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So, at the weekend I played a Megagame. What's a megagame? Go look it up, it's amazing. Shut Up & Sit Down have a fantastic video about the Alien Invasion Megagame they played last year, called Watch the Skies. What I played was the sequel – Watch the Skies 2: Global Conspiracy.
I'm writing this blog post because I want to get some thoughts down about it before I forget, and obviously I want to leave some open feedback for the developers. Me and my team have already discussed this all to death, but it'll be good to share.
First off, let me pre-face by saying that it was one of the most amazing, unique experiences I've ever had. I'd happily do it again, and in fact me and my friends have already signed up for 'Come to a King', a Megagame set in 11th Century England. I'm hoping to be a Saxon Warlord.
Anyway, back to Saturday…
A lot of things broke that day.
Scaling a game that originally had like, 50 people? To one that has to accommodate 300 was never going to work 100%. The fact that it went as well as it did is a testament to all of the hard work put in by the various control teams, and the players themselves for trying to adapt and engage with the tools given to them.
I'm not going to talk about it too much as it wasn't my department, but it sounded like the Science element needs a major overhaul. I know my science guy struggled with a control team that kept changing the rules, struggled with a tech tree he barely had time to get to grips with, struggled with … the fact that he did as well as he did is amazing, but even the rest of us thought he had the short end of the stick.
For my part, I had my own struggle with rule systems that kept changing. There were a few things mentioned explicitly in the handbook that I found had been changed on the day. Corps upgrades, SIF upgrades, mobilisation rules… I did feel like I spent perhaps too much time talking to control about rule-clarifications.
** Just to be clear, my local control team was amazing, especially the lady I kept talking to. She was really helpful and I feel bad for badgering her so often. **
But there were also a few instances where my team were told conflicting information, like how spies worked in the different phases.
I think generally there was a conflict between the systems that had rules, and the systems that didn't.
I kept given money to corporations for deals I had going on, only for someone else to come around a phase or two later to ask for the money I'd already given them. Seems they'd decided to collect the money for everything in different phases, and hadn't told any of their actual customers, so that was confusing (but we sorted it out and I was very happy with what I got from them – a shiny new Modern Army, + 1 PR, and some epic regional terror deduction. Boss).
Had zero contact with Humanity first, The Papacy, or in fact members from other world regions who didn't specifically come to the EU zone.
I won't go on, but in summary: Many bits buckled, some bits broke, but the game ran as well as it could have done.
Blessed are the Greeks
Our local problem in the EU region to keep us busy before the Aliens turned up was Greece. Some rebel military organisation had seized the oilfields there, and Turkey and the rest of the central region close to Greece weren't happy.
Turkey etc… threatened to invade, the Americans were butting their noses in… and yet as a region I'm not entirely sure we handled things very well. Really, for the first couple of turns we were all struggling to get to grips with the game, so that's why nothing really happened. I think from my side at least It took me a while to see it as a problem we actually had to interact with. I'd gone in to the game too excited about the Alien element, and I guess I was just waiting for them to show up.
Greece proved to be a problem that would never be solved, and I'm not so sure it isn't just as much the game's fault as it was our own. Here is a breakdown of how I saw things. Again, not being directly involved, I have a narrow view of things:
- Not really being able to mobilise and send in troops, there was nothing we could do from that perspective.
- The UN mandated economic sanctions against Greece, so I assumed that meant they didn't want to send in troops initially either.
- That left political influence. First couple of turns everyone was rebuffed, but then my Minister and the Italians managed to get a foothold. The plan was to get the Greek rebels to back down, while getting the Turkish to back off and give them some money to keep them happy.
- The problem is, even when my minister rolled 6's, and influenced the holy f**k out of Greece, all we got back was "We'll think about it". And then another turn would pass.
It got to a point where I didn't really know what we could do from a game perspective to 'sort Greece out'. And then Greece erupted into civil war instead so we got the UN to send in peacekeepers. After that, I didn't really see what else we could do because the UN was directly involved.
I've read several comments already on how 'frustrated' the US and the central powers were about Greece not getting sorted out, but all I can say is that we felt we did all the game allowed us to do, and once the UN went in it was out of our hands.
As I mentioned above, the day was amazing. Here is a few of the reasons why:
- We were insanely rich. At one point my General alleged that, when we'd just hit maximum PR, we were the richest nation on the planet (he'd gone for a wonder). Generally PR and money were NEVER a problem thanks to some good deals made on my part, some good science on the part of my Scientist, and generally keeping on top of the PR score.
- Telling the Americans that their nuke was safe and that, no, they couldn't base troops in Germany, only for the aliens to then land on Germany and leave a card behind for everyone to see. God damn it. I still don't even know what that fecking thing was about.
- Rallying to a call to mobilise interceptors to Antarctica. Only two alien saucers turned up, and each had about four SIFs on it, and none of us managed to shoot the buggers down. I learned much later that me (and about 7 other nations) had massively breached international law by doing that (although there were no consequences, which there probably should have been). Oops. I also decided not to waste my time with such a deployment again.
- Rallying the EU leaders into firming up the EuroUnion to resist outside meddling from Russia and the US. Europeans will solve European problems… although I'm not sure how effectively we managed that in the end, given what I said above.
- My foreign minister telling me that he had the Greece situation sorted. The next turn he told me that he'd accidentally caused a civil war.
- Thinking for a few minutes that the abduction of the UNSC was due to the fact that my General had shot down an interceptor that turn. The alien player maintains the saucer was over Geneva to pick up the delegation, but my general says it was in German airspace, so I support him. Another saucer managed to land that WAS firmly in Swiss airspace, which we ignored, which then abducted the UNSC.
- Learning that the Aliens were fighting some kind of interstellar war amongst themselves and using Earth as some last-ditch, back-water refuelling post. This was a highlight only in the sense that it made me really cross, hah.
- Another thing that got me a little cross is that, whenever a UFO appeared over Germany (we didn't get that many), EVERYONE bum rushed their interceptors into our air-space. Sure, it's ok, just come right in. It's not like we have sovereign rights or anything. I kind of blame the game for that one though.
- Fighting Russia to a standstill in the Ukraine. I'm still not entirely sure about how easily we got dragged in to that 11th hour conflict, but when civil war broke out in the Ukraine I let my General mobilise, and he sent an army unit to the Polish/Ukraine border, to ensure the conflict didn't spill over. Next thing I knew the Polish army AND ours had joined one half of Ukraine and was squaring up against the other half, along with Russia. He exchanged fire and it was a draw (epic rolling on his part), but then that meant the whole of NATO was then at war with Russia.
- My Foreign Minister then had his finest hour and first of all got the Russian to back down, and then went to the Americans and got them to not send in the troops. I'd like to think I helped a little with that.
The ultimate icing on the cake though was a plan me and the French leader were discussing to try and rescue the UN delegation. Operation 'Trojan Horse' – my scientist had researched the tech for a sub-orbital civilian transport, and the French had (somehow) managed to research Interstellar Marines. Together, we were going to attempt to mount a rescue (I don't even know if it would have worked, given it was only a sub-orbital ship. Maybe we could have captured a saucer and ridden that to the Moon or something). Due to some frankly beardy rulings by the science control team, we lost a turn or two trying to get everything in place, but then we were ready. On Turn 10, we were going to mount our operation. There was no Turn 10.
My final thought is one that I'm not particularly proud of, but something I'd like to share anyway. This will probably make me sound jealous and slightly childish. Here goes anyway:
I felt a little left out.
My expectations going into the game was that it would be some grand Alien incursion onto the globe for reasons beyond our understanding. There were six alien teams – conveniently one of every region, so I expected every region to be heavy with alien activity due to some master-plan involving all of humanity.
Really, it was just about the Japanese and their Whaling. And something about the aliens needing to mine minerals to fight a war they were losing, neither of which meant that Europe was particularly bothered by extra-terrestrials. From what I gather, every region had varying degrees of alien interaction, with East Asia getting perhaps the most (hell, Tokyo was destroyed), and it felt like Europe the least.
I think what bugs me the most is with a storyline like that driving a lot of the alien interaction, we didn't really need to be there – whether the European nations were played or not, Africa would have still lost its kittens, Japan would still have had to deal with sentient Whales and then been bombarded from orbit… It was an interesting story, an amusing story, and a story worth telling. It was just one that didn't seem to need me or my team. That made me a little sad.
Hell, If it wasn't for the fact that we were wrestling with a crisis in Greece all game, we'd have had very little to do. Looking back, the game me and team ended up playing had nothing to do with Aliens. It was an incredibly fun game, full of political tension, high-level negotiations, rebels, and sure the odd UFO to shoot down. Every now and then I'd have a meeting to discuss the Alien problem that was only really a problem to other people.
Ultimately, it wasn't the game we were expecting to play. Dare I say, it wasn't the game we paid to play.
If I were to sum up this last point, it would be that I feel my team worked amazingly hard, did a really good job at the EU regional table, and at the end of the day it felt like none of it really mattered because control had come up with this wonderful plot for the aliens that seemed to revolve around a handful of specific nations that weren't us. I gather we missed out a lot of the 'Real Deal' talks in the pub afterwards (we were knackered and decided to go drink back in Kent), but it would have been nice to have had more of 'big picture' debrief at the end.
Other than that, it was the best day of my life. Probably.


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We warn you every year: get set for the next edition Sao Paulo Music Week. In 2019, we're going to lend you a hand in your quest, with a program teeming with both virtual and at the coalface activities starting in May.
SIM will provide a meeting point at São Paulo for professionals from all over the world in order to debate perspectives and to present new trends in the music market, between December 4th and 8th. Registration will start very soon, still on Early Bird mode, exclusively for 200 people who want to ensure a place at the event at a very special price.
From that date on, the Virtual PRO-AREA on the website will be operational, with as digital community with music professionals from the entire globe. "It will be an extension of SIM on the digital environment, where accredited delegates will be in direct touch with each other, enabling them to exchange contacts and ideas straight away, and later also being able to schedule meetings, register for pitching, and vote for the SIM PRIZE, plus receiving information and SIM content firsthand", explains Fabiana Batistela, the director of the industry event.
Since 2017, SIM São Paulo promotes monthly actions in the suburbs of São Paulo, in a partnership with the label SIM TRANSFORMA. In 2019, the activities kick off in June in Jardim São Luís.
Launched last month, DATA SIM has been conducting brand new research studies focused on the music market, and sharing the findings via the website datasim.info. Further meetings and hands-on activities will be proposed throughout the year in order to connect and to prepare the music community in Brazil each day more.
The biggest meeting point for music in Latin America, SIM Sao Paulo 2019 will have more than 100 panels in its conference, in addition to meetings and cocktails and business and networking. There will be more than 500 live performances during the Daytime Showcases and the Nighttime Program. The latter will be spread approximately 50 stages in Sao Paulo city, exposing the diversity of contemporary global music and its tendencies for the next few years. We anticipate that 40,000 people will attend the event during five days.
In 2018, SIM revealed a market increasingly aware of its role for the country's economic and social development. The event saw 3,000 accredited delegates from all corners of Brazil and 25 further nationalities. The program include hot topics such as technology, innovation, music as an enabler of social transformation, data and numbers.
From the TV presenter Serginho Groisman, who recalled his trajectory in an interview with Titas frontman Paulo Miklos, all the way to artists Rasha Nahas (Palestine) and Selma Uamusse (Mozambique), and also including a masterclass by living legend Tom Ze, there were more than 350 speakers exchanging insight in more than 90 panels, talks, debates, workshops, keynotes, Q&As, plus pitches, speed meetings, meet-ups, open and closed-door meetings. SIM also promoted activities in art galleries, book launches and film screenings, such as the documentary Daydream Nation (which saw two highly popular sessions in eth Olido Gallery, with commentary from Sonic Youth's drummer Steve Shelley.
The second edition of the SIM PRIZE reverberated a feeling of struggle and resistance across all participants, electing Luna and Edgar (tied in the New Talent category), the urban quilombo Aparelha Luzia (Project of the Year) and the British initiative that seeks gender equality in music events Key Change (Innovation) The music producer Carlos Eduardo Miranda received a tribute for his Contribution to Music with an moving documentary celebrating his career, available on SIM's YouTube channel (watch it here).
At each edition, SIM Sao Paulo uncovers new industry trends and encourages the questioning and articulation of new strategies for culture, thereby fostering the implementation of new support networks and partnerships, while also strengthening the market. In December, the city of Sao Paulo becomes the international capital of music! Until then, join the Virtual PRO-AREA, follow the activities throughout the year and the news on our networks.

subset: commoncrawl


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4 tips to help you choose replacement doors for your home
Are you beginning the process of replacing the exterior doors on your home? There's a chance that diligent research has provided you with exactly what you are looking for or maybe you aren't even certain where to jump in. Regardless of where you are in your search, here are a few things to be on the lookout for when picking replacement doors that anyone can take advantage of:
- Weatherproof performance: Exterior doors on a home must be able to deal with crazy weather conditions and you shouldn't have to fret about the weather affecting your door each time the season changes. Just as the material of the door is crucial, so are its performance features, as you want your doors to shield your home from drafts and leaks.
- Energy efficiency: Selecting the right exterior replacement door can help with efficiency because it's not letting air in and out. The more insulation a door has, the more maintained your thermal transfer will be, which can decrease heat loss. A proper door frame is also a critical component for protection against rotting, leaks, dirt and other weather elements.
- Simple maintenance: Take advantage of the opportunity when replacing exterior doors to alleviate any annoying upkeep your previous doors may have required. With a number of customizable options in materials, finish and color, it's easier than ever to choose the perfect doors with reliable features and ensure reduced maintenance in the future.
- The ideal focal point: Chances are the replacement doors you are looking for will become the focal point of your home and make a lasting impression when welcoming guests. You can have fun with choosing designs and decorative elements to add to your replacement doors to further heighten the beauty of your exterior.
The experts at Pella Windows and Doors can help you any time in picking your next replacement doors. With a number of choices in materials, performance features, finishes and colors, our pros will make the decision process easy. Call us today at 208-373-0002 or conveniently set up an appointment online.


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PAGASA elevates 'Gorio' into tropical storm, class suspensions declared
The bulletin also stated that Gorio slightly slowed down as it moves north-nortwestward. It was spotted at 595 kilometers east of Casiguran, Aurora at 10 a.m.
Gorio is packing maximum sustained winds of up to 65 kilometers per hour near the center and gusts of up to 80 kph.
The tropical storm is expected to be at 595 km east of Tuguegarao City, Cagayan on Thursday morning and 425 km east of Basco, Batanes on Friday morning.
No tropical cyclone warning signal has been raised.
"The public and the disaster risk reduction and management council concerned are advised to take appropriate actions and watch for the next weather bulletin to be issued at 11 p.m. today," PAGASA said.
Here is a list of areas where classes on Wednesday, July 26, have been suspended because of heavy rains.
All levels
Cavite province
Malabon City
Caloocan City
Olongapo City
Pre-school to senior high school
Navotas City
Valenzuela City
Quezon City
Classes in all levels have also been suspended in Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela and Valenzuela City Polytechnic College.
Classes from pre-school to senior high school are also suspended in Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela.
PAGASA elevates 'Gorio' into tropical storm, class suspensions declared Reviewed by AsianPolicy.Press on 2:05:00 AM Rating:


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The One September 27, 2007Posted by reverseengineer in Alternatives, Announcements, Hardware, iMacs, The Other Side of the Fence.
6 comments
It seems the fading Gateway still has some fight left in it. The former computer giant has unveiled its contender for the iMac throne with something Gateway calls, simply, One.
Tale of the tape:
- 3.6″ thick all in all
- 19-inch widescreen LCD
- 2 models at US$1300/US$1800
- 1.5GHz/2GHz Core 2 Duo
- 2GB/3GB memory
- 320gb/500gb hard drive
- special online-only model at US$1500
- all black front
- metal shell
- all cords and most ports out of sight (all on the power adapter)
- side-mounted slot-loading DVD burner
- no announced date of availability, but soon
Now call me silly, but doesn't that look like something we all know?
Google Calendar interface for iPhone upgraded September 26, 2007Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apps, iPhone, Updates & Patches.
add a comment
The Google Calendar graphic interface has just been upgraded to have an iPhone-specific look when using the popular phone.
Being tailored for the iPhone, it's now a perfect fit, and can show distinctive colors based on your calendar preferences. iPhone users can just point their Safari browsers to http://calendar.google.com.
For more info just head on over to the Official Gmail Blog here.
Heads-up: MacBook/MacBook Pro update September 25, 2007Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apple Inc., Downloads, Hardware, Notebooks, Updates & Patches.
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Apple's just issued MacBook/MacBook Pro Update 1.0 via Software Update.
This update enables file system journaling on MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers. Some MacBook and MacBook Pro systems were shipped with file system journaling turned off. Journaling is recommended on all Mac computers as a preventative measure against file corruption.
Eh? The 660KB download is explained further on the Apple Support Page here.
Coffee and a song: 50,000,000 iTunes tracks for free September 25, 2007Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Free Stuff, iPhone, iPods, iTunes Store, Music.
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Starbucks announced today that they are giving away 1.5 million songs everyday from October 2 to November 7 across its 10,000 branches in the United States, for a total of 50,000,000 by promo's end.
This is part of the launching of the "Now Playing" arrangement with Apple that allows iPhone or iPod Touch users or those accessing the US iTunes Wifi Store at one of 600 initial Starbucks outlets in New York and Seattle to preview, buy and download the song current playing at the coffee shop as instant gratification. The "Song of The Day" promo will give customers iTunes cards for a complimentary song download for a specific track selected by Starbucks.
The songs will be selected from a wide variety of artists including Bob Dylan, Joss Stone, Dave Matthews, Bebel Gilberto, John Mayer, KT Tunstall, John Legend, Annie Lennox, Joni Mitchell, Keith Urban, Paul McCartney, Sia, Band of Horses, Hilary McRae, Frederico Aubele and Sara Bareilles. Customers have until the end of the year to download their free tracks.
New OpenOffice for Mac available Sept (next year) September 20, 2007Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apps, FOSS, Share/Freeware.
1 comment so far
On the heels of the release of OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 update for most operating systems on the planet this week, the group has announced that they are releasing a new native Mac version of OpenOffice, the FOSS alternative office suite, one that does not require X11 to run, in September – of 2008.
I actually did a double-take when reading the original report from Computerworld, thinking they meant this September we're in now – which made me wonder about the odd statement; why not just say this month then?
Macworld UK didn't even notice the year: writer Jonny Evans, citing the exact same original report I linked to, wrote totally a off-the-mark and misleading report that headlined "Mac native OpenOffice this month?" It further says:
Popular and free Microsoft Office alternative OpenOffice seems set to ship in a native Mac OS X version later this month.
A report on Computerworld claims that OpenOffice 3.0 will ship later this month, citing a presentation to be made today by the lead engineer working on the project, Eric Bachard.
If you hurry, you can still read Macworld UK's big blooper (if they haven't yet pulled it by now) here. (If they have, I can still show you – I saved the page, heh heh.) They should read more closely, especially if they're just snagging a report. Macworld should be more careful. If you're just going to crib (like me), at least get the dates right. Tsk tsk.
Ahem. Back to the story.
Development for the Mac platform has been lackluster and perfunctory of late, but with the increasing popularity and acceptance of Macs and OS X as part of the halo effect of the various Apple "side" projects, apparently the group has re-thought their commitment to the Mac community and redoubled efforts to develop the suite for the platform, and assigned a few more people to the project. But – a year?
Version 3.0 is being designed for OS X 10.5, although by then 10.6 might be the prevailing OS for the Mac.
A year might be too long for most people. Like me. This is one instance where I literally can't wait. And I don't mean that in a good way.
Mum Tuesday: the UK iPhone September 18, 2007Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apple Inc., Events, iPhone, Support, Telecommunications.
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The Apple Event in Regent Street's done, and we're basically underwhelmed. Just the rollout announcement of the iPhone for the UK. No earthshakers, no surprises, no open-line 3G units. Here are the uh, high points:
- O2 is the official
- Rollout will be on November 9
- 8GB iPhones will cost approx US$535
- You can transfer your existing number from other carriers
- Same banana – use iTunes to activate, update
- Nothing new – no 16gb, no 3g, no open lines, no nothin'
- No news on carriers for other European countries
Ho-hum. For a more detailed coverage, check out Engadget.
Becoming un-blued September 8, 2007Posted by reverseengineer in Announcements, Apple Inc., Hardware, iPods.
1 comment so far
Breaking News: Boing Boing confirms that there is no Bluetooth feature in the new iPod Touch. Despite obvious "evidence" on Apple's own sites (and reported everywhere on the net, even here), an Apple spokesman Boing Boing, uh, spoke to unequivocally says there is no Bluetooth of any kind in the new iPod.
We were all just imagining that little squiggle then. Hmph.
See the denial through Boing Boing here. Doink doink!


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In My Own Opinion Steer Clear Of Relationship(s) In Camp And During Service Year.
I served my fatherland from 2014-2015, so I have little or good experiences about service year, so this goes out to those yet to serve.
I had in mind to write on this topic before batch B 2016 prospective corps members were called for service year but something happened of recent that "gingered" me to put up this write up.
Relationship here I mean, a love relationship between a male and a female and as small as relationship is, it cannot be removed from service year.
In my own opinion, I think all prospective corps members should steer clear off relationship because from what I gathered, most of such relationships end on the day of Passing Out Parade (POP).
Why is this so? It's because NYSC is the gathering of people from different parts of the country. Majority go back to their "before NYSC" base thereby putting an end to such relationships.
I am for friendship and not for relationship.
In my own opinion, if you are in a very serious relationship before going to camp or for service year, I will advise you to stay glue to your relationship, no cheating, and no hanky-panky.
Tests of every kind will hit your relationship and it will be for your own good if you constantly assure your partner with a clean and open hands and with unchanging behaviors and attitudes that you are still in a relationship with your partner.
In my own opinion, if you are single before going to camp or for service year, I will advise you to remain single throughout service year but be on the lookout for responsible, matured, future focused individuals or person who you think can be a good life partner.
If you are unable to see these kind of persons, it's of advantage that you will still remain "clean" as possible for your future partner.
These are the following reasons why you should stick to your partner at home or remain single:
1) Different backgrounds:
Prospective corps members come from different backgrounds, religions, tribes, cultures etc. starting a relationship during service year might lead to nowhere due to difference in backgrounds.
2) Different place of primary assignment:
This is for those thinking of coming to camp to hook up with new babes or guys. "What camp has joined together, let PPA put asunder"
3) Different pre-NYSC location:
People come from different parts of Nigeria for service year. I know of some that met during service year and it was "we love each other so much". Few weeks after POP, "we love each other so much" turned to "to your tent O Israel"
4) No heart breaks or emotional trauma:
Some people don't know how to play football but they had the mind set to be like C.Rolando and Ronaldinho during service year breaking hearts, twisting hearts, deceiving hearts. Steer clear and you won't experience this.
5) Savings:
Using my personal experience, I was (and still is) in a relationship before my service year and I stayed true throughout my service year. If I had gotten into "service year" relationship, I wouldn't have saved some reasonable amount out of my allawee – NYSC payments.
6) Respect for being self-disciplined:
Most "service year" couples make use of each other to the core. This is for the ladies because most of them do give out their time, money, energy and body to the "service year" relationship thinking it will lead to the altar. If you discipline and control your self during service year (i.e. no sexual activities), your current or future partner will respect you for being truthful and trustworthy even without much surveillance. Even you yourself will respect and place more value on yourself.
7) Lose-lose situation:
You are in a serious relationship before service year but you decided to get involved in a "service year" relationship. Later on you changed towards your "home based" partner because of your service year partner so as just to "eat your cake and still have it".
After POP, your service year partner goes back to his/her base forgetting about you. It's at that point you remember you have a home based partner. I am sure the home based partner won't continue the relationship with you again. At the end, it's a lose-lose situation.
I hope my 2kobo can make you buy time to think very well on having relationship or not during service year. At least, in my own opinion, steering clear of relationship during service is for your own good.
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By Lorenzo Fiorito
President Sirisena's recent appointment of predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse as Prime Minister, deposing Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, has plunged the country into constitutional and civil turmoil. Both at the end of the armed conflict, and again after the election of President Sirisena, Sri Lanka has demonstrably failed to foster positive conditions for foreign investment. A referendum for the North-East region could offer foreign investors the clean slate that has eluded them thus far.
Investor confidence and the ongoing turmoil in Sri Lanka
Sirisena's election in 2015 was predicted to allay many foreign investors' misgivings about Rajapakse. Yet, this past week, Sirisena deposed Wickremesinghe and appointed Rajapakse in his place. The result has been a constitutional and civil crisis, accompanied by the suspension of Parliament. Amid demonstrations and unrest, an employee of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has been shot dead by a member of the petroleum minister's security team. Meanwhile, on October 29, Bloomberg speculated that Rajapakse's return could "lead Sri Lanka to pivot back to China."
Moody's Sovereign Risk Group has expressed dire warnings about the present political trajectory. Spokesperson Matthew Circosta has stated:
"The current political crisis in Sri Lanka is credit negative for the sovereign. The president's sudden appointment of Rajapaksa as Prime Minister significantly heightens policy uncertainty…. At a time when global financial markets are turbulent, uncertainty about the direction of future policy could have a large and lasting negative impact on international investor confidence."
According to Bloomberg, Moody's commentary refers to the maturing of Sri Lanka's Central Bank bonds—worth 1.5 billion USD—in January and April of 2019. The value of the bonds fell drastically in response to the political crisis.
Bloomberg article quoted an analyst from Nomura International (HK) bank: "The immediate priority for Sri Lanka is to refinance the upcoming [bond] maturities and Chinese backing should prove helpful." On October 31, Sri Lanka announced its readiness to repay its $1.5 billion in bonds.
The "Central Bank bond robbery"
Sirisena's public remarks to justify his actions against Wickremesinghe refer explicitly to the latter's apparent role in the "Central Bank bond robbery"—a scandal that unfolded shortly after the present administration took power in 2015. Essentially, it appears, Treasury bonds were sold at a wildly inflated price—resulting in a level of sovereign debt ten times greater than that intended. The arrangement appears to have been made through a personal connection to the Central Bank's then-Governor Arjuna Mahendran. The firm Perpetual Treasuries, owned by Mahendran's son-in-law, bought over 50% of the bonds.
Explaining the incident, W.A. Wijewardena, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, wrote in 2017:
"The Government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, instead of taking prompt action to control the damage, fought tooth and nail, to defend the Central Bank's action. Many foreign investors in the Government securities market became agitated and shocked. The impression that a few selected individuals, with the connivance of the top leadership in the bank, could defraud all other investors with total impunity caused them to withdraw from the market. Thus, within 10 months, the foreign investments in Government securities which stood at $4.5 billion as at the beginning of 2015 fell to $2 billion. But the Government, more specifically the Ministry of Finance, and the Monetary Board did not seem to have taken notice of the haemorrhage of the country's foreign reserves putting pressure for the exchange rate to depreciate and forcing the Government to seek a bailout package from IMF."
Sri Lanka's inherent instability: Common ground between foreign investors' interests and Tamil aspirations
Since the end of the armed conflict in 2009, power struggles within Sri Lanka's political class have often violated the rule of law and judicial independence. No sooner had President Rajapakse and General Sarath Fonseka declared victory against the LTTE than Rajapakse unceremoniously jailed Fonseka. In 2013, Rajapakse deposed Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake—who he had previously appointed.
Similarly, in March of this year, Buddhist extremists targeted Muslim lives and property across the island. Political Buddhism (entrenched in Chapter II, Article 9 of the Constitution) has also been overtly hostile to foreign investment. The transfer of control over the strategic Hambantota port to China last December resulted in violent protests, led by Buddhist monks.
This volatile political climate has different effects on various investor states' interests. Nevertheless, as the Central Bank scandal shows, Sri Lanka's consistent pattern of political turmoil fosters generalized financial insecurity. Even without the LTTE to blame—now after a full decade, and spanning two administrations—Sri Lanka's chronic volatility negatively affects all foreign capital flows in the region.
The same processes which have created this credit negative environment—no rule of law, lack of judicial independence, and strong-arm tactics amid social unrest—have also consistently brought grief to Tamils in the seven decades since Sri Lanka's independence. Political rivalries within and between Sri Lankan administrations overspill electoral bounds to produce shows of force, while Constitutionally-entrenched political Buddhism continues to play a crippling role in the democratic process.
Amid the crisis, Tamil politicians (both on the island and in the diaspora) have called on the international community to respect the Tamil people's right of self-determination. They advocate international, impartial justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity (including genocide).
The potential benefits of such measures underscore the shared interests that Tamils and foreign investors hold. This equitable model of reconciliation, justified in the fundamental principles of international law, may prove effective both to protect war-affected civilians from ongoing rights violations, and to stabilize financial interests in the region.
A referendum and an international criminal tribunal offer a way out of Sri Lanka's chaos. They offer both the Tamil people, and foreign investors, a clean slate and a fresh start.
Lorenzo Fiorito (LL.M) is a student of international economic law, focusing on investment arbitration and trade in financial services. He thanks Sowjeya Joseph (LL.M) for her invaluable insights during the writing of this article.


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Institutional Ethics Review Board, JNU
invites you to a one day seminar
"Ethics in Public Services"
Wednesday 13th September 2017
Committee Hall, Convention Centre
Registration: 9:30am
Round Table 1, 10:00 am to 11:00 am
"Ethics as Primordial or Regulatory"
Chair: Prof. Satish Malik (Psychiatrist, Ganga Ram Hospital)
Discussant: Dr. Sushil K.Jha (Life sciences JNU)
Prof. Vaishna Narang (Linguist,JNU)
Prof. Madhuri Behari (Former Head ,Deptt. of Neuro Sciences AIIMS)
Prof. Manu Mittal (SL, JNU)
Prof. Madhav Govind (Science Policy,JNU)
Tea: 11:00-11:15am
Special Session:11:30am-1:30pm
Chair of the Session: Dr. S.K.Sarin , Chairperson, IERB, & Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences
Welcome Address: Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar, Vice Chancellor JNU
Chief Guest: Dr. Brij Bihari Kumar, Chairman ICSSR
Will Release the Book Ethics in Governance in India (Routledge)
by Prof. Bidyut Chakrabarty, Political Science Department, Delhi University
Author's perceptions
Guests of Honour
Prof. Virendra Kumar Malhotra, Member Secretary ICSSR
Few Questions
Lunch: 1:30-2:30 pm
Round Table 2: 2:30 to 3:30 pm.
"Legal and Psychological Care Givers in a Disturbing Social Ethos"
Chair: Dr. Sunil Mittal
Prof. Bupinder Zutshi (CSRD,JNU)
Dr. Tripti Khanna (Deputy Director ICMR)
Dr. Vibhuti Sharma (ILBS,Delhi)
Advocate Ms. Omika Dubey (Supreme Court)
Advocate Ms. Ruksana Choudhury (Supreme Court)
Tea: 3:30.


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June 20, 1997, Section B, Page 8Buy Reprints
Arthur J. Cutler, whose small empire of popular, conceptually unusual restaurants made a distinctive mark on the New York dining business, died on Wednesday at his home in Great Neck, N.Y. He was 53.
He had a heart attack while sleeping, said his wife, Alice Cutler.
Mr. Cutler ranged far and wide in the kinds of restaurants he conceived, in the places he built them, and in the partners he chose.
In 1990, he opened Carmine's, an old-fashioned, family-style Italian restaurant, on Broadway near 91st Street, at a time when nobody wanted to open above 86th Street. Carmine's served huge platters of spaghetti and meatballs, rivers of marinara sauce and mountains of garlic at a time when the trend in Italian restaurants was toward elevating the image of the cuisine with extra-virgin oils, aged vinegars and cheese made from buffalo milk.
He opened Ollie's Noodle Shop and Grille, a Chinatown-style restaurant featuring noodles and roast meats, when other uptown Chinese restaurants were still mired in a Sichuan bog. He backed Gabriela's, an authentic Mexican restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue and 93d Street, when other Mexican restaurants on the Upper West Side still specialized in margaritas and chips.
And, in perhaps his greatest display of foresight, he opened branches of Ollie's and Carmine's, and another restaurant, Virgil's Real BBQ, near Times Square just before the redevelopment of Times Square took off. In all, he was a partner or investor in more than a dozen restaurants and food shops, including two Docks Oyster Bar and Seafood Grills.
Mr. Cutler did not court critical acclaim with his restaurants. He favored hearty easy-to-enjoy dishes. Despite his success, he shunned attention. He was courteous to reporters, but discouraged questions about his business.
Drew Nieporent, whose properties include Montrachet, Nobu and TriBeCa Grill, said, ''He was kind of like a quiet genius in our business.''
While Mr. Cutler loved food, his true expertise lay both in devising appealing concepts for restaurants and in selecting sites that might appear improbable.
''Artie was a real-estate visionary,'' said Michael Ronis, who was a partner with Mr. Cutler in Carmine's, Virgil's and Polistina's, a pizzeria and wine bar that is to open soon on Broadway near 82d Street. He recalled visiting Times Square with Mr. Cutler one blustery Saturday night in 1990.
''Nobody was on the street, the wind was blowing and the theaters were closed,'' Mr. Ronis said. ''But Artie said, 'This is going to come back.' We might argue about food, but when it came to real estate, we said, 'We're just riding your coattails.' ''
Mr. Cutler saw fertile ground for restaurants on the Upper West Side, which its residents have long bemoaned as a restaurant wasteland. ''I don't understand why there are not more restaurants opening here,'' he said in an interview in 1990, shortly after opening Carmine's. ''This is one of the most densely populated residential ares in the country, with 189,000 people per square mile. Why can't others focus on that?''
Mr. Cutler seemed to have a knack for developing appealing concepts, and was willing to act as a pioneer. Tsu Yue Wang, Mr. Cutler's partner in the four Ollie's restaurants as well as in Virgil's and Carmine's, said only Mr. Cutler was willing to join him. ''People in Chinatown were afraid to come uptown,'' Mr. Wang said. ''Artie said, 'Why not? I like it and other people will, too.''
Before opening Virgil's, he and his three partners toured the barbecue regions of the South in a van. ''We'd be driving, two Italians, a Jew and a Chinese guy,'' Mr. Ronis recalled. ''We'd pull into these huts, and a guy would come to the door, look at us and say, 'Are you from the I.R.S.?' ''
Perhaps none of his partners was as unusual as Gabriela Hernandez, whom he backed in Gabriela's. She was the Cutlers' housekeeper.
''She and her uncle would come to the house and make these wonderful meals,'' Mrs. Cutler said. ''He said, 'Wouldn't it be great to have a real Mexican restaurant, not one of those Tex-Mex places?' And he opened it in an area he identified as an up-and-coming Mexican neighborhood.''
Arthur Cutler was born in Brooklyn and grew up in New Hyde Park, N.Y. The food business came naturally: his father had a grocery store and a diner, and his grandfather had a herring stand in Brooklyn.
''He comes from a long line of appetizers,'' said Mrs. Cutler, whom young Arthur met in his junior high algebra class. They were married 32 years, and in addition to his wife, Mr. Cutler leaves two daughters, Jody, 29, of Rockville, Md., and Danielle, 25, of Coconut Creek, Fla.
Mr. Cutler graduated from Columbia University in 1965. After trying his hand at business and social work, Mr. Cutler was working in an appetizing store in Brighton Beach in 1974 when he heard that Murray's Sturgeon Shop on the Upper West Side was for sale. ''He borrowed the money from my mother, and that's how he got started,'' Mrs. Cutler said.
While Mr. Cutler's successes were many, he was not infallible. He was a partner in Stryker's Boxing and Sporting Club, which failed near Times Square in 1995. ''He picked some bad locations,'' Mrs. Cutler said. ''He had many losses. But Artie was a gambler. He was prepared to take the losses, and he had a lot more winners than losers.''
It was a signature of Mr. Cutler to name his restaurant after a seemingly fictitious personality but, Mrs. Cutler said, the names were not made up. Carmine's was in fact named after Carmine Abbatiello, the harness driver, she said. Ollie's was taken from how some Chinese acquaintances pronounced his name, Artie. And Virgil was the starter at his golf club.
''He figured he'd always get a good starting time,'' Mrs. Cutler said.


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Extra, Extra, Read all about it!
We hope you enjoyed our first newsletter: Bikini Boot Camp News, Summer 2009!
We'd love to hear your feedback! Tell us what you think.
In this issue:
Make a Difference 2009!
Participant Profile
Our Favourite Stretch
I LOVE MY TRAINER - Win Bikini Bucks
Booze and the Summer Binge
31st Calgary Women's Run
Remember your teeth
Bikini Boot Camp Events!
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Friday, July 10. 2009
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Amsterdam is widely known as one of Europe's – and the world's – most tolerant countries, particularly when it comes to sexuality, sex and of course most controversially, drugs. However, while that may create the idea that it is a dirty, seedy place in some people's minds, in reality it isn't – it's vibrant, diverse and actually a clean and friendly city. So why travel to Amsterdam? What attracts hundreds of thousands of LGBT travellers to the city every year? Here we'll tell you why.
In 2009, Amsterdam became one of the first ever cities to open a separate tourist office for LGBT travellers called "Pink Point" cementing itself as an open and gay-friendly travel destination. It is situated next to the Homomonuent (a rather fitting name and place) – a memorial that opened in 1987 to commemorate the gay men and lesbians as well as bisexuals who have been persecuted because of their sexuality – and is staffed by friendly and knowledgable volunteers with a wide range of information and flyers from local organisations, and has one of the best selections of queer souvenirs and gifts in the country.
The Netherlands as a whole has a big reputation as one of the world's most progressive countries in regards to LGBT rights. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1811 and it was of course the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Amsterdam, like most capital cities however, is where the highest number of LGBT people are living and why wouldn't they with around 100 bars, clubs, shops, saunas, hotels and restaurants that are gay-owned or gay-friendly? There isn't really one specific gay area in Amsterdam, but rather everywhere is very integrated and it is all dotted around the city, including Rembrandtplein square, Requliersdwarsstraat, along Amstel, Warmoesstraat and near the infamous red-light district.
As well as the Homomonuent, other notable places to visit for sightseeing in Amsterdam include the world famous Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum, the 17th Century network and canals that meander through the city, the Defence Line of Amsterdam (both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites) and dare we say, for those who aren't into traditional culture and history – the city's many cannabis "coffee shops", which attract nearly 4 million international visitors alone every year. There are also six other museums in the country's top 15 that are located in Amsterdam.
Some of the city's most notable LGBT events in the year include a gay and lesbian film festival Roze Filmdagen takes place every March, a TranScreen festival in May and the Gay & Lesbian Summer Festival, which also shows films, is in July. Amsterdam Gay Pride starts on the last week of July (26th) and carries on till the first weekend of August (3rd), which is undeniably the city's biggest gay event on the calendar, though for those who are into something a little different there is also the Fetish Pride from 29th May to 1st June and Leather Pride takes place from 23rd-26th October. There is also the Milkshake Festival – a very popular event that isn't about milkshakes, but rather dance and club music, turning the city into one huge dancehall. It is attended by everyone and anyone and not restricted to or aimed at one particular group of people, so the LGBT and straight communities can come together and celebrate their love of music.
We currently have over 70 properties in Amsterdam ranging from spare guest rooms in people's apartments or houses, whole properties and rooms in guesthouses and B&Bs – and the vast majority of our hosts are gay or lesbian or LGBT-friendly and situated within or around the city centre. Or if you have a spare room or a property you want to let out to visitors in Amsterdam, you can sign up and become a host here.


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Gamification has gained significant traction as a tool for marketers and social community managers to effectively engage customers and other external audiences to drive desired behavior. The technique has also been applied internally by organizations to motivate employees and incentivize performance in sales, customer service, and even training. But, can gamification also be used to enhance the learning management system (LMS) for professional education?
Continuing professional education is driven almost entirely by intrinsic motivation-learners have to want to not only build their skill set, but also participate to enhance their own feelings of self-improvement and professional growth. While professional education can be tied to extrinsic rewards—a promotion or a salary increase—those desires are rarely instantly gratified. More often continuing professional education is about long-term career growth.
Unless it is a specific job requirement, skill enhancement is something the learner must intrinsically strive for, and it can be tough to maintain the discipline to stay with it to completion. Between full-time work, family responsibilities, and life's other demands, adult professional learners have an especially hard time making education a priority.
The challenge can be even greater for top-level executives, especially those who already seem to be at the peak of the ladder, when it comes to advancement or compensation. While many executives understand the value of being life-long learners and the need to continually improve their leadership skills to remain successful in a dynamic business environment, it's very difficult for them to find the time for training and make it a priority amid the demands of an already busy schedule.
Gamification—the concept of applying game mechanics like competition and rewards in non-game contexts—has proven to be a valuable tool in motivating learners to participate in professional development. Particularly for executives, gamification taps into intrinsic motivators to encourage participation.
Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA), a digital executive training program, recently implemented gamification into its education portal. "It's no secret that many business managers are fiercely competitive, a quality that no doubt helped them rise to their current position. And in many cases, they likely have a healthy competitive streak associated with 'winning' and achieving business success," explained Frank Farrall, lead partner of Deloitte Digital in Australia.
Gamification can tap into these intrinsic desires to win and be perceived as a leader among peers. As DLA discovered, leveraging these intrinsic desires is key for professional education providers to keep learners interested, engaged, and motivated to progress through the curriculum to completion. DLA unlocked the power of gamification to motivate learners even at the highest level, where extrinsic rewards can only be realized in the long term.
An offering of Deloitte-the international advisory firm best-known for its audit, tax, consulting and financial services-DLA reaches more than 50,000 executives at more than 150 companies worldwide. Accessible online via Web, mobile, and even in-flight on Qantas airplanes, DLA delivers lessons and insights from some of the world's best-known business schools and global leaders, such as Harvard Business Publishing, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Swiss International Institute for Management Development. DLA enables executives to develop their management and leadership skills while also connecting them within a community of business leaders.
With extensive online offerings including certifications from top business schools, blog entries, and interviews with industry leaders, plus webinars and special events, DLA's program and online portal accommodates different learning styles with a variety of content types and development options.
However, DLA faced an obvious challenge: Convincing executives to take valuable time out of their busy schedules to actually sit down and fully engage with the content. Deloitte knew they needed an innovative alternative to the traditional methods of delivering education and learning management if they were going to keep executives engaged.
Intrigued by the promise of gamification, Deloitte worked with Badgeville to embed powerful game mechanics throughout their DLA portal to drive desired user behavior and increase engagement.
Utilizing the toolset within the Badgeville Behavior Engine, Deloitte was able to measure, surface, and reward engagement across their online education platform. In order to ensure executives stayed on track, Deloitte designed "missions" that encouraged users to fully complete their courses and stay on track with their monthly learning goals.
As users advance through different missions, their progress is visualized via progress bars for each mission or competency—not only for them to see, but others as well—creating a competitive environment that ups the ante. When users interact with content, complete missions, and perform valuable behaviors, they earn rewards. Users are able to showcase rewards in their profile, and compare rewards with colleagues. They also earn "Rank and Reputation," which is visualized on leaderboards, also powered by Badgeville. Based on their usage of DLA's key developmental areas, users can compete to become experts on different topics.
Deployed throughout the learning process, Badgeville's gamification platform has driven dramatic increases in content consumption and course completion. DLA also experienced impressive growth in user retention. The number of users returning to DLA on a daily basis skyrocketed more than 46 percent, with a 36 percent jump in the number who returned weekly. The platform has driven a significant increase in both active user engagement and adoption, with active users unlocking an average of three achievement badges each, with top users earning as many as 30 achievements in just the first 90 days.
In addition to these quantifiable metrics, the gamification program has delivered qualitative results and anecdotal success. Many users have reported the Deloitte Leadership Academy experience has become "addictive," inspiring friendly competition between peers and spurring more clients to complete their learning plans.
No longer considered child's play, gamification has proven to be valuable and powerful technique for driving desired behaviors that manifest in measurable business results. With the right platform, gamification can be implemented seamlessly across virtually any existing learning management system, with gaming elements applied strategically at multiple touch points in the system to lead learners down the desired path. The best approach is one that is not only unobtrusive to the learning process itself, but feels like a natural part of the system, fostering learner success each step of the way.
It's vital to take into account three crucial items when designing a gamified education experience: the key business goals, the context of the behavior, and the demographics performing the behavior. Business goals should be concrete and measurable. When determining business goals, Donald Kirkpatrick's four steps of learning engagement—reaction, learning, behavior, and results—should be the cornerstone.
The context of the learning behavior should be examined as well. For example, is it social or asocial? Breaking down the learning process into two repetitive cycles helps tease this out: learning content consumption and application of the learned content. Learning content consumption is often an asocial experience, so progression mechanics are key during that phase. Practicing application can be done in a social setting (and results in excellent outcomes if done correctly); social feedback loops are an effective way to accelerate this phase.
Finally, failing to examine the demographics of the target audience can lead to poor results. Women and men are motivated by different mechanics to different extents; for example we know that while men respond more strongly to competitive situations, women respond more to collaborative ones. In some countries and cultures, for example in the U.S., highlighting one's own successes and achievements is normal and encouraged. However, in the Netherlands, this same behavior is strongly frowned upon. Giving individuals in the latter culture the opportunity to display badges will therefore not be a successful engagement strategy.
Rewarding points for completing courses and putting them on a leaderboard will only work sometimes and may even backfire. If you want the learner to have a positive experience while achieving your business goals a careful approach is crucial to the design of a gamified learning experience.
Zack Bodnar is a producer at Badgeville, The Behavior Platform. At Badgeville, Bodnar is responsible for designing client gamification programs that move the needle on key business metrics. He is an expert in educational psychology and leads Badgeville's gamification design services for education programs. Prior to Badgeville, he was a Business Strategy and Transformational Consultant at IBM Global Business Services, where he analyzed corporate incentive programs for cost-efficiency improvements and behavioral mechanics. He earned his B.A. in cognitive sciences from the University of Pennsylvania, with a focus on investigating human behavior in real-life settings from the perspective of behavioral psychology.
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]
Copyright © 2014 ACM 1535-394X/14/02-2583703 $15.00
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2583703
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Fellowship Awarded to PovNet Co-ordinator
In 2008, PovNet's Executive Co-ordinator Penny Goldsmith was awarded the inaugural Alan Thomas Fellowship to Promote Civil Society and Voluntary Action from the Carold Institute.
The Fellowship has been established to promote greater public understanding of the significance of voluntary action and to strengthen leadership for civil society and democratic/voluntary action. It is intended to provide a sabbatical to a leader in the NGO/non-profit sector, who would not normally have access to a sabbatical leave to make a significant contribution to the NGO/non-profit sector through research and possible publication or dissemination in the medium of the applicant's choice (e.g. film, exhibit, performance piece).
As a result of this fellowship, Penny is working on a book entitled Humanizing Technology: the PovNet Story. She spent some time interviewing advocates and community workers about PovNet, which resulted in these resources:


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Music is the Most Beautiful Language in the World – Yiddisher Jazz in London's East End 1920s to 1950s
New label JWM Records launch with the selection Music is the Most Beautiful Language in the World. A vibrant soundtrack to the Cockney Jewish experience, starting when the swinging hot dance bands were still all the rage, and the Yiddish language was spoken on the streets of Whitechapel, in London's East End. For some, music or acting was a potential way out of the poverty experienced by these first and second generation refugees.
Sounds from long-forgotten 78 rpm discs only recently unearthed, reveal a host of recording artists, united here for the first time. Klezmer fused very easily with jazz, a connection that becomes apparent in these recordings. Hear the legendary dance band figures of the era like Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra, and Lew Stone and his Monseigneur Band, to the relatively unknown Jewish speciality acts like Johnny Franks and his Kosher Ragtimers, and Rita Marlowe, the siren of Yiddish song. Delight in the cheeky street patter of the incomparable slapstick drummer Max Bacon, rejoicing in the East Enders' love affair with 'Beigels'; celebrate the world famous Petticoat Lane street market with not one, but two fox-trots - but also shed a tear with Leo Fuld, the remarkable Dutch Yiddish singer, whose recordings in post-war London were haunting reminders of a way of life decimated by the Holocaust.
Music is the most Beautiful Language in the World is compiled by Alan Dein, multi-award winning radio documentary presenter, whose own family harks back to the major wave of immigrants fleeing the pogroms in Eastern Europe from the end of the 19th century. The album title is inspired by a 1920s Yiddish slogan of an East London gramophone record shop, from a time when Whitechapel was a fertile breeding ground for singers, musicians, proprietors of record shops and club owners - according to Dein "their stories are now entwined with the development of the British recorded music industry. But for the first time ever, we can the discover the remarkable sounds of Jewish-themed jazz recorded in London between the 1920s and the 1950s - which thankfully had been preserved within the grooves of ancient discs".
Designed by Will Bankhead, the LP comes with a fold-out insert, the slip-case CD (with one bonus track to the vinyl) with a 24 page booklet, both including a detailed essay by Dein, illustrated with rare photos and memorabilia. This release is co-compiled by Howard Williams, who has released a series of compilations spanning Moondog (The Viking of Sixth Avenue), Killing Melody (Japanese gangster soundtracks), cult Japanese jazz singer Maki Asakawa, and several other Japanese retrospectives.


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DJ Bobo has stood for nearly two decades in the spotlight and is never tired in a recent interview gave to german television Sat 1 explained what are his future plans and tour dates more details here
Dj Aligator After his latest release "Kiss My B-Ass" in 2009, Aligator is ready for another dance hit "Starting Over" from his forthcoming album. The new tune was written by Ali Movasat & his producer Daniel Kandi and will be released soon on all digital megastores. Recently Ali made a remix of Inna's mega hit "Hot"
Benny Benassi new single is called "Electroman" made with american rapper T-pain, and it's from the album with the same name where Dhany was invited to make a song.
Aqua hit single "Barbie Girl" was covered by Marie Serneholt (A-Teens) and Bluwax
Lou Bega's commercial single Sweet like Cola entred this week on Ultratop 50 Belgium at #45.


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Panthers come up one goal short
PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Junior Caitlin Nedde scored the only goal of the game early in the second half Tuesday afternoon and Gordon College went on to defeat Plymouth State University, 1-0, in a non-conference women's soccer match at Panther Field.
Nedde collected a loose ball near the mouth of the PSU goal and knocked in her fourth goal of the season into the right side of the net. The Panthers finished with10 shots and Gordon eight but that stood as the only goal of the contest. Gordon improves to 7-6 overall, while PSU drops to 4-8.
PSU senior keeper Angelina LaBroad kept the Panthers in the game, finishing with three saves, including a nice stop on freshman Hannah Midwinter midway through the second half after Midwinter slipped through the Panther defense.
Sophomore keeper Kari Christensen made seven saves to record the shutout for Gordon. The visitors also got solid play from defenders Rachel Ashley, Angela Munoz, Kristen Fisher and Liz Cheesman.
PSU's best chance to score came with 15 minutes remaining in the game when sophomore Laura Davis sent a ball into the box, but Christensen made a nice play to punch the ball away and preserve the shutout.
The Panthers play their next three games on the road, beginning Saturday at noon with a Little East Conference match at Western Connecticut State University. Gordon returns home to host Wheelock College on Thursday in another non-conference contest.
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Vichit Prakobkosol, president of the Association of Thai Travels Agents (Atta), predicted the country may lose tourism revenue of B2.1 billion from China, calculating from average spending of B6,000 per head per day or B42,000 for a seven-day trip.
Atta earlier warned the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand will plunge by at least 10% during the Chinese National Holiday or Golden Week, which started on yesterday (Oct 1) and will run until Oct 7.
The tourist boat tragedy in Phuket in July, followed by a dengue fever epidemic in Thailand and an airport official attacking a Chinese tourist at Don Mueang airport last week are blights on Thailand's tourism image, Mr Vichit said.
He said the main factor for the dip is surely the boat accident in Phuket that prompted a number of tour cancellations while airlines and charter operators have removed Thailand from their seasonal trip schedules.
Mr Vichit said many Chinese tourists shifted to other countries such as Japan and South Korea during the past three months as the Chinese government issued travel advisories and asked tourist to avoid Phuket and other islands in Thailand.
As a result, Japan became a top destination for Chinese going overseas through this week.
This year, it is expected that about 7 million Chinese will travel abroad during Golden Week period, up from 6mn in the same time last year thanks to improving economy. China Tourism Academy reported 71.3mn Chinese made overseas trips during first half this year, represented a 15% year-on-year increase.
The most popular destinations for Chinese tourists in the first half this year are Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, the US and Cambodia respectively.
Ctrip, a leading provider of travel services in China, said the company's ratio of outbound tourists in terms of group tours and independent travel is 50:50.
Yet Japan has overcome Thailand, drawing greater numbers this season, but Mr Vichit is confident that Thailand will reclaim Chinese tourists and return to being the top destination for the Chinese market for the rest of this year.
Chaiya Rapuepon, president of Andaman Tourism Business Association, said hotels and travel companies in the Andaman Sea are seeing fewer guests from the mainland.
He said more than 9.8mn Chinese tourists visited Thailand in 2017. Many of them flocked into Thailand during Chinese New Year and the Golden Week.
"We urge the government to improve safety and security in order to restore confidence from China. If tourists see clear preventive plans, they will return to the country in the remaining months of this year," Mr Chaiya said.
The Thai Hotels Association Southern Chapter reported a 10% plunge in occupancy for hotels in Phuket, and an expected fall of 20% during September-October.
In an effort to woo Chinese tourists, Mr Vichit and Atta executives met yesterday with Weerasak Kowsurat, the Tourism and Sports Minister, calling on the government to waive the visa fee and offer multiple-entry visas specifically for Chinese tourists for a six-month period.
"If the government agrees to this proposal, more Chinese will visit Thailand, not only this year but also for Chinese New Year in 2019. Thailand has been a favourite destination for Chinese tourists for years thanks to unique culture and variety of attractions and food," Mr Vichit said.
An earlier forecast of the Tourism and Sports Ministry predicted arrivals from the mainland this year would increase from 9.8mn in 2017 to 10.9mn, surging to more than 11mn in 2019. In 2017, the China market contributed revenue of B561bn.
Read original story here.


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Posts filed under 'newsletter article'
Slowing Down
Remember those summer days that seemed to last forever when you were a kid? When you'd forget to eat or had not a care in the world because you were having such a great time doing other things? When you're living your days with abandon and savoring each delicious detail, recreating this type of flow is easy. You'll feel and be healthier, more positive, and more resilient against the ups and downs of your life.
After a super hectic year, I've been having a slow summer and invite you to craft one for yourself as well. Busy? You don't need a lot of time. When you see a puppy, pet it. When you feel overwhelmed, remember that you are not THAT important – the world will go on without your deadline being met. Savor your favorite cup of tea by tearing your eyes away from the monitor and closing them for a few seconds as you take a sip. These are the details that make up your life.
As a recovering Type A and perfectionist, I am constantly monitoring and countering my natural tendencies to overthink, overwork, and overdo my workaholism (it's hard when you love your work so much). I know many of you can relate to these tendencies, as super overachievers yourselves.
The past four weeks have produced some of my most successful counter-strategies to date =). Here are some of the ways I chose to get slow this summer. Do any of these inspire you to find your own busy-life-counter-strategies?
- Checking email only 1-3 times a week.
- Listening to crickets and petting puppies.
- Not watching any TV. Definitely not watching the news.
- Spending tons of quality time with my family and my love, Andy.
- Watching over 20 hot air balloons pass by literally over my head, at dawn, in the midst of the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia. (photo below courtesy of Andy Wickless)
- Hiking through a pristinely silent valley, once home to several ancient civilizations, munching on a fresh-off-the-branch wild yellow plum. (See photo – courtesy of Andy – thanks, Andy!)
- Taking a much needed break sitting on my bum in the middle of aforementioned hike. (See photo below. That's me in the red hat. Also by Andy.)
- Celebrating my brother's farewell to bachelordom and welcoming an AWESOME new sister-in-law.
- Taking long showers (much to the chagrin of my father).
- Eating beautiful, lovingly and simply prepared food, slowly. (Right now: four lusciously ripe figs, with the skins on.)
- Reconnecting with old friends over tea, walks, and more great food.
- Meeting new soul-friends and acknowledging this uplifting connection. ("Wow! We just met but I feel like I've known you forever!")
- Buying another gorgeous Turkish carpet, after 5 hours of Turkish-style bargaining. (I didn't say ALL slow pleasures were free!)
- Sifting through family heirlooms and enjoying the honor of wearing my grandmother's antique ring and watch to my brother's wedding.
- Marinating on new business ideas and the age-old question: What do I want to be when I grow up?
- Being quiet with myself, by myself, for myself.
- Getting a massage. After the sauna.
- Reading trivial and monumental books alike.
- Appreciating history as well as the blip that is our own lifetime.
I admit, it's easy to slow down on vacation or during the warmer days of summer that seem to lull your body into a slower state. But how about when you get back to real life? As I mull over what shape I want my work to take this coming year, I need to keep reminding myself that my work is but one part, one slice, of my life (I said I was "recovering," didn't I?).
A lot of us seem to define ourselves by our work. We use words like "lazy" and "free time" to define the time that we don't spend working. Isn't that awful? What woke me up to this tendency in myself was when I found myself writing to-do lists consisting of the items "Brush teeth" and "Eat" when I was too ill to do much else but sleep 20+ hours a day. I felt guilty because I couldn't DO anything, because I was "useless" and "not productive" and this was my subconscious trying to make it right. It was many months later when I realized I was doing a lot during this time – my body was working hard to heal years of stress and the self-inflicted abuse that workaholism brings, teaching me how to rest, and teaching me how to just be.
Each slice of your life should be defined on its own terms, not by what it isn't. The way I describe this to my clients is to stop defining your life as "work" and "not-work", and start identifying distinct slices / buckets / categories of activities that you enjoy doing and want to bring (back?) into your life. Make time for these. Without feeling guilty. Or if you do feel guilty, listen to where this is coming from and see how you can learn from that source. Later, as you wean off of the belief that work defines who you are, your life will flow better and you won't need such distinct rules to ensure your life is fuller, richer, and deliciously healthier.
As for me, I know I want to learn yoga, take hikes more regularly, take more daytrips around the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area, learn how to prepare more Turkish recipes as an homage to my heritage, host the dinner parties I keep promising to friends, and find that elusive new hobby that Andy has been telling me I need. There's a joke in Turkish about the man who married his mistress and how that left a vacancy. Well, my current work used to be my hobby, my mistress. Now I'm married to my ex-mistress and I need a new mistress!
Suggestions, anyone?
© 2009 Delicious Health, Inc.
You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:
"Simla Somturk Wickless, MBA, CHC, CNE, Founder of Delicious Health, Inc., is an integrative health, nutrition, and lifestyle coach and change agent whose mission is to transform Busy Bodies into healthy Balanced Beings (TM). To learn how to increase your energy, tame your stress, and take back control of your health, register for her free monthly eZine at www.enjoydelicioushealth.com."
Making Good on My Mission Statement and the Path to Invisible Illness Awareness Week 2009
When I first created this blog, I stated that part of my mission was to share my own story about healing from multiple autoimmune and other health conditions. Recently, I skimmed through my own blog and realized I hadn't delivered on that promise. I've also received several requests from my followers to please get on it.
This also made me wonder why I haven't started sharing that part of my story yet. Yeah, yeah, I've been busy building my practice and the last 18 months have been truly hectic, blah blah blah. The real reasons?
One reason is… I don't know where to start. Another reason is that my perfectionist tendency to want to do it just so gets in the way of starting. And given that it's a very complicated story (as life tends to be), I am not sure how I want to organize it in bits and bytes, as I certainly can't write it in one sitting. (I hear my coach whispering in my ear: "Just take imperfect action!" I'm working on it, Sandy, oh believe me, I'm working on it.)
And, of course, probably the most important reason is that in writing my story, I will need to relive it. Frankly, I don't want to. I've moved on, but I know my story isn't really just about me. It's about something much bigger; something that can help many more autoimmune sufferers (I hate that word), perhaps you, live better, live fuller, and not define themselves and their lives by the restrictions, frustrations, hopelessness, and silent agonies dictated by these types of illness. I say autoimmune, but I've survived several non-autoimmune illnesses that were invisible as well, so those too shall be heralded, dissected, and presented for your benefit. Imperfectly.
I recently stumbled across an initiative called the Invisible (Chronic) Illness Awareness Week that will take place from September 14-20, 2009. I immediately jumped on as a volunteer blogger to help bring much needed attention to invisible illnesses such as autoimmune conditions. I don't believe in coincidences. The mere fact that I had already named my upcoming Fall autoimmune program launch "From Invisible to Invincible TM: How to Take Back Control of Your Health & Live Well With An Autoimmune Condition" seemed like no mere coincidence. [More info coming soon! Email me at hello(at)enjoydelicioushealth.com for more info if you can't wait.]
So here I go! My intention is to slowly but surely begin sharing more of my story this month, as August is a more contemplative month for me – being summer and getting slow and all. (Read more here on the importance of Slowing Down.)
I look forward to hearing from you. Please join me, post here, and share your story so that we can all learn from each other, promote more awareness about those that suffer in silence, promote compassion for dis-eases that are invisible and yet very real, and give each other support in a positive, upbeat, fun way. Deal?
Simla Somturk Wickless Featured as Patient Testimonial on CPMC's Health & Healing Clinic Website
It's LIVE!
It's funny to see my own picture on someone else's website, but I'm getting used to it. Back in March 2009, I gave a speech at the CPMC Health & Healing Clinic's annual fundraiser about my healing story. Click here for the related post. This post has the video recording as well as the text of my speech.
Now, they have me and my story up on their website's home page, pictures and all. The photo shoot was so much fun. There are actually two pictures that made it up, and the one with my health "team" with me in the middle is my favorite. It's a beautiful representation of the type of protective support I had during my healing journey. CLICK HERE to see the website and read the text of the speech.
Simla's Story: Healing from Multiple Autoimmune Conditions. A Radio Interview with Alice Moore on Energy Talk Radio.
It's up ! It's up!
Alice and I had so much fun on this radio interview (you'll hear a lot of laughing) and now I'm happy to share it with you. We chat about my experience healing from several autoimmune and other health conditions and explore the topic of food as medicine.
Click here to stream or download the MP3 recording of the show. I come on around minute 10.
Let me know if you have questions or suggestions on what you'd like me to share in future radio shows, teleclasses, or in my monthly eZine.
How to Take Charge of Your Health and Your Life
I originally entitled this article "The 5 Secrets to Taking Charge of Your Health and Your Life." The marketers told me to do it. But you know what? These aren't secrets. But they might as well be secrets, because TOO FEW OF YOU (probably including you, reading this article) ARE TRULY HEALTHY!
Headaches, low energy, moodiness, gassiness, weight gain around your middle, achy joints… For most people, these are not the "inevitable" side effects of life and aging as you may presume. You can take simple steps to help alleviate these symptoms and others.
So, what are these 5 steps to getting truly healthy? Here they are:
- Fabulous food. Refuse to settle for fake food, the very same food that has become a staple in our Standard American Diet (otherwise known as "SAD"). Lay off the Caffeine, the Refined foods, Artificial additives / colorings / flavors and alcohol, and Pesticide / hormone / gas-laden and genetically modified foods. In other words, no more C.R.A.P. The real stuff is unbeatable – in flavor, in nourishment for your body and for your soul's satiation, and in price as well. Food? Seems pretty straight forward, right? But true health demands that you address the other aspects of your life that can either feed or deplete you…
- Real relationships. You Tweet and Facebook all day long, but where's the real-life love? Family, friends, soul-mates, your community. Get out there, get involved, get real. Also let toxic relationships go and die a natural death. Really, you're doing yourself – and the other person – a favor.
- Mojo & movement. Rev it up. Sweat it out. Our bodies want… crave… live to move and groooove. Let it have some fun. This does not mean you have to become a gym bunny (boringgg). Carry your groceries home. Take a hike. Go jump in a lake. Remember how joyous and alive you can feel when you move. Sorry, I have to say it: just do it. Even if it's just standing 15 minutes a day, which is the best I could during my health crisis.
- Wonder-ful Work. Work shouldn't be a four-letter word. If it is, and has to be in the shorter term, find a creative outlet that reminds you who you are and what it means to express yourself fully in this world. Ultimately, however, seek out that less-traveled path and find your true passion. I promise you – there's nothing quite like it.
- Know Your Self, HealThy Self ™. Get to know yourself again. Stop thinking for a minute and let your true, subtle Self emerge from all that chatter in your head. Reconnect your head to your body. You know your body best. It's always sending you signals. Learn to listen to them. Heed them, before it has got to scream so loud that it's "too late."
If any one of these areas is broken, it can severely impact your health to the point where it won't matter how much broccoli you eat.
So what's it going to take?
Do you have to have a major, sneak-up-on-you-and-whack-you-in-the-face type of wake up call at the ripe old age of 32, like I did, to pay attention to your life, and your health, at this level? Or are you more in tune with your reality than that?
Ask yourself…
"Do I want to live my life stuck in this so-so, mediocre state (or worse) like I'm doing now, or do I want to be high on life pretty much all the time?"
It's your choice. What's it going to be?
© 2009 Delicious Health, Inc.
You may, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:
"Simla Somturk Wickless is an integrative health, nutrition, and lifestyle coach whose mission is to transform busy bodies into healthy, balanced beings (TM). To learn how to increase your energy, tame your stress, and take back control of your health, register for her free monthly eZine at www.enjoydelicioushealth.com."


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AP Exam Registration opens February 1st.
Fill out THIS FORM to register for all your tests.
See the CSHS Counseling website or Mrs. Costenbader with questions.
AP Exam Registration Opens February 1st
Senior Special Assembly
On Wednesday, September 14th, Seniors will attend a special assembly presented in conjunction with the City of College Station, College Station Fire Department, and CSISD.
The assembly features Sean Simons and Alvaro Llanos who were victims of an arson fire set in their dorm at Seton Hall in January of 2000. Students will hear their account of the events that night and learn about their recovery and healing both physically and emotionally.
The assembly will take place from 9:30-11:30 in the auditorium.
For more information on the assembly and Sean and Alvaro, please visit: www.alvaroandshawn.com.
During the remaining periods of the day, students will attend a Counselor Chat session with Mrs. Hoffmann in the LGI. She will be discussing post-high school information, especially steps to take to complete college applications and reference letters. Students will attend these sessions during their English classes. Students who are missing their normal English class to attend the After the Fire Assembly are rescheduled for an alternate period that fits their schedules.
May 2017


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Fitch says the compulsory health insurance market is overcrowded and predicts the pressures on profitability will force out weaker players
The UAE and Saudi Arabian health insurance markets are too crowded, and some insurers will drop out amid fierce pricing competition, according to Fitch Ratings.
These are the two largest markets in the Middle East, with gross written premium (GWP) in the UAE and Saudi Arabia at $5.3bn and $5.1bn respectively.
The two markets are also the fastest-growing markets in the region, with premiums increasing by $600m in the UAE and $100m in Saudi Arabia in 2017.
Eroding profitability
Health insurance has become compulsory, following regulatory reforms, and Fitch believes this has encouraged new entrants into the market, eroding profitability. The sector's net combined ratio was 99% in 2017, indicating only marginal profitability.
Fitch predicts additional pressure on insurers as a result of the introduction of VAT last year, which pushed up medical costs, also pushing up claims costs.
As a result, Fitch has predicted that several insurers will cease operations or merge with competitors in the next few years.
The rating agency said that this exodus could have an overall positive impact on the credit quality of the markets by removing the smaller and weaker insurers, reducing competitive pressure on those that remain.
Continued dominance
Despite increasing pressures, Fitch that health insurance will continue to dominate Middle Eastern insurance markets given that it is mandatory and insurance penetration in other lines remains low.
In 2017, health GWP comprised 46% of the UAE market total, compared with only 19% in 2008. In Saudi Arabia, health GWP had also grown exponentially to account for 52% of total Saudi GWP in 2017.
The dominance of health insurance in Saudi Arabia in 2017 is around the same level as motor insurance's dominance 10 years ago. Motor now only accounts for 32% of total GWP in Saudi Arabia, despite an increased market potential with the law allowing of women drivers last year.
Fitch predicts that Saudi growth in health insurance will slow, following the sharp increases in recent years within a limited market, that should start to plateau.
Future regulations and changes in the region
Compulsory health insurance has been introduced in the region in phases. It was first introduced to the UAE, in Abu Dhabi, in 2005, when all private sector employees and their dependants were required to have health insurance. In 2007, comprehensive health coverage was extended to all UAE nationals living in the emirate.
In Saudi Arabia, compulsory health insurance for non-Saudi workers in the private sector was implemented in 2006, with compulsory health insurance for Saudi employees in the private sector following in 2010. It was then extended to the families of residents working in the private sector in 2016.
In Dubai, mandatory cover was introduced in three phases from 2013 so that all residents had cover in 2016.
In Oman, which is a significantly smaller market, compulsory health insurance has not yet been introduced, but Fitch predicts that regulatory initiatives will lead to full implementation of compulsory health cover for private sector employees, expatriates residing in Oman and visitors.
Fitch also predicts strong growth of health insurance in Bahrain and Kuwait in the future, after regulators have observed developments in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Bahrain will introduce it in 2020, and Kuwait is also working on new laws.
Implementation is proving problematic in some other regions, however. Qatar's government had to suspend the introduction of its insurance scheme, 'Seha', in December 2015, and has been forced to re-draft its laws.
DWIC coming up
GR is gearing up for the Dubai World Insurance Congress (DWIC) 2019, to be held 27-28 February, co-hosted with the Dubai International Financial Centre.
Expect more Middle East online content between now and then, and more web content and print dailies published live at DWIC.
Click here to find out more about DWIC, and to register yourself for the event.


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- Marl Yarn
- Block Cuff, Heel & Toe
Slub Sock (Ecru/Yellow)
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All orders are dispatched via a DHL Express service.
Shipping is FREE for UK orders over £150 and worldwide orders over £200.
We aim to dispatch orders placed before midday the same day on a next day service (UK), providing the full order is in stock at our dispatch room. You will be notified either way.


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There's something about That Damn Mary Brewing Co in Gloucester, VA
Last year, That Damn Mary Brewing Company (TDM) opened its doors, much to the delight of craft beer lovers in Gloucester County VA.
Owner and brewer Mary Jane Anderson (she says anyone who knows her calls her MJ), after a 25-year career as a regional executive with the Peninsula Metropolitan YMCA, decided to pursue her true passion in life and open a craft brewery.
MJ said that she started home brewing years ago, after realizing she could brew her own beer at home for less than she paid for it in stores. She soon realized she had a talent for brewing, and her hobby grew into a passion, which eventually led her to the decision to open That Damn Mary Brewing.
MJ brews a variety of craft beers from lagers and ales to milk stouts and kettle sours, and insists on using local ingredients whenever possible to brew the most exceptional, highest quality, and most flavorful craft beer she can.
Mark Twain once said, "If you can find a job you enjoy doing, you'll never have to work a day in your life." And after talking to MJ and sampling her work, I think she's found her Huckleberry. And I think we are all a little better for it.


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Pic by Mpetrus / CC BY-SA 3.0
Your guide to Cedar Point, Kansas assisted living facilities. With so many senior housing options available, how do you know which one is right for your family?
Our Senior Living Advisors live in the Cedar Point area and can provide you with an insider's view of local communities including pricing information and distinctive features.
Request information online by filling out the form to the right or call us at 855-363-2002 for a no-cost, in-depth assessment of your senior care needs. Our compassionate advisors can help you find the best Cedar Point assisted living facilities for your unique needs and budget.
Cities near Cedar Point offering memory care optionsElmdale | Florence | Cottonwood Falls | Strong City | Marion | Burns | Matfield Green | Lincolnville | Cassoday | Burdick | Peabody
Assisted Living Costs in Nearby Cities* The costs above represent the AVERAGE monthly cost of assisted living for a one person bedroom in that city.
Facts about Cedar Point
Cedar Point is also known as: Cedar Point.
Cedar Point is a city in Chase County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 28.
Population shifts in Cedar Point
Average temperatures in Cedar PointLine in orange is average highs...line in blue is average lows.
Average rainfall in Cedar Point


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An Era of Reform
Who would have known that what first started off as a hand-full of people at the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 would snowball into an all-out rebellion against the cruel and unjust treatment of women? The woman's rights movement owes its success to the brilliant techniques used by Women's rights activists such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, people who single-handedly brought the issue of Women's Rights from the kitchen into the public's awareness. The women involved in the woman's rights movement used strategies such as lobbying congress, holding demonstrations, and appealing to each state, some of which were more effective than others in achieving social and political reform.
One group of woman's rights activists, the National American Women's Suffrage Association (NAWSA) chose the moderate approach of pushing their agenda by making local reforms state to state. They took their ideas of equality to each state governor individually.
By 1900 the NAWSA had persuaded Wyoming to let women vote for local elections, by 1912 nine other states had granted women the same rights. Although this was a commendable achievement, this was far from voting in presidential elections. To achieve this more radical goal other strategies had to be applied.
The NAWSA, however, took a more outspoken approach, by lobbying congress. Lobbying was an affective method of legislating a broad acceptance of woman's rights legally, as they were able to speak directly to the congressmen, the people who could approve of the proposed 19th amendment, one that would give women the right to vote in all 50 states. While the 14th amendment gave black men equality and the right to vote, it did not mention women. Although they did get their bill onto the floor of congress, it would take years before the idea of...


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By C.L. Bledsoe
We called the big stock pond The Lake. It stretched
from the old WPA levee, alongside the gravel
pit, to another levee that separated it from a drainage
pond on the south end, and then petered out into marsh.
The pump sent the water pouring out into the drainage
ditch on the other side of the levee until The Lake shrank
to the size of a pond, then, a handful of guys would set
out in their hip waders to seine it.
The trick is that you can't stop walking or you'll sink.
The mud sucked at feet with hungry slurps. They'd drag
the net across the muddy water and slop and splurt
their way to the bank. A tractor with a basket was braced
on the shore. They had to separate the channel cats from mud
cats, any other odd fish or other things that had ended
up in the nets. The catfish would go into a fish tank
in the back of a pickup truck to be hauled to the shed
where they kept the larger tanks, soon, to be sold
to customers. Seagulls lined the banks to eat the mud
cats or whatever else was thrown in the grass and dirt
to die. You could smell the rotting fish all over the valley.
I wanted a dog because that's what boys
do. Dad bartered a redbone puppy
from a buddy and let me keep it outside,
ostensibly to teach it to hunt, as soon
as I learned, myself. I bugged him to help me
build a house for it, but every night, he rolled
in too pissed to hold a hammer. Afternoons,
after school, I'd climb the long hill, and Red
would launch himself at my head, knocking
me down. He liked to chase my sister's cat
from her food until she swiped him a good
one on the nose. We could've been any other
boy and his dog.
___________________Dad came in drunk
a few days after we brought Red home, said
he saw a skunk outside, and went to shoot it.
I heard the rifle's report, then a long silence.
Dad came back in a while later, even redder
faced. He went to bed and wouldn't speak.
The next morning, Red was gone.
The New Pond
Tornado knocked down the tin
shack we stored chemicals in, dumping
old poison, fertilizer, oil, who
can remember what into the white dust.
We figured more room to store the fish
we kept in vats in the south shed might cut
down on floaters, so we backhoed
a pit and bulldozed dirt up in a square
on the edge of the east field where the shed
once stood—we grew winter wheat, corn,
even grapes, there, once upon a time—trucked
in water and filled it with fingerlings
that were all floating in a couple days.
We scooped them out, buried them to cut
the smell, and started a series of experiments
based on the often drunken assertions
of passersby, involving dumping various
chemicals into the water, usually when
we were drunk, ourselves. We didn't know
what it was killing them and didn't want
to waste the money restocking it over
and over, so folks would bring whatever
strange fish they caught and didn't want:
bowfins, grass carp, drums, gars, even
turtles. Nothing we could sell. Trout,
bass, crappies, and the like floated within
a day, but the trash fish survived. Eventually,
bullfrogs sang. Nobody'd eat them.
C.L. Bledsoe is the assistant editor for The Dead Mule and author of fourteen books, most recently the poetry collection Trashcans in Love and the flash fiction collection Ray's Sea World. He's been nominated for the Pushcart Prize thirteen times, Best of the Net three times, and has had two stories selected as Notable Stories of the Year by Story South'sMillion Writers Award. Originally from rural Arkansas, Bledsoe lives in northern Virginia with his daughter.


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HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Former Cuban President Fidel Castro said Thursday he doubts he'll still have the "privilege" of observing world events in four years, cryptically indicating awareness that he is drawing ever closer to death.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner visited Fidel Castro this week in Cuba, a report says.
Castro, 82, made the remarks in closing the latest edition of his "Reflections" essays that typically are posted on a government Web site the day before they are published in state newspapers.
The seven-paragraph essay discusses the inauguration and coming term of President Obama, a topic Castro also addressed in an edition of "Reflections" published Wednesday.
"I've had the rare privilege to observe events over a long time," Castro wrote. "I receive information and think about the events. I don't expect to have that privilege in four years when Obama's first term has finished."
After those words, Castro's signature appears, followed by the time -- 6:30 p.m. -- and the date, January 22.
Before Wednesday, Castro had not posted an essay since mid-December, and no photographs of him had appeared since November. Once the 50th anniversary of Cuba's revolution passed on January 1 with no comments from the revolutionary leader, rumors circulated that he had fallen seriously ill or perhaps had died.
Though photographs occasionally surface, he has not been seen in public since he ceded power temporarily to his younger brother in July 2006 after suffering from an undisclosed illness, often thought to be of his digestive system. He handed power to Raul Castro permanently in February 2008.
But Argentina's official news agency reported that Castro had met with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on Wednesday and that the Cuban leader appeared "very well."
"We talked about all subjects," Kirchner said. "I found him very well. We talked about the international situation."
In Thursday's essay, Castro said that Obama "has transformed himself under the inspiration of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. to the point of becoming a living symbol of the American dream."
CNN's Morgan Neill contributed to this report.
All About Fidel Castro • Cuba • Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner