text:
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Jiao's name has been changed to Xiaoyi.
The events of yesterday were too grueling for any one person to bear. Maya, Yukio, and Sophia were exhausted the next day. They could barely sleep from the all the stress last night, their bones ached, and tolerance for stress thin. But they had to keep moving on. Maya's fatigue brought back her college memories, where she lived alone in a small apartment, fighting in a duel stadium to pay tuition, her every day in class earned in a victory… and getting a Political Studies degree to make a career on top of that… and trying to work on her dramatic arts on top of that…
Time marched on relentlessly anyway, uncaring. Our protagonists had to keep up despite their aches and pains. It was mandatory. Maximus called every team that survived the Ghouls' attacks and was still in the tournament to meet in the town square of the village workshop. Beyond the workshop lay a field of sand littered with small, sharp rocks and pottery fragments, and beyond the sand lay the tall, jagged hills of the Valley of the Kings, austere and intimidating. They sky was a perfect blue with no clouds or other blemishes, magnifying to yellow shine of the sand the might of the hills.
Our protagonists saw those wondrous scenes and vowed to see them more, but needed to move on. They huddled just inside a hovel over their laptop, deep into conversation.
June 3, 2009
Maya, Yukio, and Sophia tell the crew back home everything that happened last night.
JOLENE: "I'm so sorry everything happened to you, Sophia, and you too, cher and Yukio."
HASSAN: "I offer my condolences."
JC: "I do too. Sorry about everything."
Did JC just apologize? And why? Maya can't make out if JC apologized for what the Ghouls did last night or what JC did four years ago, or both.
MAYA: "It's fine. What's done is done. We can take care of ourselves." Maya offers an equally ambiguous reply.
YUKIO: "We don't know who is left in the tournament. It's not unreasonable to think the Ghouls took out a lot of people."
Maya: "Jolene, can you show us all the teams that are left?"
JOLENE: "No problem, cher. I don't even need to hack anything. Kaibacorp keeps an open record of every duel that took place for spectators." She then delves to find the records.
MAYA: "This tournament really is Battle Royale…" she mutters to herself. "It's worse than the Superbowl."
YUKIO: "Worse. It's the Superbowl for douchebag fat bearded virgins who don't bathe, euphoric over the thought of their own enlightenment, while everyone else faints as soon as they smell their armpits. It's as if Conan the Barbarian, Broly, and Bandit Keith left their jockstraps in a locker room for a week." He nudges Sophia and winks at her.
MAYA: "You're not helping, honest as you are."
SOPHIA: "I think you're both being unfair to duelists everywhere. Think of Stella and Mathias. They're great duelists and wonderful people."
MAYA: "Girl, you need to wake up. Like chess, Yugioh is a game that consumes you totally if you're not careful. People who resist this game's corruption maintain their humanity. Most don't. Among the damned there are only three types. One: the aforementioned neckbeard losers. Two: pedophiles with lolicons for Internet avatars. Three: worst of all, arrogant wannabe champions who netdeck each other."
SOPHIA: "You mean like you, right?"
YUKIO: "Burn."
MAYA: "Honey, you need to step up your game, so burn it up your own ass. I'm still the American Champion and have been for the last four years. Please explain to me how I'm a generic meta player who netdecks everyone else."
Sophia remains silent.
MAYA: "That's what I thought."
YUKIO: "You're taking this really personally, aren't you?"
MAYA: "The last few days have really put me under a lot of stress, and I hate everyone. My whole life is on the line in this tournament. What happens here will shape my future forever."
SOPHIA: "As it will ours. Maybe Yukio and I don't have everything to lose, but our lives are still on the line anyway."
JOLENE: "Okay, guys. I have all of the teams still standing." She downloads the information and sends it to Maya, Yukio, and Sophia, who examine it for themselves. Around twelve teams remained, including theirs, Baby Blast Furnace, holding three Item Cards. Team Stella remained, as did Buffalo Chicken, Ultimate Super Sayan Gods, and others.
XIAOYI: "Oh, you guys survived the second Ghoul attack? You sweethearts are tough cookies, aren't you?"
MAYA: "Xiaoyi, how are you useful again?"
XIAOYI: "I provide the hovel so your friends to talk to you together, not unlike the hovel you're in. Listen, I have a tip for you. Notice how Umbra, Lumis, and Bandit Keith went after your team?"
MAYA: "Yes, but Bandit Keith attacked for personal reasons."
XIAOYI: "That aside, notice how the Ghouls attacked you with their lieutenants, not their foot soldiers. There is clearly an order in their attacks. The capos bring down the biggest threats while the rest of the crew takes out the small fry. Expect Umbra and Lumis to confront you again soon and next time I doubt they'll use a proxy."
MAYA: "You know an awful lot about Ghouls." Xiaoyi sounds like Bakura in her black book.
XIAOYI: "Common induction. Elementary, my dear Watson. Even someone as naive as Sophia could figure it out. Most criminals aren't very smart. Only strong people can wield evil and not get burned."
JOLENE: "Anything else going on?"
YUKIO: "Mathias wants everyone to meet up at the town square. Well, village square really. He wants to prepare us for the Ghouls."
JOLENE: "That makes sense."
HASSAN: "Before we hang up, I need to tell you something. I had another dream. Among the three snakes, one of them slithers towards with guile and strikes her. The second snake strikes back at the first and they war with each other while the third snake tries to protect the second one."
JC: "Don't be ridiculous! Only idiots think bad dreams actually mean anything!"
Maya agrees with JC in silent. It's not like they have the time to ponder the vague and dim babbling of prophecies anyway.
Mathias called everyone to gather round the square and the meeting was held in short order. Mathias stated his case, "Duelists everywhere, look around you. When the tournament began there were seventy teams. Now, only twelve remain. We don't know when the Ghouls will strike again. We need to stick together. Maybe we should stop dueling each other entirely until the worst is over. Everyone who agrees, raise their hand and say 'Aye!'"
Maximus, Ivy, Maria, Stella, Yukio, Sophia and others raised their hand "Aye!"
Maya did not. She furrowed her brow, pondering her thoughts briefly, then spoke, "We can't stop dueling entirely. We're still in a tournament after all. What if the Ghouls strike us at the last day? The tournament will end and we'll all be fair game."
"But if we duel each other we'll still weaken ourselves either way."
"I see your point, but keep in mind our duels are televised all around the world. The tournament is a fight for survival for us but for Kaiba and Pegasus it's reality TV. They don't care about us. If we don't entertain them, if we don't give them revenue, they'll make us duel in some devious way, which makes our situation even worse. Besides, the Ghouls care less about technically eliminating us and more about terrorizing us. Why do you think they go to such lengths to destroy the marketplaces, even set tingfires on them?"
Maria took a deep sigh. She disliked Maya in every way, from her brazen impudence towards everyone who was her superior to her rude, perverse, and violent personality to her hatred of everything right and normal about Yugioh and everything. She was Lucifer, wildly trying to grasp the cosmos to bend it to her pride and will.
But Maya had a point. She knew Kaiba loved her, that he would always defend her and never put her in danger. But when Seeker attacked her, he let her get disqualified. Only Maya stepped up to her and saved her. She despised owning a debt to someone like Maya but her doubts of Kaiba's love overpowered those feelings. Perhaps Kaiba was just testing her or being fair, not to give her any advantage over anyone else. She hoped.
She said, "A compromise, maybe?"
Maximus nodded curtly. He put his foot down on the matter. "We should duel each other, but each team can only duel another team only once per day. No one can leave Luxor. We need to stick together. Everyone agree?"
"Aye!" The group chanted. The meeting was over.
All teams dispersed. Our protagonists wandered the village to find a shelter from the sun's blazing heat. The day was especially hot. Sweat poured over their heads so much it sometimes got in their eyes, blinding them.
"Have you guys noticed that Heishin, the Egyptian governor, lets the tournament go on in spite of the Ghouls wrecking his country?" Yukio said, wiping huge beads of sweat off his forehead. "Furthermore, his soldiers always come to stop the Ghouls a little too late, when all the damage has been done."
"Heishin may be in league with the Ghouls." Maya concluded. "It's not uncommon for politicians to make deals with organized crime."
Sophia interjected, "That makes so sense. The tournament attracts more tourists. Egypt makes a big profit just accommodating us duelists. Why would Heishin sabotage his own profits?"
Against Sophia's doubts Maya could only repeat a point she made before, "Heishin may be working with someone else who has other motives."
The team kept pondering their thoughts as they looked for shelter. It wasn't easy because heckles kept breaking their concentration. "Come buy alabaster jar! Three dollars! No hassle! No hassle!" The team had no choice but to run away to escape the hassling.
Their exhaustion, the sweltering heat, worrying about the Ghouls, and the store hecklers started to get to the team. Their blood boiled under the sun. Maya and Yukio sounded more irate while Sophia became more sullen. Her eyes were in pain, the horrors of last night still all too fresh to her. Whenever she looked at someone it was almost as if she was pleading for someone to pity her.
The team briefly stopped under the shade of a palm tree. It was nowhere near a good enough place to stay but they could rest for a while. Maya and Yukio guzzled down bottles of water. When they offered Sophia a bottle she refused despite the heat practically melting her. She seemed to withdraw inside herself like a caterpillar into a cocoon, or worse, like a butterfly returning into a cocoon. Whenever the team bumped into another duelist Sophia would almost cry. The duelist would ask what happened to her, she would answer and ask for a hug, which the duelist would then give. Her melancholy degraded into simpering.
Maybe the broiling heat was too much but Maya had enough. When the team was out of earshot from anyone who knew English, Maya turned around and met Sophia face to face. "You really need some cold water to the face and not from an overpriced bottle. You're self-pity is revolting and precludes any sympathy given to you. It's fine to feel terrible but you indulge in your melancholy like it was comfort food. Then you display it publicly, sacrificing your dignity so random people will comfort you. How dare you exploit your assault this way!"
The words stung Sophia as a blast of icy wind. She suddenly felt very cold. She looked even more hurt than before. "I – I don't understand. W – What are you talking about? What's wrong with you?" She chocked, holding back tears.
"You honestly think all the people who hugged you actually cared? You think they would really stop Bandit Keith from harassing you or would they enjoy the show?"
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Yukio stepped in. "Can't you see she's trying to heal herself?"
"Bullshit. She's exploiting her suffering and weakening herself in the process." To Sophia, she said, "You're very privileged people treat you as a lily white delicate flower. I was assaulted too at seventeen. I was coerced into having sex in a punk concert bathroom stall over an unflushed toilet. The man was ten years older, kept grabbing me in places and hurting me even when I told him not to. Nobody gave a shit about me. You know what I did the next day? I got up, went to school, and went to work afterwards. Like nothing happened. Because if I told someone, no one would care. I never got to be a delicate flower."
Sophia burst into sobs. "Why do you hate me?" She cried out again and again.
"Way to go getting Sophia to like you." Yukio said.
"She's training herself to become a victim." Maya rebuked. "She'll live a life where she keeps ending up with bad men over and over again and won't be able to stop the vicious cycle. Sympathetic people aren't drawn to the vulnerable. Predators are."
Yukio had enough. "You know what, Maya? You're like a drug addict, except instead of being addicted to coke you're addicted to being destructive to yourself and everyone else. I bet a million dollars your entire life will be a story of self-destruction. You delude yourself into thinking you're some kind of freedom-fighting iconoclast when all you are is a MASSIVE BITCH!"
"This is coming from an overgrown wannabe rock star manchild who still lives in mommy's basement. You're lamer than Jack Black. Blood Velvet is a band name as original and inspiring as Mystic Spiral. You might want to think of changing it. Tell me, Trent Lane, when will Mystic Spiral finally get off the ground and top the charts? When you're thirty-five? Fifty-five? When you're dying a nursing home?"
"Fuck you. You're an evil person. You're living proof the Devil is a woman." Yukio rebuked.
"Don't flatter me." Maya shouted over her shoulder as she stormed off.
Yukio tried to put his hand over Sophia's shoulder to comfort her. "She's talking more about herself than anyone else." He said, but she was too distressed to listen to him.
Maya walked only a short distance away. Her rage dissolved into despair. She fell against the wall of a hut, crying. The stakes for her in the tournament, her promise to Hassan, her feelings for Sophia were too much. The black cloud of depression shrouded her vision wherever she walked. Everything looked far worse than it really was but she could never see how things really were. The bright desert looked black as night to her. Where would she go if she lost the tournament? How would she pay her college debts? Her duelist career debts? And even if she won where would she go? Where was her proper place in life?
Worst of all was her guilt. "Sophia." She moaned, the only thing she could say. She failed to protect Sophia against Bandit Keith. It was all her fault for letting her get kidnapped. The very thought of Sophia being abused again frightened her and seeing Sophia pity herself guaranteed to her it would happen again. She realized she had to confess to herself she yet only knew in her innermost thoughts. She summoned all her courage to speak her knowledge openly to herself. She loved Sophia. Yes, she liked Yukio and Jolene but she loved Sophia, the first person she ever loved.
She felt so worn out and tired. She wanted to die and sleep in a tomb forever, never to be disturbed, but her thoughts were ahead of her as always. She needed to apologize to Sophia. There was no other way around it. She nodded to herself as if she made a point to convince herself and wiped away her tears. The villagers looked at her as if she was insane.
Maya returned to her friends. "Sophia, I'm so sorry. Anger got the better of me. I didn't know what I was saying."
Sophia dried her red, raw eyes, but said nothing. She sniffed and crossed her arms in an almost haughty and defiant gesture.
Maya let her knees hit the sand. She was not a religious person but it was as if she was at confession. "Please forgive me. I beg you to forgive me. You are the only person in the world who can put me on my knees. I love you. Seeing what Bandit Keith did to you drove me insane with guilt. I felt like the biggest failure in the world. I don't want to see you sad. I want to see you happy. You're smile twinkles more brightly than all the stars of heaven."
Sophia, moved to sympathy by Maya's words knelt down across from her. They became equals. "I care for you. I care what happened to you."
Maya reached into her bag and gave Sophia the rarest card she owned. "It's called Sophia, Goddess of Rebirth. It's not the most practical card but it's definitely one of the strongest. It's stronger than any god card. It symbolizes what I see in you, buried deep inside you."
Sophia and Maya hugged.
Our protagonists found a small bedroom under the ownership of a local who loaned it for a few dollars a night. The bedroom, no the whole building, was a hovel and no hotel in any sense. However, it did have a massive, noisy fan, which eased the burden of the oppressive heat.
As they unpacked their bags, Yukio reminded them of the dueling grounds a duelist mentioned to them. Dueling grounds, places people could just hang out and duel for fun, were everywhere but were very popular in poorer towns and countries where duel disks were not frequently imported. The workshop village in Luxor was no exception. It supposedly even had a duel box, an ancient precursor to the massive duel arenas of the old Duelist Kingdom days.
But first things first. Our protagonists took a hearty bite from the portable food they carried and set out to improve their decks. Their opponents would soon know how to counter their tactics. They had to evolve, always exploring new ideas to keep their opponents on their toes. They tweaked and play tested their decks again and again until they were at last satisfied. Exhausted, they fell comatose on their cots, eager to win a victory later tonight.


text:
In case you needed one visual reason to make Florida your permanent residence, here are twelve. OnlyInYourState.com lists twelve of the most beautiful, photograph-worthy spots in the state. Guess which town topped the list? You guessed it. Our very own and well-loved Miami and Miami Beach. Enjoy the list, book your flight, grab your camera and check out the latest South Florida listings on themiamiluxuryrealtor.com.
https://www.themiamiluxuryrealtor.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/beach.png 746 744 The Miami Luxury Realtor https://www.themiamiluxuryrealtor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/MLR-Logo-New.png The Miami Luxury Realtor2015-08-14 10:40:202017-03-08 18:08:42The Beauty that is Florida

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I spent some time talking to key real estate professionals this week and a common subject came up. Buyers are not doing their homework when it comes to getting a mortgage. Producing Realtors know that Big Banks are not always the best options for homebuyers. With issues from inexperienced Loan Officers to lenders outsourcing Appraisals through AMC(Appraisal Management Companies), realtors and buyers soon realize they lose complete control of the loan process and are at the mercy of the Big Bank problem. We all know someone who has experienced this.
Buyers – get informed!
Deciding to purchase a home can be an exciting life changing event. City or burbs? If you have you children or planing to have in the future, school districts come to mind.
Key steps to remember:
1)Prepare for the increase in mortgage rates – especially if you're not purchasing in the next couple months . Feds are tapering off the purchasing of bonds which will indeed have a direct effect on interest rates
2)Work with a Mortgage Professional to run your credit report/analyze your liabilities and assist in improving your score to obtain the best rate and program for your home loan
3)GET PRE-APPROVED!!!! – Even before you start looking for a house, you should get pre-approved for a mortgage. This will make you a stronger buyer, because sellers will know you have the financing in place to move forward. In addition, getting pre-approved for a mortgage amount "sets boundaries around what you can afford. Those boundaries dictate what your price range is," said McBride – read more
For the best mortgage advice and program options in the market, call me today!
Filed under: Mortgage Advice, Alex Romo, Alexander Romo, credit consultation, credit report, homebuyer, interest rate, Mortgage, Mortgage Professional, Mortgage rates, Pre-approved, Producing Realtors, Rates, real estate professional, The Federal Savings Bank


text:
Invalid quantity {0}: please enter a valid quantity to add this product to your cart
1.5V AA LR6 Alkaline-Manganese Dioxide Battery
- · Offers up to ten times the service life of regular zinc-carbon cells
- · Long service life at continuous, high drain discharge
- · Low internal resistance
- · Rugged, shock-resistant construction
- · Good low temperature performance
- · Excellent leakage resistance
- · Long shelf lifespan
- · No need for rest periods
- · A typical cell is designed with active materials and alkaline electrolyte contained in a nickel-plated steel can
- · Flat terminals
Please call 1-888.739.3577 for pricing_Anonymous.
This product is no longer available to purchase.
|Feature details
We only have left in our stock and this product will no longer be manufactured.
Would you like to add to cart?
Successfully added to cart.
Still need more? Here is an alternative product.
This product is not available and is no longer being manufactured.
Here is alternative that may suit your needs.
You have a quote in your Basket, so if you add this to your Basket it will remove all products from your Basket.
Cart conflict. Please order your quote and then add this to the cart later or confirm to replace the cart with this product now.
Changing your branch may impact your product pricing and availability.
Do you want to proceed with this change?
Confirm Collection
This item can be picked up 1 hour after purchase.


text:
Seven delicate single prints from Kenro Izu's BLUE
About the Artist
New York-based photographer Kenro Izu (b. 1949) created his BLUE series as an homage to Spanish painter Pablo Picasso's works from the Blue Period (1901-1904).
Project Story
With a lifetime passion for the art of printmaking, Izu has developed a distinct reputation as one of the best Platinum/Palladium print makers in the world. He printed the series by cyanotype over platinum prints, but due to the technical difficulties of the process he was only able to produce a very limited numbers of editions.
Now with Benrido Atelier, the series have been revitalized with the depth of the colour of blue and fine tonal gradations with the collotype process, presenting a new layer to experiencing Izu's meditative and serene compositions.
Portfolio Details
Released in October 2017
Selection of 7 images Colour Collotype Prints
Paper: Echizen Gampi White Image Size: 24.2 x 35.5cm Paper Size: 28.2 x 39.5 cm
Signed and numbered by the artist
Edition: 10


text:
Over the weekend, the skies of Cebu witnessed more than one mesmerizing display of colors as various establishments held fireworks exhibits. Here are some of the fireworks exhibitions that you should have witnessed during the grand Sinulog weekend.
The newly opened J Centre Mall held a Grand Musical Fireworks Display last Friday, January 13, 2012, at 7 p.m. The event was part of their Friday Upbeat program. J Centre is located at 165 A. S. Fortuna Street, Mandaue City, Cebu.
A Grand Fireworks Display Symphony of Fire sponsored by Dragon Fireworks was also held at Ayala Center Cebu last Sunday, January 15, at 9 p.m.
SM City Cebu held back-to-back fireworks shows during the Sinulog weekend. In cooperation with the Sinulog Foundation and Pyroworks, SM City Cebu hosted the much-anticipated Pyrofest competition on January 14, and Pyrospectacular on January 15, 2012.
The 4th Sinulog Pyrofest competition was held at the parking area fronting The Northwing. Eight competitors from all over the country participated in the event. Five of whom were from Bulacan, specifically Sky Intensity, 888 prosperity, Golden Peacock, E&B Pyrotechnics, and Phoenix Fireworks. The three others are Avila Fireworks from Cebu, Lebrilla Fireworks from Laguna and Janna Marketing from Surigao. The entries were judged according to the fireworks display's beauty, style, timing, and audience impact.
The winners of the 4th Sinulog Pyrofest competition are all from Bulacan. First Place went to Contestant No. 4 Golden Peacock, and they will bring home Php150,000. Contestant No. 6 Phoenix Fireworks bagged second place and Php125,000, while Contestant No. 1 Sky Intensity who came in third takes home Php100,000.
Aside from the contestants, Pyroworks International, Inc. also held a pyromusical fireworks demo show. Pyroworks International is a Guinness Record Holder for firing the most number of rockets in 30 seconds.
On January 15, SM City Cebu held Pyrospectacular, which is a full pyromusical display by Pyroworks International. The exhibit played Sinulog beats, soundtracks from the movies Mission Impossible and Romeo & Juliet, and songs from LFMAO and Michael Buble. The event was also supported by Apple One, Rose Pharmacy and Salon de Rose.
The Sinulog Foundation also incorporated two exhibitions into the Sinulog 2012 schedule of activities. One was the traditional Sinulog offering during the Vesperas, January 14, which was held after the Pontifical Mass that capped the Solemn Procession of the miraculous image of the Child Jesus. The Sinulog Grand Parade was also concluded with a bang at the Cebu City Sports Center as attendees witnessed the Grand Finale and Fireworks last January 15, 2012.


text:
[courtesy Google Images]
"The European Union has imposed sanctions related to the crisis in Ukraine on another 15 people, bringing the total number targeted to 48."
Wow! There are 144 million people in Russia, and the EU has increased the number of people sanctioned from 33 to 48 (woo-hoo!).
Not to be outdone,
"In its latest round of sanctions, the United States targeted seven Russian government officials and 17 companies linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin."
"Seven"—count 'em—"seven Russian government officials" and "17 companies". (Y'know, 17 is a lot! That's almost as many as I have fingers and toes!)
"The White House said the seven Russians, including two from Putin's inner circle, are subject to a freeze on any assets they may hold in the United States and a ban on U.S. travel."
Obama's gettin' tough. No Disneyworld for Putin's pals.
"The 17 companies the United States named are linked to officials and oligarchs [super-rich; billionaires] . . . . In all, the United States and European Union have imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 66 individuals, most of them senior Russian officials. The United States has sanctioned 18 companies in total.
At first glance, sanctions imposed on "66 individuals" and "18 companies" seem kinda silly. But on reflection, the implications of those sanctions are intriguing and possibly profound.
President Obama isn't placing sanctions or threatening war against the Russian nation. He's not even imposing sanctions on the president of the Russian nation. Instead, Obama is threatening: 1) high Russian officials who are sufficiently corrupt to have bank accounts in foreign countries; 2) Russian oligarchs (billionaires) who arecloseto President Putin; and 3) some of Russia's major multinational corporations.
This isn't merely an odd choice of sanctions; it's evidence of how the world now works. Sanctions against a few dozen corrupt officials, a handful ofRussian oligarchs and a few Russian multinational corporations, implies that today's world no longer functions as a collection of competing nations, but rather as a collection of competing, multi-national corporations who are secretly warring among themselves for global wealth and global power.
President Obama therefore makes personal attacks on oligarchs and officials with economic sanctions much the same as he sought to attack "terrorist leaders" with drones. Obama isn't attacking the people of the Russian nation. He's attacking some of their officials and multi-national corporations.
• I'm no fan of Obama. I'd previously dismissed his sanctions on a few dozen Russians as petty and evidence of his weakness and inability to impose sanctions able to affect Putin's actions. But, now, I'm beginning to reconsider.
Insofar as Obama's attacks are directed at Russian oligarchs and the hidden wealth of corrupt Russian politicians, his strategy just might be brilliant. It might even be evidence of a new geo-political reality: primary adversaries are no longer nations but are instead multinational corporations. Future wars may seemingly be waged by the national politicians and/or national military—but only if the governments of such nations have been captured by competing corporate gangs.
If so, Obama may recognize that attacks against the people or even nations can be largely counter-productive. Instead, he's using a divide-and-conquer strategy that attacks oligarchs, corrupt government officials and multinational corporations rather than masses of people. The oligarchs, corrupt officials and multinational corporations may have power, but I doubt that they command the Russian people's loyalty. Therefore, Obama can attack these individual targets without fear of offending the Russian people.
By attacking oligarchs, corrupt government officials and multinational corporations, Obama implies that the people have little influence on their government. Obama isn't even attacking the members of the Russian parliament. Instead of attacking the nation, its people or even their elected political representatives, Obama is only attacking those who wield the real power over government: corrupt officials, the oligarchs and the multi-national corporations.
• "The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pushed for targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy. 'To me, hitting four of the largest banks there would send shockwaves into the economy. Hitting Gazprom would certainly send shockwaves into the economy,' Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said, referring to Russia's state gas monopoly."
Hitting the four largest (and therefore multinational) banks? Hitting the multinational corporation Gazprom? Senator Corker appears to confirm that modern warfare may be increasingly directed at multinational corporations rather than nations.
• If Obama's sanctions against oligarchs "close" to Putin imply that elected Russian representatives have become politically impotent, has something similar happened in America? Do our Senators and Congressmen still wield significant political power? Or are they all spear-carriers or sock-puppets owned and operated by American oligarchs and multinational corporations?
Obama's sanctions against corrupt officials and oligarchs imply that the fundamental structure for some, perhaps most, modern government is fascism—a close association between government and corporations.
Obama's sanctions on Russian oligarchs indicate that a gang of the super-rich corporations have seized de facto control over Russia. Can we assume that a similar seizure has taken place here in the U.S.? Has a conglomerate of oligarchs and multinational corporations seized control of our government?
If modern "wars" are increasingly between multinational corporations rather than nations, we can wonder when elements of foreign governments will begin to expose corrupt US politicians and attack American oligarchs and multinational corporations rather than the US government.
There's a silver lining in Obama's cloudy attempts to sanction Russia's wealthiest (and therefore most corrupt) politicians and oligarchs: We can expect Russia to respond in kind and at least identify oligarchs and perhaps expose how much money each of our corrupt presidents, senators, congressmen and federal judge have hidden away.
Wouldn't it be grand if Americans knew how much money our various congressman have grossed while "serving" in government?
It may take a few years, but Obama's attacks on Russian oligarchs will almost certainly reciprocated with similar attacks on the world's oligarchs—including those of the U.S..
Obama's sanctions against Russian oligarchs might even signal the onset of a shift in global awareness and attitudes. Perhaps the world's people are on the verge of perceiving that world peace is more threatened by multinational corporations than by nations and national governments.
While we wait to see if attitudes and awareness change, Obama's sanctions against Russian oligarchs has signaled future conflicts might be increasingly between multi-national corporations (special interests) than between nations.


text:
3 Great Leaders from Oslo.
By: Chloé Blatter
Before addressing the topic, let's reflect for a moment:
What is leadership and what are the characteristics of a leader?
People interpret these terms differently. Some would say that leadership is the ability to see a problem and be the solution. Others describe leadership as playing to strengths and addressing weaknesses in the most productive and efficient way possible." In general, a leader can be defined a person who leads or commands a group, an organization or a country. As leadership is a value which we strive for in AIESEC, let's take a look at some great leaders from Oslo.
1. King Harald V of Norway
Remember the video of the Norwegian Royal Family which went viral on social media? Yes, the one where the son of the Crown Prince Håkon did the infamous dab on National TV. This story is not about him, but about his grandfather. King Harald V of Norway (1937 – Present). Growing up was tough, in fact he had to flee from Oslo due to the German Invasion in 1940. Eventually, he came back to Norway in 1945 to enroll at the Norwegian Military Academy. Then, he went to Oxford University in England to study economics, history and politics. In 1991, Harald succeeded his father as king in Norway. Thanks to his commitment for service, he earned several national honors such as Oslo Military Society Badge of Honor and foreign honors such as the Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. While being a king is maybe the ultimate symbol of leadership, it is important to notice how King Harald has continuously invested in his personal development and growth. Leaders should always invest in themselves to remain valid and relevant.
2. Fridtjof Nansen
Norway is known for its four-seasons summer and its exquisite salmon, but a fact which not everyone knows: It is indeed a Norwegian man who discovered the North Pole!
Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) was a Norwegian scientist, polar, explorer, diplomat and humanitarian. Growing up being outdoorsy active, Fridtjof made the first crossing of Greenland's treacherous ice cap. After discovering the North Pole, he devoted himself to the League of Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work on behalf of the victims of the First World War. He worked on behalf of refugees until his sudden death in 1930. His life is the perfect epitome of how leaders step out of their comfort zone, following their true calling and overcome their orders through perseverance. His life also shows dedication to a cause bigger than one's self.
3. Trygve Lie
Our last leader for today is Trygve Lie (1896 – 1968). He was a Norwegian Politician who became the 1st Secretary General of the United Nations. Despite living under poor conditions together with his mother and his little sister, he pursued a degree in law and joined the Labor Party in 1911. He served as a member of the executive committee of his local municipality, met important politicians in history such as Lenin and Trotsky. As Secretary General of the United Nations, it gave him the opportunity to expand his international network. After resigning from his position, he remained active in politics and held several titles like County Governor of Oslo, Chairman of the Board of Energy, Minister of Industry and Minister of Trade and Shipping. Trygve Lie is an example of overcoming insurmountable hurdles to purse his true passion in serving for the welfare and betterment regardless of whatever might be the job title.
In conclusion, the life of these three leaders have depicted three leaderships traits. They step out of their comfort zone. They follow their true calling. They persevered through tough times. As leaders, they have actively made an effort on their personal growth and development. More importantly they relentless in contributing to causes that were bigger than themselves. AIESEC is happy to present you with opportunities to hone your leadership skill.
Check our opportunities in the portal: www.aiesec.org


text:
Howdy! Thanks for your interest in Resume Butterfly.
Be sure to check out the About page & FAQs too!
We have a new system for accepting clients! Quality is very important, so we have chosen to limit the number of clients we take each month. Visit our online shop for details about resume makeovers!
Have you joined our Career Corner yet? You'll get INSTANT access to a jam-packed collection that captures 10+ years of my experience as a resume writer, Director of Career Services and manager. Most documents are easy to download as a PDF so you can read them anywhere – computer, tablet or smartphone! Everyone is welcome! I'd love for you to be a member even if we haven't worked together on your resume.
Valued at $197, I wanted to be sure these resources would be affordable to EVERYONE, so I am offering this at over 85% off for – ONLY $14.
That's right, a lifetime membership to Career Corner is – ONLY $14. – See more at: https://resumebutterfly.com/product/career-corner/
Current/Past Clients: Please send me a detailed email message {with your name in the subject} if you have a question and I will respond as quickly as possible. If you are working on revisions or the resume builder questionnaire, please email them to me when you are finished and I will take a look! THANK YOU! -Jessica Smith
My email address is ResumeButterfly (at) gmail (dot) com


text:
Commodity deflation – from oil to metals and bulks – Goldman Sachs
FXStreet (Delhi) – Research Team at Goldman Sachs, suggests that the full effects of oil prices staying low (at around $45/bbl under our commodity team's central forecast) for long will continue to be felt for some time in oil-producing economies.
Key Quotes
"However, at least among EMs (such as Russia and Mexico), where currencies have been allowed to move significantly and absorb the bulk of the terms-of-trade shock, the remaining adjustments to government and private-sector balances should be less immediately painful. Argentina may be the surprise winner of the 'new oil order' as the upcoming political transition paves the way for the exploitation of the 'Bakken of South America'.
We are more concerned about places such as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, where pegged exchange rates mean that the impact of the terms-of-trade shock is likely to fall more squarely on government fiscal balances (with risks to the sovereign credits), domestic household and corporates – and where, in the limit, the exchange rate peg may itself be at risk. Of course, pressures on both groups of EMs would increase in the event that oil prices fall further – to around $20/bbl if storage capacity is exhausted, as outlined by our Commodity team in their downside scenario.
Going into 2016, we see greater downside in the metals and bulks part of the commodity complex: specifically, our end-2016 forecasts call for copper, iron ore, gold and coal to move roughly another 10% lower. From a market standpoint, therefore, currencies with relatively greater exposure to these metals – including the CLP, ZAR, PEN and IDR – should be relatively more vulnerable than the pure oil plays. The metals complex is also more exposed to China: even a growth-neutral rebalancing that sees consumption grow at the expense of fixed asset investment would be more supportive for oil demand than metals demand."
(Market News Provided by FXstreet)


text:
Types of wall insulation
Bulk insulation
Bulk insulation comes as segments or blankets. Segments are pre-cut to small standard pieces of insulation whereas blanket products come in rolls. To put bulk insulation into existing walls you'll need to remove the wall lining or cladding. When you remove the wall lining, do a thorough inspection of the wall for any leaks, presence and condition of any wall underlay (building paper) and electrical wiring.
Choosing a bulk insulation product
Bulk insulation can be made from various materials including polyester, wool, and glass wool. Whatever material you opt for, a good wall insulation product should meet the following criteria:
- intended for installation in walls
- correct thickness
- highest R-value possible for the thickness of your walls
- right width for the stud spacing in your walls
- compliant with the New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4859.1 (look for the compliance statement on the insulation packaging).
You should also check the performance guarantees and instructions for safely handling and installing insulation offered by manufacturers on their products.
How much wall insulation?
R-value is a measurement of insulation's effectiveness - the higher the R-value, the more effective it is at preventing heat loss. Look for insulation that is as thick as your wall cavity, with the highest R-value possible. If the insulation is thicker than the wall cavity, it will need to be squashed and will be less effective.
For most wall insulation materials, the highest R-values available for 90-100mm thick wall cavities are in the range of R2.5 to R2.8.
Injected or blown-in insulation
Injected or blown-in insulation is pumped into existing walls through small holes in the cladding or lining. It can be made from various materials such as urea formaldehyde foam, wool or glass wool fibres, or polystyrene beads.
Before putting in any type of insulation into existing walls, it's important to make sure the wall cladding is weather-tight and to check if there is a wall underlay behind the cladding. This is difficult to assess without opening the walls, so consult a registered or accredited building surveyor before you consider injected or blown-in insulation.
Some blown-in insulation products are approved for installation in walls without a wall underlay or for installation into a drained and ventilated wall cavity (like brick veneer). However, BRANZ recommends against this practice due to moisture risks.
Registered building surveyors - New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors website
Accredited building surveyors - Building Officials of New Zealand website
Insulation options for existing homes - BRANZ Level website
There are two different ways of installing injected or blown-in insulation into walls:
- From the inside - preferred method, as it keeps the exterior cladding and the wall underlay intact. Redecoration may be needed.
- From the outside - less disruptive, but it creates a higher risk to the weathertightness of the cladding and damages the wall underlay.
Thermal imaging cameras can be used to check whether all wall cavities have been fully filled with insulation. It's easy to miss cavities, as many older houses have irregular wall framing.
Performance of injected urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI)
Urea formaldehyde foam insulation (UFFI) is injected as foam which then dries.
Research by BRANZ found that the actual R-value of UFFI insulation is about 50% lower in a house than if measured in a test lab. This is because the UFFI shrinks as it dries.
The BRANZ research found that a typical weatherboard wall with 100mm cavities and UFFI insulation installed has an R-value of about R1.6. An uninsulated weatherboard wall is about R0.5, so UFFI will make a difference. Taking the wall linings off and installing bulk insulation gives you an R-value of about R1.8 - R2.4.
There have been some concerns raised about injected foam insulation and the potential for it to transfer water in brick veneer houses. This was flagged as a potential issue in a report available on the BRANZ website.
Performance of Brick Veneer Walls Installed with Urea Formaldehyde Foam Insulation - BRANZ website


text:
Hi @ejthayer
Please follow these articles for adding rounded corners to a button.
To which you will implement a ButtonRenderer with the respective platform specific code to remove the border radius on the Button.
Since Xamarin has released Effects mechanism, it can be done by implementing a custom effect. An advantage of this approach is that effects are light-weight, reusable and can be parameterized and applied to any UI element.
After you create a custom
RoundCornersEffect inheriting
RoutingEffect, declare a
CornerRadius attached property and implement
PlatformEffect on each platform you support, it can be applied to any Xamarin.Forms layout or control like this:
<StackLayout effects:RoundCornersEffect.CornerRadius="48"/>
with hardcoded corners radius or a value from resources
<BoxView effects:RoundCornersEffect.CornerRadius="{StaticResource LargeCornerRadius}" />
Here is a link to full implementation and usage examples.
If you set the HeightRequest, WidthRequest and BorderRadius you can do it pretty easily:
<Button HeightRequest="40" WidthRequest="40" BorderRadius="20" />
Here is an entire discussion around it when the trick was discovered:
For some reason on
ImageButton, they use
CornerRadius instead.


text:
Custom Knit Night bags for Susan
Now: $117.00
The perfect "two at a time" bag. In two sizes!
Sizes from notions pouches up to sweater size!
Fun and useful tools to brighten any project
The ultimate carry all for all your "on the go" projects
Make a statement with your own unique style


text:
733. A Message for Priests and All Those Sacred Servants of Mine who Have Given Their Lives to My Sacred Service.
Sunday, March 17th, 2013 @ 18:50
My dearly beloved daughter, this is a Message for priests and all those sacred servants of Mine who have given their lives to My Sacred Service. My beloved servants, I..
734. Mother of God: the Division in the World, to Be Brought about by Gog and Magog, Will Split Families in Two
Monday, March 18th, 2013 @ 19:35
My child, you must never doubt the importance of this Mission or allow attacks on you to divert your attention from my beloved Son. It is because of my Son's Love and..
735. Layer by Layer, Their Evil Intents Will Become Clear as They Trip Themselves Up
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 @ 22:45
My dearly beloved daughter, My Holy Word spreads like a powerful wind across the whole world, at this time, through these Messages. Many will hear My Voice, whether they..
736. Just as the Blind Cannot See, There Will Be Those Amongst the Church in Rome who Can See, But who Will Refuse to Acknowledge the Truth
Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 @ 19:15
My dearly beloved daughter, My Crucifixion is being relived all over again and each part is connected to the time in the lead up to My Second Coming. Now that My Body..
737. The Time for the Division is Soon and You Must Prepare
Thursday, March 21st, 2013 @ 20:00
My dearly beloved daughter, how My Heart breaks because of the sorrow, which is being felt by souls who are in disarray because of the flight of My last pope, My beloved..
738. I Desire That All of My Followers Conduct a Time of Fasting from Next Monday until 15:30 Hours on Good Friday
Friday, March 22nd, 2013 @ 21:45
My dearly beloved daughter, I desire that all of My followers conduct a time of fasting from next Monday until 15:30 hours (03:30 PM) on Good Friday. Even a small token..
739. Mother of God: My Son's Body Was Torn to Shreds
Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 @ 23:45
My child, many do not understand my role as Co-Redemptrix. Nor do they know why this is so. When I accepted the call to become the Mother of God, I was bound to the..
740. My Mission is Not to Give You a New Bible, for That Could Never Be, as My Father's Book Contains the Whole Truth
Sunday, March 24th, 2013 @ 18:06
My dearly beloved daughter, when you are asked by those who love Me, what is the purpose of your Mission, your answer must be – to save your souls. When you are..
741. The Greatest Horror I Witnessed in My Time in the Garden of Olives Was the Scourge of Sin in the Time of the End
Monday, March 25th, 2013 @ 14:50
My dearly beloved daughter, the greatest horror I witnessed in My time in the Garden of Olives was the scourge of sin in the time of the end. During the vision, shown to..
742. You Must Keep Your Eyes Open to Anything, Which Insults My Divinity
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013 @ 21:17
My dearly beloved daughter, this Message is for the world. It is for Christians of every denomination, the Jews and all those religions who proclaim My Almighty Father,..
743. Your Transition from This Earth into My New Kingdom Will Be Painless, Instant and Will Be so Sudden That You Will Barely Be Able to Take a Breath
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013 @ 23:15
My dearly beloved daughter, come all of you and join with Me in remembrance of the day when you were given the great Gift of Redemption. Good Friday must be remembered..
Page 62 of 111
Swipe left or right to navigate between pages


text:
University filter:
An online education that sets you apart
Join over 100,000 working professionals from across the globe, who have already benefitted from the opportunity to:
Earn a certificate from a world-class university as powerful proof of your new competencies and use it to differentiate yourself and get recognised in the job market.
Enjoy a personalised, people-mediated online learning experience that constantly achieves unprecedented course completion rates.
Gain verifiable and relevant competencies through a career-focused curriculum that achieves specific learning outcomes and skill gains.
Is your employer paying for the course?
Empower your employees to feel recognised and bring your business to its full potential through new skills development.


text:
Future Sole Jordan 1's
I might very well be late on these joints, but who cares. I have a Jordan 1 crack habit that needs almost a weekly fix…The good folks at Sole Collector put me on to these and god damn I must have them. So fresh and So clean, clean!!
To celebrate the 2009 Nike Future Sole Design Competition, Jordan Brand created a limited run of these Air Jordan 1 Retro High's for a small group of lucky people. The colorway is simple at first glance, White, Black, and Red, but upon further inspection you'll notice that reflective hits have been added to the overlays on the upper to give the shoe some added flavor. Additionally the Future Sole logo is screened onto the heel of the shoe.
Check out the Nike Future Sole Design Winners
If you know where to get em…hit me!!!
One Response to "Future Sole Jordan 1's"
I'm looking out for those kicks for you homeboy…..


text:
Huge congrats to Maureen O. Betita, a very dear friend of mine who is celebrating the release of her debut book The Kraken's Mirror! I was honored to serve as a beta-reader and think readers will really enjoy the world that Maureen has built. Here's a snippet about the book:
Captain Alan Silvestri is a man haunted by a strange curse. Good luck is his to command, but it comes at the cost of any place to call home or people to reckon as family. Resigned to die and shunned by all, he is forced to sail every three days, until he begins to dream of a special woman.
Treated by our youth-oriented society as invisible and sexless, Emily Pawes is ready to move on with life. She attends a pirate festival, hoping to recapture the make-believe magic she knew as a young woman. Lucky to win an interesting bit of booty at a brick-a-brac stand, she finds herself transported by the Kraken's mirror through a magical portal to a land of Hollywood piratitude, where swashbuckling heroes own iPods. With little choice, Emily embraces the madness. Playing pirate has to be safer than falling into the arms of handsome Captain Silvestri, right?
When they meet, sparks fly, passion flares. He needs her to be free, but more than that, he needs her to be whole. Setting sail and uncertain of who actually controls the wheel, they seek ways to defeat his curse of good luck and discover the Kraken's mirror has plans for them. Will Emily stay in this pirate haven to fight alongside him or will he lose her because of his curse?
Cheeky Reads had a giveaway for Maureen's book back when she was first contracted and I'l be contacting the winner later today for details on how to get her copy of the book.
But for the rest of you, head over to The Romance Writer's Revenge and comment to enter to win one of three copies Maureen is giving away today. Join in the fun and tell Maureen Cheeky Girl Sabrina says congrats!


text: The Nevada City Recorder Society welcomes other players to join us for any of the five days of Victorian Christmas. We play for the first hour of each day: Sundays Dec. 9, 16, and 23 at 1:30 and Wednesday Dec. 12 and 19 at 5:00. We meet at on the boardwalk on Commercial Street between Pine and Coyote streets, just up the hill from the food court. Costumes are optional. We provide music, mostly easy four-part carols. Afterward enjoy the crafts, food, hot mulled wine, roasted chestnuts, and atmosphere of a town that really is right out of a Hallmark movie (The Christmas Card). For more information please see the event website or contact Kathryn at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Take some pink, add a Saturday....
.....and what do you get? Pink Saturday, of course!As many of you know, Beverly has given us the task of introducing a pink saturday "neighbour".
This week I would like to introduce Caren and Ashley from Kdottie designs.
Their story begins with the fairy doors - after teaching and owning a dance studio with her husband for the past 30 years (and counting), Caren has sadly noticed the decline of children's imaginations. To combat this growing problem, she designed and created a series of fairy doors which are used daily in her dance classes.
{kdottie fairy dot fairy door}
Sharing her mom's creativity, Ashley has designed her own line of home and fashionable accessories for k dotties while studying dance and fashion in New York City.
Currently, both Caren and Ashley are joining forces (mostly long distance) to create a children's boutique of toys, clothing, and other fun items.
Note should you need one, I have a fabulous pink fairy clock in my Fabulously French showroom which would make a gift for a wee fairy lover.
Wishing you all a very happy Pink Saturday, and remember to visit Beverly's blog for more fabulous pink blogs.
L x


text:
2018 MKE Week 18 – Judgmental
Franklin Makeover
This week in my Franklin makeover, my word is discipline.
I am disciplining myself to be a non-judgmental observer of life. I find that I am extremely judgmental according to the dictionary.
Being the Non-judgmental Observer
I used to think that being judgmental meant finding fault and I had pretty much given that up (except for criticizing myself, but I am overcoming that). I looked at the dictionary for guidance and found this:
- involving the use or exercise of judgment.
- tending to make moral judgments:
- to avoid a judgmental approach in dealing with divorced couples.
That led me to looking at judgment.
- an act or instance of judging.
- the ability to judge, make a decision, or form an opinion objectively, authoritatively, and wisely, especially in matters affecting action; good sense; discretion:
- a man of sound judgment.
- the demonstration or exercise of such ability or capacity:
- The major was decorated for the judgment he showed under fire.
- the forming of an opinion, estimate, notion, or conclusion, as from circumstances presented to the mind:
- Our judgment as to the cause of his failure must rest on the evidence.
- the opinion formed:
- He regretted his hasty judgment.
- Law.
- a judicial decision given by a judge or court.
- the obligation, especially a debt, arising from a judicial decision.
- the certificate embodying such a decision and issued against the obligor, especially a debtor.
Which, of course, led me to judging.
verb (used without object), judged, judg·ing.
- to act as a judge; pass judgment:
- No one would judge between us.
- to form an opinion or estimate:
- I have heard the evidence and will judge accordingly.
And there you have it, we are judging whether we form a good or bad opinion of something. Much more challenging to be non-judgmental than I thought. A work in progress.
As part of my discipline, I wrote a new chapter for my upcoming book. You can read it here if you want.
See you next week.


text:
Wed 22 Dec 2010
The hardest part
Posted by PJ under patience, quote of the day, waiting, writers, writing
No Comments
Random quote of the day:
"Kafka had this word over his desk: WARTEN (WAIT). Every writer must learn to do that while the unconscious works and underground forces prevail. Maybe countries have to do that too."
—Erica Jong, "Tears and Fears," The Huffington Post, January 9, 2008
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.


text:
The Best Of 6/6/06
http://www.satansrapture.com/6606.htm On June 6, 2006 (666) Antichrist is revealed as the coming Messiah or Christ. This breaks the First Seal of Judgment in Rev:6:2.
On June 6, 2006 (666) Antichrist is revealed as the coming Messiah or Christ. This breaks the First Seal of Judgment in Rev:6:2.
Antichrist will seek to explain away The First Rapture as "Alien Abduction". The question remains, "Will Antichrist himself come to earth in a Spaceship?
Antichrist deceives the world with his New Age Version of The Gospel with 1) An Extra- Terrestrial Spin on The Bible, 2) The Concept of Sex and Sacrament as "Atonement with God". Led by The Vatican, all Faiths will accept Antichrist as their promised Savior and within a month He shall unite all religions together as one.
Contrary to popular myth, Antichrist does not come onto the world scene as The "Pope", Politician or A Muslim. This would limit his appeal to one faith or group rather than the majority of humanity.
Antichrist comes as the savior of all faiths & creeds: as Maitreya to the Buddhists, Iman Madhi to The Moslems, Messiah to the Jews, Krishna to the Hindus, Christ to Christians, The Great White Brother to The Hopi Indians, The "Dark Lord" to satanists and witches and The Return of Quezacoatal to ancient Mayan Cosmology
FOR one group of expectant mothers, their due date holds an extra dimension of dread. The prospect of giving birth on June 6, 6/6/06, has prompted talk of spawning devil children on Armageddon day.
One pregnant woman, Francesca Renouf, said she had been so worried that she had booked a doctor's appointment to ensure that she would avoid giving birth on the sixth.
Others appeared to take the dangers less seriously. One woman, Emma Parker, wrote that she intends to call her baby Damien, after the satanic boy in The Omen. Another, Donna Magnante, said she would name her baby after Regan in The Exorcist.
With June 6, 2006, rapidly approaching, authorities in
They are aware that 666 signifies the Mark of the Beast or the Antichrist to some organizations and believe June 6 is a date that could trigger problems.
"It's been a conscious question among some of our folks, so they've been on the lookout for something," said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety. "But they haven't seen anything."
Even so, some local police are being vigilant.
"The bottom line is that our intelligence unit is familiar with 666 and its significance, but we don't have any information about anything taking place in
Since 1970, there have been 60 terrorist attacks on June 6, with just one in the
American satanic radio station Radio Free Satan, for example, will celebrate the "sin-tennial" with Satan's Rockin' 666 Eve party, featuring performances by heavy metal and death metal bands, while the Church of Satan in Los Angeles is hosting a satanic high mass, which has already sold out.
There are also those who are cashing in on the date, with marketers seizing the day to launch movies, books and albums with anti-religious or satanic themes. 20th Century Fox will release its remake of the 1976 horror film The Omen, retitled The Omen 666, on June 6.
Provocative author Ann Coulter will launch her latest anti-liberal book, Godless.
On the same day, heavy metal band Slayer begins its Unholy Alliance Tour: Preaching to the Perverted, while a string of heavy metal and death metal artists will release albums on that day, including David Lee Roth's Strummin' with the Devil.
There is some complete silliness going around the world about what may happen on June 6, 2006, also known as 06-06-06 and 06/06/06. In case you've been living the far side of Sirius or the Pleades the past two thousand years, the number 666 is associated with the so-called "Beast Of Revelation," a human scary story created long ago to frighten the witless, the superstitious, and the gullible. While we do live in a time of extraordinary change, destabilization, and it is truly "the end of the world as we know it," if there is a Beast, or Devil for that matter, it's the sum total of humanity's lower thought-forms, desires, and fears. Regarding that specific day, astrology gives us a very benign horoscope featuring a grand Air Trine and three points of a Great Quintile, or 5 pointed Star that portends very good things.


text:
I'm writing this blog as my bf teaches himself spanish, therefore the title for this week. My sincere apologies for not writing last week – we were off from school and I was too busy enjoying time back in my hometown with family. That sounded more prude than I meant for it to. But, really, I get to see family about four times a year now… so when I'm there, I'm all there.
My time at home was very joyous – full of laughter and good food, as always. I of course did not take pictures of everything I ate while at home, but just a taste – I had roasted turkey with root vegetables. cashew cream shrimp alfredo with broccoli, cowboy caviar (this amazing bean salad that my mom makes that I love oh so much), my mom's famous egg white omelets with kale and veggies, venison sliders, and Caribbean spicy chicken with rice and beans, and fried plantains while out to lunch with my bestie Rose – the only pictures of food I took while home. All of my pictures are of family and my DIY projects I worked on with my amazing step daddy.
This week is going to be absolutely crazy with the move coming next weekend, Howie in town, magazine deadline for school, and continuing planning for our exhibition night – only a few short weeks away – oh jeeze, the chest pain increases in intensity as I write this. Gah! All wonderful things, happy things, successful things, but just a lot going on at once causes that all too known stress chest pain.
So anyways, for this week – on Saturday I made this:
Turkey sausage and kale soup, amaze-balls. A HUGE pot of it too, for lunches, dinners, and to share with friends. I started with a large onion, and 6 cloves of garlic (sounds like a lot, I know, but it's needed!), and water. Sautéed these down and added 1/2 of it to the cooked down turkey sausage (super lean protein, no bovine, delicious when cooked down with sage, thyme, and rosemary – oh god, the singing commences). The other 1/2 I set aside to puree with the other vegetables – a trick my step mom taught me years ago and my friend Jess writes about in her blog when making her sausage and kale soup – which I stole the ideas from 🙂 PS- Happy birthday this week Jess!! Okay, so next up I added one container of vegetable stock to the pot with sausage and onions and garlic, sliced 3 small white potatoes super thin and added those in. Then sautéed mushrooms, again 1/2 in soup, 1/2 in blender. A small head of broccoli, 1/2 head of cauliflower, 1/2 stack of asparagus, cup of carrots, and two large sweet potatoes diced (all steamed first and then added to save on cooking time) and about 3 cups of baby kale all added into the pot. Pureed the cooked vegetables (broccoli stalks, asparagus stalks, onion, garlic, sweet potato, and mushroom) and added to pot for thickening. Slowly boiled for about 2 hours and Bam! Delicious soup that will last me and the neighborhood all week 🙂
Today for breakfast – turkey bacon, scrambled eggs, potato hash with garlic and onions, and fresh fruit (strawberries, pineapple and banana) for my love and I before heading out running errands for the day. Presentation is key – plated in the kitchen and my man walks in with a big smile on his face, "I hope you're going to blog about this!" Of course, my love, of course.
Then later on tonight I made this broccoli salad that I've made before and blogged about. I made it Thursday at Rach's house – her and her hubby loved it oh so much because we added turkey bacon and horseradish – so I did that tonight too.
2 heads broccoli, 2 avocados, 3 scallions, 1 lemon (juiced & zested), 2 slices turkey bacon (chopped) and a few tbs of fresh horseradish. TO DIE FOR! So delicious!!
Even though I have plenty of soup for the week, I know I'll still be cooking other things – so in the fridge I've got portobello mushrooms (for roasting with goat cheese and balsamic tomatoes – inspired by Bacco's dinner I had with my love a few months ago), salad greens and baby kale, and obviously a huge bag of bok choy for sautéing with mushrooms and Asian sauces 🙂
Check back next week – hopefully I'll have time to blog about my new apartment and the first time cooking there! So excited I could scream… ok, maybe I really did scream. Like that little girl screech and everything, love it!


text:
Since the forum has been dormant.... Here's my Santa wish list tool. Its one of those things you hardly ever need so you never bought but would love to have on occasion.
12 inch, table top disc sander.
Christmas tool wish list
Jay, I don't want to 'pop' your Christmas dream this close to Christmas so I will just post my experience. I had a combo 12" disc/belt sander. I might as well have called the fire department and had them hose my shop with dust everytime I used it. I could never come up with a dust catching system for it that worked. It was so bad that I very seldom used it. Another problem I did not like was it was difficult to change grits. the sanding disc was always scrap when removed whether it was worn out or not. I sold it to another kayak builder who was tickled pink to get it. I don't know how it turned out as I never heard from him again ??
I replaced that sander with a 10" ossicilating spindle/belt sander from Rigid. It is, by far, the best sander I have ever owned. It was very easy to fabricate a dust catching system for it that works very well. It uses 10" sanding belts that can be changed in about 10 seconds so changing grits is very easy. I do a lot of metal sanding too so I am always switching back and forth between wood sanding and metal sanding belts. It also comes with 7 different spindle sanders from 5/8" to 2.5" diameters that are very handy. It has a front shelf that is very easy to adjust down for angle cuts.
No, I do not represent Rigid - - I am just very happy with this sander :)
My tool 'wish list' would be a multi axis vertical mill - - I have a better chance of being 25 again :((
A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ya'all :))
Christmas List
I have both a 12 inch disk sander and the Rigid sander. I actually get more dust from the Rigid sander and like both of them. It is hard to beat the disk sander for sanding form edges down to the line. My list is mostly for small stuff, some files, the robo bevel, and a few bigger things like another 100 yards of glass. I have been out of a job for 8 months now so I will probably get a role of blue tape and call it good.
Christmas List
The best tool I could ever…
The best tool I could ever
I gave up trying to keep work tables clean, I just build more :)
I have 2 ea. 3' x 8' roll around tables, a countertop that is 26" x 10' with full storage doors and drawers above and below, just like a kitchen, a desk that is 30" x 4', a special kayak building table that is 24" x 14' and last week I bought a sheet of 3/4" plywood to make a 38" x 4' removable top for my tablesaw. I have a separate 6' x 12' room with shelves on both sides to store hardware, unused tools, etc. that is pretty much full . . . . . . and I still have a hard time finding a place to set something down :(
I even built a 2' tall roll around cabinet and a 12" tall roll around stool just so I could work on stuff setting on the floor :(((
I wish I hadn't answered this, now that I actually list everything I can't use I feel pretty pathetic :(((((


text:
[Opportunity Closed] This opportunity closed December 22, 2016. Thank you for your interest and submissions!
City of Philadelphia Office of Innovation and Technology, on behalf of Department of Public Property, is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to develop data extracts from the City's three instances of Performo™, a proprietary work order management platform owned and hosted by Wizard Software Solutions™ ("Wizard"), to be transferred to the City's FTP environment for transmission to the City's Integrated Workplace Asset Management System ("IWAMS"). This project supports the City's asset management initiative by supplying facts about building maintenance for comprehensive analysis and reporting by the City's real estate, finance and planning leaders.
Establish a nightly procedure which extracts the full set of work order records from Performo™ instances used by Parks and Recreation, Department of Public Health, and Department of Public Property, securely transfers them as flat files to a City-managed SFTP server. The City's resources take over from there to transfer the files to the IWAMS environment, where the data gets loaded to the system.
Special Qualifications
To successfully accomplish the work described in this request, applicants must be authorized by Wizard to access the computing resources associated with the City's Performo™ instances. The City is a subscriber to Wizard's services, but the City cannot provide this authorization.
Scope of Work
Software Setup (One-Time Cost – Initial Implementation)
- Hosted System nightly flat file to City FTP environment – One Time Setup – Three (3) Feeds from three (3) Performo™ Systems. Include breakdown of any subscriptions, licensing and cloud services applicable.
Software Hosting (Recurring Annual Cost)
- Provide the recurring cost of hosting the software that executes the three (3) Feeds from the three (3) Performo Systems. Include breakdown of any subscriptions, licensing and cloud services applicable.
Professional Services (Requirements Analysis & Information Gathering)
- Provide the estimated hours, hourly rate, and subtotal for the initial consultation with City, Wizard and IWAMS vendor, currently Computerized Facility Integration, LLC ("CFI"). The City will provide the necessary information to bring these parties together.
- Provide the estimated hours, hourly rate, and subtotal for consulting and coordination with CFI for configuration and testing of programmed interfaces and development of Operations Manual that provides the City with information required to administrate and maintain the work order data feed solution.
Deliverables and Time Frame
- Project kick off and Initial Consultation – Project Start + 1 week
- 1 hour call with City, Wizard and CFI. Provide minutes.
- Business Requirements Document – Project Start + 3 weeks
- Document comprising City's functional and technical requirements for the Performo data feeds
- Conditional Acceptance of Test results – Project Start + 6 weeks
- Milestone payment reflecting successful end-to-end test of the data feed
- Final Acceptance of solution / Operations Manual – Project Start + 7 weeks
- Milestone payment reflecting successful test of recurring daily data feed and final approval of Operations Manual for data feed authored by provider
Your proposal should include a short description of your qualifications, experience with similar projects, an overview of your firm or organization and a brief description of your solution. You may include architectural diagrams of the proposed solution and URLs for any online examples you may have. Please provide a fixed-fee Not-To-Exceed price for this project. Please also include detailed breakdown reflecting: 1) an hourly rate and the number of hours associated with each required task, and other costs related to 2) subscriptions, 3) licensing and/or 4) cloud services if applicable.
Questions about this request should be posted to the comments section. The City will only respond to questions posted there. Finished proposals should be sent to firstname.lastname@example.com on or before Thursday, December 22 at 12:00 pm EST. Late submissions will not be considered. Please limit the size of the proposal document to a maximum of 12 pages.


text:
I'm experiencing a problem with my A/C compressor. It's never engaging when I hit the button to turn it on. I stopped at a car shop yesterday and they told me it's charged with Freon and that they think it is an electrical problem.
Well, since I'm an electrician not a mechanic I figured I might be able to troubleshoot the problem. All fuses seemed to be ok by sight and checked good with my meter. The larger relay in the electrical box had continuity between two diagonal poles.
Sorry for the length of the question, just trying to be informative. Thanks a lot, and I forgot to tell you it's a 2000 model Chevrolet Silverado 1500 with the 5.3-liter V8.
Trust me, there's never too much information in a reader's question, unless there's 12 questions in a reader's question. Note: a U.S. built 2000 model year truck uses R134a refrigerant, not Freon (R12).
OK, you're on the right track. If the system is fully charged (pressure correct), but the A/C compressor clutch does not engage, the fault is electrical. You're experience as an electrician directed you to first check the basics (fuses), and now it's time to trace the circuit and determine what we lost (power or ground) and where we lost it.
If you test for 12 volts at the A/C relay terminals (engine compartment fuse block, left side fender) you should detect voltage at two of the four terminals which are marked (30) and (86). That's power from the A/C fuse and Ignition fuse E, respectively. Now take a jumper wire and connect it between terminal (30) and terminal (87). With the ignition on this should send the 12 volts from the A/C fuse directly to the A/C compressor. You'll hear and see the compressor clutch engage if everything on that side of the circuit is good.
If not, there's a break in the power wire form the relay to the clutch, a break in the clutch ground circuit, or the clutch itself is no good. If it works fine, it's going to require more advanced testing on the control side of the circuit. The relay could be bad, or it's not getting the needed activation ground at terminal (85) which comes from the Powertrain Control Module.
The powertrain control module needs to receive a bunch of correct data from switches (three pressure switches under the hood), sensors and the HVAC control module before it will engage the A/C compressor. The best diagnostic route for a technician would be to check all these inputs with a scan tool before taking the next step.


text:
Wed 6 Dec 2017
Adam Falk's Legacy, 8
Posted by David Dudley Field '25 under Adam F. Falk at 6:46 am
To the extent that historians in 50 years comment on Adam Falk's tenure, their discussion will focus on his decision to ban John Derbyshire from Williams and the larger debate over free speech on campus. (Key previous threads start here, here and here.) Let's spend two weeks going through Falk's two main discussions of this decision: his extended defense last year as published in the Chronicle of Higher Education and his Washington Post swan song. Day 8.
Private colleges have a great deal of discretion to choose which guests to invite to speak in our communities. Our campuses are not legally public squares. So these provocateurs have instead turned their focus to the more vulnerable public institutions.
"Vulnerable" is an interesting choice of works. Often, when people think that an institution is "vulnerable" to something pernicious, they want to strengthen or protect it. Would Adam Falk like to strengthen public schools so that they, like Williams, are no longer "vulnerable" to people like Derbyshire? I am honestly curious.
After all, laws, even the Constitution, can be changed. Or judges can change what the laws mean. If the First Amendment were to be interpreted as strictly as some other amendments, it might become possible for public universities to ban "hate speech." Is that what Adam Falk wants?
Just this fall we've seen the University of Florida forced to spend more than $500,000 to enable a single speech by Spencer.
"Forced?" Not by Spencer. Spencer is happy enough to speak for free. The problem is, obviously, Antifa, the same group responsible for the violence at Middlebury. They seek to deprive, using violence, Spencer from exercising his constitutional right to free speech. Does Falk really want to see the heckler's veto work so well?
Falk's opinions are not important because he is important. They are important for the light they shed on where elite opinion is heading in America: Toward the restriction of unpopular speech.
And of course there were the far more agonizing costs of the tragedy in Charlottesville, which began with people carrying torches, swastikas and Confederate battle flags across the Lawn at the University of Virginia.
The Lawn is public. Would Adam Falk like to ban Confederate flags, and the people who like them, from the Lawn? From all public property? From private property? Of course, we need rules and regulations and permits for the use of public land. Current US law is that all such regulation must be viewpoint neutral. The rules for having a Black Lives Matter march on the Lawn must be the same as the rules for having a Nazi march. Adam Falk seems to prefer an America in which some viewpoints are allowed on the Lawn and some are not. Is he some weird outlier? I doubt it.Print • Email
|« Steve Case '80 and 'Rise of the Rest' fund …
|Adam Falk's Legacy, 9 »
11 Responses to "Adam Falk's Legacy, 8"
gtfoh says:
Fuck no, the problem is not antifa.
The problem is the racists and Neo Nazis who go to Spencer speeches and Spencer himself.
Antifa didn't kill anyone in Charlottesville. Antifa didn't shoot at protestors in Florida. Deplorable neo Nazis did.
reductio says:
There are certainly costs to giving all people the freedom to speak in public. What is the cost of denying that freedom?
JCD says:
This is an interesting new take on Falk's statement. I don't think I truly appreciated, until now, the extent to which he excuses the violence of the Antifa demonstrators. His apparent sympathy for Antifa may be why Falk did not take stronger, aggressive efforts to protect Zach Wood '18 or to provide proper security for Suzanne Venker. I do not think it is too far to suggest that Falk sympathizes with Antifa and is blind to the threat they pose to free speech and public safety.
abl says:
I may have missed something: where does Falk excuse the violence of Antifa demonstrators? Also, where does Falk call for denying all people the freedom to speak in public?
ZSD says:
This just in from Politico:
House passes concealed carry gun bill
This important piece of legislation could bolster arguments on either side of an issue.
Not John C. Drew Ph.D. says:
Sorry to hear about you getting fired, Dave!
ZSD says:
ZSD says:
The ref at #6 above works.
reductio says:
@abl: When one chooses to deny racists a platform, that means not all people are free (only those who are allowed)—that's precisely DDFs point.
For specific exemption for Antifa, see here:
abl says:
@abl: When one chooses to deny racists a platform, that means not all people are free (only those who are allowed)—that's precisely DDFs point.
There is an enormous difference (from a legal standpoint and from a public policy standpoint) between a private actor denying speakers a platform in a private institution and a state actor denying speakers the platform to speak in a public forum. Falk, a private actor, has denied one speaker the opportunity for a Williams College platform. That's a far cry from denying "all people the freedom to speak in public."
For specific exemption for Antifa, see here:
I don't see anything there "excus[ing] the violence of the Antifa demonstrators." In that letter, Falk states that "[t]here is no moral equivalence between racists and those who oppose them." (And I would hope that we can all agree to this very restrained and reasonable point.) What Falk does not do, however, is endorse any specific tactic–like violence–used in opposition to racists/Nazis. It is entirely possible to believe that there is no moral equivalent between racists and those who oppose racists and yet to disagree with the use of violence by either side. For better or for worse, that's the position of the majority of people with whom I have personally spoken about this.
reductio says:
This has now reached true Ephblog-level obsession with minutiae! I was initially concerned about the logical distinction between not all (= some) and none (i.e. rejecting one person is enough to establish that not all are free).
For Falk's opinion about allowing provocateurs on public campuses, you need only read the article a little further to get a glimpse: "How many more examples do we need? For how long are we going to allow the vocabulary of freedom to be hijacked by people trying to impress upon us its opposite?"
This provides further evidence for DDF's suspicion that Falk believes public campuses should be able to keep such events from happening, due to their excessive costs (albeit at the cost of restricting some freedom).
And for Falk's statement, there was no explicit denunciation of any violence, only the racists. Perhaps the omission was unintentional, and perhaps is not really suggesting that the freedom of racists should be restricted. The evidence is certainly not definitive one way or the other.
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post
If a comment you submitted does not show up, please email us at eph at ephblog dot com. Please note that commenters are required to use a valid email address when submitting comments.


text:
My heart rate increases as the plane lands in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city, formerly called Saigon. And I can't help but wonder how the U.S. soldiers' hearts must have pounded years ago when the United States was at war with the North Vietnamese.But those years are long past. My wife Mare and I have no tour group waiting for us and only trek with trustworthy guidebooks. I've learned at least one thing from world travel — ignorance breeds fear. Reading travel books and magazines not only prepares us for what to expect, but eases unwarranted fears.
Over two million scooter riders fill the crowded streets, nearly colliding with one another, but road rage is rare. To show displeasure in public is to "lose face" in this culture. Smiles replace anger and patience conquers tantrums. I see hardly anyone over the age of 40, and everyone is busy working, eating, and or selling wares.
It's lunchtime at the convivial Ben Thanh Market, and the scent of fish head soup fogs with the humidity. Catfish wiggle for their lives in an inch of water on the lids of steel drums, while countless eels slither below them in vats of muddy water. Shrimp swim in buckets, while ivory squids flare on tin sheets covering the tops of jars of entangled snakes.
We feast on shrimp, ground into paste and wrapped around sugar cane, with a side of asparagus soup. Later, we savor a tasty seafood pot full of squid and crab.
After maneuvering our way through the sea of scooters to a local Travel Agency, we agree upon a sightseeing strategy. We begin with a two-day tour of the Mekong Delta, the region in Southeast Vietnam where the Mekong River empties into the sea through a network of tributaries.
We decide to include an overnight stay in Can Tho, the largest and most developed city in the Mekong Delta. Then we will fly north to Hanoi, spend the night before arranging a tour to the mountain town of Sapa, followed by a two-day boat trip of Halong Bay. Any journey to Vietnam wouldn't be complete without some relaxing time on the beach. So we choose to spend our last few days at Nha Trang on the South China Sea.
For now, we pile into a van with travelers from Australia, New Zealand, France and Korea. "We'll reach the Mekong Delta in about three hours," Mr. No, the guide says.
We drive due south and after passing many rice fields, we eventually board a small motorboat as Mr. No describes the way of life in the Mekong Delta. While visiting the crowded, floating market of the Delta town Cai Be, I sink my teeth into freshly cut pineapple still attached to the stem like an ice cream cone.
Surrounded by hundreds of boats, many serving as homes gently colliding with each other, our boat breaks free and explores the jungle-lined canals. Floating hyacinths and lotus flowers drift in the low tide as we pass under single-log monkey bridges. Eventually spending the night in Can Tho, I talk with a group of Australian Bikers, "The Vets of Foreign Conflicts."
"I've always liked this place," a tattooed biker says, "But it's a lot better to see the friendly side of everybody."
After lunch the next day, Mr. No drives us back north to Ho Chi Minh City, where we board a plane for the two-hour flight to Vietnam's capital city of Hanoi. Once there, we book tours to both Sapa and the Halong Bay. (Four days of tours, including transportation, lodging and most meals, cost about 3,200,000 dong or US$ 200)
That evening, we board the train and sleep soundly on the 10-hour, overnight ride to the misty, northwest mountain town of Sapa. Arriving at the train station in Lao Cai, we switch the train for a crowded van. The vehicle travels up muddy roads twisting around the mountains on the way to Sapa (elevation: 5,400 feet or 1,650 meters). About 36,000 people live in Sapa, which is also the coldest place in the country.
Tien, a friendly, young guide greets us at the bus stop and leads us to our modest room. Within minutes, we're hiking in the soggy jungle, occasionally separated by foggy hills layered with infinite rice paddies. We meet the H'mong minority people during a village funeral. The purple dye in their garments permeates their skin.
"The entire village drinks homemade rice wine for four days before the burial," Tien says. "Then they carry the casket to the top of a mountain, drop it into a pre-dug hole, and run like crazy back to the village in fear of the body chasing them. Hopefully, the body is still in the hole the next day when they fill it."
That evening, Mare and I dine on venison and wild boar in Sapa and sleep the following night on the 10-hour train ride back to Hanoi. I sip some of the best coffee in the world next to Hoan Kiem Lake, located in the center of this clean town of many lakes, where thousands of locals exercise with everything from badminton to Tai Chi.
It's time to jump into another van for a four-hour ride to Halong Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin near the border with China and about 100 miles (160 km) east from Hanoi. Vịnh Hạ Long means "Bay of the Descending Dragon" in Vietnamese and this UNESCO World Heritage site is one of the great natural wonders of Asia, with a coastline of 74 miles (120 km) and over 3,000 islands. We board a wooden houseboat, and cruise around these spectacular limestone mounds topped with jungle vegetation that rise through the blue-green waters of this tranquil bay. Many islands conceal caves and small beaches. The quiet is a welcome break from the constant "meep-meeps" of city scooters.
"We haven't seen any American tourists around here," a British woman says. "Is it true that only 20 percent of Americans have passports?"
"I don't know," I answer. "Most of my friends think I'm nuts for coming here on vacation."
"I'd love to visit the U.S. one day," she says, "but hear it's pretty violent."
After a good night's sleep on the boat, the van brings us back to Hanoi, where we spend the night, and take a long overdue shower. Before leaving the capital, I must taste one of its special foods, Cha ca, which is tasty ground fish surrounded with spicy sauces. In the northern part of the city, restaurants specialize in dog-meat, but Hanoians believe that it is bad luck to eat this during the first two weeks of the month. Early tomorrow morning, we will catch a two-hour flight to Nha Trang, a beach town that rests on the South China Sea, about 280 miles (450 km) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.
Soon the sea rolls its turquoise waves in front of us. At first glance, the beach appears to be a typical paradise, until vendors tease us with offers to cook nine-inch long (23 cm) shrimp next to our palapa, a thatched roof of dried palm leaves. Mare enjoys a manicure, while I opt for a full-body massage. Lien, the husky, middle-aged masseuse, straddles my padded lounge and drips eucalyptus oil on my back. Her hands make clicking noises as she pounds up and down my spine.
Exotic fruits are cut for our pleasure, and the most pressing question of the day is whether or not it's too early for a beer. It's not. We sip the locally popular "Tiger" beer while the couple in the palapa next to us accepts a vendor's offer to grill huge shrimp on the beach at their feet. They notice me staring.
"We ate the shrimp yesterday and they're fantastic," the young man said. He rubbed his stomach.
"That's all I needed to hear," I said. "I'm getting some, too."
"I figured you were American. I'm Portuguese, and my wife, Loi, was born in Saigon."
"We like Americans," Loi said. "Most Vietnamese are too young to remember the American war. In 1975, the only tourists were Russian men. We called them 'Americans with no dollars.' We especially like your dollars."
"I appreciate your honesty," I said. We laughed.
Gnu, the shrimp vendor, smiles at me revealing two teeth. She dangles a giant shrimp in the wind, and I nod yes. Within moments, shrimp are sparred with transparent green crabs on a small grill. We dunk the tender meat into a green sauce made from fish, garlic, lime and other seasonings, including some sand. We devour more than two pounds (1 kg) of the tasty morsels for about US$ 5.
As we sip Tigers, and contemplate our good fortune, the theme song from "The Godfather" plays in the background, calypso-style.
That evening, we gorge on a seafood pizza on the beach, while the sun drifts behind the mountainous waters. The pizza is so good, we order another.
Lien the masseuse and Gnu the cook prepare our palapa the next morning. My wife takes a massage today, and I simply drink, swim and write. Vendors share our shade while we eat, and we're all happy. I don't want to leave. Alas, after 14 days in Vietnam, we have many connections to make to fly home tomorrow.
If You Go
It's safe, easy and inexpensive to travel in Vietnam. Many hotels offer tours, most folks speak several languages, and eager guides are plentiful. Booking flights to different cities is painless, and a good way to see a lot of the diverse countryside in a short period of time.
An excellent travel agency and hotel in Ho Chi Minh City is Kim Travel, 270 De Tham Street, Dist 1, +84 08 836 9859.
The Hai Yen Hotel in Nha Trang (40 Tran Phu Street, +84 58 822 828) for about US$ 20 includes breakfast and balcony sea views. This moderately comfortable hotel is considered higher end. Budget accommodation is readily available in Nha Trang.
Vietnam National Administration of Tourism


text:
It will be later this evening before I get to look at some harder data (some via neural net). If I see something even more interesting that I present here, I will cover it. Let's quickly review what has happened with $SPX, the Standard and Poors 500 Stock Index.
The simple daily chart shows in blue the uptrend line from 2011 which has now been broken. The rally this week has tried to come back to it, but it has failed as yet to do so. The daily reversal pivot based on momentum is in, but further inspection shows that there is a lot of overhead resistance.
For details on this, lets look at a close up of the last month's price action on the daily chart. The two large breakaway gaps are quite bearish, and this week's price action only closed ONE of them. A simple Fibonacci retracement patterns from the most recent swing low to the previous all time high shows that a 61.8% retracement lies just below the second gap fill, and that there is considerable price resistance just above it at the 2040 level on the $SPX. That would tend to provide a window from around 2015 to 2040 to provide significant resistance to get through if that rally is to continue. If it does not, it sets up another potential shorting opportunity. In that bearish scenario shown on this chart, one could see a target low (if complete price symmetry holds up) at anywhere from 1825 to roughly 1760. The 1825 represents previous price support, and the 1760 would by a symmetrical price swing from the area near the second gap fill that is equal to the price swing from the all time high to the 1867.30 low.
That target of 1825 to 1760 ASSUMES that the resistance holds. I will work on a neural net model to see if I can find meaningful statistics in that swing model that might lend some credence to the probability of that happening. A couple of things are certain however:
1) NO ONE knows exactly what will happen. If we get the pattern completions I describe, the odds could be in the realm of 70% that it will happen, but there are NO guarantees. This bull market for now on a daily chart basis HAS lost momentum though, and price must surpass its resistance to achieve new highs, or it will likely correct further if it does not.
2) The kind of "toilet flush" corrections and "toilet tank fill" rallies are going to become MORE likely and not LESS likely in U.S. equity (and bond) markets in the future. The reason for that is that our currency, the U.S. Dollar, is no longer the only king on the hill, as long as China is the influence that is is on commodity consumption and pricing. It is now attempting (and so far, successfully) to control the value of its currency to control its own export markets and to create an internal consumer economy. The stronger the yuan gets, the tougher it will be for the U.S. Dollar to influence world prices on commodities and shipping rates. Unless the U.S. gets control of its monetary, fiscal, and tax policy, it can expect to become more of a whipping boy than the ship's captain on the S.S. World Economy. If the US does not do so, it will see consumer prices rise and fall insanely like is being seen in places like Australia, where their currency has literally almost inverted against the U.S. Dollar in the last two years. That will also pressure the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to raise our interest rates to get buyers for our massive debt. That will make doing business here extemely expensive, and it will eventually cut drastically into our standard of living.
As the weekend draws closer, I will re-evaluate crude oil and other commodities, and see if there are other interesting tidbits to look at.
Thanks again for supporting this blog!


text:
Find Hostels all over the World
Muffin Hostel, HOSTEL in Salzburg Austria.
Muffin Hostel.
Hegigasse 9, Salzburg, Austria
Located near:
Here is where the modern meets the ancient.
Muffin is the brand-new hostel in the city listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Run by young yet experienced staff is there to make your stay in Salzburg an unforgettable one.
We are what you want us to be.
With the perfect location (only 15 minute


text:
Browsing Publications of the Faculty of Science and Technology by Subject "Capacitance"
Now showing items 1-1 of 1
Large active area organic photodiodes for short-pulse X-ray detection (2013)Organic thin film light sensors are promising devices for X-ray imaging systems. Compared to crystalline silicon photodiodes (c-Si), organic sensors can be fabricated on large active area at low cost. Furthermore, organic ...