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Len Wein, who created many iconic comic book characters, including Marvel's Wolverine and DC's Swamp Thing, has died at age 69. Our hearts go out to his wife and family.
Category: Comics Industry News
News from the world of comic books
Rest in Peace, Joan Lee
Joan Lee, wife of Marvel Comics impresario Stan Lee, has died at age 95. All of us at Gemini Comix extend our sincere condolences to Stan the Man and the rest of the Lee family.
Sergei the Spider debut covered by Newsarama
Sergei the Spider Crawls Out from Gemini Comix, a new piece by Newsarama, covers our debut!
Madison's Gemini Comix Ready to Take on the Big Comic Book Companies
The Capital Times covered the launch of Gemini Comix and the debut of Sergei the Spider!
Rest in Peace, Rich Buckler
Newsarama reports that Marvel Comics artist Rich Buckler has passed away at age 68. Buckler had a distinguished career with both DC and Marvel Comics, providing art for titles including Fantastic Four, Justice League of America, and Spectacular Spider-Man. He READ MORE
Free Comic Book Day!
May 6th is Free Comic Book Day! Head to your local comic book shop to pick up free comics from your favorite publishers.
X-Men Artist Inserts Subliminal Propaganda in X-Men Comic
Freelance Marvel artist Ardian Syaf was caught hiding subliminal anti-Semitic and anti-Christian messages in X-Men Gold #1. The Indonesian artist included references to the Quran and other messages without the knowledge or consent of Marvel. Marvel issued a statement denouncing the messages READ MORE
Rest in Peace, Bernie Wrightson
Acclaimed horror comic book artist Bernie Wrightson, co-creator of DC Comics Swamp Thing, has died at age 68. We at Gemini Comix would like to offer our condolences across the many universes that Bernie Wrightson shaped over the years. His pencils READ MORE


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My writing tends toward condensation. When I write poems, I never trickle onto the second page. When I write stories, they almost never exceed a thousand words — and they're often just a single paragraph. This interest in the tiny and the compact has a practical foundation. I lead a busy life — and I doubt I have the concentration and stamina to pull off writing something like War and Peace. Generally speaking, this interest in the miniature and the distilled extends to my reading life as well. Couldn't Chapter 8 of Ezra Pound's ABC of Reading be understood if he gave us just this sentence: "Incompetence will show in the use of too many words." And when we want to refresh our memory of, say, T.S. Eliot's essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent," doesn't a review of our own underscorings get us just as far as a rereading the whole thing?
I certainly don't want to argue against the beauty and the necessity of long works. But there's much that can be appreciated without them. It's in this spirit that I offer up the following maxims and observations — it's an effort to avoid my having to write 30 essays explaining my positions, and an effort to keep you from having to read those essays:
- Don't regard any maxim too highly. Its opposite is equally true. If you haven't heard it yet, that's because no one has stated it cleverly enough. Consider this an assignment.
- Every good poem has form. To say otherwise is like saying some water doesn't have temperature.
- On setbacks: You can't sing with a broken jaw, but you can learn to play the piano.
- The impulse that begins a poem is almost never strong enough to finish it. You must be willing to let go of what ceases to be useful—like laying down your walking stick when the crags turn into plains.
- Some poems fail because of just one word — as troubling as a hornet on the railing of a crib.
- One vase lets you see the scum and filmy water that power the bouquet of goldenrod. Another one doesn't. Which is better? Beauty or the beauty that tells us where it comes from?
- When compiling a book, it is best to start with a large pile of poems—the survivors will need something to rise above.
- To have successful poems over the long haul, you must be the kind of person who dusts the furniture when there is no hope of visitors.
- Poets collect themselves into schools for the same reasons as fish: safety in numbers, a flash in the shallows.
- On lacking inspiration: The pearl diver comes up with nothing almost every time. And still he goes down hugging a boulder, his prybar at the ready.
- On publication: A first book is like gristle coughed onto your plate. Getting it out lets you keep breathing, but nobody wants to pick it up.
- On rejection: It is the favor for which we never think to ask. It is the chance to make things better.
- To complain that poetry is too accessible is to complain that the streets are too efficiently plowed after a sudden and devastating February snow. A good poem tells us the way.
- A purist is someone incapable of progress.
- We must continue to write even when the poems are shitty. Stabbing at dirt will polish a knife.
- Every pearl began as irritation.
- She recited the prayer by rote, making him think her soul had a bar code.
- The predictable occurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables becomes more pleasing when the pattern is violated, here and there. We prefer a bouquet with a few broken petals for the same reason. We don't guess for a moment it might be fake.
- The thing that is most accessible is not always the best material for a poem. There's a reason the pyramids were not constructed of sand.
- On listening to poetry that I know is not: The wind can howl in the midnight pines but morning will find them standing.
- Details should be chosen as carefully as if you were covering up a murder. A poem is a lie you must make the world believe.
- There is a difference between the predictable and the probable, between the vague and the mysterious, between deviation and variation. The poet must learn when each is acceptable. Reading widely helps.
- Exclamation points are too often a cry of wolf. I prefer people to scream when they are actually on fire.
- Some poems end like surgery—the problem solved, the pain a memory, the stitching so tight that nothing leaks. Other poems end like a diagnosis.
- We respond to clichés the way we respond to form letters and junk mail — something the writer didn't bother to craft, a kind of boilerplate for the soul.
- Having too strict a meter can be like having the bass up so high on your stereo that you can't make out the harpsichord. Too loose a meter can be like static.
- There are no five-leggers. Nature prefers symmetry.
- Of course, poetry should strive to substantiate truth in particulars, but it is possible to be too particular. Think of the person who gives crowded directions. He risks our safe arrival by making us read through the intersections.
- About sestinas: In all but the best, the uninitiated finds them vaguely repetitive, the expert finds them predictable.
- Too many poets still use "heart" to mean the seat of love and desire and passion. This is archaic. A heart should show up in a poem only as something that beats beside a surgeon's blade. When we hear the word misused, it's like watching a man put on a hat so long out of style it's laughable. We turn away.
Charles Rafferty's new short story collection, Saturday Night at Magellan's, is available here: http://fomitepress.com/FOMITE/Magellans.html.
Charles Rafferty
Latest posts by Charles Rafferty (see all)
- Guest Post, Charles Rafferty: Maxims and Observations on the Writing Life - November 20, 2014
- Guest Blog Post, Charles Rafferty: On Writing - September 26, 2013

subset: commoncrawl


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Get Your Test and Estrogen Levels Straighten Out!
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Horny Goat Weed:
Known for it's ability to mimic the source of testosterone known as Icariin, Horny Goat Weed (HWG) was added as a great ingredient to increase testosterone production. After Research on Icariin, studies show that Icariin increases testosterone levels in the body along with improving the performance of reproductive organs, these properties make it a great therapeutic for hypoandrogenic states (such as; after a steroid or Pro Hormone cycle).
Quercetin & Piperine:
Although Icariin and Resveratrol are not the easiest substances to absorb in the human body, therefore AI Sports added Quercetin and Piperine to help aid in nutrient absorption. Quercetin is a commonly added ingredient due to it's very potent natural ability to inbit estrone sulfanase which deteriorates compounds like resveratrol. This deterioration of resveratrol not only aids in bioavailability, but augments antiestrogenic activeness. Piperine is also an addition because it enhances the ability of your intestines to absorb nutrients and phytochemicals.


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After a long and rather confusing discussion over at kitchen table math, I believe we've reached a consensus that Groucho's sentence, "I shot an elephant in my pajamas", is NOT an example of a misplaced modifier.
In the interest of helping Catherine's writing students, I proposed the following example of a truly misplaced modifier:
Some years ago I was listening to the radio and an ad for an amusement park came on. The slogan at the end was: "XYZ Amusement Park — it's just not for kids any more!"
Now there's a seriously misplaced modifier ("just"). They wanted to say that XYZ Amusement Park was fun for both adults and kids, but instead they implied that they don't even allow kids any more. Of course, they should have said "it's not just for kids any more."
Readers, if you have more examples of truly misplaced modifiers, please send 'em on in!


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Mount Kilimanjaro is a major tourist attraction in Tanzania and Africa in large for experienced and beginning climbers. The best way to climb mount Kilimanjaro is by flying to Arusha and the next day start the trekking. Tanzania tour and Safaris Ltd offer you the expertise and knowledgeable guide to be with.
Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mount in Africa, which stand 5,895 meters or 19,340 feet above sea level. It has 3 peak cone namely Kibo (uhuru) , Mawenzi and Shira. The highest cone is kibo peak. The route are Marangu route which require 6 days to climb to the summit and Machame route which require 6 days, but seven days are recommendable for this route.
Mount Kilimanjaro climbing
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Her Story: Ladies In Literature is a special, month-long series on Pop! Goes The Reader in which we celebrate the literary female role models whose stories have inspired and empowered us since time immemorial. From Harriet M. Welsch to Anne Shirley, Becky Bloomwood to Hermione Granger, Her Story: Ladies In Literature is a series created for women, by women as thirty-three authors answer the question: "Who's your heroine?" You can find a complete list of the participants and their scheduled guest post dates Here!
About Laura Weymouth
Laura Weymouth is a Canadian in exile who currently resides in western New York. She lives at the edge of the woods with her husband, two wild-hearted daughters, a spoiled cat, and an indeterminate number of chickens.
"I saw Eternity the other night,
Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
All calm, as it was bright;
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,
Driv'n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov'd…"
~Henry Vaughan
My teen years were marked by a painful uncertainty about almost everything. I was old enough to be aware of problems in the world around me — I knew things were going on with the environment and climate that would likely never be reversible. I worried about that; I worried about those living in poverty, both in my own neighborhood and around the world; I worried about religion and faith, and how I was supposed to sort out the answers to life's big questions. I worried about a lot of things, and never seemed to come up with answers to any of the questions I was asking.
Amidst all of that, I read. I read widely and voraciously, though my favorite project was working my way through the books in our small library's Young Adult section. One day, when I was nearly sixteen, I came across a book with an image of a girl and a dolphin on the cover. Ever since reading Farley Mowat's A Whale For The Killing, I'd had a love for whales and dolphins (I still do!) and though the cover of the book would have sold it to me all on its own, the title was equally intriguing. A Ring Of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle. I took it home, read it, and immediately started it over again. It became a book I went back to time after time, a source of comfort in the middle of all my teenaged uncertainty.
Vicky Austin, the narrator and protagonist of A Ring Of Endless Light, is fifteen going on sixteen, just like I was when I first found her. She's a girl who doesn't know where she belongs — her family's done some moving around, and it's made her feel out of place. As the daughter and granddaughter and great-granddaughter of a long chain of immigrants, who'd spent most of my childhood moving from house to house, I knew exactly how Vicky felt.
A Ring Of Endless Light opens at a funeral, with Vicky in attendance. The setting is idyllic in other respects — a lovely island somewhere off the American east coast, where Vicky and her family have gone to spend the summer with her grandfather. But even that aspect of Vicky's life is a question mark. The duration of the Austin family's stay is unknown, because Vicky's beloved grandfather is dying of cancer.
Throughout the book, Vicky, a deeply sensitive and empathetic person, grapples with exactly the sort of questions I wrestled with as a teen. She's straightforward and honest about her many uncertainties, whether they be in regards to relationships, religion, or life and death. Seeing Vicky acknowledge and work through her questions on the page, and often simply come to a point of holding those questions close, rather than requiring answers, was a source of encouragement and hope for me as a teen.
Vicky comes out alright in the end, and I did too, with a bit of help from her and others. She and her family go through difficult and trying times, but in spite of it all, Vicky never fails to find beauty in the world around her. She finds it in written words, she finds it in connections with other people, she finds it on land, and she finds it in the sea. She learns that, yes, our lives may be uncertain, and marked by shifts of light and shadow, but that in the end, it's ours to choose which we turn towards. I learned right along with her — to hold my questions close, to live without requiring answers, and to always turn towards the light.
Title The Weight Of Worlds
Author Laura E. Weymouth
Pages N/A
Genre & Keywords Fantasy
Intended Target Audience Young Adult
To Be Published 2018 by HarperTeen
Find It On Goodreads
A queen crowned in the woodlands is a queen forever.
These are the words Evelyn Hapwell lives by. Six years ago, Evelyn was swept away to a strange and beautiful kingdom, where she ruled alongside her brother and sister for decades. But the Hapwell children were sent back to their old lives in our own world, and each day, Evelyn wakes up waiting to return to the Woodlands. As it becomes increasingly clear that there will be no triumphal home-going and that she is in fact, a queen in exile, Evelyn struggles to come to terms with how to live in this world, and how to build a kingdom here. Because foreign policy and governing a country are simple enough, but boys and boarding school and friends in post-war England are another matter entirely.
Your sister's gone missing.
Four words are all it takes to shatter Len Hapwell's self-imposed exile in America. After fleeing from the fight to keep Evelyn grounded in reality, Len returns to London to find her sister has vanished, and no one knows what's happened. Riddled with guilt over abandoning Ev, Len searches for answers while dealing with the fallout of Evelyn's disappearance. To uncover the truth of what happened to her sister, Len will have to confront how deeply troubled Evelyn really was, and the lengths she was willing to go to for a chance to return to the kingdom of her heart.


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Rollover Accident on I-70 Injures One
COLUMBIA - The Columbia Fire Department confirms a man was injured after a rollover accident Sunday evening on I-70.
Officials said a 2002 Chevrolet Truck rolled into the median between the westbound exit ramp at Range Line Road and the westbound lanes. Witnesses reported seeing an individual eject from the vehicle as it rolled.
Upon arrival, officials said crews found one man in the grass away from the truck and a second man standing near the scene. The first individual was transported to University Hospital for treatment and the second individual was un-harmed.
More News
As COVID-19 spreads, KOMU 8 will continue to update you about the impacts on the community. You can find... More >>
COLUMBIA- Police are investigating a report of shots fired in north Columbia that left one injured early Monday morning. ... More >>
FULTON - This year, some popular Memorial Day festivities were canceled because of COVID-19, but one Fulton tradition was not... More >>
COLUMBIA - Clothing donations to the Salvation Army are increasing during the pandemic. During the past few months, many... More >>
COLUMBIA - There have been zero traffic or water crashes this weekend for the 13 counties in Central Missouri, according... More >>
COLUMBIA — As state and commercial testing is more available for the Missourians, the number of confirmed cases is rising.... More >>
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic didn't stop people from packing the central Missouri vacation hot spot of the... More >>
PETTIS COUNTY — A Sedalia man is dead following a single-vehicle rollover accident. Richard Talbert, 26, was driving north... More >>
AP —Are some workouts, like yoga or spinning classes, less safe than others? Should I wear a mask? Do I... More >>
As COVID-19 spreads, KOMU 8 will continue to update you about the impacts on the community. You can find... More >>
KANSAS CITY — A man has been charged in an April 2019 shooting death in Kansas City based on DNA... More >>
LEE'S SUMMIT — About 1,000 contract employees of a federal agency have received notice that their jobs face elimination in... More >>
SPRINGFIELD — A Springfield hairstylist served 84 clients over eight days while experiencing symptoms of coronavirus, and now a coworker... More >>
COLUMBIA - Three cars were involved in a crash on I-70 eastbound Saturday afternoon. The crash around 3:30 p.m.... More >>
COLUMBIA - One local teenager with a disability is out of work after learning his employment training program for the... More >>
ST LOUIS - The University of Missouri- St. Louis will waive all online course fees through the fall semester, according... More >>
ROCKAWAY BEACH - Deputies confirmed a man is dead after a drowning incident on Friday night, according to a Missouri... More >>
As COVID-19 spreads, KOMU 8 will continue to update you about the impacts on the community. You can find... More >>


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NYC Guide Pro
Customized Private Tours of New York City
Central Park Private Tour$250.00
Cruise Port or Airport Transfer Private Tour$800.00
One Day New York Private Tour$475.00
Private Tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis IslandFrom: $390.00
Private Tour of Wall Street, Downtown and National 9/11 Memorial$250.00
Two Full Days of Private New York City Touring$900.00
Tell me something about yourself:
I am a licensed and insured New York City Tour Guide. My New York Dept. of Consumer Affairs License number is 1428400-DCA and my insurance certificate is available upon request. I also have a Bachelor of Science in Commercial Recreation & Tourism from Montclair State University.
Do we have to pay extra for more people?
Of course not! Unlike most other tour guides and the tour buses in New York I don't charge per person. The tour is the same no matter how many people come, so why charge a different price? If you have your own transportation please check out my step-on tour.
Do you customize your tours?
Absolutely! I'll provide you with an outline on how best to conduct a tour but in the end this is YOUR tour and I will take you to the sights you want to see and work at your pace. We'll work on your itinerary together prior to the tour and I can make changes on the fly, if you want, in order to make your tour as enjoyable as possible.
Do I have to come to you?
Absolutely not! I will meet you right at your hotel or at the place of your choosing. If necessary I'll meet you at one of the airports (and bring you back) if you have a long layover in New York or I will meet you at one of the cruise terminals if you are a transit passenger. Unlike the bus companies like Big Bus you don't have to go to designated stops. I also take your right to the attractions. Big Bus and Gray Line stop over a half mile from the National 9/11 Memorial and even farther from Wall Street; I bring you right there. The time you'd spend waiting for a bus or sitting in traffic is spent touring with me. After your tour I'll escort you back to your hotel.
Will I Need Extra Cash?
Extra cash is needed for transportation (although you can use credit cards in the subway) refreshments and "walking around" money. If you would like to save the time and confusion about how to buy your Metrocard you can arrange for me to purchase your transit fares in advance.
What is include in the tour?
The private services of an experienced, enthusiastic and fun tour guide! My price is all inclusive for your entire group.
What's Extra?
Transportation costs – we will usually travel when necessary by subways as this is the cleanest, fastest and safest way around Manhattan. If you like I can arrange to buy your transit cards in advance in order to save time and avoid confusion in the subway. Meals – although I can give you guidance on the best places to eat. While the vast majority of attractions are free to the public, some do require admission. However, I will advise you in advance which ones have admission costs and how much. In most cases you will be buying your tickets direct from the vendor in advance.
What Are Your Hours?
I am available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I schedule my tours around you, unlike Big Bus, Gray Lines and the other tour bus companies, which want you to work around their schedule. Since most people travel around holidays, I am available on all major holidays as well.


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Click a node to visit that function's source code.
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clicking its declaring
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A StructuralError is returned when the bzip2 data is found to be syntactically invalid.
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func (StructuralError) Error ¶
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After 120 years, the long relationship between regional bottler Dublin Dr Pepper and the Dr Pepper parent company has hit a sour note, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company — founded in Dublin, Texas, in 1891 — is the world's oldest Dr Pepper bottler. It represents a small territory — a mere six counties — and the soda bottled there differs in two ways from the national brand: it is made with real cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup and it is marketed as "Dublin Dr Pepper."
Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the bottling giant spun off from Cadbury in 2008, now says that Dublin Dr Pepper is violating the Dr Pepper trademark and the two companies' long-standing agreements by marketing and selling its product outside of the approved six-county territory. The parent company has filed a lawsuit to end both of those practices, and also seeks attorney fees.
In a statement, Dublin Dr Pepper attorney Steven Wolens said that attorney fees alone would cripple the company. "There would be nothing left except the bottle caps," he said.
In an email to the Los Angeles Times, Dr Pepper Snapple Group explained the reasoning behind the lawsuit: "Quite simply, the Dublin bottler is misusing our trademark and has been for years. We're not seeking money or to prevent them from selling Dr Pepper made with cane sugar. We simply want them to sell only within their six-county territory and stop marketing and packaging Dr Pepper as 'Dublin Dr Pepper.'" Dr Pepper Snapple says that the existence of Dublin Dr Pepper dilutes the Dr Pepper trademark and creates confusion in the marketplace.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dr Pepper Snapple filed its lawsuit on June 28, after "Dublin Dr Pepper refused to stop shipping beyond its territory or give up its logo" unless it was financially compensated, a detail neither side is elaborating upon.
"We tried to resolve these issues with Dublin without turning to the courts," said the Dr Pepper Snapple press statement, saying it offered the local company "alternative packaging" which "stays true" to the national grand. "They refused this compromise and demanded money to honor their agreement, which left us no choice but to file suit."
Some observers have wondered if the suit is less about trademarks and more about sugar. Last summer, for the brand's 125th anniversary, Dr Pepper Snapple experimented with selling soda made with "real sugar" instead of high-fructose corn syrup. (Kosher-for-Passover Coca-Cola is another example of a soda switching its formula from corn syrup to sugar.)
Dubliners take their Dr Pepper seriously. Every year, the town is renamed Dr Pepper, Texas, for one week. There is also a museum devoted to the homegrown drink, a wide range of Dublin Dr Pepper merchandise, and even a series of BBQ sauces. The town citizens held rallies last month in support of their local company.
The Dr Pepper drink was invented in 1885 in Waco. Dr Pepper Snapple is based in Plano, Texas.


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One of my thoughts this year was that I wanted to participate a little more in the blogging and beading communities. One way I'm trying to do this is by taking part in the operation tackle that beadstash (OTTBS) challenge and some of the beadalongs hosted in the friendly beaders facebook group.
This year, the ottbs challenge for January was two months long and was around the theme 'in the shadows'. At first I had no idea what to do for this challenge and in January I wasn't really feeling beading with all the change.
And then the friendly beaders had a beadalong for Sabine Lippert's New Romance necklace. It's a pretty necklace but a little over the top for my tastes, however I quickly saw people just making a few units and linking them simply. This caught my eye, so I sat down to see if I had the pieces to make it. I found three silvery beads for the centers and began to bead. I'm glad I did because I a) I really enjoyed it and b) I wear it all the time.
As I was making it, I realised that this was perfect for the ottbs challenge, even if just because of the colours. And even better I actually shared them with people and particpated. So here's my coming out from in the shadows.


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Tirreno-Adriatico stage 7
- Views: 9 331.
Live coverage on Universal Sports tvIt was a day for the big sprint teams as demonstrated by the Sky train dominating the final 3km.Andrey, Maxi, Gasparotto, and Vino finished in the pack with same time as winner Boasson Hagen.Maxi keeps his place just off the podium 10 seconds behind Cadel.A Caisse rider took out Baza at 2km to go. It looked bad.
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Several months ago after talking with my husband (still so fun saying that!) about my artwork (which is he is so supportive of, by the way!), I was saying how I wanted my work to go in a more fluid direction. I still love pattern, and will always use it, but I find myself wanting to create more fluidity in my work and create more transparent washes of color – almost disturbing the pattern a little bit.
This has been an interesting challenge with doing mixed media, as the very nature of it lends itself to hard edges and difficult transitions. One solution to this is creating more drawing elements. This diptych, shown above, will eventually include a drawing of this chandelier that I will leave the pencil lines and bring out the highlights with white acrylic.
Here is another one I am working on – with architectural drawing elements and collage.
I also just completed a new circular painting called "Alter" with these same principles in mind. I wanted the figure to BECOME the background – as if to fade away. The intact part that remains is the "alter" of the heart.
Another challenge with this piece was the pose. I didn't want it to look seductive, but rather vulnerable. Hopefully I succeeded. There is a vulnerability that is happening in my own life with being a newlywed, but I am also still CONSTANTLY learning to be vulnerable spiritually and not let my heart become hardened.
This piece is all paint – no drawing or collage. As "old school" as this sounds – I still love painting the figure. It is challenging (especially using acrylic!!) and time-consuming, but the end result is worth it.


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Upcoming Food Drives
The Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno and The Community Food Bank will distribute food every month. Below is the schedule for October. We need 2-3 volunteers each time from 9am-12pm.
1- Wednesday, Oct 3 – Oro Loma Elementary School (5609 N Russell Ave. Firebaugh, CA)
2-Monday, Oct . . . → Read More: Volunteers needed


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- Started his career at Chatham Manufacturing in the sheet metal shop. In this shop Gary learned to layout, cut and fabricate all types of duct work for HVAC installations. The ability to fabricate ductwork by hand provides a greater understanding of the time, quality and cost required to produce HVAC systems.
- Traveled all over the eastern United States installing commercial HVAC systems.
- Worked as an Estimator and Project Manager. He has experience with the cost estimation of jobs, ordering of materials, monthly cost accounting, developing growth opportunities, and general project management.
- Managed a variety of jobs ranging from $5,000 to $3,000,000. He managed the HVAC installation for the RF Micro lab in Greensboro, the distribution center for Candle Corporation of America in Elkin, medical facilities/doctor offices in North Carolina, warehouse facilities throughout the state, and over twenty-five Lowe's Hardware stores through out Virginia, North and South Carolina.
Gary Crews, Vice President
You are here: Home1 / About Us – CAS HVAC Technician | HVAC Service | HVAC Contractors2 / Gary Crews, Vice President
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Bachelorette & Bridal Showers
For the Girls:
Consider a luxurious sleep over you so you and your bridesmaids can enjoy a night in! Find a hotel with a restaurant, spa, and salon or simply a quaint bed and breakfast. Have dinner and cocktails, then a movie night in one of your rooms with movie candy, popcorn, and wine, followed by a full day at the spa with a sauna, facials, and massages, or brunch al fresco.
If the bride loves the great outdoors, consider taking a surfing or sailing class together! This great if you're planning a destination wedding, especially if you only have a handful of bridesmaids and close girlfriends attending. If the wedding is a Saturday night, have your friends come on Thursday to extend their vacation and have your outing during the day, so everyone can relax and unwind before the wedding festivities begin!
For something a little less time consuming, have an afternoon of pampering. Go to a spa for a massage, mani pedi, and blow out while sipping on champagne. If you do this the day before the wedding, all the girls will be ready for the wedding and not have to rush the morning of!
For the Boys:
Put a twist on the typical bachelor party and enjoy the great outdoors by grabbing the guys and heading to the mountains. Go on a hike, grill outside, and have a few beers (without heading to a casino or club!).
For the film-buff groom, pick up 2 or 3 of his favorite classic films, plenty of snacks and drinks, and head to the friend's home with the biggest TV! For an added bonus, put together a movie trivia game with a special prize for the winner (the Lord of the Rings trilogy director's edition on DVD, perhaps?).
If the groom has been known to retell stories from his glory days on a varsity team, have a high school sports day. Get your boys to grab their old athletic gear and play your favorite team sports from baseball to basketball to tag football. How can you go wrong with a day like that?
Pretend you're kids again and go play laser tag, mini golf, paintball, or arcade games. Have a few beers and go have some good old-fashioned fun! And a little friendly competition never hurt.
For a classy gentlemen's evening, go out for a fancy steak dinner with good red wine. After dinner, pretend you're in the Golden Age and sip scotch while smoking cigars (cracking jokes about JFK optional).
Legend says the first bridal shower took place in Europe after a well-to-do girl fell in love with a poor man and her father refused to help pay for their wedding. So, friends and neighbors gathered and offered gifts to the young couple to help them build their new home. By the late 1800's, the bridal shower had evolved into a more common practice for less wealthy brides, who couldn't afford a dowry, to set up their new home. We've come a long way since then. Today, bridal showers have morphed into a festive way for the bride's female family and friends to grab some girl time before the Big Day! Guests still "shower" the bride with gifts, often for her new household, but there are also bridal showers that have more specific themes – from lingerie parties to cooking classes.
Nothing breaks the ice better than food, so why not make the shower all about exciting peoples' palates? Wine or cheese tastings encourage guests to nibble,
compare, and talk. Local cheesemongers and wine merchants are usually happy to select a tasting menu, but you can also turn to online cheese and wine specialists for reliable, easy, delicious results.
A girl's night just isn't complete without a Pajama Party bridal shower! Everyone arrives in their cutest pajamas bearing gifts to pamper the bride. Enjoy
manicures, pedicures, facials and massages with your guests as you sip pink martinis and giggle far into the evening. Indulge in fun party favors for
the girls such as personalized spa slippers, personalized toiletry bags, or monogrammed cosmetic cases.
so what exactly happens at the bridal shower?
So, what exactly happens at a shower? Besides food and drink, there are a few activities that traditionally take place
at the bridal shower. Opening the gifts: Unlike the wedding, this party's entertainment often includes a time where the bride opens her gifts. This is especially fun at themed bridal showers. If you are hosting a lingerie party, for example, the ladies will love to see all the sexy items the bride is receiving.
Ribbon bouquet: Usually fashioned by the maid of honor, the bride collects all the ribbons tied to her gifts and a
ribbon bouquet is created from the colorful strips. The bride then carries this item down the aisle during the wedding


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It is my pleasure to welcome our dearest guests and students to the College of Engineering and Technology (CoET) Read More >>
COET PhD positions in various engineering and technology aspects are available. A doctoral degree from COET qualifies you for a range of jobs both in public and private sectors.
You can now register yourself and enroll in any of our Postgraduate pogrammes. Application are now open for the academic year 2019/2020
Reasearch at COET forms a part of the ongoing activities through a variety of projects and programs in addition to specialized department.
Find out about our courses, the application process, and the procedures for both prospective and current students.
Sherehe ya kuwakaribisha Mwaka wa kwanza 2018/19 iliyofanyika Ijumaa 09 Nov 2018 ..


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Hills: Beinn Bhreac
When: Monday 12 October 2015
Why? 100th Munro 😀
Who: cast of thousands. Well ok self, Stuart, Brian (Stuart's dad) Liam (our mate and now Stuart's brother-in-law) the Park family dog, and the mountaineering minion
Weather: Not as good as forecast: sunshine and 'showers' i.e. rain
Bog factor: pretty awful for the hill part of the walk
Path factor: great until the hill part
Mid walk drink: Singleton malt whisky
Post walk drink: Cairngorm Brewery Trade Winds, Shiraz and champagne (no not all in the same glass!)
I guess I had better explain the title of the report! In Norse mythology, Valhalla is the place that those killed in battle go after death for an afterlife of drinking, fighting and generally having fun (rather in contrast to the Blackadder view of heaven, which involves 'singing, talking to God and watering pot plants'). However, the Valhalla Collection is also the name of a series of 4 limited edition whiskies released by the Highland Park Distillery all of which are named after Norse gods. We had bought a bottle of the first of these, 'Thor' a couple of years ago for the express purpose of saving it to celebrate our 100th Munro. It's now selling for anything up to £750 a bottle, but we have hung onto it regardless, after all 100 Munros seems a good excuse to have some rather nice whisky!


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Transfer news and rumours of the day: June 4, 2016
- A roundup of the transfer news and rumours from the world of football.
With less than a month to go for the summer transfer window opening, it was yet another busy day with news streaming in from across the globe. With Leicester City signing Ron-Robert Zieler and Denis Suarez set to re-join Barcelona from Villarreal, the transfer market was once again buzzing with rumours and speculations today with the rumoured Zlatan Ibrahimovic transfer rumour at its pinnacle. Here are some of the most popular rumours from across the leagues.
Serie A
Inter Milan director Piero Ausilio said that the club was interested in signing Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure. But, he also made it clear that they were in no rush to seal the deal as they sorting out a change in ownership. "Yaya Toure is a player that we really like. But first we have to sort out the ownership change," Ausilio told reporters. This would be the first step in their bid to move from their last season's fourth position finish.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Francesco Totti will be signing a one-year extension at Roma. The 39-year-old's spell at Roma, which dates back to 1989, seemed to be coming to an end with his contract up this summer. But reports state that Totti had finally settled his differences with manager Luciano Spalletti, and would be playing for one more year at the Stadio Olimpico.
According to Metro, Barcelona right-back, Dani Alves has now confirmed that he's set to hallmark a transfer to Juventus. Though the deal is yet to be official, Alves has almost clearly stated about this move. The Brazil international is leaving after eight great years at Barcelona and said that he was happy with his move to Turin.


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TIP: The overall effect of most art filters will largely depend on the input image size. If you use very large megapixel images, the result will have many small details (thus lessening the artistic feel when you resize the result down later for presenting on web).
When using the Art effects for web, it is advisable to first resize the image to the intended presentation size (for example 1500 pixels wide), then apply the filter. Your result will be much more art-like.
The effects listed above are all supplied with the Reactor Player and they each have their own set of parameters to adjust. You don't need to have Photo Reactor application if you are not interested in designing or modifying your own effects.
However if you use Photo Reactor app, then you can open the source projects of the filters; you can change or heavily customize them beyond what the plug-in interface allows you to do and then save them back to Reactor Player as new effects and use them in Photoshop.
Reactor player comes bundled with two different sets of factory filters: Art Filters and Photo Filters. They are not just great effects by themselves, when you are ready they can be used as a fantastic blueprint to create your own.
Simulates look of acrylic on canvas
High impact graphic technique where you control mixture of two tones
Soft illustration style reminiscent of old 1950's magazine illustrations
Striking drawing using pencil and dark indigo paint
Simulates look of colored carving
Simulates look of colored lino carving (different method)
Creates the effect of little planet from a suitable image.
Creates look of metal plate printing from late 1800s and early 1900's
Adjustable Mosaic filter
Creates look of heavy paint
Creates look of old Dutch paintings
Graphic technique using single tone and curly ink shading
Oscar's personal favorite watercolor effect.
A simple and fast paint effect
A simple watercolor effect without much pizzas
Watercolor sketch effect with adjustable color tone and outlines
Watercolor simulator with canvas and uneven edges
Deepens sky and allows to add dramatic effect to the sky and foreground separately
Enhance tone and overall clarity of images
Creates Night shot from a day photo
Adds Clouds where they were none before or replace the original ones
Adds a dreamy look to the images without overpowering.
Very subtle sharpening of the edges while preserving everything else.
A full image mastering process that recreates well light studio photo shoot.
Apply realistic exposure compensation fix to photo
Fully adjustable HDR simulator to create this special effect from just one image
An Infrared camera simulator.
Improve White balance by adjusting 6 primary and complementary colors
Reduces noise while preserving features
Smoothes skin tones (works on light skin only)
A special high frequency sharpening that sharpens sub- pixel details while minimizing halo effect.
Simulates polarize filter to enhance sky and brighten greens
Add Sun to a picture and change sky colors
Over 50 different film stock and camera simulations
Recovers shadows and Highlights using Luminosity masks + adjust HUE of Mids


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Still in Călimănești, the next day began with a trip to some Roman ruins. It turns out they were a fair bit more difficult reach than expected, so being distracted by puppies and menaced by angry dogs yesterday to send us home worked out in our favour.
Category: Language
Fun with words 3
I've been in Romania for about a month now, and while my pace of learning Romanian has been glacial at best, I can find no end of enjoyment noticing little quirks of the language that entertain me. Perhaps you will find them mildly amusing also?
Spoilers, Spoilers Everywhere
I'm not going to spoil anything new in this post. I make reference to The Sixth Sense for instance, Harry Potter, Empire Stikes Back, Citizen Kane, but things nearly everyone knows. I'm steering well clear of anything remotely new, whether it's Captain America: Civil War or… you know. The show that for a while, everyone agreed to stop spoiling.
I do want to talk about what's happening all over the internet though. That is to say, otherwise perfectly reasonable people accidentally spoiling things. Including a disturbingly high percentage of you reading this.
Fun with words 2
While it's fairly obvious that different languages will have some words that sound like other things to a foreign listener, something that I didn't really think about until I started communicated regularly with non-native English speakers were that all kinds of things are also different. Some that might be taken for granted and can lead to amusing situations. It does help if you appreciate immature humour, but still.
For example, animal noises. There was a time when I didn't even realise that different areas of the world would have different onomatopoeias, though there are plenty of articles out there detailing the coolest/most confusing ones these days. One animal that could lead to amusing situations is the dog. You might think 'bark' or 'woof' or 'bow wow' or 'arf', but one day I was talking to a Romanian and a Thai, and this came up. Apparently, the main doggie noise for Romanians is 'ham'.
Thus started a very intellectual volley of 'ham ham ham' 'ham ham ham?' 'hamhamhamham!' and so on, all the while the Thai person was quietly laughing away to themselves. When asked about the hilarity, it wasn't just because we looked and sounded ridiculous, it was because 'ham' in the dog-noise context sounds a lot like regional Thai slang for dick. So be careful, when you least expect it, you could be walking through the streets of Bangkok, try to strike up a conversation with a stray dog, then BAM you look like a crazy person insulting an innocent mutt.
"But…. but why?"
Another common thing you might not have thought about are x's. You know, the little kisses people put on the end of a text, or IM, that kind of x. Well there were a couple of moments in my communications that amused me to do with end-of-chat-friendly-kisses, at the very least eliciting a sensible chuckle.
First time was when I was talking to someone from the Philippines. I can't say for certain how common xx's are there in messages, but the first time I ever used them in communication with one, it was taken to mean similar to a big, sarcastic NOT, negating and reversing the previous sentiment. (basically ending up saying you were terrible company, let's never hang out again) So in a single masterstroke of having-no-idea-that-this-might-be-not-fairly-universal, I managed to make someone quite sad and confused at my sudden rudeness.
Basically, it went flawlessly.
If only I had been as cool as them.
The second time was talking to a Brazilian Portuguese speaker. While I had previously learned 'beijos' as a very common way for Portuguese-speakers say 'kisses' in place of x's to friends and so on, my brain hadn't logically figured out yet what the shortened form of that might be. (note, beijinhos are 'little kisses' and fulfil a similar purpose)
So I did laugh out loud and choke on my milk a little bit one time after a (perfectly innocent!) late night chat ended up with a "good night and lots of bjs". I *did* let them know of that particular two-letter meaning in English, and we all laughed some more, as people who are awake at too-late-o'clock-AM at night tend to do.
Obviously any misunderstandings (if they can even be called that!) like these are easily rectified with even the smallest amount of communication, but coming across things like this for the first time are always a delight.
Fun with words
I have to say, while I am not good at speaking any language other than English (and perhaps even that is debatable) I always enjoy learning about languages. I find the little differences in accents and phrasing between regions fascinating.
Probably my favourite thing to happen while interacting with people who are speaking non-English languages are when their words happen to sound like unrelated English words through coincidence. I'll tell you what I mean.
Not that long ago, I was in a room with someone speaking Romanian via Skype. I don't speak Romanian barring some bare-bones utility, so I wasn't really paying attention. Then, because brains are designed to register sounds that we understand, my ears perked up at the seemingly out of context repeated uses of "Farty beany" and "Poop poop".
Now don't get me wrong, I was pretty sure that these meant something, but sometimes toilet humour just catches you by surprise, and I found this hilarious. I mean, 'farty beany' couldn't have been a coincidence right? Beans are notoriously connected to farting!
Everyone knows.
I investigated after the call was finished, and everything was explained.
My bean-based misunderstanding was actually "foarte bine" which means "very good". Whatever the rest of the conversation was about, things had clearly been going well, since it was repeated often!
The worrying sounds of 'poop' were actually just how to pronounce "pup" (short for "pupici") meaning "kisses". It was seemingly difficult to end the conversation, so 'pup' was being liberally dropped into the conversation as a hint to say goodbye.
So it all made sense, but it tickled my sense of humour. Best of all, it made these words very memorable. I am unlikely to forget them, compared to the dozens of other words that fade away because I don't use them. The only danger would be if I was to start speaking Romanian, and get my words mixed up back in Britain. That's the kind of thing that gets you thrown out places.


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By far one of the best weekends of my life has to be the one I spent sunning it up on two Indonesian islands, Gili Trawangan and Gili Air. Picture white sand and crystal clear water. Are you jealous yet? Me and my friends headed across the Bali Sea to Gili T on the Friday morning, and checked into a hostel we had found on booking.com called La Boheme.
It wasn't very fancy but it provided us with a bed and unlimited pancakes 24/7 so I was happy. Gili T is famous for both its amazing beaches and night life, so we spent the afternoon drinking lemon Bintang (the local beer) on the beach and our night at the full moon party. I admit I am not a massive 'goer outer' but something about drinking on a beach with my friends and listening to good music does appeal to me. I didn't quite make it to sun rise but I had a very good night regardless.
One thing I was not expecting was the shops. There were your usual market stalls and mini supermarkets but there were also a few very lovely clothes and silver shops. I very much enjoyed browsing through those once the sun had gone down and it was much cooler. The market products were rather more expensive in Ubud where I've been staying for the past 4 weeks. I saved my market shopping for when I got back to Ubud but the fixed priced shops were definitely worth a look.
My friend, Tara, and I decided the 3 days we had planned to spend there just wasn't enough and we changed our boat back to Bali to the Tuesday. This gave us two more days. We decided to get a boat over to Gili Air which on the fast boat takes no more than 5 minuets. It was pretty similar to Gili Tawangan, just with less bars and more families. I personally preferred Gili T as there was more to do but both were must see destinations. In all honestly I could have spent a full week there and not been bored. Despite the very low prices, the drinking and meals out were starting to burn a hole in my pocket so going back to Bali seemed wise.
I highly recommend visiting the Gili Islands to anyone near the area because it really was one of the most beautiful and amazing places I've ever visited.


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WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau on Monday released what it says is a more accurate measure of poverty in America. The new measure shows more poverty among the elderly, but less among children and African-Americans.
It also shows a slightly higher poverty rate for the nation last year — 16 percent compared with 15.2 percent under the official measure — but lower rates among groups who benefit from noncash government programs the official count leaves out, including food stamps and the earned-income tax credit.
As a result, there were 3.2 million fewer children found to be living in poverty in 2010, compared with the official measure, a difference of about four percentage points, and 800,000 fewer poor African-Americans, or about two percentage points less.
Two of the biggest antipoverty measures, food stamps and the earned-income tax credit, were expanded substantially under President Obama's stimulus package, helping lift about 11 million people above the poverty line in 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. As that money winds down, there is a concern that help for the poor could shrink.
"Unemployment isn't going away anytime soon, and Congress has been talking a lot about cutting deeply," said Arloc Sherman, a senior researcher at the center.
Census officials cautioned that the bureau's new measure, known as the supplemental poverty measure, would not replace the official one, which is used to calculate federal assistance to states and other types of spending.
The new assessment was developed primarily to give policy makers a sense of the effect that social safety-net programs are having, said Kathleen Short, a Census Bureau official who presented the measure on Monday at a conference at the Brookings Institution. It also includes costs like child care, out-of-pocket medical expenses and taxes, which erode income for those above the poverty line, greatly expanding the ranks of the near poor, whom the safety net does not reach.
Under the new measure, a third of Americans fall into the group that earns 100 percent to 200 percent of the poverty threshold, which in 2010 was $24,343 for a family of four last year.
The middle and upper classes fared worse. Families with incomes four times the poverty threshold or more — $97,372 for a family of four — shrank to just 17 percent of the population, compared with 36 percent under the official measure, largely because taxes and work expenses were subtracted from income.
The traditional measure of assessing poverty was first applied in the 1960s, when Americans spent roughly a third of their income on food. Today, spending on food has shrunk to a seventh of income, census officials say, while spending on housing, utilities and work expenses has expanded. The new measure, which counts those costs, was designed to adjust for that shift.
Bruce Meyer, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, said the new measure overstated poverty for the elderly because it did not take into account their income from savings, the stock market and other accumulated wealth. "If you look at what they consume, you see that their living standard is much higher," Professor Meyer said.
The new measure shows a 15.9 percent poverty rate among people 65 and older, nearly double the 9 percent rate of the official measure, largely because the new measure deducts medical expenses from income.
Other experts said the new measure was notable for how similar it was to the official one in terms of the rise in poverty: Both rose by just under one percentage point from 2009 to 2010.
"The big picture is that in this so-called recovery there are more people in distress regardless of how you measure poverty," said Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard University.


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Influential editors and members of Congress are pressing medical journals to adopt tougher disclosure policies on industry-financed research.
The scientific integrity of medical research has been clouded in recent years by articles that were drafted by drug company-sponsored ghostwriters and then passed off as the work of independent academic authors.
Yet the leading medical journals have continued to rely largely on an honor system of disclosure to detect such potential bias, asking authors to voluntarily report any industry ties or contributors to their manuscripts.
But now, in light of recently released evidence that some drug makers have gone to great lengths to turn scientific articles into marketing vehicles for their products, some influential medical editors are cracking down on industry-financed ghostwriting. And they are getting help from some members of Congress.
These editors are demanding that journals impose tougher disclosure policies for academic authors and that the journals enforce their own rules by actively investigating the provenance of manuscripts and by punishing authors who play down extensive contributions by ghostwriters.
In medical journal circles, the exorcism of industry-financed editorial assistance even has its own name: ghostbusting.
In an editorial last week calling for a zero tolerance policy, the editors of the medical journal PLoS Medicine, from the Public Library of Science, called for journals to identify and retract ghostwritten articles and banish their authors.
"Any papers where this breach is substantiated should be immediately retracted," the editors wrote. "Authors found to have not declared such interest should be banned from any subsequent publication in the journal and their misconduct reported to their institutions."
In the past, researchers have raised allegations of ghostwriting in articles about quality-of-life drugs like antidepressants, painkillers and diet pills. But the situation has become more serious this year after a few editors said they had discovered ghostwriting in manuscripts about life-and-death products like cancer and hematology drugs.
As Washington tries to revamp the health care system, concerns about ghostwriting are taking on new urgency. One of the underlying assumptions of the health care overhaul effort is that money can be saved and medical care improved by relying more heavily on research showing which drugs and procedures are the most effective. But experts fear that the process could be corrupted if research articles are skewed by the hidden influence of drug or medical device makers.
One senator on the trail of ghostwriting is Charles E. Grassley, a Republican of Iowa and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which has taken a leading role in the health overhaul effort.
In July, Mr. Grassley wrote letters asking eight leading medical journals about their ghostwriting policies. He also asked whether, since 2004, the journals had taken action against any author who had failed to report the involvement of a third party in the development of a manuscript.
None of the editors reported taking action against an author for ghostwriting. Their replies to the senator, obtained by The New York Times, varied from assurances of editorial diligence to the equivalent of "don't ask, don't tell." One editor in chief, for example, wrote that because his journal prohibited ghostwriting, the publication did not have a specific policy on the practice.
Journals without explicit ghostwriting rules can expect to hear more from the senator.
"Objective research is really at the heart of public trust in medicine," Mr. Grassley wrote in an e-mail message to a reporter last Friday.
Allegations of ghostwriting first surfaced several years ago in the promotion of the diet drug combination fen-phen, which was taken off the market because of safety concerns in 1997, and the painkiller Vioxx, withdrawn in 2004. And last month, documents made public in litigation against the pharmaceutical giant Wyeth showed that the company had paid a medical writing firm to draft articles, published through 2005, favorable to its Premarin family of hormone drugs even as evidence mounted that certain hormone drugs could increase the risk of breast cancer.
Some researchers say industry ghostwriting is widespread and continuing. Even with disclosure policies already in effect at many publications, unnamed authors played a role in more than 40 articles published last year at six major medical journals, according to a study made public last week. That study, conducted by an editorial team at The Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, defined ghostwriting broadly as any uncredited significant contribution to research or writing, regardless of whether it was financed by industry.
Over the last few years, international associations of medical journal editors have developed stricter disclosure criteria for authors of and contributors to scientific manuscripts. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, for example, defines an author as a person who makes a substantial contribution to developing a study or analyzing its results and in drafting a manuscript, and who approves the final version of an article. Authors should identify other contributors to an article and their financing sources, according to the group.
Drug companies say they are about to put these publication principles into effect for clinical trials.
"The pharmaceutical industry is moving in lock step with the editors of medical journals," Jeffrey K. Francer, assistant general counsel of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry trade group for drug makers, said in an interview last week. The new standards are to take effect in October, he said.
But even though disclosure policies are already in place at many journals, the new JAMA study found a ghostwriting rate of more than 7 percent at JAMA and PLoS Medicine, and nearly 11 percent at the New England Journal of Medicine. Joseph S. Wislar, who led the study, said in an interview last week that The New England Journal of Medicine may have had a higher rate because the journal did not require lead authors to list all other contributors.
Editors of The New England Journal of Medicine said that they were puzzled by and skeptical of the JAMA data, but confirmed that the publication left such disclosures to the discretion of authors.
Experts who study disclosure said authorship policies might be inadequate in part because they asked for incomplete information, but also because they typically had no teeth.
"Requiring someone to write a retraction or barring them from publishing in academic journals for some period of time — that would be an effective deterrent," said George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh who has conducted research on the effect of conflict-of-interest disclosures in medicine.
A few editors said they were already taking tougher stances after discovering their disclosure policies had allowed authors to acknowledge writers financed by drug companies without explaining that the paid writers played primary roles in creating the manuscripts.
The problem of incomplete disclosure is particularly worrisome for opinion pieces like review articles, in which an author brings a personal perspective to a wide body of research, according to an editorial in The Oncologist.
"These articles are likely to influence the direction of new investigation as well as the practice of oncology," wrote Dr. Bruce A. Chabner, the clinical director of the cancer center at Massachusetts General Hospital and the editor in chief of The Oncologist. "It is critical that such articles represent the unbiased views of the authors, and not those of a ghostwriter or a drug's sponsor."
The Oncologist plans to continue publishing clinical trials sponsored by drug companies, Dr. Chabner wrote. But the journal no longer accepts opinion pieces that involve writers with ties to companies that have a commercial interest in an article's content — nor will its editors correspond with hired writers who are not named as the authors of manuscripts.
Mr. Francer, of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said such measures could be detrimental because they could "chill research and chill support for research."
But the trend may be too far along to deter.
In January, editors at Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, discovered that an unsolicited manuscript submitted by a prominent researcher involved significant contributions from a pharmaceutical company employee named in the acknowledgments — a major role in the manuscript that should have qualified the employee to be listed as an author of the paper. Further detective work quickly turned up two other ghostwritten manuscripts.
Editors decided to make their discoveries public in an editorial titled " 'Ghostbusting' at Blood" in which they wrote that the journal would henceforth reject opinion pieces that had industry ties.
In an interview last month, Dr. Cynthia E. Dunbar, the editor in chief of Blood, said that, in the future, the journal would consider a ban of several years for authors caught lying about ghostwriting, in addition to retracting their ghosted articles.
But, said Dr. Dunbar, who is a hematologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, "I hope we don't have to do that."


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Some Benefits That You Can Get from Hiring a SEO Company
In the recent past, more search engine optimization companies have been created due to the fact that there has been an increased demand for the services that they offer. You need to do some evaluation concerning your organisation for you to be aware if it requires the services of a search engine optimization company. Just like the case as some other businesses, the functions of a search engine optimization company have become so common since that is where almost or more than a quarter of the sales which consist of online marketing in the universe lies. SEO services usually have mandate and power while doing marketing campaign especially for those firms that cannot change in terms of expansion. Such businesses get a room for growing from the internet and they do so without spending too much money on it. SEO has an essential role in increasing the profit of a company.
Often times, most people outsource SEO services from developing nations like India and Philippines. You can get some webmasters who have the right skills to manage SEO services at home, although it can be a difficult thing to find a freelance webmaster who has enough qualifications and operates from home. Most of the SEO companies that are affordable are located in the developing nations, and this makes most businesses prefer outsourcing them. Unlike how most organisations make people to believe, search engine optimisation is not so complicated although there are some issues that might make you require assistance from a SEO company. In such moments, you should ensure that you search for help from a SEO company.
Your business may require that you concentrate on it entirely such that you fail to have time to check on your web processes. There are companies which have employees who are not qualified enough to perform the necessary search engine optimization, and in such cases, it is advisable for the companies to hire professionals rather than going through a learning process and handle the SEO personally. In case you have tried to optimize your website and have not gotten any considerable improvements in your ranking and traffic, the next thing you should do is hiring an SEO expert.
You can rely on a search engine optimisation professional to help you in offering you with some SEO methods which you may have no idea about since the organisations which have a speciality in SEO are at a better position to doing that job. You should ensure that your website remains free from any harm through planning on strategies that will enable that to happen. You will need to get a qualified SEO company that can deliver professional and ethical SEO strategies.
Learning The "Secrets" of Businesses


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Lots of crazy messed up happenings in the world. Thought we'd repost this lovely Aradia Pride.
Lots of crazy messed up happenings in the world. Thought we'd repost this lovely Aradia Pride.
This blog post is inspired from the notion of shaking the myths of pole dancing, and my own personal fascination over how and why people and societies have developed said myths.
Pole is obviously something in which I am entrenched. Watching HOW people react TO me being in this industry and their notion of pole will often allow me to surmise a lot about that person's nature.
I happened across this great presentation by Christie Kerner and her pole journey experience. (below for your viewing pleasure). It exemplifies her naïve perspective to pole.
If you don't have the chance to watch the video, here are some key things I pulled from it.
Ignorance truly is bliss…maybe.
A pole class experience is:
And finally I love this quote she used: Sometimes your head doesn't know best, and it is smart to let your music play louder than you can think!


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Say what?
Barack Obama announced today that extremists, rejectionists seeking destruction along with Hamas are not going to stop the peace process.
Huh? Isn't that the purpose of the peace process?… To stop the terror attacks and killings?
Israel's peace partners recently honored the mother of 4 suicide bombers.
The Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Karake, honors mother of 4 terrorists with PA Shield. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 28, 2010- PMW]
The AP reported:
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Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke off nearly two years ago, in December 2008, and the Obama administration spent its first 20 months in office coaxing the two sides back to negotiations. Obama was adamant Wednesday that extremist violence would not derail the process.
"There are going to be extremists and rejectionists who, rather than seeking peace, are going to be seeking destruction," he said. "The United States is going to be unwavering in its support of Israel's security. And we are going to push back against these kinds of terrorist attacks. And so the message should go out to Hamas and everyone else who is taking credit for these heinous crimes that this is not going to stop us."
Expectations for the Washington talks are low, yet the consequences of failure are high. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a constant source of grievance and unrest in the Muslim world. The failure of past peace efforts has left both sides with rigid demands and public ambivalence about the value of a negotiated settlement.
Dan Friedman added: "What greater incentive to kill Jews do the butchers need?"
The Obama Administration is currently funding a pro-Palestinian billboard campaign in Israel.


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Healthcare is at the forefront of the news cycle these days, and with good reason! Dan White, President of Workforce Solutions at AMN Healthcare was recently featured on HR Latte and shared his firsthand experiences with the biggest growth area in healthcare – its people.
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For unit managers at hospitals and other healthcare facilities, staff planning and scheduling can be an unrelenting headache. They have much more pressing issues, namely patient care, but staff planning seems to take up most of their time. In fact, nurse managers can spend up to 70% of their time on scheduling and staffing activities.
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The Building Codes Assistance Project (BCAP) is reporting the following updates.
On January 14, a bill (HB 264) was introduced in the Alabama State Legislature that would provide a process for adoption and compliance with codes required under federal law (Recovery Act). On January 26, the House passed the bill unanimously.
The bill would accomplish the following:
• Replace the Alabama Energy Code Board with the Alabama Energy and Residential Codes Board, giving the new board sole authority over adoption and implementation of the state's energy codes
• Replace a reference to the Model Energy Code with the new Alabama Energy and Residential Codes for the State of Alabama, established as the 2006 IECC/Standard 90.1-2007 for commercial buildings and the 2006 IRC for residential buildings, or "any subsequent editions, or any other code which the board officially adopts". The Board must adopt updates and changes to these model codes within two years of the publication of their most recent version.
• Prohibit local jurisdictions from adopting codes that conflict with the new state codes or amending code requirements mandated by the Recovery Act (jurisdictions that have already adopted codes by the effective date of the act would exempt from adopting the state code)
• Prohibit local jurisdictions from either legally requiring residential fire sprinklers or restricting consumers' choice to install them
• Exempt farm structures from these provisions
In October 2009, a bill (No. 2332) was introduced in the Kauai County Council that would adopt the 2009 IECC with county-specific amendments for all new and renovated commercial and residential buildings. On January 26, the mayor of Kauai County approved the bill as Ordinance 890. The new code will become effective on approximately May 26 (120 days after enactment). The other three Hawaiian counties have adopted county-specific versions of the 2006 IECC, while work continues developing a tropical energy code based on the 2009 IECC for statewide adoption.
On January 28, a companion bills (HB 3215 and SB 3192) were introduced in the Tennessee House and Senate that would establish ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2007 as the minimum energy standard for all new buildings that are not 1- and 2-family dwellings. The bills, however, also allow jurisdictions to adopt Standard 90.1-2001, its equivalent, or a more stringent code. The state currently does not have a mandatory energy code for this construction. If it became law, the legislation would be effective July 1, 2010.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Code Updates from BCAP
The Building Codes Assistance Project (BCAP) is reporting the following updates.


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Tips for Writing an Essay in APA Format
When it comes to writing principles, students have many different options to choose from. This is if their institution has not given them an order to follow a particular formatting and style. Most institutions globally work on their preferred writing style and format, which is uniform for all courses and degrees.When a student joins that institution as a freshman, he is trained to follow that formatting guidelines in order to ensure their quality of writing does not suffer.
Amongst different formats and guides of writing, the formatting options of the American Psychological Association or the APA are one of the most common and widely used styles.Over a period of time, it has evolved many a time to incorporate the modern changes and remove any flaws in it.When a student sits down to write an essay in the APA formatting style, they should remember the following four things.
Title Page
A title page in the APA style format is very important, it serves as the purpose of highlighting major credentials of the author who has worked on the research or assignment paper. The title page with APA style formatting will usually have the title of your paper, name of the author, institutional affiliations and author note. In the author note, a brief information on the student's work and affiliations with the institution will be given.
When it comes to abstract in an APA format essay, it is given when the essay length is more than a few hundred or thousand words. It gives readers an idea of what is being covered in the paper, so they can understand before going into the details. An abstract will usually be a summary of your major areas in the paper and will range between 150-200 words.
One of the core sections of your work is the body. It is usually the page 3 of your APA formatting essay and contains the core or major work. The whole text is typed on the left side, with left alignment with each paragraph's first line indented between 5 to 7 spaces from the left.
Text citations
Citations are one of the most important and the only way you can be saved from plagiarism in your work. Text citations are provided between the body of your work after you mention a certain point. A citation is usually the name or the last name of the author and the year of publication.


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It's my last Friday in Tanzania. Storytime. I'm about to describe my worst ride in a three-wheeler or bajaj. Like in a good suspense movie it's more about what didn't happen. There was an air of danger throughout the entire length of my trip to the Julius Nyerere airport in Dar es Salaam. Anything could have happened.
You may ask why didn't I take a proper driver or at least a taxi. Thing is, I needed to reach the airport on a Friday evening which is the worst day for traffic jams. My assumption was that a bajaj would be able to move where cars can't. Continue reading A Mad Dash to the Airport


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As you guys might know, after years of playing more high-impact sports or workouts like soccer or running, I got wiped out about a year ago now for the first time with a brutal back injury (only to have another one happen right as 2016 rolled around!). I had to relearn how to be strong in my body since the things I usually would do were off-limits for the time being and the first thing that really clicked for me was The Dailey Method. TDM's commitment to spinal alignment and health and total body alignment for that matter were exactly what I needed at the time, and the workouts are no joke – the blend of barre, Pilates, yoga and strength training kills me in the best way possible. If you caught my arm workout or my core workout with them, then you already know we've been working on a series to really target every area of your body! Today, one of my faves because it's my strongest area: legs!
The workout at the bottom of this post will not only build strong muscles, but lean, toned and flexible muscles. So key! I've had to learn over this past year that it's not just about strength, but functional strength – if you get too tense and don't loosen your muscles up, they'll somehow snap (figuratively or literally).
I've said it before and I'll say it again, you'd be hard pressed to find a nicer group of people than The Dailey Method family. Remember to pack a pair of grippy barre socks (you can get a pair there for $20 and they're totally worth it), wear something for medium-impact (most of the time it's isolated movements but there is some bouncing, so important to have support especially for any larger-chested girls!) and definitely come ready to burn it out!
If you're not near the Kits or Dunbar location in Vancouver (or any in your city) or if you want to burn out your legs on your own, this workout below from my fave trainers Jen & Steph at my go-to Kits location will have you feeling majorly sore the next day. Make sure you drink lots of water and stretch out lightly the next day! Do this 2x per week for max benefits along with the other targeted workouts (arms + core).
Parallel Squat with Resistance Band (pictured at top)
Put a resistance band around a stationary object and holding the band's ends in each hand, walk your feet back until they are under your hips, hip distance apart with toes pointed forward. Slowly drop into a squat, drawing your navel to your spine and lengthening your tailbone away from the crown of your head. Aim to get your thighs parallel to the ground! Shift your weight into your heels and pull the shin bones back to engage the quadriceps. Press your heels down into the floor to engage your glutes and come up an inch, drop down an inch 30 times. Continue for 1 minute.
Optional: Add a pilates ball between the inner thighs, lift heels from floor, press the big toe mound down and energize shins inwards, repeat pulses. Free to do this as a second rep or halfway through!
Neutral Spine Chair
Face away from the barre (or a similar, sturdy surface/object, walls work great!) and rest your shoulders against it as you walk your feet forward and come into a chair sit. Try to get your legs in a 90 degree angle, bringing your thighs parallel to ground and knees directly over your ankles. Lengthen your tailbone to the floor and draw abdominals to spine. Extend arms at shoulder height in front of you, palms facing in, and slowly bring right heel up, alternating to left and then alternating between the two until you've done 20 on each leg. Now, time to begin the arm series to really challenge your core! With palms facing one another at shoulder height, walk your right arm up to eyebrow height, bring your left arm down until it's just above your hip. Alternate, doing 20 on both sides. Finally, finish with a 30 second hold with hands in prayer position.
Waterski in 4th position (pictured above)
Face the barre (or a similar, stationary object that is mounted to a wall) and bring your hips right up to it. Overhand grip the barre and place your feet into narrow athletic V position (heels touching, toes pointing out at a narrow V (a small slice of pie should fit in between your feet!) bend your knees and slide the ball of your right foot a full foot behind the left, maintaining the direction of the foot. Lift your heels,, lean back until your arms are straight and deeply bend your knees. Lengthen tailbone to floor and engage your core to protect your back! Bend your knees to come down an inch, up an inch, 30 times, keeping heels, tailbone and crown of head in one straight diagonal line .
Turned Out Squat
Walk your feet a little wider than the distance of your hip bones and externally rotate legs so toes face 1 o'clock and 11 o'clock. Drop into Turned Out Squat position (like a sumo squat), keeping knees tracking in the direction of your 2nd and 3rd toes and shins hugging in and back. Torso is hinged forward as the same angle of your shins and keep core engaged. Engage more deeply through your core and begin arm reaches (side to side stretch) as you bring right arm to point towards the left upper corner of the room, do the opposite in a lateral direction with your left arm, alternating on both sides. Try to keep your lower body and core entirely stable and still during! Do 30 reaches in each direction. Finish in prayer hold, alternating heel raises on each leg for 30 seconds.
And that's it! You'll have officially earned yourself that glass of Sauv Blanc and your next #ootd in a leg-bearing dress or mini skirt will thank you for the grunt work. If you're in the city, come say hi if you see me in class at the Kits studio! Finally, a big thank you to The Dailey Method team & Carine Redmond PR for being so amazing to me (as always) and again, if you want to catch up on the previous workouts, find arms here and core here.
Wearing Public Myth leggings, sports bra & tank
Photos by Alicia Fashionista & Natasha Grant


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Asset Protection and Privacy
Wyoming has made an effort to provide privacy for the identity of individuals and families.
Limited Liability Companies: Wyoming does not require disclosure of LLC owners or managers as a matter of public record.
Trusts: Wyoming does not require that trust agreements, trust assets, or trust beneficiaries be recorded or disclosed to the public.
Qualified Spendthrift Trusts: In 2007, Wyoming has enacted statutes for a self-settled asset protection trust, specifically known as a Wyoming Qualified Spendthrift Trust (QST). In a properly drafted and administered Wyoming QST, the grantor of the QST and the grantor's family can be the beneficiaries of the QST, but still maintain creditor and liability protection.
Statutory Domestic Asset Protection Trust: Wyoming has provided for an additional asset-protection trust available in conjunction with a regulated financial institution trustee. These Wyoming Domestic Asset Protection Trusts may provide individuals an opportunity to protect their assets from creditors while maintaining significant control.
Charging Order Protection for Limited Liability Companies: In many states, the creditors of an LLC member can assume the member's ownership rights, force the sale of company assets, or completely dissolve the company. In Wyoming, a creditor's sole remedy against a member is a charging order on the debtor's LLC interest. This means a creditor cannot force dissolution of the LLC and the debtor's voting and management rights are not affected.
Single-Member LLCs: Wyoming is one of only two states that specifically afford a single-member LLC the same protection as a multi-member LLC.
State Income Tax Liability Protection: For residents of states that impose an income tax, transferring assets to a Wyoming Incomplete Gift Non-Grantor (WING) trust could substantially defer, decrease, or eliminate state income tax liability. The Internal Revenue Service has issued several private letter rulings (PLR 201310002 and PLR 201400010) allowing such a structure for a Nevada Trust. A properly drafted WING trust may allow a grantor to retain a beneficial interest in assets and avoid state income tax in the grantor's home state without gift tax consequences. In addition, a WING trust can combine state income tax savings with the asset protection benefits of a Wyoming Qualified Spendthrift Trust.
Only Wyoming, Nevada, and a few other states have enacted trust laws that comply with IRS requirements for a valid Incomplete Gift Non-Grantor Trust.


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TradeTheNews.com Weekly Market Update: Fed Headed for Higher Rates, ECB Stays Easy, Terrorism Hits US
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 16:13 PM EST
Policy divergence between Europe and the United States was thrown into high
relief this week. On Thursday, the ECB extended its QE bond buying program to
March 2017 and cut its deposit rate further into negative territory, as
President Draghi said that Europe needed more support for longer. Then on
Friday, the November US jobs report beat expectations with strength seen across
all categories, all but requiring the Fed to hike rates at its policy meeting
in two weeks. The other major financial event was the OPEC summit, where the
cartel acknowledged the reality that its prior 30M bpd production ceiling was
clearly being ignored by member states. OPEC refrained from actually setting a
new production ceiling, though the organization's President eventually
confirmed the current production level is around 31.5M bpd. Markets were forced
to digest these key events against the backdrop of a horrific terrorist attack
in San Bernardino CA. In a volatile trading week, the S&P500 ended up 0.1%
and the DJIA and Nasdaq each gained 0.3%.
The November US jobs report was strong, with the non-farm total of +211K
beating expectations and the unemployment rate steady at a seven-year lows of
5.0%. Average hourly earnings saw additional modest gains after a big jump in
October. The report was the last big data point ahead of the Fed's two-day
policy meeting in two weeks. Ahead of the jobs number, Fed Chair Yellen had
said the labor market's progress was healthy enough to boost confidence that
the Fed may reach its 2% inflation target soon. Economists at BNP Paribas said
that after Friday's report it's "all systems go" for the Fed to raise
rates in December.
As expected, the ECB cut its deposit rate another tenth into negative
territory, to -0.30% and expanded its QE program. The central bank extended its
bond buying program by six months to March 2017 and said it would begin buying
regional government bonds, expanding the range of assets it can buy. Markets were
apparently disappointed that the ECB failed to boost the monthly purchase
amount of €60B, but Draghi defended the measures taken as "adequate."
In addition, the ECB said it would also commence reinvesting principal as bonds
mature, a move that Draghi later explained would add €680 in liquidity to the
system by 2019 in a speech on Friday
The ECB announcements resulted in volatile price action across a variety of
asset classes as markets appeared underwhelmed after weeks of buildup into the
additional stimulus measures. EUR/USD was testing seven-month lows around
1.0540 in the lead-up to the decision but quickly took out 1.0900 as Draghi
rolled out the new measures during the press conference. By mid-day on
Thursday, EUR/USD topped out around 1.0980, a one-month high, before trading
back below 1.0900 through week's end. Interest rates popped globally with
several markets experiencing the sharpest back up in yields in many years. The
German 2-year yield rose some 15 basis points after the ECB announcement while
UST yields climbed as well. Equities were hit hard in Europe and pressured in
the US as well until the solid November employment report sent US Indices
surging on Friday.
Australia's central bank kept rates unchanged for the seventh straight meeting
and largely reiterated the sentiment from last month's policy statement. The
RBA still sees prospects for an improvement in economic conditions having
firmed, inflation consistent with the target over the next 1-2 years, and AUD
currency adjusting to commodity decline. The biggest change in the language was
the admission of a large decline in capital spending in the mining industry.
Global industrial production PMI data was very mixed, with China remaining
weak, the US looking soft and Europe possibly doing alright. The November
Chicago PMI and Dallas Fed manufacturing indices were pretty soft, with the
Chicago PMI back below 50 after seeing a move higher in October. Meanwhile, the
November ISM manufacturing index sank below 50 into contraction, missing expectations
and falling to its lowest level since June 2009. China's official manufacturing
PMI was in contraction for the fourth month in a row, and the index marked a
three-year low. Further slowdown in Key components of New Export Orders and
Input prices revealed continued softness of external demand and also
disinflationary pressures. Euro zone, Germany and France November manufacturing
PMI indices met or beat expectations and moved up from October levels.
As expected, the International Monetary Fund has added the Chinese yuan to its
Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket of currencies. The yuan joins the US
dollar, UK pound, Japanese yen and the euro in the basket, marking a major step
toward normalization of China's position as a leading economic power, however
analysts caution that it represents the IMF's opinion about which currencies
are safe for asset managers to hold. Asset managers may end up seeing the IMF's
decision as mainly political. Either way, it is also an important signal that
China is ready to end its strategy of rapid investment-driven catch-up growth
and further work towards raising domestic consumption.
The annual OPEC summit was among the most contentious in years. Saudi Arabia is
now approximately 1.5 years into its campaign to lower oil prices to crush the
US shale industry and consolidate its market share, and pressure was building
on the Saudis to cut output while even inside the Kingdom there was said to be
disagreement about what strategy to pursue. In the lead-up to the meeting, Iran
argued that a majority of OPEC members supported an output cut, but other Gulf
Arab countries stood with the Saudis (at the same time, Iran was insisting it
did not need permission from OPEC to increase crude production). After an
extended closed door meeting on Friday, OPEC delegates emerged to say that they
would leave production levels unchanged (at the "actual" 31.5M bbd
level, above the prior 30M bpd ceiling). The Secretary General said that they
wanted to wait and see how the market develops over the next six months as
Indonesia is welcomed into OPEC and Iran begins to ramp up its oil production
as sanctions are lifted. WTI crude closed out the week around the $40/bbl mark.
Brazil's vast corruption scandal - over 140 businessmen and a host of politicians
have been charged with bribery and money laundering - keeps penetrating higher
levels of the government. On Wednesday, Brazil's lower house initiated
impeachment proceedings against President Rousseff, accusing her Treasury of
repeatedly borrowing money from government banks without legislative authority,
in an attempt to mask deficits - rather than outright bribery or corruption.
Within a month deputies must decide whether to pass the case to the senate,
which requires a two-thirds majority. Senators would then have 180 days to try
the president.
The November US auto sales growth was pretty weak. General Motors and Ford both
widely missed expectations: Ford sales were +0.3% (v 3.2% expected) and GM's
were +1.5% (+2.9% expected). Fiat Chrysler got closer to the mark with +3%
sales (v +3.2% expected). Meanwhile, Volkswagen's sales declined 25% in the
month, in the wake of the emissions cheating scandal.
There were no big M&A deals this week though some may be brewing. Avon
shares rose on report that it is in talks to sell its North American business
to Cerberus as soon as this month. Biotech name Relypsa shares surged on Friday
on an unconfirmed report that Merck may be evaluating a bid.


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Oct 6, 2010
[Editor's Note: On October 10 (10.10.10), 350.org is coordinating 2700 events in 150 countries to address the concerns of climate change together as a planet. Learn more about reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and the atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by clicking here.]
When polite conversation turns to touchy subjects like war and religion, etiquette guru Emily Post advises readers to talk about something neutral
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From a few weeks ago, I was using this book to read up simple hadith to the littler ones. The book is published by Perniagaan jahabersa
We are on the second hadith
الدين يسر
The religion (Islam) is easy.
We looked at the arabic word
religion – الدين
easy -يسر
We highlighted the verses from surah Inshirah and surah lail
(مَعَ ٱلۡعُسۡرِ يُسۡرًا (٥) إِنَّ مَعَ ٱلۡعُسۡرِ يُسۡرً۬ا (٦
فَسَنُيَسِّرُهُ ۥ لِلۡيُسۡرَىٰ
There are the words يسر in it. Even though the spelling seems different (because of grammar rules). That is why it is best to learn the arabic words in the arabic letters itself.
Also take note of the name Yassir.
and the du'a that we know that Prophet Musa alaihi salam said when commanded to speak to Firawn in Surah Taha 20: 25-26
رَبِّ ٱشۡرَحۡ لِى صَدۡرِى (٢٥) وَيَسِّرۡ لِىٓ أَمۡرِى
the opposite of يسر is عسر which means difficulty. And you can see both of these words in Surah al Inshirah and Surah al lail.
About the hadith
Islam is simple and easy to follow. It guides mankind to the correct way of life.
Truly if we learn to worship Allah the way that Allah wants and the way that prophet sallallahu alaihi salam teaches, we will find our heart more at peace and is actually more easy Insya Allah.
Other religion may view that Islam is difficult because we have to pray five times a day, fast, go for pilgrimage, wear hijab, grow beard, but we say to them most of the time their religion seems "easy" is because they have left what their religion told them anyway. To start with they are not on the path that Allah wants, and whatever they are following are not as what is being taught.
Then we look at some difficult religious practices that forces hitting themselves and self inflict pain themselves either for expiation of sins or required by their religion to attain higher level. This is for sure is not easy. Alhamdulillah our religion do not make us get into dirty rivers or surrender our children for hard labour or to be worshipped.
The requirement of our religion is always promoting cleanliness such as wudhu', ghusl. Tawbah as expiation of sins. pain that is not self inflicted will expiate our sins, Insya Allah.
May Allah make it easy for us to worship Him.