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The government is about to kick off the CMBS aspect of the TALF program. They are expecting a slow start to the program. For one, it will start with CMBS issued this year, but will later accept earlier issues. The real problem is that no matter how much liquidity you throw at the CMBS market, market players simply overpaid for previous purchases through the bubble, using too much leverage in the process.
As the bubblicious market corrected, this resulted in many totally insolvent deals. Thus, no matter how much money you have to throw at a problem, you don't want to throw it at a loss. Insolvencies are guaranteed losses unless the dynamics of the deal is changed and prospective of equity is created somewhere. You cannot take a 120 LTV property and refinance it at 75 LTV (what I believe is the going rate) without someone taking a big, cold bath! As a matter of fact, in order to even take that bath you have to come up with 35 points of equity - otherwise we are talking about default. Even the more marginal deals at 90 LTV cannot be refinanced at 75 LTV, hence the deluge of equity offerings.
It is unfortunate that risks that are virtually unfinanceable in the debt markets, and were literally driving lenders into bankruptcy as far back as a year and a half ago (ala Lehman and Bear Stearns) are now being peddled to equity investors. Oh well to each their own.
From Bloomberg:
Fed's Commercial Real Estate Aid May Have Few Deals for Start
The Federal Reserve may have few, if any, securities deals for the start of its program to aid the commercial real estate market and head off more losses at U.S. banks.
Today is the first monthly deadline for investors to apply for loans to buy new commercial mortgage-backed securities through the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF. No issuers have publicly announced debt that's eligible for the program. The Fed has made $25.2 billion in TALF loans for other securities, including those backed by auto and credit-card debt.
"I would be very surprised" if there are any deals this month, said Kevin Petrasic, a former official at the Office of Thrift Supervision who is now an attorney with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP in Washington. "Unless the market really starts to pick up within the next couple weeks, I think July is going to be a little challenging as well."
The stakes of TALF aid extend beyond the markets for office and retail space. Worsening problems in the commercial mortgage market may accelerate the drop in property values, increase defaults and weaken banks' finances, New York Fed President William Dudley said this month.
Dudley set expectations low, saying in the June 4 speech that he didn't expect any activity today because "the process for CMBS securitization takes quite a while to ramp up."
"Don't take that as a mark of the success of the CMBS effort, please," he said at the time.
When Fed policy makers last met in April, some officials cited "mounting losses in commercial real estate, which could have substantial adverse consequences for regional banks and other financial institutions with significant concentrations of such assets," according to minutes of the two-day session.
Deadline Today
Today's application deadline applies to securities issued this year. In late July, the Fed will start accepting investor requests for loans to purchase older CMBS.
"This may be, and likely is, more challenging than dealing with other eligible assets," said Laurence Meyer, vice-chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC and a former Fed governor.
The Fed, acceding to an industry request in May, authorized TALF loans of as long as five years, up from three years for other parts of the TALF. Real estate groups including the Mortgage Bankers Association had lobbied the Fed for the extended loan terms.
Fed officials hope the TALF -- an emergency program that may make up to $1 trillion in loans -- will help revive the $760 billion market for CMBS. That in turn would lower interest rates and expand the availability of loans for the commercial real estate market....


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Thermoskin Soft Plantar FXT
Average Customer Rating(3 ratings)
Featured Customer ReviewI found the best use of the product was for a couple hours i... [ read more ]By Hattie from Dallas, TX
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Thermoskin Soft Plantar FXT
- Allows for safe nighttime ambulation
- Ideal for traveling
- Lightweight and compact
- Soft design makes it comfortable to sleep in
Product Overview
Thermoskin Soft Plantar FXT
Thermoskin Soft Plantar FXT
Ideal alternative to cumbersome night splints. Thermoskin Plantar FXT™ pulls the toes back slightly, stretching the plantar fascia so it may heal. Also may be worn during the day while seated. Features a Safety Sole™ nonslip bottom that helps prevent slipping. Patented Trioxon® lining is clinically proven to maintain an elevated skin temperature while still allowing the skin to ventilate for long-term comfort. Hand wash with mild detergent and air dry.
Sizes correspond to shoe size:
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- Size Small - Women's 7 to 9 - Mens 6 to 7
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I have a pair of thermoskin boots, that I wear to bed at night, because I have gout, and my feet get really cold. Mine doesn't have the belt from the toe to the ankle like this soft plantar has. Are they the same thing?
Asked on Apr 26, 2012 12:31:35 PM by Millie
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Part Number(s): 714 0021 05, 714 0021 01, 714 0021 02, 714 0021 03, 714 0021 04
Mfg Part Number(s): 82234, 85234, 86234, 84234, 83234
Scrip Part Number(s): 714 0021 05, 714 0021 03, 714 0021 04, 714 0021 02, 714 0021 01
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subset: commoncrawl


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Renovated in the year 2000 the hotel has 384 rooms, including 381 doubles and 3 suites, on 16 floors. The hotel also has a small garden. The facilities include a lobby, a 24-hour reception, a currency exchange desk and lifts. A caf� as well as a piano bar are also to be found inside the complex. Internet access, an air-conditioned � la carte restaurant with children's highchairs, as well as 9 conference rooms suitable for up to 150 persons are furthermore all available in addition to room service and medical assistance.
The proposal for New Year's Eve Gala dinner is a Joint Gala Dinner between Meliá Hotels and will be held at the Palau de Congressos of Palma.
The supplement of this dinner will be € 171 Net per person and include: Transfer to the P.C.P. (round trip), Gala Dinner, party with open bar and 'resopón'.


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-family. My Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, and Cousin in law visited yesterday. They drove to LA to visit see me ☺
We went to lunch. I got to show my paintings. It was cool. My Aunt's birthday is today! 7 decades complete! She chose 4 paintings of my growing collection. I was so happy to be able to share with her and watch her pick up and touch every piece I've made except for the works in progress. It was so cool to see her physically handling the pieces, seeing the differences in the reality of the painting versus photographs I've shared over the months. She got to see at least 10-12 that no one besides me has seen. And to hear her interpretations/expressions about the colors and how certain pieces made her feel or think of was really something. So yeh, it was special.
At lunch we all just talked about what stuff has been going on in our lives. It was nice.
-Art/Painting/Creating. I think I'm into my 70s now as far as finished pieces from August until present day. It's been an incredible almost 5 months on this particular journey. Like I'm so happy doesn't begin to cover it. 😁


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When I am rushing in the morning it is so easy to default to toast but doing the same thing every day is not my style so I have been preparing overnight oats. They also fill me up a lot more than toast so I am not needing to stop for snacks so my time can be focused on work and children until lunchtime. I topped this recipe with my raw granola recipe. You could add soft fruit as well if you wanted to.
3 Comments
Sarah-Louise Bailey
I keep saying that I must try overnight oats as they always sound quick and easy to do, but really delicious! I might have to go and see if I have the bits in the kitchen now to give it a whirl.
Nicolette Lafonseca-Hargreaves
I was late to the oat party it was on my must try list for ages now I am hooked
I absolutely love overnight oats. They're a real lifesaver when you have busy mornings like me 🙂
Louise x


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Once again, Bureau Veritas will be attending the Aerospace & Defense Meetings Central Europe.
Between 21-23 of May, 2019 you can meet us at the Aerospace & Defense Meetings Central Europe – Rzeszow (southeastern Poland). This key industry match making event will take place in the modernized G2A Arena conference center in Jasionka, where global leaders in aerospace, defense and astronaut industries meet.
The goal of the meeting is, essentially, business integration of the aviation environment that emphasizes establishing and developing cooperation between small, medium and large companies producing aircraft and aircraft engines. It is a business forum focusing on optimizing supply chain of products and services for major industry producers, from its original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to their subcontractors (Tier 1).
Bureau Veritas will be attending this event among other members of Aviation Valley Association - companies such as: Airbus, Patria, Aero Vodochody, Collins Aerospace, Honeywell, Comac, Liebherr, MTU Aero Engines Polska, Pratt & Whitney and Safran.


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Singapore to add 99 new trains from now till 2019: Khaw
SINGAPORE will spend over a billion dollars upfront to buy 99 new trains from this year till 2019 in a bid to achieve higher rail reliability, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan wrote in his blog on Wednesday.
The new trains come with improved propulsion systems, and more reliable and durable AC synchronous motors which require less maintenance. Mr Khaw said 57 will be for Singapore's oldest North-South and East-West Line (NSEWL), 18 for the North East Line and 24 for the Circle Line.
"These 99 trains will cost us over a billion dollars upfront, but they will be a worthy investment. They will be more cost effective in the longer run. Most of all, they will help us achieve higher rail reliability,'' he said.
The new NSEWL trains will also have electric train doors that need lower maintenance and will eliminate air leakage problems associated with the older pneumatic doors. The operations data for each train door will be logged and stored for the maintenance crew to pre-empt door faults before they occur.
Rail engineers and technical staff will be posted to the overseas factories where the trains are being built, to monitor the entire assembly process and participate in train testing.
"This also helps our officers gain valuable experience and enhance their technical understanding of the trains,'' Mr Khaw explained.
The minister, who was roped in to help improve Singapore's rail reliability, noted that when external factors such as passenger action are excluded, almost half of the major disruptions on the NSEWL were due to train issues, with other factors such as track or power faults causing the rest.
"As with all machines, as trains age, we must work harder to keep them in good condition. Like those in London and New York, trains can last us twenty years or longer, if they are maintained properly and refurbished at the right time,'' he said.
"Eventually, we must decide when to replace them with new trains. Fortunately, with time, better train models with enhanced reliability features have become available in the market. These trains are also easier to operate and maintain. Adding them to our fleet can therefore make a difference to the overall performance of the rail network and in turn, better our service delivery.''


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You have to feel really sorry for people in London. There they were, depressed and hungover, out of the World Cup, home to what's quite possibly the world's most dysfunctional government, heading out of the EU despite voting heavily to remain and without even the prospect of an independence referendum to offer a modicum of hope. You wouldn't think that it could possibly get any worse, and then the very next day Donald Trump comes to visit.
Football didn't come home, but Donald Trump did, and incredibly the British government managed to find someone who hadn't resigned to go and greet him. It was Liam Fox who turned up to greet the Giant Orange Baby Balloon when it came down to earth at Stansted airport, which is a bit like Dracula's coffin arriving in Whitby and being greeted by Nick Cotton from Eastenders wearing a set of plastic fangs. Or to give him his proper title, the Disgraced Former Defence Secretary Dr Nick Cotton. Still, it was quite appropriate that the British Government met the world's leading serial fantasist with a serial fantasist of its own.
The US Embassy has issued some ridiculous scaremongering advice to American citizens to hide away for the duration. As someone who's planning to marry a US citizen, and who is also planning to attend the anti-Trump demonstrations in Glasgow and Edinburgh tomorrow and Saturday, I know the difference between Americans in general and Donald Trump in particular. So does everyone else in Scotland. The Americans that I meet, and I meet a lot of them, can't wait to tell me just how much they despise their president and are immensely relieved to discover that Scotland hated Donald Trump before it was fashionable. Americans have nothing to fear in Scotland. This country welcomes everyone to our country who isn't a cheeto coloured bigot who separates children from their parents in order to score some cheap political points.
Some have questioned the point of protesting against Trump, because it's not like seeing a protest in Glasgow, Edinburgh, or anywhere else is likely to make him change his mind. However changing Trump's mind is not what these protests are about. Everyone attending knows that they have as much chance of changing Trump's mind about his misogyny, his racism, his undermining of democracy, as they do of changing Theresa May's mind by calling her a robot. The reason for protesting against Trump's visit is because if you don't protest, if you're not vocal about your feelings, then those in power take your silence as consent. Silence is complicity.
Trump's mind might not be capable of being changed, changing your mind means having the capacity to distinguish between fact and fiction and as far as Trump is concerned the truth is whatever was the most recent thing to come out of his lying mouth. However Trump's feelings are quite certainly capable of being hurt. This is, after all, a man who for almost 30 years has nursed a grudge against US journalist Graydon Carter because Carter wrote in an article in Spy magazine that Trump had tiny hands. All these years later, and Trump still keeps giving that notion a much smaller than average thumbs down.
When dealing with a narcissist like Trump, it's impossible to engage with him using logic and reason because he is not motivated by logic or reason. The only thing that motivates Trump is his own extremely bigly and extremely thin skinned ego. He said just before arriving in the UK that he thinks that people in Britain like him. Trump has said in several previous interviews that he loves Scotland, the country where his mother was born. That's all the more reason to show him that Scotland doesn't love him back. Scotland rejects his politics of hatred.
Trump has also said he was "fine" with the protests against him. That's fine as in, "OK I'm fine. OK! Look I said I'm fine! Can you not just drop it! I'm fine. OK? I don't even care. Don't even care. I'm fine. Why are you still going on about this I said I am fine. Right? OK. Fine. Totally fine."
There are those who say that it's hypocritical to protest against Trump, but not to show the same degree of anger against the likes of Erdogan of Turkey or other human rights violators who visit the UK. And to be fair there are a lot of human rights violators who are invited to the UK by the British Government. The British Government's idea of international diplomacy is to calculate how many weapons it can sell, and it's not too fussed about those weapons being used against innocent people. However the difference is that Erdogan or some random Middle Eastern dictator doesn't strut the world stage posing as the "leader of the Free World". The reason that there are more protests against Trump is that higher standards are expected of a democracy, and higher standards are expected of the world's most powerful democracy. If you claim to be the leader of the Free World then the Free World is going to hold you to account, because in the Free World leaders are accountable or the term Free World has no meaning at all.
We protest against Trump precisely because the USA is the world's most powerful democracy. If president of the USA trashes democratic values and undermines the social and political order in other democracies, as Trump does, then that poses a direct and immediate danger to the those of us in Scotland, the rest of the UK, and the rest of Europe that the likes of Erdogan doesn't pose. Protesting against Trump isn't virtue signalling, it's self-interest. It's self-defence.
Protesting against Trump's visit is also a protest against a British government which is spitting in the face of the UK's European partners in order to prostitute the UK to a racist buffoon who cages children and separates toddlers from their parents. We protest against Trump because we have a British government which likewise demonises migrants and separates families due to racist and unjust immigration laws. We protest against Trump because the British Government, because Liam Fox who met Trump at the airport, are taking the UK out of the EU in order to transform the UK into a cut-rate version of Trump's America. We protest against Trump because we don't want Trump's America here.
Protests are taking place across Scotland. The largest will be tomorrow in George Square in Glasgow from 5pm, and outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh at noon on Saturday, with a march to the Meadows. Scotland is divided on many things. We're divided on the constitutional question, divided on the political parties we support, the fitba teams we cheer for, but let's show that we are united in our condemnation of the vile politics of Donald Trump.
You wanted t-shirts, you've got t-shirts. For the best part of the past two years I've had readers of this blog asking me for Wee Ginger t-shirts and now, finally, I've got some organised. The long awaited Wee Ginger t-shirts are now on sale. Only they're not ginger, they're white, but you get the drift. On the centre front each has the logo pictured above, designed by the very talented Chris Cairns and tarted up a wee bit by the equally talented Greg Moodie, who was never averse to a spot of tarting.
The t-shirts are currently being manufactured in a super secret cybernat underground lair, and will be ready for posting out by the end of next week, but you can order yours now to avoid the rush. Cos I have a wedding to pay for. Not that I'm attempting emotional blackmail or anything, but you know, if it helps.
Badges with the same logo will be available soon.
T-shirts cost £12 each, P&P to Scotland, Wales, England, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man is £5 per t-shirt. P&P to other destinations will be more expensive. £8 to Europe, £10 to the rest of the world. P&P for orders of two or three t-shirts is £5 for the UK, £10 for Europe, £12 the rest of the world.
The t-shirts are available in small (to fit chest 34/36), medium (38/40), large (42/44), XL (46/48), and XXL (50/52). Please state which size you require with your order. Sizes are "to fit", the actual garment is somewhat larger.
The Gaelic map of Scotland is also available, the cost is £15 plus £7 P&P within the UK. Please note P&P outwith the UK is more expensive. P&P to Europe is £10, P&P to the rest of the world is £15. If you require multiple copies of the map, you only need pay once for P&P, up to 3 copies of the map which is the maximum that can fit in one postal tube.
Copies of my books are still available too. Contact me for details.
You can order your t-shirt, books, or map by making a Paypal payment to me. Go to Paypal.com and send your payment to the email address email@example.com. Alternatively you can use the Paypal donate button at the bottom of this page, which can also be used if you don't have a Paypal account. Just enter the appropiate amount. Please ensure you give the address to which you'd like the t-shirts or maps posted.
If you prefer not to use Paypal or have problems making a payment that way, you can also purchase a t-shirt by cheque or by bank transfer. Please contact me at email@example.com for details.
Wee Ginger Donations & Speaking engagements
You can help to support this blog with a Paypal donation. Please log into Paypal.com and send a payment to the email address firstname.lastname@example.com. Or alternatively click the donate button. If you don't have a Paypal account, just select "donate with card" after clicking the button.
If you have trouble using the button, or you prefer not to use Paypal, you can donate or purchase a t-shirt or map by making a payment directly into my bank account, or by sending a cheque or postal order. If you'd like to donate by one of these methods, please email me at firstname.lastname@example.com and I will send the necessary information. Please also use this email address if you would like the dug and me to come along to your local group for a talk.
Many thanks.


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Archive for November 2018
19 Nov
Cancelled! YPS Get-together on 21st November
The YPS get-together on Wednesday 21st November is cancelled as the Star Inn is closed due to a fire. Next event details to be posted shortly in mid January 2019 at 2.30pm.
7 Nov
YorNight 2018: Saturday 17th November
Prepare for a journey of discovery as we explore the fascinating world of research at York Researchers' Night (YorNight) 2018. Through talks and fun activities for all ages, find out about the diverse research being carried out in our city, …


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Terry Cloth
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Acronyms, Wikipedia.
terry cloth[′ter·ē 'klȯth]
An extremely absorbent woven or knitted cotton fabric, covered with loops on one or both sides.
Terry Cloth
(also called Turkish toweling), a linen or cotton fabric with loop pile (made from the warp thread) on one or both sides. In contrast to the pile of napped fabrics, which is formed under tension, the pile of terry cloth results from the free feeding of a somewhat slack warp. The pile is less uniform and sturdy than that of napped fabrics and lies closer to the surface of the fabric. In addition, terry cloth is usually less dense than napped fabrics. Because of its softness and ability to absorb quickly large quantities of moisture, the fabric is used to make hand towels, bath towels, robes, throw rugs, and similar articles.


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Decorate Toowoomba to help prevent suicide
EACH year more than 3000 Australians take their own lives, pushing the rate of suicide to a 10-year high.
It is a worrying statistic that Robyn Vahua hopes to reduce.
She will host a Chalk it up for Suicide event in Queens Park, near Margaret St on August 31, from 9am.
"The aim is to draw pictures, leave messages of hope and your own personal experience around mental health in chalk on the pavement," Ms Vahua said.
"The goal is to spread that this extremely high number is not okay in our society.
"We will do it on the pathways that run through the park, so it will be safe for children."
Chalk it up events have grown in popularity in recent years as families look for a vibrant way to celebrate lives cut short.
They are also a great way to address mental health.
"The messages are to create honest conversations among each other and talk about mental health issues," Ms Vahua said.
"Let's stop people suffering in silence and let them know we are here for them."
Bring the kids along, draw beautiful pictures and teach them it is okay to ask for help.
Chalk will be provided.
If this story has affected you and you need to speak to someone phone;
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Emergency Services: 000
Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800
Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636


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Jon Boley
Vice Chair:
Kerry J Haps
Ross Penniman
Brandon Cudequest
Mike Bentz
Robert Cochran
Giles Davis
Charles King
Dan Mapes-Riordan
Mary Mazurek
Kenneth Platz
Teri Grossheim
If you are not a member of an AES Section yet, you can choose this section while joining the AES today!
April 9, 2019 - Joint Meeting w/ ASA: "The Violin and its Discontents: Common Structural and Tonal Problems in Orchestral String Instruments and their Remedy"
March 6, 2019 - The Acoustics of Wentz Concert Hall
February 5, 2019 - A Houses of Worship Case Study: Soul City
November 28, 2018 - Electrostatic Drivers for Earphones: Navigating the Potholes
September 12, 2018 - Can a do-it-yourself hearing aid be a good thing?
March 28, 2018 - Auralization as a Design Tool
January 31, 2018 - Structural Acoustics: A Technical Review
October 12, 2017 - Perception and Measurement of Headphone Sound Quality: Is There a Preferred Headphone Target Response?
September 20, 2017 - Tour of Kiwi Audio (Recording Studio)
May 31, 2017 - On the Use of Signal Modeling for the Purpose of Study and Design of Multi-Microphone Systems


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Legacy gift enables older people's peer-research project at Toynbee Hall
"I find this project to be very powerful. It makes me very empowered; it makes me feel very listened to"
A gift given in the will of a long-term supporter of Toynbee Hall's older people's centre has helped enable an innovative peer-research project in our community.
All those involved in Toynbee Hall's first ever Participatory Action Research (PAR) project are deeply indebted to Mrs Patricia Singleton, who left a gift of £700,000 towards the Wellbeing Centre in her will. Mrs Singleton had generously supported the service over a number of years as a devoted volunteer and regular donor.
A portion of Mrs Singleton's gift helped enable the PAR project in 2017/18, which involved a number of users of the Wellbeing Centre as well as other older people living in Tower Hamlets.
Having regularly volunteered at the Centre since the 1980s, she was close friends with many of our older people and well-known for running the popular bingo sessions there.
Through remembering the Centre and the people who use it in her will, Mrs Singleton helped enable 20 older people to lead this radical research and social action project – providing them with an opportunity to identify pressing needs in their community and offer solutions to address them.
"Although you feel you know people, you don't really until you ask them specific questions. This project was quite a personal insight into people's lives – they were very good to share it with me" (peer-researcher)
The project involved interviews conducted peer-to-peer in 21 community spaces across the borough – from local markets to libraries, GP practices, churches and mosques – with people aged between 50 and 96. The peer-researchers then produced a report outlining some of their recommendations to the local authority and voluntary sector on how these can best be met.
The legacy of the project – as well as Mrs Singleton's generosity in enabling it – will be long-lasting: Toynbee Hall is currently designing older people's projects that respond directly to the PAR researchers' recommendations, as well as integrating their findings as we build on our existing older people's services in 2019.
The legacy payment provided us with the necessary flexibility to innovate without restrictions and build a new community engagement model which has been met with excitement by our partners and the wider sector. This work has also paved the way for two new pieces of PAR work creating solutions to youth homelessness and improving safety on social housing estates.
Mrs Singleton's gift will also help sustain the vital services offered by the Wellbeing Centre in years to come. We are delighted to show our deep gratitude and respect for this significant contribution by acknowledging her in the new Wellbeing Centre at 28 Commercial Street, which is due to open in summer 2019.
In the coming months we will be featuring other individuals who have generously donated a portion of their estate to Toynbee Hall, including John Clark, who left us £25,000 having spent 25 years volunteering at our Free Legal Advice Centre, and John Osborne, who donated to Toynbee Hall for over 30 years before leaving 2% of his estate to us.
We want to say a sincere and personal thank you to everyone who has left or is considering leaving Toynbee Hall a gift in their will. These gifts give us the means to support people in crisis and tackle the causes of poverty. Gifts in wills make a significant contribution to our vision for a future without poverty.
One day, your gift could provide older people with hot lunches and an opportunity to make friends in their community, equip young people with essential communication skills and self-confidence, or give families access to vital free legal and financial advice.
A gift of just 1% of your estate (residuary gift) could have the biggest impact on an individual's life – supporting them when they are in crisis, and empowering them to build a brighter future.
You can read more about leaving us a gift in your will here.


text: St John WA is ever-changing to better serve humanity and we couldn't do it without our committed staff and volunteers. We have been servicing and operating as an integral part of the Western Australian community for more than 125 years. St John WA offers comprehensive first aid training courses and ambulance and health services. We also stock and provide first aid kits and supplies including defibrillators, oxygen therapy and signage. The St John WA website is filled with extensive online resources on first aid and emergency help. To book a first aid course or to find out more visit our website today.


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|Ron Kalina
|Judy Wolman and Ron Kalina
|Larry Holloway, Ron Kalina, Gino Antonacia and Frank DiSalvo
|Ken Steele, Ron Kalina and Gino Antonacia. Does anyone know those three guys in the background?
|Larry Holloway, Carole Hampton Ron Kalina and Gino Antonacia
|Rose Kingsley, Judy Wolman and Gino Antonacia
I love the sound of great songs being played on the Harmonica and Ron only choices the best of the best classic American standards to play. Tonight, Ron asked Judy Wolman who was in the audience to come up and play keyboard for Ron while he played "My Funny Valentine"on Harmonica. Together they made wonderful music for all of us. This classic played by every great musician from the beginning of time never sounded better!
Part of the fun of live Jazz in the Desert is no matter where you go, you are sure to be surprised by someone in the audience stepping up to the mike to sit in with the band. Tonight was no exception as the Desert favorite Ken Steele was called up by Ron to sing a couple of songs. Ken has a wonderfully soft and glorious voice and a smooth style that always leaves the listener wanting to hear more. Right after Ken performed, another Desert favorite, Carole Hampton stepped up to sing a couple of her signature songs to the great delight of the audience. Carole has been under the weather for a while but it is clear from her performance tonight that she is back in her groove again! At the end of the evening, Rose Kingsley stepped up to the mike and sang for us. I just met Rose this evening and was so glad I got to hear her sing. Rose is the Artistic Director/Founder of the International Opera Institute. I look forward to hearing Rose sing some classical songs from Operas in the near future.
Quite a display of talent in Frank's Place tonight but the icing on the cake was when the "Captain" of Frank's Place, Frank DiSalvo joined the group playing guitar and then singing a couple of songs with Ron's trio. Not everyone knows it, but Frank is largely responsible for getting the live music explosion started at the Indian Wells Resort Hotel. Frank, I would like to personally thank you on behalf of all of the great musicians here in the Valley for working selflessly to provide more venues for live jazz here in the Desert!
Ron Kalina's Trio appears every Tuesday from 6:00 to 9:00 at Frank's Place. Be sure to catch this wonderful musical experience and call Manny at 760-340-6466 ext. 7584 for reservations.


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The Making of a List
There is nothing less adventurous than making a list; however, I am a list maker. It's in my blood. So much so that if ever one needed to receive a blood donation from me, they would become a list maker. I'm not incapable of being spontaneous, but I take my goals very seriously.
Every January, my New Year's Resolutions get posted on our refrigerator. This list always has three main categories: books to read, pages to write, and pounds to lose. I have very simple priorities: words and looking good naked (although I find the latter to be much more difficult). Since 2010, I have kicked this list's ass every year. Books are flying off the shelves. I'm almost done with my second novel. And over sixty pounds have been kissed goobye. Clearly I am not challenging myself enough, and boredom, that ever-present enemy, is threatening to poke me again.
And I hate being poked.
It's time for a new list. An adventure list. A list of all the things I want to learn, accomplish, see, create, build, and experience. Technically, this would be an infinite list, but I'll try to narrow it down to 35 things or so…just to start. Feel free to contribute any suggestions.
1. Start a fire without matches
2. Go camping in Yellowstone
3. Learn how to clean a fish (my grandpa always told me girls weren't supposed to clean fish. Harumph.)
4. Find out what paprikash is and make it with an appropriate amount of pepper. Serve with pecan pie.
5. Learn to lasso
6. Make my own long bow
7. Try polar diving
8. Retry scuba diving
9. Make a canoe
10. Wood carving
11. Build a treehouse
12. Learn how to throw a knife and/or axe with a smidgen of accuracy
13. Do a pull up
14. Walk across Michigan
15. Walk from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean
16. Become a zombie
17. Go horseback riding
18. Cut my own hair
19. Build a magnificent sandcastle
20. Speak Spanish
21. And French
22. Paint
23. Ski without a yard sale
24. Visit every continent
25. Run a half marathon
26. Go rock climbing
27. Ride the Trans Siberian Railroad
28. Change careers
29. Oktoberfest
30. Hike the Scottish Highlands
31. Visit the Vikingskipshuset in Oslo
32. Draw a comic book
33. Play an instrument
34. Shoot a gun
35. Swim with whale sharks
I'll have a lot of adventures that aren't on this list. Unfortunately, some of the adventures that ARE on the list require large sums of money and will, therefore, have to be put off until such somes of money (and time) are acquired.
Adventure 15, walking from ocean to ocean, is the most important to me as well as the most difficult to achieve. Finding several months of free time and no income will be tricky. I might not get around to this one for a decade or longer, but I think I will…one day. John already promised to go with me.
Some of these goals are already in progress, and I will write about them as they come around.
We'll just see how it goes.


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Boots Corner closed for 6 Months and the consequences for Cheltenham appear very much 'out of sight, out of mind'
Yes, that's right. The Boots Corner debacle, the traffic problems It has created for everyone beyond the Planners masterpiece and the now ghost-like roads just a stones throw from the Town Centre have been an evolving problem facing local People and Businesses for 6 Months.
The glad-handing and self-congratulation that we see pouring out in response to every legitimate concern that is tabled, wouldn't be a problem for anyone outside the Council and the 'project' itself, if it weren't absolutely clear to everyone else that the passage of time and every new thing being added is making the problems worse and worse.
Be in no doubt, the quantitative data that will be used to legitimise this train wreck of a Town Traffic Plan will inevitably support everything that Officers and Councillors say.
What it won't do is consider any of the qualitative or experiential impacts which are the real consequence for local People, Businesses and frequent visitors or commuters to the Town. Simply because that was never what this vanity project was about.
Out in the real world, Cheltenham's many passionate Small Business Owners know what does and doesn't work in the Town Centre. They've done the trial and error already, many times over and know intrinsically how footfall and the number of customers who enter through their doors is directly affected and proportional to the cars and traffic that travel past and have direct access and line-of-sight knowledge of who they are and what they are offering to customers.
They possessed this knowledge long before the Boots Corner project got underway and have since increased their level of knowledge and understanding in a very practical way. Information which the arrogance and 'we know best' attitude of the controlling Councillors and the Planners both before and since the Scheme was launched has been overlooked.
The only figures and data which now matters to the Council are the number of feet on the High Street. And the answer to the question which should automatically follow this reality simply raises many more questions and a justifiably significant level of concern about what the priorities of Cheltenham's District Authority now are as opposed to what they should actually be.
Take a walk in the streets behind boots, M&S and John Lewis and only the most unaware of people could walk away from the experience without recognising the physical and atmospheric change to what is still a part of Cheltenham Town Centre.
Whilst the confusing mish-mash of changes to what used to be a straightforward and accessible road system may seem much safer to some faceless bureaucrat in an office somewhere, the strange silence of these roads doesn't foretell a beneficial change taking place for any of the businesses that cannot afford the significant rents and mortgages of the revamped High Street, forcing them to go beyond.
No, it tells us that the priority in Cheltenham is only big retail business, and that the lifeblood of the town which will always be it's plethora of Small Businesses is being condemned by both the actions and words of both elected and appointed Public Representatives.
Unpalatable as it may be to idealistic Councillors and influential Officers who have been culturally conditioned to believe that they have no other way to respond, people notice and remember the places that they want to go when they are travelling through the Town in their cars.
Yes we may have a wider, cultural problem with the dependency upon four wheels that there is.
But there is nothing practical in trying to pretend there are not natural laws at work and that human behaviour itself dictates that the lack of foresight and absence of intuitive consideration of what these changes to the Town Centre have already and are set to do, confirms that this Council will only ever deliver on its own ideas, whilst paying scant regard to the consequences of its actions upon others. Namely the very people it exists for and is there to serve.
What is effectively the closure of what used to be the inner ring road is an avoidable blight on a large swathe of Cheltenham Town Centre which will mean existing businesses will fail, new ones will never get the footfall that they need to keep going, and instead of being a destination of business opportunity for the many, this idealistic approach to managing a Town Centre will instead only really be of benefit yet again to the deep pocketed few.
For the people who know and love Cheltenham for the great Town that it already is and has been for a considerably long time, John Lewis and The Brewery are great enhancements for the Town to have. But they should never be interpreted by anybody as being all that Cheltenham is now about.
Changing this Council may be the only way that Cheltenham can now overturn this injustice, as political action is the only way that self-serving Councillors are likely to be pushed to respond to any thoughts, feelings or ideas other than their own.
Cheltenham & Boots Corner: When things don't add up, questions need to be asked
With the Boots corner closure remaining firmly in local minds, the Council attempts to write the concern off as nothing more than the views of a 'vociferous minority'.
Regrettably, this is how Local Government glosses over disquiet in the UK today and hitting the spot when it comes to overturning undemocratic decisions is a very hard thing to do, as the whole culture has evolved to protect itself.
In reality, even elected Councillors that do have their local communities and constituents at the heart of what they do, can find it an almost impossible task to get the right questions answered, as the system is geared to allow the close-down of unwelcome debate.
That said, persistence is the greatest ally in achieving worthy aims in Government, and if you keep asking questions, and then the questions which then follow any answers that you might get, the right result is far from being impossible – even if it doesn't arrive within a timescale that you might find comfortable or like.
If I were representing people in Cheltenham right now, there are a number of questions that I would immediately ask. I would anticipate having many more, depending upon the answers I received or found. They would be as follows:-
Why has Boots Corner been closed?
Whilst it sounds like the answer should be obvious, it isn't. BUT it is in the interests of the Council and/or whoever benefits from the closure for members of the Public to think that it is. Be sure not to fall into the trap of reading or listening to opinion, such as the article in last Sunday's Observer, which framed the whole issue as being about pollution. That is just a useful excuse that takes the debate in a very different direction and is designed to make the real issues subservient to those that are in vogue.
Who or what is the driving force behind the change?
Is it the whole Council? Is it one of the Political Groups? Is it Officers? Were there Consultants involved? If there were Consultants involved, who paid the bill and what was the Brief?
What is their reasoning and motivation for the change?
Why now? What do the changes to Boots Corner really achieve? Is the reasoning given the full story, or is there more that we should know?
Who are the real beneficiaries?
Who stands to benefit from the changes at Boots Corner? What will those benefits be? What evidence was used to suggest that these results would be achieved? What modeling was used? What real-life examples were used and how do they relate to the very idiosyncratic nature of Cheltenham's Road Plan?
What else is happening which is related?
There's no such thing as coincidence. What else is happening on the same timeline as the changes to Boots Corner? What bigger Strategy is at work?
How did the Council reach the conclusion that the change was necessary?
What was the process within the Council that led to the decision to make the changes at Boots Corner? What is the chronology and timeline of the events that led to it? Who was involved in the process? What influence did each of the Parties involved have?
What evidence or tests being met will confirm the change as permanent?
The changes have been portrayed as being temporary or as a trial. What evidence will be used to decide if the changes at Boots Corner should become permanent? How have those levels been defined? Who has defined them? Who will write up the final Report, Conclusions and table the Proposal for the Council to decide?
What has been used as the basis of those tests?
Where did the ideas or methods come from which have been used to define these tests?
What has changed?
What has changed since the last time the Council and/or other Local Authorities considered closing Boots Corner and decided not to?
What is the long term Strategy?
Is the closure of Boots Corner part of a much bigger plan? Does the Council intend to pedestrianise the whole of the High Street and Centre of Cheltenham? Is there something on the horizon that isn't Publicly known?
What consultation with the Public has taken place?
Did a Public Consultation take place? If so, how was it carried out? What questions were asked? Who took part? How many people took part? What were their responses? What questions were raised? How were those questions answered?
What consultation with local businesses has taken place?
Did a Consultation with businesses take part? If so, how was it carried out? What questions were asked? Who took part? How many businesses took part? What were their responses? What questions were raised? How were these questions answered?
What consultation with Developers and Landlords has taken place?
Were Developers and Landlords consulted? What role did they play? What influence did hey have?
What influence has the arrival of the John Lewis store had on Boots Corner and other changes to the Town Centre Traffic system?
Has the arrival of the John Lewis store and its opening this Autumn had any influence on the Council's decision making? If so, how?
Who designed the current plan?
Who designed the revised traffic and/or road plan to facilitate the Boots Corner closure? What modeling did they use? Why was that modeling considered appropriate as the basis for the changes?
What work was undertaken on traffic displacement modeling?
What work was undertaken on traffic displacement modeling? (Literally, what were the recognisable alternatives for drivers?) Where are the plans and figures showing where the traffic would go when Boots Corner was closed? How do the Council know what alternatives people who used to drive through Boots Corner to access the North of the Town Centre and beyond would use?
What steps were taken in response to the traffic displacement modeling before Boots Corner was closed on 28th June 2018?
What steps were taken to address the impact of the traffic re-routing which was going to take place after the Boots Corner closure BEFORE it actually took place in late June?
All of this information should be available in the Public Realm, but it is far from an exhaustive list of questions, and I am sure that many more would arise as you go along.
The primary sources of information should be the Minutes of the Meetings of the Full Council and also any of the Council's Committees which have been working on or 'overseeing' the Boots Corner changes.
This is where all of the decision making, the reasoning and the evidence that supported it should be open to Public view.
If not, Freedom of Information Requests (FOI) should enable access to anything else that isn't disclosed because it has taken place outside of Public Meetings.
Please Remember: The Boots Corner Closure is a matter of everyday Public concern. As such, legitimate questions should always be answered when asked or presented appropriately. If the Council and any party involved has been fair, balanced and done everything properly to ensure that the best interests of local people, businesses and anyone it has a duty of care to are served, they will have nothing to hide and everyone working on their behalf will be as open and helpful as they can be. They certainly wouldn't need to rely on or have reason to resort to ridicule or any other form of personal attack as part of their response – whatever the medium.
Cheltenham BC and Boots Corner: Like local government across the UK, officers and councillors aren't listening to the real boss, and change is well overdue
I've been out of local government for nearly three and a half years. But I have continued to watch the continuing chain of messes being created within our Gloucestershire Boroughs and Districts. Usually because someone or a very few people with power and with influence have personal ownership of and therefore investment in some 'great' idea. Ideas which are nearly always in some way about them, their career, their legacy or future. Wholly impractical ideas which are then misrepresented as being beneficial to the people they are actually responsible to. The people that they all represent.
There is some rich irony in the fact that lessons are never learned by these same people who have responsibilities not only to themselves, their jobs or their Political Parties.
Lessons are there to be taught through everything these public organisations do. They may appear to arrive in different form, but the same mistakes are being made time after time, over and over again.
Planning, for all the questions which surround it's often arbitrary processes, has regrettably become the most day-to-day example of all that's wrong in local government.
The Local Planning Process continually demonstrates all that is wrong with the wider system itself. But the problem is only in small part due to laws and regulations, and actually more about the people who manage and implement government processes, their ideas, motives and yes, the ties that bind them to their 'interpretations' within the protectionist culture and environment in which they work.
Watching the Boots Corner fiasco unfold over recent months has been like reading a text-book example of what happens when Planners and their Political Masters get things wrong. What people experience when Councils come up with a 'great idea' to improve things, but overlook the most important consideration in the room: What the impact and consequences will be for the people and businesses whose interests they are actually paid and elected to look after.
It doesn't take many conversations with local business people, residents, employees and regular visitors from local feeder Towns to know that these changes at Boots Corner are idealistic at best, but practically awful.
The changes are having an impact not only on the Centre of Cheltenham itself, but are loading traffic onto the already congested main roads around the Town at rush hour, and now jamming back streets and almost certainly creating rat-runs unseen at every opportunity in between.
The change at Boots Corner is unnecessary. It's not improving the Town Centre and nobody apart from the Planners and whoever on the Council they have convinced of the validity of this Scheme really has any idea what the real benefit of these changes are to anyone using Cheltenham Town Centre.
And that's right now. Just wait until the long-awaited John Lewis Store opens its doors and visitor numbers really do burst through the lid.
Now don't let anyone tell you that the Council is not aware of how people feel. If you follow local news, you cannot miss the disquiet that the changes in late June have raised. This is not Nimby-ism. It's real people voicing genuine concern over the impact of poor decision making which is now having meaningful impact on their everyday lives.
The travesty is that instead of listening, and for fear of admitting being 'wrong', the Council is doubling down and now adding oversized flowerpots, cycle racks, benches, a lot of unhelpful white lines and yes, some artificial grass sat on the lump in between.
And there's unlikely to be any mistake about the drawn-out nature of the timing of additions either.
Why? Well it's all to give a repetitive sense to us all that this change is permanent. That when they tell us all that the trial was a success, that with hindsight it will feel like its permanence was always inevitable. That there was no option or reason to change their minds at any point in between.
But this simply isn't true. And any tales you are told about decisions taking a long time to reverse in Council, or that a trial period must be seen through to its end to be valid are disingenuous at best.
There is no inevitability of confirmation for these changes at Boots Corner or indeed permanence of this change. It simply hinges on what the Officers and therefore the Councillors ultimately decide and however they choose to harvest and then interpret their 'data'.
The fact is the Council could reinstate the pre-June road system within a few days if they really had doing what's right for Cheltenham, in mind.
However, it is only fair that no Officer or Councillor be singled out and in some way blamed for what is happening in the Centre of Cheltenham right now.
The whole Government system is rotten with a protectionist and self-serving culture, only made worse by the quasi-bankrupt state of the Government and Public Sector, with austerity being a big part of the problem, but a significant way from being the cause.
But this in itself doesn't mean that Cheltenham and indeed any of our Local Authorities cannot choose to be different.
The Council has the choice to be big about it. To listen. To gain respect from local people and businesses for trying something new but recognising it doesn't work, for listening AND HEARING what is being said and quickly responding. To be adaptable to changing things that aren't right and not get hung up at a personal level about what appearing to take a step back might look like.
Decisions are being made big and small within local authorities up and down the Country which have very little to do with with the people. And in case anyone isn't sure, that's the boss that Officers and Politicians ALL ultimately work for.
Locally the latest one is Boots Corner. In terms of direction, this one is definitely going the wrong way, and poor decisions which are having a real impact on daily life in Cheltenham are not the kind of change in local government that we all so badly need.
How about surprising us all and doing what's actually right, rather telling us that's what you are doing?
You can read some more of Adam's writing about the realities of Local Government and the wider Public Sector here and here.
Trashing distasteful parts of history puts us at risk of repeating the same mistakes in the future, which only the same level of hypocrisy would allow us to then deny
The debate over Virgin removing copies of the Daily Mail from sale on its Trains in the past week highlighted the worrying trend for people to attempt to remove anything from their sphere of influence which they find in some way unpalatable – doing so without any level of regard for the real cost or consequences of doing so.
Whilst this vogue appears new to many, it has been within our awareness for a good period of time. It hinges on blame culture and the overindulgence of the personal slight. It takes the self-righteous influence of the myopic ever nearer the creation and manifestation of a very twisted and unrealistic worldview.
One of the reasons why it is so unrealistic is because it is built upon the foundation of idealism; that of denying that which cannot be denied.
Even in politics now, we have reached a point where apparently well-educated people with significant responsibility placed upon them by many others, believe and apply the fallacious principle that "if I say it is so, then it will actually be so".
An eye on the future is however one thing, but looking back turns the same coin on to its other side.
History is planned, created and experienced in the present moment by us all. Yet it is an infinite chain of perspectives or opinions, based upon what are almost always a very small number of facts – some of which even the very people who were present and involved may not themselves have actually known.
That we live in a world where opinion has a level of power which just tolerates the occasional fact should really be far more alarming to us all that it really has become.
That individuals have the power to blight the lives of others, simply because they hold a conflicting view, should be something that concerns everyone.
That others are now trying to rewrite history and remove our heritage is a risk and threat to the future of us all and once completed may never be undone.
Culturally, we indulge the notion that only bad news sells, in almost everything we do – almost to the point where is becomes only the bad news about anything itself that we remember, overlooking many more good-news-stories that are available to us as we do.
The most dangerous of steps now being taken – usually by people who believe that they have been in some way slighted by the actions of people that not one of us has or will ever know – is to apply this approach to history, focusing only upon the bad parts of his story, so that the good which may have come will automatically be overlooked and quietly denied.
The politically correct form of censorship manifesting itself through the attempted removal of historic names from buildings and even trusts, like those of Rhodes in Oxford and Colston in Bristol may look like the delivery of justice to the shallow depths of the egocentric. But in terms of what this action overlooks, it is to all of us as a culture and society – in no way any such thing.
Nobody can realistically refute the pain and suffering that colonialism and slavery visited upon many millions of innocent and powerless people over tens and hundreds of years.
Yet the industry and commerce that both were part of also brought prosperity, wealth and yes – learning to all corners of the globe.
It supercharged the path towards a more enlightened and civilised way of being which itself allows the same individuals the freedom and platform to influence the world around them – for better or worse today.
There is no escaping the dark parts of this Country's historic chapters. But there are also many beneficial lessons to learn by looking them in the eye – not least of all for the purpose of ensuring that we have enough awareness of what can happen when the conditions for oppression and exploitation are right.
The irony of the drive to trash these parts of history, is that they are being repeated all around us in many ways, albeit wrapped differently today. They may not look the same, but they have very much the same effect emotionally on the oppressed within the quiet of their own minds.
Indeed it is a great shame that the energy and passion focused on the drive for political correctness is not itself redirected to help others who are alive and need real help – but in ways that this same lack of human awareness on the part of social justice warriors leaves them unable or unwittingly unable to define.
People are increasingly being enslaved and oppressed by the world around them, financially, by rights, quixotic ideas and by the bureaucratic systems that political correctness is slowly ratcheting around all of us, like a slow pull on a closing cable-tie.
To try to destroy the lessons of history, whilst overlooking live-time oppression is one of the most hideous forms of hypocrisy in action today.
Focusing on events to learn lessons and use them to help others going forward would be much better for us all than playing a disingenuous game of out of sight, out of mind.
image thanks to unknown
Building on the Greenbelt could be avoided if Politicians were prepared to tackle the causes of Housing Crisis head on. Their failure to do so may leave many of these new homes empty and not just immigrants living in modern-day slums which are currently known as 'beds in sheds'…
On a day that the reality of modern day, back-garden 'beds-in-sheds' or rather the slums springing up across the UK to house immigrants hit the pages, we also see the news that more than half of Councils plan to build on our green belt.
You may be forgiven for thinking that there is an obvious link. But the only real relationship between these two issues, neither of which should arguably have ever have become fact, is that they provide a very telling story not only about the excessive cost of housing, but also the very painful reality that members of our communities from one end to the other are being overlooked by Government Policy.
In a recent blog, I discussed the issues that sit rather uncomfortably behind the incessant drive on the part of Politicians to build more and more houses as a method of stimulating the economy and solving the UK's housing crisis, whilst actually doing anything but.
As they do so, they are overlooking the permanent damage that will be inflicted upon Towns and Villages up and down the Country, whilst failing to demonstrate either an understanding of the factors which are causing the problems for so many people, or indeed how many more issues that this form of recklessness sold to us as responsibility will cause.
My own concerns about the foolishness which is leading the development of these Policies throughout the Local Authority Network and specifically at local level – where many Councillors behaviour can most politely be described as being very similar to that of Lemmings going off a cliff, is well known.
My inbox regularly has mail which has been written by local people from right across the area that Tewkesbury Borough Council covers who are rightly and quite simply horrified by the Plans which are now well on the way to being put in place. In many cases these very Plans are being very effectively picked apart by these impassioned members of the public who have very little experience of how the Planning System actually works. Will it make any difference? Probably not.
I recognise the value in the arguments they make. Somehow things really don't add up when questions about the impact on such essential matters as future infrastructure, the merging of historically separate Towns and both fluvial AND pluvial flooding issues seem to go unanswered.
I also appreciate that I may be doing a disservice to the multitude of other very localised issues which face other communities across the Country which are just as important to the people that live there, but which I have overlooked just because I don't have first-hand knowledge of them and most respectfully have no reason to do so.
The problem is that the Policy frameworks and guidance on which all local 'Strategies' are being set have been stewarded into being by Westminster-based Politicians who should not only know and understand these things, they seem oblivious to the fact that their own knowledge and outlook is actually so limited and are just as immune to hearing or seeing the very clear messages that are out there to tell them all about it.
With Politicians drunk and dependent upon the power and retention of their own positions, and whilst they bound around oblivious to the issues that are facing everyone else, there are sadly no forms of breathalyser out there which will demonstrate just how out of control the drivers of this vehicle may be for the unknown period it will take before it crashes and causes us all some significant damage.
The one thing that is certain is that concreting over the green belt to build houses that nobody can actually be sure we will need won't solve the housing crisis on its own.
In fact, without dealing with the real issues that sit behind the housing problem and tackling them head on, many more people will find themselves unable to afford to live in them anyway and may have to face the unenviable horror of joining those who are living in what should by now have been consigned to long-term history in the form of anachronistic slums.
Image thanks to unknown source


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ForumsSega Master System / Mark III / Game Gear
Home - Forums - Games - Scans - Maps - Cheats - Credits
Music - Videos - Development - Hacks - Translations - Homebrew
(Homebrew Game) Lain vs The Castle Of EvilPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 1:55 am
Last edited by IllusionOfMana on Mon Oct 01, 2018 4:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
I've been working on a game for the SMS lately, so far its looking like a 128k rom. Not trying to do anything ambitious with the game as its to show off a homebrew 4MB SMS and GG cart designs that a friend and I have been working on lately by emulating a memory mapper with a small and cheap FPGA.
I thought Id show off some of the game here since basically this site has been open on my browser for the last 6 months while I try and figure out z80 asm.
Some thoughts, z80 asm isnt as hard as I thought though M68k asm will always be my favorite as far as Sega dev goes, but Im extremely thankful that this site exists and all the information the community has provided!
About the game now, Im actually not done with it but ill have a rom here later when it is. The game is simple, you search each of the 4 stages of the castle to find and kill all of the monsters to earn points, when you gain enough points you can exit the stage and move on. Further more, if you fight on you level up your health and sword. When you have enough points and or have powered up enough you can fight the boss to finish the game.
I'm using GSL (praying it works on real hardware, do not have an everdrive to test yet).
so far the library has helped push the project along and so has the help from a few of you guys with getting boundaries to work.
|Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 8:11 am
Wow! It's really nice looking!
It's all done in assembler then? It's pure action game? (it looks a bit RPG-ish)
|Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 8:52 am
I can run a few private tests if you need that.
|Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 1:07 pm
|Looks great :) Nice job!
|Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 4:40 pm
Thanks guys! and yes its all done in z80 asm, I did attempt to try it in C but couldnt figure out how to get it all set up. By then I had a good chunk of the game done in asm already anyways.
The game is like a super light weight adventure RPG similar to Zelda but without the puzzles or items.
I'll be releasing the ROM sometime this month and I'll probably dump the asm source too so anyone can optimize and improve on it if they want.
|Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 4:42 pm
Thanks, I want to finish a few things then I'll send you an early build probably by the end of this week.
|Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2018 10:33 pm
|This game is looking pretty awesome, so far! ;)
|Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 3:18 pm
|Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:10 pm
|This looks great! In addition to the ROM, do you think you'd make a cart release?
|Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:23 pm
|Beautiful graphics, very colorful. I'm a big fan of the 8bit Zelda games from the Gameboy & GBC. Looking forward to playing this sometime when its ready. :]
|Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:55 pm
Yes, I mentioned above this game is mainly to test an SMS cart design a friend and I are working on so there will be physical copies made.
I'll also be posting the schematic and FPGA source here in the future so others can make their own SMS carts without having to cannibalize existing ones.
Thanks! Ive always admired Zelda games and have been wanting to create something with a similar experience on a Sega platform.
|Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:26 am
Instead of making a new forum topic ill just post this here for now until its finished.
For this game and hopefully many more in the future Ive been working on a new SMS cart that can store games of up to 4MB and save files of up to 512KB* (may be 256kb will have to check with my friend later on that).
The schematics are still a work in progress but things are moving along.
|Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:37 am
There are at least two existing games to my knowledge that are Zelda-like, I believe its Golden Axe Warrior for SMS and Sylvan Tale for the Game Gear. Golden Axe Warrior is kind of forgettable but I personally love Sylvan Tale. While the core gameplay concept is similar, it still does a few things differently from what the 8bit Zelda games did, its also one of those hidden gems no one really mentions that often. I'd definitely recommend playing through that one, it may give you more inspirations/ideas for you current game project. :D
|Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 5:17 am
I'll have to look for it, always down to play the more obscure games.
My game or by the time I release it wont be nearly as great(for lack of a better word) as something like Sylvan Tale. It could probably be considered on par with original Zelda if you took out the items and simple puzzles, theres currently just combat and level exploration in the game. I didnt want to create something over ambitious since I was unfamiliar with the programming language and platform when I started on top of there being other projects on the table.
This isnt to say I wont return to the project later for a more robust sequel after playing a few more Zelda like games. Definitely after just looking at Sylvan Tale It looks like I can push much more out of the hardware than I already am.
Thanks for the recommendation though, looks like an interesting game to try out!
|Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 8:05 am
|On the homebrew cart front, we've been through it a bit before - while a few PCB layouts have appeared, they don't seem to have been published in reusable form, and a lot of people are incapable of using them so selling populated boards that are easy to flash would help (but require some investment). Then we still have no source for cartridge shells (except for 3D printing, which is very expensive) and boxes, so we still cannibalise old games...
|Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 8:18 am
standard SEGA mapper supports up to 32 KB of SRAM - but I guess you're not using SRAM here...
|Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:01 pm
We're trying to figure out the cartridge shell issue as well. Once this PCB design is done though, ill be dumping the board schematic, layout schematic, and FPGA firmware here. I did have issues trying to find a PCB design that was published in reusable form and it just seems like maybe it was time someone did and perhaps I could do that.
All of the schematics will be from Autodesk Eagle but I believe that is compatible with other similar CAD programs. I kept the layout as simple as possible so it is easy to read.
It actually is an SRAM chip. Originally since the flash chip was so large I was going to try and configure the FPGA to use one of the back end banks to as the sram bank but fought with the FPGA firmware as well as timing issues so for now battery backup sram. The chip is 256kb sram however the FPGA can only see 32kb of it.
So far currently there are no special features on the FPGAs firmware past the capabilities of SEGA MMCs. It also doesnt work with codemasters games or anything else that requires a different mapper.
|Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 9:45 pm
Small update. We've completed the designs for the sms flash cart however, now we're just waiting for the parts and pcb boards to come in so we can begin testing. Once again, as soon as I have the design locked down and am sure it works ill post the AutoCAD Eagle schematics and board files here as well as a parts list and the FPGA code for the memory mapper.
As far as game side goes, I just have enemy behavior, music, and clean up then it'll be finished and I'll dump the rom here.
Thanks everyone for your feedback and comments!
|Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 3:41 pm
We recently just got these in. Super excited to start populating and testing these carts. Like I said earlier, we plan on releasing the CAD files used so others can improve the design. We're also going to be selling populated boards on our website that we're in the midst of setting up.
|Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:43 pm
|Good idea, now only we need to make a cartridge shell to stop killing original games.
|Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:43 am
We're also working on that. Its a tough problem to find a solution to but we plan on finding the best method to handle that. We do have 3D printers but that can be time consuming and the result wont have that "magical Sega feel" to it.
|Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 8:55 am
CollectorVision Games is planning a release of their game Sydney Hunter and the Sacred Tribe for the Master System. They seem to be far behind their planned release date, but maybe it´s worth it to contact them for shells.
|Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 10:56 am
|We at 1985Alternativo have the project (and the company) to do the master system shells, but we're waiting to have money to go ahead with it :_)
SMS Shell Kickstarter?Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 4:21 pm
|Would it be a worthwhile effort to launch a Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaign to fund the infrastructure to manufacture new shells, with a stretch goal or tiered investment that would award new games to investors?
|Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 5:54 pm
We've been debating that ourselves. We want to sell full Sega Master System, Game Gear, and Sega MegaDrive/Genesis kits and separate parts when we finally get our site set up. However we've only found a Game Gear and MegaDrive/Genesis shell manufacturer, I havnt even made the Game Gear Flash Carts yet.
We may be willing to give some kickstarter funds if you can tell us who to email to talk more about it. I can pass that info onto my friend since he handles assembly and sales. All I do is program games and make the PCBs.
|Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 8:15 am
|We can talk, although we're not quite into kickstarter campaings, as we did couple of campaigns (for Nes mojon twin games), they're very succesful, but we had lots of problems with a lot of angry customers because of delays, etc.
|Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 10:20 am
|Be careful of using Kickstarter. It can work out, but it can also ruin you. Try to talk to other people first who used Kickstarter before and take some advices. I´m not a programmer, but I wouldn´t start a Kickstarter campaign until the software is completed (for all versions).
|Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 1:57 pm
We decided not to do a kickstarter for our flash carts. The game has always been just a demo of the flash cart working and isn't big enough for a kickstarter itself. We are looking for cart shell manufacturers that we may fund to start development on sms cart shells.
New ShellsPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 10:09 am
When I start to make shells for Master System I only feel confortable with new design and colors. I decide to put leds to be a newest version. In my opinion new PCB need a new Shells with new taste. If you don´t feel confortable with the standard master system shells printed in 3D, no problem, upgrade it your way. Here it is what I make
|Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 3:05 pm
Were 3D printing a few test shells of our own in blue but in the end I think were going to try and make a mold of an original SMS shell and try and cast our own. Obviously in a range of colors we can sell on our store once we get all of that set up. As for LEDs I dont like to strain the system with unnecessary bits to power even if its within a safe margin, IDK how much that changes with the FPGA and other extra chips we have on our carts.
|Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 3:06 pm
That's developping fast..for sure...
The concept of the game is good.. the colors are great... the mechanics are good..
On the hardware front, you guys are throwing everything... new pcb',s, new shells... planning on making games, sell parts...
continue the great job !
|Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 3:11 pm
Thanks! Its all about the carts! We want to bring the SMS homebrew community an easy less destructive way of putting their games on carts as well as giving them an option for a cheap one game flash cart. The game I'm developing for it is more or less testing that cart concept so others know it'll work with most everything not just official games. However it cant do codemasters games, but I'm working hard on the FPGA firmware to add multi MMC support instead of just official Sega MMC support.
|Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 6:46 pm
|I like standard cartridge shells, no leds or differents sizes and forms
|Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 8:28 pm
Codemasters do it in the past, I tried white carts and for me looks good, new shells in red or other colors could be great. What i dont know if it is posible in plastic give the apparience metalic paint like cars
|Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 7:01 am
I agree. Standard shells all the way. I'm not totally opposed to optional different colours, though.
|Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 8:35 am
|I'm investigating the costs of printing shells (injection mold) with the help of a local factory here. They're asking me which material do we need to use, so I'm wondering if it's ABS or what. Anyone can suggest alternative/better materials? Also, we'll see which colors are available and the prices :)
|Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 2:27 pm
|It'll take some research but as of right now ABS is fine. I don't know much to what goes into making plastic shells.
|Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 2:52 pm
|I think ABS is pretty standard for injection moulding. The issue is that to be economical you need to make a large number of parts, maybe 1000 minimum to get the price per shell reasonable and then you will have to pay upfront and try to sell them off later... Assuming you get the mould right first time.
|Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 11:46 pm
Also, this was a real pain to do, but Game Gear carts are in the works as well.
|Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2019 4:26 pm
I've been working on an off of this project for a good year now. Probably in total if I put my time together back to back about 4 months worth of development learning how the SMS works and how to compose stages and code for collision, sprites, "doors"(map warps/scene changes), you name it. I only intended this to be a small game with 4 stages because I didnt want this to be ambitious at all just more that i could create a simple adventure title for the SMS.
Current Dev
Currently I have all levels set up with a sort of hide and seek mechanic where you hunt down each enemy in each part of the castle, enter a battle phase which brings you to a battle arena where you duke it out with one to multiple enemies with different AI's. As you beat enemies, you'll earn points to buy doors to next stage where the game progressively gets harder and harder as new enemy combos appear and some enemies become harder to find due to the stage layout.
Right now for the base release I only have a few things left to do
Compose Music
Sprite On Screen Handler
Enemy AI
Death Screen
Version 2.0
But I also have some side stuff I want to add later if I can get just the base done. Things such as a points shop where you can buy heart upgrades, sword upgrades, and a shield in exchange for points. The goal of the game is to either see how high of a score you can get by the end, how fast you can reach the end, or how super powered you can get by the end. This means not all monster battles are required to unlock the door to the next stage but the game encourages the player to try and beat the game in different ways.
I want to make 4 different endings as well depending on how you beat it, so normal, fastest, strongest, and richest.
I've added some images below of the stages, sprites, and one of the boss fight since I haven't updated since I really kicked this off and pushed in my art style.
The art came from or was inspired by my PC game I'm currently working on which this game acts as a spinoff to. All of the art had to be converted into SMS colors. This was an easy adaptation since my PC game goes by the rule of 8 colors per tile from a 128 color library where the SMS allowed 16 colors per tile from a 64 color library (though only 32 colors max could be used and only 16 per palette).I never used more than one palette though and 16 colors max per tileset, often I would barely hit above 8 colors due to the 8 color limitation per tile I used in my PC game.[/b]
|Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2019 10:57 pm
Looks like you're really close! Congrats!
When are you expecting to run a physical release?
|Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2019 3:21 pm
No idea, I'm hoping to have the game done and released this October and possibly physicals done by December. We will see though.
|Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2019 11:10 pm
|Looks awesome. Can't wait for physical copy to be released. Always prefer physical as opposed to running emulators. Never quite feels the same ☹
|Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2019 3:47 am
Thanks! Im so glad there is a little gathering of sega enthusiasts excited about this! I'll definitely do my best, I know my musician is and I cant wait for you all to hear the amazing tunes she's composed for this. She sure knows how to push the PSG to the limits!
|Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2019 2:15 am
You're talking about POLARIA POYON (on twitter)? ;) I found her recently and today she posted a clip about this project. Like her style.
Was this project ever released a test rom or something? I don't remember seeing one (need to recheck the top of this thread).
|Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 10:34 pm
|As a huge homebrew fan, I'm hungry for news on this gorgeous game!
|Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:40 pm
Its a slow progress so whenever I have freetime I work on it. Currently The only thing left is proper sprite behavior, sound FX and I think 2 songs then Ill have this one ready. Its probably like 3/4 of the way done?
|Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 2:55 am
The final boss is supposed to be a special treat, I think - at least hide it from view and give the option to show it if someone wants to see it. Personally I think a game loses some of its mystique if I already know what the final boss is before I even play it the first time. But that's just my opinion!
Besides that - everything looks super great, so far :)
best regards,
- dink
|Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 8:17 pm
Yeah I mean Im ok with somewhat showing it but not in video. Ive only shown its first form here. Should still be an interesting treat.


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Methyl Ethel Reveal New Aussie Shows As Part Of World TourWritten by Zanda Wilson on November 1, 2016
Perth indie-rockers Methyl Ethel have just announced a huge world tour, but before they head overseas to ply their wares they'll play a few Aussie shows to get their touring chops good and ready.
In February 2017 they'll play shows in their hometown of Perth, as well as stopping by Sydney and Melbourne before they head to the UK and Europe, and then jet over to the US and Canada for an extended run of shows.
The announcement caps off a huge year for the three piece, who were also nominated for a multiple WA Music Awards last month.
You can also catch Methyl Ethel at the back end of 2016 at Woodford Folk Festival and Lost Paradise, as well as at Melbourne's Sugar Mountain Festival in January 2017.
Listen: Methyl Ethel – 'Twilight Driving'
Methel Ethel 2017 Australian Tour Dates
Tickets on sale Friday, 4th November
Saturday, 18th February
Fremantle Arts Centre Courtyard, Perth
Tickets: Official Website
Thursday, 23rd February
Howler, Melbourne
Tickets: Official Website
Friday, 24th February
Newtown Social Club, Sydney
Tickets: Official Website


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Streaming started with internet radio, and with the rise of streaming services, streaming radio stations, and podcasts, it remains every bit as popular as streaming video. Check here for the latest in streaming music and radio trends, news, and insights.
Entertainment celebrities are no longer content to create their own personal podcasts. The power play now is creating an entire slate of new productions.
The relentlessly creative and adventurous band took the leap to 4K for its Halloween run in Las Vegas last year.
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Back when online video was the size of a postage stamp, audio companies were changing the way the world heard radio. Here are reminiscences from RealNetworks and other pioneers.
Roundup of cocktail parties on-site and off, during NAB 2015
The surround sound codec creates a home theater experience on mobile devices — and it's now on more devices than ever.
High-quality audio makes online video look even better; consumers can now expect multichannel surround sound experiences.
Today's students grow up in a conflict-free echo chamber created by on-demand entertainment. Live streaming is a place for diverse opinions to come through.


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Fostering Student Entrepreneurship in Southwestern Ontario
Partnering with Colleges and Universities to Create Innovative Programs
Ontario is helping student entrepreneurs gain business skills, mentorship and hands-on experience to start and grow a business.
Campus-Linked Accelerators (CLA) is investing over $5.8 million to build on world-class innovation and entrepreneurial programs at Southwestern Ontario's colleges and universities. On-Campus Entrepreneurship Activities (OCEA) is providing more than $650,000 to support Southwestern academic institutions that are committed to entrepreneurship on their campuses.
Campus-Linked Accelerators:
- The Waterloo Region Campus Linked Accelerator is a partnership between the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. University of Waterloo will expand its internationally recognized entrepreneurship programs, such as Velocity. Wilfrid Laurier University's Laurier Brantford program will work to ignite the spirit of entrepreneurship in Aboriginal youth and youth at risk.
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Ever wonder what the top selling omnibus comic book collections are?
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Do you own, or have you read any of these popular comic book omnibus collections and would you recommend them? Share your thoughts below.


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Anyone who is acutely aware of being eco-friendly will have a long list of ways to avoid using any type of pesticide or chemicals in their homes. However, the one area that many "green people" overlook is their bed sheets. Most people do not realize how many pesticides are used in the growing, manufacture and production of cotton sheets.
So many cotton sheet manufacturers and retailers will advertise the remarkable antibacterial properties of their products, but will fail to divulge exactly how they got their sheets to have these qualities. Most cotton sheets undergo a chemical procedure in order to give them small amounts of antimicrobial abilities. Naturally we would all love sheets that are able to keep harmful germs at bay, but what does it help when harmful chemicals are used to achieve this goal?
Unfortunately, several people will be sold on the idea of "healthier" products without realizing the actual cost and risk to our eco system. In all honesty if one knew the actual amount of pesticides that are added to cotton fabric, they would probably never want to sleep under them again.
Plus, when it comes to the use of pesticides in the growing process, cotton is notoriously known as one of the crops that are saturated in pesticides. The reason for this is that cotton plants do not have many natural defenses against bugs and pests. When one considers this fact, it becomes clear that no matter how much one may want to believe you are being aware of our planet's plight, using cotton is tantamount to releasing your own chemical bomb on the earth.
Thankfully, there is a completely natural alternative which involves absolutely no pesticides or chemicals. Bamboo has a natural anti-bacterial property which not only fights bacteria, but also repels insects and pests. It is almost like a natural shield, which does not lose its unique powers during any manufacturing process. Therefore, sleeping on a set of bamboo sheets is the same as giving nature a huge hug.
There are several websites that anyone can go to in order to see the chemicals in cotton, so there really is no excuse to continue using something that does not fit with your overall ideals. Whereas bamboo fabricated items as well as Thai silk both do not need any chemicals to be added in order to grow them. Bamboo is particularly hardy and a renewable resource.
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