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Description de l'éditeur
Lando Calrissian returns to Cloud City only to find that it appears to have been completely abandoned. He soon discovers Imperial bombtroopers arriving to disarm a series of talking bombs left behind by disgruntled Ugnaught workers. The Imperials attempt to disarm the first bomb and the bomb itself appears to be helping them, but instead tricks them into arming the explosive mechanism rather than disarming it. The charge explodes, leaving Captain Hugo Treece, the acting governor of Cloud City, the only surviving Imperial. Calrissian and Treece agree to a truce in order to recover Lobot, who was critically damaged by the Ugnaughts, and have him deactivate the remaining bombs left on Cloud City before the entire city is destroyed. Their plan works, but as soon as the rest of the bombs are disarmed Treece turns on Lando and shoves him through the railing bordering Cloud City where he falls towards the planet Bespin below.
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Monday, March 28, 2011
Evan {6 months} 03.19.11
Another sweet little guy who made his third visit to me this month - this time for his 6 month pictures! Hard to believe how quickly these little guys grow! Evan is such a cutie with such a fun, happy personality! It's always a pleasure for me to spend time with him and capture that big smile!
Posted by Unknown at 1:36 PM No comments:
Baby W {1 year}, 03.12.11
This was the 3rd time I got to hang out with Mr. W who continues to be just as cute as can be! He was so adorable discovering his Easter eggs and basket - such a joy! Happy 1st birthday buddy!
Posted by Unknown at 1:32 PM No comments:
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Olivia {1 year}, 01.23.11
Sharing sweet Olivia's 1 year session has been a long time coming! I have no real excuse except that my camera went away for service just after her session and I had a little photography "break." But not to worry, starting back in March, lots more fun sessions to come! Olivia is so sweet and active, very much on the move! That is, until you let her go to town with a cupcake! She didn't even seem to mind getting dirty! Happy (now belated) birthday pretty girl!
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subset: commoncrawl


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'Star Wars' star Billy Dee Williams refers to self as 'feminine as well as masculine'
Dec 02, 2019
Washington DC (USA) Dec 02: Billy Dee Williams, best known for playing Lando Calrissian in the "Star Wars" franchise, has opened up about his gender identity.
In a recent interview with Esquire, Williams, 82, discussed his masculine and feminine sides.
"I never tried to be anything except myself," Williams said. "I think of myself as a relatively colorful character who doesn't take himself or herself too seriously."
"You see, I say 'himself' and 'herself,' because I also see myself as feminine as well as masculine," he continued. "I'm a very soft person. I'm not afraid to show that side of myself."
When the outlet told Williams that actor Donald Glover, who played Calrissian in "Solo: A Star Wars Story," employed gender fluidity in the film, Williams was nothing short of pleased.
"Really? That kid is brilliant -- just look at those videos," Williams said, referencing "This is America," Glover's song under the pseudonym Childish Gambino.
Later this month, fans will be reunited with Williams in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," for which Williams went on a strict diet and exercise routine, he said.
"When I have to go to work, my ego tells me I want to look pretty good," the actor said. "I don't want to look bad. I don't want to look like a slob."
The Emmy nominee also discussed the impact his role in "Star Wars" had on future films.
Williams noted that at Disney's recent D23 Expo, where he appeared to promote his movie, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jamie Foxx both offered him praise, saying he influenced their careers.
"The Rock calls me the OG," Williams said. "What I presented on that screen people didn't expect to see. And I deliberately presented something that nobody had experienced before: a romantic brown-skinned boy."
Williams is also known for his paintings, some of which can still be seen at galleries around the country, and his album of jazz standards, "Let's Misbehave."
"The Rise of Skywalker" will hit theaters on Dec. 20.
Source: Fox News


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Legacy ETL Technology for data integration and bulk data delivery is still the sole option available for processing data that is not 'Big Data' – millions of bytes to be precise. AFourTech has proven expertise in ETL development for data extraction / collection, transformation, and delivery that is customized on a case-to-case basis. Our ETL engine ensures that you are provided with actionable and decision-making insights for business intelligence. We have the right personnel to Extract, Transform, and Load data at each stage of the Data Warehousing Architecture – from Operational Applications, Data Warehouse Staging Area, Data warehouse, and finally the Data Marts
We have worked on ETL Development for these domains –
- e-Commerce
- Retail
- Healthcare
- Entertainment
Technology Stack
Skill Sets
AFourTech provides customized ETL development to suit your specific business requirements. We work on –
- Converting distinct types of formats (XML, CSV etc.) in a database using our proprietary ETL tool / ETL Engine.
- Separating different data formats, that is, cleansing data.
- Loading data in the database.
AFourTech's successful ETL implementation includes ElasticSearch for a location driven product aggregation tool
Lets Talk!
Would you like to speak to us about our ETL development services. Just submit your details and we'll be in touch shortly. You can also email us if you would prefer.


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Lochgelly is set to finally get their Gala Day back and this is thanks to the Lochgelly Community Regeneration Forum who have managed to source funds, and are busy organising the Gala day with the local community.
To make this Gala day a success, the LCRF are needing more input from the local community and are looking for volunteers to come along to meetings to suggest activities, help organise events, co-ordinate and plan the Gala, and help out on the day.
The LCRF are holding a meeting tonight at 6pm in the Lochgelly Regeneration Office (30/33 Bank Street, Lochgelly) to discuss the planning and way forward for a successful children's Gala to be held on Sunday 22nd August 2010.
The LCRF are keen to hear your ideas and views and everyone is welcome to come along, they are also looking for a team of volunteers to help develop the Gala into something special for Lochgelly.
Lochgelly hasn't had it's own Gala for many years, which is a shame, as there is always complaints about the lack of facilities within the local area. This is one event that can help bring together the Lochgelly Community, provide our kids access to facilities, entertainment, even if it is only for one day, as well as showing that there is a strong community spirit that still exists within Lochgelly.
So if you are at a loose end, why not drop into the Lochgelly Regeneration Office, tonight at 6pm to discuss your views and ideas, take part, help organise and establish a Gala day for Lochgelly. If you cannot attend but would still like to present your ideas, show support, or just leave feedback please do so in the comments box below.


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Welcome to McDonagh Demolition!
As a Chicago-based, Class A Demolition Company, McDonagh Demolition specializes in demolition and wrecking; and when we say we specialize, you can rest assured that we have all of the requisite knowledge, experience and expertise, married with the right, highly trained staff and equipment, to get it done right, safely and without unnecessary headache and incident.
McDonagh Demolition can and will perform a wide variety of demolition related services, from interior demolition (and sometimes renovation), to the exterior projects to include excavation, grading, concrete removal, concrete installation, underground services, utility management from deconstruction to installation, all site work, both sewer and water, and also water management, contaminated soil removal, hazardous waste removal, oil and fuel tank removals – and all of the services described here, are performed for any sized project – from residential to the commercial and industrial sectors.
McDonagh Demolition, Inc., owns, operates and maintains a substantial fleet of equipment, enhanced by our substantial complement of talented, experienced, professional, personable and reliable Staff, Crews and Subcontractors. With our experienced and expert team, we complete your projects with best practices, effectively and efficiently, on time, and within budget. From initial mobilization to completion, McDonagh Demolition has the know-how and expertise to coordinate everything necessary, the Can-Do attitude to get it done, from expert permit processing, engineering and testing, to the onsite management by our expert teams. We operate and broad scale of managing multiple contracts and all of the trades because, we can handle it all. Call upon us today, and let McDonagh Demolition, Inc., demonstrate to you our professional experience, the experience necessary to satisfy any project schedule, and fulfill your construction needs, under any conditions.
General Contracting
McDonagh Demolition will oversee the entire project schedule while managing all vendors and trades and keeping the owner up to date on all activities.More
Demolition Services
McDonagh has the experience and expertise to demolish any size project from large industrial buildings to residential to selective interior projects.More
Sewer & Water
McDonagh Demolition has years of experience with installation, repair, or removal of all types of storm sewer, sanitary sewer and water service lines.More
Environmental Remediation
McDonagh Demolition has completed projects containing asbestos abatement; hazardous, non-hazardous, and special waste disposal; above or below ground storage tank removal and disposal.More
Site Recycling
McDonagh Demolition is going green. All materials that can be recycled and diverted from the waste stream are sent to transfer centers. Recycled items include, but not limited to: lumber, metal, asphalt, masonry, and concrete.More
McDonagh Demolition has the experience, personnel, and equipment to excavate, backfill, and grade project sites of all sizes and shapes.More
Site Development
McDonagh Demolition's experienced staff will help guide site owners from the pre-construction phases of planning or design all the way through close-out and grand openings.More
Site Preparation
McDonagh Demolition has over 10 years of experience in readying project sites of varying sizes for future development per the owner's scope and criteria.More


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Microsoft has of course now completed the initial launch of its Windows 10 operating system. With this plateau now conquered, the firm is using this immediate period of aftermath to clean up any areas where buggy imperfections might be still lurking.
The recharged Microsoft Bounty for Defense programme will now offer almost £65,000 (US$ 100K) as a direct payment to any individual that has helped reinforce the firm's defence systems and related technologies.
Specifically, Microsoft will pay up to US$ 100,000 for insight into what it calls 'truly novel exploitation techniques' that can be used to act against protections built into the latest version of its operating system.
Leaps and bug hops
According to Microsoft, the firm is making a concerted effort to try and learn about new exploitation techniques earlier. This approach helps Microsoft improve security 'by leaps' it says, instead of capturing one vulnerability at a time - as a traditional bug bounty alone might typically achieve.
"Our new bounty programmes add expanded depth and flexibility to our existing community outreach programmes. Having these bounty programmes provides a way to harness the collective intelligence and capabilities of security researchers to help further protect customers," said Microsoft, in a statement on its own TechNet technical engineering resources and tools site.
Back in November 2013, Microsoft initiated the Mitigation Bypass Bounty and the Bounty for Defense. It continued expanding its bounty programmes and in September 2014 announced the Online Services Bug Bounty programme.
This news has broken in line with the Black Hat conference, which is held in Las Vegas this August. Speaking at the event was Jason Shirk in his role as security architect at Microsoft.
Shirk blogged late last week as follows, "These additions to the Microsoft Bounty Programme will be part of the rigorous security programmes at Microsoft. Bounties will be worked alongside the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL),Operational Security Assurance (OSA) framework, regular penetration testing of our products and services, and Security and Compliance Accreditations by third party audits."
A wider perspective on the news
Microsoft is fundamentally placing more emphasis on combating authentication security flaws with these moves.
Antoine Feriaux, enterprise solutions consultant for EMEA at Accellion has said that the advent of Windows 10 tackles several inherent security and operational issues that have blighted the platform for some time.
"Application vetting and biometric authentication – including facial recognition - are the main new security features at the centre of Windows 10, representing a major shift from Windows 8 which centred on the implementation of touch and the Metro user interface technology," said Feriaux, speaking to SCMagazineUK.com today.
Feriaux's comments resonate with the wider efforts being made here to tackle security vulnerabilities with the firm's browser in mind. "Even though the last iteration of Microsoft's legacy Explorer web browser was a major overhaul of the IE code base it was marred by a poor reputation for security, performance and usability, perhaps unfairly inherited from previous versions," added Feriaux.
Microsoft's own Shirk says that it has been great to see the reaction from the research community to the Microsoft Edge Bug Bounty, and the Azure addition to the Online Services Bug Bounty Programme.
An open approach
David Flower, managing director for Bit9 + Carbon Black also spoke to SCMagazineUK.com today saying that there are huge changes happening in the cyber-security industry that are largely being driven by openness and integration.
"No single provider can sufficiently protect organisations from every threat vector – whether commodity malware or specific threat actor groups – via a single source of threat intelligence. Programmes such as these will hopefully help with the drive for more intelligence sharing which can only be a good thing," said Flower.
These anti-exploitation efforts have surfaced at the same time as the first Windows 10 'Service Release 1' fixes, which it must be stressed are essentially not security-related updates.
"Hopefully this move will encourage new researchers into the industry, rather than just focusing the limited pool of hackers that are looking to make major money in the bug hunting business on Microsoft."


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Terms and conditions for advance ticket sales
Tickets paid for in advance may be collected from the Box Office up to an hour before the event, or thereafter on the door.
Tickets may also be posted for an additional charge of £2. Please check your tickets upon receipt.
We regret that tickets cannot be exchanged or money refunded, except in the case of a cancelled event.
Tickets are non-transferable.
Advertised concessionary rates apply to certain events for children and full-time students who can clearly demonstrate their status.
Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.
A limited number of free companion seats are available for the registered disabled who would otherwise be unable to attend an event.


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Share a Story - Change the World
225 members
Grandmahoney has not received any gifts yet
I am still here. Got over colon cancer. I finally finished college and got my doctorate in Educational leadership. I am a published author now. My book is called Grandma Honey's Storytelling Hour. I am presently working or trying to work with parents and children on bullying, something I have tried to do years ago. I guess they are taking it serious now. Some parents are taking their children out of school because of the bullying. It is terrible I tell you, something has to be done and it…Continue
Posted on May 16, 2017 at 10:35am — 1 Comment
© 2020 Created by Don 'Buck P' Creacy. Powered by


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🔴The cartoons will have a maximum dimension of 30 x 40 cms. JPG, 300 dpi. You can participate with cartoons that have already been published or rewarded previously. Each participant can present in the event a maximum..
August 05, 2018
Born in Cali (Colombia), she studied painting at the School of Fine Arts in Cali and in the Politècnic School of Arts, London, England . He participated in various international exhibitions such as in USA and Puerto Rico. In 1968 he created his character "Black Snow" published in newspapers like the Country and the spectator character that has also participated in various exhibitions and shows in the country. His work has remained as an example for generations of women to believe the caricature of opinion. In 1982, he won the "Journalist of the Year" award by the circle of journalists from Cali and the following year figure as the winner of Simon Bolivar in caricature
1) Open to all professional cartooniststhe world, preferably older (18 years). Deadline: August 5 this year.
2) There will be 2 categories Humor and Cartoon Graphic physiognomy
A .: physiognomic caricatures of CONSUELO LAGO (no pictures).
Images and information
B. Graphic Humor: Female
- Cartoon
1, 2, 3 Rank (+ 3 Honorable Mentions): Diploma internet event.
Graphic humour
1, 2, 3 Rank (+ 3 Honorable Mentions): Diploma internet event.
"Recognition Cartoon and Graphic Humor Noticartun Colombia" (Diploma Printed)
In addition , a virtual catalog will be designed to house NEWS CARTOON COLOMBIA
4) Each participant can present in the event a maximum of 1 work subject but can only be awarded in a category and can participate with cartoons in black and white or color.
5) On the JURY :
Forming caricaturists and cartoonists renowned professionals. They may participate with works but only by way of cooperation and not for awards. ( Soon their names) and may not be taken into account in awarding jobs or people with relatives who have work commitments now, if necessary.
6) The cartoons will have a maximum dimension of 30 x 40 cms. JPG, 300 dpi.
7) You can participate with cartoons that have already been published or rewarded previously. Selected works will be online so that if given case someone has a complaint about the originality of the work, the jury and Cartoon News Colombia, select a new job.
8) All drawings submitted must be made from original ideas, either analog (scanned) or digital, no photographs, scanned photocopies, photomontages, etc. will be accepted
9) Participants must send a brief CV in Word, contact details (name, email, web or blog and country of origin of the participant) and a photograph or caricature with his works.
10) Each author owns rights on their work and only authorizes NEWS CARTOON COLOMBIA to expose in this tribute online, without any financial compensation for the parties. Any problems with copyright shall be borne by the participant
11) NEWS CARTOON COLOMBIA reserves the right to display works that understands they can attempt against individual or collective rights.
12) Participation in the contest implies full and unreserved acceptance of these conditions.
13) Entries must be sent to:
Topic: 3 CONTEST NOTICARTUN COLOMBIA - 2016 firstname.lastname@example.com
Noticartún Competition Director:
Camilo A. C. Triana "TRIANA"
Deputy Director Noticartún Competition:
Juan Camilo Lopera Arroyave "JÚCALO"
Competition history Noticartún Colombia:
Source: Noti Cartun Colombia.com >>
Consuelo LAGO


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Royal Melodies
"Royal Melodies" and "Pomegranate Evening" were completed simultaneously expressing two views of a magnificent night sky, which I photographed while driving home one evening in January. The deep blues morph into purple, and pink wisps of clouds overhead dance with the steady breeze. I used a combination of brush work and palette knife to give the work a feeling of spontaneity.
This piece is on a gallery wrapped canvas and the painting continues around the sides. It comes ready to hang.
Oil on Canvas
12 x 12 x 1.5


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14.12.2016 20:18
Carpe Noctem Cassel Winter of Documentation
Today the Carpe Noctem Cassel Winter of Documentation (CNCWOD) started with the following proposed topics:
- How to use the CSP Solver?
- Path Planner
- Rotation Calibration
- Dribble Calibration
- How to create a Plan?
- Doxygen Workflow
- Code Overview
- Actuator and Beagle Board
The deadline is on 18.01.17 were the winner of the CNCWOD will be determined during our weekly team meeting. We hope that our extra documentation effort will foster the usability of our tools.


text: Mock TrialAdvisor: Ms. Caroline firstname.lastname@example.com D109What is Mock Trial?The Mock Trial team is given a fake court case that the team must argue from both sides - from both the prosecution's perspective and the defense's perspective. The student-led team decides on the best way to argue this case. Each student is given a role - lawyer, witness, or jury member - and the students compete against other high schools in a real courtroom setting. While students are encouraged to figure out the case on their own, the Mock Trial team works with a lawyer who attends meetings weekly to help with the more difficult aspects of the case.Mock Trial helps students understand the importance of the law and the impact law has on society. It encourages students to think on their feet and helps them develop critical thinking skills.If you are interested in a career in law or criminal justice, Mock Trial is an amazing experience. It's also great for college applications and is a fun opportunity for anyone that enjoys acting.2018-2019 EventsWe will...-Discuss and analyze the case starting in the beginning of October. Students are expected to attend 1-2 meetings per week to prepare for the case. Once roles are assigned, students will learn their scripts-Compete in the Vincent J. Apruzzese Mock Trail Competition in January in a courtroomWhen are meetings?There are 2 meetings a week - one during Charger Time and one after school. Exact dates are TBD.Interested?Join the Remind group for meeting dates and more information! Text @fh9kbg to 81010.


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Forest farming is one of five systems of agroforestry practice that is commonly recognized in North America. Like other agroforestry practices, forest farming is characterized by the four i's:
interactive (1)
Unlike other agroforestry practices such as alley cropping or silvopasture where trees are introduced into some type of agricultural system, in forest farming, agricultural or cropping techniques are intentionally introduced into existing forested systems. (2)
Common types of practice include medicinal plants, gourmet mushrooms and bee products. Floral, fruit and nut crops also hold promise for being produced in forest farming practices.
The various product options have different forest management requirements. The principle forest management requirement for apiculture, and for maple syrup production, involves tree crop selection and possible thinning to increase crown size for bee forage or sap production. Medicinal herb production normally involves cultivating the forest floor and possibly thinning the canopy to create the appropriate microclimate. Small diameter hardwoods that are removed for timber stand improvement may be used as logs or chippings for mushroom production.
An important concern for any of these practices is the use of chemicals in the production of either the tree crop or the farmed crop. Any proposed chemical must be compatible for all components (i.e., animal and plant) in the practice. Long term forest health must be of paramount concern to designers and managers of viable forest farming practices.
For more information about agroforestry see the USDA National Agroforestry Center's web page: http://www.unl.edu/nac/
(1) Gold, M.A., W.J. Rietveld, H.E. Garrett and R.F. Fisher,
2000. In: H.E. Garrett, W.J. Rietveld, and R.F. Fisher (eds.) North American
Agroforestry: An Integrated Science and Practice, American Society of Agronomy,
Inc., Madison, WI. Chapter 3.
(2) Hill, D.B. and L.E. Buck, 2000. Forest farming practices. Ibid, Chapter 8.
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Time Is Running Out to Sign Up for DMC
From Dairy Herd Management
Mike Opperman
Sign-up for the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program ends Friday, which means dairy producers have just a few days to enroll in a program that basically guarantees a payout for producers that's higher than program premiums in 2019.
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) urges all dairy producers to get signed up. "DMC signup, especially at the maximum $9.50 coverage level, is a no-brainer for dairy producers," said Jim Mulhern, NMPF President and CEO. "But to take advantage of this program, delay is no longer possible. Farmers need to sign up now."
The DMC, the main risk-protection tool for dairy farmers enacted in the 2018 farm bill, is guaranteed to pay all producers enrolled at the maximum $9.50/cwt. coverage level for every month of production through July, according to USDA data. More than 71% of dairy operations with an established DMC production history have enrolled so far for this year, representing more than 19,000 producers nationwide.
The DMC is a much more robust safety net for dairy producers of all sizes than the Margin Protection Program, which has been discontinued. DMC improvements include:
- Affordable higher coverage levels that permit all dairy producers to insure margins up to $9.50/cwt. on their Tier 1 (first five million pounds) production history, a higher level than previous programs.
- A new option for producers to receive a 25 percent discount on their premiums if they agree to lock in their coverage for the five-year period of this Farm Bill. However, producers will be allowed to pay their premiums annually even if they elect the five-year discount.
- The feed-cost formula has been improved to include dairy quality hay values, which better reflects the true cost of feeding dairy cows.
- Affordable $5.00 coverage that lowers premium costs by roughly 88 percent. This creates more meaningful catastrophic-type coverage at a reasonable cost for larger producers without distorting the market signals needed to balance supply with demand.
NMPF has a resource page on its website with more information about the program, including this 4-page brochure summarizing key facts about the DMC.


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Occupational Therapy Assistant
2-year AAS degree
Occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) work with patients of all ages and help them learn skills to lead independent lives. OTAs work under the supervision of an occupational therapist (OT) to provide hands-on services to clients who are learning new ways to succeed in the occupation of life. This program starts each year in the fall.
The primary location for Occupational Therapy Assistant students will be the Kirkwood Linn County Regional Center in Hiawatha.
Students in this program may be eligible to have half their tuition paid for by the Kibbie Grant.
The Occupational Therapy Assistant program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE). Graduates of the program are eligible to sit for the national certification exam administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT). Successful completion of the exam leads to the Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) designation. Most states, including Iowa, require a license to practice. A felony conviction may affect a graduate's ability to sit for the NBCOT certification exam or obtain state licensure.
The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE)
of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA)
6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200 | North Bethesda, MD 20852 - 4929
(301) 652-AOTA | www.acoteonline.org
Program results from the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT)


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Design of Virtual Tutoring Agents for a Virtual Biology Experiment
Jian Qing Yu [email@example.com ]
School of Computer Sciences & Engineering, Shanghai University, P.R. China
David J. Brown [firstname.lastname@example.com]
Department of Computing & Mathematics, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Ellen Billett [email@example.com]
Faculty of Science and Land Based Studies, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Virtual learning environments (VLEs) may possess many advantages over traditional teaching methods in skills training that offer empowerment of constructing the skills by freely exploring a VLE. However, a conflict between the free exploration and ensuring the learning tasks tackled emerges in the learning process. A strategy to balance the conflict is to employ virtual tutoring agents to scaffold the learning tasks. This research has been carried out to investigate the issues of design and utility of a virtual tutoring agent system in a VLE to allow higher education (university based) students to practise immunology laboratory experiments, which simulates a well known immunochemical assay in the Life Sciences area, namely a Radio Immunoassay. This paper discusses the classification of category of the virtual agents in a VLE and focuses on the design of tutoring agents. Three types of the tutoring agents have been selected and implemented in the Radio Immunoassay simulation. The considered points in programming the virtual tutoring agents and their tasks are presented in this paper. A formative evaluation studies have been carried out and discussed to verify the designed virtual tutoring agents are satisfied to the target students' needs.
Design of virtual tutoring agent, agent-based virtual learning environments, agent-based virtual environment for biology experiment, agent-based training software in biology, intelligent virtual laboratory, interactive learning software.
In Life Sciences education, understanding complex concepts and principles is increasingly crucial. Students' learning success depends upon them comprehending complicated theory and mastering laboratory experimental skills.
To understand complex concepts and principles, students need to be able to study the innate relationships of phenomena and recognize critical points. Laboratory experiments provide the most effective way to simplify and to clarify the comprehension of any complex scientific theory. Unfortunately, there are limitations in real life for students carrying out a laboratory experiment such as time schedule, experimental equipment and using toxic materials.
Virtual Reality (VR) could support the construction of the type of learning environments students need to develop this understanding. VR may have the potential to provide viable learning environments [Psotka, (1995); Winn, (1993)]. VR has been now investigated to create highly advanced learning and skill training environments. It may make important concepts and relationships more salient and memorable, help students build more accurate mental models by engaging them in learning activities. In virtual learning environments, the students become part of a phenomenon and experience it directly. The students play a role in such virtual environments [Camp, (1998)]. The objects in the virtual environments react and move either in response to users' actions or to illustrate motion or their innate behaviour. VR could deepen what the students learn by providing different and complementary insights. VR, as a vehicle for building powerful and compelling simulated environments, allows the students to interact with the virtual world without the usual constraints of the physical world. VR is appealing because it can make for a highly intuitive interface for accessing and organising information.
VR-based applications could provide students with flexible navigation and interaction with the virtual learning environments as in real life. However, a potential dilemma in the promotion of experiential learning emerges. If students are allowed free exploration of these VLEs, how can it be ensured that the target learning objectives are achieved? How can it be ensured that students carry out the necessary activities that will allow the construction of knowledge through their experiences if they are free to carry out some activities and ignore others? Empowerment in the form of free exploration to construct knowledge through interaction with realistic objects and activities should be tempered by the introduction of some form of control (educational strategies) to ensure that the necessary lessons are learned [Cromby, (1996)]. One of the strategies is to employ virtual tutoring agents to scaffold the important activities [Brown, (2002); Rickel, (2000)]. Introducing virtual tutoring agents reduces the flexibility for the students to interact with the VLEs. However, it is necessary to ensure the learning tasks to be tackled.
This project will investigate the design and utility of the tutoring agents in a virtual biology laboratory. The following sections will discuss classification and the types of the tutoring agents embedded in a VLE for biology laboratory exercise. The tutoring agents are analogues of human tutors to provide the students with advice when the needs of help are raised. The formative evaluations of the tutoring agents' system have been carried out with the target users. The purpose of the studies of the formative evaluations is to determine users' requirements and what problems they have experienced in the use of the intelligent software. Based on the feedback of the participants, the intelligent software is improved and assessed in cognitive effectiveness of the VLE by the students.
Classification of Virtual Agents in Three-Dimensional Virtual Environments
Agent-based software introduces a new paradigm for instruction, learning and training in the use of computer aided learning packages. The virtual agents are proposed as a personal butler or assistant [Negroponte, (1997)]. They act autonomously on behalf of themselves or their users, are co-operative in process, convey information to the users, and perform tasks that meet user's goals. In software terms, virtual agents are described as electronic "butlers," performing tasks, such as assisting in learning process [El-khouly, (1999); Baylor, (2002)], and training user's skills [Traum, (2002)]. From the computing viewpoint, these agents are computer programs that simulate a human relationship by doing something that another person could otherwise do for the students [Seiker, (1994)]. The virtual agents in a three-dimensional (3D) virtual environment could be classified into the following categories in terms of their exhibited authentic behaviours [Slator, (1998); (1999)].
Atmosphere agents : an agent that simply lends to the local colour. For example, in an urban simulation there may be a street magician, a street vendor, a street sweeper; in a museum simulation there may be a visitor wandering the exhibits or vendors selling popcorn.
Infrastructure agents : an agent who contributes in some way to the learning process. For example, the agents may be a banker, an employee, and an advertising consultant in an urban simulation. They may be a guide, or an instructor in a museum.
Tutoring agents : an agent that monitors learners' movements, and visits learners to give advice in the form of expert stories and cases, or in some other ways to assist learners. These will represent expertise or past experience of other learners.
Virtual Tutoring Agents in Three-Dimensional Virtual Environments
Virtual agents are built into tutoring systems to respond to the needs of educational and training programmes. The role of the tutoring agents in virtual learning environments emphasizes the interactions and communication between students and these agents as an expert, tutor and assistant [Baylor, (2003a)]. In an agent-based VLE, tutoring agents serve as educators, which introduce concepts and principles, promote an instructional paradigm, and provide help to students. Their ultimate purpose is to communicate with students in order to efficiently fulfil their respective tutoring functions as the educational mission of the system.
Tutoring agents can play several valuable roles in a 3D virtual environment. Since students often fail to recognize that their actions are inappropriate, tutoring agents can intervene with appropriate advice [Rickel, (1997)]. At other times, the students may lack sufficient knowledge to proceed or face an unfamiliar situation. The students could in this case benefit from a tutoring agent that answers the questions or demonstrates a procedure, performance, or a task [Giraffa, (1998)].
To facilitate the assignment of tutoring agents to pedagogical tasks in a learning session, the multiple-agents' concept promotes the idea of designing tutoring agents in learning environments to achieve different pedagogical goals; such as delivering expertise, motivating students, providing procedural tutorials, assessing success and failure within their particular sub-topics, and remedying student performance [Slator, (1998); Baylor, (2003b)].
Design Virtual Tutoring Agents in the Virtual Biology Experiment
Virtual experiment simulation
In a real laboratory, Radio Immunoassay employs molecules labelled with radioactive material (Iodine 125) and permits measurements of extremely small amounts of antigen, antibody, or antigen-antibody complexes. The concentration of such labelled molecules is determined by measuring their radioactivity.
A virtual laboratory has been developed to simulate the procedural tasks of preparing the experiment, mixing labelled antigens with standard and unknown antibodies, vortexing the liquids, centrifuging liquids and separating the supernatant from the liquids [Yu, (2003)]. The user interface of the virtual laboratory is shown in Figure 1. Each of these tasks consists of a series of procedures. The experimental procedures are designed based on the experimental tutorial developed in the Life Sciences Department at the Nottingham Trent University [Billett, 2000]. In real laboratory, some experimental procedures are restricted to be carried out in sequence, called sequential procedures, to ensure the experimental tasks successful and the learning objectives are achieved. Some are not required in sequence, called non-sequential procedures. In the simulated virtual laboratory, the sequential procedures are scaffold by virtual tutoring agents. The non-sequential procedures can be freely carried out, even one can be broken by the other procedures, to offer the students flexibility.
Figure 1. Virtual Laboratory
Types of the tutoring agents embedded in the virtual laboratory
Three types of tutoring agents are created and embedded into the virtual laboratory, which are extended based on previous researcher's work [Slator, (1999)]. The virtual Radio Immunoassay simulation, which constitutes the first part of this research project, provides an exemplar study of the implementation of tutoring agents in such VLE. The three types of tutoring agents in the virtual Radio Immunoassay simulation comprise:
Deductive agents which provide assistance to students in the virtual experimental exercises in the course of their deductive reasoning within scientific problem solving required for accomplishment of their goals. The opportunities for the use of deductive agents in the virtual experimental exercises are:
- An equipment agent that detects when a student has failed to acquire the equipment or necessary instruments to achieve their experimental goals. For example, a student selects an incorrect tube to release liquid into.
- An exploration agent detects when a student has overlooked a goal in their experimental procedures. For example, a student overlooks the addition of a chemical needed in a tube and attempts to go to the next step.
Rule-based agents provide assistance by:
- Encoding a set of rules about the domain model that encapsulates the background knowledge of the exercise in the virtual experiment.
- Monitoring user's actions and looking for one of these rules to be "broken".
- Visiting the users to present expert advice.
Case-based agents provide assistance to students by presenting them with examples of relevant experience. For example, the case-based agents demonstrate a procedure of a task by playing a video stream or animation.
Agent design
Design of the deductive and rule-based tutoring agents
The deductive and rule-based agents are programmed in the VLE. They monitor, anticipate and recognize the user's actions in the VLE to ensure that the procedures of the virtual exercises are correctly carried out. There is a set of predefined procedure rules. These rules describe the sequential procedures of the virtual experiment. The agents record the status of the 3D objects once the students make an operation on it. Then, the agents compare the actions that the students have carried out with the procedure rules and carry out a check on the status of the 3D objects. If, and only if, the students make a mistake, overlook an object, or break a procedure rule, a tutoring agent presents itself to the students to provide the students with advice. The advice is designed in both text message and sound formats for greater accessibility.
Taking a rule-based tutoring agent as example, the following explanation illustrates the considered points of vortexing liquids in a tube in programming an agent and what the agent does in the VLE:
|Vortex liquids in a tube.
|Procedure rule:
|The required liquids, antigens labelled with iodine 125 [I125], unlabelled antibodies TM4 and the standard antibodies, have been added into the tube in required volume. The tube has been capped.
|Status of the tube:
|The status of the tube (recorded in a variable) records the type of liquid that has been added in tube, whether the tube has been capped.
|Tasks of the agent:
|When the students intend
to vortex the liquids in the tube with the vortexing machine, the agent
|Procedure sequence:
|No set sequence is required for vortexing tubes. The tubes can be vortexed in any sequence.
A text-based response of the rule-based tutoring agent for vortexing the liquids is shown in Figure 2 when the students make a mistake.
Figure 2. A rule-based tutoring agent
Design of the case-based tutoring agents
The case-based agents are designed to demonstrate the required procedures by playing a video stream when they are explicitly required to do so by the students. It invokes a video player, such as Microsoft Media Player or Real player, and plays the video outside the VLE. The case-based virtual agents are embedded in the Help system and follow the explanation of each procedure. Playing the video stream outside the VLE will not increase the workload of the 3D virtual simulation so that the computer will respond the students' operations quickly and allow the virtual simulations to run smoothly when the video stream is terminated. The strategy of embedding case-based tutoring agents in the help system makes the students think in depth and correct inappropriate actions by themselves first, rather than simply watch the video stream, when a mistake is made. This design strategy makes the students learn the experimental knowledge and skills by making and correcting mistakes.
Evaluation plays a central role in software development to ensure usability and effectiveness of the final product, the two prime indicators of the success of any computer-aided learning tool [Brown, (2001)]. Evaluation is the process by which we gauge the effectiveness, efficiency and usability of intelligent agents.
To develop computer aided learning software, there are many instances when the designer needs answers to questions in order to check that the prototype is really what the users need or want. In this way, evaluation meshes closely with design and improves the learning software by providing feedback. The evaluation process helps to form the software that will be usable as well as useful. For this reason, this kind of evaluation is called formative evaluation [Preece, (1998)].
The formative evaluation exercises are undertaken in collaboration with the target users (students) and the developer. An evaluation study is normally concerned with the activities of user group selection, evaluation methods (including evaluation design, measures, procedures and data collection), results and analysis discussion. The distilled information from evaluation studies is used to improve the software and assess whether the software reaches the users' needs.
In the development of the project, the aim of the formative evaluation studies is to determine users' requirements and what problems they have experienced in the use of the intelligent software. This paper focus on the discussion of the target students' attitude on the virtual tutoring agents, which includes the need for help from the virtual tutoring agents, the preferred types of presentation of the virtual tutoring agents, and the level of detail of the advice provided by the virtual tutoring agents.
The formative evaluation studies took place in the Life Sciences computer laboratory at the Nottingham Trent University (NTU). Since the intelligent software is developed for a particular user group rather than universal groups, the participants should satisfy certain criteria, such as the knowledge of immunology, and computer skills etc., which are listed in Table 1. Thirty-nine target students had been invited to evaluate the virtual tutoring agents in the VLEs since November 2003 to April 2004. They were students who were currently taking the immunology module as part of an undergraduate degree at the NTU. A criterion of selection of these target students included that they are novices in the use of this 3D virtual laboratory simulation. The profiling of the participants is shown in Table 1.
Table 1. User profiling
User Profiling
18 – 19 years old
Sex (male: female)
British, Spanish, and Chinese
Physical Abilities/Accessibility Issues
The participants can use the mouse, keyboard and other pointing devices. They may be left-hand operators. They can correctly recognise the colours, that is, they are not colour blind, and see words and objects well on a screen with normal display resolution. They may be hearing-impaired.
English is used in their immunology module.
Educational background
Undertaking a UK-based University degree in Biology or Biological-related sciences.
Extent of expertise
Undergraduate science students with knowledge of biology and immunology related principles.
Computer skills
The participants are familiar with the use of the mouse, keyboard, monitor, and with common Windows applications to complete normal tasks, such as Internet Explorer.
Training they have received on using the 3D virtual environments
The participants are novices in the use of this 3D virtual simulation.
Methods of the evaluation
Design : The participants individually carried out the virtual experimental exercise on a desk-top computer in the computer laboratory. The designer gave them help if it was requested. Participants were asked to volunteer to take part in the study. An interview followed the evaluation.
Measures : A questionnaire survey was used to collect evaluation data. The participants answered the questions after completing the exercise. The questions asked are shown in the form of questionnaire survey in the appendix. The interview offered the students a chance to freely present their opinions about the virtual tutoring agents. The interview and questionnaire survey were used in conjunction as data collection methods to verify the answers to the questions consistent.
Procedure : The formative evaluation study was carried out in five iteration cycles with the participants. The feedback from an evaluation is used to improve the evolutionary prototype. There was no time limitation for completing the virtual exercise. The participants could choose to withdraw from the evaluation study at anytime they wished. Their data, especially personal data, was kept confidential.
Results of the formative evaluation
Results of the questionnaire survey
Table 2. Statistics of the questionnaire survey
Number of students
1. Need help from the agents
2. Preferred presentation format of the agents
Text message
Voice message
Persona character
Other suggestions
3. When selecting an incorrect object
Display a warning message, but not tell you what is wrong
Display a message and tell you what object should be selected.
Display a warning message and play a video for demonstration
Do nothing
4. When carrying out a wrong procedure
Display a warning message, but not tell you what is wrong
Display a message and tell you what object should be selected.
Display a warning message and play a video for demonstration
Do nothing
Results from interview
All of the students agreed that the virtual experiment was an effective way to supplement the module. Embedding virtual agents in the virtual laboratory was a very good idea to support the self-learning process. The virtual reality based intelligent software is a potential way for students to gain the knowledge and experimental experience as they could do in a real laboratory. Some students presented two points about the use of the virtual agents in virtual laboratory.
- The persona format of the virtual agents does not need to be considered as the students at a university are intelligent. If embedding the persona format of the virtual agents, it annoys the students. The students only need a reminding message either in text or voice format, which are analogues of the human tutors in a laboratory, when they make a mistake.
- The video-based format of the virtual agents is a good way to demonstrate the procedures when the students carry out the virtual experiment without other people's help. However, for some students, they may prefer thinking the mistake by themselves first rather than watch automatically played video.
Analysis of results and refinement of the virtual experiment
The statistics of the results of the evaluation show the participants' altitudes in terms of the utility of tutoring agents. The results of questionnaire survey show that tutorial agents are necessary for learning software. However, the participants preferred different presentation format of the agents, and different format of advice from the tutoring agents once a mistake occurs, which are consistent with the feedback from interview.
Based on the feedback of the evaluation studies, the virtual tutoring agents are designed in text message format. A voice message is also embedded for great acceptability. Considering some students prefer knowing what mistake has been made, the messages give a clue of the mistake, but not tell the students how to correct the mistake. A help system was created to provide the students with detailed explanation of the experiment, which includes the concepts and principles, and experimental procedures. This help system is displayed in a separate window from the 3D virtual environment when the students make a request. The video-based virtual tutoring agents are embedded at the end of the explanation of each procedure in the help system. The students can easily access them if they need to watch the demonstration. On the other hand, embedding the video in the help system could reduce the workload of the 3D virtual environment, which makes it respond the students' actions fast.
This paper presents the studies of virtual tutoring agents in a 3D VLE, which includes the type of tutoring agents, the design of tutoring agents, the tasks completed by tutoring agents, the formats of advice provided by tutoring agents and the evaluation.
The tutoring agents monitor, anticipate, and recognize the student's actions in the Life Sciences based VLE. They scaffold the sequential procedures in the experimental exercises. A tutoring agent will visit the students when the students reach an impasse, where their progress toward successful completion of exercise is impeded.
The role of the tutoring agents varies in terms of their purposes in the virtual learning environment. Therefore, the tutoring agents are classified into different types. However, all tutoring agents have the same personalised characteristics. They are analogues of human tutors in learning process, which monitor the students' actions and offer advice.
The evaluation studies show that the tutoring agents are necessary for a learning environment. A tutoring agent only performs one specific task. To deal with multi-tasks, the agent system employs multi-agents. Three types of virtual agents are employed in the VLE. The students preferred different presentation format of the tutoring agents, and different format of advice from the tutoring agents. To make great acceptability of the tutoring agent system, these tutoring agents were designed to present the students with information in varying formats, which can be text messages, sound tracks and video streams.
The feedback from interviews pointed out that the virtual reality based intelligent software was an effective way to supplement the module. The students could gain the knowledge and experimental experience as they did in a real laboratory. However, the effectiveness of the intelligent software in the learning process needs to be investigated in the future. Further work is required to test the effectiveness of the intelligent software in the learning process by carrying out a summative evaluation with a large population of the students.
[1] Baylor, A. L. (2002). Agent-based learning environments as a research tool for investigating teaching and learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research. 26(3), pp 249-270.
[2] Baylor, A. L. and Kim, Y. (2003a).Validating Pedagogical Agent Roles: Expert, Motivator, and Mentor. ED-MEDIA, Honolulu, Hawaii. June, 2003. Available at: http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~abaylor/.
[3] Baylor A. L. and Ebbers S. (2003b). Evidence that Multiple Agents Facilitate Greater Learning. In Proc. International Artificial Intelligence in Education (AI-ED), Sydney, Australia, July 2003.
[4] Billett E. (2000). Antibody and their uses: Amerlex-M T4: Radio Immunoassay (RIA). Laboratory tutorial sheet 3, for undergraduate students in the second year in Life Science Department at Nottingham Trent University.
[5] Brown D. J., Standen P. J., Proctor T., and Sterland D. (2001). Advanced design methodologies for the production of virtual learning environments for use by people with learning disabilities. Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments. MIT Press, August 2001, Vol.10, no. 4, p 401-415.
[6] Brown, D. J., Shopland, N and Lewis, J. (2002). Flexible and virtual travel training environments. In Proc. the 4th International conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies, ICDVRAT 2002, Veszprém, Hungary, pp 181-188.
[7] Camp J. J., Cameron B. M., Blezek D., and Robb R. A. (1998). Virtual reality in medicine and biology. Future Generations Computer Systems, 14(1-2), pp 91-108.
[8] Cromby J. J., Standen P. J., and Brown D. J. (1996). The potentials of virtual environments in the education and training of people with learning disabilities. Journal of Intellectual disabilities Research, Vol 40, Part 6. p 489-501.
[9] El-khouly M., Far B., and Koono Z. (1999). Agent-based computer tutorial system: An experiment for teaching computer languages. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 10(3/4), pp 275-286.
[10] Giraffa, L. M. M. and Viccari, R. M. (1998). The use of agent techniques in intelligent tutoring systems. Magazine of Science, Educacao and Cultura, Canoes - RS – Brazil. Available at: http://lsm.dei.uc.pt/ribie/docfiles/txt200342413856156.PDF [Accessed in July 2001].
[11] Negroponte N. (1997). Agents: From direct manipulation to delegation. In Software Agents, edited by Bradshaw J. M. Menlo Park, CA: MIT Press. p 57-66.
[12] Preece J., Rogers Y., Helen S., Benyon D., Holland S., and Carey T. (1998). Chapter 29: The role of evaluation. In Human-Computer Interaction. Addison Wesley, 1998, p 603-614.
[13] Psotka J. (1995). Immersive training systems: virtual reality and education and training. Instructional Science, 23 (5-6). p 405-431.
[14] Rickel, J. and Johnson, W. L. (1997). Integrating pedagogical capabilities in a virtual environment agent. In The First International Conference of Autonomous Agents. February, 1997. p 30-38.
[15] Rickel J. and Johnson W.L. (2000). Task-Orientated collaboration with embodied agents in virtual worlds. In Cassell, J.; Sullivan, J.; Prevost, S.; and Churchill, E., (Eds.), Embodied Conversational Agents. Boston: MIT Press.
[16] Seiker T. (1994). Coach: A teaching agent that learns. Communications of the ACM, 37(7), pp 92-99.
[17] Slator B. M., and Farooque G. (1998). The agents in an agent-based economic simulation model. In Proc. the 11th International Conference on Computer Applications in Industry and Engineering (CAINE-98), pp 175 – 178.
[18] Slator B. M. (1999). Intelligent Tutors in virtual worlds. In Proc. the 8th International Conference on Intelligent systems (ICIS-99), pp 124-127.
[19] Traum D. and Rickel J. (2002). Embodied agents for multi-party dialogue in immersive virtual worlds. In Proc. the International Conference on Autonomous Agents, no. 1, pp 766-773.
[20] Winn W. (1993). A conceptual basis for educational applications of virtual reality. (Tech. Rep. No. R-93-9). Washington: University of Washington, HITL. Available at: http://www.hitl.washington.edu/publications/r-93-9 [Accessed in December 2001].
[21] Yu J. Q., Brown D. J., and Billett E. (2003). An Intelligent Learning Application For Biology. Online conference at Mediatech-2003.
Questionnaire survey form
Questionnaire survey
1.Do you need the help from the virtual tutoring agents? If yes, please answer the following questions. If not, please submit the questionnaire form.
Yes No
2.What type of presentation format of the virtual tutoring agents do you prefer?
- Text message
- Voice message
- Video
- Persona character
- Other suggestions
3.When you select an incorrect object, you would like the virtual tutoring agents to:
- Display a warning message, but not tell you what is wrong.
- Display a message and tell you what object should be selected.
- Display a warning message and display a video for demonstration.
- Do nothing.
4.When you carry out a wrong procedure, you would like the virtual tutoring agents to:
- Display a warning message, but not tell you what is wrong.
- Display a message and tell you the correct procedure.
- Display a warning message and display a video for demonstration.
- Do nothing.


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The Green Mile? Shawshank? Jailhouse Rock? What's the Greatest Prison Movie?
Daring escapes, violent riots, evil wardens… You can depend on a lot with prison flicks. And, contrary to what you might think, the genre is hardly just a bunch of dramas. You've also got bromances like The Shawshank Redemption, musicals like Jailhouse Rock, sexploitation pics like Caged Heat and supernatural movies like The Green Mile. Which of these very different movies is your favorite prison pic of them all?
Don't miss AMC Can't Enough The Green Mile tonight at 7/6c and 11/10c.Read More


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Coyotes claim Burmistrov off waivers from Winnipeg
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) The Arizona Coyotes have claimed center Alexander Burmistrov from the Winnipeg Jets and recalled defenseman Kevin Connauton from the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL.
The moves were announced on Monday.
Burmistrov had two assists in 23 games with the Jets this season and has 30 goals with 51 assists in 298 career games. The 25-year-old Russian was the eighth overall pick of the 2010 NHL draft by Atlanta.
The 26-year-old Connauton appeared in nine games with the Coyotes earlier this season, with one assist. He had a goal and two assists with the Roadrunners.


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Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
Frito-Lay provides smart snack choices with a full product line. We have fun snacks, party snacks and so much more.
Frito-Lay Inc is located at the address 18990 Ne Riverside Pkwy in Portland, Oregon 97230. They can be contacted via phone at (503) 405-1600 for pricing, hours and directions.
Frito-Lay Inc has an annual sales volume of 2M – 4,999,999. . For more information contact Scott Logman, Vp Human Resource or go to www.fritolay.com
For maps and directions to Frito-Lay Inc view the map to the right....
Be the first OregonLive.com user to add photos or videos of Frito-Lay
I am opening up a cafe and concession stand and would like to start getting orders from them. I have called a left a message THREE different times with not one return phone call. You have got to be kidding me. You cannot get a human on the phone, even the receptionist has a voice mail.I guess they don't need my business. It's completely unreal to me, I have never had this much trouble trying to buy something from someone.
I own a C-store and thier salesman(in my case) is a joke, keep changing and keep missing my store and even if they did take order still no delivery.What a joke. WORST business to work with, most of thier extension on their #6 DOES NOT WORK.
Frito-Lay Inc is located at 4300 Ne 189Th Ave, Portland, OR. This location is in the North Gresham neighborhood. This business specializes in Grocery Stores and Food & Agriculture.
Confectionery, nsk


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The Honda Civic Type R has made history setting a new class record and becoming the first standard production car to score points in the 69 year history of the Avon Tyres/TTC Group MSA British Hillclimb championship.
With sponsorship from Primo Insurance and raising awareness for the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes, Scottish Journalist, David Finlay, drove the Type R to success, shaving over a second off the old class record and in the process creating motorsport history.
Swooping five points, the Honda Civic Type R came ninth overall and completed the 0.83 mile course in just 54.69 seconds, over a second faster than the previous record.
Craiganlet Hillclimb is a speed event organised by the Ulster Automobile Club which was first held back in 1913. It is the only such venue in Northern Ireland to host a round of the British Hillclimb Championship, which commenced in 1947.
Claimed to be the 'race car for the road', the British built Honda Civic Type R is powered by the fiercest and highest-performing Type R engine ever built. The direct-injected turbocharged 2.0-litre VTEC TURBO petrol engine delivers power, torque and performance figures unmatched in the front-wheel drive hot hatch segment. Peak power output is 310 PS at 6,500 rpm, and peak torque stands at 400 Nm at 2,400 rpm – both higher than any previous Honda Civic Type R model.
On making history with the Type R, David Finlay said: "I knew the car would be quick, but I had no idea just how quick. I have driven many standard cars in hillclimbs, and so far the Civic is the one that has felt closest to being designed for purpose. Honda's claim that it is a 'race car for the road' may seem like an optimistic piece of marketing, but after this weekend I can confirm that that's exactly what it is."
Phil Webb, Head of Cars at Honda UK, added: "The current Civic Type R is on its way to becoming one of the most successful race cars we have ever had. Having taken Gordon Shedden to victor in the British Touring Cars last year, it has now created history at the Craigantlet hillclimb this weekend."
For more information about the Honda Civic Type R and to arrange your test drive, visit our Honda dealerships across Essex in Chelmsford and Colchester or contact us using the buttons above.


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This silky gravy is part of our over-the-top Thanksgiving turkey; for the rest of the recipes, click here.
- Yield
- Makes 3 cups
- Active Time
- 5 minutes
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- 1/4 cup ghee
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups Pressure-Cooker Turkey Stock
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Heat ghee in a medium saucepan over medium until just beginning to bubble. Sprinkle in flour and whisk until no lumps remain. Continue cooking, whisking occasionally, until a light yellow roux forms, 2–3 minutes.
- While whisking, add stock in a slow, steady stream. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook, whisking occasionally, until reduced to 3 cups, 15–20 minutes. Whisk in salt and pepper, then remove from heat.


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Oncology Nurse - Travel - (Onc RN) at TravelNursing
Nashville, TN 37203
About the Job
- This Medical Surgical (MS) unit boasts the latest in advanced technology housed within a caring and effective patient care model. A new MS RN team member is needed to round out the care model. - 686-bed comprehensive facility on a 43-acre campus. Meditech charting- Music City offers art, music, beer and food festivals, Tennessee Titans football, Nashville Predators hockey, and a variety of college sports. Music takes center stage with events like the Americana Music Festival, Full Moon Pickin' Parties, and Musicians Corner. Area events include The Music City Food + Wine Festival, Country Music Association Awards followed by the CMA Country Christmas taping later in the week.


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This article asks the question whether it is necessary to exercise 'hard out' (to the point of pain or exhaustion) to obtain health benefits, or whether you could obtain these benefits by exercising in a way that supports your body, in appreciation of the body. The author asks what ideals and beliefs we have around exercise and whether these are causing us harm.
It is well accepted that 'health' is not merely the absence of illness or infirmity. It is a "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being" (World Health Organisation). In other words, we could be said to be 'healthy' when we, in our daily lives, feel naturally vital and light, full of energy and mental clarity, and enjoy engaging with people.
The benefits of exercising for health are well-known. Regular, moderate exercise has been shown in many studies to be beneficial to all the systems in the body, particularly the cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, muscular and skeletal systems; as well as 'social' benefits. But is it necessary to exercise 'hard out' to achieve these benefits, i.e. do we really need to exercise to the point of pain or exhaustion, or to our maximum limits of endurance; and what happens to our bodies when we do so?
An article in the NZ Herald, "Fitness can be Bad for your Health" (March 23, 2014) highlighted the huge increase in injuries in the fitness industry in New Zealand over the last two years (there were 23,325 Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) claims made by New Zealanders injured while 'fitness training' or in the gym in 2013 –a rise of 10,000 claims on the previous two years. Further, these were just the third highest claims –behind rugby and football. This increase in injuries (and even disabilities and deaths) is also occurring in the world of competitive and professional sport.
Why is the number of injuries increasing, both in recreational and professional exercise? Why are workouts causing us harm? This question is being addressed in a research programme by ACC and Exercise New Zealand. The latter body said there has been a 35% increase in people undertaking exercise programmes in the past five years in New Zealand, but more New Zealanders were hurting after working out.
Is it possible that it is how we are exercising that is resulting in these injuries?
Could the deeper 'how' be in the way we exercise? Indeed, we are often exercising to extreme ('hard out'); and this is now proving, through the increase in injuries, to be harmful to our bodies.
Could having the injury be asking us to re-assess not only how we exercise, but the kind of relationship we have with our body and how we treat ourselves? For example, perhaps pushing our body to the very edge of its limits is not the best way to go to be 'healthy'. Rather, is it possible that the best way to exercise is in a way that supports the body, in appreciation of the body itself, so that:
· Our muscles strengthen without hardening;
· Our lung capacity/breathing efficiency is increased without strain on our heart and muscles;
· Our bone density is increased without putting pressure on our joints;
· 'Stress' hormones such as adrenalin and cortisol are reduced/eliminated without our being continually in the 'flight/fight/freeze' part of our nervous system;
· Our bodies find their natural shape;
· Our ability to focus/concentrate increases; and with it our confidence; and
· We exercise/interact with others in a way that brings harmony to our relationships?
Perhaps we could choose to exercise in a way that brings harmony and balance to our body, instead of injury, fatigue and exhaustion. Is it possible that if we really listened to our body before, during and after exercise, our body would not be compromised?
At GloriousBody you will be supported to let go any harmful ideals and beliefs around exercise, and instead to connect with your body and exercise in a way which will support your body.
This article was inspired by Universal Medicine founder Serge Benhayon. See www.unimedliving.com for more articles on exercising in a way that supports your body.


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Conferences and MeetingsComprising more than 7000 square metres of top quality exhibition and conference space and banquetting for up to 1000 people.
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Posts Tagged 'Jesus'
Just a Thought
Posted November 7, 2007on:
I was reading my daily devotional from "Encouragement for Today" and was struck by this thought:
Be real in your time with God. Pour out your heart and talk to Him as you would a trusted friend. You can be reverent without being formal.
So when you spend your time with God today…Don't use all those frilly words…jsut say what you mean and mean what you say.
October 30, 2007
Posted October 30, 2007on:
"It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9
Adult Missions Group
Posted October 29, 2007on:
God has recently been speaking to my heart about missions. I have always felt a strong draw to missions, but recently God has been pushing me to take a more active role in my community. The first step God pressed on my heart was to start our Adult Missions Group back up in church. We had a interested parties meeting yesterday right after church…I had about 8 people interested! I thought that was GREAT! I have asked that they go home and spend the next week or so praying about their role in the group and what God is telling them this group should be focusing on. My top priority is glorifying God in all we do and I want us to work together as a single unit.
I'll be honest, I'm scared to death. When I asked the last leader of the group for any suggestions all she said was "Its hard." So thats a little nerve shaking. I want to make my God smile…I want to make His name glorified! I want to expand His kingdom beyond all human imagination! Glory to the God on Highest! There are a lot of wonderful Christ-filled people interesting in being a part of the group.
Please be in prayer with me as I pray for direction. I know God has called me to this and I only have to trust Him and He will lead us. Any positive ideas for how our group can impact our community would be great! I was thinking about visiting the elderly in the nursing homes and volunteering at homeless shelters…My God is driving and pulling me to impact our community positively! Our time is short! We should feel a pull for not only our personal lost but those we don't know…because God tells us we are ALL His children. Join with me in impacting our community! everyday.
Father God,
Thank you for the opportunity to serve Your people and Your name! Father, truly You are the Most High God! I praise Your might and grace! Lord, please be with me in the time to come as I strive to bring new glory to Your name! Direct me O' God in the paths you want this group to take! Show me the path to follow…Be clear with me God! I am an ignorant and sinful creature. Forgive my shortcomings and us me for Your Will! Thank You again Father for this wonderful opportunity!
In Jesus' Name,
Salt of the Earth
Posted October 17, 2007on:
The Gospel of Matthew 5:13 tells us to be "salt of the
earth." It also tells us that if we are not going to be
the "salt of the earth" then we are "…no longer good
for anything but to be thrown out". Jesus said that in
the ways that salt seasons and preserves food, we should
be godly influences through our attitudes, words, and
actions. If we neglect opportunities to exercise our
influence as believers, then we become useless to God's
work in our communities and might as well be "thrown
We are to guard against being a couple of things when we
ponder being "salty" believers. We need to be sure not
to be like impure salt, never making the godly qualities
that Jesus taught about an intregal part of our lives. If
we are impure, we run the risk of "turning people off" to
Christ and thus damning them to an eternity without
salvation. You know the type I am talking about, the
Christians that are rude to others, pushy, unkind, who
like the salt leave a bad taste in your mouth. These
type of believers do nothing to further the Kingdom and
only hinder the Good Work.
What about believers who choose remain in the "salt
shaker"? What good are they? They also do nothing to
further God's kingdom. Believers that never use what they
know and believe are wasted. In order for salt to change
the flavor of food it must be touch the food. In the
same way, believers must "touch" their community to
change it.
Think about the place you will be this week–in your
home, community, or workplace–how can YOU be "the salt
of the earth" in those places? What can YOU do to change
the flavor of the world around you?
Matthew 5:13—"You are the salt of the earth. But if the
salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown
out and trampled by men."
New International Version —www.crosswalk.com
Help fight world hunger!
Make a world of difference at


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We give you one more week of Halloween this episode by review a double feature of "Halloween" and "Halloween II". Along the way I tough it out through my tooth issues, and thanks to Brian from North Carolina we cast our own horror movie starring 2008's presidential candidates.
Click here to purchase BGH Classic - Episode 48 - "Halloween" and "Halloween II"


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Living in Culver City, CA
While the area may be best known for its connection with the film industry, many people choose homes in Culver City, CA, because it offers great quality of life and fantastic local lifestyle. The Culver City home buyer typically chooses this community because it's filled with upscale shops and eateries and is home to a thriving cultural district.
History and Culture
Many people are drawn to Culver City, CA, thanks to its long and illustrious connection to the entertainment industry. Many famous movies and television shows have been produced here, making some Culver City homes familiar. Culver City is also home to many cultural attractions that make life here so alluring: a tantalizing mix of art galleries and chic restaurants. The city also boasts plenty of live theater venues.
In addition, Culver City, CA, features interesting museums, many parks that have ballfields, playgrounds, pools and after school programs plus a highly respected and well funded school district featuring classrooms equipped with the latest technology. Culver City enables residents to live in condos and single family homes in a walkable city where all sorts of services and entertainment are within easy reach.
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The Importance Of Persistence
(Its not a destination its the name of the road)
No matter what we do in life there will be times when things go wrong and everything seems to be working against you. There will be times when you Fail as well. Sorry but need to mention that as well.
At moments like these you may feel like giving up. You suffer a loss of confidence, loss of self esteem and you don't feel too great. The easy thing to do at moments like these is to quit what we are doing and go and do something that is easier and more fun and distracts us from your previous task.
This is exactly what most people do, there is a natural tendency to do what is easy rather than something that is difficult and demanding and necessary.
Unfortunately this type of behaviour leads to long term failure because people who quit when they experience failure or problems never stick with anything long enough to realise the benefit.
But those that keep going during times of adversity and difficulty stand a much better chance of success and will achieve something of real meaning in their lives.
These are some of the tips which have helped and continue to help me in my experience of life.
1. Think Long Term
Recognise that things of value take time and effort to achieve. If you are hoping for overnight success you will quickly be discouraged when things get difficult. Have patience that if you work long enough you will probably get what you want.
2. Set Goals
Having goals focused the mind on what you want to achieve. It helps with time management and to avoid unnecessary distractions. Set both short and long term goals. Remember lots of little steps in the right direction is the way to go. Not one big step.
3. Learn And Be Positive
You can learn from anything that happens to you regardless of whether it is good or bad. Use what you learn to improve yourself so you become a stronger, more experienced and wiser person.
4. Read And You Shall Succeed
One way to motivate yourself through difficulty is to read about people who have gone through difficult times in their life, but eventually succeed at what they want to do.
5. Pay The Price
You must be willing to pay the price in full and up front before you get what your are aiming for.This involves sacrifices like time and money. You may have to sacrifice some time spent watching TV to pursue your goals and ambitions.
6. Adapt And Change
No matter how well you have planned the pursuit of your goals things can and will go wrong. Be willing to adopt and change to the prevailing circumstances you encounter whilst keeping your focus on the goal ahead.
Realise that throughout life there are many challenges. Some are uncomfortable and difficult but when I look back on them say some months or years later I realise that through those challenges I have emerged a stronger, wiser and more capable human being. If I had given up then not only would I have missed out but so would the world in general.
Please feel free to connect with me regarding this blog and share your experiences as well.


text: I made some more iced tea with this – as an experiment I was heavy with this tea and light on my Earl Grey Melange – and the iced tea suffered. It tasted flat and bland comparatively. Now I know – a little filler – perhaps one third – is great. Half is very good. More than half – disappointing!!!


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Web Presentation Apps: Glide Outshines Google
Today's Best Tech Deals
Picked by PCWorld's Editors
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TransMedia Glide Presenter 2.0
Google Presentations
Google's new presentation software, touted as a Web-based alternative to Microsoft's PowerPoint, is an easy-to-use product with a nifty interface and impressive collaboration features, but its omission of several important functions makes it a runner-up to Transmedia's Web-based application, Glide Presenter 2.0.
Residing under the Google Docs umbrella of online office applications, Google's presentation program works on Internet Explorer and Firefox. It lacks support for Safari and Opera, however, and it includes only the most basic tools for creating and sharing slide shows.
Google's presentation app comes with six templates and one-click formatting options for tinkering with text and images within slides. It is nicely laid out, with the individual slides down the left pane and a central window showing the contents of the slide you're working on. Along the top are clearly marked icons for adding/removing slides and inserting images and text.
Once you have created a presentation, the software's real-time collaboration--its killer feature--kicks in. The app is connected to Google Calendar, to Gmail, and to Google Talk; clicking the 'Share' button brings up a screen that allows you to invite viewers or collaborators. Clicking the 'Start presentation' button opens your slide show along with a chat window that integrates with Google Talk.
Power users will be disappointed in several respects, however. Though Google's app will import a PowerPoint file from your desktop, it won't export it in PowerPoint's .ppt or OpenOffice's .odp (open document) format. It offers no transitions, sounds, or effects such as bouncing text and fading animations. You can't draw shapes, make arrows, or design your own templates. Although you can upload images from your PC, even that is a chore because you must do so one at a time.
Glide Presenter 2.0 from Transmedia outclasses Google's offering in more ways than one. Though the interface is a tad cluttered and page loads can sometimes be slow, the program lives in a collaborative ecosystem (called Glide OS 2.0) that matches Google's. You can invite others to view and collaborate on your presentations via e-mail, over instant messaging, and from your contact list. Unlike Google, which lets you share your work only with other Google users, Glide has no such limitations on participation.
The Glide Presenter application opens in a full-screen browser window (Adobe's Flash Player is required) and features clearly marked menu items across the top. From the main screen, you can add slides with a click and import videos from the management system, which Glide hosts. Unlike Google's presentation app, Glide lets you upload multiple images or audio/video files at once, and large media files can stream within presentations, even on low-bandwidth mobile devices.
Whereas Google enables only text and images in presentations and provides no support for exporting presentations to other formats, Glide lets you save and serve presentations on a variety of platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux machines are supported), as well as save and convert presentations to PowerPoint format or PDF. In my tests, a Glide-created presentation converted to PDF without a glitch.
The simplicity, interactivity, and unlimited free storage of Google Docs' presentation component will appeal to many people, but for power users it falls short. By comparison, Glide has covered all the bases with a compelling software offering that could emerge as a true Web-based replacement for Microsoft PowerPoint.
Google Docs (Presentations)
Easy-to-use software is likely to disappoint power users.
Transmedia Glide Presenter 2.0
Impressive program could be a true PowerPoint replacement.
TransMedia Glide Presenter 2.0
Google Presentations
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My phone rang very early this morning. It was United Airlines. They informed me that my flight from Boston to Washington, D.C. was cancelled. So, I had to re-book my flight. Now, I am flying Boston -Frankfurt, then on to Moscow from there (if all goes well)! I am scheduled to arrive in Russia only 2 hrs. later than originally planned. After I took care of that, I had a few extra hours to finish packing. I packed up some seed beads and the beaded self portrait I'm working on. I've never really done beadwork on an airplane because I'm usually on an overnight flight, but I do plan to work on it at my hotel in Moscow! Maybe I will even get to do a little beading with my friend Tanya. We'll see!
Self portrait. Work in progress. Bead embroidery on felt. 5.5″ x 9″.
Anyways, it's funny to see my beaded face packed up in a little pencil box because that's exactly what I'll feel like until I arrive! I checked the news reports, and apparently the smog returned to the city of Moscow yesterday, but the weather report predicts rainstorms throughout the week. I'm hoping that will help to clear much of the air while I'm there. Wish me luck!
Also, just a quick note: I have decided to close my Etsy shop for 2 weeks. I will re-open during the first week of September. If you would like to see what I'm up to in Russia, please follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook! Remember, in the words of Mark Twain, travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. Happy beading & I'll see you when I return! 😀


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Cornbread has indeed saved the world. Not just a staple of the South, where cornbread is religion and the daily bread part of every important occasion; corn and cornbread has sustained folks around the world.
Cornbread: a Staple of America
Cornbread was especially significant in the New World where indigenous Native Americans shared their ways with the starving colonists and helped to shape and flavor the regional cornbreads of America. Whether skillet-baked buttermilk Southern cornbread, sweet cake-like Northern cornbread, and chile-spiced, smoky Southwestern cornbread – cornbread remains a vital component of regional fare.
In our house, cornbread is King. Growing up in Northwest Arkansas, I brought my religion with me, as many before me have. Cornbread is the first thing College Girl requests when she comes home and it was one of the first foods I absolutely had to find a way to make without baking powder when Don was put on a very restricted sodium diet.
Low Sodium Cornbread
Why no baking powder? Surprising to us, and to many who are watching their sodium intake, bread is one of The Salty Six. Not only is most bread highly processed with salt added for flavor and a preservative, but a component of nearly every baked good is baking soda or baking powder – baking soda has an astounding 150 mg. of sodium per 1/8th teaspoon and baking powder 55 mg. per 1/8 teaspoon. The labeling verges on deceptive because when do you use only 1/8 of a teaspoon? When you do the math, that is 1,200 and 440 mg of sodium per teaspoon respectively! Check the label.
History of Cornbread
But, back to cornbread and its place in food history. You can find cornbread brethren in Mexico as pan de elote; arepas; in Columbia and Latin America; and humitas in Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia. New World corn spread to Old World Europe – broa, a yeast-risen dense cornbread, served with caldo verde in Portugal, and more of a cornmeal mush in Italy's polenta in Italy and Romanian mamaliga. The path of corn around the world is as intriguing as tales of spice traders, and no one tells it better than passionate author Crescent Dragonwagon who spent six years following the cornbread trail from the Green Mountains to the Ozarks, to Latin America, Asia, and beyond researching and writing The Cornbread Gospels.
"No other single food has been the subject of more passionate discussion, on and off the record, than cornbread. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain are just a few of those who wrote heatedly about cornbread. No other single food has more purely American historical and cultural connections, from the worship of Mother Corn, the Corn Goddess, by Native Americans, to the survival of the Pilgrims, … to its darker history, that of a staple food to those once enslaved in this country."
Cast Iron Cornbread is the Best
Usually, I bake cornbread in my cast iron skillet and it makes a nice homespun presentation. But, I also like to serve it in my brick red apple casserole dish because I get to eat the little crunchy "stem" piece. College Girl always liked the puffy centerpieces, I adore the crunchy edges, and Don is an equal opportunity cornbread eater.
Cornbread is a given when I cook Southern dishes like beans, my un-fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, pulled pork and, of course, chili and ribs. Over the years I tweaked my cornbread recipe to be a little less caloric by substituting 1% milk for whole milk and sunflower oil for butter or bacon fat. Now, with the help of Hain Featherweight Sodium-Free Baking Powder (yes, there is such a thing – it contains potassium in lieu of sodium) and no added salt, it also has nearly zero sodium (milk has a little). Some people like sweet cornbread – we're not one of those people – there is only a scant 1/4 cup of sugar for just a touch of sweetness.
Low Sodium Cornbread Recipe – Family Tested and Approved
- 1 c. unbleached flour
- 1 c. medium-grind cornmeal
- ¼ c. sugar
- 3 teaspoons Hain Featherweight No-Sodium baking powder*
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- ¼ c. sunflower or canola oil
- 1⅓ c. 1% lowfat milk
Preheat oven to 425° degrees F.
Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Blend in the beaten egg, milk and oil.
Pour into a baking dish sprayed lightly with oil. Bake for 20 minutes.
* I buy Hain's Featherweight No-Sodium Baking Powder on Amazon, you can buy it via She's Cookin's Amazon Affiliate store https://www.amazon.com/shop/shescookin, at no additional cost to you. Nutritional Analysis via MyFitnessPal.com


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Recently, I completed a project for my client using argentium. This was my first time experience with the fairly new metal. Although it's considered as sterling and I have been working in sterling silver for years, I thought it'd be safe to do a little research before actually working on the metal. There were enough published written materials as well as helpful videos that spare me the knowledge. Above all, argentium is widely known as non-tarnished or tarnish-resistant sterling silver which doesn't form firescale. This is absolutely beneficial knowing no need to protect the metal surface when soldering. Flux causes much of a hassle when soldering (You'd know what I'm talking about) and clean-up process between soldering takes so much time.
These are a few things what I learned from my experience.
# Argentium is quite easy to saw and file. I used a 20-gauge sheet to make a back plate and a 16-gauge square wire to make a thick rectangular bezel. The metal felt like butter as I saw off and file the excess. It was dense but easy to file as if I was filing aluminum without any residues being caught in the file.
# Argentium doesn't conduct heat as much as traditional sterling. This means I was able to localize the torch at the area I want to melt the solder. It was more like soldering gold than silver since I didn't have to heat up the entire piece.
# However, melting temperature of argentium is about 60 degree lower than that of traditional sterling. So, in general, medium solder is recommended as to hard for traditional sterling. As I didn't order solder specifically made for argentium, I used medium silver solder that had in my studio. Some materials advise to use the solder for argentium because of the color match, but I haven't found any color difference in the soldered seam using the silver solder.
# I found extremely convenient soldering argentium without flux. Since no flux is involved, no fluctuating solder pallions as I heat up the piece. Just flux the joint and liquid type works fine. Handy flux is not recommended for argentium. However, be careful with selecting the torch tip as argentium holds heat well, which means you have a good chance of overheating the metal. I used #0 torch to solder every part of the pendant. As soon as I saw the piece turns into red, I took the torch away.
# Annealed argentium is extremely malleable that can be easily formed into other shapes and forms. However, when it's red-hot, it's also very fragile and could be broken. After annealing a beveled 16-gauge square wire, it broke in two pieces as I grabbed with tweezers to submerge in water. So, let it cool for a while. This is very important if you don't want to break your piece.
# Finally, although argentium is highly tarnish-resistant, prolonged soldering may form cupric oxide on the surface. This can be removed in a pickle pot or by sanding the surface. I used 600 grit to lightly sand off the cupric oxide.
# The most impressive thing about argentium is perhaps the efficiency. It saved me a lot of time. I know what it takes to solder traditional sterling. Keep the metal from being in contact with oxygen ALL THE TIME. Argentium requires far less work to keep metal clean and almost no clean-up. It was truly a fascinating experience.