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Why We Need More Leaders Like Vaclav Havel

Vaclav Havel died today at age 75. As Bruce Bawer wrote below in 2008, the courageous playwright who destroyed Communism in Czechoslovakia could teach us much about the need to defend Western freedoms against totalitarian Islam. Read more from Michael Ledeen at the Tatler.

In these decadent times when powerful people in the West cannot conceive of any response to totalitarian jihad other than rank appeasement, and when the name of Che Guevara, a bloodthirsty Stalinist and enemy of freedom, is synonymous with heroism, it is vital that free people be familiar with -- and honor -- the examples of those valiant few who, living under totalitarianism, have stood up to it with a courage that today's appeasers of Islam could hardly imagine.

Among the greatest of these heroes is Vaclav Havel.

Born in 1936, Havel spent his early years under the two major twentieth-century varieties of totalitarianism -- first Nazism, then Communism. When the Communists took over Czechoslovakia after World War II, instituting a system under which, as Havel biographer Edá Kriseová writes, "[e]veryone was afraid of his neighbor" and "[p]eople disappeared without a trace," they confiscated the Havel family's money and the theater they owned. In 1949, Havel's father was imprisoned and interrogated for several weeks; three years later, the Havels' home and possessions were taken from them as part of a new policy under which class enemies were to be removed from Prague. News of the latter development gave Havel's maternal grandfather a stroke from which he died; meanwhile Havel's uncle Miloš, after spending two years in prison and labor camp as punishment for having run a movie studio, escaped to West Germany with the help of American troops -- whereupon his name, according to Kriseová, was "erased from the history of Czech film."

Prohibited from being a full-time university student because he was the son of bourgeois parents, Havel cobbled together an education by working as a chem lab apprentice, attending night classes, and studying economics and, later, drama. In 1952, when Havel was sixteen, the Czechoslovak government tried thirteen people on trumped-up charges of conspiracy to overthrow the Communist regime. The questions and answers were scripted, the defendants found guilty (the verdict, of course, having been preordained), and all but two of the convicts executed, their ashes, as Kriseová writes, "shoveled into sacks and scattered on an icy side road in the outskirts of Prague." This was only one of many "crazed experiment[s] in the arts of legalized terror" that took place in Czechoslovakia at the time, the purpose of which was not to punish real criminals or dissidents but to maintain an atmosphere of terror and reaffirm the state's power to do what it pleased. Such "experiments" had the desired effect: most people in Czechoslovakia kept a low profile. But not Havel: determined to work in the theater, he continued to write plays -- mostly critiques of Communist utopianism and dogmatism -- even though their production and publication were banned.

Then, in 1968, something remarkable happened: the "Prague Spring," during which Alexander Dubček's government lifted censorship and travel restrictions and granted freedom of speech, religion, and assembly. But not for long: Russian tanks moved in, and Dubček was handcuffed and shipped to Moscow, where he was interrogated, isolated, threatened, bullied, and humiliated. After he finally agreed to sign a document capitulating entirely to the Kremlin, he was allowed to fly back to Prague, where he sobbed his way through a radio speech announcing his capitulation. The Communists then proceeded to whip Czechoslovakia back into line by (among other things) purging most government ministers, top diplomats, and company officials; firing thousands of teachers, school principals, and professors; persecuting actors and artists; forcing almost half of the country's journalists to resign and replacing everybody at the management level of news organizations; dismissing the great majority of writers from the Writers' Union, imprisoning or exiling many of them, and removing books by scores of them (including Havel) from libraries. The lesson was clear: in the words of Havel biographer John Keane, the people of Czechoslovakia

were expected to join what Havel's friend Ivan Klíma called the "community of the defeated," and to abide by its basic rules: that there would only ever be one governing party, to which everything, including truth itself, belonged; that the world was divided into enemies and friends of the Party and, accordingly, that compliance with Party policies was rewarded, dissent penalized; and, finally, that the Party no longer required the complete devotion of its subjects, only the quiet acceptance of its dictates.

It is a mark of Havel's character that when Czechoslovak officials, eager to be rid of him (one of the country's leading troublemakers), actually offered to let him move to the West and take a dream job he had been offered with the New York Shakespeare Festival, Havel, who at the time was working in a brewery, refused. "The solution to this human situation," he wrote, "does not lie in leaving it."

Years passed. Organized dissent in Czechoslovakia disappeared. Then, in 1976, a rock group called the Plastic People of the Universe was arrested. The musicians were not dissidents, or even politically inclined; but in the eyes of the Communist leaders, their music was, in and of itself, subordinate. The group's arrest underlined the fact that what was at issue in Communist Eastern Europe was not simply the right to political dissent -- it was the right simply to be oneself, to spread one's wings, to do one's thing. The trial led Havel and others to found Charter 77, a group that called on the government to live up to its obligations under international human rights agreements. It was a new tactic: Czechoslovakia's leaders, like the heads of other Communist countries, had entered into a number of such agreements, of which their very system of government was, of course, a violation; signing them was an act of pure cynicism on which no one had ever challenged them. At first the Plastics didn't even know whether to align themselves with Charter 77; but they eventually decided to stand up for themselves -- and with Havel. "In this trial," Kriseová would later write, "the human desire to lead one's life freely was in the dock. It was a trial in the name of sameness, indifference, bureaucratization, total obedience, and conformity. Anything that deviated from the norm in any way had to be liquidated." Or, in Havel's words: the trial was "an impassioned debate about the meaning of human existence, an urgent questioning of what one should expect from life, whether one should silently accept the world as it is presented to one and slip obediently into one's pre-arranged place in it, or whether one has the strength to exercise free choice in the matter."


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Meredith Sossman, JD, CFRE
Meredith Sossman Consultant, Author, Speaker
Date & Time (E.S.T.)
May 28, 2019 2:00 PM EST
End Time (E.S.T.)
May 28, 2019 3:00 PM EST

Go straight to the experts. Here’s where to get all your planned giving questions answered.

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Free for clients (Make sure you have your coupon code). And $97 for those who haven’t discovered the benefits of being a client — yet.

The first half of the session will focus on a specific topic. The second half is unstructured and reserved for your questions: Ask anything you wish ...  from technical and marketing to business relationships and career advice.

Again, no question is off limits and your staff is invited to attend, too. This webinar is strictly educational and not designed to promote our services. It's also not to be used for legal advice.

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Worth it

86% of our community say it was worth it

37 reviews

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a Lower rhytidectomy (neck lift) is a surgical procedure that improves visible signs of aging in the jawline and neck by removing excess skin and tightening the underlying muscles.
Neck Lift Reviews, Cost, Before & After | Plastic Surgery Review

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The cost of Neck Lift in your region ranges from US$0 - US$25,000 with the average being US$5,217. Costs vary from surgeon to surgeon and the complexity and area of the procedure.

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Pricing? Cost? How important are these factors regarding your Neck Lift

Our team often gets asked this question. “How important is price and cost” when it comes time to decide on your Neck Lift and the surgeon who will be performing it. The answer? Well I wish it was an easy one. The fact of the matter is simply because a surgeon who’s Neck Lift cost is extremely high does not necessarily guarantee good results. The same applies when going with a “cheaper surgeon” so to speak, it doesn’t mean you will receive a poor outcome, no, not at all. Example of this would be the ever popular plastic surgery holidays, where patients travel abroad to more cost effective destinations for plastic surgery like the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Thailand to name a few. The truth? We have seen thousands of extremely happy patients return from cheaper plastic surgery locations and do so without having to take a loan out to pay for their Neck Lift. The key? Do your research! We really cannot emphasize this enough, read as many Neck Lift reviews as possible, compare prices and cost and through this put yourself in the best position possible to make an informed decision. Read More

Reading Reviews, the key when deciding on a Neck Lift

Let’s face it, deciding whether to proceed with Neck Lift is no easy task. In fact, most find it an extremely daunting one. At Plastic Surgery review we believe reviews hold the key as past patient reviews help build a picture of what to expect when that day finally arrives. The fact that these reviews are actually past patient experiences goes a long way to help resolve a lot of the “questions” that constantly float in and out of our minds without having to actually ask the surgeon themselves. Whether you ultimately to decide to go through with a Neck Lift or not, we always encourage interested parties to read as many Neck Lift reviews as possible.

Mixed research, a great tool to further understand on what to expect

Mixed research is extremely powerful tool when it comes time to decide on whether to go ahead with your Neck Lift or not. These days we are blessed with an almost endless library of information, we know as the internet. Do your homework, research as much as possible, view multiple websites, compare reviews, prices and cost, across multiple surgeons and countries, view the surgeon’s actual Neck Lift before and after pictures. Take your time, the key is not to rush your decision after 5 minutes of research and 3 positive reviews. Dig deeper, read both good and bad reviews, view multiple Neck Lift before and after pictures and through this make an educated decision. Don’t rush, take your time it will make all the difference in the world.

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Perspectives 2017

10 million francs, 8 Cahiers by the artist Aloïse and 1 convention on the SBB’s main post office building augur well for 2017, a year full of perspectives

The year 2017 is off with a strong and dynamic start for PLATEFORME 10 with a donation of CHF 10 million from the Loterie Romande, a donation of 7 Cahiers à dessin - and the purchase of an eighth - by the artist Aloïse, which will go into the mcb-a fund, and an agreement signed between the State and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) concerning the future of the management position at the PLATEFORME 10 site.

In addition, during the first half of the year, texts relating to the construction on the site of PLATEFORME 10 of the building intended to house the Musée de l’Elysée and the mudac - Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts - will be submitted to the Conseil d’Etat and then to the Grand Council. The year 2017 will also see the Lausanne Municipal Council examine the elements concerning the future relocation of the mudac, as will be opened the procedure for the investigation of the second phase of the implementation of PLATEFORME 10.

As a preamble to these stages, and in line with the progress and implementation of this important cultural project, the commitment of civil society and partner entities is once again emphasized.

Aloïse Corbaz, Cahier Peinture et musique au théâtre, 1941, crayons de couleur et mine de plomb sur papier, 25 x 33 cm.
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, 2016
Photo: © Atelier de numérisation - Ville de Lausanne

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Reach Every Viewer

Designed from the ground up to leverage the power of HTML5, the Bolt Video Player was built to run fast and reliably cross-device on desktop and mobile devices, so you never have to disappoint a viewer.

Reach Every Viewer

Say Goodbye to Flash

Playwire’s early commitment to HTML5 put our Bolt Video Player at the leading edge of video playback technologies that deliver a complete feature set without reliance on Flash, so your content isn’t affected by Flash blocking and the limitations of iOS.

Responsive for Mobile

With responsive sites the new norm for web UI, you need a video player that can respond as well. Our Bolt Player lets you swap between fixed dimensions and responsive sizing at the touch of a button.

Cross-Device Monetization

Cross-device video playback is great, but if ads won’t play, you’re losing money on those videos. That’s why Playwire offers separate ad tagging for desktop and mobile, plus rich feature detection to allow the best ad creative to be selected for each viewer.


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Church Renewal

How are evangelical churches across America doing? At least three major trends are confirmed ( ):

=====> Growing minority: Weekly church attendance hovers around 17% of the American population (not 40% as news media continue to report) and trending toward 10% by 2050. 80% of teenagers now in Sunday church are projected to drop out of church activity after high school. “Most churches know how to address only one culture” despite our increasingly pluralist, multi-cultural society. Reggie McNeal, a widely respect authority on church trends sees evangelical churches as having increasingly become self-serving “club houses” with occasional “outreach” projects — not “missional outposts” of the Kingdom of God in their communities.

=====> Growing smaller: 24.5% of population say their primary form of “spiritual nourishment” comes from get-togethers in small groups of friends (even as our consumer culture celebrates mega-churches for the thousands). Yet “Americans have become increasingly disconnected from family and friends”, from face-to-face personal commitments. They yearn for intimacy in a caring relationship, yet in small groups they seldom find more than an isolated island in their already fragmented lives. Much noted, today’s young people shun “institutions”, as they see congregational churches, and keep their autonomy by means of “networking”.

=====> Growing deficit: New churches are being planted here and there, but the increase is only 1/4 of what is needed to keep up with population growth – a deficit of almost 10,000 churches today. “3,000 churches closed every year over the past decade.” Study after study has noted “we have created a church consumer culture” that asks “what’s in it for me?” Then, closing churches or opening new churches becomes not much more than recycling another consumer product.

Many observers speak of an “ecclesiological thinness” – a low demand for solidarity in church communal life, and a high demand for consumer satisfaction; a low expectancy for the sacred in worship, and a high expectancy for the celebration of self. A sense of mission is seldom more than a mobilization of “consumerist energy” for interesting projects, for fund raising or for “club house” ministries.

Surveys of preaching point to the preponderance of the “therapeutic” – sermons on “Jesus for your needs”. Seldom, on Jesus’ sanctification for daily living. Seldom, on Jesus’ call to commitment and sacrifice on the Calvary road. Seldom, on obedience to Jesus’ command to love as he loved. Seldom, on Jesus’ call to responsibility and accountability for others in the city and in the world.

Jesus told a parable in which he called for renewal, for a renewed vision, for change: “New wine must be poured into new wineskins” (Luke 5:18). When he, the Head of the Church, brings about a new work of his Spirit in the life of a local church, he also brings about new capacity, enabling and accountability to receive that work.
Where in the Scriptures may we see the essential structures and stitching for “new wineskins” and “new wine” for a time such as this?

However we read reports of trends in evangelical churches, three essential values or marks of the church are clearly focused for us in Matthew’s Gospel account:

• Jesus’ authority for His church: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (16:18). Despair in the face of death and fear before the darkness of evil shall not stand against His church on any spiritual battlefield.

The church has prevailed in world history as Christ’s followers have been marked both by his cross, by his suffering and by his overcoming life (Philippians 3:10).

• Jesus’ strategy for His church: “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (24:14). He wills the people of His church to proclaim and to demonstrate in daily living his present Kingship and sovereignty over everything in world history.

That missional mindset has marked the church with the priority of an outward going to serve others, not with a primarily inward coming to serve itself (28:18).

• Jesus’ solidarity with His church: “For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them” (18:18-20, 28:20). Christ so loved the church and gave himself for her (Ephesians 5:25), he promised he would by His Spirit be personally present even with the smallest assembly in His Name.

That intimate dwelling presence has marked the church with a deeply caring love for one another in the church, a love which expresses his indwelling and which he expects: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34-35).

How are these essential values or marks worked out in the life of a local church?
We discover in the Scriptures three basic practices of the essential values which Jesus had affirmed – practices which can constantly renew the church. In his letter to the Ephesian church, the Apostle Paul revealed how the very Trinity of God is reflected in the three-fold dynamic of church life:

• Building bridges (2:16) for the “one body” church of the Son of God:
Paul affirmed (1:4-2:10) we meet men and women in our daily world who have already been promised and prepared to personally know Christ (Romans 11:4). Therefore, Jesus encourages us to build bridges of friendship, hospitality, and care as we are led by his Spirit to speak of him and for him. He said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (John 6:37). Ours are vocations of bridge building in cross-cultural, inter-racial, inter-ethnic, inter-generational, inter-national ministries, and community service! Are we not called to be gospel ambassadors?

• Building bonds (2:19) for the “household” community of God the Father:
Paul rejoiced (2:11-20) men and women brought to Christ are no longer barred by hostility or discrimination from direct access to God the Father. They are now accepted as members in the organic reality of a community serving him and each other, and serving also in the world, in their daily lives. Therefore, each member receives spiritual enabling “to do works which God prepared in advance for us to do” (2:10). Ours are vocations of bond building in loving and caring ministries for all those he calls into his family household! Are not called to be good neighbors?

• Building the body (2:21) for the “temple” works of the Holy Spirit of God:
Paul reveals (2:20-21) the ultimate goal of history is the gathering of people from all nations to be “living stones” building up the worship, praise and prayer in which God dwells by his Spirit. Ours are vocations of temple body building in ministries honoring his holy presence dwelling with us! Are we not called to be intercessors?

From the garden temple on the first page of the Scriptures to the transcendent temple on the last, the history of the whole cosmos of creation moves toward the day when the Living God — the Lord Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ are revealed as the temple to which the Lord the Spirit — invites all to “Come!”, even today.
Jesus promised, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” His church is daily bonded and built together, daily renewed, always new.
Are we not bought to be called his servants? (1 Corinthians 6:20, Romans 1:1)


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While visiting Amsterdam, one tends be overwhelmed by the centuries-old canals and the impressive residences along them. Amidst all this history and culture, however, a massive leap forward towards a sustainable future has been taking place for over five years now.

While the city only harbored 74 electric vehicles (EVs) in 2011, thousands of EVs now cruise around town, and Amsterdam aims to be emission free in 2025. How did the city manage to move ahead so quickly, and how will the sky-high goal for 2025 be reached? Plugin Magazine visited the city, spoke with numerous stakeholders and tried to find the answers.

The solid foundation under Amsterdam's ambitions in electric transport is an extensive public network of EV charging points, with high visibility throughout the city, and providing guaranteed charging facilities to electric drivers. It started in 2009, with a few public charging points, but the city now hits the gas with 756 chargers in 2014, 1300 in 2015 and it plans to expand to 4000 by 2018. Art van der Giessen, the project manager for electric transport in Amsterdam, is enthusiastic: "We are determined to take electric transport to the next level. Within ten years, everyone should be able to drive electric in this city. To reach this, we will facilitate and stimulate electric driving with necessary infrastructure and privileges for early adaptors. Currently we have about 2050 public charging points and 50,000 charging sessions each month. The number of unique users of the network is now 8500 and grows continuously. And what's even more interesting in Amsterdam is the source of the electricity. We have a wind farm in the Amsterdam harbor that produces the electricity for the charging points. So it's as sustainable as possible." Besides huge numbers, the city concentrates on the interoperability of charging stations, ensuring that any car can be charged at any station with a standard plug.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so we checked out the reality on the ground in Amsterdam's museum quarter, around the corner of the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. Isabel, a senior banker who was just charging her plug-in Volkswagen, is content: "Though I'm driving a plug-in with a limited range (50 km), it's easy to move around solely on electric. Charging stations are never more than a block away, and I simply recharge during meetings. Amsterdam is really a unique place to drive like this."

While cruising through the neighborhood, it's easy to see what she means. The signs for parking lots with charging stations can be found on almost any street, and often with more than one per street. An online realtime map shows all charging stations in Amsterdam in blue (occupied) or green (available). An extra advantage for electric drivers is that they get priority while waiting for parking permits in the busy areas of the city. While the hardware is clearly put in place to allow for carefree electric driving, financial incentives sweeten the transition to use EVs.

A subsidy scheme by the city allows for a 5000 euro subsidy for small vans, taxis and cars used for businesses. Furthermore, buyers of huge vans, trucks and buses can receive 20% of the sale price as a subsidy. An expensive program, but stimulating a rapid growth in EVs. Finally, Amsterdam has set a maximum price suppliers of energy are allowed to charge electric drivers, in order to make electric driving attractive and affordable.

Amsterdam as Testing Ground for Electric Driving
While the municipality tries to facilitate the use of EVs as much as possible, Amsterdam has not gone unnoticed by international companies working with EVs. In 2011, Car2Go chose Amsterdam to launch the full version of their car-sharing concept. The city-wide parking permit for electric car-sharing cars, and the installation of the extensive public charging network, made Amsterdam the perfect place to introduce their concept, with a fleet of 300 electric Smarts. We contacted Car2Go for this article and were informed that they completely renewed their fleet in 2014, and even expanded the number of EVs.

Isabel is a plug-in hybrid VW Passate driver, but driving mostly on electricity, as she charges her car regularly during the day.

Amsterdam was also picked by BMW, when they launched their first fully-electric vehicle, the BMW i3. We asked BMW about the current number of full electric cars driving in Amsterdam and they checked all the fully-electric BMW i3s that are registered at postal codes from Amsterdam. They found that there are currently 104 cars of this type in the city. Given the large number of different EV and plug-in models that have been introduced in the last couple of years, this number for one model seems quite substantial, and illustrates the popularity of EVs there.

At the taxi ranks in Amsterdam, the fumes of diesel slowly evaporate. At Amsterdam's central train station, four fast chargers were installed this year, and more will follow soon. With these chargers, taxis can charge their cars within 20 to 30 minutes. A recent analyses of the use of the chargers by the municipality showed that the chargers were active almost non-stop. Besides the fast chargers at central station, nine other fast chargers were installed that are used by taxis, but may also be used by other vehicles. Furthermore, the use of electric taxis is boosted by the priority they get at a number of crucial taxi ranks. Electric taxis have priority over other taxis in the queue. At Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, two taxi companies got a license in 2014 to use the official taxi ranks at the airport. They are driving with 167 Tesla Model S verhicles, probably making Schiphol as the airport with the most electric taxis anywhere in the world.

Emission-Free Movers and Beer Trucks
Among the many regular EVs in Amsterdam, a rather special kind of vehicle can be found. Jan Laan, director of Aad de Wit Mondial Movers, a 86 year-old moving company based in Catricum and Amsterdam, explained his pioneering work: "In 2011, I and my business partner witnessed the launch of the first electric Nissan Leaf. Shortly after, we took the most irrational decision of our careers: we decided to buy an electric removal truck. This was madness, to be honest. There are no such things as electric removal trucks. You need to strip a diesel and convert it, which is expensive. Nevertheless, we decided to go ahead with our plan, because we felt we had to do it. Eventually, with the support of a number of partners, including the Amsterdam city council, we managed to pull it off." Since the first unique electric truck, things have gone quickly with more trucks, electric vans, electric scooters and PHEVs. Over 70% of the fleet of the company now has a plug. And in fact, the moving business seems ideal for electric driving. As Jan Laan explains, in practice most trucks are standing still the major part of the time, and don't need to travel a lot of kilometers in a short period. Adding to this company are two major Dutch beer brands that have come up with creative slogans, drawing attention to their expanding fleet of electric trucks. According to the municipality, there are currently more than 30 electric trucks operated by local companies on Amsterdam's roads.

Turning Driving Into Science
Amsterdam's public charging infrastructure is without compare. The Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) collects data on the more than 2000 charging points and 50,000 charging sessions each month. In recent years, dozens of researchers and students have worked on the analysis of this data, in a series of unique research projects resulting in valuable input for decision-making. This interaction between science and policy aims to ensure a future-proof charging infrastructure. One of the problems the researchers have signalled are so-called "excess users." They charge their car for over 24 hours in one uninterrupted session. As a result, 20% of total connectivity is accounted for by a tiny group of only 3% of all users. With the use of science, the grid of charging stations can be continuously improved, both technically and by showing where human behavior needs to be adjusted. Combined with the financial incentives, they maximize the chances of Amsterdam either reaching its goal for 2025, or at least setting new records in electric mobility, year after year, and showing the way forward for other cities in the Netherlands and around the world.

Text: Edgar Tijhuis

Jan. 30, 2017 Living photo: Profimedia

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The Book on Book Altmetrics from PlumX

We recently created an infographic to describe the research and metrics that PlumX covers. In that process we took a look at how many books and book chapters PlumX tracks. As you can see above, PlumX tracks 4.1 million books and book chapters. Read More

ICYMI: So Much PlumX Product News

Dog Days of Summer have you on vacation? Not so much in altmetrics and definitely not here at Plum Analytics. Our development team has been very busy in the last four months. We’ve announced a lot of PlumX product news. Here’s a quick round up of our important product developments: Clinical Citations (May 12, Read More

PlumX Includes Usage Metrics from EBSCO

One of the things we looked forward to when considering our EBSCO acquisition was more collaboration between our companies. So, it is exciting to announce that PlumXTM now includes usage metrics for articles and books from EBSCO Databases, Read More


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Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

2/5 stars.
Paperback, 351 pages.
Read from July 14 to August 06, 2015.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I  was excited to read this book as I had never read anything by McCarthy prior to this. I had heard so many great things about him so I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t enjoy this book more. I haven’t given up on McCarthy yet though! I will read The Road, his most notorious publication before I make my final opinion on him.

The book takes place around the Texan and Mexican border in the US during the 1850’s.  The book follows a runaway teenage boy, known only as, the kid and after getting arrested in Mexico he is acquainted with some men and works his way into joining their gang in order to get out of prison. The gang is a depiction of the historically notorious Glanton gang, who hunt for the scalps of Native American’s for profit and pleasure. After terrorizing and taking scalps the gang comes up with an idea to rob a bank, which ultimately doesn’t go well. Wounded and taking heavy losses, the remaining gang works their way through the desert where tensions within the group begin to show themselves.

I did appreciate McCarthy’s style, or lack there of in a way. McCarthy is one of the few authors that can get away without using practically any punctuation. This lack of punctuation worked really with the characters and their Texan slang but as a reader, you’re left to determine who is speaking because McCarthy never uses quotation marks. I definitely had to re-read a few pages just to follow some conversations. McCarthy also uses a substantial amount of Spanish, which he did not translate. So if you’re not familiar with Spanish, you’ll most likely have to do some translations yourself to understand what’s going on. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever looked up so many words in the dictionary before. McCarthy is a well-versed man.

I felt the most interesting parts of the book were all about the kid’s rough childhood. After he joined up with the group of men to start scalping native heads, is where I started to lose interest. Not because the book lacked for violence or because the characters were uninteresting but because I couldn’t keep track of the plot. The scenes all seemed to resemble each other in that the group of men would scalp some heads, get in trouble with the natives or the locals, then meet some new people during their journey’s through the desert and as a result a lot of people died. I know that I was guilty of skimming a few pages out of frustration with this strange plot.

I wish that this novel was more focused on the inner workings of the kid rather than the intricacies of the plot and its philosophies. This approach would make the book more pleasurable to read but it would also take away some of its ingenuity. I would recommend this book to those who are familiar with the history of the US at this time and for those who are familiar with McCarthy’s work.

Author: thepluviophilewriter

I have an obsession with running, cats, video games, books and angry music. I also like to write. Read my book reviews.

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Did vampires roam the swamps and forests of early New England? A grotesquely vandalized grave discovered in the small town of Griswold, Connecticut, revealed a ghoulish secret that had been concealed for almost 200 years.  Continue reading

Ghosts still inhabit the site of “Custer’s Last Stand.” The responsibility for the bloody encounter has long been a matter of bitter debate. Explore some surprising evidence that casts the event in a totally new light.
Continue reading


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Call Us : (800)1444 000 4040

Don’t Miss Out The Best Experience In Medellin, Colombia

Medellin, Colombia is one of the most beautiful and enjoyable tourist destinations. This particular city is known for both its day trips and nightlife. There are many things you could do in the city of endless spring however if you simply want to strategy your Medellin day trips for the first day after that here are 3 must things to do in Medellin.

Free Walking Tour:
Medellin is a beautiful place that is surrounded by mountains, comes, exotic recreational areas with a selection of flora & wildlife species. Medellin delivers its guests a walking tour from the city. This really is one of the best things to do to your first day in Medellin. This walking tour will help you view the history of Medellin city, as well as about Colombia also. You can require a free strolling tour in the santa elena.

Metrocable Ride:
The metrocable journey should be the second thing to do in Medellin on your priority checklist. Cable ride is not only thrilling and thrilling but it can also take you up to the mountains to the actual arvi park. It means you will find two various adventures in 1 day. Even if you don’t would like to explore the park you can enjoy stay music, an amazing sight the ones doing their particular routine work while smooth sailing in the air.

Watch A Soccer Match:
If you’re visiting the Medellin city during the time of the year when the baseball matches are going on. Ensure to grab your ticket as well as visit the stadium. The ticket costs around $12 and you can have the best soccer match up experience. Yet another thing to keep in mind if you want to see a soccer game in Medellin is to locate a secure couch. Because the game can get unclean & wild not only between the teams but also their particular supporters.

Regardless of when you wish or plan to go to the Medellin city it is important that you do at least these three things in your Medellin tours.

June 4, 2019


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Interviewer vs. Interviewer

Interviewer vs. Interviewer
( Click on picture to view) Elizabeth Lund--Host of Poetic Lines interviews Host of Poet to Poet-- Doug Holder

Sunday, December 21, 2003

On Jan 20 at 5Pm Somerville Poets and writers Brittani Sonnenberg, Tanya Larkin and Sadaf Qureshi will join me to discuss their work. Each writer has been included in the PLOUGHSHARES:
Emerging Writers Issue, that was recently released.

Monday, December 01, 2003

On Jan 6 at 5PM Channel 3: My guest will be Mitch Evich. Mitch is the author of THE CLANDESTINE NOVELIST. It is a hilarious novel about a young man's 15 year quest to carry on the work of John Steinbeck. Evich is a Somerville resident, and his work has appeared in the new renaissance, Mystic River Review, and others.

Monday, November 10, 2003

On Dec 16 at 5Pm My guest will be local writer Adam Pachter. Adam is the author of ASH, and a winner of the Improper Bostonian Writers Award. Adam is a graduate of Harvard and the Univ. of Chicago. He is trained as a lawyer, but still engages with his love of fiction writing. What makes this guy tick? Find out on SCAT Channel 3

Thursday, October 09, 2003

On Dec 2 my guest will be poet Shin Yu Pai. Shin has released her first poetry collection EQUIVALANCE. She is the recipient of a Cambridge Arts Council Grant (2003), and is a practicing artist with numerous exhibitions to her credit.
Nov 11 my guest will be Somerville poet, playwright, journalist, Simmons College Professor, Afaa Michael Weaver. Weaver just finished editing an anthology on the Black Family, THESE HANDS I KNOW ( Sarabande), and has had numerous poetry collections out, the most recent MULTITUDES.

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Oct 28 5PM My guest will be Neil McCabe, the new editor of the Somerville news. Neil will talk about his vision for the Somerville News, and his life as a writer.
On Oct 14 my guests will be Lynne Sticklor, Jack Powers and Deborah Priestly. We will talk about the Stone Soup Poetry Anthology that was recently released. Stone Soup Poets, Inc...has been a venue for poetry and publishing in the Boston area for over thirty years. It is currently housed at the Out of the Blue Art gallery in Cambridge. Jack Powers is the founder of this Boston institution.
On Oct 7 5 PM my guest will be Marc Widershien author of the lyrical memoir of Boston, THE LIFE OF ALL WORLDS ( Ibbetson 2001) Widershien will be lecturing at the Boston Center For Adult Ed Writing Festival this Fall.

Saturday, September 06, 2003

Sept 9 5PM I will interview Sally Giacosanzio, a feature writer for Spare Change News, Poet, and editor for Cable in the Classroom Magazine.... SCAT Channel 3

Friday, August 15, 2003

Sept 23 5 Pm Marc Goldfinger, author of the poetry collection Relationships ( Ibbetson 2003) will be interviewed. Goldfinger, a former editor of Spare Change News, is a well-known street poet and political activist.

Thursday, June 26, 2003

Aug 19 5:30PM I will interview Jim Behrle. Behrle founded the infamous literary magazine MEANIE, and is also an edtior for PRESSED WAFER, a poetry press and journal. Behrle is long-time supporter of the small press, and has several collections to his credit.

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

On Aug. 5 2003 at 5:30 Pm Poet To Poet will have New York City poet, Linda Lerner. Linda will discuss her new Ibbetson Street poetry collection Koan For Samsara. Linda will then read at Union Square's Grand Cafe with Marc Goldfinger and Harris Gardner. (6PM) SCAT 3

Wednesday, June 04, 2003

On July 15 Tues Channel 3 SCAT 5:30 PM I will interview Hallie Ephron, and Donald Davidoff (PhD), about their novel DELUSION. This mystery concerns a murder in a tony Boston suburb. Ms. Ephron is an accomplished writer, and Dr. Davidoff is a neuropsychologist practicing at McLean Hospital in Belmont.

Friday, May 23, 2003

June 10- 5pm Channel 3 SCAT I will interview singer, writer, and poet Jennifer Matthews. Matthews
is a popular singer, and musician on the Cambridge, Mass. circuit. She has an interesting life, and I plan to ask her about it.

Sunday, May 18, 2003

Tues June 24 at 5 PM Channel 3 SCAT I will be interviewing poet and writer Robert K. Johnson. Robert is a retired professor of Literature from Suffolk University. He has five collections of poetry to his credit, including Out of the Ordinary and The Latest News. He is currently an editor for the Ibbetson Street Press of Somerville.

Sunday, March 30, 2003

On May 27 Poet To Poet / Writer To Writer will have the poetic couple of Harris Gardner and Lainie Senechal as guests. Harris is the founder of the poetry venue, TAPESTRY OF VOICES, and the author of the poetry collection LEST THEY BECOME ( Ibbetson 2003). Laine Senechal is a poet, co-author with Gardner of Chalice of Eros ( Stone Soup Poets),
and an artist-in-residence at IMAGINE STUDIOS in Amesbury, Mass. So check out Channel 3 Somerville Comm. Access TV- 5 pm May 27!!!

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

April 15- 5pm We will air an interview with Loiuse Reynolds and Marc Widershien, from Arlington's New Renaissance Magazine. This magazine has been around over thirty years, and is well-regarded in the literary world. Reynolds and Widershien have some tales to share about the world of literary presses.
Our first show will be with the founder of the Book of Hope Project ( Anika Nailah) and her young poets and writers from the Mystic River Housing Project in Somerville.- March 18 5PM Channel 3 Somerville Community Access TV Host: Doug Holder


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Water Lily Photos

Water Lily Photos

Polly Cator photography

I took these last September but didn’t get around to editing them until now.

Look closely in the last one and you’ll find a frog.

A little blooming beauty for you in January…

I work to amplify good wherever I find it. I love color, texture, beauty, great ideas, nature, metaphor, deliciousness, genuine spirituality, and exploring new territory. I encourage authenticity, nurture creativity, champion sustainability, promote peace, and hope to foster a new renaissance where we all are free to be our most fulfilled, multifaceted, and terrific selves. Read more here.

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Dr. Alvin Reines, PolydoxyIn 1972 a group of Dr. Reines’s students formed an organization by which they could share ideas and services among each other for what was then a radical concept. This group developed into the Institute of Creative Judaism (ICJ). Others became interested and a bulletin, “Polydoxy” was published as well as a newsletter, “The Communicator”.

By the 1980s, it was clear that the principle of Polydoxy underlies not just Reform Judaism but, rather, constitutes the universal essence of all religions that affirm the ultimate autonomy of their adherents. (Who other than one’s self gives a person the authority to form one’s own opinions regarding beliefs and practices or non-beliefs and non-practices?)

Although Jewish in origin, the name of the organization was changed to the Polydox Institute to include liberal religionists emerging from all the great traditions.

Upon the death of Dr. Reines in 2004, the Reines family and the Polydox Institute established a website, polydoxy.org, so that these materials are accessible to all. The original manuscripts are in the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio.


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Why Compassion Is Necessary for Your Own Happiness

Why Compassion Is Necessary for You Own HappinessMomentary burst of happiness can arise from external experiences like a delicious meal, the purchase of a brand new car, or the fervent interest of a charming beau.

But think about it for a moment.  How long does this type of happiness last?

What happens when your stomach starts to flip from the rich food you ingested, you discover a dent in that shiny vehicle, and your new flame suddenly stops calling you?

You probably get all choked up with sadness, anger, or fear. Then happiness ends up a dim memory at best.

Material objects, success, and people can indeed bring you happiness at times, but it’s not an enduring joy.  Our wholes lives can be wrapped up in this endless pursuit of external happiness, but it’s just like being on an unfulfilling hamster wheel.

The Trouble with Too Much Focus on the Self

Let’s look a little deeper.  Why do these uncomfortable feelings set in when externally based happiness departs?  They stem from self-cherishing, self-grasping, and the belief in a permanent self, which together form the source of all our suffering.  If you can get rid of this clinging to self, you can get rid of suffering at the same time.  You’ll free yourself from negative emotions and negative actions, which naturally will bring immeasurable joy.

Let’s be clear, that doesn’t mean you should neglect yourself.  A reasonable degree of self-care makes your all the more able to feel and act compassionately toward others.  The aim is to shift the balance from self-absorption to more concern and care for others.

As the Dalai Lama says, “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”

Cultivate a Compassionate Heart

Genuine compassion – not pity – is one of the best ways to erode away this self-cherishing.  Compassion is the wish that all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering – the self-cherishing, self-grasping, and negative actions mentioned above.

No doubt you’re a good person who feel empathy and thinks of others from time to time.  But if you take a step back and look at how much time your mind is absorbed in your own comfort and endeavors, you might be surprised, maybe even shocked.

Isn’t it true that we’re almost always thinking of our very own self?  “I’m too hot, I’m too cold, I’m hungry, will I meet my monthly goals, what will he think of me?”  If we don’t put on the brakes, this self-absorption can go on and on only leading to discontent.

So let’s cultivate its antidote instead:  the compassionate heart.  Almost everyone naturally feels empathy when it’s stirred.  How can we grow this empathy so that it blossoms into complete, unconditional compassion?

Here are three compassion practices I would like to share with you today.

1} Get In Touch with Your Own Suffering

Often people keep busy to avoid painful feelings, facing who they really are, and owning up to less than angelic tendencies.   If you suppress you emotions, however, they will come out in other ways.  They might manifest as irritation, aggression, sadness, and even bodily illness.

When you have the courage to feel your own suffering, you can learn to free it too.  Don’t suppress your suffering.  Allow your suffering to surface, acknowledge it, and let it dissolve.  I know that’s not easy so start with tiny sufferings like small displeasures or disappointments before you dive into your most painful emotions and experiences.

This doesn’t mean you should indulge in a self-pity party.  The idea is to be open to whatever thoughts and emotions arise in your mind and heart, but realize they are transitory, so you don’t have to jump on a high-speed emotional train.  You can learn to let risings of the mind pass by instead.

Allowing yourself to feel this bittersweet quality of being human will naturally expand your capacity to feel compassion for the suffering of others.  You realize that they’re feeling the same suffering as you, which brings us to the next practice.

2} See Others As Another You

“After all, all human beings are the same – made of human flesh, bones and blood.  We all want happiness and want to avoid suffering. Further, we have an equal right to be happy.  In other words, it is important to realize our sameness as human beings.” – The Dalai Lama

We tend to see others as separate from ourselves and easily fall into judgments about them.  Instead, you could practice seeing each person as another you.  That will put a completely different spin on how you relate to them.

  • Like you, they want to be happy and don’t want to suffer. True, they often go about trying to achieve happiness in the oddest of ways, mistakenly creating more suffering for themselves and others.  They are confused about what will bring true happiness so greed, envy, desire, insatiability, and aggression can color their thoughts, words, and actions when that’s not what they really want.
  • Like you, early childhood conditioning and unconscious negative patterning may dominate their mind. They don’t know there’s another option.  They don’t see a way out.  They identify with their thoughts and emotions so strongly, not realizing they are much more than this.
  • Like you, their nature is divine. Behind all the emotional chaos and defeating beliefs, there’s a pure awareness always there within.  When you identify with your pure consciousness instead of the transitory thoughts and emotions, you can begin to breathe, feel more space, and at last more freedom from these previously dominating trends.

So when you see another person, see the commonality you share.  Don’t get stuck on outer appearances.  No matter how unruly or difficult they may seem, see the divine within.  Make this prayer often and your compassionate heart will fully bloom.

“May all beings be happy, free from suffering, and the cause of suffering.  May they reach perfect happiness, remain in it, and live in equanimity.  May they maintain love for all others without discrimination.”  – Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

3} Exchanging Yourself for Others

“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”  – the Dalai Lama

There’s a beautiful practice in Tibetan Buddhism called “Giving and Receiving” or “Tonglen” in Tibetan.   In this practice, you use the breath as a medium for taking on the suffering of others and sending out all your happiness, good fortune, health, and any goodness you possess.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche presents slight variations on this practice.  Here is one visualization he suggests:

“…Visualize that your heart is a brilliant ball of light.  As you breath out, it radiates rays of white light in all directions, carrying your happiness to all beings.  As you breathe in, their suffering, negativity, and afflictions come toward you in the form of dense, black light, which is absorbed into your heart and disappears in its brilliant white light without a trace, relieving all beings of their pain and sorrow.”

Start Where You Are

When you practice compassion, always start where you are and build from there.  If the idea of giving and receiving scares you, start by getting in touch with your own suffering or seeing others as another you.  Don’t push yourself to feel an enormous compassion beyond your current capacity.  That will only backfire and make you shrink from opening your heart.

Although the seed of empathy lies within almost all of us, you must practice compassion often to fully expand your heart.  You can practice in meditation sessions until these ideas and visualizations come naturally.

At the same time, don’t forget to put compassion into action.  Notice your gut reaction to others.  When it’s unkind, judgmental, or aggressive, bring to mind how everyone is another you. Then reach out with love instead.

I believe compassion is necessary for our own happiness because true compassion destroys self-cherishing, self-grasping, and the belief in a permanent self.  Then your true essence shines right through.  At the same time, compassion is the perfect replacement for negative thoughts, words, and actions, which will only bring suffering in their stead.

About the Author of this Post:

Sandra PawulaSandra Pawula is the heart and mind behind Always Well Within, a mindfulness guide, and a peace-loving introvert. She helps people who seek ease but want more than just stress reduction alone.

If you’re willing to think deeply and look within, she’d love to guide you toward creating a life of joy and ease – mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  Sign up for her free weekly stress tips and start living with greater peace.

Thank you so much for stopping by! If this article touched your heart, please share it on facebook, twitter, etc. with your loved ones and pass on the positivity and love. I appreciate your help and support!

For Online Psychological/Spiritual Counseling with me please CLICK HERE!

Other recent positive articles you will love:

With Immense Love, Light & Gratitude,

Get the latest articles(FREE) as soon as they are published, by Email OR RSS.PLUS if you are an Email Subscriber, You get the Positive Living Handbook+My Ebook “The Best of Positive Provocations”+ “Your Self Healing Starter Kit”. Come Join the facebook community & follow me on Twitter and Google+ for Positive Provocations Everyday!

4 thoughts on “Why Compassion Is Necessary for Your Own Happiness

  1. Sandra, that’s one of the best posts on compassion I’ve read. I think you managed to express in one post what others write books about. I think the ability to deeply care about other beings is what makes us human and it’s a waste not to cultivate that ability.

  2. Thank you, Jaan. I’m deeply touched by your appreciative words. And, I’m fully with you on the idea that compassion is the heart of being truly even. Thanks so much for taking moment to share your thoughts. Wishing you well.

  3. Pingback: Why Compassion Is Necessary for Your Own Happiness & 3 Ways to Cultivate It : Conscious Life News

  4. Pingback: Why Compassion Is Necessary Happiness - The Tom Hitchens Community

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re: 10 things I've learned from working remotely VIEW POST

re: It comes from a combination of the "hacker" stereotype and the fact that a great many (if not most) software developers (who are arguably the pione...

I can't stress this more: "if you're not socializing outside of work (regardless of where you work), it's ultimately your own fault. Working remotely just shines a GIANT spotlight on your negligence in that department".

I believe the most healthy relationships emerge from your permanent hobbies. Work socialization can turn into changing skins every time you change your work, which is more often now than older generations.

Yeah, I honestly hate changing my personas. I am usually unapologetically myself during interviews (note this does not mean unapologetically cocky! hahaha), so that if I act like myself during work, nobody is confused.

But to your point, being proactive outside of work to socialize is very very important. I agree that working remotely just points it out and makes it more obvious how much you need it.

code of conduct - report abuse


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Sorrentino Domenico

Archbishop of Assisi

Compartilhar Em

Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino (born 16 May 1948) is an Italian Catholic archbishop.

He was born at Boscoreale, near Torre Annunziata and Pompei, outside Naples in Italy, in 1948. He undertook the usual seminary studies and was ordained a Catholic priest for the diocese of Nola on 24 June 1972, having studied at the Roman ecclesiastical Universities as a pupil of the Almo Collegio Capranica, an ancient Roman seminary named after Cardinal Domenico Capranica. About the same time, having left the Capranica, Sorrentino obtained a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and at substantially the same time a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Rome La Sapienza. He followed for a number of years the normal course of appointments in his home diocese as curate and then parish priest, but after a relatively short time was appointed to diocesan responsibilities for Catechetics. He was also involved in the establishment of a library centred on the figure of the Church Father, Paulinus of Nola. Sorrentino also became a teacher in the Institute of Religious Science at Nola and in the theological Faculty at Naples.

In 1992 he obtained a position in the Secretariat of State in Rome. Sorrentino's activities as a speechwriter in the Secretariat of State brought him into contact with Stanislaw Dziwisz, principal private secretary to Pope John Paul II.

He was appointed on 17 February 2001 to the rank of Archbishop and the post of Prelate of Pompeii, in effect a small diocese centred on a large and popular shrine of the Virgin in the modern township of Pompei, adjacent to the ruins of the Roman town buried in ancient times by volcanic eruption. Here Sorrentino set about plans for the rearrangement of the area surrounding the shrine, the provision of road access, and the like.

Then Sorrentino was appointed to the post of Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, on August 2, 2003. His last appointment came on November 19, 2005, when he was appointed Bishop of Assisi, keeping the personal title of archbishop.

[September 2016]
Source: Wikipedia


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Editing User Information in MarketPress

I'm hiding MarketPress behind Membership. When a user registers (using Membership), I'd like them to be able to review their account information and shipping info (User profile) without checking out.

Can I do this..?

  • aecnu
    • WP Unicorn

    Greetings Callum,

    Thank you for the question and certainly they can do this by virtue of being logged into their account and looking at the profile.

    They must still log in but they do not need to go through check out.

    Thank you for being a WPMU DEV Community Member!

    Cheers, Joe

Thank NAME, for their help.

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Floating Social not working for me.

Dear Sir/Mdm,

I just activated the plugin and I'm trying it on my blog. But the alignment seems to be off. Please advice.

  • Nithin
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Lex,

    Hope you are doing good today. :slight_smile:

    The width of the floating social plugin depends on the theme layout, you'll have to tweak the settings for each theme, so that it displays accord to the themes layout.

    #wdsb-share-box { width: 90px; }

    Please add the following CSS under Settings > Floating Social > Additional CSS, and check whether it works.

    Please let us know if you need any further assistance. Have a nice day. :slight_smile:

    Kind Regards,

Thank NAME, for their help.

Let NAME know exactly why they deserved these points.

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Tinashe and Young Thug Share "Party Favors"

Publish date:
Updated on

Tinashe will soon follow-up last year’s received Aquarius with a new album called Joyride. You can listen to the new album’s first single, “Party Favors”, featuring rap’s weirdo du jour Young Thug

Joyride doesn’t have a release date yet, but here is an album trailer:


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Encourage the writer 0.99 spring sale

Pink background. Test: Structure in a story is like plumbing in a skyscraper: necessary. Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt

Also necessary for writers who are temporarily still bogged down in the minutiae of moving, is encouragement.

Until further notice – until I’m enough settled to finish NETHERWORLD, the second book in the Pride’s Children trilogy – if you have someone to whom you would recommend it, now is the time to send them a gift email for Pride’s Children:PURGATORY – for a buck.

It couldn’t possibly hurt.

Nor could it possibly hurt to remind them that reviews are also a very good thing readers do for writers.

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Ask a question

Is It Okay If When Using A Rubber Band As A Dampener The 2 Middle String Came In Slightly

What is the purpose of a racquet dampener?

I would highly recommend getting a vibration dampener. Not only does it eliminate the shock that would have eventually gone to your arm, it creates a more solid sounding shot when you swing. I would recommend the worm dampeners, I've used those throughout my entire college tennis career and they're great! The donut ones work alright, but they occasionally fly off of your tennis racket and then you don't know where it went!

How do i keep the shock absorber thingy on my racket on?

You're right, it's really annoying having that constantly happen during a point. However, if your shock absorber keeps falling off you definitely need a new one.

There are many different types of shock absorbers to choose from. Depending on how much width they cover along the bottom of your string bed determines the extent of the shock absorption.

For example, some of the wider ones, like the Head Smartsorb Dampener - - an easy to install dampener that hooks onto your strings, the Prince Silencer -- a 100% secure dampener that is the most secure dampener there is, which also reduces string vibration by 70% (but is difficult to install), and the Gamma Shockbuster, cover almost the whole width of the bottom of the racquet face.

Here are examples of each dampener:

Head Smartsorb:

Prince Silencer:

Gamma Shockbuster II:

At the other end of the Vibration Dampener spectrum, you have much smaller products like the original dampener, the Gamma Red Eye, which uses a ball bearing suspended in a viscous dampening liquid to absorb more vibrations over a broader range of frequencies.

Gamma Red Eye Dampener:

Various Dampeners:'-fun-vibration-dampeners.html

Unusual Dampener:

If you like a large dampening effect, choose a wide dampener, but if you like less of a dampening effect, get something smaller. As a general rule, the wider ones are more secure.

Hope this helps.


text:
The Convicts

The Convicts

Downloadable Audiobook - 2011
Rate this:
His efforts to avenge his father's unjust imprisonment force thirteen-year-old Tom Tin into the streets of nineteenth-century London, but after he is convicted of murder, Tom is eventually sent to Australia where he has a surprise reunion.
Publisher: Prince Frederick, Md. : Recorded Books ; [Prince Frederick, Md.] : [Distributed by] OneClick Digital, 2011, p2005
Edition: Unabridged
ISBN: 9781449894399
Additional Contributors: Keating, John

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The group of finicky American teenaged basketball players spent a month in Germany. Amid a scene of unfamiliarity, two staples emerged during the summer of 2010, one no nutritionist would approve.

“For breakfast, lunch, and dinner we ate spaghetti,” Bradley Beal said without a hint of culinary regret. “We were kids. We were real picky with food. We literally had spaghetti every day and loaded it up with sugar. Carbo-load!”

The other, far more palatable constant involved a different kind of devouring. Beal and his USA Basketball teammates chewed up the competition during each of their eight games in the inaugural 17-and-under FIBA World Championship.

On the gold-medal winning roster, 11 of the 12 players eventually reached the NBA. Six heard their name called in the first round of the NBA Draft, including Andre Drummond and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Three would win college basketball titles. One became a two-time NBA champion.

Amid this burgeoning talent, one standout emerged from the pack, the one who now leads the way for the Washington Wizards.

[Click here for full article.]


text:
“Good faith with the reader is the foundation of good journalism.” so says the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) in the introduction of its Code of Conduct. I do not know if the Nigerian Guild of Editors has a similar code, but if it has, this is definitely the right time to find a way of enforcing it.

The Nigerian media has come a long way since the debut of “Iwe Iroyin” in the early 1920s. It has consistently been what a thinker called “ the strong sword arm of justice, the bright sun -beam of truth.” It did these pre and post colonial period and took it to highly commendable patriotic, courageous levels during the military era. It performed its role so well that it was easily seen as the authentic hero of the struggle. But should it end there?

I remember a newspaper cartoon some thirty years ago about a political giant whose stature had shrunk so miserably. The caption of that cartoon was: My son, I have been to the mountain top, it is quite slippery there.” This has always made me shudder at what happens to a well respected person or a system when the soul is lost to the world. The other time when former President Olusegun Obasanjo announced with relish that he was not a reader of newspapers, those of us in the media took offence and wanted to present him as food for our gods. We had forgotten that he had the right to say what he said. We also forgot that Obasanjo had the right not to read newspapers. The man had his reasons and these are what we should have sought to know.

We should find out why leaders in contemporary times doubt what they read in newspapers. I also read a former US President somewhere where he was put on record as having said at a time that he loathed reading newspapers. But why? And they would gladly answer “Why not?” Why not if it is true as some elements in the Action Congress boasted recently, that they used the media to re-brand former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and made him look as if he was never part of the Obasanjo presidency? Has the media become so cheap, ready tool of branding and re branding of politicians?

Why believe what you read when you are an eye witness to an event that was reported upside down?

While it is refreshing to see new publications spring up across the country, it is necessary for all who should to take interest too in setting minimum standards of qualifications and code of conduct for those manning them. In Osun state, for instance, there is a publication by the opposition AC which does not appear to know at all that in journalism there are ethics. It is called ” OSUN DEFENDER” Any common street talk qualifies for its headline and the laws of libel are alien to the understanding of those editing it.

Journalists are supposed to inform. However, you wonder what information a “newspaper” gives the public when what you read in it reeks of crass ignorance. Imagine this Osun “newspaper” saying last week that President Umaru Yar’Adua had barred governors from travelling out! I think this is the time to wake up and act to save the image of journalism and genuine journalists in this country. Because members of the Action Congress in the state must be prevented from migrating to the ruling party before the local government election, this publication must go to town to announce that the defeated AC governorship candidate would be sworn-in on 14th August, later 14th September and when the date approached, the writers had no sense of shame as they shifted the swearing-in date again to October 14. As at today, the new date according to this publication is end of November! What journalist would put his name as editor on the imprint of a rumour-mill like this and still expect to be respected.

Even when all indications from the election tribunal point at a waterloo for the Action Congress legislators in Osun state, five of whom may lose their seats at once any moment from now, this publication would still dishonestly boast that the verdicts in other states point at a possible victory for the AC in Osun.

Why would a person who claims to be a journalist not consider the cases and draw comparisons or see the difference in them before arriving at a media prediction? The truth of the matter is that there are no similarities between the decisions of the tribunals in Kogi and Kebbi and the petitions challenging the election of any of the governors in the PDP South West.

Indeed, if there is any need to fear because of the rulings, it is the AC that should start preparing for the Court of Appeal. In Osun state for instance, five of its eleven lawmakers will likely fall at once as direct victims of the Kogi judgement because candidates of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) are challenging their unlawful exclusion from the election after being duly nominated by their parties.

Newspapers are market place of ideas, not of lies and half-truths. They are to make the readership better informed and more knowledgeable about their environment. Newspapers are not supposed to be purveyors of idle talks of street urchins. If anything, newspapers are to make the disabled whole.

If the person being lied to cannot read through the smokescreen, at least the liar himself knows what he is doing. It is not possible for the two sides to be victims of this lying business. So, in this case, the losers are those willing to play the fool. They are those willingly opening their mouths to the acrid smell from the fart-holes of lying quacks in journalism.

Propaganda has always been an inseparable part of politics, unfortunately, so are lies. While the latter clearly conflict with the basic foundation upon which journalism is built, there is really nothing wrong with politicians employing the act of propaganda to get to their goal. The wise propagandist knows, however, that there must be platforms of truth for him to place his stuff if he must get it bought consistently by the public otherwise, his propaganda ware will become what those of us in newspaper business call “unsold.”

As we all labour to see the Nigerian media and their editors emerge from whatever challenges they currently face, (some are regularly harassed and threatened with sack by their politician -publishers), nothing should make us deviate any further from agreeing with the ASNE when it concludes the code of conduct by stressing that “every effort must be made to ensure that the news content(of newspapers) is accurate, free from bias and in context, and that all sides are presented fairly.”

*Olagunju is Chief Press Secretary to Osun State Governor.

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EAST RUTHEFORD, N.J. (AP) — Long-snapper Zak DeOssie is returning for a 13th season with the New York Giants.

The team announced the re-signing of its second-longest tenured player Tuesday, a day after giving Eli Manning a $5 million roster bonus that almost guarantees the 38-year-old quarterback will be back for a 16th season.

They are the only two active Giants' players from their Super Bowl wins over the Patriots after the 2007 and '11 seasons.

The Giants also re-signed wide receiver Bennie Fowler and defensive back Tony Lippett.

DeOssie joined the Giants as a fourth-round draft choice in 2007 and has played in 188 regular-season games. He made the Pro Bowl twice.

Fowler played in 10 games last season, catching 16 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown. Lippett had one tackle in three games and was inactive for six.

More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL


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Society and Culture

The Confederate flag is a useful reminder

Perhaps the Confederate flag should continue to fly in public places in America. As a reminder that some causes deserve to be lost.

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Donna Bryson is a US-based writer, former Associated Press Africa Correspondent and author of It’s a Black White Thing. Donna tweets: @donnaindenver

Perhaps the Confederate flag should continue to fly in public places in America. As a reminder that some causes deserve to be lost.

The debate over the flag’s place on the lawns of government buildings and in the history of the country was revived when a 21-year-old white man killed nine black worshippers in a southern American church. Dylann Roof, who according to friends had complained that “blacks were taking over the world,” faces murder and other charges in what authorities describe as a hate crime on hallowed ground in Charleston, South Carolina’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Denmark Vesey, who was among the founders of the church and was affectionately known as Mother Emanuel, was hanged after plotting a slave revolt in 1822. His church was burned but rebuilt after the Civil War and would host Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s.

In a history of the Civil War, Shelby Foote writes that Robert E. Lee himself was among leaders who suggested the Confederacy free slaves and enlist them as fighters if it wanted to win the war. The suggestion went nowhere, Foote continues, in the face of opposition from die-hards who “contended that no government … whatever its desperation under the threat of imminent extinction, had the right to interfere in matters involving social institutions, especially slavery.’’ Slavery, some argued, was the cornerstone of the Confederacy.

That sealed it for me. If the South chose defeat over emancipation, who can seriously argue that the war was over slavery?

Yet Foote himself is among those who say that the reasons for war were more complex, and that it is reductionist and wrong to see the Confederate flag as a racist emblem of a brutal past. Foote told PBS in 2000 that for him “the flag is a symbol my great grandfather fought under and in defense of.’’ He acknowledged the same flag has been flown by opponents of the campaign for African Americans to live free of terror and enjoy the rights of all Americans. But Foote argued “the people who knew what that flag really stood for should have stopped those yahoos from using it as a symbol of what they stood for.’’

In the end, reasoning white racists into surrendering a flag black Americans associated with slavery was a lost cause. Not because of what the racists fail to understand, but because of what they know in their bones.

Ostensibly, the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War occasioned the placing of the Confederate battle flag on the Statehouse dome in Charleston, not far from Mother Emanuel, in 1961. It stayed in symbolic defiance of the civil rights movement until, after protests, a compromise saw it replaced in 2000 by a smaller version on a flagpole on the front lawn.

In the wake of the Mother Emanuel shootings, the U.S. and state flags at the Statehouse were lowered to half-staff in mourning. But the Confederate flag remained at the top of its 30-foot pole.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for the flag to be moved to a museum. Lawmakers have agreed to at least consider the idea, setting the stage for what is likely to be a passionate summer debate.

Business isn’t waiting for the politicians. Amazon, EBay, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart say they will stop selling Confederate flag merchandise.

Roof, the suspect in the church shootings, saw the obvious: the connection between white extremists in the United States and those elsewhere. Photos of Roof that have circulated in the global media show him waving the Confederate flag and wearing badges depicting the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and the now defunct, racist-led Rhodesia.

Better lessons can be drawn from southern Africa. While writing a book about South Africa’s struggle to build a united nation on a racially divided past, I interviewed a professor who is white and Afrikaans-speaking, meaning she is from the Afrikaner minority some might blame for the apartheid policies that once denied economic, educational and political opportunities to most South Africans. She’s now teaching black and white students at a university once reserved for Afrikaners. She has taken a hard look at her own life and the assumptions on which she was raised, and concluded that rather than clinging to the past, “today, something else is more important, and that is embracing the variety that our country offers. Either you have your fears of losing something, or you have the excitement of experiencing something new or something better. You have to decide what you want.”

Those who cling to the Confederate flag are still pushing back, saying that this emotional period following the Mother Emanuel shootings is not the time to consider change, and that they are proud of the heritage they believe the flag represents.

Occasionally, as I read Foote’s exhaustive, deservedly celebrated three-volume Civil War history, I joked to myself I would scream the next time I came across the phrase `red-haired Ohioan,’’ his go-to description for the North’s Ulysses S. Grant. But I was more often struck by Foote’s eloquence, as when he described this paradox: “the Confederacy, in launching a revolution against change, should experience under pressure of the war which then ensued an even greater transformation.’’

Some Americans continue to revolt against change. The ultimate lost cause.

PS21 is a non-ideological, non-governmental, non-partisan organization. All views expressed are the author’s own.

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About Our Methodology

we build software that delivers valuable experiences, connecting with people on aspirational and emotional levels

The science of understanding people has developed for centuries, but not enough has been done to integrate these approaches into the process of software development. For more than 15 years, we have refined a repeatable, programmatic methodology that centers on answering questions about customers through direct observational fieldwork to identify people’s needs, behaviors and aspirations. This provides a perspective on customers that clients typically have never seen.

The aim of this work is not more data; most companies are swimming in information. Instead, we create a strategy for the experience that the software will provide. It's a framework that allows researchers, developers, designers, marketers and architects to make decisions that support the intended customer experience. projekt202’s integrated offering takes insights from the field and manifests them in developed software that engages customers and improves business results.

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The Books within Books database of Medieval Hebrew manuscript fragments held in European libraries, archives and collections is now open. You can access some 1500 records containing images and catalogue descriptions of the fragments found in collections in France, Italy, Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic. New entries will be added to the database daily.

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This time, it really is Daddy Warbucks’ war

“I love money, I love power, I love capitalism.”

– “Daddy Warbucks,” from the Broadway musical, Annie (1982)

It’s not hyperbole, or the overused metaphor of the battle for electoral victory. It’s a war for political power – a war fought with ammunition of bucks rather than bullets.

Ho hum, you say? A tiresome analogy?

Look at how much money Tea Party darlings Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell have raised recently: $14 million for Ms. “Second Amendment remedies,” compared to only $2 million for her opponent, incumbent Sen. Harry Reid – and that amount is only $5 million short of what the Senate majority leader has raised since he began soliciting for this election cycle back in 2005; and Ms. “I’m not a witch” has raised, since the Delaware primary in mid-September, $3.8 million, twice as much as Democrat Chris Coons.

In this war, O’Donnell and Rand Paul, Angle and Marco Rubio are not political pioneers, but cannon fodder for the super rich backing up the Right’s rear flank. People like the Koch brothers push these Kool-Aid® drinking greenhorns out on the front line, telling them they are leading the charge, “taking the country back,” and meanwhile, the truly scary maniacs are hiding in the background.

In this war, Gen. Palin raises the  money and Col. Beck raises the hackles of weakened minds, and they are only two of a handful who can control the crazy corporals who are zealously rattling their sabers and flapping their gums on the front lines. It’s not that they are smarter or less insane than their troops. They were just out there first.

With groups backed by relentless Republicans, like Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, spending buckets of money on ads against Congressional Democratic candidates that are either misleading or just plainly false, “campaign finance reform in this country is virtually dead,” as columnist David Corn put it, Friday, “and that means any entity with a lot of money — a corporation, a billionaire, a union — can pour as much cash as it wants into an effort to rig the political system in its favor.”

It is up to us, the real America, to not let money win the power it salivates for so greedily. This is our country, and – in this the Tea Partiers are right – we have lost control of it.  Vote, and remind those with riches that money doesn’t vote. People do.

3 thoughts on “This time, it really is Daddy Warbucks’ war

  1. PG, you may want to check out the Koch Brothers history. They have not donated or financed any of the Tea Parties.

    Furthermore, by far the largest donor in this election cycle is the union of American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. They have given more than 98% of their funds to Democrats (currently over $43 mil). What is not included in the donor dollar statistics is the non-monetary traditional assistance that unions provide to democratic candidates like phone solicitation, sign installation and other labor donations. This war that you describle is and has always been lopsided in favor of democratic candidates. In recent history alone, the network news organizations ran a pro-Obama format for 1 year leading up to the presidential election after they abandoned Hillary. As I am sure you know, CBS, NBC and ABC indicidually, have far more viewers than FOX, Voter intimidation by the New Black Panthers is a democratic phenonemon supported by the Democratic led Justice Department and your notion in the article above of candidates raising money successfully is an exercise in free speech, recently supported by the US Supreme Court. Additionally, Sharon “Second Amendment Remidies” Angle is right. The right to an amrmed state militia is rooted in the notion of protection from a tyrannical government. The influence of money is a given. The McCain Feingold bill was a waist of time and effort.

  2. I have always believed in Democratic principles and ideals. On some issues, I would say I’m in the center, on others, more left leaning. I am proud to admit I am a Democrat and am not afraid to voice my opinion and argue for what I think is right. And I want my representatives in Congress to do the same. They need to unite and push our agenda through. And if the Republicans manage to tie things up, we need to make sure that the people understand the facts: what we tried to do and what they prevented. And how their actions are detrimental to the people of this country. We, as Democrats, must be very careful to keep our noses clean so that we give them no ammunition against us. We must make sure that our agenda always is for the benefit of the people, that we never betray their trust. We must be out there every day, as the Republicans are, making our message clear. Stand up for the people and they will vote for us.

    1. Nancy,

      As long as a boatload of money is necessary for members of Congress to get re-elected, it is unrealistic to think members of an entire party can remain uncorrupted.

      We need to change the influence of money, because as long as there’s an incentive to load up their war chests, politicians will take it.

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HDPiano: Bootstrapping a Successful Video Subscription Business

HDPiano is different to many of the other subscription businesses we’ve spoken to as part of our Small Woorld interview series.

Because their product is a video subscription business—a membership to view videos of piano lessons—HDPiano don’t have to worry about shipping, inventory or many of the other hassles that consistently plague eCommerce entrepreneurs.

Another distinguishing fact about HDPiano is that YouTube is their top lead generator. Founder Sean Lee, told me that to date they haven’t spent anything on paid advertising to build HDPiano’s (quite large) audience.

To find out how Sean was able to build HDPiano from humble beginnings with a $500 personal investment with no programming skills, check out my full interview with him on Small Woorld.

You’ll also learn a little bit about Sean’s digital nomad lifestyle in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and how Tim Ferriss’s The Four Hour Work Week influenced his approach.

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4 responses to HDPiano: Bootstrapping a Successful Video Subscription Business

  1. Eva Gantz

    I’m also teaching myself some piano, and I ame across HD Piano videos just last week. Loved the concept, and it’s really cool to hear the design behind the business. Thanks Kirby and Sean!

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