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The restaurant industry is a classic service business. Winning restaurants are all about hospitality and guest service. Therefore, the most valuable asset a restaurant "owns" is its employee talent base. Without proper store level training, neither the best real-estate, most attractive storefront nor the smartest ad campaign are worth as much to the enterprise as protecting and nurturing the talent base.
During these economic times training restaurant management and hourly staff may challenge the budget. Please keep this in mind; restaurant training may be the most critical variable between you and your competition. Training is the key determinant of success as restaurant operators plot their 2010 strategies to adapt to slumping sales and profits.


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Wonder why it's called Burn Rate?
Jeff Hawkins on how to speed your business:
Very few companies didnt succeed because they moved slow. Many companies went out of business because they moved fast.
He is a fun guy to listen to. Looks like Numenta is upto something very interesting. Looks very out-there but you never know once the applied side of the innovation start showing up.

subset: commoncrawl


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Company & Crew Auditions (ages 10-18) Saturday, June 8th
~No fee to audition. Need-based scholarships are available ~
3:00-4:00 PM | Crew (urban styles)
4:15-5:30 PM | Company & Company II (technique-focused)
Location: Casco Bay Movers, 517 Forest Avenue, Portland
Click here to pre-register.
About PYD: Portland Youth Dance (PYD) was founded in 1998, in recognition of the need to provide intermediate and advanced level young dancers with an opportunity for performance without competition. PYD seeks to cultivate artistic and personal growth for youth while striving for creative excellence in dance. Dancers in all companies work with guest choreographers, participate in community outreach programming and perform in several shows throughout the year.
REQUIREMENTS – PYD Company
For high intermediate and advanced dancers aged 12 – 18, trained in multiple dance techniques.
Minimum of four continuous years of dance training is required, both technical and urban.
Concurrent requirements are a minimum of three classes per week; Ballet and two additional technique classes*.
Weekly rehearsals Saturday afternoons 12:30 – 4:30 pm
REQUIREMENTS – PYD Company 2
For intermediate dancers aged 10 – 18, trained in multiple dance techniques.
Minimum of two continuous years of dance training is required, both technical and urban.
Concurrent requirements are a minimum of two classes per week; Ballet, and one additional technique class*.
Weekly rehearsals are Fridays 3:30-5: 30 pm
*Additional technique classes may include: Modern, Jazz, Contemporary or Ballet. Company and Company II dancers are encouraged to study urban styles such as Hip Hop and Tap, and Crew and Crew II dancers are encouraged to study technique classes in order to increase their depth of knowledge and experience. Opportunities for working with the various companies within PYD are often presented to provide those proficient in multiple styles the chance to further hone their craft.
For high intermediate and advanced Hip Hop dancers aged 10 – 18.
Minimum requirement of two years in Hip Hop classes suggested. Freestyle dancers encouraged to audition.
Concurrent requirements are Hip Hop and an additional urban class per week.
Weekly rehearsals will be Thursdays 3:30-5: 30 pm.
All PYD members are expected to participate in outreach, community building, and fundraising. This supports our mission statement and is expected of all members. Performance, outreach, travel and additional educational opportunities are offered to all members of PYD.
What do I need to know for the audition?
Dancers should arrive at least 15 minutes ahead of the scheduled audition to complete paperwork. The audition for Company and Company 2 will consist of a ballet barre, jazz progressions across the floor, and a modern/contemporary phrase including improvisation. Crew auditions will include hip hop and freestyle only.
Do my parents need to be there?
Parents are not required to be present unless they were not able to attend the Information Session on May 22nd.
What if I want to audition but I can't afford it?
You can apply here for the PYD Scholarship Application: 2019/20 Scholarship Application
Deadline for the 2019/20 Scholarship Application is due on Sunday, June 30th. and is contingent on acceptance into the Portland Youth Dance program. If you have questions please contact email@example.com.


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I see people I haven't seen since I stopped working and the question is always the same...
"Hey girl, what ya been up to?"
The answer...not much...just life :-)
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." ~ Ferris


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This book is listed in:
- Fiction ( 17,656 )
- Historical ( 1,388 )
- Romance ( 6,506 )
- Regency ( 354 )
Luck Is No Lady
Book Description
He's the dangerously charming owner of a gambling hell.
She's the brilliant daughter of a gentleman drowning in debt.
Forced to use her talent for mathematics to save her family, Emma finds herself drawn from London's glittering ballrooms deep into its gritty underworld...and discovers there the pleasure of falling from grace.
Emma Chadwick always assumed she'd live and die the daughter of a gentleman. But when her father's death reveals a world of staggering debt and dangerous moneylenders, she must risk her good name and put her talent for mathematics to use, taking a position as bookkeeper at London's most notorious gambling hell. Surrounded by vice and corruption on all sides, it is imperative the ton never discovers Emma's shameful secret or her reputation—and her life—will be ruined.
But Roderick Bentley, the hell's sinfully wealthy owner, awakens a hunger Emma cannot deny. Drawn deep into an underworld of high stakes gambling and reckless overindulgence, she soon discovers that to win the love of a ruthless scoundrel, she will have to play the game...and give in to the pleasure of falling from grace.
"You should not have kissed me," she replied breathlessly.
"I do a lot of things I shouldn't. It does not mean I won't do them again."
Fallen Ladies series:
Luck Is No Lady (Book 1)
The Untouchable Earl (Book 2)
Lord of Lies (Book 3)
What Reviewers are saying about Luck Is No Lady:
"Smart and Sexy."—Booklist
"SEXY AS SIN!"—Addicted to Romance
"Lively plot, engaging characters and heated love scenes make this a page-turner...Sandas has created a book readers will enjoy."—RT Book Reviews
- Hardcover: 416 pages |
- Publisher: Sourcebooks |
- Publication date: Apr 5, 2016 |
- Language: English |
- Format: Ebook


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Tips To Decorate Half Octagon Deck
Deck as home exterior element can be designed in many shapes, for examples: rectangle deck, circle deck, octagon deck, half octagon deck and so on. This deck can use wood, stone and combination wood an stone. Building deck is way to beautify home exterior and give additionally function of yard around home. It will be good alternative if there is yard, but homeowners will not use it for gardening. It can be used as deck. More than that on this deck can be put several plant types on containers. So, it proves there are many advantages of deck.
Octagon deck is perfect as gazebo alternative. It has circular shape but it has eight angles. If we put table and chairs, it can be arranged on circular arrangement. Table on center position and chairs are on around it. It can be used by 4 – 8 persons. As gazebo alternative, it must be there is roof above it. Different with octagon deck, half octagon deck is not half gazebo alternative. If octagon deck can be stand alone building outside home, so half octagon deck will be looked like one unity with its home. It will give character on home exterior.
Usually half octagon deck is built if there is half octagon shape on its home, maybe this octagon shape is part of bedroom, living room or family room, then outside this half octagon shape building is built half octagon deck in circular position around this building. This deck can beautify this building and create shady atmosphere for room near it.
On this deck can be put outdoor furniture. It can be decorated with soft pillow on every chair. Pillow cover with striking cover color is exciting. Above table can be put fresh flower arrangement on glass vase. On the cornet can be put plants on containers. Green plants or dwarf fruit plants are very good to be put here. Under table can be put carpet. And last decoration element is lighting above it. Ornamental wall lamp is good to be chosen.


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I Will Never Contest Against Buhari – Bola Tinubu
Leader of All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday, vowed never to contest the Presidency against President Muhammadu Buhari.
He noted that a newspaper report to the contrary was conjured to put him at odds with the President.
In a strongly worded rebuttal to the news report by the daily, Tinubu affirmed his unwavering loyalty to Buhari, saying permutations of him defecting were ignorant of his consistent political principles.
The daily in its front page report, Tuesday, had alleged that Tinubu had stepped up plans to contest the presidential election, irrespective of Buhari's intentions, saying he had pencilled down three possible running mates, including Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Senator Abu Ibrahim and Serikin Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Tinubu in his reaction issued by Mr. Tunde Rahman, his Media Assistant, said: "The story is a manufactured tale weaved by its authors to try to create division where there is none. Those who wrote this fantasy piece seek to place Asiwaju Tinubu at odds with President Buhari. Writing such a baseless report is a very foul and wrong thing to do.
Political outlook
"As long as that patriotic and committed man named Muhammadu Buhari holds and seeks to hold the mantle as our president, then Asiwaju Tinubu stands behind him in unwavering support and confidence.
"Asiwaju Tinubu remains faithful to the mission of progressive reform and change that President Buhari, he and the All Progressives Congress, APC, have started. Tinubu was instrumental in the formation and success of the APC.
"His toil and efforts helped establish this government. He is not one to tear down something he laboured so dutifully to build."
Noting that the report aimed to skew the banter the APC leader had with reporters in Akure last weekend, he said the report "opted to gain false sensation by completely mocking the tenor of the brief banter Asiwaju Tinubu had with journalists at the inauguration of Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
"When asked about future political office, Asiwaju said he could not discount that possibility if the nation called upon him for such service, provided, he emphasized, that all political conditions were appropriate; particularly the office in question would have to be vacant, even if it's local government chairmanship.
"In our political lexicon, this means the office is not held by a member of the APC in good standing. We all know this.
"Moreover, if you really listen to his words, Asiwaju did not mention any office or any time-frame. The conditions he mentioned may not become ripe for years to come and they might not pertain to the Presidency. In effect, all Asiwaju said was the position that any political figure would hold.
"As a politician, he cannot preclude the possibility of running for office in the future because no man knows what the future will hold. To translate this general statement of political reality into a tale that he is actively preparing for a 2019 presidential run is reckless in the extreme."
No list of possible running mates
"Asiwaju Tinubu has not held any planning meetings for any such presidential campaign and is not contemplating any such meetings. He has no present list of possible running mates because he has no present intention of running.
"The headline also libels Asiwaju by asserting he was going to join the PDP. This is as shameless as a lie can be. Asiwaju is acknowledged to be the intellectual father and the driving force behind the APC.
"It makes no sense that he would abandon the party that he worked hard to build in order to enter the dilapidated building the PDP has become. Asiwaju worked for over 16 years to break the PDP yoke on the nation.
"After breaking that yoke, it is not in his nature to voluntarily place it back on our necks. Anyone who has followed his career, even his staunchest critics, knows Asiwaju for his partisan consistency.
"He is not a party hopper. He is loyal and sticks with the party to which he belongs."
After fighting for so many years to elevate his party to the position of national leadership, he would not give that away in order to join with those who blame him for their currently bleak political circumstance.''
Concluding that the newspaper had joined "with those who seek to put Asiwaju Tinubu at odds with our President," he said: "This scam will fail. Asiwaju supports and stands behind President Buhari. He wishes the President well and that he returns soon.
'Whether the President is here or away, he has the full loyalty of Asiwaju Tinubu. President Buhari can rest assured on this point: Asiwaju Tinubu will never contest against him nor will he support anyone who does."
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By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
Casino shares slide after earnings
European stocks rose for a fourth straight session on Thursday, with traders shrugging off concerns over U.S. tariffs and instead looking ahead to the European Central Bank's closely watched policy decision later in the day.
No action is expected at the ECB meeting, but all eyes are on the central bank's statement for any tweaks to its easing bias.
What are the markets doing?
The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.2% to 373.54, building on 0.4% gain from Wednesday .
Germany's DAX 30 index gained 0.1% to 12,256.15, while France's CAC 40 index climbed 0.2% to 5,199.31.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index was slightly lower at 7,155.41.
The euro fell to $1.2401 from $1.2411 late Wednesday in New York.
What is driving the market?
The upbeat trading mood came as tensions over the planned U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports eased after comments from the White House that major trading partners Canada and Mexico could be exempt. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the tariff order on Thursday, with an announcement planned for 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, according to media reports .
Closer to home, traders looked ahead to the ECB's policy decision for any hints on the future of monetary policy. The central bank is widely expected to keep rates and its a key stimulus program on hold, but the big question is if the rate setters are changing their forward guidance.
According to the current forward guidance, the quantitative easing program is currently slated to run "until the end of September 2018, or beyond if necessary," with the bank standing ready to "increase the asset purchase program (APP) in terms of size and/or duration," if the economy turns sour. If the ECB removes these sentences from the statement, it's seen as a hawkish shift and likely to send the euro higher, according to analysts.
"Will they now say for sure that [QE will] end in September? Or will they say they'll end at some specific time after September? Or will they just announce that there will be a further reduction at some point, but leave the end point vague? That's going to be the focus," said Marshall Gittler, chief strategist at ACLS Global, in a note.
"The more certainty there is about the end, the better it will be for EUR. The market assumption is currently that the ECB will end its QE program at the end of this year. Nonetheless, an announcement in line with that vague consensus would probably boost EUR by eliminating the uncertainty," he added.
The ECB announces its policy decision at 12:45 p.m. London time, or 7:45 a.m. Eastern Time, followed by central bank chief Mario Draghi's news conference at 1:30 p.m. London time.
Which stocks are in focus?
Shares of JCDecaux slid 8.4% after the outdoor advertising company said profit slumped 14% on 2017 .
Aviva PLC dropped 2.3% after reporting a 2% rise in 2017 adjusted operating profit .
Casino Guichard-Perrachon fell 1.8% after the French retailer posted a sharp drop in 2017 profit .
Shares of Hugo Boss lost 5% even after the German fashion company said it would raise its 2017 dividend after net profit rose in the full year.
What's new in economics?
German manufacturing orders fell more than expected in January, dropping 3.9%, compared with forecasts of a 1.5% decline.
In France, the Bank of France said the country's economy is likely to expand by 0.4% in the first quarter , down from 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2017.


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Friday, February 8, 2013
Love Shower Week One
4 comments:
Oh, these were fun to read!ReplyDelete
Jill Marie...I love kale but have not made kale chips yet. Would you share your recipe here?...I'd like to try them.
Michelle...I LOVE your embroidery (and you know you had me at the beads!) 0:) Your design and colors are gorgeous!
I worked on a new fabric covered journal this week...and I think it is going to be for ME :) (we shall see if I end up putting in my etsy shop!) ;) I love it.
Sending love to both of you...
Hi San! Oh I hope you keep the journal just for you...though I do love your Etsy shop too and I know whoever would get it would be able to feel your beautiful energy from it :)ReplyDelete
This is the Recipe I use:
Kale leaves off the rib keep them no more than 2 inch by 2 inch in size if possible. The stuff in the bag doesn't work as well as the fresh bunch of leaves you can buy.
Pre-heat oven to 250
Place dried Kale (meaning not freshly rinsed) on baking sheet that you sprayed lightly with your favorite oil. I use Olive Oil. Be sure to use an oil that is stable when heated.
Then spray a very light coating of the oil on the leaves. You can lightly salt with sea salt if you like.
Then I bake them for 15 minutes or so.
Simple and yummy :)
Oh... Jill Marie.. Thank you!!ReplyDelete
We are due for a monumental snow storm here (it has just started) and I DO have fresh kale that we bought yesterday. :)
We are lucky enough to have our very own yummy Organic olive oil (from my husband's olive groves in Greece) so we will use that.. and enjoy making these today! My mouth is watering as I type this.
Thank you so much!
I hope you are doing ok with the storm that rolled through. Kale chips are a yummy thing to eat when you are snowed in!
Thank you for your kind words on my embroidery. Who knew I would like it so much. :) I love all of your beauties in your etsy shop but sometimes you just have to hang into them for yourself. Hee hee.


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Do you like sesame? Normally we get discreet tastes of it on bread or burger buns. You might be using its oil on salads or scooping up dollops of houmous on pita bread for its distinct flavour. In Greece we are very well acquainted with the humble sesame seed and we have a very soft spot for golden sweet honey. We use them both to make pasteli and this preparation is so old, it is only fair to call them the energy bars of the Gods. Continue readingby
Tag: dessert
Walnut cake, the Greek way – karidopita
A very juicy walnut cake
When it comes to Greek names Michalis, Mike comes just after Yannis, Nikos and Kostas in popularity. Last Sunday was a big name day – one third of Greece must have been celebrating their Michaels and Michaelas. I was celebrating a very special Michalis too, my dad, and he has a a special request, karidopita, Greek walnut cake with syrup! Continue readingby
Leek pie and kourkoubinia
Smart ways to make your ingredients go a long way
Still on
food blogging competition mode and all I think about is re-using. Last week I re-used my chickpea soup into chickpea burger, I had a few onions cooked into a sharp chutney and made my materials go a little further. This week, it is all about the pie and a bit of dessert, well, from leftovers fillo pastry. Making your ingredients go a long way, have something savoury and something sweet. Continue reading
Rice pudding
There is hardly a nation in the world without rice pudding. From Far East to Far west, this little pudding has gained everybody's attention and affection. As old as rice and as simple as milk, rice pudding has been a staple of Greek home cooking too, joining the Middle-Eastern league for flavourfull filling snacks. Either as breakfast or actually dessert, I love it cold and with lots of cinnamon. Continue readingby
Kataifi, divine pleasures
As far as traditional desserts go, we have a soft spot for syrupy ones over here. In general we have a sweet tooth in the family and we are very fussy on what comes through the door. Dessert has to be perfect! Greek patisseries will never seize to surprise me with their selection of classics and also very innovative desserts. Be it chocolate gateaux, tiramisu, profiteroles or oriental delights, there is always temptation around. Of course every place has its speciality too, but I should come back to this on another post. Home-made, of course, always wins hands down. Continue readingby
Easter biscuits, koulourakia
Among the wonderful Easter treats and smells, Easter biscuits compete with tsoureki. Continue readingby
Bitter orange turned sweet aka neratzi
Mum has a lovely friend who tends to her garden, Olga. She is from Ukraine, grew up in a farmer's family and Athens has been her home for quite some years now. The garden is certainly her territory, except perhaps for a few 'exotic' Mediterranean species that grow down here: neratzi (also known as bitter orange or Seville orange) being one of them
Continue reading
Semolina halva
Another taste us Greeks have adopted from the orient, halva is known throughout the Balkans, North Africa, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and of course the Levant where it originated. Halva is a dessert rich in history, rooted in the medieval Arab world and tinged with a Persian influence. Perfect with tea or coffee, halva has seen many a glorious day. It used to be served to high-ranking Ottomans during their ostentatious banquets, usually with tea, pickles and other delicacies; what a delicious tea service that must have been!
There are innumerable variations of this dessert, you can add pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, raisins, dates, chocolate, butter instead of oil, lentils and carrots, rosewater or orange syrup, honey, spice it up with a little cinnamon, or cardamom, or even crocus. In Greece we categorise the different halvas into three main types: cheese, flour, or seed-based. The most common homemade halva is flour-based, with semolina flour. It is a very traditional dessert, eaten to celebrate life and death, and used to be served on Christmas and New Year's Day. Halva is still popularly associated with lent, yet doesn't garner the popularity it once had. Nowadays it is pretty much a grandmother dessert, but to me, halva is an extra-special comfort food.
Halva also makes a great breakfast as it's very nutritious, do be careful if you are on a diet though. The best thing about halva, except for its sweetness, is that it's dead easy to make. All you need is the 1-2-3-4 method, making this perhaps the easiest recipe to remember.
- 1 cup olive oil
- 2 cups semolina
- 3 cups sugar, (here I cheat, I use 2 and a bit as it can be too sweet)
- 4 cups water
- a Cinnamon stick
- 2-3 Cloves
- Orange or lemon peel
- Almonds or pine nuts
For this recipe you start from the bottom, 3&4, to make a light syrup. Dissolve the sugar in water and let it boil for 5 minutes. Also, add the cinnamon stick, cloves and orange or lemon peel to impart their aroma to the syrup.
Now steps 1 & 2. Use the deepest pot you have to heat your olive oil (a little) and add the semolina flour. Be very careful, if it is very hot it will turn into a little volcano erupting on your hob. Keep on stirring with a wooden spoon for about 6 minutes until browned. You are ready for the nuts, add almonds or pine nuts (or both) to the browned semolina and let them brown a little as well.
Now everything is ready to combine. Take the pot off the hob and use a ladle to pour on your syrup, one ladleful at a time. It should look like this.
Place the halva back on the hob and keep on stirring until the mix no longer sticks to the pot. Spoon out portions into your choice of receptacle, to shape each serving, and let it cool down.
Perfectly enjoyed with coffee!by


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As part of our Democracy Plaza project, MSNBC.com invites our readers to submit short essays on democracy in America, as inspired by our 'Democracy in America' slide show. Each week beginning on Monday, October 25, MSNBC.com editors will select one or several essays to publish in our special Democracy Plaza section. We'll continue publishing essays until the week of November 29. Entries are limited to 300 words — or about twice as long as this paragraph.
Be aware that for materials you post or otherwise provide to MSNBC (a "Submission"), you grant MSNBC permission to (1) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat your Submission, each in connection with the MSNBC Web Site, and (2) sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. MSNBC will not pay you for your Submission. MSNBC may remove your Submission at any time. For each Submission, you represent that you have all rights necessary for you to make the grants in this section. MSNBC Terms of Use also apply.
Submit your essay in the text box below, and don't forget to tell us where you live and how to reach you if you win. Good luck!
© 2013 msnbc.com Reprints


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"If you feel too spiritually maimed to come to the feast, please realize that the Church is not a monastery for perfect people, though all of us ought to be striving on the road to godliness. No, at least one aspect of the Church is more like a hospital or an aid station, provided for those who are ill and want to get well."
—Jeffrey R. Holland, "He Hath Filled the Hungry with Good Things"
Topics: Church


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Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale isn't the only Sword Art Online property being released right now, with a PS4 and Vita game called Accel World Vs. Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight slated for a March 16 release in Japan and an expected US release sometime in the summer. The Bandai Namco game is a cross-over between Accel World and Sword Art Online, both are stories created by Reki Kawahara as light novels and are thought to be in the same (or very similar) universes. The new trailer for the game show (and a 15-second tv spot, both below) shows off its action role-playing gameplay, the artwork, and some of the upcoming story. In the game, Kirito and Asuna are in danger of losing Yui as server maintenance endangers her and leaves to a different virtual world. While chasing her Kirito and Asuna stumble upon the Accel World, where "Going beyond time, the accelerated worlds and virtual worlds collide." There are many playable characters from both Sword Art Online and Accel World including Yuna from the new film Ordinal Scale which you can have in your party. Parties are made up of 3 members from either show and can be freely switched in real-time.
This isn't the first Sword Art Online game with Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment being released to lukewarm ratings by critics with a 65 on Metacritic and complaints about the translation and that it had lackluster gameplay. However, fans seemed to enjoy it more with a more respectable 7.7 user score liking the additions to the lore and world building. The new game looks to be an improvement over the last so fans should be excited to keep an eye out for any new information about the release in the US. Hopefully this time it won't have such a bad translation.


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Minelab GPX 6000
VicR, in Minelab Metal Detectors
Recommended Posts
Similar Content
By GhostLands
Hey wassup guys!😀
Theses are my last 3 hunts with my brand new GPX 5000! I have 4 coils : Commander 15x12 DD, Commander 11" Mono and Double-D, Coiltek 14" Mono Elite. 👍
I only used the 11" Double-D and the Coiltek!
I have been learning a few things with Gordon Heritage from UK!
These are all finds from areas where i hunted before with other machines! My main machine is the Equinox 800!
I'm very pleased with the GPX!
By Steve Herschbach
Abenson - "As you'll soon see in the video, The Tarsacci, Equinox and GPX can hold there own against each other. The only loser in the video is the Deus but it's out of it's element. Deus thrives in surface trash in my dirt not, deeper targets in trash. There's really no magic bullet when it comes to deeper iron masked targets."
Tarsacci vs Vista X vs Equinox for Park Hunting
Tarsacci vs GPX vs TDI
By mn90403
I've told myself for months it was time to go out with the 5000 and the Coiltek Platypus mono coil and try for some deep targets. Last night was the night. I think I learned more about my beach then I did about the detecting setup.
This is the coil:
I don't have any pictures of finds because it was all junk except for 2 pennies. I went out to a low tide wet area where I never find much with the Equinox 800 and I didn't find much with this either. I was going after deep targets and I got a few aluminum can bottoms at 15 inches plus. I had my giant scoop for the task so I didn't have to give up on the targets like I would with an arm scoop.
What I learned is that with these conditions there just wasn't a patch of targets in the 'staging area' waiting to be washed up on the shore. Maybe they are farther out.
I mostly used the 5000 in Salt/Gold and I was really able to go as high as I wanted with the gain. (For about 20 minutes I used fine gold but it had a hum when I swung.) I stayed around 16 for the 2 hours I hunted. I used my harness that I got with the detector in 2010 and a hipstick but it is a heavy load for me right now. It started to hurt my back between the heavy scoop and the detector. I cancelled my long walk style that I do with the 800. I was trying to go places where I would go with an AQ. I may have learned enough to not want one of those now.
I was impressed that the battery worked fine and has not been charged much since I got a Z for the desert.
I'll use this setup again on a better conditioned beach that has more targets but it is just not that much better at depth for it to be my regular detector.
By abenson
Got out Saturday morning early to try and beat the heat but by 11 am it was pushing 90. Used my GPX with the 14" Coiltek DD coil and ran in Salt mode most of the time, used normal a while too but Salt was much quieter. Had to walk half a mile down the beach to get to where I wanted to hunt and found either my headphones or battery had an issue. The volume was real weak even at full volume, I dealt with it but had the wind been blowing I would have had to walk back. Later found out it was a battery issue, amp must be bad. I think it's time to get Docs gold screamer setup. I'm tired of spending $450 for batteries Minelab claims can't be repaired. This is the second battery in a year that has gone bad.
I hunted the wet sand down to the waters edge. Based on all the swim cap buckles, I was in the right place but just couldn't pull up any gold. The Chinese cache coin was kind of cool and all the coins were older. 2 corroded wheat pennies, silver Roosevelt dime, Jefferson nickel, buffalo and what looks like a V-nickel or possible token. Everything I found is pictured with the exception of a long piece of copper wire and two iron blobs that I left in the garbage can. All of the targets were shovel head deep or deeper
By South Padre Treasure
Good Morning Treasure Detectives,
My wife was kind enough to purchase for me a New Open Box GPX 4500, for putting up with her for 29 years. Not exactly her version of this story. June 29 will be 29 years, where did the time go.
Back to subject, it came with the mono and double d coils, but need advise on what coil that is waterproof would be good for saltwater beach. Thinking 15" or about similar size. I have used my Simi Eliptical Mono Commander on my TDI and got great results in wet sand area. but did not put under water, because its only water resistant not proof. I would like to be able to use in wading depth. Yes I know expensive machine for being around water. I have waterproofed my TDI SL and will waterproof the GPX as well. need the extra depth. Didn't know they would be releasing the AQ so soon. would have told wife to wait. I thought the AQ was a year down the road. Maybe on our 30th anniversary. Right now have to use what I have. Moderate mineralization beach looking for jewelry size targets.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, Happy Hunting and Stay Safe and Healthy to all!
By Steve Herschbach
I have used the Minelab GPX 5000 since it was introduced, and in fact probably owned the first one in Alaska. I have used the Garrett ATX also since it came out with one of the first units off the production line. I have been putting this review off while I got to know the ATX. I now have over 100 hours on the detector in a variety of environments so the time has come.
This metal detector comparison review was very challenging for me to write. It pits two very different yet very similar detectors against each other. In a way it is almost like discussing three detectors instead of two, and there is the issue of a huge price difference. I apologize for the length but this is a case where I wanted to be as thorough as possible on the subject. This is the review you will never see published in a magazine!
In a way it is all about that price differential. If the two detectors were priced similarly there would be much less debate than is going to occur amongst people and a far easier buying decision for some to make. For me personally it really is a story of the Garrett ATX being two very different detectors at once and so I will start the review there.
I have been metal detecting over forty years now, and metal detecting is very important in my life. Not a day goes by that I do not think about, write about, or actually go out metal detecting. Luckily for me a large chunk of my income is derived from metal detecting and so I can justify a collection of metal detectors for what I do. I engage in quite a few detecting activities and I strive to have the very best detector possible at my disposal for whatever it is I am doing. Because of this I am constantly on the look for new detectors that might help me in some way.
However, now that the technology is maturing I have the bases pretty well covered. The only thing I was still looking for was a detector that satisfied me while water detecting in Hawaii. Every other detecting scenario I have covered to my satisfaction, but every time I hit the water in Hawaii I was left wanting something better than was available. The combination of salt water, volcanic rock, and military grade electrical interference is very challenging for any detector.
What I generally want is a combination of stability and power with good ergonomics. The perfect detector should only signal on desired targets and nothing else, at good depth, while feeling good on my arm. I obviously reject detectors that get poor depth - these are usually the lower price detectors. Most top tier models are very competitive in the depth department. Other detectors I have put aside solely due to an inability to handle electrical interference. Fine machines otherwise, but unstable in an urban environment. Other detectors are too noisy in mineralized ground or too chatty in dense trash. And finally, some detectors are holdovers from the old days of heavy and clunky. I do not like detectors that make my arm hurt!
I was therefore very excited when I heard the Garrett ATX was on the way. I was very familiar with its predecessor, the Garrett Infinium, which was tantalizingly close to my perfect Hawaii detector. Unfortunately the Infinium suffered in the stability department. I was also aware of the Garrett Recon Pro AML-1000 military demining detector. I was intrigued by its having a non-motion monotone search mode and wondered if that could be incorporated into a new improved "Infinium Pro" model. I not only had Hawaii in mind but started envisioning scenarios involving underwater sniping for gold employing a metal detector.
Add to this that neither Minelab nor White's seemed interested in putting a waterproof ground balancing pulse induction metal detector in my hands. I never expected it would be Garrett that would come out with a second generation model based on the Infinium before anyone else got to first base.
I have told you all this to explain what I was expecting and hoping for in the Garrett ATX. The fact is Garrett delivered with flying colors on my desires and the ATX is now one if the most important detectors in my collection. I have already paid for the detector with jewelry found and it is the Hawaii detector I always hoped for. Garrett ATX in Hawaii If we are talking about the Garrett ATX as a new waterproof detector for use on black sand or volcanic island beaches the review can end right here. The Garrett ATX is a superb detector for those conditions and well worth the money.
There is only one fly in the ointment. If you look at the full page ads for the Garrett ATX it is clearly being marketed as a prospecting detector, and one pretty clearly aimed at Minelab's top end models. Specifically "The ATX performs head-to-head with the most expensive prospecting detectors in the world."
ads by Amazon...
Interestingly enough this idea was not even on my radar. I had always thought it was a huge mistake for the Infinium to be set up as direct competition for the high end Minelabs. Anyone involved in that remembers the hype and resulting disappointment and backlash. The Infinium eventually found its place but more as a water and relic hunting machine than a prospecting detector, although it is a capable enough unit. My hope was to avoid a similar scenario with the ATX. I do not like hype and prefer things to be under sold so people are pleasantly surprised when their expectations are exceeded. Hype leads to disappointment when inflated claims cannot be met.
The reality here however is that Garrett has chosen to make prospecting the battlefield of choice. There is a lot of money at stake here for a lot of people, and so I am going to do my best here to compare the two units as dry land prospecting detectors. I think we can all agree that if you are looking at both the Garrett ATX and Minelab GPX 5000 and need the detector to be waterproof the Garrett ATX wins hands down.
The funny thing here is that if Garrett was gunning for Minelab then in my opinion they went about it the wrong way. I get the distinct impression the design process was backwards. It was not a matter of "what do prospectors want in a metal detector?" I think it was "we have this housing on the shelf we developed at great expense to go after a military contract. We need to leverage our development cost by putting something in that housing we can sell to the public." In other words, I do not see any sign of design following function. All I see is a prospecting detector crammed in a box inappropriate for the desired end use. If Steve Jobs was into metal detectors he would be rolling in his grave. I will have to suffice instead by simply shaking my head at missed opportunity. I will explain more about that later.
Let's set ergonomics aside though for now and just talk about straight up prospecting performance. How does the Garrett ATX fare against the Minelab GPX 5000 on gold in mineralized ground? I have done fairly extensive tests but I do have to throw in the caveat that the world is a big place and when you discuss prospecting detectors one truth is paramount. It is all about the ground mineralization and hot rocks. What works well in one place fails in another, and for this reason alone I cannot offer 100% assurances. I have spent a month traveling Western Australia detecting every day and so I am quite familiar with what prospectors face there. I am not about to begin to offer more than an opinion about how these two detectors fare in the worst Australian ground but I do think my conclusions will prove to be true. I can tell anyone right now knowing detectors the way I do that either machine will prove superior at certain locations given their differing capabilities.
In a nutshell, the Garrett ATX has a ridiculously good circuit. The engineers at Garrett have done a superb job of producing a detector that out of box performs extremely well on a wide variety of gold in a wide variety of ground conditions. I tested both units in some very red mineralized soil, both outfitted with stock DD coils. The ATX comes with a 12" x 10" DD coil. The GPX 5000 comes with two coils, one of which is an 11" round DD coil and this is what I used. The nuggets ranged from 0.1 gram to 6.5 ounces.
Test conditions
The impression I was left with was definitely not how the GPX 5000 blows the ATX away but instead by how well the Garrett ATX does. It is impossible to not be impressed by how well the $2120 detector does when run head-to-head against a $5795 detector. Garrett has done a fantastic job and in my opinion their advertising claims are not off base. This is a serious prospecting circuit well worth consideration.
The two detectors basically differ in the range of gold they find best. The Garrett ATX skews towards the smaller more commonly found gold nuggets. The Minelab GPX 5000 skews towards larger gold nuggets that tend to be the goal of professional prospectors. Out of box with similar coils the ATX will find small gold nuggets the GPX 5000 would normally miss without special coils and tuning tricks. It does this simply and with no fuss. However, in mineralized ground with similar coils the GPX easily bests the ATX on large nuggets. By large I mean one ounce and larger and by easily I mean by a margin of 10-15%. The GPX 5000 does this using a coil that in my case had never been on the detector before. Most Minelab users would never consider hobbling the detector by putting the 11" round DD coil on if hunting large nuggets at depth. It is informative therefore that even doing this in the interest of "fairness" and with nothing more than stock Normal timing with Gain bumped to 16 (out of 20) the Minelab GPX 5000 easily outperformed the Garrett ATX on a 6.5 ounce nugget. The ATX was at max Gain of 13 for the test.
Now the depth differential here was only about two inches but I have to throw in the huge caution note again that it will vary depending on ground conditions. Absolute depth was about 17" ATX versus 19" GPX for good solid signals. The kind nobody can miss. Again, do not take these as some sort of magical numbers as ground conditions and even nugget shape and alloy could cause you to get some surprising differences. That is why I hate mentioning exact depths and differences in most cases and just stick to relative conclusions. But you are going to ask so there you go. For reference a Fisher Gold Bug Pro with 13" round DD coil and White's GMT with 14" elliptical DD both with settings jacked to the max were barely able to obtain this solid gold 6.5 ounce nugget at 12" in this ground and the GMT in particular would not really have been able to hunt maxed out the way it was.
Depending on who is reading this the response may be "really, only two inches?" or "wow, two whole inches!" Similarly, it is interesting to see the GPX with DD coil scrub a little nugget with no signal that the ATX easily detects at a couple inches.
This however does end up being my basic and not new finding by any means. Others have reported similar results. The ATX does better on small gold and the GPX on large straight out of box with stock DD coils.
I do believe the GPX has more ability to handle more varied and more intense ground conditions and hot rocks due to its many adjustments. However, this is more a belief than a fact as so far the ATX has easily handled everything I have thrown at it, including salt water, basalt rocks, and electrical interference in Hawaii. Garrett does make use of a salient fact in its advertising. The ATX handles a wide range of conditions with deceptively few settings. This makes it very easy to set up and it avoids a common complaint with the GPX detectors. They are so complex people are often left wondering if they have the optimum settings for the conditions. I know for a fact from observation that many people tend to use timings that are too aggressive for the actual conditions when using a GPX. The tendency often is to find something that seems to work well and then to just default to that way if doing things, even if conditions change. To get the best performance out of a GPX does require that a person be somewhat of a tuning wizard.
The bottom line for many more casual prospectors in the United States especially is that the Garrett ATX represents a fantastic value. It is truly impossible to say but in my case at least most of the gold I find in the US with my GPX an ATX would have found it also. In particular when hunting areas where bedrock is a foot or less the ground would have to be extremely hot indeed for the ATX to not only find what the GPX will but to have an edge on the more common small gold. Even in deeper ground as long as the gold is measured in grams and not ounces and the ground not extremely mineralized the ATX is going to be a close match with the GPX. Again, out of box with stock DD coils.
Where the ATX is going to clearly come up short is on large nuggets, especially those sought after 1 ounce and larger nuggets at depth and on gold in the worst mineralized ground and hot rock locations. To be perfectly honest I feel my putting an 11" inch round DD coil on my GPX 5000 in the interest of being fair does not reflect for one second how I look for gold. I am not out there being fair, I am out there looking for gold. I will be running a larger mono coil with settings optimized for larger gold and then the difference in large gold performance between the ATX and GPX is even more pronounced. I would consider a 10-15% to be a bare minimum advantage gained while in effect running the GPX with its hands tied.
I have not done comparisons on the iron discrimination systems but I find the method used by the ATX to be inherently more reassuring. The GPX reacts to shallow ferrous targets by blanking out, a sort of non response. The ATX has a momentary ferrous check that kicks in at the touch of a button, and that gives a low tone growl on iron, which provides a more nuanced and natural response expected by most detector users. I am not a big fan of using discrimination on either unit but I did find the ATX method more to my liking for confirming shallow ferrous stuff as trash that I already thought was trash due to the response. Note that on either detector the ferrous rejection only works on shallow items and only with a DD coil. The amount of rejection is adjustable on the GPX and preset on the ATX so more tests really need to be done in this regard to determine which is the more accurate and useful system.
Minelab GPX 5000 and Garrett ATX (Minelab outfitted with optional Nugget Finder coil)
I do own both detectors and there is a simple reality here. If I am going looking for gold in the water, be it jewelry or nuggets in a creek, I will grab the ATX. For any other prospecting, the vast majority of it, I will be using the GPX 5000. I am not sure where the line between casual and serious is, but I am way, way over on the serious side. I spend a great deal of time targeting and hunting deep ground looking in areas where very large nuggets have been found historically. Most of the ground I detect I am hunting because it has produced nuggets weighing a pound or more in the past. I hunt tailing piles a lot so bedrock is tens of feet down, and the gold can be at any depth from shallow to extremely deep.
I think most professionals would tell you that small gold is what happens along the way while looking for the big stuff, and at the end of the day it is the big stuff or the lack of it that makes the difference. I found over thirteen ounces of nuggets metal detecting in 2013 which is no great sum of gold in my book, but well over half of it was in the form of two nuggets, one weighing 6.5 ounces and the other 2.37 ounces. Now in this case the ATX would have found both these nuggets. Yet I would not use anything but a Minelab GPX for what I am doing. I am spending a lot of valuable time going over ground that I may only get one shot at. I plan these things well in advance and not only time but good money is invested in taking my best shot at getting good results. I basically cannot afford to be running anything that I feel does not give me the best chance of delivering that make or break it big nugget. One nugget can make all the difference between a month of lackluster results and fantastic success.
If both the Garrett ATX and Minelab GPX 5000 detectors had exactly identical electronic performance I would still be swinging the GPX. I am on one hand very impressed with the ATX as a nugget detector and on the other hand very disappointed by it. The up front decision to use the Recon AML-1000 housing is an automatic fail from a nugget detecting perspective in my opinion. It adds not only needless weight but weight that is very much an impediment in rough, uneven terrain. This is accentuated by a stock coil that is sensitive to knocks and bumps. It requires an extra level of coil control to manipulate the detector in such a way as to not produce excessive false signals. This differs from Minelab coils that basically do not false at all unless something is wrong with them. I would caution anyone using a detector the way I do that the ATX requires extra care as regards the possibility of repetitive motion injury. Trust me as somebody who detected too much one year and ignored the signs this is something to regard seriously. A harness is a must for weeks of long daily use of the ATX. I shudder to think about how the detector feels with the 20" long rear mounted mono coil hanging off the front. That is an ergonomic nightmare.
The ATX features silicone lubricated battery door o-rings that collect dirt. The coil connectors also have o-ring seals and even worse delicate pin connectors subject to damage if not carefully lined up. The headphone connector is similar to the coil connectors. All these are required to make the detector waterproof and not only unneeded for normal dry land use but an impediment as regards serviceability in the field.
The coils are sold as a unit with the telescoping rod assembly adding needless expense and weight and making carrying an extra coil around something to be avoided. The rear mount enables the ability of the detector to fold up but is another weak point from a serviceability aspect and ergonomically the worst way to mount a coil.
I always considered ergonomics to be the easy low hanging fruit for anyone considering manufacture of a detector to compete with the Minelab PI series, and I am frankly amazed anyone could make something even heavier I am less excited about handling. It is an absolute fact I would put the GPX aside for an alternative, even if that alternative was next best in overall gold ability, if it offered a big advantage ergonomically. I in fact often do decline to "harness up" and set the GPX aside in favor of a lightweight VLF at times because I am just too tired or not in the mood. More importantly, in steep terrain bedrock is often shallow and so when hunting hillsides and slopes there really is no advantage to using a GPX in ground only inches deep.
I would very gladly use a properly designed Garrett ATX instead of a Minelab GPX in many situations that I currently encounter. In particular areas where bedrock is less than a foot deep or in areas where large nuggets have historically never been seen. The only reason right now that is not going to happen is I do not want the ATX on my arm. Yes, the ATX has an inherent advantage on small gold but nothing I can't negate by putting on a small mono coil and running the GPX hot. No, in my opinion Garrett missed a major opportunity to wow somebody like me by putting a fantastic prospecting circuit in a package very inappropriate for the target audience.
Metal detectors are tools. Now the fact is that for the average person Craftsman tools do just fine and represent good value. But the guy making his living with his toolbox is probably going to be investing in Snap-on tools. It is an apt analogy accentuated by the real performance difference that exists between the Garrett ATX and Minelab GPX detectors on the kind of gold most pros are looking for. The vast number of accessory coils and other aftermarket options on top of a well proven platform makes it an easy decision for the serious prospector. Minelab makes a tool designed specifically for a certain job. The Garrett ATX unfortunately I feel is a duck out of water when employed for normal prospecting uses.
I do have to say my hat is off to Garrett for producing a detector that is the first to really give Minelab a run for the money. I hope they do follow up and produce a model expressly designed from the ground up as a dry land prospecting machine. It may well become my primary prospecting detector if they do so. If you have read this review carefully you should understand the issues involved. For many people wanting maximum bang for the buck a Garrett ATX straight up and used properly is a real bargain in a PI prospecting machine. It can and will find gold and find it very well. The guys like me (you know who you are) that probably already have a Minelab PI plus extra coils, batteries and so forth can continue waiting for the next big thing in nugget detecting. You may also consider the Garrett for exactly the reason I did. It is waterproof, and currently is the closest thing you can get to a Minelab PI in a waterproof package.
In closing I am curious to see how both detectors do for me this year. The ATX has the lead with about 2.5 ounces of gold and platinum jewelry found so far. I plan on using it often to hunt jewelry every chance I get in 2014. The GPX I will once again be taking to Alaska for a couple months of nugget detecting which may or may not pay off with a large nugget found. I will be hunting the right places but large gold is rare almost anywhere you go. Given the lead the ATX already has the GPX has its work cut out for it so it should make for an interesting year. For those of you trying to decide between these two very fine metal detectors I can only sympathize and count my blessings for not having to make such decisions. However, I hope this helps you with your decision because I have done my best to try and do just that. Good luck and good hunting!
2020 Note: Since this review was written in 2014 the price for the ATX was remained the same, while the price for the Minelab GPX 4500 and GPX 5000 have both come down considerably. This does change the value proposition offered by the Garrett ATX, especially as regards the Minelab GPX 4500, which can now be had for only a few hundred dollars more than an ATX.
Detailed information on the Garrett ATX
Detailed information on the Minelab GPX 5000
Great video by another party (a Garrett dealer) confirming the above results at another location with a different large nugget....


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text: We would like to know when we export the timesheet data from Replicon into Quickbooks to be put into an invoice, how is the data sorted/ exported? we would like to export the data in either the data format or by a different field. I have contatced Quickbooks and they have said this is a Replicon issue and it is an issue of how the data is being exported into Quickbooks.


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Rebel Pest Control Las VegasRodent Rat & Mice Control
Rodents in Nevada
The problems caused by rats are many. Various species of rats damage a variety of crops such as citrus, sugarcane, and rice to name a few. Burrowing activities can undermine foundations. Their gnawing damages a variety of things and can cause electrical fires when insulation is chewed (mostly a problem with older homes). They damage a much greater quantity of material by contaminating it with hair, feces, and urine. The main domestic rodents found in Nevada are the house mouse, white-footed mouse(deer mouse), and the roof rat. The Norway rat may be found in isolated regions within Nevada, but is not commonly encountered.
Some human diseases that rodents are directly or indirectly involved with are:
- ~ Plague: The plague is transmitted to man by Oriental Rat Flea, as well as other fleas.
- ~ Murine Typhus fever: Transmitted by the feces of the Oriental Rat Flea.
- ~ Leptospirosis: This Disease is usually contracted by contact with rat urine or ingestion of urine contaminated feed and water.
- ~ Rat Bite Fever: Bacterial infection contracted by rat bites.
Determining Rodent Presence
- ~ Sounds: Gnawing, clawing, climbing in the attic, and various squeaks are commonly associated with house mice and rats.
- ~ Droppings: droppings should be handled with utmost care. Particularly after they have dried, feces can be reservoirs of a variety of dangerous diseases and viruses. These dry droppings break apart upon contact and release airborne particles that may enter your nasal passages, causing infection. Do not handle droppings in your home without first taking preventive measures. Droppings are left along runways, near shelters. Droppings of mice are smaller and usually harder than those produced by rats.
- ~ Urine: House mice urinate at intervals along well-used runways, occasionally, they also will form small mounds.
- ~ Gnawing marks: Wood chips about consistency of coarse sawdust are produced by the gnawing of house mice. Most gnawing occurs around baseboards, doors, windows, and frames.
- ~Pet Excitement: Pawing and excitement of cats and dogs can indicate the presence of rodents.
- ~Odors: Rodents produce characteristic odors. A musky scent of house mice can be differentiated from odors produced by rats.
Contact Rebel at the first sign of a rodent infestation. Rodents are not only a hazard to human health, but can compromise the integrity of an infested structure through continuous gnawing.
Rodent Control
Prevention methods should be implemented early in order to maintain a rodent-free home. Rodents reproduce rapidly and small populations become full-blown infestations in very little time.
Rodent control may involve the use of several control measures, including: sanitation, removal of harborages, rodent-proofing, use of toxicants and traps, and other methods. Sanitation is essential in a successful rodent-control program. The elimination of shelter, food and water can man the difference between success and failure in controlling rodents. Good housekeeping practices are important. program of routine cleaning should be set up and followed. Obscure areas such as corners, shelves, under cabinets, work tables, and equipment shouldn't be overlooked. Eliminate rubbish piles. Keep refuse in rat proof containers until it is removed.
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On Saturday June 13th, over 9,000 49ers Faithful gathered at Candlestick Park for 49ers Family Day. The annual event, provides fans an up close and personal behind the scenes look at their favorite team. Activities included youth football clinics, drills, and skills events hosted by 49ers players. Youth cheerleading and drumline clinics hosted by the 49ers Gold Rush and Niner Noise, tours of the 49ers Locker Room, photo opportunities with the Super Bowl Trophies, liveRead More →
Over 8,000 49ers fans had a chance to get ready for the upcoming season at the 2007 49ers Family Day at Monster Park. The day included autographs by players, cheerleaders and 49ers alumni; interactive games; Punt Pass and Kick competitions; football skills events hosted by 49ers players; contests and prizes; tours of the 49ers locker room; Football 101 conducted by former 49ers Gary Plummer and Dave Fiore; and special performances by the 49ers Gold RushRead More →


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Trinity Pictures to 'Sniff' out success in kids' domain
MUMBAI: Eros International's Trinity Pictures has rolled out its first feature film, Sniff, a big-scale kid's live action-adventure film this month. A fresh new genre introduced in Indian cinema, the film went on floor on September 5, the day marking the commencement of Ganesh Chaturthi and will be shot across various locations in Mumbai.
Helmed by the acclaimed director, Amole Gupte, of Taare Zameen Par and Stanley Ka Dabba fame, the man behind several acclaimed children-centric films, reputed to spot talent in children and introduce fresh new faces in Indian film industry (Darsheel Safari in Taare Zameen Par, his son Partho in Stanley Ka Dabba, etc.), is all set to launch his next discovery Khushmeet Gill, an 8-year-old 'wonder' boy who plays the lead character in this family entertainer that revolves around a young Sikh boy, who is a spy in the making along with his curious gang of extraordinary cohorts.
Gupte commenced the shoot with his young star in Mumbai with a Ganesh Aarti sung by Shankar Mahadevan. Music in the film has been composed by Mujtaba Aziz Naza, son of the famous Qawwali singer Aziz Naza.


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I suppose I never considered the fact that someone would take screenshots with extravision on to show off lighting. *Maybe* that could explain it, but it still seems like you can see way too far down that hallway if it's lit 0%.
In any case, if the inside walls of the hallway are 0%, and the inside of the window is 0%, there's still no differential shading.


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In TestLink 1.9.15, when a test case is failed, we can add a note.
But sometimes the size of the Notes is not adequat.
Please, is it possible to make the Notes area bigger like in blue in the picture below, so all the space can be used?
By default when we want to see the Notes, we get the size in orange.


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Mental Health at University
In recent years, a crisis has enveloped university campuses across the world. Compared to any other generation of college students in history, current students experience more mental health issues than ever before. Some reports suggest that 35% of freshers in American universities experience anxiety disorders. Since the 1950s, rates of suicides on American campuses have tripled, and it's now the second most common cause of death among students. Nearly 10% of students have considered suicide in the previous twelve months – a terrifying, appalling statistic.
Scarier than this, though, is the real truth: that it's not just college students, but all young people. Vindication for this comes from the conclusions of a psychiatric report from 2008 which found young people of student age but who don't attend college to be equally as likely to suffer from some kind of psychiatric disorder as their college-going counterparts. Non-college attending individuals were more likely to self-medicate with drugs, whereas college students were at a higher risk of having some kind of alcohol disuse disorder. The worst part is the fact that among the initial sample of over 43,000 respondents, nearly one-half met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder. It's glaringly obvious there's a problem. But why?
Money, drugs, and TLC
The reasons for this crisis are manifold and complex. The 2008 study found that among both young adults of college-going age and the general population as a whole, loss of social support was heavily contributing element an increase in risk for psychiatric disorders. Another obvious explanation specific to university-goers could be the pressures students are put under to study long and hard and perform well, troubles mirrored among the non-student population in job insecurity, financial worries and the stress of the 9 to 5. Students are expected to deal not only with their studies, but also the stresses of moving away from home, living somewhere new, being thrust into a community of total strangers, and manage their own finances, all similar worries for young people attempting to purchase their first property and find a decent job. In places like the United Kingdom and America, university fees are preposterously high, meaning many students live under financial strain and work part-time jobs – another pressure.
But these aren't the only factors. Aforementioned stresses have changed little over time; half a century ago, students were still under pressure to perform well in their exams in an unfamiliar, potentially lonely environment. The financial burden was perhaps less, but – and without taking away its obvious impact – this can't be used to explain the huge increase in disorders. One potential factor is the opening up of the conversation around mental health: students are more willing to talk about their struggles, so levels of diagnosis are higher, and therefore it appears there is an epidemic. But this isn't true; even taking into account potential disparities in statistics, university campuses across the world are experiencing a proportional upsurge in students who need help.
The most important factor in all of this is lifestyle. The stress of university can affect sleeping patterns, and getting enough sleep has been shown to be essential in staving off depression. Many students eat poorly, don't exercise as much as they should, and often drink copious amounts, whether due to the university lifestyle in general or as a coping mechanism. Some experiment with drugs, which can become a crux, and a large number of students report feeling isolated and alone. Those who have difficulty making friends may be disproportionately affected. Recent studies from Dr Steve Ilardi's Therapeutic Lifestyle Change have shown that Omega-3 is a critical fatty acid in combating depression, and having a stable social circle and frequent social contact can work wonders. Being stuck inside all day studying at the computer doesn't help either, as getting enough sunlight is an often-overlooked contributor to mental health difficulties. Dr Ilardi's program – which, trials have shown, has over a 90% success rate, judged by whether one goes into remission before twelve months are up – is all well and good, but potentially difficult to implement when one considers the stresses of university life. Universities have a responsibility to do something; unfortunately, they're totally unprepared to deal with the problem.
System failure
The quality and crucially the availability of mental health care varies from university to university. A survey at the University of California, San Francisco, suggested that of the 24% of students who were depressed, only 22% used mental health counselling services. Three of the main problems that students expressed as the reasons they didn't attend these services were cost at 28%, lack of confidentiality at 37%, and at the top of the list a lack of time, with nearly half – 48% – of students giving it as a reason not to attend. These results suggest not only that the mental health care systems in place in the mid-nineties weren't affordable enough for regular students, but also that the university system itself, at a foundational level, didn't encourage an open dialogue and the space for students to look after their mental health.
It's not only the quality of care that remains a problem, though. The discourse around mental health – specifically, the stigma that still surrounds it – is changing, but not fast enough. A study from 2009 in Medical Care Research and Review conducted on American campuses found that how students felt they were judged by their peers did not play a significant role in whether or not they sought help; their own personal feelings towards themselves were far more important. Certain groups were more at risk of stigmatising themselves than others: namely, younger, Asian, international, and/or more religious men, and predominantly those from poorer families. In the United Kingdom, men are just as likely to be depressed as women, but far less likely to seek help, and a far worse statistic highlights this point: suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 45 die, and men account for three-quarters of suicides in the United Kingdom. But although the effects are gendered, the problem isn't: women and men are about equally as likely to experience mental health problems.
Chemical solutions
Put in these terms, the problem seems insurmountable; fixing our youth is going to require time, money, and compassion on the behalf of the government, the health care system and universities, as well as us rethinking the way we want to live our lives. Fortunately, some are trying to come up with solutions before the university level. In New York, the Mental Health Association has launched an online training program to 'help educators better prepare in supporting student mental health'. The program aims to aid teachers in their understanding of the signs and symptoms of mental health, as well as how it can affect youth development. New York State enacted a law in 2018 that made some form of mental health education mandatory in schools. Head over to India, and the same conversation is opening up, with positive effects. In Mangaluru, the District Mental Health team has begun organising camps to create awareness of mental health issues among teachers and parents, and has implemented a hotline system which students can call if they need counselling. Dr Ratnakar of the District Mental Health team says 'the primary objective of the mission is to unearth the fear that is instilled in the young minds' – in other words, to remove the stigma surrounding mental illness. These types of programs are especially effective as they try to mitigate the problem at an early age – during the school year. There is always the risk, however, that these types of top-down impositions can be crudely structured and organised, of a low quality, even. Regardless, it's a step in the right direction.
At the university level, there are necessary steps to be taken to mitigate the fallout of this epidemic. Universities should be promoting lifestyles that foster both physical and mental health, the two going hand in hand as they do. This means providing adequate facilities for both free and low-cost sports, as well as doing things like not allowing students to stay in the library all night in order to encourage healthy sleeping habits. An environment in which talking about mental health is encouraged should be a priority. Aside from this, universities must work with healthcare providers to ensure counselling and support led by trained professionals is available for students whenever they need it. This would shorten waiting lists and guarantee the correct therapeutic route for the person in need. Equally as important, these services need to be properly publicised. Too often, student support services aren't properly advertised to students, meaning they don't take advantage of the services which could help them through their studies and, in more serious cases, help them survive. This is especially true for emergency services for those close to mental breakdown or contemplating taking their own life – these services are essential and cannot be spared.
There's a more serious issue that needs to be tackled, however, and it comes back to Professor Steve Ilardi's self-proclaimed 'depression cure'. The modern lifestyle – as he puts it, our 'sedentary, indoor, sleep-deprived, socially-isolated, fast-food-laden, frenetic' modern life – is one conducive to mental illnesses such as depression. If we want to decrease the likelihood that people will become depressed, this needs to change. This isn't just about providing healthcare and talking therapy for students; it's about a fundamental shift in the way we interact with the world around us, with the things we do to our bodies and the way we live our lives. Until we do this, until we make this central structural change, rates of depression will continue to ascend, regardless of how many psychologists are available for weekly sit downs and irrespective of how destigmatised the conversation becomes. The problem goes deeper than just discourse: it reaches right down into our bodies, the food we put in them, the people we interact with; in other words, into our very chemistry.
If you're affected by any of the problems discussed in this article, it's important to talk to a GP or a mental health professional. If you are contemplating suicide, most countries have a suicide help line. The UK number for Samaritans is 116 123 and the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.
- A Discriminatory Pandemic
The Racial Inequalities of COVID-19
Dubbed 'the great equalizer' at its outset, COVID-19 has often been described as picking its victims at random. Blind to race, ethnicity, and gender, it sees just a human body, a host that enables it to do what all pathogens are programmed to do: spread. While this, from a biological perspective, may be true, the disease's sweep of the globe has been anything but equalising. Data from both the US and UK - who along with Brazil compete for the honour of worst pandemic response - show that in terms of cases and deaths, minorities are hugely overrepresented.
- Corona Live Feed
How the Coronavirus is Affecting Economics
15:00 8 June 2020 As some countries begin to loosen their lockdowns to varying degrees of success, many universities are still playing it on the safe side. The University of Surey, for example, has moved its CIMS summer school course online. This will be from the 7th to 12th of September 2020.
- Improving Muslim Lives
The Lives and Livelihoods Fund
Four years ago, the world adopted an ambitious set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) designed 'to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030'. Despite rising life expectancy and the eradication of many endemic diseases, more than 400 million people in the member states of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) still live in absolute poverty, subsisting on less than US$1.90 per day. It is, perhaps, these countries that face the greatest challenges in fulfilling the SDGs.


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FREE Money Saving Tips for Walt Disney World eBook!
If you sign up for our email newsletter, you will be notified when your free copy of the eBook is available for download. You'll also receive a link to download Vacation Kingdom at Christmas (the aforementioned Walt Disney World Christmas eBook) immediately upon confirming your subscription.
This free eBook is titled Money Saving Tips for Walt Disney World and as the name suggests, it covers saving money at Walt Disney World.
In the eBook, we offer our ways for saving money on dining, hotels, park tickets, vacation packages, and even souvenirs (and many other things) at Walt Disney World.
Here's what you can expect from Money-Saving Tips for Walt Disney World:
- 50+ pages
- 70+ photos
- When to visit for the cheapest prices
- Where to stay to save money
- Whether the Disney Dining Plan and "Free" Dining are good deals.
- Souvenirs to purchase before your trip to cut costs.
- Specific restaurants at Walt Disney World that are less-expensive alternatives.
- Much more–from cheaper airfare to park tickets, we have you covered!
If that sounds good to you, subscribe to our newsletter to download your totally free eBook today!
You'll receive a link to download a free copy of the eBook (did we mention that it's totally free? 😉 ) after you confirm your subscription to our newsletter. Our reason for doing an eBook tackling the topic of saving money at Walt Disney World is because this is one of our big interests. Actually, I don't know if "interest" is really the right word, but it's probably readily apparent that we are pretty frugal.
One of our early aims with the blog was to lay bare the intricacies of planning a trip, and provide honest and useful advice so people wouldn't waste their time or money. Basically, to treat our readers as we would family and friends, with frank advice rather than typical Disney fan cheerleading.
That was the genesis for this eBook idea, and to organize our many thoughts and tips for saving money into one convenient package. Well, after working sporadically on the project over the course of the last month and a half whenever I could steal a few hours, it's finally finished.
Regular readers know there are a few things about which I'm passionate when it comes to Disney. One of those is Christmas, and with that eBook out of the way, it made sense to tackle Country Bear Jamboree next. However, my initial draft was simply 367 pages of rambling ALL-CAPS text laden with profanities about how awesome CBJ is, and how anyone who doesn't love it is distinctly unpatriotic at best and treasonous at worst, so I decided to scrap that idea. Sorry.
As with the Christmas eBook, I spent way too long designing this cover. It was inspired by the reverse side of an old "Disney Dollar" and I spent over 7 hours working on it (which was actually less time than I spent on the Christmas cover!).
I'm sure someone who actually knew what they were doing with graphic design could've accomplished the same result in like 30 minutes, but whatever. I'm pretty pleased with it, although there are still a couple of tweaks I might make if I find the time.
I'm also fairly pleased with the substance of the tips in the eBook–you can see a couple of sample pages for yourself above. With 50+ pages of text and 70+ photos, it's an easy and enjoyable read.
There are a lot of good tips for saving money in there, and pretty much everyone except Walt Disney World frugality ninjas will find some new and useful information in it. With that said, the eBook does not attempt to be a comprehensive all-in-one planning guide for Walt Disney World.
Instead, it's focused squarely on money-saving tips. Quite often, these overlap with general trip planning, but I tried to keep things focused and concise. That's a serious change of pace from my rambling, conversational style, and I'm not sure that it always "works." To that end, the eBook is very much a work in progress, and I'll probably spend the next week going over reader feedback and making additions and revisions. I'll let you all know when v2 of the eBook is ready.
What do you think of the eBook? If you've read through it cover-to-cover, do you have any feedback to offer in terms of additional advice or edits? Any additional questions the eBook doesn't answer? Please share your feedback or other comments below!


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Adventure awaits; take up your lightsaber and become a Jedi.
Get the story behind the game with the STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order Deluxe Edition, which includes:
• The Crimson BD-1 skin
• The Crimson Mantis skin
• Digital Art Book
• "Director's Cut" behind-the-scenes videos, featuring over 90 minutes of footage from the making of the game
* The above information is subject to change without prior notice.
* This game/content may not be available in some countries and regions and in some languages.


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Weddings are pretty boring occasions for kids. I remember when I was little, the weddings we went to felt like they started as soon as I woke up and carried on for a couple of days (this is probably not far from reality when you take into account the amount of time a child has to keep themselves clean and their hair tidy once the Mums have preened them within an inch of their lives and the fact that by the time it's time to leave it's WAY past their normal bedtime).
So in order to try and make it slightly less painless for them, I'm making each of the children attending the full day a little goody bag to keep them entertained. All the children attending our wedding are under 5 years old, so its quite easy to find lots of little bits they'd be interested it.
Each bag has come to just over £8, which isn't bad when you consider what's in it…. (and the cost of providing wedding day child care is WAY more than that!)
Boy's Bags:
Cars/Bugs/Superhero puzzle
Cars/Winnie the Pooh colouring and activity book
Colouring pencils
Story book
Animal mask
Set of toy cars and trucks
Beanie Baby cuddly toy
Mini box of raisins
Mini bag of party rings
Girl's Bags:
Disney Princesses/Fairies puzzle
Disney Princesses colouring and activity book
Colouring pencils
Story book
Animal mask
Barbie-type doll in a wedding dress
Beanie Baby cuddly toy
Mini box of raisins
Mini bag of party rings
One tip though, don't buy anything with batteries!!! Or you'll have noises going off from the minute you give them the bag!!!
Most of the items in the bags came from the 99p shop. The books came from the works, the bags themselves and the Beanie Babies came from eBay (if only the seller knew her mint condition Beanies will soon be in the hands of small children….!!!!) and the food items will come from the supermarket.


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Located on Lincoln Avenue between Albert and William Streets.
Memorial Park is open from sunrise to sunset year-round except during extreme weather conditions such as heavy snow fall, ice, or dangerous wind conditions. Bathroom facilities are available throughout the year except during the winter months.
The basketball and tennis courts are now open at Memorial Park for Village residents. No fee to play. Court time for tennis and basketball is on a "first-come, first-served" basis.
Community volleyball games will be organized and scheduled in the evening one night every week during the summer. No teams are needed or required.
Keep a watch for registration dates and more information on instructional clinics scheduled throughout the Summer and the Fall for the following sports:
- Basketball
- Tennis
- Lacrosse
- Flag Football


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In any gardening guide, you'll often see the terms like "good drainage" or "well-drained soil" or "plants in poor soil drainage". A good soil drainage is a vital requirement for almost any plant to flourish well. But what do the terms "well drained" and "good drainage" actually mean? Are there plants that do well with poor soil drainage?
A well-drained soil is the type of soil where excess water caused by unchecked watering or heavy rain dissolves quickly. Contrarily, if you see a large splash of water on the ground after a hard rain shower, your soil is not draining efficiently. This may cause plant roots to sit deep in water for long periods and prevent them from carrying on adequate respiration to their stalks and leaves. This could slow their growth or even kill them by rotting.
When growing plants in pots, the prime cause of poor drainage are the use of containers having no drainage hole. At least, one hole should be in the pot's base to allow unnecessary water to drain away.
Perennial flowers – beautiful plants that thrive in poor drainage
Perennial flowering plants are well-suited for poor drainage soil which retains water for long term. They do much better than delicate annuals that need constant draining. Some of these moisture-loving flowering plants thrive in still water while others can tolerate soggy, poorly drained sections of your garden. Moreover, once they get established in your garden, they can produce stunningly vibrant displays in a multitude of your favorite hues!
Daylily is a versatile plant that tolerates both scathing drought and light floods. They come in beautiful shades of orange, pink, purple, red, white and yellow. Growing anywhere between 1 to 8 feet, daylilies are perfect for rain gardens, low-lying areas, and other wet places. These plants can survive submerged for weeks before they need to be dried out eventually.
Newly planted daylilies appreciate regular watering, especially when they're blooming. Daylily roots efficiently absorb and store water, making them ideal and functional to be put to work for managing landscape run-offs in your gardens. Daylilies prefer exposure to full sunlight but can tolerate part-sun conditions in shaded areas.
Illicium beautifies any ugly wet area with their glossy evergreen foliage and vibrant red blooms. These bright colored flowers are equipped with leathery leaves and can grow in marshy areas and stream banks. This low-maintenance flower shrub is perfect for naturalizing steep slopes along drainage ways and they thrive without much help. They typically grow to around 4-6 feet in height with a dense and pyramidal form.
While there are multiple varieties of this tropical beauty, the vibrant red hibiscus will instantly add a spicy aesthetic to your garden! 'Panama Red' aka hibiscus is a low-maintenance plant that requires moist soils. However, be careful not to let them sit in water for a prolonged period between the rainy months. Try planting them on small mounds of slightly raised elevations to ensure healthy roots.
Calla Lily
Beautiful blooms of calla lily can thrive in a swampy environment. They can continue growing in up to 1 foot of water. Ideal planting sites for calla lily include spots beside a pond or stream and spaces where puddles of water accumulate. They grow from 2 to 3 feet tall and up to 2 feet wide. Varieties come in a wide array of flowers that bloom in many hues of vibrant yellow, deep red, white and pastel shades.
Tangerine Beauty
Tangerine beauty is the perfect garden vine for covering areas made by large fences. Its trumpet-shaped flowers fully bloom in the spring in attractive colors of red and orange. They are easy to grow and the rewarding showy blooms of their flower trumpets are a favorite for both bumblebees and hummingbirds.
Self-clinging to bricks and wood fences, the plant leaves are semi-evergreen and can adorn any unsightly structure with beautiful green foliage. You can plant tangerine beauty anytime and anywhere if the ground is not frozen. They grow the fastest in moist soil, but can also adjust with drought and flooding.
Iris Flowers
Irises begin showing their colors in late winter to early spring. They bloom in shades of deep purple, blue, white, and yellow, while some hybridized versions that produce blooms are multi-colored. The hybrid varieties are perfect for extending a colorful flower bed at the center of your garden.
The iris plant can grow in height that ranges from 3 inches for the shortest dwarf variety to 4 feet for the tallest iris variety.
Joe Pye Weed
Joe Pye Weed can add a splash of soft purple and lavender to your garden from summer to early fall with its towering blooms. This flowering plant boasts of low-maintenance and adapts easily to slow-drain and boggy soils like heavy clay with ease. They're great for lining your fence and as back-of-the-border plants for your rain garden.
You can place them in spots with full sun to part shade exposure. Their flowers attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects and can grow 5 to 8 feet tall and up 2 to 4 feet wide, so make sure to allow considerable growing space for them.
Poor drainage is a common problem that involves many factors like compaction, subsoils and steep slopes etc. Despite your best efforts to improve soil drainage, problem areas may still persist in the ground of your garden. Fortunately, nature has supplied us with some wide plethora of plants that don't mind some wet puddles! So, you can still have colorful and thriving gardens even with poor soil drainage by making a careful selection of your plants.


text: Brian Lam / 7:33 am Wed, Jan 23, 2013 The more-certain future of Aquarius, the last undersea science lab A recent grant is enough to keep Aquarius, the world's only remaining underwater research habitat, actively maintained by its salty crew. But it won't cover scientific mission funding. Aquarius lives, but it's also like it's taking a long nap. SHARE / TWEET / COMMENTS aquarius / Science


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December is a big month for movies looking for Oscar glory. To increase their chances, a number of films are released in a limited amount of theaters and then slowly expanded out throughout the month. Since the release date will vary nationally, this entire first edition of the "Flicks Flashforward" will be just about those movies.
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella & Phillip Baker Hall
Directed by Andrew Jarecki for distribution by Magnolia Pictures
The Plot: Based on one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries of New York City, the movie recounts the story of a real estate mogul (Gosling), who was suspected but never charged with the murder of his wife (Dunst).
The Final Word: Gosling and Dunst still remain on the fringes of the A-list, namely because of their continued turns in these art-house independent films. Both have proven they can handle mainstream roles, but this is the genre where they thrive.
Starring: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis,
Barbara Hershey & Winona Ryder
Directed by Darren Aronofsky for distribution by Fox Searchlight
The Plot: Two ballerinas (Portman & Kunis) vie for the lead spot in the New York City ballet's production of "Swan Lake," only to find themselves spiraling out of control as a result.
The Final Word: Darren Aronofsky is known for dark edgy style and this drama will no doubt have plenty of both. It will also have a lot of awards buzz, at least for the film's leads Portman and Kunis. While Aronofsky is one of the most talented young directors on the scene, he's always been shut out of the Academy Awards.
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel
John Doman & Maryann Plunkett.
Directed by Derek Cianfrance for distribution by The Weinstein Company
The Plot: After seeing their marriage begin to fall apart (Gosling & Williams), a young couple use one night to relieve the romance in hope of saving their relationship.
The Final Word: Told as a combination of flashbacks and present time, the movie is being billed as an honest look at one relationship. Although the movie is being looked at more closely because of its surprising NC-17 rating, which is especially puzzling given the lack of violence or nudity that is usually associated with that box-office killing label. Knowing the Weinstein Company, they will find a way to get the rating lowered and in the end that attention could actually draw in viewers.
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper, Kelly Preston & Jon Lovitz.
Directed by George Hickenlooper for distribution by ATO Pictures.
The Plot: The rise and fall of one-time Washington D.C. lobbyist Jack Abarmoff (Spacey) is spotlighted in this new drama.
The Final Word: The Abramoff scandal was one that was literally begging to be told on the big screen and two time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey will definitely do the film justice. Unfortunately the film's release will be marked by a somber note as the film's director George Hickenlooper just recently and unexpectedly passed away.
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund & Leighton Meester.
Directed by Shana Feste for distribution by Screen Gems (Sony)
The Plot: A rising singer/songwriter (Hedlund) teams up with a fallen country star (Paltrow) fresh out of rehab, for a cross country tour, but begin to have problems when old demons start to surface courtesy of her husband/manager (McGraw) and the beauty queen turned singer that serves as their opening act (Meester).
The Final Word: Aside from the "Iron Man" movies, Gwyneth Paltrow has shied away from the limelight in recent years to raise her family. Now the Academy Award winning actress returns to the big screen in a movie that will remind audiences that not only can she act, but she can sing!
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo & Jack McGee
Directed by David O. Russell for distribution by Paramount Pictures
The Plot: The true story of "Irish" Mickey Ward, a boxer from Lowell, Massachusetts who rose to fame after a rocky early career.
The Final Word: Traditionally boxing movies do extremely well during the awards season and Wahlberg has become an early odds on favorite to win big. Bale and Adams who play Wahlberg's volatile brother and love interest (respectively) are also picking up early buzz which could land Paramount's tentpole a TKO on Oscar night.
Starring: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Man & Rodrigo Santoro
Directed by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa for distribution by Roadside Attractions
The Plot: A married man (Carrey) emerges from a severe car accident with a realization that he's going to live life to the fullest, which prompts him to come out to wife, become a con-man and eventually pursue a relationship with a man (McGregor) after he's jailed.
The Final Word: Hollywood has tried to kill this movie a number of different ways and every time it keeps pushing its way back to the forefront. Now with a December release date and an awards campaign being mounted behind it, this comedy could finally see the light of day. Although the next question is will people come to see it?
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest & Sandra Oh
Directed by John Cameron Mitchell for distribution by Lionsgate
The Plot: A couple (Kidman, Eckhart) tries to reclaim a sense of normalcy after the unexpected and tragic loss of their only child.
The Final Word: Kidman and Weist have already heard their names called on Oscar night and honestly it won't be long before Eckhart and Oh experience the same thrill. This is a talented group of actors and Lionsgate does a great job in promoting its award contenders. While the dark subject will only enhance the move in the eyes of the voters, it could also cause the public to shy away.
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter,
Guy Pearce & Michael Gambon.
Directed by Tom Hooper for distribution by The Weinstein Company
The Plot: The true story of how King George VI (Firth) found his voice courtesy of a Lionel Logue (Rush), a maverick speech therapist called in to help him overcome a stutter.
The Final Word: If early critics lists are to be believed, this year's "Best Picture" race is over and "The King's Speech" is the winner. Breaking it down further, the movie does have everything voters love and with the Weinstein's guiding the PR ship, it should be a smooth ride across the award season waters.
Starring: Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming
Reeve Carney, Tom Conti & David Stratharin
Directed by Julie Taymor for distribution by Touchstone (Disney)
The Plot: When a sorceress (Mirren) is unfairly exiled to a remote island along with her young daughter, she uses her powers to protect her new home, but soon develops another enemy.
The Final Word: The famed Shakespearean tale gets the big screen treatment with "Across The Universe's" Julie Taymor at the helm. Many also remember Taymor from Broadway's "The Lion King," and those who do know exactly what she's capable of, which bodes well for this adaptation. Although purists may balk at Taymor for changing the role of the sorcerer Prospero to a female sorceress named Prospera , they have to agree the Bard's work has always been subject to different interpretations and this will definitely be a different interpretation.


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Welcome to Forest Entrepreneurs – your friendly local networking group supporting businesses based in and around the area.
At Forest Entrepreneurs we want to add real value to our businesses and create a successful networking group. The group has been established for over eleven years now, and still includes some of the founding members.
Members help each other, build their businesses for the long term. It's about more than just passing business between one another, we take the trouble to really get to know each other, that's how we build mutual trust and the confidence to recommend each other to our wider contacts.
Early evening meetings and no joining fee
Forest Entrepreneurs meets for a fortnightly supper at the Stanwell House Hotel in Lymington. The agenda includes formal yet friendly sections and plenty of time for general networking chat.
One member per business category
There is only one member per business category – which keeps the group tight knit and helps to forge strong links. To keep ideas and discussion fresh and flowing and to introduce new contacts and connections, we encourage members to bring guests, on a regular basis and especially to our very popular "Open Evenings".
Networking format
Our meeting start in and around the bar area to greet each other and introduce our guests. We then move to the dining room and each person stands to present their "one minute". That's one minute to summarise what our businesses are about, and the kind of referrals and introductions we'd most appreciate. After the meal one member will book the opportunity to make a 10 minute presentation to explain more about their business.
The final "formal" element of the evening is when, each member offers appreciation, testimonials and referrals to other members. This is done in a friendly low key way, to encourage genuine referrals. Then it's coffee and back to general networking chat until people begin to leave.
If you like the sound of the way we operate, do get in touch and come along as a guest to our next meeting at the Stanwell House Hotel.