text:
Print details Printable details

Communism in Pakistan: Politics and Class Activism 1947-1972

Communism in Pakistan: Politics and Class Activism 1947-1972
Kamran Asdar Ali

  • Hardback | In Stock | £77.00

  • Hardback | In Stock | $120.00

    add to basket

Pakistan today stands at a critical juncture in its short history of existence. While muchhas been written about Pakistan, little is known about Communism or left-leaning politicsin the country post-Partition which played a key role in shaping Pakistani politics today. KamranAsdar Ali here presents the first extensive look at Pakistan's communist and working class movement.The author critically engages with the history of Pakistan's early years while paying special attentionto the rise and fall of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP), from Partition in 1947 to theaftermath of Bangladeshi independence in 1971. Since its formation in 1947 as a homeland for SouthAsian Muslims, Pakistan has been a configuration of shifting alliances and competing political and social ideologies. Pakistan has experienced three military takeovers and is plagued with geopolitical conflict - from Kashmir to Baluchistan, Waziristan - and while these aspects of Pakistan make headlines, in order to understand the complexities of these events, it is vital to understand the state's relationship throughout history with its divergent political and ethnic voices.One dominant feature of the state, along with its emphasis on the Islamic nature of its polity, has been the non-resolution of its ethnic problem - while the history of Pakistan is often viewed through the lense of unified Muslim nationalism, the author here also explores the history of Pakistan's often tense relationship with its various ethnic groups - Baluch, Pathan, Sindhis, Punjabis and Bengalis.

Shedding light on a vital and little-researched aspect of Pakistani history, this book shows that military coups, Islamic radicalization and terrorist activities do not constitute the sum total of Pakistan's history; that it, too, has had a history that included the activities of communist intellectuals and activists.

Author Info

Author Bio: Kamran Asdar Ali is Associate Professor of anthropology and the director of the South Asia Institute at the University of Texas, Austin.

‘This absorbing history of the forgotten hopes and struggles of the shortlived left in the new country of Pakistan is particularly poignant. It will be welcomed not only by scholars interested in leftist and working-class history, but also by those seeking to understand Cold War politics as they played out worldwide. Asdar Ali throws a wide net, including archives, memoirs, interviews and literary artifacts. More power to his hope that recovering a fuller understanding of Pakistan’s past might reignite a lost vision of democracy and social justice today.’
Barbara Metcalf, Professor Emerita of History, University of California Davis

‘A work of exceptional importance. The author has combined archival unearthing with fieldwork that includes interviews with both elite actors and non-elite participants in organized leftist movements. Pakistan today is usually understood through the lens of terrorism, Islamism and the jockeying for power by groups that are seen to be either religious, or based upon ethnic affiliations. This book powerfully demonstrates that an organized and intellectual left was formative of intellectual life in Pakistan, and provided a defining affiliation for important thinkers and activists of diverse backgrounds.’
Iftikhar Dadi, Department of History of Art, Cornell University

'At the centre of Communism in Pakistan is a valuable and important idea – a reading of Pakistan’s history that complicates the dominant narrative’s overwhelming emphasis on religion, Islamic radicalism, insurgencies and military rulers. By bringing into picture the little-known history of Pakistan’s fledgling communists, the manuscript enriches our knowledge of the different layers of its political and intellectual existence… unusual and illuminating.’
Gyan Prakash, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Princeton University

Communism in Pakistan is an account of the subterranean history of the Left in the formative decades of that country. His alternative history of the period - incisive, subtle, and poignant – reclaims a largely forgotten past for the present and the future. The book’s intrepid and imaginative labour in piecing together the vibrant political culture of communism and working-class politics in Pakistan makes it both a substantive contribution and a critical historiographical intervention.’
- Mrinalini Sinha, Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History, University of Michigan

'Meticulously detailed and conceptually rigorous, beautifully written. A historical anthropology of the present, Communism in Pakistan unpacks the stories tucked into political detritus and remaindered memories - a must read.'
– Geeta Patel, Associate Professor, Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures, University of Virginia

Bibliographic Info

Imprint: I.B.Tauris
Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd.
Series: Library of South Asian History and Culture

ISBN: 9781784532000
Publication Date: 29 May 2015
Number of Pages: 304
Height: 216
Width: 138

Also of Interest

Mineworkers in Zambia: Labour and Political Change in Post-Colonial Africa

Mineworkers in Zambia
Miles Larmer
£90.00 | $145.00

Democratic Transition in Turkey: The Transformation of Civil Society and the Challenges of EU Accession

Democratic Transition in Turkey
Hasan Turunc
£69.00 | $110.00

The Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's Succession Crisis: The Politics of Liberalisation and Reform in the Middle East

The Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's Succession Crisis
Mohammed Zahid
£14.99 | $29.00

New Book Alerts

Sign up now

Powered by Google


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
February 6, 2018

Ukraine - USA Friendly Match Started

ICCF-US has begun play in a 30-board Friendly Match against a team from the Ukraine.  We lost against the Ukraine in two previous Friendly Matches (in 2010 and 2015), the Ukraine being one of the few teams we have not beaten in recent times.  Hopefully, this time will be different!  Our first board is being played by GM Jason Bokar against GM Alex Nikolaevich Bubir.  SIM Tom Biedermann is the USA Team Captain for this match. You can find this match at the following URL:  https://www.iccf.com/event?id=73194

Dennis Doren, ICCF-US Friendly Match Organizer

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-228-65-216.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-09
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for February 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Flash animation

View Testimonial

“Having worked with Phil from iCEWYCHE for several years I can fully endorse his expertise and ability to deliver under tight time and cost parameters and would have no hesitation in recommending iCEWYCHE in the future”

Neil van den Dungen, 3Store Retail Programme Manager

Call Back...

To contact iCEWYCHE about your specific I.T. requirements, simply fill in the form below and we will get back to you within 1 business hour

iCEWYCHE News...

SME Cyber Security from i »
Do you keep hearing about Cyber Security and are ...More »

Home AV HDanywhere Smart »
Are you based in the Manchester or NorthWest area?...More »

More »

I’ve worked with Phil and his company to deliver a major project for a UK mobile company. His dedication and attention to detail meant that this complex project was delivered on time and was right first time...More »

Darren Terry, BT Account Manager

More »


WARC-Truncated: length

text:
Events >

Indianapolis Conference

Understanding Abusive Spiritual Systems and Relationships

Where: Indiana University- Purdue University
875 W North St, Indianapolis, IN 46202
Hine Hall, President's Room [Directions/Campus Map]
When: March 17, 2018 | 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
4 CE Hours

This event will bring together mental health professionals and other helping professionals who currently work with those who have experienced spiritual abuse. Spiritual abuse may be viewed as being situated within the broader umbrella of psychological abuse but is a unique and often unrecognized aspect of this broader phenomenon. The societal value placed on religion can sometimes hinder critical evaluation of harmful dynamics and coercive control within religious frameworks. This workshop will explore spiritual abuse and the underlying mechanism of coercive control, and explore counseling interventions for clinicians working with those who have experienced abusive spiritual systems and relationships, and their loved ones.

Topics will include:
  • Introduction to Spiritual Abuse (Ashley Allen, MSW, LMSW, .25 CE hours)
  • Panel: Born and/or Raised in Spiritually Abusive Groups (Debby Schriver, MS, 1.0 CE hour)
  • God Images, Implicit Religions, and Multiplicity of the Self: New Conceptual Models for Understanding the Experience of Spiritually Abusive Groups (Peter Malinoski, PhD, 1.0 CE hour)
  • Early Trauma, Spirituality, and Serious Mental Illness: Exploring Intersecting Factors (Vincent Starnino, PhD, 1.0 CE hour)
  • Applying Cultural Competency to Work With Former Members (Matthew Staton, MDiv Counseling, .75 CE hours)
  • Choosing Self-Advocacy: An Attorney's Journey Through Spiritual Abuse (Danya Shakfeh, Esq.)
  • Panel: Support Groups (Dawn Racine M.S.Ed.,  Donna Lark, and Gina Harding, MBA)
  • Roundtable Discussions (Donna Backstrom; Anna Holmquist; Stephen Martin, MDiv; Peter Malinoski, PhD)

Learning Objectives:
  1. Attendees will be able to identify clinically relevant effects of spiritual abuse.
  2. Attendees will be able to describe areas of clinical focus with this population.
  3. Attendees will be able to utilize effective skills for assessing spiritual abuse.
  4. Attendees will be able to identify the unique clinical needs of children raised in spiritually abusive groups.

Non-ICSA Members: $35.00 + $7.00 for parking voucher
ICSA Members including Institutional Members: $25.00 + $7.00 for parking voucher
6 CE credits are available with registration
(Please check with your individual board to be sure NBCC CE hours are accepted)

Financial Assistance

Scholarships are available for those with financial need, e.g., unemployment, disability. Contact ICSA at Information on spiritual abuse:


text:
Next events
Asukoht: ATHENA KESKUS, kÜÜTRI 1, tartu
Idea Storm. 100 Ideas that will Change the World
 Inspirational Kick-off event with moderator Harald Lepisk, motivational speaker and trainer, filmmaker and young entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs and start-up founders who have turned their ideas into reality and made a change are present. For example  CEO of UBER Eesti, Arengufond, GoWorkaBit, Sportlyzer, ReLaDe, YourDesignWorks, PsychoBus, Okka style, Investeerimisklubi, Sprayprinter, Buildit, XAOS, Sense, Neway, Robotimeister, Mooncascade, Faaz, Founder Institute, Eco-innovation, Fresko Jäätisevabrik, Fundwise.
Together we are generating new ideas that will shape the world. Be part of this and register your team to Idea Lab programme so that your idea can become reality and change the world!

The programme is financed by the European Union Social Fund. Partners: Tallinn University, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonian Business School, UT Viljandi Culture Academy, Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tallinn Technical University.


text:
Skip Navigation

Anticipating a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

Temple Mount (Photo: flickr/magnusmaximus)

The Holy Land is the center of spiritual life and history for both Christians and Jews. That is why we are so excited about the latest Fellowship-hosted church group - from the National Baptist Convention of America - that will be visiting Israel next week:

A ministry leader and retired educator, Eartha Cross of Hammond plans to expand her outreach by taking a mission trip to the Holy Land on May 23-29

She and other leaders from the National Baptist Convention of America will participate in social service projects, hear speakers and visit historical sites during their pilgrimage in Israel. The trip stems from a relationship between the convention and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, she said.

More than 20 leaders were selected from Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, Kansas, Florida and Illinois. Cross said she is most looking forward to visiting Jerusalem.

“Just to stand there in awe that I am in Jerusalem. Jesus was here. That’s awe-inspiring. You can’t imagine that this ground that I am standing on is where Jesus stood,” Cross said. “You can’t even fathom that this is where He lived. I am looking forward to that. That’s going to be mind-boggling, I am sure..."

Tags: IFCJ

Previous Post

Next Post

Landscape photo of Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock in the foreground.

Visit Israel

Here you’ll find an array of useful information on accommodations, transportation, exchanging currency, Israel's climate and customs, and much more. So get the most out of your trip to Israel with the help of The Fellowship.

Read More

About The Fellowship (IFCJ)

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) funds humanitarian aid to the needy in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world, promotes prayer and advocacy on behalf of the Jewish state, and provides resources that help build bridges of understanding between Christians and Jews.

Read More


text:
Skip Navigation

Let's Make Apricot Pistachio Babka!

(Photo: flickr/bionicgrrl)

Who wouldn't love a dessert roll made by twisting cinnamon and chocolate filled dough? Babka is a favorite in Jewish bakeries around the world. This recipe swaps out the cinnamon and chocolate filling, though, for sweet apricots and pistachios!

For the Dough:
1/2 cup soy milk, gently warmed
1 1/8 tsp (1/2 packet) active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 2-4 Tbsp if needed
1 cup white whole-wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
3 Tbsp virgin coconut oil
2 Tbsp neutral oil, such as canola or grapeseed
1 large egg

For the Filling:
1 cup tart dried apricots
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup dry-roasted, unsalted, shelled pistachios
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp virgin coconut oil
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger

For the Topping:
4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp neutral oil, such as canola or grapeseed

Make the dough: In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, or a large bowl, combine the soy milk and yeast. Allow to stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes.

In another bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, and salt. Add to the yeast mixture, mixing with a wooden spoon or the mixer’s dough hook on medium speed. Add the coconut oil and canola or grapeseed oil, and continue beating until incorporated. Add the egg and mix until the dough begins to pull into a ball.

Knead with the dough hook for 5 minutes, or by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 to

10 minutes, until the dough is slightly tacky but smooth. If the dough is very sticky, knead in the additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, just until the dough is no longer too sticky to handle. If you kneaded by hand, return the dough to the bowl. If you let the mixer knead, simply remove the bowl from the machine. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel or plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise until doubled, about 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Make the filling: While the dough is rising, place the apricots and raisins in separate bowls, add enough warm water to cover, and soak for about 10 minutes or until soft. Drain each separately, pat dry, and return to the bowls.

Place the pistachios in the work bowl of a food processor, and pulse several times to grind to a fine flour. If you don’t have a food processor, use a mortar and pestle. Or chop the pistachios finely with a knife, then crush with a rolling pin. Transfer the pulverized pistachios to a small dish and set aside.

Next, place the apricots, sugar, coconut oil, cinnamon, and ginger into the work bowl of the food processor (it’s fine if some pistachio residue remains). Pulse several times, until a smooth paste forms. To make the filling by hand, chop the apricots as finely as possible, place in a bowl with the other ingredients, and use your hands to mix and knead the filling into as smooth a paste as you can.

Grease a 9-by-5-by-2 ½-inch loaf pan. When the dough has risen, punch it down and divide it in half. Pat each piece of dough into a rectangle. On a lightly floured surface, roll one portion of dough into a 9-by-15-inch rectangle about ¼-inch thick. Spread with half the apricot filling, leaving a 1-inch border along one of the long sides. Sprinkle evenly with half the ground pistachios, then half the raisins. Starting on the long side without the border, roll the dough up tightly, jellyroll-style. Pinch the ends together gently to seal. Allow the roll to rest, seam side down, while you repeat the process with the other piece of dough and the remaining filling.

Tags: Recipes

Previous Post

Next Post

Landscape photo of Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock in the foreground.

Visit Israel

Here you’ll find an array of useful information on accommodations, transportation, exchanging currency, Israel's climate and customs, and much more. So get the most out of your trip to Israel with the help of The Fellowship.

Read More

About The Fellowship (IFCJ)

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) funds humanitarian aid to the needy in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world, promotes prayer and advocacy on behalf of the Jewish state, and provides resources that help build bridges of understanding between Christians and Jews.

Read More


text:
Grey's Anatomy: "Wishin' and Hopin'"

Wishes and hopes are explored in this stellar episode where personal stories and medical cases get equal time.

Last week, Grey's Anatomy left off with two proposals hanging in the wind. Thursday's episode not only answered these proposals, but moved along at a lightning quick pace with a fantastic medical case that disables most of the physicians at Seattle Grace, a lucid Ellis Grey and the opening of the Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic. It was such a stellar episode, it's hard to say what the best moment of the show was and it's easy to say there were no worst moments.

Getting back to the crazy medicine this week, a young woman with cancer is admitted. It should be a straight forward surgery, but instead, everyone who comes into contact with her blood becomes extremely sick and passes out. She's got toxic blood! The moment when George realizes this and calls the OR to stop the surgery, only to see everyone passed out on the floor was epic. This is what we come to expect from medical dramas and it is great to see Grey's get back to this, while not sacrificing the personal stories. This case brought out the hero in just about everyone. From Addison running in when the patient woke up from her anesthesia to Derek and Burke passing out because they ran out of air in their suits to Meredith, Izzie and Cristina holding their breath in order to finish what Derek and Burke started, it was beautiful to see these doctors push their limits for a patient. George also was a hero, pulling all the people in the OR out even though he was already sick and could have easily died from the effort. The only one who didn't do anything particularly heroic was Mark Sloan and he continues his very unlikable ways. That made him being with Addison at the end even better, because she was using him to sate a desire and that was very clear. There is really nothing appealing about Sloan and it would great if they kept it that way.

Ellis Grey, Meredith's mother, coming back to reality for a short time was amazing. She was not very endearing when she's lucid, that's for certain. She was unbelievably cruel to Meredith, telling her how disappointed she was that Meredith was merely ordinary. Ouch. But she did a great thing this episode too, during her short time as a sane person. She gave Cristina the answer she was looking for. The scene between Ellis and Richard was a little odd, but fit the tone of the episode.

Chandra Wilson and Katherine Heigl

After last week's episode, both George and Burke proposed to their lady loves. George apparently received a rather quick answer as he and Callie returned from a trip to Vegas locked in wedded bliss. Their relationship has been a roller coaster and it was nice to see this turn of events, as she really is a perfect contrast to George. The bliss didn't last, of course, as George thought maybe he was having an anxiety attack (when in fact it was the toxic blood) and Callie was furious about his judgmental friends. As kindhearted as Izzie can be, she can also be cruel, which is something this episode highlighted in perfect fashion. We are reminded how multi-dimensional all these characters are. Watching George stand up for Callie was a little awkward, but in a very entertaining way.

Burke, on the other hand, was waiting for Cristina's answer throughout the episode. When Ellis gave Cristina the hope she was looking for, she jumped for it and decided to accept Burke's proposal, if not his ring. It was hilarious how she accepted it too, it wasn't even clear that she was saying yes. And hiring a wife for the two of them, how fantastic would that be! I certainly hope the personal issues that have come into the show's cast with Isaiah Washington don't affect the chemistry between these two, because they are certainly one of the most interesting relationships on the show.

As for the opening of the free clinic, Izzie was frustrated at the lack of patients on their first day, but Bailey had one patient and she ended up being well worth the day for her, making her feel like she had accomplished something. The patient's story was sad, her father bringing her in for help in using feminine products and discovering she's already sexually active. Watching her cry over heartbreak brought us back to our teenage years, when being liked by boys was so important.

This episode was fantastic on every level. The progression of several of the personal stories and the medical cases both entertained and excited us. It was also a very emotional episode and we had tears welling up in several scenes. There really wasn't one aspect that needed improving upon. It was practically flawless and next week's episode looks to continue this, if the previews are any indication. We can't wait!

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • Buying Guide Powered by IGN Deals


text:
Reconstruction of the spatio-temporal receptive fields of visual neurons with filtered back projection

Downloaded 470 times
Average rating
(0 votes)
Retinal ganglion cell receptive field

This project provides procedures to reconstruct both the spatio and temporal receptive fields of visual neurons that have been stimulated with a series of flashed bars.

A complete description of this method along with examples of its implementation has been published in a scientific paper in J Physiol (2014) doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2014.276642 (
Please cite this paper when publishing data using this method.

Also see for a good example of how this method can also reveal the time course of synaptic inputs across different regions of an amacrine cell's receptive field

Official releasesDateSizeLinksStatus

Back to top


text:
…Where 'La Gourmandise' is not a sin!

Monthly Archives: July 2006

Some weeks ago, when we had Normita’s friends over, I made a nice seafood salad. There was some fresh cooked crab and shrimps leftover from that meal, and I had frozen them that afternoon. Since that day I had a craving for some nice crab and shrimps cakes. I never got around to making them and when I decided to take a day off from work last Saturday the craving came back. Since the idea had been hovering around the back of my mind for some weeks, and I was feeling like having something a tad more adventurous than my regular crab cakes I started looking around what I had in hand to prepare a nice meal. I did not feel like going out shopping so my primary goal was to spruce up the crab cakes with whatever I could find in the refrigerator.

What I came up with was some crab and shrimps latkes (potato pancakes). I assembled what I had leftover from the past week cooking and came up with a very tasty, if rich, treat. The potatoes had some texture to the crab cakes and the variety of spices bring out the flavor, contrasting the sweetness of the leftover sweetened coconut cream from the other week. It will definitely be a recipe that I will repeat, and if cooking for a crowd I would prepare them just before they arrive, and either refrigerate them, or keep them warm in a low oven, depending on how much time there is before we eat. A nice tangy salad would be an ideal side dish, to cut through the exotic taste of those rich crab and potato cakes.

1/2 pound cooked crab meat
1/2 pound cooked small cold water shrimps
1 large baking potato, shredded with a box grinder
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/2 cup sweetened coconut cream
3 large eggs
12 fresh shiitake mushrooms cut into small pieces
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 limes, juiced
3 large green onions, finely chopped
1 inch of fresh ginger, pealed and finely chopped
3 tbs fresh parmesan, grated
2 tbs curry powder
1 tbs cumin
2 tsp chile piquin powder
1 tsp sweet and sour paprika
2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large bowl place the flour, the panko, and a pinch of salt, and mix well
2. Add the cream, the sweetened coconut cream, and the eggs and mix until you get a very thick batter
3. Add the chile piquin, the curry powder, the cumin, and paprika and mix again
4. Add the shiitakes, the ginger, the grated parmesan, and mix again
5. Fold in the grated potatoes
6. Fold in the crab meat and the shrimps
7. Add the lime juice, salt and pepper to taste and mix into a heavy batter
8. In a large frying pan melt the butter and add the olive oil
9. Pour large soup spoons of the batter in the pan and cook until browned on one side, then carefully flip over with a wide spatula and brown the other side
10. Place the cooked latkes on a cookie sheet and keep warm in a low oven until they are all cooked

When we started going regularly to the Jamaica market some months back, we used to take breakfast before leaving. Of course this is not a good idea because most of the merchants give you samples of food to taste, so you ended up having breakfast twice. It is kind of like going to those large surface mega-stores at lunch time where at the beginning of every aisle stands somebody preparing some form of frozen food, but with fresh fruits and food.

The corn season started early this year, and some weeks ago we noticed that the cooked corn sellers had started to sell their wares in quantity. This is not the kind of sweet corn that I am familiar from Canada, but elote the large grain corn with white kernels that is popular here. It is very tasty, but without the extreme sweetness that I am used to. At the market they normally sell it cooked in 3 different ways. The simplest form is simply boiled, and normally they stick a sharpened wood stick in the widest end, and slather it up with lots of mayonnaise, lime juice, grated cheese, and chili piquin powder. I tend to stay away from that stuff as the thought of mayonnaise on corm kind of revolts me. Another way that is it prepared, and that I love a lot, is esquite mainly boiled corn kernels with butter, red chili jalapeño, epazote (a local herb with a peculiar taste and a slightly spicy flavor), and salt. Prepared properly it is great tasting and also a nice side dish. I think that next week I will buy some to accompany some nice large scallops that I have in the freezer.

My favorite way of eating this corn is simply grilled over charcoals. They start it in the husk then open the husk to caramelize the kernels until they have a nice blackened appearance. The texture of the kernels gets very chewy from the process, and since the kernels are large they can develop a nice sticky blackened crust and still be nice and chewy underneath. Those are normally sold in the husk with lime juice and chili piquin powder on them.

A few weeks ago we started our new market breakfast ritual. On our weekly trip to the market we have a small portion of yogurt before leaving, so that our stomachs are not empty, and then enjoy some fresh fruits samples from our regular fruit merchant which we normally visit first. Today she gave us some tasty manila mango, some tuna (the fruit of the nopal cactus, not the fish), some melon, and some grapes. The perfect start to the breakfast of champions! After buying the fruits for the week, we bought vegetables, and then stopped at the corn merchant on our way back to the car. We each picked 2 small ears of grilled corn, roasted the way we like them best, and had them prepared with a lot of lime juice and some salt and chili powder, and climbed back up to the roof of the market where we park the car. We then sit in the car with the doors open, and enjoy our tasty corn before leaving to complete our other shopping chores. There is no better way to start your day…

I have just completed a redesign of my personal blog ‘The Sassquatch’s Lair’. Please have a look and let me know what you think of the new digs. Later this weekend I will start serializing some science fiction and fantasy stories I wrote ages ago, so if you are interested in that type of writing go peek at the Lair.

A few week’s back I was trying to find something to cook with what I had at hand, and I decided to prepare a shrimp curry based on an old recipe I had in my archives for ages. The curry had a coconut milk base, and I thought I had picked up a can recently. I remembered that it was impossible to find locally and thought that it was now available until I found out, after opening the can, that it was sweetened coconut water used to make drinks like piña colada. When I noticed that, I decided to change the recipe a bit to accommodate the extremely sweet goop that was in the can.

The recipe called for curry powder and I substituted for an entire box of Japanese hot curry in cake form. The box has one large chocolate-bar-shaped cake of curry paste, divided into 5 parts, and I started with 3 of them, and finally decided to use the entire box to cut through the sweetness with a bit of heat. It turned out surprisingly tasty, even though the leftover frozen uncooked shrimps were not very good. You could easily substitute some nice cubed chicken breast instead to make an easy and cheap meal out of it.

1 pound raw shrimps, shelled, deveined, and cut in 1/2" pieces
1 package hot Japanese curry
1 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup sweetened coconut milk
1 cucumber peeled, seeded, and diced
1 small red onion finely diced
1 tbs butter
2 limes, juiced
1" piece of fresh ginger peeled and finely diced
Salt to taste

1. SautÃ© the onion in the butter until the onions starts to take color
2. Add the ginger and salt and stir in for a minute
3. Add the chicken stock and the curry cakes and dissolve while stirring, simmer for 10 minutes
4. Add the sweetened coconut milk and the lime juice and bring to boil
5. Add the shrimps and the cucumber and simmer until the shrimps are cooked, around 3-5 minutes
6. Serve over a bed of steamed rice

I am a bit sad today, as all the efforts to prepare the picnic for Normita’s birthday were for nothing. First, we could not find a decent place to have it, as there are not too many real picnic areas around town where you can actually cook food, and the ones I had found are supposedly not too safe and somewhat full of garbage. Some people told us about many potentially nice places, but we did not find anybody that went there in the last 4-5 years, so it is difficult to know if they are still nice or not.

Normita found a natural preserve in the woods south of the city, and she called them, but you need to get there early in the morning to reserve a place for your picnic and they charge from $20 to $100 for a covered picnic spot. Before paying to go on a picnic I want to see the place, and I did not want to arrive early on Saturday morning with all the food, without being sure if we will have a place or not. We will investigate and see if there is a way of reserving ahead of time, and maybe do it there on another occasion. There is always the ‘trajineras’ in Xochimilco, but this also gets expensive to rent, and we went there last weekend. Maybe we can find some nice area out of the city one of these days, or simply do a cold picnic on a blanket somewhere in a park like we used to do.

The second reason we are not going is that this week was my mother in law’s birthday, and at the last minute the family decided to go out to a restaurant to celebrate her on Sunday. We had planned to relax on that day, as I am completely exhausted from work, and since the day was gone, and I still need the rest, we decided to postpone the picnic so that we can have a day off, and also time to investigate where to have it.

Instead I will probably prepare a nice meal for Normita on Thursday after work, and that will be a total surprise on what I will prepare.

I have been wondering about something since last night, and that makes me reflect a lot on many things, to the point of making me somewhat unproductive today. I know that I am not chronologically young anymore, but I still feel like I am young deep down inside me, even though some morning my body reminds me that I am not still in my teens. I have been wondering all day if experience still counts for something in today’s society…

This thought was triggered by watching some cooking show on TV last night. There was not much of anything decent on TV and I was zapping through the channels trying to find something interesting to watch. I came across a cooking show that I had seen advertised on one of the Latin American cooking channels we get on cable, but never actually watched. It was a restaurant based reality show where some young chef, that showed his lack of experience in the way he was running the place and also the attitude of a spoiled kid, was confronted with running a busy restaurant short on staff. This attitude is not entirely related to age, as I know people much older than me that exhibit the same personality traits. What came next is what really floored me when this kid in his mid 20’s, who could not be out of cooking school that long, came on camera and boasted "When I was a young chef". I could not help commenting to Normita that I probably have socks older than that kid, and how long could he have been cooking professionally to say something like that. If while in his mid 20’s he is considering himself an ‘Old Timer’ what will he consider himself to be in 20-30 years?

This led me to do some serious thinking about what my outlook on life was when I was that age. I clearly remember that, like most people that age, I thought that I knew better than most people my own age, and a lot of older people, but I also remember that I had, and still have a lot of respect for the opinion of people who had done something longer than I had and accumulated a lot of experience. It all comes down to one of my pet peeves of all time, my long-standing lamenting that the old apprentice system of yore is gone, and there is no way for people to learn a trade that takes years to master, as most people want results now without the need to learn it the old fashioned way. I have worked with my hands all of my life, and I know that many skills are beyond what I can do with the time I have to practice them. I also know that if you want to be good at something you have to have some talent, but the most important thing is practice, and practice, and practice, and some more practice.

Back to the cooking world where somebody used to apprentice for years before moving up in the kitchen hierarchy, we now have kids that goes for a few weeks to a few months in a famous kitchen, and move on to another one to improve their resumÃ©, and that they want to be cooking stars a few short years after they get interested in the trade. This lead to what I saw yesterday on TV when a 25 year old ‘Old Timer’ has is own cooking show on TV, plainly shows that he cannot handle the job at hand, that of running a restaurant’s kitchen, and even worse does not even demonstrate good manual skill at the basic prep work for the dishes he demonstrates. The later is a trait that you see often nowadays on cooking show, and I assume that they do not teach basic techniques in cooking school anymore, or worse that they do, but most people do not bother learning and practicing them properly.

I guess that I am ranting again and boring you all, and that what was supposed to be a very short post is turning into a long one, but I firmly believe that experience and basic skills takes time to learn, and that there are no shortcuts to attain them both. I noticed the same trend in my professional life as a programmer, is that there are so many new things to learn that people are more interested in the technology itself, than in making thing actually do something very well, without the need of the latest technology.

A word of advise to anybody passing by here from an ‘Old Timer’ at many things including life, no matter what your goals are in life, no matter what subject you really feel deeply interested in, please take some time developing the basic skills to achieve your goals. It both takes time and a lot of practice, but when you finally grow up and are finally getting a bit of real life experience under your collar, you will learn to appreciate the fact that you actually KNOW a lot more about the subject at hand than a lot of your contemporaries, and one day you will also learn to be proud of that in itself. By the way, this also applies to people my age, as we are never too old to learn anything new, and experience, no matter how old you are to start with, takes a long time to accumulate. As they would say today, knowledge and experience rules!

On the July 27 will be Normita’s birthday and since on the first time we met, when she visited Canada back in 1998, I brought her on a picnic, I decided to make a nice picnic for her and a few of her friends next Saturday. I am somewhat a traditionalist when it comes to picnics. In my book a picnic should be made with some nice cold food, some nice wines, and preferably served by your staff from a huge wicker basket from the back of your Rolls, but since we have neither staff nor a Rolls Royce, we will have to settle for doing it ourselves out of a cooler and a big plastic bin, from the back of our little VW Lupo.

In the past we normally stuck to two types of picnics, the active ones where we either drove somewhere with all the stuff, or cycled somewhere with a more restricted lunch and no wine, or drove somewhere with the ATV with a decent spread. The other type, and some of my favorites, was the lazy ones we did on our pontoon boat on the lake. We only had to bring whatever we wanted from the house down to the boat, and then lazily putter around the lake for hours at the slowest speed the boat could manage, while listening to nice music on the boat’s stereo, and enjoying the view.

On the more active picnics we normally brought a more restricted menu, normally either sandwiches, or cold cuts, some nice fruits and cheeses, with some nice bread. Of course, depending on how we got to the picnic site, we would bring some wine or juices. One of our favorite ways of doing those types of picnics was the cycling picnics. When we were living in the mountains in QuÃ©bec, we used to cycle regularly from late spring to early fall. There is a stunningly beautiful bicycle track that they built on a reclaimed train track. It goes from MontrÃ©al to Mont-Laurier a few hundred kilometers north. During the week we normally drove to the track where it passed near the village we lived, and cycled to the next village and back. On weekends we would drive to St-Jovite and park there, then cycle either towards Mont-Tremblant, or towards St-Faustin. The ride to St-Faustin was our favorite for picnics, as it was uphill all the way, but we stopped before arriving at the village at a nice ‘pisciculture’ where they raised various species of trout. They had a great picnic area with nice tables in the shade under huge pine trees, and after a hearty meal we could race back downhill to the car without having to exert ourselves too much. We normally brought lighter stuff, from a simple sandwich to some sushi from the supermarket, whatever could conveniently fit in our handlebar bags.

The boat picnics were normally more involved and fancy. We would prepare quite a spread with some nice caviar, foie gras, smoked salmon, small cold water shrimps from Matane, some cheeses from a runny Epoisse to a nice piece of Stilton, assorted cold cuts, and whatever else we fancied. Of course we would probably have a nice cold glass of Fino Sherry like my favorite La Ina, then follow up with some champagne or some other variety of sparkling wine, and maybe a robust red or a port for the end of the meal. The usual peasant fare…

Last weekend we went to Xochimilco, the famous floating gardens at the south of the city, and it reminded me a lot of the days living at the lake. The ‘trajineras’, the long flat bottomed boats that evolved from the traditional indigenous wooden canoes used to navigate the canals, are designed with a long table down the middle, and you can bring your food for a picnic, and also buy food from various sellers in other ‘trajineras’. We did not eat there last weekend, but we plan to go back eventually and bring a nice picnic spread with us. Some pictures of our day in Xochimilco are posted at The Sassquatch’s Lair.

I will not go into the exact menu for next weekend’s picnic as I want to keep it somewhat of a surprise (don’t worry I will post the recipes next week), but I will go a bit into the planning of it.
This time I might forego my normal traditionalist ways and make a hot course for the picnic, as Normita gave me a nice little portable gas grill for my birthday last year, and I have not had a chance of really using it.

The first step was to find a place to have the picnic. Although there are some places with picnic areas in various parks throughout the city, and we can also have a picnic anywhere we can put a blanket down, I felt that we should go a bit more toward the periphery of the city, even if it is just to get a bit of fresh air as a relief to the pollution. I looked around a bit and found a few promising places, and we might just go to some national park at the south of the city called ‘El Ajusco’. It is in and around a mountain peak that towers over the valley, and abounds with hiking trails and picnic areas. Hopefully the place will be worth it, and if the pollution level is down, the views should be stunning.

Next on the list is what to bring with us. In Canada we have a nice wicker picnic basket with all the basics we needed for picnics. Of course it is in storage over there with the rest of our things, so it is not of much help to us now. Yesterday, while we were doing our groceries, we had decided to pick up paper plates and plastic cutlery and glasses, but we both never liked eating out of those. We were looking around the store and we came across some nice very cheap plastic dinnerware sets for 4, and cheap cutlery sets. The total cost was not very much more than a few sets of the disposable stuff, so we splurged and invested in a 4 place setting with cutlery and picked up a few plastic glasses and a serving tray. We also picked up a big plastic bin with a locking lid where we can store everything, and we already cleaned and packed it up with our new stuff. Other essentials we will add are some clothe napkins, a roll of paper towels, salt and pepper shakers, some wine glasses wrapped in dish clothes, a tablecloth, a blanket, some serving tools, a carving knife, a paring knife, and let’s not forget the most important a champagne bottle stopper and a corkscrew.

Since I planned the meal to be a little more formal than the typical picnic, I decided to plan it like a regular meal, with some starters including some patÃ© and salad, followed by a cold soup. The main course will be cooked on the spot, but the side dishes will be prepared ahead and reheated to simplify my life. The main goal is to make it as easy to prepare and to eat, with most food already cut into pieces so that you can easily hold your plate in one hand and eat with the other. I also want to bring some dessert, but I have not had any inspiration yet on something that would be nice and easily served at a picnic. I am sure that the week will bring some inspiration.

Last weekend, when we received Normita’s young friends for lunch, I prepared a foolproof meal that I can assemble quickly as work has been so busy in the last few months that I did not have time to prepare anything to involved. All of the recipes can easily be done with a an hour or two of prep time total depending on how quick you are with a knife. We started with a very easy first course, a seafood salad that I put together for the first time more than 25 years ago. I used to do it regularly as a last minute first course when I did not have time to prepare anything else. It can be done with a variety of seafood, but my old standby is to make it with small cooked shrimps and with nice chunks of cooked crab meat. Luckily when we went to the Jamaica market early Saturday morning our fish merchant was unpacking some nice fresh shrimps and some nice crab meat that he had just picked up. The quality was stunning and it made a great first course.

For the main course I had some frozen turkey breast and I prepared it as Sweet and Sour Turkey Cheng Tu style, as recipe I already posted some time ago for chicken http://www.igourmand.com/index.php/archives/recipes/40 . The dessert, at Normita’s request, was the bread pudding which I posted the recipe recently http://www.igourmand.com/index.php/archives/recipes/102 .

The seafood salad is best prepared just prior to serving, but it can be done a few hours ahead and refrigerated until time to serve. I have always like it and I plan to do it more often as seafood is great and cheap around here, and I had not done it in ages and I really do not know why as I like it a lot. To see some pictures of the celebrations from last Saturday, have a look at our new blog.

1 pound small cooked shrimps
1/2 pound cooked crab meat
1/2 cup golden raisins soaked at least an hour in 4 tbs brandy
2 medium stalks celery chopped in fine cubes
1 apple cored and cut into small cubes
3-4 tbs mayonnaise
Juice of 2 small limes
6 large leaves of Boston lettuce
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the seafood, apple cubes, raisins with brandy, and celery cubes in a large bowl and toss together
2. Season with salt and pepper and the lime juice
3. Add the mayonnaise and mix with a large spoon until the ingredients are well blended
4. Serve portions on the lettuce leaves

We spent most of the afternoon running around and taking care of some loose ends that we urgently needed to take care of, and when we returned home we did the same here before settling down a bit. Once that was done I finally found some time to install a copy of the new version of WordPress on the server and configure it for the new blog. The URL is at http://www.sassquatch.org/ and the site is live as of about 15 minutes ago. I will start posting there later in the week and also make it a little bit more stylish when I have a few minutes to program a theme for it. Enjoy this new blog, and I will make sure to keep posting here the recipes and related content that you are used to.

We had some of Normita’s younger friends visiting yesterday for lunch and as usual I prepared them a nice meal. Everybody was having fun and Normita took a lot of pictures, and lots of silliness ensued, and overnight I suddenly realized that I felt about writing about events such as these but not from the food and wine point of view, but more from the human side of the stories. I also realized that there are a lot of other subjects that I would like to write about, but the format of this little corner of the web is somewhat restrictive for that, and that I do not want to change this blog’s format because I am comfortable with what it is right now. I have lots of plans for this blog that might take a while to bring about because of the lack of time on my part, but writing is not something I can stop doing, and I need an outlet for all the other stuff that comes through my mind, and I need an outlet for that creativity.

A while back, when we first brought our web server in-house, it was done purely for software testing and for my work in the IT world. I had registered a domain, and plopped a few hastily designed pages in it as a bookmark for things to come and I suddenly realized last week, when the domain name needed to be re-registered, that it had been sitting there unattended for ages. This morning we got up very late and while I was in bed I was thinking that what I was planning to write did not fit this blog, and that I should have another outlet that could be used for all of the other stuff I want to talk about. The other site was name ‘The Sassquatch’s Lair’ and I had intended to use it as an outlet for stories about my life since I moved here to Mexico City. Those of you who know me personally can relate to the term Sassquatch as it is both a description of my imposing hairy body shape and of my wide feet, and it is also a nickname that the Padrino gave me after we met the first time, in what seems to be another life. He used to be known, in those days, as Duck Vader and thus the dynamic duo of the Sassquatch and Duck Vader was born.

Hopefully later today I will install another copy of WordPress on the server and configure it for that other site and a new blog, ‘The Sassquatch’s Lair’, will be born. I will post a notice and a link whenever I am done with the technical side of the installation and the blog goes live. At first I will post there on subjects that do not fit this format, and also things like silly pictures from yesterday’s party. Eventually I also plan to self-publish and serialize a Fantasy novel I wrote more that 15 years ago, and that I had planned to write a sequel and never had the time for it. It might even give me the outlet to start writing fiction again on a regular schedule and to post short stories and more creative work.

I will also need to discuss with the Padrino our plans, simmering for the last few years, for publishing a comic strip about an unlikely duo of superheroes. The characters are set and fleshed out in our minds, but we still have to write the stories and give them life. The new blog would be a perfect outlet for all that silliness. What do you think dear Ducky?

As soon as I have something up and working I will post about how to get to the new blog, and I hope that some of you will follow me there.


text:
Office of the Legal Adviser

Printer-friendly versionSend by email

OFFICE OF THE LEGAL ADVISER was previously known as the Legal Unit. It handle matters related to staff and students' discipline, general litigation cases involving the University, constitutional issues including drafting and vetting of legal documents as well as providing legal opnions on legal issues involving the University. This Office is headed by a Legal Adviser appointed among the academic staff that has vast experience in legal matters.

Syndicate content


text:
Contact Us MoreMenu

1600 S 220TH Lane, Buckeye, Arizona

$181,5004 Beds2 BathsActive

1600 S 220TH Lane, Buckeye, Arizona 85326
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - MLS® ID: 5723323

Property Details

1600 S 220TH Lane, Buckeye, Arizona 85326 - Wonderful 4 bedroom 2 bathroom home in Sundance! This home is a perfect floor plan for family and entertaining. This property features large bedrooms, open floor concept, spacious back yard and is right across the street from the Elementary School. Fridge and one year Home Warranty are included so come see this home that is priced to sell!

View Virtual Tour

  • Zip85326
  • CountyMaricopa
  • SQFT1572
  • Bedrooms4
  • Full baths2
  • StatusActive
  • Purchase TypeActive
  • Property typeSingle Family
  • School districtAgua Fria Union High School District
  • Elementary schoolFreedom Elementary School
  • Junior highFreedom Elementary School
  • High schoolYoungker High School
  • Year built2005
  • Lot size5500.00
  • SewerSewer - Public
  • CoolingProgrammable Thmstat
  • ParkingDir Entry frm Garage
  • Tax amount$1,073.00
  • Tax year2017
  • Office IDcbrb16
  • Agent IDat308
  • Agent nameAmanda Thomason
  • MLS® ID5723323

Broker: Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

Listing Courtesy of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

Have Questions?

“Best realtor we have ever worked with. The virtual tour of our house that she prepared was outstanding!! She is extremely professional and knowledgeable. We would have no reservations in recommending Kris to anyone who wants to buy or sell a house.”

Call us
(928) 421-1653


text:
Contact Us MoreMenu

21039 N 102ND Street, Scottsdale, Arizona

$4,299,0004 Beds4+ BathsActive

21039 N 102ND Street, Scottsdale, Arizona 85255
RE/MAX Platinum Living - MLS® ID: 5500895

Property Details

21039 N 102ND Street, Scottsdale, Arizona 85255 - Incredible Great Room plan home with ''see forever'' city light and sunset views on nearly 5 hillside acres in Silverleaf's Upper Canyon, waiting for a buyer to finalize finishes and get under construction. A large sun deck and covered patio offers plenty of space for entertaining. This retreat features His and Her Master Closets, Wine Room with adjacent Galleries, Scullery, Library, a Guest Suite and two other ensuite bedrooms. Two award-winning teams, PHX Architecture and RS Homes, make this premium, elegant opportunity. Say ''yes'' to this home in the exclusive community of Silverleaf, nestled into the surrounding McDowell Mountain Preserve. Silverleaf is perhaps the most exclusive residential development in all of Scottsdale. Call to arrange a site walk and visit.

  • Zip85255
  • CountyMaricopa
  • SQFT6317
  • Bedrooms4
  • Full baths4
  • Half baths1
  • StatusActive
  • Purchase TypeActive
  • Property typeSingle Family
  • School districtScottsdale Unified District
  • Elementary schoolCopper Ridge Elementary School
  • Junior highCopper Ridge Middle School
  • High schoolChaparral High School
  • Year built2016
  • Lot size212849.00
  • SewerSewer - Public
  • HeatingGas Heat
  • CoolingRefrigeration
  • ParkingDir Entry frm Garage
  • Tax amount$9,337.30
  • Tax year2016
  • Office IDrmpl01
  • Agent IDdd090
  • Agent nameDavis M Driver
  • MLS® ID5500895

Broker: RE/MAX Platinum Living

Listing Courtesy of RE/MAX Platinum Living

Have Questions?

“Best realtor we have ever worked with. The virtual tour of our house that she prepared was outstanding!! She is extremely professional and knowledgeable. We would have no reservations in recommending Kris to anyone who wants to buy or sell a house.”

Call us
(928) 421-1653


text:
Contact Us MoreMenu

3902 W STATE Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona

$214,9004 Beds2 BathsActive

3902 W STATE Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85051
Keller Williams Realty Phoenix - MLS® ID: 5717888

Property Details

3902 W STATE Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85051 - Don't miss on this beautiful 4 bed 2 bath 1700+ sq ft home on a desirable corner lot! Granite counter tops, updated bathroom vanities, low maintenance yards, and a large 2 car garage are just a few of the countless perks of owning this home.Interior of home has been recently painted. Brand new windows have been installed as well as a completely rebuilt A.C unit within the past 6 months Homes in the neighborhood are selling for over $220,000 so this one is priced to sell and will not last long!

  • Zip85051
  • CountyMaricopa
  • SQFT1713
  • Bedrooms4
  • Full baths2
  • StatusActive
  • Purchase TypeActive
  • Property typeSingle Family
  • School districtGlendale Union High School District
  • Elementary schoolRoadrunner Elementary School - 85028
  • Junior highPalo Verde Middle School
  • High schoolApollo High School
  • Year built1961
  • Lot size8991.00
  • SewerSewer - Public
  • HeatingGas Heat
  • CoolingRefrigeration
  • ParkingDir Entry frm Garage
  • Tax amount$899.56
  • Tax year2017
  • Office IDkwrp001
  • Agent IDea160
  • Agent nameEric Avdee
  • MLS® ID5717888

Broker: Keller Williams Realty Phoenix

Listing Courtesy of Keller Williams Realty Phoenix

Have Questions?

“Best realtor we have ever worked with. The virtual tour of our house that she prepared was outstanding!! She is extremely professional and knowledgeable. We would have no reservations in recommending Kris to anyone who wants to buy or sell a house.”

Call us
(928) 421-1653


text:
Member Profile

Lingua Flora is a new line of premium greeting cards created by Lisa Martinovic, a long-time essayist, poet, and visual artist who began developing her own style of digitally re-imagined photography at the turn of the millennium.

Lisa begins her process by photographing in the neighborhood, or somewhere on her travels—a blossom, vine, or cactus garden that calls to her in some way. These images, born in nature, are transformed—sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically—when Lisa harnesses digital technology to her intuitive imagination. The results are plants and flowers seen in a...

... Read More

Featured Art
Snake Grass Birthday Art Prints & Posters by Lisa Martinovic
Featured Art:
Snake Grass Birthday
From Gallery: SpecialOccasion
My Galleries
(2 public)
5 images
22 images
Like Lisa Martinovic's art? Become a fan!
Recent Art Prints


text:
Get better color in your photos

The sky turned orange before the storm hit. It was freaky. Wanted to take a picture but my iPhone didn’t pick up the color!

This quote came from Twitter, but it talks about a problem that many people have when taking digital photographs – you don’t get the color of the scene as you saw it.

Understand white balance and get better color!

Most people keep their cameras and their camera phones set on Auto White Balance (AWB), which works okay most of the time. AWB measures the light reflected from your subject. But to get the best color you need to set your white balance to capture the color temperature of the light falling on the subject.

If you set your camera on AWB, most cameras want to make the color neutral

If there is predominant amount of one color, such as orange, like in a sunset or wild storm, then the camera thinks, “Whoa, too much orange, we need to neutralize that.” The camera doesn’t know what type of light you are shooting in, it just sees orange. So when AWB is active, it tries to correct that “bad” color, and the result is that the orange gets neutralized, and lost.

Here are a couple of examples

Auto WB neutralizes much of the warmth in this photo

Using Daylight WB keeps the warm colors

Common white balance settings on digital cameras

  • daylight – sunny
  • daylight – cloudy
  • shade
  • flash
  • fluorescent
  • tungsten – incandescent

How do you get better color?

To keep a sunset looking warm, use the Daylight white balance setting. And as a general rule, choose the white balance setting that best matches the light in your scene. If you are using a camera phone, you may not be able to change the WB. In that case you may be stuck with what you get. There are some iPhone apps out there now to help adjust the color. This is one I found recently called Camera+. Right now it’s only 99 cents!

Try this exercise

  1. Take a solid brightly coloured towel or blanket. Something bright green or bright pink
  2. Place it in the daylight. Perhaps outside in the sun or inside near a window. Make sure the cloth is evenly lit. No shadows!
  3. Fill your whole viewing frame with the coloured area.
  4. Photograph it using the auto white balance setting and using proper exposure.
  5. Now photograph it using daylight white balance.
  6. You can shoot in the shade too, just be sure to use the shade WB setting.

Look at the photos on your computer, preferably with a color calibrated monitor, and you should see the difference. The one shot under daylight should match better than the one using auto white balance.

You can have fun with White Balance

Take things a step further and try out different white balance settings on your regular photos. Check out these examples:

Daylight WB – Normal colour

Tungsten WB – bluish colour

Florescent WB – pinkish colour

So you can see from the examples that adjusting the white balance can produce some interesting and unusual effects! Experiment so you can learn what happens to the color when you shift the white balance. It’s actually quite fun!

Beyond the Basics: Setting up Custom White Balance

You can also do in-camera custom white balance setups. Here’s a video to help you with that.

Adjusting white balance is part of your creative process

There are tools to help you get perfect neutral white balance, and I use those when shooting corporate projects, or use them as starting points. Don’t feel your white balance needs to be perfectly neutral all of the time. Understand it so you can use it to express mood and emotion in your photography.

AND some new cameras do a fantastic job in AWB. I’ve had great results with my Lumix GH3 camera! So don’t give up on AWB in all situations. Especially outdoors.

By the way if you shoot raw files it doesn’t matter what white balance your camera is set on. You can adjust the WB in post processing like I did with the image above. You can also customize your WB easier if you shoot raw files. You might also want to check out this video tutorial on custom white balance.

[signup-form id=”7606″]
Sharing is caring

Comments are closed


text:
Welcome to Images At Marlo

Images At Marlo is located within walking distance of the Snowy River estuary and very close to the ocean beach about 2 kilometres from Marlo town centre. A further 20 kilometres to the East is the inspiring Cape Conran Coastal Park. Images At Marlo provides excellent portfolio opportunities for formal or creative portraiture using the studio, beaches or forest areas. Wildlife, landscapes and seascapes are also part of the high quality work produced.  Events in various parts of Victoria are covered by request.


text:
Edit & Download Toyota GT 86 Car

Download Toyota GT 86 Car Wallpaper from the Category Cars below with resolution. If is not your screen resolution you may use the editor to resize it to the resolution that will fit perfectly to your desktop, moreover you can add lots of stunning effects to this wallpaper before downloading it. Take a look at our blog to learn more on how to resize, crop and add effects to any of our wallpapers.

Wallpaper: Toyota GT 86 Car
Category: Cars
Date Uploaded: 09 Jun 14
Tags: Toyota, Car, gt, 86
Views: 399


text:
Follow Us On Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Watch us on YouTube Join our Steam Community Join our Google Plus page Watch Zurilia entertain people

Imitatio Dei - Gaming Community FAQ

Here you can find answers to questions about how the board works. Use the links or search box below to find your way around.

Search FAQ

Select this option if you would like your search to look in the text of FAQ items as well as their titles.

Select an option here to specify how you would like your search query to be treated. 'Any words' will return the most numerous but possibly least relevant results, while 'Complete phrase' will return only results that contain exactly what you are searching for.


text:
Rental FAQ's

Motorcycle Rental FAQ

BMW Academy Training
BMW Sponsors
  • Can I rent a helmet and riding gear?

    IMTBIKE does rent quality motorcycle gear including: helmets, motorcycle jackets and gloves. To find out more about our equipment rental and prices please contact us.

  • Can I ride the motorcycle outside of Spain?

    Our motorcycles can be ridden in other European countries. It is a good idea to list in the comment section of the booking form the countries that you intend to visit during your rental. IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN TO TAKE OUR MOTORCYCLES TO MOROCCO OR OUTSIDE OF EUROPE. Outside of Europe there is no insurance cover and the customer would be responsible for all damages that might occur as well as for the loss of revenue to IMTBike for each day that the motorcycle would be unavailable to the company.

  • Can I ride the motorcycle offroad or on a racetrack?

    It is strictly prohibited to take an IMTBIKE motorcycle on any non-asphalt road or on a racetrack. There is no insurance coverage on the motorcycles for off-road or racetrack riding and you will be responsible for the full amount of the damages and loss of income to IMTBike.

  • What is the difference between regular insurance and the VIP insurance?

    Both insurance policies are full coverage. The regular insurance has a damage deductible of 2000 Euros, and the VIP insurance has a damage deductible of 350 Euros. The regular insurance is included in the rental cost and the VIP insurance costs 20Euros/day extra. The VIP insurance can only be taken out on rentals 4 days or longer.

  • Can I store my luggage at your rental location until after my trip?

    Absolutely! All IMTBike rental stations have free luggage storage. Any bags that you do not want to take on your motorcycle adventure can be left with us until your return.

  • Can I pick up the motorcycle in one city and drop it off in a different city?

    Yes, one way rentals are possible for (chek the price with the central office). We have 7 different locations to choose from: Barcelona, Madrid,  Bilbao, Santiago de Compostela, Valencia, Malaga and Lisbon, Portugal.

  • Can IMTBike drop-off/pickup the motorcycle at the airport for me?

    The motorcycles must be picked up and dropped off at our rental centers. This is where we do all the paperwork and sign the contracts.

  • How does IMTBIKE calculate rental days?

    IMTBIKE has morning and evening pickup and drop off times. The morning times are between 10- 11 am and the evening times are between 6-7pm. If you wish to pick-up the motorcycle earlier than 6:00 PM (18:00) it is considered an ‘AM’ pick-up and that day then counts as a full rental day. If you drop-off the motorcycle later than 10:30am it is considered a ‘PM’ drop-off and that day then counts as a full rental day.
    *As a courtesy IMTBIKE will let you pick up the bike on the previous night and drop off the bike on the following morning at no extra charge if the previous day and following day are working days.

  • My friend and I have rented two different models for the same trip. Is it ok to switch bikes to try the different models during our trip?

    Absolutely. If you and your friend want to switch bikes to test ride two different BMWs that is fine with us.

  • I am only interested in rented one model but I have to put down a second choice on the booking form, how can I make sure I get my first motorcycle choice?

    In the “comments” section write that you are only interested in renting your first choice and we will take that into account when we process your booking form.

  • What are the requirements to rent a motorcycle with IMTBIKE?

    You must be over 25 years old and have a minimum of 2 years of experience with a motorcycle license. You must have at least 5000 kilometers(3000 miles) of riding experience in the last 3 years. To pick up the bike you must present your passport and driver’s license. You should also have an International Driver´s license which is required by European Law.

  • What is your cancellation policy?

    If you cancel your rental more than 30 days prior to your rental you will be refunded 50% of your deposit. If you cancel from 30-15 days before your rental you will be refunded 50% of the total rental cost. If you cancel 15 days or less there will be no refund.

  • Can I change my rental dates?

    Yes, you can change your rental dates for a fee under the following conditions:

    1. Rental dates can only be changed once.
    2. The rental dates change must be made at least one working day before the start of the rental and the new rental dates must be given when the change is made.
    3. The new dates must be within 12 months of the original rental start date. THERE IS A SURCHAGE FOR THIS SERVICE. THE SURCHAGE IS EQUAL TO 20% OF THE RENTAL PRICE OR 100 EUROS, WHICHEVER IS GREATER.

  • I want to give a motorcycle rental as a gift to a friend. Is it possible? How do I go about it?

    Yes you can surprise a friend with a motorcycle rental gift. Proceed as follows:

    1. Fill out the booking form with the information of the person that will ride the bike (this is mandatory as the rental contract has to be made in the rider’s name).
    2. In the email field of the booking form put your own email address so that you are the one receiving the rental confirmation and the gift stays a surprise for your friend.
    3. In the comments section of the booking form let us know that this is a present and give us a phone number where we can contact you if need be.
    4. Put your own credit or debit card information.

  • What is the included daily mileage?

    There are unlimited kilometers included on rentals of 7 days or longer. On rentals from 1 to 6 days there are 300 kilometers per day included in the rental price. Any extra kilometers over the 300 km. limit will be charged at a rate of 0.30 euros per kilometer.

  • Is there a minimum number of days to rent a bike?

    The shortest rental is a one-day rental during working days, Monday through Friday. For week-end rentals there is a 2-day rental minimum (Saturday and Sunday) with pick-up on Friday night and drop-off on Monday morning (provided those days are not holidays).


text:
Ford Motor Company versus General Motors

My parents bought our first car, a Ford, 4-door sedan, back in 1933. (I was 10 years old)

On a summer vacation, we took a trip out West. Along the way, our engine overheated. Dad took it to a garage to have it fixed. We then continued on our way. But the engine heated up again! Once more we stopped at a garage to have it fixed.

The engine heated up for the third time as we limped into Salt Lake City. By now, dad was really upset. (I have better words to explain how he felt, but we’ll stick with upset.) He either wired, or phoned Henry Ford and told him about our problem.

Mr. Ford had two engineers flown to Salt Lake City with orders to fix our car.

I remember that one of them came to our hotel room later that day and said that the car was ready and we should all go for a test drive.

The engineer drove; dad sat up front, and mother and I sat in the back. Well, he drove out of the city and proceeded up a mountain. I remember him maintaining a rather fast speed,  probably the speed limit, all the way up that mountain, passing numerous cars along the way.

I watched the temperature gauge and it never quivered above normal the whole way up that mountain! The engine was fixed. Boy, was it ever!

When we got back to the hotel, dad asked how much he owed. The man said, “Not a thing, Mr. Myrick—compliments of Henry Ford.”

To summarize—Marie and I traded that Chevy Malibu for—guess what?

George and his wife, Marie, sailed professionally, chartering boats in the Bahamas, then in the Virgin Islands. They then leased an uninhabited island, Little Thatch, in the British Virgin Islands, and turned it into a small hotel. After six years, they left the island and bought a lovely beachfront property on Jost Van Dyke (BVI) where they built Sandcastle Hotel and the original Soggy Dollar Bar. George is now the author of Incredible Virgin Island Adventure: A True Story.

Posted in Uncategorized

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


text:
Direct Hiring Cavite jobs in Carmona

Filter results by:
Sort by: relevance - date
Job Type
Jobs 1 to 10 of 100
Create your profile - Let employers find you

Warehouse Staff

iCareerup, Inc. - Cavite
» Cavite, Calabarzon Job detail. Candidate must be willing to work in Carmona, Cavite. We give you the employment opportunities that is for DIRECT HIRING....

VFD Technician - Electronics

» Cavite, Calabarzon Job detail. VFD Technician - Electronics in Cavite, Calabarzon. SONIC STEEL INDUSTRIES INCORPORATEDVerified EmployerThis seal certifies...

Customer Service Representative

Sydenham Laboratories, Inc. - 4 reviews - Cavite   +1 location
» Cavite, Calabarzon Job detail. Willing to work in Dasmariñas, Cavite. Direct requests and unresolved issues to designated resource....

Sales adjunct - Dasmariñas, Cavite

Premiere Shoes Distribution Corporation (BATA) - Cavite
Sales adjunct - Dasmariñas, Cavite in Cavite, Calabarzon. » Cavite, Calabarzon Job detail. Direct the customers to the nearest counter for payment of the...

QA Cust Support Engr

Cypress Semiconductor - 119 reviews - Cavite
Position is located in Cavite Philippines. Direct interaction with customers by phone, email, or online portal. 5-7+ years experience....

Purchasing Supervisor

Sagass PH - General Trias
Willing to work in Gen Tiras, Cavite. Responsible for the over-all Procurement Management Process (sourcing and purchasing) for both direct and indirect...

Accounting Assistant

Volenday - 5 reviews - Carmona
For direct hire and regular employment. Must be willing to work in Carmona, Cavite. Must be a college graduate who completed Accountancy or any business course....
Easily apply

Maintenance Engineer/Coordinator

HAVI Logistics Philippines Incorporated - 2 reviews - Carmona
PHP 14,000 - PHP 16,000 a month
Directs, monitors and reviews work accomplishments of Maintenance Technicians and Utility personnel. Monitor preventative and corrective maintenance and repair...
Easily apply

Delivery Rider

Readyman Inc. - General Mariano Alvarez   +9 locations
General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite. Interested applicants may direct to our office located at 102 15th Ave. Willing to start immediately - *1 day Process Only*....
Easily apply

Readyman Inc. - Carmona   +6 locations
Interested applicants may direct to our office located at:. Willing to start immediately....
Easily apply


text:
Photo detail

Spirit of Fiesta Norma Esc‡rcega, El Primer Caballero Ben Feld, La Presidente Rhonda Henderson, and Junior Spirit Eve Flores.

Be succinct, constructive, and relevant to the story. Leaving a comment means you agree to our Discussion Guidelines. We like civilized discourse. We don't like spam, lying, profanity, harassment or personal attacks.

comments powered by Disqus
event calendar sponsored by:


text:
Warm up!

Local chili lovers dig in at the Harbour Community Church's chili cook-off Saturday. The event was one of several activities held at the church to raise funds for a mission trip to El Salvador. A total of 14 people will mkae the trek this spring including, from left, Matthew Moore, Jeff Hegmans, John Joliffe, John Moes and Dean Lescheid. (Barb McKay photo)


text:
Pages Navigation Menu

India news, headlines, breaking, events , stories and all that is trending today

TN minister gets trolled for attempting to cover river with thermocol

Chennai : How do you prevent water from a river from evaporating? Well if you are seeking some innovative response then you should tap into the wisdom of Tamil Nadu’s Cooperation Minister Sellur Raju.

The politician hailing from Madurai came up with a brainwave of an anti-evaporation idea on Friday. He chose to float sheets of thermocol in River Vaigai, 67 Kms off Madurai, in a bid to provide a protective shield on the river hoping to save water in a severe drought year.

And for this eye-popping novelty, the State Government spent Rs 10 lakh to procure the thermocol sheets. “This technology has been tested abroad successfully,” he told journalists in the presence of an enthused team of bureaucrats from the District Collectorate and Public Works Department.

Only that the idea bombed badly. As soon the minister set float some thermocol sheets gusty winds blew them away to the river banks. But Raju was not the one to give up.

He asked some people to take the thermocol sheets on coracles and leave them deep inside the river. This time the thermocol sheets reached the river banks quicker than the return of those on coracles. So Rs 10 lakh was blown away in a couple of hours.

On Saturday, the Minister was heavily trolled on social media for his ingenious idea. Some memes depicted him as the Bahubali hero carrying huge thermocol sheets. “Next time Raju would hold an umbrella to prevent water from evaporating,” said another meme.

“This is a thermocol Government,” said another. Fighting shy Raju on Saturday claimed that it was officials who gave him the idea. “It didn’t work. We will now examine floating black rubber balls as is done abroad to prevent evaporation,” he said.

This post was syndicated from Free Press Journal. Click here to read the full text on the original website.

Be the First to Comment!

Notify of


text:
Veeru Goes to the Circus is a delightful story about little Veeru who goes to the circus and comes with some super ideas. Written by Richa Ingle Deo and illustrated by Reshma Barve, the book published by Pratham Books is a wonderful read.

Veeru’s grandparents take him to the Jumbo-Mumbo circus. There Veeru is fascinated by the many acts. He decides to come home and imitate those acts. He calls his parents and grandparents to his circus and plans to relive it. However for every act of his, they are worried if it would be safe for him. How he manages to recreate the circus atmosphere and make every act special is what the book is all about.

Veeru goes to the circus, pratham books, children's picture books

Simple words coupled with the wonderful imagination of the author make the book a lovely read for children. The author has managed to capture all the special acts of the circus and connected it in a way or other with how Veeru performs at home. I loved Veeru’s juggling act.

The illustrations are lovely. Check out how Reshma Barve manages to change Veeru’s facial expressions in every page. Colourful and vibrant colours make the book a page turner.

Recommended for its imagination and fun element.

Veeru goes to the circus, Pratham books, children's picture books

Pratham classifies this book for Reading Level :2
Level 2: Learning to Read For children who recognize familiar words and can read new words with help

Disclaimer: This book was sent to IMC by the publisher. IMC has not received any remuneration for this review.

Image credits: Team IMC

FB Comments

Jump in and share your thoughts!

  1. Pingback: Indian Moms Connect | Book-a-Activity: Veeru Goes to the Circus! - Indian Moms Connect


text:
You will be redirected back to your article in seconds
Back to IndieWire

‘Stranger Things’ Season 2: Netflix Confirms 2017 Premiere, Releases Teaser Trailer

The second season will consist of nine episodes.

Stranger Things Millie Bobby Brown

Netflix’s original series “Stranger Things” has captured the hearts of the masses with its 80’s genre film homages and delightful young cast, garnering critical acclaim and popularity in equal measure. Created by Matt and Ross Duffer and starring Winona Ryder (“Heathers”) and David Harbour (“Suicide Squad”), the series’ first season follows the disappearance of a young boy in a small Indiana town in 1983, and the search for him by his friends, family, and a mysterious psychokinetic girl who escapes a government laboratory. Along the way, they uncover supernatural forces beyond their wildest imaginations and a federal conspiracy that stretches past their small town. Though the series was released on the streaming service only in mid-July, people have been clamoring for information about more episodes. Now, Netflix has officially renewed the series for a second season with a teaser trailer that promises nine episodes to air in 2017. Watch the trailer below.

READ MORE: ‘Stranger Things’ Producers Hopeful For Several More Seasons With Same Characters

The trailer reveals the names of the nine episodes — “MadMax,” “The Boy Who Came Back To Life,” “The Pumpkin Patch,” “The Palace,” “The Storm,” “The Pollywog,” “The Secret Cabin,” “The Brain,” and “The Lost Brother.” It also confirms that the second season will take place in the fall of 1984. The Duffer Brothers are set to return as well as executive producers Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. 21 Laps Entertainment will also return to produce the series.

READ MORE: ‘Stranger Things’: Watch a Video of Netflix’s Throwback Series Side by Side With Its Retro Influences

“Stranger Things” is currently available to stream on Netflix.

Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

This Article is related to: Television and tagged , ,


text:
‘We Need Evidence (From India) Against Hafiz Saeed’

Pakistani High Commisioner Shahid MalikNew Delhi: Even as India says that fresh evidence has been given against Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Pakistani High Commisioner Shahid Malik said Tuesday Islamabad was waiting for evidence that can be “presented in a court”.

“We need evidence (from India) against Hafiz Saeed which can be presented to a court,” Malik told reporters at the Indian Women’s Press Corps here.
He said he could say no more on the issue.
Indian officials have said that additional inputs were given on the evidence against Hafiz Saeed during the two-day home secretary level talks in Islamabad on May 24-25.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please support the site
By clicking any of these buttons you help our site to get better


text:
Padlock SST NEMA Enclosures

Model Number: 880 PLCHQ375
Stock status: Contact Us
Lead Time: Contact Us

Our Price: $21.00

Enclosure Minimum Purchase

In order to offer you the best possible prices on enclosures, we require a minimum purchase of $250.00. Any orders below that amount will incur a $50.00 minimum order fee. Enclosures cannot be combined with other products to reach the minimum amount required. Orders of $300.00 and more will still be eligible for free shipping.

Product Description

Padlock provisions, stainless steel.

Type: Padlock
No technical information is available for this product. If you have any questions on this product, please contact us for expert assistance.

We're sorry. There are no products to list in this category.

  Model Number Short Description Sale Price QTY Stock Status Lead Time Specs


text:
A million may not be enough!

A heckuva lotta sockets
Credit: LadyDrangonflyCC - >; / flickr.com

An assortment of six- and twelve-point sockets in various sizes. Note the deep-well versions in the rear.

The most basic home toolkit consists of a hammer, pliers and a bent table knife. Bump it up a notch and the owner probably replaces the knife with a couple of screwdrivers and tosses in a tape measure. Add the cordless drill the kids got you for Father’s Day (or, if you’re a modern woman, Mother’s Day) and you pretty much have the utility drawer filled. If you’re serious about this do-it-yourself thing, however, you’d better have sockets and a wrench.

But what do you need?

The Heart of a Basic Set

A Basic Set
Credit: earl53 / morguefile.com

This is a good start: a set of ten common sizes and a ratcheting handle (plus something to keep the sockets in line).

Pieces and Parts

You don’t buy a “socket wrench”: you buy a set. That’s because every job requires at least two parts, a socket and a handle. The socket part is a shiny metal cylinder, one end of which fits tightly onto a nut or bolt. The other end has a square hole that marries to a square projection on a handle. You need both: you need the handle’s leverage to turn a bolt or nut, but the handle won’t fit onto the hexagonal (or occasionally square) nut.

Since there are lots of sizes of bolts and nuts, sockets come in a wide range of sizes and configurations. Not only that, but the handle systems also come in different drive sizes, from ¼-inch drive for light duty to ½-inch drive for heavy work. Impact sets (not considered here) also come in 3/4 and one-inch drive. The most common drive size for DIY-ers is a 3/8-inch drive hand tool set.

Besides handle and sockets, there’s a wealth of accessories and adapters available for every size;but more on that later

The Driver

A ratcheting handle is at the heart of almost every set. This device is a handle about eight inches long with an oversized head containing a square drive set at right angles to the handle. The square drive fits into the back end of the socket, providing leverage for loosening and tightening nuts and bolts. The oversized head contains a gear that can be locked in either direction, which lets the handle rotate free when you turn it in the opposite direction. This allows you to fit the works onto a nut and continue to tighten or loosen it without ever removing it, even in tight quarters. A ratchet head has a lever or switch that allows you to select the rotation direction.

A more advanced set will include a breaker bar as well as a ratchet. The breaker bar is longer, which allows you to apply greater torque to loosen a bolt. Unlike the ratchet, it doesn’t contain a gear – this makes it stronger; capable of withstanding force that might damage the internal mechanisms of a ratchet. Most also have a hole at the end of the handle to accept a cross bar or even a screwdriver handle, turning the works into a T-handle wrench. In other words, the breaker bar acts like a super-long extension.

The Breaker Bar

The Breaker Bar
Credit: Scientific59 / wikimedia commons

A breaker bar provides added torque and toughness for heavy-duty work and badly-stuck nuts.

Your Basic Set

Unfortunately, there are two basic sets: the metric set and the SAE or English set. Either one will include ten to a dozen different sizes of sockets, a ratchet handle, and typically an extension and an adapter. A what and a what? You ask? Later…

Your best bet is to start with an SAE set, unless you expect to work on a European or Asian car. Once you have a starter set, you can pick up another set in the other system or fill in gaps as you find you need them. The good news is that the ratchet handle and the accessories don’t care whether you’re working in metric or SAE. Sockets are relatively inexpensive when compared to a ratcheting handle.

A 3/8-inch drive metric set will range from about 5mm to 19mm; an SAE set will run from about 1/4” to 3/4” (pretty much the same range). Quarter-inch drive sets start and end smaller; half-inch drive sets start and stop larger – up to 1-1/2” sockets, usually. These ranges will – usually – fit most nuts and bolts you encounter. A set should also contain an extension that plugs onto the drive handle, making a big L to extend your reach. Many 3/8-drive sets also include adapters that let a handle drive 1/4-inch and occasionally 1/2-inch sockets.

Find Your Basic Set

Amazon Price: $30.00 Buy Now
(price as of Mar 22, 2014)
Here's a good, DIY-quality basic set from the folks at Sears. Guaranteed for life, no questions asked.

Specialty Sockets and Accessories

Deep Well Sockets
Credit: somegeekintn / flickr.com

A ratchet and several deep-well sockets. The longer version acts as an extension and also lets you reach nuts that are an inch or more from the end of a bolt.

Types of Sockets

Your basic socket is just a cylinder about an inch tall. It has a hexagonal opening that fits those six-sided nuts and bolts. This is a “six-point” design. Manufacturers also sell twelve-point designs, which are easier to position on a nut. A nut in a twelve-point socket doesn’t have as much surface contact, so many mechanics believe a twelve-point is more likely to round off the corners. In a pinch, you can use a twelve-point on a square nut, but the fit is poor and you are likely to round off the corners – use an eight-point instead (if you can find one). On a personal note, the only socket I have ever broken was a twelve-point…

After the standard starter set, the next step is to add deep-well versions. These are two or even three times as long as a standard version. They provide additional reach, but more importantly allow removal even when a bolt projects an inch or more beyond the nut. Deep-well sockets also come in six- and twelve-point designs and metric or SAE; they are often sold in sets as well.

Deep Well Sockets

Craftsman 9-34539 9 Piece 3/8-Inch Drive Deep Standard 6 Point Laser Socket Set
Amazon Price: $37.10 Buy Now
(price as of Mar 22, 2014)
This small set (also available in metric sizes) features large, easy-to-read etched size markings for your mechanically-inclined friend who always forgets his glasses.

A ratchet and sockets – regular and deep well – are just the beginning of a full set. Consider also adding a range of extension from two to ten inches and adapters to fit the next larger and/or smaller sizes. On top of those, consider articulating universal joints, “double-jointed” adapters that let you grab onto hard-to-reach nuts. Some high-end sets include articulating sockets in a range of sizes, which improve on the U-joint with a better fit and more compact design.

Besides nuts and bolts, a good set also drives hex-head and Torx (six-pointed star) screws. You can easily find a set of hex and/or Torx drivers that will fit onto your choice of drive size. Some really large sets include crowfoot wrenches, which are versions of open-end wrenches you can fit onto the ratchet or breaker bar.

Once you’ve started building a set, one important consideration is storage. Even a basic set runs to twenty or more individual pieces, and larger sets easily reach 100. A toolbox or other storage becomes essential, especially when you’re looking for something small. It’s also a good idea to keep the two systems separated so that you don’t get frustrated trying to fit a 10mm socket on a 3/8-inch nut (or vice versa).

For the Man Who Has Everything...

Excel TB2105X-Blue 26-Inch Steel Top Chest, Blue
Amazon Price: $109.87 Buy Now
(price as of Mar 22, 2014)
...something to keep it in! Socket sets, wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers - you name it, there's room in a tool chest. Look for one with ball-bearing drawer glides and a lock.

Buying Pieces and Parts

Around the holidays you’ll find mechanic’s tool sets with something like 7,000 pieces at a “bargain” price. Sure, the price looks good, but you’re probably paying for dozens of pieces that you’ll never use. Instead of buying a set that has all three drive sizes and dozens of little parts in it, look for a starter set that contains the basics: a ratchet handle, standard and deep-well sockets, an extension or two and perhaps an adapter. Instead of quantity, you are wise to concentrate on quality. The parts should be high-quality steel, chrome-plated to prevent rust. Labels on the parts should be large and easy to read, and preferably molded or etched instead of stamped (stamped sizes is a dead giveaway that the item is soft steel and cheaply made).

You can buy a large, inexpensive set that will get you through a project or two for a few tens of dollars; at the other end of the scale you can buy individual ratchets – even some large sockets – from the dealer driving those the big white trucks (Snap-On and Matco) for about the same outlay as a whole set at the dollar store. Unless you’re a professional mechanic, you probably don’t need a sixty-dollar ratchet, but you are always wise to spend enough cash to get durable, well-designed tools that will last. Many DIYers swear by the Craftsman brand (available at Sears, K-Mart and Ace/Orchard Hardware): look for the tools that have a lifetime, no-questions-asked guarantee. BigBox stores have their own brands (Husky and Kobalt, for instance) that are also a cut above the dollar store; likewise Stanley

Maybe a Million Pieces After All

Maybe a huge set after all...
Credit: Sears/Craftsman

Chances are Dad will never use most of the parts in this gazillion-piece mechanic's tool set. On the other hand, he probably won't have to buy any more accessories for a while!

Would 309 Pieces Make You Happy?

Craftsman 309-Piece Mechanics Tool Set, # 41309
Amazon Price: $216.76 Buy Now
(price as of Mar 22, 2014)
Lots and lots of sockets here in all kinds of sizes...

Parting Thoughts

In tools, you almost always get what you pay for: cheap stuff doesn’t hold up under heavy use, and there's nothing more frustrating than having to stop in the middle of a job, go to the store, and buy a (better-quality) replacement!


text:
About   Help   FAQ
Glossary Term
Glossary Term SQL
Definition Structured Query Language. SQL is used to communicate with a database. According to ANSI (American National Standards Institute), it is the standard language for relational database management systems. SQL statements perform tasks such as updating data in or retrieving data from a database. Some common relational database management systems that use SQL are: Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Access, Ingres, etc. Although most database systems use SQL, most of them also have their own additional proprietary extensions that are usually only used on their system. The Query Forms at MGI extract information from databases by generating instructions in SQL.

Contributing Projects:
Mouse Genome Database (MGD), Gene Expression Database (GXD), Mouse Tumor Biology (MTB), Gene Ontology (GO), MouseCyc
Citing These Resources
Funding Information
Warranty Disclaimer & Copyright Notice
Send questions and comments to User Support.
last database update
MGI 6.11
The Jackson Laboratory


text:
Quick Search

January 19, 1926 – February 1, 2014

On Saturday, February 1, 2014, June Bernice Hemphill, 88, peacefully bid farewell to her family and friends, as well as the veterans and staff at the Colonel Belcher Veterans Care Centre in Calgary, Alberta. Born in Toronto, June was the eldest child of James Edward and Alberta Faustina (Pearson) Beasley. She is survived by her children, Linda (Sterling) MacCallum of Vermilion, Alberta; Bruce (Anita) of Lyons Brook, Nova Scotia; Eric (Marilyn) of Wake Forest, North Carolina and Douglas of Calgary, Alberta; daughter-in law, Deanne of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia; nine grandchildren, four great-grandchildren; sister-in law, Catherine Archdekin, Brampton, Ontario; and special family, Connie Kent, Joyce Tucker, Jean MacDonald, Audrey Melanson, and Elwin (Janet) Hemphill. Besides her parents, she was predeceased by her son, Stephen; grandson, Andrew MacCallum; sister and brother-in-law, Wes and Doreen Markle; and brother, James. It was in the world of numbers that June found her niche, and her bookkeeping career began at the same time as her naval career overseas with the W.R.C.N.S. She extended her relationship with Canada’s armed forces by joining the Royal Canadian Legion, serving on the executive of three branches. Last year she was presented with the Legion’s gold long service pin. June loved to sing, participating in community and church choirs. Her courageous and adventurous spirit led her to work in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, and Alberta, and to travel extensively throughout North America, always accompanied by a beloved dog. A prolific knitter and especially talented seamstress, she enthusiastically embraced quilting in her retirement years. Cremation has taken place, and services were held in Calgary. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at 2:00 PM Monday, June 16, in Stella Maris Roman Catholic Church, Pictou, with Father Peter MacDonald officiating. Interment will be in Stella Maris Parish Cemetery. A reception will follow. No flowers, please, but if friends so desire, memorial donations may be made to the SPCA, or a charity of your choice. www.mclarenfuneral.ca

Funeral home(s)

Order flowers
Make a donation

Leave a condolence

comments powered by Disqus

Quick Search

Place an Obituary

Create a Memorial Website


text:
Beste Liner Brushes

I recently purchased some Beste Finest Golden Taklon Hair liner brushes from Jerry’s Artarama for use on our comic panel paintings in tempera paint. I chose these brushes primarily because of the price and I was particular in wanting a long haired liner brush for those students who wished to try outlining their paintings in black paint rather than marker. I selected sizes 4 and 6 and purchased about 15 of each. The total was $51 for 30 brushes. Jerry’s shipped right away and I didn’t find myself having to stall activities to wait for supplies…Which is good since I didn’t decide to order the brushes until we were in the early stages of the project. I was please that the brushes seem to be good quality with hairs that tend to “want” to retain their shape. About half the students had time or wanted to try the liner brushes. For tempera, we thinned the black paint with a bit of water to work best with the liners.


text:
Ric Fierabracci

Artist Profile:

Ric Fierabracci

ric_fierabracci_1Ric Fierabracci, who has been described by Charlie Adams as the most talented musician among Yanni's band, was born in Queens, NY.  At the age of 12 he moved to Florida, where, upon early graduation from high school, he received a scholarship from the University of Miami.  After studying jazz there, he later moved to L.A., where he became very active in recording various TV, movie, and album releases.  He's worked for an impressive number of musicians including Jennifer Paige, Andy Summers,ric_fierabracci_2 Men At Work, Otmaro Ruiz, Frank Gambale, Planet X, Scott Henderson, Tony MacAlpine, and Steve Smith. He also appeared in Shakira's music video, "Inevitable", and has recorded with Russell Crowe.ric_fierabracci_3

Bassist Ric Fierabracci has performed, recorded and run the gamut for artists like Chick Corea, Billy Cobham, Dave Weckl, Gary Husband, Dean Brown, Steve Smith, Vinnie Colaiuta, Mitchel Forman, Munyungo Jackson, Chad Smith’s Bombastic Meatbats, Stanley Clarke, Brett Garsed, Phil Turcio, Blood Sweat and Tears, Special EFX, Guthrie Govan, Mike Miller, Scott Henderson, George Whitty, Joel Hoekstra, Tom Coster, Marion Meadows, Andy Summers (with Sting as a special guest), Planet X, Eddie Jobson’s UK, Frank Gambale, Curved Air’s Sonja Kristina, Adrian Belew to Pop artists: Sir Tom Jones, Bo Bice, Stevie Wonder, Japanese Mega Star - Misia, Jennifer Paige, Sophie B Hawkins, Euge Groove, Bill Evans and others. Ric has also recorded many tracks for the "Guitar Hero" Video games. His latest Studio work has included the bass tracks for the CBS Hit TV series "Without a Trace"

Ric tours regularly and is a member of “Blood Sweat and Tears”, “Tizer”, “Billy Cobham’s Spectrum 40”, “Tri-Fecta” as well as some other fine bands.  Click Here for Tour dates.

The debut CD from “Hemispheres” was nominated for a Grammy in the 51st Grammy's as "Best Contemporary Jazz Album" and Ric has also been nominated twice in the category of "best Instrumental Jazz Solo"