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At Shadbolt, we appreciate that Continuing Professional Development (CPD) plays an important part in staying up to date and informed with all relevant best practices, standards and innovations in the built environment. In order to assist with CPD, Shadbolt can provide CPD seminars on any subjects incorporating the specification of doors, panel linings, WC cubicle interiors, veneers and finishes.
With over 130 years of expertise and experience, Shadbolt are ideally placed to provide you with CPD seminars on subjects such as timber doors, panel linings, WC cubicle interiors and the whole veneering process. Whether at your offices or combined with a Factory Tour at our premises in Braintree, we are sure you will find the experience highly informative and effective.
Our CPD seminars are created bespoke for your audience and their requirements, so why not get in touch to discuss a CPD seminar from Shadbolt.BOOK YOUR CPD SEMINAR


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|3 Gibson Street, Glasgow West End G12 8NU
|Offshore Website
|Facebook information can be found here
Some people consider us to be a Glasgow institution.
All we know is this, years ago we opened Offshore to create the kind of coffee shop
we wanted to visit – a place that's fun, friendly and full of character.
We've got plenty of vegan food, regular events and great staff – so stop by for a coffee or a bite to eat and find out why we're Glasgow's friendliest coffee shop!
All information (whether in text or photographs) is supplied in good faith but should not be relied upon as being a statement of representation or fact. We take every opportunity to ensure the details for Offshore are accurate, please contact us at hello[@]whatsonnetwork.co.uk if any of the above information is incorrect.
Looking to reach new customers? We offer a variety of advertising options with prices starting from just £30 per month!

subset: commoncrawl


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Most of the self-help books that have been written about XP say the same thing – if you can't start XP in safe mode you might have a virus so run an anti-virus program. Well, all of my anti-virus packages were downloaded, so I have no install disks. But even if I had an install disk, if I can't boot Windows, or I can't connect to the Internet, a disk won't do me any good. So how do I run an anti-virus scan under these conditions? And if I reformat and reinstall XP, isn't there a possibility that a virus could attach itself to the new install if I haven't eliminated it beforehand?
You're experiencing a definite chicken-and-egg situation. You need to run an anti-virus program to possibly fix Windows, but you need to be able to run Windows in order to run the anti-virus program.
Seems like a no-win situation.
There are approaches, but they all revolve around booting something else.
When things are this broken, I often suggest just reinstalling Windows. If you do reformat and reinstall, you'll be erasing everything – including any viruses. If you rebuild the system in the correct order, you can stay safe from the beginning and be virus-free.
The problem is that this erases everything, including all your programs and data. If you've backed up properly, as you should, this shouldn't cause you too much grief. On the other hand, if you're like too many people, losing all that data may be a real problem.
So we'll look at a couple of options that don't involve a complete reformat.
Since you don't have install media for your anti-virus programs, you might consider purchasing one. Some may actually allow you to boot from their install media, and run an anti-virus scan right then and there. (Be sure to check before you purchase – I'm relatively certain this is uncommon feature.
Another approach is to download (on another computer, of course) and burn to CD a stand-alone bootable operating system.
If you're technically adept, you can make your own bootable version of Windows using something called BartPE. Since Windows is not free you can't just download a copy – any copy – from the Internet, legally. BartPE (Bart Preinstalled Environment) is a toolkit that allows you to create a bootable CD using the copy of the Windows CD you already own.
Many distributions of Linux, on the other hand, are free. Hence, another approach is to use one of the Linux "Live CDs". These are free, downloadable images that can be burned to CD. You can then boot from the CD and have a running version of Linux without having to make any changes to your system or hard disk. You can then run anti-virus software against the Windows installation on your hard disk.
The most popular Linux Live CD is Knoppix. This article from "Knoppix Hacks" describes using Knoppix to perform a Virus Scan.
Another promising Live CD is Ubuntu. Ubuntu's Live CD doubles as its install CD, should you ever want to switch.
The great thing about all of these bootable CDs is that once you do boot, even if you can't perform he virus scan, you can still examine your Windows hard disk and possibly repair problems by hand, or at least recover files before taking more drastic action.
Since I tend to be a computer geek, I have copies of both Knoppix and Ubuntu lying around. If you don't have an Anti-Virus program that you can boot from, my recommendation for most is to create or have someone help create a BartPE bootable disk, and then download or use the Anti-Virus software you're already familiar with.
There's one more approach that's worth looking into, and that's a repair install of Windows. You perform a repair install by booting from your Windows installation CD and selecting repair install when asked. The good news is that it doesn't erase everything, and may get you back to a point where you can boot your machine normally. The bad news is that it doesn't erase everything, so the viruses or spyware that got you to this point may still be lingering about. The approach to take is to use the repair install to get a bootable version of Windows, and then immediately run your anti-virus and anti-spyware scans. Possibly more than once.
Of course if the problem remains, you'll need to look into the other approaches already discussed.
- Ask Leo! – How should I reinstall Windows?
- Ask Leo! – How do I set up my computer – simply?
- BartPE (Bart Preinstalled Environment)
- Knoppix
- Ubuntu
[tags]spyware,ubuntu,knoppix,bartpe,virus scan,cannot boot,scan without windows[/tags]


text: "While the romantic numskulls of Nazi Germany are dreaming of restoring the old race of Europe's Dark Forest to its original purity, or rather its original filth, you Americans, after taking a firm grip on your economic machinery and your culture, will apply genuine scientific methods to the problem of eugenics. Within a century, out of your melting pot of races there will come a new breed of men – the first worthy of the name of Man." —Leon Trotsky, "If America Should Go Communist" (August 1934)


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What Benefits Qatari Isolation Might Bring to Russia
The Qatari ambassador to Russia, Fahad Mohammed Attiyah, said in an interview with Sputnik that Moscow would become one of Doha's major economic partners. The statement might be caused by the current isolation of Doha by its Arab neighbors. Russian political analysts explained what benefits the Persian diplomatic row might bring to both countries.
The Gulf crisis would influence economic cooperation between Russia and Qatar, making Moscow one of Doha's key partners, the Qatari ambassador to Russia, Fahad Mohammed Attiyah, told Sputnik.
"We are now going to have a new economic outlook, strengthen the existing partnership that we have with Russia and with other nations, and build a more resilient economy, which partly demands more self-reliance and also partly involves further engagement and diversification from being dependent to certain countries. And Russia is definitely one of those countries that will be, I would say, one of the major partners in this future economic plan," the ambassador said.
Political analyst Anton Mardasov, who heads the department of Middle Eastern conflicts at the Moscow-based Institute for Innovative Development, suggested that Qatar needs to demonstrate its alliance with certain countries.
"There is more politics than economy in the statement of the Qatari ambassador to Russia, as in the current situation, Qatar is in need of countries which will adhere to it, in need of political contacts, in order not to be perceived as an isolated rogue state," he told Russian's online newspaper Vzglyad.
Therefore, he explained, Doha is trying to demonstrate that its relationship with Moscow goes beyond just diplomatic contacts.
Political analyst Nadana Fridriksson shares this point of view. She contends that while being isolated by other Arab states, Qatar understands that it does not have many allies and will further continue the pleasant rhetoric towards Russia.
"If the blockade of Qatar by the countries of the Persian Gulf continues, it will push Doha towards new allied relationships," she told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, Anton Mardasov noted that Russia and Qatar have a good potential for the development of an economic partnership, moreover that certain groundwork has already been done. The two countries have joint projects in the oil and gas sector. The expert also reminded that Doha had purchased stakes in Russia's oil giant Rosneft.
He thinks that during the isolation, the political contacts between Moscow and Doha could grow into bigger economic cooperation. However he doubted that it would lead to large-scale projects.
Nadana Fridriksson recalled that the two countries have been negotiating on investments long before the Arab blockade. Therefore she suggested that Qatari investments into the Russian economy could become a priority in the cooperation between Moscow and Doha. The gas sector could also play an important role in their cooperation.
"Russia and Qatar are competitors and rivals, but if they start cooperating, they could agree on joint exploration of the European market," she said.
However she further suggested that Iran, as a transit country, and Turkey might be of more interest to Qatar. Though if Russia and Qatar set up good relations then in future Russia might turn from Qatar's gas rival into its gas partner.
The economy is not the only sphere for rapprochement between Russia and Qatar. There are very strong preconditions for cooperation in politics where the two countries have pretty ambiguous relations, the analysts said.
First of all, it could be Syria, Nadana Fridriksson suggested.
"We are very interested in all the information possessed by Qatar, and first of all, regarding the financing of various groups of militants. If Doha shares this information with Russia, Moscow will get a serious advantage in Syria," she told the website.
Anton Mardasov also echoed this point of view. He said that Qatar, in turn, is interested in Russia's initiative to set up and maintain de-escalation zones in Syria. If Moscow is aiming to find a political compromise and a dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition, it could be a good ground for cooperation with Qatar.
Besides, Doha might play a vital role in setting up contacts between the intelligence services, for example while liberating residents all over the world, the way it is being done by the US, the political analyst said.
The Libyan crisis might also become a ground for cooperation, Mardasov said. Russia has good contacts with Khalifa Haftar, the head of the Libyan National Army and insists on a compromise between him and Fayez al-Sarraj, the chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya and prime minister of the Government of National Accord of Libya.
Moscow may use Doha in strengthening its contacts with Fayez al-Sarraj, the political analyst said. In any case, cooperation with Qatar could only strengthen Russia's positions in the Middle East, he concluded.


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The successes of our student-athletes are among the many positive outcomes in the cherished history of Hudson Valley Community College. The Athletic Department has earned National Championships, Region III Championships, and Conference Championships, along with producing student-athletes who have received the nation's most prestigious individual accolades.
The student athletes in our intercollegiate athletic programs included the college's Student Senate President, a SUNY Chancellor's Award recipient, Academic All-Americans, All-Americans, All-Region and All-Conference selections, a Rawlings Gold Glove winner, as well as Conference MVPs and Region III Student-Athletes of the Week.
We hope you will support our student-athletes by becoming a member of the Viking Booster Club, a non-profit, support organization, affiliated with the Faculty Student Association of Hudson Valley Community College. Your tax-deductible donation to the Viking Booster Club will directly impact our 300+ student-athletes by financing program enhancements, promoting community endeavors, assisting in recruiting and retention initiatives and supporting facility development.
Membership in the Viking Booster Club is simple. Your contribution can be paid in one lump sum or spread out over a time frame accommodating to your preferences. Your membership in the Viking Booster Club is valid for one calendar year from date of donation. President's Circle donations are 10-year memberships. Viking Booster Club Benefits Chart
Please mail your membership form and contribution to:
Faculty Student Association of Hudson Valley Community College
80 Vandenburgh Avenue
Troy, NY 12180
You may also make your contribution online through our PayPal account.


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Home Cinema Installation Dorset
Experience The Magic Of Immersion
A home cinema installation is designed to offer life-like audio and video accuracy, but it will never look or sound that way if you're watching on a TV - even a large one - because what's really missing is life-like scale. It's the dimension that brings all your films, games and channels alive; without it, home entertainment can deliver only a fraction of its potential. At Empower we design and install systems in the Dorset area.
To enjoy what's really there, think big. Combine the potency of high definition audio with the latest 4K pictures on a screen that fills your field of view and immediately you're part of the action. This is the uniquely immersive quality of home cinema. Expertly designed specifically for your home and family, your home cinema will transform everything you watch into a magical 'being there' experience. It's like turning on a TV, but more absorbing than you can imagine. When your living with real cinema, every night is movie night...
What Is A Home Cinema Installation ?
Think of your new home cinema as an enduring high quality audio and video installation, not the lightweight speakers you'll find bundled with a TV screen. Using proven pro-cinema technologies home cinema transports the excitement of the big screen experience to your home. More than that, expert installers will work with you to customise the system according to your taste, budget and environment. In this way the performance of home cinema is more powerfully focused than any commercial installation, as unique and personal as your home itself.
The definitive home cinema experience involves a big specialised projection screen and projector, together with a multi-channel surround system, which supplies an enveloping sound stage from at least five speakers (with sub woofer support) positioned around the room. Your custom installer may also recommend acoustic treatments to heighten and contain the surround effect, as well as the comfort of home seating to complete the magical chemistry of home cinema immersion.
The project can be as wide as your ambition, but the versatility of custom installation means that you can enjoy immersive room-filling pictures and sound without filling the room with gear. In living areas such as media room extensions and sitting rooms, a motorised cinema screen and projector can be specified together with near -invisible in-wall/ceiling speakers. Even in dedicated cinema rooms, the most discreet, decor-friendly installation is a luxury custom option.
Immersive Pictures
No doubt you've heard of 4K resolution. Today's buzz-word for ultimate picture quality refers to a horizontal resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. There are two main 4K resolution standards. The DCI 4K standard with a resolution of 4096 × 2160 pixels is used in the video production industry, while at 3840 x 2160 pixels and four times the resolution of Full HD (1080p), the 4K UHD standard is predominantly applied to residential display devices such as projectors and TVs. So that you experience the glorious colour and clarity of 4K UHD, your installer will be recommending the latest 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, and upgrades to your media box to show 4K UHD content from the likes of Sky, Netflix and Amazon. Your installer will also ensure that your projector supports 4K UHD and the newest HDMI 2.0 standard, which offers High Dynamic Range (HDR) capabilities
Billed as the next big leap in technology beyond 4K, HDR gives the image more contrast between its lightest and darkest areas, so you see more life-like detail and texture. The HDR pictures on smartphones will give you some idea of the effect, but this is produced from combing multiple images rather than cinema HDR, which is generated using enhanced camera technology.
Immersive Sound
Just like the sound systems built into commercial cinemas, a home cinema audio system comprises three speakers positioned around or behind the screen and carrying left, centre and right channel sound according to the original multi-channel film mix. These are joined by two surround speakers providing the surround sound for an enveloping sound effect, and a subwoofer which handles the bass or Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel. This is the 5.1 configuration (five full range channels and a single bass channel) of sound formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS. Later versions of these formats - Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio – split the surround sound into four separate channels, adding side speakers in the process to create a 7.1 configuration.
Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio are also designed to carry Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, the very latest surround sound formats, which add overhead sound for the most realistic surround effect. These new formats are created using an "objectbased" technique which allows the studio engineer to place individual effects anywhere in the sound field. Dolby Atmos requires at least one pair of height speakers (either in-ceiling, or upward-firing Atmos-enabled speakers) for a 7.1.2 channel set-up, but the format can be extended to include, for instance, a further pair of height speakers for a 7.1.4 channel configuration. DTS:X on the other hand works with a regular surround sound speaker system and has no specific demand for dedicated height channels.
A typical Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 system
involving in-room front,side, surround and in-ceiling height speakers.
Glass room boundaries? No problem: angled drivers in the versatile Sonance SUR1S in-ceiling speaker will bounce surround sound towards the listener.
Immersive Comfort And Design
The seating element of every system is where the sensation of home cinema really begins!
Most ranges have a modular format which allows your installer to specify a straight, curved or tiered arrangement with the style and finish that meets your needs exactly.
And because every home is unique, so is the cinema within it. The design of your bespoke cinema room is an art form in itself, balancing aesthetics, high performance and environment in a precision-tuned unity that offers so much more than the sum of its parts. When you've made your choices, the installer will do the physics, calculating the precise location of the loudspeakers, screen and other elements according to industry standards so that every seat becomes the focus for a compelling chemistry of audio and video realism, raised to a life-like dimension by the magical experience of genuine home cinema. Far exceeding the largest TVs in the power to entertain, the immersive scale of home cinema will ensure you're not just watching the story, you're taking part…
Example Designs
Immersive Media Room
Immersive Garage Conversion
Immersive Small Cinema Room
Immersive Large Cinema Room
TV Upgrade Packages
YAM-YSP1600 Yamaha Sound Projector, 5 beam technology, HDCP 2.2, MusicCast, Bluetooth, Multi-Room
SON-92366 Sonance Cinema Series SUB8-100 230V cabinet subwoofer (each)
YAM-BD-S681 Yamaha Blu-Ray Player, CD mode, 4k upscaling
Our Price Excluding Design & Fitting £1,227.23
YAM-YSP5600Yamaha Dolby Atmos/DTS:X Soundbar, MusicCast, 44 speakers, Intellibeam calibration
SON-92367Sonance Cinema Series SUB10-150 10" cabinet subwoofer (each)
YAM-BD-S681 Yamaha Blu-Ray Player, CD mode, 4k upscaling
Our Price Excluding Design & Fitting £2,382.91
Home Cinema Equipment Packages
5.1 In Ceiling Speakers
SON-CINEMA-B1Sonance Visual Performance Cinema Speaker Bundle - 1 x VP66R 6" speaker for front centre,
2 x VP66R 6" speakers for front left and right, 2 x VP66R SUR/SST 6" speakers for rear, 1 x SUB10-150 YAM-RX-A660Yamaha 7.2ch, Dolby Atmos®, DTS:X HDMI®, 4K/60p, 4:4:4, HDCP2.2, HDR and BT. MusicCast
YAM-BD-S681 Yamaha Blu-Ray Player, CD mode, 4k upscaling
JVC-DLA-X5000R-BK-2DJVC DLA-X5000R projector with 4K 60p 4:4:4 Black Without 3D Kit
TEC-PM-JVX00-BKTechniq Projector Mount for JVC DLA-X5000, 7000 & 9000 series projectors Black
Our Price Excluding Design & Fitting £7,343
5.1 In Wall Speakers And Ceiling Rear Speakers
SON-CINEMA-B3Sonance Visual Performance Cinema Speaker Bundle 3 - 3 x VP66-LCR 6" rectangular speakers
2 x VP66R-SUR/SST 6" round single stereo surround speaker, 1 x SUB10-150 10" cabinet sub YAM-RX-A1060Yamaha 7.2ch, Dolby Atmos®, DTS:X HDMI®, 4K/60p, 4:4:4, HDCP2.2, HDR and BT. Musicast
YAM-BD-S681 Yamaha Blu-Ray Player, CD mode, 4k upscaling
PRO-FF-216-HD-PERFProjecta Fixed Frame Screen 128 x 216 cm (90 in diag) UHD Acoustic 16:9
JVC-DLA-X5000R-BK-2DJVC DLA-X5000R projector with 4K 60p 4:4:4 Black Without 3D Kit
TEC-PM-JVX00-BKTechniq Projector Mount for JVC DLA-X5000, 7000 & 9000 series projectors Black
Our Price Excluding Design & Fitting £8,359
Upgrade To Atmos By Adding VP66 In Wall Rears And A Second Sub 5.2.2 In Wall And Ceiling
SON-93004Sonance Visual Performance VP66 6" rectangular speaker (pair) (rear wall)
SON-92367Sonance Cinema Series SUB10-150 10" cabinet subwoofer (each)
Our Price Excluding Design & Fitting £9,534
7.2.4 Dolby Atmos
SON-92495Sonance Cinema Series LCR1 rectangular speaker (each)
SON-92496Sonance Cinema Series SUR1 rectangular speaker (each)
SON-92893Sonance Cinema Series SUB10-150 10" cabinet subwoofer (each)
YAM-RX-A3060Yamaha 11.2ch, Dolby Atmos®, DTS:X HDMI®, 4K/60p, 4:4:4, HDCP2.2, HDR and BT.
YAM-BD-S681Yamaha Blu-Ray Player, CD mode, 4k upscaling
SON-92366Sonance Cinema Series SUB8-100 230V cabinet subwoofer (each)
SON-92368Sonance Cinema Series SUB12-250 12" cabinet subwoofer (each)
PRO-FF-256-HD-PERFProjecta Fixed Frame Screen 151 x 256 cm (108 in diag) UHD Acoustic 16:9
JVC-DLA-X7000R-BK-2DJVC DLA-X7000R projector with 4K 60p 4:4:4 Black Without 3D Kit
TEC-PM-JVX00-BKTechniq Projector Mount for JVC DLA-X5000, 7000 & 9000 series projectors Black
Our Price Excluding Design & Fitting £18,045


text:
LAVO Italian Restaurant & Rooftop Bar makes its Asia debut in Singapore at iconic Sands SkyPark
SINGAPORE, Jan. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — The atmosphere at Marina Bay Sands was electric as party-revellers ushered in the New Year in style with international superstar Jamie Foxx at an exclusive celebration held at LAVO Italian Restaurant & Rooftop Bar ahead of its official opening on January 8.
For the full multimedia release, click here: https://www.prnasia.com/mnr/mbs_201712.shtml
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Academy Award winner, singer, actor, producer and comedian Jamie Foxx graced the red carpet and hosted the countdown to the New Year. The all-round entertainer performed a medley of songs after midnight including Gold Digger and Blame It.
LAVO Singapore Grand Opening with Jamie Foxx ringing in 2018 (Credit to TAO Group)
Jamie Foxx performs a medley of songs at LAVO Singapore for NYE
Also in attendance at tonight's party were TAO Group co-founders Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss; Hollywood actor Wilmer Valderrama; international DJ Ruckus, who was helming the decks throughout the night, and his fiancee, Australian supermodel Shanina Shaik.
Jamie Foxx and daughter Corinne Foxx take a selfie together at Marina Bay Sands for LAVO Singapore Grand Opening
From L-R: Patrick Lang, Vice President for Global Restaurant and Nightlife Development, Las Vegas Sands; Jason Strauss, Co-Founder, TAO Group; George Tanasijevich, President and Chief Executive Officer, Marina Bay Sands; Noah Tepperberg, Co-Founder, TAO Group, at LAVO Singapore opening party, Day 1
Jamie Foxx said, "I've known Jason and Noah for a very long time, so to see their dream come true here in this hotel, in Singapore. It's great to be part of that. It's a different type of kinship you could say, over in the States I would show up unannounced at LAVO, grab a mike and just deejay and have a great time. For me, it's a natural progression, and LAVO couldn't be in a better place than in Singapore. The space is amazing. Anyone who has a sense of adventure, just come to Singapore and come to LAVO."
Wilmer Valderrama said, "LAVO Singapore is incredible. I was there when the first LAVO opened, and the next one after. It's beautiful to see how many elements from New York City actually made it here, from the bricks to the tiles to the cuisine. I'm excited to see LAVO expand on this level and I hope Singapore likes it as much as we like it in the United States."
TAO Group Partner/Chef Ralph Scamardella and Corporate Executive Chef Marc Marrone prepared a preview of LAVO's authentic Italian American menu for invited guests including an antipasti, pasta and pizza station complete with a parmesan wheel and passed hors d'oeuvres such as miniature chicken parmesan, tuna tartare and truffle carpaccio.
The event marked the Asia debut of the LAVO brand – an internationally renowned Italian American restaurant and nightlife brand hailing from the United States – at Marina Bay Sands' iconic Sands SkyPark.
LAVO Singapore is a collaboration between Marina Bay Sands and TAO Group, a premiere entertainment, dining and nightlife group from the United States which operates over 25 venues in New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia.
Located 57-storeys atop Tower 1 of Sands SkyPark, LAVO Singapore is a new vibe-dining concept set against the spectacular backdrop of the city sky-line. Inspired by LAVO New York and Las Vegas, the Singapore venue will feature an Italian American restaurant complete with a luxurious indoor and outdoor lounge with wraparound terrace and exciting nightlife programming that will include live DJ sets.
For more information, visit www.MarinaBaySands.com/Lavo and www.lavosingapore.com; follow @lavosingapore or join the conversation with #MarinaBaySands and #LAVOSingapore.
For images, please credit use to Marina Bay Sands or TAO Group, as indicated in the picture captions.
To download B-roll footage, go to http://medialibrary.marinabaysands.com; Username: LAVO, Password: lavo
About Marina Bay Sands Pte Ltd
Marina Bay Sands is the leading business, leisure and entertainment destination in Asia. It features large and flexible convention and exhibition facilities, 2,560 hotel rooms and suites, the rooftop Sands SkyPark, the best shopping mall in Asia, world-class celebrity chef restaurants, a theatre and an outdoor event plaza. Completing the line-up of attractions is ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands which plays host to permanent and marquee exhibitions. For more information, please visit www.marinabaysands.com
About TAO Group
TAO Group is a leading restaurant and nightlife company that develops, owns and operates many of the most successful food, beverage and nightlife entertainment venues in the United States. Partners Marc Packer, Richard Wolf, Noah Tepperberg, and Jason Strauss bring decades of hospitality experience to the brand portfolio. Currently TAO Group boasts operations in New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia. In New York City, the collection includes Avenue, Beauty & Essex, LAVO Italian Restaurant and Nightclub, Marquee Nightclub, The Stanton Social, TAO Asian Bistro Uptown, TAO Asian Bistro Downtown and Vandal. TAO Group operates all of the food and beverage outlets of the Dream Downtown hotel including room service, PHD Rooftop, Electric Room and Bodega Negra. Additionally, they operate all of the food & beverage outlets of the Dream Midtown hotel including The Rickey, Fishbowl and PHD Terrace. Most recently, TAO Group unveiled three new concepts within Moxy Times Square including Legasea, a Seafood Brasserie; Egghead, an egg-centric all-day breakfast sandwich shop; and Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge, New York City's largest hotel rooftop open all season. Las Vegas operations include TAO Asian Bistro, Nightclub & Beach at The Venetian, LAVO Italian Restaurant & Lounge at The Palazzo, Beauty & Essex at The Cosmopolitan and Marquee Nightclub & Dayclub at The Cosmopolitan. TAO Group's most recent market expansion to Los Angeles include Avenue, Beauty & Essex, Luchini Pizzeria & Bar, TAO Asian Bistro and The Highlight Room rooftop, lounge, pool and grill atop the Dream Hollywood. Marquee Nightclub at The Star – Sydney represents the company's first international offering. TAO Group will expands to new markets in 2018 including Chicago. For more information, please visit www.taogroup.com.
For Media Enquiries
Melissa Kok Marina Bay Sands +65-9459-7819 email@example.com
Lauren Menache TAO Group firstname.lastname@example.com
Source: prnasia


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Yogurt, fruit, and granola parfaits can be a tasty and satisfying breakfast. But you can give this meal a new take by making cups out of the granola to hold your favorite yogurt and fruit toppings. You need to make your own granola first, and then shape it into cups that you bake in the oven to help them set up. Once they're done, you can fill them with whatever yogurt and fruit combinations that you like. Best of all, you can make the granola cups ahead of time, store them in your pantry, and have them ready for breakfast whenever you need.
- 1 cup (90 g) quick-cooking rolled oats
- ⅓ cup (42 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons (19 g) flaxseed meal
- 2 tablespoons (25 g) packed brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) baking soda
- 1 teaspoon (3 g) ground cinnamon
- ½ cup (60 g) dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
- ½ cup (55 g) slivered almonds, coarsely chopped
- 2 tablespoons (7 ½ g) shredded coconut
- 3 tablespoons (64 g) honey
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) canola oil
- 1 tablespoon (14 g) butter, melted
- ½ teaspoon (2 ½ ml) vanilla
- Yogurt, fruit, nuts, and honey, for filling
Part 1 of 3:
Preparing the Granola
Part 1 of 3:
1Preheat the oven and grease a muffin tin. To ensure that the oven is warm enough to bake the granola cups, set the temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius ) and allow it to heat fully. Next, grease a 24-count mini-muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray to keep the cups from sticking.[1] X Research source
- Keep an eye on your oven so you know when it's reached the proper temperature. Most models will either flash an indicator light or beep to alert you.
- You can substitute butter for the nonstick cooking spray if you prefer.
- If you prefer, you can use a 12-count regular size muffin tin to make larger cups.
2Combine the oats, flour, flaxseed meal, brown sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add 1 cup (90 g) of quick-cooking rolled oats, ⅓ cup (42 g) of all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons (19 g) of flaxseed meal, 2 tablespoons (25 g) of packed brown sugar, ½ teaspoon (3 g) of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon (3 g) of ground cinnamon to a large bowl. Use a wooden spoon to blend all of the ingredients together.[2] X Research source
- Flaxseed meal is just ground flaxseeds. You can purchase it at many grocery and health food stores, or you can make your own by grinding flaxseeds in a food processor or coffee grinder.
- If you like, you can include other spices in the granola, such as ground ginger and/or ground cloves. Add ½ to 1 teaspoon (1 ½ to 3 g) of the spices to taste.
3Mix in the cranberries, almonds, and coconut. After you've combined the granola base, add ½ cup (60 g) of coarsely chopped dried cranberries, ½ cup (55 g) of coarsely chopped slivered almonds, and 2 tablespoons (7 ½ g) of shredded coconut. Stir the mixture well to ensure that all of the ingredients are fully incorporated.[3] X Research source
- You can omit the cranberries or substitute raisins if you prefer.
- You can substitute your favorite nut for the almonds, such as walnuts or cashews. However, it's important to chop them more finely because most nuts are much thicker than slivered almonds.
4Stir the honey, oil, butter, and vanilla together. Add 3 tablespoons (64 g) of honey, 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of canola oil, 1 tablespoon (14 g) of melted butter, and ½ teaspoon (2 ½ ml) of vanilla to a separate small bowl. Mix the ingredients well so they're fully combined.[4] X Research source
- If you prefer, you can substitute agave nectar for the honey.
5Add the honey mixture to the oats mixture. Once you've mixed the liquid ingredients together, pour them into the oats mixture. Mix the ingredients together well so they're all fully combined.[5] X Research source
- The dough may be slightly sticky when you're finished mixing.
- The dough is often easier to work with if you chill it in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes before putting it in the muffin tin.
Part 2 of 3:
Baking the Cups
Part 2 of 3:
1Spoon the granola mixture into the muffin tin and press firmly. After you've mixed the dough together, use a spoon to transfer it to the cups in the greased muffin tin. Fill each cup so they're approximately two-thirds full of the dough, and use clean fingers to press the dough against the bottom and sides of the compartments to form a cup shape.[6] X Research source
- If you're having trouble forming the dough into cup shapes, use a shot glass to press the dough into shape inside each compartment of the muffin tin.
2Bake the granola cups until the edges start to brown. Once you've filled all of the cups in the muffin tin, place it in the preheated oven. Allow the granola cups to bake until the top edges start to brown, which should take approximately 10 to 12 minutes.[7] X Research source
- If you've used a full size muffin tin to make the granola cups, they will need to cook for 15 to 17 minutes.
3Press against sides of tin and cool the cups in the muffin tin. When the granola cups are finished baking, remove them from the oven. Use a spoon to press the sides of each cup against the tin again. Allow the cups to cool completely in the tin, which should take approximately 20 minutes.[8] X Research source
- It's important to allow the granola cups to cool before removing them from the muffin tin because they crumble more easily when they're warm.
Part 3 of 3:
Assembling the Granola Cups
Part 3 of 3:
1Remove the cups from the tin carefully. When the granola cups have cooled completely, use clean fingers to carefully lift them from the tin. If any of the cups won't come loose, use a large fork to gently pry them out.[9] X Research source
- Even when they're cooled, the granola cups are fairly fragile. Handle them as gently as possible.
2Fill the cup with yogurt. If you're ready to eat a granola cup, add your favorite type of yogurt. Spoon it into the cup carefully to avoid breaking it.[10] X Research source
- If you want to use the granola cups for dessert, you can fill them with your favorite pudding, mousse, or even ice cream.
3Top the cups with fruit and nuts. After you've filled the granola cups with yogurt, sprinkle your favorite toppings over them. Fruit, such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or orange segments, is an ideal option. You can also top the granola cups with your favorite chopped nuts, such as almonds or walnuts, and drizzle a little honey over them.[11] X Research source
- If you want to top your granola cups with larger fruits, such as apples, bananas, or strawberries, dice them into smaller pieces so they'll fit more easily.
- If you're not ready to use all of the granola cups right away, store them in an airtight container. They should stay fresh for 1 to 2 weeks.
- You can also freeze the unfilled cups. Place them in zippered freezer bags, and store for up to 3 months.
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Things You'll Need
- 24-count mini muffin tin
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Large bowl
- Wooden spoon
- Small bowl
- Spoon
- Fork
- ↑ http://www.mommiecooks.com/2012/01/09/granola-bars/
- ↑ http://www.bhg.com/recipe/granola-cups/
- ↑ http://www.bhg.com/recipe/granola-cups/
- ↑ http://www.bhg.com/recipe/granola-cups/
- ↑ http://www.bhg.com/recipe/granola-cups/
- ↑ http://theskinnyfork.com/blog/granola-cups
- ↑ http://theskinnyfork.com/blog/granola-cups
- ↑ http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2015/01/06/customizable-breakfast-granola-cups/
- ↑ http://theskinnyfork.com/blog/granola-cups
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I grew up through the seventies and eighties when talking about mental or emotional illness was taboo, frowned on, sneered at, scary, even dangerous.
Talking is good.
It's okay to be silent too.
For as long as you need to.
Forever, if you want to.
But it's okay to talk, too.
My dad was a violent, paranoid schizophrenic with auditory delusions. I wasn't aware of his actual diagnosis, and I didn't have any of those words until well into adulthood. As kids, we watched him struggle.
I'll speak for myself. I watched him struggle with what surely seemed like a demon in his mind. I watched him lose control like clockwork. We lived in exhausting and terrifying three-week cycles. And he put us all through hell on earth.
Most of my friends had nice, middle class lives in functional families. What would I have done without them? I could look in on their lives and see what 'normal' was. Even if those same friends look back on their own childhoods and call their families 'dysfunctional' it's mostly to be quippy in the conversation. Dysfunction is a matter of degrees.
My friends didn't have the same life experiences I was having, so they weren't feeling with the same things I was feeling. The therapist said our family dysfunction was a 9, where 10 was one family member murdering another family member.
And I remember struggling alone every single day.
At first, I struggled simply to be a kid who was loved. I wanted to be noticed, asked about, cared for. I wanted to be loved without being abused. I wanted to arrive on time to all my before school, lunchtime, and after school activities.
I remember joining things so I could be out of the house as often as possible.
But I remember feeling that I needed to stay home too, to stay vigilant, to guard and protect, to be ready to help my mom if I could. But I couldn't. I remember our helplessness.
I remember deflecting energy and interrupting violence. I remember choosing to become the black sheep because it was a role that did more good than harm. I remember absorbing the harm.
Through years of turmoil in my childhood, I remember being hot with anger about all of it. But I grew up through the seventies and eighties when emotional needs were considered vanity, a weakness, an indulgence. The last thing I wanted was stigma or pity hindering me.
I was determined to live a normal life.
But I also remember (and this was my saving grace, I suppose) not being very normal. I remember being very aware, intuitive, emotionally grounded, and mentally strong. I remember being told by a well-known psychic (one of City TV's regular guests in the 80s), that I'm psychic. Whatever that means.
Some people are born to dance or sing or build houses. I was born to hold the space, to do it during life's darkest moments if necessary, and to do it with a loving spirit, lifting, feeding light back in to the space. Whatever that means.
I can't tell you if those are the right words, but they're the best ones I have right now. It's hard to talk about all this. Impossible, often.
For a long time, my own emotional needs and anxieties had no name. I remember physically losing my voice more than once – and the stabbing physical pain in my throat when I would try to work through emotional pain. It felt like I was pulling a wagonload of my heaviest memories uphill with a rope tied around my neck. It's been hard to talk about all this.
But, let's talk.
Feel broken if you must, but don't break. Be lost for awhile if you feel lost, but you've come a long way down this yellow brick road. And when you're ready to talk things through, there's someone willing to listen.


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Prom | Guest of Affair
Sugarplum carries thousands of dresses from today's top designers. Most designers have hundreds of dresses in their collection each season. At Sugarplum, due to space restriction, we try to physically represent the top 25-30 styles of each collection. This leaves anywhere from 50 to 300 styles per company that we can't physically have in our shop. If there is a dress that captures your heart, we will be happy to help size you from in stock styles of that exact designer as well as take your measurements. This will help take most of the risk out of buying a dress that you have not seen in person. You will be able to see the quality, fit and color swatches of almost all manufacturers that we carry. If you want that magical Sugarplum experience and you find a dress from any collection we carry on line or in another shop, we will be happy to get that dress for you!


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Here are the sermon notes from 7/28/13.
I. Blessing or Curse: Deuteronomy 11:26-28
"Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
Over and over throughout scripture we are presented with a choice of action. We can choose to follow God, or reject God. Here, we are told plainly that to obey God brings blessings, to be disobedient brings a curse. First, we need to know what commandments God wants us to obey. We recognize that we are no longer expected to follow the Mosaic law, so what commandments are we to obey? This question is answered by careful, consistent reading of God's Word. Secondly, we must believe that God is sincere about the promise of blessing and the threat of a curse. Although these words were spoken to the children of Israel long ago, as the people of God today, we can claim these words for ourselves. Finally, once we have identified the commands we are to obey, and believed the promise of God, we must actually live out our lives in obedience. This does not mean that we will not have any problems. There will still be the tests and trials of our faith that are a normal part of the Christian experience. However, even in the midst of the storms of life. we will be able to recognize in our lives the presence of the blessings of God.
II. Beware! Deuteronomy 17:14-20
"When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,' 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, 'You shall not return that way again.' 17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
18 "Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.
Solomon should have heeded this warning. He multiplied horses, wives, and gold; and in the end his heart was turned away from God.
Today, we do not need to be concerned about multiplying horses, but we do need to be concerned about an unhealthy pursuit of power. Many people today desire to be powerful, whether it is in business, politics, or even in the church. We should be careful about the pursuit of power. We are called to be servants, not to acquire them.
We cannot legally multiply wives today, at least not in most countries, but there is a major problem with sex. Premarital sex, adultery, homosexual activity, pornography, and divorce are prevalent in our culture. Christians are called to purity. Sex is meant to be shared between a husband and wife, meaning a man and a woman, joined together in holy matrimony until death do they part.
We may not trade in gold and silver, but certainly the desire to be rich has not changed. We are warned that the "love of money is the root of all kinds of evil" but do we take it to heart? Or do we continue to feverishly pursue the almighty dollar? We need to be careful to have the right attitude towards wealth.
We need to guard against pride. Sometimes Christians develop an attitude of self-righteousness. This is extremely bad. We must never forget that we can only become the children of God, by the grace of God.
III. The Law
In the verses we have read from Deuteronomy 17 we are told that the king was to write a copy of the law, and to read it daily. It is not necessary for us to make a hand-written copy. (Although that might be a truly wonderful experience!) We should, however, read from the Word daily. We should continue to respect God and to be obedient to His Word.
We are faced with a choice. We should choose to live our lives according to God's Word and receive the blessings He has for us.


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in 2013 i'm came up with a lot of things that i need to fix here and there, so i'm so sorry not to update this blog from Desember freaquently like usual i did. My last post about my fav BB cream is update on November.
And now i'm back and promises you'll that i will update this blog frequently, or, if i'm not, go follow my instagram: @christin_bun for daily makeup and simply thought about makeup in a flash! 🙂
Okay okay, enough for the prologue and promotion. Now, let's see my creation of "New Year Carnival Look"!
For brows, i make it thin and bold to compate the eye.
This look actually suit you who are monolid like me. In this look, i'm not using scot for sure. So, monoliders ( what's that?! haha) go for this look!
For the eyes, i'm apply a lot of red color for festive look, lil bit of purple and an accent of dotty-dooty red that i do for 1 eyes only.
And to make it mooore festive and carnival like, i'm adding some jewellery on the top of the dotty-dotty ( i'm really like to call it "dotty-dotty", sounds cute. haha, forget that).
This is the closed up look, oh- and yeah! i use natural red-pink lipstick (it's been my signature, nude-pinkist-red color of lipstick)
And now.. ready for some odd pictures that i'm usually post in the end. Wooshaaahh~!
What i used for this look:
- Skin 79 Super Beblesh Balm VIP Gold Collection
- MAC Studio Fix NC25
- Revlon Touch & Glow Extra Moisturising Face Powder 70 #Tawny Beige ( I super duper in love with this product!, the scent is nice, the result is silky, and the powder is soft)
- Viva browpencil in Brown
- Etude Perfect Brow Kit
- Nyx Eyeshadow Base in White Pearl
- Coastal Scent 88Original Pallete ( You can find all the color there)
- Maybelline Color Sensational C31 Cosy Tangerine
- Maybelline Watershine Liquid Pearl WL405P 6JO81 in Poppy Pink
Thanks for reading, Good Luck!


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Here we are back to Bucharest to spend the (Orthodox) Easter holiday with my family! I love coming to Romania in May, when everything is getting back to life, all green and abundant.
In the couple of days we spent in the city – before retiring to the countryside, where we currently are – we enjoyed the sunny days by taking long walks and visiting those places I love most in my hometown.
I find Bucharest extremely green and romantic, and I`m captivated by its architectural layers more and more each time. I could move back here tomorrow! 🙂


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With a BEDS enrollment figure of 156, Panama sits near the high end of Class D in most major sports such as soccer, basketball and baseball. At 340, Southwestern is near the low end of the current Class B cutoff.
Put the schools together, though, and the total BEDS figure of 496 starts getting uncomfortably close to the current Class B maximum of 524. It wouldn't take much -- each district adding a few students and/or the trend of lowering the cutoff levels continuing as the NYSPHSAA seeks to balance the number of teams per class -- and all of a sudden the combined programs could quickly find themselves in Class A in a variety of sports.
More often than not, that mathematical reality would be the end of talks about combining, especially with the NYSPHSAA announcing that the Class B ceiling for the 2013-14 school year plunges to 479. Any number of proposals for interdistrict cooperation in sports such as wrestling and hockey have died for that very reason in recent years.
Well, it turns out that Panama and Southwestern actually are talking about combining some sports -- and they're no longer worried about being pushed into a higher class. For now, the plan concerns combining wrestling and boys swimming. A day after Panama's school board OK'd further consolidation discussions, the Southwestern Central School District's board approved the proposal on Tuesday after being reassured by a New York State Public High School Athletic Association measure to soften the blow with a graduated enrollment scale for combined teams.
The NYSPHSAA's Executive Committee adopted a proposal on Tuesday that calls for no more than 50 percent of the smaller school's enrollment to be lumped in with the larger school's enrollment for purposes of determining the class that the combined team competes in.
"If we were to merge with Panama, as it used to sit, you took 100 percent of our BEDS numbers, 100 percent of their BEDS numbers, crunched them together and whatever classification you landed in, that's where you played," Southwestern AD Kevin Salisbury told his school board. "The proposal (to the NYSPHSAA) was to, instead of taking 100 percent, take certain percentages based on that school's classification. We just found out today that was voted on and passed."
Using data from the current school year, a combined Southwestern-Panama squad would have a BEDS figure of 372, safely in the middle of Class B. Nothing else is on the table, but had other sports been involved in the consolidation proposal, the lack of a graduated scale could have pushed Jamestown's cross country, girls volleyball or football teams from Class C to B.
A win for wrestling: Sectional singlets are back, just in time for next month's state wrestling tournament.
NYSPHSAA Executive Director Robert Zayas told New York Wrestling News that his organizations reversed a previous vote by deciding Tuesday that sectional uniforms will be allowed in all individual state championship sports as long as no cost is incurred by the student, school or section.
So, as long as the money can be raised, wrestlers can continue the tradition of wearing a singlet representing their section rather than their school at the state meet. To a civilian, that may seem trivial -- and perhaps even be viewed as an insult to the schools.
However, competitors view earning the right to wear that singlet as an honor, with the uniform itself becoming a cherished trophy after the season. More practically, a streamlined set of colors makes it infinitely easier for
Zayas said the 12-10 vote followed a high quality discussion including cost and tradition.
"I enjoyed seeing the passion in New York for wrestling and the strength and interest of the wrestling community, Zayas said.
Support for restoring the sectional singlets came on several fronts, but it's indisputable that ArmDrag.com editor Tim Herman played a big role. Herman started an online petition with a goal of gaining 2,500 supporters. He only ended up with 1,297 online signatures, but numerous media outlets and wrestling organizations took note and began pressing the issue locally.
Im not sure if the petition had anything to do with it, but it certainly spread like wildfire and mustve turned some heads," Herman said. "Thanks to a passionate wrestling community, we reached 1,000 signatures within a few days. Not long after, rumors of a revote began to circulate."
Milestone: Batavia Notre Dame used a 14-2 run late in the first quarter to pull away from Kendall and earn coach Mike Rapone's 600th boys basketball victory.
For me, its a culmination of working with a lot of great young players and a lot of longevity, Rapone told TheBatavian.com. I hope that I impacted their lives in a little way as they matured into young men.
Since becoming the head coach in 1980, Rapone has won 29 league titles, eight Section 5 championships and two NYSPHSAA Class D crowns.
Tommy Prospero scored a game-high 28 points and added eight rebounds.
That's all for now: I've got a bunch of interesting items piling up, but I'm out of time for now and may not get a chance to start catching up again before Friday night.
©2007-19 Abbott Trento Online Media. All rights reserved. Contact us via e-mail.


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Comedy String Quartet
16 strings, 8 dancing feet and 4 voices with 1 aim: to make classical music wickedly funny and fantastically exhilarating for everyone, young and old. Graffiti Classics bursts the setlist boundaries of the traditional String Quartet with its hilarious all-singing, all-dancing musical comedy show.
It's a classical concert, a gypsyfolk romp, an opera, a standup comedy set and a brilliant dance show all rolled into one! You will enjoy a broad spectrum of music from Beethoven to Bluegrass, Bach to Brahms, Strauss to Saturday Night Fever, Offenbach to Elvis as well as many well loved folk tunes – all played with the Graffiti Classics virtuosity. There really is something for everyone and Graffiti Classics never fails to get audiences laughing, clapping and singing along. Kids and adults alike love the uplifting variety of musical styles, all tied together with cheeky audience interaction.
Graffiti Classics was formed by a group of young graduates from London's top musical conservatoires, including the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal College of Music, who met whilst streetperforming in London's Covent Garden. They decided that classical music should be made fun and inclusive for everyone through interaction and comedy, creating a unique and worldclassjawdropping comedy show.
Since then, the group has performed in major theatres, Festivals and venues across the UK, Ireland, Germany, Malaysia, Spain, Vietnam, Sweden, Holland, Estonia, USA, Norway, Italy, Denmark,Greece, including the New Orleans Mardi Gras, Babaro International Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Leeds International Jewish Festival, Rochester Proms, Welsh Proms, Stadt Theater Minden Germany, Georgian Theatre Royal Richmond, Watermill Theatre Newbury, International Arts Centre Singapore, Theatre Royal Bath, Southbank Centre London, Canterbury Festival, Devizes Festival, Swalefest, Royal Festival Hall London, London Wonderground Festival, Udderbelly Festival, Teatro Principal Menorca, Fest Sevilla, Leeds Castle, Waterfront Hall Belfast, Pavillion Theatre Dublin, Faenol Festival with Bryn Terfel, Albert Hall Nottingham and Arken Kulturhaus Norway.
Graffiti Classics has appeared on national TV and radio in the UK, Ireland and Spain, played for Presidents and Royalty, appeared asguest artists with major orchestras, such as the Royal Philarmonic,is a member of Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now scheme and is also in huge demand as a lead headliner act on the most exclusivecruiseships in the world, such as Seabourn, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Saga, Holland America and Celebrity Cruises . The band also collaborated with Thorbjorn Egner on an awarding winning album of Norwegian children's songs on the Naxos label.
Most recently, Graffiti Classics has appeared on BBC TV's Hoopla,performed live on BBC Radio, has been profiled on Lyric FM's Culture File and has headlined at the Babaro International Festival,the New Orleans Mardi Gras, the Spark Festival as well as the London Southbank Centre's Imagine Festival.
For more information on Graffiti Classics please do not hesitate to contact a member of our Team at Audionetworks.ie , on:+ 353 1 201 3660


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11 Aug Nicki
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"Nicki"Written by
Estimated reading time — 16 minutes
"Huh?" I jerked up as my cell phone buzzed loudly, emitting an insultingly bright light. I rubbed my face and winced as I slapped at the screen in a half-ditch effort to shut the damn thing off. There was a muted thump as my hand brushed the edge of the phone and knocked it off the desk on to the carpeted floor.
I groaned and wiped at my face again. A thick, sticky glob of drool smeared across my hand in the process. Lovely. At some point a few hours earlier I'd evidently face-planted into my keyboard and passed out there. My ten page research paper on gender politics in American film was now twenty pages of unbroken lines of "g's." I squinted at the clock on my laptop screen. 3:30 A.M. My paper was due in five hours.
"Shit," I hissed as I reached down and patted around blindly for my dropped phone. By chance the tip of my index finger brushed the corner of the rubber Otter Box case. I strained and managed to hook my finger over the edge of it and tease it into reach from there. I scooped it up with a triumphant grunt. And then I saw the message and my chest went cold with dread.
She had texted me three words: "Come get me."
I snatched my car keys off my desk and bolted out the door without bothering to put shoes on. My hands were shaking so badly it took me three attempts to unlock my car door and another two to get the car started. Once I managed to get the engine to turn over, I peeled out of the small parking lot fast enough to leave twin strips of rubber in front of the dingy apartment building.
Nicki was my former roommate and the best friend I'd ever had. She and I had been friends since high school and we had only grown closer when we were accepted into the same small college in Oregon. We promptly put in a request to room together, and we started off our college experience practically holding each other's hands. I dove into Literature and Environmental Studies classes while Nicki went straight for Art; drawing, painting, and sculpture.
I was steady in my classes but Nicki blossomed like some exotic flower showered by the praise of her professors and classmates. Her side of the room was quickly papered with sketches ranging from bowls of fruit to people wearing old fashioned cloaks and whimsical jewelry. Strange, lacy shapes danced from page to page, darkly unique and beautiful.
By our sophomore year I trusted her capabilities as an artist – and a friend – enough to let her design a tattoo for me. I gave her complete freedom with no input from me other than the request that she make it as true to me as she could, whatever that turned out to be. Less than two weeks after I commissioned her, it curled in delicate feathery fronds of green and blue around my left bicep. It was vaguely plant-like, and more than a little alive; it was perfect and I loved it.
At the end of our sophomore year, we managed to land a cheap off campus apartment together, largely to make room for Nicki's ever-expanding collection of canvases, oil-paints, and sketch books. Her creativity blazed so bright that sometimes I was almost a little afraid of her.
She would disappear into her room for days at a time over the summer, only coming out to eat or use the bathroom, streaks of jewel-bright color dripped and smeared and dried all over her skin and clothes. In a rare move in the tenure of our friendship, I was forbidden under pain of doing all the dishes for six months to so much as peek around the door into her room until she invited me.
"Not until it's ready," she said solemnly, extending her pinky finger towards me.
"Not until it's ready," I repeated, hooking my pinky around hers and sealing the unbreakable oath that is the pinky swear.
One day, midway through July, she asked me to come in with so much excitement in her voice that her words trembled minutely. Her excitement was contagious. I raced up the stairs to her room and skidded to a full stop in her doorway, thunderstruck. She had created an entire world in there.
A castle bathed in strokes of a brilliant sunset crowned a distant hill in the first painting by the door. I caught my breath, imagining a warm summer wind blowing through the ancient stone. A tangled forest, lush with a multitude of greens and alive with clever, brown, elfin faces peeking through the foliage here and there bloomed on the opposite wall. A tavern nestled far back against a line of houses painted of timbers I could practically hear creaking. Portrait after portrait of characters so vivid I more than half expected them to step out of the frames.
I was too entranced to be startled when she slipped in beside me and laced her fingers through mine. I finally tore my gaze from the living, breathing paintings before me when she gave my hand an insistent squeeze.
"Well?" she asked, her lips quirked in that half-smile she always had when she was nervous and trying to hide it. "What do you think, Rose?"
I turned back to her room, struggling for the first time in years to find the right words to say to her.
"What do I think? It's… Nicki, it's incredible! I don't know what to say here, it's just…" I broke off, my focus dragged back to the fantasy world framed around us. Never in my life had I more keenly longed to plunge into a world outside of our own.
Finally I looked her right in the eye, taking her other hand in my free one.
"If I could step through those picture frames and live the rest of my life there, I would die happy."
A relieved smile broke like the sun through the clouds of her nervousness. "You mean it, Rose?"
Spontaneously, I leaned forward and laid a quick, light kiss on her cheek. "I absolutely mean it, Nick."
I grinned at her and nodded towards her paintings. "Why don't you show me around and tell me all about them? I want to know everything."
And she had. By the time we had stepped out of her room, we were both surprised to realize we'd been in there for three hours. It had felt like three minutes. Periodically throughout the rest of the summer she'd call me in to check out a fresh painting or meet a new character. I came to know her secret world almost as well as our own.
The ash-blond man with pointed ears and the tattered maroon cloak was Eldin, a pirate who scourged seven kingdoms. The tall woman with brown skin and blue beads braided into her thick, black hair was B'dera, a healer who roamed freely across all borders in search of a hidden secret. The little girl sitting cross-legged on a mossy log and grinning at the purple tongues of fire cupped in her small hands was Meda, a young conjurer who always skipped out on her magic lessons to play in the woods.
I grew to know them, and many dozens of others even better than our real-world friends. When Nicki inevitably started running out of room for her paintings and sketches, I immediately volunteered my walls and all the unused space in our shared living room. In those three months, Nicki burned like a new star, and I eagerly waited to see each new painting, watching her world unfold like the petals of some rare flower in our home.
And then our junior year started up and it took less than six weeks for it all to come crashing down. Nicki didn't come home one night in late September, although I admit I was too focused on my homework load to really notice until she stumbled in the next morning with her hair in disarray and a sheepish smile on her face. Turns out she'd met someone in her Art History class.
Was I maybe secretly a little disappointed? Probably. But I was her friend first and foremost, so of course I enthusiastically threw my support for her being with this guy as he seemed to make her happy. At least I did until the day she brought him over to meet me and show him her secret project.
I know everyone says they knew it from the start long after everything is out in the open, but I sincerely felt it when her boyfriend reached out to shake my hand; there was something very, very wrong with him. His name was Jesse, and he was (to my irritation) undeniably handsome. Piercing eyes, strong features, thick, dark hair, and nearly flawless skin. I wish it was just jealousy on my part, I honestly do, but there was something in his little half-smile that immediately struck a wrong chord with me.
I came to see more than I wanted to on the subsequent times Nicki brought him over. He was complimentary of her paintings of course, but there was something in his tone that was always just a few steps away from mockery. He never looked directly at her if she was talking to him, I noticed one day. Not that he was blatantly looking away exactly, but either just above or just to the side as though she wasn't really worth his attention. He'd sometimes let out quiet little amused snorts, so soft I wondered if I imagined them when she showed him a new painting she was particularly proud of, like he was privately making fun of them and wanted her to know it.
I was so focused on him that I didn't realize what was happening to Nicki until it was too late for me to do anything about it. She had been withdrawing into herself so quietly I didn't notice the signs at first. Her chestnut hair gradually lost its shine and her skin began breaking out as she slowly began showering less and less frequently. Her weight yo-yo'd as she'd go from eating nothing but McDonald's one week to practically nothing the next. She began wearing the same outfit day after day, and never washed her clothes unless she was washing Jesse's for him too.
Looking back all the red flags were there, but I swear to God they happened so slowly that with my focus primarily directed at my classes, I didn't put them all together until mid-October. I came home from my last class, mulling over our latest research assignment and almost tripped over Nicki as I came in the front door.
She was sitting on the floor hunched over a sketchbook. She didn't even look up as I came in. Carefully I slipped my heavy backpack off and crouched next to her, craning over to get a look at what she was drawing.
A cloaked figure turned away from the viewer, one leg hiked up on a boulder as though surveying a distant landscape that hadn't been drawn in yet. Other than that one leg, well-muscled and vaguely feminine, there was nothing discernible about the character. I blinked, puzzled. It wasn't like Nicki to draw someone like that; normally she'd be sure to have at least half of her character's face visible.
"What are you drawing, Nick?" I asked softly, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She flinched back.
I dropped my hand back into my lap as she flashed me an apologetic grin. Her eyelashes were suspiciously clumped together, as though she'd been crying recently.
"Oh hey, Rosie, I didn't hear you come in." She shrugged, closing her sketchbook. "I dunno yet. I have this idea for a character, but it's like I can't really see her yet."
I frowned. "That's weird," I commented.
Nicki had told me once over the summer that she always started by sketching a basic figure in a random pose and suddenly all the other details: Face, name, outfit, even backstory would just flood into her head all at once and be on the canvas before she had time to process it all. She wasn't bragging – she never bragged about her artwork – she was just stating a fact. That she didn't know anything about this new character was how I finally figured out that something was wrong.
"Thalia," she said abruptly, interrupting my dawning realization.
"Her… her name. It's Thalia." She smiled at me then, and I saw a flicker of the old Nicki. "That's all I know for now, but I feel like she's important."
I smiled back, hoping my worry didn't show on my face. Maybe it should have. Then maybe I could have stopped her when she told me she was moving in with Jesse a week later and he wouldn't have been able to twist my concern into jealousy to make my concerns sound petty and unnecessary. I tried so hard to talk her out of it, but it was too late. She wasn't listening.
Nicki did ask if her precious paintings could stay with me for a while, as well as her canvases and all her art supplies except for a few sketchbooks. I agreed, of course, dread twisting in my gut; she quickly explained that it was because there wasn't room at Jesse's place, but I knew that was bullshit. He just didn't want her to get drawn into her own world and stop paying attention to him even for a small amount of time. It was like he was slowly starving her of her creativity.
I saw very little of Nicki over the next few months. When I did manage to catch a glimpse of her on the quad or on the sidewalk between classes, she was always gone before I managed to catch up to her. She barely answered any of my texts beyond generic "I'm fine's," she bailed on every plan, and stopped coming by to work on her paintings. Nonetheless I knew what was happening well enough just in those passing glimpses.
She had grown desperately thin, her clothes hanging like old bags of her bare frame. Her hair was starting to look thin and patchy. Sometimes I could smell her before I saw her; stale body odor and cigarette smoke. Sometimes she wore long sleeves in weather way too hot for them. Once in a while the skin at the corner of her mouth or high on her cheekbone would be suspiciously dark, like a badly concealed bruise.
Then all of a sudden, I stopped seeing her. I tried not to worry, but as days rolled around into weeks, my texts became more and more frantic. She never responded. And then a mutual friend who worked in the admissions offices tracked me down and told me that Nicki dropped out. It hit me like a gut-punch. She dreamed of getting this degree, then her Masters and becoming an artist. If Jesse had sapped this much of her dream out of her, I was terrified of what might be left.
I drove to Jesse's place just once to check in on her. I was too angry to be afraid when I pounded on his door. After what happened next I was too afraid to go back. He let me in calmly, even courteously, as though this was a normal social visit between friends. Nicki was huddled up on his couch with her knees hugged to her chest, eyes fixed on the ground.
I never got to bring my concerns up as it turned out, because before I so much as opened my mouth Jesse had pushed me into the wall and pinned me there. It wasn't pain but shock that kept me silent as he started talking.
"Listen up, you fucking dyke," he snarled. "You're going to turn that bitchy little ass of yours around, get back in your car, and leave. Nicki doesn't want you here. I don't want you here, and you aren't going to come anywhere near her again. Got it?"
I gaped at Nicki, silently begging her to get up, to do something, tears streaming down my face. She still stared at the floor, but her shoulders were shuddering. I'd apparently taken too long to respond. Jesse grabbed my neck and squeezed until I gasped for air, clawing uselessly at his hand.
"Got it??" I nodded until I felt like my head was being bobbed up and down on a puppeteer's string.
"Good." He let me go and I slumped against the wall. "Now get out and don't come back."
I slumped against the wall struggling to catch my breath. Behind Jesse, Nicki finally raised her eyes to mine. They were blazing with a rage I never suspected she could have in her.
"Go," she mouthed.
And I did. I fled like a coward and didn't try to contact her again. A few months passed. And now she was calling me for help. From the moment I read her message asking me to come get her, it took me all of ten minutes to get to that fuck-head's apartment. The minute I pulled up, Nicki came flying out the front door, sketchbook hugged to her chest. With my headlights shining into their apartment, I could clearly see Jesse running down the stairs after her. Nicki reached my car just ahead of him, slid into the passenger seat and screamed: "GO!!"
She didn't have to tell me twice. We roared out of the parking lot, leaving Jesse behind.
"Will he follow us?" I asked, quietly cursing my voice for trembling.
Nicki shook her head, "No; he knows I'll call the cops and he's too much of a coward to deal with that."
Bitterness laced her words like poison. "He'll send some angry messages and then spend the rest of the night drinking til he passes out. Getting me back is too much effort. Give him two days and he'll move on to someone else." She shook her head in disgust.
"Do you think you should call them anyway? Do you need a doctor? Are you hurt?" the questions came pouring out in a flood.
But Nicki just shook her head. "No, I'm not hurt. And I don't want to deal with anything like that tonight. Honestly, I just…" she trailed off for a moment, staring out her window. Then she turned and offered me a wan smile. "I think I want to paint."
I risked taking my eyes off the road for a brief second to shoot her a look of surprise.
"I mean it, Rose," she insisted. "I feel like more than anything in the world right now it's what I need to do."
I nodded. I thought I understood. We drove on in silence until we pulled into my apartment.
"I know who she is now. Thalia, I mean," Nicki broke the silence suddenly.
I strained back my memory to the cloaked figure. "Who is she, Nick?"
"She's an assassin. A freelancer. And she is very important," she responded, fiddling with the corners of her notebook.
I was too tired and too strung out on emotions to ask any more questions, so I just nodded and unlocked the front door for her. She immediately sat down at a blank canvas and started sketching the bones of what would be her new painting. I watched her for a moment, relief spreading like warm water through my chest. Nicki was finally building her world again. I headed upstairs; the excitement of the night didn't make the reality of my paper's deadline go away. And I had ten pages worth of "g's" to erase.
I finally put the finishing touches on my paper and electronically submitted it around 5:00am. I could faintly hear the metallic pop of paint bottles being uncapped downstairs. I smiled to myself and laid down on my bed. I drifted off to sleep on the comforting smell of fresh oil paint. It was the best sleep I had had in a very long while. I slept through my first, second and third alarm and didn't wake up until nearly 2:00pm.
I laid there for a few minutes, snuggled up in my fluffy comforter. The whole apartment smelled of fresh paint. I rolled out of bed and staggered downstairs. Nicki had evidently painted all night: The finished canvas was set up on an easel and she was curled up asleep on the floor in front of it, paintbrush loosely resting in her hand. Her head rested on her sketchbook like the world's flattest pillow. I glanced at her fondly and headed into the kitchen to make coffee before checking out her new painting.
It was stunning. The backdrop was sparse: a few slim, bare trees against a soft wintry fog of white and gray. It could have easily been blank for all the attention the main figure commanded. She still wore a long, slate-gray cloak, but now her hood was thrown back, allowing her chestnut hair to hang down in wild ringlets past her shoulders.
Her cloak was likewise slung back behind her shoulders, revealing a compact, muscular frame. Silver knives and corked vials of poison green and orange liquids dangled like deadly fruits from her leather belt. She was posed similarly to her initial sketch, one leg propped up on a boulder, but now she stood half-turned to face the viewers. One hand clutched a small, bulging drawstring bag; a coin purse, I assumed. The other hand was painted in a rather odd position towards the viewer: palm forward, fingers spread, as though she were pressing her hand against a wall or a window.
Her face is what really stole my attention though: almond-shaped eyes a brilliant shade of green, burning with ferocity. Her teeth were bared in what could either have been a snarl or a feral smile. She was beautiful of course, but then again, I'd always found her beautiful.
She had given herself elven ears and a thin scar that neatly divided her right eyebrow, but the face sneering defiantly from the canvas was definitely Nicki's. All of the passion and fire that Jesse had sapped from her blazed stronger than ever from the figure on the canvas. It was in the determined set of her jaw, the flinty look in her eyes, even in the cold glint of her bared teeth. This was the Nicki I had only ever seen glimpses of; a fiercely strong, proud, wild woman.
I stepped closer to the canvas, edging carefully around the sleeping artist on the floor. Something about those eyes drew me like a magnet. I stopped less than a foot from the canvas, feeling something odd in my chest, something like pride and pain. Unconsciously my hand drifted up to her extended one, my fingertips coming to rest in the blank spaces between hers.
The painting never moved, how could it? At the end of the day it was nothing more than colored oils arranged in a lovely pattern on a sheet of canvas. But I felt it, nonetheless, when her fingers interlaced with mine, as warm and living as they had always been, and gave my hand one last fond squeeze. The smile on her painted face looked softer then, less teeth and more laughter.
I don't know how long I stood there in front of the canvas, but when the moment ended and I stepped back, my cheeks were stiff and itchy with dried tears. I instinctively knew it down in my bones the minute I felt her fingers twine with mine. Nicki wasn't sleeping. I kissed the tips of my fingers and lightly pressed them to the inert image before me.
"Goodbye, Nicki," I whispered.
I called 911 immediately of course, but they just confirmed what I already knew. Nicki had been hurt after all. Jesse, as it turned out, was a master of aiming his blows where they could be easily covered. While I had typed away on my term paper, she had somehow created her masterpiece while she internally bled to death from a ruptured kidney.
Jesse got an unfairly light sentence, I thought; just ten years. He ended up serving less than a month though; late one night, someone somehow slipped into his locked jail cell without alerting the guards or any of the other prisoners and neatly slit his throat while he lay in his bunk. It was so skillfully done with so few leads that the newspapers termed it a professional hit rather than a murder. I had my theories of course, but I felt it would be wiser to keep them to myself.
I offered Nicki's paintings to her family but to my mingled relief and annoyance, they politely rejected the offer. I finished my Bachelor's program, received my degree, and quietly packed up my belongings and moved out to a small cabin out in the Cascade Mountains. I didn't intend to stay there indefinitely; I just needed some time alone to process. I couldn't bear to bring the paintings with me… not yet. I had them stored safely and securely in the meantime.
I spent the next few weeks eating simple meals and walking through the woods looking for exotic plants and flowers. There is a lot of living beauty to be found in the deep forests. I found I would go days without speaking. There was no need for it here. Gradually I found peace in the mountains, but there was still deep pain I had no idea how to even begin to address. I retreated into my grief and very likely would have stayed there if not for Nicki's last gift to me.
I woke early one morning about a month into my self-imposed exile. I wasn't sure what woke me, but I had no intention of getting up just yet. I stubbornly rolled over and reached for my second pillow, planning to cuddle it until I fell asleep again. My pillow wasn't there. Instead of soft cotton, my fingers found the edge of something slim and stiff.
I bolted up. Nicki's sketchbook lay innocently on the bed next to me.
"It's not possible," I insisted to the empty house.
But there it was, even in the face of my denial; penned neatly in black sharpie on the maroon cover: This book is the property of Nichole Thalia Quaid.
My hands trembled as I picked it up. For a moment I debated whether I really dared to open it. Maybe it was a trick of a drafty house, but the pages fluttered briefly, flipping the cover open. I caught my breath. There, sketched in subtle color on the first page was a full-blooming, perfect rose.
I found myself turning page after page. Nicki permeated every page. Playful designs, mystic swords, flowers blooming in deep clearings. Jesse hadn't managed to take it all from her after all. She had continued building her world in tiny pencil sketch increments up until the end. And then I reached the last page.
It was a character sheet. Penned in Nicki's looping script was the base description.
"Amara. Half-elf. Scholar. Deeply, deeply loyal to her loved ones. Known for taking on too much responsibility. Dearly loved by all her friends. Often looks to the natural world for answers. Wise and should always be trusted, even by the most stubborn of asses."
The accompanying sketch was simple, but gorgeous. Amara knelt in a grassy field, wearing a plain blue tunic and leggings. She was busily engaged in examining a bright orange flower. Even if I had somehow failed to recognize the short, choppy black hair or deep brown eyes, I could not fail to catch the strange, feathery green and blue tattoo coiling around her bicep.
The pain festering deep in my chest seized once, like a clenching muscle, then released. It wasn't gone, by any means, but I knew deep down that for me the worst of it was over.
At the very last, even when Nicki felt the need to escape further than anyone ever had, she still brought part of me with her.
Credit: MJ
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Marathon Shoppers Guide To A Pain-Free Season
Can you hear the holiday songs playing? Of course, that's because the holidays are until after January! However, with this season's good cheer, holiday stress may lead to tears, neck pain, shoulder pain, and headaches. The combination of the wrong food, too much alcohol, late nights, rushing around carrying heavy bags, and, let's face it, family ...
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Pope Francis' second encyclical letter, Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home, was released in 2015. Informed by principles and examples from the Judeo-Christian tradition, the encyclical letter offers a moral argument for the development of an "integral ecology" as a response to the global environmental crisis and the suffering of the poor and the marginalized. The encyclical letter is addressed to "every person living on this planet," and in it the Pope expresses the wish to "enter into dialogue with all people about our common home" (sec. 3). Notable, for some, is Pope Francis' embrace of climate science and his call for dialogue between religions and sciences to help solve the crises (see especially sections 199-201).
The first chapter is a resume of the environmental crisis and a description of how that crisis is concomitant with, as the title of one subsection indicates, the "decline in the quality of human life and the breakdown of society." As he explains, "The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation" (sec. 48). Chapter Two is an explication of the "Gospel of Creation," beginning with the creation accounts in Genesis. People of faith may be motivated to work towards an integral ecology after coming to realize, as the creation accounts suggest, that "human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor and with the earth itself" (sec. 66). Chapter Three is an argument about the "human origins of the ecological crisis" (sec. 101). The Pope contends that the crisis is enabled by a technoscientific paradigm and a distorted conception of the place of human beings and of human action in the world (we believe that our technology will allow us to solve all environmental problems [even those it creates] and, indeed, to master, to create and improve upon, life itself). The crisis is also financed by an economy that "accepts every advance in technology with a view to profit, without concern for its potentially negative impact on human beings" (sec. 109). Chapter Four is an general outline of an "integral ecology" that seeks to acknowledge the interrelatedness of the environmental, economic, and social ecologies. Chapters Five and Six contain respectively a call for action and a reflection on the resources, the images and practices, from with the Christian tradition that can help positively transform our destructive ways of life. "Many things have to change course," he writes, "but it is we human being above all who need to change", but we are not without resources for understanding in what ways, just how, we should change (sec. 202).
The encyclical letter is rich with material that can help organize an ACS1001 syllabus and/or that can be linked up with other major themes and texts typically taken up in ACS1001. Chapter Three, on the "Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis," could be read at the beginning of the semester and taken as a provocation: Will we read anyone/anything this semester that challenges the Pope's claim that, "Modernity has been marked by an excessive anthropocentrism which . . . continues to stand in the way of shared understanding and of any effort to strengthen social bonds' (sec. 116)"? The encyclical offers a specifically Catholic Christian voice to debates about the environmental crisis; the meaning and role of technology in our lives (and it would work well when read with Shelley's Frankenstein, Atwood's Oryx and Crake, or any of several texts by Wendell Berry, etc.); the role and significance of capitalism (and neo-liberalism) in shaping the values of our contemporary consumerist society; and the consideration of various Modern religious and secular utopian visions, images of other and of better ways of life.
Laudato si' is available for free via the Vatican's website. You can download a pdf of the text here: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html. One book version of the encyclical letter that includes discussion questions is put out by Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. [$ 8.75; ISBN: 1612783864].


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Nine Big Companies That Grew Through The Recession
The recession that began in 2007, and by some accounts is only barely over now, shut down and largely reversed the growth of most American companies. Those that grew through the period were uncommon. Those that grew rapidly were rare.
24/7 Wall St. has looked for companies that did extremely well during the recession. Given the severity of the downturn and how sharply both consumers and businesses pulled back their spending, these were expansions seemingly without explanation.
The companies on this list shared several characteristics that enabled them to expand during a downturn. Among the most common characteristic that these resilient companies shared was a highly regarded brand built over many years. Apple is probably the best example of this. Another is that the company has services which are very inexpensive or even free. Facebook falls into this category, as does Redbox, the DVD rental kiosk. Also, almost all the companies on the list entered the recession during a cycle of significant growth.
The last characteristic that every one of the companies on this list has is deep pockets, especially when compared to its competitors. It cannot be underestimated that during a brutal economic downturn, nothing can replace a large bank balance.
Analysts believed that with the death of Blockbuster all DVD rentals would be done via mail, like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) , or that consumers would get premium video streamed to their homes. Redbox, a division of Coinstar, found a way to keep the DVD "store" alive. It erected kiosks, which are small and need no full-time staff, in places where there is a lot of foot traffic such as supermarkets and malls. Redbox had 26,900 kiosks at the end of the second quarter and should have 30,000 by year-end.


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Katherine Applegate is the Newbery Medal-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of numerous books for young readers including The One and Only Ivan, Crenshaw, Wishtree, the Endling series, and the Animorphs series.
She will be presenting her newest book Endling #2: The First. This is the second book in the epic middle-grade fantasy the Endling series.
This event will be held at Skinner Middle School Auditorium!
20% of all book sales will go to Skinner Middle School
Tickets are FREE but required. Get them HERE


text: MOVIES 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull': Film Review 4:10 PM PDT 5/18/2008 by Kirk Honeycutt FACEBOOK TWITTER EMAIL ME Photofest 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' A wearying onslaught of action and effects gives Indy little chance to charm as he did in days of old. TWITTER CANNES — What do you know, the film billed as a return of Indiana Jones turns out instead to be a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Extraterrestrials and a spaceship mix it up with well-lit caves, tumbles over waterfalls and swings through the jungle that would make Tarzan gape. Director Steven Spielberg seems intent on celebrating his entire early movie career in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Whatever story there is, a murky journey to return a spectacular archeological find to its rightful home — an unusual goal of the old grave-robber — gets swamped in a sea of stunts and CGI that are relentless as the scenes and character relationships are charmless. Crystal Skull will have its huge audience when it opens worldwide Thursday. Indeed it had that audience the day the project was announced. What is disappointing to those who fondly remember Raiders of the Lost Ark, lo those 27 years ago, is the loss of wit and romance. This film feels like work, whether it's poor Harrison Ford straining to keep pace with his younger self or Spielberg and writer David Koepp piling on the thrill-ride acrobatics that have only scant connection to the plot. In the first 22 minutes, old Indy survives a kidnapping, shoot-outs, auto crashes inside a mysterious warehouse, a ride in a desert rocket and an A-bomb detonation. Spielberg is only getting warmed up. The film never pauses to let these characters enjoy a drink or take each other's measure. Indy's original flame, Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood, also makes a welcome return; she even has a surprise for Indiana — yet this moment is lost in the forward momentum. Losing his job during the Red Scare of the '50s, Indy is persuaded by young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) — who keeps those iconic '50s images flowing by arriving on a motorbike like Brando in The Wild One — to take off on a vague adventure in South America to save his mother and retrieve the Crystal Skull of Akator. This trip hooks the duo up with a spy (Ray Winstone) who changes sides every half-hour; a Soviet villain (Cate Blanchett) with close-cropped hair, black skin-tight fencing garb and absolutely no point in her villainy; and a crazy loon (John Hurt) who, like Kurtz in Heart of Darkness, has been in the jungle too long. Once the group possesses the Crystal Skull — it does keep changing hands between Indy and the Soviet army -- no one seems to know quite what to do with it. But it has its uses: At different times, it opens doors, triggers cave machinery, wards off giant red ants and scares hostile natives. For all anyone knows, it might pay the bill at a fancy restaurant. After about an hour, the film abandons any pretense of story for a rush through fights, chases, machine gun fire, scorpions, quicksand, monkeys, huge snakes and finally a secret city — part Mayan, part Aztec, certain to become both a video game and amusement park attraction. At no time does any of Indy's gang seem in real jeopardy. Bullets splash all around, but not even the brim of his fedora gets nicked. Waterfalls are mere dips in the water, collapsing ruins an excuse for free-exercise tumbles and the villains mere annoyances. The actors are asked to do little more than look reasonably alert. This proves to be Indiana Jones' greatest challenge. Festival de Cannes, Out of Competition Production: Paramount Pictures, LucasFilm Cast: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, Shia LaBeouf Director: Steven Spielberg Screenwriter: David Koepp Story: George Lucas, Jeff Nathanson Producer: Frank Marshall Executive producers: George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy Director of photography: Janusz Kaminski Production designer: Guy Hendrix Dyas Music: John Williams Costume designer: Mary Zophres Editor: Michael Kahn Rated PG-13, 123 minutes FACEBOOK TWITTER EMAIL ME Kirk Honeycutt email@example.com @thr