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Research Spotlight
The percentage of deals
involving full acquisitions US public targets where stock was all or part of the consideration offered is at
its highest level since 2004. In 2004, the percentage of deals where cash was the only form of consideration offered
versus those where some or all stock was offered was nearly equal, with cash
deals accounting for 51.41% of announced deals and stock swap deals accounting
for 48.24% of deals. By 2006, when the
M&A market was being spurred by easily secured credit, this difference had
widened considerably with all cash deals representing slightly more than 70% of
all deals announced and stock swaps accounting for just under 30%. So far this year, stock swaps are up almost
11% and all cash deals are down correspondingly as compared to last year, with
cash and stock swap deals now representing 56.89% and 42.51%, respectively, as
the chart below indicates.
Many potential buyers have
seen their stock price rise over the last several months as the stock market
has improved. In addition, many potential buyers still cannot get access to deal financing, so using their increasingly valuable stock as consideration
offered is an obvious alternative if they want to get a deal done now. Given these factors and the trend of
increasing stock swaps we have already discussed, we used MergerMetrics
to analyze the prevalence of both collar and walkaway
provisions in definitive agreements. These
are two key deal protection mechanisms that buyers and sellers can negotiate
into a merger agreement to protect themselves from changes in the acquirer's
stock price once a transaction is announced.
Interestingly, collar and walkaway provisions
are rarely used in conjunction with each other in the same agreement. For deals announced between 2004 and today,
the average percentage of deals with both a collar and walkaway
provision is only 5.84%. In 2004, only
2.29% of announced deals with definitive agreements included both provisions.
A collar provision is
designed to mitigate the risk to the target and acquirer in stock swap
transactions due to potentially dramatic changes in the acquirer's stock price
between the time a deal is announced and the time it
completes.One of the biggest risks the
target board has when negotiating a stock swap transaction is that the
acquirer's stock price will fall between the deal's announcement and completion
and that the acquirer will therefore significantly under pay for the target company. The acquirer, on the other hand, is concerned
that its stock price will increase dramatically while the deal is pending and
that they may end up over paying for the target. A collar provision ensures that target shareholders receive either a minimum or maximum value in acquirer stock if the deal has a fixed exchange ratio or a minimum or maximum level of ownership in
the acquirer if the deal has a floating exchange ratio (see our previous research spotlight on Fixed vs. Floating Exchange
Ratios). The collar
accomplishes this by setting up different ranges, or bands, based on the
acquirer's closing stock price.For
example, imagine a hypothetical deal where the acquirer offers .6 shares of its
stock for each target share and its stock price is trading at $41 when the deal
is announced. If the acquirer's average
closing stock price is between $50 and $35, then the target shareholders will
continue to receive the .6 shares offered for each share held as originally
negotiated. However, if the acquirer's average closing stock price is $50 or
greater, then the target shareholders will receive a maximum dollar amount of the acquirer's stock. If the acquirer's
average closing stock price is less than $35, then the target shareholders will
receive a minimum dollar amount
of the acquirer's stock. This way, no
matter what the acquirer's stock price does between announcement and completion,
the target's board has guaranteed a minimum and maximum dollar amount of value
for their shareholders and the acquirer has guaranteed the minimum and maximum
amount of equity it will issue in the transaction.
As an alternative to, or in
conjunction with a collar, a walkaway provision can
also be negotiated into a definitive agreement. A walkaway provision, which is sometimes referred to as a 'market out' provision, allows one or both of the parties to
terminate the merger agreement based on a significant change in the acquirer's
stock price. It protects the target by limiting the amount the acquirer's stock
price can decrease between announcement of the deal and closing by giving the
target the right to get out of the deal if the acquirer's price falls below the
negotiated walkaway price. It protects the acquirer by limiting the
amount their stock price can increase between announcement and completion,
thereby ensuring that the acquirer does not overpay for the target if their
stock price rises above the negotiated walkaway
Interestingly, the percentage
of stock swap transactions where a definitive agreement was reached that
included a collar or a walkaway provision has fallen
steadily since 2006, when both provisions were most prevalent as measured in
the period between 2004 and today (as shown in the graph below).
As mentioned previously, 2006
was also the year in which there was the widest gap between all cash deals and
deals involving all or some stock.This
decline in the use of both collar and walkaway
provisions can be explained by a couple of different factors. First, 2006 was a
seller's market as there were multiple buyers chasing a limited number of
targets, so sellers had negotiating leverage. In those deals where the target chose to accept stock when 70% of other
targets were accepting cash, targets wanted to ensure the value that their
shareholders would receive in the acquirer's stock and they did so by including
collars and walkaway provisions. Second, as the M&A market has cooled off
over the last couple of years and the credit markets have tightened up, thereby
reducing the number of potential buyers in the market, sellers have lost negotiating
leverage and are less likely to push for certain deal protection mechanisms. Target
boards that have chosen to accept stock are more willing to accept the risk of
changes in the acquirer's stock price while the deal is pending instead of pushing
in negotiations to include collar and walkaway
We also examined the
distribution of collar and walkaway provisions by the
type of consideration offered. As the
charts below indicate, since 2004 collars are most frequently negotiated into
definitive agreements when the consideration offered is cash and stock. Walkaway provisions
are most frequently used when the target shareholders are offered a choice of
receiving stock or cash, which is sometimes referred to as a 'cash election'
since the target shareholders can elect to receive cash instead of stock
Lastly, we examined the
frequency of use based on the different types of walkaway
provision; those where the right to terminate is based on a change in the
acquirer's stock price only applies to the target, only to the acquirer or
where both parties had the right to terminate. As expected, target side only walkaway
provisions were employed most frequently, appearing almost 80% of the time,
followed by those deals where both sides had the right to terminate. Deals where the acquirer was the only party
that had the right to terminate is based on changes in their stock price were very
rare, occurring in less than 2% of the definitive agreements announced since
2004, as the chart below indicates.


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- Old Town -The beating heart of Naples
Via Tribunali is the most chaotical and full-of-life street of town, where sacred and profane live together. Walk with us throughout monumental churches, rests of greek theater and the smell of the best pizza worldwide, to understand the contraddiction of Napoli.
Our path (2,00 Km. about) includes:
- Piazza Dante and the bookshop of Port'Alba
- Piazza Bellini
- Via Tribunali
- Via Anticaglia and the greek- roman theatre
- Piazza San Gaetano
- San Gennaro's obelisk
- Pizzeria "da Michele"
|2 hours about
|Tips based
|Meeting point
|Piazza Dante (under the dante's statue)
|Ending point
|Pizzeria Da Michele

subset: commoncrawl


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The goal here was to make a gorgonzola, mushroom, and carmelized onion flatbread pizza. Overall, it turned out pretty good, but there are a few details I will be changing next time. This is definitely on it's way to goal #54, create my own signature pizza. First, the dough recipe I found. I cut it in half, but I am going to list the full recipe. I believe it makes a pound if you make the whole thing…but it may be more. Admittedly, I cannot find the site I actually pulled this recipe off of, because I wrote it down and didn't mark the page. oh well! It was a good one. And my apologies for the lighting in the pictures–our kitchen lights just aren't cutting it 🙂
2 3/4 c. lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 talbespoon sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 1/2 cups flour
Add yeast to water and let sit 5-10 minutes.
Mix in salt, sugar, and oil.
Add in flour, mixing with a wooden spoon as you add.
Cover and let rest for two hours. You can refrigerate it if you aren't using it right away, but you'll want to let it sit out a half an hour before you use it again.
Preheat overn to 500 degrees. For FLAT flatbread pizzas (mine was not) divide this dough into four. Use a bit of cornmeal on two cookie trays to keep dough from sticking. Stretch the dough out into four long, very flat ovalish rectangles. This dough will still rise a little, so the flatter you get now, the flatter your pizza. Once you add your toppings, you will only need to bake for 7-10 minutes. Our oven is terrible, so it took a little longer. Enjoy!
Carmelized Onions:
I had never done this before, and it was easy. I used two large white onions, and this easily coated half of the dough recipe above. Chop the onions into thin slices, and heat 3 tablespoons of oil until it's hot, but not smoking, on medium-high heat.
Cook the onions uncovered with some salt and pepper until they are soft and beginning to brown, stirring occassionally (~10 minutes).
Turn heat to medium, and continue cooking, stirring occassionally, until tender and golden (~15 minutes).
Turn heat to low, and continue cooking, stirring occassioually, until very soft and deep brown (~15 minutes).
Remove and cool to warm for about 10 minutes.
I believe that since I used white onions, the deep brown was not going to happen. I cooked for much longer than this and they never quite got there, though they were still delicious. Your choice!
To top the pizza, brush olive oil onto the dough. We added the onions, and then mushrooms and gorgonzola cheese. Usually, this cheese is very strong, but I think our crumbles were too small and we lost some of the flavor. Whatever cheese you use, use big chunks.
All in all, a good pizza with some ideas to make it GREAT next time. Expect a third attempt in the future…


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2016 TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL: You might think Casey Affleck is too young to receive a tribute at a major film festival like Telluride, but if you take a second to look back at his already illustrious career, your mind should be swayed. For the last twenty years, Affleck has consistently turned heads with sometimes subtle, sometimes vociferous performances in films that include: "To Die For," "Good Will Hunting," "Gerry," "Gone Baby Gone," "The Killer Inside Me," "Out of the Furnance," and his career-best, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" – for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Supporting Actor (2007).
Before the Telluride premiere of "Manchester by the Sea" (the film made its world debut at Sundance earlier this year), the intense yet charming actor received his aforementioned tribute. Following the presentation, Kenneth Lonergan's ("Margaret," "You Can Count on Me") somber and moody melodrama lit up the screen.
Affleck stars as Lee Chandler, an emotionally spent janitor who lives remote from the rest of his family. Following the death of his older brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), Lee returns to his hometown to face the overwhelming events that consume his past. Lonergan's multi-layered narrative effectively weaves three plot lines simultaneously. We find out about Joe's death very early on in the film, and follow Lee on his journey with his hilarious yet troubled nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Meanwhile, we see flashbacks of Lee's relationship with Joe, as well as the devastating tragedy that led to Lee's emotional vacancy.
Lonergan's tale is devastating and heavy, and is full of emotionally rich performances from Affleck, Michelle Williams – who plays Lee's ex-wife, and newcomer Hedges. While I can admit to the film's superb acting and potent and atmospheric storytelling, "Manchester by the Sea" left me feeling a bit distant and at odds with its conclusion. There will be many Lonergan fans who fall head over heels for "Manchester," though, as they already have based on the reviews out of Sundance and now Telluride. But this is simply a film I admired, not one that I can say I fully embraced.


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Kitchen clock JUG with a CUP
Tax included
Fantastic kitchen clock which decorate your kitchen wall. Decoration consists of 2 parts - jug and cup which is fixed at the wall by installed tape.
Product dimension
Clock movement
Short movie showing how to install the product
100 Items
Data sheet
- Material
- Acrylic, 3mm thickness
- Dimension
- aprox. 45 x 44 cm
- Style
- Classic
- Shape
- Irregular
- Clock movement
- Quartz, non ticking


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SAIL Recruitment 2018 2019: Here today we came up with a new list of job opportunity in Sail Careers, those who are you looking for the jobs in Steel Authority of India SAIL Recruitment 2018, here is the great opportunity for you to snatch a chance in SAIL Careers? Steel Authority of India has recently issued a significant number of vacancies for the operator positions. Those who are all the candidates interested can apply via the online application for SAIL Recruitment 2018 – 19 before the last date from an announcement date. The candidates with eligibility criteria can apply for Steel Authority of India (SAIL) jobs in a various Designations like Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineer, Paramedical staff, Staff nurses, Doctors and other Financial Management Trainee.
There are fantastic chances for all the candidates who want to explore themselves for SAIL Vacancy openings with more information related to Requirement. The positions allotted by the SAIL are the vast numbers of the candidates who are very much vibrant and looking for the SAIL job careers across in India.
Also Search for: Latest NEW Civil Engineering Jobs
SAIL Recruitment 2018-19
Steel Authority of India is ready to set offer the jobs in various positions in their organization work. So it is possible to start hiring seekers for a job for the year of 2018-2019. Thus the primary process will be organized by filtering the candidates with very qualified and skilled.
The SAIL India will recruit depend on SAIL GATE score and as well the new release Employment News Advertisement Notification with the qualification with BE / B.Tech in all Engineering streams and any graduates.
So the graduation with GATE score may help the candidates to stay up on during interview process. The qualified candidates with the skills will be recruited to fill the vacant posts according to the types of a category in different locations across India.
The positions allotted by the SAIL were Attendant cum Technician cum trainee. The SAIL will announce later about the date of registration and last date to apply for the upcoming exams 2018-19 via online and offline. After the process of registration, there will be an Admit card for the exam will be received for the examination
You May also get: Indian Railway Recruitment
list of Latest SAIL Recruitment 2018 Notifications
|Post Name
|Total Posts
|Imp Date
|Nursing – Staff Nurse
|GNM, B.sc Nursing
|10th April 2018
|Click Here
|Across India
|Management Trainee
|Gate 2018
|21 Feb 2018
|Click Here
|Sr. Registrars
|29th Jan 2018
|Click Here
|Durgapur Steel Plant
|Staff Nurse
|46 Posts
|Diploma in General Nursing Midwfery
|25 September 2017
|Click Here
|Durgapur steel plant
|Resident house officers, Registrars, Sr Registrars
|8 posts
|31st March 2017
|Click Here
|Bhilai Steel Plant
|Medical Officers
|03 posts
|31st Jan 2017
|Click Here
|SAIL Collieries Division, Kolkata
|Mining Sirdar, operator cum Technician Trainee
|14 posts
|ITI, Diploma
|28th Feb 2016
|Click Here
|Bokaro Steel Plant
|Techniciane Trainee
|126 Posts
|Diploma Engg, ITI
|17th Dec 2016
|Click Here
|Rourkela Steel Plant
|02 posts
|28th July 2016
|Click here
|Rourkela Steel Plant
|Air Traffic Controller
|01 posts
|09th Mar 2016
|Click here
24SAIL Zones and Divisions
Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is the largest and widest steel making company in India and one of the best seven Maharatna's of the Indian country's Central Public Sector Enterprises. SAIL produces the iron and steel at five parts of incorporated plants, and three special steel plants placed principally in the eastern and central regions of India and located close to the domestic sources of raw materials. SAIL manufactures and sells a broad range of iron and steel products. The projects doing which are only representative to the SAIL capabilities are Railway products, Structural, Bars & Rods, hot rolled products, plates, cold rolled product, and Galvanized product. Some of the zones and Divisions across the India which are working with the huge amount numbers turn over for industries are below
- Bokaro steel plant
- Durgapur steel plant
- Rourkela steel plant
- IISCO steel plant
- Special steel plants
- Ferro Alloy plants
- Bhilai Steel Plant
SAIL Recruitment 2018 for Engineers
SAIL Recruitment for Engineers and graduates in various Designation like Attendant cum Technician and Technician cum Trainee Vacancies for working on the SAIL industries across India. Now the central government jobs for the graduates and Engineers has announced working on Structural, Railway products, Rods & Bars, plates, hot rolled products, Galvanized product and cold rolled products. The Central Government for SAIL Recruitment 2018 has issued the Online Registration Application through via official website of SAIL notification. The SAIL Recruitment for 2018-19 under the Education Qualification of mechanical engineering, Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, and other Graduates for Technicians and Trainees. It is the golden opportunity to grab by the candidates who live in the zones like Rourkela, Bokaro, and Durgapur zones have got the best SAIL careers to move forward towards the central government for the graduates and engineers in the specified field.
The following positions are the two types they are
- Attendant cum Technician Trainee
- Technician cum Trainee
SAIL online Application- Apply online
The require interest and Eligible candidates who want to apply online only via SAIL online website link on or before the announced dates. After the submission of online application, take a copy of filled application and all related documents with Photocopies are required to be sent to the SAIL office situated across the India by Speed Post. The final date for the receipt of application also announced later here on this website. The containing of Envelope with the application should be clear. Application for the post must be placed in SAIL-ISP as the cover should be on top of the envelope. Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) with the Raw Material Division will invite the applications from eligible and skilled candidates for completing the post of Operator-cum-Technician and Technician cum Trainee in SAIL 2018-19. The Online Registration will start soon. For any queries contact Helpline Number: 0341-2240260
SAIL Steel Plant Recruitment 2018 for Medical Officers MBBS
According to the Steel plant Recruitment 2018 notification. Many of the candidates who have completed their graduation in Medical Science like MBBS, BDS, MDS, they have the better opportunity in the SAIL Recruitment. As many they recruit the graduates for the posts of Registrars, Senior Registrars, junior registrars, Resident house officers and Medical officers. Across the India SAIL has established their own SAIL Hospitals for who servers in their organisation field. Comparing to the other field officers as many MBBS students recruits through the various notification. It also recruits the candidates by the walk-in interview selection process, Online mode test and the Off-line Based Written Test to recruit as various medical officers in SAIL Steel plant of India.
Here you can get the latest updates of Medical Officers Jobs
How to apply for SAIL Recruitment Notification
STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA (SAIL) has published the SAIL Attendant Technician/ Technician Trainee Recruitment notification to recruit the several qualified and skilled candidates into the industry. SAIL welcome the suitable and serious applicants utilizing offline and online methods. Competent and capable candidates can get back their offline application form; they are advice to submit the filled up application form with needed data regarding the applicant and can apply before the last date. Likewise the same apply for online registration; candidates can apply via official links but before the last date of submission. So both the offline and the online registration form must be submitted before the last date has announced at their own site. Candidates believed to have a high personal contact no and e-mail ID. Registration number, password, and all other important communication will be forward on to the same registered e-mail ID. We cannot withdraw the amount Once the form is submitted and once paid cannot be refunded in any case.
The eligible candidates for the SAIL Recruitment 2018-19 can apply through official website on or before the last date. To apply online SAIL Recruitment we need to follow the below steps:
- The applying candidates need to download SAIL Recruitment Notification at official website sail.co.in
- Read all the given instructions and download the application form.
- Fill the application form with correct details.
- Then verify the application before applying.
- Then upload all the scanned certificates, recent color photograph and signature of the candidates.
- Make payment through online process.
- After then you may click on submit button.
- And then take a print of the application form.
Application Fees for the Candidates are required to pay the amount of Rs.500/- through Challan in State Bank of India or any of State banks of India branch across India. The candidates of ST/SC do not need to pay a fee. The selection process of eligible candidates is entirely dependent on the only personal interview.
SAIL Admit card
The Steel Authority of India as SAIL career offers the SAIL job to the seekers across India. Now the SAIL has issued a recruitment notification to fill up the candidates as the vacant posts under different categories with experienced and eligible candidates. The process of filtration will be handled by the central departments who arrange the examination and interview etc., so that they can easily choose their eligible candidates for the process in the industry. Almost all of the applied candidates need to know the exact date of SAIL exam. On that particular date, the candidates can take part in the examination. To attend the examination, you will get SAIL Exam Hall Ticket for the year 2018-2019, through the official SAIL website. All the candidates can get their SAIL Exam 2016 Admit Card via this site. So people prepare well for your exams, and there is a time to appeal for your upcoming examinations which will conduct by SAIL. You can get the SAIL admit card by the given steps below
- Move on to the official website www.sail.co.in
- Then the click the link for downloading the SAIL Admit Card.
- Click on the same link and go to know the essential information
- Submit the information
- By this way admit card will generate on the computer screen
- You can download it to on your computer
Now the golden job opportunity has provided by the Steel Authority of India Limited. Notifications of SAIL Recruitment 2018-19 will invite the application forms for the eligible and an interested candidate. Here will be a great chance to job seekers who have a goal for the job in SAIL, can apply to this upcoming notification before the last date of announcement by the team. As we all know that SAIL is largest and widest steel producing industry in India. SAIL has started now to issue the many recruitment notifications to fill up the eligible candidates in various vacancy posts across different locations in India. So the interested candidates who have a minimum qualification of education can forward the application forms through online mode and offline mode.
If any applying candidates sent the application forms after the last date of announcement by SAIL will not be considered. Here we are providing the up to date notifications and details regarding the SAIL recruitment 2018-2019. Seekers should keep in touch with our website to know any updates in upcoming days.
The post SAIL Recruitment 2018 2019 – SAIL Steel Plants of India Careers Vacancy appeared first on Indian Recruit - All Govt jobs UPSC SSC Railway IT jobs Banks jobs Model Papers.
This post first appeared on Indian Recruit, please read the originial post: here


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"There is no people empowerment in the case of agricultural workers' struggles in the Hacienda Luisita (or HLI) land fiasco; it is even a glaring example of how the Philippines can be regarded as a failed democracy!"
This is the assertion of a national militant farmers' organization regarding the trooping of ULWU & AMBALA agricultural workers and AMGL peasants at the Supreme Court followed by mobilizations at Mendiola & the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) national office today and tomorrow.
"Noynoy Aquino and his oligarch cohorts are painting a rosy picture that the EDSA I 'people power' uprising in February 1986 and the current administration are a testimony to change and unparalleled development," Wilfredo Marbella, KMP Deputy Secretary for Internal Affairs, starts off. "They even have tarps & billboards, spewed across the metropolis, asserting that the late Cory Aquino is an icon of democracy."
"This iconic depiction of Cory Aquino and her subsequent legacy of democracy are illusions!" Marbella retorts. He goes on to say that these are slogans intended to mask the thievery and wickedness despotic landlords continued to engage in during the first Aquino administration, the succeeding presidencies and down to the current Aquino regime – all these, at the price of people's struggles.
"One excellently clear and undeniable example of the thievery and wickedness of despotic landlords is the Hacienda Luisita case," Marbella asserts. "The failure of Cory to place Hacienda Luisita under a genuine agrarian reform program during the revolutionary segment of her administration, under the period after the ratification of the 1987 Constitution, after the enactment of the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 or RA 6657 (concocted by a landlord-dominated legislative branch of government), and even up to her very last day in Malacañang is people disempowerment, at its best, and, at its very best, the undisputable roadmap to a failed democracy."
"Noynoy cannot rejoice, neither has he the right or the proper frame of mind to tell the Filipino people to celebrate the 25 years of EDSA I," Marbella notes. "The perpetual manipulation of Philippine society, including its economy and politics, by opportunists, oligarchs, kleptocrats and despotic landlords, with Noynoy Aquino as their current commander-representative, even after the overthrow of the despicable Marcos regime and the so-called installation of a 'democratic' government under Cory Aquino, is such a shame! It is utter disgrace! It is absolute insanity, most especially with this oligarchy-instigated HLI tragedy in full view."
"In the 25 years following EDSA I, government agencies are still denying justice to HLI agricultural workers and to some 70% of our nation's population – peasants and Filipinos whose lives are based on agriculture. Is this the 'democracy' Noynoy Aquino intends to pursue and, like his mother, leave as a legacy?" Marbella further laments. "Noynoy should go to a far-flung barrio in the Philippines and look for an EDSA People Power I celebration there or he can even try to cook up one in his own clan's backyard to accurately check if there are agricultural workers who would honestly commemorate People Power I's silver anniversary with him." Marbella concludes.
February 22, 2011
Reference: Wilfredo Marbella
Deputy Secretary General for Internal Affairs – KMP


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sugar, coffee, cotton, spices, &c. of climates which also afford, of the more common agricultural products, and with only a slight degree of cultivation, two or even three harvests in a year. Nor is it in agriculture alone that differences of climate are important. Their influence is felt in many other branches of production: in the durability of all work which is exposed to the air; of buildings, for example. If the temples of Karnac and Luxor had not been injured by men, they might have subsisted in their original perfection almost for ever, for the inscriptions on some of them, though anterior to all authentic history, are fresher than is in our climate an inscription fifty years old: while at St. Petersburg, the most massive works, solidly executed in granite hardly a generation ago, are already, as travellers tell us, almost in a state to require reconstruction, from alternate exposure to summer heat and intense frost. The superiority of the woven fabrics of Southern Europe over those of England in the richness and clearness of many of their colours, is ascribed to the superior quality of the atmosphere, for which neither the knowledge of chemists nor the skill of dyers has been able to provide, in our hazy and damp climate, a complete equivalent.
Another part of the influence of climate consists in lessening the physical requirements of the producers. In hot regions, mankind can exist in comfort with less perfect housing, less clothing; fuel, that absolute necessary of life in cold climates, they can almost dispense with, except for industrial uses. They also require less aliment; as experience had proved, long before theory had accounted for it by ascertaining that most of what we consume as food is not required for the actual nutrition of the organs, but for keeping up the animal heat, and for supplying the necessary stimulus to the vital functions, which in-hot climates is almost sufficiently supplied by air and sunshine. Much, therefore, of the labour elsewhere expended to procure the mere necessaries of life, not being required, more remains disposable for
its higher uses and its enjoyments: if the character of the inhabitants does not rather induce them to use up these advantages in over-population, or in the indulgence of repose.
Among natural advantages, besides soil and climate, must be mentioned abundance of mineral productions, in convenient situations, and capable of being worked with moderate labour. Such are the coal-fields of Great, Britain, which do so much to compensate its inhabitants for the disadvantages of climate; and the scarcely inferior resource possessed by this country and the United States, in a copious supply of an easily reduced iron ore, at no great depth below the earth's surface, and in close proximity to coal deposits available for working it. In mountain and hill districts, the abundance of natural water-power makes considerable amends for the usually inferior fertility of those regions. But perhaps a greater advantage than all these is a maritime situation, especially when accompanied with good natural harbours; and, next to it, great navigable rivers, These advantages consist indeed wholly in saving the cost of carriage. But few who have not considered the subject, have any adequate notion how great an extent of economical advantage this comprises; nor, without having considered the influence exercised on production by exchanges, and by what is called the division of labour, can it be fully estimated. So important is it, that it often does more than counterbalance sterility of soil, and almost every other natural inferiority; especially in that early stage of industry in which labour and science have not yet provided artificial means of communication capable of rivalling the natural. In the ancient world, and in the middle ages, the most prosperous communities were not those which had the largest territory, or the most fertile soil, but rather those which had been forced by natural sterility to make the utmost use of a convenient maritime situation; as Athens, Tyre, Marseilles, Venice, the free cities on the Baltic, and the like.
5 3. So much for natural advantages; the value of which, casteris paribus, is too obvious to be ever underrated. But experience testifies that natural advantages scarcely ever do for a community, no more than fortune and station do for an individual, anything like what it lies in their nature, or in their capacity, to do. Xeither now nor in former ages have the nations possessing the best climate and soil been either the richest or the most powerful; but (in so far as regards the mass of the people) generally among the poorest, though, in the midst of poverty, probably on the whole the most enjoying. Human life in those countries can be supported on so little, that the poor seldom suffer from anxiety, and in climates in which mere existence is a pleasure, the luxury which they prefer is that of repose. Energy, at the call of passion, they possess in abundance, but not that which is manifested in sustained and persevering labour: and as they seldom concern themselves enough about remote objects to establish good political institutions, the incentives to industry are further weakened by imperfect protection of its fruits. Successful production, like most other kinds of success, depends more on the qualities of the human agents, than on the circumstances in which they work: and it is difficulties, not facilities, that nourish bodily and mental energy. Accordingly the tribes of mankind who have overrun and conquered others, and compelled them to labour for their benefit, have been mostly reared amidst hardship. They have either been bred in the forests of northern climates, or the deficiency of natural hardships has been supplied, as among the Greeks and Romans, by the artificial ones of a rigid military discipline. From the time when the circumstances of modern society permitted the discontinuance of that discipline, the South has no longer produced conquering nations; military vigour, as well as speculative thought and industrial energy, have all had their principal seats in the less favoured North.
'As the second, therefore, of thej uses of superior productiveness, wej may rank the greater energy of labour. I By this is not to be understood occasional, but regular and habitual energy. No one undergoes, without murmuring, a greater amoiurt of occasional fatigue and hardshjjlf or has his bodily r\ powers, and such/faculties of mind as ( he possesseaf Kept longer at their • utmost strerch, than the North American Indian; yet his indolence is proverbial, whenever he has a brief respite from the pressure of present wants. Individuals, or nations, do not differ so much in the efforts they are able and willing to maka under strong immediate incentives, as in their capacity of present exertion for a distant object, and in the thoroughness of their application to work on ordinary occasions. Some amount of these qualities is a necessary condition of any great improvement among mankind. To civilize a savage, he must be inspired with new wants and desires, even if not of a very elevated kind, provided that their gratification can be a motive to steady and regular bodily and mental exertion. If the negroes of Jamaica and Demerara, after their emancipation, had contented themselves, as it was predicted they would do, with the neces*saries of life, and abandoned all labour beyond the little which in a tropical climate, with a thin population and abundance of the richest land, is sufficient to support existence, they would have sunk into a condition more barbarous, though less unhappy, than their previous state of slavery. The motive which was most relied on for inducing them to work was their love of fine clothes and personal ornaments. No one will stand up for this taste as worthy of being cultivated, and in most societies its indulgence tends to impoverish rather than to enrich; but in the state of mind of the negroes it might have been the only incentive that could make them voluntarily undergo systematic labour, and so acquire or maintain habits of voluntary industry which may be converted to more valuable ends. In England, it is F
not the desire of wealth that needs to be taught, but the use of wealth, and appreciation of the objects of desire which wealth cannot purchase, or for attaining which it is not required. Every real improvement in the character of the English, whether it consist in giving them higher aspirations, or only a juster estimate of the value of their present objects of desire, must necessarily moderate the ardour of their devotion to the pursuit of wealth. There is no need, however, that it should diminish the strenuous and business-like application to the matter in hand, which is found in the best English workmen, and is their most valuable quality.
The desirable medium is one which mankind have not often known how to hit: when they labour, to do it with all their might, and especially with all their mind; but to devote to labour, for mere pecuniary gain, fewer hours in the day, fewer days in the year, and fewer years of life.
"N § 4. The third element which de{ Aiermines the productiveness of the S3'labour of a community, is the skill and knowledge therein existing; whether jtrTie"fne" "still arni-inewWge of the labourers themselves, or of those who direct their labour. No illustration is requisite to show how the efficacy of industry is promoted by the manual dexterity of those who perform mere routine processes; by the intelligence of those engaged in operations in which the mind has a considerable part; and by the amount of knowledge of natural powers and of the properties of objects, which is turned to the purposes of industry. That the productiveness of the labour of a people is limited by their knowledge of the arts of life, is self-evident; and that any progress in those arts, any improved application of the objects or powers of nature to industrial uses, enables the same quantity and intensity of labour to raise a greater produce.
Pjieprincipal department of these improvements colisTsfo'ft'The'invention and use of tools and machinery. The manner in which these serve to in
citease production and to economize labour, needs not be specially detailed in'a work like the present: it will be found explained and exemplified, in a manner at once scientific and popular, in Mr. Babbage's well-known "Economy of Machinery and Manufactures." An entire chapter of Mr. Babbage's book is composed of instances of the efficacy of machinery in "exerting forces too great for human power, and executing operations too delicate for human touch." But taJ— find examples of work which eft oe JHH'lul'weu' at
labj'u'^'we need 'not go so ISr. with-i out pumps, work"ecTt>7 sleaw-Bii£m"es on otherwise, the water which collects id mines could not in many situations bs got rid of at all, and the mines, after being worked to a little depth, must b« abandoned: without ships or boats the sea could never have been crossedt without tools of some sort, trees could not be cut down, nor rooks excavated 1 a plough, or at least a hoe, is necessary! to any tillage of the ground. Very! simple and rude instruments, however,' are sufficient to render literally possible most works hitherto executed by mankind; and subsequent inventions have chiefly served to enable the work to be performed in greater perfection, and, above all, with a greatly diminished quantity of labour: the labour thus saved becoming disposable for other employment.
The -use of machinery is far from being tha nnly made in whlcliTJhe effects of knowledge in aiding production are rawupjified. In"agjaetrlture and horticulture, machinery is only now beginning to show that it can do anything of importance, beyond the invention and progressive improvement of the plough and a few other simple instruments. The greatest agricultural inventions have consisted in the direct application of more judicious processes to the land itself, and to the plants growing on it: such as rotation of crops, to avoid the necessity of leaving the land uncultivated for one season in every two or three ; improved manures, to renovate its fertility when exhausted by cropping; ploughing an.i draining the subsoil as well as the surface; conversion of bogs and marshes into cultivable land; such modes of pruning, and of training and propping up plants and trees, as experience has shown to deserve the preference; in the case of the more expensive cultures, planting the roots or seeds further apart, and more completely pulverizing the soil in which they are placed, &c. In manufactures and commerce, some of the most important improvements consist in economizing time; in making the return follow more speedily upon the labour and outlay. There are others of which the advantage consists in economy of material.
§ 5. But the effects of the increased knowledge of a community in increasing its wealth, need the less illustration as they have become familiar to the most uneducated, from such conspicuous instances as railways and steam-ships. A thing not yet so well understood and recognised, is the economical value of the general diffusion of intelligence among the people. The number of persons fitted to direct and superintend any industrial enterprise, or even to execute any process which cannot be reduced almost to an affair of memory and routine, is always far short of the demand; as is evident from the enormous difference between the salaries paid to such persons, and the wages of ordinary labour. The deficiency of practical good sense, "which renders the majority of the labouring class such bad calculators— which makes, for instance, their domestic economy so improvident, lax, and irregular—must disqualify them for any but a low grade of intelligent labour, and render their industry far less productive than with equal energy it otherwise might be. The importance, even in this limited aspect, of popular education, is well worthy of the attention of politicians, especially in England; since competent observers, accustomed to employ labourers of various nations, testify that in the workmen of other countries they often find great intelligence wholly apart from instruction, but that if an English
labourer is anything but a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, he is indebted for it to education, which in his case is almost always self-education. Mr. Escher, of Zurich, (an engineer and cotton manufacturer employing nearly two thousand working men of many different nations,) in his evidence annexed to the Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, in 1840, on the training of pauper children, gives a character of English as contrasted with Continental workmen, which all persons of similar experience will, I believe, confirm. , "The Italians' quickness of perception is shown in rapidly comprehending any new descriptions of labour put into their hands, in a power of quickly comprehending the meaning of their employer, of adapting themselves to new circumstances, much beyond what any other classes have. The French workmen have the like natural characteristics, only in a somewhat lower degree. The English, Swiss, German, and Dutch workmen, we find, have all much slower natural comprehension. As workmen only, the preference is undoubtedly due to the English; because, as we find them, they are all trained to special branches, on which they have had comparatively superior training, and have concentrated all their thoughts. As men of business or of general usefulness, and as men with whom an employer would best like to be surrounded, I should, however, decidedly prefer the Saxons and the Swiss, but more especially the Saxons, because they have had a very careful general education, which has extended their capacities beyond any special employment, and rendered them fit to take up, after a short preparation, any employment to which they may be called. If I have an English workman engaged in the erection of a steam-engine, he will understand that, and nothing else; and for other circumstances or other branches of mechanics, howover closely allied, he will be comparatively helpless to adapt himself to all the circumstances that may arise, to make arrangements for them, and give sound advice or write clear letters on his work related branches of
statements and in the various mechanics."
On the connexion between mental cultivation and moral trustworthiness in the labouring class, the same witness says, "The better educated workmen, we find, are distinguished by superior moral habits in every respect. In the first place, they are entirely sober; they are discreet in their enjoyments, which are of a more rational and refined kind; they have a taste for much better society, which they approach respectfully, and consequently find much readier admittance to it; they cultivate music; they read; they enjoy the pleasures of scenery, and make parties for excursions in the country; they are economical, and their economy extends beyond their own purse to the stock of their master; they are, consequently, honest and trustworthy." And in answer to a question respecting the English workmen, "Whilst in respect to the work to which they have been specially trained they are the most skilful, they are in conduct the most disorderly, debauched, and unruly, and least respectable and trustworthy of any nation whatsoever whom we have employed; and in saying this, I express the experience of every manufacturer on the Continent to whom I have spoken, and especially of the English manufacturers, who make the loudest complaints. These characteristics of depravity do not apply to the English workmen who have received an education, but attach to the others in the degreo in which they are in want of it. When the uneducated English workmen are released from the bonds of iron discipline in which they have been restrained by their employers in England, and are treated with the urbanity and friendly feeling which the more educated workmen on the Continent expect and receive from their employers, they, the English workmen, completely lose their balance: they do not understand their position, and after a certain time become totally unmanageable and useless."* This result of observation is
* The whole evidence of this intelligent
borne out by experience in England itself. As soon as any idea of equality enters the mind of an uneducated English working man, his head is turned by it. When he ceases to be servile, he becomes insolent.
The moral qualities of the labourers are fully as important to the efficiency and worth of their labour, as the intellectual. Independently of the effects of intemperance upon their bodily and mental faculties, and of flighty unsteady habits upon the energy and continuity of their work (points so easily understood as not to require being insisted upon), it is well worthy of meditation, now much of the aggregate effect of their labour depends on their trustworthiness. All the labour now expended in watching that they fulfil their engagement, or in verifying that they have fulfilled it, is so much withdrawn from the real business of production, to be devoted to a subsidiary function rendered needful not by the necessity of things, but by the dishonesty of men. Nor are the greatest outward precautions more than very imperfectly efficacious, where, as is now almost invariably the case with hired labourers, the slightest relaxation of vigilance is an opportunity eagerly seized for eluding performance of their contract. The advantage to mankind of being able to trust one another, penetrates into every crevice and cranny of human life: the economical is perhaps the smallest part of it, yet even this is incalculable. To consider only, the most obvious part of the waste of wealth occasioned to society by human improbity; there is in all rich communities a predatory population, who live by pillaging or over-reaching other people; their numbers cannot be authentically ascertained, but on the lowest estimate, in a country like England, it is very large. The support of these persons is a direct burthen on the national industry. The police, and the whole apparatus of punishment, and of criminal and partly of
and experienced employer of labour is deserving of attention; as well as much testimony on similar points by other' contained in the same volume.


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I am lover, I am Father, I am Horned God and King
As he got out of his car the air was unseasonable warm. A hurricane, somewhere out to sea to the south west of the country was pushing warm air up from Spain. Apparently it would arrive early in the week, but right now he was grateful for


text: Peripheral vascular disease (PVD), also known as peripheral artery disease (PAD), includes all diseases caused by obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs. PVD can result from a number of causes including: atherosclerosis, inflammatory processes that lead to stenosis, an embolism, or thrombus formation. The result is an inadequate supply of blood (known as ischemia) which causes tissue death.


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Al Jazeera English, an international news channel, wants to highlight what is really going on with Syria's cyber war by launching a mobile web app called, #Hacked: Syria's Electronic Armies. The Project draws interest as an example of how gamification (turning something into games or videogames) can be utilized to raise people's awareness of the highly political and complex real world.
The game is based on senior correspondent Juliana Ruhfus' documentary People & Power. This time, however, it presents the film's investigative journalism in a form of a video game, allowing players to interact by giving them tasks like collecting as much data and information possible from activists, coders, and hackers. It is a continuation to Ruhfus' award-winning research, Pirate Fishing, and it carries on Al Jazeera's quest to show its programming material in ground-breaking ways to reach new audiences, as reported by Venture Beat.
Ruhfus explained that #Hacked will deliver the news to the next generation who just don't want to receive news passively, but rather interact with it. To quote:
"The gamification and interactive elements of projects like #Hacked give the user the experience of being immersed in a news story," suggested the documentary maker.
"Having a specific task to complete often leads them to engage emotionally and intellectually with the topic, while they gain unique perspective on the news story we are presenting through an interactive experience."
Players must face a handful of decisions, like whether or not they would pay hackers in exchange for vital information, when undercover getting online is needed or not, and deciding whether to allow or disallow the interviewees' identities during an interview. This game concept is based on real life decision-making dilemmas faced by journalists.
Most importantly, the player should investigate but should maneuver in ways to avoid being hacked. The hack 'traps' in the game are being inspired by real world hacks. With the good combination of game design, original footage, and links resources, this interactive app instills players how to shield themselves from hackers, and at the same time acquire real-time news on the Syrian War.
The technology behind this game is Conducttr, a cloud-based platform for games, which provides for interactive projects via multiple channels so that apps can be collaboratively built easily and quickly. #Hacked: Syria's Electronic Armies is a web app which means it will not require downloading from stores but the UI is designed for mobile use, though it can be played on desktop browsers as well.


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A colourful and luxurious cookbook of progressive recipes and reinvented classics of contemporary indian cuisine
The use of conventional strategies as leaping-off factors, rasika consists of local, seasonal components to reinterpret dishes from one of the world's richest and most various cuisines. Resourceful recipes like squash samosas, avocado chaat with banana, eggplant and candy potato lasagna, and masala chai crème brûlée accompany reimagined classics which include hen tikka masala, grilled mango shrimp, and goat biryani, rounding out rasika's menu of beloved dishes and new favorites. With a huge range of vegetarian options and spanning the spectrum from drinks and appetizers to entrees, rices, breads, chutneys, and cakes, rasika represents the best of what indian delicacies has to provide these days. Authoritative and fashionable even as it consists of a diversity of flavorful impacts, that is the important cookbook for anybody searching for to prepare dinner groundbreaking indian meals.
With over 120 recipes and lovely 4-shade pictures, rasika showcases the delicacies of one of washington, dc's most popular and significantly acclaimed restaurants,wherein visionary restaurateur ashok bajaj and james beard award—triumphing chef vikram sunderam remodel indian cooking into a fresh, contemporary eating enjoy.
Rasika is a destination restaurant with an amazing staff. Each time I have been there, I have discovered new flavors and approaches that I wish I could create at home. Now that THE Rasika book has been published, I may have a chance to learn some of the secrets. The background behind the restaurants of Ashoka Bajaj is wonderful and makes me want drive up to DC and go to Rasika or Rasika West End. The recipes of Vikram Sunderam are presented clearly with beautiful photos. I appreciate his tips within the recipes. I doubt my Chicken Tikka Masala will ever taste as good as theirs. All the same, when not in DC, I can learn more about Indian cuisine and experiment with a variety of recipes while I dream about the next time I am at one of their restaurants.-James M.
Fabulous! A beautifully photographed book with wonderful authentic recipes. Ashok Bajaj is a genius and Vikram Sunderam is an artist. This is a marvelous collaboration that brings the colorful, varied, beauty of Indian cuisine to your kitchen.-Stephanie A
I've been reading this book almost every day for the past couple weeks, and have been super intrigued by the descriptions, history, photos, and the recipes which are clearly geared for recreation in the home kitchen.-Alexander Zach
DOWNLOAD COOKING EBOOK RASIKA : FLAVORS OF INDIA | 16 Mb | Pages 576 | EPUB | English | 2017
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Hammerdrone are a band from Calgary, Alberta, Canada that plays a melodic form of blackened death metal and this is a review of their self released 2017 album "Dark Harvest" which will be released on March 24th.
Atmospheric sounding synths start off the album and after the intro the music goes into a heavier direction along with a great amount of melodic guitar leads as well as a mixture of deep death metal growls and grim black metal screams and you can also hear a great amount of melody in the guitar riffing.
When the music speeds up a decent amount of blast beats can be heard and you can also hear all of the musical instruments that are present on the recording while clean playing and spoken word parts can also be heard in certain sections of the album and ocean sounds can also be heard briefly before returning back to a heavier direction and the songs also bring in a great mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts and one of the later tracks is all instrumental.
Hammerdrone plays a musical style that takes the melodic forms of black and death metal and mixes them together to create a sound of t heir own, the production sounds very professional for being a self released recording while the lyrics cover history, science, stories and personel event themes.
In my opinion Hammerdrone are a very great sounding melodic blackened death metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Karakoram" "Black Bison" and "Collapse Of Reality". 8 out of 10.


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For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.John 3:16 is perhaps the best known verse of the Bible. It is a summary of the Gospel and it has brought peace, forgiveness and life to thousands of people, including myself. It is my prayer and desire that God would apply these truths to your heart, that you too may experience his marvelous love.
Loving the unloving
Who is the God who loved the world? He is the Creator of the universe, our Maker and Master. God created us special, as the bible says, 'in his own image.' That implies that we can love and be loved, for God is love. It is only in the experience of love that the purpose of our existence could be fulfilled.
However, from the beginning our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed the Lord. They ate the forbidden fruit and, in effect, they told God: 'We do not love you; we don't care about you or your commands; we shall live independently of you. We'll do our will, not yours!' That is what the bible calls 'sin.'
Like our first parents we have also sinned against our Maker. There is no fear of God in our culture. We play down the seriousness of sin, calling it 'a mistake', 'human weakness' or 'a psychological problem' - anything, as long as we excuse or justify sin. Thus, although the Lord commands us, 'You shall have no other gods before me,' we say that it's alright for everybody to worship according to his own religion. And though his God's Law says, 'You shall not steal,' pilfering and cheating in taxes and business is the norm for many 'good' people. Tragically, what appears alright to us is filthy in the eyes of God, for sin is rebellion against him.
Moreover, the consequences of sin are enormous. That's why the good world he created in the beginning is now in a mess. Take a look around you: there's pain, suffering, misery and death. And that's all because of our sin. According to John 3:16, we are perishing. We are on our way to the grave; but worse still, to appear before the judgment seat of God and to his just punishment in Hell forever.
You thought John 3:16 is good news! Believe me, it is! However in order to understand its beauty, first you need to see the ugliness of sin. We are sinners. We are guilty. We are perishing.
He gave his Son
Praise God, there is hope! A hope that's not found in ourselves or in our strength or in our morality. The one and only hope is God – the God against whom we sinned. The good news is that 'God so loved the world.' He did not love the world because it is loving or loveable. He loves the world despite the fact that is it rebellious and sinful. Motivated by love, God did something incredible to save sinful people. God gave his beloved Son for the salvation of his enemies.
The 'only-begotten Son' is Jesus Christ. He was born in Palestine 2000 years ago to a young Jewish woman, Mary. He was human like us, except he was without sin. Moreover, Jesus is not a mere man. He is also Divine, and he exists with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity.
How did Jesus accomplish the mission entrusted to him by his Father? Did he simply teach us a new or better morality? No, he did not come down from Heaven merely to be a teacher. The prophets could fulfill that job well enough. Jesus is more than a teacher: he is first of all, the Saviour. Salvation is a task that only he could perform.
Jesus was given by the Father to die on the cross of Calvary. He had no sins of his own but he took responsibility for the sins of his people. The sin is ours and we deserve to suffer the just penalty in Hell for eternity. But when Jesus suffered and died, he paid the full penalty demanded by God's Law for his people's sin. He became their substitute -- the sinless dying instead of the sinful. Amazing love!
Whoever believes
Do you believe in the Son of God? If you do, you will not perish in Hell because the blood he shed is the sufficient payment of your debt. If you don't believe, then you are a stranger to the God of love, and there is absolutely no hope for you.
'To believe is Jesus' is not merely an acknowledgement of his existence. Faith in Christ is the sure conviction that he is the eternal Son of God; that he died for your sins; that he rose from the death and that he is your living Saviour. To believe in Jesus means to trust in him alone – and have no confidence in your own 'goodness', anybody or anything else.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. May the Lord set you free from sin and Hell; may he give you life eternal. It is the only life worth living.


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By Anonymous
"Bitch, it's better to be dumb with you than not talking to you".
My ex-bf, (Read it as best-friend or boyfriend…as you wish. He meant to me more than any "defined" relation), texted me this once. These were the days when we had an awesome friendship, when we texted each other all the time, when we shared every small and insignificant thing related to us, when we thought we would be best friends forever, when half the campus guessed that we were in a relationship.
But all this is a past. Now we are strangers. This concept of breakup of best friends passes tangentially across my head. To deal with this is as impossible for me as it is to run a C program all on my own.
I met him a year ago. He is a year senior to me. And a football freak!!!
It was my first day in college. I met a second year guy while I was walking along my hostel road. After the brief ragging or interaction session we exchanged our phone numbers. And we became good friends after that and hung out frequently. People thought we were going out. But lite…he got committed to someone else. During these days he introduced me to his best friend. Trust me, this is the only good thing he must have done in his life. Life was great then. These two guys used to be in the same hostel room and text me at the same time. They used to wish me luck for exams on each other's behalf. Anyways, this best friend is the protagonist of this article. He is the guy who turned out to be my bestest friend later. Time passed and I was blessed to have my best friend.
Then came the Fresher's Day. We went to a Salsa workshop. I have forgotten all the steps I learnt but there's still a vivid picture in my mind of the moment when I almost fell and he held my hand to catch me. I remember how we looked into each other's eyes for the first time. Wow!!!! We got a picture clicked but stupid me (I always act impulsively) I deleted it. Little did I know that it would become part of the beautiful memories. This was followed by going out to watch "Anjaana Anjaani" and many more things.
I repeat life was great. We were with each other all the time (through text). He text-ed me when he was in class, when he was with friends, all the time. We text-ed all night until one of us fell asleep. We also fought a lot. And he used to manaofy me "Tujhe manaane mein sahi maja aata hai" he used to say. He said I am lucky for him and I wished him every time he played poker and he would give me the credit on winning. He said we are like the pieces of a puzzle, we complement each other. He said he would never let me go. When we went out with our friends, we got things for each other. I still have many things that I could never give him. And his birthday……OMG!!!! It was the most anticipated thing. I wanted it to be the most memorable day of his life. I had so many plans. I was looking forward to it even more than RA.One (I'm a huge SRK fan).
Talking about him…..hmmm…I can actually write a book on him. What he likes, what he doesn't, what he wants to do in life, who all are the people he hates on campus, his childhood stories, his cute brother, his awesome grand-maa, what pisses him off, his favourite football team, both in Spanish league as well as English, his favourite album (it kept on changing and I kept updating myself). I know every fucking thing about him and so does he. We had a few things in common. We are obsessed with Indian Air Force, want to do MBA after engineering and were big SRK fans (I still am but now he isn't). This was the "old" him. Now he has changed.
|Photo credit - Anoop Nagendra
That was an unfortunate day. He text-ed me he does not want to talk to me anymore. We should go our separate ways. We are no more compatible. We were friends before but now we are not. I was shocked. He was going to change our friendship like the graph of a unit step function. I argued a lot. But he had made up his mind. During the span of our friendship I did every small and big thing I could to make him happy, I cared for him, I thought about him every second. Never did I hurt him. The only mistake I did was that I became possessive about him. I got emotionally attached to him. But was it such a big mistake that he abandoned me? I asked him for a second chance, everyone deserves it. He denied it. I said I would never ever give him a chance to complaint. He didn't listen. I asked him why? He said he had become cold blooded. These things don't matter to him anymore. He was no longer interested in SRK's movies.
As I was thinking about all this, all the Facebook status updates like "Never let your true friend go", "Love can change everyone", "Try and try, till u succeed" and shit like this revolved around my head and I got inspired. I decided to fix everything on my own. I continued to act as if nothing had changed. I still texted him. I was sure he would stop all this drama and be my friend again. But I was sadly mistaken. His heart cells had mutated. He said it's just impossible to restore things. I asked him a last question: "Will you miss me?" and he said he has learnt not to miss people.
But what about me? I don't know how to forget you. I remember each and every conversation we had. Still your name brings a smile on my face. I still can feel the hug you gave me on the steps of the football ground. I still remember holding your hand and talking to you. Every day I wake up expecting a good morning message from you. I still hope that I would receive good luck message "my bitch, do well" before my exams .Why did you end this? Bolo na…..aisa hota hai kya? You always said "bitch, it's your wish". Then why did you take this decision on your own? Why did you put an end to all my wishes? I was ready to change myself for you, why dint you give me a chance?
And why didn't you teach me to forget you???


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I'm going to start out by saying you shouldn't do this. It was a bad idea, influenced by beer and severe bordem, that shouldn't be repeated unless you desire punishment. Or maybe some excitment.
My roommates and I had a habit of trying to find the worst possible youtube videos, and one day we stumbled upon real-time screen cap videos of people playing Microsoft Train Simulator. With no added sound. Why would anyone want to watch this crap? Oooo cool, he pulled into the side track to let the freight train go by… for 5 minutes. This deserved its own drink:
1 part Kahluha for the track
1 part Vodka for the fuel
1 part chocolate whey protein body-building powder for the gravel
Shake over ice, drink immediately before it congeals/settles/turns.
Imagine taking shots of sickly sweet chocolate sand, and you'll understand why you should/should not do this. Toot Toot.


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San Diego Photo Ops
by Lee on Dec.26, 2010, under Composition, Monday Morning Tips, Photo Editing, Photos
Wild Animal Park Workshop
Pin-Up Shoot – Sock Hop Theme
Flash Photography in a Flash
Palomar College – Spring 2011
Spring Desert Wildflowers, late March 2011
Photography In & Around San Diego
As my students know, I drive an RV to photo workshops. The RV is my on-site digital darkroom where I teach Photoshop Elements as part of the workshop.
Here's Arbey (RV, get it?) in early evening light at Joshua Tree NP. Notice the moon just above and to the left of the rock. I keep telling myself I need to substitute a larger moon into this photo.
Anyway, I belong to a forum of similar RV owners. They plan to meet (Rally in RV jargon) in San Diego in May 2011. In a moment of weakness, I volunteered to teach a digital photography class at the rally. Since these rally attendees are more snapshooters than photographers, I thought a guide to San Diego area photo opportunities might be useful to them. And, what better way to develop such a list than through Monday Morning Tips?
San Diego Through a Lens
Like any large metropolitan area, San Diego is an eclectic collection of communities and points of interest. Though most people immediately think of sunny weather and beaches when they hear "San Diego", there's much more to the city and its namesake county. Alas, like many people, I'm a creature of habit that tends to stay within my own comfort zone. For me, that's North San Diego County and the mountains and deserts. Also, because this series of MMTs is being written for those who are, essentially, tourists, I've decided to focus (no pun intended) on the top tourist attractions.
The San Diego Zoo
After the weather and beaches, San Diego's biggest attractions are undeniably the Zoo and Wild Animal Park. We'll start with the Zoo because it's within the City of San Diego while Wild Animal Park is further out. Zoo info can be found HERE.
Since the entry fee is $40 per adult ($160 for 2 adults for both the Zoo and Wild Animal Park), it's cheaper to buy an annual membership for $99 (currently $89, good for 1 year). With a membership, you can visit as many times as you want during the year while a day pass is only good for that day. Of course, this depends on your level of interest in animals and plants. We'll cover more about the Zoo in future MMTs.
The first thing you see upon entering the Zoo is the flamingo pond where I saw this guy posing. When photographing animals, try to isolate just one in a frame unless they're interacting. This photo was less than perfect because the bird in front blocks my subject. Otherwise, notice how his eye is perfectly in focus and in the upper left Rule of Thirds quadrant.
The Beaches
I'm not much of a beach denizen so I can only tell you about a few beaches. It's not hard to find the beaches, just drive west until you come to a large body of salty water. There may or may not be a wide, sandy area before you get to the water.
My favorite beaches for photography are, in no particular order, Oceanside Beach & Pier, Carlsbad State Beach, Swami's (Encinitas), Torrey Pines State Reserve, Del Mar, Mission Beach and Coronado. Parking is almost always an issue at the beaches, especially if you're driving a truck with an apartment on the back.
When post processing photos, keep in mind that it's not necessary to fit everything into "normal" sizes. The world isn't 4×6 or 8×10. Here, a long narrow crop emphasizes the Oceanside Pier and the clouds behind.
Upcoming Photoshoots
Over the next few months, I'll be shooting the Coronado Bay Bridge, Hotel Del, San Diego Mission, Balboa Park and other points of interest around San Diego with tips for tourists. If you'd like to join me, keep an eye on this site.
Workshops and Webinars
Wild Animal Park Workshop Rescheduled Due to Wild Weather, Sat, Jan 8
The WAP Photoshoot Workshop on Sat, Dec 18 has been rescheduled to Sat, Jan 8 from 9AM until 1PM. This is one of my most popular "hands-on" workshops. Learn how to get your camera under control by watching and listening to my demonstrations. Then, try it on your own camera with me by your side. Have a question? No problem, I'm right there to help. Register HERE. (You DO NOT need a PayPal account to pay via PayPal, just a credit card)
Sock Hop Theme Pin-Up Shoot – Sun, Jan 16, 2011
On Sunday, January 16, 2011, I'll be photographing 3 cute models for a Sock Hop Pin-Up shoot. There's no formal instruction but you'll have the opportunity to work with me and a few other experienced photographers. There are 3 spots left. If you'd like to join me, send me an e-mail. There will be a $25 fee plus an $8 entrance fee for the venue. The $25 goes to the models for their time, makeup and accessories.
Flash in a Flash, Sat, Feb 26, 2011, 10AM-1PM
If your flash baffles and scares you, this workshop is for you. Learn to take control of your external flash (aka, Speedlite, Speedlight, strobe, etc) and make great flash photos that don't scream, "This deer-in-the-headlights look created with FLASH!" Learn what all the knobs, dials, switches and menus do on the back of your expensive flash. Register HERE.
Palomar College – Spring 2011 Schedule Posted
Palomar College has posted my Spring 2011 classes. I'll be teaching both Digital SLR for New dSLR Owners (Feb 1 & 3) and Beginning Adobe Photoshop Elements (Mar 1 & 3) via webinar so you can learn from the comfort of your own home computer. Back by popular demand is the my popular Hands-On Photoshoot (Apr 2) at Kit Carson Park in Escondido.
Spring Desert Wildflower Workshop, late March 2011
One of my perennial favorites, spring is a magical time in the desert when everything comes to life. Get down low for amazing macros of flowers. Get up high for gorgeous sunsets and landscapes. Make beautiful photos from almost every vantage point in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. More details as conditions in the desert firm up and I can better predict the spring bloom.


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Matzuo Kinchou Minnow
The Matzuo tournament staff have just caused a panic attack in the hard bait market and everyone is nervous – especially the fish.
The new Kinchou Minnow launches its signature flared bloody red gills, high pitched rattle, and seductive curves and lip to create a frenzied panic in the water that has never been witnessed before, says Matzou.
It is an aggressive diver with maximum wobble action covering the widest range of water depths from four to 20 feet – crank it or deep water troll.
The company adds: "This distressed beauty is perfectly balanced to float at rest or take off and dive when retrieved. Fish don't stand a chance!"
It comes in four sizes and 10 colour variations.


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3D: Printed Products: What FDA expects you to know +3D Printed Products: What FDA expects you to know The regulatory classification of your device will most likely be the same regardless of the manufacturing methods, but for 3D printed products (additive manufacturing) FDA stresses the importance of Design Control and therefore, design validation. Some companies who have a Class I device may consider that the quality system regs (21 CFR 820) don't apply to them but many Class I devices are not "GMP-exempt". And although Design Controls do not apply to Class I devices, process validation certainly still may [ref 21 CFR 820.70 and .75]. We recommend the use… Read More
Additive 3D Printing we wrote the book... +Paladin Medical® wrote the book on 3D printed medical devices. Well, not the book exactly, but the first 510(k) for a 3D-printed medical device. Paladin Medical secured the Stratasys FDM MedModeler 510(k) #971290 as a radiological accessory. Medical devices produced by 3D (additive) Manufacturing are the next big thing. But the US FDA issued a guidance on December 5, 2017: Technical Considerations for Additive Manufactured Medical Devices; and they have a lot to say. If you are considering employing 3D manufacturing in any capacity for a medical device, including making changes to an existing device for which you might already… Read More
MEDICAL DEVICE STANDARDS- Can we shed a little light? +Sometimes identifying the standards that apply to your medical device can seem like looking down a dark tunnel. Is that a light at the end, or a train coming towards you? It could be both! Long ago and far away, clearance of a US device with FDA did not depend upon conformity to a standard. FDA, believe it or not, didn't recognize "voluntary" standards and according to regulation, only FDA could issue a "performance" standard. Some years back, the ice broke and certain standards for evaluation of a device became "recognized". One of the earliest was for the evaluation for… Read More
WELCOME BACK MEDICAL ALLEY! +Congratulations to Shaye Mandle, President and CEO (formerly known as LifeSciences Alley) and the board of directors for their sound decision to recapture the trade name: MEDICAL ALLEY. We were not happy when the name was changed about 10 years ago. Theoretically the organization was supposed to benefit from a more inclusive name. The change diluted the bragging rights of local medical device company members, since MEDICAL ALLEY served as the model for similar trade organizations supporting the medical device industry across the country! The name and the innovators associated with that organization are recognized in the Smithsonian, for crying… Read More
The Basics Of UDI's: Important Information For Medical Device Companies To Know +As with every industry, the only constants in the healthcare industry are change and change. Rising costs, new regulations and more continually offer a new take on the industry. One of these new changes brought upon by the FDA is unique device identification or UDI. The Basics & The Differences Of Unique Device IdentificationThe FDA has created UDIs in an attempt to adequately identify medical devices through the lifetime of the device, whether in distribution or use. The unique device identification system will be phased in over the course of many years. Once completed, the program will offer many benefits to… Read More
Say Goodbye To Bias: Women In Engineering Are Here To Stay +Paladin Medical prides itself on being an organization with a talented and diverse group of individuals striving to make a difference. This starts at the top – as president of Paladin Medical, Elaine Duncan is focused on making a difference. She strives to do so by utilizing diversity. Appointed to the sub-committee on diversity at the University of Kentucky College of Engineering Dean's Advisory Committee, Duncan is attempting to help the college deal with a number of problems involving diversity, mainly enrollment and retention issues for females and minorities. A Bigger Problem University of Kentucky is certainly not the only school… Read More
Transfer a 510(k)? +Medical device manufacturers frequently acquire by merger and acquisition a 510(k) from a previous company. The FDA draft guidance issued December 22, 2014 provides information on how to notify FDA of such transfers. http://www.fda.gov/ucm/groups/fdagov-public/@fdagov-meddev-gen/documents/document/ucm427385.pdf This is the FDA's current thinking on this perplexing issue. The recipient of the 510(k) assumes the responsibility to verify when a 510(k) changes hands that there has been no significant change of the device since the original 510(k) or when the device was most recently cleared by the FDA. The validity of the 510(k) becomes the responsibility of the purchaser once the sale or acquisition… Read More
Good Laboratory Practice Q&A +FDA frequently issues guidance documents in the form of Questions and Answers. The August 28, 2013 draft is still lingering on the FDA website pending comments. But with the FDA's Refuse to File Checklist, some companies may be in for a shock if preclinical studies are submitted without a statement of compliance to Good Laboratory Practices. For many years, device studies have been informally allowed to skim GLP regulations but future studies may be in peril if the sponsors don't appreciate the risks involved in failure to demonstrate GLP compliance. The Good Laboratory Practice for Nonclinical Laboratory Studies Regulations, 21… Read More
Device Master File (MAF) +DEVICE MASTER FILE (MAF) Companies that sell materials, components or manufacturing services should consider the benefits of a DEVICE MASTER FILE (MAF) with the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). A MASTER FILE is a service for your customers but also helps you to maintain control on your company's proprietary information. Consider the content of a Device Master File, how it is used by the FDA and your customers, and how it provides a shield around your company's intellectual property, while providing the quality information your customer needs for their medical device application. Originally conceived as a means for… Read More
Run the FDA RTA & e-COPY 510(k) Gauntlet +Filing a 510(k) according to the current FDA "refuse to accept" policy can be challenging. The former checklist of a few pages is now more than 26 pages for a traditional 510(k). The new policy is supposed to help FDA focus its resources on those submissions which are complete. Unfortunately some of the quirks of the checklist and the UBER-interpretations of guidance documents and regulations have caught some folks with one or more recycles of their 510(k) submission. At Paladin Medical, Inc. we have the experience to help you avoid the recycling syndrome by working with you early to plan… Read More
510(k) Review Process Detailed by FDA +FDA has updated the explanation of how the Agency will process the review of a 510(k). The most important improvement on the webpage is a color coded chart which provides a time line for each major phase of review. New in 2013, FDA added the "pre-review" step known as "Refuse to Accept" (RTA). This first review follows a very detailed checklist based upon the type of submission. The trip wire in this new review process is the way FDA reviews submissions against any guidance documents and refuses to accept any submission that fails to address ANY item in the guidance… Read More
Counterpoint Opinion Exchange: Medical Device Tax Deserves Criticism +The Star Tribune published (October 15, 2013) the editorial submitted by Elaine Duncan in response to a previous op-ed concerning the medical device excise tax. This counterpoint editorial took exception to cynicism towards the bipartisan support to the repeal of the tax and clarified that the tax was not just a tax on medical device companies but in reality a tax on recipients of medical devices. Here is Elaine's editorial and the link to the referenced pro-tax article . The blogs on this site certainly support Elaine's observation that the justification for the tax as a punishment to medical device companies… Read More
Will the Medical Device Tax Mess with Contracts? +Many medical device companies are concerned about the upcoming new MEDICAL DEVICE EXCISE TAX to be leveled against REVENUES, not profits, for most all medical devices sold in or into the USA. What companies may not realize is that this could have a major impact on CONTRACT MANUFACTURERS both inside and outside of the USA. Few folks have probably taken the time to read how IRS is planning to assess this new tax—as it may apply to contract manufacturers. You should obtain a copy of the IRS proposal, but here are a few of the most alarming provisions! We've attached… Read More
Excise Tax on Medical Device Sales in 2013 Unless You Act +On a recent visit to a university to speak with students and professors in biomedical engineering I was amazed that not one single person was even aware that a sales tax on medical devices would go into effect as part of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (also known as Obama-Care). I was asked where I saw the future of biomedical technology and I could not help but caution the students and professors that funds for research and development will be seriously impaired if this tax is allowed to take effect. According to the Medical Device Manufacturers… Read More
QUALITY 101 a Hit +Elaine Duncan's presentation to the LifeScience Alley REGULATORY 101 course was a hit with the attendees. It didn't hurt that each attendee received a free mini-regulatory booklet which contains the regulations for PART 11, GLP regulations, IDE regulations and QSRs all in one collection. The talk demonstrated how the Quality System Regulations are a SYSTEM, interlocking the parts to provide a network of documentation of the quality efforts. Comparisons between ISO 13485:2003 and Part 820 were intended to help the audience understand where key differences could lead to difficulties with FDA inspection if they are not addressed. The presentation is… Read More
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We hope you can join us at one of our Climate Policy Forums!
Gladstone, 9.00am Monday 16 April, see program and more information here.
Agnes Water, 4.00pm Monday 16 April, see program and more information here.
We will be discussing our State's climate policies and providing input to the Queensland Conservation Council's recommendations for what the next version of Queensland's Climate Transition Strategy should look like.
Gladstone Conservation Council encourages anyone concerned about climate change impacts on our region to have an input at this forum.
Refreshments will be provided (please advise if you have any dietary requirements).
Places are limited, so please RSVP to Anna Hitchcock at firstname.lastname@example.com before midday 13 April. In your response, please advise which forum you will be attending.
Why it's important
Our states and territories need to take a lead role in tackling our greenhouse gas emissions and avoiding dangerous climate change. If we want to protect our State's vulnerable species and ecosystems and build an economy that has a role in future zero net emissions markets, we need stronger policies to guide effective action.
The Qld Government's Climate Transition Strategy is a good starting point to help us reach zero net emissions by 2050, but missed opportunities and challenges remain. For more information, see QCC's briefing papers here.
We believe the conservation, NRM, industry and community sectors have an important role to play in feeding into and improving our Government's climate policies.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on the day,
RSVP to Anna Hitchcock at firstname.lastname@example.com before midday 13 April.
Please note: This Forum has been organised as part of QCC's Climate Project with funding from the Queensland Department of Environment and Science Community Sustainability Action Grant Program.
- April 16, 2018 at 9am – 11:30am
Gladstone and Agnes Water
Gladstone & Agnes Water, QLD 4677
Google map and directions
Anna Hitchcock
Showing 1 reaction
Anna Hitchcock is hosting. 2018-04-05 17:43:53 +1000


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| 14.6°C Dublin
The New Year's Eve fireworks display is being cancelled in Belgium's capital due to threats of an extremist attack.
Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said the decision was taken on Wednesday evening after consultation with government officials.
"We are forced to cancel considering the risk analysis done by the Crisis Centre," he told the French-language RTBF network.
Last December 31, Mr Mayeur said, 100,000 people turned out in the Belgian capital to ring in the new year.
"In these circumstances, we can't check everyone," Mr Mayeur said.
Brussels was home to four of the radical Islamic attackers who killed 130 people in Paris on November 13.
PA Media


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It's Frenetic Friday folks and that's all the warning you need. Adult conversations are ahead so buckle up its going to be a bumpy ride.
For our first example of the thought police coming soon to this nation I give you Exhibit A: Disagreeing with transgender people has the potential for you to be arrested. At Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles California a Loyola alumni office employee made the mistake of discussing traditional Roman Catholic teachings regarding gender ie: There is only male and female. Of course this was reported to the university's Bias Incident Response Team and the Los Angeles police department as a hate crime. Now here is a little something to think about Loyola Marymount is a Jesuit College one where traditional Roman Catholic teaching is supposed to be upheld. But not any more I guess. <source> HT: Dr. James White
Exhibit B: From an article dated April 19 from the Baptist News Global. A United States Civil Right Commission has denounced the "religious liberty" laws backed by some of the Southern Baptist conventions as being homophobic, transphobic, and marginalizing the gay and transgender communities. These laws of course are to protect the religious freedom of people who because of their deeply held beliefs can't and won't perform same-sex weddings. The commission calls this: "a larger, alarming trend to limit the civil rights of a class of people using religious beliefs as the excuse." <source>
And finally we have Exhibit C: Georgia Bureaucrats listen to Dr. Eric Walsh's sermons and fire him. Walsh a devout Seventh-Day Adventist, a former member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, had accepted a job in Georgia as a district health director when Georgia officials became aware that he'd delivered a number of "controversial" sermons on his own time — sermons where he articulated orthodox Seventh-day Adventist positions on, among other things, human sexuality, Islam, evolution, and the corrupting influence of pop culture. After learning about the sermons the director of human resources sent an email to department employees giving them an assignment of listening the Walsh's sermons. This was done and after listening to the sermons one employee reportedly told Walsh that you can't "preach that and work in public health". Needless to say Dr. Walsh isn't working at the Georgia Public Health and has filed suit claiming religious discrimination. <source>
Thank you for reading tonight's Frenetic Friday dedicated to the erosion of our freedom. Just remember Big Brother is watching you.


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Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
First Published: 2002
Pages: 364 (Hardback)
Form: Novel
Series: Discworld #29
Subseries: The City Watch #6
Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch had it all. But now he's back in his own rough, tough past without even the clothes he was standing up in when the lightning struck.
Living in the past is hard. Dying in the past is incredibly easy. But he must survive, because he has a job to do. He must track down a murderer, teach his younger self how to be a good copper and change the outcome of a bloody rebellion. There's a problem: if he wins, he's got no wife, no child, no future.
A Discworld Tale of One City, with a chorus of street urchins, ladies of negotiable affection, rebels, secret policemen and other children of the revolution.
Truth! Justice! Freedom!
And a Hard-boiled Egg!
A reread in memory of Terry Pratchett. RIP.
I was first introduced to Terry Pratchett when I was twelve. My big sister was playing Ysabell in a year 10 house play production of Mort. Neither of us were familiar with Discworld at the time, but she borrowed the book from the student director and I borrowed the book from her. And that was it. It was wonderful and clever and different from anything I had read before.
Over the next few years I attempted to complete the whole series of (then) around 25 book. With no budget for buying books, and so many to read, I borrowed them from the town library, the school library, the earlier mentioned student director (who was then dating my sister and thought he was only lending them to her), and once I had older male admirers of my own, from them as well.I can't remember what order I ended up reading them all in, but it was whatever was available at the time, and most certainly not the 'correct' order. I read Carpe Jugulam before Wyrd Sisters and got confused by the change of cast, and Feet of Clay before Guards! Guards! and was distressed to find Angua not in the earlier book. The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic (the first two books in the series) were the final books I read in my catch up – which was probably good as they are by far the weakest. But throughout this disorganised mishmash or chronology and characters there was one subseries, and one character, who always remained my favourites. The City Watch, and Commander Samuel Vimes.
I watched the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork shrink and grow and shrink and grow as I erratically read whatever I was able to get hold of at that moment. Only when I had caught up – and my parents had caught up enough on mine and my sister's shared love of the series to start buying them for us at Christmas – did I start to read them in order. And the first of these Christmas presents gifted to me rather than my sister, was Night Watch. I had finished it by boxing day morning.
Still, when I heard the news of Terry Pratchett's death this Thursday, it was Guards! Guards! I sought out, and the excuse to finally read The City Watch series in the correct order. As I could not locate the book, however, I picked up Night Watch instead. And I think, even had I found the book I was initially looking for, Night Watch was the right choice. It's one of the most poignant and most human stories in the whole series. A policeman and a murderer, sent back in time through a freak magical accident (more details on that in Thief of Time) to a time when the city watch was incompetent, the ruler of Ankh-Morpok relied on torture and secret police, and rebellion was brewing in the slums. And a young Sam Vimes needs to learn to become the man (and the policeman) he will be. Only one problem – the murderer's first act is to kill the man who would teach him that, and potentially change the course of history forever. Its up to Commander Vimes to step into his mentor's role, teach his younger self the morals of policing, and become the leader of a revolution he already knows is doomed.
But Vimes (wonderful Vimes!) never half-arses a job. And, as the timeline changes in subtle ways, he realises that perhaps things aren't so doomed after all. If he does things right this time and learns from his past, maybe this time the revolution will be successful, the friends who died might live – but doing so would change his future forever; he would lose both his wife and his unborn child. And this is why Vimes is my favourite character in the whole of the Disc. It's all exemplified in this one book. Although Vimes is grumpy and pragmatic and cynical and never fails to fight dirty, he will always always do what is right and he will follow a job through right to the end. He adores his wife, but that's who he is, and he cannot let the people around him down by not trying his best. Its one of the more angsty, more depressing, and most beautiful Discworld books from what I regard the best period of Pratchett's writing.
And as it deals with Commander Vimes travelling back into his own past, well prior to the events of Guards! Guards!, it serves my rereading from the beginning purpose even better than the first book of the series itself! It sets up what the characters and the city were like before Vimes' meteoritic rise through the ranks better than any of the early books do, and I'm sure will make me appreciate just how much Vimes achieves in the rest of the series.
So 5 stars. Forever 5 stars. Funny, sad, and thoughtful. A good book for grieving a wonderful wonderful author and a brilliant person. RIP Terry Pratchett. You will be missed.
Sidenote: My copy of Guards! Guards! has now been found, the next two books are reserved from the library. This City Watch reread is totally happening! Watch this space! And I promise future reviews will try to be more about the book than this one.


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Dress in this loosely fitted dabu print cotton tunic in earthy olive green colour and enjoy the ease in style. Subtle silhouette featured by band style keyhole neck, quarter sleeves and invisible side pockets are the major callouts. Enjoy the relaxed feel on a workday or day out.
Woven/Knitted: Woven
Body Fabric: Block printed cotton
Lining Fabric: No lining
Fit: Regular
Primary Color: Green
Neck Type: Keyhole neck
Closure Used: Buttons in the front
Care Instructions: Hand wash
XS: Waist-24", Bust-30", Shoulder-13.5"
S: Waist-26", Bust-32", Shoulder-14"
M: Waist-28", Bust-34", Shoulder-14.5"
L: Waist-30", Bust-36", Shoulder-15"
XL: Waist-32", Bust-38", Shoulder-15.5"
XXL: Waist-34", Bust-40", Shoulder-16"


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Mar 28, 2013
My returning slave offered his flesh without reservations for my pleasure and, of course, I indulged my desires in the only way I know how. What transpired was a fetish feast of multi-layered rubber, leather, straps and masks that had him suspended and swinging, with electrics playing and the joyous aroma filling the rooms. That seemed a good way to start. As a mistress, I like to get in the swing of things, so to speak, with a few minor suggestions from my playthings as a base from which I can build but still with sufficient freedom for me to stamp my own mark on each session. That's a combination that, before you know it, can produce sights that are truly awe inspiring.
My creative juices were truly flowing today; the straight jacketed slave was multi wrapped on his back giving me complete and open access to all the necessary areas of his body. My suspension body harness ended up on the medical couch so that we could both revel in the highest level of strapping, wrapping and electrifying, feeding and wanking all at once. The deep heat that I applied in copious quantities to my rubberised slave's neither regions offered only a minuscule distraction from the red, larger than life, strap-on that kept making appearances, and from the ultimate finale ending with an extreme orgasm on the table as every part of the body suffered the torments of my toys.
Luckily, I managed to take one image from the plethora of perversion; the medical challenge for my slave and the full-on, watersports feeding that brought a well-earned smile of delight from yours truly as every drop was willingly consumed. "Please mistress, can I have some more" the eyes beseeched me. It is great to have you back slave: I'm looking forward already to our next adventure together.