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Wrinkle ridges are tectonic landforms observed across all of Mercury's smooth plains deposits, and are often superposed by impact craters. Craters themselves are frequently surrounded by lobate-like ejecta deposits, which at first glance might look like tectonic structures. In this image, a lobate-like feature runs parallel to the northern margin of an unnamed crater 20 km (12 mi.) in diameter. Whether this landform is tectonic or impact-related is not yet clear, but with continued high-resolution imaging of other, similarly sized craters, we might be able to tell.
This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of a small area on Mercury's surface at resolutions much higher than the 200-meter/pixel morphology base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury's surface at this high resolution, but typically several areas of high scientific interest are imaged in this mode each week.
The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. MESSENGER acquired over 150,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is capable of continuing orbital operations until early 2015.
Date acquired: March 6, 2014Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 36395675Image ID: 5881419Instrument: Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)Center Latitude: 66.3°Center Longitude: 281.8° EResolution: 12 meters/pixelScale: The field of view in this image is 14 km (9 mi.) acrossIncidence Angle: 70.5°Emission Angle: 0.3°Phase Angle: 70.2°North is to the right in this scene.
For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy.


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Dunbar Sports Bra & Tank (Sewaholic)
Adult Intermediate Sewing
Location: Leilani Studio
$ 65.00
It's that time of year where we all start feeling guilty about binge watching TV shows instead of be outside and like, active and stuff. So let's do this! I would do anything to not shop for sports bras (shudder) so I was so excited to see this great new pattern from Sewaholic!
The Dunbar Top or Sports Bra is fully lined, with a powernet shelf bra that includes pockets for optional padding or removable bra cups. Racerback styling and contrast seaming gives it a cool modern look. Choose high-impact contrast like black and white, or opt for tone-on-tone fabrics for a subtler look. Edges are bound with fabric binding strips. View A is a mid-hip length tank top with a shelf bra lining. View B is a sports bra with elastic along the lower edge.Supplies to Bring:
1. Dunbar Pattern. This is sold at District Fabric and Dry Goods Design as well as online through their store
2. Please see back of pattern for all fabric and notions needed. Bring all to class.
Class Level: This class is for Adult Intermediate Sewists. Previous experience with machine sewing, several completed sewing projects and some pattern reading is required. Please email us if you are concerned you may not be at the right level for this class.
Finished Project Policy: We want this to be a relaxing experience and although we try very hard to finish in our time together, life happens. If you do not finish in time you are more than welcome to sign up for time during our drop-in studio times to finish up. This will be complimentary and for no charge. Let's have fun and finish!
Cancellation Policy: No refunds are offered for classes or camps. Cancellations received 72 hours before class start, will be able to redistribute their class fees to another class/camp. Cancellations received less than 72 hours before class start or no-shows forfeit their class fees. We are unable guarantee the same class or session will be available for rescheduling. Arriving more than 30 minutes late for class may be a forfeit of class fees.

subset: commoncrawl


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HV/EHV Overhead Transmission Lines
Al-Sharif Group Holding provides a full scope of Engineering Procurement, construction and maintenance services for electrical transmission systems up to and including 500kV.
Our primary focus is on EPC construction of High voltage and Extra high voltage overhead transmission lines and substation of 132KV and MV/LV distribution and maintenance of existing overhead transmission line networks.
The electrical division of the Company is geared to undertake projects through competitive bidding on "turnkey†bases including engineering, procurement and construction of power system networks.
The department is fully equipped and capable of handling large sized projects of HV & EHV transmission lines, distribution substations and networks and diesel power plants.
All project planning, initial and final designs, material procurements,execution of the projects till final commissioning are handled by qualified and experienced teams of engineers and professionals, using state of the art equipment, latest technologies and essential soft-wares.
Various stages of the projects from preliminary survey till final hand over to the respective clients, are very closely monitored by an independent cell giving high priority to the safety and security concerns, during project executions and achieving the desired targets.
The company is having a qualified team of engineers, supervisors and skilled workers sufficiently equipped with full range of tools, machinery, equipment, vehicles etc .is possessed by the division to produce quality work for due and proper project implementation, in accordance with the client requirements and international practices.
All big and small project activities are executed by the company's own specialized groups, including but not limited to the following.
Services provided Include:
- Engineering and Design works
- Preliminary and Final Line Surveys and optimization studies.
- Procurement and delivery of material and equipment to sites.
- Construction and installation works for overhead lines and substations.
- Installation of Equipment, Towers and others.
- Stringing of phase conductors and optical fiber cables for overhead lines.
- Testing & commissioning of the projects and final hand over to the Clients.


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The Caloundra Church of Christ is a not-for-profit Christian Ministry and Mission Organisation, affiliated with the Conference of Churches of Christ in Queensland.
It is helpful for those thinking about visiting for the first time, or even currently worshiping with us, to have an understanding of what the Caloundra Church of Christ is all about. Follow the links below to discover what makes us tick.


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It's Saturday,
August 8th, 2020
logged in
HURL Elkhorn 50K Endurance Run
Saturday August 6th, 2011
Norb Lyle
Well, all I can say is "Wow"! What an deeply rewarding experience this race was! This was my first "Ultra" and was really tested. I've been very moved by the experience and can say that I'm very humbled as well!
This run is dubbed "HURL" for good reason. Actually it stands for Helena Ultra Runner's League, but the site says "Run 'Til you Hurl, Then Run Some More". I didn't hurl, but could've - if I ran up all the mountain ranges instead of walking them!
This run is for you if you enjoy a true mountain endurance challenge. There are 2 big climbs - one longer that the other - on this run. It starts out at a very enjoyable grade and gets gradually rougher, tougher, and steeper. This year we enjoyed great weather and it was mostly in the 80's - not terribly hot. Great conversations ensued as well as stunning views, which was real nice. I managed a real nice and comfortable pace up to one of the higher sections of Elk Park mountain and down into a real nice, remote section of the mountain range. These are my favorite type of trails that were in here: closed, old, non-maintained forest roads. Love 'em! My ultimate "low" came next where at about 14 miles I experience total leg cramping - both legs - all possible muscles that permit you to move in a forward motion cramped up bad! This lasted quite awhile and I was truly tested because I was then faced with 1500 ft. wet and sloppy climb back up 2 miles to the next aid station. I truly thought my run was over at that point, but somehow, kept a good attitude, kept thinking positive, all the while walking as fast as my body would permit me to. Stretching and stopping sometimes also helped out to. After getting up to the aid station at 16 miles I engulfed whatever looked good and tossed down some more endurolytes for good measure. The aid stations were just great and had everything you would want, by the way. Things started looking up for me after that - down into the next aid station. Then, of course, we were again faced with a very hot, steep 2 mile grade in which I had to walk almost entirely up. It was here that the winner of the 50 MILE RACE past me up. (50 milers started 2 hours before we did)! I didn't let it get me down though! From up top of this mountain the views were (again) stunning, however there was a huge need for watching your footing for miles, skirting this mountain. I was keeping the cramping at bay too - always there and ever present, but it was now a "managed" run. Lots of down hill was next, small stream crossings with some short uphill sections. I was now finding that all uphill sections had to be treated very delicate with the cramping issue. At this point most of the big uphill sections were completed so we had to just bring it on in following a beautiful flowing stream, surrounded by the lush forest! There were a couple of stream crossings, but very manageable. I hardly ever got wet either the whole run. Lots of stream crossings, but you could skirt around them. By the time I was in the last aid station, there was only 1 1/2 miles to go. I was pumped and thanked God I didn't have anymore uphill sections to do. I found my wife and 2 wonderful daughters yelling and screaming for me with home made signs near the finish. Wow, now I was not only pumped again but also a bit chocked up too! My wife says I was probably running 8 minutes per mile at that point! Wow, how one forgets cramping and pain at the finish! I was glad I finished somewhat strong, and felt an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. I managed a 7:05 time and 4th in one of the "old man" categories of 50-59 age group. I will never forget my first Ultra in Helena, Montana. Run it, You'll love it!
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You are now leaving this site and you'll be redirected to the Interbrand Global website.
The move to focus on the corporate brand asserts leadership in areas such as partnerships and joint ventures, and builds robust, direct connections with customers and stakeholders. As a result, we are tracking moves among pharma brands to lead with stronger corporate masterbrands, i.e., a branded house strategy, which can pay off in key ways:
Driving choice and preference throughout the portfolio
A 2013 InterbrandHealth study demonstrated that a corporate brand's influence on a healthcare provider's (HCP) decision to prescribe or recommend a medication (i.e., Role of Brand) was approximately seven percent. In 2017, that influence has increased substantially to almost eleven percent, representing a 57 percent increase in impact.
Note that the Role of Brand (ROB) metric varies greatly by region, based on local regulation and market structures. In Brazil, ROB is 14 percent, while in China it's only 9 percent ROB also varies significantly by therapeutic area; from 10 percent in women's health to 13 percent for infectious diseases.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company provides a convincing case for a branded house approach. Having focused on strengthening its global corporate brand, it now over-indexes on ROB in comparison to category peers, registering 12.3 percent influence on global HCPs, versus an industry average of 11.9 percent.
Creating deeper, long–lasting relationships
It's been shown that companies that are perceived as innovative and collaborative create deeper affinity with prescribing physicians, which accounts for higher growth rates and ROI. In the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical fields, innovation has evolved along with new technology and ways of working. New products are often the result of deep collaborations across teams and companies. A company's total set of capabilities and expertise in science, innovation, and collaboration are as influential as incremental inventions on the product-level. This places a greater potential premium on a corporate brand-led approach.
A strong, partner-oriented corporate brand is also more likely to drive growth by attracting the best R&D collaborators, investors, potential M&A candidates, etc. For example, while AstraZeneca and GSK (and many of their pharma peers) employ a house of brands structure, these two firms have also elevated their respective corporate brands by positioning themselves as enterprising collaborators, capable of attracting the best research and marketing partnerships across therapeutic areas.
Building efficiencies and economies of scale
Today's patients, providers, and end-customers "weigh" a growing range of functional, emotional, and values-based considerations when deciding to choose a product. They want to get behind the curtain and delve into sourcing, supply chain, production, responsibility, impact, CSR, and culture, to uncover a set of values that's aligned with their own. As a result, they are assessing entire companies, not a single product unit, in order to make buying decisions. Focusing on the corporate brand drives efficiencies in marketing and operations that facilitate and streamline engagement at scale. Instead of splintering budgets by product, investing in enterprise branding supports initiatives that matter to decision makers across many or all product lines.
In terms of making a business case for a branded house approach, a stronger corporate-led brand strategy drives financial performance by:
There are, of course, financial risks to that must be addressed managed in order to make this strategy successful. For one, it narrows the potential market, where corporate brand equity and capabilities may effect credible play. It also creates higher risks in terms of competitors attacks (as a single house, you're a bigger target) and reputation risks, where one product misstep could bring down the whole house. However, growing access to information and demands for transparency make it increasingly difficult for corporate entities to hide behind a house of brands, so this playing field may level out.
A branded house approach also does not mitigate the need for creating strong product names that are recognizable, create clear differentiation, and drive preference. It does, however, speak to the need and importance of the corporate brand as an enterprise-wide asset and emblem of category leadership. This is why many healthcare companies are now re-examining the role of their corporate brands and begining to leverage its influence.
Should you?


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HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech volleyball team continued its quality play at the SDC Gym with a 3-0 sweep of Wayne State Friday (Oct. 11). The Huskies are 7-1 at home with seven sweeps after winning 25-20, 25-11, and 25-8.
"I'm just really happy with the way we stuck to it after the first set," Tech coach Matt Jennings said. "The defense on blocking and the backcourt was as good as I've seen it in a long time. We took a good offense out of sorts, and I think we were firing on all cylinders tonight."
Tech (12-4, 7-1 GLIAC) got down by four early in the first set but quickly tied it up. There were seven ties before the Huskies took a 1-0 lead with five straight points, including three on Laura De Marchi aces. Rachel Ping and Olivia Ghormley tallied four kills in the opening frame.
The Huskies jumped out to a 6-0 lead and built it to 12-3 in the second. The Black and Gold hit .548 and cruised to a 25-11 win. Ghormley had seven kills and Emilia Widen added four. Anna Jonynas added six digs.
The home team found its groove again in the third not allowing double-digit points in a set for the first time this season with a 25-8 win. Seven different Huskies had a kill in the third.
Ghormley had a match-high 15 kills. Six other Tech players recorded at least two kills with Widen, Ping, and MacAulay Petersen tallying seven. De Marchi set the offense with 37 assists. Megan Utlak (14), and Jonynas (13) led the back-row defense in digs and Ping added three block assists at the net.
De Marchi and Ghormley were recognized in a pre-match ceremony for recent milestones. De Marchi eclipsed 3,000 assists on October 4 and ranks fourth in Tech history in career assists. Ghormley recorded her 1,000th kill on September 28 and currently ranks eighth in program history.
Tech hosts Ashland Saturday (Oct. 12) in a battle of two of the three teams at the top of the GLIAC standings.
"It's always a good game against Ashland," added Jennings. "They have a good coach and great weapons on the offensive side of the ball. We need to be ready to play for sure, and it's going to be a lot of fun."
First serve is set for 4 p.m. The Eagles defeated Northern Michigan 3-2 Friday in Marquette.


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Your content distribution strategy should be as unique as your brand. Find out all your options when creating your perfect strategy to make sure that your brand and content gets the attention it needs.
How to Build a Perfect Content Distribution Strategy
Before you can develop the perfect content distribution strategy, you need to answer three main questions:
Why do you want people to read your content?
It's important to identify your content marketing goals. Do you want people to read your content to build brand awareness? Do you want your content to drive leads or increase user engagement?
Is one of your goals to have people visit your site even if they're not making purchases every day? Or are you looking to build a relationship with them through your newsletters?
Who is your audience?
Who are you trying to reach? Are you more interested in talking to your current customers or prospective customers? What is your age demographic? Are you talking to millennials who will grow into your brand or senior-level executives who can make purchasing decisions for their organizations?
How does your audience consume content?
You need to be able to go where your audience is and speak to them in a language they can understand. This means you'll need to identify how and where they engage with content, and then incorporate that information into your strategy.
If you're looking to connect with senior executives, you're not going to do that through Facebook. Mold to their needs and try a targeted email campaign.
Once you've been able to answer these questions, you'll be ready to develop your perfect content distribution strategy. You'll also be prepared to decide what kind of strategy you want to work with, paid or organic.
Paid Distribution
Paid distribution works best for brands looking to attract reliable sources to their content.
A paid content distribution strategy works best when:
- You're launching a new campaign and are looking to build awareness and critical mass around it.
- You'll be introducing a new product, event, or service.
- You're wanting to boost the views of high performing content.
You'll have to remember that paid promotion results aren't sustainable unless you continue to keep paying for them. This is why a paid content distribution strategy can be beneficial and should be used strategically.
That being said, an advantage of paid content is the ability to measure the results of your paid content distribution strategy, and you'll be able to easily estimate the traffic you will be receiving.
This is not something you can do with the audience of an organic strategy.
Ad Networks (PPC Advertising)
If you decide to use search PPC, your brand will be paying for keywords to show up as sponsored results when people search for them. The most well-known PPC network is Google AdWords, although there are others like Bing and Yahoo! search ads.
The other option is content PPC. This type uses content discovery networks to get noticed. They advertise articles and videos on websites through widgets. Outbrain and Taboola are some of the bigger content PPC networks.
Ad Network Tips:
- Invest in strong copy. Think about what your users will be searching for and purchase those terms. Use active language and Calls to Action. This will help you to stand out.
- Promote high-quality content with clear steps. Once you reach new people, you need to find a way to build a relationship with them. High-quality content will help your brand stand out and get more users to take action by signing up for your newsletter.
Paid Social Media
A social media content distribution strategy will only reach specific segments of users. Additionally, social media advertising varies between platforms, and your success can depend on how you allocate your budget.
Your paid social media budget should consider these points:
- Are you generating awareness around a new service or product? Or are you trying to improve lead generation?
- Do you want to spread spending over your entire campaign or are you looking for a quick win?
- Which networks does your audience spend most of their time on?
Facebook is one of the largest social platforms that allows you to engage with your target audience. Facebook's paid features allow you to create and personalize your ads with your brand goals.
Facebook allows its audiences to be segmented based on demographics, network, interest, and behavior. Ads run on the right-hand column on a desktop, and in the News Feed on mobile devices.
Twitter is a real-time social network that reaches 320 million monthly active users.
These ads can be used to achieve:
- increased followers
- more engagement
- increased website traffic
- more website conversions
- encourage app installation and re-engagement
Twitter allows you to target ads based on demographics, interests, keywords, and behavior.
This social network has over 300 million daily users and is a visually focused network. Consequently, if you want to run an ad on Instagram it needs to be striking with its photos or video.
Instagram is owned by Facebook, so to use it you'll need a Facebook page and a Facebook ad account.
Once this is done, then you can select the type of ad you want to run. When you do this, evaluate your goals for your ad by:
- Page post engagement
- Video views
- Clicks to website
- Mass awareness
- Mobile app engagement
- Reach and frequency
- Website conversions
- Mobile app installs
Instagram offers the same targeting options as it's parent company Facebook, but it does offer four different formats for its ads: photo, video, carousel, and stories.
Tips for all social media advertising
- Text and visuals matter. Use visually completing images and write attention-grabbing text.
- Optimize your campaign while it's running. Check the analytics of your campaign during its length and optimize it to get the best performance.
- Use paid social media to generate leads. Have a plan in place to start a relationship with the new users you get.
Organic Distribution
The biggest perk of organic distribution is that it is free. That's right, free. It refers to the channels you can use to build and engage your audience that doesn't cost anything extra.
The most popular organic content distribution strategies include email, social media, YouTube, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
To build your own email database, simply capture visitor information when they're joining your newsletter, downloading an eBook, or accessing gated content.
Structure this form to request specific information about job roles, industry, and budget. This will give you a deeper insight into your audience to send out tailored content that is specific to their needs.
Google Analytics can help you to make sure that your email campaign is working.
Quick Tips
- Optimise your forms to request only information that is relevant and beneficial to you.
- Tailor your content to take a personal approach with each interaction to create feelings of trust and credibility.
- Try out different pop-up forms on your site to determine what will entice your visitors more.
SEE ALSO: How to Use Google Analytics to Track Email Campaigns
Social Media
Regularly sharing updates and posting new content can keep you fresh in your follower's minds even if they're not ready to purchase a product or invest in a service.
Your activity can be advantageous because it gets you involved in conversations that allow you to connect with customers and offer helpful content. It can also give you a good idea of how your brand is perceived.
Quick Tips
- Prioritize your video content
- Use appealing videos and persuasive text
- Optimize your posting time for when your target audience is the most active
- Be social. Ask questions, address queries and participate in the general chatter
SEE ALSO: How to Create a Social Content Strategy for Your Brand
YouTube is the second largest search engine. It makes sense that it would be a great site to build your brand on.
Your goal when using YouTube should be to gain a lot of attention and drive that audience back to your website.
Quick Tips
- Demonstrate your expertise to show your knowledge in your field
- Create content that entertains while it informs
- Use keyword-rich descriptions to make your video searchable
Search Engine Optimization
SEO lets you pick keywords from your content to help it rank higher in search engines. A targeted keyword strategy will help search engines determine what your content is about and how relevant it is to users.
Quick Tips
- Find the predominant search terms for your business
- Focus each piece on a relevant keyword to make it easier for search engines to determine what your content is about
- Use longer, more detailed and informative content to rank higher
Final Thoughts
Building your perfect content distribution strategy is a unique process. You will have to determine whether you want to have paid or organic reach, and this will depend strictly on what kind of audience you are looking to have.
These quick tips will make sure that whichever strategy you choose for your brand will be well thought out and successful.
What's your content distribution strategy?


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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe!
I couldn't help it. I love these!!! Paintings by Layron DeJarnette who has actually illustrated some Garbage Pail Kids trading cards. There's not much this guy can't do. These were done for an upcoming He-Man themed show at Gallery 1988.
Posted by EricFortune at 6:09 PM
2 comments:
- Taiwan Yes said...
- January 6, 2010 at 6:17 AM
- Unknown said...
Nostalgic seeing these paintings/cards. Awesome stuff! The tonight is gonna be insane.
- January 8, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Here's a glorious shot of the River Tay where the River Tummel joins the river. This is a particularly scenic area of the river to fish for salmon on as you can clearly see here.
The beauty of the river, the flow of the stream, the call of the oyster catchers, the splash of a salmon & the eventual whirr from your salmon reel as a fish takes your fly are a few of the little things that will hold your attention in Scottish salmon fishing.
Here's a salmon fishing scene from the lower River Tay showing a fly fisher out in pursuit of a salmon. Fishing the Scottish rivers is a popular past time with thousands of anglers each year.
Fishing the fly on the River Tay in Perthshire often brings good results especially during the lower water conditions of late Spring. This 12 pounder came to the fly yesterday afternoon near the River Tummel junction.
Knowing exactly where to look for a taking salmon is half the battle in Scottish salmon fishing. An experienced salmon fishing guide will make sure you are covering fish and not fishing areas where salmon are not present.
The River Tay is a reliable Scottish salmon fishing river as accessibility & water levels are usually good for the majority of the salmon fishing season.
Here's a lovely example of a fresh run salmon from the middle River Tay near Pitlochry. This is the caliber of salmon we all love to catch.
This is the type of perfect salmon fishing scenery you can expect on the rivers of Scotland. This particular shot was from the famous River Tay in Perthshire.
This is the salmon pool directly downstream of the River Tummel & Tay confluence. Such amazing riverbank beauty is in abundance in Scotland.
A Scottish salmon fishing event is a great way to entertain your business colleagues and give them a quality introduction to the natural world of salmon fishing.
The beauty and surroundings of the Scottish rivers are not too be underestimated. Catching your first salmon is also a huge achievement for any new angler. Put both of the above together and you'll understand part of the attraction of Scottish salmon fishing.


text: 【明報專訊】SENTENCED TO IMPRISONMENT after he was found guilty of "misconduct in public office", former Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has been ordered to pay $5 million in litigation costs. In his judgement, Mr. Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai reprimanded Tsang's public relations company for lining up famous and prominent figures to sit in the courtroom late into the trial with the intention of persuading the jury "through the back door" that Tsang was a "good person" supported by people across the social spectrum. Though Mr. Justice Chan's judgement has been controversial, what truly merits attention is the fact that the rich and powerful, counting on their connections, wealth and positions, have been trying to influence the jury with PR tactics. Tactics employed by PR firms in litigation are numerous and often fall within the legal grey area. While these practices are not in violation of the law, they are detrimental to how citizens perceive fairness and justice in law, and as such are inevitably the subject of criticism for moral reasons. Society and the jury should beware of such PR tactics employed in litigation.


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Vurnon Anita and Yoan Gouffran still don't know what their futures will be at Newcastle and it looks like it's all dependent on the funding Rafa will be getting from owner Mike Ashley.
It seems that Rafa is still undecided about the two and we suppose that's football – the last day of the season and you still don't know if you will get a new deal at the club.
We were hoping both players get new deals, because if nothing else they will be very good squad players who Rafa trusts.
Both have had good seasons for us and showed they will walk through a brick wall for the side – which is always good.
Yoan Gouffran and Vurnon Anita
Of course at the moment Rafa is maniacally single-minded about the game this afternoon against Barnsley and like last year at this time he wants a good performance in the last game from the lads to end what has been a very successful season for us.
And a win against Barnsley will give us a decent chance of still lifting the Championship and that would be the icing on the cake – let's hope that happens.
This is what our manager has said when asked if he had made any decisions on the two players – as reported in ChronicleLive:
"I am trying to stop speculation about players because if we have a meeting and we talk about this or that, then it has an influence on players."
"I told them the other day: 'Forget about your future, short-term, because we have to play this game, and then next week I will meet the owner and then we will talk about what's going on."
"And then you will know after the meeting because before the meeting I can say nothing'."
Hopefully the meeting will take place very soon and then Rafa and Lee Charnley will start moving very quickly to start building Newcastle's new team for the Premier League next season.
It's really exciting and we should all be able to have a great summer following Rafa's transfer activities.
Can't wait but first of all maybe we can go up as Champions?
Comments welcome.
7 comments so far
In case anyone was still unclear about Kodi and its legality, according to this site
It is legal to stream copyrighted content as long as you are not storing the data.
So as long as your version of Kodi is later than Frodo (i think that was the last version that allowed you to save the data to a hard disk or other media) you can legally watch any streamed copyrighted content.
This , according to the court of justice for the European union was brought to court in June 2014 and the companies who brought the case to court were told its not against european law to stream content unless that content is being stored…….so, unless the Boro guy has been selling boxes with Frodo on or earlier, and unless the british law supercedes the european law (which im sure it wont) he will get off .
Anyway, to as important things
im probably last as i dont think iv ever won the bingo but here goes till August
Yedders, Mbemba,Clark,Dummet
Shelvey, Hayden
Atsu, diame,Arrons
Im going for a cheeky 4-1 to us and a 1-1 draw for the Villans……..
We are Newcastle and were gonna win the league ….Gonna win the league…..Going down going up, going down, going up……..the scum are going down and the mags are going up , the mags are going up, The Mags are GOING UP !!!!!!


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June 26, 2010
Roaring, stomping, clapping, dancing. Kids and parents had lots of fun acting like monsters at our latest ArtStarts on Saturdays workshop! Kathryn Ricketts stopped by the gallery space on June 26th to lead two interactive storytelling workshops based on Maurice Sendak's classic tale, Where the Wild Things Are.
Kids learned that Sendak based the monsters in his book on his relatives who would come to his house for dinner each week. After the workshop, in which participants acted out parts of the story, everyone, including parents, took part in a silly dance party!
Thanks to Kathryn for a great workshop! This was our last ArtStarts on Saturdays event for the summer, but we will resume holding workshops on the last Saturday of the month in September.
Have a great summer and we look forward to seeing you in the fall!
Many thanks to the TELUS Vancouver Community Board and the Host a City Happening Program for their generous sponsorship of the ArtStarts on Saturdays series.
AIC Projects | Arts Integration in Action | ArtStarts Artists | ArtStarts Team | Community Events and Engagement | Exhibitions | Grants | Guest Blog | Infusion Pro-D | Knowledge Philanthropist | Meet a Community Art Star | Showcase | Supporters | The Next 20


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By Eric Engle[1]
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In the post-war era, certainly in the post-Soviet era, a global norm erga omnes has arisen: "aut dedere, aut judicare":[2] a state must either extradite or prosecute persons residing on their territory who have violated peremptory norms of international law (i.e., jus cogens).[3] The norm is potentially powerful in the protection of human rights and could prevent international criminals from residing in safe exile while relying on misappropriated wealth to bribe local officials.
Recently, Belgium has brought a case to the International Court of Justice ("ICJ"), seeking to compel Senegal to either extradite or try the former Chadean Head of State, Hissène Habré. Habré had committed various brutal violations of human rights during his rule[4] in violation of the Convention Against Torture ("CAT")[5] and customary international law.[6] The case is still in the preliminary stages. Nevertheless, it raises several issues which have been litigated before and which are of burning interest for international law and indeed for international relations.
Continue reading "Extradite or Prosecute? Belgium v. Senegal" »


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Fr. Joseph Tuscan, OFM Cap.
Mass Celebrant, Eucharistic Procession & Benediction
Fr. Joseph was born in Columbus, OH, in 1967 and was raised in Canton, OH. He entered Borromeo College Seminary in 1986 where he earned his Bachelor's degree in Behavioral Sciences in 1989. In 1990, he professed his first vows as a Capuchin Franciscan friar. Making his Perpetual vows in 1993, he went on to earn his Master's degree in Theology at the Washington Theological Union in 1995 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1997 in Pittsburgh, PA, by Donald Cardinal Wuerl, now of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC.
Fr. Joseph's first assignment after ordination was on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea where he served for four years with our friars of the Custody there. Returning to the US in 2001, he has served in various capacities as Parochial Vicar, Military and Hospital Chaplain and as Pastor.
Most recently, Fr. Joseph worked with our friars in the Custody of Puerto Rico and currently serves as a full-time Minister of the Word and Evangelization for our Capuchin Province, offering retreats and reflection days for parishes, Religious and Priests.


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Day 6 – Telunga
Telunga is a Solder in the King's army who follows orders and does her best to keep the peace. She has her own code of honor which can sometimes conflict with the law of the land but she is respected enough to be given some leeway. She is one of the best sword fighters in the land and it is dangerous to cross her – which Loraine and Rianna do constantly.


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Everyone's got something to say, but can you say it in two minutes?
We'd like to give you the chance to take the stage and share your vision in 120 seconds. That's right, you've got just 2 minutes be it in photos limit of 15 still photos or self-running multimedia show.
You may take less time but no more than. The two options you have for this are either a self-running show in .mp4 or .mov formats only (no Internet linked shows allowed). If using audio within your presentation that is not of your own creation, please be sure to have proper licensing and usage rights.
- We will accept the first 30 shows. These will be on a first come-first serve basis. Very rarely will shows be accepted after the conference begins, as most years the limited availability fills up FAST. The 2-minute shows will begin Friday evening during the conference and continue on Saturday.
- You may choose to show up to fifteen single digital images or share a self-running 2-minute show.
- You have a maximum of two minutes to talk on stage. Begin with introducing yourself to the crowd. Then, feel free to use the following time to generally describe your images, ask for a internship or job even! We even had someone sign up for a 2minute show and show one image and spoke to the crowd for their entire two minutes. It's your two minutes, you choose how you'd like to spend your time–use it wisely.
Multimedia Show Guidelines
- You may choose to share a self-running multimedia piece. It must be in a self-contained file able to be given to person at registration table on the first day of the conference to load onto their computer. Be sure this show is able to work on a Mac and PC. Most importantly, please be sure to keep your show under 120 seconds. As your two minute time frame starts when you hit the stage introducing yourself.
- Image size for self-running shows should be no bigger than 1024×768, since this is the limit for many projectors.
- At registration, please indicate whether your multimedia show has sound/audio/narration or not.
Digital Image Guidelines 1. All digital images must be submitted beginning the afternoon of the main conference registration (Jan. 31, which opens at 1pm). 2-Minute show registration will be located in the same area as the conference registration area. 2. Images may be submitted via flash/thumb drive, CF or SD card, which will be immediately returned to you after the copying of files to the show computer. 3. All images should be sized at 300 dpi and the largest dimension no more than 10 inches to help keep file sizes smaller and loading time quicker. Please also save files as JPEGs with medium/high (8) compression. 4. Name files using the following example: Lastname_firstinitial_01.JPG If your name is Kathleen Murray it would look like this: Murray_K_01.JPG 5. Put the files in a folder labeled Lastname_firstname So if your name is Kathleen the folder will be named: Murray_Kathleen


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Figure 7 raw data: Effect of variable exposure to PTHrP (1-36) on bone nodules and AP activity in high plating density cultures.
2013-03-05T16:35:40Z (GMT) by
RC cell cultures were maintained in control medium for 21 days (C/C), maintained in control medium and changed to medium containing PTHrP (1-36) on day 11 (C/P), treated with 100 nM PTHrP (1-36) for 21 days (P/P), or exposed to 100 nM PTHrP (1-36) for 10 days and then transferred to control medium on day 11 (P/C). The number of bone nodules (A) and AP activity (B) were determined on day 21.


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The facts about the humanitarian situation in Syria are well-known: A minimum of 160,000 people have been killed. About 6.5 million Syrians have been forced to leave their homes and are displaced inside Syria, and 2.7 million are refugees in neighboring countries—altogether, nearly half of Syria's population of 22 million. The refugee burden on neighbors is immense: There are a million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, whose population is only a bit over 4 million, and 600,000 registered in Jordan, with a population of just over 6 million. These official refugee figures may be far lower than the real numbers (there are probably over a million refugees in Jordan), and do not begin to express the misery in which so many Syrians now live.
A rebel fighter on the frontline of the Mleha suburb of Damascus, June 7, 2014. (Photo: Bassam Khabieh/Courtesy Reuters)
The refugee flows and the jihadi presence, which are both growing, constitute a threat to Syria, its neighbors, and the interests of the United States. Today, foreign fighters from around the globe are said to number anywhere from 8,000—the estimate given by Gen. Lloyd Austin, U.S. Central Commander—to 12,000, and several of the groups are linked to al-Qaeda. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, said in April 2014 that "Syria has become a matter of homeland security," and the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said in January 2014 that one of the al-Qaeda-aligned Syrian jihadi groups "does have aspirations for attacks on the homeland."Among the foreign jihadis now fighting in Syria there are believed to be seventy Americans.
The U.S. Reaction
The U.S. government's reaction has been almost entirely humanitarian, through aid to neighboring countries and to various UN and private agencies. Soon the total will reach $2 billion.
President Obama has been extremely reluctant to lift U.S. involvement from the humanitarian and diplomatic to the military. His 2012 decision against military aid to the Syrian rebels was made against the advice of his top national security officials at that time, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CIA Director David Petraeus, Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey, and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. His last-minute decision in August 2013 not to strike Syria after its use of chemical weapons was popular in the Pentagon and with the public, but clearly went against advice from Secretary of Stat
e John Kerry.
In June 2013 the administration announced the provision of some aid to the rebels, but from all evidence little or no material help actually followed. Finally in late May 2014, the president himself announced in his speech at West Point a decision to give additional aid to the rebels: "I will work with Congress to ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and brutal dictators."
The Price of Inaction
U.S. policy since the start of the rebellion in Syria in 2011 has failed. Regime brutality against the majority-Sunni population of Syria and intervention by foreign Shia forces (Iranian and Hezbollah) have attracted a far larger and more dangerous group of jihadis than ever existed in Afghanistan, one whose threat to U.S. allies and interests keeps growing. That the Iranian and Hezbollah intervention has elicited no serious U.S. response has not only favored the regime's survival, but shaken faith in American reliability among all U.S. allies in the region and beyond.
That Iran has appeared far more determined to win in Syria, defined as keeping Assad in power, than the United States has appeared in achieving its stated goal (that Assad must go) similarly shakes confidence in U.S. power and willpower. The huge and growing refugee burdens threaten stability in Jordan, long a key U.S. ally, and in Lebanon. And the fact that Assad is an Alawite trying to rule a 74 percent Sunni country suggests that with him in power there will never be stability, only more war.
Less tangibly but of equal importance, U.S. willingness to enforce the norms of international conduct has been undermined, as has American moral leadership. The association of the United States with the cause of human rights and democracy, going back at least to Woodrow Wilson, has been weakened by its unwillingness to act in the Syrian case. America's soft power is linked to its reputation for idealism and the defense of human values. The refusal to use hard power in the Syrian case has contributed to a diminution of soft power as well.
Needed: A New Policy
The early goal of a quick departure for Assad and transition to democracy in Syria is now impossible to attain. More disorder and suffering are certain. But Syria need not be an endless source of refugees, a center of inhuman suffering at the hands of a vicious minority regime, and a worldwide gathering place for jihadi extremists.
First, the United States must establish a serious program to train and equip the rebels. Diplomacy has failed: the efforts made by the United States in Geneva to reach a political accord cannot now succeed, because diplomacy will always reflect the power relationships on the ground. Those must be changed by strengthening the anti-Assad, anti-jihadi forces composed of nationalist Syrian rebels.Their weakness is largely linked to their possession of very limited amounts of guns and other equipment, and limited amounts of money with which to pay fighters, while jihadi groups appear to have far more of both.
The balance of forces will change when anti-jihadi groups can arm and train all the men they can attract, including attracting them from other forces to which they have gone because those forces were able to feed and clothe them and supply modern weapons. Without such a fighting force, there is no hope that the power of the regime or the jihadis can be countered.
Second, the United States should punish Assad for the continuing use of chemical warfare. This means an air strike robust enough to damage CW targets, including units that have used CW and any air assets ever used to deliver them. Any strike should at this point be broad enough to greatly restrict Assad's ability to use air power as an instrument of terror. More broadly, punitive air operations should be considered to force the regime to allow humanitarian aid to quickly reach those who need it. And even more broadly, air strikes can both change the military balance on the ground and affect the political and psychological dimensions of the conflict by demonstrating a new American policy and new determination.
As Anne-Marie Slaughter, director of policy planning in the State Department in Obama's first term, wrote in April 2014, "A U.S. strike against the Syrian government now would change the entire dynamic. It would either force the regime back to the negotiating table with a genuine intention of reaching a settlement, or at least make it clear that Assad will not have a free hand in reestablishing his rule."
Is such use of American air power feasible? Yes; outside of the Damascus area air defenses are quite limited and so would be the risk to the United States. This conclusion is supported by Israel's series of successful air attacks on Syria without losing one aircraft.
Third, the United States and other donors are still not delivering sufficient aid to Jordan and other neighbors of Syria to enable them to cope with the refugee crisis without severe political and economic strains—for example, on schools and hospitals. The United States and its Gulf allies, some of who are actively funding rebel groups in Syria, should undertake a serious joint review of Jordan's needs, and then act together to meet them. At West Point, the president pledged to do so.
Fourth, the United States should make it clear to allies in the region such as Israel and the Gulf Arab states that any nuclear deal with Iran will stop it from developing a nuclear weapon but will not stop Washington from confronting Iranian subversion and aggression—such as its sending hundreds of Revolutionary Guard and Quds Force combatants and advisers to Syria.
There are many suspicions in the region that a "grand bargain" between the United States and Iran is still in the cards, and that if a nuclear deal can be reached, U.S. resistance to other aspects of Iranian conduct would be softened just when sanctions relief would be giving Iran more economic resources. These fears should loudly be laid to rest. The Obama administration should clarify that it seeks a nuclear deal with Iran, but has no illusions about or intentions to negotiate a broad rapprochement with the Islamic Republic, and will help those nations that are resisting Iranian misconduct.


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Episode 6 – We meet Javier and all of us were impressed. I was one of the more excited of the group (obvi!!!) and I think for obvious reasons. We shared the same upbringing with our families and values and culture, etc. So of course I bidi bidi bom bom'd TO THE RIGHT. I really was hoping he was going to pick me, so when he didn't I was bummed! I was really excited for Alyssa though because she was off to the villas! And after seeing how smitten he was with her, its no wonder he picked her! His selection of Alex made sense too because he said he needed a women to bring out the fun in him. And as we all know, Alex is all sorts of fun!
I also had no idea that Alex was talking so much smack about me. I had taken a big sister role with her for most of our time in Anguilia. (When she was down and out about BT, I was literally bringing her breakfast in bed, making sure she was fully stocked with chicken nuggets and cranberry juice to cheer her up, I mean I borrowed her shoes everyday… I totally thought we were more than cool.) It wasn't until watching her say she's funnier than me (I don't think I'm funny…but ok) and that I have a big personality but hers is bigger, and that I have a little kitten voice.. and can we just have a moment for her little bloat session mocking the AYYYY PAPI and the fact that Javier didn't pick me…I didn't know her claws were already out at that point is all I can say. *sips tea*
Also in this episode we say goodbye to Taylor. He was so funny and I wish I got to get more time to get to know him. I was happy for Ben and Lisa though. In the dating world, things like this can happen.
But CAN WE TALK ABOUT MICHELLE AND HER BABY AND BABY DADDY!!?!?!? That was the most beautiful story to watch unfold, omg! I was crying soooo hard. I cried just as hard watching the episode.
NEXT WEEK WILL BE CRAZY!! If you've seen previews, you know what I'm talking about… And I cant wait to write about it immediately after. #JessicaRabbit #LetTheGamesBegin


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Road Trip
Last weekend we went on a short road-rail trip. First, we took the overnight train from Bangalore to Hospet, which is the gateway to Hampi – i.e. the ruins of the Vijayanagar empire. This is also the historic Kishkinda area -- the kingdom of Bali and the birthplace of Hanuman. The realm was handed over to Sugriva, Bali's brother, by Ram after he killed Bali.
After Hampi, we went by SK's 4WD up NH-13 and SH-26 from Hospet to Badami, via the Tungabhadra-Sagar Dam, Kustagi and Hungund. The capital of the Chalukyas, Badami is situated at the mouth of a ravine between two rocky hills, into which are hewn syncretic cave temples dedicated to Vishnu, Budhha and Mahavira, the earliest dating to the 6th century.
To return, we bumped over country tracks to Gadag; catching there NH-63 to Koppal and Hospet. ("If you're driving in South India note that NH 63 appears on the map, but does not, in fact, exist" – a helpful note from the indiamike web site.) Finally, we retraced NH-13 to Chitradurg; and took NH-4 back to Bangalore.
Next: Vijayanagar.


text: New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Melbourne are just a few of the cities known for street art. But that doesn't mean the streets aren't being spray painted, wheat pasted and stenciled in other cities – and more importantly, it doesn't lessen the messages these artists are trying to get across. One such place is Ecuador, where graffiti tells the stories of the state of life and what it's like to live in the country. Locals in the country's capital city have a saying that there are "no blank walls in Quito," and for the most part that's true. Even in those instances where there is a blank wall, it probably won't be long before it turns into a canvas. Click through the image gallery below to see a collection of street art images from across Ecuador (including some from Baños de Agua Santa, where Jessica Festa recently documented graffiti). Whether you consider street art a nice artistic touch or an act of vandalism, these images show a unique perspective.


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This Car Needs Polished, Let's Junk It
...or, Typical Austro-Chicago Logic.
This is cross-posted from a discussion at Credit Slips.
Omri Ben-Shahar of the University of Chicago Law School has fired the latest round in the US class wars in a paper alleging that clauses in consumer sales contracts mandating arbitration (usually in a distant jurisdiction) and barring class action suits are good for consumers because litigation costs are actually regressive taxes that are passed along to consumers whether the consumers reap any benefits or not. Looks like more of the Austro-Chicago rubbish that got us into this mess.
1. A firm can't pass litigation costs through if its competitors don't have them. It would put the firm at a competitive disadvantage. Given that, how can litigation costs become a tax, as opposed to an expense incurred by firms that do shoddy work? Are the shoddy firms to be shielded from these expenses to the detriment of not only consumers, but competitors? Further, if it isn't just a firm but an industry that is engaged in bad practice, regulation is warranted, but the Austro-Chicagoans can't have that. So they come up with the oh-so-logical proposal that shoddy firms be allowed to externalize their costs on consumers and competitors, which frankly is par for their course.
2. Markets aren't a unified mass, even for a particular product. They are segmented, and you can't identify market forces and effects if you don't bother to properly map the market you're examining. Ben-Shahar ignores this little nicety. In other words, Ben-Shahar has created a model that doesn't reflect reality terribly well but does deliver the results he wants. Quelle surprise.
3. Contrary to Ben-Shahar's version of reality, arbitration routinely costs more than litigation, especially if proceeding under panel rules and a choice of forum clause. Couple such clauses with a loss of class action rights, and the average consumer has zero access to justice. And if you couple that with nonregulation, shoddy operators have carte blanche.
4. And contrary to the slack Adam Levitin gives him, Ben-Shahar knows full well that this piece will be used as a pseudo-intellectual foundation for anti-consumer legislation similar to how Reinhart and Rogoff were used to justify austerity.
Ben-Shahar has identified, at most, minor problems that need minor corrections. In other words, the car needs polished. But since the car is counter to the Austro-Chicago faux pure market dogma, it must be junked. The Austro-Chicagoans love to preach about "rights," but I'm compelled to quote "The Princess Bride": You keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means. Were the Austro-Chicagoans to have their way, rights would be nothing more than what the holders can afford to enforce. Rights would be something only the rich could afford. To paraphrase "Lord of the Rings": The way is shut. It was made by 1%ers, and 1%ers keep it. The way is shut.
Labels: arbitration, Austro-Chicago, class action, Credit Slips


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Community Webs to bring web archiving to public libraries
June 30th, 2017
by Sylvie Rollason-Cass
Are you a public librarian interested in expanding your local history collections to include web archives? If so, you're in luck! The Internet Archive is accepting applications from public librarians to participate in a program of continuing education, training, and services to enable public libraries to build collections of historically-valuable, web published materials documenting their local communities. The Community Webs program is offered by the Internet Archive in partnership with WebJunction, and with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
Many public libraries have active local history collections that collect print and analog materials documenting their region. But in an age where information about local events is being circulated exclusively via websites, blogs, and social media, it can be challenging to collect, preserve, and provide access to this content. Public libraries are largely underrepresented in the web archiving community, accounting for only 7 of the 500+ institutions that have used or are currently using Archive-It. The 2013 and 2016 NDSA Web Archiving Surveys show similar numbers, with public libraries representing only 2% of the national web archiving community in each survey. Be it due to the technical challenges, the lack of training opportunities, or the lack of a community of public library-based practitioners, there is a critical national need to develop skills among public librarians in digital stewardship activities like web archiving.
This is where the Community Webs project comes in. Participants in this project will receive a 0.50 TB archival data budget per year for five years to build local history web archive collections using Archive-It, including a public access portal to their web archive collections and perpetual storage of all archived content. Participants will also have access to trainings on the Archive-It software, and on topics like collection development and community engagement, as well as an annual stipend to attend cohort meetings, conferences, other professional development opportunities, and local events.
The only requirements to apply are an interest in web archiving and time to devote to the project (2 hours a week plus annual cohort meetings and conferences). Prior technical knowledge or web archiving experience is not expected — you'll learn as you go.
We are accepting applications through August 25th. Find out more on the Community Webs project page and feel free to direct any questions about the program to Maria Praetzellis (Maria @archive.org) and Sylvie Rollason-Cass (Sylvie @archive.org). Apply now!


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The idea is to take a phrase and analyze it for use in Information Retrieval. We need to tokenize it into words, possibly transmute some of the tokens, possibly expand some tokens into subphrases. This class lets you register lambdas to perform transformations, substitutions, and expansions. Expansions can take a numerical value representing the cost of the operation; this is intended for raising or lowering the scores of matches in the theoretical IR application.
Given the phrase "joe's sushi & bait-shop shack", assume I want to tokenize on whitespace, replace the ampersand with the word "and", and create word variants for the hyphenized and apostrophized words. See the last spec for an example of the Ruby data structure this class generates.


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Flies are idiots...JohnH wrote:Ever hear about the saying, "Eat sh!t - one trillion flies can't be wrong".
We've all seen the annoying housefly buzzing around the top sash of an OPEN window....
"Just fly down you idiot! Gheesh!"
You know, come to think of it, people are a lot of like flies. Buzzing around, smacking into the glass, can't figure out why they can't be free!
All the have to do is stop, look around, observe... and FLY OUT THE OPENING!
Amazing isn't it... flies have ALL THOSE EYES..... BUT CAN'T SEE!
Humans have all those brains... BUT CAN'T THINK!
I could go on all day!


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Перевод песни Ogun – What You Know About Baltimore
Работает на технологии Яндекс.Переводчика
From the city where everybody talk with their hands Forget the 9−5, most hustles revolve around grams Live for the moment we ain't working no plan And the favorite saying is «It is what it is.» I mean the kids sit back and try to emulate us The cops had to regroup, yeah they ran out of cuffs So now they string us up on some cowboy wildstyle The saga continues, but meanwhile Grandma she getting closer to death Bible in hand, eyes closed clutching her chest All the hate in the air make it harder to breathe And all the cameras in the hood make it hard to believe Little man riding that five and he die for his creed Yeah they grew up so quick nobody clocking their speed But it's just us so just B-more And if you ain't feeling that yeah this song is for ya'll What you know about Baltimore Things have changed since back in the days Just like we all stubborn, we all stuck in our ways Nobody care no more Nobody got a heart nobody feel no more They move the blacks to the county on some reconstruction They say «Everywhere we go all we bring is destruction" — What? Man this city was built on our backs But we lost our history we know they hide all the facts Remember when the Arabs would come through with the fruit Saturday morning- everybody cleaning the stoop Back when we stuck together and looked out for the youth Now we over ourselves and ya'll know it's the truth But if we keep this up we gonna die like this And if you got kids they won't survive like this Look; it's just us so just B-more And if you ain't feeling that yeah this song is for ya'll What you know about Baltimore (People don't realize what they about to do in this city I got friends in the game man, these politicians They tell me everything that's going on in this city man And I really feel that we're not taking advantages of all the things about to pop off In the next 3 years- I'm starting to see it on TV now about slot machines and stuff like that It's gonna be casinos man, these casinos need music, man; you understand what I'm saying? Why should they go out of town and hire a different act When they got a mess load of people right here that can give them the raw Baltimore? You know- I mean; they tearing down buildings everywhere downtown to build them condos, man They tearing down a lot of different things, like, you know- And they putting up condos- these condos are gonna be filled with people A different market of music and people that's gonna be spending money And trying to get to know our culture You understand- our Baltimore culture- you understand what I'm saying? Man; I'm not going nowhere I'm staying here A chick told me to- uh, the I'm here to say that we are gonna make it And I'm not leaving until my fingers bleed You understand?)


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Flex 2.0.1 Rating Component
April 28, 2007
Allot of online applications today presenting anything from news, to photos, to video all have a public rating feature. So here is a component that can serve as a really good start.
Flex 2.0.1 ComboBox with icon support.
April 28, 2007
Sometimes a ComboBox with icons in the list as well as in the text display area can be useful. However the out of the box Flex ComboBox component dosn't support this. Here is one way of doing it.
Flex 2.0.1 Tree with Spring Loaded Folders (Update 2)
February 26, 2007
I've updated the Flex 2.0.1 Tree with Spring Loaded Folders code to take care of a couple small bugs, plus added some features. Support for optional restricted operations during both drag and drop (including inheritance support). Optional drag proxy when dragging multiple items. Operation restriction when dragging into originating node (into self).
Flex 2.0.1 Extending the Tab Navigator
February 5, 2007
Well here is my version of an extended Flex tab navigator. I implemented a proper proxy image for the drag operations. Dragging between navigators (very handy for larger applications). Got your standard close button happening, optional of course (as a style). Click an item in the popup list, if not visible the item clicked becomes the first tab. Drag from the popup list is implemented. Drag and drop into a navigator container places the tab as the first item.
Flex 2.0 Tree with Spring Loaded Folders (Update)
January 25, 2007
I've decided to both update the sample on the original post, and explain the error in a new post for those that have already downloaded the example. Turns out it's actually something to remember.
In today's post Flex 2.0 Tree control with Spring Loaded Folders there was a nasty framework bug. The bug only happens sometimes so it was not detected right away. None the less it is a show stopper for those wishing to use the technique on the tree control.
Flex 2.0 Tree with Spring Loaded Folders
January 25, 2007
Although the techniques described here can be applied in other ways, and on other components; one of the most practical is the tree control.
When dragging items in a Flex application the user is mouse blocked. The left mouse button is used to initiate, and keep alive the drag operation. The tree control being comprised of folders and items posses a particular problem. If the user wishes to drag the items into a closed folder, the user would have to first open the desired destination folder, then perform the drag operation.
Extending the Flex 2.0 DividedBox
January 18, 2007
A couple of people over on Flexcoders have expressed interest in customizing the Flex divider box. As this is something I happened to have played with, I thought I would share it. Styled gradient fill, close and open state button, border colors, and a couple of other goodies.


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The superstructure deck, the 01 level, begins with the hedgehog blast shield, with the #2 3"/50 caliber gun immediately forward of the bridge.
Aft of the #2 gun are port and starboard 20mm twin machine gun stations. Next is the enclosed part of the superstructure deck containing 20mm ammunition clipping room and gun crew shelter space, the captain's stateroom, ship's office and radio room.
Aft of the bridge house is the boat deck with the ship's motor whaleboat and gravity davits, the exhaust uptake and stack.
Further aft are four twin 20mm machine gun stations, two on each side of the stack. aft of the 20mm guns is the 3"/50 caliber loading machine, on which the crew drilled to increase their rate of fire.
The SLATER originally had a triple torpedo mount aft of the loading machine. At this point in the war, aircraft were determined to be a more immediate threat than surface ships. Thus, the torpedo tubes were replaced shortly after the shakedown cruise with four single (Army) 40mm AA mounts. In 1945, these were replaced with two twin 40mm mounts and their MK51 director stations as the ship prepared for the invasion of Japan.
Furthest aft on the contiguous superstructure deck is the aft twin 40mm mount and its MK51 director station. Just forward of this gun is a standard compass and communications equipment station for taking emergency control of the ship if the pilot house was destroyed.
Aft of the 40mm mount is the #3 3"/50 caliber gun mount located in a separate raised gun tub.


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Wednesday, September 5: Even though I'm at the southernmost end of Santorini, I decide I will start my exploration at the northwestern-most tip, with Oia (pronounced ee-ah), and then work my way down. I also decide I want to see the sun set at each point (north, center and south) in the three nights I am here. I'll start with sunset in Oia tonight; Thursday, I'll watch sunset in Fira, and Friday night I'll see the view from Akrotírion. This is my plan, anyway.
So, I leave the hotel in my little car, and zip up the island. I come to the crowded town of Fira, where I have to make my way slowly through throngs of young sun-bronzed European couples, hand in hand. Numerous times on the road, I pass couples riding together on Quads/ATVs, motor scooters, mopeds, and motorbikes, their hair dancing in the wind. After I see people riding on these ATVs, I wish I had known about them. I would have rented one of these myself! Of course I would have had a hard time hauling my suitcase on one, but if I had made it to the hotel with my suitcase, an ATV would have been the perfect mode of transportation. If I ever go back to Santorini, I will rent one of these four-wheeled vehicles. I don't care how old I am!
In Oia, I have no destination, but I will just wander through the town and see what there is to see. Hopefully, I can kill time until the 7:00 or 7:30 sunset, where I can eat at an outdoor cafe, wine in hand, and watch the sun fall into the water. Well, that's not quite how it works, but I will talk about that later.
In the town, I stroll and admire the beautiful views, snapping photos along the way. The views that people see in most photographs from Santorini are taken in Oia; it's the most picturesque of the whole island.
In 1956 a major earthquake near Amorgos island resulted in the demolishing of many buildings in the north of Santorini, leading people to desert its villages. Oia reflects the rebirth of Santorini following this earthquake. Between the restoration of the buildings and the focus on upscale tourism, Oia is now one of the most beautiful villages in the Cyclades.
The village is built on a steep slope of the caldera, and many dwellings sit in niches cut into the porous volcanic rock. The town is noted for its picturesque architecture: its medieval Venetian houses, a throwback to Venetian rule over the island, and small in-cave village homes. There is a large Catholic population here, as well as medieval fortifications to protect from pirates.
I stroll about in Oia until I decide I'm hungry and I stop to eat a very late lunch….


text:
This week we have special guest, Michelle Ealey, here to discuss a bunch of the latest geek news including the first appearance of Android Go, Elon Musk getting permits that could lead to a Hyperloop, a crazy issue with a One Plus phones needing to be mailed in to be patched and our guest of honor tells us about a whole bunch of changes happening with the world of comic books. In the Extra Extra we'll talk about how Apple's iCloud may be using Google and some shocking news about Kevin Smith.
Not familiar with the Official GonnaGeek.com Show? We are a weekly geek news podcast/video show where we run down the latest in the world of geek. We also feature a segment each week that will look in depth into another area of geek such as tech reviews, space information, app experience or something else that we think you'll appreciate as a fellow geek.
Want to chime in for a future show? Call 567-343-GEEK(4335), tweet @gonnageek, email firstname.lastname@example.com or like us at Facebook.com/gonnageek. Want to chat during our LIVE recording? Join www.geeks.live on Mondays at 8:45pm Eastern. Our full podcast/show archive can be found at www.gonnageek.com/show/
This Week's Hosts: Stephen Jondrew, Chris Ferrell, Stargate Pioneer and Michelle Ealey. This episode was recorded on Monday, February 26, 2018 streamed LIVE at www.Geeks.Live.
GonnaGeek News Links:
- Stephen's News: Android Go on Alcatel
- SP's News: Elon Musk's Hyperloop
- Chris's News: One Plus Mail In Fiasco
- Michelle's News:
- Extra Extra News:
Stephen's Microphone: Rode Procaster
Chris's Microphone: Electro-Voice RE320
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Michelle's Microphone: Audio-Technica AT2005
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text:
P3.91 stage led display smooth surface, well brightness mixed, vivid images, fluent video, wide viewing angle.
High brightness LED lamps and good quality plastic kit
High contrast ratio, outstanding display effect
Light weight, easy to assemble and dismantle
Maintenance can be a single point or single lamp.
Good heat dissipation capability because of the unique design of vent fan
P3.91 stage led display widely used on the outdoor environment , such as hall, TV studio, hotel, theater ,meeting room, school , hospital, gymnasium, advertising, bar and restaurant etc., to display text , graphic, picture and video etc.
Cabinet detail picture:
flight case or wooden case, 6 or 8 pcs P3.91 stage led display cabinets in one flight case.
15~25 working days.
Q1: How to help client choose suitable display?
A1: (1)display conten
(2)visible distance, visual angle.
(3)requirements of cabinet resolution
(4)installation environment
(5)cost control
Q2: What about your technical support?
A2: Proffesional engineers are on standby ,and can offer guidance, site technical support as required.
Q3: What's the warranty of your LED Display Screen?
A3: 1 year warranty, and 100,000 hours life span of the led lamps.
Q4: What's the control system?
A4: For synchronization control: Nova, Linsn Or Colorlight control system.
For asynchronous control: Onbon, or Xixun control system.


text:
These Companies Will Send You Free Stickers [#07]
Free Stickers Lakai Footwear
Lakai Footwear Limited is an American footwear company that creates shoes designed for and inspired by skateboarding.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the following address:
Lakai Footwear
Attn: Stickers
420 Boyd Street, Suite #300
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Lakai will only do international sticker requests if your envelope has enough postage to return it back to you.
Free Stickers From Elan Skis/Snowboards
To receive stickers from Elan Snowboards, send a message with your full name and address to email@example.com
Stoke us out, or make us laugh, by sending something cool such as a drawing, poem, photo, story, etc. And we'll make it worth your while (by sending you more stickers).
Requests may take up to a few months to process, so please be patient.
Free Stickers From Exalt Paintball
Exalt Paintball makes popular accessories for your paintball guns and other equipment as well.
Click here to visit the Exalt Paintball sticker request form web page.
URL: http://www.exaltpaintball.com/Articles.asp?ID=262
Free Stickers From Gear Aid
Fix your outside gear with Gear Aid Do-It-Yourself repair and maintenance products.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the following address:
Sticker Request
1411 Meador Ave
Bellingham, WA 98229
Free Stickers From Faction Skis
Since 2006, we have been obsessed with creating the best skis and apparel on the mountain.
URL: https://www.factionskis.com/stickers
Free AriZona Beverages Stickers
Arizona Beverages USA is an American producer of many flavors of iced tea, juice cocktails and energy drinks.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the following address:
AriZona Beverages
644 Linn St
Suite 318
Cincinnati, OH 45203
Free Stickers From Go Pole
GoPole is the original GoPro accessory brand, offering users versatile new ways to use their GoPro cameras.
Click here to fill out the Go Pole contact form.
URL: https://www.gopole.com/contact
Free Stickers From Eastside Longboards
High quality longboard skateboard decks and completes from Portland, Oregon.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the following address:
4848 S.E. 65th Ave.
Portland, OR 97206
Note: Outside US? Then you must send the return envelope with US postage.
Free Level Nine Sports Decals
Level Nine Sports prides ourselves on having the most knowledgeable team of avid skiers and snowboarders, ready to assist with any questions you may have regarding our products or service
Click here to send an e-mail request to Level Nine Sports.
Email: email@example.com
Free Stickers From Colony BMX
Australian based company Colony offers a complete line of BMX parts, frames and complete bikes in a multitude of sizes, styles and colors.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the following address:
Colony Stickers
PO Box 1458
Vista, CA 92085
Free Stickers From Mountain High Winter Resort
Mountain High resort is a winter resort in the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County in California.
Mountain High Winter Resort Contact Form
URL: http://www.mthigh.com/site/connect/contact-us
Free Stickers From World Industries
Manufacturer of skateboards, snowboards and related gear.
Free Stickers From Flypaper Grip-tape Company
In 1983, pro skater Beau Brown created the first grip-tape brand in the industry, Flypaper.
Free Stickers From Oakley
Oakley manufactures sports performance equipment and lifestyle pieces including sunglasses, sports visors, ski/snowboard goggles, watches, apparel, backpacks, shoes, optical frames, and other accessories.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the following address below:
Oakley, Inc.
Attn: Sticker Requests
25530 Commercentre Dr.
Lake Forest, CA 92630
Free Stickers From Alabama Outdoors
Outdoor lifestyle clothing and gear for hiking, camping, backpacking and rock climbing.
Alabama Outdoors Sticker Request Form
URL: https://alabamaoutdoors.com/page/free-stickers
At this time we cannot ship our free stickers internationally. We appreciate your support towards our brand if you do live outside of the U.S.A
Free Stickers From Blown Motor
#1 in Snowmobile Gear & Customer Satisfaction.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope, to the following address:
Blown Motor
Attn: Free Stickers
P.O. Box 3524
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83816
Free Stickers From Peace Iced Tea
Peace Iced Tea (often labeled Peace Tea) is a brand of assorted iced tea beverages.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the address provided below.
Peace Tea
Attention: Customer Service
15131 Woodlawn Ave
Tustin, CA. 922780
Free Stickers From Blind Skateboards
Click here to fill out the form.
Website: BLINDSKATEBOARDS.COM/CONTACT/
Free Stickers From C1RCA
C1RCA's goal is to build the best skate shoes that are both durable and affordable. Skate shoes, made by skaters, for skateboarding.
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the following address:
Attn: Stickers
3520 Seagate Way Suite 100
Oceanside, CA 92056
Free Stickers From Meow Skateboards
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the following address:
Meow Skateboards
Attn: Sticker Request
12415 Norwalk Blvd. #59068
Norwalk, CA 90652
Free Stickers From Darn Tough
AC Racing, Specializing in Motocross, Quad, Watercraft Accessories Located in Southern California.
Hey! do all of these send stickers internationally and would it be possible to find out. thanks :)
Regarding Dickies..
they are only honoring SASE requests now. You get one free with an order or you may purchase one.
Just wanted to let you know. Thanks
You ever tried rei? Thanks!
greay stuff man anything after part 7 coming?
More free stickers. Very informative.
you are a legend thank you


text:
Each year, Jim and Sharon record their Digital Edge podcast on Legal Talk Network with their suggestions for tech toys for the Holidays. This year, the sound engineers at Legal Talk Network added sound effects for some of the tech toys. The podcast episode is always a favorite among many listeners. If you're a little late with your holiday purchases, give the podcast a listen and get some ideas for your Christmas gifts.
E-mail: email@example.com Phone: 703.359.0700
Digital Forensics/Information Security/Information Technology


text:
Jamides were common around the lodge and forested areas. Many were deep shining blue and often fluttered across the path in the waterfall trail. While very few stopped for photographs, I managed to shoot the following two while they were busy feeding. I have a few more record shots of unidentified species which I'll post later on.
Jamides elpis pseudelpis? Upperside was bright shining blue, paler than most encountered.
Jamides zebra zebra? Upperside hindwing markings indicated this is a female, colour is almost white.
Along the waterfall trail, these Malayan White Flats (Seseria affinis kirmana) were often seen singly, puddling on the damp ground.
The Banded Angle (Odontoptilum pygela ragupta) was a delight to see. This small and beautifully patterned skipper was very frequently encountered. These two species of flat were a very nice change to the usual Tagiades flats I'm accustomed to back in Singapore.
Another Hesperiid that was seen several times was the Yellow Banded Awl (Hasora schoenherr chuza), a charming species that appeared early in the morning. We even found them buzzing around our accommodation. I told myself not to waste my time with species that I could easily find back in Singapore - but Hasora are just too cute to resist!
One group of butterflies I have always wanted to see is the red harlequins. I remember on the second day, I saw my first one. Much larger than I expected - and even more vibrant than I could imagine. It was perched on a shrub on the steep forest slope, above my eye-level. I climbed the slope and chased it further and further up, getting only a poor record shot. Over the next few days, they turned out to be very numerous in the area! These shots were taken very near to the entrance of the trail. The first is a male, followed by a female. Aaron, Dr Seow, are they both the Malay Red Harlequin (Paralaxita damajanti lola)?


text:
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text:
How you define success depends on the kind of person you are
Success. One word; with a hundred different ways to define it. Some measure it in terms of money: how much they take home every month or how much their business is worth at the end of the financial year. Others find it in the quality of life they have managed to create for themselves: how often they can take their kids on holiday, the kind of cars they drive, or even the size of the home they live in. Some define it in the context of happiness, in how much pleasure they have managed to extract from everyday, humdrum living. And others see it in more intangible terms; in whether they have succeeded in living life on their own terms, and enjoyed themselves while doing so.
How you define success in the end depends on the kind of person you are. If you are the kind who sees the world in purely materialistic terms, then you measure success by money and all the stuff that it can buy. And the more money you earn, and spend, the more successful you feel. But if, on the other hand, you define success on the basis of emotional, even spiritual well being, then you only feel truly successful if you achieve some measure of it in your own life.
And then, there are those people who are so driven that they never feel truly successful no matter how much they achieve. In their view, success is an ever-moving goal post that recedes further and further away the more they try to close the gap. And no matter how far they get down that road, they can never quite grasp that glittering prize.
Just take a good long look at L.K. Advani. Anyone else would feel that his was a life well spent. Here is a man who single-handedly revived the fortunes of his party with his Rath Yatra and the Ayodhya movement. He stepped back at the crucial time to allow A.B. Vajpayee, a more conciliatory figure, to form the government, but became the second-most powerful man in the country nonetheless. After the NDA was voted out of power, you would have thought that he would accept that his time in the sun was over and make way for a new generation. But no, the dream of being Prime Minister survives even a decade later, because anything less than that seems like an anti-climactic end to a political career.
Not that Advani is the only one to measure his success in terms of the top job. Narendra Modi, his erstwhile protégé and current bête noire, is also not content with just being a three-time chief minister of Gujarat – quite an achievement in itself for a man who began his political life as a humble RSS pracharak. But no, Modi too will only feel truly successful if and when he becomes Prime Minister of India.
So, in that sense, success is linked to ambition. The more ambitious you are, the more it takes for you to feel like a success. Lesser beings may be content being chief minister or home minister. But for some nothing less than being sworn in as Prime Minister will spell success.
Ambition, though, is only part of the story. Your peer group also plays an important part in determining what you see as success. If the rest of your friends are high-powered corporate honchos, then you probably won't feel much of a success if all you've achieved is a middle-management role. If your college mates are being courted by the best companies with six figure compensation packages, you won't be content with any less. If you are surrounded by two-car households, then one car – no matter how fancy – won't feel like a totem of success.
Which is why I often feel for the friends of high achievers like Shah Rukh Khan. No matter how hard they work, no matter how much money they make, no matter how high they clamber up the ladder of achievement, can they ever feel truly successful when they measure themselves against their superstar friend? I think not.
Unless, of course, they have mastered the art of contentment, the ability to be happy in their own skin and find pleasure in their own lives, no matter how ordinary, and resist the temptation to judge themselves by the achievements of others. Now that, as far as I am concerned, is the true definition of success.


text: I went ghost for a moment but I'm back! I felt like being a bit playful today so I though why not play with polka dot print> I abso love these pants that are from Target, I purchased them a while back and they are still like new. Target has such good quality clothing. I thrifted this coral everyday tank by Express from the Good will & I must say that it was a great steal. Amazing quality!! Its like always floppy hat season in my brain, they spice up any outfit!


text:
Vicki and I are way different, and I'm sure I've made her roll her eyes more than once--the reverse is just as true. What else is true is that she is, in words I'm pretty sure she'll approve of, one gutsy broad. I appreciate all she's taught me and the courage and the friendship she's shared.
Not that she's done. Not yet.
by Vicki Williams
To Chemo or Not to Chemo
When Jim and I were young, we both swore that should we ever be diagnosed with the Big C, we would refuse treatment. But then it happened. Jim got pneumonia that didn't respond to the medicine they gave him. His VA doctors ran tests and called him into inform him that he had lung cancer, the inoperable kind, the terminal kind. The Veteran's Administration doesn't mince words.
"If you have treatment, we might be able to buy you two years. Without it, you'll be dead in two months."
Two months doesn't sound like a very long time when you're only 44 years old. He said yes to the treatment and we started on a 19 month ordeal of chemotherapy (13 sessions three weeks apart), radiation (five times a week for 5 weeks), a heart attack (brought on by the chemo), isolation (due to an infected tooth and a low white blood count) and then more chemo.
At the time, none of this could be done locally so we made 100-mile round trips to the VA Hospital in Fort Wayne.
He was nauseated and vomiting much of the time during chemo. This throat had sores from radiation and he could only eat food like soups or pudding. He got so bone-tired during radiation that I had to feed him part of the time as he was too weak to lift a spoon. Of course, he lost his hair (which doesn't sound that important in the scheme of what all was going on but it is traumatic to the people involved. In fact, Jim told me if he died when he was bald, I was absolutely not allowed to have an open casket..
He was 6 feet tall and weighed 180 pounds when he was diagnosed. He weighed 135 when he died.
After the first series of chemotherapy treatments, the doctors told him that his tumor had shrunk so much that it couldn't be located on an x-ray. Yay, right? Not so fast. As I said, the VA doesn't sugar-coat anything. The doctors also said that if there was even one cell left, and that was a sure thing, then it would begin growing again.
The chemo was followed by the radiation. When that was over, they recommended more chemo. If I remember right, he had three sessions before the hospital told him, he was so weak, his body couldn't tolerate any more. He lived two more months.
All during his final months, I continued to believe that if I ever got cancer, I would refuse treatment. You never really know how you'll feel until you're faced with it. Life can be ironic.
In July of 2015, my dog tripped me and I fell down the stairs.
"Shit," I thought, "I hope this isn't one of those I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up scenarios."
It wasn't but I knew I'd broken some ribs. The pain from broken ribs is intense. You can't sit up or lay down or walk or breathe or laugh or cough without feeling as if lightning bolts are jagging through your insides.
After a few days, I went to the Redi-Med Clinic to get some pain pills. In order to prescribe the pills, they had to do xrays to see if I really did have broken ribs. I did.
Then the nurse came out and said, "we found a spot on your lung. We've made an appointment for a cat scan."
"Don't you think you should have asked me first?" I asked.
She looked startled, then told me, "well, if you don't want it, it's up to you to cancel it.
So, I did.
When I saw my family doctor, she said, "Vicki, you know my recommendation is that you have the cat scan."
"I look at it this way: if it's not cancer, then the cat scan doesn't matter. If it is cancer, it still doesn't matter because I don't plan to do anything about it."
The following May, I had what I guess you'd call an "episode". I woke up in the middle of the night panting for breath. I felt like a heavy boulder was sitting on my chest. I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn't so I finally came downstairs and made a cup of coffee, debating with myself about what to do. I knew I wasn't able to get dressed and drive myself to the emergency room. I didn't want to call an ambulance because I knew they'd ship me off to Fort Wayne. I didn't want to go to Fort Wayne. It honestly never occurred to me to call any of my friends though they all asked me why later.
So, I went and sat in my recliner and dozed off and on. The pressure eventually subsided but the shortness of breath didn't. I was watching the clock, planning to go to work but when the time came, I told myself, "Old Girl, you're fooling yourself if you think you can drive to Kokomo (45 miles) and talk to clients." So I called in sick.
I worked for another three weeks. My main symptom was exhaustion. I slept a lot when I wasn't working.
When I was young, in my family, if you got sick, your Mom always told you to go lay on the couch. They'd let that go on for a couple days to see if you'd get well on your own. If you didn't, they'd give in and take you to the doctor. What I did in this instance was sort of my version of that philosophy.
Finally, one day I was coming from one of the courthouses where I conducted intake for low income clients. I walked down the halls, panting, and got to the doors. I could see my car parked across the street.
I thought, "I can't make it that far. I'm going to collapse on the Courthouse lawn and make a spectacle of myself."
I forced myself to take a step and then another step and eventually made it to the car. The next day, I called my clinic and they told me to go to the E.R.
I was there for four hours having test after test, for one, the dreaded CAT scan and for another, an arterial blood draw which, if you've never had one, is nothing like a regular blood draw when it comes to pain. My little woman couldn't get her needle into my vein. She poked and prodded and changed its direction. She felt so terrible, she was almost crying. In the end, she said to go do my x-rays and she'd come try again in the other arm afterwards. That time she got it after only a few tries.
The doctor came in after he had all my results.
"Well," he said, "the spot on your lung is definitely cancer....and in addition to that....."
"Wait," I exclaimed, "you mean there's more."
"Yes, in addition to that you've got some congestive heart failure going on."
They gave a intravenous dose of Lasix. Lasix makes you urinate to get rid of the excess fluid around your heart and lungs.
The emergency room doctor advised me to see a pulmonologist.
I went home with a sheaf of papers the size of an encyclopedia. I threw them on the kitchen table and threw myself on the sofa. I never looked at them again.
The Lasix began to wear off and I was back to panting again. I decided to see the pulmonologist. I got the stack of papers from E.R. that were still on the kitchen table and, low and behold, there was a prescription for Lasix (actually Furosemide - same thing). My girlfriend ran to the drugstore to have it filled.
A friend took me to Fort Wayne where the pulmonologist was located (of course). He looked at all my paperwork. (The Fort Wayne Hospital is allied with the massive Parkview system, as is my home hospital in Wabash.
"Stage 3 lung cancer," he pronounced. "Do you want to tell me you your options?"
"No, I've already made my decision. No treatment."
He looked at my papers again. "I see you're a long time smoker."
"You're not going to give me a lecture about smoking now, are you, Doc?"
"No," he smiled, "I'm going to tell you to go home and do whatever gives you pleasure."
I smiled back. "Good, because that's what I was going to do anyway."
I quit my job the next day. It had been such a strain to keep going on when I felt so terrible and had so little stamina, that it was a huge relief to have the responsibility off my shoulders.
My family doctor had been on vacation but as soon as she came back, she gave me an appointment.
I love my doctor. She's the perfect doctor to have during stressful times, a friend as well as a physician.
She did some more tests and discovered my sugar was very low and so was my blood pressure. She took me off some of my medications. She sent me to the lab for a test for Potassium.
Turned out my Potassium was fine but I was extremely anemic. So she started me on iron pills.
I call them my miracle pills. I went from barely being able to walk across the room and napping off and on all day to feeling a lot like my old self. I couldn't run around the block but I stay up all day now. When I was so far down, I practically made the Walgreen's, which is two blocks from my house, my main grocery store. I just couldn't face walking around a large store like Krogers. After the iron pills, I could go to Kroger's again.
Of course, a lot of my friends tried to encourage to have the cancer treatments and if I'd had a husband or kids or anyone else depending on me, I might have. As it is, my mother, who'd had dementia and whom I'd retired once before to care of, died in 2013. My only child died in 2015. Now, there is no one who needs me to take care of them and I damn well hope no one ever has to take care of me.
I tell people that I feel like I'm in a boat, just drifting around, watching the sun and the water and the palm trees. I know my boat has a leak in it and some day it will sink but until then I'm enjoying my life. I feel fine right now. I have my pets for company; I plink around on the computer; I watch t.v. I'm still passionately interested in politics. I still live for the NASCAR races. I still love casinos. I can't wait for Outlander to start again. My friends come and see me.
When I compare my life to Jim's last 19 months of tests and treatments and infusions and hospitals, I think, I'm way ahead of the game.
I've never been afraid to die. Sometimes when I'm lying in my bed (I some times have to struggle to get up the stairs but my bedroom has been my bedroom since 1991 and it feels like my safe space) I think to myself, "I hope I die right here", then I close my eyes and go to sleep.