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Fall TV preview: New comedies are a decidedly mixed bag
(Column ~ 09/20/12)
Copy-and-pasted from last week's column, but it's relevant and bears repeating: The new season is upon us, so it's time to start looking at the pilots that made it to series at the broadcast networks. I'm always excited to see the new line-ups at the start of the fall, even though I know that pilots can be a mixed bag. ...
Gerry (Geraldine) Rose Bales
(Obituary ~ 09/20/12)
Gerry (Geraldine) Rose Bales Sept. 2, 1926 - Sept. 18, 2012 FULLERTON, California -- Gerry (Geraldine) Rose Bales died Tuesday (Sept. 18, 2012), in Fullerton. She was born Sept. 2, 1926, in McCook, Nebraska. She married Bill Bales in October 1945. Survivors include her husband, Bill Bales; children, Bill Jr., Bob, Don, Connie Rush and seven grandchildren...
On the record
(Local News ~ 09/20/12)
This information is gathered at the McCook Public Safety Center, the McCook office of the Nebraska State Patrol, the Red Willow County Courthouse, the Red Willow County Sheriff's Office and the McCook Humane Society. Police activity Activity log...
Piecemakers Guild meet for September
(Community News ~ 09/20/12)
McCOOK, Nebraska -- The Piecemaker's Quilt Guild met at Our Savior's Lutheran Church on Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. Twenty members were present. Melody Brown from Cottage Inspirations quilt shop in Cambridge gave a demonstration on working with wool. Beryl Knotwell, a member of the guild, won first place at the Nebraska State Fair for the Best Quilt from Southwest Nebraska...
Try before you buy
(Letter to the Editor ~ 09/20/12)
Dear Editor, Wouldn't it be great if we could order our U.S. president from a catalog? We could evaluate him on a trial basis. Then we could return him if he did not meet our expectations. Unfortunately, the Arab Spring is now looking like an Arab Winter as far as Egypt and Libya are concerned...
Busy Saturday ahead
(Column ~ 09/20/12)
This is the week. The autumnal equinox, and International Observe the Moon Night, all on the same day. How exciting is that. Saturday, Sept. 22, will be a busy day astronomically speaking. First the autumnal equinox, the day when the sun crosses the celestial equator from north to south and our lazy, summer days turn into hazy fall afternoons, or so a song I heard once said...
My driven daughter
(Column ~ 09/20/12)
I've always thought the funniest trick God plays on us is making each one of our kids so different. I'm not a gambler but having kids is sure like it, just a roll of the dice. Although my girls have similarities between them, for the most part, they are really different, both in looks and in everything else. ...
Sheriff: No sign of missing train passenger
(Local News ~ 09/20/12)
McCOOK, Nebraska -- Red Willow County Sheriff Gene Mahon said his department conducted a search for the missing Amtrak passenger, Wednesday afternoon. Mahon said the railway was searched from McCook to the county line, with no sign found of 69-year-old Charlie Dowd...
Fall Festival time at St. Patrick's
(Local News ~ 09/20/12)
McCOOK, Nebraska -- Husker football fans who want to be at Nebraska's game against Michigan this year will want to attend St. Pat's Fall Festival this weekend. Tickets to the game are the grand prize for the raffle at the annual fundraising event for the parish Saturday and Sunday...
What will neighborhoods look like in, say, 10 years?
(Local News ~ 09/20/12)
McCOOK, Nebraska -- A housing development map presented to the McCook City Council recently may provide foresight to citizens curious about what their neighborhood will look like in the future. As part of a Community Housing Report presented to councilors, Monday evening, McCook Economic Development Director Rex Nelson presented the map, which identified areas of McCook ideal for housing development or rehabilitation. ...
Hillcrest employee charged with sexual assault
(Local News ~ 09/20/12)
Alleged offender left the nursing home in late July
No food fight here: students adjust to new school lunches
(Local News ~ 09/20/12)
McCOOK, Nebraska -- Fruit or vegetables are not an option anymore at school lunches - they are mandatory. New federal nutrition guidelines for school lunches from the US Department of Agriculture took effect this year and monitors the calorie intake of students. ...
Stories from Thursday, September 20, 2012
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Species group: Unrecognized and Rare Breed dogs
Other name(s): American Bandogge; Bandogg
The basics:
The American Bandogge Mastiff was created by crossing the American Bulldog with the English Mastiff. This so-called designer hybrid was created for the purpose of getting a powerful and loyal guardian dog. However, the reality is that not all of these hybrids are being created by well-intentioned people. Know your breeder, and know how to properly socialize and train a dog with powerful protective instincts.
Appearance / health:
This giant cross-breed will undoubtedly deter intruders, but it could also attract attention from your insurer or local law enforcement. Be sure you are allowed to own this dog in your area before you acquire it.
Behavior / temperament:
All large guardian breeds demand respectful but consistent training from a responsible owner who knows how to be an alpha and how to socialize the dog properly.
Stubborn, skin irritation, cruciate ligaments, eye infections, knee surgeries
pet insurance
Inflammatory joint disease
Inflammation = a localized physical condition in which part of the body becomes reddened, swollen, hot, and often painful, especially as a reaction to injury or infection. Inflammatory joint disease can be caused by infection or immune-mediated disease. Immune-mediated polyathritis is fairly rare in dogs, but still occurs sporadically. Adequan is made from bovine cartilage and it resembles by its composition to normal cartilage so it is easily integrated into the joint. Adequan is made more than 20 years ago for control of the symptoms of noninfectious degenerative joint problems aka arthritis. Its main role is to lubricate the joints, stop inflammation (by stoping prostaglandins E2) and stopping the degenerative process and also promote re-building of some elements of the cartilage. Adequan is given every 3-4 days (twice a week) up to 8 times. The dosage is 2 mg/lb body weight (.02 mL/lb, or 1 mL per 50 lb). This therapy is maybe pricey, but it shows very good results and movement improvement..
From DVM Ivana Vukasinovic 758 days ago
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subset: commoncrawl


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In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Fleet like this:
FLEET, a village and a parish in Weymouth district, Dorset. The village stands on Fleet-water, 3¼ miles WNW of Weymouth town and r. station; is a coast-guard station; and suffered much damage in a great storm of 1824, when the sea broke through the Chesil bank. The parish comprises 845 acres of land, and 540 of water. ...
Real property, £884. Pop., 160. Houses, 31. The manor belonged to Christchurch priory; and passed to the Mohuns and the Goulds. Fleet House is the seat of the Rev. G. Goodden. Fleet-water runs up from Portland roads inside the Chesil bank; and is 7 miles long, and a ¼ of a mile broad. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Salisbury. Value, £66. Patron, the Rev. G. Goodden. The church was destroyed by the storm of 1824; and a new church, in the early English style, with apsidal chancel, open porch, and bell-turret, was built in 1862.
Fleet through time
Fleet is now part of West Dorset district. Click here for graphs and data of how West Dorset has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Fleet itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Fleet in West Dorset | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/13632
Date accessed: 07th August 2020
Not where you were looking for?
Click here for more detailed advice on finding places within A Vision of Britain through Time , and maybe some references to other places called " Fleet ".


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Another Marvelous Monday already? Oh how time flies!
Although Steve had a meet with his team on Valentines Day, we actually had some very special moments, and I loved that our gift ideas worked. We set a $10 limit, and had to be creative. We both made one another a gift, and it was really special, and meant so much more to us. You can head over to my Instagram account if you want to see what we made (and the cake I made) 🙂
I also had a great 18 mile long run this weekend with Allie, and we went out to breakfast afterwards…..pancakes with sprinkles and chocolate chips, you do not get much more Tina than that 😉
I am bracing for this giant storm that is arriving this morning. I am hoping it is not as bad as it is expected to be, but we will see just how well Kentucky handles 1 foot of snow, which is what is predicted right now 🙁
I have mentioned before that I love things with crunch. Last week, I also told you how I am addicted to eating nuts. Poor Steve now has to deal with them venturing their way into meals. We have lots of peanut butter sauces, and this week, I decided to make a Pad Thai with lots of crunchy peanuts in there. I always loved Pad Thai in restaurants, but was always too intimidated of it to make it at home. I decided to give it a go, and I have to say I am SO glad I did. It was delicious, and so packed with nutrition, which is important during this point in my marathon training.
What are you bringing to Meatless Monday this week? Take the pledge, all I am asking for is ONE meatless day a week, thats easy isn't it 🙂 Will you join Confessions of a Mother Runner and I by linking up your meatless recipe?
Vegetarian Pad Thai
Serves 10
Preparation time: 15 minutes
1/2 onion, sliced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 broccoli crown, cut into small florets, and the stalks cut into thin sticks
2 carrots, julienned into thin strips
1 celery stalks, cut into small pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, cored and cut into slices
1/3 cup peas
1/3 cup sweetcorn
1/3 cup chickpeas
1/3 cup black beans
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/2 pack rice noodles
3 green onion stalks, cut into thin circles
1/3 cup cilantro
1/4 cup peanuts
1/2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sriracha
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp lime juice
Whisk the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.
Heat the 1 tsp sesame oil, and add the onion. Cook over a medium high heat for 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
Add the broccoli and celery. Cook 5 minutes, and add the red pepper and carrots.
Stir in the peas, sweetcorn, cilantro, bean sprouts chickpeas, black beans, cilantro, most the green onions, and sauce. Cover, and cook for 5 minutes over a medium low heat.
Meanwhile, cook the rice noodles according to package directions. Drain the water, and stir into the vegetables.
Cook for 2-3 minutes, until heated through.
Sprinkle with peanuts, remaining green onions, and sesame seeds.
Nutritional Information
460 calories, 8g fat, 186mg sodium, 80g carbohydrates, 12g fiber, 14g sugar, 0mg cholesterol, 18g protein
How was your Valentines (Love) day? What meal have you been intimidated of making in the past….or still are?
For me, its still a Chicago style deep dish pizza….one day I will tackle it!
43 Comments. Leave new
That is very sweet about Valentine's Day! It's nice to set limits and have to get creative 🙂 Good luck with the snow. I'm an expert with it by now so let me know if you need any advice 🙂
I've forgotten about Pad Thai. Anything with but butter has my heart. Good luck with the storm!
yay for 18 miles and pancakes and pad thai! you know that's my fav!!
I always love a good creativity challenge! And there is honestly no reason to spend a ton of money on Valentine's Day–it really is about the pleasure of the company and the relationship. Pad Thai is one of my favorite dishes, though I never order it, I only make it! Sweet and spicy and savory all at once!
This looks yummy! So glad your Valentine's day turned out nice. Good luck with the snow today. It looks like we will get snow and then ice.
I love the sounds of the sauce and I like that you added black beans and garbanzo beans. Great additions! Haven't had pad thai in forever but now want to make it.
Gluten-free and vegan! Perfect for me 😉 Love Pad Thai but haven't made it in ages!
I love crunch! Pad Thai is a favorite of mine but I've only tried making it at home once and it wasn't great. Your recipe looks much more fool proof!
This sounds fantastic–pinned it! My husband's favorite is pad thai, so I love the idea of heathifying it (that's a word, right?). Great job on the 18–crazy that London/Boston are coming up so soon. Good luck with the snow–we are getting the same storm, which means my kids are about to have more days off and will be making them up until late in June. Boo!
I just saw your Insta-post…you and Steve are so darn cute!! I'm so glad you had such a special Valentine's Day and this Pad Thai dish looks delicious! Thai food is a major weakness for me!
Yum this looks like my kind of meal! I love siracha and rice noodles any day.
Looks delish! Pad Thai is one of my favorites. I often toss in tofu or tempeh for protein and chewiness. Have a great week. Hope you fare okay in the snow. Time for me to pull out the Yak Traks 🙁
I used to love Pad Thai! Your photography is so beautiful too 🙂
I actually had pad thai last night and was thinking about how I need to make my own! I've been trying to eat more meatless recently, so I have to bookmark all these recipes. Also, I can't imagine running 18 miles right now…I have been so out of running but need to start building up my base again for a spring half. I ran 5 miles last week which has been my longest run since November =O
Ohhh I love pad thai! I've never had it meatless before.
Ahhhh… that Pad Thai looks amazing. I've started my juice fast in prep for my colonoscopy and it's only 7am and I'm already starving! I'm sorry to hear about your upcoming weather. I hope Spring is just around the corner!
This looks really good and it may be something I could get my husband to eat! (He doesn't understand how meals can exist without meat in them). I hope that you guys make out ok with the snow! We are supposed to get 5-8 inches here but our predictions have been wrong all winter so who knows what will happen!
Very nice and Healthy Vegetarian-pad-thai, and I am sure tasty too.
I have added a recipe of "Lentil stuffed bell pepper", i am sending this recipe in a competition. This is the link-https://www.pinterest.com/cdnlentils/2015-lentil-recipe-revelations-challenge/, please pin/like it.
I love your obsession with nuts…I have been consuming so much nut butter lately, but I have no regrets, because it is SO dang good…Thanks for sharing! I'd have to say Pad Thai is definitely a dish that has always intimidated me as well.
Poor Steve, if he doesn't want all the nuts I will come over for dinner! I love nuts and nut butter and everything (except the high calories which means I can't just sit and eat them all day long) about them. Your Valentine's sounds so sweet, I loved the candy sign.
Pancakes after a long run is my favorite type of breakfast. 🙂 This recipe looks so good! With Lent starting this week I need to find more meatless meals that have lots of nutrition.
I love pad thai, but have never attempted it at home either 🙂 I'll have to give this a try! Your Valentine's Day looked really sweet 🙂 And pancakes with sprinkles and chocolate chips….yum! Glad you found someone who could join you on your long run!
Oh heavenly days that looks amazing!!!
I love love love pad Thai! I had Thai food this weekend, which sort of squashed a craving but also kind of had me craving more. Doh!
Thai food is among my favorites. I'll have to try this one out 🙂
Everything about this recipe sounds delicious!
Fun that y'all made gifts – love the idea of setting a limit and being creative!!
The Pad Thai looks awesome – I might add chicken because my boys wouldn't consider it a full dinner otherwise:)
Yum! I LOVE Pad Thai but have struggled to find a recipe that doesn't call for fish sauce – so I'm so glad you posted this! Going to try this one after we all dig out from snowmageddon in Virginia! Fingers crossed for you guys in Kentucky!
Love me some Pad Thai! This sauce is so simple too…perfection!
Love that cake you made for v-day – you two are such a great couple 🙂
I haven't had Pad Thai in so long!! YUM!
I am adding this to my growing recipe list!! 🙂
Pad Thai, yes please send me some!! This looks amazing. Luckily I think I have all these ingredients. Look out lunch tomorrow since it's currently sleeting and I have a half inch of ice on my deck!! Woohoo snow day!
Oh I love Pad Thai!! Will definitely have to try this. And I love the idea of making gifts for each other, what a great idea. I will have to remember that for next year. I hope you guys fair well with the snow. We are supposed to get about 8 inches here in DC as well! Stay warm!
Ahh, I love pad thai! I'm super impressed by your 18 mile run. I would probably eat lots of chocolate chip pancake and my arm as soon as I finished that.
Tina, I love this recipe! Way to go, just going for it. You have inspired me to do meatless Monday! Whoa…what am I going to make? Luckily, there is plenty of inspiration here! PS, Thanks for visiting my blog. But, I have to apologize, I responded as if you were my friend from the gym, your names are so close, and she's a runner. LOL! It's because your named looked familiar, and I haven't seen her in awhile, and was so surprised to see she had a blog. Um…nope! Wrong Tina! LOL! Well, it brought me here, so it was meant to be. Take care!
Haha I didnt even notice, but YAY! I am SOOOOOO excited you will be joining us from now on. It is a lot of fun, just let your mind be creative, and make the most interesting thing you can come up with. I usually take a favorite meal, and then just replace the meat with some kind of protein. I look forward to seeing what you bring 🙂 Glad we are connecting!
This is Jessica Joy @thefitswitch. TheFitSwitch.org. Just so you know. lol
Ohh, I'd love to try yourveggie pad thai. We made a traditional pad thai once and it was delicious. Love your sweet Valentine's. A ten dollar limit sounds like a perfect idea 🙂
Im laughing we are SO SO SO UNBELIEVABLY ORGANIZED THIS WEEK (not) it is meatless TUESDAY up in herrre 🙂
Ooh, Tina, you read my mind! I love pad thai! And I just picked up some frozen veggie pad thai from Trader Joe's. I'm sure yours is much better. 🙂 I love the crunch of nuts, too. Something so satisfying about eating them.
As a vegetarian, I love these "meatless Monday" posts around the web! This looks like a great recipe…pinning it for later this week. Thanks!
This looks like a fantastic recipe for pad thai! I love that you included so many vegetables – perfect for crunch and flavor. Also pretty to look at 🙂
That looks soooooo yumm !!! I'm trying this out for sure! I love Pad Thai and I'm vegetarian.
Ooo! Love it Tina! This looks simple enough to make on a weeknight. I need to try and add this to my rotation but without the peanuts since Gabby is allergic. Maybe sunflower seeds? Or would that be weird.


text:
Ineltrón Solutions S.L. is a company committed to sustainable development through the design, construction, commissioning, start-up, operation and maintenance of electrical, instrumentation and control industrial facilities, contributing to social well-being, environmental balance and economic progress, creating shared value in the long term for society.
This commitment has been captured in the Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, which governs all the activities of the organization and its staff, in order to meet the highest professional and ethical standards of transparency, respect for human rights, environment and the local communities where the company performs its activities.
Furthermore, Ineltrón makes an additional commitment in its Quality, Health, Safety and Enviromental Policy, settling customer satisfaction, continuous improvement and zero tolerance with occupational risks in the centre of its activities and placing Ineltrón as a leading company in the sector.


text:
Comprehensive Health Insurance Billing, Coding, and Reimbursement
- Edition: 3rd
- Format: Paperback
- Copyright: 05/01/2017
- Publisher: Pearson
Note: Not guaranteed to come with supplemental materials (access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.)
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A clear illustration of the key health insurance concepts readers need to learn to be workplace ready
Comprehensive Health Insurance: Billing, Coding, and Reimbursement provides readers with the knowledge and skills needed to work in a variety of administrative positions in the medical field. It covers the foundations of insurance, billing, coding, and reimbursement, offering a comprehensive view of how each element in the process affects all other steps. Students learn not only the submission of claims to the insurance carrier, but also reviewing medical records, verifying patient benefits, submitting a secondary claim, posting payments and appealing the insurance carrier's decision. Numerous case studies and patient files are included throughout to demonstrate refunds and appeals, auditing, and compliance, Medicare calculations, and professionalism. The Third Edition includes 2017 ICD-10, CPT, and HCPCS codes; information about the ramifications of the Affordable Care Act; and current information on health care changes, trends, and the future of health care.
For even more practice and review opportunities pair Comprehensive Health Insurance with the Student Workbook. The Workbook (ISBN: 0134787293) contains key terms, chapter objectives, chapter outlines, critical-thinking questions, practice exercises, review questions, and end-of-workbook tests/case study-type problems that test student knowledge of the key concepts presented in the core textbook.
Also available with MyLab Health Professions for the Comprehensive Health Insurance course
MyLab is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to work with this text to engage students and improve results. Within its structured environment, students have ample opportunity to practice what they learn and test their understanding to better absorb course material and understand difficult concepts.
If you would like to purchase both the physical text and MyLab, search for:
0134699815 / 9780134699813 Comprehensive Health Insurance: Billing, Coding, and Reimbursement Plus MyLab Health Professions with Pearson eText -- Access Card Package
Package consists of:
013445877X / 9780134458779 Comprehensive Health Insurance: Billing, Coding, and Reimbursement
0134709705 / 9780134709703 MyLab Health Professions with Pearson eText -- Access Card -- for Comprehensive Health Insurance


text:
This classic centerpiece is perfect for an oblong or rectangular table. The long and low design allows the centerpiece to be the center of attention without blocking anyone's view while seated at the table. This arrangement is designed in floral foam, with red and white flowers and textures, and arrives with two matching tapered candles.
This arrangement is roughly 36″ long and 12″ wide. Flowers and colors may vary, subject to availability.


text:
Magellan reports new oil discovery in Montana's East Poplar unit
Magellan Petroleum Corporation through its wholly owned subsidiary, Nautilus Poplar, has completed its EPU 117 well within the East Poplar Unit as a new pool producer in the Amsden formation at a depth of approximately 4,800 feet.
The well has just recently been completed and is currently producing approximately 106 barrels of oil per day with no appreciable water on a 10/64th choke with a flowing tubing pressure of 95 psi.
This is the first production from this formation within the Unit. This well will be closely monitored to determine its ultimate commercial viability.
Tom Wilson, President and CEO, said: "We are pleased to announce this new pool discovery. This Unit on the Poplar Dome has produced for decades, and continues to provide outstanding opportunities in a variety of different intervals. While it's still too early to make definitive statements regarding this well and this formation and their ultimate productivity, it is nevertheless an exciting discovery and reminder of the potential of this Unit."
The Company also announces that its Australian subsidiary has commenced work in the Palm Valley Gas Field located in the Amadeus Basin of the Northern Territory to retrofit existing production and compression facilities to allow gas to be delivered from this field to a new purchaser, with deliveries to this new purchaser expected to begin on or before February 1, 2012.
These deliveries will be pursuant to an interim gas sales agreement currently being finalized that will remain in effect until the completion of a long term (multi-year) sales agreement.
The long term agreement is expected to be completed after the closing of the previously announced transaction between Magellan Petroleum (N.T.) and Santos QNT and Santos.
This transaction is expected to close prior to the end of the current quarter pending receipt of necessary governmental and industry approvals, which are in the process of being obtained.
These gas sales from the Palm Valley Gas Field under either the interim or long term agreement replace a portion of the sales lost upon the expiration of the 25-year agreement with PWC that expired by its terms on January 16, 2012. When fully operational, the long term contract is expected to take the full existing production capacity of the Palm Valley Gas Field.
Tom Wilson, President and CEO, stated: "This interim agreement with a new gas purchaser will limit the disruption to our production and revenue receipt from the Palm Valley Gas Field while we await the completion of our transaction with Santos and the institution of the anticipated attractive long term sales arrangement."


text:
Normal Mode
To open the documents on this page, you will require Adobe Acrobat Reader v7.0 or above. Please click here for this Adobe Acrobat Reader (free upgrade)
Eton College Prospectus
The 2019-2020 Admissions Booklet
Eton College Registration Form
Bursary Application Form
Bursary Guidance Notes
Eton Bursary Policy
The 2021 King's Scholarship application form will be available to download from September 2020
King's Scholarship prospectus
King's Scholarship change of procedure information for 2016 onwards.
King's Scholarship medical form
King's Scholarship Syllabus supplementary details
Election Roll 2020
Previous King's Scholarship papers to download
Download the Music Award Prospectus in PDF format
Download the Music Award Application form
Orwell Award Prospectus
Applications for the Orwell Award (2021) opened on Tuesday 7 July 2020.
The deadline for applications is Friday 25 September 2020.
Applications for Sixth Form Entry for entry in 2020 have now closed. Applications for 2021 will open in July 2020.
Eton College regularly admits boys from over 100 different schools each year. For those families investigating independent schools in the UK, the information below may be useful.
IAPS (The Independent Association of Prep Schools):
Registered Office: 11 Waterloo Place, Leamington Spa, CV32 5LA
Telephone: 01926 887833
email: email@example.com
website: https://iaps.uk/
ISEB (Independent Schools Examinations Board) Common Entrance Administrative Office
Endeavour House, Crow Arch Lane, Ringwood, BH24 1HP
Telephone: 01425 470555
email: firstname.lastname@example.com
website: www.iseb.co.uk
ISCias (Independent Schools Council Information & Advice Service): online information only
Independent Schools Council, First Floor, 27 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9BU
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7766 7070
Fax: +44 (0)20 7766 7071
NB: "ISC is a membership organisation and not an advice line for parents or external bodies.
That said and where possible, ISC endeavour to assist parents with general queries".
PAST COMMON ENTRANCE PAPERS are available from Galore Park:
Telephone: 01235 400555 (Mon-Fr, 9.00am – 5.00pm)
email: email@example.com
website: www.galorepark.co.uk


text:
'It will rock for sure'
Cricket skipper MS Dhoni confident about motorbike racing's bright future in India
Many sports lovers have been whining over the domination of cricket over other disciplines in the country for quite a while now. But the fact that the skipper of the Indian national team is going out of his way to promote motorsport is surely a sign of brighter days for the lesser known/followed sports.
Earlier in June, Captain Cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni launched a racing team that participated in the Supersport FIM World Championship in the 600cc category and yesterday the team got a massive facelift with an aim to get Indian eyeballs hooked to the sport.
Apart from changing the name from MSD R-N Racing Team India to Mahi Racing Team India and unveiling the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R bikes for the upcoming season, Dhoni also announced the signing of two world champions — Kenan Sofouglu of Turkey and Fabien Foret of France. The duo join French youngster Florian Marino and British ace Dan Linfoot, who achieved a remarkable podium finish at the final race in France.
Dhoni looked relaxed as usual, despite the first Test against England looming large, as he spoke of his love for bikes. "I had this passion for bikes from the very start and this racing team is like a dream come true for me. I've never wanted to do anything like this, but the opportunity came up and I thought of bringing motorsport to India. Personally, I thought it was a good prospect. We were in Australia at the time this project came up and I thought it was a good thing to be associated with. In the last two years Formula One has picked up in India, but motorbike racing is still behind," Dhoni told reporters yesterday.
Dhoni is confident motorbike racing will pick up in India with the Superbike Championship adding a race at the Buddh Interational Circuit in the capital to it's schedule. "India is among the biggest two wheeler selling markets in the world. Also, in the last 10 years, the capacity of the engines of bikes in India has gone up remarkably. From 100cc bikes, big players in the Indian market are now venturing into 220cc, 250cc markets."
Dhoni is also keen on starting a riding school to help groom Indian riders.
"We want to open a riding school in India and in the coming years I would like to see one of the Indian riders doing really well on our bikes. But of course, we want to take small steps and open a riding school. It gives youngsters an opportunity to show their skills," he said.
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New Zealand's building sector has united to target construction talent in the UK in an unprecedented recruitment push to fill thousands of jobs needed for the biggest infrastructure and housing build in the Pacific nation's history.
The consortia of government organisations, local body entities and private companies are launching a campaign LookSee Build NZ this week to attract some of the more than 56,000 staff, including 2,200 senior roles, it is estimated New Zealand needs for the more than NZ$125 billion programme of infrastructure works over the next decade. The country is simultaneously embarking on the biggest housing build ever attempted, with 100,000 new homes slated for construction over the next three years and more promised in the coming decade.
It is the first time New Zealand's public and private construction sector have combined in a single cause and Downer NZ general manager network maintenance and civil construction Craig West says the need for top talent is so acute it required an innovative approach to talent procurement.
"Our construction sector is very competitive and this kind of inter-industry cooperation has never happened before but the need for staff requires us to take an all-of-industry approach," West says. "We've united to solve a big problem for all of us and we've come to the UK because that is where some of the best global construction talent is."
Auckland Transport chief infrastructure officer Greg Edmonds says the recent downturn in British construction activity created an ideal employment environment in which to make a pitch to potential migrants to New Zealand.
"We've conducted qualitative research into the UK construction industry and this shows the vast majority of respondents are interested in job opportunities in New Zealand," says Edmonds. "More than 82% were prepared to pay their own travel and more than half were prepared to migrate within three months."
If people do get a job as a result of LookSee Build NZ their airfares to New Zealand will be repaid, he says.
To persuade prospective employees to take the trip Down Under, LookSee Build NZ is also offering a range of quintessential Kiwi 'experiences' as a means to entice construction professionals to the country, says construction management consultant Aaron Muir.
"There's a whole range of experiences we're offering as part of the deal – fishing, surfing and canoeing, cultural events, the chance to see stunning sites of natural beauty – that will give prospective migrants a taste of what to expect if they choose to live in New Zealand," he says.
Edmonds says New Zealand offers more than just lifestyle – the projects approved for construction are world-class, complex infrastructure builds that will appeal to ambitious skilled staff who want to further their careers.
"The Christchurch rebuild is actually still ongoing, then there's the America's Cup and the massive development plans for Auckland's waterfront, while a whole suite of ongoing transport initiatives mean our construction is facing a decades-long full pipeline," Edmonds says.
LookSee Build NZ are seeking project manager and supervisors, civil and traffic engineers, roading & tunnel engineers, commercial managers and quantity surveyors, design managers and surveyors, structural engineers and draughts people among a wide range of specialist construction roles.
Muir cites Infrastructure NZ figures showing public and private works valued at NZ$125 billion to be built over the next ten years and notes election infrastructure promises that will see up to an additional NZ$14 billion added.
Muir says the free Kiwi experiences will not by themselves persuade people to make the move "but what it will do is give them a genuine taste of the lifestyle that is on offer in New Zealand. What puts New Zealand above Dubai and Singapore is the quality of living experience that is unmatched around the world."
More information about the recruitment campaign can be found at www.lookseebuildnewzealand.co.nz.
About LookSee Build NZ
LookSee Build NZ is an innovative international talent procurement programme that turns the traditional recruitment process on its head by taking the opportunities in New Zealand to the world and, in turn, bringing the world back to New Zealand.
It is specifically designed to address an acute skills and talent shortage in the construction sector and future-proof the building industry as the country gears up for the largest infrastructure build in the nation's history.
Acting on behalf of a range of participating employers, including public and private sector entities, the LookSee Build NZ campaign is targeting highly skilled professionals from the UK, Ireland and Canada to assist them in becoming 'New Zealand-ready' before match-making candidates who are interested, qualified and available with the appropriate employer.


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50mm polished 316 marine grade stainless steel, stand alone bike rail. Available in either bolt-down or in-ground styles. In-ground style also available in galvanised steel finish.
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I am happy to announce that we will have a new addition joining the blog! Chelsea Rakuc came to St. Ambrose University to obtain a degree in Early Childhood. She came to our lab school to fulfill her field experience hours and from day one she captured our hearts! Her passion for children and teaching was evident from day one! We had to ask her to work for us when she was not in class or fulfilling her required practicum hours. I have seen her grow and flourish into a wonderful young woman. As I watched her this summer participate and support the University, the trainers, and the trainees in the Summer Institute (yes, this was with the AMAZING Lilian Katz); I saw her excitement and dream of training, teaching, and supporting others happen. I approached her and asked if she would be willing to share her insights, reflections, and what she is learning while she is taking her last semester of classes and then continue as she student teach. As teachers, we always seem to be wanting to learn more (we seem to never want to leave school!) and I can't wait to learn the information she will be sharing with us!
Below is her Biography. I will also add it to the About section on our blog. Begin to look at new posts from her beginning this month!
Hi! My name is Chelsea Rakuc and I am a senior at St. Ambrose University. I am studying Early Childhood Education with an endorsement in Special Education. I have been a part of the Children's Campus family since 2011, working as a student worker in both the Leapfrogs and the Dragonflies. I am preparing to begin my student teaching in the spring in the North Scott school district in a first grade and early childhood special education preschool classroom. I feel that teaching is all about creating an environment for children where they feel safe, are engaged in learning, and learn in a way that allows them to express who they are and what they are interested in. I am so excited that Mahi is giving me the opportunity to share her blog site and I hope that you all follow me on my journey! I want to share my perspective and my observations in various practicum settings and student teaching. I cannot wait to share my findings, thoughts, reflections, and passion that I have for young children.


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My Dad is still fond of telling this story to his grand kids, or at least to those who would patiently listen.
My parents kept on with the routine of taking me to the top of the CCP until those who ran the complex wised-up and started to politely refuse the general public access to the ramps.
That's why ever since I can remember CCP, had a mystical hold on me-- even though the shows regularly held there were not interesting to me. Because, frankly, they are beyond my budget for entertainment. To me they were expensive and uninteresting…
…Except for the coming show on March 28.
Yesterday Ayheen told me that she was informed by Sabine's Ballet teacher that she is going to join their Corps' recital at the CCP on March 28.
This Date happens to be Sage's Birthday too.
Sabine has been taking Ballet Lessons for only 2 months now that's why we didn't expect her to be a part of any show.
So this means just like my Dad, who will be watching the Ballet Recital with us, Sabine will take me to the top of the
I'm sure the landscape that I will view from the top has changed after all these years
BUT not the kind of love that has brought me back there.
I can't wait to see Sadie and Tristan's faces when we go up that ramp…
Bravo, Sabine!
Happy Birthday, Ate Sage!!!


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Cluster B: "Complex Foragers"
Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene developments in Northern Europe. A: archaeological CRC projects working on this time period and area; B: general archaeological classification; C: presence of archaeological groups in the southwestern Baltic region; D: approximate position of transformation phases; E: general climate development in the North Atlantic region based on oxygen isotope curve from NorthGRIP in the GICC05 chronology (cf. Grimm, in press, Fig. 29); F: general environmental development in the southwestern Baltic region; G: chronological position of the local study areas (yellow: 14C-dated periods; orange: stratigraphic and archaeological attribution).
Cluster B is divided in projects two sub-projects (B1, B2). Providing research about transformation in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene populations, it is part of research focus 2, "Transformations of socio-economic formations".
B1: Pioneers of the North: Transitions and Transformations in Northern Europe Evidenced by High-Resolution Data Sets


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Adventures of Abram: Part I
September 28, 2014
Many years pass between the events at Babel and the release of Mumford & Sons' single. Fewer years pass before another iconic figure takes the biblical stage. We follow the lineage of Shem through many generations until we get to a man called Abram. Abram was one of three brothers (Nahor and Haran being the other two) born of Terah in the land of Ur of the Chalde'ans. Another potentially important observation is that this is the second time in the Bible so far that a wife is mentioned by name. Abram's wife was Sar'ai, and Nahor's wife was Milcah. As it turns out, Milcah was none other than Haran's own daughter. Creepy, but times were different.
Unfortunately, Haran dies young and his son, Lot, is taken in by Abram. Afterwards, Abram, his wife, his father, and Lot move away from Ur with the intention of moving to the land of Canaan.
It must have looked like providence when they came upon a town called "Haran", which may be why Abram and his family decided to abandon their quest and settle there (talk about constantly being reminded of your dead brother/father/son though). Regardless, in due time God would present Abram with a new quest to pursue:
"'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation…'" (Gen 12.1-2)
God will probably just lead Abram to the remains of Babel and be like, "Whoa ho! Looky here buddy. I already got you started!"
But seriously. As added incentive, God tells Abram that he will make a name for himself and "bless those who bless [Abram], and him who curse [Abram] I will curse." (Gen 12.3) So with new purpose Abram accepts God's quest, uproots his family (despite God's direct instruction to leave his "kindred") and heads off for the land of Canaan.
This time Abram actually makes it to Canaan, and when he arrives God declares that the lands before him will be given to the descendents of Abram. The one catch that is glossed over in the story is that there are actually a bunch of Canaanites already living there. This brings up two important points. The first is identifying the people (Canaanites) present in the valley already. If the preceding events in the Bible are to be believed, the current residents of Canaan are descendents of Noah, and not just any descendents. These are the people cursed by Noah after his son (Canaan) saw him naked. Granted, it wasn't God doing the cursing, but I can't help but wonder if this is fulfillment of the promise made long before.
The second, and potentially more interesting point about Abram's land acquisition is its geographic location. When Abram stops in Canaan, he builds his first alter to God at a place called Shechem between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim. Today, this city is known as Nablus and is in the West Bank. This information was inconsequential until Oxford informed me that Abram, also known as Abraham, is actually the biblical representation of Israel. I found this piece of information interesting given the current climate in Israel-Palestine today. I am woefully under-educated in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I know that a fraction of it involves land and a dispute over who owns what. I find it intriguing that a similar interaction over the same land is taking place in the Bible thousands of years before our modern struggles. Whether or not Abram's Israel is a reflection of the current Israel and if Canaanites are synonymous with Palestinians, I don't know. Regardless, the information adds another layer to the already complicated perspectives.
In thanks for His gift of the land of Canaan, Abram starts on an unofficial quest across the land building altars to God. On his way to Egypt, ostensibly to build another altar, two, grim situations present themselves. The first is that there is a severe famine ravaging Egypt. The second is a belief held by Abram that the Egyptians will kill him to free his beautiful wife Sar'ai from the bonds of marriage putting her "back on the suq". Abram gives no consideration to the first reality to instead plan for the second possibility. At this point, as a reader, I'm not sure what to make of the Egyptians. This could be the first instance of prejudice demonstrated in the Bible as Abram considers the Egyptians to be the type who would kill a man to get at his wife. At the same time, I'm not sure if I should respect the Egyptians for holding the institution of marriage so highly as to think there is no way out but through death. Attempting to avoid the situation altogether, Abram's grand idea is to travel through Egypt as brother and sister. Because if they would kill a man for his wife, they certainly wouldn't just take his sister…
At this point, I would have just gone home.
Abram, however, does not seem to question his trip into Egypt despite the two threats facing him. His commitment to his task makes me see him as a sort of missionary, the first of his kind in the Bible. I am further convinced of this when I remember that Abram has been traveling around the country building altars, none of which, surprisingly, were prompted by God. The last we've seen of God is when he gave the land of Canaan to Abram at which point Abram started on his mission. Perhaps Abram's actions are a subtle indicator of how the reader should give thanks to God.
As if on cue, Sar'ai is claimed by the Pharaoh of Egypt soon after she and Abram enter. Fortunately Abram is not left empty handed as he is given "sheep, oxen, he-asses, menservants, maidservants, she-asses and camels" (Gen 12.16) for his wife-sister. Alas, God will have none of it and unleashes plagues upon the Pharaoh's house whereupon the Pharaoh relinquishes Sar'ai. It is important to note that the Pharaoh does not begrudgingly give up Sar'ai or put up a fight; he simply says, "'Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say 'she is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.'" (Gen 12.18-19) Here we see the Pharaoh redeem himself and the Egyptian people from the negative stereotype presented by Abram earlier in the chapter.
Strangely, there is no lesson imparted at the conclusion of Abrams sojourn in Egypt. I anticipated some turmoil, where the Pharaoh doesn't let them leave, won't give up Sar'ai, or Abram is imprisoned and tortured and ultimately some great lessoned is learned. But no, they just get to go home. It's like if you watched Titanic, and 3 hours in instead of the boat sinking (spoiler alert), it just docked in New York and everybody went home.
I guess all stories have to end somehow.


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Method: Indirect Grilling Grill: Charcoal or Gas Steve Raichlen: Indirect Grilling Plus: More Dessert Recipes and Tips
How to Make It
Set up your grill for indirect grilling and preheat to medium-high (375° to 400°). In a small bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Set the rub aside. Make the Caramel "Barbecue Sauce" and set aside.
Cut the ends off the bananas, then cut each banana in half lengthwise through the skins. Leave the skins on. Lightly brush the cut sides of the bananas with the molasses, then sprinkle generously with the sugar rub. Oil the grill grate. Arrange the bananas, skin side down, in the center of the grill over the drip pan away from the heat. Cover and grill until the bananas are tender and beginning to shrink back from the skin, 15 to 20 minutes.
Transfer the bananas to a platter, lining the halves up side by side in a row, so they look like a rack of ribs. Spoon some of the Caramel "Barbecue Sauce" over the bananas and sprinkle the pecans on top. Serve the rest of the caramel sauce on the side.


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Kentucky clerk Kim Davis released from jail
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis walked out of a Kentucky detention center to massive applause Tuesday after spending five days behind bars for defying a federal order that she issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But her attorney said that Davis would continue to abide by her conscience, which cannot condone same-sex nuptials, and that all licenses issued since her incarceration were not valid.
The defiant stand seems likely to land Davis right back in jail, from where she emerged Tuesday afternoon alongside her attorney, Mat Staver, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who was hosting a rally in her honor. Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, told reporters outside the detention center he'd be willing to go to jail in her place should a federal judge find she's violated the conditions of her release.
"We cannot criminalize the Christian faith or anybody's faith in this country," Huckabee said.
Davis later addressed the crowd herself, walking up to the stage in tears as Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" played on loudspeakers. Huckabee and Staver stood on either side of her, victoriously holding her hands up in the air.
"I just want to give God the glory," Davis said. "We serve a living God who knows exactly where each and everyone stands. Keep pressing, don't let down because he is here. He is worthy."
RELATED: Kentucky clerk jailed for contempt
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David Bunning – the same judge responsible for putting Davis behind bars – authorized her release pending her office's continued compliance with an August order that she issue marriage licenses to all eligible applicants. Davis had stopped granting marriage licenses to both gay and straight couples since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in June to make marriage equality the law of the land.
Since plaintiffs in the case have been able to receive marriage licenses from Davis' deputies, Bunning said he was satisfied the clerk's office was complying with his order to issue the licenses.
"On September 8, 2015, Plaintiffs filed a Status Report at the Court's behest," Bunning wrote in his order Tuesday. "According to the Report, Plaintiffs have obtained marriage licenses from the Rowan County Clerk's Office. The Court is therefore satisfied that the Rowan County Clerk's Office is fulfilling its obligation to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples, consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in Obergefell and this Court's August 12, 2015 Order. For these reasons, the Court's prior contempt sanction against Defendant Davis is hereby lifted."
Tuesday's release order came as Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Huckabee headed to the Carter County Detention Center to meet with Davis and potentially score points with social conservative voters.
Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, pledged to do "everything in his power to ensure more Americans don't become victim to religious persecution by the government," an aide to his campaign told NBC News. The statement reflected Cruz's broader strategy to run as the ultimate protector of religious freedom, which the White House hopeful has consistently warned is facing an assault in America. In a separate statement on Facebook Tuesday, Cruz said "Praise God that Kim Davis is being released."
Not to be outdone, Huckabee hosted an "#ImWithKim Liberty Rally" outside the Carter County Detention Center Tuesday, following his visit with Davis. Cheers rang out as Huckabee entered the detention center with his wife in the early afternoon. He emerged a hero, walking out a few steps behind Davis. (Cruz, meanwhile, walked out of the detention center a few minutes earlier, alone.)
The case has become a lightning rod for religious freedom advocates who oppose same-sex marriage. For Republican presidential candidates, it has presented an opportunity to court evangelical voters and break away from the crowded field.
"She has ignited something across this country," Huckabee told reporters Tuesday. "People are tired of the tyranny of judicial action that takes people's freedoms away, takes their basic fundamental constitutional rights and puts them in jeopardy, and the tyranny of a legislative court that believes it can make up law and somehow find a way to enforce it."
Not every Republican presidential candidate agrees, however. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham have all said that Davis should abide by the law, not her religious beliefs.
Davis had been in jail for five days, having been found in contempt of court last week by Bunning, a President George W. Bush appointee. In August, Bunning concluded that Davis' religious objection to same-sex nuptials was not a good enough reason for her to deny eligible couples their marriage licenses — something Davis had been doing since June, when the nation's highest court found same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional in the landmark case of Obergefell v. Hodges. Bunning ordered her to resume issuing marriage licenses to all couples — gay and straight.
RELATED: Cruz warns of 'war on faith' at religious freedom rally
But Davis continued to turn away couples seeking marriage licenses, even after the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to put a hold on Bunning's order pending appeal. Citing concern that financial penalties would not be enough to secure compliance with his order, Bunning found Davis in contempt of court on Thursday and remanded her into the custody of federal marshals.
On Friday, Davis' deputies began issuing marriage licenses to both gay and straight couples, though her attorney said those licenses were "not worth the paper they're written on." Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins, meanwhile, has said licenses issued without Davis' approval would still be valid.
Among several appeals that Davis' legal team has filed with the 6th Circuit, one asks for relief from Gov. Steve Beshear's mandate that all county clerks issue marriage licenses. If Davis' name is removed from the licenses, her attorneys said, she will not stand in the way of her deputies issuing them.
Beshear, however, maintains that only the state legislature can change the marriage licenses, and that he will not call a special session to address the matter. To do so, he said, would cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money."
Bunning said in his order Tuesday that Davis "shall not interfere in any way, directly or indirectly, with the efforts of her deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples." But Staver suggested such interference was likely.
"She cannot allow a license authorizing same-sex marriage to go under her authority or name," Staver said in an interview with NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez, ahead of Davis' release. "That's been her position from the beginning and that will be her position, I assume, on any subsequent occasion. She's asking for a simple fix, a simple accommodation."
"We're back to square one," he added. "She's been released. But there has been no resolution."


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Adult education classes are available to adults older than 18 who live in the Virginia counties of Lee, Scott, Wise and the city of Norton. All classes are free, have open entry and open exit. Adults enter at any class meeting and finish when they meet their goals. Textbooks, supplies, and at most sites, access to the Internet are also free.
In "The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt" author Maria M. Cornelius tells the story of the legendary coach's final season through the eyes of those who knew her best. On Saturday, Cornelius will sign copies of her book from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at I Love Books Bookstore on the upper level of the Kingsport Town Center.
When voters in Scott County head to the polls on Election Day, they may be surprised to see the familiar touch-screen voting machines are gone. Instead, voters will be handed a paper ballot to fill out and, once completed, they will insert their marked ballot into a new type of machine, called an optical scan machine.
Sleepy Owl Brewery held its first food truck rally on Saturday in downtown Kingsport.
One of six semi-finalists for the 2012-14 Poet Laureate of Virginia, Rita Sims Quillen received a Pushcart nomination in both 2012 and 2015 and a Best of the Net nomination in 2012. Next week she'll hold a reading and book signing at the Kingsport Public Library.
Now in its 27th year, the Shoe Fund Drive uses donations both large and small to purchase hundreds of pairs of shoes and several thousand pairs of socks for less fortunate students in all of Scott County's 14 schools.
Two suspects are in custody following several auto burglaries in a Gate City neighborhood last week. Justin Addington, 26, of 135 Highland Street, Gate City, and Brandon Akers, 20, of Kingsport, are both charged with grand larceny. They are being held in the Duffield Regional Jail without bond.
Kingsport residents Bob and Doris Miller have been voting in presidential elections since the 1940s and say they have never seen an election season quite like this year's.
Four years ago during the last presidential election, the Times-News shared the story of Bob and Debbie Arrington. The Kingsport couple, married since 1974, have some very differing views on politics. We revisited Bob and Debbie to see how things are going for them this time around, in such a heated campaign season and learned not much has changed in this divided household.
"When we began this outreach event, there were no programs or outreach efforts being made — that I was aware of — for the women in this community that I called the 'untouchables' of society," said Patricia Lefler. "On the morning of that first year's event, we went out and literally picked women up from the streets — at least one woman having slept under a city bridge the night before."


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Deuteronomy 28:12-14 The Lord will open to me His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to my land in its season, and to bless all the work of my hand. I will lend to many nations, and not borrow. And the Lord will make me the head and not the tail. I will be above only, and not be beneath, if I heed the commandments of the Lord my God, and am careful to observe them. So I will not turn aside from any of the words which He commands me today, to go after other gods to serve them.
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Why blame the victim?
May 21, 2011
Ahh…Saturday! No work. No church. It's a day reserved for thinking about ourselves, our daughter and our dogs. Just because the world is ending today, doesn't mean we have to pout. (There really is a need for a sarcasm font.)
I had an epiphany about blaming rape victims for their rapes today…at the dog park of all places. Let's see…
We decided to take our dogs to the nice dog park in the nice town, and then swing by the nice grocery store on our way home. It should have been a pleasant family outing. And it was…until a 50-lb dog attacked and bit our 14-lb Tootie.
Our Charlotte (60-lb pit bull mix) and Tootie (Boston terrier) love the park. They're leash-less there, and they frolic. They bark at but don't aggress other dogs, except for the occasional stare-down between Charlotte and an alpha female. We don't tolerate that at all and remove Charlotte immediately from quarrelsome groups. Tootie has never had a problem getting along with other dogs of any size.
Sometimes, dog parks are divided: a pen for "small" dogs apart from the larger area for "big" dogs. But – as Tootie and Charlotte are generally inseparable elsewhere – at the park, they want to play together. Tootie doesn't know what to make of small dogs and doesn't play with them. In fact, I've never thought of her as a "small" dog…like chihauhaus or Yorkshire terriers or toy poodles. She cavorts with Charlotte and her equals regularly. In fact, Boston terriers can often be found with big dogs because they have "big dog" attitude.
I observed a woman with an aggressive 100-lb dog telling other dog owners to "watch out" for her dog as he has a tendency "to harm other dogs when he plays." WTF? Why bring him here? I thought as I eyed Charlotte to make sure she kept a wide berth. And there was also an anxious man with a leashed "boxer" (red flag there: leashed dog in a fenced in area – why?) bragging about how his dog was a rescued animal and how he'd spent thousands of dollars on vet bills to get the dog in tip-top shape. Periodically, he would turn to the dog and say, "Oh no, you can't come off the leash yet. You're too excited."
When he did finally release his dog, it made a beeline for Tootie, 30 yards away. As she always does, she turned and faced the dog and told it what to do with that aggressive stance…but she was soon overpowered and it grabbed her by the throat and swung her around as if she were a squirrel or a rabbit. She screamed. I screamed. Ellie, my 9 month-old, screamed. I will never forget the sound of Tootie scared and screaming. As tough as she is, there was no way she could have saved herself.
My husband restrained Charlotte in anticipation of her intent to rescue her best friend, and several dogs ran into the fray responding to the frightened cry of a lesser creature, as instinct would dictate. After seconds that seemed like minutes, the attack dog's owner nervously commanded his dog to cease. He reached for his dog as J*** reached for the Toot and the squabble was over just as abruptly as it had begun. When I lifted Tootie, she was shaken and nursing a large gash above her left shoulder.
What do you do in this situation: a dog bites yours at the park? Do you call police? Animal control? Do you just swear at the other dog's owner until you're blue in the face? When you're shaken and angry, door number three seems like the best option. So, I shouted, "Why the fuck is your dog in here?! Get that dog out of here! Your dog just bit my dog! Why did you bring that animal to a public dog park?!"
The man didn't look at me. He didn't speak. He leashed his dog again and wandered back to his former perch, a bench under a shady oak.
Meanwhile, a crowd of people with rubber necks had gathered beside me. Several people asked me kindly about Tootie's condition. But the woman with the aggressive-as-advertised dog muzzled her dog and then shamed me for bringing my "small" dog into the big dog side of the park because "there are several herding dogs present who will attack small animals." "She told me that her dog is mean to other dogs," a girl with three pit bulls reassured me. "I don't know who brings a mean dog to the park!"
But meanie's owner wasn't the only one shaking her head at me. What a sight I must have been: furious, crying, holding my daughter in one arm and my Boston terrier, bleeding, in another; with a swarm of finger-waggers circling me. "We all knew this would happen." "There's a small dog side for a reason." "You really brought this on yourself."
My mind raced and my eyes found their way to a 20-lb French bulldog on our side of the fence. Is there really a difference between that dog and my dog, who usually plays with big dogs too?
Meanie and its owner left. She was probably afraid that we were going to call the proper authority and, knowing that she was in violation of the signs that read "No Aggressive Dogs Allowed," removed herself from controversy before it could stretch to include her. And with no understanding of what else to do, J*** and I took Tootie to the animal hospital…but not before the attacker's owner snuck through the fence beside me and threw a snotty "sorry" over his shoulder at me. There was no way to punish him for his failure to restrain his dog and no way to force him to pay our impending $165 vet bill. There wasn't even any way to learn who he is or where he lives. He vanished, leaving the victim to be responsible for the violence.
Okay, we're talking dog violence here, not human violence. I understand the difference. For one thing, Tootie will bear a physical scar forever; but she forgot about the attack moments after it occurred. She's not emotionally scarred the way a human would be after, say, a tiger attack. There were things I could have – should have – done differently today. I should not have brought my "small" dog into the big dog park, even though we'd never had a problem with a vicious dog before. There are signs posted. I put Tootie in the position of being the woman with the shortest skirt at a frat party, didn't I? For whether men rape instinctively (as dogs attack) or after mental calculation; they often make the argument that the rape is justifiable because the victim "showed too much skin" or "flirted with me at the bar" or "dressed older than her age," etc. "She was asking for it!" And that's just what they told me at the park!
I've often written that I plan to encourage my daughter to make the safest choices she can in life; but this is problematic when it comes to rape because there really is no way to prevent rape if you're a victim of it. Night joggers, for instance, should wear reflectors. A car driver who can't see a jogger in the dark can cause an accident by striking the jogger. The key word there is: A.C.C.I.D.E.N.T. That accident could have been prevented by reflectors, perhaps. But it's not really an accident if the driver of the car is drunk, is it? Even if you didn't have complete control of your faculties when you decided to drive, you did when you decided to drink. You therefore inflicted violence on another person by extension of your choice, and the fault of the tragedy is yours, whether the jogger was doing the "safe thing" and wearing reflectors or not.
Rape works like that. Whether a rape victim wore a short skirt or ski pants, she becomes a victim when a perpetrator makes a choice to rape her, to perform sexual violence upon her. And whether or not I put Tootie in a dog park or walk her up the block wearing a leash, a violent dog owned by a negligent, ignorant or irresponsible owner might be at liberty to attack her when its owner makes a negligent, ignorant or irresponsible choice. A victim never has a choice about becoming a victim, even if they're doing "safe" things. Anyone can become a victim of violence at any time. (This stance doesn't mean I'm going to abandon my intent to advise Ellie to reduce her risk.)
Why do we blame victims for crimes done to them, without their consent and often without their knowledge? I think there are two reasons. For one thing, we like to bend the rules out of our inherent sense of entitlement, believing that we're special and therefore above them. So, if we own moderately aggressive dogs, or suspect that our un-vetted dog might be vicious…we might visit the dog park a little here or there, increasing the length of our stays or the frequency of our visits over time as we observe no consequences for our breach of edict. But when something goes wrong – as it did today – and somebody gets hurt, we don't want to believe that we could have been to blame, so we instead blame the victim; even though the perp could have been a perp under any other different set of circumstances. Isn't it easier to blame someone else than to examine our own culpability?
For another thing, if it's possible to identify with the victim, we don't want to believe that such violence could ever happen to us…so we convince ourselves that our own risk reduction will keep us safe from harm. It's more comfortable to believe that Tootie would have been safe if she had been in the "safe" park for small dogs, than it is to believe that she could just as easily have been bitten by a vicious dog on that side of the fence too. And fences can be breached just like rules, no?
The United States collective stance on war embodies these two human tendencies. We glorify the violence of soldiers because we're convinced of our own entitlement to enforcing global democracy, or freedom from terror, etc. But what we're really fighting for is a need for crude oil masquerading as a "global concern." And when we think of the the victims of the wars we wage, including the innocent who cannot defend themselves from our weapons of destruction, we sleep better knowing that they were "asking for it" by virtue of their geography. "It could never happen to us," we say. "We're the good guys."
At the end of the day, it's a violent perpetrator who is unsafe; not a dark alley or a bar or a dog park. Those are spaces. We choose how to fill them.
While some of the dog park visitors might be sitting around their Chippendale-inspired dining tables tonight, congratulating themselves on being "above" dog park violence, I'm trying to learn a lesson from this very unpleasant situation. Lesson learned (and compounded by our veterinarian): dog parks are risky environments because dog "play" is often unpredictable. But the biggest lesson to be learned on this and every other day is the lesson we all hate the most, because, let's face it: it applies to all of us. Life's not fair. Today, it wasn't fair to Tootie and me and Ellie and Charlotte and J***, who just wanted to have a pleasant afternoon at the park. And it certainly wasn't fair (according to the National Organization for Women) to the 600 or so women who were raped, today – or any given day – in the U.S.
Can you fit 600 women wearing short skirts into the small dog side of the park?
The Charlotte in me
September 30, 2009
My favorite name is Charlotte. How I wish I were Charlotte! The name comes from the French language and means "little" and "womanly."
This longing, of course, goes against everything I stand for: the annihilation of gender stereotyping and the ascension of women and men to positions of self-acceptance. Let us not hate ourselves because we are women who challenge authority or men who cry.
Somewhere in time, I was doing my usual bit to overturn "the way things are," and I started to cry often because this tendency of mine to scrape other people's authority and bruise egos made me largely unlovable. Oh yes, I am an unlovable, abrasive crier as opposed to the alternative: a politician. And so, I find myself at an interesting gender crux: I try to rebuke hypocritical authority but I am weak and I cry. I try to epitomize my theories and principles, but what I really want is to be petite, slender, pretty and feminine – in the Victorian sense – just like the magazines tell me I should be. I want to be Charlotte even though "Charlotte" is…wrong? And people think that I have bad, selfish intentions when I question authority; but in my mind my intentions are noble.
Victorian novelist Charlotte Bronte did something revolutionary: she wrote about what really goes on in the female mind. In Villette, she wrote about Lucy Snowe and her madness, fearing her state of spinsterhood and haunted by the tragic ghost of a nun (as she perceived the apparition). She wrote about the mad black woman locked away in the attic – who at once represents the slavery women face in matrimony and the enslavement of the natives in colonial Jamaica – in Jane Eyre. Bronte wrote about "crazy" single girls; but her girls weren't really crazy…they were merely thoughtful and frightened by their limitations as women in a patriarchal culture.
As much as I'd like to say that Bronte is the Charlotte in me, I am compelled to tell you the truth. This is the Charlotte in me:
This is my pit bull. And like me, she is largely disappointed in her state of being and commonly misunderstood. (I would call her a "pit bull mix," but the "mix" part doesn't seem to matter much to people who don't know her.) She has a sadness in her demeanor.
How is Charlotte disappointed? She too wants to be pretty and petite.
A few years ago, we surprised her with a little sister: Tootie, the Boston terrier. Tootie is cute, and she is petite compared to Charlotte: they weigh in at 15 and 62 pounds respectively. And so it is that Tootie is more of a "Charlotte," though she is the dominant dog in their relationship.
Nonetheless, Charlotte and Tootie have adopted each other; they clean each other's ears. Tootie, though small, fancies herself big and rules the roost by humping and sleeping on Charlotte. Meanwhile, Charlotte fancies herself petite and tries to climb on my lap whenever she can.
All of this is well and good at home. It doesn't transition smoothly to the dog park, however. This picture (at right) is a picture of two secure dogs who know their pecking order and who accept "the way things are" at home. But at the dog park, the pecking order changes and they become insecure and a little crazy.
Why go?
I like to see my dogs running free. We walk them several times a day, but they are always leashed in such cases. My husband even believes that Charlotte "smiles" when she runs at the park. It's worth the risk that Charlotte might snarl at another girl dog and offend a nervous owner.
I have been able to sit back and observe some interesting canine behavior during our visits to the park. When a new dog enters the arena, many of the dogs gather to perform an inspection. This 20- to 30-second period usually consists of ass-sniffing in a circular kinesis. One dog sniffs another dog who sniffs another dog, etc. Occasionally, there's the assertion of authority: dogs – usually female – snap at each other causing a rumble.
The females are generally dominant at the park, and Charlotte is no exception. She likes to run with the boys and hump them to prove her superiority. Additionally, she loves when she can get a boy dog to lie on his back so that she can stand over him in triumph. (Somewhere, deep inside, all feminists want this experience too.) I think that Charlotte is afraid to let the boys win. And I think she is just afraid of the girls…period.
The dog park is also an interesting vantage point from which to observe human behavior…and so it is the human park too. There's the man who hits dogs. That's right; he hits them. He's given Charlotte two strong whacks on separate occasions when she's gotten a little bitchy with another…well, bitch. There's the "lesbian brigade" (my nickname for these metaphorical or perhaps literal lesbians) who have staked a claim to the center picnic table and who bring at least half a dozen rescue dogs who circle around the table in playful glee. There's the sweet but disabled elderly woman who is nice to chat with but who cannot physically restrain her dogs and relies on the hitter. There are the macho men with macho dogs (Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, Boxers, etc.) who stand on the benches to lord their superiority over the lesbian brigade, smoking big, fat cigars. There are the shy girls with big dogs and the shy girls with little dogs. (I guess I am the shy girl with both.)
So it would seem that girls rule in dog world…perhaps not so much in the human world? There are hitting, smoking lords and nurturing, adopting, soft-spoken ladies at the dog park, at least during peak hours. While Charlotte may be in control, or at least fighting for authority, I am sitting quietly in a corner reading books by authors like Jose Saramago and Margaret Atwood, merely dreaming of Utopia. And what did I do when the hitter attacked Miss Charlotte? The first time, he apologized, to which I replied, "That's okay." The second time I merely wandered away. Coward! I am angry at myself for participating in the assumption that I am a member of the weaker sex.
The thing that's easiest to observe in people at the dog park are the relative levels of fear. In general, there is a pervasive wariness of pit bulls like Charlotte. Historically, some have bitten people and such stories always draw media attention. But Charlotte doesn't bite people, and to my knowledge she has never bitten another dog. If she were a biter, she surely would have bitten the hitter. I probably wanted to bite him more than she. Charlotte just got down low to the ground with her tail between her legs and crawled away…as did I, in spirit.
The women at the dog park are less fearful of pit bulls. They keep and love them. It is only the gentlest, kindest, quietest men who bring pit bulls to the dog park. Most pit bulls are loving and silly…and a little bit dumb. You never see a smoking or hitting macho man with a pit bull for pit bulls really, by their own God-given nature, are not rough enough to show for these men.
However, it might be fear that keeps these men from owning pit bulls. And that is where the tables have turned: that is where women show their dominance in the human world, in our unwillingness to fear the underdog and our confidence to sit and read novels at the dog park.
When Charlotte is safely back at home, exhausted from an afternoon of play, she resumes her subordinate role to the wacky Boston terrier. She resumes her romantic sadness…and sleeps. And while we have silly names for the Boston (Rootin' Tootin' Tootie, Toots McGee, The Tootster, etc.), Charlotte has no nicknames. She is just Charlotte to me in my own home: "little" and "womanly."
And while Charlotte dreams of being smaller than her 62 pounds, trying to get me to lift her up the way I did when she was a puppy and I plucked her from the shelter cage and she rested her head on my shoulder and sighed…I cherish my greater size so that I can hold her, care for her, love her like a good mommy does. In this madness – the madness of loving a pit bull – I am glad, for once, not to be so meek and little as I must seem at the park. I am glad to be brave, and just a bit big.
And I promise, Charlotte, never to let that man hit you again. For you are a part of me, and I see myself in your dog park play.


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British musician, Miles Kane designs a collection for Fred Perry that showcases his confident sense of style. Inspired by the dim lighting of night time and introducing leopard prints to Fred Perry's classic silhouettes, the collection is bold without removing the iconic classy look of Fred Perry.
Miles Kane and Fred Perry are no strangers, having several collaborations under their collective belt it's unsurprising, but welcome, to see another one. Each collection has been unique and this particular one introduces a premium set of crew necks, polos and track jackets that draw on both classic Fred Perry garments and Kane's night time inspired vision for this collaboration
Fred Perry x Miles Kane - Stylist Notes
Expect timeless pieces with classic mod style as well as bolder styles utilising a tonal leopard print that transforms the more understated silhouettes from Fred Perry. Perfect for getting that '60s mod vibe back into your wardrobe.


text: Worship with us at the Church of the Holy Spirit. We offer two Sunday morning services, a quiet, meditative Saturday evening service, and several morning worship services during the week. We welcome everyone to participate fully in our worship services at Church of the Holy Spirit. Find out more about our weekly services.


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Houston Area Urban League 48TH Annual Equal Opportunity Day Gala
Style Magazine Newswire | 6/1/2016, 7:32 a.m.
The Houston Area Urban League (HAUL) will celebrate 48 years of providing services to the Greater Houston community on Saturday, June 18th, 2016 with its Equal Opportunity Day Gala featuring a dinner, Honoree recognition and entertainment. The event will be held in the Ballroom of the Americas at the Hilton Americas Hotel, beginning at 6 p.m. with a reception, followed by the program and dinner at 7:00 pm. This year's featured entertainment will be Comedian Marcus D. Wiley.
The Gala is a key fundraiser benefiting HAUL's ongoing programs that serve the Houston community in areas such as workforce and economic development, housing and community service, education, and workforce training. In 2015, HAUL served over 10,000 Houstonians.
This year we are honored to have serving as our Honorary Chair, Mr. Gerald D. Hines, Founder & Chairman, Hines and Co-founder of the Houston Area Urban League. Serving as gala chairs are Peter and Joanne Linden.
Our outstanding Honorees are: Mr. John Nau – Marguerite Ross Barnett Leadership Award, Dr. Kase Lawal – Gerald Hines Corporate Award, Mr. Gerald D. Hines – Whitney M. Young Humanitarian Award, Mr. Willie Iles – Heritage Award and Mr. Will Norwood – Empowerment Award.
"Our purpose for this event is to honor deserving representatives of the greater Houston community — those who help the Urban League fulfill its mission and the community through their humanitarianism, corporate charity, monetary donations and local philanthropy," said Judson Robinson III, HAUL's President and CEO. "In our 48th year of operation, our aim is to continue to provide a holistic approach to people challenged in the areas of housing, jobs, economic development, and education," Robinson said. "With the general support of Houstonians, we will continue to be successful in these endeavors."
For information regarding the Gala please contact HAUL's Director of Fund Development, Elmer Rogers, at (713) 393-8765. Members of the media covering the gala are invited to check in at the media table near reception.
The Houston Area Urban League, founded in 1968, is a United Way agency affiliated with the National Urban League. Its mission is to help African Americans and other minorities to secure economic self-reliance, parity and civil rights.


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More About ABLEVINS98
Visit My SparkPage Send Me SparkMail
Recipes I've Shared:
Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup
Nothings better than delicious homemade chicken noodle soup.
Cinnamon Almond Butter
Homemade almond butter, like peanut butter. Simple, delicious, and preservative free.
Whole Wheat Pancakes
A light and fluffy wheat pancake, sligtly sweeter than most, and the wheat flavor is not overwhelming.
Whole Wheat Banana Applesauce Muffins
A good tasting wheat muffin. Very low in calories and fat, and adds a good punch of fiber!
Recipes I've Rated:
Recipe Collections I've Shared:
|Amanda's Healthy Cooking!
This is a collection of recipes I have either found, created, or tested. Loosing weight is hard enough, so we may as well have good tasting food to go along with it. I hope you enjoy my collection. I used to be 4burkes and now my user id is ablevins98, so anything you see by those users are me!


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I recently ran into some errors dealing with my git-repositories.
git fsck --full --progress
returned many errors like
bad sha1 file: .git/objects/1a/._32dbc32bce8958123ce808f49556bd0f8b3609
error: non-monotonic index .git/objects/pack/._pack-d780ff46242cce174a2067e9a5a1cc363cc66df0.idx
Looking into the problem, I discovered, that practically every single files had a corresponding one starting with
._ which contained only one line:
Mac OS X
2??ATTR[????com.f-secure.clean1This resource fork intentionally left blank
F-Secure for Mac OS, which I installed without seeing the necessity, nor danger wrote these files into the whole repository and corrupted every single checksum.
After deinstalling F-Secure for Mac OS, I could fix the git-repo by running this command:
find . -name ._\* -type f -delete
To permanently stop the samba server from accepting these files, add
veto files = /._*/.DS_Store/ delete veto files = yes
To your smb.conf
I love the power of plaintext and texteditors. For adding more semantic meaning, I have experimented with the lightweight markup-languages txt2tags, emacs org-mode and Markdown. All three have their stengths and weaknesses. Txt2tags adds the ability to export to many different formats. Markdown is well supported on many editors on Mac OS an iOS. Org-Mode has so much power, calling it a markup-language is actually not doing it enough justice. If you are new to emacs, it takes a long time to learn it.
When I first read David Allen's book "Getting Things Done", I liked it. It sounded like a great way to organize your life. But somehow it did not work for me. I did not have the reliable and trusted system. I experimented with all kinds of software, but none fit. The first one that I really filled with my tasks and my thoughts was Thinking Rock. But somehow the system grew full of stuff that I was supposed to do, after a short while I developed a resistance to even look at it. I startet missing deadlines and mistrusted the system despite the fact, that it was technically reliable. I blamed the software, because I felt it was not pretty enough. When I converted to Mac, I started using OmniFocus which provided a better user experience.
In a recent TED Talk, Auret van Heerden, showed the shocking dark side of globalization.
Governments seem helpless in the face of this problem. Around the middle of the talk, he shows, how the power of contracts can help solve this.
Of course, we, the consumers must pay a lot of attention to what we buy. Products that are not manufactured in an ethical way, should be bought less, so that companies with bad codes of conduct have a disadvantage over those with good codes of conduct.
Adventskalender are a popular German countdown to christmas. Every morning, you open a little door with a gift or chocolate behind it.
Our local Lions Club, sells such a calendar with prizes behind the little doors. Each one has a unique number. The numbers get chosen randomly every day. They are published in the local newspaper and on our website.
It is basically a lottery. Lots of people look up the numbers.
This year, I wanted to also publish them on twitter, so calendar-owners simply follow @lionswerne and get the numbers every morning. Manually tweeting every morning would not be fun.
Here is how I wrote a little script, so my Linux-Computer takes care of this automatically. If you are doing something similar, you can follow my instructions. Let me know, if it was of any help.
Another great Ted-Talk. In 2005, Clay Shirky explained, that the communication cost is rapidly falling, thus making classic organisation-structures unnecessary in many cases as decentralized collaboration becomes very easy.
Imagine an annoying kid yelling for your attention. He is jumping up and down, pulling on the leg of your pants, when you are doing something else. Even getting right in your face and interrupting you when you are watching your favorite DVD. Then finally, you give in, turn to the kid and talk to it. Right in that moment, he freezes, covers his ears starts humming, so he can't hear you and yells back at you, that he does not want to talk to you.
You would definitely be irritated.
The real world scenario is the common practice of no-reply-addresses with which businesses tend to talk to their customers. Here is my experience with 1&1. They are real attention seekers. For the last ten years, they are sending me spam mail and putting advertisements on websites I visit. Recently, they even started interrupting my television with their tv-advertisemts. Always when I did not want to communicate with them. A few weeks ago, they even called me at work to tell me how much they liked having me as a customer.
Wow. I was flattered. As a symbol of their gratitude, they even wanted to give me something - for FREE. A melekstsheensh. Whatever that was. I kept asking until I figured that it was just a problem of enunciation and the product was in fact called Mail-Exchange. That made more sense. BTW, this is something that might annoy me even more: mixing languages. But the marketing-people at 1&1 came up with the name and now the employees have to use it in German sentences. End of story.
During the course of the phone-call, it turned out, that the phone-droid was selling me an expensive upgrade with just the first month free of charge. I kept asking, what the shiny new product was for and he told me that I definitely had to try it. It was basically about having information at hand on any device. On my phone, desktop or work computer. I should try it and I could quit any time if I did not like it.
That sounded fair and I was curious. The contract was done via a telefone recording and a few minutes later, I received an email about my new Mail-Exchange. But within minutes after I downloaded the manual, I was disappointed. The lengthy pdf-document illustrated how to set up stuff, that I already had by using an iPhone, Apples Mobile-Me and Dropbox. No new features, just complicated setup-procedures. A look at the clock told me that I was just talked into wasting half an hour of my workday. Time better spent doing anything else. Most favorably with my wife and children at home.
So I looked for the button to quit this Mail-Exchange time thief before it started costing money. I could not find anything, so I replied to their email and asked them where to find it. The answer was nice and quick. The button was not implemeted, yet, but I could send them an email anytime I wanted to quit.
Right after that, I received an email asking me how I liked their support. It included a link to a questionnaire. Well, my answer was not that simple and I did not want to simply click a multiple-choice answer. So I decided to write them an email about my experience and my personal perception. It might help them improve the product, the documentation and their marketing. After writing and sending it, I felt better and wanted to continue my work. Suddenly, I got an automatic reply telling me that I did something wrong: I replied to a no-reply-address. The web-server was configured to treat my thoughts as spam and deleted it so that nobody would ever waste their precious time reading it. That really got me angry. They had no problem pesting me for the last decade and now that I had something to say, they told me, that they did not like to hear from me.
I can understand, that not every company likes to be bothered with off-topic requests, that do not have much to do with achieving their goals. I fully understand Steve Jobs, when he told a student who basically asked Apple to do her homework to "leave us alone".
Heck, she got the attention. Getting told that your mail was discarded immediately feels a lot worse. Why do companies still use no-reply-addresses?
In my previous blog-post, Sir Ken Robbins said, that schools kill creativity. Rowan Atkinson takes it a step further and shows, how schools kill.
I just love british humor. Rowan Atkinson is known all over the world as Mr. Bean, where he is funny without talking.
Watch him in a live performance delivering really black humor.
Of the many TED-Talks, this is my favourite. It is funny, smart and - as far as I can tell - very true.
Sir Ken Robinson talks about how schools kill creativity in our society. In the talk, he point out, how children are not afraid to be wrong. "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with something original."
When I hear politicians talk about the necessity of an internet kill switch, data retention (Vorratsdatenspeicherung) the war on terror and such, I get the feeling that the nation-state is getting too much power over us and is ruining our freedom.
It boils down to the question of what the scope of government should be. I do not have an answer, but I like the idea of leaving as much power and freedom to the people as possible and to avoid a totalitarian society.
When I came across this very old recording of Nobel-prize-winner Milton Friedman talking about limited government, it resonated very deep with many of my believes.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's talk at ted starts very slowy and it takes about 8 minutes, till he finally cuts to the chase.
He describes the emotional state that many people experience when they are completely immersed in a challenging task they like.
The flow is something that I sometimes reach when writing software, plan or design something I care about. A ringing telephone then feels like an alarm clock waking me from a dream state. It seems to come from a completely different world.
Our government has recently passed a law that could be from the novel 1984 by George Orwell. I am sure, many of you have read the book and remember that it is about creating new words and messing with archived information.
Whenever it suited that distopian government, they went into the archives to delete and manipulate content, so the real history could not be traced and they redesigned their language, creating new words and giving existing words new meaning.
Johnny Cash is one of the few musicians, who are authentic. He was even original, when he covered songs from others. He has the gift to sing in a way that really gives meaning to every single word.
The best example in my humble opinion is U2s "One".
Alan Kay gives a great TED Talk about teaching or rather giving children the chance to find things out by themselves.
The whole talk is 20 Minutes. The really geeky and fascinating part starts at 12 Minutes, where he demos a software from the 100$-Laptop "One Laptop Per Child".
A very touching and inspiring video: Knowing that he must die of cancer soon, Professor Randy Pausch gave his last lecture in front of 400 people.
It is more than an hour to watch, but well worth it. He talks about his childhood dreams and what he has achieved in his 47 years. The importance of of hard work and failure.
I accomplish a lot buy tinkering around. Lead by my curiosity, I sometimes spent hours with a piece of hard- or software until I figured it out or made it to something I want it to.
Early on I was entrusted with a computer. So this video resonated with me. It is about kids who learn "You can figure things out by fooling around"
Harbour is a worldwide community effort, to revive the xBase Language. The first goal was to make it fully Clipper compatible. After that was accomplished, it keeps growing. Now, it compiles on almost all platforms. So your old clipper-code can easily be turned into a Linux or Mac Application.
Somehow the development of a software project is very abstract. I found a video, that is also abstract, but stunningly beautiful. It visualizes 11 years of active development.
For years, I follow Joel Spolsky in his blog. He has a very personal and convincing style of writing and opened my eyes on many topics.
Here is a very interesting talk in which he explains, why users always ask for simplicity although deep in their heart they want a lot of features. If you read his blog, there is probably nothing new in this talk, but it is very nicely presented.
Do you still have old DOS-Programs based on CA-Clipper running on your system? This Howto shows you, how to speed up those programs by compiling them with hmg.
I just finished my first howto. If you are a harbour or hmg-developer, you can read, how to get started with PostgreSQL.
Read it here: PostgreSQL for HMG
Have fun reading and leave comments, if you liked it and especially if you did not like it. Point out mistakes, errors or make fun of me, if you feel like it.