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As always, when I describe movies in this blog, I am merely giving my opinion, not claiming to be able to list the best movies ever made. I am not a movie critic, and I do not play one on TV. But each of these five movies struck me with awe the first time I saw them and continue to make me think after multiple viewings. Sometimes I watch movies merely to be entertained, but when I want to exercise the cells between my ears, these are the kinds of movies I like to see. SPOILER ALERT–There are likely to be spoilers in these descriptions. You have been warned.
All That Jazz (1979): I first saw this as a college student with a group of friends, and when the movie ended we all went next door to the hamburger place, looked at each other for a while, and then began to discuss the experience. In fact, we talked about it all weekend. Bob Fosse wrote and directed this movie about a stage and screen choreographer and director. The story is said to be semi-autobiographical; if it is, then All That Jazz could be regarded as a public confession of Fosse's faults. Director Joe Gideon abuses alcohol and drugs, is unfaithful in marriage and unkind to women, and is so driven to succeed in his career that he neither tends to the relationships in his life nor takes care of himself. As a result, he lands in the hospital with heart disease. The movie centers around the Kubler-Ross theory of five stages of dealing with one's own impending death. As these are repeated—first in a comedian's monologue, and later as a song-and-dance montage—Gideon shamelessly and deliberately flirts with death, who is portrayed in the film by Jessica Lange. The movie is not only about life and death; it is about relationships, caring for other people, and ultimately about the broad gray area between life and art. Not at all a family-friendly movie, but strongly thought-provoking.
The World According to Garp (1982): This is the other movie I saw with my friends in college, and again we spent the weekend talking about what we had just seen. The movie is based on John Irving's novel of the same name. Robin Williams plays the title character, an aspiring author. (Why is it that so many first novels feature aspiring writers?) The movie shows the entire arc of Garp's life, featuring the most important people in his life, including his mother (played by Glenn Close), who is a feminist nurse; and a transsexual former football star (played brilliantly by John Lithgow). Like All That Jazz, Garp is not a family-friendly movie, but it will provoke thoughts and discussions about American politics, gender issues, family and fidelity, and the rights of the individual confronted with the needs of society.
Joe versus the Volcano (1990): If any movie could dispel my depression, this would be the movie. Among other virtues, it is the earliest pairing of Tom Hanks with Meg Ryan. Hanks plays the title character, Joe Banks, who is trapped in a mind-numbing job and suffering from a variety of unpleasant physical symptoms. His doctor informs him that he is a hypochondriac, but then reveals that Joe has a brain cloud, a symptomless infirmity that will end his life in a few months. The next day, Joe is approached by a billionaire with a startling proposition: since Joe has only a short time to live, the billionaire wants Joe to jump into an active volcano, a religious ceremony that will close a contract between the billionaire and a Pacific Island nation. In return, Joe is given unlimited funds to spend on his way to the volcano. A splendid series of characters then help Joe redefine his life on the way to the volcano, which the islanders call the Big Wu. Meg Ryan plays three roles—a coworker of Joe in the beginning of the movie, and later the billionaire's two daughters. Not subtly, but also not in-your-face, the movie uses episode after episode to ask questions about the meaning of life. If we are all on the road to death, why not confront it as a hero? Along the way, though, we must each first ask and answer the question, "Who am I?" which Joe suggests is the only question that really matters. Joe's religious experience while floating on a raft in the South Pacific is a bit overacted by Hanks, but still important to the plan of the movie. The recurring symbolism of a crooked road, paired with another symbol of unsinkable steamer trunks, help to hold this movie together as a celebration of life itself.
The Truman Show (1998): Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a man who does not realize the truth to the saying that "all the world's a stage," since he is unaware that, since birth, he has been the star performer in a television show. Everyone else around him is an actor, and the sets and plot turns are being directed by Chrisof, who lives up in the sky (behind the image of the moon). This exercise in solipsism is set at the very time that Truman is beginning to notice inconsistencies in his life and beginning to ask questions about what is real. What if all of life is an illusion, run by mysterious forces far beyond our knowledge and comprehension? The nearly god-like character of Christof, who loves Truman and yet tortures him for the entertainment of others, seems to have no superior being. Only one character ever utters the name of God, and she is an actress who once tried to free Truman from the set of the show and bring him into the real world. The last few minutes of the movie are spine-tingling, as Truman is confronted with his world's version of the Big Wu.
American Beauty (1999): Before I saw this movie, I thought it was merely a creepy story about a middle-aged man who pursues a high school girl. That is part of the story, but only part. Lester and Carolyn Burnham (Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening) are unhappily married, with a tidy suburban house, a bitter teen-aged daughter, and an odd family that has moved into the house next door. Lester's empty life changes for the worse as an efficiency expert inspects the office where he works. Meanwhile, his wife is being romantically drawn to a competing real estate agent. Suddenly, Lester rebels against every meaningless aspect of his life and begins striving instead to live truly. Not all his choices are noble or even respectable, but his motivation is understandable. Meanwhile, his daughter's romance with the drug dealer living next door opens the Burnham family to new adventures, none of them happy. This startling movie cannot be watched only once; it raises too many questions about the meaning of life and about what actually matters in life.
Happy viewing!


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Auster Agency has introduced hundreds of high profile brands to the marketplace, with laser-sharp focus on creative and successful messaging.
We create on-point engaging brand experiences that deliver impactful and quantitative results.
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We get you noticed. Auster Agency delivers one-of-a kind experiences through an A to Z process of conceptualization, execution and evaluation.
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We are a boutique experiential marketing agency with a passion for programming and brand activations that transcends the ordinary. Simply stated: we use our experience and talents to put you on the map.
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subset: commoncrawl


text: My work is sweet seeming at first then reveals itself as uncanny & quite dark, in both these ways it is perhaps childlike; a common mortal taste shared from me to you, the light & the shadow. I make drawings, paintings, music, videos, I love to write and I take too many photographs. I also produce 'CHRONICZINE', a bi-monthly zine that acts as a sort of self-therapy while simultaneously raising awareness of Chronic & Invisible Illnesses of all kinds- particularly Fibromyalgia & Endometriosis… please visit my website & Facebook Page for a browse, and please feel free to contact me- I am very happy to chat or correspond.


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Tignes Hotels
Fancy a quick get away to the mountains or adding an extra couple of nights to your chalet holiday? One of Tignes' many hotels could be just the answer.
Whether it's a short break or a totally different experience you are looking for, we understand that chalets and apartments don't always fit the bill. Tignes offers a fantastic range of hotels with great services and facilities which, we are proud to bring to the Project Ski programme.
Partnering with Booking.com has allowed us to offer you a secure and easy way to book your Tignes hotel. Using the search feature below will give you live prices and availability and enable you to book online instantly.
In keeping with our core values of flexible holidays with unbeatable levels of friendly and welcoming service, you will still benefit from our pre-arrival & in resort services. Simply drop us an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com once you have made your booking (or if you would like any advice on which hotel to choose) and we will be on hand to help!


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ABC Classic FM's new Content Manager Toby Chadd has hosed down rumours about the classical music station's possible closure after an article in Crikey's Tips and Rumours section triggered speculation about the station's future. The rumours come following the Federal Government's decision to pause indexation of operational funding for the broadcaster in the 2018 Budget.
"We hear things are about to get very tough at the ABC – closures and mergers are being considered by Aunty in response to the $84.7 million in budget cuts imposed on the national broadcaster by the Turnbull government in the 2018-19 budget," the Crikey article said. "One move being actively discussed is the merging of Radio National and ABC News Radio. Another proposal is to close, or severely cut, Classic FM."
When the Federal Government's Budget was announced in May, ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie warned staff in an email, "this decision will make it very difficult for the ABC to meet its charter requirements and audience expectations," and since then speculation has been rife about whether and how this might affect ABC Classic FM.
The cuts to the ABC came just weeks after Chadd's appointment as ABC Classic FM's Content Manager, the former Label Manager of ABC Classics and Jazz taking over the role held for many years by Richard Buckham. "There is no proposal to close ABC Classic FM or for 'severe cuts' at the station, despite such reports by some media," Chadd told Limelight. "The latest radio ratings survey, released on June 5, revealed that ABC Classic FM has its highest audience since 2009, thanks to Australia's passionate classical music lovers."
"This weekend's Classic 100 Countdown exemplifies the ABC's unrivalled commitment to providing high-quality and distinctive content to audiences," he said, "with many thousands of listeners voting for their favourite pieces of classical dance music."


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Cattle | Sheep | Special Livestock Sales | Live Export | Market Reports | Stock Register | Calendar | Finance | News | Downloads | Links
Livestock marketing is a significant part of Primaries of WA's business with approximately 30 staff and agents servicing the state of WA. Primaries of WA prides itself on delivering a professional and personalised marketing service for both sheep and cattle.
Primaries of WA representatives are able to provide expert advice on both the sale and purchase of livestock. This includes advice regarding the most suitable livestock for a breeding and/or trading enterprise as well as the recommended type of sale or purchase. Primaries of WA operate weekly auction sales at Muchea (sheep and cattle), Katanning (sheep), and Mt Barker (cattle). Special auction sales are also held during the year at these and other venues. Primaries of WA will also organise direct sales or purchases for our clients. These sales can be either 'farm to farm' or 'farm to processor'. Primaries of WA are also able to offer AuctionsPlus sale of livestock with accredited AuctionsPlus assessors.
Primaries of WA is a strong supporter of the live export trade in WA and organises delivery of sheep and cattle for both boat and air live export.
Contact Your Local Livestock Rep
Find Your Local Livestock Rep


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Friends, family raise money for stabbing victim at BBQ fundraiser
Terry Barron was attacked by her husband in front of her daughter's elementary school
SAN ANTONIO – A woman who was attacked in front of her daughter's school is getting a little help.
On Saturday, friends and family held a barbecue plate fundraiser for Terry Barron after she was stabbed over 30 times.
"I never actually thought that anything like this was going to happen," said Barron. "It just started as something small which turned into a huge fundraiser."
Barron said she was just outside of her daughter's elementary school when her husband of 19 years showed up and attacked her, stabbing her over 30 times.
Her hands were practically severed off and her lungs and heart were barely functioning.
That happened in August and on Saturday, Barron said she has been doing much better, but all those surgeries and therapy sessions have left her with mounting medical bills.
Family and friends said that is why they decided to hold this fundraiser for her.
"She made it," said Irene Salazar. "And, we're happy and she's going to continue her therapy and counseling. She'll be back to the way she was before all this happened to her."
"It's a miracle that I'm here because I wasn't supposed to survive," said Barron. "But, God let me survive for a reason and I'm just praying that he shows me what he wants me to do."
If you would like to help, there is an account set up under Terry Barron's name at Wells Fargo Bank.
Copyright 2012 by KSAT.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Counseling Services
Students with last names beginning with A – La are assigned to Kandi Martin (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Students with last names beginning with Lb – Z are assigned to Laura Mallett
All boarding students are assigned to Karen Smith (email@example.com)
Students may seek assistance from Jennifer Dunton (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Important Forms:
Current students may request a transcript by completing a Transcript Request Form. Completed forms must be returned to the student's assigned counselor.
Students must complete a Student Data Sheet in order to request a letter of recommendation from a counselor.
Students must complete 36 hours of community service to fulfill the community service graduation requirement. Fill out a Community Service Form to submit hours.
2015-2019 College Acceptances:
Students from the Classes of 2012-2016 received acceptance letters from 77 schools ranked in the top 100 of the U.S. News and World Report's rankings, including Northwestern University, Cornell University, Smith College, Georgetown University, Bucknell University, Emory University, University of California at Berkeley, MIT, USC, UCLA, University of Virginia, UNC – Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Boston College, and Boston University. Click here for a full list.
Student Athletes:
Visit the NCAA Eligibility Center for Prospective Athletes to learn about eligibility requirements for Division I and II athletes. (Division III athletes don't need to go through the NCAA Clearinghouse.)
College Search:
Visit www.collegeboard.org, click on "Students", and create a free account. Make sure you remember the username and password you create because you will be using this same account throughout your high school career to do college searches, register for the SAT, and even send your SAT test scores to colleges. Having more than one College Board account is problematic!!!
College Entrance Exams:
Many colleges and universities require standardized test scores as part of the application process. Click here for more information about the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, ACT, and TOEFL (an internet-based test for English proficiency that international students must take in order to demonstrate English proficiency to the colleges/universities to which they are applying), and click here to learn about upcoming dates and registration deadlines for the SAT, ACT, and TOEFL.
Test Prep:
You may access test prep for the PSAT, ACT, SAT, SAT Subject Tests, and ASVAB through the Testing Center portal in the Foxcroft Academy library database. Type in "ponies" for the password, click on "College Prep Tools", and select the test you'd like to prepare for. For the Military ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Batter), click on "Career Tools" and select Military ASVAB. You may also access test prep for the SAT through Naviance. Login with firstname.lastname as your username and your Student ID number as your password. Click on "Prepme" for SAT test prep.
College Applications:
The Common Application is used by 500 colleges and universities across the United States. You can complete one Common Application and submit it to up to 20 schools. Please speak with your guidance counselor about supplements and teacher recommendations.
College Fairs and College/University/Military Visits to FA:
Visits have concluded for the school year. More visits will be posted soon. Be sure to be on the look out.
Financial Aid:
Learn about the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and create a CSS profile.
Complete an extensive profile at either www.scholarships.com or www.fastweb.com and scholarship information will be emailed to you on a regular basis! (There is no need to complete profiles on both–just choose one.) Please continue to visit this page for regular updates about scholarships!
Early College for ME:
Foxcroft Academy participates in a program called Early College for ME. Early College for ME is a transition program for students who are undecided about college yet have the potential to be successful as a college student. As program participants, students will meet with the Director of Early College for ME throughout the school year to discuss college life, high school preparation for college, and the application process. Selected students have an opportunity to take up to two community college courses in their senior year of high school. There is also an opportunity for two students to receive up to $1000 scholarship a year for two years at a Maine community college.
Upward Bound:
Upward Bound is a program based out of the University of Maine. The Upward Bound program provides academic support to FA students during the school year and an intense six-week educational experience during the summer. Some of the services provided by this program include, but are not limited to, fee waivers on major exams like the SAT, free tutoring during high school, assistance in the college applications process, and information on postsecondary educational opportunities. Students interested in this program will need to complete the application and interview process. Visit the Counseling Services office for more information.
Career Exploration:
Explore careers and access interest and personality inventories through Naviance. Login with firstname.lastname as your username and your Student ID number as your password. Click on "About Me" to take interest and personality inventories and "Careers" to explore occupations.


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2018 Digital Photo Contest
Share your best shots for a chance to win great prizes!
This is an event encouraging novice or photography enthusiasts to capture their favorite views, moments and adventures from all across the world. Entries submitted showcase some of the most original and creative minds at work.
Entry Period
Nov. 12, 2018 - Jan. 20, 2019


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Two die in Free State bus accident
By Khanyisa Tabata
13 October 2011
Two people have died and 18 others injured after a passenger bus and a bakkie collided head-on on the R714, near Bethlehem in the Free State.
Netcare 911 Chris Botha says paramedics arrived at the scene to find the two occupants of the bakkie still trapped in their vehicle.
"Eighteen passengers from the bus sustained minor injuries and after medics stabilized them on scene, they were transported to various hospitals in the area for the care that they required.
"Exact details to the cause of the accident are still speculative and remain a subject for police investigation," said Botha.


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Immigration & Criminal Defense Law Experts
Jorge Guttlein & Associates, P.C. is a law firm that concentrates on immigration and criminal litigation. With over 30 years of experience, we have extensively litigated in immigration courts and criminal courts, both at the state and federal levels. Our team will do everything possible to protect your freedom, as well as your rights to remain in this country if you are a non-citizen. Our firm has immigration and criminal defense teams that work together to achieve positive outcomes for clients charged with serious criminal offenses. Our goal is to always keep the needs of our clients first, while taking aggressive and swift action to prevent a conviction that jeopardizes your freedom.


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Perhaps the answer is to out-market the vision of what is possible vs. the vision of those things feared or coveted. Somehow, we've got to convince people that the alternative to fear and avoidance of insecurity is better than the status quo. When I opined earlier about my Levantine dream, I forgot to mention discos and bars and even Buddhist and Ba'hai temples alongside the churches, mosques, and synagogues. Simple, n'est pas? I think Obama has managed to tap into some of that positive energy thus far. I hope he can overcome America's racism and the Republican's fear-mongering machinery (it is vast)…
What do you make of this article? http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/991055.html
You are right of course — most people would be satisfied to not have guns pointed at them and to be free to pursue their own interests. Just achieving that would likely transform the Levant within a generation. The bigger problem is the extremists who see the Levant as a crucible in which to keep hostilities and injustice boiling so as to distract for their own despotic regimes and to sate the end-times lusts of their religious lemmings.
Speaking of lust… My longing for "home" is just that. The Lebanon I knew as a pimply teenager, more preoccupied with myself than the misery around me, is no more and never can be again. It only exists in my wildly-exaggerated memories. I know that. As a Christian I know that we are just "wayfaring strangers" passing through. There is great freedom from materialism and despair at the evil men do in that simple thought. Too many of my fellow saints have lost sight of their fleeting existence and are trying to grab whatever they can, while they can. I only meant to say that I empathized with the longing of that old Palestinian villager in the video. Hardly a week goes by that I don't dream of the Beirut and the Lebanon that still exists in my mind.
So here's to dreaming of what once was, and can be again. We can enrich each other, or destroy each other. Let us pray, and strive, for enrichment. And let us pray and strive to diminish and suppress the destructive impulses that lie within all of us.
—–Original Message—–
From: [deleted]
Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 5:59 PM
Subject: RE2: Arab Israelis/Palestinians – IHT video link and personal comments
Rereading what you wrote, and want to tell you that I agree on most things (all?), as well as the questions. What to do with Apocalypse Now head cases?
Hawks, who make life miserable for so many others? Actually, I find the last question to be of major concern. How is it that a few can harm and have power over the many? And how to avoid, prevent and overcome that pitfall before or worse, after, it happens. It seems that fear, greed and self-interest of the few harms the many.
Thanks Janna. This brings us full circle to the original unanswered question: what to do with displaced Palestinians, especially those outside of Israel and the occupied territories? As someone who hasn't been "home" in 30 years, I can attest to how the longing to return becomes especially poignant as more and more time passes. Will this generation have to die before any reconciliation is possible, or will the legacy of unrequited yearning for Palestine be passed down to each new generation (as it once was for so many Jews)?
I share your enthusiasm for a multicultural, multiethnic society. But, if there is an insistence that the land that was known as Palestine retain forever more a dominant Jewish identity, how is that possible? How can power-sharing be distributed on the basis of sectarian/hereditary professions and still avoid the fate of Lebanon's perpetual civil war? There is plenty of land to go around, and enough business savvy and desire for success to transform a peaceful Levant into a showcase of progress (places like Dubai would wither in comparison).
But that vision is nothing but a flight of fancy until all sides get over the idea that they have an exclusive right to majority power. Personally, it seems like the only idea that could ever work would be an Israel/Palestine/Levant (let's throw Syria and Lebanon into our fantasy) that is demilitarized and then remilitarized under an international United Nations peacekeeping force. I really think the international community could buy into that idea. The trick is going to be getting the hawks on all sides to stand down. Plus, mainstream religious leaders and secular intellectuals are going to have to speak up and publicly discredit the Apocalypse-Now head cases that dominate cable TV and foment Christian, Jewish, and Muslim radicals.
Imagine what that would be like! You could jump on a train in Haifa to shop for Damascus silk, stay in a B&B in the Bekaa valley and then go skiing in the mountains for a day or two, rent a car in Beirut and drive all the way to Sinai for some hiking and Red Sea snorkeling. Mosques, synagogues, and churches side by side all along the way. Businesses and farms co-owned by Jews and Arabs. Government services staffed by all sorts of men and women. Intermarrying at will, with only those limitations imposed by a family's traditions (some things may never change!). And the food! Ya-allah! (that all-but-forgotten Arabic just came to me as I wrote this), just imagine what that would be like!


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Thursday, February 4, 2010
Yet Another Reason to Shop Local
Found the above sign on our walk along 5th Avenue yesterday. It reads:
Dear Customers, Friends and Neighbors –
We are very sad to announce that at the end of February, 3r Living will be closing our Park Slope store.
When we opened this store in April of 2004, it was a dream come true. Over the past five years we have been honored to provide the community with greener, healthier and safer options, as well as a much-needed community recycling center. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the customer and friends we have made over the years
This is not an end, but rather a new beginning. Look for us online at www.3rliving.com and 3rliving.blogspot.com.
Also, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE help us to make sure that this does not happen to other businesses in the area. Eat, drink and shop local! Supporting restaurants, boutiques and bars on 5th Avenue , even just a little, can go a very long way.
Samantha and Mark Caserta
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We have greetings cards to suit the man in your life. Whether it be your husband, boyfriend, son or father we have a range of cards that will make him smile on his special celebration day. Well done cards, I love you cards, Birthday Cards, Blank cards for your special message, and historical cards are included in this section.
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After presenting the autonomous shuttle to our and the of AMoTech employees yesterday, 4 July 2017, the next big event took place. At a large press conference, we presented our new driverless bus to the public.
Before looking at the details of the press conference, I wish to mention with great pride that our "baby" now has a name. We found it through a prize game with the employees of AMoTech, Trapeze and VBSH. After looking at all the super and highly creative proposals, we finally settled for "Trapizio", the new name of our first autonomous shuttle.
Now back to the topic: Our press conference. We, which in this case means AMoTech, Trapeze, VBSH and the Economic Promotion Canton of Schaffhausen, invited both the local media and the supraregional trade media to this press conference, as well as partners and sponsors. Some 50 attendees followed our invitation to the Mobility Lab in Neuhausen.
Peter Schneck, CEO of Trapeze, opened the media conference with his presentation. He pointed out that Trapeze wants to meet the challenges of the future mobility in a PT-Lab at the location of the Trapeze in Neuhausen at the Rhine Falls. Crucial for the choice of location was, besides that the European headquarter of Trapeze is located here, the numerous of supporting partners like Verkehrsbetriebe Schaffhausen and Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich and the extraordinary facilitation by the canton of Schaffhausen. Trapeze aims to establish the AVLC control system as core intelligence of the future mobility. The AVLC will be the control center of the traffic of the future, similar to a control center for air monitoring, the AirTower. Trapeze wants to create an industry solution for public transport together with its partners.
In the second presentation, the delegate of the Economic Promotion Office of the canton of Schaffhausen, Christoph Schärrer, showed why the Mobility Lab and the issue of autonomous driving are so important for the canton and therefore worth promoting.
Bruno Schwager, Director of VBSH, held the third presentation. As one of the AMoTech partners and a co-initiator of the "Route 12" project, it was important to Bruno Schwager to highlight the following points:
Last, not least, it was our turn. Dominique Müller, our Managing Director, presented the Mobility Lab at the Rhine Falls. He also mentioned how we plan to develop the Mobility Lab and autonomous shuttle operation in the future.
The theoretical was followed by the practical part. On the SIG premises here in Neuhausen, Trapizio was ready to familiarise the visitors from the press conference with the practice of autonomous driving. On a closed-off trial run, Trapizio showed how autonomous driving works on virtual railways and how it is capable of changing its direction and making turns on its own.
One attendee put our autonomous shuttle to the test and stood right on the track of the shuttle. Trapizio recognised her as an obstacle, stopped immediately, and started hooting to draw attention. This easily proofed that you can rely on our autonomous shuttle Trapizio! This action made a great impression on the audience and cleared many doubts concerning safety.
At the end of our successful event, all visitors were invited to the showroom of Trapeze for a reception. To give the attendees an idea of how autonomous vehicles are integrated in an AVLC, a Trapeze employee was pleased to present and explain the LIO control system.
The event turned out to be a great success for us. We take this opportunity to thank all participants once again for coming. Below this article you can find the responses of the media. We wish you a lot of fun browsing through the reports! See you soon on the next blog entry.
Economic Promotion CANTON SCHAFFHAUSEN:
Stadförderung Kanton Schaffhausen:
Top Online:
Inside -IT:
Luzerner Zeitung:
Greater Zürich Area:
Schaffhauser Nachrichten:
Radio MUNOT:
mass transit Network:
PROFI Werkstatt:
The video at the end of the entry was provided by 20min editorial office.


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David the Gnome - Episode 15
By c-siegfried | On 26/08/2016 | David the Gnome
Three Wishes
A poor woodsman saves Lisa after she is attacked by his cat. To express his generosity, David grants the woodsman three wishes, which do not go as planned. When David grants the woodsman's wish to become a rich man, the woodsman takes a bar of gold into the city and attempts to sell it to a store owner. The woodsman is accused of thievery and thrown in prison. David helps him to become free and the woodsman learns to use his wishes wisely.
An unforgettable series, based on the editorial classic "The Secret World of the Gnomes", that takes us into the incredible world of these small beings. Hear the call of the Gnomes and learn to love and respect nature's treasures. You will never forget that no –one is better for being bigger.


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added by SteveLens99
Box Office countdown to Jamie Foxx's most successful films.
added by ibass
Oscar Winner Jamie Foxx backs the bid for the 2016 Olympics in Chicago!
added by Jmonastero
Watch Jamie Foxx tell what it was like to travel overseas with mega-star Usher in this clip from SIRIUS XM Radio's coverage of Super Bowl XLIV. Catch Jamie Fridays on The Foxxhole -- for more info and free trial see


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By Miriam Anbar
In BlogsPosted
Did the Employee Quit? When a Resignation is actually a Termination.
Consider you have a disgruntled employee working for you and you suspect he wants to quit. However, you are also prepared to terminate him. One day, the employee verbally mentions to you that [...]


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Snapseed 4+
Google LLC
- #61 in Photo & Video
- Free
Snapseed is a complete and professional photo editor developed by Google.
• 29 Tools and Filters, including: Healing, Brush, Structure, HDR, Perspective (see list below)
• Opens JPG and RAW files
• Save your personal looks and apply them to new photos later
• Selective filter brush
• All styles can be tweaked with fine, precise control
• Tutorial cards with tips and tricks about Snapseed and general photography
• RAW Develop – open and tweak native camera files; save non-destructively or export as JPG
• Tune image – adjust exposure and color automatically or manually with fine, precise control
• Details – magically brings out surface structures in images
• Crop – crop to standard sizes or freely
• Rotate – rotate by 90°, or straighten a skewed horizon
• Perspective – fix skewed lines and perfect the geometry of horizons or buildings
• White Balance – adjust the colors so that the image looks more natural
• Brush – selectively retouch exposure, saturation, brightness or warmth
• Selective – the renown "Control Point" technology: Position up to 8 points on the image and assign enhancements, the algorithm does the rest magically
• Healing – remove the uninvited neighbor from a group picture
• Vignette – add a soft darkness around the corners like a beautiful, wide-aperture would do
• Text – add both stylized or plain text (38 predefined styles)
• Curves - have precise control over the brightness levels in your photos
• Expand - increase the size of your canvas and fill up the new space in smart ways with content of your image
• Lens Blur – add a beautiful Bokeh to images (background softening), ideal for photographic portraits
• Glamour Glow – add a fine glow to images, great for fashion or portraits
• Tonal Contrast – boost details selectively in the shadows, midtones and highlights
• HDR Scape – bring a stunning look to your images by creating the effect of multiple exposures
• Drama – add a hint of doomsday to your images
• Grunge – an edgy look with strong styles and texture overlays
• Grainy Film – get modern film looks with realistic grain
• Vintage – the style of color film photo from the 50's, 60's or 70's
• Retrolux – go retro with light leaks, scratches, film styles
• Noir – Black and White film looks with realistic grain and the "wash" effect
• Black & White – classic Black and White look straight out of the darkroom
• Frames – add frames with adjustable size
• Double Exposure - blend two photos, choosing from blend modes that are inspired by shooting on film and by digital image processing
• Face Enhance – add focus to the eyes, add face-specific lighting, or smoothen skin
• Face Pose - correct the pose of portraits based on three dimensional models
What's New
Version 2.19.5
• Bug fixes for iOS 13.1
Ratings and ReviewsSee All
Adding free form focus points!!!
I really love using this app to edit all my photos. I'm rating 4 stars, to possibly grab your attention on a few new suggestions to add into the apps editing features. First, I think adding a free form focus area in the Lens Blur instead of shapes would be AMAZING. Along with that adding the ability to not just have one focal point, but multiple focal pints, while still being able to blur out the background or things the editor doesn't want the photo to focus on. Another new feature you should add to this app should be to have a onscreen convenient undo/redo buttons while using any tool in the app; that way the editor won't have to continuously click in and out of the tool in order to make an alter to an edit or to fix a mistake. I realize there's an erasing tool, but when you have much to edit and a list of other photos you plan to edit as well, it is time consuming; not to mention that many people using there fingers to edit will likely cause a mistake to worsen by using the eraser tool, which is well - another negative.
- Anyways I really do hope someone who can add these two features read my review, and will actually consider adding these two features. I guarantee it will make many people happy.
-Overall though, this photo editing app is AMAZING and I highly recommend using it!!!
A Must-Have App For All Serious Photographers
This is one of a very select number of apps that appear on my coveted front page. Its ability to smartly select areas for selective retouching is uncannily accurate; its Structure feature beats anything Photoshop can do; and its Ambience tool provides a wonderful combination of brightness, shadow opening, warmth, and even incredible highlight protection all at once. On top of that are regularly-introduced enhancements like the Curves tool, and the incredible White Balance tool which allows you to see your eyedropper effect in real time as you drag it around your image – a huge advantage I have not seen in any other mobile app or even desktop program. On top of all of this, there are other miraculous effects that seem to be added every other week that are too numerous to delineate here but are absolutely worth exploring. My only two wishes are that 1) a clone tool be added; and 2) there were even more options in the Selective and Brush Tools. Still, I recommend this app without reservation.
Worked great, until it didn't
I must start by saying that I love Snapseed. I have used it for several months taking inventory photos for my business and it has worked great for me, until it didn't. I'm not sure what happened, if it update messed with the settings, or what. When I use the text filter it used to work great, now when I use it the words are so tiny that they are barely visible. I have googled everything I can to try to find a fix to this as well as searching within the settings of the app to see if I can change the text size, but with the exception of making the bubble that I'm putting the text in extremely large, I can find no other fix.
Also, I have edited hundreds of photos with Snapseed only to wake up one day and ALL of my photos are back to their unedited state. Thankfully I have most of them uploaded to my computer or I would have had to redo them all. Very disappointing.
I'm hoping any future updates to the app will fix this and the text functionality because until that happens this app is essentially useless to me and I love this app.
- Seller
- Google LLC
- Size
- Category
- Photo & Video
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 10.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
- Languages
English, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Hong Kong), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2012 Google Inc.
- Price
- Free
Family Sharing
With Family Sharing set up, up to six family members can use this app.


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Hey everybody!
Last Wednesday I arrived in New York City to attend an #OfficialFifty event, and I wanted to share some photos from my trip. It was AMAZING!
Hey everybody!
Last Wednesday I arrived in New York City to attend an #OfficialFifty event, and I wanted to share some photos from my trip. It was AMAZING!
We are so excited to help celebrate the release of Fifty Shades Darker on Blu-ray and DVD on May 9th! So #OfficialFifty members (like us!) have an awesome giveaway for all the fans here, there and everywhere in the world!
Continue reading
Hey Fifty fans!
We have a great giveaway for you to enter courtesy of Universal Pictures.
First Tuesday of 2017!
Well, hello there! Let's kick this week with some CTG LOVE. I knew you've seen these images flying all over the net, but lately I don't mind being redundant at all. 😉
I received an amazing package from Universal Studio's on Friday. It contained all 3 Blu-ray versions of Fifty Shades of Grey from the top U.S. retailers: Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy. Each has something exclusive, and if you haven't bought a copy yet or you're wondering whether you should purchase more than one copy maybe this will help. It sure made for a fun weekend of Christian Grey immersion for me 😉
Yesterday the digital versions of Fifty Shades of Grey became available on Amazon and iTunes. The Blu Ray and DVD will be available on May 8. Regardless of which way you choose to view it there's a fabulous party kit that you can download.
Welcome to Bookish News with Tamie and Elena. Check out the news that caught our eye this past week and what we're looking forward to…


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A print from Pello that is the ultimate game of Catchphrase..
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At National Truck League we often see out of province Travel Medical Emergency claims in the tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many individuals mistakenly believe they have sufficient out of province coverage through their bank, their credit card or under their spouse's insurance policy and only realise they are not adequately protected until it is too late.
It is especially important for trucker drivers to thoroughly evaluate the policies they have in place as limitations and exclusions can vary greatly. In fact, many out of province Travel Medical Emergency policies specifically exclude claims which occur while operating a commercial motor vehicle. Some specific things to note when evaluating a Travel Medical Emergency policy include:
1 – Does the policy provide coverage while you are working?
- Ensure there are no wordings excluding operating a commercial vehicle or claims which occur while working.
2 – What is the limit of consecutive days you can be away on a trip?
- Many Travel Medical Emergency policies limit out of province trips to 7 or 15 days but most Truck drivers require higher limits (30 or 60 days) to reduce exposure in the event of a breakdown or delay in a scheduled trip.
3 – Is there a limit to the number of trips you can take a year?
- Many policies will limit the number of times you can leave the province and for most truck drivers this limitation does not provide adequate coverage.
4 – Coverage within Canada
- Many travellers forget that provincial health plans only cover a fraction of the costs incurred when a medical emergency occurs out of their home province. For truck drivers it is especially important their policy protects them for travel within Canada as well as abroad.
Trucker drivers also need to consider what would happen to their truck and load should a medical emergency occur while working out of province. For this reason National Truck League has designed a Travel Medical Emergency plan which specifically addresses the needs of the trucking industry. Our plan includes the following unique trucker specific benefits:
Cargo Delivery Benefit – Up to $7,500 for airfare, accommodations and meals for a driver to continue your scheduled trip, deliver your cargo and return your truck to your province of residence.
Truck Return Benefit – Up to $7,500 to have your truck returned to your province of residence.
Truck Protection Benefit – Up to $500 per day up to 3 days to have your truck parked in a secured compound or to hire a private security firm to protect your truck.
Refrigeration Unit Benefit – Up to $250 to refuel your refrigeration unit and have a service equipment check completed.
Pet Return – Up to $500 to have your domestic pets travelling with you returned to your home if you are returned home by the air transportation or repatriation benefit.
When purchasing any insurance it is important to work with a reputable broker. For over 25 years National Truck League has been providing industry leading coverage and peace of mind to truckers across Canada. We are always pleased to review available coverage options with our clients based on their changing needs to help them ensure they have adequate protection for themselves, their family and their business.


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Product Information
Enriched with 3 essential oils – olive, almond and avocado, Garnier Color Naturals leaves your hair looking shiny, silky & nourished. The no ammonia crème formula comes with a superior color lock technology that gives you rich color that lasts upto 8 weeks. It comes in a range of 8 vibrant shades suited for Indian skin tones, in an easy to use kit that can be used at your convenience


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How to survive an Uber-style disruption
BookATailor has physical showrooms, and also uses a SmartCar to meet customers where they are, says CEO Jakomo Hakim, above. It's outfitted with a mannequin and an eye-catching vehicle wrap.
Uberization, noun.
A process where a high-tech middleman replaces past intermediaries.
It was in 2009 that an upstart, a small company called Uber, disrupted the taxi ride business. By leveraging technology to reach a wide swath of consumers and stretching the definition of employees, Uber was able to shift the cab industry significantly off gear.
The question that many consumer-facing service franchisors are now asking is: Is my franchise next? The short answer: yes and no.
Scott Amyx, the CEO at Amyx+, points out the shared or "gig" economy is already creating ripples in franchising. For example, Savvy.is disrupts the tutoring and expert market by creating a platform for anyone in the world to look for an expert and seek advice through the Internet by means of a half-hourly consultation. YourMechanic provides car repair quotes, schedules and sends a non-employee mechanic to a consumer's home to repair the car inside a garage or location of choice.
According to Amyx, the biggest risk for service franchises is that they bear the overhead cost of running a physical operation such as lease, equipment, utilities, employees, etc. But the good news is that franchises can adapt—and are doing so—in the face of such disrupters. Here's how.
One of the things Uber does well is make a ride easily available and accessible. This simplicity of scheduling services is something that franchises are taking seriously.
For example, The Cleaning Authority, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, has worked on a consumer-facing, mobile-friendly website that makes it really easy for customers to schedule a service such as a cleaning or in-home estimate.
These online scheduling tools are also integrated with the franchisee's calendar so all outlets are synchronized. This method is helpful not just for consumers, but it also allows franchisees to focus on the actual work instead of wasting time on administrative matters, said Heather McLeod, director of marketing at The Cleaning Authority.
The customer portal facilitates checking of past visits and related information, such as what will be cleaned during the next visit. Automatic payment options and reward program credits can also be monitored through a single secure portal, McLeod said.
Camp Bow Wow, a franchise headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, and devoted to dog daycare and related services, is exploring partnerships with technology companies such as Rover.com to figure out delivery on demand.
"We're making sure we're as innovative and high-tech as possible. Especially these days, when people want everything as quickly and efficiently as possible, you have to have technology to help you do that," said Heidi Ganahl, CEO. Camp Bow Wow already has online mechanisms for customers to upload vet records and related information.
Sylvan Learning has instituted a satellite program to meet students at public buildings.
Transparency rules
Just as customers can track the route and estimated time of arrival for Uber, so too can consumers now get better and more seamless peeks at the inner workings of some of today's service-oriented franchises.
The New York-based franchise BookATailor creates bespoke shirts and suits for men. BookATailor's vertically integrated system—right from electronic order-taking to the final manufacture in Thailand—is sewn together so seamlessly that a customer can check on order progress through a secure online portal that tells exactly which stage a particular order is in.
The Uber method of service delivery is also about finding the right customers and delivering the service where and how they want.
Franchises such as Sylvan Learning, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, are using technology to do just that. Company research found that a little more than 50 percent of students live within a four-mile radius, and 80 percent within ten miles. To reach those students who might not be able to get to Sylvan's brick-and-mortar centers, the franchise has instituted a satellite program that facilitates tutoring at places outside the center such as schools or libraries. Sylvan's use of iPads and other mobile devices has greatly helped with this outreach, said Sasha Shultz, chief product officer.
BookATailor has physical showrooms as part of the franchise and has achieved success through the use of a SmartCar, which drives around a city and reaches customers where they are. The company's CEO Jacomo Hakim said he tried a mall kiosk and was frustrated that he was not reaching the customers he desired.
The BookATailor car is outfitted with a mannequin and attention-grabbing banner wrap. A swatch book, iPad and measuring tape are all that are needed to get going. Hakim said franchises have to be nimble to stay ahead and BookATailor even moves its cars around during lunch hour to target the right prospects. Through BookATailor's app for Android, customers can also request a SmartTailor, a visit by the SmartCar to a location of their choice.
In all cases, franchises take special care to not let the mobile units drive traffic away from the brick-and-mortar locations. "There will always be people who prefer one model over the other," Hakim said. "This way we just reach more customers and deliver what they're looking for."
Franchises point out not everything can be readily commoditized like a cab ride. McLeod of The Cleaning Authority said not all services are as straightforward as what Uber offers. "We're actually talking about entering a person's home. So there's a different level of comfort and expectation and that's one of the things that I think will be a stumbling point for some of these companies like Handy," she said, referring to a disruptor in the cleaning space.
Franchises have numerous advantages—brand presence, marketing and consistency—that disrupters will find hard to compete against. McLeod said while there are others who are using technology to mobilize independent service providers, much like Uber does, that alone won't be enough.
"We use technology to stay ahead of disrupters and we combine that with consistency of service that others just can't do. From market to market we have provided consistency and that really gives us a competitive advantage that can't be replicated."
"For brick and mortar and other traditional businesses in various verticals, to be relevant, they must become agile and morph or risk obsolescence," Amyx said.


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Multiple Discriminant Analysis
Also found in: Dictionary, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Multiple Discriminant Analysis
A practice of analyzing a security using a variety of different factors. For example, an analyst may use many different financial ratios in deciding whether or not to buy a given stock. The goal of MDA is to create a Markowitz efficient portfolio.


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By Shabtai Gold for DPA-International
In front, people shuffle past in a procession, some crying and others praying. A handful fall on their knees. Somewhere in the background, breaking through the room with its high ceilings and ornate domes, a man chants "Allah" over and over in a trance-like meditation.
This is said to be the final resting spot of Jalal ad-Din Mohammed Rumi, the 13th century Islamic mystic and poet who died here in Konya, in the Turkish Anatolian heartland, when it was part of the Seljuk Empire, a Turkic-Persian dynasty.
Despite a layer of snow and temperatures that freeze the waters flowing from plentiful fountains dotting the streets, many thousands make the pilgrimage to his grave, housed inside a lodge once used by whirling dervishes. Often they struggle to articulate the reason for the visit.
"There is something about him, it comes from the heart. Things like this, from the heart, they are hard to explain," says Ruhsar Tunaboylu, who came from Istanbul with her aging mother.
The pair makes the trip nearly every year on December 17, the anniversary of Rumi's death in 1273. The mother says simply, before returning to pray under her breath: "To me, he means peace, love and tolerance."
For others, the journey has been more complicated. Michael Junayd flew in from Vancouver, Canada. He tucked himself into a corner with a view of the impressive memorial, watching as visitors from Turkey, Iran, Libya and further afield pass.
"It took me 20 years to get here. This is my pilgrimage. I don't think I'll get a second chance," he says.
For Junayd, the experience has already born spiritual dividends. "I feel my prayers so much more strongly since I came," he says. Unlike most of the visitors, he does not see himself so much as a Muslim, but rather a follower of Mevlana, the common term used to describe Rumi, to indicate his role as a chieftain.
The cult following has developed, both in the East and the West, as a Muslim spiritual figure and as a secular wordsmith offering insights into the trials of a broken heart.
Some believe the loss of his own friend and mentor, Shams Tebrizi - who has a far more modest, though still highly popular memorial inside a mosque nearby - contributed to his poems of love and absent companionship.
"The wound is the place where the light enters you," a line from a Rumi poem, often pulled for use on social media affirmations or in pop psychology articles, detached somewhat from its original meaning of God.
It has echoed through the centuries and across the seas, being mimicked - whether intentionally or not - by Leonard Cohen, who died this year, in his 1992 song Anthem: "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."
The cult element, though, was too much to bear for Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, who was a staunch secularist. The Sufi houses Rumi inspired were banned after 1925.
However, in recent decades, in part because of their touristic appeal, they have made a comeback. Now, the whirling dervishes - dozens of whom can gracefully turn without ever bumping into each other - are a visual element inseparable from Turkey's advertising.
"He was a friend of God, a wise man," says Sidika, a local Konya resident, aged 47, who comes once a week to Rumi's mausoleum.
Sufi Islamic culture was passed down to her from previous generations and despite the legal measures against the lodges, never died out.
In the days leading up to the death anniversary, the current, more Islamic-leaning government sponsors symposiums and even Semas, the ceremony where the dervishes chant, play instruments and perform their famous dance.
Dressed in white robes, one hand reaches up to the sky and the other downwards, as each dervish turns to what is described as "the movement of the universe." The elaborate performance is rife with layers of symbolism: Surrender and suppression of ego.
The devotional songs sung during the performances and in events around the Semas are often from the Koran or are Rumi's writings, originally in Persian.
The religious music remains popular in Turkey. Radio stations in Konya broadcast the tunes and bus drivers happily turn up the volume for travelers.
However, this year, the tourism sector has been hit hard by bombings and an economic downturn, hurting hotels, restaurants and other businesses that depend on the annual mass influx.
A reduced number of foreign and domestic visitors came this year to Konya for the rituals around the anniversary of Rumi's passing, known as Seb-i Arus, or "wedding night", denoting the concept of death as a chance to marry one's Creator.
The traditions, though, which have survived two empires, countless wars and the secularization push at the start of the modern republic, seem destined to carry on.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Muslim World Today.


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What are the seven seas? Where are the seven seas? And where did they idea of seven seas even come from? We'll look at these questions and more in this post.
What Are the Seven Seas?
Sailing the Seven Seas. It's a fairly common expression, one you might have heard before. It also can be a bit confusing to people well-versed in Geography.
If one looks at a map, it's easy to see that there are hundreds of different bodies of water in the world. Any good Sporcler can tell you that there are more than seven seas. So where does this idiom come from? What are the seven seas, and where can we find them?
As with lots of things, it depends on who you ask.
First Use of the Term
There is no general consensus as to what the seven seas are. Throughout history, the term 'seven seas' has been used to describe many different bodies of water. Sometimes, these bodies of water aligned along trade routes. Other times, the seven seas were associated with distant and exotic bodies of water.
The first use of the phrase can be traced to ancient Sumer around 2300 BC. It was used in a hymn by the Sumerian high priestess Enheduanna. As with many cultures, the number seven had a great deal of significance to the Sumerians and others in Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamians were the first in the history of astronomy to keep records of the observed seven moving objects in the heavens. Consequently, they likely made this connection to their seven seas.
The Seven Seas in Other Cultures
Mentions of the seven seas can be found in various other cultures and regions throughout the world as well.
For Arabian explorers, the seven seas were bodies of water that they encountered while traveling east along trade routes. These were the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Strait of Malacca, Singapore Strait, Gulf of Thailand, and the South China Sea.
It was Greek literature introduced the term to the Western world. For the Greeks, the seven seas were the Aegean, Adriatic, Mediterranean, Black, Red, and Caspian seas. In addition to those was the Persian Gulf, which was 'sea' number seven.
In Medieval Europe, the phrase referred to the North, Baltic, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black, Red, and Arabian seas.
After the New World was 'discovered' by Europeans, the seven seas were yet changed again. North America was taken into account, and explorers began to refer to the seven seas as the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans, plus the Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Sailing The Seven Seas Today
Today, the term is used more as an idiom or figuratively. Most geography standards list five oceans, each consisting of numerous seas, bays, straits, and other bodies of water. However, even though our geographical knowledge of the world has expanded, the phrase 'seven seas' continues to live on.
So what would be the seven seas today?
Like other times in history, it still depends on who you ask. If one did want to get literal, the National Ocean Service has devised a list of 'modern' seven seas: the Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans.
So any mariner looking for adventure should fear not. There are still seven seas you can set sail for.


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This past Saturday I had the honor of setting up my first Vouched Books table at the third annual Artlantis Festival. The Solar Anus Reading series and I shared the booth for the day, which meant I got to spend the entire day with Amy McDaniel. It was a complete success. Books were sold, poems were read, mint-bourbon-lemonade and laughs were had, friends stopped by, and the whole day was full of merriment. Here are some pictures of our tom-foolery:
A huge thank you to all of our friends who came by to support us, and all of the new friends we made. Special thanks to Jamie Iredell, Mark Basehore, and Blake Butler. And thank you most of all to Amy McDaniel for the lemonade, sandwiches, and all-around magnificence.


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Update 21.11.2017
As written below Genexis routers are not affected by the security gap itself.
Patches available for GeneOS software to help reduce risk on unsafe clients have already been integrated.
For DRGOS software, chip vendors are not releasing work-around patches related to unsafe clients due to expected compatibility issues between routers and clients.
In general, we recommend end users to upgrade all WiFi clients as soon as possible.
Genexis has been aware of the WPA2 "KRACK" issue since October 16th.
As Genexis is not using Access Point Mode with 802.11r, our routers are not affected by this security gap itself. A possible theoretical key reinstallation attacks KRACK are directed against the WiFi connection of a client who logs into the WiFi router.
In order to counter this gap also from the router side, Genexis has been in contact with all WiFi chip manufacturers who are involved in our WiFi products since 17 October. As soon as it is confirmed that a product or product line can be protected by a FW patch from the chip manufacturer, Genexis will integrate this into a new software version of DRGOS and GeneOS and will supply this new firmware to all operators. The operator then automatically updates all routers in the field.
Background to the "WPA2-KRACK":
A possible theoretical KRACK attack is directed against the WiFi connection of a client who logs into the WiFi. In order to interfere with WiFi communication between an unsafe client (laptop, smartphone, TV with WiFi) and an access point, extensive prerequisites are necessary. An attacker must be in immediate physical proximity to the client. And he has to put himself in the form of a man-in-the-middle attack between the client and the access point. Another prerequisite for this hard-to-execute attack is that the attacker must start the attack at the moment when the WiFi client is logging into the WiFi router and not after the connection is already established. Depending on the client's configuration, only the client's sending data can be read.
Independent of WiFi, relevant connections are usually encrypted at higher levels. These include HTTPS connections (search queries, online banking, online shopping, Facebook, WhatsApp etc.), which can be recognized by the lock icon or the green display at the browser address. These encryptions are still safe.
At no time is it possible with the KRACK-mentioned security gap to become a complete participant of a foreign WLAN. The practical importance of the KRACK-gap seems to be limited by the difficulty of the attack, the imperative necessity to be nearby and the continuing active encryption at higher levels.


text: Needtobreathe is a hit song from blowing up. Really when you think about it I suppose all bands are but the point of the statement is hat these dudes are close... real close. If one song took off for them the way one song should then they'd huge. Larger than life even. Their last two records that they put out before this current album were both amazing pieces of music. This album continues that trend set by those records in lots of ways but also goes back to what is the bands roots. "The Outsiders" has a more spiritual message than the previous two albums and at times feels like a traditional gospel album because of the nature of the songs. Some of these songs don't even approach the term pop as a description, let alone the word rock. Still, that doesn't mean that his album isn't a good album from the band- the first five tracks set a great tone for the record and "Something Beautiful" and a few other songs have a chance to be songs that blow up for the band and give them that notoriety that I mentioned previously. Judging from this album though, I don't think that's something that the band thinks or cares about, and that's always an admirable thing. Needtobreathe puts out another outstanding record in "The Outsiders" but I don't think that it will do anything else than make their current group of supporters happy and gain them a few along the way. That's not a bad thing. With this record Needtobreathe is going to remain a well-known secret. But mark my words one song.... they wouldn't just be popular they would become a national phenomenon.


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Four Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Teaching
The other day, I was talking to a friend about becoming a teacher. He wasn't interested in becoming one, but he started asking about how I made the decision. To be honest, it was one of those things that just happened. When you are studying English literature at university, the career options often start at English teacher. A few years later, I was standing in front of a group of grade ten students teaching Australian history on my first practicum in teacher's college.
I never processed through the implications of the choice before the choice was made. I'm more of a jump-first, react-second type guy.
Now that the first phase of being a new teacher has faded, I have an opportunity to reflect on the things I've learned and the things I wish I knew.
Here are the four major things I wish I knew before I started teaching:
1. The job never stops.
Everything I hear on the radio, every book I read, and every conversation I have, my mind is processing for the contexts of the classroom. I strongly believe that being human in the classroom allows for more connection and stronger community, that's why everything I do outside of the classroom is analyzed and considered. It's not straining or stressful, in fact, it's enjoyable.
The other aspect of the job never stopping is that there is always something to do. Feedback, planning, polishing, whatever it is, it always hangs over. Even through the summer, whenever I'm on vacation, I'm thinking about how to do things better; thinking of ways to tweak and innovate.
It's like many jobs in this fact, but something I didn't anticipate at all.
2. Rarely do you know if you are successful.
When I was in sales, I knew when I had a good day. I knew when I had a good week or a good month. In teaching (even more so in high school), seeing the payoff of the work is almost non-existent. Sure, you may see a kid develop their writing skills or speaking skills, but the real goal is to help develop a whole person. That impact is often minimal by any one teacher.
There is no real mechanism that evaluates your effectiveness. There is no metric that proves efficacy, which then leaves teachers swinging at fences. We talk about having success criteria for student learning, but there is none developed for teachers. That in itself is fine, but it also leaves teachers waffling somewhere between success and obsolescence. With no method of receiving feedback or meaningful assessment, our idea of our own success is measured with wet noodles.
3. Dealing with colleagues is harder than dealing with students.
I thought dealing with the hormone-injected, clique-crashing, teenage angst was the challenge of being a high school teacher. The reality, for me, is dealing with colleagues is often much more challenging. I'm a firm believer that most teachers are there for the same reason I am, to make the lives of students better today than they were yesterday. However, dealing with the school, union and personal politics has pushed me to learn how best to work with others.
In the last few years, I've made a concerted effort at trying to understand the perspective of all involved before moving forward, however, I still often find myself being told my actions have caused a series of unfortunate events.
Generally, my reaction is to keep moving forward and keep creating space for my ideas/opinions. However, challenging ideas is sometimes taken as challenging the person. The challenge of being aware of my own ego and avoiding the conflicts with colleagues' ego is on-going. My learning continues.
4. The system is broken and everyone in the system knows it.
The biggest thing I wish I knew before I started was that the system is broken, everybody knows it, but because we can't agree how to fix it, we keep perpetuating the broken system. The "tried and tested" is considered "non-negotiable", regardless of the lack of true evaluation of the methods. There are too many people with too much invested in the system (despite its broken-ness) to see real reform.
And it's not that it is broken. It's that everyone knows there are flaws and yet, nothing. It's frustrating when you come across an obstacle and it is only an obstacle because of an arbitrary decision that was made years ago.
Despite all these things, I stand by the fact that education and teaching is dynamite. Going into the profession, I wish I was fully briefed.
What do you wish you knew before you started teaching?
Can She Choose Nothing?
I'm an advocate for choice in education. I think the more we can personalize the experience, the more relevant we become, especially in a knowledge-rich, democratized culture.
And so I proposed the idea that next semester in English class, I would have no "required" reading; meaning no "core" text, no "class novel", nothing that isn't chosen specifically by the individual student. Sure, I'd make recommendations, nudge students to challenge themselves with great books, etc., but nothing would be something everyone in the class had to read.
That's not to say they didn't have to read. I just wouldn't compel them to read any one specific thing.
The logistics of the idea aren't fully worked out in my head and I'm not sure if I'm actually ready to jump into it, but the idea is percolating.
The biggest pushback to the idea is what if a student chooses to read nothing. What if she doesn't like reading and so unless she is compelled, she won't do it? My first instinct is to assume that she is probably not reading a compulsory text, anyway.
Sarah Le (@sarle83) wrote a great post about the reality of students pretending to read. (http://leslearning.blogspot.ca/2013/11/i-feel-duped-by-student.html)
My more thoughtful response is to use my relationship with the student, along with her understanding of the requirements of the course (curriculum expectations) to help her find/choose texts that she'll enjoy. It could serve multiple purposes, obviously get a student who wouldn't read to read something, but more importantly, building the personal relationship. It is a way for me to demonstrate to that student that I value them as an individual.
The other big pushback I got for this idea was around class discussions. How do you hold a class discussion when everyone hasn't read the same source material? My response, you don't. Instead you hold mini-discussion amongst people who have read texts that have similar themes. The class discussion model, although I love it, does often trend towards teacher-directed, with only select students participating.
Alas, it is an idea. It needs more development around how do you track reading? How do you keep students accountable? And, what if they still choose nothing?
But, there is a lesson in there too, isn't there?
Just Ask.
Every now and again, you need a kick in the ass. You get complacent. You get lazy. You feel like, "Yeah, I'm doing pretty good." I was feeling this way in the early parts of the semester. I was "on top" of things. My students were relatively all engaged and learning, I was tweaking what's worked in the past. I was doing alright.
But the truth was plopped in front of me by Heather Durnin (@hdurnin), a grade eight teacher. While presenting at the ECOO conference about all the cool things she does in her classroom, it dawned on me where I was really lacking. I wasn't asking.
I was having all these "brilliant" (it's relative, I know) ideas about how to make the learning more authentic for my students and then determining the idea wouldn't work for one of the following reasons:
- I don't have the time to set it up.
- I don't have the energy to set it up.
- I'll probably get turned down.
- I won't get permission.
- The timing won't work out.
- I don't have the tech requirements.
- And so on, and so on.
I was killing the idea before it left my head.
And here's the beauty of what Heather presented, she just asked. She took the idea and ask for help. She threw the possibilities into the wind and waited. She reminded us that she got rejected plenty, but for the few times it works out, it is worth it.
I'm able to explode the walls off the classroom by simply asking for others to join us, collaborate, teach us, be apart of the community by asking.
Simple and elegant, just ask. The perfect kick in the ass I needed.
"Experimenting With My Son?
I don't have kids of my own. It influences my teaching. The same way having kids would. I could argue I'm a better teacher because I don't have kids. You could argue, I'd be better if I had kids. Both sides are equally valid and herein lies the conundrum.
I spoke with a parent today. He wanted to know about this "experimental classroom" that I was running.
"Let me get this straight," he said, "you are experimenting with my son?"
And the reality of experimentation hits, these are all someone's kid.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't treat them with some inhuman detachment. I care for each of them as someone's kid. I want them each to succeed and grow. Yet, I believe in trying new things in the classroom which in turn may not work. I believe there's value in trying something new. There's value in failing. Churchill said, "Success is stumbling from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Students learn something even in failure.
However, this is the one shot these students have in this class. This is there one time through grade 10 English. What is the lasting effect of a miserable failed experiment?
Now the reverse is true, not trying something new could be a miserable failed opportunity for enriched learning. I understand that. The experiments are not willy-nilly. They are founded in some "educational research", which I recognize is often contradictory/cyclical.
How do I reconcile these two aspects of an "experimental classroom"?
Please, Don't Ruin Blogging
My students blog. Some with fervor, some reluctantly. It's an attempt to find a means of authentic writing. Blogging works for me because it ties to the idea of writing for the sake of writing, not the sake of school.
This is my plea, please, don't ruin blogging.
A teacher who has students write online on given topics for marks is not blogging. I'm not suggesting you don't have your reasons for having a student do that, though I can't think of any engaging reasons off the top of my head, please don't call it a blog. Call it an online response. Or schlog (school log). Or make up a word with only one vowel, which seems to be the trend, like Tretr. But please don't call it blogging.
Because it's not that.
Blogging is an authentic means of communicating self to a community of readers that is developed organically.
That's why I fear the use of blogging in a class. It can be an opportunity for a person to find their voice, their feet, and their tribe. If it is ruined by too much school (i.e. pre-determined topics, fixed criteria, marked, etc.) then we'll have ruined another form of writing. Students will be so much more reluctant to give it a try on their own. They won't understand that they have a voice to share with the world. They'll think the only people who blog are in school. And the only people who read blogs are teachers.
Instead, I think blogging is personal. It is an opportunity to capture thoughts, feelings, analysis, around a specific idea that the writer chooses. I think a successful blogger is able to capture a reader's interest and deliver interesting and engaging insights. Most blogs have a specific, personal and important niche market.
As for evaluation, the market determines the quality of the blog, not a solitary evaluator. The number of visitors, the comments, the feedback, retweets, are the evaluation of the blog.
If I'm not able to get people to read my posts, then I'm doing something wrong. It's a balance between successful marketing, but also providing a quality product. I have to give readers a reason to read. If my only reader (the teacher) "has" to read, then what impetus do I have for producing original, interesting content?
According to Kelly Gallagher in his book, Readicide, by succumbing to schoolification we are killing/we have killed reading. Especially reading that requires us to wade through dense, poetic language.
Let's not do the same to a writing form that allows for personalization. A writing form that democratizes media, opinion, analysis and insight. A writing form that doesn't fit into a hamburger worksheet.
Please, don't ruin blogging.
What's Your Default Position?
At the beginning of my teaching career, I assumed the typical default teacher position, "No."
"You want to work in groups when I want you to work individually? No."
"You want to do a different assignment than this one? No."
"Can you work in the hall? No."
And so on, and so on.
Let's be honest, 'no' as a default position makes sense. It makes order easy. Having thirty students in a room, in theory, is easy. Because of course, in theory, they are all at the same level, need the same attention, have the same motivation, etc., etc. The reality is that thirty students in a room are thirty people in room. Each with different needs, different baggage, etc., etc.
To make things easy for me, I relied upon the insistence of compliance. If everyone is doing the exact same thing, in the exact same way, in the exact same time frame, it's simply easier to manage for me.
I hid my default position under the guise of "fairness". It's not fair for any deviation of what I want.
Sure, I said yes at times, but really it was usually because it worked for me too.
Instead it was 'no' to change. 'No' to student ideas. 'No' to difference. 'No' to chaos.
Seth Godin points out the truth of what "no" means:
What "no" means
I'm too busy
I don't trust you
This isn't on my list
My boss won't let me
I'm afraid of moving this forward
I'm not the person you think I am
I don't have the resources you think I do
I'm not the kind of person that does things like this
I don't want to open the door to a long-term engagement
Thinking about this will cause me to think about other things I just don't want to deal with
And so over the last couple years, I've made a conscious effort to change my default position. What if my default position was yes?
"You want to try something different? Yes."
"You think this is boring? Yes."
"You want to run with this? Yes."
"You want to change the direction of my plans because of a movie/news article/book? Yes."
The power of a different default position is that my students start owning what they are doing. They start owning the direction/decisions of the class. They start owning their time. They start owning their learning.
My classes are louder, crazier, less controlled. I've potentially got thirty students working on thirty different "assignments". My evaluation doesn't fit into an easy grid/weighting/mark calculation.
Is it better? I think there have been moments of joy, moments of revelation and more moments of engagement. If that's better, than yeah, it is better.
Godin is right. Saying "no" is more often about me than it is about them. What's your default position?
I Can't Learn For You
Last Thursday, my night school class started railing against teachers. More accurately, they started slagging on the bad teachers they've had in their school career. It started after one of them did a presentation entitled, "The Problem with the School System".
I let it go as his audience rallied around him. The bad teacher legends were starting up when I cut in.
"Let me get this straight, you think you were unsuccessful in school because of the teachers you had?"
"You blame the teachers?"
"Yeah." They agreed. The few became the many. They started back in on the teachers that had 'done them wrong.'
I interjected again.
"I think you are to blame." They stopped talking. They looked at me. "I think it is your fault you didn't learn." Silence. "I think, you came into this room tonight, hoping I could give you something, ready to be passive. Only a handful of you have been active in your learning so far, the rest of you are sitting waiting for learning to just happen. But the truth is learning is up to you. I can't do that for you."
The sat in silence. They wanted to resist. They tried to form a rebuttal. But they couldn't.
The truth is, in a culture of passive entertainment and apathetic entitlement, school needs to reframe the process of learning.
Being passive in learning is no longer an option. The problem lies in that too many teachers, students and parents are waiting for school to teach, waiting for the information/skills to wash over them and waiting for someone else to do the work.
But the truth is, time's up.
The radical, tactical shift that I've been promoting and writing about for the past three years is about moving the system towards something more active. We need to be nimble. We need to be constantly moving, changing.
There is a great quote, "Decisions are made by those who show up." It is not completely true. We've got to expect more from ourselves. We've got to do more than just show up.
Later on in the evening, one of them approached me, "Mr. Kemp, if you can't do the learning for us, what is your job?"
"I believe my job is to set the environment for you to learn and to offer feedback and support as you ask questions and explore. You see, I've been through the maze of developing these skills before and so, I'm standing in the middle. I can't just tell you to turn right or turn left. Instead, I need to keep shouting so you can hear me, as you figure it out."
"You really believe this?"
Resisting the hustle and bustle for silence
They hated it when I first introduced it. They tweeted, "This is killing me." They even begged me after class to never do it again.
Eight weeks later, I suggest it, they do it. They like it.
I call it No-Talk Thursday.
Sure, there are still the skeptics and the resistant, but as a whole the class fades to silence much quicker now than it did then. It is a stretch of time where they are allowed/encouraged to disconnect and instead plug into themselves.
This isn't to say they never do it on their own time, but when the world is buzzing around you too many of them choose to buzz along.
In about fifty days, I'll be leaving K/W and flying to B.C. to begin my 42 day Bike Across Canada. Forty-two days of solitude, pedals and scenery. As I've explained to my classes what I'm doing, many of them ask, aren't you going to get lonely? Aren't you going to get bored all by yourself?
The truth is I don't know. I don't think so, but I've never gone this long on my own. I've never allowed myself this long to be contemplative.
I've never been silent for so long.
As we shift gears and move into our "No-Talk Thursday", I often think "Is seventy-five minutes a week near enough?" Should we be practicing quiet contemplation more in schools? Is school too loud?
As we shift our classroom pedagogy towards a more online presence, a more "connected" existence, do we also allow the natural hustle and bustle of technology into our classrooms and in essence, into the learning procedure?
We know that learning happens when a student "thinks about thinking" or a student "wrestles with the knowledge/concepts/ideas", however, are we giving students space to do that critical contemplation, or meta-cognition?
Should we be taking more time to resist the hustle and bustle and add more silence?
Waiting On The System To Change?
The system needs to change. It needs to adapt with changing times, changing students and a changing information paradigm. School needs to shift.
In my mind, it needs a radical tactical shift.
As I talk with other teachers, it seems that this is a universally accepted idea. The system needs to change.
John Mayer sings, "We are waiting on the world to change." The problem is that year after year, as we sit and wait for a system that is adequately responsive, we lose another opportunity to get started.
Can teachers change the system? Are teachers system leaders?
On one hand, we are the front lines. We are the first person to deal with students and parents. We show up everyday and close the door. We have the utmost of control over the experiences of a student. Innovation and change can happen on a daily basis. We have the ability to radically alter how we approach learning, how we instruct, and how we assess.
Yet, the status quo is maintained. The change that happens is often minor. We haven't seen any radical change since the dawn of the information age.
And the reason, because the system hasn't changed.
This paradoxical relationship of change has stymied any lasting, important forward movement.
Teachers speak about a mistrust of administration, the Ministry and the support they'd have if they were to try something outside the box. Not to mention, the fear of trying something, failing and the lasting implication to the students under their care. For all the talk about trusting teacher practice and judgement, is there All valid reasons for sure.
Though it isn't enough. Change is needed.
I'm left questioning the likelihood of true systemic change. I'm left wondering if the acts of a single teacher, or even a radical group of teachers is really change. But, that doesn't make me still want to try new things, challenge the system and encourage others to do the same.
I guess my question is, are you waiting on the system to change or being the change?
The Balance Between Being Honest and Staying Positive
I want to be one of those teachers that inspires his students. Not quite Michelle Pheiffer in Dangerous Minds or Robin Williams in Dead Poet's Society, but somewhere in that vicinity. Someone who makes a difference. I know I'm not the only one.
It's cheesy, I recognize.
The point is, I want to have high expectations of my students. I want to set the bar high and I want to help each kid get over it.
I want be a consistent positive force.
Every morning, that's my goal. Make a student believe and move a student forward.
Over the past few weeks, I've been very cognizant of the feedback I give my students. I try to tailor the feedback to be positive, to be constructive, to remind them of the successes they've achieved.
But upon reflection, upon sitting down and talking with students, I realize I've been glossing over the honest feedback. I'm trying so hard to polish my message, that the truth is being washed away.
This unsettles me.
Where is the line? Where is the tipping point between positive, constructive feedback and honest feedback? Because they aren't the same thing.
In a discussion with some colleagues, the idea of "tough love" came up. Is there room for tough love in schools anymore? Some teachers felt that there really wasn't. They felt that the expectations now (with credit recovery, credit rescue and all manner of student success) lead to a sanitized feedback loop where no one admits there is dirt anywhere to be seen. I'm not sure I fully agree, but I can see where they are coming from.
So, I ask you, how do you balance being positive and constructive with providing honest feedback?
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Here's the deal, social media is calling the shots and not just for writers (or rather, would-be authors) like me.
The more queries I submit, the more this little beauty crops up while researching literary agents, 'Please provide links to your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or blog. We especially want to know about your blog.'
'ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?' my brain initially protested. My Facebook is garbage, a glorified catch-all for my pictures. Instagram? More like Instawhatsitdo? My Twitter page isn't too poorly neglected but I must admit my Twitter feed is mostly retweets from my favorite authors.
After mulling it over, blogging held a little more appeal than trying to professionalize the others. I get the chance to showcase my skills (for better or worse) and I get to air my thoughts. My real thoughts, mind you, and not just what I can squeeze into a limited amount of characters or memes. I think this is what mostly accounts for my disdain when it came to the social media requests. I see Facebook and Twitter and others as the fast food equivalent of a person. Takeaway, really. The thing about takeway is that it's easy to throw away. Blogging has a little more stay power than my cat pics.
And I get the request in general, I do. Literary agents get to gauge your writing style 'as is' regardless of the genre you're working out of, or perhaps in support of it.
So in between raising my kid, being a wife and partner, taking care of my home, paying the bills, and writing, I will now be blogging too. Sure, why not? I am, if anything, determined.
To the conclude this blog, I think it appropriate to sling a series of hashtags: #writer #writerforlife #writerslife #determined #literaryagent #fiction #ownvoices #publish #author #armedwithcoffee


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Saturday, 26 August 2017
Molecular Clocks Again Disagree with Fossils, This Time on the Diversification of Mammals
Joel Kontinen
Radiometric dating of fossils and the molecular clock approach should in principle give identical dates or at least dates that are in the same ballpark.
In practice, they don't. Research tends to find fault with molecular clocks, and dating methods are known to be more or less unreliable.
Usually more.
A recent paper on the radiation of placental mammals around the assumed time when the dinosaurs went extinct illustrates this tendency. The authors acknowledge:
"The timing of the diversification of placental mammals relative to the Cretaceous–Paleogene (KPg) boundary mass extinction remains highly controversial. In particular, there have been seemingly irreconcilable differences in the dating of the early placental radiation not only between fossil-based and molecular datasets but also among molecular datasets."
They suggest that the catastrophe that assumedly killed off the dinosaurs left mammals unscathed:
"A birth-death-shift analysis suggests that placental mammals underwent a continuous radiation across the KPg boundary without apparent interruption by the mass extinction, paralleling a genus-level radiation of multituberculates and ecomorphological diversification of both multituberculates and therians. These findings suggest that the KPg catastrophe evidently played a limited role in placental diversification, which, instead, was likely a delayed response to the slightly earlier radiation of angiosperms."
I would suggest a much more logical explanation for the demise of the dinosaurs: the global flood of Noah's day that was followed by the ice age made conditions very challenging for big reptiles.
Liu, Liang et al. 2017. Genomic evidence reveals a radiation of placental mammals uninterrupted by the KPg boundary. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (published online on 14 August).
Lähettänyt bwanajoe klo 08:58
Tunnisteet: dinosaurs, mammals, molecular clocks


text:
George Noorey
12:00am - 6:00am
Listen Live
2011-03-15 09:44:00
There are several things that will have to change if Oregon is going to pull itself out of the recession. That's the message that Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber brought to Bend Monday. One the things that has to change is a perception: "Saying very clearly that Oregon is open for business. We have had a lot of talk over the last 18 months over the poor business climate in the state. It's my intention to turn that around. While we still have a long ways to go, we will have a lot to be proud of." Kitzhaber says more jobs are coming to the State. "The Oregon Business Plan has set an ambitious objective of creating 25,000 jobs per year, each year for the next 20-years. That's about 2000 jobs per month. We created 6500 jobs in Oregon in January. It was announced in Monday's EDCO meeting that 9800 jobs were created in Oregon in February. Kitzhaber says Oregonians are going to have to take a "leap of faith" and be willing to embrace new ideas for health care, education, and state funding.
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