarily mean that every single Arab country will follow a similar path.
Like it or not, a large part of the War on Terrorism is about competing ideals and values. Yet, Dr. Lynch is implying that the United States should ignore this reality. As we all know from the Iraq and Afghan debacle, showering ourselves in ignorance is not a bright thing to do.
-Daniel R. DePetris
Islamic Jihadists Reject American Recruit
Take a look at this little snippet of investigative reporting, courtesy of Mark Hosenball of Newsweek:
"The arrest of a Sudbury, Massachusetts, man on charges of conspiring to launch terror attacks against U.S. shopping malls and other targets is the latest in a series of high-profile FBI busts that suggest Al Qaeda sympathizers are very much alive and well inside the country—even if their links to Al Qaeda's central leadership overseas are tenuous or nonexistent. The Feds allege that Tarek Mehanna, 27, who was born in the U.S. but holds dual U.S.-Egyptian citizenship, conspired with others from 2001 to 2008 to participate in violent jihad against American targets both inside and outside the U.S.
The court documents allege that in April 2002, only a few months after 9/11, Abousamra took one of two trips he made that year to Pakistan seeking training for jihad. At one point in 2004, the Feds say they believe Abousamra visited Iraq for about two weeks. According to the feds, however, the alleged co-conspirators did not find themselves welcomed with open arms by the Islamic terror groups they tried to join. The court papers indicate that Abousamra told a cooperating witness after returning from one trip to Pakistan that he had made contact with both Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Taliban, two notorious jihadist militias, but that neither group would accept him."
This case is a very disturbing example of how dangerous international terrorists- even a few "rag-tag" wannabees- are to the actions and ambitions of the United States. Eight years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and six years after Washington decided to launch yet another invasion in the Muslim world, it appears that our country remains on the defensive. George W. Bush's rational for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was rather simple: the missions would make Americans safer in general. The safety of Americans would be protected and promoted by taking the fight to the enemy before they take the fight to us.
With fresh terrorists continuing to enter the United States, and with stories like these appearing on the front-pages more frequently, it appears that the former Commander-in-Chief might have been wrong in his assessment.
There is one other thing I would like to point out. The fact that the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban rejected American recruits only reiterates the fact that both movements are as strong as ever. No longer are they forced to blindly accept new fighters for the sake of keeping their resistance alive. There is more to this rejection than meets the eye. Not only do Islamic terrorist and insurgent groups continue to operate with extensive force (in and out of the United States)…their relative strength in both numbers and tactics enables them to practice a certain degree of self-restraint on recruitment. In the past, a "rookie" or "wannabee" terrorist who was intent on striking U.S. targets would be greeted by radicalized Muslims with open ears and an open mind. Today, this simply does not get the job done.
The Taliban is no longer a group of pathetic and marginalized Arabs. They have now become a bunch of full-time professionals in the terror trade. For U.S. soldiers abroad and for intelligence officers in Washington, this development is more than disturbing.
-Daniel R. DePetris
Is Iran Seeking A Nuclear Weapons Blueprint in Cyprus?
As I was scrolling down Newsweek's website, I could not help but notice a particular story concerning Iran's persistent attempts for nuclear technology. Amid all the facts, figures, and detailed analysis, the story (entitled "Tehran Seeking Nuclear Technology") appears to accurately summarize Tehran's tradition of sabotage and defiance; despite Iran's pledges of conformity over the last few weeks, intelligence sources state that the Islamic Republic is sending covert agents in a bid to buy advanced and sophisticated nuclear components.
"Long a crossroads for Middle-Eastern espionage and intrigue, the island of Cyprus is playing an increasingly prominent role in current investigations into Iran's nuclear program. Suspected Iranian purchasing agents have been using front companies registered on the politically divided Mediterranean island to buy precision Western technology that can be used in designing and building atom bombs, according to reports seen by European intelligence and law-enforcement agencies.
The latest reports are part of a continuing and extended pattern of Iranian equipment purchases. The pattern began several years ago, when U.S. agencies believed Iran was conducting bomb design and development. The purchases have continued into the present; when individual cases are assembled into a mosaic, the resulting pattern arguably constitutes a strong circumstantial case that the Iranians are trying to assemble the wherewithal to design and build an atomic bomb. "They never stopped [doing this]," the European official said."
Hopefully, this de-classified report will finally persuade President Obama to eliminate his fantasy-type view of the world in general.
Up to this point, the Obama administration has made it an inherent tradition to give the Islamic Republic a certain amount of breathing space when the country's nuclear program is taken into consideration. Whether this includes lax U.S. efforts at the U.N. Security Council- or pointless low-level meetings with American and Iranian officials- Iran is more often than not given the benefit of the doubt.
Perhaps if Iran denounced international terrorism as a tool in its foreign policy arsenal, the President's "Neville Chamberlain moment" would not be such a terrible idea. Yet, as people are quickly realizing on a daily basis, this is hardly the case. Not only are Iranian agents using their political and military clout to undermine respective governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Territories…Tehran is making a habit of brutally targeting internal dissent within its borders. Is appeasing a rogue state really in the best interest of the United States?
The fact that the IAEA has been unable to accurately describe Tehran's nuclear intentions does not necessarily mean that the United States should hold similar conclusions. While this Newsweek article is but one source in a variety of documents and estimates, the Iran-Cyprus connection shows how flawed the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate has been all these years. In contrast to Washington's original assessment- that Iran had stopped its nuclear-weapons research in 2003- it appears that European Governments may have been right all along. Striving for primacy in the Muslim World, the Iranian regime is putting all of its eggs in the nuclear basket.
Does this surprise anyone? If it does, I highly recommend that you read up on contemporary history; U.S. intelligence has been severely degraded since the run-up to the Iraq War.
Mr. President, here is a message for you; the quicker you realize that Iran is continuing to improve its national prestige in the Middle East through a nuclear deterrent, the sooner you will adopt a viable strategy dealing with the problem. For if you continue to mitigate the Iranian nuclear stalemate through the U.N. Security Council- an action that has already been opposed by Russia and China- U.S. interests in the region will deteriorate.
Perhaps it is time for unilateral sanctions, backed by threats of military action (yes I said it) as a response to Iran's unacceptable behavior.
If there is anything that can be learned through the lessons of history, it is that military force makes the diplomatic process all that more effective. It is time for the United States to give this a try…Lord knows that nothing else has worked thus far.
-Daniel R. DePetris
Dr. Stephen Walt Is Dillusional About The Taliban
Note: The Following is a response to Dr. Stephen Walt's discussion on Afghanistan. This piece was originally published on his blog at walt.foreignpolicy.com. Dr. Walt's full post can be read in the "comments" section below.
Dr. Walt, the argument you are making against a U.S.-led counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan is well noted. However, to think that the return of the Taliban would not raise questions about Al'Qaeda's capabilities is somewhat misleading in my view. A variety of experts on the subject have written articles and spoken at IR conferences explaining the persistent connection between Taliban militants and Al'Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan (and of course Pakistan). Some even claim that the interests of the Taliban and Al'Qaeda are more aligned than ever before…a frightening prospect indeed. Both have a common enemy; both are relatively influential in the Af-Pak region; both use similar tactics against coalition soldiers; and both support a militaristic version of Islam.
While the Taliban may only be concerned with regaining power in Afghanistan, the idea that Al'Qaeda would not expand their base of operations in such a friendly environment is questionable. Let's not forget that the Taliban Government, when in power, was not necessarily the best at keeping track of militant activity within its own borders.
If Mullah Omar re-emerges as the Supreme Leader in Afghanistan, I sincerely doubt that Taliban forces would be able to secure the long Afghan border with Iran, not to mention the contentious and mountainous terrain between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Governments in Afghanistan tend to disregard border patrol for other priorities, providing an ample opportunity for terrorist groups to infiltrate into new territory.
So, while the Taliban may not want Al'Qaeda in Afghanistan once they return to power in Kabul, they simply have no way of enforcing this preference. After all, it's not like they have a western-style army capable of protecting the state from outside influences.
-Daniel R. DePetris
The Results Are In….Americans Continue to Support the War
Here are the tentative results from this week's very-important survey:
Question 1: Do you support America's Role in Afghanistan?
Yes: 53% No: 47%
Question 2: Is defeating the Taliban a priority in the War on Terrorism?
Yes: 57% No: 43%
Question 3: What course would best improve the mission in Afghanistan?
Focus on counterinsurgency: 59% Focus on counterterrorism: 41%
Question 4: What should the White House do with respect to troop levels?
Increase: 14% Decrease: 31% Stay the same: 23% Withdraw: 31%
This bears the question, is this small poll and accurate reflection of the country's mindset towards Afghanistan? Look below for the answer.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll, all of the "hoop-la" concerning Afghanistan's deteriorating situation is nonexistent to a vast majority of Americans. Conducted this past week by Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, the newly found survey shows a tremendous amount of American resolve towards the war in Afghanistan; just as the Taliban is gaining strength in the region over U.S. and NATO forces.
Below is a short summary of the findings that are worth discussing:
1) 65 percent of U.S. voters "are willing to have American soldiers 'fight and possibly die' to eliminate the threat of terrorists operating in Afghanistan. 28 percent said otherwise
2) 30 percent polled supported an enhanced U.S. troop presence within Afghanistan for "as long as it takes." 28 percent thought that an American withdrawal would be the best option, whereas 21 percent wanted U.S. troops to depart from the "Af-Pak" region in 1-2 years.
3) 38 percent of those polled fully endorsed rising troop levels in Afghanistan to confront the growing Taliban insurgency. 28 percent hoped that the United States would decrease troop levels.
Contrary to mainstream accounts of waning public opinion for the war in Afghanistan, some of the country's most respected research institutions are arriving at an opposite conclusion: the American populace is willing to put up with a sustained U.S. campaign against Al'Qaeda militants for at least the next five years.
While the information presented is only the result of a single political survey among thousands across the nation, I do have some thoughts regarding these statistics.
First and foremost, the media's negative portrayal of the war is grossly fabricated. Of course, when comparing the current levels of public support with rates immediately after the September 11 attacks, the American population seems fed up with Afghanistan (nine years of warfare tends to produce this type of side-effect). Yet, when placing the October 2009 figures into perspective, the constant claims of a war-weary citizenry emanated by the mainstream media are relatively ambiguous.
This false perception has a dramatic effect on the entire U.S.-led mission. On one hand, commanders and soldiers on the ground have been operating with the assumption that the country they are fighting for is divided over the war-effort. To some, this may not be important. To policymakers in Washington, however, the public's outlook makes or breaks the success of the campaign.
Consider Vietnam and Iraq as examples. In both conflicts, the tactics pursued by the U.S. Military were heavily influenced by domestic politics. The Johnson, Nixon, and Bush administrations were heavily attuned to the millions upon millions of Americans marching down the streets of the nation's largest cities, collectively voicing their outrage over the incompetence of the United States Government. Recognizing that Americans were losing patience with both wars, the sound judgment of Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Bush became clouded by a certain state of paranoia, second-guessing, and outright mismanagement. The result was a devastating loss of lives on the ground and billions of taxpayer dollars wasted.
Minus electoral concerns, perhaps the White House would have been able to re-evaluate strategy in a less hostile environment, without the consistent strain and internal pressure generated through a disenfranchised constituency. If there is one universal ideal within democratic governance, it is the fact that re-election often gets in the way of a clear, unified, and rational decision-making process.
This poll is fundamentally confirming the same universal principle. Americans understand the dangers associated with terrorism, rightly concluding that Al'Qaeda and its like-minded proxies around the world continue to pose a significant threat to their safety and security. Likewise, most Americans understand that ill-fated costs are usually pretexts for a more peaceful, prosperous and secure world.
While both assertions are certainly worth noting, the most valuable inference of the survey is the fact that a vast majority of the country is squarely behind their Commander-in-Chief. For a young leader still learning the ropes, confronted with two costly wars and a dragging economy, a confident constituency is precisely what President Obama needs to keep himself on the right track.
-Daniel R. DePetris
-Information from AFP contributed to this blog.
Out of my own amusement, I decided to post a few questions regarding America's role in Afghanistan. While this survey is certainly a crude and non-scientific way of gauging America's pulse, discovering what the country's attitude is a crucial endeavor; especially when Afghanistan could very well be the most important foreign-policy issue of our time. If President Obama is sincere in re-evaluating the Afghan strategy, he may want to take the views of ordinary Americans into account. What do you think?
President Obama is the winner of WHAT!!!
Considering that President Obama has promised a great deal to the Arab world in general, it is quite understandable that some distinguished foreign-policy experts are feeling both skeptical and bewildered over his Nobel Prize victory. It does not take a genius to figure out that Mr. Obama's hopes for the region have been drastically curtailed by the debacle in Afghanistan…as well as other domestic priorities that are high on his administration's agenda (i.e. health care reform and fixing the national economy).
Scholars such as Marc Lynch and Stephen Walt have already pointed to his lack of progress on substantial issues relevant to Arabs worldwide. President Obama's vision for a genuine and long-lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is perhaps the most effective illustration.
In the first few months of Obama's presidency, the White House essentially re-formulated its entire perspective with respect to the conflict. Palestinian grievances would be heard with open ears and respected with an open mind; Israelis would be pressured into making concessions that they have never made before; and Arab nations would be expected to moderate their behavior to further the prospects for regional peace. The key was to depart from the status-quo of the George W. Bush years, when U.S. support for Israel was virtually unlimited and unquestioned.
Months later, what has been accomplished on the Israeli- Palestinian front? The answer, of course, is nothing; unless you count Washington's regression back under the same old "we work for Israel" banner. Obama, for reasons I still do not understand to this day, has decided that caving-in to Prime Minister Netanyahu's settlement policy is more important than working towards a comprehensive agreement…not only exacerbating the already horrendous living-conditions of the Palestinian population, but diminishing the optimism that so many Arabs wanted to experience. U.S. policymakers are once again viewing Israel as a "reliable" partner, re-inflaming the same hostility that President Obama hoped to eliminate in his Cairo speech. The "say one thing and do another" approach is once again the microcosm of American foreign-policy
Perhaps the biggest blunder to Mr. Obama's Mideast peace plan is the fact that he has lost a considerable amount of support from the Arab world. While the 44th president still enjoys widespread international support (hence the Noble Peace Prize), people may be slowly realizing that he lacks the strength and resolve necessary to back up the "yes me can" rhetoric.
Iran is another case in point. Despite the President's pledge to limit Iran's nuclear capability (a key issue among Arab populations), Tehran continues to produce uranium at an unprecedented speed. Yes, talks between Iranian representatives and western powers are gradually gaining fruition on both sides; the idea that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is willing to export uranium for further enrichment is by no means a minor breakthrough. Yet, as everyone knows, this is certainly not a show-stopper.
There is a very real possibility that Obama's premature acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize could translate into his own demise, undermining his credibility and ruining his legacy. With the Prize in hand, the President is now placed with a tremendous amount of added pressure on his shoulders. With more power comes more responsibility, and if the White House fails to live up to its end of the bargain, the United States may very well return to its previous position: the most hated and unpopular nation on earth.
Of course, one cannot solely blame the President for these failures. After all, the man has only been in the Oval Office for the past nine months. No leader, however transformational on the global stage, would be able to successfully complete all idealistic objectives in such a short period of time.
Nevertheless, Arabs are losing patience. At least George W. Bush lived up to his philosophy.
Note: This post was originally published on Marc Lynch's blog at ForeignPolicy.com
-Daniel R. DePetris
The Al'Qaeda View: America Is Now Divided
First and foremost, I would like to say that I am indeed a supporter of an enhanced U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. I firmly believe, like many others, than an American defeat in Afghanistan would be severely detrimental to U.S. national security…not because the Taliban would threaten the United States with direct force, but because of the symbolic effect a U.S. defeat would have for Islamic jihadists throughout the globe. Whether or not Al'Qaeda is a major problem for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan is irrelevant at this point. What is relevant is the fact that Al'Qaeda militants will certainly exploit a Taliban victory to their advantage.
Citing yet another defeat of a superpower in Afghanistan (Great Britain in the 19th Century and the Soviet Union in the 20th) would only increase the recruitment ability of anti-American groups…regardless of ideological affiliation. We must remember that weakened resolve will not only translate into benefits for Al'Qaeda; it will also give a much-needed boost to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Palestinian rejectionists in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Interestingly enough, President Obama's decision to weigh all options- while necessary and understandable- may have a similar effect. Floundering for the next few weeks may very well give the United States a weak image internationally…a development that may not be so terrible if terrorist organizations were not spreading at unprecedented speed. Yet, as reality dictates, this could not be further from the truth. At the same time U.S. soldiers are engaged in Afghanistan, Al'Qaeda proxies are gaining strength in Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and (of course) Pakistan. With all of these developments, is waiting really the best option for the United States?
There is one more point I would like to bring up. It appears that Civil-Military relations have hit a significant roadblock, with National Security Advisor James Jones virtually telling General McChrystal to shut-up and keep his opinions to himself. Of course, discussing the war-effort and contradicting the President in public should be frowned upon…especially during a period of contention. Yet, at the same time, the U.S. Military is not entirely at fault. The White House response could have been much more constructive than the harsh rhetoric that was emanated just last week.
Again, I cannot help but wonder if this strained Civil-Military relationship will result in devastating consequences for American interests in the immediate future. What White House officials see as a minor rut, terrorists and Islamic militants view as a divided U.S. Government unable to unite in the face of a common threat.
Note: This post was originally published on March Lynch's blog at foreignpolicy.com
-Daniel R. DePetris


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From @brucellino on Wed Oct 19 2016 05:21:19 GMT-0400 (EDT)The puppet manifest for deploying and connfiguring CVMFS repos (stratum 0 and Stratum1) should be added as a git submodule to the DevOps Repo.Copied from original issue: https://github.com/AAROC/DevOps/issues/341
From @bazinski on Wed Oct 19 2016 05:23:38 GMT-0400 (EDT)except i dont want to do submodules for reasons of r10k, but that is a bigger subject than this.
From @brucellino on Wed Oct 19 2016 05:27:01 GMT-0400 (EDT)Are you using the DevOps repo to r10k ? I was under the impression that you weren't - but we still need to have eyes on the code that we're using to deploy services. I can see that this is not a trivial issue, so let's close it here and move the discussion to discourse.
submodules places all my modules in a singular directory tree.
r10k takes modules from various places and maps them into the puppet environments, in my case development, testing and production.
so for an example r10k on a run will take bazinski/fail2ban hash @$@#$@#$%RG and map it to productionbazinski/fail2ban hash 345234234234 and map it to testing
fail2ban itself i can develop somewhere else and it percolates up to production.
I dont have my work flow finalised here at the moment, my plate is full, but I think you get the idea.
of course replace fail2ban with any other module of your choice.
Ok, I understand r10k's "get repo from anywhere, make puppet environment mashup" - but I have trouble believing that this is the only way to do things.
The philosophy of the DevOps repo is that anyone should be able to reproduce our infrastructure - but that doesn't mean we have to actually deploy from that repo : just that that repo should contain everything that we do deploy.
First of all - where is the r10k code repo ? It would be much easier to comment on this stuff seeing it in action. Is there a repo with your config anywhere ?
I presume this is referring to https://github.com/bazinski/puppet-fail2ban right ?
So, your deployment scenarios locally can point to individual repos (without submodules), as they are doing now. Those same repos can be added a submodules to the DevOps repo. Since you are not deploying from DevOps, but we are just using it as a reference, we can still collaborate properly, since we are still pointing to the same repos (the original one), and we can refer to the same hash/commits in the case issues arise.
What do you think ?


text: AH to be updated with a new look on Friday March 12th I have been working behind the scenes for over a month now to update the platform that AH runs on which will result in a new better looking website, more functionality and easier navigation and for those of you who live overseas, particularly in Africa hopefully faster loading time. I predict that the transition will go smoothly, but it will require that AH is offline on Friday, March 12th for about 6 hours. I am really looking forward to the new platform that will now also support blogs from a couple of great writers that I have lined up with more to come. Please do not hesitate to share your thoughts and ideas about the new site with me once it is up. I have really tried to listen and incorporate the ideas and suggestions that have been shared with me from all of you over the last year plus and hope to have a cleaner, easier and faster site as a result. The operating platform could be the best in the world but it's nothing without all of you who contribute and bring so much life to the site. Thanks to all of the members who make this site so great!


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Supplemental material and ACS hidden prefs
Would it be possible to add the attachSupplementary, supplementaryAsLink, and ACS.highResPDF prefs to the Connectors (or make them work with the Connectors from Zotero)?
Hidden prefs work in the Connectors under namespace
translators.. Seems like I forgot to document this in the wiki. Will do later.
Okay. Here's where they are currently mentioned: https://www.zotero.org/support/preferences/hidden_preferences#translator_preferences
The supplemental material pref didn't seem to work for me on a handful of sites, so I assumed it wasn't yet implemented in the Connectors.
@adomasven The supplemental materials and ACS prefs don't show up when I search for "translators" or the pref names in either Firefox's or Safari's Zotero Connector Config Editor. They do show up (but are non-functional) when I search in the Zotero client.
For example, with translators.attachSupplementary enabled in the Zotero client, the supplemental material does not import from here:
These instructions seem to be incorrect:
Yeah, the ones in Zotero client are to be ignored. And the ones in the connector need to be added manually in the config editor, they're not present by default.
(also, the actual functionality in the translators hasn't been tested for ages, so if, after adding the prefs, this isn't working, you'd have to look at the translator code)
When developing I was testing with the ACS pref which worked as expected
Okay, thanks.
@adamsmith translators.attachSupplementary isn't working for Sage or ScienceDirect in some quick tests.


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What did one mushroom say to the other, "Hi, you look like a fun guy". Mold issues are not funny, but it doesn't all have to be doom and gloom. That's the spirit we hope to bring to this blog. My name is Bob Culley. I have been working in the mold industry in Texas for the past 9 years. I hold two licenses in Texas, which is one of a handful of states that license and regulate the mold industry. The first license I received was a Mold Assessment Consultant. A "MAC" is an assessor who can do inspections, take samples, write protocols, and clear remediation projects. The other license I have is a Mold Remediation Contractor, which is pretty much what it says. I can remediate any amount of mold that happens to be involved on any project.
In addition to working in the mold business, I have also been teaching part time at GEBCO in Hurst, Texas since the middle of this year (2016). I teach all sorts of mold classes including mold remediation worker initial, mold assessment consultant initial, and mold remediation contractor initial. The worker is a certification, but the consultant and contractor are actual licenses. All certifications and licenses are good for two years, and renewable. The consultants and contractors must take a refresher course as continuing education before they can get their renewable licenses.
My blog will be about the different situations that our Company, Culley Enviro has encountered in the past nine years. My associates and I have seen a ton of things I would like to share with you. So hang on, it's going to be quite a ride.


text:
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Holywell is remarkably low-key. It has been a public place of healing for the past thousand years yet, unlike the great Catholic shrines of Europe, there are no ministering attendants to greet visitors, no great basilica, and no triumphant display of discarded crutches and abandoned wheelchairs. There is just a slightly incongruous sign on the outskirts of this modest Flintshire town that announces it as the Lourdes of Wales.
The estimated 30,000 pilgrims a year who come here are left to their own devices to make what they will of a well which, legend has it, sprang up miraculously on the spot where a seventh-century saint, Winefride, was restored to life by divine intervention after being beheaded after resisting a rapist. You can see the join on the neck of the various statues of her that are dotted around the sanctuary.
A small notice does, however, request that the custodian be informed if pilgrims are planning to immerse themselves in the startlingly clear, slightly bubbling waters. These are housed in an ancient open-air chamber of delicate, honey-coloured pillars, its crumbling walls darkened by the smoke of candles.
As I arrive on a chilly winter's morning, with dark clouds lined up like great bruises across the sky, a middle-aged woman in a modest one-piece swimsuit is emerging up the steps of the star-shaped well, pulling a threadbare towel around herself and quickly disappearing into one of the changing huts. Another pilgrim shivers in his trunks and prepares to take her place. "They say it's warm once you're in," he says, almost to convince himself. I smile encouragingly, but part of me thinks he must be mad.
Such public acts of faith are rare in secular, sceptical Britain, even during high points in the liturgical year such as Lent, which started this week. And when they do take place in the public gaze – a regular flow of traffic passes by within feet of the sanctuary on its way to the local Aldi – they are usually dismissed as a kind of medieval masochism brought on by religion, just the sort of behaviour that led Tony Blair to keep quiet about his faith while at 10 Downing Street in case he be judged, as he put it bluntly, a "nutter". Healing, after all, is properly the domain of doctors and shrinks, not saints who rose, Lazarus-like, from the dead. Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, captures the popular prejudice well. "Alleged miracles violate the principles of science. I imagine the whole business is an embarrassment to more sophisticated circles within the Church. Why any circles worthy of the name sophisticated remain within the Church is a mystery."
Dawkins's book was a best?seller, a conclusive sign, many said, of the final ebbing of the sea of faith from our shores. Survey after survey in recent times has confirmed the loosening of the hold that Christianity once had. The percentage of those calling themselves Christian dropped from 66 per cent in 1983 to 50 per cent today, according to the National Centre for Social Research, while those who describe themselves as having "no religion" climbed from 31 to 43 per cent. Church attendances are down over the same period (from 1.2 million on the average Sunday to 978,000).
These hardy souls in the water at Holywell may be continuing a tradition of bathing in Winefride's Well that stretches unbroken through the disruptions of the post-Reformation period right back to 1093 when the shrine is first mentioned in recorded history, but they are also the last of the line. However, there is another way of looking at what goes on at Holywell.
The credit crunch and continuing bleak economic outlook have been widely rumoured to have prompted a renewed spiritual hunger in what sociologists call the "fuzzy faithful" – those who don't practise any faith, but haven't quite written off religion in the manner of Dawkins.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols, leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, spoke recently in the pages of this newspaper of a "hidden religious pulse" that is currently beating more strongly. His observation is, at first glance, borne out by a poll by Christian Research at the end of last year which showed that, as a result of the global downturn, three quarters of the British population have been prompted to think again about their core values.
But the survey then goes on to question whether this reassessment is benefiting organised religion. Only 3 per cent of this new wave of what the pollsters call "non-religious seekers" had contemplated going to a church post credit crunch. And only 1 per cent had actually given it a try. None of them was planning to repeat the experience.
Another nail in the coffin of organised religion? Well, church attendance is only one indicator of the national spiritual temperature. Archbishop Nichols offered alternatives such as the much larger thanexpected crowds – 300,000 plus – who queued up to see the reliquary containing the bones of the 19th-century French saint Thérèse of Lisieux when it toured England and Wales in the autumn. It managed to draw not just believers, but also legions of "fuzzy faithful", not to mention the plain curious.
Then there are the increasing numbers reported to be attending retreat centres or "taster" weekends at monasteries. Parkminster, for example, run by the austere, silent Carthusians in West Sussex, generated so little interest in its ascetic way of life that it was facing closure a few years ago. Now its courses are booking for months in advance and its silent lifestyle has a particular appeal in Lent.
And there is, undeniably, a renewed sense of importance and energy around Remembrance Sunday. The immediate cause may be the escalating loss of young British lives in Afghanistan and public confusion as to what the war is all about. But there is also a franker acknowledgement than heard in recent years that, for all the claims of science and progress, the injustice of suffering and death continues to puzzle us as much as it ever did, and that religion still offers, if not an Answer with a capital "A", then some form of consolation.
So where to find these spiritually hungry individuals? That was the question I found myself inadvertently answering in The Extra Mile, a book chronicling my travels around the ancient sacred sites of Britain. It had begun as something else, an attempt to untangle and understand the dramatic stories, which often lie buried under layers of neglect, the rubble of bygone wars of religion and the distracting supernatural claims of present-day visitors. As the book developed, though, this quest became much more than a simple search for historical detail and colour about an overlooked part of our shared past.
At Holywell, as at each of the seven other locations I visited, from Iona off the west coast of Scotland to Stonehenge in Wiltshire and Lindisfarne in Northumberland, I stumbled across the "non-religious seekers" that Christian Research had identified. Some were in their swimming trunks, otheres were carrying crosses, but most were just looking and thinking.
They may not be going to churches, but here they were, they told me, in search of a simpler, more essential type of spirituality than denomination and religious doctrine. It had been concentrated in these sites in ages past, they knew, and so these modern-day pilgrims were exploring whether traces of it remained in the stones, the soil or, in the case of Winefride's Well, the water.
At Lindisfarne, in its eighth-century heyday as much a centre of faith as Canterbury, I walked with two young women along the ancient Pilgrims' Way crossing the mud flats that separate the Holy Island from the mainland. Franckie, a meteorologist in her twenties, told me: "I don't generally go to church week by week. I just don't, but I get a top-up here."
Cheedam, a fellow pilgrim, was a young secular Muslim woman from Turkey. "I have been living in Britain for two years, studying and working, and the thing that has puzzled me most about you is that I just don't see faith here when I am going about my life." Until, that is, she made the walk to Lindisfarne and stumbled across something often hidden, and even when spotted, overlooked or misconstrued.
For the pilgrims I came across, their search was an emotional and intuitive endeavour. "It's the energy that rises up from the layers of history, one piled on top of the other," Angela, a middle-aged wages clerk from Staffordshire, told me when we both took part in a Beltane (coming-of-spring) ritual at the foot of Glastonbury Tor. "The Spirit is here," a fellow visitor assured me on a procession at the Marian shrine of Walsingham, "and I haven't experienced that anywhere else."
Many were honest enough to accept the two-way nature of what they were doing. Just as the places they were exploring projected their sacred past onto visitors, so too did the visitors project their own spiritual longings onto ruined abbeys, stone circles and isolated islands.
Holy places, by tradition, carry with them the potential for stepping out of time and even out of character. They stand apart, sometimes geographically, always in their slightly other-worldly feel, so to visit them is different from tourism. There is an extra dimension, some kind of interplay between the material and the spiritual. A pilgrimage is seeking the spiritual through something material, whether it is the act of walking in the footsteps of those believers who have passed along the same road before, or the immersion in water that previous bathers have experienced as holy and healing.
Moreover, the very act of going on pilgrimage might be seen as making the body do what the soul desires, channelling those "fuzzy" spiritual yearnings into something practical. It therefore runs counter to the powerful idea, found in most mainstream religions, that the spiritual is located within us, and therefore utterly immaterial. This is precisely the sort of theological abstraction that puts people off. In a secular society, we have lost the tools to understand such talk. With pilgrimage, however, there are no liturgical niceties to negotiate, no doctrine to absorb, no club to join. All that is required is openness.
Quite how open am I prepared to be at Holywell? I struggle with conflicting emotions as I wait my turn outside the windowless arches that enclose the well-chamber. I'm standing by a second, larger pool, also filled by the same spring. Am I ready for the potentially life-altering experience of climbing down into the well itself?
Just under the surface of the pool I can see the rock where St Beuno, Winefride's uncle and the one who brought her back to life, reportedly used to pray for hours on end, standing half-immersed as was the habit of those tough, self-flagellating monks of the Celtic Church. It feels like a challenge.
As an icy wind blows in off the Dee Estuary, gathering up leaves and then depositing them in the greenish water of the pool, I decide that St Beuno's example fits better with an earlier age of muscular faith rather than this present era, when the religious pulse beats quietly beneath the skin of a secular society. Indeed, it is precisely by wearing its reputation as a place of healing and spirituality so lightly and unobtrusively that Holywell is now drawing in the
modern seeker.
Thus satisfied, I plunge my hands into the pool and wash my face with its waters.
- Silence in the City is a rolling programme of talks on silent prayer and contemplative life while living in a busy world. It is organised in London by the World Community for Christian Meditation and Contemplative Outreach. Past speakers have included Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Cynthia Bourgeault, a Canadian Anglican priest and hermit. Details of the 2010 programme at silenceinthecity.org.uk
- The Self-Realization Centre at Queen Camel in Somerset offers a range of silent weekend retreats, loosely based on Buddhist principles, to help participants "listen for the wisdom inside". See selfrealizationcentres.org
- St Hugh's Charterhouse, home to the Carthusian monks at Parkminster in Sussex, has what is believed to be the largest cloister in the world. The monks use bikes to go around it. Those interested in ways to discover more about its life of silence and prayer should visit its website, parkminster.org.uk, where they can contact novice master Father Cyril.
- Award-winning novelist Sara Maitland's 2008 best-seller, A Book of Silence, describing her decision to live as a silent hermit, is now out in paperback (Granta Books, £8.99).
Britain boasts several ancient pilgrim trails including:
- The Canterbury Pilgrims' Way. Immortalised by Chaucer, it had two branches, a southern route, from Winchester to Canterbury (129 miles), and a northern route (79 miles), from Westminster to Canterbury. A substantial section is open to walkers along the North Downs' Way. Find routes at nationaltrail.co.uk/NorthDowns
- The North Wales Pilgrims' Path. A time-honoured route that contains many of the treasures of the Celtic Church, stretching from Chester to Bardsey Island, and including Holywell (127 miles). Various itineraries are listed at pilgrimsprogress.org.uk
- Whithorn. St Ninian is believed to have founded the first Christian community in the North in the fifth century, before Columba came to Iona. The ancient pilgrim route through Dumfries and Galloway to the shoreline cave at Whithorn that was his home is currently being restored. Contact the Whithorn Trust (whithorn.com)


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Alternatively referred to as a power cable, mains cable or flex, a power cord is the primary cable that provides power to the computer, printer, monitor, and components within a computer. In the image to the right, is an example of the power cord that is commonly used with computers, monitors, printers, and other peripherals.
Tip: When dealing with a laptop, the power cord is more properly referred to as an AC adapter.
Post time: Oct-25-2018