text:
"The index of punditry in a society is inversely proportional to its intellectual solvency"
Ruiz Zafon, Carlos. The Labyrinth of the Spirits (Cemetery of Forgotten Books) (p. 426). Harper.
These are gloomy days. Moody skies cover the Enchanted Forest as the winter storms pass over the Great Valley. Threatening they may look, but they leave behind only a ceaseless cold drizzle and little silver droplets on the branches of the trees — the only bright spot in the muted and silent landscape. I assume the storms reserve their wrath for the mountains depositing layers of new snow to the delight of skiers and those who fret about reservoir levels.
My mood is bleak also. There are three daggers aimed at me now. My cancer of course, but also an enhanced threat of infection and a shut down of my ability to pee threatening irreparable damage to my kidneys.
Naida had a bad cold. We walk around the house with masks on, wash our hands constantly and I try to avoid touching places she has touched as though…well, as though a dread disease lurks there — which of course it does. As Rosanna Rosannadanna says, "It's always something." And, at my age, that is probably truer than ever.
My daughter Jessica is in San Francisco, thanks in part to the government shutdown and to attend a funeral she is hesitant to talk about. I am very excited to see her. It has been a long time, perhaps two years, maybe more.
(Note: As I type this, I am also watching a movie about Giant carnivorous rabbits attacking a town in the western US. This has got to be the nadir of my existence.)
During the past few days, a lot of the usual annoyances of life sped by — towing my car and the rush to get it out of the pound, confusing discussions with pharmacists and medical professionals, and so on. Naida remains sick, Trump remains not my president, life continues as it usually does until it doesn't, and I find myself unusually bored. But, tomorrow is another day (Scarlett O'Hara).
On Sunday, my daughter Jessica arrived. She drove up from San Francisco to see me. Seeing her after almost three years made me very happy. It has been too long. She looks well. She's recovering from a series of concussions she experienced playing soccer over the years. The concussion injury to her brain caused several perception and other problems. We talked about our various maladies and other things. He Who is Not My President's governmental shutdown has had one good result, my daughter, furloughed by the shutdown, was able to return to California and visit with me.
It is now Tuesday night. What I wanted to write here since that time has passed on from when I thought it important or at least depressed enough to think so. It appears another of my medicines had caused an allergic reaction that resulted in me wanting to simply give up. It has passed.
I don't often give up. Not giving up has always been important to me. In the almost incessant fights I found myself in during my youth, I would not give up no matter how badly I was beaten. And, I was beaten most of the time.
During my years as a trial lawyer, I asked only to be assigned cases no one in the office would touch because they believed those cases were losers. I still managed to amass the third longest string of consecutive victories at the beginning of a career in the history of New York (while also losing my marriage because of my obsession).
I refused to be daunted by opposition from the medical profession and my own colleagues in setting up NY's Mental Health Information Service that reformed NY's mental health hospital system from the horror it inflicted on my mom and innumerable others. It became the model for the nation. That agency still exists today.
There was no option for me other than the approval of California's Coastal Program as it was expected to be, and the successful establishment and financing of the innovative California Coastal Conservancy no matter the cost to me (another marriage) and to those that worked for me. That occupied 13 years of my life.
The same can be said for the law firm on whose management committee I served and obsessively fought against often unanimous opposition to alter the economic and social mores of the firm for the benefit of the workers, women attorney's and the firm as a whole by, among other things, demonstrating that the health and profitability of the firm did not depend solely upon the efforts of those with the largest books of business who inevitably end up plundering the firm for their own benefit. The health of a firm depended as much upon the lowliest of paralegals and junior partners and that balanced practice groups are necessary in order to weather the effects of the various business cycles and that those groups adversely affected by a business cycle should not be punished by those groups benefiting from the cycle (e.g., bankruptcy and real estate often operate on opposing cycles).
As a member and later Chairman of California's High Speed Rail Commission during a period when it appeared to be foundering, I put it back on track so to speak, by pushing through its EIR, changing its tendency for locating its stations at the edges of the cities to bringing them downtown where they would revitalize the communities, developing the concept of the HS network as a backbone transportation system for California whereby multiple regional transportation systems could connect to the downtown stations and service the entire region; and finally fighting against the rapacious efforts of the four of five large engineering firms who sought to control the process for their own benefit and who, I believe, can be blamed for much of the criticism HSR has been subject to since I was removed by Governor Schwarzenegger over the issue.
On the other hand, when I lost (most often a marriage), I usually ran away and started again and again somewhere else. From New York to Pennsylvania, to Rome Italy, to back to the US, to San Francisco, to Thailand, to The Golden Hills and now to the Enchanted Forest. In each place, often penniless, I licked my wounds, struggled with despair, indulged in excess and dreamed of renewal, a new life somehow somewhere, and ultimately I moved on. There was, however, even during these times always something I could not give up on, first Jason, then Jessica and now HRM. I may not always have been successful in their view, but I tried and they kept me more alive and happy than I am sure they believe I have benefitted them. But no more now, they are grown (perhaps not HRM) and despair now is reserved for those times when the pains and discomfort of my various maladies become too much and instead of not giving up, I sometimes long for the peace of oblivion.
Talk about depressing things, the HAC just towed our automobile again. I left them a nasty message and threatened to sue them.
For those interested in the odd adventures of the Mysterious Orb, it has moved slightly from when it emerged from the bush behind which it had been hiding to show Nikki the way to our house. It has now rolled on a short way and appears to be intending to hide behind another bush to await for whatever the orb waits for next.
The Mysterious Orb —Photograph Taken From Our Garage.
It moved from its hiding place behind the smaller bush on the right where it had hidden for a few weeks to the center of the space where Nikki saw it. The Orb has since then moved on toward the bush on the left. Whether it will choose to hide behind that bush or proceed on up the alleyway, I can only guess. I await the next episode in the adventures of the Odd and Mysterious Orb.
Today about four days after the above was written, the Orb made its decision and is now well hidden behind the bush on the left.
A few days later, during an early morning walk, I passed by the alley where the Odd Orb was hiding. I noticed one of the Turkey Gangs pecking around that part of the alley near where the Orb was hiding. It got me thinking. Do you suppose it is the Turkey Gangs that are moving the Orb around? The birds are big enough to do so. If so, why? Another mystery.
First, we bailed the car out of impoundment. I grumbled and plotted revenge on those I believed targeted me specifically. On the drive home in response to my complaints, Naida said, "I guess we know now that there is a wicked witch in the Enchanted Forest."
Then we spent some time on our computers doing last minute things. Finally, we and the dog set off to the Big Endive on the Bay. We arrived at Peter's house in late afternoon. My daughter arrived soon after. We had a pleasant evening reminiscing. Jessica planned to leave on Friday to go back to Washington DC. I will be sad to see her go I do not know when I will see her again.
The next day I met with my doctor and received the first glimmer of good news in at least the past three months. He said that cancer had shrunk enough to bring the possibility of an operation to remove it before the board of surgeons. They then efficiently scheduled all tests and my infusion to occur the remainder of the day.
That night we had dinner at a local Italian Restaurant that I used to enjoy when I lived in that neighborhood years ago. It used to cost about $10 for the same meal I enjoyed that night. Now, that same meal cost me $70. Nothing had changed but the wealth of those that now live in the neighborhood.
Later, Hiromi and my granddaughter Amanda arrived at Peter's house for a visit.
We returned to the Enchanted Forest on Friday. On Saturday I drove into the Golden Hills to drive the Scooter Gang around. While we were driving HRM turned to me with a big smile on his face and said, "Pookie, I have a girlfriend." How does one respond to that? I settled on, "Good for you" and high-fived him. Now I worry.
Among the books I have read so far this month was James Lee Burke's most recent Robicheaux and Purcell saga. The boys are getting old — and they know it. They still, however, act like adolescents while Burke places in their minds the sorrows and sadness of aging heroes approaching their end. Although, the novel takes place by Bayou Teche in Louisiana and Monument Valley Arizona, the epilogue has Dave, Clete and Dave's adopted daughter Alifair recovering from their efforts and injuries in a motel in Bodega Bay California and traveling up and down Highway One for entertainment.
Alas, I just got word that Lucia's bar in Sacile, a place I always considered the happiest place on earth, is no more. It has succumbed to the downsizing of the nearby American military base and the Italian economy's multi-year depression. Lucia is now working as a barista in one of the other cafes in the town. This is all so sad.
I am losing my hair as a result of the chemo. Great gobs of hair flitter down from my head often falling into my food as I eat, making it even more unappetizing than usual. It all amuses me. If it continues I will become the first person in my direct ancestry to go bald in at least five generations. My head looks like it is covered with down.
Let's face it, the United States and the West, in general, lost the Fourth World War or what can be called the First Cyber War.
The Third World War between the Russian-Soviet Empire and the American Empire ended in 1989 with a victory by the American Empire and the destruction of the Soviet Empire. The war was conducted through proxy wars (Korea and Viet Nam for America and Afghanistan for the Soviet Union) and competition between the empires to amass more and more expensive and technically advanced armaments that would be rarely ever used except for a small percentage in the proxy wars. In effect, the war was an economic competition to see who could produce the most weapons of war without suffering an economic collapse.
Instead of attempting to engage the American Empire in another war of military hardware show and tell, Vladimir Putin the Russian President and chief Oligarch decided to do what he knows best to undermine the American power and resorted to cyber warfare in an effort to split the western hegemony apart.
After forays into destabilizing the European democracies by overt and subversive support for the nationalistic opposition to the more internationalist leaning parties currently leading them, he then found his metier by affecting the successful Brexit vote to split England from the European Union.
He found gold however in launching a cyber attack of the US 2016 Presidential election campaign in support of either a willing idiot or a suborned asset. His candidate won and proceeded to alter 100 years of American policy in favor of the international goals of the Russian Oligarchs.
Since then, America's role on the international stage has shrunk considerably as we have abandoned our traditional allies and Fascist regimes steadily gobble up the world's democracies.
June 2011, My First Visit to Sacile and Tamai in the Veneto Region of Italy.
About four hours later we arrived at Nikki's condominium in Busto a small working-class town located just outside of Milan adjacent to Malpensa Airport. We unpacked, cooked dinner and went to sleep. The following morning I was awakened by a lot of shouting and banging of things being moved about. I left my room to find SWAC in the midst of packing and shouting. It seems that her period commenced (Her statement not mine) the previous night and that according to her, it was an absolute necessity we immediately depart the messy and cramped condominium for the supposedly spacious and elegant farm of her friends located almost completely across the top of the country from Milan, somewhere near Venice.
She insisted that I accompany them, stay the night and return to Milan the next morning, leaving Hayden and her to spend two or three weeks there. I demurred, explaining that I had had enough traveling for a while. Following somewhat emotional discussions and a series of telephone calls to the so-called friends, it was agreed that I would accompany them to the Veneto and remain with Hayden lodged at the farm while she returned to Milan with Nikki and departed for Thailand to return in about two weeks.
So, four or so hours later we drove into Sacile (pronounced Sah Chili) a town about 40 kilometers north of Venice. It is also known as "Il Giardino del Serenissima," or something like that. It translates as "The Garden of the Most Serene Republic of Venice."
Before reaching the center of town we stopped on a side street at a coffee shop/bar operated by a friend of SWAC and Nikki, a tall slender middle-aged woman named Lucia. Outside the bar were a few tables, one of which was occupied by several locals playing the traditional Italian card games of Scopa and Bresaola. They and the other patrons were generally drinking Prosecco, not the sweet bubbly crap one gets in the US but the refreshing local, hot weather afternoon, kick back and enjoy life drink. It was very good. We had two glasses and spent about an hour in pleasant conversation with Lucia, her strange boyfriend and some of the customers.
We then walked to the main plaza of the town that has a river running through it. Apparently, during the heyday of La Serenissima, barges from Venice would travel up the river to the small falls that made further travel difficult. The barges, carrying, I guess, things like Murano glass souvenirs, porcelain Carnivale mask and things like that would be offloaded and replaced by agricultural goods from the area and other things like cuckoo clocks carried over the alpine passes from Switzerland and Austria. The town sprung up to service this barge traffic, I assume to provide food, drink, and entertainment to the lonely bargemen as they awaited their consignments.
The town is a picture postcard of what someone would imagine a Venetian town should look like. At first blush, it appears that the ancient town has reemerged from history. A closer look reveals something a bit more like one would find at the Venetian in Las Vegas, a use of post-modern architectural design flowing seamlessly into the few remaining vintage structures.
Post-modernism despite the acres of intellectual drivel generally written by those hoping to make some money off of it, is merely a form of colorful mostly straight edged Moderne (with pitched rather than flat roofs) as it existed before Walter Gropius sex crazed with Anna Mahler tarted it up into Bauhaus (Or had Gropius become a sexual deviant before the advent of Moderne, I never could remember which). Essentially it consists of a series of rectangular planar facades painted or otherwise colored in earthy reds, yellows and beiges adorned with simple architectural elements, like plain arches ( now and then festooned with architectural artifacts). It was concocted by Venturi and Graves hungry for commissions out of their impression of the reconstruction of traditional domestic and small commercial structures in post-war Italy as the local people filled in the bombed-out spaces between the surviving historical structures with simplified copies of traditional design and painted them with a brighter version of the standard stucco. It spread back to Europe and It works here in Italy since that was always the local vernacular architecture anyway.
In NY, Johnson, tired of living in glass houses and unable to diddle Anna himself, nevertheless attempted to capitalize on the post-modern craze by creating the worlds largest and perhaps ugliest misrepresentation of a piece of obsolete junk furniture as a New York skyscraper. San Francisco, ever ready to slavishly follow East Coast fashions adopted postmodernism as the design element of its planning code thereby converting something generally simple into the gross monstrosity of pink-tinged architecture that graces the City today.
Ah well, I liked Sacile a lot, even if it seemed a little bit like an urban version of Danville.
As we walked about, I noticed that this was a town populated by people with prominent noses, from fleshy cyranoesque proboscis to hawk-like aquiline appendages cleaving the air as they walked along like axe heads cleaving a log. These notable features adorned generally slender well dressed men and equally fashionable and sensuous women. Unlike the drab dark colors, I found ubiquitous in the US, here both the men and women were more colorfully attired. Although there was the usual excess of pre-stressed jeans and off the shoulder tank tops, there was nary a velour exercise outfit to be seen,
After wandering around the city for about an hour our hosts arrived and we followed their automobile to their farm on the outskirts of a village with the pleasantly sounding name of Tamai.
A View of Sacile
Raven (Dotson 'sa or Dotson'sa in the Koyukon/ Denaakk'e language): Raven is the creator god of the Koyukon and other Alaskan Athabaskan tribes. He is a revered and benevolent transformer figure who helps the people and shapes their world for them, but at the same time, he is also a trickster character and many Koyukon stories about Raven have to do with his frivolous or poorly thought out behavior getting him into trouble. http://www.native-languages.org/…
A. Melinda Cooper on Top:
That conservative parties' policies redistribute wealth and power upward while distracting their mass base by focusing them on internal or external enemies has long been the point of Toryism—since before the Gordon Riots, in fact. And now Tucker Carlson is surprised that there is gambling going on, and is just asking questions? Does he want us to take him seriously?: Eric Levitz: Why Tucker Carlson Plays a Critic of Capitalism On TV: "Melinda Cooper… explains:
Writing at the end of the 1970s, the Chicago school neoliberal Gary Becker remarked that the "family in the Western world has been radically altered—some claim almost destroyed—by events of the last three decades." … Becker believed that such dramatic changes in the structure of the family had more to do with the expansion of the welfare state in the post-war era than with feminism per se… a consequence rather than an instigator of these dynamics…. Becker's abiding concern with the destructive effects of public spending on the family represents a key element of his microeconomics… that is consistently overlooked…
…Thus the bedrock logic of the alliance between social conservatives and reactionary capitalists was this: One valued "small government" because it (supposedly) enabled the patriarchal family (and/or racial hierarchy), while the other valued the family because it enabled "small government." Social conservatives have paid a price for hopping into bed with the worshippers of mammon. But social conservatives were always the junior partners in the GOP coalition. And when the dual objectives of rolling back the New Deal bargain—and reviving cultural traditionalism—came into conflict, the former took priority. As a result, the logic of social conservatives' alliance with capital has fallen apart… Thanks to a combination of global supply chains, corporate consolidation, and network effects, capital has been fleeing rural counties and concentrating in big cities—taking many conservatives' kids along with it… Capital has paired its literal abandonment of culturally conservative areas (and concomitant undermining of family formation in such places) with more superficial slights. As upper-middle-class millennials have become an immensely valuable consumer block, corporate brands have begun advertising their "wokeness." Television commercials now regularly sing the praises of social liberalism, feminism, and ethnic diversity…
#noted #orangehairedbaboons
B. Trenz Pruca's Observations:
He Who is Not My President places us squarely in that age-old bind. Is our leader an ideologue or an idiot?
C. Today's Poem:
Warm Summer Sun
Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night
Twain and Jonathan Swift were born on the same day. The following bit of doggerel was written to commemorate that fact.
Born today were Mark Twain and Jon Swift.
For skewering sarcasm, each had a gift.
Which of them was more profane?
You make the call. Was it Swift or Mark Twain?
D. Giants of History: Another Snag from Brad DeLong.
Brad DeLong (https://www.bradford-delong.com/2019/01/eg-ben-alpers-_a-far-right-anti-semitic-conspiracy-theory-becomes-a-mainstream-irritable-gesturehttpss-usihorg2.html#comment-6a00e551f080038834022ad3866887200c) directly takes on the attempts to rehabilitate the anti-Semitic canard of "Cultural Marxism" by some contemporary. conservative pundits
Where did David Brooks learn to use the term "cultural Marxism"? From Alexander Zubatov and his attempt to rehabilitate it from its anti-Semitic not just connotation but denotation. How does Zubatov do this? By taking Russell Blackford out of context: Zubatov claims that Blackford's bottom line is "in other words, [cultural Marxism] has perfectly respectable uses outside the dark, dank silos of the far right". Blackford's actual bottom line is that the modern
The conception of cultural Marxism is too blunt an intellectual instrument to be useful for analyzing current trends. At its worst, it mixes wild conspiracy theorizing with self-righteous moralism… Right-wing culture warriors will go on employing the expression 'cultural Marxism'… attaching it to dubious, sometimes paranoid, theories of cultural history… Outside of historical scholarship, and discussions of the history and current state of Western Marxism, we need to be careful…. Those of us who do not accept the narrative of a grand, semi-conspiratorial movement aimed at producing moral degeneracy should probably avoid using the term 'cultural Marxism'…
Why does Zubatov misuse Blackford? In the hope that he will pick up readers like Brooks, who will take his representations of what Blackford says to be accurate. Why does Brooks take Zubatov's representations of what Blackford says as accurate? Because Brooks is too lazy to do his homework: Ben Alpers: A Far-Right Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory Becomes a Mainstream Irritable Gesture: "At the heart of this largely rote piece of Brooksian pablum is a claim that deserves a closer look. 'The younger militants', writes Brooks, 'tend to have been influenced by the cultural Marxism that is now the lingua franca in the elite academy'. This is interesting both for what Brooks appears to be trying to say and, more immediately, how he has decided to say it… Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik… murdered sixty-nine people… William Lind… associated with both the Free Congress Foundation and Lyndon LaRouche… Lind's conception of Cultural Marxism was explicitly anti-Semitic…. Over the course of these years, the idea of Cultural Marxism spread across the American far right… [with] a big boost from Andrew Breitbart…. Why would a columnist like David Brooks, who is himself Jewish in background (if, perhaps, no longer in faith) and who has tried to build his brand identity by peddling in respectability and civility, adopt the term?…
…Brooks… defended his use… Alexander Zubatov entitled "Just Because Anti-Semites Talk About 'Cultural Marxism' Doesn't Mean It Isn't Real"… For Zubatov, it wasn't so much the Frankfurt School, but rather György Lukács, Louis Althusser, Herbert Marcuse, Edward Said, Judith Butler, Stuart Hall, and, above all, Antonio Gramsci who are at fault… Zubatov… maintains that Cultural Marxism is "a coherent program" and accuses it of many of the same things that Lind does:
It is a short step from the Marxist and cultural Marxist premise that ideas are, at their core, expressions of power to rampant, divisive identity politics and the routine judging of people and their cultural contributions based on their race, gender, sexuality and religion… Public shaming, forced resignations and all manner of institutional and corporate policy dictated by enraged Twitter mobs, the sexual McCarthyism of #MeToo's excesses, and the incessant, resounding, comically misdirected and increasingly hollow cries of "racist," "sexist," "misogynist," "homophobe," "Islamophobe," "transphobe" and more that have yet to be invented to demonize all those with whom the brittle hordes partaking in such calumnies happen to disagree.
Zubatov prominently cites the English philosopher Russell Blackford… But in the very piece Zubatov cites, Blackford concludes that the phrase is so marked by its connection to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that it is, in practice, largely unusable:
In everyday contexts, those of us who do not accept the narrative of a grand, semi-conspiratorial movement aimed at producing moral degeneracy should probably avoid using the term "cultural Marxism."… Like other controversial expressions with complex histories ("political correctness" is another that comes to mind), "cultural Marxism" is a term that needs careful unpacking.
Of course, Zubatov, much less Brooks, is not very interested in carefully unpacking anything. Zubatov and Brooks are attached to a pejorative which they'd prefer to be uncoupled from the anti-Semitism to which it has been usually attached…. "Cultural Marxism" is a toxic expression that entered our national discourse as an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. It ought to be avoided on that basis alone, especially given the more general mainstreaming of anti-Semitism…
"Krugman also points out how justifications for austerity were invented on the fly, and maintained in the face of contrary evidence. In the US, this perhaps presaged a more general collapse of respect for evidence and expertise on the political right. This collapse raises questions as to whether the role of ideas in politics is undergoing a fundamental shift in the US (and perhaps UK), in which the whole idea of expertise becomes an issue of partisan contention."
Henry Farrell and John Quiggin. Department of Political SciePaulnce and Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University and School of Economics, University of Queensland


text:
By BONNIE STACY
Barbara and Hue Bob Bailey spent Friday and Saturday with Jack and Jane Vickers in Huntsville, AL They were celebrating Hue Bob's birthday.
Shirley Atnip and Kathleen Bean and boys Austin and Jordan Bean attended the Atnip family reunion at the Cedars of Lebanon last weekend. Close to fifty people attended. This was a yearly event. They enjoyed lots of good food and just being together again.
Eric and Tina Hice and children Victoria, Jeremiah, Caleb, Kyle and Amelia from Little Valley, NY visited their aunt Bonnie Stacy on Tuesday. They treated me to lunch at the Cracker Barrell in Manchester, before going on to Fall Creek Falls to meet with friends. Tina is the granddaughter of the late Odell and Ann Stacy. Odell grew up in Cannon County, but spent most of his life in Tonawonda, NY.
He has achieved success who has worked hard, laughed often and loved much.
Act yourself into a new way of thinking. Think yourself into a new way of acting.
The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention.
Better to try something and fail than to try nothing and succeed.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
But [Herman] Hanko speaks for a minority, Dutch, hyper-Calvinistic school, a group hostile to the doctrine of common grace that God loves all men and desires that all be saved.
Historically the term hyper-Calvinism has been reserved for the doctrine that the unregenerate are to hear only legal conviction and terrors of judgment from the pulpit, not the free offer of the gospel.
A biblical study which demonstrates that the Father's heart is one of love for all people, especially for His own. A good corrective to the emphasis of newer hyper-Calvinism.
On the other hand, a growing number of Reformed conservatives today, moving beyond Calvin, are espousing the idea that God does not sincerely offer grace unconditionally to every hearer of the gospel. The result is that the gospel preaching is hampered and man's responsibility is often dismissed, if not denied. Happily, we are freed from such rationalistic, hyper-Calvinistic conclusions about the doctrines of grace when we read Puritan writings such as John Bunyan's (1628-1688) Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, John Howe's (1630-1705) The Redeemer's Tears Shed over Lost Souls, or William Greenhill's (1598-1671) sermon, "What Must and Can Persons Do toward Their Own Conversion."10Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 963.
10. John Bunyan, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (1681; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004); John Howe, The Redeemer's Tears Wept over Lost Souls (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978); William Greenhill, "What Must and Can Persons Do toward Their Own Conversion," in Puritan Sermons: 1659-1689: The Morning Exercises at Cripplegate (Wheaton, Ill.: Richard Owen Roberts, 1981), 1:38-50.


text:
Arduino Xmas tree Shield based on WS2812
Christmas comes, and nothing more typical than riding a Christmas tree to give a bit of atmosphere. They come in many types, but this is intended for the most geeks, based on state of de art RGB LEDs and thought to 'planting' directly on an Arduino.
The scheme can not be more simple: an Arduino, 20 addressable LEDs WS2812b, few 100nF and a piezoelectric buzzer.
The WS2812b are cascaded through a single wire, so that communication with Arduino is extremely simple, only one pin, the data are passed from one circuit to the next, and this enables each LED can be controlled independently. This creates strips or arrays of RGB LEDs easier than ever.
The WS2812b think without exaggeration that is a real gem. Internally includes three LEDs (R, G, B) and an integrated circuit WS2811, which is responsible for handling the data put a single pin, and send the next control each led with 256 levels of intensity.
Here you have a couple of photos I could do the above:
Warning! There is another version of the WS2812 equal to 6 pin WS2812b but in the power of the LEDs and the circuit are separate.Given the boom have had, it is easy to find on ebay in adhesive strips where only the input pin and the supply must be connected or loose as in this case.
For operation of the LEDs, I use a great library: Adafruit neopixel, can easily handle this type of LEDs.
The code
As I already mentioned, I use the Adafruit library to control the LEDs. Basically is the example 'strandtest' of the library, to which I added a first half in which the tune of 'Jingle Bells' is played using the tone function, and some more effect.
In case you do not want to constantly hear the melody, you need to make a bridge between pins 2 and 7 to ring.
In case you do not want to constantly hear the melody, you need to make a bridge between pins 2 and 7 to ring.
This is the PCB design I've done:
Although theoretically requires a bypass capacitor of 100 nF for each LED, I've put a few scattered around the circuit (if any LED gets lost in a given time and not think it will be very serious), so far I have not seen no failure.
The code
You can download the code, the PCB and the schematic here:
Project Photos HERE
Merry Christmas!
If you liked it, remember to share it on your favorite social network. Thanks
5 comments
@BarbudorAccording to the documentation, this makes sure there's steady current available to the LED control logic amidst the small surges and dips that can occur as the LED brightness changes.
In minor projects like this, do not need them all, but in a major project may not work properly if the capacitors are not, especially if the number of LEDs is high.
@phill chanapai
Because the shape was a bit 'special', I used Adobe Illustrator, not a program for PCB
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Be among the first to see the final four teams' design visions for Minneapolis' upper riverfront, an area extending from the Stone Arch Bridge to the northernmost city limits, along both sides of the Mississippi River. Building on the Park Board's award-winning 2000 master plan, this is the first demonstration project of the Minneapolis Parks Foundation's Next Generation of Parks—a design-driven vision for a 21st-century park system. The work of the finalists includes acclaimed riverfront and industrial reclamation park projects in Dubai, Shanghai, New York City, Milwaukee, Memphis, Toronto, and London.
This event will be webcast live and archived at channel.walkerart.org.


text: "Aurora Bisig is a big believer in retailer discount cards. At her last count, she had a dozen—from Sam's Club (WMT) to nearly every grocery store in Central Texas. So this March, when the Austin (Tex.) insurance agent pulled into a gas station for a fill-up and saw a sign promising an additional 10¢ off per gallon for signing up with a new e-payment program, she was interested.She was also pleased to learn that the "RollbackPrice" program wouldn't require her to add another piece of plastic to her overstuffed wallet. Instead, after entering her driver's license number and bank account information online with a two-year-old company called National Payment Card (NPC), she'd be able to pay for gas just by swiping her driver's license (linked directly, via the existing magnetic stripe, to her bank account), and entering a personal identification number."


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Have fun watching the UFC 211: Miocic vs Dos Santos 2 live stream is ready for watch the Fight kick off on Satur-day 13th May 2017. American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, USA, will be the venue for Miocic vs Dos Santos 2 game online tv-cast.We provide you live Stipe Miocic vs Junior Dos Santos 2 will be Pearl Gonzalez was expected to face of the name UFC,game coverage of the Fighting throughout the day including full time shows and pay-per-view ppv game preview.Links will be updated during the game.
UFC ESPN network is the official broadcasters of the event.You can watch Miocic vs Dos Santos 2017 live stream through the official website of CBS,FOX,NBC,Pac and Youtube channels. The live telecast of Miocic vs Dos Santos will be aired on ESPNU. Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Erin Andrews are the announcers for game PRES.Conference in NY
We will update teams after the play offs on April 8 Saturday night football. Stay tuned.Let's check out more details about more details about Miocic vs Dos Santos Live Stream, broadcast channels, time, date and venue below.
Miocic vs Dos Santos Time, Date and Venue:
Let's check out quick preview about Miocic vs Dos Santos below.
Time: 9.00 p.m.,Date: 13 May 2017
Venue: American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas
UFC: Miocic vs Dos Santos 2
Get ready to watch the biggest football event – Miocic vs Dos Santos live online through HD channels Quoted here.
The early weigh-ins,which preceded the day's ceremonial affair, took place at the UFC host hotel in Dallas.The UFC 211 ceremonial weigh-ins take place today at 7 p.m. ET at American Airlines Center in Dallas,the same venue that hosts Saturday's pay-per-view event.Featuring the heavyweight title fight rematch between reigning champion Stipe Miocic and former champion Junior dos Santos,UFC 211 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas is undoubtably one of the one most anticipated events in promotional history.
Miocic and Dos Santos previously did battle over in the main event of UFC on FOX 13 in December 2013. After a back-and-froth war, the judges gave the nod to Dos Santos, much to the chagrin of Miocic.
If you love offensive football, then Sunday night Miocic vs Dos Santos World Light Heavyweight Championship Game between the will be one you shouldn't miss. The total is a whopping 56 points on Sports Interaction bcs odds, the highest of any Fight game this 100 and second-highest overall since a 1910 e-regular-season matchup between the alabama crimson tide and clemson tiger (54). This will also be the last football game ever held at the Brooklin,Fla.
Different channels will broadcast the live Saturday night FIGHT coverage of Miocic vs Dos Santos LI 2017 in TV. As per the latest updates, ESPN will telecast full coverage of the game. We will update more channels in the coming events.
Teams are not yet known as the regular season of thirty third modern-era Ultimate Wrestling Championship (UFC) game is going on right now. You can find Miocic vs Dos Santos teams right after the Play offs in February 2017. Book mark this post for updates.The fans can watch Miocic vs Dos Santos live through this website.
The tickets for the Miocic vs Dos Santos 2017 are already started sale. The tickets are available on ticketmaster com website. There are also various Miocic vs Dos Santos 2017 packages available. You can get the complete ticket and package details here.


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Louis Freeh: Tempered Ambition
Fraud Magazine March 1, 2014
LOUIS FREEH has balanced raising six children with a tenacious ambition that led him to be an FBI special agent, an investigator with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, a district court judge, the director of the FBI and now the chair of Freeh Group International Solutions, LLC. All along the way, he's concentrated on some core values.
During Louis Freeh's eight years as the FBI's director, he received hundreds of awards, plaques and honors. None of them adorned his office walls at FBI headquarters. However, he eventually papered one entire wall next to his desk with drawings and sketches by his six sons.
"I chose that wall so I could look at them during phone calls or meetings when I needed to keep my focus on reality and what, at the end of any Washington, D.C., day, is really important," he writes in his 2005 book, "My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Fighting the War on Terror."
"I promised myself when I became director that I wouldn't be one of those D.C. types who would announce – usually when things were going south – that they were leaving government in order to spend more time with their family. I actually spent all the time I needed with them while director," Freeh wrote.
When Freeh was FBI director, he sent a message to the bureau's employees about the agency's Core Values:
- Rigorous obedience to the Constitution of the United States.
- Respect for the dignity of all those we protect.
- Compassion.
- Fairness.
- Uncompromising personal integrity and institutional integrity.
- Accountability by accepting responsibility for our actions and decisions and the consequences of our actions and decisions.
"We who enforce the law must not merely obey it," he exhorted his people. "We have an obligation to set a moral example, which those whom we protect can follow."
Freeh, by example, could have added a seventh core value: Keep all things in perspective. He has blended an impressive law enforcement career with raising a large family, which he's worked to keep as his first priority.
Armed with a law degree and later a Master's in Criminal Law, he was an FBI special agent in the New York City field office and at FBI headquarters. He then worked successively at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York as an assistant U.S. attorney, chief of the Organized Crime Unit, deputy U.S. attorney and associate U.S. attorney.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush appointed him a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Two years later, he answered a call from President Bill Clinton, and he became the fifth director of the FBI.
Freeh began his tenure as FBI director at a nexus of technological and international changes. He transferred the bureau from a national law- enforcement agency to a global security institution by doubling the number of branches worldwide. He's now chair of Freeh Group International Solutions, LLC, an investigation firm he founded in 2007 and sold to Pepper Hamilton LLP in 2012.
In 2013, Freeh was appointed to investigate allegations of potential misconduct over BP settlement management. In 2011, Penn State hired Freeh to conduct a probe into allegations against former football coach Jerry Sandusky. That year he was the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the return of more than $1 billion to creditors of MF Global Holdings. He's a busy man. But he still tries to get home for dinner.
Freeh will be a keynote speaker at the 25th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference, June 15-20 in San Antonio, Texas. Freeh spoke to Fraud Magazine from his office in Wilmington, Del.
FM: How has your upbringing and background shaped the ways
you've worked and made decisions throughout your career?
LF: My immigrant family, strong Catholic values, family military service and 25 years of FBI work have guided and motivated me to do the things I was privileged to do.
FM: You earned a law degree but then became an FBI special agent the
next year and later an assistant U.S. attorney. Had you first wanted to become
an attorney, or did you always intend on working as an investigator?
LF: I went to law school in order to try to become an FBI "street agent."
FM: Why did you want to work for the FBI as a special agent? Why did
accept the FBI director position?
LF: I sought the FBI agent position to work cases against dangerous people who threatened others. The director's position I accepted because the president called and asked.
FM: You were the director of the FBI during tumultuous times:
Towers, the Unabomber, the Centennial Olympic bombing, Ruby Ridge and Waco
investigations, Whitewater, Campcon, Montana Freeman and much more. All of
these matters were diverse, but did you have some common-denominator
principles and methods to approaching them?
LF: The same core principles: full and fair investigations and letting the facts determine how they end.
FM: It's impossible to do justice to such a complicated topic,
but could you give a few lessons gained for the FBI from 9/11?
LF: Governments and nations are usually better prepared to "fight the last war" better than the next. The FBI's pre-9/11 counterterrorism budget was de minimus – and was only adequately funded after these attacks.
FM: In 2007, you created an investigative group and a law firm. How
did that come about?
LF: When our bank, MBNA America was sold to Bank of America, my family did not want to move back to New York, so I took a consulting engagement by DuPont, which evolved into Freeh Group and Freeh Sporkin Sullivan – now Pepper Hamilton.
FM: Since you left the FBI you've tackled some serious
investigations such asalleged irregularities in the BP oil-spill claims
process and the Penn State – Sandusky sex abuse case. What do you look
for in a case before you and your firm accept it?
LF: We have to trust our client and have the total authority to act with integrity.
FM: You've said that you now crave the nitty-gritty of
casework. Has your investigative approach changed much from your FBI and
prosecution and days?
LF: It's not changed in terms of the core principles statement I had at the FBI and our commitment to fairness and integrity.
FM: Do you still conduct interviews yourself? If so, what are some
of your methods?
LF: Yes, in every major case we do. Get all the facts you can before the interview and conduct it with thoroughness and fairness – using a yellow legal pad, in my case.
FM: A 2013 FORTUNE article said that you embrace the "speedy,
on-the-ground approach of an FBI agent." What does that process mean for
LF: In most cases, there is a great advantage to interviewing subjects and witnesses ASAP and as simultaneous as possible. The theory of preparing weeks to do most interviews can be counterproductive in many ways.
FM: Through the years, how has your understanding of criminal minds
evolved – especially those of fraudsters?
LF: Limitless number of schemes using new technologies and countermeasures, but the frauds still leave a trail of witnesses and evidence that can be found. The fraudster's greatest liability is the certainty that the fraud is too clever to be detected.
FM: Without giving away too much, what are some things you want to
share with the attendees of the 25th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference?
LF: How to use investigative expertise and contemporary techniques to prevent and to detect fraud – with enterprise risk management being the core principle.
FM: Dr. Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA, who founded the ACFE more than 25
years ago, has focused on the prevention and deterrence of fraud rather than
just examining it after the fact. In your years with the FBI and now as an
investigator, how have you seen the importance of this principle?
LF: Fraud prevention is immeasurably more cost efficient than fraud investigation and prosecution. Moreover, contemporary governance, accounting and corporate fiduciary requirements prioritize prevention and risk management over post-facto discovery and remediation.
FM: Do you include Certified Fraud Examiners on your investigation
teams? Or are you familiar with the work and skill sets of CFEs from your
time with the FBI? (The FBI employs nearly 500 CFEs.)
LF: Yes – one of my Freeh Group colleagues, Walt Donaldson, a CFE and one of the best investigators I know, regularly works with me.
FM: What practical advice can you give our members to encourage them
as they fight in the trenches?
LF: Follow your leads, instincts and integrity to do your job fairly and fully –free from improper influences and bias. And let the "chips fall where they may."


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Company Details
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Type: Helicopter
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Age: >14 Years
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Place of Origin: Shantou,China
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Product Size: 19.5*19.5*16.5 cm
Color: Black
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Charging time: About 60 minutes
Battery Requirements: 6*AA batteries (not included)
Product battery: 3.7V 240mAh Li-po battery (Included)
Charger: USB Charger(Included)
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Packing: Window box
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Product Categories : Remote Control Drone > Climbing Drone


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Sofia Coppola is an acquired taste… which is a nice way of saying that when it comes to her work, I run more cold than hot. Lost in Translation (2003), her best film so far, is a masterpiece of ennui and alienation driven by Bill Murray's impeccably droll comedic timing and a one-of-a-kind plant-your-flag performance from Scarlett Johansson. I admire the craftsmanship of both The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Marie Antoinette (2006), both featuring a stellar Kirsten Dunst. However, Somewhere (2010) bored me out of my wits and I didn't care much for The Bling Ring (2013). So I approached her new film The Beguiled with some apprehension, especially since the 1966 novel by Thomas Cullinan had already been adapted to the big screen by Albert Maltz and Irene Kemp. But while that 1971 Don Siegel-directed Clint Eastwood-starring film wears its steamy, sweaty, lurid Southern Gothic roots on its sleeve, Coppola's adaptation is more intimate, more minimalist; not so much a remake of the Siegel film but a more personal interpretation of the novel. While Siegel's version is firmly rooted in the American Civil War, in Coppola's the war is a mere backdrop. Gun and cannon fire may be heard in the distance and Confederate soldiers may be marching by but the story could well have taken place during the War for Independence or in Nazi-occupied France.
Coppola has kept the story's basic elements intact. It's 1864 Virginia and a young girl, Amy (Oona Laurence), is picking up mushrooms in the misty woods near the Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies when she stumbles upon a wounded Union soldier. Amy foolishly takes him to the Seminary, a beautiful mansion now inhabited by four fellow students of different ages, its founder Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman) and a teacher, Edwina Morrow (Kirsten Dunst) after the rest of the students, teachers and slaves left, escaping the war. Christian charity and Southern hospitality overrule duty towards the Confederate cause and concerns they have about harboring the enemy. The soldier, Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell) is an Irish immigrant who received $200 for his services in the Army. The other four students —Jane (Angourie Rice), Marie (Addison Riecke), Emily (Emma Howard), and the sneaky and uninhibited Alicia (Elle Fanning)— spend their days learning French and manners from Edwina and tending to the house.
Coppola depicts their daily routine, as McBurney recovers from his wound, with a langueur that borders on the soporific, the proceedings bathed in pallid, hazy sunlight. The seminary feels out of place and time, isolated, a prison for these ladies. You feel that the arrival of this wounded soldier is the most exciting thing to have happened to them in months. McBurney poses no danger to these ladies while he is recovering in his locked room. But the pace picks up once he is back on his feet and volunteers his services around the house, while subtly manipulating and toying with the wishes and desires of Miss Martha, Edwina and Alicia until he is caught in fragrante by Edwina in Alicia's room late one night. From here on, the film follows Siegel's original sans the hysteria and the grand guignol; even the brutally cruel ending of the original is underplayed by Coppola. The violence is relatively bloodless, more verbal and psychological than physical as these women belatedly realize that they let the Big Bad Wolf into their abode.
Siegel's take on the original source material is a product of its time, one that has not aged one bit. It is a film that believes in the power of suggestion (a scene involving an amputation is masterful in letting our imagination piece together what's happening through the use of shadows, sound effects, reaction shots and very brief cuts to the cutting utensils), that daringly visualizes the power of lies, and that even tackles incest, teen lust and pedophilia. As stated before, the Civil War is front and center to the story, the presence of its slave/servant Hallie a constant reminder of what this war is about. Coppola not only eliminates this character from her adaptation, but her take is less beholden to history. If Siegel's film is full of rich, earthy colors, Coppola's takes place in a world full of faded pastels, of closed curtains that block the sunlight, of candlelight, that finally opens up and lets the sun in once McBurney recovers and the girls' passion blooms in full force.
As in The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, Coppola is far more interested on the impact isolation has in these women's lives, whether that isolation is the product of a truly conservative upbringing, of being a stranger in a strange land or is a by-product of power and privilege. In The Beguiled that isolation leads to them to confront their own desires and to a radical course of action. The film ends in a portrait-like tableau as these women stand and sit in the porch, ready to embrace their solitary status quo and the routines that come with it.
The Beguiled marks Kirsten Dunst's third full collaboration with Coppola (I am not including her cameo on The Bling Ring) and even though critics have fallen head over heels with Nicole Kidman's superb performance, Dunst's is far more restrained and interesting. A picture perfect portrait of repression, she stands still, her hands and arms moving with the grace of an orchestra conductor, her lips sealed in a permanent rictus. When she finally lets her emotions through in two key scenes in the film's final act, the impact is as devastating as the cannon fire heard in the distance. She is the one character who dreams of a way out but is, in the end, forced to tamp down those emotions and to adopt that prim and proper demeanor she has been tasked to instill in her young students.
But even with all this frustrated and repressed sexuality brewing under the surface, Coppola frustratingly and deliberately keeps us at arm's length. No matter how much we appreciate her technique, her The Beguiled never fully invites us in. It's as if Coppola had placed an invisible barrier between this world and us, as if we were matching a museum piece behind a security barrier, one that we can watch and admire from a safe distance without any emotional involvement.


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The colored lights recently painting the White House, the Obama administration's anything-but-classy dance in the end zone after the Supreme Court's incredibly overreaching "legislation" last week, cast the White House flag in a strange and dim light.
I don't like how some folks have tried to dim and sully rainbows and their breathtaking beauty. I don't like what the Supreme Court majority, in breathtaking arrogance has tried to do with a flick of the pen to an institution ordained by the Creator of the universe. (That institution, is "marriage," not "federal power.")
And I deeply dislike this most recent federal assault on the Constitution and the powers that should remain with the states. Reading Winston Churchill's amazing A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (Churchill is incredibly astute in his "take" on the Civil War), I was at first surprised to see him using "United States" as the plural term that it originally was. But I soon found such usage amazingly refreshing, a much-needed reminder.
What a sad and putrid river of arrogance, idiocy, and immorality overflowed its banks last week. No wonder the White House flag was painted in a weird and unnatural light.
It will be, I'm afraid, a strange Independence Day this year, particularly for those who've held as priceless the words of the First Amendment regarding the "free exercise of religion" and "freedom of speech." The federal government is a giant step closer to telling pastors who they can unite in marriage. And increasingly in our land, any speech not approved by the majority is easily defined as "hate speech." One wonders how many "Fourths" will still pass in our land while the First Amendment means anything.
I think—I hope—that I would be willing to die for this nation. I would do the same, by the way, for my state. I'll fly my nation's flag on July 4th, as I always have. But I'm tempted to tie a black ribbon around its pole. Some national sorrow. Some national repentance. Some national recognition of shame seems in order.
The recent Supreme Court decision well deserves a boatload of adjectives: shameful, immoral, overreaching, unjust, heavy-handed, illogical, arrogant, pretentious, egotistic. Yet again states and citizens get shoved down their throats a ruling legitimized simply because a majority of nine lawyers choose to cut off public debate and steer us by force in the direction they personally prefer.
Among my respected colleagues in ministry, I know not a single one would be cruel to a homosexual. But I know more than a few who would go to jail before they would willingly preside at a same-sex marriage.
Whatever happens, it is good for American Christians to have to realize what most Christians in most times have always realized: Truth is truth, no matter what the majority believes. "Fiery trials" for Christians are the rule, not the exception. Our hope is in God, not in government. One word from our King trumps the time-bound rulings of a million courts. His victory is assured.
You're invited to visit my website at http://www.CurtisShelburne.com!
Copyright 2015 by Curtis K. Shelburne. Permission to copy without altering text or for monetary gain is hereby granted subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.o


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{Update: Unconscious Collective, http://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/381}
The front room of Dennis González' Oak Cliff home is full of musical instruments: A bass on its side, trumpets dangle from the ceiling, or the vibes by a pair of windows. Walls are covered with artifacts and acquisitions of Dennis' travels – my eye immediately finds a framed Eugene Chadbourne print. Over the years many of the world's most spectacular musicians have congregated in this room. Members of the hallowed Art Ensemble of Chicago have eaten dinner with the family and played music in this room.
Last week, I had the honor of breaking bread with this family, bringing with me a bottle of wine and my good friend Yinka Ogunro. The first time I heard González' name was in the context of bass player Henry Grimes, who's first recording date after disappearing from music for over thirty years was on a 2003 session with Dennis González. Yinka, originally from Dallas but living in Atlanta back then, quipped, "This guy's from Dallas, and I have to come all the way out here to find him." The world does indeed work in funny ways, and it seemed appropriate to include my old friend in the festivities.
We were generously welcomed with the easy laughter of home. Dennis introduced us to his wife, Carol, who cooked a divine spread and buzzed around the kitchen as their sons Stefan and Aaron joked. As we ate and drank, the room was a flurry of activity with everyone throwing in commentary, complimenting the food, bursting into laughter as Dennis mimcs his father's unique sense of humor. By the time we retired to the aforementioned front room for unbelievable blueberry pie, we had established a rapport. It was in this "laboratory" that the first inklings of Yells at Eels came crawling out of the woodwork over thirteen years ago. Teenaged Stefan and Aaron were clearly jumpstarted by their father's extensive friendships with brilliant musicians; Aaron suggests, "The secret weapon is my mom's cooking, that's what got them all over here."
With pioneers of the expansive free jazz universe like Anthony Braxton influencing the two from the time they were in utero, Stefan and Aaron were impelled to start early with music. Their hardcore band Akkolyte was the springboard for Yells at Eels, "They would tear the place apart, with just the two of them. And they bring that intensity to our music," Dennis beams. Aaron, who plays double bass, says of the first time they mentioned playing with their dad, "He was skeptical. It was a naïve thing for us; let's jam with Dad. I just got tired of playing grindcore."
Dennis clarifies, with a quick retort, "I was afraid of them."
Stefan explains, "When we started, we were mixing electric overdriven bass, weird samples, synthesizers, multi-tracking, industrial stuff. But we've become more traditional free jazz." When I ask Stefan, drummer and percussionist, about the relationship between performing heavy music or punk as opposed to free jazz, he shakes his head, "I suppose there's an organic tension across them all, but what we play now has more heart and more give."
"Give" is an excellent word for what these gentleman achieve, it is seen in the way the conversation rolled through the evening, found in the way one speaker would pull back allowing another to take things in a different course. In two hours, I may have asked three questions, the quintet that had assembled that evening carried the theme out and into a variety of directions. Dennis often asked questions of all of us, sending us following arrow-tipped vectors. A sense of seeking permeated our conversation as it does the music of Yells at Eels, whether playing as a trio or with inimitable artists like Alvin Fielder, Tim Green or Famoudo Don Moye.
Their living potency clears the glut of information from the forebrain, weaving a dance between intuitive control and intense power. The dynamic humanity at the heart of Yells at Eels' music seeks outward to new levels of inspiration. Thankfully, they represent a necessary counter to algorithmic genres that the music business relies too heavily on.


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mobile apps leapfrog:
cashless banking except last mile -eg mpesa, bkash
micro solar for billion off grid
give directly - Avoids middle men of aid where porest community knows how to spend donation
healthcare - gamechangers were last mile service not expensive exoertise is critical - eg oral rehydration, mdr tuberculosis, preventing infectious disease
bangladesh seeds -higher ratio of live seeds
poultry - innovation of hen tat laid more eggs
bangladesh dairy - timing when to enter powdered milk after eu milk mountains had ended
biggst colab search of 2018 where is damo extending its intercity adcademy; biggest question of 2017:where is Ali Baba University inviting partnerships? Examples:
New Zealand ... Germany ...UN 1 2 3 - Chinese only Aliresearch.com
New Zealand ... Germany ...UN 1 2 3 - Chinese only Aliresearch.com
GirlsWorldBank bids you welcome : happy job creating if you want to study sustainability goals job creation go study poverty first- locally- POP1-2-3 search out/celebrate your profession's world class expert who has 1 lived with poor, 2 as well as innovated her profession with the poor diagnosed system traps of poverty, and 3 sees it as sin not to priorities use of modern tech to end history's -sadly sport charities have been the worst in abusing girls usgynmaistics and maing a few men rich eg fifa instead of community building - will this end at alibaba olympics
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Tour 1 Oman DC (5 billion elearning satellite) Rome(POP) Haiti Rwanda Peru
Tour 2 Bangladesh Kenya (Joyful Women, Ushahidi) South Africa (Mandela Extranet), Lucknow
Tour 3 Boston Japan Budapest Russia West Africa
How to celebrate DC as biggest millennials change alumni capital since summer 2012
first clarify that all POP movements of health and origin of Bangla microcredit banking share 3 core dynamics:
1 celebrate living with the poor
2 time every microfranchise - so local poorest gain from open sourcing global solution to sustainability
3 know when its impossible to network village banking for the poor without first building hi-trust health webs
this clarification will be difficult in DC because microcreditsummit 1997 onwards failed to provude open learning curricula of how Bangladeshi microcredit 1.0 from 1972 and 2.1 from 1996 evolved-in consequence it became a fund raisers jamboree not an open source solutions movement of the sort #2030now and sustainable millennials need
Tour 2 Bangladesh Kenya (Joyful Women, Ushahidi) South Africa (Mandela Extranet), Lucknow
Tour 3 Boston Japan Budapest Russia West Africa
How to celebrate DC as biggest millennials change alumni capital since summer 2012
first clarify that all POP movements of health and origin of Bangla microcredit banking share 3 core dynamics:
1 celebrate living with the poor
2 time every microfranchise - so local poorest gain from open sourcing global solution to sustainability
3 know when its impossible to network village banking for the poor without first building hi-trust health webs
|.Published on Mar 27, 2015
http://www.unwomens.com 20 years after mobilising http://www.women4empowerment.org first partnerships with poorest village mothers, three cheers out of Bangladesh, Kenya and this month UN.Is this the most exciting moores law of the web and impact investing? Will it POP as a number 1 job creation curriculum on the 5 billion person elearning satellite Yazmi.com and other open learning campus of sustainable millennials? http://www.povertyuni.com...
DC biggest millennials change alumni capital of last 3 years
connector through OAS (yabt,ticamericas, iadb, west coast blum san francisco berkeley) of the only continent-wide celebration of youth entrepreneurs with heads of state - 4th triennial edition panama April 2015; some star connections at iadb annual entrepreneur conferences can be mapped here
connecting through women4empowerment
connecting through 5 billion person elearning satellite -ownership motivated by diaspora values of Ethiopians- largest DC diasporaJim Kim (Youth) World Bank DC -alumni web ? sharing prosperity Q to youthworldbanking.com Impacts of greatest public health servants
with jim kim's arrival valuer of milllennials as most connected educated class our human race has ever enjoyed chnace to celebrate and invest in - demonstrated in kims practice case with health millennials and with transformational world bank processes including tedx, youth summit, regional youth societies, open elarning campus, collaboration from, world bank live events with pro-youth leaders - KIng relies on south american pro-millennials leaders within world bank such as
reform macroeconomics Mexican Giugale (tools include cash transfer - 20 year learning curve in mexico now massively replicated by workd bank in tanzania)
reform global social value argentinian Roby S
reform public service accountability Marcelo
Reform Schooling Brazilian Claudio
Reform Public Servant Accountability
Prior to World Bank Kim's 25 years with partners in health (PIH) out of boston involved Americas primary PIH partnership of Paul Farmer inHaiti and Kim's own work in Peru- in terms of greatest moment in Kim's PIH life linking in with investments of Keynsian economist George Soros- pih work on ending multi drug resistant outbreaks of TB was exported through Soros Open Society to Russian prisons
Noah cc Naila, Luis, John- you were too kind giving me 90 minutes of your time yesterday- This is just my crazy concept - of course all follies are mine not the people mentioned
Dont stop route a of trying to change/upgrade entire education systems with 5 billion person elearning satellite YAZMI
But design plan b as a win-win
Plan b
b1 find say 10 nation-leading people to believe in as much as say Rachel Ruto www.joywo.org - have on YAZMI what they want communicated about their empowerment solutions in under 60 seconds - it may be a short video, it may just be a few pictures, But they know their story in way that it could turn on attention of any sustainable millennials world leaders or womens empowerment network in 60 seconds
the goal should be to have some of these top 10 (60 second) stories both beaming live and on demo by 3rd week september - that way the receiver can be left with first ladies during un week and with those who celebrate preferential option poor as Pope Francis speaks to congress (in other words every future friend of jim kim and paul farmer, and armen/kagame in rwanda, and george soros in west africa, and ...)
b2 seek out sponsoring partners at 5 million dollar level of realising each of the top 10 Rachel Rutos first leap forward with yazmi- this should emerge from eg brainstorming of the rachel ruto, you/naila and the potential sponsors- in some cases this first experiment will involve buying 50000 receivers in other cases Yazmi with eg womens 4 empowerment and a local tech group will be mainly consulting to link the best of both worlds
(With parts of unis like stanford going free on-demand this week, i believe sustainable future players of open learning (which may or may not include khan academy) already make 5 million dollars the absolute minimum pilot project wherever something is requiring new to them work and given some corporates spend a billion dollars a year on advertising 5 million dollars is absolute mini,um to get global ceos spending any of their time on it)
the strategy must be joyful confidence that some of the 5 million dollars pilots will graduate to 50 million dollar partnership clusters- for example if you are bringing the whole of kenya development world into millennials elearning satellite age why woundnt obama post 2016 want to be involved as well as Kim (if is 5 year term is not renewed summer 2017)- of course this all depends on rachel as your first www ambassador out of kenya because your network is serving what she needs to linkin; equally some of these 50 million dollar syndicates may become part owners or open society policy council for the association of how elearning satellite changes human sustainability just in time
if that sounds crazy I know that eg toyota's past president sons wants tokyo university to be asia's boston - first it wants its world class medical students and technologists to be an integral branch of partners in health; second it wants open technologists to believe as much as my father did that japan still has much to share with the whole of the east's century of millennial development; 3rd through abul latif and they can literally choose on any mit partner- right now the head of media lab at mit is japanese joi ito (as I think you know media lab was mit's vision of what architecture should do in 21st century as well as what negropronte dreams of) OMAGINE http://www.omagine.com/project.html You mentioned dream offices for yazmi as learnings future- the video on this webpage shows a 12 year debate that Oman finally commissioned last year its connected with some of toyota's summit prodcers too, and a friend of mine in London who first wanted to apply his civil engineering business to this vision of middle east joy in the world
Naila knows whose story and trust can be won by september in much more human detail than I do. I would hope that we could add in some of Blecher's Partners in Mandela Extranet, Partners in health, BRAC (which this week opened up an outpost in Berkeley) and Tokyo/Abdul Latif/Dubai Legatum but we need to go from win to win depending who brings their huge energies to trusting YAZMI . I have already sent shefali a first version of lets make sure we include USHAHIDI because its movement is as big as rachel ruto -kenya depends on the two linking in this year and not being sidetracked by obama jamboree- and I guess that if taddy's mandela extranet trusted us he would say his dream first 5 million dollar project would be join joburg and nairobi's ihub at the hip so that all of kenya, yazmi and south africas 7th graders creating next million jobs can learn from each other
consultancy of what would the world miss- profile by each partner if you didnt exist
in 1994 the economist intelligence unit and I wrote a book on this; its possible to take the question to any ad agency and ask them to play it with the client that can most sustain the future; and ask them how different would their play be if they were also trusted by the leaders of 5 billion person elearning satellite- I still want to get the curriculum of what would the world miss back into The Economist by 2018 its 175th anniversary- lord sainsbury's daughter with naila can influence the new female editor of The Economist to learn about empowerment
60 seconds on USHAIDI
Ushahidi started as an ad-hoc group of Kenyan bloggers hammering out code in a couple of days from various locations, trying to figure out a way to gather more and better information about the 2008 post-election violence in Kenya.
Ushahidi is a non-profit technology company that builds open source platforms to help citizens, journalists, organizations, governments, and others gather, manage, analyze, and visualize crowdsourced data. Our tools have been used by tens of thousands of individuals and organizations fighting for social causes in over 159 countries — whether for monitoring corruption in Zimbabwe, gathering real-time data on local poverty issues, or giving people a voice in the Syrian crisis. Everyone at Ushahidi comes to work here because we know that every day people around the world use the tools we build to improve the lives of millions. In other words, in the fight for a better world, we aren't 007, we're Q. Our team tends to think big and rewards creativity and an entrepreneurial attitude. Over the past six years, we have also built the iHub – the tech community hub in Nairobi, the BRCK – a redesign of connectivity for the developing world, and other projects like Savannah Fund, AfriLabs, and Crisis Mappers. Our ethos – we don't just build products, we solve problems.
Today Ushahidi's mission is the change the way information flows in the world and empower people to make an impact with open source technologies, cross-sector partnerships, and ground-breaking ventures.
Ushahidi is responsible for founding the iHub, a technology hub in Nairobi which has helped build the technology community in East Africa, growing to over 14,000 members, has incubated 150 tech startups that have created over 1000 jobs. Ushahidi, together with partners Hivos and the Institute of Development Studies, implements the Making all Voices Count Grand Challenge, a $55 million fund which focuses global attention on creative and cutting-edge solutions to transform the relationship between citizens and their governments including seeding innovative solutions.
Lastly, as a group of technologists spread around the world who get really frustrated when the internet doesn't work, Ushahidi built and spun out BRCK, which builds rugged internet for people and things.At Ushahidi, it isn't just about building software, it is about solving problems. With Ushahidi we build open source software tools, at BRCK we build a platform for access to the web, and iHub we help build the Kenyan tech sector by creating a community with access to services like the mLab, UX lab, and Gearbox. We build these organizations because we want to see more stories like Ushahidi's in the world.
Chris Macrae washington DC region 240 316 8157 linkedin 9500 - Partners in world record book and games of job creation
Monday, March 16, 2015
cirtizen engagement (CE) first mooc course to reach 100 million people?
so why shouldnt every millennial be joyfully engaged in citizen engagement (CE) or POP or any of the job creation (poverty-ending sustainability) games of #2030now (more joy at sorosjobs and jimkiminfo )
Why not celebrate this as one of the questions that the world bank's open learning campus relaunched today could be asking-
which of the 10 conversation subnetworks going on across the World Bank compass of CE-MOOC may yet plant the seeds of citizen engagement being the first MOOC to viralise social actions across 100 million millennials
NB the world bank promises to keep alumni open for a year but you may need to register before mid april to be in the world first mooc cleass of open engagement
Maps of Open Learning Campus
On-Demand Stanford
On-Demand Coursera
Khan Medical https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat
This collection is being developed for the revised MCAT® exam that will first be ... direction of the Khan Academy a
Yazmi - Kenya
Maps of Open Learning Campus
On-Demand Stanford
On-Demand Coursera
Khan Medical https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat
Yazmi - Kenya
Saturday, March 14, 2015
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An umbrella-shaped tree with striking fern-like foliage and pink fluffy flowers in summer. Popular as a terrace or patio tree for its spreading habit and the light, dappled shade it provides. Deciduous. Hardy.
Note: Growth, height and grade information are given in good faith but are subject to natural variables beyond our control.
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You can ski right back to this modern chalet, just a short walk from shops and restaurants
Why book through OVO Network?
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Quick Facts
- Chinaillon - Le Grand Bornand
- Semi-detached chalet
- Ski-in/Ski-out, Village 400 m
- Ski bus 100 m
- 4*, sauna, fireplace
- Terrace and balconies
- Short stays out of season
Full Property Details
- Rate: €2,310 to €3,990 per week
- Location: Chinaillon - Le Grand Bornand
- Type: Semi-detached chalet
- Altitude in metres: 1300 m
- Outlook: South
- Sleeps: 8
- Official classification: 4
- Animals not welcome
- Main rooms: 5
- Number of bedrooms: 4
- Number of double beds: 2
- Number of single beds: 2
- Number of bunk beds: 1
- Bath/shower rooms: 3
- Bath(s): 3
- Shower(s): 2
- Toilet(s) in bathroom(s): 2
- Separate toilet(s): 1
- Floor area: 170 m2
- Open-plan kitchen
- Number of floors: 3
- Dining seating for: 8
Getting Around
- Parking spaces available: 3
- Distance to the town centre: 400 m
- Distance to the ski slopes: 30 m
- Distance to the ski school: 50 m
- Sauna
- Fireplace
- Ski store
- Terrace
- Balcony
- Oven: Electric
- Hob: Electric
- Dining seating for: 8
- Place settings for: 8
- Baby's high chair
- Microwave
- Fridge
- Coffee Machine
- Dishwasher
- Raclette set
- Fondue set
- Kettle
- Washing machine
- Tumble dryer
- Hair Dryer
- Baby's cot
Garden / Surrounding Land
- Outdoor dining table for: 8
- Outdoor dining seating for: 8
- BBQ: Charcoal
- Parasol
- Garden chairs/sun loungers: 3
- Garden / Surrounding Land: 40 m2
- Terrace: 45 m2
- Board games
- French TV
- Total TV screens: 1
- English satellite
- DVD player
- Vacuum cleaner
- Iron
- Internet access
- Free WiFi internet
Local places of interest / Within easy reach
- Mountain
- Countryside
- Open view
- Village
- Lakeside: 25 km
- Supermarket: 400 m
Activities nearby
- Cinema
- Night club
- Fishing
- Golf
- Heritage sites
- Hiking
- Mountaineering
- Paragliding
- Rafting
- Horse riding
- Road biking
- Ice skating
- Skiing
- Swimming
- Tennis
- Mountain biking
- Water sports
Inclusions & Restrictions
- Linen provided
- Bath mats provided
- Bath towels provided
- Hand towels provided
- Tea towels provided
- Elec, heat, water provided
- Firewood provided
- Available catered (by prior arrangement)
- Animals not welcome
- Non-smoking rental
Bathroom Information
Please note, there is a shower room and a bathroom on the top floor of the chalet. There is also a shower, and an independent wc with hand basin are on the ground floor, near the sauna. Please see the floor plans.
Please Note
Please note this is a semi-detached property.
Other OVO Network properties you might like...
About Chalet L'Ours Blanc ...
You can ski down to the lifts from this fabulous semi-detached chalet in Chinaillon, Le Grand Bornand, and at the end of the day, just ski back to your door, put your boots on the warmer and relax in the sauna.
In the summer, this great location means there are great cycle routes and hikes on your doorstep.
It's also just a short walk into the resort centre, which has a good choice of shops, bars and restaurants, so you'll never have too far to go to pick up some fresh bread in the morning, or to enjoy a delicious Savoyard meal in the evening.
Le Grand Bornand is the birthplace of Reblochon cheese, so expect it to figure heavily on the menu! There's even a weekly Reblochon market on Wednesdays, where you can pick up your own ingredients for a tasty tartiflette.
Le Grand Bornand has been awarded the Famille Plus label, which recognises a high level of facilities for parents and children, and in August there's a great festival designed to keep your little ones happy!
The property ...
This modern semi-detached chalet has been built with holidays in mind. In the winter just ski to your front door and head upstairs to the lovely open plan living area. Under-floor heating and an open fire will soon have you warmed up!
There's a separate area for those who want to watch TV (English satellite service is provided), or you could soothe your aching limbs in the sauna.
The chalet sleeps up to 8 (max 6 adults) in four cosy bedrooms - two doubles as well as one with twin beds and one with bunk beds - and there are three bath/shower rooms, so you'll never have to queue. All the bedrooms have balconies with great views, and there's a lovely sunny terrace to the side of the house, which is ideal for al fresco meals or perhaps a barbecue in the summer.
About the area ...
You won't waste a minute getting to the slopes at Chalet L'Ours Blanc - just ski down to the ski lift! It's so easy you can even pop back to your chalet for lunch.
From Chinaillon you can ski the whole of the Massif Aravis - 220km of pistes - on one ski pass.
The resorts of La Clusaz and Le Grand Bornand are linked by ski bus, so you'll never be stuck for a lift home. There are plenty of cross-country ski trails in the Bouchet valley, as well as several routes from Chinaillon village. Beginners in this sport will love the Evo Nordic Park, which has a circuit featuring a variety of terrains, while boarders will appreciate the Snowpark.
Non-skiers can go ice-skating or swimming in La Clusaz, where the heated indoor and outdoor pools are open all year round, or try snowshoeing, sledging, dog-sledding and sleigh rides.
But the mountains aren't just for winter - there's plenty to do and discover in the summer too.
A network of walking and biking trails cover the mountains, and you can pick up a route map for either at the tourist office. There's a fantastic swimming pool complex in Le Grand Bornand, with a restaurant and grassy areas for picnics.
If you're looking for something a little more challenging, there's a climbing school, via ferrata routes, a tree-top adventure park, canyoning, white-water rafting and paragliding all nearby.
Le Grand Bornand has Famille Plus status, and prides itself on a great programme of activites for young families. August sees the International Children's Festival in the vllage - a week of puppet shows, circus acts and workshops, with a grand firework finale.
What next?
If you like the sound of an action-packed holiday at L'Ours Blanc in Chinaillon, check our availability calendar for the best dates. We can hold the property for you for 24 hours while you make up your mind. But don't wait too long - a property so close to the pistes is always popular with OVO guests!
Chinaillon - Le Grand Bornand
Click map for full-screen interactive version
The OVO Network Review
"Kick back and enjoy the unbeatable views of the Aiguille Verte and Mont Lachat..."
This 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, semi-detached Chalet in Chinaillon spans over 3 floors with 170m2 of floor space. (There are two bathrooms on the top floor, and an extra shower, wc, and hand basin on the ground floor by the sauna). Chalet L'Ours Blanc is a Ski-in/ Ski-out Chalet only 30 metres away from the slopes, and a short 5 minute walk from the centre of the village.
With two double bedrooms, one twin and one bunkbed room, the Chalet offers the perfect setting for two families with children of a similar age travelling together.
The main living space offers two seating areas, where you can make use of the TV and DVD player, or unwind in front of the log fire. This open plan area is shared with a well-equipped kitchen, which overlooks the generous dining area.
In the heart of the Chinaillon landscape, with access to 220km of sunny pistes if you take the Aravis lift pass, this cosy Chalet is the perfect home away from home for families of all skiing abilities. There is no shortage of activities to keep you busy in the surrounding areas; you can make use of the cinema and ice skating rink nearby and in the summer months enjoy the swimming pool or climb the incredible Via Ferrata!
Guests can kick back and enjoy the unbeatable views of the Aiguille Verte and Mont Lachat from the comfort of the terrace and outdoor seating area, or relax in the Sauna after a full day on the pistes. This Chalet truly offers an all round, unforgettable experience for the whole family!
The OVO Team
Please note that this is a semi detached property. The adjoining half of the property is privately owned and not available for rental.
Every OVO Network stay includes
Personal greeting
Local tips & concierge
Linen & towels
Sparkling cleaning
OVO Verified
We are an OVO Network verified property, ensuring your booking and your money are safe. All OVO Network properties meet stringent entry requirements before membership, meaning you can book in confidence. OVO Verified means -
You can be 100% certain that your property is genuine and waiting for you.
A member of the OVO team has visited and checked this property.
OVO guarantee that your money & your holiday are 100% safe
From the Owner
Staying here has given us a fantastic opportunity to enjoy the mountains, both in winter and summer
"I first came to the Chinaillon area eight years ago with my brother Christopher, who had been skiing in the area for 20 years and was impressed by the excellent snow record. We were lucky enough to get the chance to build our own chalet right by the slopes, and two years later, my wife Su and I were having our first Christmas at L'Ours Blanc with our sons Callum and Gabriel, surrounded by the snowy Aravis mountains. Staying here has given us a fantastic opportunity to enjoy the mountains, both in winter and summer. The village is unspoilt, and the slopes are a safe place for the children to explore and improve their snowboarding and skiing. Having skied at various Alpine resorts over the last 30 years, I can't think of a better place where older children can be left to do their own thing on the mountain, within reason.
The chalet is right next to a green run, which takes you straight down to the main chairlifts and ski school in the village, and at the end of the day, you can ski straight back to the chalet. In the evening, the boys love to go sledging on the beginners' slope behind the chalet, and once a week the slopes are floodlit for night skiing, one of our favourite things to do. There are plenty of restaurants and bars in the village, as well as a supermarket, swimming pool and health spa in the new MGM complex, just a five-minute walk away. Having all these facilities so close means you don't really a car. We try to get to the chalet two or three times each winter, and on at least one of these trips, we arrive by taxi from the airport. When we bought the chalet, we hadn't really thought about spending summer holidays here, but we have been pleasantly surprised.
There's so much to do so close to the chalet. We go mountain biking, and road biking down the Col de la Colombiere (one of the Tour de France routes just behind the chalet). There are plenty of walking routes, and there is a great open air swimming pool and a forest rope park in Le Grand Bornand. The children love to cycle from the chalet down to Le Grand Bornand, and they can put their bikes on the cable car to bring them back up the mountain to the chalet. I hope you find our family account helpful, you can find loads more information on this website and from the tourist office. We have a manager in the village who will meet you on your arrival and help you with any questions you may have during your stay."
Robert and Su Monks
Guest Reviews
"A cosy chalet"
A cosy and comfortable setting. Chalet L'Ours Blanc is very well located - you can ski straight from the chalet!
Colette M. - 01/02/2020
"Great stay"
Having stayed before, we knew well what to expect.
Proximity to slopes, size, booking process, welcome... All spot on.
We really liked the local shops, the quiet location and the proximity to lifts, slopes and restaurants.
Andy S. - 06/04/2019
"Very pleasant"
An ideal ski-in, ski-out location. Close to all the shops and restaurants in this family resort, without being on top of other properties.
Amal M. - 22/12/2018
"Wonderful chalet and great ski"
This was our second year staying at the chalet L'Ours Blanc and our second year skiing in Le Grand Bornand.
We are a family group consisting of young children, parents and grandparents and we all love it!
The chalet is wonderfully set up, in a brilliant location.
The snow was fantastic this year. Le Grand Bornand perfectly suits the skiing needs of our party.
The design of the chalet has been very well thought out. Plenty of storage for all our gear including bulky items pushchairs, sledges etc. It's also very beautiful !
Chinaillon has everything we need at walking distance.
We will be back !!
Rachel S. - 10/03/2018
"A perfect chalet"
The chalet was very nice , quiet and clean
Muna A. - 14/08/2017
"Fab stay at L'Ours Blanc."
Although regulars to La Clusaz, we hadn't visited Le Grand Bornand previous to. This wonderfully equipped Chalet is a delight: bright, spacious and about 30 seconds walk to the slopes!!! We will be enquiring to stay again! Thank you.
Robert S. - 26/03/2016
"Better than we expected!"
Lovely chalet and ideally located for the slopes and close to amenities. Spacious living area and good size bedrooms. The grandchildren loved the bunk beds! It more than lived up to our expectations and the boot warmer & sauna were a real bonus. Excellent family resort. Our group ranged from 7 to 67.
John R. - 13/02/2016
"A chalet close to everything"
Spacious accomodation. The proximity to the slopes and nearby shops & restaurants is great.
Trevor E. - 30/01/2016
"Highly recommended."
A lovely and cosy chalet located in a perfect location for skiing.
Matthew R. - 16/01/2016
"We'll come back next year!"
We had a very pleasant stay in Chalet l'Ours Blanc. The house had everything we needed for a wonderful holiday.
Miriam G. - 14/02/2015
"We had a wonderful stay in Chalet L'Ours Blanc."
Great position very close to slopes, shopping and dining. L'Ours Blanc works great for two families traveling together and it was clean and tidy upon arrival.
Sine A. - 07/02/2015
"Great chalet. Great location."
We loved it!Thank you.
Philippe J. - 03/01/2015
"Everything the website said was accurate"
Just returned from or latest trip to Le Grand Bornand, but our first (and hopefully not our last) stay in Chalet L'Ours Blanc. Very comfortable, well laid out, plenty of space, all the facilities you want and need. The local team were excellent: we were met on arrival and shown around the property and everything the website said was accurate. The (short uphill) walk to the slope was no bother even for the youngest (7 years) of our party, whilst carrying ski's/poles.
Andy V. - 05/04/2014
"Chalet exceeded our expectations"
Having safely returned to the UK (12 hours door to door) I am pleased to advise that our friends and my family really enjoyed our stay in your lovely chalet. This was our second holiday in Chinaillon (we love the village!) and your chalet fully lived up to and exceeded our expectations.
The location – ski-in, ski-out - was perfect for those wishing to return for lunch, and it made access for lessons so much easier.
All the rooms, lounge, bathrooms, ski storage area, sauna, etc. were well equipped and the beds comfortable after a long day on the slopes.
We were also graced with fantastic weather and plentiful snow so overall we could not have asked for more.
The cleaners who were finishing off as we arrived had done a very good job, and your local manager David was on hand to assist if necessary.
Overall this is a super chalet and location! We would like to recommend it to all, but would really like to keep it to ourselves!! Rest assured we will be back to Chalet L'Ours Blanc, we are already planning 2014.
Nigel S. - 16/02/2013
"Complete, friendly and comfortable place to be"
We had a very nice stay in an excellent chalet with lots of comfort. The family enjoyed e.g. the sauna and the fireplace. Personally I loved the showers as there was plenty of water coming through. The chalet was well equipped (kitchen). It is very nice that there is David Gidet, speaking French and English fluently, and taking care of everything necessary. Skiing was very good, especially starting just outside the chalet!
Chris M. - 26/01/2013
"... it was so close to the slopes so we were able to ski in and out for lunch."
We had a really good week at Chalet L'Ours Blanc, it was just as seen in the photographs and we were really pleased to find that it was so close to the slopes so we were able to ski in and out for lunch which was a real bonus. We found the ski area to be extensive enough for a week without the need to travel to La Clusaz. The chalet was very well equipped and very spacious and comfortable. We would certainly recommend it to anyone who wants to stay in this area.
Stephen O. - 18/02/2012
Why Le Grand Bornand?
Le Grand Bornand is an idyllic Alpine village which happens to be surrounded by some great skiing and in summer, a superb mountain playground. There are none of the huge hotel complexes you'll find in other ski resorts – just a friendly welcome all year round. Families are particularly welcome, with a great programme of activities to keep kids of all ages busy and happy.


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Lecture by Accenture
05 april, 2017
Yesterday morning we had the honor to listen to a retail-räv, Sara Sjöberg. She is currently the head of marketing at Accenture Interactive Nordics but has a background from another Retail Club of ours, ICA.
Sara taught us new intail about the importants of strategy and design when developing an omnichannel, e-ommerce customer expectations, digital transformation enabled by technology such as VR, AI and ML (machine learning).
Now we know that customer experience is the new core for retailers if they want to be around in the future.


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I have been playing with my scrap yarn and have come up with a Gnome Beanie for a Baby or Toddler. I really love how the pattern is turning out, blue and white always looks so fresh together...and this is six shades of blue.
Cant you just see a rosy cheeked dumpling in this...to bad mine are all grown up. OH well maybe I will do a giveaway.


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I found a video of him demonstrating and explanation on his creation but it's in Mandarin though, watch him here...
F! By Buffalo Kitchens
69-1 Jalan Telawi 3
Bangsar Baru
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 220 11710
Ooh, would love to learn how to be a barista, but dun have the "kar chang "at home. :P
Kenny, maybe test out this first, if really shiok then buy "kar chang"!!!


text:
Product information
Knitted hat in soft, pliant merino wool that doesn't itch. Perfect for both everyday use and outdoor life as wool wicks away moisture and warms even when damp. Two-layered knitting for extra warmth.
Product features
- 100% merino wool.
- Two-layered flat knitting.
- Fold-up edge.
- Little leather logo at the front.
In 1960, Åke Nordin founded Fjӓllrӓven in his basement in the Swedish town of Örnsköldsvik. From its very first innovative framed backpacks and lightweight outdoor jackets, Fjӓllrӓven has stayed true to its original mission of making it easier for more people to enjoy and stay comfortable in the great outdoors.
Passionate about protecting the environment that inspires it, Fjӓllrӓven is always looking for new ways to reduce its environmental impact; from its innovative, PFC-free Eco-Shell fabric to its highly ethical and fully traceable Down-sourcing programme.