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Posts Tagged 'mercury in retrograde'
Mercury in Retrograde comes far too often. Doesn't it seem like that? Once every few months, I start getting wrong numbers on my phone, travel plans get wacky, and misunderstandings seem to be rampant. Could there be an upside?
Absolutely. The reason that communication and travel go awry during these weeks is that we're being asked to redirect our energies inside, and take an inner journey. The outer annoyances bring out attention to where we shouldn't be focusing our energies.
Action: Right now, what needs healing? Where do you need to transform? Give yourself time to feel, process, and listen to the messages of your inner voice.


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Are you ready to make your ocean front dreams come true? This property is ready to go, with a driveway in and your choice of two building sites; your dream has just come closer to reality. Incredible view of Navy Channel and Mount Baker. This is a perfect lot to enjoy our Mediterranean climate with lots of room to create an oasis all your own. With it's sunny, private, low bank ocean front where you can launch your boats, this is paradise! The well provides 15 gallons per minute; septic is required. The seller is open to Vendor financing. Agents please see M2M notes for ocean access at the neighbours' for viewing.
NOTE: MLS® property information is provided under copyright© by the Victoria Real Estate Board. The information is from sources deemed reliable, but should not be relied upon without independent verification. The website must only be used by consumers for the purpose of locating and purchasing real estate.

subset: commoncrawl


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It's fair to say that I have had and I still continue to have my fair share of struggles. I get to the point where things tick over nicely, but then everything seems wrong, nothing goes right, then my Cerebral Palsy troubles me, how I got to this place bothers me.
There is so much I want and would like to change and so my struggle goes on. The summer months also reinforce some of my Cerebral Palsy issues. I usually stand back so that I am able to rationale …Read on »


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Music lovers, brace yourselves, because your perception of the phrase "sizzling beats" is about to change forever.
A group of interactive art students from Sweden developed an ingenious machine that bridges the gap between cooking and music. Their project, titled Beatballs, literally gives people the opportunity to taste sound by translating their favorite beats into food. Particularly, meatballs.
"Food and music — a relationship that has endured the passage of time across many cultures. They are historical complements and partners, from the kitchen to the dining room," Beatballs state in its press release.
But for the first time ever, these two beautiful components have the ability to join each other in a holy matrimony in our stomachs.
No, no, this is not what you think.
The Beatballizer machine uses a code that translates music into different recipes for meatballs. So you can experience for yourself what Justin Bieber's 'Baby' or Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' taste like.
Curious to see how it works?
According to the developers, they 'analyzed how various music attributes can be expressed through tastes, taking into consideration the social, cultural and historical associations of both food and music.'
Based on that code, they were able to assign a DNA to every song, which is a 'unique blend of tempo, cadence, mood and key,' and translate those into a unique recipe.
"Here is an example using 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams. 'Happy' is played in F-minor, giving the meatball a base of chickpeas and garlic. It scores above average on energy level, tempo, chatter, and mood, according to the Beatballs song analyzer. This music profile inspires additional dashes of thai basil, lemon zest, curry, and strawberries," Beatballs explain on its Kickstarter page.
Then, the Beatballizer comes into play.
By mixing, rolling and cooking, the machine produces a unique meatball that tastes like the song you 'ordered.'
Voilà, the musical meatball!
Check out the video below to see the full process:
(H/T: Trend Hunter)


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Flashes of brilliance were enough for Chelsea to see off Swindon Town with a 2-0 win in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday. Fernando Torres scored the opening goal for Chelsea, while he assisted Ramires for Chelsea's second goal of the evening in the space ...Read More »
Home / Tag Archives: Swindon Town
Swindon vs Chelsea 2013: Team news and Possible line-ups
Jose Mourinho took the League Cup very seriously during his first spell as the Chelsea manager. It seems that it has not changed because the Portuguese is expected to name a strong starting line-up for the third-round match against Swindon Town. Unlike in the past, ...Read More »
Capital One Cup 3rd round draw: Chelsea face Swindon
The League Cup is probably the least desirable trophy for top clubs partly because of its prestige and prize money involved. Mourinho, though, has been different in his approach to this trophy. According to him, it is a trophy at the end of the day ...Read More »


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A Lesson Plan on Advertising and Media Literacy for Middle Schoolers (Includes Modification Tips)
Class Exploration
To begin this advertising lesson on media literacy and technology in the classroom, allow students to freely explore some print magazines and newspapers. Place these on a few tables around the room and encourage students to flick through the pages, noticing which pages they find interesting and where they find their eyes being drawn as they browse.
Call your students together for a bit of a round table discussion about what they have observed.
For some groups, you may need to lead this phase of the lesson yourself, and provide prompts and guiding questions to move the discussion in the desired direction. Prompts could include asking:
- What pages did you look at?
- When you looked at a page with an advertisement on it, what did you notice?
- Which parts of the page did you find yourself looking at first?
- From which direction did you flick through the pages - front to back or vice versa?
These prompts will help you set the scene for the next stage of the lesson - discussing and learning about advertising techniques.
Review Advertising Principles with Your Students
Advertising is often based on a simple principle:
AIDA - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
Attention: Gain the reader's attention through photos (often of people or faces), headings, colors or animation (in the case of online magazines or E-zines)
Interest: Maintain the interest of the reader by making a promise, continuing a colorful theme, providing information about a product or service or using greater detail to make a reader want to continue reading
Desire: Help the reader decide they desire the product, often by making a link between the reader and the people or group shown in the advertisement.
How often have you seen an ad for coffee, for example, where there is a wholesome, loving group of people sharing some quality time together as a group, shot in slightly out of focus vision with evidence of an active, fun-filled day shown in the background? The message is simple - drink the coffee, be part of this group, experience this feeling.
Action: The most important part of the advertising message – prompt an action from the reader - NOW.
This can be 'click here', fill out this coupon, buy the product, join the gym now, etc.
For some students, especially those with special needs, there is an element of danger here as these students can often be more susceptible to a call to action than other readers, and may be tempted to spend more than they should or buy items they don't really want or need.
Collect Your Own Advertising Samples
For the final part of this lesson, ask students to work in small groups to collect samples of advertisements and paste them onto a display board or large sheet of paper.
- Encourage them to write freely on the paper and make comments to indicate how the advertising is working to persuade a reader.
- Promote labelling of the page using clear arrows, neat hand writing and organised layout where appropriate.
Note, for some students, it may be wise to use technology such as a quick print out of a word document cut into strips for labels rather than focus on handwriting.
This activity is just one way of introducing media literacy and technology in the classroom - adapt the activity using other strategies as needed in your setting.
For more ready-to-go advertising lesson plan ideas, try Reading for Media Literacy - Navigating the World of New Texts (written by yours truly, Anne Vize, Curriculum Corporation, 2009).
The book includes plenty of ready-to-use activities and pages you can photocopy for use with your students.
- Magazine pile, WordRidden/Flickr


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Chocolate Baroque has introduced another beautiful Clear Stamp set, Fancy Flourishes that includes nine elegant images. I've used one of the large designs for the card below:
I stamped the beautiful large Flourish with brown Dye ink on green designer paper that has a slight pattern. I coloured the image with Prisma Pencils and added lots of bling. I die cut the paper and layered onto white card stock that I embossed and edged with a gold leaf pen. I used the same designer paper as one of the mats.
Spellbinder: S5-160 Opulent Ovals
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug Acanthus
Here is a look at the Fancy Flourishes Clear Stamp A5 (half sheet) set that is currently offered at a introductory price.
Glenda (owner of Chocolate Baroque) is giving away a Fancy Flourishes set. All you need to do for a chance to win is leave a comment at her blog post here. Good Luck !
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day,


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|View Fatty Jubbo's profile
Also available as an MP3 podcast. More info at our Podcast Central page.
<-- Previous playlist | Back to Cake & Polka Parade with Fatty Jubbo playlists | Next playlist -->
January 8, 2013: Saddle Odor Blow
Listen to this show: MP3 - 128K | Pop‑up player! | Add comments
|Goto80 and the Uwe Schenk Band
|Cable Swinging Ferret
|The Ferret Show
|Do the Expo!
|Josh Berman & His Gang
|Sugar (excerpt)
|There Now
|Raymond Scott
|Moment Musical
|Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights
|Bob Hannon with Orchestra
|Little White Duck
|Animal Song Parade
|Nuts & Co.
|Face Walk
|Athletic Automation
|Lumber Boat
|5 Days in Africa
|Weasel Walter, Mary Halvorson, Peter Evans
|The Last Monkey on Earth (excerpt)
|Mechanical Malfunction
|Heiner Goebbels & Alfred 23 Harth
|Indianer Fuer Morgen
|Goebbels Heart
|Ake Hodell
|220 Volt Buddha (excerpt)
|Verbal Brainwash and Other Works
|Annick Nozati
|In and Out
|Turn Me On
|Split LP with Rubber-0-Cement
|Electric Moog Orchestra
|Imperial Attack
|Music From Star Wars
|Normal Love
|Grimy Super Soaker
|Survival Tricks
|Madame Alexander
|Doll Collector's Album 1978
|The Magic's All In You
RSS feeds for Cake & Polka Parade with Fatty Jubbo: Playlists feed | MP3 archives feed| E-mail Fatty Jubbo | Other WFMU Playlists | All artists played by Cake & Polka Parade with Fatty Jubbo |


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Residence programs in Costa Rica was the topic of a panel discussion at the recent Shorex conference on "UK Non-Doms: Restructuring and Relocation" held in London on March 17, 2016.
Henning Schwarzkopf joined the panel with José Tiago Rodriguez Correia, Partner, Alves da Silva & Rodriguez Correia, Portugal, Urs Stirnimann, Managing Partner, Swiss ILC Services DMCC, Dubai, Pierre Gerbier, Managing Partner, Mandarin Private Office, Switzerland, and Inna Iranyi, Founding Partner, Shorex Capital, UK.
The discussions dealt with "Relocation, Pros & Cons of Various Jurisdictions: Cyprus, Portugal, Switzerland, Dubai, Costa Rica".
While Costa Rica is considered the "Switzerland of Central America" because of its political and economic stability, Henning pointed out that it still quite different from its namesake in Europe.
Specifically, it features 2 attractive residence options for foreign citizens: the program for retirees receiving a minimum of USD 1,000 from a pension plan and the one for "legal residents" who are able to show that they have a minimum monthly income of USD 2,500.
In these 2 options the foreigners will be able to obtain a temporary residence visa for 3 years which will be converted to a permanent resident status after that. Holders of such visas will have to spend only 1 day of the year in Costa Rica, but still benefit from the favorable tax treatment of its residents: Zero taxation in Costa Rica for income generated or received from source abroad.
For any questions, please feel free to send an email to email@example.com,


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When we started eating mostly gluten free, I wanted to look for other options for getting grains in our diet. Something to help round out the meal, and provide a filling option without breaking the budget. But most of these were things I had never heard of, and there was one in particular that was growing in popularity, but I couldn't even pronounce it. Luckily, I learned how to both cook and pronounce quinoa (KEEN-wah).
Quinoa is actually a seed, not a grain, but it fits in a lot of recipes in place of common grains like rice or pasta. And it's just as easy to cook as rice, with one simple added step: you need to rinse it first.
Quinoa has a coating called saponin, which helps keep bugs away, so rinsing first helps wash that off. If you don't, your quinoa will have a kind of soapy, kind of bitter, weird taste. (Ask me how I know that, and why my kids were super turned off by anything containing quinoa for a long time)
To rinse, simply place quinoa in a fine-mesh sieve and run water over. My sieve is not as fine of a mesh, so I rinse it over my pot, then pour that water and quinoa back over the top so I don't lose too many grains. If you have a finer sieve, you won't have to worry about that.
Put a cup of quinoa in a pot, along with a few cups of water or broth, and you're set. Heat to boiling, then lower to a simmer for 20-25 minutes, until your quinoa is softer but not mushy, and you can see more of a separate ring around the center.
Cooked quinoa is a great addition to a salad, a side dish along with some meat and veggies, and even an ingredient in some baked goods! It's also great in Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Quinoa.
Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Quinoa
Makes 6 servings
- 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (or water)
- 1 cup cooked shredded chicken
- 1 cup finely chopped broccoli
- Cheese Sauce (recipe below)
In small pot, combine 1 cup rinsed quinoa and 2 cups broth. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer until cooked through, about 20 minutes. Add more broth or water if necessary. I usually cook quinoa with broth for a savory meal, but with water if I'm going to be using it in something.
Meanwhile, make cheese sauce.
- 3 Tbsp. butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
- 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
In large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Mix cornstarch, broth, and milk in measuring cup and pour into skillet. Add salt and pepper. Heat until the sauces thickens, stirring frequently. Lower heat to low, and stir in cheese until melted.
Add cooked chicken and broccoli, and cook over low heat until warmed, about 5 minutes. Stir in cooked quinoa.
I get around the "my kids don't like broccoli" factor by chopping up the broccoli really small, and they're okay with it, but if you have some broccoli haters in the house, you can also replace the broccoli with an equal amount of diced Roma tomatoes. Just add them after the cheesy quinoa is done cooking. Both versions are delicious, and we have this meal often for a quick and easy lunch. We even used up some of our Easter ham earlier this week and did a ham and peas version, which was super tasty as well!
Have you ever made quinoa? Now is the perfect time to try it!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I receive a bit of a commission at no additional charge to you. Thank you for your support!


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A decade ago, so many moneyed interests were united against saving the elevated freight tracks that cut through the West Side of Manhattan that the idea appeared to be doomed. Owners of land and buildings throughout Chelsea wanted the decaying High Line viaduct razed, and the administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani supported their feelings.
But on Friday afternoon, there was Mr. Giuliani's successor, Michael R. Bloomberg, proclaiming that preserving the High Line as a public park revitalized a swath of the city and generated $2 billion in private investment surrounding the park.
The mayor pointed to the deluxe apartment buildings whose glass walls press up against the High Line and the hundreds of art galleries, restaurants and boutiques it overlooks. All of that commerce more than makes up for the $115 million the city has spent on the park and the deals it has made to encourage developers to build along the High Line without blocking out the sun, Mr. Bloomberg said. On top of the 8,000 construction jobs those projects required, the redevelopment has added about 12,000 jobs in the area, the mayor said.
Indeed, what started out as a community-based campaign to convert an eyesore into an asset evolved into one of the most successful economic-development projects of the mayor's nine years in office. The co-founders of Friends of the High Line, a group that operates the city-owned park, said the mayor and his staff deserved credit for having embraced the park and rezoned the neighborhoods it passes through to help it flourish.
Robert Hammond, one of the founders, said the organization commissioned a study of the potential economic benefits of the project in 2002. "We talked about a High Line district and that it would be good for the local economy," Mr. Hammond recalled. But, he added, "we had no idea that it would happen this fast. If you had said then that 10th Avenue would be a location for some of the world's best chefs, it would just be ludicrous."
Amanda Burden, the city's planning director, emphasized the boost to property values, saying that in one building that abuts the lower section of the High Line, the price of apartments had doubled since the park opened, to about $2,000 a square foot. Ms. Burden called the area "Architects Row" as she ticked off the roster of designers of nearby buildings, including Jean Nouvel, Annabelle Selldorf and Neil Denari.
More Room to Roam on the High Line
10 Photos
View Slide Show ›
Yet those exclusive accommodations are wedged in within a block of huge brick complexes of public housing, where sheets serve as curtains and dented air-conditioners list toward the earth. A seating area on the second half-mile segment of the High Line, which is to open this week, offers visitors a pigeon's-eye view of a Firestone auto-repair shop on 26th Street.
The second segment bisects the blocks between 10th and 11th Avenues from 20th Street to 30th Street. If the third section is completed, it will end near the terminus of the extended No. 7 subway line, said Robert K. Steel, the deputy mayor for economic development. People could ride the subway from Queens, then walk the High Line through Chelsea to the meatpacking district, said Mr. Steel, who recently became a resident of Chelsea, just a block from the High Line.
In a way, the High Line has done for those neighborhoods what new subway lines have done in other parts of the city, Mr. Hammond said. "Normally, the farther you get from the subway the less expensive the housing is," said Mr. Hammond, who confessed that he rents an apartment in the West Village. "But the closer you are to the High Line, the farther you are from the subway, and still, the closer the apartments are to the High Line, the more expensive they get."


text: Okay.. I really need help with my defense team. I'm at loss now of what to do to minimize the points I lose. There is nothing I can do about how absurdly ridiculous the point system is so what im trying to do is minimize the points I lose. I dont really get how I lose 20 points against players who is at least 3-5 evo levels above me and with same up to 20 or on some cases 300 fame levels above me and when I fight back against and by some miracle i win i only get 10 points and lose another 20 when i lose. I already tried every possible defense combinations but regardless, i really lose a lot of points. I started on the 1st day of this season at 3%, but following day dropped to 10% and it has continously dropped and at this moment im at 25% which i expect to drop further. It's really ridiculous how you lose more points against someone who is clearly way stronger than you, and despite several demands from players to explain how the point system works, the management just turn a blind eye to it. They have been introducing all these overpowered unstarred mutants yet they never updated how the point system works. So I really need advice as how to minimize points th i lose sinceit really doesnt mattter what team i put up, its bound to lose anyway.


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With everydayhero, everything counts.
Blackbaud's direct-to-consumer peer-to-peer platform
Each day, people new to a charity or cause take the first step to helping that cause – and that's where everydayhero comes in.
"The reach is so much wider. At our regular events, we reach the same people every year – this reached well beyond. These people [new donors] now know P.S. Arts."
-Chelsea Martell, Events Manager for P.S. Arts,
discussing how over 700 of their 850 donors in the
Los Angeles Marathon were new to their organization.


text: People these days prefer travelling alone that with a group, and there are numerous reasons for it. But when you are travelling solo, the responsibility of taking care of oneself is of prime importance. You have to be really smart and active to prevent any adverse situations. But in case you want to be a completely free bird for your ... Read More »


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Jump to: Concordance • Thesaurus • Subtopics • Terms
ThesaurusHarosheth-goiim (3 Occurrences)
Harosheth-goiim. Harosheth, Harosheth-goiim. Haro'sheth-ha-goiim .
Multi-Version Concordance Harosheth-goiim (3 Occurrences). ...
/h/harosheth-goiim.htm - 7k
Harosheth-hagoyim (3 Occurrences)
Harosheth (3 Occurrences)
Haro'sheth-ha-goiim (3 Occurrences)
Bible ConcordanceHarosheth-goiim (3 Occurrences)
Judges 4:2 And Jehovah sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
Judges 4:13 And Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles, unto the river Kishon.
Judges 4:16 But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, unto Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the host of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; there was not a man left.
Related Terms
Harosheth-hagoyim (3 Occurrences)
Haro'sheth-ha-goiim (3 Occurrences)
LinksBible Concordance • Bible Dictionary • Bible Encyclopedia • Topical Bible • Bible Thesuarus


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Hey there, homos! After a brief hiatus, we're back with our Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tweet round-ups and recaps because: a) You demanded it, and b) a little bird told us the show is adding a lesbian character later this season. Last night was a rough one because sweet Jenna Simmons almost got Wheedon-ed to death.
Here are some of our favorite tweets from the night:
The episode recap is coming at ya' later today, so stay tuned!


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By Richard A. McGrath, CIC, LIA
Hurricane season began this year with a series of devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma.
First, a tornado classified as EF5, which is the most powerful ranking, tore through a suburb of Oklahoma City and killed 24 people. Just 11 days later, five tornadoes hit central Oklahoma, causing flash flooding and killing 13 people.
Watching the devastation likely reminded Sturbridge residents of the tornado that hit our region two years ago, causing severe damage to hundreds of homes.
Although some other regions of the country are more susceptible to weather damage than we are, the Sturbridge tornado is a reminder that severe weather can affect any area. As we've pointed out in past columns, this region has historically been affected by both hurricanes and tornado, which are sometimes created by hurricanes.
No one can control the weather, but there is much we can do to control the damage it causes. Ideally, we should protect our home and family both physically and with insurance, just in case your home ends up in the path of a tornado or a hurricane.
Insurance Protection
If you failed to review your insurance coverage with your agent after the 2011 tornado, do it now. You never know when severe weather will hit the area, but when it takes place, it's too late to add the coverage you need. Hurricane season lasts from June 1 to November 30.
Don't assume that your homeowner's insurance will provide you with all of the coverage you need. Know what it covers and what it doesn't cover.
Homeowner's insurance typically will cover both wind and water damage caused by a hurricane or tornado, but if you are located in a high-risk area, coverage is typically excluded. If it's not excluded, your insurance carrier may restrict your coverage or require very high deductibles.
You may need two separate insurance policies: flood insurance to cover damage caused by flooding or the overflow of surface water runoff, and homeowner's insurance to cover all other types of damage, including damage caused by wind or fire.
If your home is in a designated high-risk flood zone and your mortgage is from a federally regulated or insured lender, the lender will require that you purchase flood insurance. If your home is in an area where risk is low or moderate, you won't be required to purchase flood insurance, but should consider it anyway.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), almost 25% of flood-related insurance claims come from areas with low-to-moderate flood risk. As FEMA puts it, "Everyone lives in a flood zone."
If the risk of flooding is low or moderate, the cost of insurance will be lower than if your home were located in a high-risk area.
Sturbridge and other area towns are among the participants in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a federal program where flood insurance can be purchased for as little as $129 a year and an average of less than $570 a year.
NFIP provides separate coverage for your home and its contents, so be sure to consider both policies. NFIP's flood insurance provides coverage of up to $250,000 for property and $100,000 for contents. Property is insured for at least 80% of replacement cost, depending on location, and contents are insured based on their depreciated value at the time flooding takes place. Additional coverage can be purchased from private insurers.
Even with both homeowner's insurance and flood insurance, some types of damage may not be covered. Coverage is limited for damage caused to trees and scrubs, although if a tree or limb crashes into your home, the damage will be covered. Deductibles for damage vary greatly. Damage to important documents is not covered and coverage for damage to contents below ground level is limited.
Damage resulting from mold, wet rot and other issues that result from covered causes are typically covered when caused by flooding, but not when they result from ongoing conditions that are not repaired, such as leaky plumbing. To ensure that you are covered, though, ask your agent and read your policy.
Also review any deductibles and whether you have insured your home for 100% of its replacement cost. Insurance used to guarantee coverage up to the cost of replacement, which will vary based on industry conditions.
In addition to covering damage from hurricanes and tornadoes, flood insurance will covers losses from flooding caused by heavy rainstorms, coastal storm surges, melting snow, clogged storm drainage systems, mudslides and levee dams that fail.
Hurricane and Tornado Preparedness
In addition to being properly insured, it's important to do everything you can to avoid damage. If your home is in the path of a tornado, there is little you can do to protect it; however, boarding up your windows and making certain everything is secured indoors can help to minimize damage and danger from a hurricane.
There is typically plenty of warning before a hurricane hits and residents are sometimes advised to evacuate the area; a tornado, though, may appear with little warning. In times when severe weather appears imminent, be certain to tune in to local weather reports.
When a hurricane watch or tornado watch is in effect, conditions are such that a hurricane or tornado may be coming. When a hurricane warning or tornado warning is in effect, a hurricane or tornado has been sighted and may be headed your way.
Be certain to take shelter during a hurricane warning or tornado warning. An underground area, such as a basement or storm cellar, provides the best protection. If an underground area is not available, seek shelter in a small interior room or hallway on the lowest floor possible. Stay away from doors, windows and outside walls. Stay in the center of the room and avoid corners, which attract debris.
Anyone who has seen reports of the tornadoes in Oklahoma or who has lived through the Sturbridge tornado knows that severe weather should be taken seriously. Don't take chances. Protect yourself, your family and your home before the storm comes.
Richard A. McGrath, CIC, LIA is President and CEO of McGrath Insurance Group, Inc. of Sturbridge, Mass. He can be reached at email@example.com.
This article is written for informational purposes only and should not be construed as providing legal advice.


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How to Dry Boxwood Cuttings to Use Indoors
Boxwood is a type of evergreen shrub commonly used in outdoor landscaping. The uniform shape and size of the boxwood's leaves make it a popular choice for dried floral arrangements and holiday leaves. The best way to dry boxwood cuttings is to use a two-part method so that the cuttings both retain their color and dry out properly.
Use freshly cut boxwood branches in order to preserve the color of the leaves. Cut an extra three to four inches for soaking and hanging the stems.
Pull the leaves off the stem ends. This is the end that will be soaking in the glycerin/dye mixture.
Hammer the ends of the stems. This allows for better absorption of the glycerin/dye mix during the preservation stage.
Measure out the water for the glycerin mixture. You need two parts water for every one part of glycerin. The amount of water you need depends on the length of the stem ends.
Measure out the glycerin. Put this aside so you have it ready when your water comes to a boil.
Bring the water to a boil and add the glycerin. Keep the glycerin/water mixture on the heat according to the manufacturer's instructions on the glycerin package.
Pour the glycerin/water mixture into the container. A one-quart container holds up to four cups of liquid. This should be large enough to hold your glycerin/water mixture and Boxwood cuttings. Use a glass container if you are working with hot glycerin/water mixture.
Add florist absorption dye to the container and mix thoroughly. The boxwood cuttings will absorb the color of the dye you have chosen.
Soak the cuttings in the mixture for one to two weeks. Remove and hang them by the stems in a warm dry place for two to three weeks.
Related Articles
Things Needed
- Pruning saw or pruning shears
- Hammer
- 1-cup measuring cup
- Boiling water
- Glycerin
- Container
- Florist absorption dye


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Miley Cyrus' Festive July 4th Party [PHOTOS]by Thomas Chau | PopCrush
Millions of U.S. citizens celebrated Independence Day yesterday but no matter how big your family is, chances are you didn't have as much fun as Miley Cyrus.
The 'Wrecking Ball' singer posted several pictures on Instagram of her own July 4th party, which was covered with red, white and blue decorations everywhere.
Since returning from the European leg of her Bangerz Tour, Cyrus has seemingly immersed herself in arts and crafts, having posted several projects in the time that she's been home.
Cyrus' 4th of July party seemingly included a lot of these homemade decorations, including an Uncle Sam mask, an American eagle mask, a red white and blue braid and more.
Click on the gallery below to check out more photos from her 4th of July bash.
Cyrus will be hitting the road once again in August, as she continues on her Bangerz Tour making up for the U.S. dates she missed last spring.
Bare-Faced + Beautiful! See Miley Cyrus + More Pop Stars Without Makeup
Next: The Craziest Moments From the Bangerz Tour – Ranked by Miley Tongues


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Scripture: Lectionary 102: Ezekiel 2:2-5. Psalm 123:1-2.2.3-4. II
Corinthians 12:7-10. Mark 6:1-6a.
Ezekiel is one of the most colorful of the prophets in the creativ and bold ways in which he gets his prophetic message across. He calls himself the "son of man" in order to emphasize his humanness and hislimits. This becomes almost a personal name for him as we read through his prophetic book. There is nothing boring or dull about the flow of the chapters. He gives us one of the greatest principles in prophecy, namely, that we are each responsible for the choices we make and cannot say we are virtuous or immoral through what our ancestors or parents may have done. (Ezekiel 18:2-31). He insisted on holiness, denunciation of idolatry, and the existence of angels, and apocalyptic mysticism. In chapter 37 his vision of the dry bones gives us hope for regeneration now and the hope of life hereafter.
Jesus also names and calls himself "the son of man." The expression often just has the same connotation as the pronoun "I." There is also the apocalyptic "son of man" in Daniel but this belongs more to a later insight into eschatogy in the early Church while being applied to Jesus in those passages where the "son of man" will appear on the clouds with power and judgment.
Mark 6:1-6 is the second passage in this Gospel that has a mention of the mother of Jesus. This is a noteworthy passage in that chronologically we learn of her name, Mary, for the first time in the Scriptures. It seems the "son of man" title as well as the "son of
Mary" one mean the humanness and the limits of Jesus as belonging to a particular woman named Mary and under her tutelage. Joseph the husband is never mentioned and the "brothers and sisters" is understood in our Catholic faith as part of the extended family. This makes sense since two of the named male figures have other women mentioned as their mother in the Gospels. Our belief in the perpetual virginity in this statement of Mark 6: 3 shows us that Jesus is considered to belong to Mary as a son and has the trade of carpenter. Fr. Roland Faley, T.O.R. has this important statement
about Mark 6:3: "Son of Mary would be an exceptional, even unsettling way for a person to be identified, with no mention of the father. Yet, Mark has already identified God as Jesus' father (Mark 1:1, 11. and again in 9:7; 13:32).
Like the prophet Ezekiel, Jesus is rejected in his own native place and among his own relatives for no prophet is without honor except in his native place, among his own kindred, and in his own house. They say "He is too much for us!" Can we really ever have too much o Jesus in our lives? We may wish to ponder over the meaning of the
title "son of Mary" and Jesus having only God as his Father. Amen.


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Casting your innovation team for diversity
Learning from the film industry about team composition.
What can we learn from the film industry about team composition? In my view, we can learn a lot. For instance, according to Alfred Hitchcock "75% of directing is casting" – which is an excellent quote illustrating the importance allocated to team composition in the film industry – where rigorous and costly casting processes are the norm rather than the exception.
In most other industries we only spend a fraction of our time and resources on team composition and team staffing; something which has always struck me by surprise, since so many of us seem to agree that team composition is crucial to innovation success.
In order to investigate what we can learn from the film industry in terms of recruiting for innovation and diversity, I recently did an interesting training series with Arla Foods where we wanted to explore what the film industry has to offer in terms of team composition, innovation and diversity. And with this blog post, I want to share some of our most important findings, and none the least some of the most importantant take-aways.
The Basics of Team composition – and the need for diversity in teams
One of my favorite quotes when it comes to team composition is this one from Jim Collins: "Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seat". Which is equally important whether you are composing a team for productivity (complementarity) or innovation (diversity). But the most critical part in team composition is to avoid homogeneity.
We all know that and yet, according to Govindarajan & Trimble (2009), some of the most common mistakes in innovation team composition is that we:
- Tend to have a bias for similar others (=> homogeneity)
- Managers tend to favor their own employees (as opposed to more competent outsiders)
- Availability oftentimes end up being perceived as more important than skills
- Familiarity (we tend to think that people we know are much more competent than people we do not know)
- Expedience and speed (for some reason composition is often perceived as something we need to quickly get done)
And even if most of us are very much aware of the importance of "getting the team right", more often than not – when we compose new teams, these teams end up bearing evidence of not just one but many, if not all, of the most common mistakes above.
Learning from the film industry But what is it in particular that we may learn from the film industry, when seeking to avoid the mistakes listed above?
First, and foremost, we may learn from the overwhelming importance allocated to team composition (or the casting of the right cast & crew for any new film). This importance is evidenced not only by the enormous amount of resources allocated to casting, which eats up a big chunk of the overall film budget.This importance is evidenced by the priority allocated by top management to casting in general; with both the director and the producer being heavily involved in all of the important team composition decisions. Furthermore, the role played by the casting director, who is in charge of the tedious recruiting process, working closely together with both the producer and the director in designing the best and the exact right team composition.
Secondly, we may learn a lot from the rigorous casting process used in the film industry – it most certainly has a lot to offer as a methodology which can be applied and used in composing any new team. Even if only for inspiration. The casting process – or methodology – consists of five different steps:
- STEP 1: MAKING THE "BREAKDOWN": COMPLETE LIST OF REQUIRED TALENT Producer and casting director create a breakdown for each character which is then distributed
- STEP 2: PORTFOLIO SELECTION INITIATED: APP 30 PER ROLE IS SELECTED Agents submit characters and the casting direct will select the app 30 best candidates based on desired talent and ask them to participate in an audition
- STEP 3: AUDITIONS WHERE THE DIFFERENT CANDIDATES ARE PRESENTED Audition pieces or "cold read-ups" are presented to the director, producer, casting director
- STEP 4: CALL-BACKS AND TEST FILMING OF BEST CHARACTERS App 10 candidates per role will be called back and test-filmed for each role
- STEP 5: SELECTION MADE Based on test-filming Casting Director + producer + director make final selection
Can you think of the last time within your organisation where anyone spent this much time, energy or this many resources on putting together a new team, even for highly important or prestigious innovation projects or assignments? But maybe we should do, if not all, then just a little bit of this:
- What if we made a detailed break-down (description) of each important team role, a job description, even if we are not recruiting new employees, but "merely" recruiting for a new team?
- What if we insisted on finding at least 30 possible candidates for each team role, which we were able to compare and choose from, in our search for the very best, possible team member for each team role?
- What if we insisted on setting up "auditions", where the best 20+ candidates for each team role would compete by showing off (rather than talk about) their unique skills and abilities, and the difference they would be able to make for this particular innovation team?
- What if we insisted on inviting the best 10 candidates for each team role to conduct a small pilot-assignment together, similar to the real project just on a smaller scale, to be able to judge each candidate on how well they perform in a real-time situation
- What if we insisted that the recruiting decisions should be made not by the project leader in charge, but on top managerial and executive level?
In a later blogpost I will look into casting or team composition from an employee perspective, by looking the methods and logics of typecasting, and how I recently did a different project exploring this typecasting perspective at Microsoft..


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Free Photoshop Browser Templates For Web Designers
As a web designer, you are going to need browser templates. When presenting your work to a client, adding a browser frame around your design will help you or your client get an idea of what the site will really look like.
Here are the free photoshop browser templates for your professional screendesign come in 1024×768 pixels and 800×600 pixels size , all kinds of different browser (Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari, Camino and etc…) flavours. For both sizes, the safe viewing area is marked in a separate layer.
Browser components are also separated onto individual layers so you can adjust them or switch them off them as you like: Page title, Address field, Favicon, Scrollbar and Dropshadow. You can download this amazing package for free.
Update: Our reader has just pointed out that the browser templates are not updated which we have not realized. We have now found a source of Photoshop Browser Templates for IE 7 and Firefox 3.0 instead. Please feel free to download them.
Requirements: Photoshop
Demo: http://www.webdesignerstoolkit.com/
Demo: http://piksels.com/photoshop-browser-templates/
License: License Free


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What is a Favicon?
Notice the red "Y!" symbol that appears in the left-most area of the address bar in Internet Explorer graphic below. Look familiar? Yep, that's Yahoo's favicon. These favicons (favorites icons), sometimes called "bookmark icons," appear after adding a website with a favicon to the favorites menu in Internet Explorer and certain other browsers.
Favicons also appear in the favorites menu after a page is added. Most anyone who's roamed the Internet and bookmarked sites of interest has noticed favicons showing up in the favorites menu like this:
They also often appear in the Windows Start menu after installing a program as shown here:
Creating a Favicon
A favicon should be 16 X 16 pixels with 16 colors and the file name should be favicon.ico. IconEdit32 is a good freeware program that allows you to create favicons as well as icons of other sizes and color depths. IrfanView is an excellent freeware image viewer that supports the icon (.ico) image format. You can use it to shrink one of your regular images to a 16 X 16 size, then decrease the colors to 16 and save as a ".ico" file. I like to use IrfanView to get an image down to specifications, then edit it with IconEdit32. Remember, if you don't save it as "favicon.ico," it won't work. Also, don't just shrink an image to icon size and rename it with a ".ico" file extension. That won't work either because it's not a real icon file.
Installing a Favicon on your Website
Simply upload the file, favicon.ico to the root web directory of your hosted website with your favorite FTP program, Microsoft FrontPage, Dreamweaver MX or whatever. Make sure your favicon file is named "favicon.ico." When someone bookmarks your site with a browser that supports favicons, your favicon will appear. Alternatively, you can use this code between the <head></head> (x)HTML tags:
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.thenameofyoursitehere.com/favicon.ico" mce_href="http://www.thenameofyoursitehere.com/favicon.ico"/>
Where can I get Favicons?
You can feast upon Clickfire's collection of over 100 free favicons and download them for use on your website. To find out more about favicons, visit the definitive favicon site, Favicon.com.
What good is a website without a favicon?
Absolutely worthless :)


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Take the King's Schilling; do the King's Biddding…
In a time long ago the center of my shooting universe was a large concrete and granite example of Classical Revival architecture located at 360 Broad Street in Hartford, Connecticut; the Connecticut State Armory and Arsenal, headquarters of the Connecticut State Military Department. For twenty years I was a small cog in that martial machine which churned out National Guard shooting champions at a furious pace.
Tucked away in a small side office on the second floor of the western wall were the desks of my shooting bosses Colonel Bill Meagher and Chief Warrant Officer Billy Mulligan, the State Marksmanship Coordinator and his able assistant. More importantly, deep in the bowels of the nearly two acre building, behind a massive safe door, stood racks of competition firearms and stacks of match ammunition.
Winchester 52s, National Match M-14s, carefully selected M-16s, Smith and Wesson Model 41s, and platoons of venerable Colt 1911s stood as if at inspection, dressed and covered, behind locked cyclone fence partitions. Across from them were heaped cardboard cartons and wooden crates. The cardboard each contained 5,000 rounds of 22 caliber standard velocity and match grade ammunition. Some of the wooden crates held four M19A ammunition cans of 5.56mm ball cartridges while others contained a pair of M2A1 cans holding either 7.62mm or 45 Caliber National Match ammunition.
When I would whine, in my childish way, about some of the inconvenient aspects of shooting for the Guard my captain, Platoon Sergeant Dick Scheller, or coach, Platoon Sergeant Roger McQuiggan, would quickly remind me of the largess that poured forth from the great gray building. A simple rephrasing of the old British Army recruiting saying became, "You take the governor's guns and ammunition: you do the governor's bidding" served as a reminder that I had volunteered for the team and, ungrateful wretch that I was, got more in return than I gave.
The Connecticut Guard Rifle Team had a solid history going back to the early 1900s. It participated in the National Matches and occasionally had a bright moment. Private E.C. Simpson won the President's Match in 1906. Seventy three years later Scheller would take home the trophy. McQuiggan and I would be the only other Connecticut Guard rifleman to win a place in the Presidents Hundred.
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Gadd, Sr. would be the first Constitution State Guardsman to earn the Distinguished Marksman Badge in 1924, the first year Guardsmen were eligible. Captain William Denison, and Second Lieutenants Emil Kumnick and Clarence May would join him before the year was out, the first five of 26 Distinguished Rifle Badges earned by the Connecticut Guard.
First Lieutenant Robert Gadd, Jr. joined his father as Distinguished in 1930 becoming the first members of the same family to earn the distinction. Between 1935 and 1939 the three Lacy brothers, James, John, and Walter all earned the Badge. There are other Distinguished family relationships. Scheller's son James earned his while serving in the United States Marines, Al Maloney's wife Mary is a civilian Distinguished Rifleman as is my brother Steve. Dave Colt's father Lebaron, who became the first Connecticut Guardsman to earn the Distinguished Pistol Shot Badge in 1971, and his brother Stephen are both Distinguished Pistol Shots.
Specialist Fourth Class Ralph Bluminhagen earned his Distinguished Badge in 1962 with an M1 in just three Excellence in Competition Matches. Raymond Baker II and Brian Roy are the only two Double Distinguished shooters the program has produced. Baker has the unusual distinction of earning both in combat style competition, never once earning a bull's-eye leg.
The program fell on hard times following World War II. For many years, the late 1950s until the early 1970s, often times the only representation the state could muster was Scheller and anyone he could dragoon to join him on the range.
Major General John Frederick Freund was appointed Adjutant General of Connecticut in 1972. Riffling through his correspondence one day he came across the match bulletin for the most recent National Guard Rifle and Pistol Championship and noticed that Connecticut had finished nearly at the bottom. He found this intolerable and ordered Meagher to do whatever necessary to see that the state would be at the top of the list as soon as possible.
Meagher contacted Scheller who latched onto a willing McQuiggan. The two hit the streets like a Royal Navy press gang and rounding up every willing Guardsman, prior service rifle shooter, and innocent civilian rifleman they could find. Within six years the team won four combat rifle championships, two National Guard and two All Army titles and a National Guard M14 championship and began an incredible run of ten consecutive National Guard Smallbore Rifle Championship victories.
The program has changed markedly since 1972, most shooting is now combat style, but the men and women who have passed through the program have collected nearly two dozen National Guard national team championships, 11 service rifle Distinguished Badges, five smallbore Distinguished Badges, four M-14 and nine combat rifle Chiefs 50 awards.
Not a bad return for both the state and the individual and for both giving and taking the Governor's guns and ammunition.
Category: Hap's Corner


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Thazalhar was a region of Thay, ruled by tharchion Milsantos Daramos until his death in 1382 DR. It was small and sparsely populated compared to other tharchs in Thay.[1]
Thazalhar was part of the Mulhorandi empire at the time of Thay's rebellion against them. It was rich farmland then.[2]
When Jorgmacdon summoned the demon lord Eltab in 922 DR,[3] most of Thazalhar was completely devastated during the Battle of Thazalhar, earning it the appellation of "one vast graveyard". The enriched soil of the field of the battle laid untilled from then on.[2]
Tharchion Milsantos demanded tolls of gems and small valuable items from the caravans that traversed the trade route that his troops guarded. Having nowhere to store much coin, Milsantos had to carry everything with him.[4]
In the north and west, Thazalhar was separated from the rest of Thay by the River Tazarim. The Mulhorand border was marked by the River of the Dawn. It was also separated from the Endless Wastes by the Sunrise Mountains.[5]
The tharch's tharchion was Milsantos Daramos, whose seat of power was actually in Pyarados but Milsantos held a particular dislike for that tharch's tharchion, Valerios Theokillos, and so he spent the majority of his time with his troops, living in several temporary campsites.[4]
Milsantos' cavalry were noted as being the very best riders of all Thay's military forces, though their skill at arms was not nearly so exemplary. They were responsible for ensuring that any invasions from Mulhorand were repelled, keeping the local monster populations from becoming uncontrollable and protecting trade caravans from the depredations of bandits.[4] Milsantos also occasionally sent his troops on raids against the coastline pirates but the corsairs almost always managed to outmaneuver them.[6]
So sparsely was Thazalhar populated that the only inhabitant of note was its tharchion. The rest of the populace consisted of Milsantos' three small troops of cavalry, the few caravan traders who were willing to risk traveling the caravan route to Mulhorand (rather than the much safer option of taking a ship from Bezantur to Sultim), the bandits that preyed on those caravans, a few small pirate families that lived on the tiny stretch of Thazalhar's coastline,[5] and the occasional units of Mulhorandi troops that regularly tried to enforce their claim on Thazalhar and the Priador.[7]
- ↑ Richard Lee Byers (April 2007). Unclean. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 100. ISBN 978-0-7869-4258-9.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Steve Perrin (1988). Dreams of the Red Wizards. (TSR, Inc), p. 9. ISBN 0-88038-615-0.
- ↑ Brian R. James and Ed Greenwood (September, 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 111. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Steve Perrin (1988). Dreams of the Red Wizards. (TSR, Inc), p. 28. ISBN 0-88038-615-0.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Steve Perrin (1988). Dreams of the Red Wizards. (TSR, Inc), p. 23. ISBN 0-88038-615-0.
- ↑ Anthony Pryor (1995). Spellbound (Campaign Guide). (TSR, Inc), p. 23. ISBN 978-0786901395.
- ↑ Scott Bennie (1990). Old Empires. (TSR, Inc), p. 16. ISBN 0-8803-8821-8.


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mondo caneMay 14, 2010
story has it mike patton (faith no more, mr. bungle) spent a year in italy living with his italian girlfriend. and as these things go osmosised (dont try to pronounce it or look it up , i made it up) a fair amount of italian pop. other country's music ringing around in your head, you never really know what to do with it. you know how it is. patton says *@#$ it and puts that gorgeous voice of his to good use and belts out an album's worth of italian cover songs called "mondo cane" buy it. love it.


text: FAQ Search Select a Category Cleaning Formulas Cleaning Tips Corporate Deep Cleaners FAQ Hard Floor Cleaners Parts and Accessories Steam Sweepers Vacuums Warranty Web Site and/or go How do I clear clogs in my EasyVac PowerBrush? Answer: First, let's check for suction at the end of the hose. If there is good suction at the end of the hose, remove the floor nozzle and check the suction opening for clogs. If the filter is clean and there is low suction from the hose, remove the hose and insert a long narrow object to push out the clog. To remove the hose from the bracket near the dirt cup, remove the small Phillips-head screw and slide out the end of the hose.


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Inmate in shocking jail video calls treatment 'torture'
Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office investigating
An inmate seen being tasered and maced in a video taken from a Bernalillo County correctional officer's body camera says she wishes she could forget the horrifying experience.
In September of 2015, Susie Chavez was in the Bernalillo County Jail for a probation violation.
While in jail, Chavez was taken out of her cell while officers could examine it. A video of that incident recently surfaced and many have called it terrifying to watch.
In the video, Chavez is tasered, maced and her shackled wrists are twisted because she won't stop crying or yelling during the search.
Before her wrists are twisted, an officer can be heard on the video saying, "twist her wrists until she shuts up and stops crying."
The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office has since investigated the incident, and the interim jail director said Monday night that the district attorney or the attorney general will now review the case to see if charges should be brought forth.
Sgt. Eric Green, who was involved in the incident, has been on paid administrative leave since January of this year.
An oversight board for the jail held an emergency meeting Monday night regarding the video.
The board raised questions to Tom Ruiz, the jail's interim director, asking him why the board is just now seeing the video.
Ruiz explained that before he came on, which was in July, that there were no policies in place at the jail to investigate officer misconduct. Now, there is a team of investigators at the jail who do just that.
Ruiz also said that jail administration found out about the incident in April of this year. Board members said that the issue should have been looked into much sooner.
Board members also requested that they would like to review all reports and investigations done by jail administration and the sheriff's office regarding officer misconduct.
Ruiz told board members that there's a backlog of cases involving officer misconduct and that his investigative team is working to move through them.
The investigative team, which has been in place since July, has reviewed 17 incidents so far. Ruiz added that officers are being trained now to minimize the use of force.
Chavez attended the meeting and told Action 7 News that the experience she had with the Bernalillo County Jail last year was traumatizing.
"It felt like I was dying over and over and over again," Chavez said.
Chavez spoke to board members, pleading for them to be a voice for inmates. Former inmates also spoke to the board, sharing their stories of alleged abuse.
Chavez says she never expected her story to get so big, but added that all she wants is change.
"I want all the families out there who has an inmate in the jail to know that something is being done and that we have the county's attention," Chavez said.
Stephen Perkins, the union president for the county's corrections officers, was at the meeting and said that the county has regularly ignored the needs of officers over the years.
He asked that the board look into that. He also said that use of force policies are non-existent at the jail or are often not made clear to officers.


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After months of waiting, the infamous OUYA will begin shipping on March 28th. OUYA is a $99 Android gaming consol that blew through Kickstarter last year with over 8 million dollars pledged. The sum 50,000+ backers should be receiving their OUYAs in late March. According to OUYA's site, they will be launching with a handful of games developed specifically for the OUYA, but of course you can always download non-ouya specific games straight from the Google Play Store. If you did not bite the bullet and pledge for an OUYA, keep your eyes peeled for the first reviews which should be hitting the internet shortly after its release.
Source: OUYA


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SXSW Review: The Infinite Man
Time-travel movies can be so difficult to execute that few filmmakers attempt them. Fewer still can claim success. Of those, I've reserved the highest praise, citing as the only time-travel movie that "gets it right" by being internally self-consistent, playing by its own rules while still being entertaining and managing to surprise the audience, for Nacho Vigolondo's Time Crimes. Until now. Many might ask about Rian Johnson's hit Looper, which is a good film, I agree, but which in the end breaks the rules.
Like Time Crimes, The Infinite Man is a micro-budget sci-fi story with a cast of only three characters. They are Dean (Josh McConville), his girlfriend Lana (Hannah Marshall), and her ex Terry (Alex Dimitriades), who is obsessed with Lana and wants her back.
In addition to being a brilliant crackerjack scientist, Dean is a control freak who can't be satisfied with anything less than perfection. On the anniversary of their first, perfect date, Dean and Lana return to the same location as he attempts to recreate it in every detail. Unfortunately, there are too many variables out of his control, including the sudden appearance of Terry, intent on regaining the love of Lana. After the date falls apart, Dean spends a year creating a time machine and thus begins a loop returning to the fateful weekend as he seeks to put things right.
The ensuing encounters with himself, with Lana, and with Terry, shot from different locations and angles, play out hilariously as the truth of the story is slowly revealed not just to the audience, but to Dean himself. Writer/director Hugh Sullivan's clever script explores the unhealthier aspects of relationships such as self-doubt, co-dependence, obsessiveness, and controlling behaviors metaphorically through the actions of his characters.
SXSW Review: Above All Else
East Texas isn't exactly a hotbed of political activism -- at least not the kind of activism that makes the world a better place.
The heavily wooded, mostly rural region of Texas is one of the reddest parts of a mostly red state, a place firmly rooted in Southern cultural tradition, deeply conservative religious fervor, economic libertarianism and anachronistic good ol' boy politics. It's the last place you'd expect a bunch of hippies to pick a fight with a giant corporation.
But a bunch of hippies did. Their battle is the subject of Above All Else, filmmaker John Fiege's engaging and enraging documentary about a group of activists and landowners determined to stop construction of the reviled Keystone XL oil pipeline on their land.
The pipeline is slated to carry tar sands oil -- a particularly dirty, viscous, gritty kind of petroleum -- from Alberta, Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. Pipeline proponents claim it will increase North American energy independence and create jobs; opponents claim it's potentially dangerous and will kill more jobs than it creates. They also oppose the continued burning of fossil fuels, which exacerbates global warming.
Review: Veronica Mars
A long time ago, or so it seems to fans of the show, teen detective drama Veronica Mars was cancelled. Since its somewhat abrupt end, the series has grown a larger cult following through people introduced to the show via subscribed streaming services (raises hand) or DVD sets borrowed from friends (the case for my sister). The question high on the mind of these dedicated watchers: When will we get a movie?
Thanks to a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, this weekend the film is being released. Veronica Mars will simultaneously open in select theatres at the same time that digital copies are available for purchase. The film, from Austin director/showrunner Rob Thomas, will be the first to be released in such a fashion. It is apt that this film, funded partially through new media, be the selected title to test this out.
Guided by the exuberant response from fans, Thomas included familiar faces we know and love in the cast, led by Kristen Bell in her lead role as Veronica. It has been 10 years since she graduated from Neptune High. Veronica has moved to NYC to complete law school and hook up again with college boyfriend Piz (Chris Lowell), who now works in public radio with Ira Glass (of course he does!). Former love Logan (Jason Dohring) calls her back to her California hometown to help him fight a murder rap.
SXSW Review: Creep
Jason Blum must be one of the busiest men in Hollywood. With 36 credited projects already, and another 23 currently in production, Blum has proven himself not just hardworking, but also with a keen eye for horror films that use the simplest elements to reach the heart of what unsettles us and play on our innermost fears. Mark Duplass is a veteran of the mumblecore genre, which eschews narrative scripts and focuses on development of character and natural dialogue.
Put these guys together with writer/director Patrick Brice, and you get Creep, a microbudget hackle-raiser as scary as Paranormal Activity.
Brice stars as Aaron Franklin (one wonders if this is a tribute to Franklin Barbecue), who answers a Craigslist ad placed by Josef (Duplass) for a videographer to spend a day shooting his life. The creepiness begins immediately when Aaron arrives to find that nobody appears to be home, and the house and grounds have an ominous feel.
As Aaron prepares to leave, Josef silently appears in a startling reveal that sets the tone for the rest of the day. Josef, with his habit of appearing suddenly, often with an accompanying "rawr" or stomping thump, delights in keeping Aaron -- as well as the audience -- off-balance. Each scare is immediately explained away by the apologetic Josef, whose off-putting actions sound almost completely reasonable when taken in context.
During a Q&A with Brice and Duplass following the Creep premiere, they described the process in which the film evolved as they would shoot and edit scenes, show them to friends and then return to the rented cabin for additional shooting, bringing the script revision process off paper and into the camera. They populated the set with as many lamps as possible to reduce the need for extra lighting equipment, which also allowed for a natural, believable look for the handheld cinematography.
SXSW Review: Before I Disappear
Shawn Christensen's 2012 short film Curfew was a film-festival darling, winning 15 awards including a 2013 Oscar. I haven't seen Curfew, but certainly want to if it's as good as the feature-length version of the same story, Before I Disappear.
Christensen's debut feature is quirky, but I mean that in a good way. A genre-bending mix of family drama, thriller, love story and surreal fantasy, Before I Disappear is the dark story of Richie (Christensen), a broke and depressed drug addict adrift in New York City. He spends his time hanging out in seedy clubs and earning a meager living as a janitor. His job only compounds his depression when he cleans a restroom and finds the body of an overdose victim, a beautiful woman who reminds him of his dead girlfriend.
One afternoon, a phone call interrupts Richie's halfhearted attempt to kill himself. Long estranged from his family, he's surprised that the call is from his wealthy and far more functional sister, Maggie (Emmy Rossum), who asks him to take care of her daughter, Sophia (Fatima Ptacek), for a few hours after school. A series of bizarre events keeps Maggie busy all night and forces Richie and Sophia to spend the night wandering the streets of New York and visiting Richie's favorite haunts. (They're not places any sane person would take a child.)
SXSW 2014: Enthralled by 'Last Hijack'
Before I attend film festivals, I sketch out an overloaded schedule and give myself multiple options, sometimes based more on where and when a movie is playing than the subject matter of the film itself. Monday, I had mainly chosen to see Last Hijack because it was playing at Alamo Drafthouse Village. I figured the doc would be a good counterbalance to Cesar Chavez, and I could get my third Alamo pretzel of the fest.* A friend happened to tweet the trailer for the documentary/animation earlier that day, and it looked terrific.
The screening wasn't jam-packed, but most seats were full as we watched the real-life drama unfold. Filmmakers Femke Wolting and former Austinite Tommy Pallotta depict some months in the life of Mohamed, a Somalian man whose tragic life has eventually led him to piracy hijackings at sea. He hopes to marry a young woman, but her family (and his parents, as well) want him to quit his piracy. He plans one last hijack to make money for him and his new wife to live in style.
SXSW Review: The Dog
Drafthouse Films is building a strong slate of quality documentaries, and The Dog is a fine addition to that collection.
Filmmakers Allison Berg and Francois Keraudren, who brought their previous film Witches in Exile to SXSW in 2004, have completed an 11-year project to document the life of John Wojtowicz, aka "The Dog," who became famous in 1971 for robbing a Chase Manhattan bank in order to pay for gender reassignment surgery for his lover. The event served as inspiration for the 1975 Sidney Lumet film Dog Day Afternoon.
Beginning with his early years, The Dog covers a journey to Vietnam and a return to post-war Stonewall New York during the birth of the gay rights movement, revealing a fascinating character who refuses to play by any rules but his own. Wojtowicz is a force of nature, who describes himself as "an angel with horns," who does not drink, smoke, or gamble, reserving sex as his only vice.
Through Wojtowicz's eyes we see the Robin Hood story of the failed robbery attempt, the aftermath of his trial, his time in prison, and ultimate rejection by Liz Eden, his lover. Presented as a monster in the news media of the day and largely forgotten since, Wojtowicz presents a charismatic, likable figure in footage which covers his last years, and well before the end of the film, I found myself wishing I could meet this charming scoundrel.
The Dog is humorous, fascinating, and slightly tragic, especially in terms of the fallout for Wojtowicz's family. The loyalty of his mother as well as his former wives serves as evidence of his underlying goodness or of the cult of personality he would build around himself.
You can decide for yourself at the remaining screening tonight -- Thursday, March 13 at 9:30 pm at Alamo Village. If you miss it, The Dog was picked up by Drafthouse Films and is scheduled for an August 2014 release. I sat down with Berg and Keraudren for a few minutes after the film, so look for that conversation following the fest.
SXSW Review: Faults
I've never been one for films about cults. I suppose it's because they're such a taboo subject within our society, not to mention they flat out give me the creeps, I've never gone out of my way to watch films on the topic. And no, not even when people gave me the nickname "Martha Marcy May Marcelena." But something caught my attention in reading about Riley Stearns' debut feature film, Faults.
The story starts with a deadbeat guy getting kicked out of a restaturant. He is trying to use a free meal voucher, but the manager knows he already used it the night before. The guy downs his food, then tries to eat all of the condiments on the table. After a physical struggle with the manager, he is thrown out of the restaurant. This is Ansel (Leland Orser), our film's protagonist. What I later realized I enjoyed so much about this intro is that it sets up the main character perfectly: a washed up, once-famous public speaker who will do what he can to con people, even for a free meal.
SXSW Review: Two Step
For decades, law enforcement agencies have been warning people of a common phone scam: An elderly person receives a phone call from someone pretending to be the person's grandchild or other family member. The caller says he's desperate for money, and asks the victim to deposit money in a bank account. This scam is often successful; the elderly victims, feeling lonely and forgotten, want to help their family members and are easily conned.
Normally, the victims lose money but never meet the con artists or suffer any physical harm. But in the stylish thriller Two Step, the scam turns deadly and personal.
In the Austin-made film, career criminal Webb (James Landry Hébert) is part of ring of phone scammers, making his calls from prison. When he's released, he's ready to continue his criminal ways and reunite with his girlfriend and fellow scammer, Amy (Ashley Spillers). But the reunion doesn't go as planned. Fed up with Webb's physical and emotional abuse, Amy leaves him the minute he returns home, taking their ill-gotten cash with her. Even worse, he owes $10,000 to the ringleader, Duane (Jason Douglas), who banishes him from the ring for his erratic and violent ways. But Webb is determined to repay the money and make amends with his boss.
SXSW Review: No No: A Dockumentary
No No: A Dockumentary was directed by Austinite Jeffrey Radice and came about with much local support and funding (including a grant from Austin Film Society), so it was no surprise that it made its SXSW premiere to a big and welcoming crowd at the Paramount last Saturday.
The film explores the life of Dock Ellis, a Major League baseball player known for his talent as a pitcher as well as for the memorable feat of pitching a no-hitter (aka the "no no" of the title) while high on LSD. He also played at a time rife with racial tension and when illicit but quietly accepted drug use was rampant among players -- and rather than remaining a passive bystander in terms of baseball politics, Ellis was vocal and persistent in sharing his opinions.


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I felt that I needed a few changes to my 101 Things in 1001 Days list. Someof them are due to logistic reaons (lack of a better word); others are cause I have new intersts and the items were on the list in the first place and a filler. I will try and keep true to the category though i.e replace a Gaming one with a Gaming one etc.
- 64. Finish Rise of Legends The Vinci — first campaign changed to: Finish Borderlandscause I can't find my Rise of Legends disc, and I got this one sitting on my desktop. And Henk reckons I should play something other than Sims 2+3. This is also harder than my old goal since I don't particularly like shooter games that much – but the graphics intrugue me and I get to play a female character too.
- 7. Visit Augrabiese Watervalle change to: Find 300 Geocaches(11/300); Cause there are caches there too. But the original reason I put this up there is so that we can travel more and explore our country – and since Augrabiese Watervalle is close enough for a weekend getaway, it got added. So in the spirit of still going there, I made the goal harder by saying that I/we must find 300 caches.
* * * *
This is what happens when you write posts ahead and save the drafts before finishing. I sorta lost my thread. But I made the changes; now let us see if the get completed.


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Cauliflower Roast For Chr...
This recipe is a cracker for those of you celebrating a plant-based Christmas. It really is wildly ..
This recipe is a cracker for those of you celebrating a plant-based Christmas. It really is wildly ..
Caramel popcorn is such an easy sweet treat to make, and this version has sweet gingerbread spices ..
Try delicious olives marinated with walnuts, pomegranate molasses and herbs – a fantastic combination ..
Delicious homemade guacamole with grilled corn! This is perfect to snack on, top burgers or steaks ..
What better way to start the day than with a big old slice of fresh spinach bacon quiche?
Crispy Paneer (cottage cheese) is a great party starter/appetizer and can also be served as a snack ..
An easy and tasty sweet potato french fry hack with the addition of kimchi, curry fry sauce, ..
Pelmeni, or meat dumplings, is a traditional Russian dish that is known all over the world. Here ..
Delicious Cherry Tomato and Mozzarella Stuffed Garlic Mushrooms with a Balsamic Reduction.
Sausage rolls flavoured with chilli, feta and sage – so easy & perfect as a lunchtime snack, ..
The perfect party snack – healthified nachos featuring Mediterranean ingredients.
These Cheesy Taco Cups are the perfect game day snack. Your favorite taco ingredients are layered ..
The Best Falafel is crispy on the outside, a brilliant emerald green on the inside, with tons ..
Naan-wich: 5 ingredient falafel, roasted veggies, and avocado sauce stuffed between pillowy garlic ..
If you make these this weekend, they will be the star of the show!
A recipe for jalapeno poppers stuffed with shredded chicken, melty smoked gouda cheese, soft ..
Pulled Pork Taquitos for some Super Bowl game day eats!
Cheesy Sausage Stuffed Red Potatoes are the perfect game day finger food!
Jazzing up a classic childhood snack of sardines on toast, by spreading some horseradish cream ..
Mmm mmmm. Honey Baked Camembert with Bacon and Rosemary is the perfect appetizer or addition ..
This easy clumpy Gingerbread Granola is a healthy way to start your day, or munch on as a quick ..
My Superfood Quinoa Stuffed Mushrooms are the perfect healthy plant based appetizer or party ..
These squash are honeynut squash, a smaller, sweeter version of the butternut squash. These stuffed ..
A spicy guacamole with jalapeño peppers, goat cheese, cilantro and lime. Served with a side ..
Crunchy, creamy, easy to make. Spanakopita is a Greek spinach-based savoury pastry. This interpretation ..
Not only is it a healthier alternative to meat-based bacon, it's also convenient and flavorful! ..
Jalapeño Pumpkin Cornbread Donuts. A moist and spicy cornbread donut perfect as buns for fried ..
A light and delicious version of fresh tomato bruschetta. It's topped with a balsamic reduction ..
Eat it straight, spoon it over your next burger, or use it as a sauce for steamed veggies. Take ..
Meatball Sub Cupcakes – cream cheese, frozen meatballs, marinara and mozzarella stuffed ..
Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti – crunchy and amazing biscotti loaded with cranberry and pistachio.
These Chili Stuffed Cornbread Muffins are a fun way to eat your chili and cornbread all in one bite! ..
These twice-baked potatoes are: creamy, crispy, cheesy, comforting and convenient. Each little ..
This easy recipe for crispy and baked toasted ravioli will be a new appetizer favorite! Ravioli ..
Coconut and lime give these courgette muffins a delicious flavour. They have a scrumptious roasted ..
Jamaican Beef Patties are great finger food for football season.
Let's start by saying that this platter of street cart fries is taking notes from Greek salad ..
This recipe is a fun and elegant appetizer idea that will refresh and impress your guestsand ..


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Tuesday, October 4, 2011
World Card Making Day Winner
Thank you everyone who hopped by. I loved being part of the celebration and enjoyed reading all of the sweet comments. Without further adieu, my twine winner is...
Lynn, please email me at email@example.com so I can get your mailing information. Thanks again.
Posted by The Cropping Canuck at 3:28 PM
Labels: blog hop winner
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A recent paper by three LSE researchers, Fred Pitts, Lorena Lombardozi and Neil Warner, entitled Beyond Basic Income: Overcoming the Crisis of Social Democracy?, provides a good example of this fruitful collision, positioning UBI in the context of three inter-related crises: of the society of work, of social reproduction and of social democracy itself (you can read a summary here). The first of these crises concerns the power of labour within a capitalist society: "The political expediency of the traditional labour theory of value has led the left to emphasise the power to resist capital that workers are granted by the material ability to provide or withdraw labour". The concern they articulate is that a UBI might actually weaken labour's power in the workplace, essentially by eroding the solidarity that has historically been the corollary of necessity. When defeat meant destitution or worse, you had a reason to fight. If you can afford to walk away from a job, why bother striking to improve your or your fellow workers' lot?
The argument has a superficial plausibility, but it is based on the belief that there is a marketplace for labour and that the UBI constitutes a means of removing "market frictions" - i.e. allowing market participants to make better-informed and less coerced choices. One could just as plausibly argue that a UBI would make workers more likely to withdraw their labour or work to rule, given that it effectively provides a reliable strike-fund that couldn't be interrupted by an employer's legal action or sequestered by a hostile state. The key error in the "labour market" vision is the assumption that the UBI constitutes a strategic alternative to work, rather than a tactical advantage in negotiation. The individuals who are likely to casually drift in and out of work in response to employer provocations are the ones who were never likely to be militant, so the belief that a UBI would somehow be debilitating to organised labour looks like pessimism about the sincerity and reliability of the working class as a whole, which echoes older fears of embourgeoisement and sails close to simple class prejudice.
As Karl Polanyi long ago pointed out, labour is a fictitious commodity so the concept of a market is clearly ideological. Ironically, it is a model that is shared by both labourism and neoliberalism. The difference is that the former believes the market is best negotiated through collective action while the latter emphasises individual preference. In this context, the UBI biases towards the neoliberal by empowering the individual utility maximiser. In recent years there has been a tendency among centre-left politicians to voice increased support for trade unions (though more in theory than practice), essentially as a way to redress the power imbalance that has led to stagnant wage growth and greater inequality, an attitude that reflects the neoliberal conviction that union weakness is the consequence of regulation as much as material circumstance. This modest revival of labourism has been one of the drivers of scepticism towards a UBI on the left, which is ironic given that the UBI ostensibly steers clear of any idea of seizing control of the means of production, an aversion it shares with labourism.
The LSE authors also flag the potential of a basic income to empower bosses: "Moreover, there are well‐established reservations about the UBI concerning the possibility the measure becomes no more than state subsidy for employers to maintain and proliferate forms of precarious low‐wage employment". This sounds more like a critique of current in-work tax credit schemes. These have the disadvantage that they protect employers from the effect of unilaterally depressing wages. Workers are deterred from moving to another employer offering better pay (because income support is clawed back) or from quitting the labour market altogether (because of delays consequent on making a fresh claim). This helps preserve bad employers that would otherwise be competed out of business (a "market friction", no less). In contrast, the universal scope of a basic income means that no single employer can gain an advantage over another by having the state provide a contingent subsidy. If the UBI is a subsidy for employment, it is a subsidy for all jobs, so it isn't clear how this would privilege "precarious low‐wage employment" in particular.
The charge that a UBI would encourage precarity is also central to the July 2017 report prepared for the TUC by the Fabian Society: "A UBI-based tax/benefit system responds automatically as people cycle in and out of work or change their hours. This is one of the main advantages of the policy. It also provides better rewards for working short hours, so it could increase the numbers in precarious work, at the same time as making their lives a little less precarious". It says something about the ideological ideal of the stable, well-paid job for life that the flexibility offered by the UBI to workers should be couched in such negative terms. Predictably, the Fabians reckon that a properly designed universal credit scheme would better support work, revealing their assumption that flexibility should be a privilege of capital, not of labour. That said, they are right to emphasise the continuing "role of universal entitlements within a multi-layered tax/benefit system designed for the changing labour market", though they are guilty of constructing a strawman when they claim that UBI proponents on the left (as opposed to the right) see it as a single payment that would obviate all other benefits. It cannot be stressed enough that to constitute an ethical advance, the UBI must be "in addition to" not "instead of".
The second crisis that Pitts, Lombardozi and Warner describe is that of social reproduction - i.e. the way in whch labour is reproduced through the social support of public health, education and care. Neoliberalism has simultaneously encouraged women into the world of work and eroded the capacity of the welfare state to support social reproduction, thus creating a greater pressure on women outside of work - i.e. they must increasingly both be breadwinners and make up the shortfall in state support for child-rearing and elderly care. Some states have addressed this by encouraging capital into the sphere of social reproduction - the privatisation of health and care - but this has exacerbated inequality and social exclusion. The UBI potentially alleviates this situation both by providing income support to women and allowing men to devote more non-working hours to their families, however this in itself does not address the erosion of the welfare state and the commoditisation of social reproduction.
Furthermore, a UBI may lead to the revival of older forms of family management if the cost of social reproduction exceeds the scope of the basic income. Quoting Kathi Weeks, the authors note that a UBI might serve "simply to offer more support for the traditional heteropatriarchal family's gender division of productive and reproductive labour, with more men participating in waged work and more women working in the home". Given that a UBI is likely to be extended at a reduced rate to children, it could end up being little different in practice to traditional child support. Central to the authors' case is "the unity of production and consumption in the crisis of social reproduction". In other words, a standalone UBI risks addressing underconsumption (stagnant demand) at the cost of ignoring production, which may produce such retrograde outcomes as increased gender inequality. The need to address the two in tandem opens up the possibility of a revival of the social democratic state, which means that the UBI might be the thin end of a larger wedge.
As the authors put it, "In this the role of the State is still fundamental. UBI should not, therefore, be perceived as an alternative and an opportunity for the withdrawal of the welfare state from its tasks and or from its direct accountability in these areas towards citizens ... For UBI to be successful it would need to be part of a wider systematic project to change society and alter existing power relations and not a sticking plaster in a continuing neoliberal erosion of welfare and workers' rights". But though the UBI offers the potential to revive the social democratic state, it also presents a fiscal threat to its preservation: "The need to find a means to pay for UBI becomes more pressing and more difficult in the context we assume in our model – that it would facilitate a move towards a system of lower work hours, lower growth and an end to dependence on waged labour". But these are questionable assumptions. Previous UBI experiments (e.g. the Canadian Mincome scheme in the 1970s) suggest that the reduction in hours would be marginal, and may well be offset by improved productivity.
The idea that UBI is necessarily a drag on growth ignores the possibility that people are driven not just by the need for a minimum level of subsistence (wages) but by the potential offered through free-time (reduced work hours). Once subsistence is less pressing, workers may well be incentivised to focus on productivity improvements as the means of securing greater free-time as much as greater income. One explanation for poor productivity growth in recent years is that workers realise that they will capture little of any gain, the lion's share going to employers in the form of increased profit margins (this is currently evident in the way that sterling devaluation has not led to greater exports as firms have simply maintained foreign market prices to widen margins). If productivity is seen less in terms of money and more in terms of time, workers might be more confident of improving their lot. Ironically, the erosion of union power under neoliberalism - which is more about the globalisation and deconsolidation of capital than anti-union laws - might be reversed if workers come to believe that they hold the key to productivity growth, and basic income could be the psychological enabler of that transformation.
Capital's ability to control productivity growth depends on the investment of retained profits, but the current system of rentier interests and executive rewards, along with the opportunities presented by global capital mobility since the 1980s, works against this. It is also the case that the production offshoring option, whereby stagnant or even falling productivity is offset by reduced labour costs through international relocation, is becoming less feasible as developing nations pursue both higher wages and high-skill investment, while the impact of IT on business operations, which peaked around the millennium, is now dissipating. The low-hanging fruit of productivity growth are suddenly in short supply. Securing future growth predominantly through increased labour productivity might, if the rewards are more equally distributed, be a maximising strategy for both labour and capital in developed economies. For this reason, the more enlightened fractions of capital may consider UBI as an acceptable state intervention to boost productivity and thereby support profit growth.
Given the suspicion that the stagnation of productivity growth in economies like the UK is now systemic, rather than a global condition or a temporary phase, the opportunity arises for social democrats to sell UBI as a capital-friendly complement to the welfare state, not as a replacement for it (this is what we might call the left-neoliberal interpretation, as opposed to the right-neoliberal view propounded by Silicon Valley libertarians and others). But this also contains the seed of a more revolutionary outcome. Historically, workers have been relatively blind as to the financial state of their employer, hence wage demands have tended to be geared to industry norms or to outside factors such as inflation. If the struggle of labour and capital is more concerned with time, this will encourage labour to acquire a more detailed knowledge of internal productivity (a move ironically facilitated by the shift towards greater process management and data analysis) and ultimately more say in production management, which will perhaps revive interest in workers' control.
Operating within the social democratic paradigm, the LSE authors struggle to reconcile a decline in the exploitation of labour with the ongoing funding of welfare: "A reduction in the amount of work hours in the economy and in the proportion of wages in people's incomes would inevitably also imply a reduction in the amount of labour income available for taxation. Additional means of funding would therefore need to be found, outside of the labour taxes and growth‐dependent financing upon which the fiscal system of modern industrial states has relied". Momentarily leaving aside the questionable assumption of the first sentence - that reduced work hours are incompatible with increased productivity - the coyness of the second suggests that neoliberal shibboleths about wealth are dominating the radical potential that a UBI presents for tax reform. If we think of the UBI as a social dividend, and thus the product of historic accumulation within a society, it should be obvious that its funding must be geared to wealth (capital) and the natural resources available to that society (land).
This inability to imagine a society in which working hours are steadily reduced while labour productivity steadily increases, despite the clear correlation of the two between the early 18th and late 20th centuries, is a notable blindspot. It highlights the suspicion of the working class that is to be found at the heart of social democratic theory. This is not infrequently voiced in moralising and sentimental terms, such as the vocabulary of Blue Labour. Citing Jon Cruddas and Tom Kibasi in Prospect, the LSE authors note that "Social democratic opponents of the UBI have also expressed concern about the loss of dignity and identity through work and the erosion of a contributory principle contained in the sense of receiving something for nothing". Dignity and identity here sound suspiciously like knowing your place in an ossified social hierarchy, while the contributory principle has long been a divisive trope that demonised the "feckless" and the immigrant. As many have noted, welfare reforms under social democracy are usually designed with at least the tacit support of capital, not in opposition to it. In other words, if social democracy is to embrace basic income, it will be with the encouragement of capital.


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A personal history : the Afro-American Texans / Marian L. Martinello, Melvin M. Sance.
By: Martinello, Marian L.
Contributor(s): Sance, Melvin M | University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio.Material type: TextSeries: Stories for young readers: Publisher: San Antonio : University of Texas, Institute of Texan Cultures, 1982Description: 97, [5] p. : ill., map, ports. ; 27 cm.ISBN: 0867010053; 9780867010053.Subject(s): African Americans -- Texas -- Juvenile literature | Texas -- Juvenile literature | Questions and answersDDC classification: 976.4 LOC classification: E185.93.T4 | M377 1982Summary: Questions and answers survey the way of life of Afro-Americans throughout Texas history.
|Item type
|Current location
|Call number
|Date due
|CML Dewey
|University of Texas At Tyler CML Dewey Area
|976.4 M385P (Browse shelf)
Tx Doc no.: I600.8, P432
Includes index.
Questions and answers survey the way of life of Afro-Americans throughout Texas history.
Author notes provided by SyndeticsMarian Martinello grew up in New York City, attended public schools, completed her bachelor's and Master's degrees at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), and earned her doctorate at Teachers College, Columbia University. She taught in New York and California public schools, and in teacher education programs at Queens College, CUNY, the University of Florida, and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) where she directed the Interdisciplinary Studies degree program and federally funded projects for teacher education. She received teaching awards in Florida and Texas and was named a Minnie Stevens Piper Professor in 1982. Her publications include articles and books, now in second editions, on inquiry learning, published by Merrill/Prentice-Hall and Alliance Press. Her award winning titles for young readers, young adults, and teachers on the history and cultures of Texas were published by the Institute of Texan Cultures, Texas Christian University Press, and Corona Publishing Company. Dr. Martinello retired from UTSA in May 2000 as Professor Emerita and continues to inquire into topics of personal interest. She writes for young adults from those experiences. Ready's Gifts is the product of her most recent exploration. <p> 050
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You've missed out on a phenomenal experience if you've never seen a live boxing match in a small-venue setting. Everything great about boxing really hits home when you can hear it, feel it and soak in the fury of the competition.
So get your ass out to Tampa's A La Carte Pavillion on Friday night for a great card, including a Florida state title fight. We can guarantee you won't regret it. Fight Night Productions puts on a great show, and their previous local events have sold out. Click through below for details.