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Hold the phone! Sound the trumpets! Ring the bells, the moment is finally here! Never have I been more excited to talk about a brand launch as I have about this! It Cosmetics is finally launching in the UK in April 2016 and I for one am beside myself happy.
For months I have been hoarding a stash of glorious products from the brand and am thrilled to finally share them all with you! If you have not heard of It Cosmetics – which stands for Innovative Technology – then….where have you been? No really….where?
|It Cosmetics
For such a long time beauty Junkies, bloggers and make up artist's have been having It Cosmetics products shipped from "over the pond" and now, finally, thanks to QVCUK we are able to order them direct. The whole ethos behind the brand is "To give you the power to look and feel your most beautiful". Developed in 2008 by Co-founder Jamie Kern Lima, with leading plastic surgeons and dermatologists, It Cosmetics really have created a range of innovative products that are clinically proven to care for our skin, whilst using top anti ageing ingredient's to make us look a better version of ourselves. If you suffer from Acne, Rosacea, Pigmentation, dull flat lifeless skin and many, many more skincare concerns, using the power of It Cosmetics can really transform the skin without drying it out or adding to the problem. Never tested on animals and 100% cruelty free, suitable for even the most sensitive of skins and easy to use, what is there not to like about this brand.
Over a few posts on my blog I will break down some of the products that I have been sent which will be launching in the UK. Todays posts is all about the base, the foundation and getting that all important coverage and flawless look to the skin.
Your Skin But Better CC+ SPF50+ UVA/UVB in shade Medium 32ml – This product has rapidly become a cult product in America thanks to its SPF content and the look, feel and coverage that it offers to the skin. I am absolutely obsessed with this product. However… in the beginning I wasn't so convinced. Firstly I think the packaging is great, it comes in a 32ml tube with a pump on the end which means the product is airtight and also comes out in measured doses so that you cannot overuse it. I have to admit how pleasantly surprised I was at the texture considering it contains an SPF, I was really expecting a heavy, cream texture, but it is very light and an absolute joy to blend as it just glides across the skin and buffs in really easily. Containing super hydrating and anti-ageing ingredient's, this product really can be your serum, moisturiser, SPF, concealer and foundation in one if you really want it to be. It also has a beautiful smell that is so addictive I couldn't stop smelling my foundation brush when I was applying it…it smells lemony? I applied mine using the Double ended Heavenly Luxe complexion perfection brush from It cosmetics, but you can use fingers, a sponge whatever you prefer. Thank goodness that I spend time testing and trialling these products before I write about them. When I first tried the CC+ I used one of my favourite flat head foundation brushes and really disliked this product on my face. I was convinced the colour was all wrong for me and I didn't like the way it sat on my skin! Then I changed my brush to the fluffier Complexion Brush from It Cosmetics and it went on like a dream. When in doubt try with different brushes or sponges.
|It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ SPF50+
Pay attention to the areas of your skin that need more coverage, so for me this is the redness and Hyper-pigmentation caused by medication, on my cheeks, across my nose and for head. I then blend it outwards and get a lovely coverage. I am using the Medium colour and because of its colour correcting particles, feel that this is a lovely colour for my skin. I think this would make a lovely base under a more full coverage make up for evenings or when I am wanting a full face make up, but for day to day, school run or "no make up, make up" I think this is beautiful coverage. I find this product feels lovely and cool on my skin and does not feel heavy or like make up at all. This is labelled as full coverage but I think this is more of a medium coverage which is very buildable. In the USA shades available are Fair, Light, Medium, Tan & Rich so I am assuming these are our shades too.
|It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ SPF50+ (medium)
Before and After Your Skin But Better CC+ SPF50+ UVA/UVB in shade Medium – Although it states it is a full coverage product I think that on me it offers a medium coverage on me but as you can see from my photos below it literally covers every flaw. Feels beautifully light on my skin and is the perfect base to add concealer, bronzer and blush. Love this.
|It Cosmetics Before & After Your Skin But Better CC+ SPF50+
CC+ Veil Beauty Fluid Foundation SPF50+ (medium) 10ml – This cushion container foundation contains anti-ageing ingredient's that can help to minimize the appearance of pores and fine lines, as well as a serum and a SPF 50+. Being a cushion container is great as it is a liquid in a compact, which means that you not longer have to decant your liquid foundation onto the back of your hand and then blend onto your face, you can just press the cushion with the sponge included, or your favourite foundation brush, and a measured dose of foundation will be deposited. It also has a safety cover which you click into place before putting the lid down so there will be no leakage. The silver packaging is beautiful making it look lovely on your dressing table or in your handbag.
|It Cosmetics CC+ Beauty Fluid Foundation SPF 50
I was sent medium in this CC+Veil . I really buffed it in for the purpose of the photos and realised that a little really does go a long, long way. The product is so easy to blend and again this is another product that you can build if you need more coverage . I found the coverage to be enough and enjoyed the slight dewy look it gave. I did notice a beautiful glow to my skin. Infused with liquid crystals and pure coverage pigments, it really adds a beautiful luminosity to the skin. My dry, dull skin looked so healthy!. When the sun hit my skin I had perfectly natural points of highlight which I loved. This foundation lasted all day on me without caking or creasing which was brilliant, and thanks to the fab ingredient's including hyaluronic acid and vitamins, my skin felt moisturised and healthy all day. On my trials I did prefer this with a primer underneath as I then got a much smoother finish than without. The texture is so light, just remember not to be heavy handed and to blend well down onto the neck. If you love liquid foundation that gives a great no fuss, flawless, medium coverage then I really recommend this. Comes in shade Light, Fair, Medium, Tan and Rich.
Before and After CC Veil Beauty Fluid – I absolutely love this! It is so hard to capture in a photograph but it gives a lovely sheer coverage which you can easily build up without the product becoming too thick or heavy. It has beautiful reflective particles that make the skin have a lovely glow and sheen, plus it adapts really well to your own skin tone. This is the one I now wear most days as it really makes my skin look flawless. Obviously I have not added any concealer as this post is just about foundations but you can see the level of coverage it gives my uneven skin after one application.
|Before and After It Cosmetics CC Beauty Fluid
Celebration Foundation 9g (Light Medium) – For those of you that prefer the ease of a powder foundation, Celebration Foundation is a full coverage, talc free, anti-ageing formula. The anti-ageing aspects of this foundation including Hydrolyzed Collagen, Hyaluronic Spheres, Antioxidants, Rose, Silk and Aloe, enable this formulation to blur away imperfections, pores and fine lines and wrinkles. As regular readers of my blog will know I am not usually a fan of powders to be honest, I tend to find that my dry skin doesn't usually react well to them and I end up looking caked and dehydrated. I was looking forward to trying this product that offered me an easy flawless coverage. I always make sure my skin is well moisturised, primed and dry before applying any foundation, but especially a powder foundation as if your skin is not primed before hand it will end up looking very dry.
|It Cosmetics Celebration Foundation
I must admit the coverage on this powder was great depending on which brush I used and was very quick and easy to apply, I played around with brushes, I tried my flat top concealer brush and also a more fluffy foundation brush to achieve different levels of coverage. If you can bear to mess up the beautiful It Cosmetics logo in the powder, swirl your brush in the compact and give a little tap. Gently buff in sweeping motions all over the face until you achieve the coverage that you want. The pigmentation in this is fab and coverage it brilliant. It did give an airbrushed look to my skin and also blurred my pores which I was very, very surprised about. I think this would also be great for an oily t-zone too or to use over an existing cream foundation as it adapts really well to skin tone and just smoothes everything out. If you are a powder foundation lover, then this is a really great product. I enjoy wearing it, but will admit to still preferring the Cream foundation.
Before and After Celebration Foundation – Gives a lovely buildable coverage, is super fast if you need to get out the door quick, Great for anyone that loves wearing a powder foundation.
|It Cosmetics Celebration Foundation Before & After
Bye Bye Redness 11ml – Wow, wow, wow! This little miracle pot of cream is absolutely amazing and a real stand out product for me. Having seen a demo on Jamie Lima (CEO & Co-Founder of It Cosmetics) I was blown away by what this product could do. Starting life as a skincare product which then had colour correcting pigments infused into it and containing Collagen, Hyaluronic Acid, Aloe, Colloidal Oatmeal and Avocado this is a really soothing and calming product for redness on the skin. If you suffer from Rosacea, blemishes, heat in the skin or broken capillaries, this product can minimise that redness in seconds.
I have redness in my cheeks but it really is minimal, I also suffer sometimes from redness under my eyes, around my nose and over any blemishes and pimples I may get. Using a buffing brush or concealer brush (I have used the Heavenly Luxe Complexion perfection no.7 brush) just buff the tiniest amount onto the skin. The coverage is unbelievable! You can use this under, over or instead of foundation. It really is amazing at covering redness, the consistency is a really light fluid texture, not heavy or cakey. Amazing on acne redness, scars, men, women and teenagers. This little pot in one shade, will really last such a long time as a little goes a long way.
|It Cosmetics Bye Bye Redness
Bye Bye Redness before and after – Considering this is to cover redness I have pretty much used it everywhere! You can see how it has completely taken away all my under eye redness, around my nose, covered the blemish on my chin and I have used it as eye shadow primer over my red eyelids. This product covers so well and feels so nice on the skin that you can easily use this as your base and then add your bronzer, blush, highlighter etc.
|Bye Bye Redness Before & After
Bye Bye Pores Pressed Powder 9g (Translucent) – Ok…..when I read about this translucent powder I did have to style a bit of a scream as I am not a fan or translucent powders at all. Obviously I knew I had to try it to give you my feedback so here goes. Firstly the amazing thing about this pressed, translucent powder is that it does not contain talc, therefore is should not cake or leave a heavy, white look to the skin. Made with collagen, silk, anti-oxidants and optical blurring drops of light technology it is a very lightweight powder that aims to set your make up and completely blur your pores and fine lines. this is such a cult It Cosmetics product so I really had high hopes for it as I love the range and am thrilled by the results from everything else.
|It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Pressed Powder
Unfortunately on me this product didn't work as well as I had hoped it would. It did have a whiteness to it at first which was a little scary but that did soon blend in to my skin. Baring in mind that my skin is usually dry, unfortunately for me this did nothing at all for blurring the pores around my nose and cheeks and nothing for the fines lines around my mouth area. However, I did use it to "bake" my under eye concealer, so after applying concealer under my eyes, I let this powder sit there a while then buffed it off and my under eye area looked lovely and bright and showed no signs of wrinkles. Obviously I will continue to test this product out and see if I change my opinion of it. I also find for me it works better on completely bare skin rather than over foundation. If you have a dewy foundation that you would like to matte down a little or you have an oily t zone, I think this product would work better on you.
|It Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Pressed Powder
All in all I think It Cosmetics is an absolutely outstanding range and I have been thrilled with the products that I have tried. I think that if you have really struggled to find a range that not only benefits the skin, but also addresses every skincare concern that you may have, from redness to acne to fine lines and rosacea etc, you should give this a go. If you have always struggled to find the perfect base or foundation then i really think there is absolutely something here for everyone. This is not a high fashion range that drops a few brightly coloured products and then disappears, but a range that really can become a staple in your cosmetic wardrobe. The packaging for all the products listed above is lovely and all of the products last such a long time. My go to's on what I have reviewed above would have to be the CC+SPF 50 cream, the CC+Veil Beauty Fluid and the Bye Bye redness. These really stand out for me and work beautifully on my skin. I am totally blown away by the coverage I received with these products and how natural my skin still looked and felt.
It Cosmetics will be airing on on QVCUK 15th April 2016. The products featuring over my next few posts are launching in the UK. I will add the links to these products via QVCUK nearer the time, when they become available so make sure you watch this space. Also keep an eye on my blog as I will be featuring many, many more products sent to me from It Cosmetics over the next few days or so. I will also be adding a full face look to my other It Cosmetics Blogs using only their products. For more information visit It Cosmetics Here, There you will find many brilliant tutorials on how to use the products.
All of the above is just my own personal opinion of the products based on my own skin. Individual results will vary.
Let me know your thoughts below as I love to read your feedback. I will respond to all.
PR Sample or Gift


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WordPress Website Hosting Notice - ACTION REQUIRED!
Posted by Don Rodger on 07 August 2018 04:52 PM
Hello All.
Just a heads up if you are running older versions of PHP. Please review this notice ASAP and take the appropriate action to avoid having issues with your website or any custom applications running older versions of PHP.
*OLD* PHP 5.6 and 7.0 – QUICKLY APPROACHING END-OF-SUPPORT PHP is used by over 80% of websites. With that in mind, keeping your website secure is extremely important. Each new PHP version is actively supported by the PHP community for two years following the initial stable release. At the end of the two-year active support, each receives an additional year of critical security issues updates. At this time, both PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.0 are quickly reaching the end of their extended security support. WordPress statistics indicate that 5.6 and 7.0 are currently in use on over 50% of WordPress sites.
---PHP 5.6 will no longer be supported for critical security updates after December 31st, 2018.
---PHP 7.0 will no longer be supported for critical security updates after December 3rd, 2018.
BizCom recommends preparing for an upgrade by testing your site for compatibility with the newer versions. This may include the need to upgrade multiple times from one version to the next, depending on how many versions behind the current stable release your site currently runs. Critical security updates are an essential part of protecting your business presence on the web. Don't leave your site vulnerable to attacks. Additionally, the newer PHP versions are far superior in speed, performance and efficiency.
To assist you in preparing for an upgrade, a WordPress plugin, PHP Compatibility Checker, is available: https://wordpress.org/plugins/php-compatibility-checker/

subset: commoncrawl


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"Orenda" has revealed to me at a time I am abysmally at the lowest point in my life.I have had many set backs in life and most of the time I try to make connections with those miseries and finally reach a point where I tell myself, I deserve it.Then I let it go, pick up my pieces and go on with life.
I think I have kind of even started to wait for these periodical miseries.It always ends with blaming myself and my stars for the same.I refuse to take up any more challenges for the fear of doing something wrong.I have refused myself to be happy or to even laugh for the fear of making another episode of misery.I have refused myself to have the right to dream big and make it.I refused to take promotions thinking I won't be a fit. I refused to take a day off thinking I might be noticed.I refused to talk openly with my family thinking(knowing) they will judge me.I keep playing various scenarios of misery and end up feeling miserable all throughout the day.
I don't know if I will have the courage to stand for the things I believe I can do, replacing all the talks in my head, but nonetheless knowing that it need not be always BE like that gives me hope to find the true me, by following the force inside of me.


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- Share
All about Carpenters for your smartphone, your iPhone or any phone.People doing crafts and work with wood. People who build wooden furniture and fixtures. Carpenter is the person whose job is carpentry. Carpenters worked with natural wood.
Animated gifs and animations of Carpenters to share on social networks, download or send to other phones for Whatsapp, Line or Skype. Manual workers who build furniture. Workers wood as a raw material for the production of items such as furniture. The person cabinetmaker carving wood and working with it. The office of the carpenter is the work with wood. The cabinetmaker is specialized in the production of furniture, chairs and other decoration works carpenter. Woodworking is the art of woodworking. Today there is also the metalwork when other materials such as metals or plastics are worked. Wood carving and processing work with this material. Doors, windows, furniture, chairs, tables and other objects with wood as the main material. A carpenter and joiner is one who has a much broader skill ranging from joinery, finishing carpentry, building construction and form work.


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Event details
Advanced Webinar: SAR for Landcover Applications
28 August - 4 September 2019
This webinar series will build on the knowledge and skills previously developed in ARSET SAR trainings. Presentations and demonstrations will focus on agriculture and flood applications. Participants will learn to characterize floods with Google Earth Engine. Participants will also learn to analyze synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for agricultural applications, including retrieving soil moisture and identifying crop types.
Relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Learning Objectives: By the end of this training, attendees will be able to:
Course Format: This webinar series will consist of two, two-hour parts. Each part will include a presentation on the theory of the topic followed by a demonstration and exercise for attendees. This training is also available in Spanish. Please visit the Spanish registration page for more information.


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Plausibility of Martian Microbes
|The wide angle view of the martian north polar cap was acquired on March 13, 1999, during early northern summer. The light-toned surfaces are residual water ice that remains through the summer season. The nearly circular band of dark material surrounding the cap consists mainly of sand dunes formed and shaped by wind. The north polar cap is roughly 1100 kilometers (680 miles) across.Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
The surface environment of Mars may not always have been so hostile to life. Early in the planet's history, the average temperature almost certainly was warmer and the atmosphere more dense, and liquid water may have existed at the surface. Evidence for the presence of surface water on early Mars comes from interpretation of the geomorphology of the planet's surface. A substantial fraction of the surface of Mars is older than about 3.5 billion years, based on the number of impact craters, which provide a window into the planet's early history.
Two aspects of these older surfaces suggest that the climate prior to about 3.5 billion years ago was different from the present climate. First, impact craters smaller than about 15 kilometers in diameter have been obliterated on these older surfaces, and impact craters larger than this have undergone substantial degradation, whereas younger impact craters have not been altered significantly. This suggests that erosion rates were up to 1,000 times larger early in martian history. The style of erosion that is seen on some of the remaining larger impact craters is indicative of water runoff, and water erosion is considered to be responsible for removing the smaller craters. Second, many of the same older surfaces contain networks of valleys that form dendritic patterns similar to terrestrial water-carved stream channels.
There is continuing debate as to exactly how these valleys were formed the process may have involved runoff of precipitation, seepage of subsurface water in a process termed "sapping," or erosion by water-rich debris flows. Independent of the exact process, their formation must have involved the presence of liquid water at or very near the surface during these earlier epochs.
Thus, geological evidence suggests that the martian climate prior to about 3.5 billion years ago was somehow warmer than the present climate and that liquid water flowed on the surface in a way that is not observed today. Unfortunately, the observations do not allow a unique determination of what the temperature, atmospheric pressure, or partitioning of liquid water between the subsurface, surface, and atmosphere were at that time. Evidence from measurements of martian stable isotopes suggests that a large fraction of the volatiles from early Mars may have been lost to space, causing the surface environment to become cooler and drier and to evolve into the state observed today.
The climate on early Mars may have been similar to the climate on Earth at that time. Although martian erosion rates undoubtedly were substantially lower than terrestrial erosion rates, suggesting less widespread water, liquid water certainly was present on both planets. Both planets probably had a mildly reducing atmosphere, containing substantial quantities of carbon dioxide. Given that life arose on Earth, it seems possible and even plausible that life could have arisen on Mars under similar conditions and at roughly the same time. If such were the case, a significant community of microorganisms may have existed on early Mars.
|Artist conception of the K/T impact event.
Credit: NASA
Interestingly, an alternative source for life on Mars may have been Earth itself. Asteroid impacts are capable of ejecting rocky material from planets into space. Once in space, close encounters with their planet of origin would alter the orbits of such material. The orbits of material ejected from Mars could evolve to the point that they would cross the orbit of Earth; similarly, ejecta from Earth could evolve to the point that their orbits would cross the orbit of Mars. At that point, collisions could occur, providing a mechanism for transferring mass from one planet to the other.
Meteorites have been discovered on Earth that are identified as having come from Mars, indicating that this process actually does occur. A martian origin for these meteorites is indicated by their young age, by the presence of oxygen isotopes that rule out an origin on Earth or the moon, and by gases trapped within them that are identical in composition to the martian atmosphere and distinct from any other known source of gas in the solar system. Some of the material ejected by an impact is not heated or shocked substantially, and bacteria or bacterial spores may be able to survive the ejection event. If organisms or spores could survive within a rock during interplanetary transit and find a satisfactory environment on a new planet, they could possibly survive and multiply. This would allow living organisms on one planet to be transferred to another. Indeed, one can ask the following questions: On which planet did life originate? Could life have originated on Mars and been transferred to Earth or vice versa?
If life forms ever existed on Mars, either by having been formed in an independent origin or by having been transferred there from Earth, it is possible that they have continued to exist up to the present time. Such life forms could survive in occasional localized ecological niches. Such niches could be liquid water or hot springs associated with extrusive and intrusive volcanism or liquid water buried deep beneath the surface where it is stable. It is important to note, however, that biological material may not stay confined in such locations; organisms conceivably might produce dormant propagules (spores) that could be dispersed more widely.
- See gallery of Spirit's images and slideshow
|The spherules, blueberries and naming have become important to visualize an alien landscape.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Did results from the Viking mission in the late 1970s not suggest that Mars was probably devoid of life? That was the accepted interpretation at the time, based on the results of three experiments that tested for biological activity and the absence of organic molecules in the surface materials. However, this conclusion may be open to some debate based on recent advances in our understanding of biology.
The Viking experiments were able to test for only a couple of the possible mechanisms by which putative martian organisms might obtain energy; these involved the utilization of either carbon dioxide or extant organic molecules as a source of carbon in the production of organic molecules. Putative martian biota might employ other mechanisms to obtain energy and might do so under physical conditions quite different from those of the Viking biology experiments. Martian life also might reside in the interior of rocks (which were not sampled by Viking), where liquid water might occur. Finally, if life exists only in isolated oases where liquid water exists, such as recent volcanic vents or fumaroles, the Viking experiments might have been the right ones but carried out at the wrong location.
The surface of Mars is inhospitable to life as we know it, although there may be localized environments where life could exist. Conditions on Mars may have been conducive to the formation of life, either during an earlier epoch when the climate was likely more clement or in hydrothermal systems and hot springs that may have existed on Mars throughout geological time. Therefore, it is possible that life arose on Mars. It is also possible that living organisms from Earth could have been delivered to Mars by impact transfer, and, if so, such organisms might have chanced upon the occasional oasis in which they could survive and multiply. If life arose on Mars or was delivered to Mars from Earth, it is possible that it has survived in localized environments that may be more hospitable than the general surface. Thus, there are plausible scenarios in which a sample returned from Mars could contain living organisms, either active or dormant.
What's Next
The 2009 Mars Science Laboratory is planned as the first set of biological experiments in the current exploration strategy. As the NASA Office of Space Science noted however, there has been considerable debate about when to time a sample return: "We note with concern that there appears to be a growing division within the Mars community between scientists seeking early Mars Sample Return and those who believe it is best to delay it."
Mars Sample Return: Issues and Recommendations (1997), Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications (CPSMA), Space Studies Board (SSB), National Academies Press
MER flight planning chronicled in the diary of the principal investigator for the science packages, Dr. Steven Squyres: Parts 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * 10 * 11 *12.
Related Web Pages
JPL Rovers
Spirit's Sol images and slideshow
Opportunity image gallery and slideshow
Mars Berries Once Rich in Iron-Water
NASA's RATs Go Roving on Mars
Water Signs
Microscopic Imager
Gusev Crater
Pancam– Surveying the Martian Scene
Mössbauer spectrometer
Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer


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Common Cold (3.5e Disease)
From D&D Wiki
|Common Cold (Ex)
|Infection DC:
|13 (Inhaled)
|1d3 days
|1 Str
This disease is a minor affliction that is common in well populated areas. It's contracted through inhalation of another infected individual's exhaled breath, or can be ingested through food infected by being handled by said individual. This disease isn't strong enough to kill a character and will never bring their ability scores down lower than half of the original. This goes away on its own with two successful Fort saves, or one week of full bed rest.
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Diseases


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The boys (minus the oft-absent Charlie) recap the Singapore grand prix. After discussing bread, babies, and beer, they break down the exciting start of the race. A series of driver impressions follows, as well as a run through of Charlie's stomach ache which landed him in the ER. The crew looks forward to the next race in Malaysia, and share their opinions on Lewis' new diet.
One comment
The CDC will want full details of the sudden disease outbreak at the tailgate last Saturday. Please impound any food and packaging still left. Write down your memories of the event and publish them on social media. The New England Journal of Medicine has been notified and is preparing an article.


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The page you requested requires Pro access
Australia GFS Surface Dew Point/Wind +192 hour Chart
About GFS
Global Forecast System. The operational numerical weather forecasting model run by NCEP. The GFS superceded the AVN and MRF models, on which it is largely based. Forecast data from the GFS is available out to 180 hours at full resolution and 16 days at a reduced resolution.
Weather News
BOM warns of flooding as WA's south coast gets first rain in years
South coast farmers have recorded their first significant rainfall in years, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning of potential flooding overnight.
Perth weather hot and dry in July but wet start to August brings hope to farmers
Western Australia has posted its second-warmest July on record and rainfall was 56 per cent below average across the state, the latest data from the Bureau of Meteorology has revealed.


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I just remembered the crazy dream that I had last night. I'm used to weird and wonderful dreams (for example, my friends being kidnapped by Korean Nazis while on their cruise holiday) but last night's was pretty odd even by my standards.
It started off as a fairly normal dream, going to visit a waterpark… and I went on one of the slides which looks like this:
I've never even been on a slide like this because the drop in the middle freaks me out…but in the dream, down I went. As I dropped through the hole, instead of there being water underneath, there was another tube type slide, and I caught my shin on the lip of it as I went through.
The next bit of the dream took place on a farm, because that's how my mind works.
So…in catching my shin on the lip of the slide, I somehow broke my leg…even in the dream I thought the bruise was scary and gross. Present were Dr Christian from Embarrassing Bodies, and the Doctor from Downton Abbey, and they were deciding how to treat my broken leg…and both felt that amputation below the knee was the best way to go.
Of course.
In the dream I got panicked and tried to tell them that my leg wasn't broken…but I think both Dr Christian and I were in Downton Abbey times, so there wasn't an Xray available.
Just as I was getting frantic in my dream (and probably talking quite a bit in actual life), in runs Dr Gustav Strandvik – who is someone I know from my church. He yells "Stop, stop!" and they (thankfully) listen…and then he proceeds to tell them that my leg is not broken, it's not even bruised and he wipes all the bruise off my leg with a little white handkerchief.
And then I woke up.
Hands up if you think I'm insane?!


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Non-Functional Requirements need to be gathered from the business and technical users to complement the functional requirements for the solution.
There are numerous reasons why Non Functional requirements are difficult to identify and test:
- They can be interpreted differently by different users. For example, for an expert, some documentation and training material may be easy to learn, but for entry level personnel it might be difficult.
- The relevance or importance of a NFR might vary depending on the system or products and services under consideration. For example in the financial services industry, accuracy or correctness of information and software security would be amongst the most important quality attributes.
- Goals of two different NFRs can be conflicting. For example, the extra code and processing requirements to increase usability usually increases processing run-time, thus hampering performance.
Examples of NFR:
- The system shall allow access to only approved users
- The system shall provide controls and be configured to ensure each user has access to only the information and functions for which they are authorized.
- The system shall be accessible 24/7
- Response time to display the Website screens should be less than {#} seconds on average.


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1. One thing I found striking about the White/Spencer debate was the spectacle of White defending Yasir Qadhi. And he's not alone in that. Because White defends Qadhi, White supporters feel compelled to defend Qadhi. If White defends Qadhi, then defending White commits you to defending who or what he defends. That's a corrupting development.
I don't have a problem with a church hosting a Muslim/Christian debate or dialogue (so long as that's an apologetic debate/dialogue rather than an ecumenical debate/dialogue).
Protestants aren't supposed to be superstitious about religious furniture. The new covenant doesn't have sacred spaces. The fact that the dialogue between White and Qadhi took place within the four walls of a church is of no intrinsic importance.
I don't even object to Christian apologists debating or dialoguing with Muslim spokesmen who are in bed with terrorists. Terrorism is endemic to Islam. That's the nature of the beast. We should be prepared to witness to Muslims with terrorist associations.
Where White gets into trouble is defending the bona fides of Qadhi. That makes White a tool. And unfortunately, I find his supporters following his lead.
2. One White/Qadhi defender said: "in this case, the specific evidence about Yasir Qadhi is that he is anti-terror, not pro-terror."
That's not the evidence I've seen. The evidence I've seen is that he supports the principle of jihad. Moreover, he has his foot in several jihadi front organizations. For instance:
Qadhi is a sharia scholar and works inside the Muslim Brotherhood's Movement calling for the implementation of sharia and an Islamic state here in America.Specifically, Qadhi is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA). Qadhi is also the Dean of Academic Affairs and an instructor at the al Maghrib Institute, which has produced a large number of jihadis over the years including Tarek Mehanna, Ramy Zam Zam – the leader of the "Virginia 5," Daniel Maldonado, Nuradin Abdi (founder of the Al Maghrib's Ohio Chapter), and others.Yasir Qadhi has been the keynote speaker at numerous prominent Muslim Brotherhood organizations (eg ICNA), works closely with terrorist organizations like Hamas and its leaders and has a long track record of publicly defending known terrorists such as: convicted terrorist leader Sami al Aria, convicted terrorist Ali al-Timimi, American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh, convicted Al Qaeda terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, Tarek Mehanna, and others.Yasir Qadhi was a trustee at the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas' Islamic Society of Boston founded by Al Qaeda financier Abdurahman Alamoudi. This is the same ISB which nurtured the Boston Marathon bombers.
Maybe White will dispute the accuracy that characterization. The point, though, is why stick your neck out to vouch for Qadhi's bona fides? White can dialogue with Qadhi without taking any public position on the sincerity of Qadhi's disclaimers regarding jihad. At the very least, would it not be more prudent for White and his supporters to withhold judgment? Why in the world are we supposed to give Qadhi the benefit of the doubt?
3. There's a basic principle of risk assessment. One can be mistaken either way. One can be mistaken in believing a Muslim cleric's disclaimers and one can be mistaken in disbelieving his disclaimers. However, the two mistakes don't have equitable consequences. Take the adage that counterterrorists have to get lucky every time whereas terrorists only have to get lucky once.
Suppose a convicted embezzler applies to be church treasurer. Says he's turned over a new leaf. I could be mistaken if I believe him and I could be mistaken if I disbelieve him. But each mistake has different consequences, and one mistake may have graver consequences than the other.
I have no duty to believe the disclaimers of Muslim cleric. To the contrary, I have a duty to be skeptical, given the track record and the mortal danger.
In addition, generalizations can be a legitimate consideration in formulating public policy. Take recalls for defective products or contaminated food. The defective products or contaminated food may be a fraction of the total, but the recall is broad to make sure the truly dangerous subset doesn't slip through. Or take a rancher who's required to euthanize all his cattle if one steer is discovered with mad cow disease.
4. One White/Qadhi defender said "Dr. Qadhi and those in the west agree that live in the west, because of visa agreement and contracts (& citizenship is considered a contract/agreement that a Muslim must follow, as is American citizen)"
And White made the same claim during the debate, citing Qadhi's stated position that Muslims are "under contract...covenant...take an oath of loyalty to a nation".
One issue this raises is the credibility of Muslim religious leaders. Should we take their claims at face value?
That depends. When they make a statement that's consistent with Muslim tradition, that's credible. When, however, they make a statement at variance with Muslim tradition, then that's not credible unless they are taking a personal risk by making that statement.
In the debate, White defended Qadhi's sincerity on the grounds that he "has to protect his family because ISIS wants him dead".
And another White/Qadhi defender made the same argument: "Qadhi had 2 death threats from ISIS against him. Dr. Qadhi is an example who has spoken out against it, as did Shabir Ally and other Islamic scholars have written books refuting Isis, Al Qaeda, etc."
But as Spencer pointed out, that does't mean Qadhi's not committed to jihad or spreading sharia; rather, there are rival jihadist groups. He belongs to a different group. Each group wants its own Caliph. So they play a rhetorical shellgame about the Caliphate. They reject ISIS because they want their own Caliphate.
Denouncing a rival group doesn't by any means imply a renunciation of commitment to jihad or sharia. There's bitter competition for dominance in the Muslim world. Which side has the controlling vision. That doesn't begin to suggest that Qadhi or Shabir Ally are any less militant in their own outlook. It's just that they want their own side to win.
5. One White/Qadhi defender said "Dr. Qadhi and those in the west agree that live in the west, because of visa agreement and contracts, they can only do Jihad of the pen and mouth. (preaching and writing)".
i) But isn't that a euphemism for incitement to commit terrorism? Laying the groundwork? Recruiting? For years I've been reading reports about "radical clerics" (the stock designation) in England who foment animus towards the host country, while the authorities turn a blind eye.
ii) Furthermore, once Muslims have a foothold in the USA, why can't they practice "defensive jihad" which doesn't require permission from the Caliph. For years I've read about how Saudi Arabia uses its vast wealth to plant mosques across the USA to seed our land with Wahhabism. Once there are sizable Muslim communities in the USA and other Western countries, can't that beachhead be a pretext to initiate defensive jihad? It doesn't require authorization from the Caliph. Embedded in the host country, they can say they're now surrounding a culture that's hostile to Islam, so they need to do whatever is necessary to protect their values.
Sure, I've heard Muslims denounce the killing of "innocents," but that's a term of art. In defensive and offensive jihad, what counts as a civilian?
6. White recently said:
James R. WhiteApril 17 ·OK, folks, warning up front: profanity, strong profanity here. That's what you get when you talk to the Zombies of the Culture of Death. And folks, these people will vote for others who will imprison you and execute you. When you worship death, you care nothing for liberty. You will silence those you hate. Remember. They tried that with Jesus.https://www.facebook.com/prosapologian/posts/1507139452644235
And he's right about that. But that's not the only demographic seeking to imprison you and execute you. Guess what–Muslims do that, too! White is acutely aware of the threat posed by secular progressives, yet he soft-pedals the threat posed by Muslims. Why the double standard?
Moreover, the prospect of SJWs imprisoning and executing Christians in America is hypothetical, whereas Muslims in America are actually murdering people in jihadist attacks and honor-killings.
6. In his debate with Spencer, White defended Qadhi on the grounds that White can't read hearts and minds. He can't divine intentions. yet White's scruples are very selective in that regard. Remember this statement from last year:
There is a more than 70% chance he has never met this father. In all probabilities he has no guidance, has no example. He is filled with arrogance and disrespect for authority. He lives in a land where he is told lies every day—the lie that he cannot, through hard work and discipline, get ahead, get a good education, and succeed at life. He is lied to and told the rest of the world owes him. And the result is predictable: in his generation, that 70% number will only rise. He may well father a number of children—most of which will be murdered in the womb, padding the pockets of Planned Parenthood.
Based on this one-time encounter, lasting about a minute, White produces an instant criminal profile. He has no hesitation to stereotype the teenager, but what about the stats on Muslim terrorism?
Or, a year before that, remember his comment on a public meeting about plans to build a new mosque in Spotsylvania, VA:
Ignorance and bigotry is ugly, no matter who the ignorant bigot is. Here's a video of what happens when you combine ignorance, bigotry, fear, and with one guy it seems, way too many roids…You see, when someone can look at the video I posted and listen to a man who is clearly not interested in anything but rage and anger…you took the identification of plain ignorance (when some fellow is saying, "Muslims is evil," well, the poor fellow can't even speak the English language.
Based on one video snippet, White has the speaker pegged. He assumes the worst about the speaker. Why is he so quick to make snap judgments about some people, when he admonishes us to practice a different standard in reference to Muslims?


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When it comes to attracting and hiring talent, the competition is fierce. Large companies draw candidates by offering a broad array of benefits and high salaries. But smaller firms lack the advantage of economies of scale, so it's usually not feasible for them to provide robust benefits or pay above-market value for a position.
Given this reality, you may be wondering how your firm can recruit and retain top talent. As a member of Commonwealth's Practice Management team, I often suggest these key recruiting strategies for financial advisors to help differentiate your firm and showcase how the employee experience can rival—and even exceed—that of any other employer.
Consider What Prospective Employees Want
Before you create your recruiting strategy, put yourself in your prospective employees' shoes—or remember back to a time when you were looking for the right job. We all want to work where we're appreciated, we do impactful work, and we are continually challenged. Be sure to touch on these wants as you recruit and interview candidates.
Articulate What Makes the Work Experience at Your Firm Unique
Unlike in larger companies, employees in small firms work closely together, and this can provide a competitive edge. Moreover, when you work with 40,000 other employees, it's difficult to stand out.
Emphasize that your firm is different. Be sure that your prospective employees know that not only is every member of your staff valued and appreciated on a personal level, but he or she will also have the ability to contribute in many different capacities. For example, one employee may organize a client event one day and work on cost basis the next. This varied, interesting work may appeal to many candidates.
Also, be sure to carefully consider the defining characteristics of your firm's culture. Define what makes working at the firm unique, fun, and purposeful—and share this with all prospective employees.
Craft a Smart Job Description and Ad
Although a job description is intended to capture the most important tasks associated with a position, it's also an opportunity to illustrate potential growth. For example, many advisors have successfully developed administrative staff who later assume responsibility for cost basis, RMDs, and product research. In your job description, you may want to emphasize these opportunities, as well as the supportive work environment you offer.
Just as you would market yourself to a prospective client, you should market yourself and your firm to a potential employee. Your job ad should highlight your own years of experience, the group of established clients with whom you work, the strong reputation you've earned, and so forth. This can alleviate any concerns that your firm has an unproven track record and make job candidates eager for the chance to work with you.
Bridge the Benefits Gap
Many advisors provide some level of benefits to employees, primarily in the form of paid time off (PTO) and a retirement plan like a SEP- or SIMPLE IRA. Within that framework, they have adopted a number of creative strategies to compete with larger companies. You may want to consider taking the following steps to offer additional benefits to your current and future employees:
- Provide an attractive PTO policy. As many people struggle to maintain a work/life balance, time off has become a valuable incentive. Some advisors have revised their benefits to include additional PTO to help attract talent that may be looking for a higher pay grade. In cases where long-tenured employees have reached the maximum base salary, this benefit is a way to continue motivating them to perform at a high level.
- Consider creative solutions to offer medical benefits. This is probably the single greatest challenge advisors face. First, not every advisor offers health insurance. For those who do, some have adopted creative solutions, such as:
- If a candidate or employee has coverage elsewhere, the advisor provides a small stipend (e.g., $400) to help with co-pays or other costs not covered by the medical plan.
- If a candidate or employee requires medical coverage, he or she can explore possibilities with companies like Benefit Protect, which serves as a broker to negotiate individual and small group policies.
- Some advisors have asked candidates or employees to purchase their own health insurance, offsetting the cost by contributing specific amounts toward premiums. In this way, an employee has the flexibility to select a policy that provides the right level of coverage at a rate that is affordable for him or her.
- Offer other perks. Think about your business and professional network and determine whether there are other perks or benefits you can consider. For example, some advisors offer a company-paid life insurance policy, short-term disability, or discounted tax services through their professional contacts.
Provide Flexible Work Arrangements
If your firm is able, offer to accommodate employees' schedules. For example, allow an employee to work from 7:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., instead of 8:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M., or offer an employee the option of working four days a week for 10 hours a day. Current and prospective employees value having control over their day and schedule, so this can be a powerful perk.
Many businesses now allow employees to work from home. If you're not sure whether this would work at your firm, try it for a period of time and then assess the experience. Did you have the right level of coverage in the office? Was the employee productive? This gives you the chance to adjust or eliminate the arrangement.
Consider Tuition Reimbursement
By providing tuition reimbursement, you're offering current and prospective employees an attractive option to grow professionally. In addition, this is a major step toward creating an environment that supports and fosters continuous learning. You can deduct the reimbursement amount from your taxes.
If you offer tuition reimbursement, make this investment go further by asking employees currently taking courses to lead a meeting where they present a concept or idea they've learned and explain how they plan to put it into practice. It's unlikely that the CEO of a major corporation is giving his or her employees this type of personal attention!
Hiring can be a difficult, competitive process, and it may become more so in the future. Adopting one or two of these strategies can make a big difference in your efforts to recruit and retain top talent. Once you hire the best candidate—whether it's for a junior advisor, advisor, or staff position—be sure to impress him or her right away with strong leadership practices that can help reinforce that your new employee made the right decision.
Is your firm currently recruiting? Have you successfully attracted and hired top talent? Please share your thoughts and experiences by commenting below.


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Quick list icons appear at the bottom of the main CallSwitch Communicator window and enable you to quickly move between the 'Directory', 'Contacts', 'Favourites' and 'Recent' lists.
- Directory - switch to 'Directory' view to display a list of all CallSwitch Communicator Contacts. Contacts within your organisation will automatically appear in this list.
- Contacts - switch to 'Contacts' view to display a list of all saved and imported Contacts.
- "Favorites" - switch to 'Favorites' view to display a list of all Contacts that you selected as 'favorites'.
- Recent - switch to 'Recent' view to display a log of all recent calls - "dialed", received and missed.


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When Tim Keller was asked his best advice for helping teenagers grow in their faith, this was his answer:
"Teenagers have more information about God than they have experience of him. Get them in places where they have to rely on God."
It got me thinking. Where are the places where my high school friends have to rely on God? How do we as Young Life leaders help get them there?
4 Ways We Invite Our Teenage Friends To Rely On God
Invite Them Into Adventure
We strategically fill our camps with high-adventure activities for this very reason.
The high ropes course.
The Quantum Leap pole.
Riding a 1000 pound horse.
Fill in the _______.
Risk requires faith.
What adventure will you lead your friends into this year?
Will you start a clothing line to feed the poor?
Will you work together to end slavery?
Will your Campaigners group give up soda for a year to bring clean water to a village?
Will you go overseas with YL Expeditions?
Invite Them Into Silence
In a world where we're more socially 'connected' than ever before, it's easy to never be 'alone.' To never experience 'silence.' We can always have someone to talk to, even if its an X-box Live opponent we've never met. Our loneliness is masked by relationships as shallow as our iPhone screens. Our mood is dependent upon our online approval rating. Let's invite our middle and high school friends into intentional times of silence and solitude, turning off our phones, but not just for a week at camp.
What if your Campaigners group this semester started with phones turned off and in a basket. What if it ended with 20 minutes of silence? Torture? A declining Campaigners attendance? Maybe. But it's always a highlight at camp. Could it happen on a weekly basis?
Could turning off our dependence on the world's approval give us enough silence to hear what our Heavenly Father thinks of us?
Invite Them Out Of Comfort
Fifteen years ago we spent our college spring break working at Pico Escondido YL camp in the Dominican Republic. I stayed with a family in a shanty that would be deemed unfit for habitation in America. They had one bed and insisted I sleep there while they made pallets on the floor. I still remember the light in their eyes.
They did not depend upon earthly possessions.
They did not depend upon their health.
They found joy in relying upon Christ alone.
There are people in our city who have no homes.
There are refugee families who have no friends.
There are elderly men and women who never have visitors.
There are sick people who have no hope of a cure.
"Religion that is pure and genuine in the sight of God the Father will show itself by such things as visiting orphans and widows in their distress." James 1:27 (Phillips)
Let's invite our friends out of their comfort zones...
and into relationships with people who have nothing else to depend upon.
Invite Them Into Prayer
Prayer is the ultimate act of reliance upon God. It's admitting weakness. It's saying, "God, I can't, but you can."
What would happen if you gathered a few of your high school friends next week just to pray? What if you met at the school with no other agenda than to pray for God to move? What if it became a weekly sacrifice, to get up early on Fridays, just to pray? I can't think of a more intentional way to invite them to 'rely on God.'
What God's Word Says About Relying On Him
John 6:63
1 Peter 5:7
Jeremiah 17:5-9
Proverbs 3:5-6
Philippians 4:19
Jeremiah 33:3
What would you add? How else can we invite our teenage friends into places that force them to rely on God?


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Additional images (results graphed by age, income, and more) can be found at: www.uslegalwills.com/blog/americans-without-wills"
NEW YORK, NY. – June 21, 2016 – A Google Consumer survey by USLegalWills.com suggests that previous surveys may have under-reported the number of Americans without a Will, by not including those who have a Will that is out-of-date. The survey reported that 63% of Americans do not have a Will, showing no real change from 2014. However, a statistic that was not published before now reveals that 9% of Americans have a Will that is out-of-date. This means that 72% of Americans do not have an up-to-date Last Will and Testament.
"We really wanted to explore this group after anecdotally hearing from people who had a Will, but had it written before they got married or had children," explained Tim Hewson, CEO of PartingWishes Inc., the parent company of USLegalWills.com. "In essence, although they technically had a Will, it was worthless."
Particularly, seniors (aged 65+) are the most likely age group to have a Will that is out-of-date (15%). Of the 65% of seniors who said that they have a Will, almost one in four have Wills which are out-of-date.
The survey showed a positive relationship between age and the probability of having a Will:
• 18-24: 85% do not have a Will, 10% have an out-of-date Will, and 5% have an up-to-date Will.
• 23-35: 80% do not have a Will, 6% have an out-of-date Will, and 14% have an up-to-date Will.
• 35-44: 67% do not have a Will, 8% have an out-of-date Will, and 25% have an up-to-date Will.
• 45-54: 53% do not have a Will, 11% have an out-of-date Will, and 36% have an up-to-date Will.
• 55-64: 52% do not have a Will, 8% have an out-of-date Will, and 40% have an up-to-date Will.
• 65+: 35% do not have a Will, 15% have an out-of-date Will, and 50% have an up-to-date Will.
Even when discounting younger adults, 53.5% of Americans aged 35 and older responded to not having a Will; 9.5% responded to having a Will that is out-of-date, leaving only 37% with a Will that reflects their current financial and personal situation.
The income group least likely to have up-to-date Wills was in the $100,000+ annual income range.
The income group most likely to have up-to-date Wills was in the annual income range of $25,000-$99,999.
There were no significant differences when comparing across gender, region, or urban density.
Graphs of the survey data can be found on the most recent USLegalWills.com blog article.
Comparison to Canada
LegalWills.ca conducted the same survey in Canada as USLegalWills.com, over the same period of time. The Google Consumer Survey of 2,000 Canadians shows similar results to the American survey: 62% of Canadians do not have a Will, 74% do not have a Will that is up-to-date. Similar trends were also noticed across age.
The Canadian survey showed no significant differences between respondents based on gender or state/provincial region, but did see a significant difference when comparing urban density. The proportion of Canadians without a Will was higher in suburban areas (75%) than in urban areas (62%).
"This reflects a broken system," said Tim Hewson, "we understand that everybody should have a Will, but only a small percentage have created one, and an even smaller number have managed to keep it up-to-date with their personal or financial situation."
Data and graphs from the Canadian survey can be found on the most recent LegalWills.ca blog article.
About USLegalWills
USLegalWills.com is operated by PartingWishes Inc., an independent organization which works with lawyers in the United States to provide legal document creation services to the public. Formed in 2000, the company has since helped hundreds of thousands of people to create legal documents in an easy, convenient, secure, and affordable manner.
PartingWishes Inc. is also the parent company of LegalWills.ca, LegalWills.co.uk, and ExpatLegalWills.com
For more information, visit www.USLegalWills.com
The USLegalWills.com survey was conducted within the United States by Google Consumer Surveys, June 2016, among 2,012 adults aged 18 and older, and has a root square mean error of 1.4%.
The LegalWills.ca survey was conducted within Canada by Google Consumer Surveys, June 2016, among 2,000 adults aged 18 and older, and has a root square mean error of 4.7%.
Results are weighted by age, gender, and region.
For full information on Google Consumer Surveys' methodology and validity, visit here.
Media Contact
Company Name: USLegalWills.com
Contact Person: Tim Hewson
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: 613-878-2777
Address:1500 Bank Street, Suite 506
City: Ottawa
State: Ontario
Country: Canada
Website: www.uslegalwills.com/


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Committee Members
The committee members of the Logan Tourism association have worked together to promote the city of Logan and the surrounding region. They have collected many recreational and Leisure operators and produced co-operative marketing and promotional activities to benefit the members.
Terry Skene (LTA Chairman 2012 – 2016)
Terry is currently the Managing Director of Kingston Park Raceway which since its creation in 1996, has received 9 Business and Industry awards for success within the Leisure and Tourism industry and has now grown to become Australia's leading Go-karting attraction.
Terry's speciality skills are in strategic development and he has assisted many companies to achieve their goals through manageable and sustainable planning.
In 2005 Terry was accepted as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Previous Experiences:
1996 – 2016 Managing Director Kingston Park Raceway
2005 – 2011 Director of Jacaranda Finance, Non-Executive
2010 – 2014 Director Logan Office of Economic Development
2012 – 2016 Chairperson Logan City Tourism Board
2009 – 2013 Director of AALARA (Sub-committee chairperson)
2004 – 2007 Founding Director Logan Community Bank Project
2001 – 2004 President of Logan Chamber of Commerce
Rob Mansfield. (Deputy Chairman)
- Currently QIC shopping centre manager (Hyperdome properties).
- Committee Member, Logan Chamber of Commerce.
- QIC centre manager and regional manager 1996 – 2012.
- General Manager (southern) David Jones 91 – 96.
- Various positions David Jones 72 – 91
- Past president Chamber of Commerce and Industry ACT.
- Various industry associations (State and Federal)
David Gardner ( Secretary / Treasurer )
Ralph Smith (Marketing Manager)
Marketing Manager of the BLIAQ
35 year career specialising in the Media with a background in television, radio and publishing and in Marketing of major events. Have worked throughout Australia and a number of countries in Asia.
For the past six years been the Marketing Manager of the BLIAQ, located at the Chung Tian Temple in Priestdale. Duties include marketing of the Buddha Birth Day Festival, Queensland's largest multicultural event in South Bank and liaison with the media and the various levels of Government and Corporate stakeholders in the Festival.
Currently on the Committee of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Butterfly Ball and the Marketing Director and Board Member of World Arts & Multi-Culture Inc.


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DADE CITY — A Wesley Chapel golf course can be bulldozed for 389 homes, Pasco County commissioners ruled Tuesday.
On a 4-1 vote, with Chairman Mike Moore dissenting, commissioners decided a long-delayed rezoning issue by allowing the owner of Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club to swap fairways for driveways.
The decision came as dozens of objecting neighbors sat wearing green shirts adorned with green stickers and yellow lettering that parroted the county's marketing slogan, "Open spaces, vibrant places.''
The issue required two public hearings before the Development Review Committee and multiple meetings before commissioners because of questions about land ownership, drainage and compatibility with the existing homes in the rural-flavored Quail Hollow Estates neighborhood.
The course, owned by Andre Carollo's Pasco Office Park LLC, is at 6225 Old Pasco Road, a mile north of Wesley Chapel Boulevard. Among the concessions to neighbors, Carollo eliminated proposed town homes, increased the buffering distance from his project to existing homes, bolstered planned drainage improvements and agreed to a binding conceptual plan to eliminate future alterations. Forty-nine percent of the 175-acre course will be left as open space for drainage, a linear trail and buffer space.
"We analyzed it, and we keep coming up with the same recommendation. This development is appropriate for the area,'' senior planner Corelynn Howell told commissioners. "They've done everything we've asked them to do.''
The course opened in 1965, a decade before the county adopted its zoning laws and before the surrounding Quail Hollow Estates neighborhood was developed. The land is not zoned as a golf course, but rather for residential use that would have allowed up to 283 homes. The rezoning allows more homes on smaller lots and space for an office building and day care center.
It's not the first time the golf course had been targeted for development. More than a dozen years ago, the course's owners converted the driving range into a high-density, 116-home neighborhood called Fairways of Quail Hollow.
A 2006 plan for 660 homes and town homes never advanced, and a year later the course shut down. Carollo reopened it in 2011 after extensive renovations to the course and clubhouse. However, his attorney, Barbara Wilhite, said previously the course is not profitable.


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The six-volume series was chosen by members of the public as part of the Big Gay Read competition.
"It's wonderful to know that the joy and fulfilment I've found as a gay man has somehow contributed to the joy and fulfilment of others," said Maupin.
He will collect his award at Manchester's Queer Up North festival.
Tales of the City started life as a daily serial in the San Francisco Chronicle, before being collected into a novel in 1978. Five more books followed.
Maupin faced strong competition from British writers for the prize. Sarah Waters' novel Tipping The Velvet took second place, and Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize-winner The Line of Beauty, was eighth.
Waters is the only author to have two books in the top ten, with Fingersmith taking fifth place.
Most of the winning novels have been adapted for television, including Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Jake Arnott's The Long Firm.
Annie Proulx's short story Brokeback Mountain, which became the Oscar-winning film of the same name, also made an appearance, at number seven.
25,000 people voted in the poll, which was a joint project between Manchester, Salford and Blackpool libraries, Commonword and Time to Read.


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Get Fit, Improve Muscle Tone, Lose Weight, and Learn Self-Defense!
Martial Arts Advantage's programs for Adults deliver the benefits you need. Find the one that is right for you!
Build a Healthier, Happier You. Learn the Skills Necessary to Defend Yourself or Your Loved Ones, and Have a Blast Doing It!
Our Adults LOVE the benefits they see after training in our Martial Arts programs. No experience necessary! If you want to better yourself then the Martial Arts Advantage is the perfect fit for you. Had a long day at work? Having an exercise regimen like the Martial Arts is a healthy way to blow off steam. Plus, it'll help you re-focus and balance out a long day. And, if you just need to hit the bags for a bit…we got those too. =] Looking to lose weight fast or build muscle? Having a structured program will help! Our classes are designed with fitness in mind. Even if self-defense is your main concern, you still need an engine to propel that self-defense. Your body is your engine and we'll help you build it!
Interested in protecting yourself or your loved ones? We teach easy-to-learn, effective real-world techniques. When it comes to striking we teach what works employing a variety of techniques including knees and elbows.
Reserve your spot, receive updates, and see our new student special.
Interested in Grappling? Train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) emphasizes ground fighting, employing the most EFFECTIVE chokes and submissions in Martial Arts. Statistics show that 80% of fights end up on the ground, so it only makes sense that in order to protect yourself better you learn how to fight to survive when an altercation lands you on your back. Unlike most other martial arts, BJJ allows a smaller person to defeat a larger opponent by sophisticated application of leverage and techniques, instead of muscle. Popularized in "reality fighting tournaments," BJJ stands out against other martial arts as a proven method of self-defense! It consists of learning how to defend yourself against another by nullifying an opponent's attack, taking them to the ground, maneuvering to a position of dominance, then applying leverage and technique to finish your attacker.
Interested in Fitness with Real Techniques? Train Muay Thai Kickboxing.
Muay Thai Kickboxing has been rated as one of the best fat shredders out there, burning up to 800 calories in one hour. Our students love how TONED and STRONG their body gets from training. Get your heart rate up and start losing weight through high intensity training that is proven to help you shred fat faster and have a blast doing it! Besides the fitness, you will learn REAL-DEAL self-defense techniques and striking. All professional fighters consider Muay Thai as a huge key to their success in employing the most effective and efficient fighting techniques available. Imagine the confidence you'll gain knowing you're getting your body in the best shape of your life while learning skills that'll protect you and your loved ones.
Interested in Straight Forward Self-Defense? Train Krav Maga.
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Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
There are very few ingredients required to make hummus. In light of this, it's imperative that the handful of ingredients used be of the highest quality available especially where the olive oil is concerned. This, and only this, is the secret to amazing hummus. Try this exceedingly delicious and easy rendition that includes heart healthy roasted red peppers marinated in UP Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
1 jar ♥Olive My Heart♥ Roasted Red Peppers, drained
2 – 15 oz. cans garbanzo beans, drained
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup ♥Olive My Heart♥ Extra Virgin Olive Oil, or any infused Olive Oil
2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
Place all of the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and process until creamy and smooth. Adjust seasoning as desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve and drizzle more fresh olive oil over the top if desired.


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Have you ever heard someone use the word "DOMS"? The first time I did, I thought I was hearing a foreign language or that the person just didn't know how to talk! Then it hit me, they were using an acronym for something fitness related (as I do frequently now). So what did I do? My normal…I RESEARCHED!! This is what I learned…
DOMS, also known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is common after exercise (post-training) and it is not related to lactic acid buildup, but stems from muscle fiber damage. It refers to the gradually increasing discomfort that occurs between 24 and 48 hours after activity and it is perfectly normal! DOMS is a common result of physical activity that stresses the muscle tissue beyond what it is accustomed to. DOMS should not limit or affect your training, although one's pain threshold will dictate training intensity while experiencing it.
There are many things you can do to help limit the duration of DOMS…some natural supplements help, like Omega 3, Quercetin, Arginine, Glutamine, and CLA. Or simply by upping your antioxidants and your water consumption should help. DON'T use things like ibuprofen though, try to keep it natural.
Another way is cardio at a steady state is great due to getting oxygen and blood flow to the area…which aides in recovery NATURALLY! Charles Poliquin writes that "sometimes very light, low intensity cardio the day after a heavy intense workout can help with DOMS." There have been no studies that say working out with DOMS causes harm to you or your muscles.
So a good starting point is LOTS of water during the day (stay hydrated), a good all-round multivitamin, and then natural supplements taken pre/post training, stretching well before sleep, and then some low intensity steady state cardio the next morning.
Don't be afraid of DOMS, I promise…they are a good thing!!


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Ok, all being well I should have photos here of the stuff I sent to samigurumi. I had some issues getting them to resize and get them onto craftster, so I've uploaded them to my flickr as well, so I hope it works.. *crosses everything*
1. The can:
2. A spring inspired charm bracelet
3. A butterfly stuffie. I meant to say in my note to sammie that it was an experiment. I think it went ok
4. A painted shopping bag.
I have to admit, this was my favourite of the things I sent. It was my first attempt at fabric painting and apart from one little blob, it went pretty well
5. Flower hairclip/brooch
6. Crochet hook roll.
I hate that you can see my v.wonky stitching, but since this is the first one I've ever made specifically for crochet hooks, it took a while to get the measurements right. The flowery material came from a charity shop skirt.
7.more little hairclips
I also sent some lindor chocolate mini eggs, and also ate quite a lot of them while I was packing the can!!!
Thank you so much sammie for such a fab swap. Your chick can is the best I've ever seen and I'm v. proud of it. Also, I did wonder how you managed to get the head to stay attached..


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I received this lovely award for which I was nominated twice, from my friends Martina and Anne. This is a lovely award which is handed on to blogs which you enjoy reading. The guidelines are "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these kind writers."
I would like to hand this award on to some more lovely blogs that I enjoy reading.


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Sir John Reresby was quite an interesting chap. Being from a Royalist family, he spent much of the interregnum in quasi-exile travelling throughout Europe , returning after the restoration to become an MP and Governor of York. He was also that finest of historical figures- an autobiographer. His "Memoirs" and "Travels" are full of nuggets for the historian. I was reading them for his view on the Dumbarton's Regiment, but I came across this strange, sad, grotesque, but thought provoking story.
Reresby tell us:
I had a fine black of about sixteen years of age, presented to me by a gentleman who brought him over from Barbadoes: This black lived with me some years and died on the 20th of October , 1676, of an imposthume in his head
However, some six weeks after the burial, it came to Reresby's attention that in London the story had been put about that the cause of death was not a brain abscess but:
I had caused him to be gelt [gelded], and that the operation had killed him
Reresby claimed that this rumour was spread by the duke of Norfolk and his family, with whom he had some legal dispute, in the hope that Reresby would be convicted of a felony and forfeit his estate. Reresby had the coroner exhume the body, where the tale becomes all the more macabre and disturbing. The coroner summoned a jury. However, when the decaying body was uncovered to the breast, this jury was so horrified, they refused to allow it to be exposed further. Unable to inspect him personally, they interviewed eleven witnesses who had helped lay him out and others who:
several, because of his colour, having a curiosity to see him after he was dead
The jury, having heard these ghoulish witnesses, declared that he was killed Ex visitatione Dei, by the hand of God.
However this was not good enough for Reresby's opponents and they sent down two lawyers and a surgeon to inspect the body. It was found that, though most of the body was badly decayed, the genitals were "perfectly sound and entire" and after having a possible attempt by the visiting surgeon to make a post-mortem incriminating wound foiled, they had to concede that no emasculation had taken place.
So what do we make of this sordid tale? I will admit to a fairly limited knowledge of slavery in England at the time, and I welcome correction or elaboration. The mid-late Seventeenth Century saw the infancy (or perhaps adolescence) of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was established in the plantations of South America and the Carribean, but the worst of the large scale transportation of slaves was for the next Century.
The word "slave" isn't used at all in Reresby's account but there is little doubt that this was what the dead boy (his very anonymity speaks volumes) was. It would seem that there were both "free" and "slave" black people working in England at the time- Pepys "blackamoor" cook was, it seems, a regular domestic employee. However he was "presented to" Reresby as a child and, since he came from Barbados, was almost certainly the son of slaves on a plantation. The language in which he introduced the story of his slave is very much one of possession. I first came across the passage whilst skim reading for something else and initially assumed that the "black" he referred to was a horse, only shamefacedly re-reading when the truth became apparent to me.
The position of slavery on English soil was somewhat ambiguous- on the occassions when slavery was challenged in the courts, the verdict, from as early as 1569, generally supported the position that there was not such thing as slavery under English Law. This did not however lead to any suggestion of a general emacipation, and that his status as a slave would probably have been denied by a court would be of little use or consolation to the little boy given to Reresby.
We must remember that the period also does pre-date, by a century, the quasi-scientific racial theories of the enlightenment and the evangelism of the abolishinists.
Unlike on the plantations, it would seem that in Seventeenth Century England, Africans were not generally employed as cheap labour. They seem to have been desired of their exoticism and used as (often liveried) servants for display by the rich and eve royalty. This desire to display them is illustrated by their use in contemporary portraits. These portraits invariably featured a young, good looking African, (see the couple of examples I've included, there are more, with some more background here). Reresby's description of the boy (I do so wish we had a name) as "fine" suggests he may have been picked out as a child for his beauty.
That the accusation was directed at Reresby says something about the status of the "slave" in England, distinct from those in the New World or on the transatlantic passage. Had the charges about him been proved and he had caused the boy's death he would have committed a felony, and the cause of the boy's death was the business of the coroner- i.e. his life and person had at least some of the same legal status as a "free" person. Although he could be given away or, presumably, sold he was, legally at least, a person as well as a chattel, and Reresby didn't even consider suggesting otherwise as a defence. The same could not be said of the plantations or passages where assault or homicide would not conceivably result in criminal liability for the overseer or owner.
The accusation of gelding itself is a bizarre one. Reresby repeatedly calls it "ridiculous" repeatedly and it seems no means a common, or known practice. At sixteen, any castration would be too late to create a eunuch in the Asian tradition or a castrato singer. The accusation is no doubt related to the handsome youth reaching his sexual virility. Was the European paranoia about African male sexuality already established in the 1670s? Was the accusation (assuming, of course we take Reresby at his word and it was not true) pitched at play on the lurid prejudices of the public to further embarrass Reresby, or was there, in fact some scandal involving the boy which gave seed to the accusation?
Even from the little we can glean it was a sad tale. The nameless boy may well have had a better life with Raresby than he would in Barbados, possibly no worse than another domestic in the house of an aristocrat of the time. His legal position as a slave was ambiguous, but his de facto lack of freedom clear. He was taken from the plantation, but also probably from his parents, conceivably for the sake of his looks. He was given away by his owner, probably to curry favour with an influential man and lived out his short life as an object of curiosity. Even if he was not, in fact emasculated, in death he found no dignity, leered at as a corpse, exhumed and his cadaver used as a political pawn.


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Why Buy a Scandinavian House?
In Scandinavia they do things differently to the UK. There, it is usual for homes to be manufactured in factories as pre-constructed panels and assembled quickly on site. Over half of the new homes there are built this way and it's perfectly normal to have a house roofed and watertight in a week. The whole turnkey project can be completed in ten to twelve weeks, minimising the time you need to spend in a caravan or temporary accommodation.
In the UK around 10% of homes are self-built and the government and the National Custom and Self Build Association are keen to see this significantly increase. Right to Build plans are in place to enable more people to build their own homes each year and you could be among them.
So "Why buy a Scandinavian panel house?"
Well why start from scratch and design your own when you can select the perfect, architect-designed home from our range
Our suppliers have over one hundred individual designs to choose from, with new ones added all the time.
We offer a complete construction service so you won't have to build it yourself. All you need is to find the plot and obtain planning; we can even provide help and advice on that too.
From start to finish, your home can be completed in around 20 weeks from placing your order, which includes factory delivery time of 10-12 weeks.
Scandinavian houses are typically made from sustainably forested timber frames and are designed to be warm and energy efficient. Using renewable technologies, including solar panels and heat pumps it is possible to achieve a high level energy performance certificate of A or B.
Of course no-one expects a modern home to be draughty but Scandinavian homes have had strict air tightness requirements for far longer than we have the UK. This means our houses are completely draughtproof and typically achieve air permeability of better than 2.0m3/hr/m2. By use of a warm air heat exchanger, minimum energy is wasted and home comfort can be maintained whilst ensuring a constant supply of fresh air. As is the norm, all the homes have highly efficient triple glazed windows and doors with U values of 0.9 and 1.0 W/m2K respectively.
Our suppliers have been making homes for over 40 years, so you can be sure the house we build for you will be everything you wish for.
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Banda mocha (Sp.: mocha, 'to cut')
- John M. Schechter
- , revised by J. Richard Haefer
(Sp.: mocha, 'to cut')
An ensemble of gourd (puro) trumpets of various sizes, used in the Chota river valley of Imbabura and Carchi provinces of Ecuador. Formed in the late 19th century by Afro-Ecuadorians without access to Western military band instruments, the ensemble includes several puros (calabazas) and pencos (cabuyos) along with other instruments. Puros, about 30 to 60 cm long, are made by cutting a rectangular blowhole near the stem end of a dried gourd and opening the distal end to form a sort of bell. Various sizes provide lead, alto, and tenor ranges. Pencos are made of hollow agave stems about 30 cm long and 7 cm in diameter, with a blowhole cut near one end on a side. The similar chile frito, an ensemble of central Guerrero, Mexico, consists of imitation band instruments made of assembled sections of gourds.C.A. Coba Andrade: 'Instrumentos musicales ecuatorianos', ...


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|Call Me Back Again
"Call Me Back Again" is from the 1975 Wings album "Venus and Mars." It is a fine album track, with Beatlesesque harmonies that weren't really appreciated at the time.
Paul is re-releasing the old Wings catalog, and "Venus and Mars" is getting the deluxe treatment. So, this album track, which featured heavily on mid-70s Wings set lists and was on Wings Over America, the classic Wings live album set, gets a brand new music video to accompany the release.
Incidentally, if you watch the video, you may wonder what the numbers mean - and rest assured, they always mean something. MPL is not chary about letting that information out for us plebians to understand, so let's have at it, shall we:
- GAR 6922 was the McCartney family phone number when Paul was growing up at Forthlin Road [MPL];
- The "Venus and Mars" release date was May 27, 1975, thus the number 270575.
This is just a fascinating continuing project. Imagine, if you will, a world in which Shakespeare could come back and illustrate a portfolio of his plays for us, or Caruso could return and re-record his best operas. They could say, "Why are you overlooking this one? It has a deeper meaning than any of the others, and here's why. But you've overlooked it!"
That is roughly what is going on here, and you can take that analogy any which way that you want to in your head. This continuing retrospective can't last forever, so enjoying this while it lasts is the key.
|The Venus and Mars album cover was a ubiquitous sight in the mid-1970s. The two balls - pool balls - are meant to represent... Venus and Mars.
The video heralds the deluxe treatments that the former Beatle is giving both "Venus and Mars," and the following year's "Wings at the Speed of Sound." The former featured the hit single "Listen to What the Man Said," while the latter contained fan favorites "Silly Love Songs" and "Let 'Em In."
The two-disc deluxe versions, which both came out on 4 November 2014, have been expanded to include demos and previously unreleased tracks, as well as a remastered copy of the original album. The three-disc configuration contains a hardback book with previously unpublished photos, interviews with McCartney, track-by-track info and a bonus DVD with footage from around the time each record was released.


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The Sony F3 Put to the Test: 12+ Stops of Dynamic Range and a Bit of Aliasing
Video gurus Art Adams and Adam Wilt have put the Sony F3 through a suite of proper resolution, aliasing, IR sensitivity, and tonal-scale tests, and compared it with the Panasonic AF100 (now in stock at B&H), RED, and ARRI ALEXA cameras. We'll have to wait for Zacuto to publish their forthcoming single-chip shootout to get a look at proper real-world comparisons (their DSLR vs film shootout was nominated for an Emmy), but here are the result for the time being. The F3 gets 12 + stops of dynamic range -- before upgrading to S-Log, which Sony is claiming offers significantly more dynamic range -- which, in this price range, is unprecedented. More from their results:
Both cameras maintain fairly constant dynamic ranges through all their gamma curves; the different gammas do good jobs of affecting the overall "look" of the images while grabbing as broad a range of brightness as possible. The AF100 captured 10+ stops as far as I could tell; the F3 managed 12+ stops (the combi chart steps in 1-stop increments, so it's hard to get a much more precise reading. In some gammas there was a hint of another stop just creeping up out of the black, but it's hard to quantify).
However, I'm not tremendously excited about the AF100, and here's one reason: in reaction to the resolution test, where they note the AF100 resolves 680 lines, Adam states, "it's got 12 megapixels—that's about the same as a RED ONE—and this is the best it can do?" Ouch. To be fair, the AF100 is roughly a third the price of the F3, but at the same time, it's three to five times the price of a good HDSLR (and Panasonic's own EVIL cam, the hard-to-find GH2, offers a pretty similar image at one fifth the price). The AF100 is a good camera and it's certainly adequate to most tasks, but to me it's not a game-changer. So let's move onto the F3, which I think along with the RED EPIC-S is going to be the camera of choice for indie features for the next few years.
Definitely click through to read the full article, wherein they get extremely technical, but not all is roses in F3 land: the camera exhibits moire and aliasing, not nearly on the level of a Canon DSLR, but it's there. Which is disappointing for a $13,000 camera, but not a deal-breaker given it's not going to rear its head in many real-world shots -- but in some situations, it could. Apparently the F3 uses a 3.36 megapixel sensor, which gives it enough resolution to survive the roughly 25% resolution loss involved in demosaicing to yield a true 1080p signal, but there is some funky chroma aliasing going on -- not something I'd worry too much about in the real world, but it is something to be aware of. They also publish charts from the ALEXA and RED, and neither of those cameras have any aliasing problems whatsoever.
Back to the bright side: Adam pinpoints an issue I've already complained about -- the F3's lack of a smooth roll-off in saturated highlights (the video I linked to is a perfect example of this, as it's a blown-out skintone). He says the F3 behaves the same way as the EX1 and EX3, which he previously explained:
The standard-gamma knees work properly for uncolored highlights, but when a highlight has a strong chroma component, the knee shuts off prematurely, allowing colored highlights to suddenly blow out. The degree of this blowout depends on the saturation of the highlight, and it only happens in standard gammas... Cine gammas are not affected by the problem.
So not only does the F3 offer 12+ stops of dynamic range -- before any upgrade to S-Log -- but the highlight problem I was worried about apparently only affects non-Cine gammas (which I never touch anyway). Unless your feature film is about the life and times of a resolution chart, the F3 is a proper competitor to RED, as I've said all along. You can talk all you want about 4K, but look at it another way: the small form factor of both cameras will be as big a deal for filmmaking as any specification. Check out this guerilla short shot on the F3 by The Big Mamoo, with no permits, at LAX airport of all places:
Sony F3? Possible. RED EPIC? Possible. ARRI ALEXA? No way. A full-size camera would attract too much attention. There's more to choosing the best camera for the job than the decision to shoot in 2K, 4K, 5K, or 23098402394K.
Link: AG-AF100 and PMW-F3 on the Charts - ProVideo Coalition
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6 Comments
Yeah don't really think it was the most scientific test. They used different lenses on each camera and they were older Ultra primes - who knows what the results may have shown with a better lens like a Master prime and same lens on each camera - forget about crop factor - just move the camera! Also did they record to on-board codecs? They should have recorded both via SDI to best high bit rate recorder like Nanoflash at 220Mbits. They also output frames using ProRES which is not the best codec for chart tests - Cineform would have been much better choice. Better yet - uncompressed?
So while I buy that the F3 is better than the AF100 - I don't buy much else in the test - hopefully someone will do a proper test and thrown in some real-world, professionally lit cinematic shots also.
March 19, 2011 at 11:26AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
What gets me really excited is that if Canon doesn't waste this opportunity, they could potentially come out with a camera with similar features as the F3, but at the price of the AF100. There's really no reason why they can't, they've been doing R&D on these video DSLRs for at least 3 years now. They've got the head start, they already developed their own codec and there are rumors of a partnership with Apple - for what, who knows - hopefully it's with Apple's ProRes.
If Canon came out with their 50Mbps MPEG-2 codec in camera, and an HDMI uncompressed or RAW option at a similar price point and form factor as Sony, forget it - no one will be able to find the camera because it will be sold out. I think it would really put pressure on Sony to develop a better option sub-$10,000 rather than their not very impressive looking NXCAM for $7,000.
March 19, 2011 at 2:17PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I agree - would love to see Canon jump in while they still have an edge. We shot our last feature with the 7D and loved everything about it except the horrible codec - would be an easy fix to at least put their new 50Mbit 422 codec in a DSLR? And would love to see live 24p signal via HDMI!
March 19, 2011 at 2:58PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
"their DSLR vs film shootout WON an Emmy"
March 19, 2011 at 4:27PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM


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Accor has grown its Western Sydney presence following a managerial takeover of the Crowne Plaza Norwest Sydney in April.
The hotel has just completed its rebranding to Novotel Sydney Norwest and will officially launch this evening, with David Elliott MP, Local Member for Baulkham Hills as well as Clr Andrew Jefferies, Mayor of The Hills Shire Council in attendance.
Located in the thriving business community of Norwest Business Park, the hotel has easy access to Sydney CBD, which is a 40 minutes drive and Parramatta just 15 minutes away.
Nestled within beautifully landscaped gardens with a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere, Novotel Sydney Norwest is the ideal accommodation choice to meet the needs of both business and leisure travellers.
The 132 room hotel boasts well appointed guestrooms including balcony and spa rooms. In addition, there are a number of excellent facilities, including a restaurant and a bar, outdoor swimming pool, gym and conferencing facilities for up to 300 people.
The rebranding will see the hotel offer Meeting@Novotel conferencing that promises instant availability, hassle-free, bespoke solutions, dedicated support and well-being.
In addition, the F&B direction has been transformed with a focus on delicious, high quality offerings. F&B experts from around the Accor network were involved in reshaping the new direction, launching new menus that offer quality cuisine for both hotel guests and Hills District locals.
Novotel Sydney Norwest is the 28th Novotel hotel in Australia, joining the Asia Pacific Novotel network of over 100 hotels, with over 25,000 rooms.
For more information, please visit www.novotelnorwest.com.au


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