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One of the things I'm hoping to see when I head to Barcelona in a few weeks is the Casa Vicens, the first private home designed by the great Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926). It was originally built to serve as a weekend retreat for a Barcelona stockbroker, over 125 years ago. The house served as a private residence until as recently as 2014, but as of this November, it has been opened to the public as a museum.
Regular readers will recall that I previously wrote about the ongoing restoration efforts at the Casa Vicens, a house which features a dazzling variety of materials and construction methods, both inside and out. As you can imagine, there had been a lot of wear and tear on the building, as happens in any home that is actually lived in. Yet while parts of the house were altered over the years, visitors to the new museum will still be able to witness many of the extraordinary architectural and design juxtapositions which the young Gaudí was able to pull off.
From the multimedia gallery on the museum's website, I wanted to point out a few of the amazing details of the house, which was nothing like Barcelona – or indeed the rest of the world for that matter – had ever seen before. Here we see part of the façade of the house, along with its extraordinary gate and sidewalk railing. The color scheme is a mixture of salmon, turquoise, peach, and green, while an unusual range of materials from brick and stone to tile and concrete give some hint of the extraordinary design elements that await the visitor inside. Note also the ornate yet rather modern-looking wrought iron gate, which is composed of a series of panels in the form of palm fronds.
Once inside, many of the public rooms of the house have spectacular ceilings featuring bright color schemes, which forgo tradition and subtlety in order to achieve maximum impact. For example, this detail shows that Gaudí was quite capable of creating a ceiling design reminiscent of Perpendicular Gothic, which most architects would have left white. Here however, the stucco and tile elements are executed in a cobalt blue and a chartreuse yellow-green.
Here we see one of the public rooms of the house, with another extraordinary ceiling – this time of scallop shells and roses. The walls are covered with faux marble wainscoting below, and two-tone cranberry red plasterwork of vines up above. This room gives onto a tiled loggia, where the openings are simplified forms of architectural shapes that one would expect to see in Islamic buildings.
Head upstairs to one of the bathrooms, normally one of the more utilitarian areas of a house, and the unusual juxtapositions continue. Here, the architect places modern-looking corbels and compound support beams above a Pompeian red plaster wall with arcade detailing, baby blue and white checkerboard tile wainscoting, a slim chair rail border composed of tiles decorated with quinces and leaves, and bright yellow flowers festooned across the ceiling panels. Considered individually, none of these things should go together, and yet the overall effect is that of an ancient Roman bath somewhere in Provence
Finally, up on the roof of the house, we can admire a detail which hardly anyone would have ever seen up close, even when the house was filled with guests. The maids would have come up here to perform tasks requiring sunshine and breezes, such as drying the household laundry or beating the dust out of rugs. They would have seen not only the colorful elements of the building's façade, but also this almost Mid-Century Modern railing of flowers contained within simplified, circular vines. The delicate design belies the sturdy, wrought iron craftsmanship that went into their execution.
Now, if you find all of this too much to take, don't worry about it. Personally, I've always been fascinated by this house, but I understand that it may not be to everyone's taste. And truth be told, I wouldn't want to live in it, myself. (Where would I hang all the paintings?)
That being said however, you certainly can't call the Casa Vicens a boring piece of architecture or design. The young Gaudí, with his first major commission to complete, and his patron, a man who clearly didn't fear trying something bold and original in his own home, managed to create a truly unique house, and to do so with a great deal of self-confidence and aplomb. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to finally have a wander around the place.


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Renal Denervation of Accessory Renal Arteries
Author + information
- Published online March 1, 2014.
Author Information
- Farrell O. Mendelsohn, MD∗ (fmendelsohn{at}cardiologypc.com)
- ↵∗Interventional Hypertension Therapies Program, Cardiology PC, 801 Princeton Avenue, SW, Suite 707, Birmingham, Alabama 35211
In the October issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, Id et al. (1) compared the results of renal denervation using the Symplicity catheter system (Medtronic, Mountain View, California) in patients with and without accessory renal arteries. This issue is not insignificant considering that 27% of the resistant hypertension population may have accessory renal arteries. These patients have, for the most part, been excluded from clinical trials of renal denervation devices. The drop in office-based systolic blood pressure at 6 months was significantly less in the patients with accessory renal arteries than in those with only main renal artery trunks (–6.2 mm Hg vs. –16.6 mm Hg). The patients with accessory renal arteries were further subdivided into 2 groups; the subgroup with complete accessory renal artery denervation experienced a slightly greater drop in systolic blood pressure than did patients with incomplete treatment of their accessory arteries (–8.8 mm Hg vs. –4.1 mm Hg).
Renal denervation targets the sympathetic nerves located in the adventitia of the renal artery wall (2). The nerves travel from the spinal cord along the artery and then to the kidney where extensive branching occurs. Early anatomic studies using electron microscopic autoradiography demonstrated that the majority of renal nerves terminate at vascular structures within the kidney (3). Based on these anatomic findings, the nerve traffic to and from the kidney corresponds at least roughly to the blood supply, traveling with both accessory and main renal arteries. So patients with accessory renal arteries may be predisposed to a lack of blood pressure response if treated with a denervation technique targeting nerves only in the main renal artery—just as was reported in the article by Id et al. (1).
Yet, why was the blood pressure-lowering response in the subgroup with "complete" renal denervation of accessory renal arteries less than that in the group with only main renal artery trunks? This difference may in part be explained by limitations of the monopolar renal denervation system used for ablation of accessory renal arteries. Cooling of monopolar catheters from blood flow is critical to avoid tissue damage from catheter overheating. In low flow conditions such as with accessory renal arteries, cooling may be inadequate. The system generator will then terminate energy delivery to prevent overheating, but it also halts the ablation, potentially compromising denervation efficacy. Other renal denervation systems that do not require cooling may be more effective for accessary renal arteries (4). It will be critical to understand the differences in renal denervation technologies and their applicability to the subset of patients with accessory renal artery anatomy.
Please note: Dr. Mendelsohn has received consulting fees from Medtronic and Boston Scientific/Vessix and has served on the medical advisory board of Boston Scientific.
- American College of Cardiology Foundation
- ↵
- Id D.,
- Kaltenbach B.,
- Bertog S.C.,
- et al.
- ↵
- ↵
- Barajas L.,
- Powers K.
- ↵Sievert H. REDUCE-HTN clinical study interim 6- and 12-month data. Paper presented at: Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics Conference 2013; October 28, 2013; San Francisco, California.

subset: commoncrawl


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Okay, let's see if we can get through this without gagging. The Kamen Rider pop idol group, Kamen Rider GIRLS has announced the release of their newest single, and as a "special bonus", the wrestler and self-proclaimed Kamen Rider fan Hiroshi Takahashi will appear in the music video along with Kamen Rider V3. MY sincerest condolences to Kamen Rider V3.
The new single will be a rock cover of the classic theme song, "Tatakae! Kamen Rider V3", originally performed by Miyauchi Hiroshi, who played Kamen Rider V3/Kazami Shiro. In the video, Takahashi will fight alongside Kamen Rider V3 and the GIRLS against Destron.
The shoot took place yesterday (June 17th), and Takahashi expressed how much of a dream come true it was for him to star in the video and fight alongside Kamen Rider V3.
Aside from this single, the Kamen Rider GIRLS will make covers for other Rider theme songs, which they will release in an album due out in a Cd and CD+DVD (with free poster) release on August 8th. I'll admit that their first single, the cover of the original Kamen Rider theme, wasn't half bad. But this just seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
-M.C., the Quantum Twin


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** Text: Eclipses are the best time to meditate or channel Light. Twin Eclipses amplify the effect.
Eclipses release subtle Spiritual energies which cover the Earth and bring major changes at all levels ~ individual, societal, national and global. Guruji Krishnananda **
Following their recent update, Revolution By Light has provided more details regarding the Eclipses.
Source: Revolution By Light
TWIN ECLIPSES – AN OPPORTUNITY (9th March and 23rd March 2016)
Guruji Krishnananda had said that Eclipses are very important events. They bring major changes at all levels – individual, society, nation and the entire globe. We may not notice them. All these changes depend on the Karmas and the Time.
Generally, the effect of an eclipse begins 48 days in advance and lasts for the next 48 days. Every eclipse has its influence all over the world. That is why during an eclipse, we choose to meditate. Eclipses are the best time to meditate.
Every eclipse releases a lot of subtle energies which cover this entire earth. If we meditate during the eclipse period, the eclipse energies clear our Karmas, heal us and bring us enormous inner strength. Every eclipse is important; every eclipse brings us wonderful new energies which help us to positivise and transform.
Please read on....


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John 6:66-69
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"
As we approach Palm Sunday (April 17, 2011), I want to deal with Jesus, Who is the WAY, the TRUTH, & the LIFE!
John 14:6
First things first: "What is Palm Sunday?" Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The feast commemorates an event mentioned by all four Canonical Gospels (Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19). It is the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before His Passion.
Have you had a Palm Sunday in your life? Have you had a triumphant entry of Jesus into your life and heart as it relates to His Passion? Your life cannot be lived out in its full or total capacity of purpose without the encounter of the passion of Christ! Many of us only wait on or want the promises of Christ, but we are to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings!
Philippians 3:10
"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death."
Jesus brought love, hope, faith, and forgiveness to the world. Jesus died for all mankind, He suffered for all of us. The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental of Jesus in the hours before and including His trial and execution by crucifixion.
Today is the day for you to decide if you are going to stay with Christ or walk away? Many disciples left Christ during His ministry prior to His death. Jesus asked the disciples that stayed after the others left, "Do you also want to go away and leave me?" Today, Jesus is asking you, "Will stay or will you go?" Will you stay during the sufferings, persecution, recession, hurt, pain, and all other things that will cause you to want to give up?
What if Jesus would have chosen to walk away without dying for our sins? We would have been damned to hell without a chance at eternal life. If Jesus did not walk away from the Cross, then we should not walk away from Him.
Peter answered Jesus' question with a question: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Lord where shall we go? You have the words of eternal life… Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter said there is no one else to go to, there is nowhere else to go, and no one else has the words of eternal life (way, truth, & life).
"Jesus is your whom, your where, and your word!"
Peter along with the other disciples had come to BELIEVE & KNOW that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God! Who do you say Jesus is to you? Have you BELIEVED, and do you really KNOW Christ?
Jesus wants a triumphant entry into your life & heart. Allow Him to come in and heal, set-free, and deliver you from all your sins, hurts, pains, and your past. He is ready and willing to do so today! There is no other way, no one else, and only He has the words, which is the way, the truth, and eternal life! Christ died so that you might live! Choose LIFE today, by choosing Christ!
Prayer: "Lord Jesus, I confess my sins before you, and I ask you to make me clean and whole in your righteousness & deliverance. I believe in my heart that you died for me, and I confess today that you are My Lord & Savior. Thank you for dying for me, and I know today that I have eternal life with you because of your sacrifice for my sins. Help me to live a godly & holy lifestyle. Jesus, help me to live out my purpose, and also to share the love of the Gospel with all those that I come into contact with, in Jesus' Name-Amen!"
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Jesus is the ONLY WAY!0 comments
Posted by Evangelist Tashara Luster-Beasley at Tuesday, April 12, 2011
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Helping get the teachers the materials they need.
The best way we can help our teachers is with providing them with the tools that help them teach our children. The following list details the materials that each teach has indicated that would be of the greatest help to their in class efforts.
Teachers please help us help you.
Classroom Support
Teachers, if you would like to use, or have used, some of your classroom support please complete the attached reimbursement request and return it, along with your receipts, in the PTA Treasurer's box. Thanks!
Attention Teachers!!! We need your Wish List!!!
We are soliciting items for the Wish List in the entryway. Suggested items can include books, posters, supplies, instructional materials, visual games, miscellaneous equipment, etc. that you feel would be beneficial for your classroom. Please complete the form below or send your requests to Leanne Iscaro at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Contact Us today
Pearland, TX
Did you know that heating and cooling makes up around 50 percent of the average American's energy budget? A big part of the reason for this is that as many as 90 percent of the homes in the United States aren't properly insulated, and if this is the case for you, your hard-earned money could be literally leaking out of your home! Don't let a lack of insulation lead to high energy bills in your home. Save money and add comfort by taking advantage of spray foam insulation from Eskimo Insulation. Our insulation contractors serve Pearland and all of southeast Texas, and there's no insulation installation project that we can't handle.
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Our Service
Our spray foam insulation can be used in a variety of applications, including roofs, walls, floors, containers, sound rooms, and metal buildings.Learn More


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The Impermanent Book
Nothing new under the sun. Nobody alive has ever read an original by Aeschylus or Aristophanes. We read copies from copies that were copied from other copies of copies. There are endless discussions about the "originality" of certain passages of Euripides´ "The Phoenician maidens", to name just one. I think we just have to get used (again) to the relativity of the concept of authorship.


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Haven Season 5 Episode 25
Audrey backs to Nathan at station, she tells him what Croatoan wants. Nathan plans to get Duke back, but at night Duke is hunting troubles.
Croatoan shows up to Nathan and Audrey, he try to shoot him but doesn't work. He wants to show her the future, and he gives Nathan copy of Audrey. He wants him to leave town with her. But he refused.
Duke shows up to Dwight, he wants the controller. Otherwise he will lost his daughter. He didn't tell Vince about what they want.
Audrey use one of trouble to fix Aether's core, Duke shows up try to stop her. He destroy their Aether. Audrey success to convinces and get Duke back.
Croatoan found out and he start to get his troubled back, he tells them to kill him to stop him. But they don't want to, Nathan decides to kill him.
Dwight goes to see Croatoan for his daughter, he decides to give Croatoan the controller.
Audrey found out that Nathan goes to see Croatoan, he send Nathan and copy of Audrey out of Haven.
Audrey goes to see Croatoan and asks him what happen to Nathan, he tells her that he decides to leave with copy. Nathan and copy of Audrey are out of Haven, they don't remember anything.
Croatoan shows her the big cloud of Aether, he tells her now her life is with him.


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Based on the traditional Korean folktale of two brothers, the old and greedy older brother is Nohl Boo, played by Lee Soon Jae. He is a wealthy real estate billionaire who cares only about women and money. His younger brother, Choon Bo (played by Jang Yong), is kind, caring, and submissive to him. The two brothers have not seen each other for nearly twenty years, since Choon Bo gave his youngest son, Yeong Goo, to Man Bo because he wanted a son. Choon Bo's wife believes that her youngest son died at birth. Twenty years later, Choon Bo goes bankrupt, and with nowhere to go, asks his brother for help. Living in the small house next to Man Bo's, Choon Bo brings his three children, his daughter-in-law, and his wife with him. Together they live towards a brighter day. Man Bo's wife and daughter are eager to make Choon Bo's daughter, Soo Jin's life miserable. When Soo Jin and Mi Ree again fight over the same guy (Jang Hyeon Tae), it is no surprise that the nice girl wins. As two families clash over women, men, family secrets and money matters, the good guy teaches the "bad guy" a lesson - just like the Korean folktale.
Source: Soompi
This is a cache file - life of cache file is 30 days
1decd9c0e726911a39835cba5264cf45 - August 11, 2020 - 5:34:50 am


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Enjoy the anti-aging benefits of Apple Stem Cells with the anti-inflammatory properties found in pure CBD oil — combined in this easy-to-use cream! The results of Apple Stem Cells have been scientifically proven. Let your skin experience extraordinary longevity and regenerative properties.
CBD Age Fighting Cream with Apple Stem Cells
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In stock
For optimal results, apply CBD Age Fighting Cream to your face and neck regions in the morning and night as part of your skin care routine. Because it absorbs easily and smoothly, it can be combined with other skin care products such as moisturizers, serums, and toners. Be sure to only use CBD Anti-Aging Cream as directed.
The Science Behind Aging
Throughout our body, all our cells are constantly being replenished, and skin cells are no different. Epidermal stem cells are required to create new, healthy skin. As we age, we maintain less of these stem cells in all our organs, and so this process becomes less efficient. This is the basis for aging throughout the body, although we normally can't see the effects for other organs quite like we can with skin.
In short, in order to combat the effects of aging effectively, we need new stem cells, but the body cannot produce its own easily.
Why Use Apple Stem Cells?
Apples are a very unique fruit. Over the course of hundreds of years, they were specially-bred for longevity without refrigeration. Nowadays, apples are bred for their appearance and flavor, but some varieties of apples—namely an apple native to rural Switzerland—still have this anti-aging built in.
In trials, extract from this apple reduced wrinkles by an average of 8% in only two weeks!
Why Use CBD Oil?
CBD has been demonstrated to have powerful antioxidant properties potentially even exceeding vitamins E and C, both highly regarded for their anti-aging effects. Antioxidants reduce free-radicals, which damage cells, including skin cells. Not only that, but free radicals speed up collagen break-down. This means that CBD can help slow down the aging process.
Another cause of aging is slowed oil production, but studies have also demonstrated that CBD can stimulate the body's own endocannabinoids to enhance oil excretion at sebaceous glands. This is why CBD is also excellent for eczema!
Lastly, CBD is well-known for its anti-inflammatory abilities. This property relaxes the skin, minimizing the appearance of any existing wrinkles.
Why Use CBD Age Fighting Cream Instead of Other Products?
CBD Age Fighting Cream has been specially formulated with a blend of apple stem cells and pure CBD to maximize its anti-aging results.
By regularly using this product, you'll notice younger, brighter, and tighter skin.
Don't settle for products that have not been scientifically proven to reduce wrinkles or may cause unwanted side-effects. The all-natural CBD oil and apple stem cells in CBD Age Fighting Cream are perfectly safe and intended for cosmetic use. Applying non-cosmetic products containing CBD oil may have unintended effects due to the introduction of other chemicals. Use only CBD Age Fighting Cream for safe, effective results.
Additional information
|3.90 oz
|2.45 × 2.5 × 2.15 in
Active: PCR Hemp Oil
Other: Purified Water, Glycerin, Caprylic/ Triglyceride, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Butylene Glycol, Malus Domestica (Fruit Cell Extract), Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Stearic Acid, Cetyl, Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, Peg-16 Macadamia Glycerides, Octyldodecanol, Propylene Glycol, Zea Mays (Corn) Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Cholecalciferol, Retinyl Palmitate, Ascorbic Acid, Pyridoxine HCI, Silicate, Sodium Propoxyhydroxipropyl Thiosulfate, Silica, Polysorbate 20, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Potassium Sorbate, Hexylene Glycol.
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Tag Archives: babes in Christ
MORNING "Babes in Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:1 Are you mourning, believer, because you are so weak in the divine life: because your faith is so little, your love so feeble? Cheer up, for you have cause for gratitude. Remember that … Continue reading
Posted in Devotions, Morning and Evening Tagged abundance, affliction, babes in Christ, believer, believers, boast, bought with blood, charles haddon spurgeon, child of God, Christ, christians, covenant, daylight, difficulty, divine life, divinely inspired, downcast, faith, Father, feeble, glory, glory in God, God, God of my salvation, God's praise, gratitude, harvest, heaven, heavenly places, hymns, inspiration, israel, Jesus, joy, justification, justified, light, little faith, lord, love, melody, mercies, morning and evening, music, night, praise, praise God, ray of light, rejoice in the Lord, salvation, sing, songs in the night, thanksgiving, triumph, triumph in Christ, vanity Leave a comment
MORNING "Babes in Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:1
Posted in Devotions, Morning and Evening Tagged babes, babes in Christ, believer, charles haddon spurgeon, Christ, christians, deeble, divine life, faith, glory, God, gratitude, hymns, Jesus, joy, life, little faith, love, mercy, morning and evening, music, praise, salvation, songs in the night, weak Leave a comment


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Thai stir-fry with peppers + cabbage
December 8, 2009
After proofreading dozens of pages and writing a dozen more at the Awesome Job That Pays The Bills And Tickles My Brain, I am all out of words. But let me squeeze out just a handful more to tell you about this:
Thai stir-fry with peppers + cabbage
- 2 red and 2 yellow bell peppers
- 1 hot pepper (optional)
- 1 medium onion
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon Thai curry seasoning
- 1/2 medium cabbage …or at least I think I used cabbage?
- In a wok, stir-fry all vegetables on high heat for 2-3 minutes.
- Add curry powder and coconut milk.
- Let it all simmer on low for 5-7 minutes.
Best enjoyed over rice, on the night of the first snow.
Lentil + cauliflower curry with smoked paprika
October 28, 2009
If you've visited our home recently, there's a good likelihood that I attempted to sprinkle smoked hot paprika into or onto you. I'm good at restraining myself from putting it in coffee, tea, or desserts; everything else, however, is fair game.
And just how did this obsession come about, you're wondering? It all began on a leaden December morning off the coast of Georgia, when my husband and a couple of men-in-law were tasked with the job of catching our Christmas dinner. I contributed by making occasional calls to Mr. Onepot's miserable boat-bound self from the caffeinated warmth of my mother-in-law's house, only to be greeted with semi-intelligible, wind-whipped grumbles that mostly amounted to, "NO-kgrhsh-grm-fngh–LATER!"
…And the catch, at the end of all that? Zilch. So, naturally, Mr. Onepot and my men-in-law went straight from the boat to a seafood store. Turns out, though: even the most reputable fish market on a small Georgia island tends to get a bit quiet right before Christmas, and its desperate customers can select from just two grayish piles of undefined seafood-like matter. Who knew.
Enter smoked hot paprika! Let me just say that our mystery fish was transformed from colorless, quivering heaps to perky and confident fillets with some courageous dashes of this magic powder and a couple of sliced lemons. And thus began my obsession.
Fast forward 1o months, to an October Monday that taunted me with its entirely premature dusk and mediocre television offerings. It seemed like paprika would help. And while I was getting it out, I also came across its good friend, the Spice House curry powder:
Next, a quick cabinet-and-fridge search yielded the following playground for those lovelies:
- 2 cups of red lentils (so small! so adorable!)
- 1 medium cauliflower
- 1 onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 1 thumb-size piece of ginger
- ~5 cups of water
- 1 bunch of scallions
If you're playing along at home, here's what to do:
- Saute the onion+garlic+ginger for ~5 minutes, adding a generous dash of curry powder and paprika approximately 2 minutes into the process.
- Add the lentils and 4 cups of water. Cover and simmer on low, stirring occasionally, for ~20 min.
- Toss in another cup of water, along with the chopped cauliflower.
- Cook on low until the cauliflower is as soft as you want it to be.
- Serve over rice or quinoa, with chopped scallions.
Eggplant + potato curry
October 17, 2009
Oh, how we loved this improvised curry that used up our end-of-the-week produce odds and ends:
- 3 potatoes
- 1 eggplant
- 1 carrot
- 1 thumb-sized ginger remnant
- 1 medium onion
- 1 bunch of cilantro
Saute everything except the cilantro with a small dash of salt and a huge dash of curry powder. Then, add 1 can of diced tomatoes and an equal amount of water. If preparing this in a pressure cooker: cover, bring to a whistle, and simmer for 15 minutes. In a plain old pot, it will likely take closer to 20-30 minutes. Serve with cilantro and a dollop of yogurt. Great over rice or with pita bread!


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Mortgage Guide 101
Your Guide To Home Buying
Mortgage Guide 101 was created to provide you with accurate and clear information about mortgages and how to negotiate mortgages with confidence.
We do not directly sell any type of mortgage products or mortgage services through this web site. We are also not affiliated with any mortgage or finance companies. We are here to provide information and help you navigate the maze of mortgage mumbo jumbo, as well as give you the inside scoop.
Mortgage Guide 101 will give you definitions of key mortgage terms. We'll explain what those mortgage terms mean in ordinary English. We'll give you tips, and sometimes point you in the direction of tools that will help in your search. We'll even tell a few war stories along the way.
Mortgage Guide 101 is an independent information source and our mission is to provide tips on helping you to get the right mortgage. In addition to those tips, you will also get access to trusted financial companies through the links at the top of each page.
Information on this site has been collected from many sources including: personal experience working inside and for financial services companies, as well as our own experience buying homes and negotiating mortgages. Feel free to contact us at our e-mail address if you have any mortgage questions or any Mortgage Guide 101 suggestions. We'll be happy to hear from you.
Remember, the most important thing is deciding you are ready to buy. Then, before you buy, take the steps to make sure what amount of mortgage you qualify for and with which lenders. Your mortgage 'pre-approval' will let you know what your price limit is when you are house hunting.
There are a multitude of online sites which can step you through the process of finding financing and even pre-approving you for a mortgage. It can save you a lot of footwork. Your online search is worth the time and effort. Even a partial percentage lower on your mortgage interest rate can mean thousands less in costs over the life of the mortgage.
We have some great information you should know, as a consumer, before you sign for a mortgage for your property. I'm sure you will find Mortgage Guide 101 helpful!


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Start a Web Design Business without Coding Knowledge
The general opinion in the design community is that you must know coding. I disagree. While most designers today have a pretty good grip on HTML, designers who are focused heavily on visual design such as graphic design, identity or brand development usually only have the fundamentals down. There are also creatives around the world without the finances or availability to pursue training in additional skills such as JavaScript or HTML5 who deserve a fair shot at a successful and competitive business.
If you love design and have a talent for color, layout and functionality, you can succeed as a professional web designer. Where things become difficult is when clients begin asking for things that are beyond your knowledge level. You also need to consider the ever-changing landscape of web technologies. If you're not able to produce websites in HTML5 or CSS3 to accommodate mobile users and adapt to new standards, you may lose any competitive edge you may have had.
So what are your options?
You can:
- Enroll in classes to learn HTML or JavaScript
- Read a few books and try learning on your own
- Hire someone else to do the work
- Only offer design services and leave it up to the client to find a developer
These are all viable solutions, but they all have drawbacks. You may not be able to dedicate time or money to learning new skills while trying to build a startup or freelance career. Books, while certainly resourceful, won't contain the most updated information and leave a lot up to experimentation. Hiring someone else cuts into your profits and can be risky or frustrating. Limiting your professional services limits your audience and will also limit your ability to compete.
If you find yourself in this position, an efficient strategy is to build your business around a set of solid tools and resources that enable you to produce high quality work from your designs all the way to your hosting offering and support. This way, you won't need to hire anyone else or spend unnecessary funds on advertising.
The Toolset
You may already have access to graphic editing tools such as Photoshop or Gimp, and the web is a phenomenal source of stock art, elements, fonts and tutorials so I won't get into the design process here. Instead, let's focus on how to create highly functional websites using interactive technologies such as Flash, jQuery and HTML5 visually.
Your shining star is the Wix website builder. Wix provides a set of cloud applications for creating completely custom websites, Facebook pages and mobile mini-sites using Flash or HTML5 featuring a drag and drop UI with all the features you need for styling and laying out each element. They offer a vast library of templates, effects, fonts, animations and widgets, or allow you to start from scratch. Essential elements such as galleries, image slideshows, video players and forms are easily inserted, and you can use any of the integrated services for enhanced functionality or build your own HTML widgets. The builder has a huge library of stock graphics, photos and background textures and provides ample space to upload and store your own. But Wix is not just about design. It includes support for Google Analytics, SEO, adaptive layouts and localization. They really have just about everything covered.
Being able to create professional looking, interactive and bespoke websites using the graphic design capabilities you already possess will empower you to build up a business with a better chance of attracting the kind of clients you want, and Wix even helps you get there. The Wix Pro directory helps you promote your services to the world and all existing Wix members, and designers are featured daily, giving your designs the exposure they need to drive traffic to your portfolio.
How to Get Started
Step 1 – Create a Portfolio
Even if you have an existing website or blog, create your own website with the application to experiment with the various features and capabilities and show off your creativity. Be sure to add a page about yourself and a light description of your services. Don't worry about pricing lists – simply add a custom quote form using the Wufoo widget or similar service.
Step 2 – Challenge Yourself
Create a few websites with a few pages each to explore various techniques and styles or to appeal to the kind of clients you want to attract. They don't have to be complex or based on client work. Make up your own brands or re-imagine an existing website to show how you could make it better. Put these designs into your Wix portfolio.
Step 3 – Connect Your Social Networks
Create a matching Facebook page and mobile site, or use a fluid layout on your original design so it works in both a desktop browser and a Facebook iFrame app. If you have a blog, integrate it or add an RSS feed and cross-link everything for better continuity.
Step 4 – Promote Yourself
Sign up for the Wix Pro directory and submit your portfolio. Advertise yourself on social networks and actively participate in the design community. Get involved with your target audience and consider contributing to design repositories, stock websites or design magazines to increase your name recognition and skill visibility. If the budget allows its nice to hire a freelancer or profession company to SEO and promote your website. Keep in mind that it should be white hat SEO, if not you'll be screwed up by search engines. Here you go if you're looking for full service internet marketing in Chicago
Step 5 – Keep Creating
Now that you don't have to worry about spending a ton of time struggling with something that may be difficult, uninteresting or expensive to learn, you can spend that time finding inspiration and creating designs, both for yourself and your clients. Surplus designs such as graphics, backgrounds and illustrations can be sold for passive income on design marketplaces, turning your downtime into profit.
You still need a basic understanding of HTML websites so you can insert widgets where needed, but building websites in this tool is based on your creative ingenuity and willingness to succeed. It is also 99% profit. Wix is a completely free application, right down to its hosting service and amazing support. Premium services such as custom domains and additional space are extremely affordable compared to similar services. If rolled into to your package costs, you stand to make 99% profit. Compared to the thousands of dollars in licensing fees for other software, web hosting and training, this is a huge benefit for designers who are just starting out.
There is a measure of business savvy, self-discipline and social networking that goes into making a design business a success, but in one weekend you can be well on your way.
If you like to have a look and try Wix HTML5. Here are resources for Wix HTML5 Review and if you decide to purchase save some bucks using Wix HTML5 Coupon Code


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Main Content
About the Talk
January 30, 2010 6:35 AM
Austin, TXAustin, TX
Have you ever experienced a time when you wanted to use your favorite dynamic web framework but were hamstrung by a legacy technology stack? What if you needed to create a quick one off or custom application but couldn't figure out how to access your legacy databases using your favorite rapid web development platform? At Bazaarvoice, the new multi-database branch of Django has become an invaluable tool for us to build rapid prototypes on against our existing, legacy, sharded data platform. I'll walk through how we use the multi-db branch in this capacity and then further delve into how we used Django along with a custom built SOLR datastore to solve one of our most technically challenging customer problems to date. While I'll be using Python and Django as the backdrop for this talk, hopefully it will inspire you to push the boundaries of the technology stack you use on a day to day basis in your workplaces.


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Putting TRAC to Work
News Organizations
Galveston Daily News
February 10, 2013
Prosecutions for weapons violations reach lowest levels in years
By Michael A. Smith
Federal prosecutions for weapons law violations have dropped to their lowest levels since 2001, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The decline began in 2005 during President George W. Bushs second term and continued through 2011, during President Barack Obamas first term. Despite a slight uptick in 2012, the prosecution numbers likely will provide ammunition for groups fighting attempts to add new guns laws in response to several high-profile mass shootings.
External Link
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
Copyright 2013


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BT Forum
No new posts
|Moderators: k9car363, alicefoeller
Run Through the Grapevine 8K - Run8k
View Member's Race Log View other race reports
Pre-race routine:
Woke up at 5 a.m.; had a bagel and coffee for breakfast. Drove to race site to sign up.
Event warmup:
Jogged around for 10-15 minutes and stretched. Played some basketball with 8YO daughter.
Started out a little too fast (8:10 first mile) which came back to haunt me a bit. Really struggled on the steep uphills and probably walked 5% of the course. Just about rolled my ankle several times on the rough terrain (I never run on trails, so I'm not used to it). Hit mile two @ 17:00. Third mile was the single-file path area through the woods, plus another uphill section. Didn't see any mile markers after the second, but obviously my times really slowed down as I went along. I desperately just wanted this race to finish.
I didn't kick at all and was very happy the lady who finished behind me didn't force me to sprint. :-)
Final time of 44:31, which I'll take given the difficulty of this course.
What would you do differently?:
Nothing really, maybe slow down a bit the first mile, though I doubt that hurt anything.
Post race
Warm down:
Milled around watching my wife's aunt finish. Noted that no one looked happy finishing; they just looked relieved.
What limited your ability to perform faster:
No trail running and didn't really prepare for the race.
Event comments:
This is the final race of the year for me. Since the HM last month I haven't done much running and have been focusing on swimming for the most part. I also haven't run any trails and haven't raced a cross-country run since high school.
This course is freakin' brutal. Uphill, downhill, sidehill, gopher holes, grapevine branches, roots in the woods. I would have much rather hiked it than run it. Very pretty, though. This is also a pretty competitive race with almost 600 runners.
Howard County Striders did a good job running the race. Nice t-shirt which I didn't get because I signed up day of race, but I got a discount on the entry fee because of this. Good post-race food, etc., and everyone hit the tasting room afterward.
My feet and legs are killing me next day from the brutal assault.
Last updated: 2010-11-05 12:00 AM
|General Discussion-> Race Reports!


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Withings Move customization
Be the first to know when Withings Move can be made to order with a fully customized watch face.
The Nokia Digital Health business was acquired by Withings co-founder Eric Carreel. The Withings brand will return by the end of 2018. Learn more
Withings MoveFrom US$ 69.95
Withings Move is an advanced activity tracker housed in a classic watch designed for simplicity: it has no screen but shows your activity directly on the dial with its third hand.
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With up to 18 months of use with no charging, Withings Move has the longest battery life in the market so you can enjoy hassle-free activity and sleep tracking and go the extra mile for your health.
* All battery claims depend on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors; actual results will vary.
When you walk, run, swim or bike, Move will automatically record your activity. And by long-pressing the side button, you can launch a workout session—this will activate a chronograph and connected GPS so you get duration, distance, elevation, and your path mapped in the Health Mate app.
If you wear your watch to bed, Withings Move will automatically track light and deep sleep cycles, duration and sleep quality via the Sleep Score.
Every day, find out how restorative the night was with a score based on duration, depth, regularity & interruptions.
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I went to the Three County Fair this passed weekend. The experience turned out better than I thought. What I wasn't expecting was an awesome band. And I was impressed by the energy, humor, and talent of local band Llama Lasagne. They delivered a fun time for all.
Check out some photos I took of them:


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CSULB, Switzerland Engineering School Team Up For ProgramPublished: May 2, 2011
It's a good thing Alvaro Monge didn't simply delete an e-mail he received one day from Switzerland back in 2006. If he had, CSULB may not be a key player in what is now known as The Summer University in Computer Science. The program promotes interaction between computer science faculty and students from select U.S. universities and their counterparts at Switzerland's Haute Ecole d'Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud (HEIG-VD), a Swiss engineering school.
"The Summer University program is an idea that grew out of the conversations I had with the faculty from Switzerland," said Monge, a CSULB computer science professor, noting that the campus will host the program this July for the first time in its five-year history. "They contacted several universities in California, particularly computer science departments. Five years ago I was one of the people they contacted and luckily I said, 'Yes, let's do something.'"
From those initial conversations, the collaboration created a summer program, funded by the Board of Higher Education of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, (DGES) since its inception in 2007.
"It's been a great experience," said Monge. "They came and talked to us before starting and we gave them a tour of the campus and the facilities. They did research to find universities that had computer science programs and reached out to them. When I responded to them they then wanted to come out and meet me and some of our other faculty. Our relationship grew from there."
One of the program's major goals is to provide an opportunity for international collaboration, cultural exchange and networking between American and Swiss students and faculty. For Swiss students, it's a chance to immerse themselves into a 100 percent English-speaking environment.
"Out of this program, they learn to communicate better, become more sociable and learn to become members of a team and work on a particular project," said Monge. "Most of the classes require that." He points out that even classes taught in Switzerland during three of the first four years of Summer University were all done so in English.
From July 4-29, 32 students are scheduled to be on campus as part of Summer University; 20 from Switzerland's HEIG-VD, four from San Jose State University, six from CSULB, and two from India.
Students will take four courses, each one using a computer lab in which they will work in teams. They will complete assignments by applying concepts learned in the discussion section of the courses. Students will be placed in the courses according to stated preferences and efforts are made to have a diverse set of students in each of the courses in order to meet one of the goals of the program, international collaboration.
"Each campus that participates in the program defines those four courses and their participation in the program determines what students can earn toward their program at the university," said Monge. "We give our students credit for a directed studies course and that counts as an elective in their undergraduate degree. So, they earn full credit.
"It's a big commitment, because it's a full day and it's Monday through Friday," he added. "There may be one or two days we make an excursion to a local company or we have guest speakers, so it's all related in some way to the class they are taking or the local industry."
In addition, the program has a social agenda with trips to the beach, Hollywood and a Major League Baseball game on the schedule.
Classes are taught by faculty from each of the participating institutions and the Switzerland congregation will have assistance from an additional staff member.
Monge, who has taught courses in Summer University each of the first four years, will not do so this time around because of a busy schedule administering the program. Instead, CSULB Professor Burkhard Englert and Associate Professor Todd Ebert, both from the Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department will be among the faculty.
Scheduled courses include Computer Graphics Applications, Image Processing, Scala, Constraint Programming, Multiprocessor Programming, Artificial Intelligence and Games, and Introduction to CUDA Programming.
"When we went to Switzerland, it was a whole new learning experience for our students," said Monge. "They had to take a train to get to the university and do a little bit of walking and they're not used to that because they are just used to driving. A lot of our students commute, so when we went to Switzerland, we stayed in dorms, which is the first time for some of them; they took public transportation and relied on it and ate cafeteria food. These are things, unless they are full-time students living in the dorms on campus, they don't experience. I'm sure it will be much the same kind of experience for the Swiss students who come here this summer."
"I can't stress how much it was beneficial, both academically and culturally," said Computer Engineering and Computer Science graduate student Haney Williams, who went on one of the trips to Switzerland as a senior. "I just felt very welcomed in Switzerland and the Swiss organization provided a lot for us, from school expenses, one great meal a day, dorm, transportation, trips, company visits, and extracurricular activity, and even some pocket money to spend."


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Our Joint Venture Business Plan
Cooperation is the key. To develop, industrialize and commercialize our proprietary Electro Water Separation™ with Advanced Oxygen technology (EWS:AOx™), OriginClear Technologies (OC Tech) nurtures a worldwide network of Joint Ventures.
These Joint Ventures contribute their expertise in verticals, or in regions, or a combination of the two.
These privileged relationships can be based on the joint development and operation of showcase sites for specific applications to extend our core technology.
To qualify as a Joint Venture, we will ask you to provide us with a valid business plan supporting your intended market or application.
All of those who participate in a joint venture business plan will agree to safeguard our Intellectual Property and OriginClear Technologies. Joint rights are supported.
If you think you fit these requirements and wish to discuss our potential mutual project, please contact us.
Current OriginClear Joint Venture Partnerships
OriginClear currently participates in three Joint Venture partnerships.
- Cobalt Aqua Control, LLC (CAC), of Texas, USA focused on Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) remediation in crude and natural gas wells and pipelines.
- Ennesys SAS, of France, develops and markets waste-to-energy modular systems for off-grid sites.
- OriginClear Water Solutions Sdn Bhd, in Malaysia, is OriginClear's arm for global business development in the region, including but not limited to Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) treatment solutions.
- OriginClear Thailand, targets 2.8 million enterprises to modernize waste water treatment.


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Have I ever told you about how I adopted our dog? Well, over the last year-and-a-twirly-whirly-half I became a Girl Scout leader! Fun right? Well…. kind of – we'll talk about that in another post. So, there is an event at the beginning of every calendar year called, "Cookie Kick-Off". This event is the beginning of cookie selling season for Girl Scouts of America. The cookie season only lasts a few months, so its a big deal. In any case, thousands of girl scouts get together in stadium arenas all over the country. Ours is held at Allstate Arena in IL. There are concerts, cookie booth competitions, cookie recipe tastings, shopping, games, ice skating and hockey. It is quite an event. This past year, the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and NW Indiana also conducted an official contest with the Guiness Book of World Records to officially count the most people simultaneously dunking a cookie in milk. We broke the record! Huzzah! In any case, I digress – my point is that there is a lot going on at this event. Additionally, there are two animal shelters with pop-up adoption sites in the arena. So, last year, we attended with a small group of daisy scouts (the youngest girl scouts). When we walked in, my husband knew we were done for. He knew immediately we were coming home with a dog. Some kind of a dog. Admittedly, I had been pining for a dog. We tried various adoption sites. Some of which were too expensive. Some of which seemed as if they would rather keep the dog themselves. We eventually gave up. And then this. These puppies!! All amongst the girl scouts shouting and reaching and the adults grabbing for adoption forms as if we were in a bidding war for the cutest dog!! It was fast-paced and intimidating! By the end of the evening I had applied for 3 dogs. I was wait-listed for 1, outbid by 1 and turned down for 1 (because we have a cat). I was defeated. I headed back to by seat for the Girl Scout hockey game in this giant arena when I got a phone call! The wait-listed dog was up for adoption! The first person in line for her adoption was turned down and I was next! I was so excited!! Down all the stadium stairs I ran, past all the hot dog vendors and ice cream dot stands. I saw a little white doggie with a pink nose just terrified of all the noise and commotion. That was my dog. I was so overcome I had tears in my eyes. I completed all the paperwork and put her little coat on her and attached her leash. I couldn't stop admiring her sweet white and pink face. I called my husband on the phone, still in the stands. He gathered up the other girl scouts and brought the car around. He looked unsure about the sweet dog. It was chilly and there were snow flurries hitting our faces as we piled into the SUV with the pup. As we headed away from the arena, my husband says, "That's a pitbull you know…". I scratched her little pointy ears wondering what kind of a monster crops dog ears and absent-mindedly said, "What? It is not". "It is", he said, "its a staffordshire terrier – a pitbull". The little daisy scouts shrank back in their seats a little bit. We were all silent. Could we return her? Would she eat us? I had no idea what to do! I felt like I had gotten wrapped up in some kind of an animal whirlwhind that was now dying down and this was what now sat beside me.
She seemed harmless enough. At the moment anyway. We discussed names and came up with "Bella". Short for Bellatrix Lestrange from the Harry Potter books. Sweet and scary we thought. It seemed to fit her. We made a pit stop at a Petsmart for a crate and dog food and then headed home to drop off the scouts.
For a long time Bella did not make a sound at all. We weren't sure she could. Three months after living with us, we heard her bark for the first time! A sound! Oh and it was loud and deep. A strong bark. It took probably 6 months for us all to adjust to one another. We learned that Bella liked other dogs and played well with them – but did occasionally bite softly. She liked the cats and 1 of the cats decided she was ok if she was not going to be eaten for dinner. The other cat decided he was too old and set in his ways and no way was he going to be bathed by a dog. (That's still true by the way, but they do now lounge together on occasion.)
Later in the year, we had a family emergency and without enough time to find a proper dog sitter, we took her with us and drove 16 hours to visit family in the south. We learned she was a lovely travel companion! She loves car rides and seeing new sites. She met her dog "cousins" and discovered her soul-playmate, a little pipsqueek named Cleo.
I wasn't sure how "attached" I was, even 6 months after we adopted Bella. We traveled with her, bought her cute canine clothes and took her to the "fancy vet" because she has a lingering medical condition due to the way she was treated prior to the animal rescue. One morning last fall, I was in such a hurry getting my children to school. I am always in a hurry it seems, but I was definitely having one of those days. I forgot to put Bella in her crate before I took the children to school. When I came home, I saw her empty crate and realized my mistake – but I couldn't find her. I looked everywhere. The yard, the garage, the basement, the kids' rooms…. and then I went in my bedroom to flop down on the bed in dismay and there was a fair sized lump under our white comforter. There was a little pink and brown nose that peeked out as I came further into the room. There she was! I was so relieved! I didn't realize how attached I had become! I was in near hysterics because I thought we had lost our "scary breed" hockey-rescue-dog with a medical condition. From that moment on, for me at least, she was *my* dog. She was *our* family dog. There is not even one thing you can tell me about "pitbulls" or more correctly, staffordshire terriers now that would make me afraid of my own dog. Bella now earns her keep so-to-speak. She comes to sit on my feet if I'm working in the kitchen, she barks if someone is standing on our porch – and thank goodness too because I don't hear well. I appreciate the extra home protection because my husband often travels. She is gentle with my children and does not chase the cats. She has settled into her life with us – Halloween costumes and all, and we have settled into our life with her. What I did not know is that "Rescue" is my favorite breed. #Rescues #StaffordshireTerriers #Pitbulls


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Dec 19, 2017 - National Geographic Explorer
To be several hundred miles from land in the middle of the Southern Ocean is a very special wilderness experience. This area is so remote, so inhospitable to us, yet it is home for the albatrosses. Today we bundled up in our warmest clothes, armed with optics and cameras. We gathered on the aft deck and shared some special moments with the seabirds as they glided effortlessly by the ship.
Join us for updates, insider reports & special offers.


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No wonder a pearl necklace is the embodiment of classic sophistication and everlasting elegance. Therefore, a Pearl Necklace is the only thing of all the pieces of jewelry in the world, that a woman should not be without. This Pearl necklace is absolutely simple, sweet and timeless. It will add that elegant touch to your variety of outfit needs, from casual day wear to formal evening attire.
visit the shop for details!


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Four new cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Sunday
There are four new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa, while no new deaths have been reported in the capital for a ninth consecutive day.
Ottawa Public Health provided an update on the COVID-19 situation in Ottawa on Sunday afternoon.
Since the first case of COVID-19 announced on March 11, there have been 2,110 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa, including 263 deaths.
Three people are in hospital for treatment of COVID-19 related illnesses, including one in the Intensive Care Unit.
Recovering from COVID-19
Ottawa Public Health reports 1,800 people have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19.
A total of 85 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in Ottawa are now considered resolved.
There are 47 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa.
There are two active COVID-19 outbreaks in Ottawa: The Perley Rideau Veterans Health Centre and at the Peter D. Clark long-term care home.
According to the City of Ottawa, there is one active COVID-19 case involving a staff member at the Peter D. Clark long-term care home.COVID-19 Cases in Ottawa


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Erbslöh is developing the Győr site into its Eastern Europe centre - VIDEO REPORT
As a result of the introduction of a new surface finishing technology, Erbslöh will acquire a considerable competitive advantage. With its recent investment, the German automotive supplier will quadruplicate its revenue and double the number of its workers in Hungary. As part of the EUR 45 million expansion, Erbslöh is building a new manufacturing plant in Győr that will grow into a regional production centre.
Erbslöh, a member of the Wuppertalian WKW group develops, manufactures, processes, and finishes aluminium products. The German company, founded more than 150 years ago, has been present in Hungary since 1998; the site in the Győr industrial park primarily processes and heat treats aluminium profiles, injection moulds plastic parts, and assembles pistons. JLR, the manufacturer of the brands Jaguar and Land Rover is one of the most significant partners of the Hungarian unit that also supplies Audi, BMW, Peugeot, Volkswagen, and Volvo.
Based on the results achieved together and after a close regional competition, the management of the German company decided to create its regional production centre in Győr. As part of the approximately EUR 45 million investment, the Győr site will be expanded to include a new unit that produces car window decorative elements. The finishing technology to be installed in Hungary is unique not only here, but in the world as well. Local employees will play an active part in kick-starting this technology, therefore the products manufactured, finished, and assembled by the company will be included in even more premium automobile brands.
The 190 new jobs created by the project will also double the current number of employees, considerably increasing production volume. The staff will be built up consciously, step by step. Erbslöh strives to employ and keep all talented employees while maintaining the existing familiar atmosphere.
Germany is not only Hungary's most significant trade partner and largest foreign working capital investor, but according to the latest survey of the German-Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, German companies feel good in Hungary, as based on their past experiences, more than 80% of the surveyed market participants would choose Hungary again as the location of their investment.


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Rishi Sushi Ready to Open Downtown
Downtown commuters recognize North Third Street primarily as a connector, the road that links I-670, I-70, and I-71 to the greater Downtown area. Few hospitality-based businesses have really thrived with a North Third address, one of the more recent failures being Fleur, a champagne-dessert bar that never quite caught on with its key demographic.
Fleur was located at 114 North Third Street, in the Exchange Urban Lofts, and in about a week or so, a new tenant will occupy the space, hoping to imbue life not only into lunch time, but into a burgeoning downtown scene. Rishi Sushi is the latest from the owners of Moshi Sushi, an inspired take on traditional Asian fare.
Rishi's idea is to elevate Asian comfort food to a true dining experience. Customers can expect a menu littered with fresh ramen, sushi, tapas, and Asian burgers. These will be made from the highest quality ingredients David Kim, chef, manager, and co-owner of Rishi Sushi, can find.
This means Scottish salmon, big eye tuna, and blue fin tuna for the cleanest tasting sushi, 21-day, dry-aged beef, butter brioche from The Angry Baker, and gluten-free soy for sauces for the burgers, a broth that takes two days to make for the ramen, and duroc pork belly to make everything better.
Menu items should range anywhere between $4 and $30, so guests can customize their meal based on how much they want to spend. Rishi Sushi will also have a full bar stocked with a vast selection of wines, craft beers, specialty cocktails, milkshakes, and juices.
The 2,500 square foot restaurant will seat roughly 85 diners inside, with another 60 seats being planned for an outdoor patio. The interior will have an upstairs and downstairs featuring vibrantly-painted walls to offset the intentional ambiance of elegant, positive energy.
"People flock down here to work day in and day out, and people need great places to eat," shares Kim. "We want to push the idea that Asian food is more than just stir fry, that there is something for everyone, whether jeans and a t-shirt, or suit, or burger, or sashimi. We want everyone to leave happy."
Rishi Sushi's hours of operation will be Monday-Thursday, 11am – 11pm, Friday, 11am – 11:30pm, and Saturday, 4pm – 11:30pm. Happy hour, with a daily turnover of different drink and food specials, will run from 4:30pm – 6:30pm, Monday-Friday. It will be closed on Sundays.
For more on Rishi Sushi, and for their exact opening date in the next week or so, follow them at www.facebook.com/rishi.
Photos via Rishi Sushi.


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What We Can Do
Our Services
Food & beverages
All this makes us a strong, reliable partner to our customers in the food and drink industry. We support them with innovative materials and a comprehensive range of services.
No matter which branch of the chemical industry our customers belong to – we at Soonhi Group. have the engineering expertise to support them in the design and construction of efficient chemical, refinery, and other industrial plants.
Mining & metals
Mining & metals – global services and products from a single source
Mining is a key sector in the exploitation of raw materials. Capital spending in the sector has increased steadily in recent years to meet growing demand for raw materials from manufacturing industry.
Mechanical Engineering
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Oil and gas
The Materials Services business area operates around 480 sites in 40 countries focused on worldwide materials distribution. Our oil and gas experts have outstanding engineering skills, making them strong partners when it comes to developing tailored solutions for customers.
Energy generation and distribution
Energy generation and distribution – sustainable technologies for a better future
Who We Are
About Us
As one of the world's largest engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and maintenance (EPFCM) companies, Soonhi Corp. offers integrated solutions that bring our Clients greater capital efficiency with improved cost and schedule certainty.
A variety of industries
Our projects are implemented using a dedicated Task Force concept with multi-disciplinary specialists for mega-projects; and a Production Unit concept for smaller-sized projects, where team members are drawn from engineering pools.
Amanda Seyfried
Head of Innovation
Ethan Thomas
Customer Relations
Donald Simpson
Head of Operations
Jeff Green
Managing Director
The mechanics of industry is easy. The real engine is the people :
"Their motivation and direction."
Ken Gilbert
Keep Up To Date
If you want to contact us about any issue please call +44.2084323088 or send us an e-mail. If you would like to submit a proposal for consideration simply submit a quote.


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First trained as a Jungian psychotherapist, Christensen developed a love of photography and the psychological implications contained in "found" visual environments. As she immersed herself in her photographic art, she became keenly aware that the viewer's perception of a naturally occurring visual vignette is determined by the way the viewer "frames" the vignette in their own mind, in the same manner as a photographer frames a visual vignette with the camera lens.
Thus, Christensen found natural and architectural vignettes in her newly adopted home of Santa Fe. Informed by her training in Jungian psychology, she frames each photograph to compel the viewer to immerse themselves in the psychological space she presents. Christensen's newest photographs from her series depicting swimming pools and their surroundings are included in the exhibition. Concepts of ritual/spiritual/psychological renewal and rebirth through descent into water—and return to the land on which we humans live—invite the viewer to dive into their own interior perspective, and perhaps emerge renewed and expanded.
This exhibition is concurrent with Natalie Christensen's exhibition at University of New Mexico and throughout public spaces in Albuquerque.
Christensen is a photographer based in Santa Fe.
Natalie Christensen: Altering Perspective
Exhibition Dates: September 7 – October 1, 2018
Opening: September 7, 2018 5pm – 7pm
Turner Carroll Gallery
725 Canyon Road
Santa Fe, NM


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(Names and details have been changed to protect the gross, but please DO NOT mainpage this)
During my 3rd year of college, I moved in with my best friend Liz and another of our friends, Amy. Liz and I met on the very first day of freshman year and bonded instantly, and Amy was just... around all the time, so she was a friend, but she was never a ride-or-die.
We thought we'd all be adults about stuff and sat down before we moved in to hash out things like shared space, who pays for which thing, etc. We decided to split up the utilities as evenly as possible and then things that were household needs (cleaning supplies, etc) would be done in turns. It was all very organized.
Liz and I moved in a couple of days after Amy did, so we were kind of surprised to see the hall closet filled to the fucking BRIM with toilet paper.
We're talking about A LOT of toilet paper. Like, 2 Costco-sized packs of it. We thought we'd never have to buy TP ever again.
We were wrong.
Thanksgiving break came, and Amy went home to her parents for the weekend. Liz and I were both more or less local so we opted to stay in our apartment aside from the family obligations and whatnot. So we're sitting around one night and I got up to go pee only to find that we were out of toilet paper.
HOW? How could this happen? By our math, we had enough for three reasonably normal women to get through at least a good six months. It had been THREE. So we put on our detective hats and started trying to figure this out.
Had Amy taken it home with her? This would not be unlike her at all, since she was VERY weird about "her" stuff whereas Liz and I shared everything with each other AND WITH AMY because... well, we were all friends and the 47 cents' worth of ice cream that I might eat out of Liz's Cherry Garcia was no big, because she drank half the milk I bought anyway. It literally didn't matter to us, but Amy was strange in that way (and many others). She would make food, but if you so much as took one molecule of that food, she wouldn't clean anything. Not her dishes, not her pans, nothing. I still, to this day, have no idea what her reasoning was.
Anyway, we started noticing some weirdness. Our apartment usually had a... smell. We chalked it up to being grody student housing and us being slightly lacking in the housekeeping department. However, after about a day of Amy being gone, Liz remarked "hey - it almost smells nice in here. Did you find the Febreze?" Me: "...no..."
We had some people over that weekend and one of them remarked on the fact that the trashcan in our bathroom was kinda big. Like, kitchen-sized trashcan big. We'd never paid any attention to that, since we were students and would scrounge and trash-pick things that we needed. Nothing matched and it didn't matter, but once that was pointed out, I started to wonder. Tiny bathroom-sized trash cans are hella cheap, so we 86'd the giant one and installed a smaller one.
When Amy got back after break, she never said a word to either of us about it, but all of a sudden the small trashcan in the bathroom was gone and the big one was back. She never, ever spoke of it, so I didn't either. But oh boy! I was suuuuuuuper curious now.
After a couple of weeks of putting together clues, here is what I figured out.
Amy had a phobia of getting anything on her hands. She washed them a lot but was very strange in the kitchen and wouldn't make or consume any food that you had to touch with your hands. Yeah, okay. Some people are like that.
IT TURNS OUT that her issue with getting things on her hands extended to the bathroom. As near as we could figure, she would go into the bathroom to do her thing and would wrap TP around her hand (like, a lot of it), wipe up whatever needed to be wiped and then
(stop reading now if you're having lunch or are in any way grossed out by bathroom things)
... she would... wrap THAT whole package up in MORE TP and throw it in the trash.
No flushing, you ask? No, apparently not. She told me she was taught to NEVER flush TP or anything that wasn't bodily waste down the toilet. Whoever told her this is a maniac weirdo, first of all, and fucking gross, second of all.
So she was putting all this mess in the trash, which would account for the grody smell in our apartment. We asked her, straight-up, what the deal was. And she told us, which I have to give props for because it's hard to expose your deep-seated gross weirdness sometimes. We asked her to um, STOP DOING THAT and she said she absolutely would not.
Liz and I were so fucking disgusted that we launched a passive-aggressive strike (we were 20, and in no way mature).
We knew Amy abhorred the scent of vanilla. Luckily for us, that shit was in EVERYTHING that year, so Liz and I went a little insane and got vanilla candles, vanilla air freshener, vanilla potpourri, vanilla hand-lotion... you name it, we bought it if it was vanilla scented. Our apartment smelled like a goddamned cupcake.
The kicker? Amy's major in college was Ecological Conservation. When confronted with the fact that she was adding to landfills, she shrugged. I can't help but laugh at the fact that she eventually flunked out. Not dropped out due to cash or circumstance, but straight-up got a bunch of D's and flunked right out.
Right around Easter, Amy asked if Liz and I could take over her third of the rent, and we agreed a little too quickly, I think. She moved out and took her giant Costco-sized packs of TP with her. Thank goodness, because it was either that or someone was going to smother her in her sleep (might have been me).
So, while it's not nearly as bad as some roommate stories, this is still pretty funny (to me) and nearly 20 years later, it still comes up sometimes as in "do you and Liz still talk to Amy?" Sometimes, but not often. Liz told me once that when she knows she's going to see Amy in person, she makes it a point to put on something vanilla-scented. That's why I love her and she is my BFF.
{ETA: to clarify, we are all suburban white Midwestern chicks, going to college in Midwestern suburbia, so no culture clashes or farmhouse septic system adventures would have informed anyone's behavior here. Straight-up weirdness, you guys.}


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Scribus 1.5.3 Released Changelog:
- The most important change isn't immediately visible, namely a completely rewritten text layout engine, which supports complex scripts like Arabic, Hindi or Thai, as well as providing access to advanced OpenType features, such as ligatures and alternate glyphs.
- Altogether, about 500 languages and/or scripts are supported. Please note that as of version 1.5.3, Scribus is supposed to render these diverse writing systems, which still needs thorough testing by those who are familiar with them.
- Typing on the canvas and text rendering in general has become a lot faster.
- Previews for fonts are now available in font selectors.
- The "Text" tab has been removed from the Properties Palette and is now a separate UI palette.
- The performance of copying and pasting objects in/from/to files with huge color palettes has been vastly improved.
- An import filter for Krita's KRA format has been added.
- Scribus now follows the XDG standard for configuration files. Therefore, the Scribus preferences directory has moved from ~/.scribus/ to a new default location: ~/.config/scribus/
Installation instructions:
Open terminal and insert command line...
|$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scribus/ppa
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install scribus-trunk


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Typefaces used on f
Corpulent Web
About this font
Corpulent is a display font whose forms are extremely thick, up to the extent of being nearly illegible. In 1980s, these construction principles were explored to their very limit. So if the lyrics of Eyes Without a Face resonate in your mind, the feet turn numb in super-tight trousers, and you fancy a big hair style, this font is the one for you.
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Suitcase Type Foundry is an independent type foundry, founded by Tomas Brousil in 2003 in Prague, Czech Republic. They specialize in the design and digitization of quality fonts for professional use. Apart from retail type, they also produce custom typefaces for corporate use and other specific purposes on commission. The fonts in their library have been designed with utmost care and are meticulously kerned and hinted.
About TypeTogether
Veronika Burian and José Scaglione met at the University of Reading whilst completing their MAs in Type Design, launching the independent type foundry TypeTogether in 2006.
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Our Schools
Bilsdale Midcable Chop Gate CE and Carlton & Faceby CE Schools (the Confederated Schools) are committed to ensuring the welfare and safety of all children in school. All North Yorkshire schools, including the Confederated Schools, follow the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board procedures. The school will, in most circumstances, endeavour to discuss all concerns with parents about their child/ren. However, there may be exceptional circumstances when the school will discuss concerns with Social Care and/or the Police without parental knowledge (in accordance with Child Protection procedures). The school will, of course, always aim to maintain a positive relationship with all parents. The school's child protection policy is available on request.


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i published my site to test the contact forms and not i cannot unpublish the site. i looked up instructions but the instructions are not working for me. when i click on edit site i am not taken to the a page where i may click on my site name then click on file manage to take the site offline.


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Join us every First Friday of the month in Downtown Hilo for Aloha First Friday. Experience the art and culture of downtown while enjoying complimentary entertainment and gallery receptions at select venues.
Shops, restaurants and galleries will be open late so you can experience Aloha local style in Downtown Hilo.
Special thanks to The Wave@92FM for their continued support of first Fridays in Downtown Hilo!


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p.s. each picture's caption is underneath, so there's no confusion ;)
Street Hearts!!
p.s. each picture's caption is underneath, so there's no confusion ;)
64 comments
Ohh thank for inspiration <3ReplyDeleteReplies
You're welcome :) <3Delete
such vibrancy n colors in the outfits.. love them all.ReplyDelete
Am happy you do :) xxDelete
Gosh I'm so flattered to be included amongst all these amazing bloggers and their looks, thank you so much! I'm so glad we found each other through blogging too <3ReplyDelete
I'm so obsessed with all these ladies' colourful looks, especially the Confetti Crowd, they always make such a fun statement!Replies
My pleasure doll :) <3 Yes, the Confetti Crowd are marvellous :)Delete
I simply adore the first and the third - It's such a bold style, I really love to wear.ReplyDelete
Me too, love bold style :) xxxDelete
Hello from Spain: I really like your photos. Your post is very interesting.Keep in touch.ReplyDelete
Morning Kizzy! Well, if my Wed were started pretty lazy and slow now Im happier since those ladies are all so gorgeous, bright and made me smile! Seeing them together is really cool, I think they have such unique and impressive style. Andini in particular is my fav, her bulldogs dress is way too sweet, plus I totally love the red pout. Happy Wed my dear, many hugs and kisses! xoReplyDelete
Amazing selection.... and the winner is: Busola, I love her style!!!ReplyDelete
Kisses, Paola.
My Facebook
So many beautiful women with different styles, but the common denominator is that they all love colors. I cannot wait to do something different. This post is so inspiring.ReplyDelete
So many gorgeous items featured in this post! If I had to choose a favourite, it would be the final image shown due to those gorgeous deep blue caged sandals!ReplyDelete
Gabrielle | A Glass Of Ice
All the bloggers look great. But i especially love Sara's look.ReplyDelete
bellissimo il look total valentino a righe !ReplyDelete
Don't Call Me Fashion Blogger
Andini look i like.. thanks for sharingReplyDelete
lovely round up of beautiful women and their amazing outfits kizzy!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous6 May 2015 at 14:11
Thank you so much sweety! I love all the other bloggers, probably because we like a lot the same things hihi <3ReplyDeleteReplies
You're most welcome doll!! Haha...yes, we do like a lot of the same things :) <3Delete
Lovely outfitReplyDelete
New post :
Those are some wonderful bloggers you follow! I love Heidi Petite's colourful outfit, and Busola looks amazing in hers! That vintage dress Sara is wearing with the rose pink tutu detail is wonderful. I agree with you about that dress Andini is shown wearing - I LOVE it!ReplyDelete
my Blog | my YouTube | my TwitterReplies
Am happy you like them. They have such fantastic styles :)) xDelete
Great picks! The first blogger look is my fav.ReplyDelete
Have a lovely day doll!
xx Lori
Am happy you like it doll :) Have a gorgeous day too xxDelete
Love Heidi's look, and great features here. Have a wonderful rest of the week doll. <3ReplyDelete
Artful StatementsReplies
You have a wonderful rest of the week too <3Delete
Aww, Kizzzzzzyyyy! Your soul is larger than life and i am really happy to have met such a beautiful person inside and out. You have been exceptionally nice to me and words can't explain how grateful i am. Thank you so, so much for the love and support....always Wow, i am just drooling over all these colorful ladies. Such brilliant and beautiful outfits. Looooovvvee!!ReplyDelete
Loooooooooove...my pleasure <333 You deserve it!Delete
Beautiful looks! I specially like the dress of bulldogs! so cute and totally my style :)ReplyDelete
Woooow! I love your blog. I hope you will like mineReplyDelete
Thanks so much, I do love your blog too :)) xxDelete
Such great and stylish picks!ReplyDelete
Check out my latest OUTFIT POST
XoXo Venoma
Venoma Fashion Freak
Amazing selection!!ReplyDelete
Fabulous fashion roundup Kizzy! These ladies all look amazing and I love the print Heidi is wearing.ReplyDelete
Rowena @ rolala lovesReplies
Thank you my dear! Yes, I love that print too, it's so lovely :)Delete
Gorgeous girls!ReplyDelete
Ahaha to cute!ReplyDelete
you made a great selection. Each and every one of these outfits is drop dead gorgrous, full of life and originality. This is what I love the most about blogging...finding these wonderful woman and seeing them rock their amazing looks....it always inspires me so much, much for then the actual fashion bussiness. This is what real fashion and style is for me!ReplyDelete
Thank you for sharing this with us...such a fantastic post doll!
Fries! Wow, that's intense. The first one is amazing, she's beautiful.ReplyDelete
Corinne x
She is beautiful indeed :) Love fries :)) xDelete
They are all so pretty and so pastel. Perfect for Spring!ReplyDeleteReplies
Am happy you like them :) xDelete
I really enjoy the style of Busola, Andini, and Suzie! Thanks for sharing and introducing me to knew sources of fashion inspiration! -JessReplyDeleteReplies
They have great style...you're welcome doll :) xDelete
Everyone has a special and unique style; can't pick my favourite- they're all amazing :) xx MajaReplyDelete
- http://majasmuffin.blogspot.com/Replies
They do, I enjoy them :)) Am happy you do too :) xxDelete
Amazing looks! So colorful and fun!!ReplyDelete
Awesome selection!ReplyDelete
Suzie is a goddess! Wow! *bows down* Love that look!ReplyDelete
- Anna
In love with the fries bag...All unique and amazing style!ReplyDelete
amazing, i love all that is fantasy ! great post. very good jobReplyDelete
Great selección! Have a nice day! KissesReplyDelete
Gorgeous ladies! My favorite outfit is Sara's though. Those sunglasses!!! :D xxxxxReplyDelete
Awesome group of ladies! Loving Heidi Petite and Andini!ReplyDelete
I love all of them! Especially the first two..and of course that bulldog dress. I have a deep love for cute, quirky prints. Thanks for introducing me to many great ladies. They have such inspiring style! And of course, you do too :-) Love it all.ReplyDelete
Love this post, so stylish and colorful!ReplyDelete
Welcome to my dreams, my thoughts & creations, stay a while & forget the world! Leave me a tale, a vision or two!! Thank you for your words, they leave glitter & stardust on my heart...
Keep in Touch:
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Because face recognition is the most natural thing for any human being, facial recognition would appear to be the most natural of biometric techniques. Human face recognition is the most widely used way of identification or authentication of identity, and accounts for the presence of portraits on most of the identification documents that we carry in our purses and wallets, be it an ID card, driver license, credit card, library card or gym club card.
This apparent ease of use is the cause for many fantasies, inconsistencies and difficulties while implementing automatic face recognition systems in the field. Because the technology has an outstanding competitor : the human brain, trained from birth to somehow do the exact same thing.
There are many applications. Automatic facial recognition is actually used in civil spheres in order to guarantee the unique nature of identity documents and in military or law enforcement applications, since the human face easily leaves "traces" when crimes are recorded by CCTV cameras or the cameras of witnesses.
In an effort to answer the increasing number of questions being put forward, Morpho has taken stock of facial recognition in general, its use, the state of the art of the technology and its technical and commercial potential.
Click on the file link below to read this well-researched paper.


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*Nicole Cushing was kind enough to provided a free ebook copy of The Sadist's Bible to go along with her interview! The link and details for the giveaway are located at the bottom of the post, following the interview 🙂
Today I am interviewing Nicole Cushing, recent 2016 Stoker Award Winner, and author of the new horror novella, The Sadist's Bible.
◊ ◊ ◊
DJ: Hey Nicole! Thanks for stopping by to do this interview!
For readers who aren't familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?
Nicole Cushing: I write dark horror fiction. Really dark horror fiction that strives to be well-written and emotionally realistic. My fiction has been described by reviewers as being both "brutal" and "cerebral". I often find myself compelled to write about traumatic experiences and their aftermaths. Addiction, homelessness, and mental illness often appear in my fiction, but strange mystical entities do as well.
I live in a working class subdivision in southern Indiana (near the border with Kentucky). I'm originally from Maryland, but I've lived in this so-called "Kentuckiana" border region for almost thirteen years now and often use it as a setting for my stories.
DJ: What is The Sadist's Bible about?
NC: The Sadist's Bible is about two women–Ellie (a married, closeted Bible Belt lesbian in her late thirties) and Lori (who is in her early twenties and bisexual). These two women live in separate parts of the country but meet on a social networking group catering to people who want to form a suicide pact. They find that they're attracted to each other, and come up with a plan to drive to a hotel halfway in between their houses where they'll have a decadent night of sex and then off themselves.
But Ellie doesn't really know Lori that well. And it turns out that Lori is hiding a lot from her, including a hideous set of entanglements with a truly wicked cosmic force.
DJ: What were some of your influences for The Sadist's Bible?
NC: This may surprise people because The Sadist's Bible is quite explicit in places, but one of the influences was Shirley Jackson. Ellie is intended to be a bit of an homage to Eleanor (the protagonist in Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House). In that book, Jackson did a superb job of depicting Eleanor's anxiety and eventual falling to pieces. I didn't want Ellie to be a carbon copy of Eleanor, but I wanted her to have something of the same feel to her.
Other influences include Thomas Ligotti as well as various old Greek and Christian stories.
DJ: What is the world of The Sadist's Bible like?
NC: Most of the book takes place in our own world. (Specifically, in southern Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia.) In other words, the Bible Belt. The culture of the Bible Belt plays a large role in the story. It shapes the social mores that Ellie, in particular, is trying to escape from.
But part of the story takes place in a mystical realm. (To avoid spoilers, I won't divulge much about that place.)
DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little about Ellie and Lori? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with them?
NC: My hope is that readers will be engrossed in Ellie and Lori's struggles because they find them presented in a way that's emotionally realistic. Even when everything else in the book is nightmarishly unreal, the pains and yearnings of my characters are intended to be powerfully real.
Lori has been sexually traumatized. Ellie is sexually repressed. Both of them are more than a little broken inside and that brokenness isn't helped when they become entangled in one another. While this makes the book unpleasant for some readers, many others seem to understand the need for fiction to honestly confront emotional pain.
DJ: What was your favorite part about writing The Sadist's Bible?
NC: This is going to sound weird, but I enjoyed the revision process. I worked on this project for a long time (off and on). Long enough to get the tone right. Long enough to get the subtext right. Long enough to steer each nuance in the best direction. Kat Rocha and Josh Finney (the folks at 01Publishing) were quite helpful in assisting with that process, especially in the final rounds of proofreading.
DJ: What do you think readers will be talking about most once they finish it?
NC: Every reader interprets the book in a slightly different way. But from what I've seen so far on Goodreads, readers are talking a lot about how damned disturbing it is. (If you're looking for pulpy action-adventure monster killing, look elsewhere.) They also seem to be talking about the depth afforded to the characters, which pleases me a great deal.
DJ: When I read, I love to collect quotes – whether it be because they're funny, foodie, or have a personal meaning to me. Do you have any favorite quotes from The Sadist's Bible that you can share with us?
NC: I'm going to decline to answer that for two reasons. First, some of my favorite lines in The Sadist's Bible would reveal spoilers. Secondly, I try to avoid public self-congratulation. I'm more comfortable with letting readers and reviewers talk about what quotes they liked.
DJ: The Sadist's Bible is a novella, and with the exception of Mr. Suicide (which I will ask about in the next question), all of your works have been short story to novella length. It seems to me like novellas have gained a rise in popularity again recently: what is it about the novella format that you like? Do you feel there is a particular advantage to telling your story that way over the novel?
NC: As a reader, I've long been annoyed by authors who pad a book with dull, inessential fluff or repetitive action sequences just so it reaches the magical 80,000 or 90,000 words a corporate publisher wants.
My hunch is that many novels would work better as novellas. I want my writing to have a significant emotional impact on the reader and that impact is more difficult to sustain over the course of three hundred, four hundred, or nine hundred pages. Brevity gives a story focus. Length often dilutes the story's power.
So when I started to write fiction I made a promise to myself that I would never pad a book and let down readers in the same way I've felt let down before. So far, this is a promise that I've been able to keep.
DJ: Stokercon 2016 happened earlier this month, and your novel, Mr. Suicide, won the 2016 Stoker Award for Best First Novel! Congratulations!
That must have been such an incredible feeling! What was your reaction and how did you feel when they called your name?
NC: Before I answer that question, I should probably first explain that being a nominee at an awards ceremony is a bizarre experience because your success or failure is hidden from you until the point when the verdict is announced from a stage, into a microphone, to a crowded room of your peers, and broadcast internationally via the Internet! If you think about it, there's no other situation in publishing quite like that. (Can you imagine if publishers handled short story rejections that way? Publicly announcing, at a grand ceremony, not only the Table of Contents but also the authors who came just shy of succeeding?!) Anyway, it was a real emotional challenge for me to keep an even keel under those circumstances.
I had been nominated for a 2013 Shirley Jackson Award (and lost) so I knew better than to count my chickens before they were hatched. I tried to get myself into a frame of mind of bracing for a loss. (Better to go into it expecting failure, I told myself, than to expect success and not get it.)
When my name was called, I felt numb! I had made a list of people to thank in the event I won, but I never anticipated it would actually get used. I think I got through the whole acceptance speech thing well enough, but it was all a blur. Probably the best part of that night was looking out from the podium and seeing my husband out in the audience, flashing a grin as big as Texas. That's one of the most special moments of my life.
DJ: Could you tell us a little about this award-winning novel?
NC: One of the most helpful ways to think of Mr. Suicide is as a strange hybrid of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". It's a story about a severely depressed teenage boy and his repeated failures to connect with others. It's about his twisted family, and how they only make matters worse. It's about his road to adulthood (a road paved with abuse, violence, and…ultimately…murder). The book was praised by Jack Ketchum, and one reviewer likened its tone to that of the more disturbing works of the Marquis de Sade. Suffice to say, there's no sugar-coating. It's a book that looks misery, squalor, and brutality in the eye (not to celebrate such aspects of life, as de Sade apparently did, but rather to mourn them).
DJ: Now that The Sadist's Bible is released, what is next for you?
NC: I'm working on a new novella that I can't talk a lot about quite yet. After I finish that I hope to take a little bit of a breather and then get back to work on my next novel. I also hope to be working on nonfiction pieces for various magazines in the near future.
DJ: Where can readers find out more about you?
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Nicole-Cushing/e/B0049DWUVQ
Blog: www.nicolecushing.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicole.cushing.9
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3377381.Nicole_Cushing
Twitter: @nicolecushing
Website: www.nicolecushing.wordpress.com
DJ: Is there anything else you would like add?
NC: I'll take a moment to thank Kat Rocha and Josh Finney of 01Publishing for having the courage to publish something as controversial as The Sadist's Bible. I also want to thank Ross Lockhart of Word Horde for having the courage to publish Mr. Suicide.
Small presses such as these are vital to continuing horror's longstanding role as an oasis for readers who aren't shiny, happy people. I suspect many of my readers have had firsthand experiences with the ugliness of the world, and know they're not going to find this ugliness acknowledged in the books trotted out by corporate publishers. So I think of my work as a noble calling.
DJ: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to answer my questions!
◊ ◊ ◊
*** The Sadist Bible is published by 01Publishing and available TODAY!!! ***
Buy the Book:
Amazon | Barnes & Nobel | Goodreads | Kobo
◊ ◊ ◊
Please click on the Rafflecopter link below to enter to win an ebook (.mobi) copy of The Sadist's Bible by Nicole Cushing! Good luck!
Runs through June 27, 2016 (06/27/16)
◊ ◊ ◊
About the Book:
How well do you know the people you chat with on a social network?
Thirty-seven year old Ellie Blake is about to find out. Her Bible Belt community wouldn't dare accept her if she came out as a lesbian. Her husband, her pastor, and her neighbors would be scandalized by such a disclosure. But Ellie's desire for another woman's intimate touch grows stronger with each passing day, as does her desire to be dominant – to tell another woman just how to please her, to tie up another woman so that she'll never, ever leave.
Ashamed of these feelings and hopeless of ever satisfying them, Ellie goes to a secret group on the social network and seeks out a partner for a suicide pact. There, she finds twenty-four year old Lori Morris–a woman who also claims devotion to death and lust. She agrees to meet Ellie in a hotel for an intense night of decadent sex and torture before suicide. But Lori has another agenda, too: to escape an oppressive force that might be God or might be the Devil. A force that even suicide may not allow her to escape. A force that wants Lori, Ellie, and all of humanity broken and brought to its knees.
About the Author:
Nicole Cushing is the Bram Stoker Award® winning author of Mr. Suicide. She has also written the Stoker-nominated short story collection The Mirrors and three stand-alone novellas (including her Shirley Jackson Award nominated book Children of No One).
Various reviewers have described her work as "brutal", "cerebral", "transgressive", "taboo", "groundbreaking" and "mind-bending". This Is Horror has said that she is "quickly becoming a household name for horror fans". She has also garnered praise from Jack Ketchum, Thomas Ligotti, John Skipp, S.T. Joshi, Poppy Z. Brite, Ray Garton, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and Ain't It Cool News.
A native of Maryland, she now lives with her husband in Indiana.


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The bad news: summer is slipping away with each passing day. They are getting shorter, the breezy, cool days of fall draw closer with each sunset during the month of August, and when they arrive, the carefree life that this glorious season allows will be far off in the distance as winter looms. The good […]
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