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The foreign exchange (forex in short) market accounts for more than $5 trillion, on average, in terms of value of trading on a daily basis. As such, it is the largest among all the financial markets in the world. Further, there is no central marketplace for the currency market. Therefore, traders have to work with a forex broker that offers a platform to conduct their trades.
Hundreds of forex trading platforms are available, but the most popular one among them is the MetaTrader platform developed by MetaQuotes. According to estimates, more than 85 percent of the retail forex trading deals are executed using this platform. It is true that this platform comes with several great features and is offered by many forex brokers, but all of them are not the same. Therefore, you need to choose the best and trusted one from hordes of MetaTrader forex brokers out there in the market.
How to Choose the Best and Trusted Metatrader Forex Brokers
Identify Regulated Brokers
The most important factor to be considered when identifying best and trusted MetaTrader forex brokers is regulation. If the MetaTrader broker you choose is not regulated, legal protection may not be available to you.
However, it is important to remember that some countries enforce a high degree of regulatory control, whereas some others enforce it to a lesser extent. Additionally, the regulatory requirements vary between countries. Therefore, it makes sense to choose a forex broker from a country where the authorities strictly monitor regulatory compliance. In addition, you must also make sure that the on-shore as well as off-shore operations of the broker are regulated. Countries where dedicated regulatory authorities are available are the USA, the UK, Australia, Japan, the Eurozone and Switzerland.
Look for Brokers That Are Well Capitalized
It pays to identify and work with a well-capitalized forex broker. This is because it ensures a lot of security for your funds. To understand the details about the capitalization status of a forex broker, you can visit the website of the regulatory authority of that country.
As the forex market is of OTC nature, brokers are required to make margin deposits either with a lender or a bank in order to obtain highly competitive pricing. Only MetaTrader forex brokers who are well-capitalized will be able to establish good credit relationships with liquidity providers and make available competitive pricing to their clients. In fact, the minimum level of capitalization that a fo rex broker must have to remain solvent is specified by regulatory authorities.
Different Types of MetaTrader Forex Brokers
Brokers operating in the OTC forex market are of different types. You need to choose the type of broker that suits you needs.
#1: Forex Brokers
Forex brokers act as a conduit between the dealers/market makers and you. They make available computer systems for processing your orders without manual intervention or using a dealing desk. These brokers are sometimes referred to by the name Non Dealing Desk brokers or Straight Through Processing (STP) brokers because of the Straight Through Processing technology they make use of.
In the case of forex brokers, the spreads they give you are dependent on the dealers/market makers through whom they route your transactions. These brokers offer fixed or dynamic spreads and charge a fee for the services provided by them. In turn, the market makers often provide some compensation if the broker routes transactions through their dealing desk.
#2: Market Makers/Dealers
The operation of a market maker is by means of a dealing desk. This is the method employed by most banks and financial institutions. Market makers follow a two-way pricing policy. They offer both fixed and dynamic spreads. In the case of dynamic spreads, the prices change in tandem with liquidity changes for some currency pairs. The market makers often interact with each other as making money depends to a great extent on their ability to manage the risk on their global forex positions.
#3: ECN Brokers
ECN brokers act as brokers to a number of market makers/dealing desks. Dealers send quotes to ECN brokers, indicating the volume required for the specified prices. In turn, ECN brokers distribute these prices to customers, but are not responsible for execution of orders. The spreads are determined by the difference between ask and bid prices. ECN brokers make money by charging a fee to customers and earning a commission from dealing desks.
Understand Account Features
Forex brokers often offer varied types of accounts, including standard, micro and mini accounts based on the number of lots traded. Typically, a standard lot has 100,000 units, while a mini lot has 10,000 units and a micro lot has 1,000 units. To help you establish your own lot size, some forex brokers provide fractional unit sizes. The mini/micro accounts help you to trade by investing a minimum amount of capital.
#1: Leverage and Margin
Brokers provide loan or allow leverage to customers who open margin accounts. Leverage ranges from 50:1 to 200:1. Some brokers offer more leverage. However, leverage helps to enhance profits received from winning positions. On the other hand, it contributes to widening losses in the case of non-winning positions. Leverage should be employed only with a great deal of caution.
#2: Ease of Deposit/Withdrawal
The deposit and withdrawal policies followed can vary from one broker to another. Therefore, you must choose MetaTrader forex brokers that offer several options for depositing funds into your trading account and allow you to withdraw money from your account without any hassles.
Check Out Brokers' Customer Service
Forex trading takes place round the clock. Therefore, the broker that you are planning to work with must be accessible at all times. Another factor that you must take into consideration is the ease with which you are able to communicate with the representatives of the broker's customer service department.
What has been explained above is not a complete list of factors to be considered when choosing MetaTrader forex brokers. Some of the other factors that you need to also consider include trading platform, order entry type, customization options available, automated trading options, etc., among others
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Health Insurance Plans
J. R. "Rick" Breazeale Insurance Agency offers a wide variety of health plans including individual and family health insurance, group health insurance, HMOs, PPOs, POS, indemnity plans, short-term health insurance plans, dental health insurance and international travel health insurance.
Our comprehensive health insurance plans and policies, combined with free online health insurance quotes and live agent support, enable you to choose coverage that is right for you.
Our simple, no-obligation application form makes it easy to secure individual and family health insurance Quote online, and to find a health insurance policy that protects your needs and the needs of your loved ones without burning your pockets!
For details, call us or discuss your requirements with our agents online! Health insurance plans offered
- Individual and family health insurance
- Group health insurance
- Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)plans
- Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans
- Point of Service (POS) plans
- Indemnity health insurance plans
- Short-term health insurance plans
- Dental health insurance plans
- International travel health insurance plans
Although medical treatment is available without health insurance, it doesn't make sense to pay the hefty out-of-pocket expenses. A major accident or illness, without health insurance, can bankrupt the average family. Buying Health Insurance for yourself and your family is probably the single best step you can take to help ensure the personal and financial well being of your family.
Planning for Lower Cost
Medical insurance plans are very expensive these days. A smart way to lower cost is to only purchase medical insurance for catastrophic losses and not designed to cover everyday type items. There are high deductible insurance plans available that lower cost and can be set up under income tax favorable programs called Health Savings Accounts or HSA's. These plans allow you to deposit up to your deductible amount each year to a qualified savings account and then deduct your deposit amount from your taxable income (like an IRA deposit). Then you pay your medical expenses out of the HSA account with pre tax funds. If your tax rate is 25% then you are saving 25% on your medical bills.
So get yourself a health insurance plan that protects you properly. Fill out our no-obligation Quote Form, or call us now. For details call us or discuss your requirements with an agent online!
If you are interested in a "Quick Quote" you can do it yourself from a highly respected carrier, Blue Cross Blue Shield or Humana. Click either icon below. You can even submit an application directly through this process if you want but I recommend you allow us to help you. The cost to you is the same and we can help you miss some "mine fields".
Click either or both for Individual Health Insurance Plan Quotes:

subset: commoncrawl


text: A dramatisation of my Carnegie medal-winning novel. It is the day of Jess's departure for a gap year in France – her opportunity to get to know herself and to enjoy a freedom that her parents and grandparents never had. Family secrets are shared, bringing the past vividly to life. Many speaking parts for full stage or classroom use. Extensive resource material devised by Stephen Crockett.


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|Area of specialisation
|Faculty / key office
How to approach Piet's paper?
Some view operational excellence from a quantitative and analytical perspective as a set of tools to ensure and improve quality. As MBA candidates who aspire to enter top and senior management, it is expected that they will approach OE in a systemic manner. Senior managers must understand the analytical results and must be able to use these to initiate, plan and control initiatives that are aimed at improving operational excellence. Students will therefore be aware, understand and be able to apply management principles to obtaining operational excellence. Insight into the factors and principles that promote organisational excellence is therefore emphasised and expected in this course.
International teaching and industry experience
Piet has 40+ years of international experience in the field of engineering management, technology management and commercialisation of technology, as well as training at university and industry level. Piet has a specific interest in the development of business strategy and innovative practice. He is highly regarded in New Zealand and internationally as a practitioner with a sound track record of achievement, using a practical and rigorous approach.
Piet's experiences are many and varied and include being the chief engineer of an airline, systems development advisor in the defence, marine consulting engineering and aerospace industries, and as Director of Technology Commercialisation at the University of South Australia. Piet is also a retired shareholder in an angel investment company. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Canterbury Innovation Incubator and the Christchurch Recovered Materials Foundation, taking this city-wide waste recycling project from concept to commercial reality as project manager, followed by being appointed as its founding CEO.
Piet received a national award for drafting legislation to control the non-proliferation of dual use technologies. He was also a contributor to the founding legislation for the South African National Space Agency (SANSA).
Piet is currently Director of the Engineering Management Programme and a former director of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Canterbury. He also teaches in the MBA and MBM at Canterbury and in the MBA at the University of Otago, as well as the Master of Entrepreneurship programme at the University of Adelaide. Piet mentors CEOs, consults with businesses and he also delivers training workshops to industry.
Why does Piet enjoy teaching in the MBA programme?
Piet has aways been a system and practice oriented person. Teaching in the MBA allows him to approach his favourite subjects from a high level where many tacit factors, rather than micro-analysis, play a role. He enjoys teaching MBA students for the insights they bring to the subject matter and their willingness to question and challenge things taken by others as granted. He enjoys the responsiveness of MBA students, as well as the fact that he also gains new insights through the real-world experiences that his students bring to class.
Global perspectives of the Operational Excellence paper
The modern world is totally connected and globalised – no organisation is an island unto itself. The OE paper in particular recognises that business operations are dependent on external influences and inputs. We specifically recognise that many operational functions are outsourced and in particular outsourced on a global scale. The principles we study, being the lingua franca of business excellence worldwide, are also globally applicable.


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Well it has happened. I sold all my listings! Well one is pending!
Now I need your help… If you want to sell in the Treasure Valley of Idaho call me! The Treasure Valley includes: Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Star, Kuna, Idaho City, Nampa, Caldwell and middleton. This really great real estate agent will take you through the process of selling the home from start to finish…
1) Advice you on market conditions.
2) Perform a real market analysis.
3) Help you prepare your house for the market. I have a list of different types of workmen and stagers who will make your home shine.
4) Hire a photographer for a virtual tour.
5) I will put a nice sign in your yard.
6) Keep the flyer box full.
7) Market your home on the Internet including but not limited to Zillow, Realtor.com, trulia, multiple listing service, activerain, facebook and google.
8) I blog and I will blog about your home to create a bigger Internet presence.
9) I have line ads every weekend in the Idaho Statesman every Friday through Sunday.
10) I will open your home at least once a month (if you want me to).
11) I will keep you informed on the activity and interest in your home.
12) I will present all offers and advice you on how to handle the offer.
13) I will prepare a net sheet for you for all the offers.
14) I will negotiate your offers.
15) I will be in contact with the buyers agent and their lender to facilitate the closing.
16) I will advice you on the inspection contingency form.
17) I will be in contact with the title officer.
18) I will read and examine the HUD1 and settlement form for accuracy.
19) If you are in the Treasure Valley I will come to your closing.
20) I will answer any questions you have (if I don't know the answer I will find it).
21) I can find you your next home or your next agent if you are moving out of the area.
21) I will listen and do my best to get your home SOLD and CLOSED.
Working together we will get your home sold! I also do short sales and I will write that up in a diffenent post!
So please let me help you get your Treasure Valley home sold! You won't be sorry!


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As mentioned here and here, PRWeb will stop offering free press release distribution services.
I saw their new plans, and I can say that they are not bad. Now the only good free way to distribute press releases is by uning prleap….
As pagerank has become the number one target for webmasters – with no real reason, but that's another story – a big market has been created, and as we can see, now there are hundrends of link services. Some of them offer you automated tools for link exchanges, while others provide marketplaces that both publishers and adertisers can easilly sell or buy links.
My personal opinion is that this thing sucks. I mean that there is no need to have so many link exchanges, and in anyway if you have a good web site that offers usefull information to its visitors, your link popularity can grow alone, without your help.
A good friend of mine, Olaf recently got a membership to linkmarket to promote his brand new directory (directory sites must have a high pagerank to be attractive, so in the beggining you have to raise it no matter what) As Olaf writed to his blog :
A few weeks ago the number of daily new link requests went down to zero. I visited the website to check what's happened and got the information that my account is suspended and I need to contact the support. I wrote an e-mail to their support department and never got an answer until now. The fee for the premium membership was almost 25 USD, a lot of money for 2 weeks using their service…
It appears that Olaf just found another scam on the web, so beware this company. They are not serious enough to do business with.


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Global Day of Coderetreat 2012 - Skopje (Macedonia)
Last Saturday I hosted and facilitated Global Day Of Coderetreat event in Skopje (Macedonia). It is second year I'm doing that, you can read the notes from last year here GDCR 2011.
At GDCR 2012 we had 10 participants at our event that were challenged to work outside of their comfort zone and learn new things. They had a great time pair programming with their fellow developers, practicing TDD and writing code that respects the 4 rules of simple design. They worked in few different languages like: Ruby, Python, Javascript, Coffeescript and C. Here are some photos from the event.
I would like to thank all participants for attending the event, companies: Siyelo, Ever Near and NOVP for sponsoring lunch, T-shirts and hardware for Hacklab KIKA where the event was organized.
Also I would like to thank Corey Haines, Jim Hurne and Adrian Bolboaca for global organization and facilitator sessions, and special thanks to Milan Nasevic and Naum Kostovski for their help organize the event.
Coderetreat has been a great experience for me because even as a facilitator I've learned a lot about software design, OO principles and I'm looking forward to Global Day of Coderetreat 2013!


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There's a TV show here that has generated a very strong visceral reaction in myself and most others in the western world that see the show. I've talked to enough Danes about the show to see the difference in views: To the Danes, it's a somewhat cheeky, somewhat offensive social commentary that exists for shock value, not unlike South Park in the US. To non-Danes, it's a borderline hate crime, and the fact that state funding is being used for it is beyond outrageous. Before I get into the show itself, let me start by talking about an episode of South Park.
In the episode "Chef Goes Nanners", the chef is upset about the South Park flag. This is the flag:
This sparks controversy in the school, and the children are asked to do a debate. The children do so, each side talking about whether or not the depiction of violence is something that is inherently detrimental or not. Of course, they miss the point that the issue isn't with the violence, but with the overall depiction of a lynching, and all the history and attitudes behind that. In the end, the chef is so touched that the children can't see the racism or racist act, that he drops the law suit.
Every time I've had a discussion about this show with Danes, I've felt like the chef. Eventually, I've come to realize that the Danish cultural context is one that is so far removed from the actual depiction, that it's a bit like the chef trying to explain why a lynching is bad. It's so obviously wrong that it's comedic on South Park, but when faced with a real-life version of the same scenario, you find outrage turns to frustration as you try to capture something that the rest of the developed world has realized is wrong but you find that the emotions are so strong that the words can barely come out, and you sit there staring at a bunch of dumbfounded faces that keep asking "Really? Violence is everywhere, what do you have against that flag?"
This has forced me to come up with a cogent, logical explanation of why something most people take for granted as being wrong is, in fact, wrong. So, I present what I would feel is the largest straw-man argument in history, but it's apparently needed…
Why sexism and objectification are bad
So, the show is called Blachman (wikipedia link). The show's format is that two men (the show's creator and a different guest every episode) sit down and then a woman comes out and disrobes. The seated, clothed men, then discuss the naked, silent women, and women in general. I think this is atrocious. I'll do the rest of this as a Q and A with all the weird responses I've heard so far when I talk about this.
Q: You don't like nudity? Artistic expression? Censorship! (or any other debate point that a middle-schooler might write in their school essay)
A: No. Huge fan of nudity, actually. None of these are close to the actual topic. See the example with the chef from South Park above.
Q: Danish society has lost clear gender distinction, this man wants to rekindle some of that so that women's bodies can be appreciated for their beauty. What's wrong with bringing that back?
A: This logic, to me, is sort of like saying "the art of beautiful wheelchair ramps has been lost to society, so let's bring back polio". The hidden implication in my analogy, of course is that 'women's bodies appreciated for beauty' has something wrong in it. It does, and it has to do with "objectification".
Q: What is "objectification"?
A: Good question, Timmy!
On the left, we have a 3-ring binder. On the right we have a Polish fireman. What's the difference? Well, many things, but the one I'm interested in right now is the concept of agency.
Most of us believe ourselves to be thinking, feeling, caring beings in a way that the 3-ring binder is not. Most of us also hold the same beliefs about Polish firemen and treat them categorically differently. For instance, if you wanted to get lunch with a Polish fireman, you would ask and await a response and adjust your expectations accordingly. For the binder, you would just take it with you, because you assume the binder does not have wishes or cares. Treating the binder as though it did is called personification. Treating the fireman as though he didn't is called objectification.
Q: Blachman and company are only saying nice things and praising the women. They're not being dirty or disrespectful. What's wrong with that?
A: So, let's say I love my 3-ring binder. I think it's the coolest thing ever. I stick my favorite stickers on it, because that's what I do with things I like. My best friend loves his 3-ring binder too, but he shows it by putting it on a shelf somewhere and making sure it always stays clean. The funny thing about being an object, even an adored one, is that you have no say in how that adoration is expressed. As a conscious agent, you can debate whether or not my praise and adoration is actually getting across properly. As an object, you do not have this choice.
Q: What's the worst that can happen?
A: Tons. This site doesn't seem to allow you to link to individual posts, but everyday sexism recounts stories of sexism that women face daily in most 'developed' countries, ranging from stories that might make you groan to stories that will horrify you. Some amount of sexual assault listed is based on power dynamics (where the women do have agency), but all the stories where the validity of the victim's feelings are questioned, or even denied? That would be the women being bad objects by having their own subjective views. This is far more prevalent in non-Scandinavian countries, and over all, not something I think Scandinavia should actively strive for.
Q: How is this any different from other media, or even porn?
A: Porn can objectify women, but that's not its purpose. The main goal of porn some sort of profit from erotic arousal. Whether that's achieved through the objectification of women, the subjugation of men, or the personification of quiches is largely irrelevant. Porn producers seek a profit, one that is reflected from society. They do not seek to change society, particularly to one where women are objectified more.
Again, this is the stated primary goal of the show. It removes the eroticism and specifically instructs the men to treat the women in front of them as objects to be subjectively adored. It literally isolates and controls for the rest of the environment as much as possible, and presents a variety of women of different ages and body types and instructs the men to engage them similarly. If one were to design the ideal laboratory settings to train objectification, this would be pretty close.
Q: Talking about denying agency, what about the choice the women on the show made to be there? No one's forcing them to. Isn't it paternalistic to assume they shouldn't be?
A: I'm fine with the actual participants doing what they want. What I'm not fine with is a state-sponsored show whose stated goal is to bring more objectification into society. Idiots can be idiots wherever they want to be, and I don't have an issue with that. I do have an issue with the person who thinks it's a good idea to give these idiots a camera, a microphone, and tax money and thinks this will have a positive effect on society.
Q: You're not Danish! What's it to you?
A: I'm sure not, but I'm living here now, and voluntarily paying 40% taxes to live in an otherwise nice society. One thing I love is the gender equality. As a brown dude, if you're walking in a dimly lit alley coming home at night and a girl is walking towards you, in the US they cross the street, or walk faster, or turn around, or do something that makes you feel almost criminal. Because they have to, to be safe. Here, they just keep walking and might even say 'hi'. Because they have nothing to worry about. Because they have such an amazingly equal position in society, it's just as likely that they'd do something to me as I would to them. Why would you want to destroy that?
Really, I just want to say "You can do better, Denmark".
Q: If you don't like it so much, why write about it? Why give it attention? Why watch it? Why not ignore it entirely?
A: The fact that a show can be judged a success (even if it's measurably detrimental to society) just because it's getting attention is, in my opinion, a fundamental flaw in the agreement between Danmarks Radio and Kulturministeriet. Remember, this is state-funded but its success is judged based on capitalist standards, but without the checks that exist in a capitalist market. This creates an interesting edge-case that this show falls right into. I'm researching this in much more detail and will write more on it later.
And with that, I NEVER want to bring this up in conversation again.


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During November of 2009, a storm hitting the southern California coast generated enough wave action that the swells reached all the way up the coast to Shore Acres producing some of the largest waves observed in some time. The photo to the left is one of the largest waves I have ever photographed. It towered well over 300 feet into the air.
The Shore Acres Wave
Where land and water collide in spectacular dramatic form
When it comes to finding a jewel on the Oregon Coast where the diversity alone will keep you busy for days, even months, Shore Acres State Park on the Southern Oregon Coast can easily be labelled as that Jewel on the South Coast. This incredible land was once owned by Louis Simpson, the famed pioneer timber baron and founder of the city North Bend. The State Park is one of the southern coast best kept secrets.
There is no other place on the Pacific Coast where consistent high wave action can be predicted and safely observed so close on a regular seasonal basis. Shore Acres State Park is where landforms, ocean currents, storm surges and the continental shelf dance equally and put on such natural dramatic show of raw power.
Throughout the winter months and into early spring, Shore Acres comes alive in spectacular majesty. Respectfully named the Shore Acres Waves when winter storm enraged seas generate 25 to 40 foot incoming swells. The waves collide with the parks 80 to 100 foot angular cliff line. The results are spectacular beauty, awesome power, and mesmerizing fury of ground shaking wave explosions reaching up to three hundred feet into the air.
CLICK on the SLIDESHOW below
That same sequence of high surf in 2009 became the inspiration behind the making of this video complimented with music. Push the play simple and enjoy.
Shore Acres State Park is a barrier free park, allowing you explore to the cliff edges. During a high surf it is advised to take serious precautions while enjoying the wave action. Towering wave explosions have reached in the upwards of 300 feet into the air, and across the upper reef and well into the forest trees, a good 500 feet off the ocean.
Being aware of your surroundings is highly recommended at all times!
In the photo below, one can assume it was the last photo taken of me standing on the edge...but one must know of the perspective this photo was taken from. The crashing wave is hitting well to the north, and I didn't even get wet from this wave. Also, though the wave appears large, the water volume is not. Safety measures were taken before this shot was composed, but unless you understand the direction of the in coming waves, standing on this point is not recommended during a high surf advisory.
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The Goal
Join Steven Michael on his adventures around the Pacific Northwest, learning about some of the lost history, and hidden gems he is rediscovering throughout the state.
Steven's hope is that his travels will inspire you to get out and explore the
January 2020


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A smart vibrator that can track a woman's sexual health. A tampon that can detect endometriosis. The "WhatsApp of healthcare."
These are just a few of the innovations discussed and on display at South by Southwest Interactive 2017. And while we're only three days into the interactive part of the event, one thing is certain: health technology has made it to prime time.
The healthcare track, a subset of SXSW Interactive, has grown so much this year that the panels have moved from a few small rooms at an adjacent hotel to the Austin Convention Center proper, proving the intersection of technology and healthcare is not just coming, it is here.
Over at the Innovation Expo, healthcare inventions were featured at booths side-by-side with the latest in virtual reality, and there were more cannabis-based products than I could count. One serious innovation that caught my eye was a needle-free autoinjector, which is being tested for delivery of biologics. If you know anything about biologics, you know how viscous they are and that a large and painful needle is required to inject them. Being able to address needle phobia and pain through technology could be a game changer for enhanced compliance of these important medications.
New solutions that make the ever-growing and much needed trend of telemedicine even more convenient for patients, providers, and payers are also on display. Austin, Texas-based startup Medici, dubbed the "WhatsApp of healthcare," discussed a HIPAA-compliant app that securely connects patients and doctors via text message that could provide a better experience for all involved. Using this app, patients can communicate directly with their doctor via text and send photos and videos to illustrate any concerns or questions. That means they won't have to make appointments, sit in waiting rooms, visit emergency rooms, or drive miles for a routine post-op exam or minor ailment. Doctors can respond when they have available time.
Then there are inventions not originally developed with healthcare in mind that are being applied to the industry. Technologies like DuoSkin – metallic temporary tattoos – seem rife with possibilities. Developed by the MIT Media Lab and Microsoft Research, the devices "enable users to control their mobile devices, display information, and store information on their skin while serving as a statement of personal style." They have a host of potential uses, from helping people with disabilities communicate to harnessing the power of tracking medical information in real time.
The biggest takeaway? The technology of the future and the healthcare discourse are symbiotic. The parallel between discussions about these innovations and the national dialogue on healthcare is that both are fundamentally focused on putting people in charge of their own health and making healthcare more efficient.
Judging by the apps and devices at SXSW, the future is now. This people-centered mindset has already moved beyond wellness into diagnosis, ongoing management, and even how patients are choosing to engage their healthcare team. The brands that will stand out are those that can apply this: filtering marketing and communications through this lens to give patients more control.
There is also huge potential to improve how doctors manage their patients, their practices, and even how they practice medicine day-to-day. SXSW innovations proved that convenience, flexibility, and efficiency all in the name of better care will drive how healthcare providers engage. Brands that help them incorporate and apply real-time patient information and treat their patients no matter where they are will stand out.
Of course, some hurdles remain; it's healthcare marketing after all. Yet it's clear healthcare is changing and the brands that leverage the best technological developments will gain loyalty from physicians, patients, and providers.
Jennifer Hayoun is group SVP for healthcare digital strategy at Marina Maher Communications.


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(CNN) - He played Dick Cheney in the recent Oliver Stone film 'W,' but Richard Dreyfuss made clear he's no fan of the former vice president.
In Washington Wednesday to promote preservation of the country's civil war battlefields, Dreyfuss quipped to Politico he's not missing former President Bush's No. 2.
"I miss having him in jail, that's where he belongs," the actor said.
Watch: Cheney: I worry very much
Dreyfuss is known for his outspokenness across the political spectrum, calling his former director Oliver Stone a "fascist on the left" last fall.
Cheney himself isn't holding back punches of his own. In an interview on CNN's State of the Union with John King last Sunday, he derided the Obama administration's national security policies and said they have made the country less safe.
(CNN) – It's another star-studded event at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Grammy-award winners Alicia Keyes and Sheryl Crow, Olympic gold-medalist gymnast Dominique Dawes, astronaut Mae Jemison and others joined Michelle Obama at the White House Thursday to participate in a series of events honoring National Women's History Month.
"This was one of my dreams…gathering an amazing group of women together and going out and talking to young girls around the country," Mrs. Obama said to the group. "They need to be reminded that we're close, this isn't a distant relationship. There's nothing more powerful than going into their space and having that kind of conversation. That's what today is all about."
Mrs. Obama and her team fanned out to high-schools around the DC area to encourage young women to pursue their dreams and forge a career path. The first lady headed to Washington's Anacostia High School to participate in a roundtable conversation with students.
"Our task is really simple – just to share our stories with them. So many of us will be able to see part of ourselves in these young people," the first lady told the female leaders. "Our job is really to just share our stories to make these kids understand that where we stand today is not an impossibility. Just be open, be honest, be real, be clear, and have fun."
Mrs. Obama will host a reception at the White House this evening, followed by dinner in the East Room.
"Imagine what they're going to feel like at the end of this day," the first lady told the star-powered group.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - As the war in Iraq enters its seventh year, a new national poll indicates that most Americans favor President Barack Obama's withdrawal plan which would bring most U.S. troops home by next summer.
Seven out of ten people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday, the sixth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, say they support the president's announced plan to remove most U.S. troops from Iraq by August of next year but keep a force of 35,000 to 50,000 in the country. Those remaining troops would train and advise Iraqi security forces, hunt terrorists and protect American civilian and military personnel and would depart Iraq in 2011.
"Obama's troop withdrawal plan is one of the few proposals from the new president that wins support from Democrats and Republicans," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "58 percent of Republicans approve of Obama's plan, with 84 percent of Democrats feeling the same way."
The poll also indicates that 63 percent of those questioned approve of how the President is handling the war in Iraq.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey was conducted March 12-15, with 1,019 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The poll's sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - California congresswoman Ellen Tauscher is vacating her Bay Area seat to serve under Hillary Clinton at the State Department.
Tauscher, a moderate Democrat and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a message to her consituents that Clinton had asked her to serve as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
She said she accepted the post after 13 years in Congress "after much soul-searching."
"Keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists, making sure other countries do not obtain them and, one day, I hope, ridding the world of these terrible weapons, has become my passion and, I hope, my life's work," she said in a statement.
If she is confirmed for the post, Tauscher's departure will almost certainly be followed by a crowded Democratic primary in the left-leaning California district.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Embattled Sen. Roland Burris is asking the Senate Select Committee on Ethics for permission to open a fund to help pay for legal expenses incurred in the weeks after his controversial appointment to the Senate, an aide close to the senator confirmed Thursday.
The Illinois senator reportedly owes around $400,000 in legal fees.
According to the filing, the purpose of the fund is "to pay for expenses incurred by the Senator in connection with his appointment to the US Senate on December 30th, 2008. Due to the controversy surrounding his appointment by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Senator Burris incurred legal expenses to support his eventual swearing in on January 15th, 2009 in both Illinois and Washington, DC."
"In addition, even after he was seated, Senator Burris has continued to require representation amid accusations of perjury and other alleged improprieties relating back to his appointment to the senate seat."
Burris has faced pressure to resign after new revelations about contact between his camp and the office of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich - who was impeached over charges he tried to sell the state's open Senate seat - prior to his appointment.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Republican National Committee has tapped Gentry Collins, an Iowa native and a veteran of the McCain campaign, to run its political operation.
The well-respected Collins is a former executive director and deputy chairman of the Iowa state party, and a former political director of the Republican Governor's Association.
He managed Mitt Romney's ultimately unsuccessful Iowa caucus operation in 2007 and 2008, and later moved on to become John McCain's Midwest regional campaign manager, overseeing the battleground states of Missouri and Iowa.
"I am thrilled to announce the addition of Gentry to the RNC team," party chairman Michael Steele said in a statement. "He brings with him a proven record of success at building broad bases of grassroots and volunteer coalitions. Our primary task at the RNC is to grow our party and elect more Republicans and this appointment allows us to take another step towards those goals."
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has become a Republican talking point.
After it was revealed that President Obama left Duke out of the Final Four in his NCAA brackets, Krzyzewski remarked Wednesday that the president should focus more on the economy than on his basketball picks.
Related: Coach K disses Obama's basketball picks
That quip caught the attention of a Republican senator, Lamar Alexander, who summoned up Coach K's comments at a GOP press conference on Thursday.
"The AIG bonuses make the president subject to the charge that he's living above the store but he's not minding it," Alexander told reporters. "He's even found time to fill out his NCAA basketball brackets, which is a healthy thing to do in my opinion."
Alexander continued: "But he picked North Carolina and he caused the Duke coach, our Olympic coach, Coach K, to say, respectfully, you might be spending less time on the brackets, Mr. President, and more time on the economy. I think that's what we'd like to see, with respect."
Alexander's home state of Tennessee is well-represented in the tournament, with four teams having earned bids. And Obama is predicting that one of those squads - Memphis - will return to the Final 4 this year.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn took a much harsher tone Thursday in a floor speech, saying that Obama might want to spend less time making basketball predictions and more time filling the many job openings still at the Treasury Department. Having more hands on deck, he said, might have led to better oversight of the AIG situation.
"I appreciate that President Obama has completed his 'March Madness' Tournament Bracket," Cornyn said. "Yet the organizational chart of his administration still has far too many open slots."
WASHINGTON (CNN) - A new national poll indicates that most Americans like their current health care coverage, but are not happy with the overall cost of health care coverage in the country.
More than eight in ten Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday say they're satisfied with the quality of health care they receive. And nearly three out of four polled say they happy with their overall health care coverage. But satisfaction drops to 52 percent when it comes to the amount people pay for their health care and more than three out of four are dissatisfied with the total cost of health care in this country.
"When Americans say they support health care reform, that doesn't mean they want to lose their own coverage or give up their own doctor," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "That's something that the Clinton White House didn't realize in 1993."
Half of all Americans say they are very confident that no one in their household will lose health insurance. But only 29 percent say they are very confident that they could meet their bills if someone in the household had a major medical emergency.
LOS ANGELES, CA (CNN) - Hitting the gym while on the road as a White House producer isn't the most fun thing for me to do, but with the time change east coast-west coast I was awake before my alarm and thought I'd get a workout in.
Bleary-eyed trying to work up a sweat, I turned and saw a very big secret service agent standing in the corner. That's when I suddenly realized that President Obama himself had quietly come into the gym and has started his workout on the treadmill right in front of me.
Wearing his trademark workout outfit-a black cap, black track pants, and a gray t-shirt, he warmed up with a walk while reading the newspaper and listening to his iPod. He soon started running in earnest, ditching the paper, along with the black baseball cap he sported when he arrived.
Fearing the shame of quitting my routine early while in front of the President of the United States of America, I huffed and puffed through my cardio work out while he ran on the treadmill. I also struggled to do a couple of extra sets with weights just in case "anyone" was watching.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - As Republicans wrangle over the ideological direction of the party, a new generation of conservatives is reaching out to GOP activists and honing the use of a 21st century megaphone to promote Republican policy goals through new media networking tools.
Watch: Can the GOP catch up on tech?
Republicans received a wake-up call in 2008 after President Obama raised a historic sum of campaign cash and organized supporters like never before by mastering the power of the Internet.
Within days of losing the White House and additional seats in the House and Senate, prominent blogger and new media consultant Patrick Ruffini unveiled a Web site dedicated to helping restore the GOP to power.
The No. 1 priority listed on http://www.rebuildtheparty.com: "Winning the technology war with the Democrats."
Related: Liberal blogging in the era of Obama
"We kind of took a step back and said, 'Look, we're going to have a long debate over a number of years over where this party should go, where we should stand ideologically,' " Ruffini said. "But here's some basic steps that we can take now to re-engage our grassroots base and to rebuild our party infrastructure and to recruit new leaders so that when we have that ... unifying purpose ... we will be ready to go."
Ruffini and fellow blogger/new media consultant David All are on the cutting edge of a constantly evolving medium that includes long-form analysis through blogging to fast-paced snippets known as "tweets."


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Is it important to change oil and oil filter on schedule important?
Yes! Family Car Care tells our customers in the Parkville area that lubricating a vehicle's engine's moving parts is the most important job of a vehicle's motor oil. Family Car Care tells our customers that dirty motor oil wears out engine parts much quicker and that clean motor oil cleans the inner parts of a vehicle's engine as well as helping to cool it. Motor oil serves to seal the space between an engine's piston rings and cylinder walls, forming enough of a seal to help prevent loss of power and increase and engine's operating economy.
Changing an engine's oil without replacing the oil filter can result in the new oil picking up the contaminants trapped in the old oil filter and recirculating them to the engine's moving parts.
Change the oil and oil filter before leaving the Parkville area for an extended road trip. The more contaminated the oil, the faster a vehicle's engine will consume it. Frequently having an oil and filter change by the staff at Family Car Care is an effective way to increase the life of your vehicle – one of your most expensive and valuable possessions. The auto repair mechanics at Family Car Care recommend changing your car's oil and oil filter every 3,000-5,000 miles.
What is the difference between synthetic and conventional oil?
Occasionally a customer of Family Car Care will ask us if they would be better off driving around the Parkville area with synthetic motor oil instead of conventional motor oil inside their vehicle. Our automotive repair technicians will them that aside from serving its primary purpose of lubricating and protecting the moving parts inside a vehicle's engine, motor oil is also intended to assist in ensuring the engine is cooled and operating cleanly. In the most ideal Parkville driving conditions, moving at a constant highway speed, vehicle manufacturer recommended conventional oils work fine. Unfortunately for many driving the roads around the Parkville area, such ideal driving conditions are seldom the situation. When driving around the streets of greater Parkville in stop and go traffic, extreme hot and cold temperatures, short excursions, and when hauling or towing heavy loads, the health of a vehicle can benefit from the extra protection provided by synthetic automotive motor oil.
The difference between synthetic and conventional motor oil is that while conventional motor oil is derived from crude oil removed from the earth and processed in a refinery, motor oils that are synthetic originate from "synthesized" materials which results in delivering more performance benefits, including:
- A reduction in deposits in the engine that are "by-products" of an engine's combustion process
- Increased thickness (viscosity) at extremely high temperatures
- Easier engine starting in very cold temperatures due to better ease of flow than conventional oil
- Less tendency to break down at extreme temperatures, commonly referred to as "volatility"
- Significantly better protection from engine wear
Family Car Care tells all of our customers in the Parkville area that they should think that there should be any difference in time between oil changes when using a synthetic motor oil over a conventional one. While it is proven that synthetic oil provides better protection for a vehicle, having an oil change done according to the vehicle manufacturer's recommendation is still the best option for protecting the overall performance and life of a vehicle.


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- Gilneas Champion's Tabard
- Item Level 1
- Binds when picked up
- Tabard
- Equip: You champion the cause of Gilneas. All reputation gains while in dungeons will be applied to your standing with them.
This tabard can be purchased from Lord Candren, the Gilneas Quartermaster in Darnassus for 9 50. Must be equipped to be used. As of 4.0.3a, this tabard works only in Azeroth dungeons, both lower level, and Northrend. If equipped it does count towards tabard achievements.
External links
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Experience The Science Behind Pixar and enjoy the reopened Museum. Advance tickets are required for all guests and are now available for visits through August 14. Reserve your tickets now.
We're working to ensure a safe and T-rex-cellent experience for all, so get your face coverings ready to join us at Science Park!
View Today's Schedule
© Ashley McCabe
© Nicolaus Czarnecki
© Ashley McCabe
© Ashley McCabe
The Annual Fund supports every aspect of the Museum — from regular maintenance and day-to-day operations to feeding our friends in the Live Animal Care Center; to allowing our educators to create new interactive exhibits and develop live presentations. Every dollar you generously give to the Annual Fund goes directly into furthering STEM education and delivering an amazing experience to visitors of all ages.
Your gift to the Annual Fund goes to work immediately and is essential to the Museum's efforts to inspire the dreamers and thinkers of tomorrow.
Online: mos.org/donate
Phone: 617-589-0370, Monday – Friday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Museum of Science, Boston, 1 Science Park, Boston MA 02114, Attn: Annual Giving (Please make checks payable to the Museum of Science, Boston)
Many companies offer matching gifts for charitable donations made by their employees, which could double or triple your contribution to the Museum — some companies' matching gifts program extend to retired employees and board members.
To find out if your gift qualifies for a match from your employer, visit mos.org/matching-gifts where you can search a database of over 20,000 companies to see if your gift is eligible and how to apply for your matching gifts benefits.
By joining one of our donor societies, you stand alongside an invaluable group of loyal philanthropists who help the Museum deliver an amazing educational experience, and in return, you receive a wide range of benefits such as special access, exclusive events, and more.
To find out more about each donor society and the benefits of joining, click below or learn more here:
Making a monthly commitment to the Museum provides a consistent source of revenue we can count on every month to fund our mission to make this one-of-a-kind educational experience accessible to all.
You decide how much you would like to pledge and after that, everything is automatic. No checks, no envelopes to mail. You remain in total control and you can withdraw from the program or change the amount of your pledge at any time. It's simple, secure, and one of the best ways you can support the Museum.
We will gladly assist you in a payment plan that works best for you; just call the annual giving team at 617-589-0370.
for over 170,000 school children
that bring science, technology, and math (STEM) education to thousands across New England
that cares for 130 animals who participate in 5,000 education presentations each year
and development of new, cutting-edge exhibits
with more than 650 local community groups that serve those without the financial means to visit the Museum as well as those with disabilities


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Craig Parlet, D.D.S. Family Dentistry in Colorado Springs
Dynamic Dentistry / Dynamic Smiles
Welcome to Craig Parlet Family Dentistry where we believe that Dynamic Dentistry results in Dynamic Smiles. Even a subtle change in your smile helps you to project an image of self-confidence and high personal esteem. When you feel good about yourself, it shows in your appearance. Today's advanced techniques and materials can make a real difference. The skill, experience, and commitment of Craig Parlet, D.D.S. and our practice staff using a unique combination of science and artistry can literally redesign your smile. Call us today at Craig Parlet Family Dentistry Phone Number 719-528-6200.
Teeth Whitening
Dental bleaching or teeth whitening can be used to correct many tooth discolorations. These discolorations may have been caused by staining, aging, or chemical damage to teeth. Using the latest in whitening technology, we can offer a safe method for creating a beautiful, "brilliant" smile. Learn more >>>
Dental Implants
Dental implants are metal anchors that act as tooth root substitutes. They are surgically placed into the jawbone. Small posts are then attached to the implant which protrude through the gums. These posts provide stable anchors for artificial replacement teeth. Learn more >>>


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I want to talk to you about a topic that's pretty elusive to most health club operators and trainers: converting members into personal training clients. In fact, most health clubs undervalue the benefits that a personal training program can provide to their bottom line and to their clients.
Health club members who work with a personal trainer typically keep their membership longer than those who simply want to go at it on their own, not to mention the fact that personal training clients will get better results and that personal training can be a huge profit center for health clubs if the process is systemized and marketed right.
So let's talk conversion tactics.
First off, you have got to realize that when someone joins a health club, it's usually because they are experiencing some kind of pain or distress. The pain might be that they went to sit down and they split their jeans open, or maybe they're going through a divorce, or got bad news from their doctor or they simply looked in the mirror, realized they are unhappy with their body, health and fitness level and finally want to make a change.
Whatever the reason, the very first thing you have to understand is that 90% of the people who join a gym do so because they are in pain and want a solution to a problem. And this is where personal training is the answer and not just a health club membership.
Let's say that you want to get from point A to point B. You'd think the solution would be a car, right? But it's not. It's actually directions, driving instructions and a full tank of gas... The car is useless if you can't operate it and don't know where you're going.
So imagine the health club membership base as a giant group of people who want to go from point A to point B. They think that having a car alone is the answer and don't realize that without directions, driving instructions and a full tank, they can't go anywhere.
Done are the days of hard selling a member into personal training. Frankly, I don't think hard selling ever worked. Most people can smell a sales pitch coming from a mile away.
The most successful personal training sales strategies that I've seen work in a gym or health club setting are conversion strategies that:
- Identify who the most likely personal training clients are in the membership base.
- Identify what their "hot buttons" are or where their biggest sources of pain come from.
- Create low-barrier offers that speak to the members' pain or hot buttons.
- Make an irresistible offer to get the member into your personal training funnel and up the ascension ladder from there.
Here's an actual example of how this four-step process would work: Let's say that your gym or health club has 1,200 active members.
The first step would be to craft an offer that you know most members would want. It goes without saying that most people who join a gym want to lose fat and get in better shape, so you'd craft a low-barrier offer called "The 14 Day Fat Flush" program that's a limited-time program and is offered for relatively cheap.
The program might consist of working with a personal trainer in a group or boot camp setting for three to four times per week, plus a healthy eating program that they can follow.
You'd spend a week promoting this offer to your members via email, small posters and fliers. Of course, you'd set a start date for the program, because everyone needs a little urgency in order to take action. The whole idea behind this promotion is to give members the opportunity to sample working with a trainer without having to commit to a big program or large price tag. The top two objections that folks give when they think about working with a personal trainer is that, 1) it's going to cost too much, and 2) they don't want to commit to a lot of time because they don't know if personal training is right for them -- so a short-term, low-cost offer is the perfect introduction into your "funnel."
Now, if you have a membership base of 1200, you're probably going to get 50-100 people to join your 14-day program. And just like that, you ve identified from your member base who the people are that MIGHT be interested in personal training and what their hot button is.
The next 14 days are going to be your opportunity to prove the benefits of working with a fitness trainer rather than on their own.
Here's where you take the "fat flush" clients up the ascension ladder: Toward the end of the 14-day program, you make each client an irresistible offer to continue working with a personal trainer once the "fat flush" program ends. Your offer might be that if they commit to a personal training program, you'll give them four bonus sessions, or maybe a price break for the first month, or both.to get as many of the 14-day clients to convert into "regular" training clients. About 20-30% will convert if the offer is strong.
Running small, low-cost promotions like these once or twice a month is the easiest and most effective way to convert health club members into training clients. Long-term training clients can really add a lot of new revenue to a health club's bottom line and ultimately get your members the results they're really after.
Each month Bedros Keuilian teaches thousands of fitness trainers systems and strategies to grow their business and get more clients. Learn more on his blog at www.PTPower.com.


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Look who's coming to a quilt shop near you this summer!
It's Furry Fried Eyes and she's fallen in love with Pom Pom Yum!
Furry joins Fried Eyes, Jelly, and Sweetie. Three friends from the imaginary Land of Yum coming to help kids learn to sew this summer as part of Row by Row's collectible Junior pattern program.
Participating Junior shops select one of the friend patterns and offer it free to kids, age 6-14, when the kids visit their shop in person. You can learn more about the Junior program here.
Fried Eyes is a lovable snaggle-toothed monster. Jelly is a strippy jellyfish who swims with ruffle power and Sweetie is an adorable critter you can wrap your arms around.
Furry is a kid friendly, sham back, fake fur headed project using a blend of the Fried Eyes and Sweetie patterns. Both patterns come together as a bonus collectable this summer. What a sewing adventure it will be!
Pom Pom Yum is an easy to stuff, sham back pillow too. It uses trendy pompom fringe that's so stylish for today's teens and tweens. Just like Pottery Barn!
Both Furry and Pom Pom Yum are free downloadable projects that use the Junior patterns collected while visiting participating quilt shops during the summer. They will be available when RxR starts on June 21.
In the meantime, you can visit the RxR Jr resources page. It's loaded with free activities, tutorials, and project patterns from previous years that are still available. And still good!
Here is one of the free printable activity pages to help kids build machine skills: Easter Egg Stitching
Encourage your favorite local quilt shop to offer Junior this summer. Remind them to register by May 1.
Jeannette Kitlan is committed to helping you raise kids who love to sew. The programs she created, Row by Row Junior and Hello Sewing World embrace STEM, entrepreneurship and a growth mindset for kids in the 21st century.


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1. We had family pictures taken at my parents' house, this is the first time we've done something other than JCP since Grant was born. It was really fun and I love how they turned out.
2. I got a new planner! I've had a Coach one for the last decade or so and it was on it's last leg. I love this new one!
3. I'm not ready to put my summer stuff away and can't get enough of these shoes!
4. I'm soaking up all the time I can outside. We recently went apple picking at my parents' house. Yum!
5. This. Face.
6. My new wallet from thredUp! It's Ralph Lauren and retails now for over $125 but it was only $30 on thredUp and I had credits to spend. If you haven't tried thredUp yet join here for $10 off your first purchase.


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Tsonga AU
Mazulu - Platino - Sale
$59.95 $139.95
*Wide fit style!*
New this Summer, our modern range of sandals atop the Velvet unit. The Mazulu is a unique slip on with cross over vamp that has been paired in various on trend leather colours this season. The Velvet unit is an exciting one for us and a complete break from our traditional construction. It is incredibly flexible as we only use the best components. Our new insoles are moulded to cup your feet and therefore offers greater comfort. The insole is light and airy and made from a very soft polyurethane (PU) which means it has complete bounce back memory and will never collapse therefore offering you endless comfort. Our non slip thermoplastic rubber (TR) outsole will also provide grip in those slippery situations and will ensure these sandals deliver utmost support and comfort.
All items in the WAREHOUSE SALE section are subject to our terms and conditions. We are unable to process a refund unless the item is faulty. We do not cover return postage for exchanges & credit notes on sale items.


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South Park Bowls Club can announce that as of 3rd June 2016 not only are the South Park Vets part of our club we have also become our own CASC that will collect green fees for the bowlers from January 2017.
These fees will allow the club to start working towards securing the green, improving its facilities and also promoting the club in a modern way to attract new bowlers. Its only the beginning but all bright futures started somewhere!
We are now in discussions with the Council about some kind of Victorian perimeter fence to enhance the green as a spectacle and to assist with our problems.
On another note there is progress on our ongoing problems with youths harassing the bowlers. We have had meetings with the Council, the Youth Offending Service and also the PCSO's. We have numbers to call for the CCTV team, also are being given extra patrols by the PCSO's who have already attended some of our games to help ease our problems.
On top of this we cant thanks Francis Jones and Sparta Security enough who have been helping us and are on call whenever problems arise, we are very grateful for their help which they have volunteered.
Unfortunately we are not able to thank bowling clubs who haven't supported us whilst we have these security problem, 2 clubs have already shown unwillingness to bowl at South Park and only Darlington Woodland have kindly offered us temporary accommodation. This lack of support may cause us no end of problems but we have to keep battling to ensure bowls at South Park remains popular.
On a social note we have 2 events coming up in Archery and Quoits – both great fun, please contact me if you would like to come!
Saturday 9th July – Archery – Dolphin Centre 5pm then drinks afterwards.
Wednesday 27th July – Quoits – Darlington Quoits Club 7pm


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Donald Trump slams recount move, says election is over
US President-elect Donald Trump has described an impending recount of votes in the swing state of Wisconsin as a "scam" and said the results of the presidential election should be respected instead of being challenged or "abused"
Donald Trump
Washington: US President-elect Donald Trump has described an impending recount of votes in the swing state of Wisconsin as a "scam" and said the results of the presidential election should be respected instead of being challenged or "abused".
The push to recount was spearheaded by Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, who is also seeking recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Trump registered narrow victories against Hillary Clinton in the November 8 presidential elections in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with Michigan too close to call.
The billionaire, who claimed that the election was "rigged" before his victory, insisted in a statement that the results should be "respected, instead of being challenged and abused".
He alleged it was a way for Stein — who has raised $5.9 million toward a $7 million target for the recount push — to "fill her coffers with money".
"The people have spoken and the election is over, as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night," Trump said, a day after the Green Party candidate moved a petition for the recounting in Wisconsin, which was accepted by the State Election Commission.
The Hillary Clinton Campaign said on Saturday that it is joining the Green Party in the recounting move. It said it would also support the recounting of votes in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
"This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one per cent of the vote overall, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount. All three states were won by large numbers of votes, especially Pennsylvania, which was won by more than 70,000 votes," said the president-elect.
California mosques get threat letters
Letters calling for the genocide of Muslims and praising President-elect Donald Trump have been received by several mosques in California. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for increased police protection of local mosques after the receipt of letters. A handwritten letter, which was photocopied, was addressed to "the children of Satan" and called Muslims "vile and filthy people", Los Angeles Times reported.
Trump Tower is 'Dump Tower'
A prankster has renamed Trump's midtown Manhattan building Trump Tower as 'Dump Tower' on Google Maps. "If one searches for Trump Tower on Google Maps, they will not find that exact name there. Instead, they will find 'Dump Tower'," WPIX-TV reported. The culprit also transliterated the skyscraper's title in Russian Cyrillic at another angle, possibly alluding to the Republican's alleged ties to Russia during the campaign trail.
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As mentioned in my post, I made a quilt top following a technique shared on a website I came across. However I added my spin to the blocks resulting in this top:
What follows are instructions for making this quilt top. I'll explain how I made the two blocks used in this top and you can make any number of blocks you like for the size quilt that you desire. Using nine blocks plus the one outer border, this top finished at 42 1/2″ square.
Star Block (with Pinwheels from the "waste")
You will need two contrasting colors/patterns for your star points and a background fabric (I used white so the stars would really pop). I'll refer to the fabrics for the points as "dark" and "light" in the instructions. All seams are stitched with a 1/4″ seam allowance.
Step 1 – cut the following pieces:
- 4 dark rectangles measuring 2 3/8″ x 5″ each
- 4 light rectangles measuring 2 3/8″ x 5″ each
- 8 background squares measuring 2 3/8″ each
- 8 background rectangles measuring 3 1/8″ x 5″
Step 2 – On the back (wrong side) of all 8 of the background squares, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner (I used a pencil)
Step 3 – Lay one background square on the bottom of each light and dark rectangle, right sides together, then stitch on the drawn diagonal line as illustrated below. The dark rectangles and the light rectangles should have the stitched line going in the opposite direction.
Step 4 – Trim off the bottom of the square 1/4″ from the stitched diagonal line, like below:
Step 5 – Press the background fabric in opposite directions so that you can "nest" the seams later when you are sewing pieces together:
Step 6 – Place a background rectangle on each dark and light strip set, right sides together, and sew along the seam as pictured below. Press the seams in opposite directions as described.
Step 7 – On the back (wrong side) of each unit with the dark fabric, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner:
Step 8 – lay a dark unit on top of a light unit, right sides together, and line up the seams by "nesting" them together. Because you pressed your seams in opposite directions they should bump together:
Step 9 – I chose to pin my two units together, holding the nested seams better, then sew on the drawn diagonal line. Because you are sewing over a couple of seams I felt this would keep it more stable.
Step 10 – Draw another diagonal line 1/4″ away from your stitch line, then sew another stitch line 1/4″ away from the drawn line.
Step 11 – Cut this unit on the drawn line between the two diagonal seams you just sewed:
Step 12 – Open the two pieces and you'll have a block with 2 star points and a block with a section for your mini pinwheel. Press your seams towards the dark fabric on each of these blocks.
If you've already sewn and cut all of your pieces as described above you'll have four blocks with star points and four blocks with what looks like mini half-square triangles.
Finishing the Star Block
Sew your star points as follows:
Place the top right and left halves right sides together and stitch. Press the seam to the left.
Place the bottom right and left halves right sides together and stitch. Press the seam to the right.
Place the top and bottom units right sides together and "nest" the seams. Sew and press the seam to one side.
To finish this block I added four 2 1/2″ wide strips all around the sides, sewing the right and left sides on first and then the top and bottom strips. Measure the sides of your blocks to determine the length needed for each side.
Finishing the Mini Pinwheel Block
Square off your four mini half-square triangle blocks to equal 4 inches:
Lay out your blocks to form a pinwheel:
Like the Star block, sew the top two blocks together and press the seam to the right, then sew the bottom two blocks together pressing the seam to the left. Join the top and bottom units together nesting the seams.
I then bordered this block with fabric strips measuring 3 1/2″ wide.
The Star and Pinwheel blocks each measure about 13 1/4″.
I sewed my blocks together first in columns, and then each column to each other. I bordered the quilt top in black 2 1/2″ strips.
I hope this tutorial helps you to make your own version of this quilt.


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Summer is here!
We offer the best value in the area Call for your free estimate today!!
Don't wait! Our schedule is filling fast; we have a limited number of slots for the summer exterior painting season
Family owned: We do the work so we have precise control on the quality and there is no management that needs to be paid resulting in a superior paint job at a better price for you.
At Cole's Painting Is Our Profession.
Call for a free estimate. Our specialist will measure and evaluate the condition of the area to be painted then provide you
with a detailed estimate that contains no hidden fees.
We will also work with you selecting paint products and color combinations if needed.
Call Today 253-268-3972.
Cole's Painting is located in Puyallup Washington. Owned and operated by the Cole family we have been providing painting and construction services to the Puget Sound area for over 15 years. We provide a full line of painting services specializing in exterior and interior house and commercial painting. We also provide drywall repair, millwork, door and cabinet refinishing.
The Cole family of Puyallup has been in the painting and construction business for over 15 years. Our whole family is involved so you can be assured that when the painters arrive it is one of Coles doing the painting not some college student on a summer job or a temp agency employee making some extra cash. From estimates to painting it is the Cole family that will be there doing the work.
New paint will give your home's interior or exterior a new and exciting feel. We provide durable, cost effective and attractive solutions to your painting needs. When we arrive we begin with our meticulous preparation: Moving all furniture away from your walls and covering your belongings with a thick plastic tarp to prevent accidental drip damage, we then fill any holes and gouges in walls or repair mold and rot damage, seams are then caulked and primer applied as needed. After the site is prepared we then carefully paint your house with the same attention to detail we used in preparation. After the paint is applied we clean up and leave your house in pristine condition. The only way you will know that Cole's has been there is the beautifully applied paint to your home's interior or exterior.
The smallest detail can make a difference don't leave any to chance with Cole's you get:


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I planted some sunflower seeds a few weeks ago. Here is progress so far…
Monthly Archives: May 2011
Wizardy Reading
I recently discovered a series of books by an author I had never heard of – Christopher Stasheff. My initial thoughts were that I would be reading some Tolkien fan-boy book from a couple of years ago. However, I was happily surprised to find that not only is this book the first in a series spanning a many years, but that it came out in the 1980's and the author was born in the 1940's – things were looking up a bit at this point so I gave it a whirl. I finished this book yesterday and was not disappointed.
The series is called Wizard In Rhyme, the first book is titled Majesty's Wizard. To be honest, I do think I can be forgiven for being a bit apprehensive and expecting some clichéd cheese with titles like that. Especially when the other series' by the same author (of which there are, thankfully, plenty) are named with similar flare – .
However…. I was impressed. The first couple of pages worth of text seemed like it was going to live up to expectations. But, where other authors would needlessly draw out an introduction, Professor Stasheff drops us straight into the action.
I don't want to spoil any storyline so will say this – Stasheff makes an interesting but still standard aspect on the whole wizardy/lotr/etc type of thing. The lore is very standard but with American college student Matt, the hero, being from the 'normal' (ie, our) world and getting transported to this alternate universe where he has wizardy powers. This makes for a nice and interesting twist on the usual fare and you want to know what happens to Matt and wonder throughout if he is going to end up going home. Knowing that this is the first in a series you know he wont just wake up from a dream and it's all over at the end of the book, but you still wonder where it is going to take him.
The action scenes, mainly good vs evil battles, on a par with Tolkien/etc style storylines, are fast paced and well written. The story is surprisingly gripping and you find yourself really liking the characters.
Overall, a very good read and the perfect 'first part' of what can only be a very good series of books.
I can't wait to read the next book in the series, but have decided to hold off for now and read Prey by Michael Crichton.


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On February 14, Rostransnadzor (Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Transport) suspended the traffic of the freight motor transport registered in Ukraine on the territory of the Russian Federation, press service of Rostransnadzor reports.
"Until further instructions from the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the inspectors of Rostransnadzor, in the course of transport control of freight vehicles registered in Ukraine, shall execute withdrawal protocols with record statements and place the vehicles on a dedicated parking. This measure does not apply to the regime of transit from Ukrainian to Kazakhstan, which is carried out in accordance with the Presidential Decree No. 1 of 01.01.2016," reads the statement.
The press service also reports that a total of 152 Ukrainian vehicles have been already detained in Russia.
As of February 15, 2016 (9:00 a.m.) a total of 152 vehicles belonging to Ukrainian carriers have been detained on the territory of the Russian Federation. There have not been any registered cases of unlawful acts by drivers," reads the statement.
Photo: Internet


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Day of Inspiration
Creative Club had a Day of Inspiration and visited interesting London sites. They recorded observations and took photographs to create research for creative writing and storytelling.
Creative Club visited the following places:
- Tate Modern
- Lambeth Palace
- Premier Media
The girls had a truly wonderful day and their behaviour was exemplary. We took some pictures and shot a video of the day, which can be seen on this page. Please click on the thumbnails for a larger view.
Please click on the play button for more.
Please click on the thumbnails below for more.


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Does that count as a one liner?
Does that count as a one liner?
Apple's document on Extending and Troubleshooting Directory Services has a lot of good info.
One correction though is that the debug level must be an integer.
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/DirectoryServiceDebug "Debug Logging Priority Level" -integer 2
I've notified Apple, so this may be fixed by the time you read this.
Update: That link is dead. Here is an article that offers some similar information.
I was getting random AD plugin connection issues after joining to Active Directory. dsconfigad showed no errors, but sometimes I would not get a connection and I would have to rejoin. The problem turned out to be related to replication.
The AD plugin initially has no knowledge of which AD site and domain controllers are considered local to your subnet, so it discovers any domain controllers and contacts one to lookup the site information. During this process, and in general, the AD Plugin keeps an LDAP connection open to the domain controller. The AD plugin likes to reuse these LDAP connections, presumably for performance reasons. When it is time to actually add the computer to the domain, the AD Plugin reuses this existing connection. The problem is that this domain controller is not necessarily one within your AD site.
At this point, if the Mac is restarted or DirectoryService is killed, any new connections will be made to a DC in the subnet's AD site, but if your computer was added to a non-local DC, the local DCs may have no knowledge of your computer because the computer account has not yet replicated to them.
This problem can appear to be quite random because sometimes you'll get lucky and get a local DC for the join, or you might catch the replication at the right time. You might also see bad password errors in the DirectoryService debug logs. I have filed a bug report on this, and I don't have a good workaround for now other than — don't reboot or restart DirectoryService after a join. Of course if you know your replication schedules, you could just wait until you are sure replication is completed.
This same issue can present itself with unjoins and rejoins.
You can see what domain controllers you are connecting to during the join using the following shell command assuming your are joining using dsconfigad:
while [ 1 ]; do if netstat -a | grep ldap| grep ESTAB; then ps auxww | grep dsconfigad | grep -v grep; date;fi; done
If you have joined, unjoined, and rejoined and think you may be seeing replication issues, compare the whenCreated attribute of the computer account on different domain controllers using ldapsearch.
ldapsearch -LLL -v -W -x -h domaincontrollerfromsite1.subdomain.forest.com -D email@example.com -b "OU=Computers,DC=subdomain,DC=forest,DC=com" CN=machine-join-name | grep whenCreated:
If an older out of sync computer account exists, its whenCreated date will be different from the domain controller the computer was just added to until the last join has replicated to all the servers.
The slow login times in the Leopard AD plugin seem to be related to a search by macAddress. If you killall -USR1 DirectoryService, and login on a Leopard machine bound to AD, you'll notice a query on macAddress in the /Library/Logs/DirectoryService/DirectoryService.debug.log. I am not sure the purpose of this query, but our computer objects don't even use the macAddress attribute, so the query always results in no records found.
I can manually execute the same query and the time almost perfectly matches the delay I see with logins; about 45 seconds.
time ldapsearch -v -w password -x -h domaincontroller.domain.forest.com -D email@example.com -b "DC=domain,DC=forest,DC=com" "(&(objectCategory=cn=computer,cn=schema,cn=configuration,dc=forest,dc=com)
Just substitute your own domain, forest, domain controller, username, password, and mac address etc to test.
I've tried manually mapping macAddress to another attribute, but it didn't make a difference, so I don't have any workaround to offer. Adding the macAddress attribute to your computer objects in AD might speed things up, but I have not tested this. I've notified Apple of the issue in radar 5752763, which is marked as a Duplicate of 5679705. If you see this macAddress query taking a long time, please report this to Apple so it can get fixed sooner rather than later. Actually, this same query is used during the join process, which may explain the long join times while it searches for an existing computer.
The Active Directory plugin is finally usable in 10.5.2, but some environments require workarounds.
1.) Your domain must resolve to the ip address of a domain controller. This was not a requirement in previous versions, but Apple is apparently making it a requirement as they closed my bug stating that it was a configuration issue with Active Directory since creation of a domain sets up this dns info by default. If your domain does not resolve to an ip, you need to fix it, or as a workaround, edit your /etc/hosts file to point the ip of one of your domain controllers.
for example if you know you have a domain controller at 10.3.1.23 and your fully qualified domain is domain.forest.com, you'd add this line to /etc/hosts
10.3.1.23 domain.forest.com
2.) Allow Authentication from any domain in forest does not work. Uncheck this box in Directory Utility or using the corresponding flag in dsconfigad. If you don't do this, the join may succeed, but you won't be able to lookup or authenticate users or even use dscl on Active Directory. When you uncheck this option, just be sure to add the correct domains to your authentication search path in Search Policy of Directory Utiltity.
3.) Allow Administration by Active Directory Groups does not seem to work. In 10.4, this option seems to nest the AD group you want to allow for administration into the local admin group, so the workaround is to do the same in 10.5 manually using dseditgroup.
sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a "DOMAIN\group name" -t group admin
replacing DOMAIN\group name with your domain and group that you want to give admin access.
This group nesting method gives members of your AD group admin access for both Apple's Authorization APIs and sudo.
These workarounds got me working, logins are painfully slow, but that may be due to the hosts hack.
Update: Under 10.5.3, most of these problems are resolved. If you are still having slow logins/joins, there are possible workarounds.


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Washington: Fears that thousands of people could storm Area 51 "to see aliens" were unfounded, with just several dozen arriving at the secretive US military base in the state of Nevada, a media report said on Saturday.Millions had responded to a Facebook post in June calling for people to raid the facility September 20, the BBC reported.
But nobody attempted to enter the site on Friday and only one person was arrested - for urinating near the gate.Area 51 has long been rumoured to house secrets about extraterrestrial life.Within days of its launch, the Facebook event posted by California student Matty Roberts became a viral sensation, making headlines across the world. More than three million people expressed interest in taking part.
However, the US Air Force warned that Area 51 was "an open training range for the US Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces".Area 51 was created during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union as a testing and development facility for aircraft, the BBC said.But the secrecy surrounding the site has helped fuel many conspiracy theories.
Most famous is the claim that the site hosts an alien spacecraft and the bodies of its pilots after they crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. The US government has said that there were no aliens and the crashed craft was a weather balloon.
Contact Us: 011-66051627
E-mail: email@example.com


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Gamebook Adventures 3: Slaves of Rema in Review – Third time's the charm?
The Gamebook Adventures series is quite an interesting franchise. In the wake of the re-release of the classic Fighting Fantasy series from Steve Jackson himself, Tin Man Games dared to enter the market with their own title, originally developed from the ground up for the iDevice. I have reviewed the first two titles Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes (TMA Review) & Gamebook Adventures 2: The Siege of the Necromancer (TMA Review) and found them very compelling. They're very well written and more focus on the adventure than combat part of the process, though when it comes to finding the best endings, they can be a bit too difficult for the uninitiated. In their latest release  – Gamebook Adventures 3: Slaves of Rema – they vowed to fix the latter issue, making the games accessible to both casual and die-hard gamers.
As with all the other GBA games, Slaves of Rema is a classic Choose Your Own Adventure title. It is set in the Orlandes universe, putting you in charge of a young soldier of the coastal city of Bosque. After being captured in a pirate raid on your ship, you are taken away to a nearby nation and thrust to fight for your life in a gladiatorial arena. Thankfully with a handful of comrades, you manage to escape the dreaded fighting pit and you now have to make your way home to reunite with your family and reveal the treachery to your people.
The first pleasant surprise upon starting up a new game was the long-missing difficulty selection option. You can choose either the classic mode found in the previous instances), the bookworm (exactly like the classic but the bookmark limit is upped to 10) and the novice mode (where in addition to the bookmark cap the stats are also calculated more favourably to the player). And while this selection goes a long way towards making the series more appealing to the casual player, it doesn't solve the aforementioned issue completely.
If you're not familiar with the premise of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure games – you're basically reading a book, while having the ability to influence the narrative, be it through choices after a situation or various dice rolls, like combat or some other kinds of checks. The combat, by the way, is quite straightforward, with you and your opponent rolling to attack and defend in turn. The attack/defence strength defines the amount of dice to roll. A hit is counted if the highest attacking player's dice value is higher than the highest defending player's dice value, making it possible to win against even a much stronger enemy if you have enough luck and patience.
The real issue with Slaves of Rema, as with the previous installments, is the rather high difficulty level. And I'm not talking about the combat balance or other random checks. I'm referring to the very high probability of reaching near the end of the game, where only then do you find out that you've missed some crucial and obscure object at the very beginning. And without any obvious way of correcting your progress, having to play through many many times just to get on the correct path to win the game is very frustrating. The upped cap of bookmarks for the bookworm and novice difficulties certainly helps but without an obvious way to decide where the crucial junctions are, players are bound to revisit various branches in the storyline numerous times. The achievements try to offset this a bit by giving additional incentives to replay the game, but without any integration of a social network it just doesn't feel right.
On the technical side the Slaves of Rema is almost at the level of perfection. The graphics have been optimized for the Retina display and look gorgeous, the interface is easy to understand and use, with the bare minimum of excess buttonry and the dice animations are simply superb.
The latest installment in the Gamebook Adventures series, Slaves of Rema, tries to remedy some of the criticism of the previous games. The added option of choosing a difficulty level will certainly make the game more appealing to casual players, especially with the graphics updated to Retina quality. Unfortunately the very narrow path you have to take to reach the final makes it almost a given that you'll have to play through the game at least 3-4 times. If this doesn't frighten you, you'll definitely enjoy the excellent writing, beautiful illustrations and involving gameplay.
With this I declare Gamebook Adventures 3: Slaves of Rema officially touched!
|App Summary
|Gamebook Adventures 3: Slaves of Rema
|Tin Man Games
|Reviewed Ver:
|Min OS Req:
|App Size:


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Real Estate-Savvy K-Pop Idols Making Big Bucks As Building Owners
Many celebrities, as their wealth builds, take to investing in real estate for the steady source of passive income it provides in addition to their main work.
Here are 10 K-pop idols who are publicly known as proud building owners (Note: all dollar amounts are approximate, based on the current exchange rate from Korean won):
1. Suzy
In April 2016, Suzy purchased a building in the Samsung neighborhood of the Gangnam district in Seoul for about 3.7 billion won (approximately $3.3 million). The building is five stories tall, and Suzy makes about 15 million won ($13,400) monthly from rent.
2. BIGBANG's Daesung
In 2017, Daesung purchased a building around Apgujeong Rodeo Station for 31 billion won ($27.7 million). The building is eight stories tall, and rent brings Daesung about 94.7 million won ($84,500) monthly.
3. Han Seung Yeon
Formerly of Kara, Han Seung Yeon purchased a four-story building in Cheongdam in April 2014 for roughly 4.5 billion won ($4 million). Afterward, the star invested 1.1 billion won ($982,000) in renovations for the building, after which the building is now appraised at 6.7 billion won ($6.0 million).
In 2017, Han Seung Yeon bought a building in the Samsung neighborhood with her and her mother as co-owners for 3.7 billion won ($3.3 million).
4. BIGBANG's Taeyang
In May 2016, Taeyang purchased a seven-story building in Hannam for about 7.75 billion won ($6.9 million). The security deposits for the building total about 400 million won ($357,000), while the monthly lease brings in about 30 million won ($26,800).
In 2014, Taeyang also purchased a 2,490 square-foot villa located in the UN Village in Hannam for 4.2 billion won ($3.75 million).
5. Super Junior's Kyuhyun
In 2014, Kyuhyun bought a six-story building near Myeongdong Station in Seoul for about 7.3 billion won ($6.5 million). The building is currently a guest house being run by Kyuhyun's family.
6. Girl's Day's Yura
In March 2018, Yura revealed on tvN's "Taxi" that she purchased a building in her hometown of Ulsan.
7. BIGBANG's G-Dragon
In 2017, G-Dragon purchased a building in Cheongdam for roughly 8.8 billion won ($7.86 million). Previously in 2013, the star purchased a building in Seongsu for 3 billion won ($2.7 million).
8. Dasom
Former SISTAR member Dasom has long had an interest in real estate because her mother is a real estate agent. In 2014, she purchased a four-story building for 1.4 billion won ($1.25 million), which she sold two years later for 1.8 billion won ($1.6 million). In 2016, Dasom purchased a five-story building in the Jamsil neighborhood of the Songpa district in Seoul for about 3.1 billion won ($2.8 million).
9. CNBLUE's Jung Yong Hwa
Jung Yong Hwa is the owner of a four-story building in Cheongdam, which he purchased for about 10.5 billion won ($9.5 million). The building is currently leased by a luxury Swedish bed brand with a security deposit of 600 million won ($535,600) and monthly lease of 30 million won ($26,800).
10. Goo Hara
Goo Hara, who purchased a building in Cheongdam in 2012 for about 1.1 billion won ($982,000), sold the building three years later for 2 billion won ($1.8 million).
In 2015, the star bought a building in Nonhyeon for 3.2 billion won ($2.9 million).


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Sadly, I have not finished Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. I'm about 15% into the book, and I'm just not enjoying the characters. I did like the first chapter where Dash first discovers the notebook, but after that, the book lost my interest. Mainly because of Lily discussing how selfish her parents were to leave for a romantic vacation without her. I know it's close to Christmas, but come on. Anyway, I will finish this story eventually, but I had to put it down for now.
During my break from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, I did manage to read Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. It might be a surprise what I actually thought of that book, but I will elaborate in my review to come. So on to my next task at hand, choosing another book to read. I decided to not use my TBR Container to change it up a bit.
Ravens – Kaylie Austen
Genre – Young Adult/Paranormal
What are Ravens, and are they as the world wants us to believe—sinister and without human qualities? When abruptly taken from their world, select humans are transformed into creatures of the night with penetrating eyes and uncanny abilities that most believe are a threat to mankind. Stripped from their mundane and ordinary lives, these creatures have no choice but to stalk the night and fight back in order to survive.
One such Raven is eighteen-year-old Liam, who uses his telepathy to communicate with Kendra in order to lure her into the transformation. It proves to be a double-edged gambit that turns into a tumultuous journey. Racing against time to save her sister, whom she believed to be dead, Kendra falls through a portal and into a parallel world where humans hunt her. She becomes a Raven with ill-controlled powers, trapped in a torrid affair with Liam, and desperately struggles to find a grip on her new reality.
*Description taken from Goodreads.
The synopsis sounds rather intriguing, and I'm interested to find out how this story plays out. Plus, I find ravens to be fascinating creatures (Edgar Allan Poe helped with that). I'm really looking for a good story, plot and characters. That's all I ask for, is that so bad?