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A $90,000 donation from The Vancouver Sun's Raise-a-Reader campaign will support the expansion of the Vancouver Public Library's popular children's literacy program.
The grant will also support a brand new program next year.
The library's Man in the Moon program in which fathers read to their children will expand to two more East Vancouver branches in 2014 while a new after-school reading and activity program will be held at two other east side branches starting in January.
"With this generous funding from the Raise-a-Reader campaign we are excited to be expanding our programming for children and families and further supporting a culture of reading," said Julie Iannacone, the VPL manager of services for children and teens.
Raise-a-Reader has been raising awareness and money for literacy since 1997 — since then, it has raised nearly $7 million in Vancouver alone with B.C. government support — benefiting literacy organizations and literacy initiatives throughout the province.
"VPL leads vital literacy programs for children and families," says Patricia Wu, The Vancouver Sun's manager of local marketing for Western Canada. "These programs are important, as they help build lifelong skills for their participants, which in turn positively impacts our community.


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I want to talk to you about Wednesday and Thursday, as I've been building up those two days since the dawn of time (or since last week, at least).
Wednesday was my senior seminar presentation. Basically, having cut down my twelve page research paper about fortune's role in Pandosto down to eight pages, I proceeded to read those eight pages to an audience of professors, classmates, friends, and (bless them) my parents. It sounds boring, doesn't it, to read an eight page literary analysis to a crowd of people (many of whom were not, nor had any desire to be, English majors)? Well, it sort of was, but I tried to use everything that I learned in high school speech. I stood up straight, I used my clearest, loudest voice, and I tried to put feeling into my words. I care a great deal about my topic, and I viewed my presentation as a chance to make the audience care as well, at least a little bit.
My legs were shaking for the first few pages, but then I began to enjoy myself (as I always do), and when I would look up from the page, I would see my advisor listening carefully in the back, or my friend Ben grinning, or my Dad enduring nobly. It felt a great deal like my birthday party in that I felt supported and celebrated and (I'll admit only to you) a tad teary. Then there was applause, and it was over.
A few days later, I got an email from my professor containing my presentation rubric: I got a 99%. The 1% deduction, she explained, was because I had pronounced a word wrong. I'm not overly upset about that one, however, as it was spelled strangely in the citation I read it from, and thus I didn't recognize it to be the word it actually was, and thus pronounced it the way I saw it, and not the way I knew the word it actually was should be pronounced (whew).
Thursday was my Teach for America final interview. I'm not going to go into detail about this one, as we're under an oath of confidentiality, but I think I can tell you that I rocked it. That sounds arrogant. I know it does. But honestly, there's no other way to describe how well I feel I did. Despite having gotten five hours of sleep both Tuesday night and Wednesday night, and despite having had to navigate to/through Minneapolis at the crack of dawn, I was at the absolute top of my game. I was confident and energetic in every step of the interview, and am now even more convinced that Teach for America is what I want to be doing a year from now. I won't find out until early January if I got into the corps. If I got in, further, the same email will also tell me which region I'll be teaching in, and which grade/subject I'll be teaching.
It's a long wait, but I'm not anxious about the results. I've done my best, and have sought to represent myself accurately and positively throughout the admissions process. It's nice to know that if I don't make the cut, then there must be a qualification or trait that I don't possess. It won't be because I didn't perform as well as I could have.
Those were the "biggies," if you will. I still have one five-page and one ten-page paper to write, my senior seminar paper to turn in (after some fairly minor editing), and two final exams to take.
I also want to mention that I've noticed more and more people have been following my blog lately. Thank you! I get excited with every single new follow I see, and I encourage you to comment on a post if you have a question/opinion or want to say hi.

subset: commoncrawl


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As city laden with history and tempting summery ambient, Sydney is favourite destination of many travel lovers, but did you know that this Aussie metropolis got a plenty of charm too? Anything in it, from Opera House's white sails elegantly rising into the skies, the artsy energy of Surry Hills and bohemian nooks of the Kings Cross is simply there to sweep you off your feet, not to mention laid-back street lifestyle, captivating coastline and irresistible cosmopolitan vibe. So, if you're thinking about hopping to the most attractive city of "the land down under", this is what you simply shouldn't miss:
Manly and Coogee – mainstream of Sydney fun
The fabulous beach scene is definitely one of the reasons why we're so crazy about Sydney. Jump on a ferry in the city centre and head for Coogee to spend hours lying on golden sand with a cocktail in your hand, barbecuing or having the cosiest ocean baths ever.
If you're looking for a spot where you can ride the waves or chill out in waterside bars, Manly beach with its beachfront promenade and leisure restaurants is the place to be. Quench the thirst in 4 Pines Brewing Company offering best local "Amber fluid", settle in a cocktail oasis of beachfront Sugar Lounge or indulge in excellent wines served within a stylish venue of Beach Pizza Bar.
Queen Victoria Building – royal style shopping
Romanesque-style Queen Victoria Building is a paradise for all shopping maniacs, trend lovers, and all others who enjoy travelling through luxe labels.
Starting from luxurious jewellery shops to high-end boutiques, this elegant building is home to over 200 branded stores neighbouring its glowing galleries, so you're free to spend hours soaking in vogue pieces and fancy ambient. If you want to give your wallet a break, it is an ideal chance to visit other highlights in vibrant George Street, such as neo-gothic St. Andrews Cathedral or multi-style Sydney Town Hall.
Randwick City – a slice of sophistication and charm
With lovely colonial-style buildings and a charm of an old Sydney, Randwick City is place for experiencing truly royal moments.
Those wanting to feel the spirit of an opulent Victorian era shouldn't miss to spend the night in Avonmore on the Park, luxurious, three-storey Victorian mansion. To continue "feeling like a queen", visit some of the top-gallant horse racing events held in Randwick every week and meet the cream of an Australian society.
Sydney Tower – Sydney's sky at its best
This is a must visit spot for all fans of the spectacular views and adrenaline-junkies, since this 309m high structure offers a full-size Sydney panorama from a glass –floor viewing platform known as skywalk.
Apart from jaw-dropping sky walking, sightseers are allowed to enjoy great drinks and meals served in one of the "high in the sky" restaurants and cafes.
Contemporary Art Museum – truly modern nook
West from the hasty Circular Quay lays Contemporary Art Museum, a voguish artistic shelter, situated in a highly designed ambient of Art – Deco Building. Modern art enthusiasts will find this place tremendously attractive, since it displays thousands of cutting-edge artworks, controversial performances and hosts a number of world-known artists.
Hip dining scene
Those who are fond of glam and chic accompanied with "à la Française" cuisine, should pay a visit to the opulent Ananas Bar and Brassiere, while wine lovers shouldn't miss Monopole restaurant, its classy industrial interior and modern local dishes. Nomad restaurant in Surry Hills is pretty cool nook, especially if you like nonchalant ambient, alternative designs and seriously good food.
With its tempting metropolitan radiance, laid-back urban nooks and plenty of high-class attractions, Sydney is a heavenly destination for everyone who wants to have a vacation with style.


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p.s. the comments in quotes were written by a colleague, as you can gather from the intro...
Hey guys. Our intern, Sabrina, was taking a sex and gender studies class and she kept telling us the craziest stuff in between doing her work for us. At first we were scared..then disgusted…and finally, intrigued. "Sabrina," we said, "why don't you write this up?" "Okay," she said. So she did. And here it is. (she wrote it up in a Question/Answer format and I've included my notes in parentheses).
Q: Does penis size necessarily correlate to a man's worth as a lover?
A: First of all, studies have revealed that women are equally aroused by pictures of large penises as by images of small penises (right...they don't like pictures of penises, be they large or small). Regardless of popular stereotyping, penis size is not related to body shape, height, length of fingers, race (no?), or anything else. Interestingly, it has been proven that "small, flaccid penises tend to increase more in size during erections than do penises that are larger in the flaccid state" (Best comeback to 'you have a small dick' ever..."Naw son, that's just when it's...flaccid"). And even still, it should be emphasized that bigger is not always better. In fact, deep penetration can cause pain similar to that experienced when a male gets kicked in the balls (even mentioning that hurts my sack, Sabrina...c'mon!), if the penis bangs into the cervix and causes the uterus to be slightly displaced which may jolt an ovary. The vaginal canal's greatest sensitivity is concentrated in the outer portion, as opposed to deep within. So...no. If you happen to have a huge penis, just don't go too hard.
Source: Crooks, Robert L. & Baur, Karla (2004) Our Sexuality 9th edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 135.
Q: How common are intersexed babies (hermaphrodites)?
A: Intersexed babies in the United States are born with about the same frequency as red heads (burrnn for red heads). It is estimated that intersexed may account for 4% of all births, or 40 out of every 1000 people, worldwide [Fausto-Sterling]. Interestingly, inter-sexed and transsexual babies who are switched over to the female gender often grow up to have careers as models or actresses due to the fact that their tall height, an aspect of masculinity, is considered to be an symbol of beauty. Such examples include the stunning Italian actress Eva Robinson, angelic Japanese pop sensation Harisu, and purportedly Jamie Lee Curtis who qualifies as American Hollywood royalty. (Say it ain't so!!! Jamie Lee? Had a...peen?)
Source: Fausto-Sterling, A. (1993). The five sexes: Why male and female are not enough. The Sciences, 33(2), pages 20-25.
Q: What is the purpose of female genital cutting that occurs in countries like Africa, the Middle East, and Asia?
A: There are multiple reasons why genital cutting is performed. One is to ensure virginity before marriage. In some countries, such as Sudan, the social stigma for remaining uncircumcised is harsh, as indicated by the fact that being called "the son of an uncircumcised mother" is a most intense insult [Al- Krenawi & Weisel-Lev] (I'm gonna use that one from now on whenever my buddy gets out of line). A second incentive for procedures such as clitorectomy, removal of the clitoris, is to reassure men that they are not having sex with another man in societies where the clitoris is seen as a small penis (c'mon, Africans, stop making me think I'm one of teh gheyz).
Source: Al-Krenawi, A., &Wiesel-Lev, R. (1999). Attitudes toward and perceived Psychological impact of female circumcision as practiced among the Bedouin-Arabs of the Negev. Family Process, 38, 441-443.
Source: Hamilton, T. (2002). Skin Flutes and Velvet Gloves. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Source: Vissandjee, B., Kantiebo, M., Levine, A., & N'Dejuru, R. (2003). The cultural context of gender identity; Female genital excision and infibulation. Health Care for Women international, 24, 115-124.
Source: Crooks, Robert L. & Baur, Karla (2004) Our Sexuality 9th edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 85-86
Q: Are there any societies where homosexuality is predominant?
A: Ah, this brings us to my favorite cultural sexual oddity, which occurs in Sambia, New Guinea. In the Sambia tribe, as early as age 7, young boys are expected to "suck the penis of a mature boy every night and swallow the sperm" (I'd make a joke if I wasn't terrified). Boys who refuse are forever treated as children within the context of their community, because "without regular ingestion of male seed, the Sambia believe, boys will never grow up into strong, mature men." At the age of 15, the boys are considered mature enough to provide their own genitals for the younger boys to felicitate. Performing fellatio on a younger boy is strictly forbidden; as it is considered stealing his manhood because it results in a loss of semen from the growing boy (makes me wonder if they replace their "Got Milk?" ads with the tagline "Got cum?" No? Awww shucks). As soon as the boys marry, they cease to engage in homosexual contact, but often times, since they are so estranged from female sexuality and coitus, they ask their new brides to wear a bag over her head and fellate them on their wedding night. Interestingly, according to Loving Boys Vol. 1 (haha, cum again?), "After 10 to 15 years of exclusive homosexual activity carried on by 100 % of the Sambia population, the incidence of adult homosexual orientation is only 5 % - exactly the same as in Western society." So...short answer, yes, long answer, no.
Source: Brongersma E: Loving Boys Vol. 1. Elmhurst. New York.: Global Academic Publishers, 1986.
Source: Crooks, Robert L. & Baur, Karla (2004) Our Sexuality 9th edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 276.
Q: In the 1800's, what did women do with left-over cleaning agent Lysol after scrubbing the kitchen floor clean? (nice leading question, Sabrina)
A: They used it as a douche. It was unnecessary, harmful and served no medicinal purpose.
Source: Crooks, Robert L. & Baur, Karla (2004) Our Sexuality 9th edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 92.
Source: Lysol ad from March 1948 By Harry Finley, 2004
Q: Where do vibrators come from?
A: The vibrator was devised as a medical instrument to take some of the load off of doctors who owned some very tired fingers (they never would have made it in the field of video gaming). Authorities in the medical community theorized that hysteria, "a term that was first coined by Hippocrates and described a medical condition peculiar to women… considered to be a symptom of irregular blood-movement from the uterus to the brain," could be cured through orgasm. In the mid 1600's doctors recorded their treatment method of conducting such therapy by hand (or as the author of Unbalanced Drive Shaft hilariously put it "er, uh … manually"). Clitoral stimulation often was required for up to an hour before the resulting fit of convulsions, and thus, doctors developed a tool to ease the amount of labor (tisk tisk, lazy lazy). In the 1800s rocking chairs and swings were manipulated to act as promethean devices to help a woman relieve herself of hysteria, but by 1905, the vibrator had evolved into a portable motorized gadget that could get the job done in ten minutes or less and was advertised in "housekeeping, sewing, and ladies' journals with innocuous pictures of an old woman mechanically massaging her temples with a statement akin to: all the pleasures of youth will throb within you" (Well, I know what I'm getting grandma for the holidays!).
Source: Unbalanced Drive Shaft by Jason Bellows, 2006
Q: Are there sexual anxiety disorders that do not exist in America, but do in another society?
A: Absolutely. Genital retraction syndrome (GRS), widely referred to as koro (translated as "shrinking penis"), is a thousands of years old culture-specific epidemic which is known to spread mass hysteria at lightening speed, or at least the speed of ejaculation, and is equivalent to Western culture's phenomenon of anxiety attacks. Koro consists of delusions in which men, especially in Asia and Africa, believes he is "the victim of a contagious disease that causes his penis to shrink and retract into his body, an alarming prospect made worse by local traditions or folklore that adds the warning that this condition is usually fatal" (135). In 1982, the rumor of koro spread in India and resulted in freaked out parents flooding the hospitals pressed to get their sons (who arrived with "penises bound up to prevent further shrinkage) help. In Singapore during 1967, contaminated pork was announced as a cause of penis shrinkage, prompting men to hang "weights from their penises [or even have] relatives or friends [grab] on …to keep their penises from slipping away." The concept of koro similarly has infiltrated the consciousness of men all up and down the west coast of Africa producing "recent outbreaks of 'penis thievery…involving public accusations of penis theft, usually as a result of the unexpected or unwelcome touch from a stranger." In January 2002, twelve of the accused "sorcerers" (ie. my next Halloween costume) who convinced men that they had used black magic to put a curse on the penis to shrink and were demanding monetary payment in exchange for the antidote, were brutally beaten to death by hordes of men who believed their penises were losing inches as a result. Medical authorities are working on educating the public, enlightening citizens that koro has no basis in reality with a presentation of quantitative measurements of their penis over a period of time. (in the mean time, I can blame it on Koro)
Source: Crooks, Robert L. & Baur, Karla (2004) Our Sexuality 9th edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company 135-136.
Q: Is there a way for men to exercise their genitals in effort to achieve more pleasurable sex? (again with the leading questions, girl!)
A: Kegel exercises, famous for helping to strengthen the pelvic walls for women in preparation to give labor, also result in positive changes for men, including "stronger and more pleasurable orgasms, better ejaculatory control, and increased pelvic sensation during sexual arousal." The male version of these exercises work to strengthen the muscles surrounding the internal extension of the penis, which are usually only contracted during ejaculation, with the following steps suggested by Crooks and Baur's Our Sexuality: (time for your homework lesson…)
1. Locate the muscles by stopping the flow of urine several times while urinating. The muscles you sqeeze to accomplish this are the ones on which you will concentrate. If you do a correct Kegel while not urinating, you will notice your penis move slightly. Kegel's done when you have an erection will cause your penis to move up and down.
2. Begin the exercise program by squeezing and relaxing the muscles 15 times, twice daily. Do not hold the contraction at this stage. (These are called 'short Kegels').
3. Gradually increase the number of Kegels until you can comfortably do 60 at a time twice daily.
4. Now practice 'long Kegels' by holding each contraction for a count of 3.
5. Combine the short and long Kegels in each daily exercise routine, doing a set of 60 of each, once or twice a day.
6. Continue with the Kegel exercises for at least several weeks. You may not notice results until a month or more has passed. By this time the exercises will probably have become automatic, requiring no particular effort.
Source: Crooks, Robert L. & Baur, Karla (2004) Our Sexuality 9th edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 125.
Q: Is it true that the larger a woman's breasts, the better able she will be to provide nourishment for a baby?
A: In a physically mature woman the breasts are composed internally of fatty tissue and mammary, or milk, glands. There is little variation from woman to woman in the amount of glandular tissue present in the breast, despite differences in size. This is why the amount of milk produced after childbirth does not correlate with the size of the breasts. Variation in breast size is due primarily to the amount of fatty tissue distributed around the glands. Therefore, with bigger boobs, you are receiving higher fat content. ('Aint that something to brag about?! )
Source: Crooks, Robert L. & Baur, Karla (2004) Our Sexuality 9th edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 110
Q: Do perfumes really work as a turn on?
A: It is theorized that perfumes are used so that others will be more likely to breathe in more of the fragrance-wearers pheromones, or odors produced by the body that relate to reproductive functions. While this, and the fact that aphrodisiacs may be learned through association of a trigger (stench) with an experience (hot girl kissing you), may be true, it is interesting to note that "contrary to what the marketers of commercial scents would like us to believe, Alan Hirsh, a researcher at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, recently found that the odors reported to be most sexually arousing for either sex were not colognes or perfumes." To determine arousal, Hirsch measured the blood flow to privates in response to certain smells and found that the strongest reactions by men correlated to scents of "lavender, pumpkin pie, and doughnuts", whereas women were most stimulated by "licorice, cucumbers, and banana nut bread". Smells that proved a turn off to women included "barbeque meat, cherries, and men's cologne." (But she loves it when I cook her ribs...so go figure)
Source: Crooks, Robert L. & Baur, Karla (2004) Our Sexuality 9th edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 157.


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A minority student admitted to hanging a noose in the campus library at UC San Diego. The incident sparked several protests at the campus. The student said that the act was not meant to recall the lynching of blacks. Um-kay.
The LA Times reported:
The campus paper publishes an anonymous letter by a minority student who calls the incident 'a mindless act and stupid mistake.'
The UC San Diego student reportedly responsible for hanging a noose last week in a campus library issued a public, but anonymous, apology Monday and said she had no racist motivation.
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The noose's discovery set off protests at a school that is already tense from recent racially charged episodes and triggered condemnations from UC leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In a letter published Monday on the front page of the UC San Diego student newspaper, the Guardian, the student wrote that the incident was "a mindless act and stupid mistake" and was not meant to recall the lynching of blacks.
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"As a minority student who sympathizes with the students that have been affected by the recent issues on campus, I am distraught to know that I have unintentionally added to their pain," the student wrote. She was suspended Friday and remains under investigation for a possible hate crime.
The letter is signed "Anonymous UCSD Student" and offers no clues about her identity or ethnicity.
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Sari Thayer, the Guardian's Web editor, said in an interview that the woman had asked the paper to publish the letter and that "a reliable source" confirmed its authenticity.
The woman wrote that she and friends had been playing with the rope early last week, making a lasso and then a noose.


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This is the first header I made for this blog page (with my updated logo).
It features my illustration of Gil-galad.
I've created a series of headers using my logo against different backdrops and environments. I started out with the idea of simply using some of my illustrations as backdrops for the logo so I could add some variety to the look of my blog page, swapping out headers from time to time. The project became more interesting as my imagination began going in different directions and I could envision my logo in different environments.
Below are some more variations featuring my illustrations. Click any of the images below for a larger view.
This is where my imagination began taking the idea in different directions as I added the logo to various photo composite images which I created.
It's has become a fun distraction for me to create these headers and I hope to make many more in the future.


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Crocuses and Cuteness
On those abysmally rare occasions when I'm weeding my yard, I love the thrill of finding a little crocus peeking out of a forgotten corner. Well, I found some little crafting crocuses in the corner of my notions box and I had some very cute, albeit slightly wonky, results!
But first, I have to show you cutest pin cushion ever:
It arrived unannounced in my mailbox a while back. The lovely Liz, of madeinlowell, makes these pin cushions as well as a multitude of other amazing wares. Thank you so much, Liz!!
Back to my metaphorical crocuses. First I found some metal purse frames that I bought months and month ago and promptly forgot about. I made this little clutch for my pal, Alizah:
I used Lisa Lam's most excellent tutorial to make the pattern and attach the frame.
Lisa's tutorial is terrific, but I discovered that I'm seriously adhesive impaired. I felt like I was in a Marx Brothers movie with glue and paper and bits of thread sticking to me, all the while yelling at the glue to behave. But I eventually got it together and I think Alizah likes it!
I also found some bobby pin blanks and cover-your-own-buttons and made these bobby pins with scraps from my gargantuan scrap box:
I sold most of them a Alizah's trunk show. They were such a hit that I think I'll make more.
I've also been flirting with Twitter, lately. I have yet to tweet but I love reading other people's posts. Do you have any Follow suggestions or Twitter tips or hints? I'm still flummoxed by hashes and @s and the like. I added a Twitter button over there on the side bar which I hope works...
Happy Spring!


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Israel Adesanya topped Anderson Silva by unanimous decision in the main event of last night's (Sat., February 9, 2019) UFC 234 from Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. But it wasn't even close to as one-sided as most expected it to be. In fact, the fight was so entertaining that Conor McGregor welcomes a fight with "The Spider."
Talk of a high-profile fight between the two megastars has been swirling for quite some time. McGregor has been linked to a fan-friendly fight with Donald Cerrone. But tonight, he was fixated on a potential bout with one of MMA's greatest fighters ever. "The Notorious" offered his respect for Silva online and said it would "be an honor" to fight him:
McGregor later continued to espouse about 'The Spider' by getting pumped about his wild defense and clothing. The two shared a distinct parallel. McGregor was truly excited about Silva's comeback:
There's no denying Silva is one of the best of all-time and a true pioneer as McGregor said. He may have lost to the undefeated Adesanya, but he put up a great fight in a match where most thought he would be easily stopped.
The longtime champ still has it and can still put on a host of entertaining fights. Fans still want to watch him compete, and he has a heart few fighters exhibit.
As for fighting McGregor, Silva might not be in title contention and McGregor may or may not care about fighting for titles anymore. Could his long-rumored match-up with 'The Spider' finally come to fruition soon?


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Peter Koeppen is the executive producer and founder of Continuum Video, a video production company based in Frederick, MD that offers high quality filmmaking services to organizations of all sizes. A brief look at his past awards (Addy Gold, Communicator Gold Award of Excellence, Communicator Silver Award of Distinction, Telly Bronze) speaks to the quality one can expect when working with Peter.
As a self-professed lifelong learner Peter has found a way to combine his passion for the visual arts with his innate curiosity. Whether he is producing engaging science television series or helping small business owners tell their unique stories with digital media, Peter is always looking for new ways to grow his understanding of people and the world.
Born and raised in Annapolis, Peter began exploring the visual arts at an early age. In high school he could frequently be found drawing pictures or taking photographs of his fellow skateboarding friends. His interest in art and an entrepreneurial spirit is not surprising considering his father's early success as a business owner in the computing world followed by a career shift to professional painting and illustration.
Despite his early fascination with the arts, Peter did not go to college with the intention of studying filmmaking. He pursued a bachelor's degree in history at McDaniel College. As a naturally curious person Peter thought studying history would provide him with plenty of opportunities to learn about the world. It was not until after graduating that he began to seriously consider pursuing photography and filmmaking as a profession.
Peter's first big job after graduating from McDaniel was working for a landscaping company that served the DC area. What began as a job in their sales department quickly transitioned into photographing finished jobs for the company. But as much as he enjoyed the work, Peter felt that there was an element of storytelling missing from his photographs. After careful research he enrolled in an intensive one year filmmaking program in Sante Fe, NM that focused on documentary films.
After completing the program Peter moved to LA to gain as much experience in the filmmaking industry as possible. He spent a decade out west taking on a combination of freelance and long term projects like PBS's science series "The Infinite Voyage." While living in LA Peter met his future wife, Penney, who was pursuing a career as a scientist. Interestingly enough, the two of them were both originally from Annapolis. Penney's parents were friends of Peter's parents and had given her his phone number when she moved out west. One phone call from her, and Peter says that the rest is history.
While Peter was based in LA, some of the projects on which he worked gave him the opportunity to travel. He spent a summer in Jackson Hole, WY creating films for the tourist bureau. The area was a hotspot for outdoor sports, and the crew went all over the area documenting everything from rodeos to windsurfing to kayaking. The shoot provided the crew unique chances to enjoy the outdoors, too. It was on one of these excursions that Peter got his first taste of mountain biking. Despite his initial reluctance Peter decided to embrace the opportunity for a new experience. That first trip out was transformative, and he was instantly hooked. As soon as he returned to LA Peter bought his own mountain bike and cycling quickly turned into a passion.
After ten years out west Peter and Penney were ready to move back to Maryland. Peter had the chance to work with the Discovery channel, which had just started up in Bethesda. He worked for the network on projects that aired on the Discovery channel, Animal Planet, and TLC. His work on a documentary covering Afghanistan during this time earned him a National News and Documentary Emmy nomination. When TLC pivoted from producing learning programs to lifestyle reality programs Peter helped developed the car makeover show "Overhaulin'" that was on the air for 15 years.
With his growing experience in lifestyle programming and with a former boss' encouragement in 2004 Peter began working for Scripps, an owner of the HGTV channel. The job change required a move to Knoxville, TN where the company was based, but the new position gave Peter a chance to gain experience in program development. He still did some production work, but most of his focus was on generating new program concepts.
Always on the lookout for ways to develop as a filmmaker, Peter saw a huge opportunity for growth with digital media and the introduction of Youtube. And as much as he had enjoyed working behind the scenes at the network, he was ready to get back into video production. Peter transitioned from program development to producing, and eventually running, Scripps's online video content.
In 2015 Peter and Penney once again felt the urge to return to Maryland with their two daughters, Isabel (14) and Emma (19). He briefly worked for Viva Creative, a marketing company based in Rockville, before deciding to start his own digital video production business.
As an entrepreneur, it quickly became clear to Peter that being a part of a coworking community would make the home/work life balance easier, and Peter began searching for local cowork spaces. He picked Cowork Frederick because of its great atmosphere and affordability. Peter quickly discovered having a diverse group of experts in their respective fields was an invaluable resource to his new business. Fellow members expanded his understanding of the legal side of establishing a business, helped him develop a website and company logo, and offered support.
Peter has a big vision for Continuum Video, but at its heart his business is centered on the belief that no matter what your budget is every company should be able to afford high quality video that will make their business look its best. He has already partnered with some great local businesses creating digital content that is shared on their websites and on social media platforms like Facebook. And as a result of his extensive background in both production and development, Peter has found himself to have the flexible skillset that many small business owners need in a media specialist.
When asked to describe himself Peter has a great motto: Physically active and mentally curious. His passion for continually developing his understanding of people and the way things work is a big part of what fuels his creative drive with filmmaking. Every new project is another chance to learn something new, and getting to share that knowledge with the rest of the world is an added benefit.


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Frontend development is changing day by day and we have to learn a lot more stuff. When we start learning a new framework or library, the first thing that is recommended to build a todo list which helps in doing all CRUD functions. But there is no solid backend/library available to make use of it to build a todo list.
Simulate a backend server and a REST API with a simple JSON file.
To overcome that problem json-server came into the picture. With it, we can make a fake REST api. I have used it in my app and thought of sharing it to the frontend community.
JSON Server is an npm package that you can create a REST JSON webservice. All we need is a JSON file and that will be used as our backend REST.
#Installing JSON Server
You can either install it locally for specific project or globally. I will go with locally.
$ npm install -D json-server
Above is a single line command to install the json server. -D Package will appear in your devDependencies. I am not going to explain about that much here. If you want to learn more about that go through the docs for npm install. Check JSON Server version using
json-server -v.
#JSON file
As per the standard convention, I am going to name the file
db.json, you can name it as per your needs.
"Todos": [
"id": 1,
"todo": "Check Todo"
"id": 2,
"todo": "New Todo"
For simplicity I have included two elements into the
Todos array. You can add more also.
#Start the JSON Server
$ json-server --watch db.json
Your JSON Server will be running on port 3000.
Now that we have our server and API running, we can test it and access it with a tool like POSTman or Insomnia.
These are REST clients that help us run http calls.
#CRUD Operations
Moving onto the CRUD operations. This is how we can access our data using RESTful routes.
Routing Url's
[GET] http://localhost:3000/Todos
[POST] http://localhost:3000/Todos post params:!
[PUT] http://localhost:3000/Todos post params:!
[DELETE] http://localhost:3000/Todos/id
#Testing via POSTman
Thanks to Madhankumar for this article help.
Happy Coding 🙂


text:
Posts Tagged Foreign Policy
Boston Bombings: looks like Tamerlan and Dzhokhar were homegrown terrorists
Turns out the spurious-sounding rumours that I reported earlier were, in fact, incorrect – meaning that Alan Jones was wrong. Who saw that one coming?
The bombers were not actually radical leftists. It turns out to have been Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tzarnaev – two Muslim brothers from Chechnya.
As of writing, Tamerlan has been shot and Dzokhar is apparently holed-up in a house, surrounded by police and National Guard. There is not a huge amount of information out there about them, but it is coming in drips and drabs – and everything that I have seen so far points to homegrown terrorists.
One of the quickly cobbled-together reports comes from Foreign Policy's David Kenner (my bold):
Who is Tamerlan Tzarnaev? | FP Passport.
Tamerlan was apparently a boxer who hoped to gain citizenship by being selected for the U.S. Olympic team: "Unless his native Chechnya becomes independent, Tamerlan says he would rather compete for the United States than for Russia," Hirn wrote.
Other captions paint Tamerlan as a devoted Muslim. "I'm very religious," he says at one point, noting that he does not smoke or drink alchol. "There are no values anymore," he says, worrying that "people can't control themselves."
Tamerlan also appears isolated and bewildered by American life. "I don't have a single American friend," he laments, despite living in the United States for five years. "I don't understand them."
At the time the photos were taken [2009], Tamerlan's life did not seem all bad: Hirn writes that he was competing as a boxer, enrolled in Bunker Hill Community College and pursuing a career as an engineer, and had a half-Portuguese, half-Italian girlfriend that converted to Islam for him. "She's beautiful, man!" he said.
At some point, though, it all went wrong. In 2009, Tamerlan was arrested for domestic assault and battery after assaulting his girlfriend.
Dzhokhar, meanwhile, was a second-year medical student.
I don't have a link for this, but I just listened to an interview of their uncle and I picked up a couple of other facts. Their uncle claimed that it is likely that Tamerlan had been influencing Dzhokhar, and that Dzhokhar was a sweet boy but Tamerlan had problems. He also said that their parents worked extremely hard and were only concerned with putting food on the table, although they both returned to Russia a year ago.
Also of interest is Tamerlan's social media page. There are not many posts, but one includes a video entitled "Chechnyan accents", and another has this joke:
Inside a car sit a Dagestani, a Chechen and Ingush. Who is driving?
The police.
According to this photo by photojournalist Johannes Hirn – who did a series on Tamerlan – Tamerlan was not doing too badly for himself. At least according to the designer clothing and the Mercedes he was driving:
Finally (and most significantly), according to Adam Serwer at Mother Jones, Tamerlan had been consuming and distributing Islamist propaganda.
Putting this all together, we can build a profile of the two boys (well, more so for Tamerlan):
- Second generation immigrants (they both went to high school in the US, so more or less second).
- Relatively affluent.
- Devout Muslims with an Islamist bent.
- Well educated.
- Socially isolated – had trouble integrating into America and did not really feel as though they belonged.
- Viewed Western culture as amoral.
What you have right there is the textbook profile for homegrown terrorists. They tend to be young second or third generation Muslim immigrants feel like the don't belong anywhere – they can't relate to their new adopted country, but have grown up there, so don't fit in back in their old country. They feel lonely and isolated, so begin searching for meaning – and find it in extreme Islamism. This requires that they are affluent/educated enough to read and understand the jihadi propaganda, and to navigate the complex online network that jihadi groups operate in.
The truth remains to be seen, but from what we do know, my bet is that this is more or less the story of the Brothers Tzarnaev.
The line between NGO and Government
Good point by Robert Merry regarding American Government-funded NGOs working to "spread democracy" throughout the world:
Commentary: Unmasking the Democracy Promoters | The National Interest.
The Times reports that the United Arab Emirates has shut down the offices of the National Democratic Institute, a nonprofit U.S. agency whose mission is to promote democracy around the globe. The NDI is often called an NGO, short for nongovernmental organization, which might leave some people a bit quizzical given that this particular NGO is funded to a significant extent by the U.S. government. But Wikipedia helpfully explains: "In cases in which NGOs are funded totally or partially by governments, the NGO maintains its non-governmental status by excluding governmental representatives from membership in the organization."
… For anyone trying to understand why this anger is welling up in those countries, it might be helpful to contemplate how Americans would feel if similar organizations from China or Russia or India were to pop up in Washington, with hundreds of millions of dollars given to them by those governments, bent on influencing our politics. One supposes it would generate substantial anger among Americans if these groups tried to tilt our elections toward one party or another. But suppose they were trying to upend our very system of government, as U.S.-financed NGOs are trying to do these days in various countries—and have done in recent years in numerous locations.
Well… that actually does happen — hundreds of millions of dollars are spent by foreign governments on lobbying the US government every year — but that's beside the point.
This is a problem that Israel is also dealing with — foreign governments fund organisations that operate within the country and have the express goal of bringing-down the current system. This is not to say that I disagree at all with what the organisations in Egypt are doing (I disagree completely with the ones in Israel), but if they are funded by the US government, the argument that they do not answer to the government directly does not hold much weight.
Whether or not the government actually has a representative on the board is not particularly important. Any organisation is beholden to its funders. The organisations in Egypt are in a position where they can only operate because of the US government and therefore the US government can shut them if it so chooses. That means that they pretty much have to do what the government tells them, it also means that the government is effectively sending them to Egypt. It is understandable, then, that the Egyptian authorities would be a little upset that the organisations are actively working against them.
Again, I completely support trying to bring democracy to Egypt, I just don't like this "secret" diplomacy. It's like the US give a wink and a smile to the Egyptians and say "don't worry, we're still friends, they aren't really acting on our behalf. We're just paying them to be there, that's all." It's not fooling anyone.
Aaaah, everything is back to normal!
Posted by MK in Middle East on May 17, 2011
So much for the "Arab Spring". Blake Hounshell in Foreign Policy's Passport on yesterday's Palestinian riots:
Is the old Middle East back? | FP Passport
All of this sounds a bit like the old Middle East, doesn't it? Arabs raging impotently at the Jews instead of their own brutal rulers? And yet the narrative that the Arab revolutions were never about Israel has always been wrong, or at least incomplete. For Arabs living under authoritarian regimes, Israel (and America's support for Israel) has long been seen as an important reason for their subjugation. Nowhere is this more true than in Egypt, where Hosni Mubarak bucked popular opinion by selling gas to Israel below market rates and enforced a widely reviled blockade of Gaza. In Tahrir Square, there were plenty of chants denouncing Mubarak as an Israeli and American agent, no matter what Thomas Friedman says.
Bin Laden's Death: Analysis
Posted by MK in Ideology, Middle East, Opinion, Photography, Political Science, Politics on May 3, 2011
Now that the celebrations are dying down (and it's not often that a death is such cause for celebration), we need to be a little more grounded about the implications of this assassination. There have been a lot of claims thrown-around recently – verging from a little naive to downright stupid. Let's set a few of the facts straight here:
(Note: I'm not going to bother proving that Bin Laden was behind 9/11. If you believe this to be false, please seek help).
1) al-Qaeda is not finished
This is the unfortunate reality that we have to face. Bin Laden was the co-founder and leader of Al Qaeda, but he was not directly behind every terror attack in the world.
Unfortunately, the damage has been done already. Bin Laden's "contribution" to the Islamic world was the idea of distinguishing between the "enemy nearby" and the "enemy far away". To summarise a very complex history, Nazi propaganda attributing all of the world's ills to the Jews was translated into Arabic and given Koranic justifications by the Grand Mufti of Palestine in the 1930s and 40s as part of his alliance with Hitler. This formed what is now Islamic Antisemitism – previously in the Islamic world, Jews had been viewed as weak and cowardly, but combined with Nazi ideology, there was now a European-esque notion of a global conspiracy to destroy Islam being orchestrated by a malicious cabal of Jews (for more on this, see The Flight of The Intellectuals by Paul Berman.)
These ideas then permeated the early Islamist ideology and gestated to the point where half a century later, Bin Laden used them to boost his ailing organisation by declaring a Jihad on the West (see al Qaeda In Its Own Words by Gilles Kepel and Jean-Pierre Milelli). He imagined a "Zio-Crusader alliance" controlling the (as he saw them) "infidel" regimes in charge of the Muslim states. He spread the idea that to truly re-establish the Caliphate (Islamic superstate), Muslims must strike not at their immediate enemies, but those allegedly pulling the strings – the US and their allies.
Al Qaeda has been decimated as an organisation since 9/11 and for many years has not been a centralised structure, but rather a "franchise" with offshoots in various regions (for a discussion of this, see How al-Qaeda Works by Leah Farrell for Foreign Affairs). The reality is that Bin Laden can be quickly replaced by his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Al Qaeda can continue to inspire and fund various partner organisations around the world.
So while this is a great symbolic triumph and may have some long term impact, we can't start packing-away the metal detectors and arranging flights out of Kandahar just yet. In fact, in the short term, this assassination could well spark a series of reprisals around the world. We need to be weary.
2) Pakistan is dangerous
As Bruce Loudon observes in The Australian.
Pakistan a haven for enemy No 1 | The Australian.
But after years of the ISI double-dealing with terrorists and now the revelation that bin Laden was living in the heart of a garrison town virtually next door to the nation's military academy and only a couple of hours' drive north of the capital, Islamabad, Pakistani authorities cannot expect to escape the sort of questions that are now being asked.
There are conflicting opinions over whether or not Pakistan was actively harbouring Bin Laden, but I am pretty convinced that this is the case. Again from The Australian's excellent analysis, Greg Sheridan observes that:
Huge win for Obama and the Americans | The Australian.
Obama naturally praised Pakistan for its co-operation in the operation against Osama. Frankly, what else could he do? The Pakistanis have perhaps a hundred nuclear weapons. No US president can afford to alienate them altogether.
…It is utterly implausible that any international figure of note could hide in a mansion near Islamabad without the knowledge of the Pakistani intelligence services. Completely impossible.
If the Pakistani government did not know, it is the most incompetent government in the world. If it did know, then it was intentionally sheltering the most dangerous and infamous terrorist of our time.
The double-game being played by Pakistan is a major problem in the world today – it may even be the biggest threat to global security, given that Iran has not yet developed a nuclear weapon and America has not quite lost its dominant position. Pakistan is a nuclear power, so must be dealt with very carefully – but it seems to be slipping further and further into Islamism. If the Pakistani Taliban get hold of a nuclear weapon, the consequences don't bear thinking about.
Bin Laden's assassination had many benefits – it was a strong warning to all terrorists that the US can get them anywhere at any time. It was a symbolic victory for the West in general and the US in particular and will raise morale in dark times and vindicate our efforts to rid the world of the ideological plague that Bin Laden spread. Most importantly, justice has been served. That said, we can't lose sight of the dangers still facing us and must continue to fight Bin Laden's ideology of hatred and violence wherever it may be found.
(Photos: Foreign Policy)
Gaza extremism: what's wrong with this sentence?
Posted by MK in Ideology, Middle East on April 26, 2011
According to Jared Malsin in Foreign Policy, the recent murder of an Italian in Gaza has created some new scrutiny on Salafi (ultra-conservative literalist Islam-ism) Islam in Gaza. Fair enough.
Now try and guess what's wrong here:
Gaza's Salafis under scrutiny by Jared Malsin | The Middle East Channel
At the root of these dynamics is the Israeli and Western policy of isolating Gaza and ignoring Hamas. The crippling four-year-long blockade of Gaza has created the conditions of human misery and desperation in which a handful of people have turned to extremism.
Did you get it?
The premise here is that there was no extremism in Gaza before the blockade. So apparently, thousands of suicide bombers willing to end their own lives and kill room-fulls of civilians weren't extreme. I guess they were just misunderstood.
Read on:
Perhaps realizing that a heavy hand can create further radicalization, Hamas has also recently taken a more nuanced approach to the Salafis, including sending religious scholars into prisons in hopes of nurturing a more tolerant outlook among them.
So Hamas clerics are the moderate ones now? Let's lok at something one of them said once:
[The Jews] want to present themselves to the world as if they have rights, but, in fact, they are foreign bacteria – a microbe unparalleled in the world. It's not me who says this. The Koran itself says that they have no parallel: "You shall find the strongest men in enmity to the believers to be the Jews."
May He annihilate this filthy people who have neither religion nor conscience. I condemn whoever believes in normalizing relations with them, whoever supports sitting down with them, and whoever believes that they are human beings. They are not human beings. They are not people. They have no religion, no conscience, and no moral values.
Sounds pretty moderate to me, right?
Ironically, Malsin did stumble across the point somewhere, but seemed to look past it and try to find it somewhere else.
This is the crux of Hamas' dilemma: if it allows attacks on Israel, it risks massive retaliation from the Israelis; if it imposes too strict a ceasefire, it risks eroding its credibility among its political base in Gaza, particularly among its armed cadres. A U.N. diplomat, quoted anonymously by Crisis Group explained the problem: "How long can Hamas sustain a policy of not engaging in resistance, while this non-engagement doesn't produce any results in terms of liberating Palestine, easing the blockade, or any other political goal for which the movement exists?"
Hamas here is reaping what it has sown. They have been spreading and practising this kind of extremism for years. The problem for them is that now they control Gaza, they have more responsibility than they had when they were just a militia and their policy determines what happens to the Gazans. If they continue to randomly target civilian populations, they will only escalate tensions and cause more harm to come to everyone – so they are finally beginning to realise that this is not an effective strategy, or finally starting to think at all strategically.
These Jihadi groups that they can't control are Hamas' legacy to the Palestinian people. Hamas paved the way for the extreme thought, the violent rhetoric, the weapons smuggling and the kidnapping of foreigners. They brought the idea of violence as an end in itself, rather than a means to an end, to Gaza.
To reign-in these groups, Hamas would have to cooperate with Israel to a degree – as the PA have done to reduce terror in the West Bank. This, however, will be a complete reversal of everything that Hamas stand for – so unfortunately, I can't see it happening.
Democracy is a long road, can the Arab world handle it?
Posted by MK in Culture, Economics, Ideology, Middle East, Political Science on March 4, 2011
For those who have been following, a huge debate that is happening at the moment is over how democratic these Arab revolutions are/will be. Besides the Christofs and McGeoughs of this world, some have been actually considering what it would take to improve these societies.
James Richard, writing for Foreign Policy, makes comparisons to the fall of the "Former Soviet bloc" at the end of the cold war. He notes that, like those countries, the Arab dictators have maintained centralised economies, where most major industries are state-owned and the majority of employment is in the public sector. Comparing the transitions in Russia with the Eastern European states, Richard notes that it is better not to immediately privatise everything, as this advantages the educated class and results in Russia-style oligarchies. Rather, he argues, Arab states will need a process over several years to allow their population to appreciate the ins and outs of a free-market economy.
Liberté! Equalité! Economy! – By James Richard | Foreign Policy.
Before anything else, Arab publics need to be educated about their countries' common economic realities and goals. Only after these countries have a clearer picture of the true underlying value of their businesses should they list firms on a stock exchange or allow privatization shares to be freely traded. Fortunately, to varying degrees, the region already has capable financial professionals and judiciaries who can help with the necessary procedures.
Richard also briefly observes that more than just economic improvements, these states will need to build democratic institutions to provide for rule of law and civil rights.
But other institutions may have to be created wholesale. Freedom of speech and the press requires a legal framework to foster transparency in these new economies.
In a strong rebuke of the "benevolent Orientalism" described my last post on the topic, writing for the Wall Street Journal, Dennis McShane has outlined his idea for how Britain can help grow democracy through the use of "soft power" – sending representatives who speak the local languages to help establish political parties and the values necessary for engaging in a democratic process.
In the House of Commons on Monday Mr. Cameron told me: "I very much support the whole idea of greater party-to-party contacts and political contacts, and building up what I call the building blocks of democracy in terms of civil society and political parties. This is an area in which Britain has expertise and excellence."
Mr. Cameron should ask employers and trade unions to release Arab-speaking experts to go and help the wannabe democracies along North Africa's shoreline, as well as finding ways of helping the Iranian people striving for freedom. The model should be the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, which under different administrations has promoted democratic change around the world. It is soft power with muscle, unafraid in rejecting the cultural relativism that both the left and the advocates of stability-over-liberty use to argue that "Western values" cannot be imposed on the East. The values Mr. Cameron mentions are universal and as much the right of the poorest Nile farmer or Iranian student as they are of European intellectuals.
Finally, Lee Smith in Tablet magazine has made the controversial point that to be truly democratic, Arab societies will need to break-out of their oil-dependency in order to maintain functioning economies, and that Israel is an example of how this is achievable in the Middle East. His article spends a little too long praising Israel without explaining the policy reasons behind Israel's success, but it is still worthwhile for that observation.
Democratic State – by Lee Smith > Tablet Magazine – A New Read on Jewish Life.
Democracy is not something that happens overnight. It took almost a millenium from Magna Carta for all Australians to have voting rights. The Arab world has a long road ahead, but hopefully, through this kind of advice, it can stay on course.
And who said dictators were going out of fashion?
Posted by MK in Culture, Fashion, Ideology, Middle East, Reading Material on March 1, 2011
Joan Juliet Buck, from leading fashion magazine Vogue, wrote a longform profile on a high-profile Middle-Eastern lady, who, in Buck's words, is "glamorous, young, and very chic—the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies. Her style is not the couture-and-bling dazzle of Middle Eastern power but a deliberate lack of adornment. She's a rare combination: a thin, long-limbed beauty with a trained analytic mind who dresses with cunning understatement.'"
Buck chronicles this woman's high-level Western education, how she grew-up in London, went to Queen's college, has an MBA from Harvard and worked at Goldman Sachs, but is down to earth, with an accent that is "English, but not plummy". Buck details visits to the Louvre, impressing Brad and Angelina and even the charitable NGO that she runs to educate refugee children. She even fights extremism "through art".
And who is this beautiful, caring, glamorous Arab leader, who sounds just like the Western celebrities that Vogue usually profile? None other than Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad. And Syria sounds great too:
Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert – Vogue Daily – Vogue.
Syria is known as the safest country in the Middle East, possibly because, as the State Department's Web site says, "the Syrian government conducts intense physical and electronic surveillance of both Syrian citizens and foreign visitors." It's a secular country where women earn as much as men and the Muslim veil is forbidden in universities, a place without bombings, unrest, or kidnappings, but its shadow zones are deep and dark. Asma's husband, Bashar al-Assad, was elected president in 2000, after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, with a startling 97 percent of the vote. In Syria, power is hereditary.
"It's a tough neighborhood," admits Asma al-Assad
Huh. Let's take another look at that passage for a second, shall we?
As the State Department's Web site says, "the Syrian government conducts intense physical and electronic surveillance of both Syrian citizens and foreign visitors."
To keep them safe, right? Sounds like something any kind, friendly leader would do. Like her husband, who won 97% of the vote – the people must love him! Just one thing that Ms Buck forgot to mention, he was the only candidate in the election. And why was he the only candidate in the election? Well, you see, these security forces that keep Syria "safe", also keep his regime "safe", but brutally crushing any dissent.
Reading on:
The country's alliances are murky.How close are they to Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah?There are souvenir Hezbollah ashtrays in the souk, and you can spot the Hamas leadership racing through the bar of the Four Seasons. Its number-one enmity is clear: Israel. But that might not always be the case. The United States has just posted its first ambassador there since 2005, Robert Ford.
Might not always be the case, hey? Because the US broke-off and then re-established diplomatic relations, that means that Israel may no longer be its number-one enmity? Hold on a second:
Iraq is next door, Iran not far away. Lebanon's capital, Beirut, is 90 minutes by car from Damascus. Jordan is south, and next to it the region that Syrian maps label Palestine. There are nearly one million refugees from Iraq in Syria, and another half-million displaced Palestinians.
Seems as if Syria doesn't recognise that there is an Israel, funny that. And as the article already glossed over, Ms Assad and her husband harbour, support and train terrorist groups that attack Israel, not to mention being Iran's strongest ally. Syria also militarily occupied Lebanon for years and is still meddling in Lebanese affairs. Neat, huh?
What else can we divine from Buck's profile? Well, Syria is a great example of a tolerant, multicultural society:
Back in the car, I ask what religion the orphans are. "It's not relevant," says Asma al-Assad. "Let me try to explain it to you. That church is a part of my heritage because it's a Syrian church. The Umayyad Mosque is the third-most-important holy Muslim site, but within the mosque is the tomb of Saint John the Baptist. We all kneel in the mosque in front of the tomb of Saint John the Baptist. That's how religions live together in Syria—a way that I have never seen anywhere else in the world. We live side by side, and have historically. All the religions and cultures that have passed through these lands—the Armenians, Islam, Christianity, the Umayyads, the Ottomans—make up who I am."
"Does that include the Jews?" I ask.
"And the Jews," she answers. "There is a very big Jewish quarter in old Damascus."
The Jewish quarter of Damascus spans a few abandoned blocks in the old city that emptied out in 1992, when most of the Syrian Jews left. Their houses are sealed up and have not been touched, because, as people like to tell you, Syrians don't touch the property of others. The broken glass and sagging upper floors tell a story you don't understand—are the owners coming back to claim them one day?
So the abandoned Jewish quarter tells "a story you don't understand" then? I guess no one knows why there were 30,000 Jews in Syria in 1947 and only 200 today. Well at least Joan Juliet Buck, former editor of French Vogue, doesn't understand, but then she doesn't seem to understand much, otherwise this article would read a little differently.
It is, in fact, not a mystery what happened in 1992. This was when finally, after years of campaigning, 4,500 Syrian Jews were allowed to leave Syria. One person who does understand is Alice Sardell, president of the now defunct Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews.
Point of no return: How Syria's Jews obtained their freedom.
Freedom for the Jews of Syria beginning in 1992 came about after a long and intense American and international human rights campaign led by The Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews, with the United States government at the forefront.
But they weren't just fleeing for nothing:
Since 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel, Syria's Jewish community had been held as hostages living under Syria's Secret Police and subject to arbitrary arrests and systematic torture.
Where were these little details in Buck's profile?
Buck could have written about the brutal secret police, the sponsorship of terror, the alliance with Iran, the nuclear program and the decades of the despotic reign of terror that Assad and his fellow Allawite leaders have subjected the Syrian people to. She even could have mentioned that Assad and her husband prevented protests like the ones spreading through other Arab countries by shutting off the internet and suppressing protesters with beatings and arrests. Instead, she gave the guy a goddamn podium to speak from:
Neither of them believes in charity for the sake of charity. "We have the Iraqi refugees," says the president. "Everybody is talking about it as a political problem or as welfare, charity. I say it's neither—it's about cultural philosophy. We have to help them. That's why the first thing I did is to allow the Iraqis to go into schools. If they don't have an education, they will go back as a bomb, in every way: terrorism, extremism, drug dealers, crime. If I have a secular and balanced neighbor, I will be safe."
So now he's against terrorism is he?
This article was disgusting to be honest. To read more, including Buck's extremely underwhelming response, see the links below:
Vogue Defends Profile of Syrian First Lady – Max Fisher – International – The Atlantic.
Vogue's ridiculous puff piece on Syria's ruling family | FP Passport.


text: Yesterday we had BLTs and I finally cut up the big ribbed heirloom tomato. It was the first time that we didn't have any leftover tomatoes! In fact, only one kid didn't have seconds. I saved the seeds and will be planting them next summer. The tomato was flat on the bottom, which seems odd, but it was very good.


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Register to Take Certification Exam Online
SUSE certification exams are now available via remote proctoring. As long as your computer and internet connection meet minimum requirements, you may take the exam from your home at a date and time of your choosing. No software is installed on your machine, you just need a stable internet connection, the Chrome or Chromium browser and have a webcam and microphone. You can review the compatibility checker and the FAQ for more information.
Registration Instructions
You will need a SUSE account and an account for PSI. It is important to use the same email address for both to receive exam and certification results faster.
If you already have a SUSE and PSI account:
- Login to www.examslocal.com and follow instructions to view or schedule your exam time
- Verify your account information
- Choose Schedule an Exam in the top menu
Otherwise, follow the detailed instructions for creating accounts and scheduling an exam time:
- If you don't already have a SUSE account, create one.
- To create or Sign in to your PSI account, go to examslocal.com
- Sign in or Create an Account – use the same email address as your SUSE.com account
- ExamsLocal will send you an email with instructions that you need to follow in order to verify your account
- On the ExamsLocal "Schedule and Exam" page, enter SUSE in the search box and choose the exam you wish to schedule. Click Next
- In the From field, enter your desired date and time to test. You will be shown times available near your desired start time on the next page.
- Choose your time zone. Click Next.
- You will be shown available dates and times. Click on different days to see the available times.
- Choose a time and click Next
- On the Compatibility Check page, click to install the extension and check that all other requirements are met.
- Click the "I agree" button to advance.
- After reading the Innovative Exams Candidate Agreement, click the I Agree button
- Fill out the additional contact information and click Save and Continue
- On the custom data field, enter your SUSE Registry ID (also sometimes called Certification ID) if you know it and fill in other mandatory fields, then click Save and Continue. (Note: This will GREATLY assist SUSE and Examslocal personnel in matching your records if there is a disparity.)
- Enter Payment Information and click Review Order
- Follow instructions until you have a confirmed exam time
- You will receive an email from PSI confirming your registration.


text:
Computer labs are nothing but a place choked with PC's, laptops, CPU's etc. which makes the room look jam-packed with gadgets. Changing this site will be ModuLAB, "The New Experience of Learning" which will without much effort change the traditional concept into the computer lab of the year 2015.
Co- designed by Ala`a Alghufaili and Junjie Piao in collaboration with DELL, the whole concept of a ModuLAB will be based on modular touch points. Collaborative stations can be formed by connecting these points and the whole thing will be managed by a single computer server. Students' anticipations from a learning atmosphere have been clearly kept in mind. Moreover, the main aim of the venture is to recognize ways by which a change on the social and technological can be made.
Through this, an extra screen can be created by making use of two units at one time. The whole computing unit can be easily operated by a laptop and also study groups can be formed with ease. Since wireless electricity is consumed, the whole sight of messy cables and accidents caused by them take a back seat. The computers can be easily wedged on the station when not in use, hence sufficient empty space can be created. This unique concept will save ample money and time while upgrading computers.
Via: behance


text: Aping His Inferiors March 24, 2011 Issue The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale Bruno Littlemore is an American ape, Chicago born—and if you don't hear the affinity between this "first-generation immigrant to the human species" and Augie March, Alexander Portnoy, and all the other lusty, fast-talking strivers of postwar American literature, then you haven't spent as much time in the libraries of Hyde Park as he has. Bruno has the autodidact's fondness for the ostentatious literary reference, and never simply suffers insomnia when the "red-eyed monster of sleeplessness" can drive Hypnos from his bed. In the first forty pages alone, we get references to Thoreau, Freud, Cézanne, Woyzeck, Kafka, and Artaud. When a researcher dangles a Prufrockian peach as reward in a scientific experiment, you can be sure that Bruno will dare to eat his allusion and have it too.


text:
I should mention that we have been going through the "I do it" stage for MONTHS!!! Her strong will has just gotten stronger! Emily is way too much like her daddy. She has to do things her way and the hard way. I have heard stories about Stephen when he was little and Emily is just as headstrong. I better get used to it and hope the teenage years are smooth. HAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Don't get me wrong, I love my little girl more than anything in the world. She has taught me patience. Something I am still working on but getting a little better at!


text:
Graduate Students
Haina Wang
Department of Chemistry
B.S. National University of Singapore (Chemistry and Mathematics), 2018
Email Haina
Charles Maher
Department of Chemistry
B.S. University of Connecticut (Chemistry and Physics), 2018
Email Charles
Sayantan Dutta
1st Year Graduate Student
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
B.Tech. Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, (Chemical Engineering), 2017
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Timothy Middlemas
1st Year Graduate Student
Department of Chemistry
B.S. Harvey Mudd College, 2017
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JaeUk Kim
4th Year Graduate Student
Department of Physics
B.S. KAIST, (Physics), 2014
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Zheng Ma
4th Year Graduate Student
Department of Physics
B.S. Peking University, (Physics), 2014
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Recent Alumni
Duyu Chen, 2018
Ge Zhang, 2017
Steven Atkinson, 2016
Étienne Marcotte, 2013
Adam Hopkins, 2012
Chase Zachary, 2011
New York University School of Law
Robert Batten, 2011
Current Position: Consultant, Boston Consulting Group, Boston, MA.
Yang Jiao, 2010
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Arizona State University
Jana Gevertz, 2009
Current Position: Assistant Professor, The College of New Jersey, Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Mikael Rechtsman, 2008
Current Position: Postdoc at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Obioma Uche, 2006
Current Position: Postdoc at Sandia National Labs
Aleksandar Donev, 2006
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Courant Institute at New York University.
Steven Atkinson
B.S. University of Notre Dame (Mechanical Engineering), 2011
Ph.D. Princeton University (Mechanical Engineering), 2016
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Duyu Chen
B.S. University of Science and Technology of China, 2012
Ph.D. Princeton University, (Chemistry) 2018
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The official grand opening of the National Museum of Surveying, 521 E. Washington, at 10 a.m., Saturday, March 19, marks the end of a birthing long in labor. Admission on the special day is free to all comers. Otherwise adult individuals pay $5 a person, families $10 and there are discounts for students, active duty military, seniors and kids. It's the only area museum that promises "your money back if you didn't enjoy the tour."
The goal of the museum is to explain what surveyors do, why their profession is important and to encourage young people to become surveyors. The average age of a surveyor today is 60 years old. Career opportunities are many. Advanced mathematics students attending Robert Morris College visit the museum as part of their curriculum to learn one direction their study can take them. Educational materials for younger students are being developed as well. Youngest visitors, not primed for the formal tour, may enjoy the supervised children's activity room of games and learning activities.
On paying the modest admission fee, visitors are personally guided down a hall of banners, heralding most of 51 state and District of Columbia surveying organizations, to a theater sponsored by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. Films describing what surveying is all about and encouraging students to consider surveying as a career define the profession before visitors proceed to the large history gallery.
The spacious gallery adjacent to the theater includes a wall mural painting of the history of surveying, which began in ancient Egypt. Lighted glass display cases contain tools of the profession dating back to colonial America. The variety of plumb bobs in a unique gallery arrangement is fascinating in itself. The gallery serves as a holding area where visitors may linger until the next "Science on a Sphere" presentation begins on the half hour.
Images in motion, directed onto a giant three-dimensional globe from projectors positioned in four corners of the "Science on a Sphere" theater reveal the universe in a unique way. Developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which regularly adds to the more than 250 programs accessible by Museum guides, the globe may reveal details of our sun, a glimpse into the Milky Way from the Hubble Telescope, lightning strikes on our earth, aircraft in the sky worldwide and more. The newest program shows details of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Some presentations include recorded narration; others are narrated by a guide.
There's also a book shop.
Not part of the tour, the 2,500-square- foot "Old State Capitol View Room" on the building's second floor is available for special events and receptions.
The National Museum of Surveying has literally come a long way since it began 25 years ago as the Michigan Surveying Museum in Lansing, Mich. Formerly a lobbyist for a state surveying organization, Springfieldian Bob Church became a board member of that enterprise after it became focused nationally. "They were going through some troubled times," he recalls. "The state of Michigan and city of Lansing didn't help them at all. Lansing is not a tourist town." In 2006, the organization began to consider relocating, and Church proposed Springfield. "We have all the Lincoln sites downtown, Lincoln was a surveyor and with a million tourists coming to Springfield, if we got 10 percent, it would work, " he says. Church enlisted help from Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau (SCVB) and the Chamber of Commerce to produce a PowerPoint presentation to be shared with the Michiganders. In December 2006 the museum board meeting was almost scrubbed due to a major snowstorm. "We e-mailed the presentation to them and stood by on a conference call and answered their questions when they viewed it. They were so excited, they voted that day to give it to Springfield."
Church and an associate visited seven buildings in Springfield. "We walked into this location (former home of Roberts Bros. clothing store) and (knew) we couldn't have picked a better location. The board approved our choice, approved negotiations with the owner, and we bought it."
In January 2007, the organization was established as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation, and they occupied the building. Then the recession hit. "Surveyors, engineers and organizations that had supported us were out looking for work and unable to continue. We had started at the right time. We obtained the Science on a Sphere exhibit, a major attraction, but the building sat almost empty for almost three years."
On Sept. 24, 2010, the museum had a "soft opening" to allow the public to start visiting, even though there were tasks unfinished. Two members of an initial Springfield Advisory Board that met monthly became trustees. Church and assistant director Matthew Parbs also recruited volunteers. They meet weekly with the trustees. "We are looking to add more trustees, but I don't want this to become an 'Illinois museum,'" Church stressed. "I want to find a person in every state who will help us produce special displays about surveying nationwide."
Visitors from all over the U.S. have toured the museum and six state organizations from throughout the country have contributed major funding. Today the National Museum of Surveying is building a membership organization that includes students and adults.
Looking ahead, the museum hopes to find major local corporate support. In return, the museum will add corporate names to the special attractions and generate, in trade, major goodwill for participants.
Also planned is the recruitment of an Abe Lincoln portrayer to distribute literature at Union Park, close to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, inviting tourists to walk one block south and half a block west to learn more about "The Great Emancipator's" earlier career choice.
Museum hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays may be extended to accommodate group tours by special arrangement. To learn more about the National Museum of Surveying, visit www.nationalsurveyingmuseum.org.
Springfield native son Job Conger is a freelance writer, author of Springfield Aviation, poet and director of Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport's AeroKnow Museum. Visit his website – www.aeroknow.com.


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text: The shrimp boats were docked and had already unloaded their catch with the shrimp boxed up and ready for the public. They also had scallops, bulldozer lobster, and shrimp in various sizes. All sales are cash only and the shrimp was $11/pound in 5 pound boxes. Versaggi Seafoods next door is soon to start selling shrimp in 2.5 pound boxes. Families were there checking out a real, active dock and for me, it was a unique experience.


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Vybz Kartel's arresting book, The Voice of the Jamaican Ghetto, co-authored with Michael Dawson of People's Telecom fame, gives a penetrating account of the deadly conditions endured by too many youth who are barely surviving on the margins of Jamaican society. Claiming the authority of the traditional warner man, Kartel compels his audience to pay attention to his prophetic story. You just can't put the book down.
Kartel's intention is not to entertain but to upset: "As strange as it may sound, I hope you do not enjoy this book. I hope it disturbs you. I hope after reading you realise there is something wrong with Jamaica that needs to be fixed. I hope you will never look at a ghetto person the same again."
Cynics have been asking if Kartel really wrote the book. They clearly have not listened to his songs. There's an organic connection between the two: "… After seeing the crowd's response to my conscious songs, I wanted to tell more of the story that I could not capture in three minutes riding a riddim. So I started writing, still unsure at the time if a book was what I wanted to do."
Each of the 10 chapters amplifies the core concepts of selected songs. For example, chapter 1 is based on 'Thank You Jah':
Psalms 127 Selah,
Except di Lord build di house,
Dey labour in vain dat build it,
Except di Lord keep di city,
Di watchman watcheth, but in vain.
Thank yu, Jah, it's just another day, selah,
It's just another day,
Thank yu, Jah, mi wake up dis mornin
Roll out di herbs before mi start yawnin
Tun round buss a kiss pon mi dawlin
Tell har seh, "Honey, mi ah touch inna di steet."
In di street mi see poor people bawlin
Nuff juvenile no even nyam from mornin,
"Weh di black woman future?", me aks him
"Weh di system a do fi she"?
Now big up di gyal dem weh fight it alone
An ah raise two, three pickney pon dem own,
Weh di man deh? No man no deh home,
Babylon have dem inna jail.
Big up di juvenile dem inna di street
Weh a seh dem haffi make it
An nah touch di chrome!
Dem no waan wi fi claim our own,
But Africa nah form no fool inna Rome,
Ghetto youth, we go on and on
Babylon waan wi gone,
Hungry from morning til night come,
Dem waan wi fi live our life so,
Dem a wonder if di youth dem a go stop, no!
A wonder if di ghetto a go drop, no!
Dem a wonder if wi ketch inna di trap, no!
A wonder if Jah tun him back, no!
'Thank you, Jah' is a prayer that every fundamentalist Christian in Jamaica can identify with – up to a point. Kartel chants his gratitude to Jah in Old Testament lyrics. But the song quickly changes tune and tone. 'Thank you, Jah' becomes a damning judgement on the failures of modern Babylon. Kartel's invocation of the psalm is decidedly ironic.
The Lord is certainly not keeping the city of Kingston. Babylon labours in vain to build a city founded on injustice. The so-called 'system' brutalises poor people in Jamaica. The profound philosophical question the song raises is whether or not 'Jah tun him back'. Are ghetto people the victims of divine indifference, as Babylon hopes? The song condemns the conspiracy of Church and State to keep poor people in bondage.
In the book, Kartel has ample room to elaborate on the inequities of Jamaican society, especially the apparent willingness of the Church to postpone justice until 'Thy kingdom come'. He gives a quick history lesson to demonstrate the origin of the racism at the root of imperial Christianity.
Kartel demolishes the myth of European conquest as a mission to save the souls of savages: "Sometimes, I wish Gaza was around in those days when these men came off their ships, dressed in their stockings, short pants and funny hats to tell Portmore people they are heathens so they should come and work for free and these men in stockings will show them salvation. I am confident you could stay from the toll road and hear those sailors begging for mercy when the Gaza done wid dem." Although Kartel doesn't want us to 'enjoy' the book, there's lots of humour.
In a telephone interview last week, Michael Dawson explained his role in the creative process. He sees the book as a recording of the 'reasonings' between himself and Adidja 'Vybz Kartel' Palmer. In his 'Preface', Dawson admits the ironies of the project: "Many people have wondered how this improbable collaboration came about. How could someone who is a known Garveyite collude with the 'Bleacher' to write a book? … How did my Campion background find common ground with the Gaza?"
Dawson gives an intriguing answer: "I realised what Addi was reluctant to admit; that deep down he realised he had the gift of being a lyricist and the ability to put it on a dancehall rhythm like no one else had. He feared, however (my observation), that being known as a conscious artiste would gain him a label that he did not want."
It was the opportunity to lecture at the University of the West Indies that changed Kartel's mind. Wilmot Perkins must be turning in his grave. The 'intellectual ghetto' has clearly served its purpose, promoting dialogue between town and gown.
The Voice of the Jamaican Ghetto should be read in and out of school. It ought to be on the CXC social studies syllabus. It raises complex issues of social justice in an accessible way. This book will engage the attention of every student, from Campion College to Gaza Secondary. And Adidja Palmer needs to be given a fair trial. Quickly! Otherwise, we run the risk of turning Vybz Kartel into a political prisoner, fulfilling the expectation of the book cover.


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Many people in Tennessee want to complete the estate planning process and then put those documents aside. Due to inevitable life and law changes, however, estate plans can often be ripe for review and updating. This will help to ensure that they accurately reflect one's wishes.
Many experts advise a review of primary estate planning documents, including a will, financial power of attorney and advanced medical directive, by a lawyer at least every 10 years. Of course, a review can be prompted by other major life events, such as marriage, divorce or the birth of a child or grandchild. Many estate holders may wish to add new beneficiaries or remove beneficiaries with whom they have ended a relationship.
It can also be important to ensure that the Maxalt buy usa of one's will is current and up to date. When a will goes to probate, if a deceased or unavailable person is named, the probate court will appoint an alternative. In addition, while major possessions like a home, bank account or other high-value items will often be included in a will, many personal possessions are often left aside. This can make it difficult for loved ones to sort out the distribution of personal property after death. However, handling it as part of the estate can ease the process for everyone involved.
There are a number of benefits to keeping one's estate plan up to date. Even tax law changes can have an effect on an estate. With help from an experienced attorney, however, estate holders can be sure that their future wishes will be followed.


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Our solid walnut wood table boasts an elegant kidney shape, along with a 3.5 inch diameter cupholder groove to hold your beverages in place. The table also has a 9.75 x 0.5 inch slot, perfect for cell phones or reading materials. On the bottom of the table is a bean bag pouch so that you can use it on your lap. Alternatively, you can screw in the aluminum post and use it in the Accessory Dock for a fully functional swivel table.
The post connects directly to the table. Simply slide the post into the Accessory Dock located in front of the cupholders. The table swivels 360 degrees and is easy to remove and clean.
- 16″ W x 11″ L x 1″ D


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Playing during bath time.
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Easily change your baby everywhere.


text: Gagnon and Law Urban Planners Ltd. was retained to project manage the Committee of Adjustment Approvals Process associated with the establishment of a new corporate Head Office & Fitness Club planned to be located in Brampton, Ontario. A vision involved the total refurbishment of 40B Hansen Road South. More specifically the plans called for the redevelopment of a state of the art Head Office, Physio/Rehab Center and Banquet Hall.


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D.R. Poulin is a commercial general contractor specializing in design/build construction and management for commercial, industrial, and institutional clients in the greater Central Massachusetts area. Our fully-integrated, turn-key, design-and-build services streamline the entire concept-and-construction process to provide high-quality, fully-operational buildings quickly and cost-effectively for a wide range of businesses, industries, and uses.
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Role Of T V In Personality Development
Influence Of Tv Programmes On Children
TV programmes can affect child positively as well as negatively. Therefore, parents should take proper steps to monitor what child is watching. Read on to know more about the positive and negative impacts of TV programmes on children and what pare...
Top 10 Ways Television Influences Peoples Behaviour
Many critics assert that TV is responsible for "dumbing" down' society. Many others argue that television contributes to a shared culture, which exceeds geographic and ethnic restrictions by tackling the 'hyper real'. One thing is of certainty and...
Toddler Tv Time May Predict Who Gets Bullied
Toddlers who watch a lot of TV may be more likely to be victims of bullying later in life. Toddlers who watch a lot of TV may be victimized more by their peers as adolescents.
Tv Promotes Unhealthy Sexuality
Today's prime-time television programming is not merely indifferent to the institution of marriage and the stabilizing role it plays in our society, it seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by consistently painting it in a negative li...
How Television Is Effecting Your Child's Behavior - Change The Channel To Encourage Empathy
According to a new study in the Journal of Pediatrics, better TV might improve your child's behavior. This suggests that just turning the television off isn't the only answer but that by allowing selective channels to view a child can be exposed t...
Tedxrainier - Dimitri Christakis - Media And Children
Dimitri Christakis is a pediatrician, parent, and researcher whose influential findings are helping identify optimal media exposure for children.
Top 10 Real-Life Crimes Inspired By Movies And Tv
Just because you saw it on-screen, doesn't mean it's right. These are few of the instances when TV had a wrong influence on people.
The Negative Influence Tv Has On Teens
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study on media and 8- to 18-year-olds, teens spend an average of four to five hours each day watching TV. With the growing use of technology allowing teens to view TV programs not just on an actual TV set, b...
Watching Tv Can Make You A Better Person
Can watching an inspiring television or film character make you a better person? New research provides tentative evidence that it can—but only if viewers take time to reflect on the personal implications of what they have just watched.
Can Tv Inspire A Love Of Science?
It is not surprising that we make our career choices inspired by the characters and people we have seen on the TV! Such evidences are available and only tell us how deeply TV is a part of our life.
7 Ways Watching Tv Can Inspire You To Live A Better Life
Like medicines, everything in this world has its side effects and television is no exception. People who're resistant to different kinds of addiction and treat television as an entertaining source of information usually find watching TV beneficial...
7 Reasons Why Tv Can Be Good For Kids
TV Can Be Good for Kids - Read an article about 10 ways in which TV and movies can actually be good for kids. Kids like to watch TV to relax and have fun just like adults do. We can also help children choose programming that can even be beneficial...
Can A Television Show Inspire Social Change?
The world is more tolerant and less violent than at any other point in human history, but you wouldn't know it from watching most mainstream media. Despite incredible advancements and a world of unprecedented innovation and interconnectedness, the...
Changing Behavior Through Tv Heroes
Long-running TV and radio programs founded on social psychology are helping people around the world make positive changes in their lives, from encouraging literacy to raising the status of women in societies where they are marginalized etc. This d...
Thinking Outside The Box: Tv Inspired Careers
These days, more and more students claim their choice of career was inspired by a TV show.
How One Tv Show Inspired A New Generation Of Crime Fighters
It describes the effect and other crime investigation shows have had on public awareness of forensic science. As the popularity of these shows rise, schools have seen an increase in the demand for undergraduate courses and graduate programs in for...
10 Ways To Help Kids Develop Healthy Tv Viewing Habits
Learn about ideas that can help you encourage your children to have healthy TV viewing habits.
Satyamev Jayate
Satyamev Jayate is a TV show that discusses and provides possible solutions to address social issues in India. It aims to empower citizens with information about their country and urges them to take action. Till date, three seasons of the show fea...


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Taelor woke up full of his usual excitement this lovely Sunday morning. We looveee the weekend. It gives us so much time to spend together doing all sorts of things. This weekend was no exception, and after giving him big warm hugs he quickly went to say G'morning to his new pet.
We had just gotten him the day before. It was a gift from his Aunty River. After thinking for a short while, he decided to name it, "Spring" because of the lovely green feathers on its chest and belly. I thought it was such a lovely name, and very apt since Spring is round the corner and the bird sings so sweetly.
After playing with it, we decided we would have pizza for dinner. So we embarked on making it together. I just LOVE cooking with my little helper. We had a few packs of delicious mozzarella cheese and another pack that was a mix of cheddar and mozzarella, along with dough I had made earlier in the day and some tomato sauce.
Tae did great punching at the dough. He did get a little tired, and as hitting things isn't something he considers fun, I could tell he would much rather sprinkle the cheese than beat up the dough. Be that as it may, he did great and soon we had a perfect dough that was now laid out nice and thin. As he did that, I sliced the pepperoni into thin pieces and smeared the tomato sauce over the dough when he was done. After which, we laid the pepperoni over the pizza and then I opened the cheese packs, handed him one and that is when the cheese rain began!
He sprinkled cheese all over it with glee!
Soon it was ready to go into the oven and so it did. I usually don't let him touch the oven when it's on, but today I decided to supervise him checking the pizza and stood near as he opened the oven door and looked into it at the pizza.
It was done! And so we dined like Queen and Princess! ❤
After dinner, I got changed and then decided to put some red bows in his hair to match his dress. He looked even cuter with it on and matching.
Off we went into the town. Today was the day we would find a stable for Coco, Taelor's horse. He had received it as a gift from his cousin for Christmas. We went looking all over and found none that would let us keep him. We drove and drove about…
We even asked a police officer along the way, but no success.
So we headed back home quickly. I had to have one built for him right there by the house. We may very well move him soon, but for now, Coco will remain right by our house. Near enough to get some love and attention from his owner.
Coco seems really happy in his new home.
After that long day of searching and running around, it was bed time. He wore one of his favorite (and mine too) nighties, and it was clear he was iching to start wearing night gowns again. Oh if only spring would come soon.
Before tucking him in, Taelor finished a puzzle he had been working on – the My Little Pony jigsaw puzzle.
How amazing!
We said our prayers and soon after, he was tucked in and being smooched and watched over till he fell asleep.
It didn't take long. He was really tired. It had been a busy, but lovely day.


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Bobby Hambel is very New York. Very Brooklyn. And Biohazard is a very New York band. After twenty something odd years they are still killing it on stage.
Biohazard is back sporting a new album and a new tour. What's not to like about the month of January 2012! Biohazard's music and I go way back.