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Bridger Bowl: Bobcat Ski Day Reunion
- Friday, January 18, 2013 from 9:00am to 4:00pm
The MSU Alumni Association (MSUAA) and Bridger Bowl have teamed up to offer a special ski day to fellow Bobcats.
The MSUAA will offer bus ride to and from Bridger Bowl. Pick-up 8 a.m. and drop off at 5:45 p.m., at Bobcat Stadium.
All bus riders can take advantage of a $15 lift ticket special. Suggested donation of $5 per bus rider.
Additionally, carloads of 3 or more may take advantage of the $15 lift ticket special. No discounts for carloads of less than 3. Season pass holders get 15% discount on food and preferred parking with 3 or more to a car.
$5 from every lift ticket benefits the MSU Ski Team
Wear your Blue & Gold while skiing and receive fun goodies from the Alumni Association. Join us from 3:00-6:00 in the Jim Bridger Lodge for ski music by Unusual Suspects and revelry.
Alumni Association members who show their membership card receive a free beverage and light snacks from 3:30-6:00. Please RSVP online at alumni.montana.edu/skiday, or, call 800-457-1696.
- Alumni Foundation
(406) 994-2053;(800) 457-1696


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Our fully licensed Harry Potter deluxe full length black robe features a wine trim and a oversized hood with wine under layer.
Also included is a gold clasp.
Tie, wand and glasses are not not included but may be purchased separately.
Shirt is not included.
Size available:
- Standard: Chest size up to 44"

subset: commoncrawl


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Noel Gomez survived 15 years in a life of prostitution and now works with the Organization of Prostitution Survivors. Gomez was kicked out of her home in Seattle when she was just 16 and then was pimped by her boyfriend.
Her group now offers support and counseling for other girls, to get them off the streets.


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Traveling Traditions Shawl will give you a nice introduction to knitting a varriety of classical lace patterns from 4 different regions. We will cover Estonia, Orenburg, Shetland, and Brittish lace designs.
This lovely large shawl has been designed for successful shawl completion.
This is a large shawl that can be worn in many ways.
Materials Needed: size 2 32" circular needles, 230g/1150 yards fingering, 14 stitch markers
This pattern is available for instant download after purchase.
ADD THE NEEDLES: Knitter's Pride Needles
ADD THE STITCH MARKERS: Wooden Stitch Marker
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Por una moratoria a los agrocombustibles
For immediate release – 26th June 2007
Joint Press Release by EcoNexus, Biofuelwatch, Corporate Europe Observatory
On 27th June 2007 more than 30 groups from around the world will launch the call for a Moratorium to stop the EU rush for biofuels, which they prefer to call agrofuels: liquid fuels made from biomass which consists of crops and trees grown specifically for that purpose on a large scale. They warn that agrofuel production for EU markets will accelerate climate change, destroy biodiversity and uproot local communities. Organisations will be visiting Brussels on 26 and 27 June to inform the European Parliament about their concerns about the impact of agrofuels on local communities, biodiversity and climate. They are sceptical about the capacity of certification projects currently being drafted in the EU to prevent any of this damage.
In March 2007, EU Heads of States decided in favour of a 10% agrofuel target by 2020. The European Commission have made it clear that they expect a large proportion of those agrofuels to come from palm oil, soya and sugar cane from the global South. Producing the full amount in Europe would require up to 50% of EU farm land. The current EU target of 5.75% by 2010 has already stimulated large-scale monoculture expansion and caused damage to tropical and sub-tropical forests, grasslands, the peatlands of South-east Asia, and to large numbers of communities. The 10% target is creating a further impetus for big projects for infrastructure and production in the global South, where most of the crops to produce agrofuels would have to be planted. Indonesia alone is planning 20 million more hectares of oil palm plantations in order to meet future agrofuel demand (tinyurl.com/33lb7r). Much of this expansion is expected to happen at the expense of community lands, peatlands and forests.
Nina Holland from Corporate Europe Observatory states: "The Heads of States made it clear that sustainable sourcing of agrofuels should be a precondition for targets. There are no proposals at all which would guarantee sustainability. The European Commission have suggested 'standards' which would allow biofuels from plantations from which communities have been forcibly evicted to be classed as 'sustainable', and they will not address large-scale rainforest destruction from the displacement of other types of agriculture by monoculture plantations. In the absence of any guarantees of sustainable sourcing we need a moratorium on agrofuel support, incentives and imports".
Almuth Ernsting from Biofuelwatch adds: "Far from reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Europe's biofuel policy threatens to accelerate global warming by destroying tropical and sub-tropical forests and peatlands, which are amongst the world's most important carbon sinks. Even in Europe, large amounts of nitrous oxide is released as more fertilisers are being used to grow agrofuels, and our biodiversity suffers as set-asides are to be abolished. Europe's car industry has used biofuels as a means of avoiding strict fuel efficiency standards which are essential for reducing carbon emissions. If we want to have any hope of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change then we need drastic cuts in fuel use in Europe – not grain and oil crops grown in vast monocultures for European cars".
Press Conference details:
Press conference Wednesday 27th June at 9.30am at the Quaker Council for European Affairs, Square Ambiorix 50 - B-1000 Brussels, Tel : 02 230 49 35. Speakers from around the world will describe the impact of agrofuels in their regions. They include representatives from World Rainforest Movement. A speaker from Global Justice Ecology Project will talk about agrofuels in the United States.
Almuth Ernsting, Biofuelwatch, 0044 -1224 324797 (mornings and evenings) or 0044 – 1224-553195 (afternoons)
Deepak Rughani, Biofuelwatch, 0044-7931-636337 (any time)
Nina Holland, Corporate Europe Observatory, 0031-630285042 (any time)
1. The moratorium document may be found at www.econexus.info. Signatories to date include key groups from around the world such as GRAIN, Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific and The Rural Reflection Group, Argentina, plus European Groups such as Corner House, FERN and Rettet den Regenwald, This document is now being released worldwide for more signatures.
2. Expansion of agrofuel monocultures is already causing forest destruction in many countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The fast growing demand for agrofuels is driving up world market prices for crops such as palm oil, soya, sugar cane, maize and jatropha and rising prices give companies an incentive to expand plantations. Further deforestation could bring the Amazon rainforest to the point of collapse, with grave implications for the region and for global climate stability and rainfall. As Peter Bunyard writes:
"In conclusion, it is becoming increasingly clear that we perturb climate, not simply because of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning, but also because ecosystems such as those of the Amazon Basin play a massive role in the transport of energy from the equator to the more temperate regions of the planet. Our climate system, with its particular prevailing weather patterns, needs those energy transfers.Consequently, we must do all in our power to prevent agro-industrial enterprises … from destroying anymore of the Amazonian tropical rainforests."
Peter Bunyard. 2007. Climate and the Amazon. In: Surviving the Century: Facing Climate Chaos and Other Global Challenges edited by Herbie Girardet, Earthscan
3. Monoculture plantations, including for agrofuels, cause people to be driven off their land, as this declaration from Paraguay confirms:
"...the expansion of monocultural "green deserts", such as large scale soy production, non-native grasses and exotic trees, promotes and increases a mechanized agriculture without small farmers; without people. All monocultures are damaging to the ecosystems they supplant; they cause poverty, unemployment and the eviction and exodus of communities in rural areas. They destroy biological and agricultural diversity, poison water sources and the soil and undermine the food security and sovereignty of the people and their countries."
The Development Model for Soy in Paraguay- Irresponsible, Unsustainable and Anti-Democratic, Asuncion, August 2006, http://www.wervel.be/content/view/663/310/
4. The impact of oil palm monocultures on local communities is already serious:
"It's as if we were ghosts on our own land. We have been so pierced through by the spines of the oil palm that we are almost dead, left haunting what was once our own land. We don't usually say this, but this is how it is really. We need to make our case ourselves and explain how the oil palm is hurting us."
Workshop participant RSPO Smallholder Taskforce, Bodok, Sanggau, West Kalimantan, 7 June 2006"Ghosts on Our Own Land" by Forest Peoples Programme and Sawit Watch, http://www.forestpeoples.org/documents/prv_sector/oil_palm/oil_palm_press_rel_indonesia_nov06_eng.shtml
5. Twenty-nine South African organisations responded to their government's Draft Biofuels Industrial Strategy by saying:
"…deals have already been struck for large- scale plants to export Biofuels to the European Union. In the process rural farming communities are coerced into signing over their land for a pittance for industrial plantations of canola, maize and soya."
Rural communities express dismay – "land grabs" fuelled by Biofuels Strategy, March 2007, signed by 29 South African organizations, see http://www.stuffedandstarved.org/drupal/node/145
Etiquetas: Agrofuels


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There's a difference between fact checking and myth-busting.
When Africa Check posted an article last week, stating that Johannesburg's claim to being the "world's largest man-made forest" was a myth, I took issue with the reporting – and not just out of a skewed sense of Job'urg patriotism (although there is that). I wasn't satisfied with the way the facts were presented. So I decided to do a little checking of my own.
What Africa Check established was (my thoughts):
1. Jo'burg is not, actually, a forest. Well, yes. And no.
2. There are much larger man-made forests. Duh. Also: hello, Captain Obvious. I will try to explain why this is important in less puerile terms.
3. Finally, the report stated there were "no credible rankings for the largest man-made forest in the world or the largest urban forest or even the most forested city". This is also not entirely correct.
Trees are really hard to count
To start off, I wanted some degree of comparison – what makes a really, really big forest (any kind of forest). So I set off looking for information about the biggest one I could think of, the Amazon Rainforest.
As it turns out, trees are really hard to count. They never return their census forms, and if one of them falls and nobody's there to hear it… well, you get the picture.
I hit my first obstacle: unless I was prepared to rely on WikiAnswers, I couldn't get any clear (methodical, accurate) idea of actual tree numbers in the Amazon.
Brazil recently announced plans for a National Forest Inventory project that would attempt to do exactly this: count the number of trees in the Amazon. It's estimated it will take over four years, with 20 000 sample points at 20-kilometre intervals.
To save waiting 48 months, I decided I'd try to create an estimate by taking the average number of trees per hectare and then multiplying that by the total area of the rainforest.
Even this proved a challenge. The New York Times cited 20-60 trees an acre (or 148 trees per hectare). The Amazon environmental and educational ACEER Foundation said that, in some parts of the Amazon, as many as 300 tree species (that's species, not individual trees – the latter number would be equal to or higher) could be found in one acre [or 600/hectare]. But let's settle for a conservative number: 150 trees per hectare. The Amazon Rainforest is 550 000 000 hectares. That's 82 500 000 000 trees. Give or take. It's quite a lot of trees.
Man-made forests get pretty darn big
The Africa Check article mentioned a massive Chinese forestation project, to plant a "great green wall" over 500 000 square kilometres – stating that, even though actual tree numbers were not available, it was a bigger "man-made forest" than Jo'burg could ever hope to be.
But you don't have to look as far as China to find a man-made forest that's bigger than Jo'burg's reported 10-million trees.
The 60-year-old Usutu pine plantation in Swaziland covers an area of 52 000 hectares (literally a fraction of the Chinese scheme). Rather usefully, reports on Usutu include things like the number of "stems per hectare" – upwards of 1200 – which makes it easier to work out how many trees there are: 62 400 000 (if all hectares were planted simultaneously).
Also quite a lot more than Joburg. And one would suspect there are hundreds if not thousands of such timber plantations all over the world. Jo'burg's own trees take their origins from exactly such ventures, to provide timber for the mines.
So, is Jo'burg the world's largest man-made forest?
Absolutely not – but comparing it with commercial timber plantations (or programmes extending across vast swathes of country) seems to be guided by the letter(s) of the word rather than the spirit or intention of the phrase.
By any conventional definition, Jo'burg is also not a forest. But it is a city and it does have a rather large number of trees. And, as it turns out, there is both research on and a name for this.
I invented a word – neoforestation – to try and explain the bit I need to talk about next.
Africa Check's article describes an "urban forest" as a "looser term" meaning "a densely-wooded [sic] urban area" – and quotes a nice person from City Parks saying Johannesburg was "probably 'only one of the largest man-made urban forests in the world'".
Urban forests are a big deal
It's important we understand what is meant by "urban forest" because, as it turns out, it's not a loose term at all. As the balance of the world's population has shifted from rural to urban areas, "urban forests" are a pretty big deal in arboreal terms.
The United States Department of Agriculture's Forestry Service has an Urban Forestry Program (only one "m" because, America) and has even developed a computer-based UFORE (Urban Forests Effects) model to start quantifying urban forests.
North America – Canada and the United States – pioneered the term "urban forestry" [it was first used in 1965], and the discipline has spread or gained popularity in other regions.
In a paper on urban forestry in Europe, Danish author Cecil C. Konijnendijk (who has written several books on the topic) defines urban forests as "all forest and tree resources in (and close to) urban areas", and offers the following:
"'Forest' within 'urban forest' thus has been given a different meaning than the traditional forest concept encompasses. By including small woods, parks and gardens with area size and/or canopy cover below thresholds for 'forest', as well as individual trees the traditional forest concept has been broadened considerably."
So: Johannesburg is an urban forest. Hurrah.
Is Jozi the biggest urban forest in the world?
The next question, then, was: is it the biggest urban forest in the world? And by 'biggest' I meant the most number of trees rather than the largest geographical area. [There's a further condition – Jo'burg is a man-made urban forest. But we'll get to why that's important, again, later].
Africa Check said there were no credible rankings for such forest sizes – which is true. This does not mean, however, there is no credible information available on which we can make some kind of reasonable comparison… It just takes a lot more digging, using a Google spade.
Because I'd now, correctly, defined Jo'burg as an urban forest I was finally (in theory) able to compare like with like – by finding out the tree populations of other large settlements or cities around the world, and seeing where Jo'burg stacked up.
I did this in a very scientific manner, by asking Google variations of "how many trees are there in <city name>" until I found a report that came from a reputable source.
Finding the wood among the trees
According to Africa Check, New York City had somewhere in the region of 5,2-million trees (and growing). So we were safe there. But that didn't mean I could rule out the rest of the United States. Fortunately, the USDA Forestry Services had kindly compiled an entire report on urban forestry, and stated that urban tree populations ranged from 1,2-million (Boston) to a very worrying 9,4-million trees in Atlanta. I completely ignored Canada, as one does, but we all know they have more trees than people anyway.
Their colleagues across the pond had equally handy figures for London (some 7-million trees, including 500 000 street trees). I had a brief panic when a blogger wrote Sheffield had 200-million trees – but a quick check revealed the figure to be closer to 2,5-million.
I looked to Europe – Berlin has 439 000 street trees; Amsterdam (anecdotally – I couldn't find an official report) has around 400 000 and is regarded as one of the "most-treed" cities on the continent.
In the Antipodes, Australia's capital, Canberra (also a former "treeless plain", much like Jo'burg) boasted only 400 000 trees. New Zealand, which "is dominated by trees with 59% of the land covered by a combination of native and exotic forests and vegetation" has relatively small urban settlements and a forestry report noted most of the country's forests were located a "substantial [distance] away from the main population centres". So I could exclude those…
India provided a 2008 tree census measuring 1,9-million trees in Mumbai. Ahmedabad claimed 618 000 trees. A proposed tree census in Delhi (reported to be India's third most-treed city) had suffered delays, and no information was available but – based on the other cities' data – seemed unlikely to challenge Jo'burg's primacy.
Southeast Asia, Central and West Africa excluded
Lack of resources and time prompted me to exclude settlements built in existing forests or rainforests or jungles – which would count out most of south-east Asia, and central and west Africa.
For the same reason it would exclude Rio de Janeiro's Tijuca National Park (mentioned by Africa Check, and which I had to the good fortune to visit last year) – although Tijuca had been extensively re-forested (i.e. planted) by man.
For the purpose of further clarity on Tijuca, I even tried to work out how many trees might be in the park. In the absence of any other information I had to estimate this using the density of trees in the Amazon (Tijuca is in a sense an extension of this, although if I recall it is an Atlantic rainforest) and the size of the park – between 3300 and 3900 hectares. Which, at 150 trees per hectare, works out to less than 600 000 trees.
North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the subcontinent…
That left the lingering threat of Atlanta – which I was going to neutralise by noting that the city falls within an existing forest biome, and therefore not only did Jo'burg have marginal superiority by numbers it could also boast its trees were imposed by man and not nature – and the one country I'd been avoiding, because I was worried what I might find.
The Nanjing Issue
During my Google-ing I found two references stating that the city of Nanjing had planted 34 million trees since 1994. Except the first citation (in a UN report) was dated 1993 (pre-planting, and the reference could not be traced). A later (2000) reference – indicating 23 trees per city dweller, which would have worked out to an even more impressive 50,6-million trees – also could not be verified or traced.
Ordinarily I would accept a UN report as a good source, but to have an urban forest of between 30-million and 50-million trees seemed so inordinately massive, given all the other cities mentioned above, that I was troubled by my inability to find more data on it, more mentions or studies of the scale of this massive forest, and – on Google Earth – to find a visual representation of a city that is a third the [population] size of Jo'burg but boasted three or more times the number of trees… A 2008 study on Nanjing's urban forest commented the city was chosen because it had "relatively good tree cover", which would be a bit of an understatement if the above figures were even close to true. Further, the only recent news stories I could uncover about Nanjing's trees were moves to protect trees in the city (again, not quite in line with the army of urban trees painted above).
My Spidey senses, for what they are worth, force me to reject the claims of 34 million trees in Nanjing, because I could find no evidence aside from untraceable citations (referencing is so important, kids).
Given that, and given all of the other cities listed and mentioned above, it appears that Johannesburg is the largest man-made urban forest in the world.
There is a personal and professional downside to this. Because it turns out Wikipedia had it right all along.
© Copyright Africa Check 2020. Read our republishing guidelines. You may reproduce this piece or content from it for the purpose of reporting and/or discussing news and current events. This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: "This report was written by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page.


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Well guys…we've reached the end of The Staircase September, and we gotta say…this episode covers a lot of ground! First of all, it takes a good 20 minutes before we even GET to talking about the last 2 episodes of The Staircase. And once we do, we also manage to cover a lot of additional ground. Topics include:
- Todd
- Paris
- Detroit
- New Orleans
- Kari and Caitlin confuse "epilogue" with "prologue"
- That one time Kari got fired
- That time Kari got kicked out of The Playboy Mansion
- That time Caitlin got kicked out of a very special concert
- Jury Duty
- And WE BOTH RAP!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed


text: Michael Ferraro wrote: > > Sorry > > It seems that the QSocket object needs a parent -- don't we all :} I think the actual problem was that you weren't keeping a reference to the Python object around. Giving it a parent solves the problem - or saving the object in something that doesn't go out of scope at the end of the function would also work. Phil


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Bengal government to come up with an industrial township in Howrah
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Kolkata, July 14 (IANS) The West Bengal government is looking at identifying a large area in Howrah district for declaring an industrial township, an official said on Friday.
"In Howrah, we are looking at a possibility of identifying a large area where there is a possibility of industrialisation and also there are parks like foundry, chemical, plastic, rubber, etc. We are going to include the entire area into a new industrial township. The township authority will provide all the infrastructure," said Additional Chief Secretary, Industry, Commerce and Enterprises, Rajiva Sinha.
The declaration of the industrial township is expected in the next three months, he said. A
"The area of the township is not yet decided but preliminary estimation is that the industrial township would be of around 20,000 acres and our assessment is that the entire area will have a potential to bring Rs 46,000 crore of investments," he said an event organised by Merchants' Chamber of Commerce here.
The government's expenditure would be not less than Rs 2,000 crore for providing the requisite infrastructure in the proposed township, Sinha said.
He also said the government is working on developing a MSME hub in the district.
However, at the programme, Royal Bhutanese Consulate's Trade Consul Leki Tenzin said political turmoil in Darjeeling and Basirhat should be resolved to encourage investments.
"Political turmoil in Darjeeling and Basirhat should be resolved otherwise it will discourage investments especially foreign investments," he said.


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Italy's PM Could Make Good Use of Advice from Kierkegaard
Sir, Moises Naim ("Berlusconi could learn a trick from Nixon", July 24) suggests that it is time for the Italian prime minister to perform a volte‐face, one that would align Italy's economic policies with his reformist rhetoric.
What Mr Naim fails to mention is Silvio Berlusconi's pronouncements and proposals on the European Union. Neither qualify as reformist (that is, free market). On July 8, Mr Berlusconi proposed a "New Deal" initiative massively to increase EU public works spending, claiming that this would lift eurozone growth by between 0.5 and 0.6 percentage points.
It is time for Mr Berlusconi to lift a page from Soren Kierkegaard's play book. Kierkegaard counselled Christian VIII of Denmark that he "should be deaf and blind, or at least behave as if he were, for it solves many difficulties…And then, he must not say much, but must have a standard little speech that can be used on all occasions, a speech therefore without content."


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Janet Hayes, a Shareholder in the Knoxville office, is an advocate for employers and businesses across the state. Her practice focuses on employment and appellate law.
Ms. Hayes has successfully defended all types of employment claims including sexual harassment, retaliatory discharge, discrimination, workers' compensation, invasion of privacy, wage/hour claims, and denial of benefits. She has also argued multiple issues in each of Tennessee's appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of Tennessee. She has argued federal appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
With over 20 years of litigation experience, Ms. Hayes now devotes most of her time to developing litigation-avoidance strategies for her clients. She drafts client-specific employee handbooks, policies, and employment contracts to provide legal compliance while enhancing business success. She also conducts manager/supervisor training classes and compliance audits. Employers frequently call upon Ms. Hayes to conduct formal investigations of employee complaints and allegations of internal wrongdoing. Her investigations have included allegations of sexual harassment, age discrimination, embezzlement, misappropriation of time, abuse of leave policies, and generalized claims of mismanagement and unprofessional conduct.
- American Bar Association
- Tennessee Bar Association
- Knoxville Bar Association
- Named to The Best Lawyers in America©, Employment Law-Management, Litigation-Labor and Employment
- Member, Order of the Coif
- Member, ALFA International Employment Law Steering Committee
- Frequent speaker and panel discussion moderator at ALFA events
- Board of Trustees of Carson-Newman College (Prior Board Chair)
- Previous member, Board of Directors of Baptist Health Systems
- Previous member, Board of Directors of Mercy Health Partners
- Named one of Knoxville's "40 Under 40″ in 2008
- Named a Cityview Magazine "Top Attorney" for eight years
Ms. Hayes is actively involved in the community. She is active in her church where she teaches and serves on several committees and teams.


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It's an odd alliance at first glance. The Boston Preservation Alliance and Occupy JP have united to oppose demolishing the "Knight's Children's Center" on Huntington Ave. The Home for Little Wanderers is relocating to Walpole, and the latest plan for its site is to tear the buildings down and put up a high-end apartment building.
Here are the basics of the dispute from the Jamaica Plain Gazette:
Occupy JP calls for the space to be filled by owner-occupied triple-deckers, a homegrown remedy to poverty with a proven record," the statement continued. "Spread the wealth or find the homeless, orphans, widows and others sleeping on your doorstep."
Curtis Kemeny, whose Boston Residential Group is planning the high-end apartment building, previously told the Gazette that the existing buildings cannot be reused due to their age and the difficulty of reconfiguring them.
That includes a 1914 brick building at the core of the complex. Neiswander, a Jamaica Plain resident who said she was writing with the permission of the BPA's board and executive director, noted that several other S. Huntington Avenue institutions have reused historic buildings. She noted that the 1914 building is "a sturdy brick building of human scale that should be eminently adapatable for residential use."
It's worth pointing out that the proponents of historic preservation and the proponents of affordable housing are not always natural allies. Often as not, for example, in the case of St. Aidan's in Brookline, finally converted to affordable housing in 2010, housing advocates come up against preservationists and others who don't want to see changes made.
Today, Tim Fernholz argues at GOOD that, "Local policies about land use and transit make America's most productive places—our largest, wealthiest cities—prohibitively expensive for many people."
The people already residing in those cities have enacted policies that have, in essence, built a wall around them. Limits on the size of buildings mean that fewer apartment units are built; demands that the needs of cars take precedence over the needs of people create vast parking lots that take up valuable land; zoning restrictions make it harder to create thriving neighborhoods with many types of housing and businesses. In his polemic, "The Rent Is Too Damn High," Matt Yglesias notes while residents fight to preserve the character of iconic neighborhoods like Brooklyn's Park Slope or Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown, those neighborhoods would be illegal to construct today.
Fernholz argues that high costs of living, combined with rising college debt, keep people from making the move to one of the country's historically magnetic cities, like New York. Forget Georgetown. More dramatically, there's the height restriction on all buildings in Washington DC, which gets a lot of blame for that city's rising rents.
In the JP case (which, just to clarify, doesn't involve affordable housing) the figurative keys to the bulldozers currently rest in the hands of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) after the Boston Landmarks Coalition (BLC) imposed a 90-day moratorium.
So, JP-ers, keep an eye on the alphabet soup and ponder this one awhile.


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Hello! Many of you know us already, but for those who do not, my name is Shaina. I am married to Nick and we have two girls. 5 years ago, September 24, 2012 we walked through a long journey of heart ache and struggle as we gave birth to our son, Noah James, who was born with a CHD (Congenital Heart Defect) known as HLHS (Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome). He lived in the pediatric and cardiovascular and neonatal ICU for his entire life. He endured 3 open heart surgeries and numerous other procedures. On February 22, 2013 he entered heaven where many who have gone before were awaiting his arrival. Nick and I are so thankful for the life he lived and the privilege of being his parents.
There is much more to our story though! Nick and I met in college and got married in 2007. Our first child, Ava came into the world in 2011. I stayed at home from then, through Noah's illness and death and then for another year and a half after that. I loved that season so much. I began working at our church, Family Life Church of Amarillo in 2014 and have done various jobs, but have found myself, most recently in the Worship Pastor and Creative Arts role. I love my job. I love who I work with and I love that I get to incorporate what I went to school for (Graphic Design, Go Buffs!) in my career. I grew up in the church and church music has been a part of my life from a tiny age. It is also woven throughout my family history as well. I feel very blessed to continue the legacy of working in ministry that is so deeply rooted in my family.
Nick is also a designer and works in the Sign Dept at Affiliated Food Inc. We are blessed that he works there and he enjoys what he does! He is also very involved with Kairos Prison ministries and he is our lead drummer on the FLC Worship team. He is such a patient and kind person, wonderful husband and great daddy!
In 2015 we welcomed Ana Rejoice to our family! She is now 2 and is spunky as ever! We cannot imagine life without her in it. She has healed places in our weary hearts. Ava is an incredible big sister and Ana has healed places in her that I have seen very evidently.
Together, we are one silly family, but we are us. I so love our little family and all God is doing in it. Thanks for joining me on this journey of life, love, and finding the heart.


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Note: As of Fall 2012, I will be migrating this page to a new Google Site. The link will be posted shortly. These materials will continue to be posted on this site, but all updates will be made to the Google Site.
Students: on this blog, you will find links to all the courses I have taught and am currently teaching. Individual course blogs include Policy and Procedure sheets, Syllabi, and a variety of Web 2.0 features, such as Podcasts and YouTube Lecture videos. Older courses also contain useful PowerPoint presentations. You will find that the most recent courses have the most comprehensive listings.
*Follow me on Twitter for course related information: ProfAdamCrowley
Click on a class to be taken to its blog:
Fall 2012:
Spring 2012
- Eh 299: Zombies!
- Eh 200: Approaches to Literature
- Eh 124: Rhetoric and Composition II
Fall 2011
Summer 2011
Spring 2011
Fall 2010
Summer 2010
Spring 2010
Fall 2009
Summer 2009
Spring 2009
Fall 2008
Summer 2008
Spring 2008
Additional Resources for Instructors:
Other Activities:
Publications and Conferences:


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Business Startup Packages
It`s true starting a business can be expensive, but we have the solution with our feature packed startup packs. We include all you will need to get your business off the ground including business cards, leaflets plus a website and much more at all at a price that will not break the bank.
Our packages let you create the right impression, boasting a range of features including design, top quality paper used and express service to your door (UK mainland) in around 3 working days.
We are very skilled at creating logos and printable items and what we create for you will look wonderful and give your company identity. Forget small amounts, with our starter packs, you get far more in your order for considerably less money.
Up-to 400gsm matt lamination for your cards. When design is complete and you have received your goods, we forward your all the master files for safekeeping and future usage
If you want to mix n match we can also create bespoke business pack for you the only extra cost is the addons you make, obviously if you deduct items it will be less. We want to help you start your business and at EMP and as a UK wide printer, one call solves it all.
Complete Solution – REF:EMP9092
6 Page Website
2 Email addresses
3 Stock images
Blog Section
Multi Responsive Design -works on Laptops, Phone and PCs
Text logo
Facebook page
30 days free google promotion for you.
500 Business Cards 2 Sides, F/Colour
1000 A5 Flyers, 1 Side, F/Colour
Deal Price: £499 + VAT
Design included.
Yes, that's right all the business packs offered by us include professional design not only on logos – on your complete package. How this works is very straightforward.
Once we have spoken to you and established any choice of colour etc you have a preference too we get to work making your business designs. The following is a summary of our free design services and what is included:
Logo: Up to 6 revisions.
Letterheads: up to 5 revisions.
Leaflets: Up to 5 revisions.


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A Memorial to the Past
Heroes Square was constructed to celebrate and honor 1,000 years of Hungary as a nation. The figures in the colonnade depict the seven chieftains that founded the country as well as kings and major political figures over the centuries noted for their major achievements. Other statues are allegorical figures representing War, Peace, Labor and Wealth, Knowledge and Glory.
In the center of the square is a cenotaph–empty tomb–honoring Hungary's Unknown Soldiers. The dramatic column behind the cenotaph is topped with the statue of the Angel Gabriel holding the Crown of Saint Stephen and the apostolic cross.
A Gathering in the Present
Heroes Square is a part of the political life of modern Hungary and has been the scene of many political events and public gatherings. It sits between the Museum of Fine Arts and the Palace of Art


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Home Ownership Trends Are Shifting… Keep Reading To Find Out How They Might Make Owning A Home In Raleigh Even Easier… Credit-score-based mortgages… they were once the primary way of buying a house… but these traditional methods of purchasing a home are becoming less common than in decades past. The American Dream is shifting and the […]
Tag Archives | local-lease-option-houses
Pros and Cons of Rent to Own Housing In Raleigh
By georges50 on September 27, 2016 in rent-to-own
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"With rent to owns, you can lock in the sales price and terms upfront, allowing you to purchase the house at a below-market price in a few years"Rich A. - Financial Planner (Bankrate)


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Bluetooth 4.1 version, wide compatibility, more faster connection, it could transmit stable signal in high speed.
Memory earmuff, made by soft foam, more comfortable for long time wearing, suitable for sport, business man, and etc.
Built-in 55mAh battery, durable life, it support almost 5 hours music time or talking time, convenient for daily life.
Equipped with CSR8 chip, it could reduce the interference and restore the pure sound, provide you enjoyment of music.


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This Privacy Policy outlines the types of personal information we gather when you use VineStories.com web site, as well as some of the steps we take to safeguard it.
The following principles apply to the personally identifying information we ask for and that you provide. "Personally identifying information" is information that individually identifies you, such as your name or email address.
User-Supplied Information: On the Register for Updates page on our web site, we ask you for your name, e-mail address, and zip code. The more accurate information you volunteer, the better we are able to provide you with information about our company and our services.
We do not rent or sell your personally identifying information to other companies or individuals, unless we have your consent. We restrict access to your personally identifying information to our employees who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our services. We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to data on our site.
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This information helps us identify which areas of our site are of interest to our visitors. VineStories.com also collects the IP addresses of its visitors for the purposes of system administration and to gather aggregate information on what pages you access for internal use.
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Sereno stands firm: 'I'm not considering resignation'
I will not step down.
Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who is facing impeachment proceedings at the House of Representatives, made that clear in an exclusive interview with the INQUIRER on Wednesday.
"I'm not considering resignation. This fight is larger than me," Sereno said, as she fielded questions on a range of topics, from her favorite music genre, to her married life and how her impeachment had affected the Supreme Court.
Sereno appeared confident in the face of dogged attempts of President Rodrigo Duterte's allies in the House to impeach.
Looking relaxed in a blue buttoned-up blouse, the chief magistrate seemed to accept the fact that any efforts to fend off her impeachment in the House would be futile, looking forward instead to presenting "the other part of the story" in an impeachment trial that seems imminent in the Senate.
"If the chief justice herself," she continued, "will back down from a challenge that is very difficult, then what kind of an example am I setting for the Filipino youth?"
"I think the message will be: 'If it's too difficult, quit.' That is not a lesson I want to impart," she said. "To the contrary, it must be: 'You face every challenge with all of fortitude, cling to the truth.' That alone, in itself, is a victory."
Asked why she seemed unruffled by the accusations against her, she replied: "It's because what I am saying is the truth. I have never told a lie."
"The mandate I was given by the Constitution is quite clear to me – to stand as the head of the judiciary and to fight for its causes," she said. "And because the mandate is clear, I know that I must be ready to face consequences that arise from being faithful to that mandate."
Sereno declined to compare her predicament to that of her predecessor, the late Chief Justice Renato Corona, out of respect.
Corona was the first chief magistrate to be unseated after b eing found guilty by the Senate impeachment court of violating the Constitution.
Despite the odds, Sereno said she was prepared for the long haul in defending her integrity and the independence of the judiciary, often regarded as the weakest among the three main branches of the government.
"When you fight and it's for a worthy cause, you don't count the odds," she said. "Because if you count the odds of you winning, it's as if you only fought because you knew you were going to win. That's wrong. You fight because that's the right thing to do, not because of the odds. Then you should be ready with the cost of the fight. You have to prepare yourself."
Sereno said she did not see the need to personally seek an audience with Duterte to directly defend herself from allegations that she had hidden her real wealth and committed other violations that would merit impeachment as mandated by the Constitution.
"A chief justice must always not just be genuinely independent. She must appear to be independent," she said. "Just imagine if there is a misinterpretation of any communication I make that can change the people's faith in the Chief Justice."
"So I try to make people understand that I have taken an oath to be independent. I have maintained that oath until now. The appearance of independence is very important for me," she said.
While the public perception put Duterte as the bigger force behind the moves to unseat her, the chief justice maintained that she was not harboring ill-feelings against the chief executive.
Leaning forward as if to make a point, she said she had nothing but respect for the President, who had openly criticized her for her views on certain national issues, and that she would "maintain that to the end."
"I act on the basis of what is professionally required of me," she said. "And what is required of me is to treat the President with utmost respect befitting his office and as required of my office." /atm
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.


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BOSTON — Boston University used third-period goals by Zach Cohen and Nick Bonino to break a 2-2 tie and complete a weekend sweep over the University of Maine with a 5-2 men's hockey victory.
Cohen's game-winner came on the power play as he came off the boards into the slot and banged home the rebound of a Dave Warsofsky point shot. Maine goalie Scott Darling made the initial save off Cohen but Cohen tucked the second rebound under the crossbar.
Bonino extended the lead when he came out out the corner and had his centering pass deflect into the net off Maine defenseman Jeff Dimmen's skate. Eric Gryba added a power-play goal in the final minute.
Maine's Dimmen erased a pair of one-goal deficits.
Cory Trevino staked BU to a 1-0 lead in the first period but Dimmen equalized on a point shot on the power play midway through the first period. Chris Connolly gave BU its second lead with a backhander inside the far post midway through the second period.
But again Dimmen equalized, this time by sweeping home a Gustav Nyquist pass. The Black Bears were hurt by penalties in the third period as they gave BU five consecutive power plays.
BU outshot Maine 35-30.
Maine returns home to host Lowell in a two-game set next weekend.


text: I am using Mailman 2.1.2. All the lists I have the Archive link takes me to a link link http://lists.serverone.co.uk/pipermail/bfm/ and I get the error 'The requested URL /pipermail/bfm/ was not found on this server.'. A friend of mine also has similar problems. Is this a known issue with a workaround. One think that may be relevent is we have changed the name of the server, alouth as the URL has lists. at the beginning I guess things are ok (the main domain on the server is oak.serverone.co.uk). Ben -- **************************************************************** * Ben Edwards Tel +44 (0)1179 553 551 ICQ 42000477 * * Homepage - nothing of interest here http://gurtlush.org.uk * * Webhosting for the masses http://www.serverone.co.uk * * Critical Site Builder http://www.criticaldistribution.com * * online collaborative web authoring content management system * * Get alt news/views films online http://www.cultureshop.org * * i-Contact Progressive Video http://www.videonetwork.org * * Fun corporate graphics http://www.subvertise.org * * Bristol Indymedia http://bristol.indymedia.org * * Bristol's radical news http://www.bristle.org.uk * ****************************************************************


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About Us
Konecta Home is family owned and has been in business in the Alexandria area. We specialize in basement finishing, kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, deck building and rebuilding, screened porch installation and all other interior and exterior projects. If there is a project that can be done to an existing home, we can design it and complete the work with the highest quality of materials and service available.
We are a full service home improvement contractor. We take a project from the early stages of a general concept and refine the idea into a detailed plan. Once a plan is in place we create a detailed proposal with all of the necessary drawings and specifications to ensure that the project is clearly laid out and will be executed properly. By implementing a detailed plan including blueprints and 3-D renderings at the inception of the project, this gives both you the customer and us the builders a clear picture of exactly what the finished product is to look like upon completion. This leaves little to no chance for miscommunication. By being specific with the layout, materials, timeline and the quality of the workmanship we find that our customers are satisfied with both the process, expense and end result.
400k+ SATISFIED CUSTOMERS
Remarkable! TASK! Practically took my breath away! … I am really happy with the whole procedure. You've done impressive work! Thank you does not appear appropriate enough!Rodney Myers
Konecta Home team were extremely expert and the quality of craftsmanship was much better than any I have actually seen on the majority of customized developed homes. They painted the whole interior of my home. I would suggest his services to anybody who desires quality work at a reasonable rate.Anthony Barnes
Thank you for a fantastic task! You were a satisfaction to handle all the way thru. Thanks once again. Likewise your guys were leading rack. You must be proud.Meredith Stokes


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You've heard of beer goggles, where drinking beer can enhance the attractiveness of our visual experiences, but it turns out there are also some sense impressions that can enhance the taste of beer, reports Phys.org.
Notably, if you pair the right music with the right beer, the tunes can actually make the beer taste better, at least according to a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Concert-goers and festival-attendees might not find this all that surprising — beer and music seem to go together in a variety of venues, after all — but the research is some of the first to show that a range of multisensory information, from sound to shape to color, can influence the way we perceive taste.
The study was led by Dr. Felipe Reinoso Cavalho from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and KU Leuven, and was conducted in collaboration with the Brussels Beer Project and the U.K. band the Editors. A porter-style ale was produced to pair with the latest album from the band called "In Dreams."
To test whether this pairing actually worked, the researchers invited 231 drinkers to experience the beer under three different experimental situations. The first group, which was the control group, drank the beer in an unlabeled bottle and didn't listen to any music. A second group drank the beer in a labeled bottle, but without listening to music. A third group, meanwhile, drank beer that was labeled and they listened to the song "Oceans of Light," from the band's latest album, while they drank.
The label on the bottle didn't change participants' enjoyment of the beer nearly as much as the music did. Participants in the third group, which listened to the song while they drank, reported significantly greater enjoyment than members of either of the other groups.
"It seems that the added pleasure that the song brought into the experience was transferred into the beer's flavor," explained Cavalho.
The research could pave the way toward alcohol and food pairings with music. Venues and restaurants could make use of these concepts to cater to patrons. Cavalho and his team are already looking at ways to more closely examine how certain sounds might be associated with particular tastes.
"We believe that this is just the beginning," said Cavalho. "We will also be able to work with other food and beverage types and progressively include other senses in this pairing process, such as vision, smells, touch."


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My new home is in the process of being designed by my mum and I. I am most excited about how the kitchen would turn out. We are now awaiting the 3-dimensional mock up from our designer and this photo I found off the web best describes my new kitchen. 🙂
My kitchen would have a dark tiled floor and a similar white kitchen top. The wood grain laminate on the cabinets would be of a darker zebra tone, in a horizontal fashion and without any metal handles protruding. My kitchen would have an 'island-like' work counter in an 'L' shape format, that connects to the stove. There would be a glass panel below the top-tier cabinet to allow for us to use markers to write recipes or notes.
I am ecstatic, too excited to cook and bake in this new kitchen of mine. Just a mere three months to go. Breathe.
p/s: I find this New York kitchen design really awesome too. Check out that fireplace in the middle of the room. Awesomeness!


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We have reviewed a number of our client's telecommunications arrangements and have not only reduced the costs, but also made improvements to the service that they offer their customers. For example, we have a veterinary client in Hampshire that had over 700 engaged calls per week across their three sites. Obviously, this information was very concerning for our client, and we have consequently put together a solution to not only reduce their costs, but also to enhance their existing set-up to minimise both missed and engaged calls from their customers. We have access to software that will review this information for our clients. On average, we save our clients between 30 – 40% on their telecommunication costs, but we only use suppliers that we know and trust. Telecommunications is a critical part of any veterinary practice (as many use diverts, provide out-of-hours service, etc.), and the service providers we recommend, also work with a large number of veterinary practices.
We have also noticed that British Telecom (BT) have recently contacted a number of their customers to inform them that they can no longer maintain their telephone systems (some of their older models), and BT have instead been promoting their new products to their customers. So far, we have not seen a competitive option from BT, and we would be more than happy to review any quotation/correspondence, should you have any existing accounts with BT. For example, a veterinary practice in Wales contacted us yesterday about this, and in summary, they have been offered a lease that would cost them £14,000 over 5 years for a new system that we can source for them for £2,000 to £3,000.
We are confident that we would be able to help any business in a similar way and would be happy to discuss this further.


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Of culture, pop-culture and petri dishes. Keeping count while the clock strikes thirteen.
- Home
- About: Chinese British poet, writer and broadcaster Anna Chen
- On the radio
- Published
- Arts Reviews
- The Steampunk Opium Wars
- Foot and Mouth Campaign
- RSC The Orphan of Zhao controversy
- A Bad Case of the Trots
- Reaching for my Gnu: poetry
- Print Room protest: In the Depths of Dead Love chronology
- Poetry Live!
- Yellow Peril Orientalism
- Suzy Wrong Human Cannon
- Press
- Anna May Wong, Hollywood legend
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
The Other Shore: Chinese play-reading at the New Diorama Theatre
Wing Hong, Hugo and Lucy
There's no business like show business ... I had a great time last night onstage with a group of talented Asian actors who'd been brought together at the New Diorama Theatre by director Wing Hong Li.
As an exploration of power dynamics and the madness of crowds, The Other Shore, written by Gao Xingjian, is superb theatre. Writing for an ensemble of actors, Gao renders power relations visible, turning the piece into an effective tool with which to challenge blind authority and the characters who play along either as predator or victim.
An innocent fool is part of a group embarking on a journey from "the real world" to the other side of a river where he witnesses how his fellow travellers deal with a succession of character archetypes who enter their lives and upset their equilibrium.
Last night's rehearsed reading, the first British performance, came together after only one day's work. I played various parts of the chorus and got to read the Card Player, a plum role which I saw as a cross between Marlene Dietrich in Touch of Evil and Heath Ledger as the Joker.
A trickster gambler who's stacked the odds, the Card Player chooses the game, acts as banker, decides on the trump card (her own) and manipulates the crowd into working against their own interests. Now, where have we seen that before?
Gao employs various devices to see the world anew. The use of ropes throws into razored relief the games we play when finding our place in society. The protagonist's increasingly dehumanised brethren become threatening trees and mannequins.
A sort of Chinese Life of Brian with zombies, there's enough sly wit to make the game of spot-the-character-type an amusing one. I did, at one point, expect the hero to lose a sandal and discard a gourd. He's definitely not the Messiah, just a very confused bloke trying to make sense of this twilight world.
The play was banned in China for some unfathomable reason despite there being no explicit criticism of the government. It's a commentary on what happens when human relations get skewed and is a plea for us all to be better to each other ... oh. I see. Right. Understood.
This play is relevant to every region and sphere where creeps are clinging to power. Do catch it if you ever see it being staged.
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A green screen can add a great deal of versatility to any production. By utilizing carefully lighting and precise editing, a green screen shoot can be used to express whatever message you are trying to relay to your target audience. Through the expertise of Skillman Video Group, green screen shoots are a breeze.
The core concept behind a green screen shoot is the concept of an editing tool known as chroma key. This tool isolates one color (in this case green) and separates that color from the other colors on screen. It takes this color and turns it into what is called an Alpha Channel. This channel can be used in a number of different ways, from replacing backgrounds to completely changing the appearance of the subject. With careful editing and masterfully directed work, green screen shoots can quickly become an asset to any production.
In the clip provided, we see a few different examples of how a green screen is utilized. These examples are just the beginning of what's possible with a green screen production. With Skillman Video Group, the possibilities are endless.


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Oh boy…now she's gone and done it! She? Who's she? And what's she "gone and done?" Well, it's Pam of course!
She's the beautiful young lady to the far right (beside of the old, bald guy :)).
Yep…she's gone and done it! She's entered the fabulous and fantastic world of blogging! Yippee! I've told her for months that she needs to blog. Her insights and wisdom are wonderful! She has a way of seeing life from the perspective of a wife (a Pastor's wife at that), mom (homeschool mom at that) and as a believer in Jesus Christ that will bring hope and encouragement to many.
Want to see?
Take a look at her first couple of posts and stay tuned for more from Pam at Silver Linings and Such.
I love you, Honey! Thanks for being an inspiration to many…especially ME!! 🙂


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Every Friday we'll be posting family fun days. This could go from assorted adventures with little kids in tow to a day of bonding with siblings and parents of all ages.
Located on the outskirts of the lovely Downtown Naperville grounds is a very, very fuchsia wall.
And on the other side of that wall are very, very colorful letters spelling out the name of a very, very enthusiastic domain. DCM is jam packed with things to do.
Upon entering, you come across a multitude of things to touch and experiment. My favorite place to start is the shadow & lights exhibit. You can WRITE with the lights!
And then once you're done practicing your John Hancock 100 times, you move on to taking pictures of your shadows! Although my 2 year old didn't seem to like it much, my 5 year old had a blast! She posed at least 10 different ways and even high-fived her shadow self.
(I took this photo of P & I posing)
Moving on from the shadows and lights, you can go work on your other senses. We moved from sight to touch, and entered the water zone. Now in this area, it's highly suggested that you wear the given aprons to prevent getting drenched.
My 5 year old absolutely LOVED attempting putting herself in a bubble. And I say attempted because it failed so many times. I even went in myself and managed to get about 3 feet of a bubble "wall" before it popped.
Since my 2 year old was also scared of the giant bubble wall, Daddy took her to look at fish instead. I guess they're less intimidating.
Once we were done learning about all the different ways to soak Mommy's toes since she wore open-toe sandals, we decided learning about electricity would be a better idea.
There were various sections set up to teach you about conductors and other things that I didn't pay attention to. For the sake of a blog, I probably should have. But hey, like all the other kids, I just wanted to focus on pretty things. And hands on things. And oOo pretty fabrics!
As with any other museum visit, after a while, the kids start to get a little fussy. We decided it was time for late lunch/early dinner and headed out.
Overall we had such a blast! It's a 45 minute drive out from Chicago, but if you're like me, you might appreciate the public trans option available! It's a 1 hour Metra train ride and it practically takes you and your family to the front door! For more information, visit DCM and plan out your day!


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September is the height of cruise ship season in Vancouver
An estimated 30,000 cruise ship passengers have descended on Vancouver this weekend as six vessels pull into port across the two days.
September is the busiest month for the sailing season, with 60 ships expected to dock at Canada Place.
Al Brody with Bellagio Café, which is just steps away from the port, said staff was greeted by large crowds Saturday.
"It was madness this morning – lots of people," Brody said. "It's nice to see the cruise ships are coming in later this season."
Local tourism companies said they're also noticing the influx of passengers, adding it's boosting business.
"My tour today, half of them – at least – came from the cruise ship. Yesterday, most of them came from the cruise ship. It's a very hectic day today," said Kevin Valeseo, a tour guide with Landsea Tours.
The Port of Vancouver advised locals there would be a high number of cruise passengers in the latter half of the month, warning them to prepare for crowds and increased traffic.
"For the next two weekends, a large number of embarking and disembarking cruise passengers is expected between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. at Canada Place. As a result, higher than normal traffic volumes are anticipated in the downtown core, along with increased demand for taxis and public transportation," the port's advisory said.
The last weekend of September will see four ships bringing 21,500 passengers. The season wraps up on Nov. 1.
The Port of Vancouver said each time a ship comes, an estimated $3 million is added to the local economy.


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In a nation where "more is better," children learn from a young age that taking more than necessary is the norm. Unfortunately, this trend plays a major role in childhood obesity, as many children are unaware of the proper amount of food they should be consuming. A recent study published in the journal Pediatrics found that children using large, adult-sized plates served themselves 90 to 104.2 calories more than children using small plates, depending on whether or not they enjoyed the meal available.
The study was conducted on 41 first-graders who were given large plates and bowls. The children given these plates and bowls served themselves larger portions of food, and tended to consume nearly 50 percent of the extra food. Other research has shown that obese and overweight individuals, including children, may be more likely to suffer from bad breath. Although there are a variety of reasons, bad breath in children is often caused by unhealthy foods. For example, many of the students involved in the study took a larger portion of a fruit side dish, but did not take more vegetables.
The research found that the child's liking for the food played the biggest role, as well as their environment and the opportunity to serve his or her own food. The differences in calorie intake were not astonishing; however, continuing this trend on a daily basis could negatively contribute to a child's overall energy and weight.
Study co-author Jennifer Orlet Fisher, an associate professor of public health at Temple University, told USA Today that using smaller plates for children may have a positive effect on keeping portion size in check. Similarly, parents can make an effort to include healthy side dishes such as steamed vegetables or a side salad that are more filling than fried or fatty foods.
Decreasing the plate size for children is helpful because there is less space to fill. Many children fill their plates, no matter the size. Although they might get full before the food is gone, once it is on the plate in front of them, it may be challenging to stop eating.
Childhood obesity and oral health
Childhood obesity plays a role in the oral health of a child, and can create more problems down the line. Anaerobic bacteria that accumulate in the mouth are balanced by the antioxidants, vitamins and minerals found in fruits and vegetables. According to the U.S. Department of Health, parents should fill half their child's plate with vegetable or fruit dishes. Since this and other studies show that when children are allowed to serve themselves, they tend to eat more, parents may want to take on that role until children are old enough to gauge an appropriate food portion. Parents can also have kids drink a glass of water before and after each meal which will help them not eat as much, as well as rinse away anaerobic bacteria that stick around in the mouth.
Parents may not have enough time to research the best and worst foods to feed children, so including a vegetable or fruit side dish into every meal can help. However, switching to smaller plates is an easy and quick solution to help with portion control for both children and adults.


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Local cannabis growers could miss out on what's predicted to be a multi-billion dollar medicinal cannabis industry because of expensive licensing fees.
As the government develops a medicinal cannabis framework, the Minister of Health David Clark says he's keen to see New Zealand companies benefit.
The industry is expected to be worth $80 billion by 2025.
But getting set up comes at a price. To apply for a licence would cost a small-time cultivator between $14,200 and $16,800 initially, which they would then be required to renew every year at a cost of between $11,100 and $13,200.
For a large cultivator that would be up to $23,200 for an initial licence and $16,800 each year to renew.
Hikurangi Cannabis Company, which is building a manufacturing plant in Ruatoria, was formed to ensure that locals in the small East Coast town were able to grow high-quality crops on their whenua - but chief executive Manu Caddie says the high fees may make that difficult.
"Sixteen thousand dollars for a micro-cultivation licence is a huge amount of money for a single whānau to put up on top of all the other costs involved in getting security and proper facilities in place.
"Having said that, there's hopefully good money to be made but that will be a barrier to begin with when no-one's making any money."
Those costs are based on estimates that six small growers, and 10 large growers will apply for licences, and that only a third of those will apply for renewals.
Those estimates were too low, which could explain why licensing fees were so high, Manu says, as he'd already had interest from 50 potential cultivators.
People with a drug conviction are also unable to obtain a licence for growing or manufacturing cannabis - although the clean slate legislation applies, so convictions older than seven years won't stand.
Manu says that meant some people with expertise couldn't get involved and there should be ways around this.
"A cannabis conviction in some ways is a qualification for working in the industry and I think there's probably ways for those who may not be eligible under the current proposal to be enabled with support from their community, if you got a justice of the peace or the local police commander to vouch for them to say these are good people."
Chris Fowlie, chief executive of the medicinal cannabis research company Zeacann, agrees the current fees were cost-prohibitive, and that licensing rules on those with drug convictions were too strict.
He says the proposed legislation also prevented hemp farmers from selling their unused crops to medicinal companies.
"Instead, if they could just sell that to medical companies then it's a win for hemp farmers, it keeps their business going with another source of revenue and it's a win for the medical companies who get access to cheap cannabis biomass that's very low strength but from that, they can extract the medical compound."
But Ross Bell from the Drug Foundation says restrictions on who could enter the market would help avoid a "gold rush" of medicinal cannabis.
"I don't think there's going to be such a massive industry that we could expect five, six or seven major players in the industry. What we've seen happen in Australia is that a lot of companies got quite excited about the medical cannabis market and it hasn't generated a lot of business for them."
Ross says people shouldn't throw all their money at medicinal cannabis cultivation just yet.