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Posts Tagged 'Andreea Raducan'
- In: Juniors | Skills
- 4 Comments
With this quadrennium winding down, and speculation still flying about who will continue — Cheng Fei? Shawn Johnson? Nastia Liukin? Anna Pavlova? Jade Barbosa? — the big question is, who is the next big thing?
I addressed some of my preliminary guesses for the Americans, who have a great crop of juniors. But The Couch Gymnast has an absolutely great round-up of some of the top gymnasts from other countries. Definitely a must-read, especially if you don't usually follow the juniors.
Below I give my top three picks for current juniors from all of the major countries. It doesn't include recent additions to the senior roster, who will also be major players in the next quad (people like Daria Elizarova, the 2007 junior European champion, who was bumped from the Beijing line-up to alternate).
Pretty much every gymnast on this list, however, faces one major problem: big skills with less-than-stellar execution. Nearly everyone here tends to be pretty sloppy, which is going to be a much bigger problem in the new Code, which is clearly an attempt to mitigate the effect of large skills. It'll be interesting to see what their respect coaches do about this. Finally, although this is fairly common among juniors, their vaults lag behind their other events — here's hoping they can all concentrate on this (especially with reference to form) a little more.
Today: Russia and Romania
1. Tatiana Nabieva (RUS)
This one's easy. Nabieva, who won't even be eligible for senior competition until 2010, placed first in the AA at the junior Europeans, and qualified to all of the event finals, taking gold on floor and silver on beam, vault and bars. She's been around the international scene since 2003, at the age of 9! She's progressed from being an adorable pixie-type gymnast to having a really graceful body type and great form. I am most impressed by her UB — she was cleaner at Europeans than Dufournet, who took first. She has great handstand positions, clean lines, great transitions, including a nice Pak. Her FX is still a little sloppy, but she nailed her double Arabian without cowboying it, and often sticks her triple twist, which at Europeans was a 2.5 twist. She's got a pretty decent front with a half on beam and her leaps on beam are good. Her VT is probably her weakest event right now, with inconsistent form in the air (then again, she still placed second at Europeans). She's neither way on the graceful side nor way on the powerful side, but this actually means that she's a balanced gymnast — good tumbling and dance, maybe a la Anna Pavlova. She hasn't been around at many other competitions — she was not, for instance, at Gymnix 2008, but in 2007 at that event she placed first in the AA and medalled in every EF, taking first on bars. This is one major AA threat.
Aliya Mustafina (RUS)
Mustafina is a dancer's gymnast. She's still a little immature on floor, and needs to grow into her choreography a little, but her dance already exhibits beautiful lines and hints of graceful greatness. I love gymnasts of the Shawn Johnson variety — I tend to prefer them — but Mustafina totally won me over. She needs to beef up her FX tumbling skills level, which explains a fourth-place finish on that event at Europeans, but she is amazingly graceful. I would say she will eventually have Nastia Liukin beat on this front, because I think Mustafina can manage to pull out some clean and elegant tumbling too. Because she's a slightly less powerful gymnast, Mustafina is also not totally competitive on VT yet, in terms of constistency, where she competes a 1.5 Yurchenko. But I think she has the potential to do it like Liukin does — stuck, with perfect form in the air. On BB she shows great flexibility and has some nice strength moves. And for all the talk of her having fewer big tumbling skills, she does a standing back with a half — not too shabby. On UB, she has — unsurprisingly — nice lines, and good pirouetting skills. She has a tendency to arch in handstand though, which I think is a result of trying to make them too perfect — this happened to Liukin once, notoriously (I think in 2007 Nationals, but I could be wrong). At Europeans she qualified only to two EFs, placing fourth in both. In 2007, she was second to Nabieva at Gymnix and placed second on every event at the International Junior competition in Yokohama in 2007 (to Rebecca Bross, who swept gold in the AA and all four EFs). Overall, gorgeous gymnast.
3. Viktoriya Komova
If I were Elfi Schlegel, I would start here by mentioning how Viktoriya Komova is the daughter of Soviet gymnast Vera Kolesnikova, and therefore has loads of gymnastics DNA. Instead, let's talk about how Komova placed third at Pacific Rim and the WOGA Classic this year. She also qualified for all four EFs at Pacific Rim, though she finished out of the medals in all of them (and the dreaded fourth in two of these). Her best event may be the vault, where she does a strong but inconsistent DTY. Her floor is not too shabby either — it includes a 1.5 twist to double Arabian and a triple twist dismount, and actual choreography that her dance actually stands up to. Again, some problems with consistency — two falls at WOGA — but if she gets rid of those, she'll be a powerhouse. Her BB is packed with difficulty, including handspring to two layouts and a standing Arabian. She's a high jumper too. She's actually solid and aggressive on bars too, where she does a big piked Jaeger and a nice Geinger. A great all-around gymnast. Incidentally, she's only thirteen.
Honorable mentions:
The tiny Anastasia Grishina is up first here because, well, she's strong and talented and … twelve. She placed second among juniors at the 2007 Friendship Classic and sixth at Gymnix 2008. She also won the 11-14 Russian all-around competition in 2007 (none of the above three participated). At Gymnix 2008, Grishina's biggest international event so far, she placed second on bars, fourth on beam and fifth on floor in EFs. On UB she struggles on her low-to-high transition, but she also is generally aggressive and does a high-flying Tkatchev to Pak. Even in the past year she has improved tremendously on floor, and is quite graceful and shows good flexibility, though she needs to up the difficulty a bit.
Grishina's my pick for the biggest stand-out beyond the three I've already mentioned, but I'd also add Violetta Malikova, one of the Russian juniors at the Pacific Rim Championships in 2008, and Eleonora Goryunova, who placed eighth at Gymnix 2008. Malikova is a solid gymnast. On BB, she has a strong Arabian and good, light tumbling. She actually qualified to UB finals at the Pacific Rim, but after a form break on her Tkatchev to Pak and a fall on the dismount, she finished in seventh. So far, my favorite event for her is FX, where she has a strong, expressive routine, and almost always completes her twists. Goryunova is not a stand-out in terms of scores on any event quite yet, but she is competitive on all four of them, and qualified to EFs in three of these at Gymnix. But I think eventually she will be an excellent floor worker. She has superb dance and choreography, but unlike the other young Russians, also throws big skills, including a 5/2 twist to punch layout front. Incidentally, Malikova and Goryunova finished second and third, respectively, to Grishina at the Moscow Championships last year.
Finally, there are three other Russians who participated at Europeans, all of whom deserve mention: Anastasia Novikova, Anna Dementyeva, and Tatiana Solovyeva. All three placed strongly at last year's Moscow Championships, with Novikova and Dementyeva placing second and third on vault after Nabieva, and Dementyeva taking second and third on FX and BB, respectively. Solovyeva is an excellent beam worker (though not at the level of Mustafina and Nabieva — though she did place third at Moscow Championships), and Dementyeva is actually a reasonably good bar worker.
ETA 10/7: I should also mention the sister of Mustafina, Nailya Mustafina, who placed third at Gymnix this year, and 12th at the 2008 Pacific Rim Championships. She also placed second (to Bross, suffering her sister's fate there!) at the 2008 WOGA Classic, beating Komova, who placed third. She is also only 12, but will be eligible for senior competition for the 2012 Olympics. She is more compact and stronger than her sister. On BB, she does a back handspring to back with a full. Despite falling on this skill at WOGA, she wound up with a 15.600. She also outscored Bross on FX. Her floor is unbelievable, especially for her age (great combination twists).
The Russian team:
This was the easiest ranking to do because the Russian juniors, led by Nabieva, are unbelievably strong. These gymnasts are not only talented, they have international experience, which makes a direct national ranking less important. Nabieva has routinely beaten Mustafina, mainly because her difficulty levels are higher, although actually — and especially compared to many other juniors — Nabieva has quite good form. The one problem I can see is that there are not as many Russian juniors floating around internationally as there are even Romanians. Either way, these three are excellent — all operating at least on some events at a senior level. Perhaps more importantly, the junior Russians participate internally in a number of competitions that include things like compulsories and work on a single bar, which give them a lot of work on basics at a high level of competition that other girls in other countries simply don't have. Providing they stay healthy, I think we might need to acknowledge the resurgence of the "Russian threat," especially if people like Semenova and Afanasyeva stick around. They also have a talented crop of very young juniors, including Grishina, who will be of the perfect age for 2012.
1. Amelia Racea:
Racea's one of the only juniors of note on the Romanian team right now, which is a major problem. She placed fourth at this year's Europeans, taking second on balance beam and third on floor. She's not the most graceful of gymnasts, but she's got pretty big skills. Her floor reminds me of that of Daniela Druncea, which means good tumbling with light, stuck landings, and questionable dance. Her beam is similar, composed largely of acrobatic skills and fewer dance elements (this will be problematic with the new code). Floor and beam are her best events, but she's decent on vault too. In fact, in addition to taking the all-around title in Category II (1993-1995 births) in the Romanian junior nationals last year in September, she took gold on all three of those events. On UB she is Romanian — by which I mean low-scoring — but, in the only routine I've seen of hers (from Jesolo 2008), she actually had decent form and good handstand positions. UB is the only event in which she did not win gold — she took silver — last year, where her score also beat that of the Category I winner Diana Chelaru (see below). At the most recent Romanian Championships in Ploeisti, in July, she placed second to Chelaru on vault and second on beam. Unfortunately, like the other Romanians I'll be discussing, she has limited international experience — in fact, it's pretty much entirely from Europeans. Fortunately, though, she is on the younger side for this quad, so she still has time.
2. Ana Porgras
Porgras placed ninth at Europeans, and second to Diana Chelaru in Category I last year. She also had the highest score in team finals of any Romanian at Jesolo, and placed eighth (the highest Romanian placement) in the all-around. Porgras placed second on floor and first on UB and BB in the Junior Nationals in 2007, with a massive 16.450 on BB (she also won BB event finals at this year's Europeans, with a 15.700). Her floor is solid, and I really appreciate that she flies high (instead of far) on her twists. My standards for Romanian bars are tremendously low right now (see below) so I'm quite pleased that she has decent form and only the occasional loss of tightness in her back. She's not the biggest daredevil on BB, but she does the really nice Romanian-style acrobatics, combined with a fair amount of grace. She does one of the best aerials to arabesques of anyone, junior or senior, on the Romanian team (even though I'm not a huge fan of that skill). She looks like a senior on this apparatus. It's not clear to me, however, where she was during Championships in early summer 2008. Here's hoping she's not seriously injured.
3. Diana Chelaru:
Chelaru was last year's Category I champion in Romania, though she later scratched on event finals because of an injury. This year at the Romanian Championships, she placed first on vault and qualified to the other three event finals, proceeding then to place dead last in two of them. Not sure what was going on there. Chelaru has little international experience, which is a major problem. She actually was not at Europeans, and did not place at Jesolo. She was, however, the third highest-scoring Romanian at that competition in team finals, after Racea and Porgras, and was the only Romanian to compete at DTY. Presumably, the other juniors will be updating their vaults eventually, and I'm thinking Chelaru could go up to an Amanar. Chelaru's also solid on beam and floor — though she needs to clean up her landings on the latter — and is prepared to compete on all four events, which is unfortunately more than I can say for the other Romanians below. Her weakest event, unsurprisingly, is bars — she scored only a 13.500 on that event at last year's Nationals, and had major errors plus an A-score of 5.000 that gave her an 11.200 on that event at Jesolo.
Honorable mentions:
There are some interesting Romanians lurking around, but like the three I have already mentioned, they have limited international experience.
Larisa Iordache won Category III (1995-1997 births) last year. She's tiny, and extremely young (she turned 12 in June), so it's hard to say how she will hold up, but so far she shows amazing potential. We didn't see too much of her at Nationals this year, but she did have the second-highest overall score on her Dinamo team during team finals (after Elena Chiric, a senior). She's also among the more polished of these gymnasts, with especially nice form — and flexibility — on floor (where she placed second in 2007) and beam (first). She actually reminds me of a young Andreea Raducan.
Loredana Sabau, who placed third in Category I last year, was also strong, taking first on floor and vault and second on beam and bars. At this year's Nationals, however, she only placed in one event final — third on bars — though she did compete respectably for Deva in team finals. She has not really shined yet in international competition, with a disastrous 11.700 on bars (B-score in the fives — she lost her swing on a giant, ending in a dead hang not once but twice) keeping her out of finals in Jesolo, and a sixth-place finish at Europeans (with only one qualification to EFs, on floor). Honestly, her floor is pretty terrible right now on dance, but she has good form in tumbling, particularly twists. Good form (and Dominique Moceanu's mount!) but a lot of balance checks on BB.
Finally I would mention Diana Trenca and Madalina Neagu. Trenca placed second to Racea in Category II last year, and took two silvers, one bronze and one gold (on bars) in event finals. This year, at Nationals, she took second on bars among all juniors. In fact, I would say she's probably the best bars worker among Romania's juniors (though she had a major mistake at Jesolo. Neagu is a floor specialist, though she also placed second all-around in Category III last year. She has won both FX finals she has competed in Romania, and apparently got the biggest reaction from the crowd of any performance at Junior Nationals in 2007. She's dynamic and only needs a little work on expressiveness. She's also no slouch on other events, placing in EFs on both beam and bars (though the bars thing is relative).
The Romanian team:
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the Romanian team, and I am seriously concerned about them. To be fair, their juniors rarely see the light of day before they become seniors, so the lack of international experience may not be so terrible. On the other hand, their juniors are exhibiting the Druncea symptom slightly — precise, big skills with almost no style (exceptions include many of the ones listed here, including Iordache and Neagu). The biggest problem here is going to be bars. Recently a big problem for this team has been that they have not kept up with the trends in bars. But from what I've seen of these juniors, the problems go much deeper — in Jesolo and at the Pre-Olympic Youth Cup in Bergisch-Gladbach (GER) we saw major form break after form break, falls, dead hangs, extra swings — and this from the girls I have mentioned here, including Neagu and Sabau. Really bad news.
Still to come: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, United States
Up next: France and China
FIG clears 2008 Chinese gymnasts
Posted October 1, 2008on:
- In: 2000 Olympics | 2008 Olympics | FIG | Gymnastics politics | Olympics | Pictures
- 1 Comment
The FIG cleared the 2008 Chinese gymnasts, including He Kexin, of age falsification today.
But the weirdest part of this whole saga is that the 2000 gymnasts Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun are still under investigation. Of course, Americans are less likely to care about this because it would not change the results for the U.S. team. Nevertheless, the fact that the 2000 gymnasts are still under investigation while the 2008 gymnasts are not says something that is questionable at best about what is considered proper evidence in these investigations.
The pieces of evidence that led the FIG to investigate Dong and Yang came from the gymnasts' own mouths: Dong on her blog, and Yang in a 2007 interview. The FIG then later found that the documentation for Dong provided in 2008 seemed to suggest she was 14 in 2000 (not exactly sure what that says about the bureaucrats at the FIG — did they read the date of birth?!).
What is less clear is why Romania is not being similarly investigated for Gina Gogean and Alexandra Marinescu, despite the fact that the country itself admitted that the two were underage when they competed. Of course, this opens a huge can of worms, because there are undoubtedly other gymnasts, especially from centralized systems with secretive governments, who should then be subject to a once-over.
In this post I said there were a number of things to consider in this investigation, so let me address them now.
First, should the FIG have been further investigating the matter once the Chinese government had provided passports, birth certificates, and national ID cards, all "proving" the girls' ages? On the one hand, there is plenty of evidence that many countries have falsified documents or simply lied about ages in order to get their best athletes on their teams. Given the fact that there were independently obtained documents — from the Chinese government itself (the Administration of Sport) — and from a national newspaper (less convincing) that seemed to suggest He was fourteen, there was certainly sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation, in my opinion. This is not to say that it is the job of the FIG or of the IOC to question the policies of a sovereign nation, but on the other hand we have sports governing bodies precisely because the stakes are so high — or at the very least, because people think the stakes are so high. The fact that China is an oppressive, secretive, and massively corrupt regime, however, should not play a role. Unfortunately, the FIG and IOC should deal with each country similarly, regardless of regime type. I don't think that this "fairness" should extend to international politics, of course (!), but in the case of international sports' governing bodies, I think there is a limit. This is apparently the view of the FIG. Once China provided documentation, that was sufficient. The exception came when the gymnasts themselves began suggesting that they were underage. I think that that justifiably reopens the investigation. To be clear, especially given what I know of the Chinese government, I sincerely doubt He was of-age for Beijing. And the matter of consistency on behalf of the FIG will be addressed when, perhaps, someday, she admits this. To go back to the original point, I think the FIG has reached the appropriate conclusion here: trust national governments unless this becomes an obvious political liability.
Second, if a nation is found to have falsified ages, what should happen to the athletes' medals? Like many others, I have the initial knee-jerk reaction to say that once the medals have been — at least in terms of the competition — justly obtained, that it is too late. Perhaps some penalties for future competition, but no revoking of medals. However, upon further reflection, this is simply not sustainable practice. If an athlete is found to have been "cheating" in any way, the medals should be revoked — one of the main purposes of punishment is deterrence. It would naturally leave a bad taste in my mouth to collect a medal that I did not feel rightfully belong to me (as the Americans might have had they suddenly been given team gold). But that is not the important point — the important point is that medals must be won with adherence to the rules, and if they were found to have been acquired by less-than-legitimate means, they should be taken away. This, incidentally, brings up the question of Andreea Raducan. What if the FIG were to change (again) its age policy, back up to sixteen? Should Dong and Yang, imagining that their medals have been taken away, be given back their medals? Of course not! Then it would be in any country's interest to break rules that are not pleasing to them, and then lobby for their revocation in the aftermath. It is for this reason, as much as it breaks my heart, that Raducan should not get her medal back, despite the fact that the drug has since been removed from the restricted list. The penalty for age falsification, like for any other breach of the rules — particularly given the supposed ideology of peace and international understanding that governs the Olympic Games — should be immediate forfeiture of victories.
Finally, what does all of this mean for the question of age limits? There is obvious evidence that younger girls are more flexible, have less fear, and have less wear-and-tear on their bodies. That is to say, the difference between fourteen and sixteen can make a significant difference. This suggests that using a fourteen-year-old when all the others are competing with older gymnasts could have a significant impact on the outcome. At a minimum, the Chinese picked their talent from the best they had, regardless of age (at least, that's what I believe) and the Americans, for instance, did not — what of Rebecca Bross, for instance? So age could have made a difference.
But the real question is, should the age limit remain? The intent of the age limit was to limit overtraining of young girls and to avoid major injury to children. As it happens, I have just pointed out that younger gymnasts tend to be less broken, not more. So that argument is questionable at best. Moreover, it is hardly clear that the age change has led to less overtraining, particularly in systems like the Chinese system. (Especially if certain countries are bringing underage athletes anyway! But let's assume for a second that they're not.) There are some major international competitions junior international elites can attend, including Europeans and Pacific Rim/Alliance, plus other small meets. This is less than for seniors, but the juniors are training the same number of hours as the seniors. The smaller number of meets means the juniors aren't repeatedly trying to peak — at least, not nearly as often — but they are undoubtedly training just as hard. Which means the suggestion that this lowering of the age limit has made any difference to training regimens, hours spent in the gym, or early starts to gymnastics careers, is lackluster. Probably at best we have kids peaking and then sitting around in a holding pattern — anyone worried, for instance, that Jordyn Wieber could break in, say, the four years she has before she turns sixteen? Does anyone think that she is not training as hard as a senior on a day-to-day basis? Ultimately, this artificial limit has been attempted, has failed, and has caused more trouble than it's worth. Hopefully this denouement has proven this to the FIG.
ETA 10/9: In a big turn of events — whose meaning I have yet to interpret — the Chinese Gymnastics Association is now investigating the ages of the two 2000 Olympians who have not yet been cleared by the FIG. Spokesman Zhou Quiriu:
"The local authorities provided us with the athletes' profiles, including age. Our job was only to select the best among them," she said. "We are not the government and don't have any power. We can only coordinate."
The two gymnasts of interest are Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun. Dong's case is particularly troublesome since she worked for the IOC at the Olympics this year with work records suggesting she was only 14 in 2000. Oops.
Not sure what the relationship is of the CGA to the government, but I find it hard to believe that it has any truly autonomous power should the government ever become interested in its activities. Anyway, I don't know what the CGA could get out of this — besides losing a medal and maybe gaining some respect for investigating (I wouldn't put it past them to make that kind of calculated move) — but we'll have to wait and see.
- In: Gymnastics politics | Olympics | Videos
- 3 Comments
From CNN:
Honestly, I think the evidence is pretty convincing on this one. (Honestly, the best evidence comes from what a hacker dug up in Google Cache, meaning that people who have randomly taken interest in this case are doing a better job than FIG. He found He Kexin's birth year as 1994 in official documents that have been systematically removed from the Internet.) Up to half of the Chinese team was likely underage. But what should be done? Firstly, FIG should — if nothing but for its own reputation — start a demanding formal investigation of this issue. Cheating cannot be treated lightly, especially not at an event with the supposed spirit of the Olympic Games. Second, if it comes to light that anyone on the team was underage, the entire team should be stripped of any relevant individual or team medals. This second part is not exactly a groundbreaking opinion. The first appears to be though, since FIG seems to be dealing with this situation far too lightly. Of course, there are geopolitical issues to consider — many countries don't trust Chinese official records, and why would you? It would be less of a problem in an open democracy.
I think the most disgusting thing in all of this is the Chinese reaction. They feel attacked, of course. And they did win. But while the U.S. gymnasts, when questioned, have been asked what they think (by the likes of Letterman and Leno), they've all said that they hope it's not true, that it will be investigated, but that it is not their place to comment as if they had some sort of proof. Shawn Johnson had the best answer, saying that she was friends with those girls, and she hopes it is not the case, and that if it is, it is probably not their faults (which is likely true). (Nastia Liukin was a little jingoistic in saying that Americans would never do something like that, but that may be a topic for another time.)
By contrast, Lu Shanzhen said:
It's because the Chinese women's team is such a strong competitor for the U.S. team. That's why there are such suspicions.
It's unsportsmanlike and, frankly, false. The only person affiliated with the U.S. team who has made comments to that effect is Bela Karolyi, and he doesn't have an official role. Marta Karolyi and the rest of USA Gymnastics were not involved in the initial complaints. Since then, their role has mainly been limited to saying that they hope this is dealt with swiftly and professionally. I hope all sides live up to that wish.
The big question is what happens if the medals get redistributed. The United States would get gold, and it would be recorded as such, but who wants to win gold in that way? Remember that Simona Amanar gave her gold medal back to Andreea Raducan after the debacle at the 2000 Olympics. It was rightfully Raducan's firstly (more on that in another post?). But I'm sure it was partly that Amanar didn't want something that she didn't feel she had earned. I doubt the 2008 U.S. Olympic team would either.


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- In the rare case where materials are purchased, they may be returned within 30 days with a receipt and COTH will issue a full refund on the same credit/debit card the original purchase was made. In cases were the purchase was made with cash, check, or e-check, the refund will be made by check and mailed. Checks may take up to 10 business days to be processed.
- Contributions: All contributions are final. Once received by COTH, contributions are complete and finalized. COTH will provide annually a statement for your tax records. Refunds of contributions are not provided for.
- Registration / Event / Class Fees: Refunds will be issued in the same manner as provision 1 in this section when cancellation is received 90 days prior to the event. All deposits, when charged, are non-refundable.
Updated Mar 2014

subset: commoncrawl


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Most Innovative Bedroom Wall Decals
Bedroom wall decals – The latter are adhesives with decorative motifs that we can place directly on the wall or other smooth surfaces: glass, tiles, doors, etc. The truth is that they offer a lot of play and adapt to any room, so in a how we explain how to decorate a wall with decorative vinyl. First, it should be noted that decorative vinyls are adhesives that we can place ourselves on the wall or surface that we choose, as it does not involve any complications or require more installation.
We only have to pay special attention in case they have small details, so that they do not break or spoil. You can read more about its installation in our article how to place bedroom wall decals. We can place them on walls and empty surfaces, or combine them with other elements that give play to create a composition, such as shelves or even the bed. The children's rooms are ideal to decorate with decorative vinyls , unleash creativity and encourage the imagination of the youngest of the house. It is recommended that children participate in the choice of vinyl that will accompany them day and night.
12 Photos Gallery of: Most Innovative Bedroom Wall Decals
We can also choose bedroom wall decals in a detailed format to be used as decoration accessories or to give a funny touch to some corner of our home. Likewise, in addition to drawings and images, we can also choose decorative vinyl that contains text to decorate our walls. Also, you can create your personalized vinyl, making your own designs to order them to make a specialized company. You can also decorate your wall with decorative vinyl that recreate 3D elements and use them as such, for example a coat rack – to which you must add a hanger – or a blackboard on which to write.


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Afghanistan faces tough battle as Haqqanis unify the Taliban
Associated Press,May 7, 2016
SLAMABAD (AP) – A shadowy, Pakistan-based militant faction is on the rise within the Taliban after its leader was appointed deputy and played a key role in unifying the fractured insurgency.
The ascendency of the Haqqani network, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, could significantly strengthen the Taliban and herald another summer of fierce fighting in Afghanistan. The firepower it brings to the Taliban was shown by a Kabul bombing last month that killed 64 people, the deadliest in the Afghan capital in years, which experts say was too sophisticated for the insurgents to have carried out without the Haqqanis.
The network's role could also further poison already tainted relations between Islamabad and Kabul. Afghanistan is pressing Pakistan to crack down on the Haqqanis, accusing it of tolerating the group, a charge the Pakistanis deny.
An audio recording of a recent meeting of the top Taliban leadership, obtained by The Associated Press, offers a glimpse into the influence the Haqqani network now holds within the movement. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the network's leader and newly elevated deputy head of the Taliban, tells the gathering that they must end differences and focus on fighting. "It is time to work. The mujahedeen (Islamic holy warriors) are happily going to the battlefield," he is heard saying. The voice is recognizable as Haqqani's.
Haqqani's rise to the deputy post is the highest, most direct role that the network is known to have taken in the Taliban leadership. The network pledged allegiance to the Taliban years ago but has traditionally operated independently.
The network was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a one-time ally of the United States who achieved fame fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s and who developed close ties to the slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. After his death, his son Sirajuddin Haqqani took over.
The elder Haqqani aligned his group with the Taliban after the insurgents were driven from power in the U.S.-led invasion that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was a formidable militant financier, traveling to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to raise money. The network maintained close ties to al-Qaida and is believed to have large numbers of Arab and other foreign fighters.
The network is believed to command thousands of fighters on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border. Over the years, the Haqqanis emerged as the Taliban's strongest asset because of their battle-hardened fighters and traditional links to Pakistan's security agencies. Both U.S and Afghan intelligence agencies say Pakistan's intelligence network, known as ISI, has allowed the Haqqanis to live freely for decades in Pakistan's tribal regions, a claim Islamabad denies.
"There's no one sole source of the Haqqani network's strength, though three places you can point to are its personnel, its links to Pakistan, and its ties to the Gulf region," said Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
The Taliban leadership meeting, held early last month at an undisclosed location, focused on strategies and battles ahead, the audio recording shows. During the meeting, Sirajuddin Haqqani called on the Taliban to close ranks, reminding them their enemy is the "foreign infidel" and not each other.
"Our objectives should be service to religion and we should end our differences and complaints," he says in Pashtu, the language of Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns, the ethnic group that makes up the backbone of the Taliban movement.
Since last summer, Sirajuddin Haqqani has been instrumental in reconciling differences among Taliban commanders, who balked at recognizing Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as the supreme Taliban chief following the announcement that the insurgency's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was dead.
As soon as Mansoor became leader, he announced that he had named Haqqani as his deputy.
Haqqani quickly set about uniting the fractured Taliban, first by bringing Mullah Omar's son, Mullah Yaqoob, and his brother, Mullah Abdul Manan Omari, into the fold, according to a Taliban official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to talk to the press.
Haqqani then coaxed Zakir Qayyum, a Taliban strongman in the battleground southern Afghan province of Helmand and the former head of the Taliban military committee under Mullah Omar, to swear allegiance to Mansour, healing some of the biggest divisions within the Taliban, the Taliban official said. Fahd Humayun, program and research manager at the Jinnah Institute, a think-tank in the Pakistani capital, who closely follows Taliban developments, also said Haqqani was key to healing the divisions.
The rise of the Haqqanis comes at a critical juncture in relations between Kabul and Islamabad.
In the off-and-on effort for negotiations over the years, Pakistan has hosted past meetings between the Kabul government and the Taliban, whose leaders are widely believed to be based in the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan.
A four-nation group that included Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States launched efforts earlier this year to try to bring Afghanistan's protracted war to a negotiated end but the push fell apart amid recent Taliban battlefield gains.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani now says he is no longer interested in having Pakistan bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. Instead, he demands Islamabad stop harboring the Taliban and take up the fight against the Haqqanis.
The U.S. State Department has also repeated its demand that Pakistan take action.
"We have consistently expressed our concerns at the highest level of the government of Pakistan about their continued tolerance for Afghan Taliban groups, such as the Haqqani network, operating from Pakistani soil," U.S. State Department spokesman Elizabeth Trudeau said at a press briefing following the Kabul attack.
Islamabad claims it decimated the Haqqani network's infrastructure in a military operation launched two years ago in North Waziristan, where the Haqqanis are headquartered. It points to its own grievances with the Haqqanis, who also maintain links with the Pakistan Taliban, a separate group that has killed hundreds of Pakistani soldiers in recent years.
Islamabad has also aided the United States in its drone strikes against the Taliban and other militants by providing ground intelligence for the Americans, said Humayun of the Jinnah Institute, though officially Pakistan condemns the strikes because of civilian deaths.
While Pakistan pledged to dismantle militant networks on its territory, Pakistan's special adviser on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, earlier this week told reporters in Islamabad that the only solution to the Afghan war was through peace talks.
Should the Haqqanis be pushed out of Pakistan and back into Afghanistan, Ghani's government and Afghan forces would likely be overwhelmed, say analysts.
"I can't imagine the Afghans would be able to take on the Haqqanis themselves," Kugelman said. "I'm not sure they'd be able to take them on even with assistance from foreign combat forces."


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Welcome to another edition of the RAW Recap with El Jefe where I like to offer my prediction on things to come based on a review of each weeks episode. Monday night RAW kicked off back in Brooklyn following a wild SummerSlam. With the biggest party of the summer over the "Red Brand" wasted no time on Monday setting storylines for the next pay per view event; No Mercy (September 24th). No Mercy promises to be an event full of score settling and could see the rise of new superstars.
Tag Archives: SummerSlam
RAW Recap 08/14/17
Well folks we only have six days until the biggest party of the summer. WWE's pay per view SummerSlam is this Sundays, and it will be a joint brand show. You will have to follow @MillironMac for all the updates on Smackdown leading into this jammed packed show. The build on both sides is clear though; we may possibly see the two top titles switch hands. Tonight's installment of RAW was all about the final push to SummerSlam and it was a crazy show.
RAW Recap 08/07/17
SummerSlam is just two weeks away and man do we have a lot of rivalries being built over the last couple weeks. Most of the matches are set, but several of the opponents still have to be determined. Next week marks the final week before the August 20th pay per view; so expect the RAW and Smackdown to continue building matches for the event. This will be one of the biggest events of the year outside of WrestleMania. So what storylines were made clearer for us on this edition of the RAW Recap?
sMACkDown Recap – August 1, 2017
Last night Jefe got the honor of recapping a Monday Night Raw in the worst city in the world.. Tonight I get to recap SmackDown in the city that ties Pittsburgh as the worst city in the world, Cleveland. It's too bad LeBron was at home watching Jingle All The Way with his kids and crying about how nobody wants to play with him anymore, because the boys put on quite a show.
Raw Recap 07/31/17
Raw kicked off Monday night with a couple disappointments for me. First off I discovered Kurt Angle was from Pittsburgh so I don't know if I can like him anymore. Secondly they made a Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup Champs reference less then two minutes into the show. Being the consummate professional I am I will move past it and do my regularly scheduled RAW Recap. By Being the bigger man and recapping a episode of RAW hosted in ShitsPittsburgh; I expect lots of comments and likes on this post.
sMACkDown Recap – July 25, 2017
After a lackluster PPV in Battleground this past Sunday, WWE needed to bring it on this week's SmackDown to keep the Blue Brand relevant. Did they do it? Maybe, but I still think they have a lot to make up for after their recent flop. Continue reading
Raw Recap 07/24/17
Monday Night Raw returned tonight with its focus towards building storylines ahead of SummerSlam. It was an action packed show and it appears SummerSlam is being built up to be a huge blockbuster. Will major titles change hands at the upcoming Pay Per View and will SummerSlam be able to live up to the hype that is being built around it?


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Most awarded
AHEAD's Awards and Affiliations
AHEAD's Awards and Affiliations validate our slogan: the leading and most awarded tutorial and review center in the Philippines. AHEAD continues to provide you with the best tutorial services from our dedicated and exemplary tutors, teachers, and lecturers.
Among the 100 Most Amazing Filipinas in 2012 of Summit Media
Among the 75 Most Admired Entrepreneurs in the Philippines
2007 Agora Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurship from the Philippine Marketing Association
2007 Philippine Quill Award of Excellence for Vidres.net Media Launch from the International Association of Business Communicators
2007 Creative Young Entrepreneur Award from Junior Chamber International (Top 10)
2005 Who's Who in the Philippines for Education
2004 Aurelio Periquet Jr. Business Leadership Award
2004 Working Mom of the Year Balance Award from Working Mom Magazine
2003 Gold Quill Merit Award for Marketing Communications from the International Association of Business Communicators
2003 Entrepreneur 10 Award from Entrepreneur Magazine (First Batch)
2003 Ulirang Ina Award
2003 Philam Life "Ilaw ng Karunungan" Award
Asia-Pacific Young Professional Award for Education
Teodora Alonzo Award for Educational Leadership
Management Association of the Philippines (MAP)
White Space Club as Treasurer
Founders Institute as Mentor
Association of Filipino Franchisers, Inc. (AFFI)
Philippine Franchise Association (PFA)
Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP)
Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP)
Philippine Marketing Association (PMA)
International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
Philippine Business for Education (PBEd)
Junior Chamber International (JCI)
Quezon City Chamber of Commerce and Industry (QCCI)
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI)
Zonta International Metro Pasig Chapter as Former Vice President for Internal Affairs
Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce (San Jose, California)
Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce (San Jose, California)
Philippine Small and Medium Enterprise Development
Pre-elementary Educators of the Philippines
Gold Quill Merit Awards
Agora Award 2007
Get In Touch


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About Engage Ventures
Who We Are
Engage is an independent venture fund and platform, established and financed by some of the most influential corporations in the world. Our mission is to strengthen collaboration and partnership between leading corporations and top entrepreneurs.
The founding Limited Partner corporations contributing capital, expertise, time and resources include AT&T, Chick-fil-A, Cox Enterprises, Delta Air Lines, Georgia-Pacific, Georgia Power Foundation, Goldman Sachs, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Invesco Ltd., The Home Depot and UPS.
What We Do
As a part of the Engage platform, we host a series of events throughout the year on topics focused around go-to-market & scaling. Our portfolio founders also have access to select, invite-only events and dinners ranging from those with other venture investors to Fortune 500 CEOs and executives.
Engage portfolio companies have access to our growth program, which we offer twice each year at our HQ in Atlanta, GA. Founders work closely with the Engage team and executives within our LP/partner corporations to refine their go-to-market strategies and focus on building strategic relationships leading to distribution and scale. Engage board and operating committee members facilitate navigating the sales and partnership process from the top-down.
By blocking time on corporate schedules 12 months in advance, we streamline one of the biggest challenges in corporate // startup interaction – calendar.
To date, every company we have worked with has formed strategic partnerships or signed one or more of our corporate partners as end customers.
Our Focus
We partner with companies that are looking for scale and access to distribution. This typically means that companies have already found product-market fit, have raised seed funding, and have existing revenue traction.
We are early-stage agnostic – incoming Engage companies have had anywhere from $500k to $25MM in prior funding.
We invest in bold entrepreneurs pursuing large market opportunities with innovative and disruptive products and look in a wide range of industries as our corporate partners are spread across many markets and verticals.
Our Model
We invest on terms dependent on your capital raised and your revenue and traction.
In addition to our initial check and joining the Engage platform, Engage will co-invest larger amounts in subsequent financing rounds in portfolio companies. We typically do not lead.
Unlike most corporate venture capital firms, Engage is independent of each of our partner corporations, buffering our portfolio companies from any attached strings and conflicts down the road.


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CNN and the Georgia Institute of Technology announced they would study the safe use of drones in an effort to "speed up government rule-making about the use of drones in newsgathering," Brian Stelter reports.
"Our hope is that by working cooperatively to share knowledge, we can accelerate the process for CNN and other media organizations to safely integrate this new technology into their coverage plans," CNN Senior Vice President for Legal David Vigilante said in a statement that Stelter quotes.
The program will begin this summer. The FAA's planned rules for drone use have proceeded very slowly, even as media organizations have been ever more keen to use them. After a photographer for The (Spokane, Wash.) Spokesman-Review posted a drone-shot video taken during his day off, saying such video was "currently in a gray area," an FAA spokesperson told Poynter "There is no gray area."
Related: University of Missouri students fly drones inside for now
Related training: Drones for Reporting and Newsgathering: The Promise and the Peril | Covering Drones in U.S. Airspace and in Your Community


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This week's WWRT comes to you from the sunny state of Florida. By the time you read this, I hope to be about 25 miles out to sea catching some fish. Of course, I'm a lousy fisherman.
President George H. W. Bush shaved his head in support of the child of one of his Secret Service guards who is undergoing leukemia treatments. I've always thought Bush 41 was a genuine and kind man.
Turns out that of the ten cities where people are most likely to have a heart attack, two are in my home state of West Virginia. One is my home town. I guess there's an upside to moving away almost 20 years ago. I'm less likely to have a heart attack.
Canoe and Kayak magazine posted the winners of its photo contest. There are some great pics here.
Desiring God ministries posted this nice piece from the grand old gentlemen, J. I. Packer, as he talks about his conversion…
Ever wondered what Wikipedia's most controversial topics were? Me neither, but this is still interesting.
For those who like getting your work done in coffee shops, some tips on how to do it well. But some coffee shops are dealing with the problem of "laptop hobos." And just for fun, check out what your coffee says about you.
The church where I serve as Associate Pastor is from the German Reformed tradition. The Whitehorse Inn has a nice piece on the birthday of the Heidelberg Catechism.
For all you Star Wars geeks, Episode VII is coming in 2015.
I found this story disturbing for a lot of reasons. Across the pond, twins (boy and girl) were separated at birth and eventually married each other without knowing they were siblings. This is sad for a lot of reasons.


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PERTH AMBOY, NJ — A New Jersey restaurant closed Thursday, as part of the nationwide strike "Day Without Immigrants," but remained open to employees who wanted to work.
The national grassroots movement has quickly gained attention through word of mouth and social media posts under the hashtag #ADayWithoutImmigrants, and seeks to protest President Donald Trump's immigration reforms as well as highlight the contributions of the immigrant community in the United States.
"We're making a statement," said Daysi León, who owns a New Jersey business closed for the strike. "We're trying to set a point on how it's not just about getting money. We're not here to steal jobs, we're not here to commit crime. We're here to work, to make America better."
Taco Express, in Perth Amboy, is one of dozens, if not hundreds, of businesses closed nationwide. In addition, León owns a flower shop that is also closed.
Many of the shuttered businesses are restaurants, like León's Taco Express, and are losing money by participating.
PIX11 spoke to León during what is typically a busy time — lunch hour — and the restaurant's phone rang repeatedly.
She is losing money, and possibly customers, she said, but it's worth it.
"We wanted our voices to be heard, because otherwise we're just going to be shadows all the time," León said.
In addition to not turning a profit Thursday, León told employees who can't afford to miss a day's work they are welcome to help clean and restock shelves.
Creating jobs for people in the community, she says, is just one of the ways immigrants help the country.


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Unsure of which service plan is right for you? No problem. Sunbeam Service Experts in Buffalo offers Performance™ Inspections, where one of our NATE-certified expert technicians will conduct 29 – yes, 29! – checks around your heating and cooling equipment. We'll help you determine which service package is best meets your needs, and how to keep your HVAC systems running smoothly.
Our visual HVAC system analysis identifies potential heating, cooling and indoor air quality issues and essential repairs. Our experts check your indoor air quality, too, so if you suffer from allergies, we'll outline the next steps for improving your air. We'll also give you our exclusive Home Health™ Report Card with a complete review of the possible heating and cooling risks in your home.
You want to have a comfortable home, right? The Performance™ Inspection is the one of the easiest things you can do to get there. Plus, it's affordable for nearly everyone. Find a coupon, give Sunbeam Service Experts a call at or schedule an appointment online, and let our Service Experts transform your home into the relaxing haven it should be.


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Some days your heart is so completely full that you want to burst into tears because it's so overwhelming. Nothing extraordinary has happened. I have been sick this past week and, for others reasons, it has not the been the best week. Today, I woke with a blinding migraine. I had no choice but to sleep it off. I am feeling much better now after having some soup.
Still, I am so overwhelmingly thankful today. Things still aren't perfect. I'm still unemployed. Like I mentioned above, I've been sick and in bed for days, but I'm just so grateful for this life I have been given. My brothers' lives are moving in the right direction. I've met people that have restored my faith in humanity a bit. I've reconnected with some old friends. I have a bestfriend that I could tell anything in the world and she would still accept me. To top it all off, I've met this wonderful man that just warms my heart.
Kindness makes me happy.
Love makes me happy.
Seeing other people full of love and kindness and with happy hearts, makes me happy. I wish everyone would strive to be better and do better. Sure, there are bad people in this world and people that will take advantage of you. You have to continue to find the beautiful in the ugly, though. You have to not give up. It's so very, very easy to give up. All the bad days seem worth it when you have those good days and days of understanding, though.
Always try to make room in your heart for compassion for others. I've had people tell me that one person can't change the world. Darling, I beg to differ. All it takes is one person brave enough to make a stand and one person to believe in that person. It's a domino effect of one persons and, before you know it, you're changing the world together for the better.
I challenge you to be the one person bettering this world. Try it. Let your kindness catch like wildfire. It's something this world can never have too much of.
p.s. this is completely random, but if you use a 'hot toddy' or 'grandpa's cough medicine' recipe and wouldn't mind sharing it with me, I would be ever so grateful. Mine was an epic fail and totally gag-worthy.


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Men's Quantum Long Sleeve Zip Hood
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Model Height: 5'10" / 180cm. Waist: 32.3" / 82cm. He is wearing size Medium.
What's your size? Size Guide
A stretchy hooded men's merino wool midlayer for climbing, skiing and other technical mountain adventures, the Quantum Long Sleeve Zip Hood features body-mapped fabric for insulation, breathability and comfort during high-output pursuits.
- LYCRA® content for stretch and mobility
- Fitted hood for warmth and protection
- Reflective center front zip for visibility in low light
- Zipper chin guard and interior storm flap
- Forward set side seams for comfort
- Flatlock seams prevent chafing
- Raglan sleeve construction for mobility
- Strategically placed merino eyelet for ventilation
- Underarm gusset for comfort and mobility
- Zippered chest pocket with media cord port
- Zippered hand pockets
- Center back length: 76.6cm/30½", Size L
- Icebreaker reflective heat transfer logos
Product Weight
Large = 543 g / 19.1 oz
Fabric Content
Body: 98% Merino Wool, 2% LYCRA® Eyelet: 98% Merino Wool, 2% LYCRA®
Merino is super lightweight, soft, non-itchy, non-clammy, warm in the cold and cool in the heat, and has a miraculous ability to resist odor. Because it was made in the mountains rather than in a petrochemical laboratory. Merino wool fiber is naturally renewable, recyclable and biodegradable*.
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Naturally odor-resistant
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The bigger the number, the warmer you'll be.
Choose your comfort level with our fabric weight numbering system. The numbers represent the fabric's weight in grams per meter2.


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Ben Foster has recovered nicely from that unfortunate role in the equally unfortunate "X-Men: Last Stand."
Foster will be starring alongside Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale in a remake of "Reykjavik-Rotterdam,"widely considered by most to be the greatest smuggling film ever to come out of Iceland, reported Deadline.
The film tells the story of an ex-smuggler, Wahlberg, who tries to go straight, taking a job as a night watchman, but gets pulled back in for one more job when his wife's brother has a deal go pear-shaped. Foster plays Wahlberg's best friend who lends a hand, Beckinsale his wife.
U.S. & World
A look at the profanity-laden trailer for the original film suggests as many cliches as the above synopsis:
Hiring a former smuggler to work as a guard on a working waterfront is akin to hiring a drunk to tend bar, but whatever...
Foster can next be seen opposite Jason Statham in a remake of "The Mechanic," and is currently shooting "Rampart" with his "Messenger co-star and director, Woody Harrelson and Owen Moverman.


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Auto Shop in Crestwood
Call Christian Brothers Automotive Crestwood Today!
Do you need your brake pads and rotors replaced? What about your oil changed or radiator flushed? At Christian Brothers Automotive Crestwood, we handle all of these regular maintenance needs and services along with a full slate of repairs and services backed by more than 30 years of experience. We're your one-stop, full-service auto repair headquarters, and our ASE-certified technicians are equipped to handle all types of repairs, both large and small.


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Gee welcomes new cancer researchers to WVU
Shepherd University President leads research lab at WVU
Earlier this year when Mary J.C. Hendrix was named president of Shepherd University, she had a critical decision to make: To shut down her research laboratory at Northwestern University or relocate her groundbreaking cancer research closer to Shepherd.
Although Shepherd has strong undergraduate science programs, it does not currently have the laboratory facilities necessary to support a nationally-competitive cancer research team.
The answer came in a unique partnership with West Virginia University, a major R1 research university 150 miles to the west of Shepherd. Thanks to sophisticated Skype technology, Hendrix and her laboratory are able to resume daily research interactions.
"We are grateful to WVU for the opportunity to continue our cancer research and work with talented scientists at the WVU Cancer Institute. Together, we will advance cancer diagnostics and new therapies for the benefit of all West Virginians."
A laboratory team led by Hendrix shook up the cancer research world with a new and controversial theory: that aggressive tumors create their own vascular systems to circulate blood and nutrients from the body to help them rapidly grow.
It led to a hot scientific debate – chronicled this summer in a retrospective in Science, the magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The once-radical idea is now the basis for a promising area of cancer research and the development of new therapies, and Hendrix and her research team have continued to experiment and publish in this area. Their latest article appeared in late October in Laboratory Investigation, a journal from the Nature Publishing Group.
Hendrix was able to move her ongoing research – and several of her team collaborators – from their former laboratory at Northwestern University in Chicago to West Virginia University to continue their work. Elisabeth A. Seftor, Richard E.B. Seftor, and Naira V. Margaryan joined the WVU Cancer Institute's research team this fall and will work in a state-of-the-art lab on WVU's Morgantown campus.
WVU President E. Gordon Gee loves the arrangement. "If Shepherd had not hired her as President, she's exactly the kind of researcher we would love to have recruited to move WVU's cancer research program forward," he said. "Now West Virginia has an even better deal – Shepherd gets a nationally-recognized researcher as President and we add to the research strength of WVU. It's a win for everyone."
"It's critical to have an open and convenient way to communicate during our daily work in the laboratory," said Richard Seftor. "Our work benefits from contributions of all members of our group, including President Hendrix. We can plan and discuss experiments as a group, and discuss results as soon as they are generated."
An open video portal for Skype communication is available every day to facilitate the rapid interactions between the researchers at WVU and Hendrix -- to conduct data analysis, proposal and publication preparation in real time. "This is a new era in communication platforms, and we are the first in the state to advance this application for cancer research," Seftor said.


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Storyline Online
In an approach similar to Read To Me, the Screen Actors Guild Foundation provides Storyline Online, an online collection of actors reading famous picture books aloud. Fabulous for minimizing the reading and language gap. Find a favorite like Stellaluna there or discover something new such as No Mirrors in My Nana's House, the reading of which ends with a beautiful a capella song. Lovely!


text: Home > Overseas UN chief calls for immediate de-escalation in Syria Agence France-Presse Posted at Feb 11 2018 08:38 AM Share Save Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Israeli soldiers block a road near the Israeli border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel Saturday. Ammar Awad, Reuters United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday called for an immediate de-escalation in Syria after Israel carried out raids inside the war-torn country. Guterres is "following closely the alarming military escalation throughout Syria and the dangerous spillover across its borders," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. Israel targeted what it said were Iranian positions inside Syria after one of its warplanes was hit by Syrian air defences and crashed. The Israeli raids came after it intercepted what it said was an Iranian drone entering its airspace. Guterres stressed that all concerned in Syria and in the region must abide by international law. "He calls on all to work for an immediate and unconditional de-escalation of violence and exercise restraint," Dujarric said. It was the most serious confrontation between Iran and Israel since Syria's war began in 2011 and came amid growing alarm over Syrian government offensives against rebel-held Eastern Ghouta and Idlib. The Syrian people are suffering "though one of the most violent periods in nearly seven years of conflict," said the UN statement. "Over 1,000 civilian casualties from airstrikes were reported in the first week of February alone." Guterres urged the parties to move quickly toward a political solution to end the war. Israel's Ambassador Danny Danon called on the Security Council "to condemn this dangerous act and to put an immediate end to Iranian provocations." Diplomats, however, said there were no immediate plans to convene a council meeting despite the sharp rise in tensions. The council is due to discuss the crisis in Syria on Wednesday. Share Save Facebook Share on Twitter LinkedIn Israel, Syria, conflict, Iran, UN Read More: Israel Syria conflict Iran UN /overseas/07/07/17/un-chief-says-cyprus-talks-fail/overseas/09/29/17/un-chief-myanmar-violence-could-spread-displace-more-rohingya/overseas/07/05/17/un-chief-condemns-north-koreas-dangerous-escalation/overseas/11/14/17/un-chief-meets-myanmars-suu-kyi-on-rohingya-crisis/video/news/09/16/17/un-chief-urges-pragmatic-people-oriented-approach-to-drug-problem


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The rush of holidays is finally over and with all the parties, family, friends and fun, it's time to slow down and look through the books I have long been coveting. Here are some of the reads I've added to my collection this season.
Books: Evidence Architects// The Color Revolution // Dazzling Design // The Iconic Interior // Kelly Wearstler Rhapsody
I also updated my nook with a mix of pieces vintage and mod. It's easy to change small spaces with simple updates. If you get overwhelmed tackle a corner or hall way. It will give you a fresh start for the new year.
Where I got this look: Table from To Bee Seated // Chair – Vintage find // Pillow -mod find from vintage shop // Icelandic viking sheepskin rug -found from a Artisan in the Blue Ridge Mountains // Stella Floor Lamp – Urban Outfitters
No Brand 70's throwback// Jonathan Adler Multi color Bargello // Jonathan Adler Jamaica Lane // @ pillow //Trina Turk Geo Yellow and Gray // Blissliving Jack multi pillow // Natori Lotus Temple


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Abortionists won't tell women the truth about their life-affirming options, the development of the preborn child, or the risks involved in abortions. That's why Texas MUST keep this information in the A Woman's Right to Know booklet given to women 24 hours before their abortions.
The Texas Department of State Health Services recently made strong Pro-Life changes to the booklet for the first time in 13 years and asked Texans for feedback. However, Pro-Lifers are being dramatically outnumbered by the opposition!
We need YOU to send a message now to Texas health officials supporting the life-affirming update!
Your message will only take 60 seconds to send, but the impact will reach women in the crucial 24-hour period before their life-or-death decisions.
Tell the Texas Department of State Health Services that women deserve to know that no one can force them to abort their children; that there's a risk of developing breast cancer because of their abortions; and that they have life-affirming options.
We're losing time. The comment period ends today, July 29!
Send your message today and spread the word to your friends and family!
Thank you for updating and correcting the Woman's Right to Know Booklet! This document is an important resource for women facing the life-altering decision of aborting their preborn children. The State of Texas has an obligation to provide a woman with accurate and vitally important information about her pregnancy, the development of her preborn child, and the options available to her if she chooses to continue her pregnancy.
I appreciate the substantial and positive updates and improvements made to the booklet draft from the previous version. Opponents will attack the statements about the correlation between abortion and higher risk of breast cancer, the use of the term "baby" instead of "fetus," and the detailed summary of preborn children's development. However, I STRONGLY SUPPORT all of these aspects of the booklet.
I would like to request some additional updates before these changes become final.
1) Add clear and prominent language that no one can legally force her to abort and how she may receive help if being physically harmed or threatened;
2) Add references to studies finding a likely correlation between abortion and higher risk of breast cancer;
3) Update the Resource Directory that goes along with the booklet to include pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and social services that have opened recently.
Thank you for considering these comments and for passing these much needed improvements.


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About the Event
Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) is a driver-assistance system that brings speed limits into the vehicle. The information can be used to inform the driver of changes in the speed limit, warn the driver when the speed limit is being exceeded, and prevent speeding through a link to the vehicle drivetrain. Research in Europe on this system has been going on systematically since the mid-1990s, with field operational tests (FOTs) taking place in several countries, most recently in France and the United Kingdom.
The response to ISA in the United States has generally been "good idea but not feasible here." So what makes it more acceptable in Europe? Has acceptance changed over time? And what would it take for ISA to become acceptable to the U.S. public? This talk will cover both attitudinal and behavioral results from the FOTs, especially from the United Kingdom ISA trials. It will also look at the accident savings and environmental benefits from ISA.
Oliver Carsten is a professor of transport safety with the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) at the University of Leeds. Carsten did his undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Subsequently he worked at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) for 10 years. He joined the Institute for Transport Studies in 1987.
Carsten has been project coordinator of several European projects, including HOPES, which examined the safety impacts of various field trials; VRU-TOO, which applied new technologies to improve the safety and mobility of pedestrians; HINT, which examined the human implications of new technologies; and HASTE, which has studied the effect on driving performance and safety of using in-vehicle information systems. He has led the development of the advanced driving simulator at Leeds and has directed projects to examine techniques for reducing unsafe driving on rural arterial roads and for investigating the benefits of Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA). Work on ISA includes leading the UK External Vehicle Speed Control project and the recent ISA-UK project. He has been chair of the DRIVE I safety and behavioural group, was a member of the DRIVE Safety Task Force, is chair of the Road User Behaviour Working Party of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, and is a member of the Programme Management Panel of the UK Foresight Vehicle Programme. He is the author of numerous reports and articles on traffic safety.


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A very warm welcome to the Canada OPCAT Project website.
In July 2018, the Canada OPCAT Project came into being to publish information as it becomes available about the country's repeatedly stated intention to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture, known to most of us as the OPCAT. Thus, we have recently celebrated our first birthday!
Regrettably, progress in Canada in this respect appears slow, as highlighted in April and October 2019 posts, The OPCAT – A Stuck Record? and Does This Sound Vaguely Familiar? Nonetheless, a whole range of international human rights experts and mechanisms have continued to call on Canada to ratify the instrument, including the UN's top disability expert as recently as December 2019.
When a country ratifies the OPCAT it undertakes the international legal obligation to put in place an independent national oversight body with the power and authority to visit all places of deprivation of liberty under the jurisdiction of the state, known as a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM). Simultaneously, it must also allow analogue visits by a UN body of experts, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention (SPT).
For more detailed information about the OPCAT in English and French please click on the preceding links to a leading global authority on the instrument, the Geneva-based Association for the Prevention of Torture.
Readers may recall that in May 2016 the then Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Dion, announced that Canada would ratify the instrument, stating that the OPCAT "will no longer be optional for Canada in the future". Regrettably more than four years after the fact, progress to do so has been startlingly unhurried.
Paradoxically, Canada used the pledge of OPCAT ratification during its candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council as long ago as 2006, a pledge unfulfilled to the present day.
Slightly worryingly, outside of specialist circles (such as the province of government and a small number of interested 'arms-length' institutions and CSOs) there exists a paucity of information in the public domain about the process to ratify this important UN instrument. It is this gap in information which the Canada OPCAT Project seeks to plug, including through the filing of Access to Information and Privacy Requests. It is as simple as that!
As a growing information hub, with time this website aims to contribute to the national discussion on the ratification and implementation of the OPCAT by publishing emerging related information. In February 2019, for example, the Canada OPCAT Project published a major discussion paper highlighting its view of a future Canadian NPM titled Instituting a National Preventive Mechanism in Canada – Lessons Based on Global OPCAT Implementation.
Contemporaneously, the website will also disseminate information about the UN instrument more generally in one specialized domain. In particular, it will draw on a range of existing OPCAT-materials with an National Preventive Mechanism and/or detention-monitoring component which have particular relevance to the Canadian context. In so doing, we often draw on examples from other countries such as Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway.
Like the global implementation of the OPCAT, this website is very much a work in progress. Nonetheless, we hope that Canadian and foreign readers alike will find it useful. Please do explore the different pages of the website, which, we hope you will find, feature an expanding array of documents and resources.
If you are entirely new to the world of torture prevention and the OPCAT, please feel free to watch the explanatory videos under Electronic OPCAT, which will throw more light on the instrument. If afterwards you are still lost, then by all means please get in touch.
We would also very much welcome any information from readers who have been engaged in the national OPCAT process in Canada so far. If requested, information will be treated 100% confidentially (please contact us or upload information via the Upload Documents feature).
Although this website is regrettably only available in English, wherever possible materials available in the French language (such as various publications and videos) have been highlighted in the website's different sections.
With many thanks and best wishes,
Matthew Pringle
The Canada OPCAT Project
Ottawa, Canada


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Armory Coin (ARM) Overview
General InformationArmory Coin, also known as ARM uses Scrypt algorithm to secure transactions.
Armory Coin has over 1990000000 total coins that are not fully pre mined.
For more information see list bellow.
Name: Armory Coin (ARM)
Algorithm: Scrypt
Proof type: PoW/PoS
Total coin supply: 1990000000
If you want to improve this contact us or leave a review with resources that would help other people to know more about Armory Coin (ARM).
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We have been utilizing the Aline inserts at our New Orleans physical therapy offices for a few weeks now. Staff have been trained in what type of patients need to be assessed on the measuring device, and the patients that need Aline are loving it.
A couple of weeks ago I had a patient with pain in the outside of the ankle, just in front of and just below what you would call the "outside ankle bone" (lateral malleolus for you anatomy nerds).
One of her problems is that her arch muscles have weakened and so the entire foot has "collapsed", giving her a fallen arch. With the arch flattened when she stands and walks, that rolls the foot inwards and causes that spot in front of the ankle one to compress and torque two bones together.
Yes we are working on strengthening her foot again. But that is a long term solution. She will not get strong enough anytime soon in her foot to be able to support her body weight without the foot collapsing. So for the next few months she will be wearing her Aline inserts until her foot gets strong again.
What we have found is that there is immediate relief when she wears the Aline Inserts. The support places her foot in the correct position and keeps those two bones from compressing on each other. She even commented in amazement, "I walked around the whole zoo without any foot pain!". That's pretty exciting for someone who has been in a lot of pain with every step for a few months.
If you have foot pain, ALINE Orthotics may help you too! Come by one of our New Orleans clinics for a free Aline Orthotics fitting.


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Sangha Trinational – shared between Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo;
Lakes of Ounianga in Chad
Chengjiang fossil site in China
Lena Pillars Nature Park in Russia
Western Ghats in India
What is IUCN's World Heritage Programme?
The World Heritage Programme coordinates IUCN's work on the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which is one of the most important global nature conservation instruments.
It evaluates natural World Heritage Sites nominated for World Heritage Status, monitors the state of conservation of existing Sites, implements capacity building initiatives, and provides technical advice to the World Heritage Committee.
The World Heritage Programme also implements initiatives to enhance the role of the World Heritage Convention in protecting the planet's biodiversity and promote effective use of its mechanisms to strengthen the conservation and management of natural World Heritage sites.
The Programme is managed from IUCN's international headquarters in Gland, Switzerland,
Sangha Trinational
Sangha Trinational is a chain of national parks shared between Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo. Forming a broad network of well preserved and diverse landscapes, the forests and rivers are home to an outstanding diversity of plants and animals. The area hosts the largest intact populations of forest elephants and great apes, including the critically endangered Western Lowland Gorilla and the endangered Chimpanzee.
"Sangha Trinational is not a fragment but part of a much larger intact environment with good conservation prospects, and harbouring critically endangered species
Lena Pillars Nature Park in Russia
Lena Pillars is the name given to a natural rock formation along the banks of the Lena River in far eastern Siberia. The pillars are 150-300m (490-985ft) high, and were formed in some of the Cambrian era sea-basins. This unique ecological and tourism location was submitted as a World Heritage site in 2006.Lena Pillars National Park lies less than a day's boat ride upriver (south) from the city of Yakutsk, the capital of the autonomous Sakha Republic.
Lakes of Ounianga in Chad
The Lakes of Ounianga consist of a series of 18 mostly freshwater lakes in the heart of the Sahara desert in northeastern Chad. Relics of a single, much larger lake occupying the basin less than 10,000 years ago, these lakes are an exceptional example of permanent lakes in a desert.
"The Lakes of Ounianga are a jewel of the Sahara, not only of overwhelming natural beauty, but a testimony to the fragile and unique equilibrium of life on earth
Chengjiang fossil site in China
The rocks of the Chengjiang Fossil Site, near the city of Kunming in the Yuann Province of China, are evidence of the rapid appearance and diversification of species and evolutionary development, also known as the Cambrian explosion, which took place over 530 million years ago. The exceptional remains of species recorded at Chengjiang are key to understanding the early evolution of life on Earth.
"The inscription of The Chengjiang Fossil Site on the World Heritage List recognises this iconic site, which provides direct evidence of the origin of animal diversity,


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NRP Instructors have a tremendous amount of flexibility in determining how to evaluate Providers during the Integrated Skills Station (ISS).
The ISS is the point where the student passes or fails the NRP Provider course. If an Instructor is confident that a Provider knows the NRP flow diagram sequence and he/she has demonstrated this in multiple practice scenarios, Instructors may not need to take the student through numerous scenarios during the ISS.
However, if the student has never put the entire NRP Flow Diagram together in sequence, the Instructor may need to see the entire sequence in a scenario (or more than one scenario) to ensure that the student understands the sequence and can perform or assist with all interventions,depending on the student's scope of practice. The Instructor can ultimately decide how much the student needs to demonstrate at the point of the Integrated Skills Station. It is up to the Instructor, depending on what the Instructor has already assessed about the student and what the hospital expects the student to do during a neonatal resuscitation.
(July 2018)
Our award-winning customer care team is here for you.Contact Support


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Floorink Lite is a semi permanent floor, it prints up to photographic quality and has lots of applications.
Posted by Printed Space at 08:52 0 comments
PrintedSpace does F1 deal for images on Wallpaper, Canvas, Floors, Windows and more.
Posted by Printed Space at 07:02 0 comments
PrintedSpace has the new mapping section ready to go. A-Z and aerial photography and more are set and ready to launch.
Posted by Printed Space at 06:50 0 comments
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Guernsey funds have been reopened to millions of euros of potential investment as a result of the confirmation from the European Council of Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) that the island is now considered a transparent and cooperative jurisdiction by the European Union.
"We are delighted to hear the news that Guernsey is fully recognised by ECOFIN as a cooperative and transparent jurisdiction and that as a result the EIF has confirmed its policy that it is willing to invest in Guernsey Funds", said Paul Smith Chair of GIFA.
More on the announcement can be found here.
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Batch Insights
Insights into billions of daily smartphone notifications
Would you recommend this product?No reviews yet
CEO/Founder of Batch here. The basic idea behind Batch Insights is that smartphone notifications matter. It's the next interface for users while developers rely on them for growth and usage. Yet there's absolutely no way to search and analyze them today. Batch Insights is the first analytics tool dedicated to this medium. With it you can search through notifications, track your competitors, gain market insights and find inspiration for your own campaigns. There are certainly many other use-cases for this data, many of which we're pretty sure we haven't discovered yet. We're proud to be opening early access to Product Hunters today and welcome your questions/suggestions.
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@Virtualgoodz I love the vision behind this. I also can imagine it must be pretty hard to do technically, in a reliable way (are you are scripting a fleet of iPhones with all those apps installed?) One thought I have is around the **continuum of notification personalisation**, between e.g. news apps (no personalisation) and Facebook (all notifications are user-centric). I guess most apps would fit somewhere between those two, and it would be rad if you could train a machine learning model to differentiate between levels of user-specificity. Also, having data on conversion/open rates would be awesome, which I guess you would be able to do if apps had a way to send data to Batch?
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@Virtualgoodz Is the idea that you can track the generic push notifications from certain apps? If you are doing this through bots or virtual users wouldn't this violate TOS of some of the apps?
@akosner exactly. We focus exclusively on non-specific notifications that are otherwise publicly available, so that private user data can never be compromised through our service. To be clear, we do not hold, at any moment of the process, any sort end-user data transiting through push notifications. Regarding TOS, we review apps on a case by case basis and have not found ourselves in violation of any app license agreements. We do not register fake accounts nor manipulate application data, which is the focus of these agreements.
@julien_c :) 1. Technically yes: it's a pain. We've had to build an architecture comprised of hardware components, virtual machines and network proxies for aggregation and deduplication purposes. 2. We'll definitely need the assistance of an uncommonly powerful brain like yours to achieve that. Want to grab coffee next week and talk about it? ;) 3. This is completely spot on: we're going to be working hard on that and make it part of the advanced analytics features that are coming next to Batch Insights.
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@Virtualgoodz Simon, this is great stuff! Very cool for our business at Circa. It's pulling our stuff nicely though some extra stuff in there that I'd love to talk about getting adjusted. Any chance you can email me? Thanks in advance! matt [at] cir.ca
As someone who is having an ongoing mental breakdown trying to find an available (.com) name for a startup, seeing someone able to get/afford batch.com brings me to a brink of madness. Great name.
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Welcome, @Virtualgoodz. There are tools like this for tracking competitors' emails (e.g. Email Insights and MailCharts) but I haven't heard of any tools for tracking push notifications. Clever, but I'm unsure what to do with this information. It might inspire new ideas but perhaps there's a way to make this information more actionable for product designers/marketers. Thoughts?
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@rrhoover @Virtualgoodz I want to piggy-back on Ryan's question here... Who is your ideal user base? I can't tell who exactly this product is aimed for....?
@rrhoover @uxandrew @nicoprincen thx for asking the hard questions. There is a lot of work to be done to improve the quality, uniqueness, and usefulness of mobile notifications. Before Batch Insights, there was no way to get a comprehensive view of the notifications sent by gaming/m-commerce co's or news outlets. Now, as a marketer, product manager, or developer you can use Batch Insights to become inspired and develop a more effective and differentiated strategy. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the industry's use of mobile notifications, such as: 1. In the media industry, were you first to broadcast the news on Ferguson. See > https://batch.com/insights/all?l... 2. How is your competition using notifications? Track a specific vertical such as games and monitor them in real-time or follow custom groupings of the apps that matter to you. See > https://batch.com/insights/all?c... 3. In gaming, some use incentivized notifications to reengage, others try to make you feel sorry. What's your strategy? 4. How unique is your message from day to day? Which days are most popular for certain messages? You can view statistics on the content of your notifications, as well as others'. See > https://batch.com/insights/app/i... Being mobile developers ourselves we've been dying to know. Batch Insights tries to answer these questions.
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@Virtualgoodz @rrhoover @uxandrew @nicoprincen I think I'm pretty much the target user (product at a gaming company). We think A LOT about push notifications and do our own competitive research by playing other games, but this streamlines the process a lot. Basically we do this to benchmark our strategies and look for new innovative things to try. I'd love to get programmatic access to the underlying data to query trends, patterns, etc.
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@alexmr @rrhoover @uxandrew @nicoprincen Alex, I'd be happy to chat with you about how we can help you achieve that. Here's my email if you'd like to discuss it by email and/or schedule a quick call: email@example.com
@Virtualgoodz @uxandrew @nicoprincen bingo. Prior to Product Hunt, I worked in the gaming (mostly mobile) space for 5 years. I hadn't thought of that use case when I wrote my previous question but to piggy-back off of what @alexmr said, this would have been a fantastic resource for inspiration and competitive monitoring.
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FYI this site says "register with twitter" but then requires you to put in a email and password all the same which is super annoying.
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Great stuff. Question : you mention that it allows to get information on notifications from your competitors. How does that work? What exactly could I get from them? Thanks!
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DJ Magnet-Hives Wedding
(Billy Idol vs. the Hives vs. Martin Solveig)
Download here.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
DJ Magnet-Hives Wedding
Posted by DJ Magnet at 9:20 AM No comments:
Labels: billy idol, DJ Magnet, martin solveig, the hives
Friday, September 11, 2009
Girls on Film Freak Out on Bootie Top 10
My Duran Duran/Chic remix, "Girls on Film Freak Out" was included in the September Bootie Top 10, along with a bunch of other great mashups compiled by mashup legends A plus D. You will thank yourself for checking this out. Find it here.
Posted by DJ Magnet at 5:22 PM No comments:
Labels: A Plus D, Best of Bootie, DJ Magnet, Girls on Film Freak Out
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Posted in Members on Dec 08, 2019
IEEE membership should be personalized for each individual to make it valuable to him/her.
For his/her membership bundle, each individual should be allowed to pick the services/products that really matter to him/her.
I envision a simple token-based model for implementing such flexibility and adaptability.
Each individual pays the membership and receives some tokens corresponding to the type and level of membership that he/she purchased. This is the total value of his/her membership.
What will be bundled in it? The individual member will decide what compose his/her own membership by using the t...
Posted in Members on Dec 08, 2019