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NASA uses ground radar to capture images of Asteroid as it passes near Earth
Written by Preston Dyches
Pasadena, CA – NASA scientists using Earth-based radar have produced sharp views of a recently discovered asteroid as it slid silently past our planet. Captured on June 8th, 2014, the new views of the object designated "2014 HQ124" are some of the most detailed radar images of a near-Earth asteroid ever obtained.
The radar observations were led by scientists Marina Brozovic and Lance Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. The JPL researchers worked closely with Michael Nolan, Patrick Taylor, Ellen Howell and Alessondra Springmann at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to plan and execute the observations.According to Benner, 2014 HQ124 appears to be an elongated, irregular object that is at least 1,200 feet (370 meters) wide on its long axis.
"This may be a double object, or 'contact binary,' consisting of two objects that form a single asteroid with a lobed shape," he said. The images reveal a wealth of other features, including a puzzling pointy hill near the object's middle, on top as seen in the images.
The 21 radar images were taken over a span of four-and-a-half hours. During that interval, the asteroid rotated a few degrees per frame, suggesting its rotation period is slightly less than 24 hours.
At its closest approach to Earth on June 8th, the asteroid came within 776,000 miles (1.25 million kilometers), or slightly more than three times the distance to the moon. Scientists began observations of 2014 HQ124 shortly after the closest approach, when the asteroid was between about 864,000 miles and 902,000 miles (1.39 million kilometers and 1.45 million kilometers) from Earth.
Each image in the collage and movie represents 10 minutes of data.
The new views show features as small as about 12 feet (3.75 meters) wide. This is the highest resolution currently possible using scientific radar antennas to produce images. Such sharp views for this asteroid were made possible by linking together two giant radio telescopes to enhance their capabilities.
To obtain the new views, researchers paired the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, with two other radio telescopes, one at a time. Using this technique, the Goldstone antenna beams a radar signal at an asteroid and the other antenna receives the reflections. The technique dramatically improves the amount of detail that can be seen in radar images.
To image 2014 HQ124, the researchers first paired the large Goldstone antenna with the 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. They later paired the large Goldstone dish with a smaller companion, a 112-foot (34-meter) antenna, located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) away.
"By itself, the Goldstone antenna can obtain images that show features as small as the width of a traffic lane on the highway," said Benner. "With Arecibo now able to receive our highest-resolution Goldstone signals, we can create a single system that improves the overall quality of the images."
The first five images in the new sequence — the top row in the collage — represent the data collected by Arecibo, and are 30 times brighter than what Goldstone can produce observing on its own.
Scientists were fortunate to be able to make these radar observations at all, as this particular asteroid was only recently discovered. NASA's NEOWISE mission, a space telescope adapted for scouting the skies for the infrared light emitted by asteroids and comets, first spotted the space rock on April 23rd, 2014. Additional information about the asteroid's discovery and its orbit was shared in a previous Web story online at:
For asteroids, as well as comets, radar is a powerful tool for studying the objects' size, shape, rotation, surface features and orbits. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities enable researchers to compute orbits much further into the future than if radar observations were not available.
NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and identifies their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. To date, U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known near-Earth objects.
Along with the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it also partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based astronomers and space science institutes across the country that are working to find, track and understand these objects better, often with grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA.
In addition, NASA values the work of numerous highly skilled amateur astronomers, whose accurate observational data helps improve asteroid orbits after they are found.
Through its Asteroid Initiative, NASA is developing a first-ever mission to identify, capture and redirect a near-Earth asteroid to a stable orbit around the moon with a robotic spacecraft. Astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft, launched by a Space Launch System rocket, will explore the asteroid in the 2020s, returning to Earth with samples.
Experience in human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit through this Asteroid Redirect Mission will help NASA test new systems and capabilities needed to support future human missions to Mars. The Initiative also includes an Asteroid Grand Challenge, which is seeking the best ideas to find all asteroid threats to human populations and accelerate the work NASA already is doing for planetary defense.
JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at:
Twitter updates are at:
TopicsArecibo Radio Telescope, Asteroid, earth, Goldstone Antenna, Goldstone CA, Mars, Moon, NASA, NASA's Asteroid Initiative, NASA's Deep Space Network antenna, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's NEOWISE Mission, NASA's Orion spacecraft, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Near Earth Asteroid, Orbit, Pasadena CA, Planet, Preston Dyches, Puerto Rico, Radar, Scientists, Space Telescope, Spaceguard, Telescopes
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Ok, they say there's a first time for everything so here goes nothing! I don't know anything about blogging I've never even read anybody's blog before so I have no idea what to do. I'm guessing I just tell you what's going on or whats on my mind or tell you about my feelings….oh God, not that!
Just how long is a blog anyway? I would have been blogging a long time ago if it weren't for My girlfriends insistence of not being helpful in my time of techno troubles! she obviously hasn't received the same treatment from myself when it came to matters of the airbrush! If you've seen her work lately! 🙂 but alas I managed to put the two techno brain cells I have together and POOF! here I am……blogging. hehehe I don't need no stinking help! what am I saying? of coarse I do! All kidding aside, I couldn't do any of this stuff if didn't have Nic to help me. she's a wiz at this computer stuff!
I have a nasty habit of just submitting my posts without proof reading what I've written so if you see spelling or grammar errors…….deal with it! hahaha you'll know what I'm talking about and I never claimed to be perfect!
Today started out like most Mondays, slow to get into the shop, at least an hour and a half behind my other more timely employees. but in my defense, I worked most of the weekend so I feel like I'm allowed to come in a little late if I work after hours or on the weekends right? ok, maybe I should set a better example. what -ever.
started work again on the Amazonia fridge and helped Abel a little with the truck we are doing a complete color change on. got a visit from Grant Harris and his buddy to pick up the last piece of Grants classic chevy pickup truck we did for him. grant is the father of the late Phil Harris from the show "Deadliest Catch" you can tell Grant really misses Phil. I have Phil's portrait piece on an easel in my showroom right now, I felt bad it was there when he showed up but I had no idea he was going to be coming in today. If I did I certainly would have removed it to spare Grant from opening that wound again.
I'm trying to find the time from keeping this boat afloat to work on one of my new personal projects but can't seem to do it. I'm just gonna have to make myself do it or it'll never get done!
well, I suppose this is a good first effort to blogging! I hope it didn't put you to sleep! hahaha! see ya next time

subset: commoncrawl


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How Can I Help You?
In the cutthroat world of New York restaurants, Danny Meyer is known as the host with the most. He reigns over some of the hottest and most successful eateries in a city with a reputation for some of world's finest cuisine: Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Blue Smoke, Shake Shack — 24 properties in all. His story is well-known in the hospitality industry, and he has spread the gospel in a book called Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business. Meyer has succeeded in an environment where 60% of restaurants fail by the third year, and not by focusing on the food or the location alone, but instead by looking at the restaurant industry as a hospitality business. Before his keynote address to an advice-hungry crowd at this week's CTAM in New York conference (Oct. 5-7), Meyer carved out some time to chat with Multichannel News editor in chief Mark Robichaux about customer loyalty, his "air conditioner" theory and why the customer isn't always right. An edited transcript follows.
MCN: What can a restaurateur teach the cable industry?
Danny Meyer: There are two things that I think everybody wants with every transaction in their lives: They want to make sure that the thing works really well and they want to make sure that the experience of using the thing feels really good. And I think that, unfortunately in life, the number of things that work well is small, the number of things that feel good is small and the number of things that both work well and feel good is miniscule. We think that the highest compliment that you can pay any person or any thing or any business is to say, 'that is my favorite' fill in the blank. When someone says one of our restaurants is their favorite restaurant, they are telling us that the restaurant is good at what it does and it makes them feel really good. If it didn't do both of those things, it would not be your favorite. And I think that in the cable industry it's an incredibly challenging time because it's not just that you have competitors within your business, you now have competitors coming at you from all kinds of other businesses.
MCN: Bingo!
DM: So that you're not only having to be the best at what you do, but you have to reinvent what you do and while you're reinventing it, you have to make it feel good. It's almost as if the cable industry is like the Orient Express train that has to convert itself into a high-speed train while its passengers are on the train and make the ride feel good, even while they're changing the entire construct of how they're traveling. So I completely understand how difficult this whole experience must be.
MCN: But you're saying the strategy should be wrapped around that ethos, that mission?
DM: The strategy has to begin with, "Whatever it is that we do, we have to do [it] better than anyone else." And we also have to be the best at how we make the experience feel and we have to start with our team; it's gotta feel great for our team. That's because if the people coming to work to make this thing and to sell this thing aren't having a whole lot of fun dealing with the problems the business presents — and that's what business is, it's just a series of problem-solving — if they're not having a great time, then forget about the next customer.
MCN: What about customers?
DM: You know, we believe that every business in the world has five customers, and it's really how you prioritize those customers that makes all the difference. And we believe that the way you create a virtuous cycle is to make the first customer your own staff ; your second customer the customer that buys your product; the third customer the community in which you do business; the fourth being your suppliers; and the fifth being your investors. And we think that if you look at that as a cycle, the happier investors are, the more reinvestment that provides even more career-growth opportunities for your employees. And the happier they are and the more productive you are, obviously the happier your paying customers are going to be and so on and so forth.But it really begins with taking care of your own first.
MCN: The cable industry has always said it is working on "customer service," but what it called customer service 10 or 20 years ago has changed into something more meaningful today. Is there a difference between service and hospitality?
DM: I would say the Internet changed everything for all of us. The shelf life of innovation is now two seconds at the most. In the old days, in order to be your favorite restaurant at Union Square Cafe, we had to have your favorite roast chicken. And if we could consistently provide a good product and do the things we said we were going to do, getting the right food to the right person at the right table at the right temperature at the right time, you would say, "I love that restaurant because I like what they do and they do it every single time." That's called performance. The product was good and the service was good. It's a way to describe the technical delivery of the product. Today, once we got the Internet and everybody had instant access to information and a bigger megaphone than ever for word of mouth, what it meant was that having the best roast chicken was no longer enough, because now if someone thinks our roast chicken is all that good, they just type in a couple key words and they get our roast chicken recipe. Or they take a picture of a pasta that they like and they email it to their chef, and that chef has it on his menu the next day.
MCN: How does that relate to cable?
DM: I call it the 'air-conditioner theory.' In the old days, stores used to distinguish themselves in a town by putting a sign in their front window with a picture of a polar bear and an igloo and they would say, "Brrr, come in, we have air conditioning." And the next store that didn't have air conditioning went out of business until everybody said, "Oh, I have to get air conditioning." And so, the very advantage that you used to have by having air conditioning now went away so that rather than becoming an advantage, you're just out of business if you don't have it. So in my case, the very thing that used to make me your favorite restaurant is no longer enough to make me your favorite restaurant; if I don't have good chicken, if I don't seat you on time for a reservation, if my air conditioning doesn't work, you just don't come back. So now what we believe is that performance, which is having a product that works and that does what it's supposed to do, that's service. I expect you to come on time for your appointment. I expect you to fix it if you say you're gonna fix it. Th at accounts for only 49% of what it takes to succeed today, and we think that the remaining 51% all falls under the category of hospitality, which is how do we make you feel while you're using this product that works, that does what it says it's gonna do? How do we make you feel?
MCN: Because so much is dependent upon the team, how do you know when you've got the right person in hiring?
DM: We definitely believe that there is something called 'hospitality quotient,' HQ, just in the same way that there is something called IQ. But we think that someone's HQ is a reflection of, and a way to measure, the degree to which they derive pleasure from providing people with pleasure. And we believe in identifying people who have a high HQ and making sure that the batting average of people on your team who have a high HQ is as high as possible … People with a high HQ possess the compendium of emotional skills necessary to win that 51%.
MCN: How do you identify that — you know it when you see it?
DM: You definitely know it when you see it, but the first thing is to name what they are. And there's six different emotional skills that we are looking for: No. 1, optimistic warmth; No. 2, curious intelligence; No. 3, work ethic; No. 4, empathy; No. 5, self-awareness; No. 6, integrity.
MCN: This would be a list for a lot of people for a spouse.
DM: We have developed a series of different kinds of questions and/or observations to identify these traits.
MCN: What's the strangest one?
DM: I think the strangest one is, "How have you been able to use your natural empathy as a business tool in your last job?' I would say that four out of five people look at you like you're crazy. And that tells you something right there. But every now and then, you get somebody who pulls out an amazing story that shows something very thoughtful that they did. And we think that the word 'thoughtful' is a contraction of the two words "thinking" and "feeling." When people are thinking and feeling and they're really good at what they do, chances are your product is gonna work really well and the person on the receiving end, whatever customer that is — whether it's someone you work with or whether it's someone who's buying your product or the community in which you work or one of your suppliers or one of your investors — is gonna feel good about the experience.
MCN: What's your favorite mistake?
DM: That's a tough one, because I think every day is full of them. We think mistakes in strategic judgment lead to wisdom. We think mistakes in integrity don't have any place in the business. And by making those distinctions categorically, we allow people on our team to be human, to feel good about their mistakes, to profi t from their mistakes, to end up in a better place than they would've if they had never made the mistake in the first place.
MCN: Is the customer always right?
DM: Absolutely not. Nobody is ever always right. It's one of the best ways to create poor morale in your organization is to perpetuate the myth that the customer is always right. It's irrelevant and it's not true and everyone knows it's not true. What we've learned is that the only relevant question is, did the customer feel heard? Because at the end of the day, you and I both know that when a customer brings a problem to us our job is to hear it, make sure that the customer feels heard and do everything we can to address the problem. But it's not to bury our own integrity of what we know the truth to be.
MCN: Do you watch much TV?
DM: I watch a lot of sports and I watch a lot of news. It's funny, my wife and I were just speaking last night about how we used to watch a lot more TV than we now do in terms of series. But she said, "I would watch a lot more TV if I had any idea what was on."


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The issue of how to do research in solving DB2 (and Db2)
problems, preferably before hitting the List for them, has risen
here on the DB2-L Mailing List.
First, thanks/kudos to Lizette Koehler, both for her recent post on resources available for problem solving and for her long standing and tireless help to technical people on this list (and many others, including at least ISPF-L, IBM-MAIN, and TSO-REXX). I'm very glad to know her and grateful to have received her help, now and in the past.
Second, her post yesterday will be made "sticky" at the top of the IDUG.ORG DB2-L forum (hosted on the Socious platform), for all of our current users. I'll post a link later, and try to get the List posted-message footer to clearly indicate how to navigate to that forum.
Third, Lizette and Tom Conley have created a medium-short presentation which lists many of the resources available on the World Wide Web to troubleshoot DB2 and Mainframe problems. That presentation is currently hosted here --> https://share.confex.com/share/125/webprogram/Handout/Session17318/SHARE_Orlando_Session_17318_Mainframe%20Internet.pdf
Fourth, I would appreciate it if all of you other DB2 wizards, of all platforms (zseries, iseries, LUW) would (as time permits) mention, on this thread, the technical resources which have been the most useful to you. Actual links, search strings, and publication names are preferred, please.
I will attempt to consolidate them and post them, probably in the IDUG Code Place, under the terms of the GPL.
I've been posting to and reading on DB2-L for, I think, twenty-five years or so. During all of that time, it has been a significant and precious resource for problem-solving and education. I hope to see that continue for as long as the DB2 DBMS is offered for sale and/or supported. Peace and debugged code to you all.
Philip Sevetson
Philip Sevetson[Organization Members] @ Oct 06, 2017 - 11:27 AM (America/Eastern)
Philip Sevetson[Organization Members] @ Oct 06, 2017 - 11:28 AM (America/Eastern)


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We outgrew our old site, so we made a new one. Fun!
Don't miss these sections…
Learn about why I first started this website, the the history of my '67 Beetle, and check out a gallery of photos of my ongoing restoration. Also, read various magazines and online publications that have featured my '67 VW Beetle.
There is a whole new area dedicated to Restoration Tips & Tutorials, How-To Videos, etc.
Interviews with Volkswagen vendors and fanatics.
VW Resources and Frequently Asked Questions (this area will grow, for sure).
An Archives page and Sitemap to help you navigate through previous posts.
And, I am now offering quality VW parts for purchase —restored by yours truly.
That about sums it up!
I'm really excited about the new site and am looking forward to posting here more often. Make sure you don't miss a single post — subscribe to our rss feed in your favorite feed reader or sign up to receive email updates of new posts.
You can also follow me on Twitter at @erokcom. Don't forget to use the hashtag #VintageVW to join the conversation!


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|Photo from Morguefile.com. Words added at PicMonkey.com.
I'm sure you've seen those beautiful pictures with the beautiful words on them. I get them all the time on Facebook. But I see them other places too, like on blogs and Pinterest.
Have you ever wished you could make them? Or have you wondered where other people get them or how they make them? (Tweet that!)
I always thought you needed one of those fancy, expensive programs like Photoshop (which I don't own). But nope. You don't need anything like that.
I should have known like so many other things these days there are sites online where you can make these. And many of these sites are... you guessed it. My favorite word... Free!
Some of you right now are just bursting with ideas and can't wait for me to tell you how to make one. Others of you, though, are wondering why you would need such a thing. Or maybe you'd like to have one--or several--pretty pictures with your chosen words on them but you're not sure what you'd do with them if you had some.
Well recently found myself in need of photos. Lots of photos. As a matter of fact, I needed forty photos, and I needed them fast. I knew how to find free photos, but I didn't have a clue how to find forty of them. That would fit what I needed them for. Fast. Just the thought of trying to figure that out made me tired.
Why did I need forty photos all of the sudden? Have you seen my newest blog? I started it on March 2 and you can see it at www.BiblePropheciesFulfilled.blogspot.com. Now here's part of the story behind that blog...
I have thought about starting a blog on Bible prophecy for several years now, but the thought of trying to keep up with another blog kind of makes me crazy. Add to that the fact that I now know every blog post should have a photo so it can be "pinned" to Pinterest and there's another step that needs to be done to keep up with a blog. In early March I was thinking about starting this blog again because if I was going to do it, I wanted to blog for Lent leading up to Easter when many Bible prophecies were fulfilled. So I needed to make a decision: either do it or don't.
I had just decided not to do it. Final decision.
Moments later my husband walked into the room. I told him my decision. He said, "I think you should do it."
Okay... Re-thinking my Final decision I realized that in order to blog for forty days of Lent, I would need forty different photos. Big huge sigh. Where could I come up with forty photos that fit Lent? Fast! It was March 2. Lent started Ash Wednesday, which was March 5. I wanted to post twice before then--an introduction and a pre-Lent post. Yeah. I needed forty photos fast.
Just then I had the brainstorm to do a countdown to Easter. That meant I only actually needed one photo . . . if I could alter it and put the countdown numbers on it.
I remembered hearing on an e-loop I'm on about PicMonkey.com. I checked it out and it looked pretty easy.
Of course I needed a photo. I usually get my free photos to use on my blog from Morguefile.com. Somewhere along the lines I read to use a photo from Morguefile.com on PicMonkey because Morguefile allows you to alter their photos, which some of the other free sites prohibit.
So I went to Morguefile.com and found a photo. It's the same photo of blue sky and clouds I used in the upper left of this post. I downloaded it to my computer, then went over to PicMonkey.com and uploaded the photo there. You don't even have to open an account on PicMonkey. Just click "Edit," upload your photo, and start editing!
I played around with it a little bit, found the T for Text, and was able to put my words and countdown number, starting with 40, on the photo. I saved that to my computer. Then I was able to edit that to put 39 on the same photo, saved it, and continued on my countdown to Easter. Within a couple hours I had all forty of the photos I needed to launch my new blog! How cool is that?
Of course you might want to take a bit more time to find just the perfect photo and chose just the perfect message to put on it. But now you know where to go and one place you can add words to your images or photos. Make sure you have permission to use the photo and alter it. Of course you can use your own photo too.
But there is so much more you can do with this technology! I promised in the title of this post that you can use this idea not only to make images for your blog, like I did, but also to market your books. Honestly I would never have thought of that idea on my own. I'm not that creative. I got that idea from Joel Friedlander on his blog, The Book Designer.
His January 22, 2014, post is titled "11 Ways to Quote and Promote Your Book Using Images." In this article Joel talks about authors using creative graphics with quotes from their books to promote their own books.
What a great idea, right?! I love that idea!
I'm not going to recap all he said here. Instead I'll let you hop over to his blog and read his article. He gives tips for choosing quotes from your book(s) and then gives links to several sites where you can make your own quotes into beautiful images.
In preparation for writing this post I tried a couple of those links and not all of them are working. I didn't find the first place he lists. But I did play around a bit with the second site listed: Quozio.
I made a couple of quotes from my own books just to show you on this blog post, and you can see them below. I took quotes from two books in my "Prophecies Fulfilled" series. I'm very excited that the third book in this series just released: Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus! You can see the cover at the bottom of this post.
I have to admit that these super easy, do-it-all-for-you sites still present challenges for me. On Quozio, I "Joined" and opened an account (not required). Then I read the directions, found a quote, typed it in, clicked "Go," and tried out several of the designs until I picked the one I liked the best. All done, right? Well the instructions say to click "Keep" under the image and it will save to "My Quotes." I clicked "Keep" under both the images that I made, but I don't see anything in "My Quotes." So I don't know how that works. Maybe you can figure it out and leave a comment below and let me know.
I was able to share my quote images to Pinterest. I also right-clicked on the image and saved it to my computer, so I have them there. And from there I was able to upload them to this post. So it all works. But I haven't figured out all the ins and outs yet.
Also, at one point while I was clicking around trying to figure things out, a window opened with a URL to my image! I have no idea how I did that. I haven't been able to do it again. Maybe you can figure that out too.
I did download the Quozio bookmarklet to put on my browser bar so I can turn any quote I see on the internet into a beautiful image, but I haven't tried it out yet. You'll see that option on the sight.
Also, make sure to check your spelling! I had to re-do one of my images since I didn't see the mistake until after I clicked "Go." Apparently you can't go back and edit one after it's created.
Plus there are more sites in Joel's article which you can have fun exploring. I'm going to check them out as I have time.
I think this is probably enough information to get you started. I hope you have fun with it. I'm sure having a blast doing this. I think using quotations out of our books is simply genius. (Tweet that!) Finding a great quote is the hardest part.
If you have something other than a book to promote, you could probably use this for that also. Maybe a great quotation from your blog? Or an article you've written? Or your brand? Or your heart's passion? What new and creative ideas can you come up with to put this to use? Let us know!
This is a quote from chapter 22, "The Star," in Prophecies Fulfilled in the Birth of Jesus.
This image is smaller than the one below because of the choice I made when I put it on this blog, not because it's smaller coming from Quozio.
This is a quotation from my newest, just released book, Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus. It's the very last sentence in the book (not counting the end matter). I have no idea why this image includes the Quozio.com tag at the bottom. Probably has something to do with the way I saved it. The other image above didn't include that. I'm still trying to figure some things out.
So go have some fun creating your own text on images for your blogs, marketing your books, or however else you can think of to use this lovely software! (Tweet that!) I hope to see you, and your beautiful quotations and images, around the internet.
|Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus
I'm very pleased that my newest book has released. This book talks about many topics, including the seven Feasts of the LORD and how Jesus fulfills them. It also talks about the lunar eclipses that will occur on the first and last Feast of the LORD in both 2014 and 2015 and the spiritual and prophetic importance of these. You may have been aware for the first lunar eclipse which occurred just a few weeks ago on April 15th. Learn more about it in this book.
You can find more information this book on the Prophecies Fulfilled Books page on my new blog. It's available on Amazon and elsewhere. Your favorite bookstore can order it for your.


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As you may recall, last month I was given the chance to try out a a PostStitch box.
The project was Mares' Tails by Katie Rempe using a skein of Anzula's Breeze. I really enjoyed the project a lot — knitting with this silk/linen blend was definitely a treat — a real taste of summer — and the pattern was one that was simply very enjoyable to knit. It was one of those projects that once you start it…
You just don't want to put it down…
The whole idea of PostStitch is that these 'projects in a box' are manageable month-long projects and I thought it was pretty perfect as far as timing went, even in a busy month like May. I wrapped up my shawl just before the Memorial Day weekend and then it ended up sitting for a while before I had a chance to block it. And then it took a bit before I could photograph it, but today I finally have the FO pictures for you!
First,I want to point out a detail that is probably overlooked by many…
The textured body. This design element is very simple, but I think it adds authenticity to the shawl and really is a vital part of what makes it unique and special.
Next, the more obvious lace panel.
This panel was really fun to knit — interesting & very pretty, but not too difficult.
I added a couple repeats to my shawl, so it is very, very large and I really did not have the proper space for blocking (hence the slightly not straight edge), but I did my best with the space I had and really, once it's being worn it couldn't be more perfect.
Here I am at Governor Dodge State Park after a 2mile hike in to see this waterfall. I thought it'd be a nice spot for an FO photo. You can definitely see the generous size here even though I'm technically holding the shawl upside down (whoops!). Really, it's gorgeous no matter which way you hold or wear it. If I'd completed the scalloped edge that the pattern calls for this wouldn't have been an issue, but I opted instead for a clean finished edge by way of a simple lace bind-off. I am a very active lady and I manage to routinely get my belt-loops hooked on things (true story), so as pretty as a scalloped edge would be here it just wasn't practical for me.
After hiking in with this shawl gently folded in my bag, I actually hiked out wearing it. It was a cooler coverup than my button-down shirt and — well, let's just say it — even tramping through the woods a lady likes pretty things.
This project is still available via the PostStitch website if you're looking for a nice big, beautiful summer shawl. Or, if you've got some stash yarn screaming to take on Mares' Tails, you can get the pattern here. Either way, you can't go wrong here. Many thanks (again) to the PostStitch folks for a great project!


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I had to bring up instances of when I had masturbated during my teenage and pre-mission years to bishops and a stake president. The emotional and psychological toll this took on me was often unbearable while growing up and even while on my mission. The shaming and guilt I suffered for many years could have been avoided were it not for this damaging practice from the LDS church. Those were years that I could have spent enjoying life more fully and will never get back.
Categories: 1. Inappropriate shame and guilt, 2. Childhood self-loathing, 3. Adulthood self-loathing, 7. Years of recovery from childhood shaming, Consequence StoriesBy Sam Young
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Canada's Deep State?
What a mindset. A Director of the Global Business Futures Initiative at the Haskayne School of Business on the topic of the Calgary Winter Olympics bid;
"I don't think it really helps the unemployed geologist or petroleum engineer. There's no drilling for oil in an Olympic project" (Sept 17, 2018 Calgary Herald).
It's like "Hey, want a pizza?" "I don't know. Is it good for the oil industry?"
This Global Business Futures Initiative was started this year with a million dollar 'gift' from an anonymous donor. Director Adam Legge was formerly president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.
Legge, on the school website "My aim is to work and ensure that business can adapt better to the changing world, and be viewed as a positive catalyst for making the world a better place,"
Based on his comment on the Olympic thing, I'd say that "adapt" bit is a fail.
Late last year this same school of business hosted an event "The Global Energy Challenge: What is the Future of Fossil Fuels?" with Keynote speaker Michael Greenstone, a Milton Friedman Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, Director of the Energy Policy Institute of Chicago, and Director of the Becker Friedman Institute.
If you've read anything on the horrific 1973 to 1990 dictatorship of Pinochet in Chile, the names 'Friedman' and 'Chicago School' probably ring a bell. Chicago schooled economists came to power with Pinochet. It was a period of economic growth termed the "Miracle of Chile". However its success came with cuts to things like education, health and housing; sweeping privatization on one hand but State control of key industries such as oil; and the demise, quite literally, of working class power through torture, assassination, imprisonment and exile. Income disparity remains high in Chile, very much more a miracle for the top 1% than for most everyone else.
A "Dollars and Sense" blog post in 2004 said that 'the legacy of the dictatorship still lingers over Chilean public opinion and political discourse: The economics departments (with one or two small exceptions) all speak with a single, free-trade voice, the independent research centers are silent, and the government and the press laud the idea of more and greater export possibilities. In this climate, as a Chilean colleague said: "You can be critical, but if we say these things we will be committing economic suicide—our careers will be destroyed." Less than 15 years removed from the end of the military dictatorship, in Chile dissent is still largely an unpracticed art.' [bold added]
The day after Legge seemed to suggest the value of a thing can only be measured in oil, the Calgary Sun demonstrated that, like Chile, dissent is also unwelcome in Alberta.
Berman had been invited as keynote speaker to a conference of the Alberta Teachers' Association. Some might think of schools as a place for reasoned exchange of ideas, and the teachers stewards of that process. However in Alberta, a province where school curriculum includes at the grade 4 level content on oil, natural gas, and coal, but not wind, geothermal or solar energy, this appearance by Berman seems to be an unbearable affront to many.
Berman has requested security for the trip due to threats, vitriol that comments from Alberta government and opposition Parties have only stoked. As Berman said on social media, "How are we going to move forward if we can't even talk about it?"
Kevin Taft, former leader of the Alberta Liberal Party and author of "Oil's Deep State" says that a deep state captures and harnesses institutions of democracy for its own use. While Big Oil has had a voice in Alberta school curriculum for some time, and clearly has a friend in the Global Business Futures Initiative and the anonymous donor who bankrolled it, apparently the deep state in Canada has not yet harnessed Alberta teachers. And that has some very angry.


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Former Chief of Disguise for the CIA, Jonna Mendez, explains how disguises are used in the CIA, and what aspects to the deception make for an effective disguise.
You can watch new episodes of WIRED MASTERMINDS on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV: https://www.wired.com/brandlab/2018/0...Still haven't subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► http://wrd.cm/15fP7B7
Also, check out the free WIRED channel on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV. Here you can find your favorite WIRED shows and new episodes of our latest hit series Masterminds.
WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Through thoughtprovoking stories and videos, WIRED explores the future of business, innovation, and culture.Former CIA Operative Explains How Spies Use Disguises | WIRED


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The indoor or outdoor den is designed with unique folding mechanisms so that it can be folded out and ready to use in no time, and quickly folded back after use for easy transport and storage.
The den creates an ideal space for rest or physical play and is ideal for use in schools and nurseries with limited space due to the folding mechanisms.
Manufactured sustainably in the UK using high quality birch plywood with rounded edges and finished with a child-friendly, water-based lacquer for maximum safety and to help then den to retain its natural wood appearance.
Supplied with the den is a 100% cotton fabric cover in blue, however den accessory kits are also available separately.
The indoor/outdoor folding den is the winner of the silver award from the 2014 Practical Pre-school awards.
Please note: The kitchen unit, blanket, cushions and blue flag featured in the product images are not included with the indoor/outdoor folding den. Please Contact Us or alternatively call for more details on 01733 511121.
View our full range of Outdoor Play equipment.
Manufactured to order and dispatched within 10 working days.
Please note: for this product delivery is free to most areas of mainland UK. Please check our delivery page for postcode exceptions where a delivery cost will be charged.
Unit Size: 1700mm (w) x 1120mm (d) x 1160mm (h)
Outdoor Wooden Sand Pit
Outdoor Childrens Sink
Outdoor Play Panel Mirror
Outdoor Play Panel Plain


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Coming Home: 'Beautification project' begins on ranchOn every farm or ranch there's a place where old cars, pickups, tractors, augers and lawnmowers go to their semi-final resting place.
By: Jessie Veeder, INFORUM
On every farm or ranch there's a place where old cars, pickups, tractors, augers and lawnmowers go to their semi-final resting place.
And I say semi-final because eventually, even if it's 60 years later, some naïve relative will want to hold a family reunion/wedding/ /funeral/potluck at the farmstead, build a house in or near the old junkyard or just get a wild and delusional idea that he or she might be helpful in organizing a "homestead beautification project."
All scenarios call for the removal of the rusty relics, and all the crazy and naïve souls mentioned above are me.
I'm the event planner.
I wanted to build my house in the junkyard.
I'm the delusional helper.
Because next year the Veeder Ranch will celebrate 100 years of being the Veeder Ranch, and despite the memories that old machinery might hold, it's time to assess the situation.
It's time to revamp, to build new corrals, to make a decision about the old red barn and its crumbling foundation and leaky roof. It's time to finish this house and string new wire for the fences.
It's time to tear down that old garage.
It's time to clean up.
So, goodbye old brown '78 Dodge Ram. I remember when you were our fancy pickup. I remember how I used to scream in frustration at your sticky gears, red faced as I learned to drive stick shift. I hated you then.
But loved you when you took me to my first high school rodeo, the one where I rode the ranch horse through the barrel pattern and then tied her up to the trailer only to find she got loose and was running down the highway.
I left for college, and you were running like a champ.
I came back, and you were at the bottom of the hill.
Rest easy, brother.
Goodbye, replacement Dodge. In my life you could only be counted on to leave us stranded in coulees and on windy flats miles away from the barnyard. Somehow the only way to keep you running was to keep you floored over cow poop and clay buttes, hollering with the windows rolled down. To drive you meant full speed ahead, knowing that if we turned you off, you may never start again.
Looks like you never did.
And you. The old International. You're from a different time.
I never heard your gears grind or your engine rev. I only knew you as an artifact, a symbol of my great-grandfather's presence on this place, a load of wood waiting in your box, as if someone was sure to come back to finish their work for the day and put you in the shop. I find it hard to part with you. In fact, I don't think I will. It seems you've earned your place here. Maybe one day I'll find someone to fix you up. Maybe one day you could run again?
And goodbye to Pops' first riding lawnmower, the one he attempted to use to mow down the entire coulee in front of our house, so excited and funny-looking sitting in his cowboy hat among the grass reaching up over his head. No wonder that little machine died before its time. Yes, you will be leaving us too.
Along with the old augers my cousins and I used to pretend were dinosaurs, the combines that acted as ships on a sea of clover, the car with wings.
Yes, this is us, making plans and taking little pieces of this place, the history and stories, up from the coulee and down from the hilltops where they might have sat until they rusted away and got lost in the grass and mangle of brush for the next 100 years.
I'm not sure why we're so compelled, except a place like this needs to be cared for and tidied up so that we can work and play and be proud of it. We can't be expected to hold on to bolts, iron and steel for the sake of memory can we?
Because this is our semi-final resting place too.
I just hope we weather time as well as these old beasts we're finally laying to rest.
Jessie Veeder is a musician and writer living with her husband on a ranch near Watford City, N.D. Readers can reach her at email@example.com.
Tags: jessie veeder, shesays, columns, family


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Hi back to share a card with you I made following the sketch this week at Paper Players.
Here is the sketch.
I decided it was time to start things about my Christmas cards, so I went with a Christmas theme on this one.
The papers are from last years CTMH Frosted paper pack.
I cut the snowflake using a Cameo Silhouette file. You can't really see them but I added small pearl around the tips of the snowflake.
The stamp is a Gina K Design stamp.
Thank you for taking to the time to stop by for a visit.


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I don't know about you guys, but when it comes down to enjoying a game I play every bit of it, until there is nothing left to do. It saddens me to see that most games feature a linear set of missions and/or quests, that offer no variations gameplay. Lately, I've been playing a few roguelike-like games (yes Dungeons of Dredmor and Creepy Little Isaac, I'm looking at you guys), and I embraced the idea of playing a game which offers something new.
"Deploy All" tries to be such a game. It's aim/goal is to express my believes towards this kind of approach. What I'm trying to achieve is simple, once it is laid down: A game in which the player has to come up with new strategies in order to achieve his goal. "Deploy All" features (at this moment) a random generated world (of 2400+ tiles), 27 different enemies (in both appearance, and stats) and 2 base weapons (almost 16 including their variations – different color scheme, fire rate, damage and damage type). By the end of development, the game WILL feature 216 different types of enemies, 10 base weapons and a world of at least 3000 tiles.
The game's premise is this: You are one pilot, out of 1000, sent to capture/disable/scout an enemy base. Each playthrough you will have to fight your way through enemy waves on a new and dark map. A new strategy is needed every time, hence the enemies differ not only in appearance, but also in stats. Right now, they only feature 3: Speed, Armor and Fire Power (more to come soon, maybe… maybe…).
As for the weapons, after each successful mission new ones will be added to your inventory. During the first run, the player will start the game with only a basic laser cannon. During each mission, he may encounter (if exploring will be the path he will embrace) random weapons either dropped by the enemies, or found in containers. After completing the mission, the said weapon will be added to his inventory, for use in latter missions.
Each weapon has an effect assigned to it, and by mixing two weapons of different effects, combos can be made, either deadly for the enemies, or for their wielder. But enough about this for now… I'll just say this OUT LOUD: "Deploy All" is coming. My first commercial indie game (and by most treasured project up to date), will hit the stores somewhere in June.
And, a treat for those who read this far, who cared for my ramblings and my little announcement: A video footage of the game, showcasing the world (8 different textures), the player's beloved ship, two weapons, a bit of motion blur, decals and the Ambiance Music, one of the 3 different ambiences, that can be heard while exploring.
P.s: Keep an eye on this blog. I plan on releasing information every few days from now on!


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I love the fact that cosplay is not only being internationally recognized, but now companies are actually catering towards cosplayers.
McCalls who is one of the sewing pattern giants has created it's very own cosplay site. The collection includes patterns created by the fabulous Yaya Han, the new McCalls Cosplay Brand and includes vintage and costume patterns for a base. As any cosplayer knows, no matter how close the pattern, you still end up changing it to fit your needs and expectations.
Here are the newly introduced patterns for the McCalls Cosplay Brand 😀
I am so excited to get my hands on some of these and that read coat pattern . . . I'm seeing a Trigun gender bend in the near future 😀
To check out all of the patterns offered, visit the site at: Cosplay McCalls
Who are some of your favorite companies that cater towards cosplayers?


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This course covers the role of the designated fire marshal. It also gives you the opportunity to learn about the different types of fire extinguisher and how to use them correctly.
The course will present an insight into fire regulations and general fire precautions. It aims to provide you with the knowledge to be become a fire marshal.
The course will be 09.00 arrival with the course taking place 09.30-12.30. Please note tea/coffee will be provided but no lunch will be provided.
All delegates will receive a certificate of attendance, valid for 3 years.
£49 per delegate (inc VAT)
If this date does not work for you we are also offering the course on; Wednesday 7th February 2018 and Thursday 12th April 2018.


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Sŵnami : Sŵnami2015 : I Ka Ching
Formed in Dolgellau in 2010, Sŵnami's career ascent has been frequently punctuated and spurred by competitions - they first emerged into the public eye winning the 2011 National Eisteddfod Brwydr Y Bandiau (Battle of the Bands), fought successfully for a place on the Wakestock stage in 2012, and won a spot in the first BBC Horizons selection in 2014 (alongside Plu, Climbing Trees, Casi, Houdini Dax, et al.). Along the way they have also had Radio 1 airplay and featured at the international Eurosonic Festival.
This year they are set for a potentially unique high profile hatrick: already voted 'Album of the Year' by public vote in the annual Welsh music magazine Y Selar awards, then 'Welsh Language Album of the Year' at the 2016 National Eisteddfod - now they are in the 12 album shortlist for the Welsh Music Prize.
Sŵnami have drawn obvious comparisons with the Arctic Monkeys and the Macabees, and you can still find in their music the former's dynamism and edge, and the condensed verve of the latter; but all the recent acclamation is focused on their debut album, and its distinct sound - forged and honed in years of rehearsals and exhilarating live shows before it was finally recorded for a full album (although an effervescent EP released in 2013, Du A Gwyn, and a clutch of excellent singles, precede this release).
Sŵnami opens with the fragment 1:20, flawlessly stoking anticipation of what's next, which is the phenomenally good choppy guitar and synth pop of the first full track, Trwmgwsg ('Deep Sleep').
Following Trwmgwsg the song that received Radio 1 airtime, Magnet, has a mellower, elegant groove but makes the grade, as does the next track Gwenwyn (released as a single) - which is rawer and urgent; guitar driven and immediate in impact.
Mid-album Cysur Cyffur offers quiet, keyboard / synth grounded respite, before the momentum rebuilds and twists through Mewn Lliw, Mabeso (with its dazzling, angular and infectious melody) and Fioled - all three clever, classic indie pop songs - and is then fully unleashed in the rolling, freewheeling Cynnydd.
Guitar is again prominent on both of the last two tracks, the speeding Llwybrau and animated La Tramontana, guiding everything to a close with a squalling moment of rock exuberance.
Lively and intoxicating, danceable but with a creative, edgier hinterland; it's a scintillating set of songs - each one marked out by its energy, spirit and musical intelligence.
There are some great albums on the 2016 Welsh Music Prize shortlist, but this debut should be in there as one of the two or three real contenders - it's an album you could put in anyone's hand to irrefutably demonstrate the vibrancy of Welsh contemporary music.
SŴNAMI I Trwmgwsg


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Whether you are looking to keep busy in the community or complete community service obligations, Envision Escalante has year-round volunteer opportunities. Please consider donating your time and skill to any of our great programs and projects:
Escalante Canyons Art Festival is 100% volunteer lead and operated! Volunteers are needed throughout the year for planning of various aspects of the festival as well as volunteers on the ground for the festival weekend. Send inquiries to email@example.com .
Escalante Makerspace needs volunteers to assist in maintenance and repairs of facilities. Contact Susan Nelson for more information, firstname.lastname@example.com .
Made In Escalante seeks a manager to facilitate the re-opening of the art market gallery retail store. Initially a volunteer position, the opportunity can lead to year-round employment for the right individual. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com.
Skyhoopi is looking for volunteers year-round to help with maintenance, repairs and merchandising, as well as drop-offs in Panguitch, Cedar City, Kanab and St. George. Inquire at the store: 40 West Main Street, Escalante.


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w/o respect in retrospect
Geir Haraldseth
Looking back involves the restructuring of the past into progress. One thing is attached to another through the magic of hindsight and voila; clarity is achieved. Natasja Askelund's project of looking back on her own artistic production over the past twenty years obscures this trajectory of progress and rather defiantly blurs the past and violently eradicates meaning. This valiant attempt to obfuscate might also lead to the creation of new meaning, but Askelund's attitude towards a retrospective is a hazy gaze and a reworking and restructuring of the past instead of a simple representation of it.
Most people would be very familiar with Askelund's work. Colorful figurative paintings, often with a gruesome twist. Defiantly figurative? Deviantly decorative? For her retrospective exhibition at Galleri Opdahl Askelund has rounded up several of her old canvases. Not the throw-aways, not the discarded paintings that never made it out of the studio, but rather canvases that mean something, that have gone places, and achieved something. These are paintings from exhibitions that have been important to the artist, and important to the people who have purchased them. The canvases will be repainted, in a single color, to create a monochrome that traces the original motif, but eliminates any color that might help to further shape, define, show lines, and create figures and representations. The painting will still be there, but hidden under a new coat of paint. The figures will still be there, but under a layer of monochromatic paint.
This altercating move might be considered tongue in cheek, a cruel and perhaps unnecessary makeover of sorts. It is easy to imagine the figurative painter in the studio trapped with guilt over her endeavors to represent and to tell stories through paintings. There's always a second-guessing for the figurative painter within the world of contemporary art. After all, painting has been left for dead several times in art history and it takes a certain amount of stubbornness and persistence to still paint, and in particular figuratively. The monochrome inhabits a privileged status in the art world. It can be a sigil of seriousness or a representation of rigor, in contrast to the perceived frivolous nature of contemporary figurative painting. A monochromatic painting also embodies an ideal of a free painting, which might even inhabit a perceived status as a monochromatic deity. Kazimir Malevich's Black Square, was a Suprematist portal into a different world. The magic monochromes of Yves Klein would "open a window to freedom." Askelund is not giving up her interests as a painter or trying to reinsert herself into a male monochromatic tradition, but her project does require balls.
Askelund is putting herself on the line here. Her and her paintings, because that is what she is, a painter, and what she does, make paintings. She might be cracking a joke, but is also being dead serious about this opportunity to look back on her own oeuvre. But the regular reordering of a retrospective is challenged by the choice to paint over the same canvas, yet again. Painters often reuse a canvas, either by necessity or because the painting didn't 'stick.' These paintings did 'stick,' but are being 'unstuck.' The recently reincarnated monochromes you will encounter in this exhibition still reveal figures and stories; they are just at the mercy of a single color. This is not an attempt to realign a practice within the history of art, but an attempt at risk.
And in the end, the act of repainting in itself is not one of destruction. It is certainly one of change and of reaching a point of no return, but instead of looking at the history of monochromes to find historical precedents for Askelund's act, maybe one of can find ones in practices of transformation and translation? This is not the Erased de Kooning Drawing by Robert Rauschenberg, even though they share a similar logic. Rauschenberg acquired the De Kooning drawing for the purpose of erasing it. The erasure was an arduous task and transformed the valuable drawing into a work by Rauschenberg. Askelund similarly takes something of value and transforms it, sacrificing one work of art in order to create another one. The difference being that she only utilizes her own work. She is both De Kooning and Rauschenberg.
The translation of one painting into another, on top of itself, is also similar in a way to Gelitin's Tantamounter 24/7. The Austrian collective inhabited the gallery space of Leo Konig during the course of the exhibition and turned themselves and the whole gallery into a large, living Xerox machine. One item, a work of art, a trinket, a baby, a pack of cigarettes, would be inserted into the Tantamounter. A few hours later a copy would appear together with the original. Next to the baby would be a stuffed animal dressed as the baby, the pack of cigarettes would be translated into a cassette tape painted with the colors of the pack. The copy would be linked with the original through idea and representation. In Askelund's case the copy and the original are linked on the canvas, one subverting the other.
The resulting presentation of paintings, of confusing past and present, destruction and creation, seems to be a fruitful way of not just looking at the past, but reworking it. The past is constantly reworked, forgotten, discovered, rediscovered, mythologized and recontextualized, but the process has never been as clear or as fascinating as with Askelund's look back at her own work. The idea of progress is challenged and in particular the ways in which an artists oeuvre is constructed, framed and told.
Installation photography: Bitmap


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So I finally bit the bullet and purchased key note for my ipad as I was conversing with Mr. Multimedia yesterday and he was mentioning how many of his students want to do their projects on the ipad.
In order to stay ahead of these young whippersnappers (or at least on par), I thought I would try to get a couple of slides together.
The Challenge:
1. Build a couple of slides (What? I'm busy so leave me alone.)
2. Add images
3. Add shapes.
4. Play around with the text box.
5. Add animation.
6. Add sound (this is the big one as I have heard rumours, since corroborated that keynote on the ipad doesn't allow you to embed sound directly).
7. If I can't add sound, find a way to get both.
1. Relatively easy (as I had just updated to ios5 the other day, Keynote automatically took me to their tutorial, which I would highly recommend you try- it shows you how to do things and then gets you to try it. I learned many things, such as how to select two things at once and move them at the same time).
2. Adding images was also very simple. Just go to the little image at the top and add media. I went to my Camera roll and retrieved the screenshots that I needed. OH! I also used the replace option on the image given in the slide template- very handy indeed!
3. I wanted to highlight a section of my picture, so I went back to the icon with the picture box and chose shapes this time. I chose the circle.
Then to the i for the style options–> Fill I was able to select NO Fill.
I then turned the borders on, coloured it red (I like red) and tapped the image icon to get out of the screen. I did the same for my little line that linked my text box to the circled section.
4. The text box gave me a little difficulty (at one point the keyboard would not show up) but I finally managed to make the text smaller and move it around the screen. The difficulty I had was that I inadvertently made the slide zoom out when I was trying to move my picture and I couldn't see half of my slide. Being the swift learner that I am though (no sniggering please) I figured it out and zoomed back in.
5. Animation. The animation functions pretty much the same way as it does in powerpoint though the nomenclature is a little different. Select the object you wish to animate and then click on the diamond shaped icon beside the image icon. It will take you to the following screen:
The + sign will let you animate the object at the beginning of the slide and the – at the end. You can choose your effect (I am partial to the anvil), the order as well as whether or not you want the animation to happens before or after the others or by click:
6. Add sound. Ahh. This seems to be Keynote's Achille's heel. There is no way to create a soundtrack to your presentation through the ipad keynote. Why, is beyond me- all the tools necessary to do so are available. It is one of those anomalies of reason- a black hole in the order of things.
However, there is a way around it, though the animations will be lost. Take screen shots of your slides, then go to imovie. Insert the slides via the camera roll and then click on the icon of the microphone to record. I had to zoom my slides a little (done by pinching the image) so that imovie showed the whole slide:
I also had to retake my voice recording about 5 times, but that was because I realised too late that I speak with a lot of umms and ahhhs.
Here is the final version:
Okay. Maybe not a work of genius, but it gets the point across.
Thus our reconnaissance mission concludes successfully!


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China's Ma Long (2R) and Wang Hao (R) competes with Russia's Kirill Skachkov (3R) and Alexey Smirnov (L) during a table tennis men's team match of the London 2012 Olympic Games at The Excel Centre in London on August 4, 2012. AFP PHOTO/SAEED KHAN
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text: Barbara Paleczny, a Canadian School Sister of Notre Dame, forms part of the community of Malakal. As a member of Solidarity with South Sudan, she teaches Christian Religious Education and English at the Solidarity Teacher Training College there and in various centers throughout the country. With a PhD and an SThD (Doctorate in Sacred Theology), she also values giving directed or guided retreats, and conferences on transformational theology, spirituality (incarnational/cosmic, biblical), scripture, healing of memories and trauma, and social justice. After the past year crisis she has integrated the community of Juba.


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QB's leaving party
29/01/2015 19:00
So, Queen Bea is relocating to New Zealand in less than 2 weeks!!!!
Come along to her last UK party and wish her bon voyage.
Phone for details and address... 07584 656 440
(This is a mixture of TGirls and family, so please dress appropriately)


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Absentee Voting [1 VAC 20 ‑ 70]
|Material omissions from absentee ballots.
|Comment Period
|Ends 10/12/2011
10/10/11 8:12 am
Commenter: John Whitley, Consulting Services Group:The Professional Learning Specialis
Repugnant Repubs
Repugnant Repubs
Why are we surprised by this deplorable tatic initiated by Repubs? They are doing everything they can to destroy the infrastructures of our Nation: Energy, environment, education, economy and equity. Now they're attacking the most basic right of all citizens: THE RIGHT TO VOTE. We knew the Bush/Gore debacle was the tip of their actions to 'control the ballot box'. We must be VISIBLE AND VOCAL and refuse to permit their repugnant, regressive behaviours. We must join the protest/revolution emerging on Wall Street and throughout our great Nation.
CommentID: 20189


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Event Recap
September 13, 2011
American Council On Renewable Energy
Renewable Energy and Natural Gas: Friend? Foe? Or Both?
Christopher Berendt, of counsel to the firm's Washington, D.C., office, spoke Sept. 14 at an American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) webinar titled, "Renewable Energy and Natural Gas: Friend? Foe? Or Both?"
Chris, a member of the Environment & Energy Practice Group and leader of its Environmental Markets Team, joined a panel discussion of the potential role of the combined resources of renewables and natural gas in meeting future power needs.
The speakers discussed whether a combination of renewable energy and natural gas-fired generation could build on their relative strengths and create energy that is both reliable and more environmentally beneficial.


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So… the Matt Pollard story begins. A young man who is nuts about cars, embarking on his first season in the BRSCC MX-5 Championship. ABly supported, he hopes, by his support team at AB Motorsport.
Find out About Matt, his Past, his Present and what he hopes for the Future. What's the car? It's an Mx-5, of course, specced for the track. Catch up on his trials and tribulations in his Racing Blog.
Thinking of doing the same… Have you got a greed for speed? Have you got deep pockets…? Check out the Getting Started guide and What does it Cost to go racing?


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5 Killed at Somalia Military Academy
5 Killed at Somalia Military Academy
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military academy west of Somalia's capital, killing at least five soldiers, said a military officer.
The bomber dressed in a military uniform walked into the Somali military training camp on Monday morning and detonated explosives strapped to his waist near soldiers and officers, said Col. Abdi Hassan.
The bomber, posing as a military trainee, had crossed the gate checkpoint and targeted soldiers and officers resting after their daily military exercises, he said.
Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, have claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a separate incident Monday, a government worker was killed after a bomb in his car was detonated by remote control in Mogadishu's Hamarweyne district, police say.
Abdikadir Osman, an officer with the education minister immediately died before medics took to a hospital, said Abdiqadir Mohamed, the district commissioner.
Al-Shabab, which is allied to al-Qaida, has stepped up its campaign of bombings in Mogadishu in recent weeks. New President Mohmed Abdullahi Mohamed has named a new military chief and other officials in an attempt to improve the worsening security situation.
The Somali-American president gave al-Shabab members a 60-day amnesty period to surrender and join the government side.
Al-Shabab has denounced the new president as an "apostate" and warned Somalis against supporting him. The rebels have been pushed out of the capital and other major urban areas in Somalia by national and African Union multinational forces, but they continue to carry out deadly bombings and attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere. Targets have included hotels, military checkpoints and the presidential palace.
The Trump administration approved greater U.S. military authority to pursue al-Shabab, including more aggressive airstrikes as parts of southern Somalia will be considered areas of active hostilities.


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Doctorate at the University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a research university that enjoyes high international visability. It offers doctoral education in a wide range of research fields in the humanities, cultural and educational studies, psychology, social sciences, economics, law, natural and life sciences. The duration of the doctoral training programme is three years and includes the writing of an original research work in form of a dissertation and a training component in form of seminars, workshop, conferences etc. The admission requirements as well as the structure of the doctorate - including the amount of ECTS doctoral candidates have to earn during their study - are defined in the curricula.
The supervison of doctoral candidates is a central task of the University of Vienna. As doctoral candidate you need at least one supervisor from the University of Vienna. Please note that admission itself does not guarantee supervison. Doctoral candidates are expected to contact qualified supervisors who match their research interests.
Different measures taken by the University of Vienna such as the uni:docs fellowship programme or the Vienna Doctoral Academies and Schools foster the quality of doctoral education and provide an environment in which doctoral candidates and their research can thrive. The attractiveness of the University of Vienna as research institution is demonstrated by the high number of international PhD candidates. Around one third of all doctoral candidates come form abroad. In addition, every year a number of early stage researchers visit the University of Vienna within the Visiting PhD programme.
Every semester the Center for Doctoral Studies offers information sessions on the structure of the doctorate at the University of Vienna. Welcome Days for all new doctoral candidates are offered at the beginning of each semester. The extensive programme includes info sessions on important topics as well as networking possibilities. In addition, (prospective) doctoral candidates can contact us any time via email or visit us for an individual consultation to receive information about the requisites of their programme. In our monthly newsletter we informe you about scholarships, calls for applications and relevant topics for early stage researchers.


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Ginseng Harvesting on the Chattahoochee National Forest
Forest Service officials must limit the harvesting of wild ginseng in the Chattahoochee National Forest because of concerns over reductions in wild ginseng numbers.
Range-wide, wild ginseng populations have declined over the past decade. A recent dramatic increase in the demand for permits issued for harvesting ginseng in the Chattahoochee National Forest has raised concerns about sustainable harvest levels.
We believe it is in everyone's best interest to further limit the amount of the harvest to help ensure that the plant's future sustainability is protected.
Wild ginseng may be collected only by those with permits and only during the designated harvest season.
The Forest Service uses the following process for permitting wild ginseng harvests in the Chattahoochee National Forest:
- A total of 42 annual permits may be issued.
- 40 permits may be issued for the Blue Ridge Ranger District and 2 permits may be issued for the Conasauga Ranger District. No ginseng permits will be issued for the Chattooga River Ranger District or the Oconee National Forest (Ranger District map).
- Permits will be issued through a lottery system, with entries randomly selected by each district office. Lottery entries can be made by calling or visiting the issuing district office before July 31. Lottery entries may be made at more than one district office (find district office contact information here).
- A permit allows the harvest of 1/2 wet pound of wild ginseng in the ranger district where the permit is issued. (Three wet pounds are equivalent to one dry pound.)
- Permits are $20 each.
- Harvesting is allowed for 2 weeks only, September 1-14.
- Harvesting is prohibited in all designated Wilderness areas. Each district ranger may further limit ginseng harvests to certain areas of the national forest to allow the plants to regenerate, or to protect other natural areas. Harvest area descriptions and maps will be provided to permit holders.
Additional Information
These limits to the wild ginseng harvest in the Chattahoochee National Forest will allow the Forest Service and partners to assess whether future measures may be needed.
The Forest Service is developing a long-term strategy for managing sustainable ginseng populations that will include increased monitoring efforts.
Those requesting a permit must call or visit the district office and submit their name and address by July 31. Requests by email will not be accepted. Written notification will be mailed to applicants selected by lottery before August 17.
District offices will issue permits to selected applicants August 17-31.
Ginseng is not harvested in the Oconee National Forest.
In addition to reducing the legal harvest of wild ginseng, the Forest Service plans to increase law enforcement efforts to reduce poaching.
Removing a wild ginseng plant or its parts from national forests without a permit or outside of the legal harvest season is considered theft of public property. Penalties for plant poaching may include a fine up to $5,000 or 6-month sentence in federal prison, or both.
Every plant on the national forest is public property and is sustainably managed by the Forest Service to meet the needs of present and future generations.
Ginseng root has been favored as a tonic primarily in East Asia for the past two-and-a half centuries. In Georgia, ginseng is more common in the mountains.
Download a fact sheet about the ginseng harvesting permit process for the Chattahoochee National Forest.


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Scroll down for full video lesson (with tab) of Yesterday.
Yesterday appears on The Beatles' 1965 album 'Help' and was written by Paul McCartney; a truly beautiful song that we can all relate to in one way or another. Although most of the chords are reasonably straight forward, Yesterday does have its challenges.
The trickiest part about this song is getting the technique right; McCartney has an incredibly unorthodox style of playing and it can really catch you out if you've not done it before.
Yesterday is no. 18 on my Top 60 Fingerpicking Songs of ALL TIME list. If you've not seen the list be sure to check it out and subscribe to get weekly lessons for each song!
Looking back at old footage from the 60s of McCartney playing Yesterday, he would play the bass note with his thumb followed by three up strums with his first finger; this alone is fairly peculiar. This technique can be applied throughout the entire piece but if you watch Paul and listen carefully you can hear all sorts of nuances in it. For example, sometimes he'll play the higher strings with his 1st/2nd fingers at the same time as the bass notes and sometimes he'll play three down strums instead of the up strums - I really recommend studying his playing a bit before jumping in and learning the song.
Yesterday Song Facts:
- Recorded - June 1965
- Album - Help (track 13)
- Key - F major (with a fair amount of modulation)
- Tempo - 92 bpm
- No other Beatle played on the track
- One of the most covered songs of all time
McCartney tuned all the strings of his guitar down a whole tone (2 notes) giving you the notes of:
Despite the dropped tuning of the guitar, for simplicity I have kept the chord names the same as if the guitar was still in standard tuning. At the end of the lesson are the actual chords that are played. These will work perfectly in standard tuning!
The Chords:
Here are all the chords used throughout the song.
Just a G chord for the two bar intro - this is a really good opportunity for you to work on getting your technique strong.
Learn absolutely everything you need to know to master fingerstyle.
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There's a lot more going on in the verse and some quite tricky chord changes to master.
The bridge is fairly similar to the verse with a few new ideas thrown in.
Get 101 of the Best Fingerpicking Patterns Ever course today!
An almost endless supply of fingerpicking patterns, strengthening your skills day-by-day. Enough exercises to last a lifetime!
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Here the B string descends chromatically down from D (3rd fret) to C (1st fret) over a G chord.
Now let's take at look at the chords that you would play if your guitar was in standard tuning.
If you have any questions or want to share anything at all then please leave a comment below.
I hope you've found this lesson useful.


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Title: Cursed ( Voodoo Nights #1 )
Author: Lizzy Ford
Expected publication: February 9th 2014 by Evatopia Press
Type: Fantasy, Paranormal
Source: NetGalley
Summery: The Red Man is coming …
Five years after her sister disappeared, seventeen-year-old Adrienne finds the strength to return to her father's home in New Orleans. But soon after she arrives, the mark of a curse appears on her, leaving her worried. Will she be the next victim of a four-hundred-year old family curse … the next to be claimed by a serial killer roaming the back alleys of the city?
The day before his senior year begins, Jayden is given a skeleton key passed down through his family for generations — a gruesome reminder of how his ancestors betrayed their own people and sold them into slavery. He doesn't believe in the curse the key allegedly bears and puts it away with the intention of forgetting about its message. Until he meets Adrienne, a girl he's compelled to for more reasons than her beauty.
He's not the only one who notices her. A man in a skeleton mask and a voodoo gang member are also drawn to Adrienne. One is determined to protect her. The other intends to mislead her. Haunted by the mythical Red Man, all are connected to the ancient curse.
Can they overcome their misgivings about one another and prevent the dark prophecy looming over them? Or will they be lured away from each other by evil's siren song?
The book sounded like it would be really awesome read and the cover was really cool..but sadly the beginning didn't keep my attention as much as i would like. The way the book was written was pretty plain to me and half the time i would find myself really bored.
I couldn't relate with any of the characters. The characters in the book aren't very rememberable to me. And it wasn't just the characters. I would get lost on what was going on a lot and i had to keep repeating what i read. When stuff starts to get good it was rushed. you have to go threw a maze before you understand the whole plot. I did skip a lot of parts, not really meaning to but it just wasn't catching my attention.
I really tried to like the book but it was hard. I had a difficult time finishing the book. It did have it's good moments in the book and i also can see people really liking the book. It just wasn't for me.
The book isn't out yet, so i don't want to say too much. I do honestly recommend people to read this book when it comes out and give it a chance.
The really cool thing about the book is it is based in New Orleans. And of course New Orleans screams Spooky and well parties but mostly spooky. and the book definitely highlights that whole New Orleans Voodoo Myth. I always wanted to visit New Orleans. The place just sounds so freaking fun.
Overall: The beginning was boring, I wish the characters would have stand out a little more and then maybe i could of got more into it. The book didn't totally suck. I have read worse. The Writing i feel like can lean more towards older then younger.
Other Related articles
- Cursed (Voodoo Nights) by Lizzy Ford (themodestvergebookblog.wordpress.com)
- Review: Cursed by Lizzy Ford (pratr.wordpress.com)


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New front in war on drug gangs
Authorities in Mexico destroy shrines to saint revered by criminals
Followers seek protection, health, love and work.
Also known as La Santisima Muerte, La Niña Blanca and La Flaquita.
Strong following among people who work at night, including taxi drivers, waitresses, prostitutes, police officers and criminals.
Offerings include flowers, candy, alcohol, cigars, money and jewelry.
Online: For photos, videos and more stories about the border
TIJUANA – At a small roadside chapel overlooking Rodriguez Dam, followers of La Santa Muerte regularly came by with offerings and petitions – for health, for protection, for work. They were shocked last weekend when they found the concrete block structure smashed to pieces.
As Mexican authorities wage war on drug gangs, they have opened a new front: the small shrines and chapels where criminals are said to seek protection from La Santa Muerte, a popular saint not sanctioned by the Catholic Church whose name means Saint Death.
Often called La Niña Blanca, the white girl, she appears as a skeletal figure in flowing white robes with a large scythe. Gang members favor tattoos of her likeness, pendants with her image, and engrave her figure on their weapons. But her followers also include homemakers, laborers, taxi drivers, even police officers.
"I feel so angry," said Zaida Romero, 33, a used-clothing vendor and single mother of seven, standing by the pile of rubble and twisted metal on the day the shrines were destroyed March 21. "She has helped me so, so, so much," said Romero, explaining that La Santa Muerte helped her overcome cancer.
Critics say destroying the chapels – with their flickering candles, collection boxes and statues of La Santa Muerte – do little to quell the drug-related violence plaguing Mexico, and violate the freedom of worship guaranteed in Mexico's constitution.
Authorities defend their actions as necessary steps to weaken the grip of drug culture on Mexican society that reflects itself through song lyrics, video images and television newscasts, and the shrines where some traffickers worship.
The chapel near Rodriguez Dam was one of five shrines destroyed last Saturday around Tijuana and Rosarito Beach, four of them devoted to La Santa Muerte and one to Jesús Malverde, another popular folk saint whose followers include drug traffickers. Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos said it was a military-led action, though the military has not accepted responsibility.
Two days later, near the Texas border, federal and municipal authorities destroyed 34 Santa Muerte chapels that had proliferated in the past couple of years along a national highway linking Monterrey and the border city of Nuevo Laredo.
"This is a subject that must open a great social debate in Tijuana," Ramos said in an interview last week. "Should we permit these spaces where hired assassins who kill children, families, police seek protection? What side are we on? I am on the side of tranquillity and security."
Ramos, a member of president Felipe Caderón's National Action Party, has been spearheading a package of proposed reforms before the Baja California legislature that would ban the broadcast of drug ballads, known as narcocorridos, as well as videos and images that authorities say glorify drug traffickers.
Many followers of La Santa Muerte insist their devotion has nothing to do with drug trafficking. And those who would link her image to crime are mistaken, said José Manuel Valenzuela Arce, a researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a Tijuana-based think tank.
"Destroying these chapels is not going to do anything to diminish crime," Valenzuela said. "Someone who's going to commit a crime could just as easily go to a Catholic church as a Santa Muerte shrine, or go nowhere at all."
The exact origins of La Santa Muerte are uncertain, but her history is rooted in beliefs of pre-Hispanic and Afro-Caribbean cultures, and Mexico's strong tradition of Catholicism, Valenzuela said. She has been around at least since the mid-1960s, and her origins are not linked to drug traffickers, Valenzuela said. Most followers of La Santa Muerte are Catholics, who also venerate Mexico's patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, he said.
As La Santa Muerte and other popular religious figures command a growing following in Mexico, veneration of those figures also has spread among Mexican migrant communities in the United States, Valenzuela said.
If people turn to them, it is because traditional government and religious institutions are not meeting their needs, Valenzuela said. Believers often ask for concrete assistance: health, protection, a job.
Rosa Alvarez, 54, a grandmother, keeps an altar in the kitchen of the small rented wood shack she shares with eight family members in Tijuana's eastern Mariano Matamoros neighborhood.
As Alvarez stood before 13 images and five small statues of La Santa Muerte, her face lit up.
"I call her mi flaquita, my skinny little one," said Alvarez, a native of the state of Michoacan who moved to Tijuana 20 years ago.
She regularly leaves water, beer and coffee on the altar, and "when I pray and make the sign of the cross in front of her, I sleep very well."
Alvarez said she is a practicing Catholic who attends Mass, and believes in God and the Virgin of Guadalupe. On a friend's recommendation, Alvarez said she initially turned to La Santa Muerte a few years ago to summon back her former husband. He returned, although Alvarez said she is now single.
When her daughter Lorena later developed a serious kidney infection, Alvarez again looked to Santa Muerte, and she said her daughter was cured.
Alvarez's children now ask for their own favors. Daughter Patricia Ceja, 32, a single mother of two, prays that she won't lose her factory job. Her brother Ruben Flores, 21 and unemployed, asks Santa Muerte to help him find work.
"I tell her, Santisima Muerte, give me what I need, and if you do, I will buy you another candle," Patricia Ceja said.
Tijuana's Roman Catholic archbishop, Rafael Romo Muñoz, condemned the destruction of the Santa Muerte chapels last week but said La Santa Muerte is no saint.
Legitimate saints, sanctioned by the church, are "humans who have lived exemplary lives," Romo said. "Thus, there is nothing religious about La Santa Muerte. . . . It's an ideology that people mistakenly take for religion."
"Those who promote her do very well," Romo added, suggesting some advocates who run chapels and sell images are motivated by money. "It brings them economic advantages."
Hours after the destruction of the chapel overlooking Rodriguez Dam, devotees gathered at nightfall. Among those stopping by was a federal police officer, who shook his head, saying, "muy mal, muy mal (very bad, very bad)."
Still wearing his grease-stained work clothes, mechanic Arturo Anaya, 42, left a bouquet he brought to thank La Santa Muerte for curing his wife's lung disease.
"I asked her not to take away my wife," Anaya said, looking over at his spouse. "And now my wife is right here, giving me trouble again."
Sandra Dibble: (619) 293-1716; firstname.lastname@example.com


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Botanists and adventurers have climbed Mount Kinabalu since mid nineteenth century. It soars 13,455 feet above sea level - the highest peak between New Guinea and the Asian mainland. Orchids grow there. Cool. Cool growing that is.
Ever chasing orchids along the pathways to Asia and the Pacific I found myself in a bus load of tourists screaming along the shores of the South China Sea heading up the mountain - following an angle on group travel for some magazine or other. Sweeps of sacred lotus streamed by and it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel to stop for the shot but (like most pre-determined package deals) ever onward and upward. No lotus stop. Learn to avoid tour groups.
Passing clouds misted the forest and soaked us to the skin while we anticipated lunch - wrong season. Not a solitary flower to be found. I raced around searching alternative landscapes and, suddenly, fainted dead away. No lunch and no orchids. Lack of oxygen and hyperactive. I should have known better.
Coming to after a little R&R I noticed an honesty box beside a few rough hewn wooden spoons. Twenty cents each and lovingly hand made. The local craft shop. Rough, but real. The spoon was well worth the coins I dropped into the box.
A lesson learned Shop close to the source where money does most good. AND a good lotus shot beats a fanciful orchid hunt any day. Just remember to jump ship when when the Sacred Red Lotus starts flashing. MaX
PS Twenty years on, the spoon still makes a great stirrer.