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How Men Should Dress For Every Occasion | A Complete Gentleman's Guide

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Alyssa Breeden

Dressing dapper has been a conundrum for men longer than the Spice Girls have been trying to convince us that they are real artists. Figuring out what a dress code is, and then how to dress appropriately for it, often feels harder than solving a game of Sudoku with Kim Kardashian. With that said, here is our comprehensive (yet well summarized) guide to how men should dress for every occasion! Whether you are dressing casual, for a dinner date, an evening out, work or an interview, this insightful guide will ensure that you are always dressed your best, irrespective of occasion!

If you are planning to grab pizza with some friends or head out to your local bar, it’s probably best to stick to casual. Even so, it’s still important to present yourself in a way that makes people want to respect you.  You should always step your style up for a social event.  Everywhere you go, everyone that you encounter – you are creating lasting impressions – make them count.

For a casual night out, try wearing a pair of great-fitting jeans and a nice, collared shirt.  This may also be an opportune time to pull out that funky blazer that you have been dying to wear.

Sometimes neckties are great, other times they are not needed. They are certainly not expected in most casual situations.  However, when choosing a necktie, you should choose a sophisticated design that adds flair but does not outshine your situation.  Try a go at one of our knitted ties, they are both casual and oozing with cool.

 Knit Ties Casual Wear

A Knit Tie can instantly elevate your casual ensembles. Courtesy of Men’s Style Blog He Spoke Style.

Be sure to pay attention to the small details like your belt, sock, and shoes – as they can speak volumes about your personality.  After all, anyone can pull off a green polo and look okay, but if someone has on striped socks and someone else has on plain white their separate personalities begin to unintentionally shine through.

Thinking that this all seems a bit too formal?  Our bracelet collection could be all that you need to set yourself apart and look great at your next casual event.

Casual Men's Attire

A Leather Bracelet is a great way to set yourself apart in a casual setting. Courtesy of

Date Night Attire

Layering on date night will elevate your style by at least a few notches! Courtesy of

For any date we recommend a classic and refined look that speaks to your great personality.  You want to be comfortable.  If you are not, it will absolutely show.

The first thing to consider is whether or not this is your first date with someone that you have never met before, someone that you have met previously but never dated before, or if it is someone that you have been involved with for many years.

Depending on the situation depends on what you may be able to get away with – meaning that you may be able to wear that quirky tie as a joke on a date with your wife but not so much for the first date with someone you’ve never met.  The new girl may not understand that this is your personality and may interpret your choice of attire as childish.

For any date, it is a good idea to dress in layers – sports jacket, pocket square, nice shirt, khaki pants.  The jacket ensures that you have ample room for everything that you need, plus you can take it off you get uncomfortable. A nice jacket will also make your date feel more respected (because you thought that the situation was deserving of something more than a t-shirt) and give off an impression of stability and responsibility.  Want to take it up a notch?  Throw on a timeless necktie.

Looking for a classic necktie that screams, “I have a cool personality”?  Our Skinny Fairfield Plaid is the perfect tie for a first date.  Not only does it come in a modern, sleek design, it is also available in both lilac and light pink.  Fairfield Plaid’s soft and subtle palettes work to delicately enhance your look.

Women care about appearance and are drawn to attractive men.  If your clothing is put together correctly, you can strengthen your good traits and downplay the not-so-great ones.  Win, win, win!

Please feel free to view The Dark Knot’s range of Date Night Ties!

Maybe you’re headed to the theater?  Maybe you’re going to try that amazing restaurant that you’ve been dying to visit, or you are off to a Hollywood party – either way, you are going to want to look your best.

How Men Can Dress For An Evening Out

Courtesy of

Slim lines and darker colors are going to be the best choice in this situation.  Anything too loose is going to make you look too relaxed and sloppy, resulting in bad impressions all around.

Mixing formal and business casual should give you a great balance for an evening out.  Grab a subtly patterned shirt, a nice jacket, and a slim tie for a great look.  This is also a great time to pull out those polished oxfords that you keep for “special occasions”.

A few good options for this look are our Amesbury Paisley and Dartmouth Abstract silk ties.

Please feel free to view The Dark Knot’s extensive range of Evening Silk Ties

How To Dress Preppy For Men

Few things scream preppy like a seersucker shirt! Here, we have this item perfectly balanced by a green striped tie. Courtesy of

Not all of us encounter many preppy situations but those of us who do have a strong desire to fit into our surroundings. Whether you’re heading to the Kentucky derby a beach wedding, tennis in the park or golf match you’re going to want to look your best and (most of all) not boring.  This is the opportunity to pull out your best and brightest colors and your funny and funky ties.

Though this may seem like a great opportunity to don a funky bow tie, be careful.  Some body shapes and shoulder structures are not very complementary to bow ties.  They can instead make you appear very short and clownish.

For a more formal event, go all out with your seersucker and straw hat.  Less formal?  Try wearing a pair of nice chino shorts and a solid shirt (light pink, green, yellow, blue).  Grab your seersucker jacket and try out one of subtle our animal print ties.

Please feel free to view The Dark Knot’s extensive range of Preppy Ties!

It is best to keep it simple during a first job interview.

It is a good rule of thumb to research the company’s dress code before the big day.  Not all company policies are the same – startup companies have the reputation for having more relaxed environments, while law offices tend to steer towards more traditional environments.  While we do recommend dressing to the nines, we do not want you to stick out like a sore thumb.

Color psychologists often encourage interviewees to wear a nice blue suit, as it tends to relay feelings of trust and friendliness to the interviewer (leaving a great impression before you even begin to speak).  A white shirt is the best shirt option for this look, as the color white often correlates with truth and simplicity.  You cannot go wrong.

Navy Suit Interview Setting

A navy suit will allow you to be at your professional best during an interview setting. Courtesy of Black Lapel

As far as neckties and accessories go, it is best to stick to conservative prints, or solid colors, during interviews

A few of my favorites include: Berkshire Abstract, Waltham Dots, and Montague Foulard.

Be sure to examine your clothing beforehand.  Make sure there are no wrinkles or stains and ensure that your attire has been professionally cleaned before you even think about donning it for an interview.

Need more help with your interview?  There is a ton of great information in our previous post, How to Dress for an Interview.

If you are employed and happen to work in an office you are likely to find yourself in one of two situations, business professional and business casual.  In this section we will examine business casual attire.  If you are interested in a more business professional look, keep reading into the “work presentation” section as those looks tend to overlap.

How Man Can Dress For Work

A Sports Jacket provides for an incredibly elegant, yet understated look for a business casual setting! Courtesy of

In a business casual work environment jackets are still preferred, but not required.  You are likely to encounter most guys in the office wearing a navy blue blazer with khakis and a conservative tie.  However, it is also completely acceptable to wear a sweater over a dress shirt and tie.  In any situation be sure to have a nice pair of dress shoes and socks to keep your look balanced and neat.

It is within your best interest to always bring a jacket to the office, you can always take them off as the day progresses.  This is helpful for two reasons: (a) your co-worker Don can not handle the heat of your (already cold) 65 degree office and will not stop touching the thermostat and (b) you may find yourself called into an impromptu meeting with the CEO and guess what?  You dribbled your lunch.  Saved by the blazer.

Keep in mind that it is never acceptable to show up to a business casual work environment without a collar on your shirt.  Honestly, aside from a ball field, there are not many situations where a non-collared shirt is preferred.

Maybe you have a presentation at work; you will need to fully evaluate your situation beforehand.  Have you had the job for forty years and have just built a marketing campaign that you need to present to the entire company?  Or did you just recently start and are heading into a room of people that you have never met?

You are going to want to look as professional as possible and here’s how we can help:  first you want to get yourself a classic business suit.  A business suit means one thing, a matched set.  Opt for a darker colored solid or pinstriped suit paired with a powerful tie.  You will also need a crisp shirt, clean shoes, and nice socks.

How Man Can Dress For A Presentation

Few things are as quintessential to a presentation setting as a solid navy suit. Courtesy of

A watch is essential here as it shows that you care about being punctual and are a leader.  You will show everyone how responsible that you are without even saying a word.

Need some help choosing a powerful tie?  My personal favorite is our Canterbury Regimental Stripes in red and blue – a tie that demands attention and respect.

Please feel free to view The Dark Knot’s extensive range of presentation ties!

Black Tie Attire

Black Tie Attire, when executed well, will instantly elevate your look! Courtesy of Men's Style Blog, He Spoke Style

The black tie event seems pretty straightforward; you dress your best, wear a black tie and look awesome. But what does that really mean and is it possible to stand out among the crowd?

Black tie events are generally more formal than the parties and events that you may be used to.  You are going to need to take your style up a notch for the evening.  We recommend wearing your best tuxedo jacket and matching pants paired with a crisp, white shirt.

Traditionally, men are expected to show up in their best black bow tie.  Maybe it’s just us, but we opt for long skinny black ties rather than bow ties because they provide a more polished and modern look.

Your minor accessories are going to be important here.  These are going to be the things that set you apart from the crowd.  You can choose from several different shoe types, sock patterns, watch faces and bands, or you could add a pocket square – each with its own personality and ability to make you shine.

How Men Can Dress For A Wedding

Courtesy of Wedding Wire

Oh, lucky you!  Looks like your friends are getting married and you don’t know what to wear.  No fear we can help.

You are first going to want to evaluate the atmosphere in which your friends have chosen to get married in.  A summer beach wedding is going to be different than the Grand Ballroom at the Ritz Carlton.  Ask yourself - What kind of people are going to be there? Are you in the wedding party? If you’re in the wedding party, lucky you, you probably have your outfit chosen for you.

Mix and match the above situations to best suit your environment.  You might even revert back to our previous post for inspiration.  Does it still seem like nothing quite fits?  Just head over to the site and browse our “wedding” selection for inspiration and ideas.

That’s a wrap for this one! We hope this guide detailing how men should dress for every occasion helps you along your journey to great style!

Please feel free to view The Dark Knot's range of ties based on occasion!

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How Men Should Dress For Every Occasion | A Complete Gentleman's Guide


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The Delegate Wranglers® DW®

Spend A Day With...Sunshine Events

Spend A Day With...Sunshine Events

I was lucky enough to ‘Spend A Day With’ Sunny, James and the rest of the fantastic Sunshine Events team – to check them out hard at work in their head office, warehouse and also seeing them in action during a packed family fun day at Haydock Park Racecourse. This day was a great eye opener for me seeing all the aspects that event suppliers have to think about, to provide a flawless service and ultimately make people happy. Something that is very dear to Sunny’s heart – but more of that later.

To give you some background, Sunshine Events are the UK’s number one national supplier and owner of fun event equipment. They own and stock the largest range of entertainment packages that can be hired for corporate events, exhibitions, conference energisers, family fun days, and all manner of parties and events when you to deliver fun to your guests. How amazing!

Sunshine Events, which started out life in 2003 as a weekend business in the spare bedroom of Sunny and James Sandwell, has since grown into a hugely successful innovative and extremely well-run events company with a fantastic reputation, serving clients such as Celebrity Juice, ITV, Channel 4, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Virgin Media, Britains Got Talent and many more household names. The client list says everything…

Those early days when all they had to hire out was a Giant Connect 4 and a Giant Jenga, has grown into a large warehouse full of all manner of fun items to hire out – from Virtual Reality Experiences to huge Wrecking Ball Inflatables, they’ve got something for every type of event.

When you sit and talk to Sunny & James, you can’t help but feel the passion and drive that has helped them to get to where they are (including recently winning two awards for ‘Employer of The Year’ and ‘Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility’ at the BIBA’s - the Be Inspired Business Awards) – which is for all their clients to have lots of fun!

Sunshine Events head office – finding out all about them
Situated on a smart industrial / retail park on the outskirts of Preston, the first thing that hits you as you enter the building is the positive messages written on walls of the staircase, the framed company ethos statements and core values dotted around and the fabulous blackboard with all the team’s preferred method of coffee / tea, which starts with the words “Make mine a…” - I loved this! Another funky thing in the reception area is their amazing Magic Selfie Mirror that talks to you and asks you to have a go – so of course I did! Any excuse to wear a bit of fancy dress!!

After a quick introduction to some of the team, I sat down with Sunny & James to talk to them all about Sunshine Events. Currently they have around 50 Fun Experts (made up of permanent and casual staff) and that number is made up of Sales, Accounts & Marketing staff in the office, the Logistics team who work in the warehouse and the event staff who go out to install and operate their equipment.

And it’s clear that not only is this a really fabulous place to work, but they are really great people to deal with from a client’s perspective. For example, James explained to me that when you work with Sunshine Events not only are you getting fabulous, and sometimes, purpose-built equipment – you can be assured that everything they use has been comprehensively insured, tested thoroughly, and is of the very highest quality. It will be installed to conform with all health and safety requirements and will be operated by their team of Fun Experts with superb levels of professionalism. In fact, for larger events every client receives an ‘Event Pack’ from them – which contains a copy of their Public Liability Insurance and P.A.T. test certificates, all the relevant contact details for the team and lots more useful information relating to the journey leading up to the event itself. Speaking as an event organiser, this is a reassuring thing to receive and certainly makes you feel in your comfort zone.

Sunshine Events warehouse – so much equipment!

The Sunshine Events warehouse is located just across the road from the office and I have to admit, I didn’t stop smiling from the moment I entered the building.

For example, as we got there, the warehouse Fun Expert team were in the middle of testing a brand-new piece of equipment – the Wrecking Ball Inflatable! And it was massive! The top of it was around 5-6 metres tall and it contained 4 platforms which surrounded a huge, suspended wrecking ball in the middle. The object was to swing the wrecking ball at the other people on the platforms to try and knock them off. It was really funny to watch and you could tell it would be a big hit (pun intended!!) - in fact, I know it went down well as I saw it in action at a public event – more of that later in the report.

Once inside the warehouse, it was simply wall to wall with all manner of fun events equipment being stored here – from Coconut Shy Stalls and bespoke Buzz-Wire games (which can even be made in the shape of your choice) to traditional Ice Cream Bicycles and a giant Inflatable Hungry Hippos game, this place had everything, and then some! In fact it contains over 375 items of equipment in here – some of which are made there in the warehouse by the team, or have been made specifically for them by trusted UK manufacturers.

After meeting the team based in there who look after the distribution and storage of all the equipment (as well as being on call 24/7 for their clients and event staff), I was lucky enough to have a go of their Virtual Reality Experience and I have to say that is was truly unbelievable. Forget your home virtual reality headsets, this was next level! I took the option to experience something called ‘The Plank’ which involved me taking a ‘virtual’ lift up to the top floor of a skyscraper and then walking off the edge of an actual plank (which they had laid on the floor in the warehouse) – to say I was terrified was an understatement! Haha. It was so realistic that I couldn’t even bring myself to walk off the edge!

Sunshine Events office – Service levels and their second warehouse

Once back in the office, Sunny explained to me about the exciting news that, due to increased demand, they are opening their second warehouse in May this year. Based in the south of England it will enable them to offer even better service to their ever growing client base in the south.

It is clear that service levels are a massive part of what drives Sunshine Events forward. For instance, they have a ‘Lessons Learned’ folder which all members of staff are encouraged to contribute to, and look through regularly – so that they can continually improve. What a great idea!

Haydock Park Racecourse – Seeing Sunshine Events in action

I ended the day by spending the afternoon at Haydock Park Racecourse, as there was a Family Fun Day taking place at one of their race meetings and I was there on official business (honestly!!) because Sunshine Events had been hired to provide all the outdoor fun equipment for the meeting and I wanted to see them in action.

This was an excellent opportunity for me to see them at close quarters, especially as this event was on a large scale with thousands of people attending the event, including children of all ages

Once in the family zone, you could see the distinctive colours of Sunshine Events equipment on the large inflatable equipment, which was being used constantly by hundreds of children and adults at all times. There was the aforementioned inflatable Wrecking Ball, and other inflatable items including an Obstacle Course, a Climbing Wall, Football Darts, Football Shootout, Bungee Run, Basketball and tons more. As mentioned earlier, the majority of their equipment is tailor made for them and always using their vibrant company colours, so they are really easy to spot.

The Sunshine Events Fun Expert team, on each piece of equipment, were fantastic - making sure everyone had a great time and always keeping an eye out for any potential safety issues. The team were great – really friendly with both children and adults alike, which was really good to see, especially given the number of people there – it was absolutely packed for the 4 or 5 hours that I was there.

To sum up my day with Sunshine Events – led by Sunny and James, they are an amazing team, with fantastic equipment, and superb service levels, as well as a fantastic company ethos – to bring fun to all their clients, and from what I saw during my day there, they do this in bucket-loads!

To request an amazing Free Event Planning Guide from Sunshine events - click on the image below:

For any enquiries or more information, please contact:

Sunny and her team of Fun Experts

Tel: 0800 088 5288
Email: [email protected]
Linked in: Sunshine Events UK

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Late Night Thoughts “Truth and Honesty”

You’re torn between is it my job to reach out for help/do I wait for it and should I accept help. You keep asking yourself, were they actually asking and talking to me because they care or because they don’t know what else to say while also feeling like they should say something at least. Your mind just plays games and twists everything because you don’t know what is truth and honesty anymore.

It’s things like these thoughts that have gone through my head durning my cancer battles. This battle seems to bring out these thoughts even more with being older and seeing the world continue to move while you “STAND STILL” yet again. But I will be right back on that same track soon enough.

Side note… hair is growing back in a new style.

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educate synonym

educate synonym

And here too let us educate our sons, if sons are born to us.
Then again, we know that the masses are not our masters, and that they are more likely to become so if we educate them.

You are really going to educate me? “The Grain Of Dust A Novel” by David Graham Phillips

But to educate a child fit for the state, it must not be done in the manner which would please either those who have the power in an oligarchy or those who desire a democracy, but so as they may be able to conduct either of these forms of governments. “Politics A Treatise on Government” by Aristotle

Educate synonym
Educate synonym for verb teach information, experience
The people who studied “educate synonyms” studied the following subjects:

Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property.
If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices.

Educate synonym

    To develop the innate capacities of, especially by schooling or instruction. See Synonyms at teach.
  • To provide with knowledge or training in a particular area or for a particular purpose: decided to educate herself in foreign languages; entered a seminary to be educated for the priesthood.
  • To provide with information; inform: a campaign that educated the public about the dangers of smoking.
  • To bring to an understanding or acceptance: hoped to educate the voters to the need for increased spending on public schools.
  • To stimulate or develop the mental or moral growth of.
  • To develop or refine (one’s taste or appreciation, for example).
  • To teach or instruct a person or group.
  • Parents, Teachers, Students Do you have a grammar question?
    Need help finding a syllable count?
    Want to say thank you?
    Divide educate into syllables: ed-u-cate
    Stressed syllable in educate: ed -u-cate
    How to pronounce educate: ej-oo-keyt
    How to say educate: How to pronounce educate

    • supplementation: tutoring which covers subjects which are already covered in school, and excluding, for example, language classes for minority children whose families are anxious that new generations retain competence in languages not taught in mainstream schools.
    • privateness: tutoring provided in exchange for a fee, as opposed to unpaid tutoring provided by families or community members, or extra tutoring provided by teachers as part of their professional commitments and responsibilities.
    • academic subjects: languages, mathematics, and other examinable subjects, excluding musical, artistic or sporting skills, which are learned primarily for pleasure and/or for a more rounded form of personal development.

    Shadow Education is an increasingly visible phenomenon in Hong Kong and many other parts of the world. The system of private supplementary tutoring is widely called shadow education because much of it mimics the mainstream.

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    If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware.


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My Life with Rice

A personal favourite was bhaat bhaja, left over rice fried with some onions, turmeric, chilli powder or sometimes vegetables like aubergines or potatoes; a bit of chopped coriander to top it off and you have a savoury breakfast. My father however, highly disapproved of his youngest child eating a plate full of spicy rice in the morning as opposed to something healthier, so I often resorted to sneaking into the kitchen and gulping down mouthfuls when no one was around!

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The Fiber Wire

Plugged in and turned on. All paper. All the time.

People Posting About Paper

On Monday I posted several tweets I enjoyed from the week which met with positive response. Today I’m posting links to several blogs I frequent, along with the descriptions from their ‘About’ pages. Part of this is to share with you the great resource of writers and paper lovers I’m discovering on the internet. The other part is that it is finals week and curating content is less time-consuming than creating content. I hope that you enjoy these sites as much as I do and I’ll see you on Friday when I emerge from my textbooks.

Paperslurry A blog and online resource for hand papermaking. We regularly feature a range of things, including papermaking artists, art, socially engaged paper projects, tutorials, reviews, studio tours, exhibitions, equipment guides, news, critical discourse, and any scraps of paper-related content that piques the interest.

An infographic on how to make paper by hand. It’s awesome!

All About Papercutting: Paper is a simple material that can be manipulated in endless ways. From flat pieces to 3 dimensional sculptures and installations, to photographic images and animation, paper has the potential to become whatever we want. The only limit is our imagination.

A post on Sue Jeong’s 3-D delightful illustration series of commercial paper production.

All Things PaperTopics range from the latest on the craft scene – stylish DIYs, trends, and book reviews – to interviews with established artists and features about novice artisans with big ideas. I hope you’ll be inspired to look at paper in a new light.

A video and post on sculptor James Grashow and his magnificent cardboard creations.

Credit: The featured image in this post is taken from the ‘Make Paper’ infographic from PaperSlurry mentioned in this post. I’m just a little obsessed with it!

2 comments on “People Posting About Paper

  1. CelesteRegal
    April 30, 2014

    Lots of good sites. Thnx. Have some golden flax I’m about to put in the Valley Hollander.

  2. thefiberwire
    May 1, 2014

    I’m glad you liked it! How did the flax turn out? What are you making?

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Benghazi: Trey Gowdy Succumbs to “The Obama Version”

Trey Gowdy Gives TROUBLING Answers on Benghazi in Interview

Not sure how we missed this but it is a potentially disturbing development for those relying on Rep. Trey Gowdy and his House Select Committee to get to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi. After the committee’s second hearing on December 10th, Gowdy appeared on Greta van Susteren’s On The Record to discuss what happened in the hearing and where the investigation stands.

The interview starts out well enough, with Gowdy explaining that the next hearing is in January and that a major focus of that hearing will be to determine why there was a U.S. presence in Benghazi at all.Gowdy meeting with Benghazi Select Committee Executive Director Philip Kiko at first hearing.Gowdy meeting with Benghazi Select Committee Executive Director Philip Kiko at first hearing.

Then Greta asked Gowdy about why he thought Ambassador Chris Stevens was in Benghazi the night he was murdered and what his meeting with Turkish Consul General Ali Akin one hour prior to the attacks commencing was all about.

When asked for his thoughts on the reason for Stevens’ meeting with Akin, Gowdy responded:

“I’ve seen no evidence that the meeting with the Turkish diplomat was in any way related to, well, what ultimately happened to the Ambassador.”

When then asked if the meeting had anything to do with the CIA / State Department presence in Benghazi, Gowdy said:

“If there is any evidence to connect the two, I have not seen it and no one on HPSCI (House Intelligence Committee) has told me about it.”

That part in bold is a bombshell and not in a good way for at least one very simple reason. As the Chairman of the Select Committee, Gowdy has access to everything, including intelligence committee information. As has pointed out, House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) has admitted publicly that Stevens met with his committee in the days prior to his murder.

Has Gowdy attempted to learn what was discussed in that meeting? If not, why not? If he was rebuffed why has he not interviewed or deposed Rogers by now? The committee was named last May.

At that point, Gowdy may have tipped his hand about being more interested in why the U.S. was in Benghazi than why Stevens was there on the anniversary of 9/11. In a clear effort to tamp down concerns about why Stevens was in Benghazi, Gowdy said:

“We may ultimately find out that there is no more nefarious explanation other than the fact that our ambassador loved the people of Benghazi.”

Again, Rep. Gowdy, have you asked Chairman Rogers what was discussed in his meeting with Stevens?

Perhaps most disturbing is Gowdy’s speculation – as his committee is still investigating – about why Stevens and Akin were meeting:

“I honestly think at the end of that analysis we’re going to find that he and the Turkish Diplomat were friends.”

Really? So Ambassador Stevens flew to a woefully unprotected facility to spend the 9/11 anniversary in an area teaming with Islamic terrorists and meet with his Turkish buddy who represents a government that supports terrorism? Besides, why would Gowdy make such an assertion before the investigation is over?

Or is it already over?

Read the rest at Shoebat.Com

This entry was posted in Arms Deals, Benghazi, Benghazi Gun-running, CIA, CORRUPTION, DEFENCE, Hillary Clinton, Libya, Libya Lynching, Muslim Brotherhood, New Caliphate, New World Order, OBAMA, republican party and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to Benghazi: Trey Gowdy Succumbs to “The Obama Version”

  1. Reblogged this on Thelastcrusade10 and commented:
    First Darrell Trey Goudy. A country run by imbeciles and frauds.

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Feature: The long and winding road

Looking back on my childhood is kind of funny, because the fact that I’m bisexual is incredibly obvious in hindsight. One of my first crushes was Mulan. Rya Kihlstedt’s character in Home Alone 3 enraptured 10-year-old me. As I developed crushes on male classmates, I also noticed female classmates and friends. I thought they were exceptionally pretty, to the point where I’d think “She’d be perfect for me, if she were a boy.”

Yet, when I finally put two and two together, my initial reaction was panic. I was a brace-faced, greasy-haired 12-year-old who navigated social situations like I was walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. All of the sudden, my interactions with female classmates took on a whole new dimension of anxiety. Could she tell I liked her? Was I being too invasive? I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’d internalized the idea that liking other girls made me creepy.

Maybe it was the constant use of the word “lesbian” as a put-down — when straight girls I knew wanted to insult someone, calling them gay was their go-to. Maybe it was the section in my pink study Bible that condemned homosexuality as a “detestable sin.” All I know is that somewhere along the way, the idea of same-gender attraction as degenerate and unclean planted itself firmly in my head, and it would take me years to unlearn it.

As it turns out, my experience isn’t uncommon for people across the multisexual spectrum (that is, people who are attracted to more than one gender). As we discover our identities and come out to ourselves and others, stereotypes and negative preconceived notions about bi, pan, and queer folks have a profound impact on us. Throughout our lives, we confront ourselves and society alike as we separate who we are from who the world says we are. As I spoke to other people who are attracted to more than one gender, I discovered a number of common themes. We deal with prejudice as soon as we are old enough to understand it, in every aspect of our lives, and in a number of forms.

Eliot Howard (they/them), a writer and musician who grew up in the early 2000s, practically never heard about LGBTQ people at all during their junior high years — except in one particular context. “It was still really common to hear about hate crimes all the time,” they recall, frowning, “and that was the context in which people were talking about being gay. I was super scared that people wouldn’t accept me… because I heard about people getting killed for being this way.” Fearing a possible negative reaction from peers, Eliot stayed in the closet for years. “I was afraid of men I was attracted to knowing. I was afraid I’d lose my best friends.”

David Semaan (he/him), a political science graduate student, also remembers an environment with a less-than-accepting attitude towards LGBTQ people. He grew up in western British Columbia, in a place he describes as “one of the most conservative parts of the country.” In an environment steeped in religion and conservative politics, coming out to himself was hard, and coming out to others was out of the question.

“I was 21 when I started to think of my sexuality as something real,” he tells me. “I was in a long-term relationship, [which started] when I was 18. For most of that time, I denied my sexual orientation.” These days, David uses his childhood experiences with prejudice to help others through the peer support services at The Landing, U of A’s non-profit society for gender and sexual diversity, turning hard and painful experiences into constructive ones.

David Semaan

Sometimes, however, it’s not what is said — it’s what isn’t said. Janeen Marko (she/her), a third-year double major in history and anthropology, doesn’t remember an environment that was hostile so much as it was silent. “I was in Catholic school until grade nine, so I wasn’t exposed to any LGBTQ conversations,” she explains. “They sort of bypassed the ‘gays go to hell’ conversation by not talking about ‘gays’ at all.”

Her family environment was a bit more welcoming: her sister came out as bisexual a year before she did, and her parents reacted well. But Janeen didn’t want them to doubt her, as they had initially doubted her sister, so she only came out to them after she got her first date with a girl — two years after she came out to her friends.

These experiences reflect a common pattern in the experiences of LGBTQ youth: many of us are aware of our sexualities for some time (months or even years) before we tell anyone else.

For multisexual youth in particular, this period can be filled with self-doubt. We don’t fit neatly to into the categories of “straight” or “gay,” no matter how much we might try to.

For a long time, I used my attraction to boys to overcompensate for my attraction to girls. I thought that I could somehow “fight” my attraction to girls by actively choosing to like boys instead. The idea that I didn’t have to choose didn’t even occur to me. Some of the male crushes I told my junior high friends about were real, but most of them weren’t. I felt the need to constantly “prove” my supposed heterosexuality to myself and others, to deny the dual nature of my sexuality and snuff it out.

A common narrative around coming out is that it makes everything better, that all the baggage associated with your sexuality disappears with the closet. However, this is rarely the case. When I accepted my bisexuality, my insecurities didn’t go away like I thought they would. Instead of needing to convince myself and others that I was straight, there was now a need to prove that I truly “counted” as bi. After all, I’d never so much as kissed a girl. Could I really be sure that what I was feeling was real?

Janeen, who is in a long-term relationship with a man, understands this dilemma all too well. “When I go to Pride,” she tells me, “I don’t go with him, because I don’t want to be accused of faking it.” She describes a kind of “imposter syndrome” that she wrestles with. “I’ve never had a serious relationship with a woman, which is the other thing… there’s always that question, am I gay enough?” Multisexual women are often stereotyped as straight women faking it for (male) attention, so those of us dating men often feel the need to justify ourselves.

Of course, men are not exempt from backlash either. Sometimes biphobia comes from unexpected places: David recalls a particularly awkward incident with a guy he used to date. “He introduced me to his friend and he said, ‘He’s not gay, just bi.’” David shakes his head. “Yeah… that was definitely the last time we went out.”

Multisexual men are often seen as either non-existent or as watered-down versions of gay men, which has an impact on how potential dating partners treat them. David has used dating apps in the past, and said that “as a bisexual person dating online, it can be really hard to put yourself out there.”

But one of the most pervasive stereotypes about us, across genders, is that of the promiscuous bi. Eliot has always been interested in what many different people have to offer, but sometimes feels guilt for “upholding a ‘negative’ stereotype.”

“People have a hard time seeing [others] as individuals, and not as stand-ins for the entire group they represent, especially when they’re any kind of minority,” they point out. While they don’t see having an active sex life as inherently bad, the social pressure is still there. “It’s someone else’s fault if they want to interpret who I am as being indicative of anything. But still, I feel a little bit guilty.”

Eliot Howard

Our sexual and romantic lives — which genders we’ve been with, how many relationships we’ve had — are picked apart and scrutinized. Whether we’re seen as valid, as real, isn’t always up to us. This is especially true if gender comes into question along with sexuality.

“It’s an interesting thing,” Janeen says, “to be questioning your gender identity and being bisexual.” She remembers being seen as a “tomboy” from when she was quite young, and as she grew older, her non-conforming gender presentation and her sexual orientation became increasingly intertwined. “For a long time, I thought I only liked women because I wanted to be a man,” she says.

Janeen no longer believes this to be the case, but says that she could see herself “starting to live more androgynously.” This wasn’t always comfortable territory: Janeen wanted to wear a suit to her high school graduation, but after her mother pointed out others might see her as trans, she wore a dress instead. “I wasn’t ready for it,” she says. These days, Janeen is still exploring her gender identity, but at her own pace. “I don’t identify as trans, but I may or may not be a woman.”

Eliot, a queer and non-binary person, finds looking back on their childhood illuminating as well. “I definitely didn’t identify with effeminate tropes,” they say, referring to when they were beginning to identify as queer. “It’s interesting looking back, because my gender’s become more complicated since then.”

Gender, for Eliot, is a process of negotiation: Eliot hesitates to claim “non-binary” or any given label because of how it could be perceived. Like with sexuality, a concern about “misrepresenting” the non-binary persists. Eliot takes a more philosophical approach to gender, using their experiences and uncertainties to ask big questions. “Does anyone really know what gender they are?” they ask.

We are told what we are supposed to be, in terms of who we are and who we love, from the time we are born. Is accepting our assigned identities the same thing as knowing our genders or sexualities? It’s hard to say, but in a society undergoing a paradigm shift of epic proportions, it’s exactly the kind of question we need to ask ourselves.

As multisexual individuals have explored who we are, society at large has experienced a similar type of introspection. We are a society in transition, trying to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. In many ways, it has changed for the better for bi, pan, and queer people. But even the most optimistic of us will admit that there is much progress to be made.

Janeen has witnessed a shift in public discourse surrounding queer people through her studies in history and anthropology. In previous generations of historians and anthropologists, Janeen explains, there was a “general erasing of women who love women. They absolutely existed… but they were erased by [those] who documented it.”  She describes a “larger cultural shift” within her fields of study to pay more attention to “untold histories” and bring the stories of the marginalized to light. Women, people of colour, LGBTQ people, and other largely ignored groups are starting to be treated as worthy of study and attention in academia, creating a view of our past that is no longer centered on the most privileged.

Janeen Marko

David, who studies topics relating to current LGBTQ issues, says that being open about our sexualities in the workplace is still an issue for many of us. “Almost half of queer people are not out in workplaces, even if we’re out in every other aspect.”

David himself worked in automotive retail for five years, and only came out to two coworkers during that time due to what he calls a “culture of mocking homophobia.” Making fun of LGBTQ people was commonplace where he worked, and he felt that being open with his colleagues wasn’t worth the risk of ostracization. Despite the amount of change we’ve seen in the last half century, casual homophobia still permeates our society, indicating that stereotypes still heavily inform how people see us.

Eliot agrees that “the prototypical gay person” hasn’t really changed, even if we’ve made progress. They note that plenty of stereotypes about multisexual people are still quite common, like the fact that many people won’t date bisexuals for fear of being cheated on. The change, Eliot says, is in the presence of an open conversation. “People are talking about it… trying to debunk myths… but it’s still a process.”

It is a process, but it’s one well worth undertaking. It’s about giving the voices of multisexual people a platform, a way to freely share our experiences. It’s about making ourselves present without the need for caricatures or closets. It’s about representing who we are in ways that might help others see themselves in us, regardless of whether they’re queer or not.

When I look at who I am now, compared to the scared kid I was all those years ago, I can’t help but feel hopeful. Once, labelling myself as bisexual seemed impossibly daunting — now, it feels as natural as saying my name. The fact that so many stories like mine exist is proof that progress is possible, even within a society that can be hostile and intolerant. If the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, I’d say we are well beyond step one at this point. Now we just need to keep walking.

Edit: a reader pointed out an incorrect pronoun for one of the interviewees. It has now been fixed.

Christine McManus

Christine McManus was the Managing Editor for 2019-2020 at The Gateway. When she's not writing articles or at choir rehearsal, she enjoys spending quality time with her cat, Scotty.

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Love is in the air.

Well, almost. It’s super close- three days away so it’s close enough for me to send y’all a lil’ love and a sweet recipe.

I’m not gunna lie. I got one of those pretty Yankee Candles a few weeks ago and the scent was Apple Pumpkin. O man! I know you’re thinkin’ pumpkin is soooooo Autumn but seriously this smells so yummy that I’ve been lighting it every night while I write my book! I just consider it ‘Food for Thought’.  Anyway, I was sitting here last night staring at this ol’ candle with writers block and I thought- heck- I’m takin’ a book break and making a lil’ treat for myself.

And so, that’s how this here Apple Pumpkin Yogurt Parfait was born.

Get your spoons ready- everyone’s gunna wanna bite.

I guarantee it.

It’s a vegan dessert and no one’s even gunna know it…you can tell anyone that it’s a gluten-free dessert but they still may not believe you. It’s just that good.

And since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, take a minute to reflect on your life and your love. Where does your love come from? Do you rely on others for love? What does love mean to you?

To me, love means happiness and feeling cozy n’ warm inside like a snuggle bunny, hehe! I love my work, I love my family, I love my friends and I love all of you.

Yes, it’s another Valentine’s Day when I don’t have a Valentine- but it’s a great day because I’m happy. I’ve been my own Valentine for the past few years because I’ve taught myself how to love myself and I’ve followed my dreams to do the work that I love, as well. So, even though everyone else is getting roses n’ chocolate- I’m just sittin’ here sippin’ a cup of hot tea thinking about y’all and wishing you love and happiness whether you have a Valentine or not. Because love isn’t about having a Valentine- it’s only one day out of the year and you CAN love yourself and love your life without having a Valentine. Take it from me- it CAN be done.

And if you are sad, cheer up Charlie! Don’t feel desperate for love or chocolate or roses or a lover.  Instead, try to turn your desperation into inspiration.  Move away from feeling desperate and move into being accountable, responsible and capable for your own happiness. Doing this will teach you how to learn and grow to love yourself and the life you want.

Happy LOVE Day!

Hope you all have a beautiful Valentine’s Day full of LOVE.

Apple Pumpkin Yogurt Parfait
Serves: 12
Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free and Vegan
Author: Amie Valpone
Recipe type: Entree

  • 2 15 oz cans pumpkin puree
  • 2 large apples peeled, cored and chopped
  • 2 tsp. Frontier Organic Cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp. Frontier Organic Nutmeg
  • 2 tsp. Frontier Organic Vanilla Extract
  • 2 Tbsp. So Delicious Almond Milk
  • 1/4 cup stevia
  • 32 oz. So Delicious Dairy-Free Greek Plain Yogurt
  • 1 3/4 cups gluten-free granola such as KIND Snacks Clusters

  1. Place apples in a food processor; pulse until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, almond milk and stevia; mix well to combine.
  2. Layer pumpkin mixture and yogurt into 12 glasses.
  3. Sprinkle with granola and serve.
Nutrition Facts
Apple Pumpkin Yogurt Parfait
Amount Per Serving (12 g)
Calories 173 Calories from Fat 27
% Daily Value*
Fat 3g5%
Cholesterol 3mg1%
Sodium 40mg2%
Potassium 357mg10%
Carbohydrates 25g8%
Fiber 4g17%
Sugar 11g12%
Protein 10g20%
Vitamin A 11040IU221%
Vitamin C 4.4mg5%
Calcium 130mg13%
Iron 1.9mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

And here’s a special VALENTINE’S DAY GIVEAWAY from one of my best friends, Jess who just published the most amazing cookbook called Sodium Girl’s Limitless Low Sodium Cookbook. It’s insanely amazing; I just received my copy last week and I’ve already made 15 recipes. They are incredible and amazingly delish- even though they are so low in sodium. Check out her new book and enter to win a Vitamix for her amazing giveaway. AND YOU get to pick out the color that you want. How cool is that?

Details below; simply click on this icon below and enter your email address, then LIKE ‘The Healthy Apple’ on Facebook and you’re entered to win your very own Vitamix!

Good luck! Jess will be picking a winner on February 18th at Midnight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway Rules:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Winner must be a US resident in order to win.  Winner will have 48 hours to respond to email to claim prize before another winner is chosen. The name of the winner will be announced on and the Rafflecopter Widget once the giveaway has ended. In the event the Sponsor (Vitamix) fails to send the prize, the Host ( and all Participating Hosts (Participating Bloggers) will not to be held responsible or liable in any way. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Twitter or Facebook. Complete terms and conditions can be found within Rafflecopter Giveaway Widge above and here.

Giveaway and photos provided by Vitamix. Sodium Girl was provided a Vitamix product as part of the giveaway promotion, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

#1 Best-Selling Cookbook

Over 200 vegetarian recipes free of gluten, dairy, soy, sugar, eggs, peanuts, corn and other inflammatory foods.

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  • Share

  1. Oh wow! This looks so yummy! I don’t even care that it’s not fall. 🙂

    I entered by liking you and Bodum on Facebook.

  2. Looks so delicious! I have some leftover sweet potatoes from last night, so I think I’m going to try it with the sweet potatoes, and lebneh and top it with a pistachio dukkah granola I’ve been working on. Also, I liked your Healthy Apple page and left you a comment a month or so ago and you never responded.
    – and you’re not the only person alone on Valentine’s Day. It sounds so cliche, but happiness does come from within.

  3. This recipes looks and sounds so amazing! I’m always a fan of pumpkin. I just found your site, and I’m so excited to discover more practical ways to eat healthy. I love the photos by the way. I liked both of the Facebook pages. I’m crossing my fingers. 🙂

  4. Huh, the rafflecopter widget isn’t working… But I really hope this enters me, because my husband has high blood pressure, and needs to eat low sodium, so this would be a fantastic cookbook to win!

  5. 5 stars
    I am a huge fan! I became gluten free almost a year ago and your website has helped me tremendously! I am entering to win the Vitamix so I hope this is where I am supposed to enter my email address. I have needed and wanted a Vitamix for a long time! I am already a fan on facebook but if I could like you again I would 🙂

  6. I just happen to have canned organic pumpkin puree on hand! I’ve been wondering what to do with it. Thanks for the inspiration!

  7. I’ll use sweet potato instead, but this looks so good. The only time pumpkin comes anywhere near me is via coffee flavoring and/or syrup format. So not a fan. Ha!

  8. This would fulfill my transition into a healthy superwoman, by allowing me to knock up delicious green smoothies in seconds!

  9. I follow ur posts and would love to have the VitaMix in my kitchen to keep up with my green smoothie obsession.

  10. 5 stars
    I had some leftover pureed pumpkin and an apple, and found this recipe scrumptious. I didn’t have any granola but I used Nature’s Path Sunrise Crunch Maple gluten-free cereal on top and it worked very well, crunchy and sweet. I got three large, meal-sized servings out of it and it was very filling. Thanks!

  11. I’d like to see a less salty makeover for sesame noodles. I even use the less sodium soy sauce but I’d like to lower it if possible as I eat it often.

  12. 5 stars
    Yummmm I could have pumpkin-anything all year long, haven’t tried recipe yet but I will am giving you 5 stars because your other recipes I have tried always come out amazing and don’t disappoint.. Ohhh by the way a vitamix would be divine! It is my birthday 😉 on Tuesday afterall (not kidding!) Thanks The Healthy Apple and Sodium Girl for being awesome and giving away the recipe book and vitamix <3

  13. As we are overhauling our diets and nutrition…I would love to add this package to my overhaul! I have heard amazing things about Vitamax and would love to win this Prize!!!!

  14. 5 stars
    entered to win here, and follow and liked on facebook. Would love to have one of these, because I’ve been trying to eat healthy.

  15. 5 stars
    Good luck to all that entered! Someone (and I hope it’s me) will be a happy, healthier person. Thank you for the generous opportunity!

  16. -2 stars
    Wow, recipes look awesome! My Mom is on a low sodium diet and I would love to give this to her!
    I follow you on Facebook !

  17. One of the highlights of my day is to provide a wholesome meal for my family. They are my Inspiration! What a Awesome Giveaway!

  18. I love reading all your recipes! Please enter me in the Vitamix give away! I would live to own one of those! So many recipes are running through my head right now! Thanks for giving one away!

  19. Yummy combination…though I haven’t yet found SoDelicious Greek yogurt locally. The plain (not Greek style) seems quite paltry and somewhat disappointing, so hope to find that soon. Thanks!

  20. This is the item on the top of my “Wouldn’t it be nice list!”….I’m picturing what color would look best in my kitchen, now!

  21. Looks delicious! Definitely going to try this soon! Also, can’t wait to try recipes from Jess’ low-sodium cookbook!! Keep the great recipes coming!

  22. This would be awesome to win–my husband was just diagnosed with cancer, so consequently our whole lives around food have changed and it would be great to have a kick start like the Vitamix to help us make healthier foods easier. Even if we don’t win–I pray the person who does win is super blessed!

  23. I am dying to win one of these I would like my family to start eating better and I killed my poor blender making green smoothies

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Why Does This Little Girl’s Blog Have Over a Million Visitors?

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Live shopping didn’t die with QVC on TV… it’s alive and well in China

In China, Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace makes $15B in sales by appealing to shoppers who want to buy products from a live stream.

August 1, 2019

Sandy Friesen makes handmade leather purses in Connecticut. But one of her top customer bases is China.

Friesen’s company, Welden, is one of many fashion-related companies dipping into the Chinese live-stream market, where companies all over the world broadcast their wares to massive audiences.

It’s a market with millions of views and billions of dollars

In China, some 500m people watch live-streaming on channels owned by companies like Alibaba. These programs are based around sales, and they’re hosted by online and IRL celebs.

Welden’s VP of sales joined a fashion influencer on a live-stream on Black Friday, and thousands of viewers asked questions in real time. In the next 2 days, Welden made $350k — and now, the company sells 20% of its bags from Chinese live-streams.

Alibaba is the big live-streaming fish

Most of the live-stream shoppers are women between the ages of 18 and 35. Amazon has tried to launch copycat live-stream services, but so far it hasn’t matched the success of the biggest Chinese live-stream channels, such as Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace.

Taobao Marketplace makes $15B in sales volume, and some of the top companies selling products make up to $400m.

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So, if you like what you’re reading, give the email a try.

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I Like Coffee, Cocktails, The Word Fuck and About 3 People Stemless Tumbler

This beautifully designed keep cup says what we are all thinking.  Who else loves cocktails, coffee and  word fuck and about 3 people?

For use with hot or cold liquids (so you can use it for your coffee in the morning and your wine in the afternoon!)

Smart 300ml double wall, vacuum insulated stainless steel coffee/wine cup with a timeless curved design. It will keep drinks hot or cold for hours and has a secure push on lid.

Cordia is BPA-free and laser engraves to a shiny steel finish. Presented in a black gift box.

This product is not dishwasher safe and is handwashing only.

Our mission is for you to have fun shopping, so if you are unhappy with our products for any reason, we offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee.


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Aug. 26 marked as Pharmaceutical Day to commemorate Razi

MNA – Birthday of Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi on August 26 is commemorated and named as Pharmaceutical Day in Iran.

Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known in the West as Rhazes, (854/865-925/935) was a Persian Muslim physician, alchemist and philosopher.

He is the early advocate of applying a rigorous evidence-based scientific approach to medicine.

A prominent polymath in medicine, philosophy, and chemistry, Razi wrote numerous books on medical and scientific subjects that have been influential in western medicinal fields for centuries. He also wrote on logic, astronomy and grammar.

He is also considered the father of psychology, psychotherapy and pediatrics, and a pioneer of obstetrics and ophthalmology.

Born in the city of Ray, near present-day Tehran, he was an early proponent of experimental medicine. Razi became a successful doctor and served as chief physician of Baghdad and Ray hospitals.

He was famous for his compassion and devotion to the service of his patients, rich or poor.

As a teacher of medicine, he attracted students of all backgrounds and interests who participated in his classes from near and far.

Razi was the leading scholar of Islam and the Medieval Ages. He made fundamental and enduring contributions to various fields, which he recorded in more than 200 manuscripts.

He is remembered for numerous advances in medicine through his observations and discoveries.

Like many intellectuals in his day, he lived at various small courts under the patronage of minor rulers.

He was familiar with Greek medical knowledge and added substantially to it from his own observations. Razi viewed himself as the modern version of Socrates in philosophy and of Hippocrates in medicine.

He was among the first to use humoral theory to distinguish one contagious disease from another, and wrote a pioneering book about smallpox and measles providing clinical characterization of the diseases. He also discovered numerous compounds and chemicals including alcohol and sulfuric acid among others.

His medical works were translated to various languages and became known among medieval European practitioners. His ideas deeply affected medical education in the West.

The most prominent of his books was the nine-volume encyclopedia “The Virtuous Life (al-Hawi)” which is known in Europe as “The Large Comprehensive” or “Continens Liber (Jameh-al-Kabir)”. The book contains considerations in various medical subjects and also criticisms on Greek and Aristotelian concepts.

It expresses many innovative views, and thus, many scholars consider Razi the greatest physician of the Middle Ages.

Some volumes of his other work “Kitab al-Mansuri”, namely ‘On Surgery’ and ‘A General Book on Therapy’, became part of the medical curriculum in western universities.

“Al-Judari wal Hasabah” was the first treatise on smallpox and chicken pox, and is largely based on Razi’s original contribution: It was translated into various European languages. Through this treatise he became the first to draw clear comparisons between smallpox and chicken pox.

In addition to being a physician, he compounded medicines and later gave himself over to experimental and theoretical sciences. He has portrayed several chemical reactions in great detail and also given full descriptions of about 20 instruments used in chemical investigations.

“Kitab-al-Asrar” is one of such books that deals with the preparation of chemical materials and their utilization.

Razi introduced many practical, progressive, medical and psychological ideas. His philosophical writings were neglected for centuries but in the 20th century they were reviewed by many scholars who appreciated their importance.

About 40 of his manuscripts are still kept in the museums and libraries of Iran, France, the UK and India. His contribution has greatly influenced the development of science and particularly medicine.

Complied by: Haniyeh Sadat Jafariyeh


text:
A Showcase, A Fundraiser, and an Album Launch

Hey trespassers, this here’s the latest Jimmyriggers blog. The sun’s beating down, won’t beat for long, so let’s hit the pile.

May 2 – Divan Orange – The Jimmyriggers + The Dirt Cheap Winos + No Family

We got word last night that No Family had broken up, citing either irreconcilable differences or lack of federal orphanage funding. And while the breakup is no longer a mere rumour, they have nevertheless decided to take the stage one last time. Good on them! Their bluegrass stylings are the perfect intro for what will surely be as complete a roots rock show as you will ever see.

The Dirt Cheap Winos put the blues in bluegrass, with tasty riffs that counterpoint Aly Neumann’s melancholic melodies. With the just right touch accordion, and a solid backbeat provided by one of Montreal’s best batteries in Mat Lacombe and Andrew Blakney, this band has a license to write nothing but ear worms.

The show will close with our own brand of electric rock twang. We’re going to headline with an all-original set this time. Not a single cover song. Think we can do it? Of course we can, don’t be ridiculous. We’ll also be filming this show with the help of our friend Roy. Come be a part of it. The doors open at 9:30 and the show starts at 10:00.

Click to RSVP

May 3 – Hurley’s Irish Pub – An Evening for Gary Carter

We are honoured to be a part of this event which is hoping to raise as much as $10,000 for the Sarah Cook Fund at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

Event organizer Dave Kaufman of TSN 990 has put together a great line up of bands that includes Annakin Slayd, The Blushing Brides, Joseph Kearns, and Kristen Bussandri. While that alone is worth the price of admission, there will also be a silent auction. The big prize up for grabs is a package that includes two return trip tickets to Toronto courtesy of VIA Rail, tickets to see the Blue Jays face the Yankees, and a night at the four-star Grand Hotel. Sounds tempting, but I’m pretty sure that we’re going to pool our band money and bid on the keg being offered by Hurley’s Irish Pub.

Tickets cost $30 and there are still some available at the downstairs bar at Hurley’s. The party starts at 7:30 pm and ends when they kick us out.

Our sincere thanks to the Montreal Gazette for promoting this event on their blog. Click the image to below to read the article.

Click to read the Montreal Gazette feature

May 4 – Cabaret du Mile End – Ol’ Savannah CD Release

Our friends Ol’ Savannah have finished their new album, Underneath the Old Red Barn, and are set to launch it into the ether this Friday night at Cabaret du Mile End.

There’s really nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said by the band in their recent interview with MontrealLive.ca. Click here to read it.

Special guests include Richard King Rigby, Gern f and Felicity of the former United Steel Workers of Montreal, and The Unsettlers. Considering how much whiskey the aforementioned have been known to drink at such events, this night will most likely be nothing short of legendary. Click the image below to RSVP.

Click to RSVP

For the time being, Underneath the Old Red Barn can only be purchased at the CD launch. Though I’m sure it will soon be up on Ol’ Savannah’s Bandcamp page. It’s a beautiful record, and worth your time to listen to it.

Enjoy your week everybody, and see you at the shows!


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Vettel’s Tifosi out vote the Verstappen fans

Rate the race & Driver of the weekend – Round 1, Albert Park, Australia by TJ13 contributor @F1TheaJ

Mean Reader Score: 5.60

Scoring only 5.60, this year’s season opener didn’t score anywhere near last year’s score of 7.26: thankfully we didn’t have any spectacular crashes to keep us gasping for breath as we had last year with Alonso.

In 2016 we had Rosberg (who would go on to claim the WDC crown) continuing where he left off in at the end of 2015 by winning the first race. BUT it was a (predictable) Mercedes 1,2, with Ferrari in third place.

This year we still had two Mercedes and a Ferrari on the podium, but this time we had Vettel claiming the top spot. So why, if the Mercedes dominance of the last three years appears to have been broken (or challenged, at least) did this race score so badly?

Possibly because apart from Vettel emerging from the pits a few centimeters ahead of Verstappen and Hamilton on Lap 22, and a really rather good overtake by Ocon and Hulkenberg on Alonso on Lap 52, nothing much happened the entire race. There was a bit of a hullabaloo at the beginning when Ricciardo’s car got stuck in 6th gear and it was touch and go whether he’d start the race (from the pit lane): Kyvat’s fire extinguisher released its contents and the drivers ended up in the wrong positions on the starting grid, resulting in a second formation lap reducing the actual race to 57 laps. There were half a dozen or so retirements, but most of the excitement came from the RESULT rather than the race itself. Which takes absolutely nothing away from the excellent drive from our driver of the weekend.

Driver of the Weekend: Sebastian Vettel, 51.52% of reader vote

Ferrari looked strong in pre season testing and Vettel had set a new lap record in FP3, so the question was, is Ferrari’s pace real or are Mercedes (and to some degree, Red Bull) sandbagging? However, come qualifying, the Mercedes drivers dominated Q1 and Q2 and Hamilton took pole, with Vettel splitting the two Mercedes in Q3.

Ahead of the second formation lap on race day, Hamilton complained about lack of grip on the starting line, attempting to lull Vettel into a false sense of security (lets face it Hamilton’s starts were pretty bad last year) and it seemed to have worked, because Hamilton was off like a rocket, leaving Vettel to fend off Bottas for second place (which he did rather well.) However, the Ferrari stuck to the back of the Mercedes like glue. To pit or not to pit, that is the question, or to put it another way, undercut/overcut which way is best to take the lead from Mercedes? Ferrari went for the overcut and it worked beautifully, giving Vettel the lead from Lap 22 to the end of the race. Vettel controlled the race like the four times world champion he is, giving the Tifosi something to cheer about with their first win of the season.

What is surprising is that the Max Verstappen fan club didn’t manage to highjack the poll this time out and the Tifosi ousted the ‘Verfosi’

Are we going to have a real scrap for the WDC and constructors’ titles this season? Is this finally the clash between Vettel and Hamilton we’ve been waiting for? Will this championship go to the wire? (and not just between the Mercedes drivers.) Let’s hope so. At the moment its 4/3 in WDCs for Vettel V Hamilton . Will the season end 4 all or 5/3 to Vettel? China can’t come soon enough.

3 responses to “Vettel’s Tifosi out vote the Verstappen fans

  1. I am a Verstappen fan, but I don’t vote for him..
    This race for instance, Giovinazzi got my vote..

  2. I’m a Vettel fan, but I have little faith in Ferrari keeping pace throughout the season.
    I believe that Mercedes engineering will win out.

  3. The race was worthless, a waste of time. Not worth getting up for on a day when I already lost an hour of sleep thanks to dst.

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Sep 20 , 2019

10 Amazing Facts about HydraFacial

You’ll notice a difference in your skin instantly! Skin will appear super hydrated, plumped, and glowing with lines & wrinkles visibly minimised. Think of it as the best skin of your life!

Apr 28 , 2019

Introducing HydraFacial MD at The Kelly Clinic

HydraFacial MD is a revolutionary new facial that combines 6 steps by integrating cleansing, exfoliation, extraction and hydration with bathing the skin in antioxidants, peptides and Hyaluronic Acid.


text:
The First Week of Orange Picking

The First Week of Orange Picking

After the impulsive decision to change our plan in a completely different direction I thought it was a good time to look back over the first week of work and how we have coped.

I’m not going to lie it hasn’t been the easiest week, I am covered in scratches from the trees, my hands are full of splinters from the thorns, a massive bruise on my fore head from head butting the branch and one on the back of my head from dropping the ladder on myself. Despite all of this we have survived five days of work in insane heat. Our conclusion after the first week is that the alternative – of having a job we don’t want to do in somewhere that isn’t this beautiful – isn’t as great as this. In no way is this a permanent position – the whole time we are here we are looking at jobs we WANT to do in other places, but its a choice we have made together while we have no responsibility to do anything else.

We had hoped to be able to save some money while we were here, having got numbers and worked out figures before we left but since arriving and finding out the average amount we are picking it doesn’t seem so likely right now. We had no idea what to expect with how hard we would find the picking but being told some people pick up to 4 bins each a day makes our 2 bins each this week seem shameful and meaning to make some money we need to double our speed! (Which is exactly what we did the first day of our second week 🙂

The heat is far more intense than you could imagine having not been this inland yet, we really had forgotten how much cooler the coast can be. Thursday by midday was 53 degrees in the sun but luckily on days like these we start an hour earlier and get to finish by midday when the temperature becomes unbearable. Still adjusting to hard work is one thing but adjusting to it in the heat is something else. The variety in the fruit size is another factor to how much and how fast you can pick and nothing can determine this from others except maybe which farmer you are working for but even so this week we have had fruit the size of ping pong balls to the size of your average cereal bowl.

IMG_7622 copy

The boat living is a novel idea that we are loving however despite hearing everyone gets along on the boat we were told on our first night by some guy if we don’t drink ‘we will be hated’. We didn’t drink and he seems to be the only one who doesn’t like us much. Still that isn’t what you want to hear on your first day in new accommodation that is home for the foreseeable future. Since then we have met many other great people who we could easily build some great friendships with. Our room is a cosy space with bunk beds down in the ‘dungeon’ or better described as the bottom level of the boat with a window overlooking the river level and plenty of floor space to chill. The nicest part has been being able to unpack our bags after 6 weeks we felt it was time to! The only down side is we have to share a bathroom – but that’s what you get for the cheapest rent price.

IMG_762 edit

We hired bags and gloves from the hostel boat and after five days of picking my gloves are in a real state! And despite being washed my clothes still look dirty but at least we are only wearing one set of clothes for the whole week!

Everyone finds it hard and the first week is the toughest of all but we have survived so far and are ready to hit another week’s work and try and improved even more. Currently we are making enough money to break even plus a little bit extra which seems to be more than most here however we are not spending all of our money on alcohol like many others here. The experience is challenging and different from anything we have done before but that is what we wanted from this. To do something we could not do at home, build our characters and push ourselves to do something we wouldn’t normally dream of doing. How long we stay here is anyone’s guess, only time will tell.

Our pay for the first 4 days...being paid in foreign money never gets old

Our pay for the first 4 days…being paid in foreign money never gets old

  1. 12th June 2013 / 3:30 pm

    Hey Jodie, what farm did you guys work at? I’m in Australia at the moment and looking at doing it for my second year visa.

    • 13th June 2013 / 10:31 am

      I worked with harvest hoppers at the Murray River Queen. However it isn’t a far I would recommend. The company harvest hoppers has a place just outside Airlie Beach which I have heard good things about! Good Luck 🙂

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Lahore in Lockdown

Lahore, Pakistan

Spring brings out the best in Lahore, the city of gardens, of ancient architecture, of culture and heritage. In the last decade especially, the academic scene in Lahore has boomed manifold. Spring has been an usherer of all things creative and positive, like Lahore’s first biennale in 2018. Come spring and Lahore hosts its literary festivals and art connoisseurs from around the country gather in places to meet and greet, enjoy art, theatre, literature and music. Lahore brings together all its citizens irrespective of their social status offering a plethora of activities for the rich and poor alike.

Some of the lush and expansive parks in the city hold enormous annual spring festivals with food carts, joy rides for children, handicraft stalls, boat rides and a blooming floral display that could compete with any in Holland.

COVID has also given me more time and opportunity to practise my art. Always a passion, I never gave the craft as much time as I wanted to. Two years ago I started to learn the art of Persian Miniature and now I sit in my – previously scarcely used – studio to work on pieces I have always wanted to create. I am suddenly filled with an over flow of creativity! On the positive side I have also started using my treadmill which had long ago turned into a dedicated towel stand.

As I sit and work on my Persian figures, stroke by fine stroke, chalking out stories from Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, the streets previously roaring with the noise of motorbikes, rickshaws and cars seems to have lulled.

The city appears to have slowed as the regular hustle and bustle of life has met a hiatus. The roads look like they have cleared and my regular hood – the neighbourhood parks – full of blooming petunias at this time of the year are uncharacteristically empty. Ultimately, the city that is home to 11 million inhabitants seems to be taking a well-deserved rest.

Khadija Khosa
Teacher. Artist. Academic. Researcher.

The wonderful art in this piece was inspired by this poem by Jalaluddin Rumi

A Moment of Happiness

A moment of happiness,
you and I sitting on the verandah,
apparently two, but in one soul, you and I.
We feel the flowing water of life here,
you and I, with the garden's beauty
and the birds singing.
The stars will be watching us,
and we will show them
what it is to be a thin crescent moon.
You and I unselfed, will be together,
indifferent to idle speculation, you and I.
The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar
as we laugh together, you and I.
In one form upon this earth,
and in another form in a timeless sweet land.

2 thoughts on “Lahore in Lockdown

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Various economics reads

* Mandarin Chinese in schools. Hear hear. It would be interesting to see a complete curriculum redesign for the next century. I’d certainly think Chinese should be in the curriculum. I wonder how you might change the sciences curriculum — traditional chemistry seems like a bit of a dinosaur to me, I’d rather see more physics and computer science.
* Storage industry facts“…an industry that now exceeds the revenues of Hollywood…”
* Open Source economics models. I wonder how broadly the ideas of open source can apply.
* The sports economist on the implications of the nba age floor — the rise of private development leagues funded by talent agencies. Fascinating, perhaps a great outcome for athletes who aren’t college-oriented.


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Capstone Business Funding, Promotion Announcement promotion of Mariam Russo.

NEW YORK, NY, November 30, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ — Capstone Capital Group, LLC is pleased to announce the promotion of Mariam Russo. Ms. Russo has been promoted from Due Diligence Analyst to Senior Analyst. Ms. Russo joined Capstone in 2017 and in her current role is responsible for client intake, due diligence analysis, client relationship management, and credit underwriting. Ms. Russo specializes in valuations, financial modeling, Purchase Order Financing transactions and was also recently appointed to Capstone’s Credit Committee.

Prior to joining Capstone, Ms. Russo served as an analyst for five years in the Brokerage Department of a real estate services firm located in New York City. In her role, she was responsible for developing and managing discounted cash flow and pro forma financial models in addition to real estate valuation models. These models were used for both acquisitions and lease analysis of various real estate assets in the United States.

Ms. Russo is a graduate of the Zicklin School of Business of CUNY Baruch College where she graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and a Minor in Mathematics.

As a private finance company, Capstone is committed to assisting clients with cash flow issues. We understand businesses have unique financial needs and we provide specific financing solutions to fit those needs. Some of our products include Purchase Order (PO) Financing, Factoring Services, and International Trade Financing. We work with businesses offering services and products who bill their customer through “process billing” type contracts, typical for those in the construction trade, publishing, service businesses, suppliers to government agencies, staffing companies, as well as wholesalers. Each of our divisions handle a different aspect of business with one goal in mind: to help our clients grow and remain competitive by ensuring they have access to the capital they need.

For the original version of this press release, please visit here


text:
RPAL Breaks Ground For US$70,000 Headquarters Project In Montserrado

The Rubber Planters Association of Liberia (RPAL) has broken ground for the construction of a headquarters project value at seventy thousand United States dollars (US$70,000) to be constructed in Cooper Farm Todee District Montserrado County.

The ceremony which was held on Thursday, April 18, 2019, brought together several personalities including the Chairman on Agriculture at the House of Representative Prince Tokpah, Margibi County Senator Oscar A. Cooper, Representatives of Firestone-Liberia and Lee Group of Enterprises among others.

Giving an overview of the program, the President of the Rubber Planters Association of Liberia described the ceremony as a long-awaited dream to have the Organization sheltered under its own building.

Madam Wilhemina G. Mulbah Siaway narrated that the purpose of the project is to be able to host the International Community which RPAL has a membership with.

“And the purpose of this, we are now having membership with the International Community and which of course we stand to be able to host these people one day to come, and they cannot come to us as we visit them the reception given to us we know that and also their existence gave us that potential and the encouragement that we can also follow them to do that same thing” she adds.

The RPAL Boss indicates that Liberia who joined the Rubber Industry since 1910 is far behind while neighboring Ivory Coast that joined the Industry in 1957 is far ahead but said it is not too late for Liberia to be on par with Ivory Coast. She professed that this is the time that everyone in the sector can be able to work together to make Liberia catch-up with Ivory Coast.

She said the construction of the RPAL’s headquarters will give its members the opportunity to carry out workshop and train farmers, disseminating information like other Countries with research Institute have done.

Additionally, Madam Siaway said the way RPAL can pass information over to the farmers is to have a place where workshops can be held rather than renting a hall and increasing cost.

The Rubber Planters Association of Liberia President said with their own building she thinks it will be feasible enough to be able to host their farmers and train them on information and the new technology being developed in the Rubber Industry.

She encouraged everyone including the Rubber Planters to see the project as their own and support it as it will enable them to achieve their dream.
For his part, the Chairman on Agriculture at the House of Representative Prince Tokpah pledged his support to the initiative stating, ‘As for me I always like to be part of positive things; and this is one of the positive things that we have come to see how we can support’.

Rep. Tokpah stated used the occasion to call on the Government of Liberia to see a reason to fast track the issue of the 1.7million United States dollars stimulus package for RPAL to be able to improve the rubber sector.

He added that if the amount is pumped to the sector, the issue of no money, farmers shutting down their farms and employees demonstrating among others will not reoccur.

when he got to know Madam Siaway under his administration as Chairman on Agriculture at the Lower House, the Rubber Planters Association was going from bad to worse where there was no money, farmers were shutting down and demonstration among others was taking place.

“Because if they are working no trouble on the farm, production is booming it also helps the government and the economy and that has been in the pipeline for some time. Most of the rubber farms are closed down and we don’t want that to happen because the farmers are the ones helping the government to reduce unemployment rate so if they close down, it means that burden is going to come on government” he said.

The Nimba County Lawmaker described agriculture as the backbone of Liberia’s economy with rubber being of no exception. Rep. Tokpah meanwhile gave his initial contribution of fifty (50) bags of cement to the RPAL and promised to do more as the project progresses.

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