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A Take On The Zimmerman Trial To Irritate Nearly Everyone

July 15, 2013

I’ve backed away from commenting on the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case very much outside of the race baiting and bias of the media and the majority of left-wing celebrities and politicians and a little on the actual mechanics of the case, which so few seem interested in anyway. The main reason for that is because I knew that many people, no matter what position they’d chosen to take, would find what I have to say very harsh and probably offensive. Still, here’s what’s been rattling around in my head ever since this trial started:

I’ve noticed that there seem to be three types of people talking about the Zimmerman verdict: those who believe that Zimmerman was a racist piece of trash just out to kill a black kid, those who believe that Zimmerman was totally justified and was only defending himself in a situation that was unavoidable, and those who have been fooled into buying this narrative that Martin was just an innocent, harmless little boy who was victimized by big mean George who apparently ‘took the law into his own hands’ by getting out of his car (which is not a crime, so can’t actually be defined as taking the law into his own hands any more than me taking the law into my own hands by disagreeing with an elected official after being told not to). Oh, there’s also a fourth type: a very tiny group who are addressing the merits of the case and evidence as presented in court. But that group doesn’t really matter to most because they’re not being driven by emotionalism. They’re the type who wait and see instead of taking a hard position on an incident they couldn’t possibly have enough prior knowledge about and then getting happy or angry depending on the outcome, regardless of any facts.

To put a fine point on this, both men were stupid…both made wrong decisions. But there is no one, unless they’re trying to fool themselves or others, that shouldn’t be happy that being dumb isn’t illegal! We’ve all done stupid things and we’ve all done stupid things after being told not to.

The fact is that guilt or innocence is supposed to be decided in a court of law and, if you want to argue that Zimmerman was proved guilty in that trial and the jury just made the wrong decision, then I challenge you to cite what evidence was introduced that proved that Zimmerman committed an actual crime when he drew his gun and fired…that’s where the actual crime in question would’ve taken place. I’d even be fine with saying the jury did a bad job if there was evidence that damned Zimmerman, but that the jury chose to ignore, a la OJ. I don’t see how you can say that here, though. I was waiting for the prosecution to introduce something that would point to Zimmerman’s guilt and make their case beyond the shadow of a doubt that is required by law. They didn’t. Yes, they were both stupid; both made bad decisions, but the truth is, from what was brought out at the trial, Travon Martin did not break the law up until he hit George Zimmerman and Zimmerman did not break the law up until he drew his gun and fired. And, according to the jury, Zimmerman didn’t even break the law then. Don’t like it? Think the prosecution couldve done a better job or introduced more evidence? That’s fine, but the fact is that they didn’t. Whining about what a horrible injustice it was or threatening to riot or trying to raise Zimmerman up as some kind of hero or man of virtue ALL falls into the same category of ignorance. You have to be careful with that sort of attitude; it just shows that agenda takes precedence over everything else.

So, here’s something that might just anger and offend almost everyone:

Trayvon Martin was a thug with a bad attitude and criminal background, an affinity for marijuana who was constantly in fist fights. George Zimmerman had also has run-ins with the law. He had a history of aggression and even a charge of abuse and may very well have a hero complex that led him to be in situations he shouldn’t have been in. He chose to believe he knew better than the police dispatch (not always a bad thing) and exercised what would prove to be very bad judgment. Neither were saints and neither were blameless, so neither should be elevated now, not Martin in death and not Zimmerman in his legal exoneration.

There were good things about both. Martin had been a good student at one point, although with the fighting and school suspensions, that may not have been the recent case. He was good to his family and loved by them. Zimmerman has a reputation for helping those in need in his neighborhood, especially in relation to his neighborhood watch duties. Besides his volunteer work with neighborhood watch, he also served as a mentor to several kids of different racial makeups. So neither of these men were horrible, irredeemable monsters, either.

Did Zimmerman commit 2nd degree murder or manslaughter? We’ll never know. There were only two people who witnessed all of the situation and one is dead. Was it a waste of life that could’ve been avoided? Absolutely. Was a crime committed by George Zimmerman in the eyes of the court? No. And, by the way, on another subject that has started coming up, that also means that his gun should be returned to him. Because the court system found him innocent, in the eyes of the law, no crime was committed by him. There are no due process grounds to deprive him of any of his rights. You can, of course, not like it, but you must accept it.

Now, let me be clear. No matter how you feel about the outcome, rioting is a crime and a cowardly attempt to manufacture an excuse to do what’s already in your heart anyway. Also, putting a price on Zimmerman’s head, as the New Black Panthers have announced that they’ll do, is also a crime and identifies you, not as some kind of crusader for the greater good, but as the kind of criminal filth that needs to be tried, convicted and locked away from the rest of society. Finally, those who want to become morally outraged over this case but refuse to condemn these types of actions above or seek to explain them away as understandable, are hypocrites, cowards and/or complicit in these other crimes. Whatever happened to us discussing issues passionately, but also intelligently and with respect for the rights of the opposition to be the opposition? To know when something’s over and not to escalate and make things worse and create a whole other group of victims?

Written by: Randy Lynch

I Am a Conservative Republican

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Local News News Walkerton Herald-Times

Grey-Bruce hospitals support province-wide system to meet capacity challenges

GREY-BRUCE – With COVID-19 numbers continuing to rise, the provincial hospital system may exceed capacity in the coming weeks.

This is the case for both medical and critical care beds required for the remainder of January and into February right across Ontario.

Some hospitals in the province are already at or over capacity, and are actively working to create capacity to accommodate patient needs. Most hospitals are increasing bed numbers where staffing is available, and those hospitals already at capacity are attempting to free up capacity by moving patients to other hospitals.

In Grey-Bruce, the prevalence of COVID-19 remains relatively low compared to other parts of the province. And even though the capacity of the three hospital corporations in Grey Bruce is nearing capacity, our hospitals will be asked to play an active role in meeting the demand of patients across the province.

This means that all hospitals must be ready to accept patient transfers when directed by their regional or provincial COVID-19 response structure. It also means that hospitals may have to reduce or stop non-urgent surgeries and other procedures to ensure there are enough beds and capacity for those patients requiring hospital care.

In simple terms, every hospital bed is a provincial resource, and the Grey-Bruce hospitals fully support a single, seamless provincial hospital system that will accept patients from other hospitals, share resources and prioritize services so all hospitals can continue to provide safe, effective care to both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients.

The movement of patients between hospitals is not new. However, the amount of movement between sites has the potential to be much larger than normal in the coming weeks.

For Grey-Bruce residents requiring hospital care, it means that you may be admitted to hospital that is not in your home community. And when transferred back from a larger hospital to continue your recovery, depending on capacity, you may be transferred to another hospital site that is not necessarily your home hospital. It also means that patients from outside of Grey-Bruce may be transferred into our region for hospital care.

“It is critical that the hospital system in Ontario functions as one seamless system during the pandemic to ensure that beds and emergency care are available for not only COVID patients, but also for patients presenting to hospital with heart attacks, stroke, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and many other issues,” said Michael Barrett, South Bruce Grey Health Centre CEO.

“Within SBGHC’s four hospital sites, five additional beds have been opened in Walkerton, and we are preparing to open additional beds in Durham and possibly Kincardine. We are currently working with London Health Sciences Centre and other regional hospitals to accept lower acuity patients to open up beds in those centres for more acutely ill patients,” said Dr. Lisa Roth, South Bruce Grey Health Centre chief of staff.

It is understood that you and your loved ones want to be cared for close to home, in hospitals you are familiar with and that you have supported, and every effort will be taken to ensure that happens. However, during these challenging times, a patient may be admitted to a hospital away from their home community.

Gary Sims, CEO of Grey Bruce Health Services, said, “We have a long history of working together with our health-care partners in Grey-Bruce and beyond, and during this pandemic, together we will do what is needed for local residents, and for the system of care that this province depends on. GBHS has added 28 beds to prepare for a surge in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. These beds are in our medical/surgical department, our ICU, and for those patients waiting in hospital to transition to another level of care. We also have a field hospital (at the Bayshore) ready to be opened should the system pressures overwhelm hospital capacity.”

“Collaborating with and supporting our hospital partners across Grey-Bruce and beyond has always been fundamental in how HDH operates,” said Dana Howes, CEO of Hanover and District Hospital. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, this becomes even more important as we continue to support our local communities’ needs while ensuring sustainability for the Ontario health-care system as a whole. We thank our communities for their partnership, support and understanding during this time.”

Dr. Randy Montag, chief of staff at Hanover and District Hospital, added, “HDH is ready when called upon to open an additional four beds to support the patient care needs that come to us. We have ample supplies of personal protective equipment and the needed pharmaceuticals to support the anticipated increase in patients. Our physicians, nurses and all other team members have the tools, equipment and passion to provide exceptional care to whoever comes through our doors during this pandemic and beyond.”

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Archive for March, 2012

Cohen, Guitar and Poetry

March 17, 2012 Leave a comment

Cohen on receiving the Prince Asturias Prize in Literature 2011

At the end of the Havana Book Fair, a friend showed me the Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen, recently published in a sober binding. On asking him at which stand they were presenting this book, my friend told me, “You must be joking! Our publishers barely know of it Cohen is the guru of those of us who enjoyed the music recreated in the most authentic and experimental poetry. This collection was given to me by a Spanish friend married to a Cuban colleagues.

As I’d barely read Cohen, and only listened to a couple of his records and enjoyed his thank you speech in receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature 2011, I borrowed the Book of Longing and, after reading it, I now share some notes with readers about this great contemporary artist.

Always original, the poet and singer expressed another dimension of gratitude upon receiving the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature 2011. He said that Spain marked him from the beginning of his career, has having started with a Spanish guitar — he now has a Conde — he also discovered his voice reading the poetry of Garcia Lorca and learning the first chords from a Andalusian guitarist in Montreal, who committed suicide after giving him three lessons.

“All that you find favor with in my songs, in my poetry, is inspired by this land, and so I offer you my enormous thanks for this hospitality you have shown me and that is reflected in my work, because it is yours, and you have allowed my to put my signature on the last page.”

Accustomed to being in front of the public with an orchestra behind him, Cohen, now 76, is recognized as one of the most fascinating figures of our time, both in music and in lyrics, although he is more famous as a performer than as a writer, despite the 1956 publication of his first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies. Since then he has published twelve books, including two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers.

Cohen transcends with his poems set to music. He has recorded over seventeen albums, including classics such as Songs of Leonard Cohen and Songs From a Room. According to the creator: “Poetry comes from a place that no one controls, that no one conquers, so it is difficult to accept an award for an activity that I do not control, that is, if I knew where the songs came from there would be songs would more often.”

For some critics he as “one of the best poets of the twentieth century” because “his musical talent has always been accompanied by an astonishing verbal dexterity.” As a performer, he is identified by “his broken and woody voice in which he has sung all the misery and the greatness of the human condition for over forty years.”

Cohen’s ego, that is, his poems set to music and recorded his own voice, has found its existence in life and can express no regrets defeat “in the strict confines of the dignity of beauty. In his Book of Longing, edited by Lumen in 2007, “he has given voice to all his knowledge, his doubts, his fears, his thoughts on love, old age, the world around us, death; accompanied by suggestive drawings by Cohen himself,” which complement his songs.

March 15 2012

Theatrical Virgilio

March 9, 2012 Leave a comment

More than two decades after the postmortem repair of the literary legacy of Virgilio Piñera (Cardenas-Havana, August 4, 1912 – October 18, 1979), most people who speak of the author have barely read his stories, poems, essays, dramas and tragedies. What are they talking about then? His homosexuality and aspects of his personality such as his verbal duels with the critics, his sarcastic answers, and even trivia about the suit he wore, his umbrellas, cigarettes and even his fear or, better yet, his intellectual honesty in front of the Commissioners of Culture of the Cuban military regime.

Except for actors, playwrights, storytellers and those knowledgeable about our literature, Piñera is an echo of echoes, a literary myth, a protean creator, experimental and challenging, who merits a re-acquaintance with his writing and the staging of his dramas, tragedies and comedies.

The year 2012 could be a propitious occasion because it his the centenary of his birth, and there is a program of  tributes, complete editions of his works, and presentations of his theatrical pieces, which is appropriate because from 1961 until his death he continued writing which he supported himself as a translator of French, but his plays ceased to be performed, his stories, poems and essays were not published, until his name disappeared from the magazines and newspapers.

Virgilio Piñera represents the antithesis of José Lezama Lima, another famous writer excluded from the literary pantheon for political rather than aesthetic reasons. To the censors, they were both troublesome because of their contempt for the myth of violence and the so-called Socialist Realism. Paradoxically, both would be reinstated after death. Lezama as a symbol of the “writer’s-writer,” that is “unencumbered” or just committed to artistic creation. Virgilio, less baroque and more colloquial, became the paradigm of contemporary Cuban theater.

Like all celebrated creators Virgilio had his black legend: famed for being clownish, intolerant and hypercritical to tradition, not with his disciples, to whom he offered his human profile and the keys to allow us to enter his narrative and theatrical legacy. The playwrights who perceived his mastery and meaning were attracted by the echoes of “his disdain for the official world, his corrosive humor, his position as a sniper, his iconoclastic rebellion and even his dark legend of countless literary duels.”

Virgilio, essentially theatrical, used the scene as a mental exercise, valid to relieve the poverty that marked his family and the provincial insular environment. “I am the one who makes the serious more serious with humor, the absurd and grotesque.” To justify himself he adopted the role of rescued scapegoat and divided the human race into the elected and neglected, settling among the latter.

He lived nearly a decade in Buenos Aires, but his plays are essentially Cuban, a Cuban identity that comes not from the comic or didactic and moralizing theater, but from the handling of Creole issues and circumstances and from dialogues and phrases coined by the populace.

Prior to 1959 published three parts and released four: Garrigó Electra (1948), Jesus (1950), False Alarm (1957) and The Wedding (1958). Later he represented five titles, edited nine books and two periodicals. In 1960 his Complete Theater was released, expanded and reissued later by Rine Leal. Outside the island Garrigó Electra and Two Panicked Old Men were staged, winning in 1968 the Casa de las Americas prize; Cold Air and An Empty Shoe Box.

Anyone wishing to know the work of this author should get the anthologies Virgilio Piñera Complete Stories of Anton Arrufat, published in Havana in 2002 and 2004, Complete Theatre, arranged and introduced by Rine Leal-Cuban Literature Library, 2002 and 2006; volumes that will appear again in the Havana 2012 Book Fair , with collections of his poems, essays and articles, and testimonials written by friends and followers of Piñera, described as a belligerent intellectual, sharp conversationalist, and creator of the theater of the absurd — his Garrigó Electra predates The Bald Soprano accredited to Ionesco.

On the occasion of the centenary of his birth it is nice to return to his dramas, tragedies and comedies, to the incessant throbbing searches and expressive experimentation, as well as to his apparent simplicity, achieved on the basis of Cuban dialogues so sharp, full of tragicomic and absurd situations, sometimes gritty realism, like Cold Air, inspired by his family.

Rine Leal described Piñera as a transitional dramatist who influenced the later playwrights and elevated the Cuban scene to levels reached before in music, poetry, narrative and visual arts. The critic puts the great playwright in the aesthetics of denial and value as he enters the absurd paradoxes, the game of mirrors and the ritual of the masks, in sharp avoidance as a means of resistance to the stresses of his day .

We recall, for example, that Garrigó Electra was considered by Maria Zambrano in 1948 as “the most beautiful work, brave and capable by a Cuban author premiered in Havana … performed with consistency and fairness, and the honesty of that terrible suicide.” In Jesus, Piñera weaves a poignant parody of an allegorical value, where the main character, the barber of 33 years Jesus Garcia, a resident of Havana refuses to work miracles on rumors from neighbors and authorities, to whom he represents a challenge to absurd expectations.

We could continue with notes on the The Philanthropist, False Alarm, Two Panicked Old Men and other memorable works by Virgilio Piñera, but we prefer to let the reader come to him though reading or attending theatrical performances of his legacy on the occasion of his centennial of life.

February 19 2012

Sailor on Land

March 6, 2012 Leave a comment

At 56, Enrique Babastro Batista, a native of Guantanamo, admits having been one of those kids who joined the human tide growing up under slogans, sheltered by the “bright future” that engaged his generation from the speakers’ platforms and posters with which they redesigned the urban environment of Cuba in the sixties of last century.

Although he stumbled several times because of his frankness with school officials and with officials from the Fishing Fleet, he joined the latter in the early years to earn a living and channel his passion for the sea, never imagining he’d end up an “incorrigible” for shouting some truths and letting go of “the libertarian dream” that he’s been infected with by teachers and soldiers who influenced his military training.

Now, with half a century on his back and more frustrations than means to live, Enrique  is a member of the payroll made up of graying men who take three drinks in cheap bars of Havana and talk about their personal and collective past, surrounded by a pair of friends who are all gray.

In recent days, seeing me make some notes in an institution of Vedado, where we met in a line, Henry asked me my profession and insisted on telling his story. To put any doubts to rest he pulled from his pocket a portfolio in which preserved as an archive, several certificates and official documents that corroborate part of his truth.

“When I came in Guantanamo I settled with my mother and brothers in Campo Florido, near Guanabo, then we moved to the center of the capital. All went well until in 1983 when I was taken prisoner for the first time in the face of the eviction of my mother at Aranguren and Final.

Then I knew that Cuba was a huge cell bounded by its shores. I went through the Combinado del Este prison, the Cinco y Medio in Pinar del Rio, two prisons in Camaguey, Guantanamo, Guanajay, again Pinar del Rio and the 1580 San Miguel del Padron. I met Antunez, several prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003, Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina and others  like me who witnessed beatings, hunger strikes and untold problems. ”

“In Pinar del Rio I met Captain Orlando Rodriguez Pedraza, who shot at close range a prisoner who tried to escape. I also met Cornelius from Santiago who killed Chapman for burning the flag on July 26. In the Combinado del Este, the largest of all, better not to say. I remember, for example, the major Darius, who supported the first lieutenant who killed Rey, resident of 31st between 31 and 35 in Playa “.

“Yeah, those things don’t happen if the authorities respond to complaints but they did not think of prisoners as human beings. At Guantanamo, in March 1997, the major Yoel Casamayor and Pablo Reyes, from Internal Order, along with Vito Reyes, chief of rehabilitation, nearly killed  Nestor from Baracoa, whom I supported in his protest against bad food, a kind of animal feed.”

Enrique is free now, but he doesn’t have his own home, nor children nor wife, although there is a monthly check and he survives through work on commission that barely pays for rent and food. Perhaps that is why he tells his story and shows the documents that he was, above all, a prisoner of conscience “on Dr. Castro’s island.”

February 23 2012

Country of Pixels

March 6, 2012 Leave a comment

On the evening of Saturday, February 4, at the headquarters of the State of Sats audiovisual project (number 4606 1st Street between 46 and 60, Miramar, Havana), the Country of Pixels Exhibition was held, promoted via the Internet since early 2011 by Cuban Voices blogger platform.

“Thank you for everything, we can’t remain indifferent before the pixels that an impossible country, little by little made possible,” the writer and photographer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo told the audience. Orlando organized the exhibition for which his virtual site received hundreds of comments on the photos displayed.

A Country of Pixels brought hundreds of photos from amateurs and professionals  of Havana and other cities of the island, at ten per author. Also participating as guests were Cubans living in the United States, Mexico, Spain, etc..

From 700 images chosen previously, the jury chose 40 that were mounted and displayed to the public, which voted for the Popularity Award, which went to the work number 18 (Bodega), by Jorge Luis Perez, who expressed his gratitude.

The jury, chaired by Saili Borrero, presented the awards and mentions, provided by anonymous donors emerging community, contacted through the Internet. The mentions went to:

  • Caset William Diaz, author of The Hope of the World.
  • Alejandro Menendez Vega, Acts of nations series.
  • Claudio Fuentes, mounting faces.
  • Alina Guzman Tamayo.

The Awards went to:

  • Alexander Sanchez Riva, photographer of Holguin.
  • Martha Mayra Rodriguez, Cienfuegos.
  • Ernesto Blanco, Holguin.

The award ceremony was a celebration around the displayed photographs, almost all urban and of artistic value and anthropological sense. Amongthe attendees were Antonio Rodiles, host and spokesman for the State of Sats, the blogger Yoani Sanchez, Reinaldo Escobar, Dimas Castellanos and Eugenio Leal, Wilfredo Vallin, leader of the Cuban Law Association, the musicians Gorki Aguila and Ciro Diaz, of the rock band Porno para Ricardo, actress Ana Luisa Rubio, the graffiti artist El Sexto, independent journalists, writers, painters, photographers and dozens of representatives of alternative civil society .

February 19 2012

Poetry Festival Without End

March 6, 2012 Leave a comment

From December 15 to 30 the 13th Havana Festival of Poetry Without End was held, sponsored by the sociocultural project OMNI ZONA Franca, according to the program catalog given out by its managers on Saturday 10 during the press conference before the cameras at the audiovisual space Estado de Sats.

Poetry Without End is poetry at home, defined as outside the institutions, that is in squares, parks, gardens and other urban places, where poets, orators, singers, painters, photographers and audiovisual promoters interact to make poetry in a fiesta, like those of the ancient Dionysian celebrations.

It started in 1997 in Alamar, east of Havana, where OMNI ZONA FRANCA emerged in the mid-decade, and has spread to various public spaces in the Cuban capital. Similar events are also held in Germany, Spain, France and in U.S. cities like Miami, headquarters of the Cuban exile.

As OMNI ZONA FRANCA consists of poets, musicians, actors, dancers, designers, painters, photographers and producers of audiovisual performances who socialize ideas and alternative actions in city spaces, Endless poetry expresses this diversity under the slogans “If two people look at and recognize each other the world changes” and” Change us, change the world. ”

The 2011 program includes these activities:

  • Spontaneous reading in the Bar de la esquina on Thursday, 15, 4 to 6 pm, the bar is located at Teniente Rey and Aguiar, Habana Vieja.
  • Dark Room: poets in action Puerta 1, the 16the at 5 pm, with Lina de Feria, Orlando L. Pardo, Grisel Echavarría, Daniel Díaz Mantilla and others.
  • The Pilgrimage of Scribble to the Rincon de San Lazaro, the 17th from the Sports City, for the Health of Poetry.
  • Spoken Word, the 20th, with Mesa debate, Show and Video poem.
  • The Cuban Joint Exhibition, the 21st at 5 pm, with Photo poems of  OL Pardo, Nilo J. Damian, authors of the events Country of Pizels and A Big Sign and Another Small One.
  • The Dark Room Day, the 22nd in the Casa Templo del Arte Cubano; Rotilla-Electrospoken, the 23rd in the afternoon; the Spiritual Fair the 25th in the morning: Poets in action Puerta 2, the 28th at 5 pm, with Reyna Maria Rodriguez, Desiderio Navarro, Victor Fowler, etc.
  • OMNI Poetic Cabaret, the 28th at 8 pm; the Cultural day for racial integration and diversity, the 29th; the Day of Dark Room: Fiesta Poetics (30), and Voices in Endless Poetry, the 31st at 7 at night, with the presentation of the magazine.

The organizers of such an unusual poetic look dedicate this Fiesta “to the community of Alamar, to the light of the nation and to the Holy Family of Cuban Poetry” as well as to their relatives and friends.
December 20 2011

Fiesta of Plurality

March 1, 2012 Leave a comment

Host Antonio Rodiles and members of Omni Zona Franca

Over a hundred people attended the Fiesta of the Plurality on Saturday December 10, held at Primera 4606 between 46 and 60, Playa municipality, Havana. The meeting was convened by Yoani Sanchez, leader of the Cuban Voices blogger platform and Antonio Rodiles, spokesman for the “State of Sats” audiovisual project and host of the event, turned into a space of freedom despite the steady rain and police espionage.

The event coincided with the celebration of Human Rights Day, banned in Cuba by the Castro military regime, whose political police arrested dozens of peaceful opponents in the previous days and prevented meetings, parades and concerts in the capital and other cities of the island.

Coming together at the Fiesta were representatives of various alternative projects, those who interacted with those present through exhibition stands with posters and brochures, CDs, meetings and journals. There were lectures, poetry readings, songs and other activities far from those touted by government spokesmen.

The promoters of OMNI ZONA FRANCA spent most of the session with their poems, songs and audio while displaying their beautiful posters for the Endless Poetry Festival, whose 2011 edition will be December 15-20, for which they conducted a press conference at “State of Sats” with Rodiles as moderator and questions from the audience, as well as the presentation of the program catalog.

OMNI ZONA FRANCA is a socio-cultural artistic project born in Alamar, east of Havana, in the mid-nineties. It is composed of poets, musicians, actors, dancers, designers, painters, photographers and producers of audiovisual performances who socialize ideas and actions in urban spaces. Endless Poetry was established in 1999. The slogans “If two people look at and recognize each other the world changes” and “Change ourselves, change the world,” lead their 2011 projects.

Among those attending were the writers Ángel Santiesteban and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo; the singers Gorki Aguila and Ciro Diaz, arrested on Friday the 9th to prevent the concert of Porno para Ricardo; the journalists Reinaldo Escobar, Víctor M. Domínguez, Jorge Olivera and Pablo Méndez; and the graffiti artist El Sexto, the cartoonist Nile J. Preval Gonzalez, photographer Claudio Fuentes, the librarian Omaida Padrón, the lawyer Wilfredo Vallin, president of the Law Association of Cuba, the former diplomat Pedro Campos Santos and artists from OMNI and other projects who sang, recited and painted during the evening.

One of the most interactive projects was, a group of young people dedicated to “promoting Cuban music inside and outside the island,” a sort of virtual map with various integrated projects.

The Fiesta of Plurality held in the evening of Dec. 10 included a raffle with umbrellas for the winners and donations of magazines, CD, films and other audiovisual media and graphics given by Yoani Sanchez and friends of the site. It was reported by twitterers and bloggers in attendance.

December 19 2011


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Couldn't take a vacation this year? Set your mind on a tour of the United States! Visit its cities, states, and popular destinations while solving these challenging and novel puzzles. It may prove to be just as restful as the vacation you missed!


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For the past six years, Ex Fabula has served as Milwaukee’s premier live storytelling series, bringing a diverse cross-section of the city together and finding a common bond through the power of simple, direct, and powerful communication. Founded in 2009 by a small group of friends inspired by national storytelling events like The Moth, the non-profit Ex Fabula (“from stories” in Latin, by the way) has gone on to stage six seasons of StorySlams and storytelling workshops at countless venues—both conventional and unconventional—throughout the city, all dedicated to, according to the group’s website, “strengthening community bonds through the art of storytelling.”

In advance of Ex Fabula’s 7th season, which kicks off Thursday, September 17 at Garfield’s 502, Milwaukee Record’s Matt Wild sat down with Ex Fabula director Megan McGee and Ex Fabula emcee Leah Delaney to discuss the origins of the series, its new Fellowship program, the importance of being a homegrown organization, what differentiates it from other storytelling events that always seem to feature nothing but dorky white guys talking about what dorks they were in high school (ahem), and much, much more.

As always, On The Record is brought to you by our friends at Ale Asylum and 42 Lounge / 42 Ale House. Music in this episode comes courtesy of Pharaoh Mac & DMT (“Go Do”) and Ravi/Lola (“Chinese Cheaters”). Subscribe to On The Record via iTunes or Stitcher.


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The Treatment Of Infertility With Acupuncture Dates Back Over 2,000 Years

The treatment of female infertility has been described in Chinese medical texts dating back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – 24 AD).

Peter G. Van Deerlin, M.D.
South Jersey Fertility Center, Marlton, N.J.

“For over 10 years now our fertility center has been referring our patients to learn more about traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture from Jon Posner. Jon was an early pioneer in South Jersey to specialize in female fertility matters. He knows well what patients are experiencing when they go through in vitro fertilization procedures. At least 3 randomized trials have pointed to higher pregnancy rates when acupuncture is performed immediately before and after the transfer of an embryo to the uterus. Jon comes to our center in Marlton to perform the acupuncture in a timely manner so the patient doesn’t need to do extra traveling on the day of embryo transfer. I frequently hear from our patients that they appreciate Jon’s abundant one-on-one communication regarding their health questions and specifically about improving their fertility. I whole-heartedly recommend Jon to women trying to build their family.”

For more information about South Jersey Fertility Center and the services they provide

Acupuncture & IVF

It is theorized that acupuncture’s positive effect on IVF outcomes may be due to its impact in the following ways:

  • Improves the function of the ovaries
  • Stimulates the Endocrine System
  • Increases blood flow to the uterus and increase the thickness of the uterine lining
  • Relaxes the muscles in the uterine wall
  • Relaxes and de-stress’s the entire body physiologically
  • Prevents small uterine contractions post IVF embryo transfer

When starting acupuncture treatments a minimum of 4-8 weeks prior to the projected day of an IVF embryo transfer, treatments are not just focused on the reproductive system, they are designed to improve the functioning of the entire body and to help relax and calm the mind.

Acupuncture treatments may result in some or all of the following additional benefits:

  • Decreased feelings of stress, anxiety and irritabilty
  • Improved sleep
  • Increased energy
  • Decreased headache or migraine pain and or frequency
  • Improved regulation of digestion and bowel movements
  • Regulation of menstrual cycle and reduced PMS
  • Reduced hormone related skin blemishes

There Are 2 Acupuncture Treatment Plan Options For IVF Cycles

Option 1

If it is at least 4 weeks until your projected week of embryo transfer, we recommend 15 total treatments including the 2 on the day of transfer for an IVF cycle. This option is the strongest and has the best chance of helping to improve full-term pregnancy outcomes and is best for overall stress reduction and general health improvement.

Option 2

If it is less than 4 weeks until your projected week of embryo transfer or finances are tight, we recommend 5 total treatments, including the 2 on the day of transfer. This option will provide the benefits that were demonstrated in the 2003 German study and a little bit more, but will not help as much for stress reduction and will not provide any noticeable general health improvements.

Acupuncture can provide a safe, effective and natural approach to treating infertility and enjoying a healthy pregnancy.

Learn more about the benefits of acupuncture and how it works »

Or Call us at 856-751-8908
for an In-Depth Telephone Consultation

Have A Question?

We’re here to answer any questions you may have about our center and the services that we offer. Please call us at 856‑751‑8908.


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Nothing better than knowing exactly what is the best gift for someone, is not it? It is amazing to give a gift making sure that the person gifted will really love what you have chosen. But it is not always easy to guess which is, in fact, the best option.

12 word text that makes him need you in his life

But our old friend astrology can help us again! Below you find the perfect gift for the woman of each sign (if you are looking for the perfect gift for a man, you can also check out some ideas here).

Take the opportunity to make that special person even happier!

Aries Woman

They are strong, courageous and instinctive. They also like to take care of their appearance and think that your image says a lot about you. So there are several possible gift options. Normally, they give great value to the hair, which should always be well hydrated, nourished and, consequently, with a beautiful appearance. So a great option is to give a beauty salon gift gift that she likes (if you do not know one, the internet can help you find good options that are close to you).

Aries also tend to like sports. Therefore, another option is to invest in some accessory that complements the sport activity that she already practices. Like new boxing gloves, a new swimming cap or professional tennis rackets, for example.

Click here to Find Out Aries Man Secrets

Taurus Woman

Taurus is a sign related to Venus and, therefore, Taurus women are usually very vain. They take care of the body, both inside and out, and therefore gifts that have to do with this will always be good options.

If you do not want to make a mistake, give Taurus a perfume with sweet notes, body moisturizers or make-up kits, for example. But, attention: Taurus is a sign that cares about the quality of the items it uses. So it’s usually best not to risk it. Whatever you decide to buy, opt for something from some brand that you know Taurus likes and uses.

Click here to Find Out Taurus Man Secrets

Gemini Woman

Geminis are communicative, intellectual, intelligent women who value culture. They like cultural tours, so there are several options: what about tickets to a cultural show or play that she commented she is interested in? Of course a Gemini native, whether male or female, does not like being alone, so be prepared to accompany her on the ride.

To complement the present, you can buy a nice accessory that complements the look of her in such a special trip that they will make and, why not, a bouquet of flowers! Always remember to check out her favorite flowers. Normally, Gemini is attracted to flowers with softer scents, such as lilies, for example.

Click here to Find Out Gemini Man Secrets

Cancer Woman

She is sensitive, loving, passionate, caring and smiling. Hardly you will not please her with a gift. Just to know that you took a few minutes of your time to really dedicate yourself to buying something that pleases her, Cancer will already be happy.

In any case, Cancer is a sign linked to the traditions and roots it possesses. So invest in a nice picture frame and, of a break, have the picture taken that you took together on a special date.

For Cancers, the value of the present is measured according to their dedication and the history that this gift represents. That is, you can spend a million reais or a real, what matters is the care expended. So, whatever you choose, prepare a beautiful letter to deliver together!

Click here to Find Out Cancer Man Secrets

Leo Woman

Powerful, flashy, vibrant, astute, mysterious, intriguing, seductive. This is Leo’s wife. She wants to feel the most important cookie in the package. She wants to feel that she is the most important woman to you. So, buy a gift that is all it is: something powerful, flashy, chic.

The leonine will love to get a nice evening dress, a romantic dinner in the city’s hottest restaurant, and, to top it off, that necklace she herself said would look amazing on her.

You will probably spend a little more than you imagined. But it will be worth it. When you feel loved, desired and beautiful, the leonine is the happiest woman in the world.

Click here to Find Out LEO Man Secrets

Virgo woman

Virginians are always trying to perfect themselves in everything they already know how to do (after all, they are perfectionists, but it is impossible to reach perfection). They continue in this relentless quest and are very happy in this way of living. So great gift options are those that help virgo on this walk.

Does she take piano lessons? How about paying a few months for her? Does she like languages? How about giving her a paid language course for her to have contact with? Does she do handiwork? So, how about paying a trip to the best beauty salon in town so she can do her nails like she’s never done before?

Virginians are extremely perfectionists with everything: with themselves, with others, with what they do, with what they are, with the world, with everything! Therefore, something that makes them better in some way (whether intellectually or physically) will be very well accepted. The important thing is to give something good. If she sees some kind of defect in the present, get ready to listen!

Click here to Find Out Virgo Man Secrets

Libra woman

Librianas are elegant and very beautiful. They are always with a balanced look and according to what each occasion asks for. So picking fussy and flamboyant items may be the wrong way. Choose an elegant and discreet jewel that complements the perfectly planned look of the Libra native.

Libra is a sociable and very friendly sign and therefore is usually full of commitments. Alie the useful to the pleasant and give her something that helps her keep the agenda up to date and, at the same time, complement her look, like a beautiful clock, for example. With such a gift, it is impossible to miss!

Click here to Find Out Libra Man Secrets

Scorpio Woman

Sensual, mysterious and cunning. Intelligent, passionate and lively. So are the native women of Scorpio! The Scorpio loves to feel loved and desired. So, do not miss the present, choose something that fits these characteristics, such as a very fun night at a ballad or a lively bar, for example.

You can also spice up the present a little, making the evening just end at dawn! How about a voucher at the best motel in town? You can deliver the gift the previous morning, inclusive, by giving that piece of sensual clothing that she’s sure to love wearing for you. Enjoy!

Click here to Find Out Scorpio Man Secrets

Sagittarius Woman

This sign represents the fun, the well-being, the novelty, the adventure and the impulsion. Nothing will make you happier than something that further stimulates that adventurous spirit that dwells within it. So, invest in fun walks (and most of them die of fear), such as climbing mountains and parachuting. She will love it!

A great idea is also to plan a car trip for the next weekend. Program the trip, but do not program the destination. Set aside some money, make some snacks, pick up a change of clothes and fall on the road! It’s going to be quite an adventure, huh? And she’s sure to love this gift!

Click here to Find Out Sagittarius Man Secrets

Capricorn woman

Capricorn is a sign always focused on his obligations, with big dreams and that walks alongside traditionalism. Capricorn’s wife wants to reach out to the world, and she struggles hard for that to happen. Crazy This is definitely not part of your everyday life.

Capricorn will be happy to win a classic, traditional and stylish set to wear at work, a new watch to keep appointments on schedule, an address book or a new cell phone. If it is during the vacation season, then it is worth taking a paid trip so that she can rest.

Attention to detail: Capricorns often work too hard. Therefore, they like to enjoy all that is good in the world. Since they work so hard, they feel they have the right to enjoy only the best. So when it comes to choosing, choose the most expensive, okay?

Click here to Find Out Capricorn Man Secrets

Aquarius Woman

Free, rebellious and the world. These are the Aquarian! They like to feel that they can decide what they want about their lives, and that nothing holds them in place. They want to know the whole world, so nothing better than gaining a ticket to that country that no one else thinks of knowing – it is exactly there that she wants to venture into the next vacation.

If the money is tighter and you need to choose something cheaper than a ticket, do not worry, there are several other options for Aquarian. They are modern women who love technology. So how about giving a new iPod to it to hear your music, or a new stereo for the car? There is nothing more fun than driving singing your favorite songs!

Click here to Find Out Aquarius Man Secrets

Pisces Woman

Natives of Pisces are beings linked to nature, the soul, the essence and the interior. Pisces is a sensitive, intuitive and absolutely sensitive sign. They like gifts that help them understand their mission on Earth, their role as people and how they can stay in even more intense contact with the planet.

Yes, Pisces are profound beings. Therefore, nothing better than presenting the Pisces natives with books of understanding, philosophy, history, sociology or anthropology. You can also gift it with walks instead of objects, such as strolling in the botanical garden of the city or take it to know that charming city of the interior, for example!

Remember that, regardless of the sign and the personal characteristics of each one, the most important thing is to choose a gift with the heart! It is to show to the person who was gifted that you dedicated yourself in choosing the item because it is someone important to you. That way you can not go wrong!

Click here to Find Out Pisces Man Secrets

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Can I Upgrade or Downgrade my server?

Yes, if you go to Client Area > My Products & Services > Product Details.  At the bottom of that page you should see the Upgrade / Downgrade Package

Click that and select which option you want.

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IMDb Bottom 100: Hobgoblins

“Hobgoblins” is almost certainly the lowest of the low-budget “Gremlins” knockoffs. The cult-classic status it has now can mostly be attributed to Mystery Science Theater 3000, but I actually thought it was one of the better movies they covered on the show. It is clearly an amateur movie, with scenes going on longer than they should and the low budget making itself known at every opportunity. However, it is pretty far from unwatchable given the circumstances. Considering how cheaply this movie was made, it is hard to hold most of the big issues against it. Even then, there is still plenty to justifiably complain about here.

First off, the monsters themselves look horrible. They are clearly mediocre hand puppets, but that is probably the best they could put together with no money. There are some great hammy moments when the Hobgoblins are attacking or being attacked, but they look so goofy that there is no way to be afraid of them. In “Gremlins”, the gremlins at least looked disturbing and vile, and could be bought as evil creatures. The hobgoblins just aren’t convincing enough or treated with significant gravity by the characters for them to be frightening. Consistently, the hobgoblins fail to put up any kind of fight once they are discovered. The only thing they have going for them in the movie is that they are good at hiding, and can disappear(?) when it is convenient for the plot.

Speaking of which, the plot actually has some promise in this movie. If there had been a better director on board and some money attached, there are the makings for a mediocre movie here. I like the idea of monsters that can manipulate their victims’ perceptions, but the concept is poorly executed here. Something that doesn’t make sense in this movie is why the victims always die at some point in the fantasy. In the beginning of the movie, the first victim appears to die due to tripping(?) while in his fantasy. It is later explained that the victims just sort of mysteriously and coincidentally die while in their fantasies, but there is never any clear connection made as to why the hobgoblins are killing the people (always by proxy). Do the fantasies power them? If so, why kill the people? Are they predators? Then why don’t they eat the victims? Are they just sort of sadistic? Why? In an episode of the show “Supernatural”, the protagonists run into Djinn on a handful of occasions, who induce hallucinations / dream states to lull their victims, during which they are leeched of their blood. They do a much better job in the show of explaining why the monsters are inducing hallucinations (to steal blood), showing how the monsters create the hallucinations (a toxin), and showing how the victims are ultimately killed (exsanguination). Those things are all important for the audience to know, and are all missing from this movie. I think that was a pretty serious error for this movie that shouldn’t be excused as a rookie mistake or a result of the low budget, it was just short-sightedness or laziness on the part of writer/director Rick Sloane.

The Djinn also look pretty damn creepy
The Djinn also look pretty damn creepy.

I’ve already mentioned that there are a handful of scenes that drag on for too long in this movie, but apart from those (Club Scum and the Rake Fight, for instance), I didn’t think the shots were too horrible in general. There was a little bit of creative framing to fit in the hand-puppet monsters at times, but they didn’t exactly have any other options on the table. I do think the director made plenty of errors and failed to make a good movie here, but it did come out more or less watchable. I think the really shallow writing and thin plot were bigger issues (not to mention the budget/monsters), but since the writer was also the director here, all fault goes to Sloane. I am curious as to why there were so many attempts to inject humor into the movie (they all failed), and if that was initially in the script or added in as an audible after the monsters turned out so badly. All of the “funny” moments felt tacked-on / forced, so that would make sense to me. I’m not sure whether that’s worth applauding for trying to make lemonade from lemons, or criticizing for doing so poorly. If the humor was intended that way to start with though, then that is just jarring, crappy writing.

The rake fight in this movie makes the Kirk/Spock fight look like “Crouching Tiger”

Speaking of crappy writing, the dialogue in this movie is miserable. All of the characters are unlikable and sound like they were written by a 13-year-old, all with juvenile motivations and the collective depth of a kiddie pool. Characters in this movie can be described as stereotypes straight out of “Cabin in the Woods”, which might be status quo for this kind of movie, but it lazy none-the-less. The actors are definitely not good, but turning any of these lines into something passable would be squeezing blood from a stone.

No actor in the world can make this look believable.
No actor in the world can make this look believable.

“Hobgoblins” may not be the worst of the MST3k features, but it is definitely bad. I’m tempted to say that it isn’t so bad as to justify a Bottom 100 spot in the IMDb rankings, but I think it cuts pretty close. The crappy monsters, bad dialogue, and generally lazy writing/filmmaking are all worthy of it, but I am tempted to give it the same lenience I would afford a Troma movie, just because it clearly doesn’t take itself seriously. That doesn’t excuse the flaws, but it might give it a reasonable pass as far as Bottom 100 consideration. Given that there are no Troma pictures in the Bottom 100, I’m tempted to think that the IMDb masses would agree. However, the MST3k label is guaranteed to take the rankings for any movie, so I think this one is primarily a victim of that stamp of disapproval.

6 thoughts on “IMDb Bottom 100: Hobgoblins”

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The Fall: Unbound Improves on Every Aspect of the First Game

In 2014, Over the Moon Games released The Fall; the first part in a trilogy of sci-fi, Metroidvania style puzzle games, which was easily one of the best indie games that year had to offer. This year, after an eternity of anticipation, they have finally graced modern consoles with the second installment, The Fall Part 2: Unbound, a direct continuation of the first game, and an equally impressive accomplishment.

While the first game took place in a more isolated, intimate setting, Unbound truly lives up to its name in just how much more expansive it is than the first game, building onto the original formula, and and adding new, and highly distinctive environments to explore, and puzzles to solve. This includes a particular portion of the game which more directly brings to mind feelings of playing Super Metroid, and similar games of old, but in a way that is still wholly unique.

In Unbound, Arid, the same AI from the first game, has been stripped from her body, and finds herself navigating a virtual network, in search of her aggressor, who attempted to upload a malicious virus into her programming. This routes her through various other service droids, each with their own purpose and parameters. Arid must now co-inhabit these different forms, and find ways to work with and around their protocols to serve her own needs. This creates three fully independent dynamics in the game, for which the culmination of events is as fascinating as it can be frustrating, but ultimately worth the effort.

From a functional standpoint, the game performed admirably, for the most part. I will point out that there were moments where the audio would drop or skip. This may or may not have been a Switch specific issue, caused by the console’s suspension mode, as it usually occurred when I turned the game back on after a day or so, and was easily fixed by closing the game out completely and opening it back up. This did lose me what was initially about thirty minutes of gameplay, which was easier to repeat than to figure out in the first place. Still unfortunate, but better than continuing gameplay with choppy audio.

Overall, Unbound builds successfully on what The Fall was to begin with, expanding significantly with regards to the story, and adding more variety to the course of gameplay. Not to mention, the ending leaves the series open for what is sure to be an outstanding third installment.

So, how did you like The Fall: Unbound? Have you completed both games yet? What are your thoughts on the story? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

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Victoria, BC – Saturday marks eight years since Emma Fillipoff was last seen. VicPD Investigators are releasing additional photos of Emma in hopes that the new photos will spark additional information that resolves our ongoing investigation.

On the evening of November 28, 2012, VicPD was contacted about a woman acting oddly in front of the Empress Hotel. Officers located Emma Fillipoff and spoke with her at length. After ensuring her well-being, Emma was allowed to continue on her way. Emma was reported missing a few hours later. She has not been heard from or seen since.

There has been an extensive investigation into Emma’s disappearance ever since, but so far investigators have been unsuccessful in determining what may have happened to Emma.

Investigators are releasing additional photos of Emma uncovered during our investigation in the hopes that they will prompt someone to come forward with information.

Emma’s disappearance continues to be actively investigated. Hundreds of tips have been received from across the country but none have proven to be confirmed sightings of Emma. We are asking for your help to solve this file.

If you see Emma Fillipoff, or have any information about where she may be, please contact the VicPD non-emergency line at 250-995-7654 or your local police department. Information can also be anonymously provided through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).


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ELAGO M2 Phone Stand Aluminum

  • Sale
  • Regular price ₱2,590.00

MODERN STAND FOR A MODERN ERA : The elago M2 Stand has a solid aluminum construction designed for smart phones. The new Champagne Gold color was implemented to give a more luxurious feel.

COMPATIBILITY : The elago M2 Stand is compatible with all smart phones; iPhones, Galaxy smartphones, etc. are compatible. All elago cases and most other smart phone cases are compatible with the elago M2 Stand.

THE PERFECT ANGLE : Your smartphone will sit perfectly in the M2 Stand to receive incoming video calls, watch movies, etc. without the hassle of having to handle your phone.

PERKS OF THE DESIGN : The Cable Management on the back of the M2 Stand allows you to neatly organize your cables when recharging the battery or for data transfer to your smart phone.

Design by elago in California and made in Korea.


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Mostly rough, dry and on first appearance unfriendly terrain, but whatever you touch, see and feel is absolutely beautiful.
Most of shots are taken with Canon TS-E 24mm II lens and 1.4x or 2x extender. Long exposures made with high density ND filters like Formatt's Firecrest (16stops) or Lee Big Stopper (10stops), Lee polarizer and grad ND.
Most of long exposure shots were made in broad daylight with heavy sun and besides that I was shifting lens to get panoramic exposures..Because of pretty delicate setup and despite heavy duty camera protection agains the sun, light still sometimes broke in onto sensor and damaged many shots that are for no use at all..But these and few more survived!
meditation #1
meditation #2
los lagos
cofete beach
los Molinos
villa Winter
sinking cemetery
ridges of Jandia
morro del cura
veins of Antigua
veins of Betancuria
meditation #3
last sunrise
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Matcha Purin! 抹茶プリン

Matcha Purin! 抹茶プリン

July 18, 2019

What a time to be alive - we can have our dessert, and have it be healthy too! :)
Thanks to our bff Pat from "All Day I Eat Like A Shark," we have this special Japanese Purin 抹茶プリン recipe. Purin is essentially a firm, cold custard.
Most commonly found with caramel (like flan!), we obviously had to put the Mizuba twist on it and make it matcha flavored!
Check out Pat's video!

Did you know tofu could be used in desserts? Because it has such a mild flavor you probably wouldn't have known unless someone told you. Maybe you can even keep this tofu a secret ingredient 😛 ✅

In this video, I'll show you how you can make a simple dessert using both Mizuba matcha and tofu! 🤔

In case you didn't know why it's spelled purin... Japanese purin (pronounced the way its spelled) is one of those borrowed English words (of which there are many in Japanese). It's traditionally served with caramel syrup and is a very good way to satisfy a sweet tooth. While I love the traditional purin, I'd say matcha purin is just as good! So they're tied for first place in my book.

Matcha powder gives the purin a nice gentle pastel green while adding a smooth matcha flavor in each bite. The gelatin and tofu make it quite creamy and thick. And because it has tea, it's supposed to be good for you.

The other best parts about this matcha dessert? adding the toppings like shiratama, kuromitsu (okinawan black sugar syrup), anko (sweet red bean paste), or whipped cream to give you a few more flavors and textures to enjoy - just like the desserts in Japan!

  • 1/4 cup whole milk or heavy cream
  • Half block of soft tofu - do not drain the tofu.
  • 2 teaspoons gelatin
  • 1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup!)
  • 1/4 tsp Vanilla & almond extracts
  • 2 Tbsps Mizuba Culinary Organic Matcha

    1. Melt 2 teaspoons of gelatin that has been dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water. Make sure it's nice and melted and smooth. You can microwave for about 15 seconds.
    2. Meanwhile, add tofu, vanilla & almond extracts, sweetener of choice (sugar, honey, maple syrup), matcha, to a mixing bowl. Add gelatin to the mixture. Make sure there's no chunks and everything is smooth!
    3. Add in your 1/4 cup of milk to the mixture.
    4. Puree everything with an immersion blender until smooth! Alternatively, you can use a food processor. Taste for sweetness.
    5. Add custard base to 5-6 jars or decorative dishes and chill to set!
    6. Eat as is or top with your favorite topping - kuromitsu, whipped cream, powdered sugar, azuki, or ice cream!

This video was brought to you in partnership with Mizuba Tea Co

SUPPORT Pat & his mission to preserve Japanese recipes! 🎥🔪

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Chamomile Houjicha Tea Bread (GF)

November 19, 2020

From our very own Hettie comes this delicious Chamomile Houjicha Tea Bread! This bread is delicious, comforting, and completely gluten-free. A perfect treat to go along with a delicious cup of Mizuba tea.

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Mizuba Matcha Blueberry Pancake Recipe
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Make your morning #MatchaMoment twice as good with our decadent Mizuba Matcha Blueberry Pancakes! These pancakes are gluten-free, dairy-free, and bursting with antioxidants — both from our stone-ground matcha and from fresh, local blueberries. Did we mention they're delicious?

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The MK MS Therapy Centre is run primarily by volunteers who give up their time and energy for the benefit of our centre and its members.  The founders of the centre are its current directors and are all unpaid volunteers.

Roz Heredia

Roz is our managing director and a founder member of the MK MS Therapy Group.  She has daily involvement with all aspects of the running of the centre and is a member of the management committee.

Chris Nalton

Chris is a director and founder member of the centre.  She is our expert on everything to do with the hyperbaric oxygen chamber and its operation.

Janet Bohn

Jan is a director of the centre.  She has been responsible for setting up the majority of administration tasks, including the accounts and the charitable and business status responsibilities.


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Fraternities colonize, take one step closer to recognition

The University has the smallest greek community of the Big Ten.

Kaitlin Walker

ItâÄôs a numbers game for the two University of Minnesota fraternities vying for national recognition.

Phi Kappa Sigma and Tau Kappa Epsilon are hoping strong fall recruitment will get them closer to the required member quota and recognition by both the national chapters and the UniversityâÄôs Interfraternity Council.

Adding two more nationally recognized fraternities on campus will help the UniversityâÄôs growing greek community, which remains one of the smallest in the Big Ten with less than 2,000 members.

Both fraternities have received colonization âÄî the first step in a process of becoming a full-fledged member of the national chapter, which can take up to three years.

A fraternity receives colonization after meeting key requirements set out by the national chapter, said IFC Vice President Tom Deahl. He said the fraternities have to meet requirements including philanthropy, recruitment numbers, grades and visibility on campus.

Tau Kappa Epsilon started that process last October when a couple of men from the national chapter arrived on campus.

âÄú[They] were here for about three weeks,âÄù said Brent Stensrude, the chapterâÄôs president. âÄúThey got a few of us together and got us started.âÄù

Stensrude said since receiving colonization the focus has been on membership âÄî both gaining new members and retaining old members.

âÄúWeâÄôre trying to keep all the guys we do have,âÄù Stensrude said. âÄúItâÄôs pretty easy to get burned out.âÄù

Kevin Groenjes, president of Phi Kappa Sigma, said earning colonization proves to the national chapter that the group is serious about becoming nationally recognized.

The fraternity now has to prove that it can thrive on the University campus, Deahl said.

Holding elections for chapter officers was a big step in the right direction, he said.

âÄúBefore we had officers who were filling spots because we needed a leadership figure,âÄù he said. âÄúNow we have the right guys in the right spot and I think itâÄôs going to make us more effective. ItâÄôs going to make our jobs easier.âÄù

The biggest obstacle for both fraternities is membership numbers, Deahl said.

âÄúEverything is in place,âÄù Stensrude said. âÄúReally the only thing weâÄôre waiting for is more men.âÄù

Both Groenjes and Stensrude said they are hoping strong recruitment this fall will solve their problem.

If all goes well, Groenjes said he expects to be fully chartered within the next year.

âÄúA lot of it is going to be recruiting, a lot of it is going to be reaching out to student groups and a lot of it is going to be making sure we hold true to our values,âÄù Groenjes said.

Enrollment in the greek community is on the rise at the University âÄî last yearâÄôs enrollment hit a 20-year high, with more than 1,800 students involved in a fraternity or sorority.

But the University still lags behind the rest of the Big Ten schools. Adding two new chapters is a big positive and means more leadership opportunities for students, Deahl said.

âÄúItâÄôs always good to get more people involved in leadership,âÄù said Deahl. âÄúGetting them involved in one way makes them more likely to get involved in other ways.âÄù


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Collins finds home, paycheck with Saints

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — He’s been called a boozer, a racist and a quitter. More importantly, as far as the New Orleans Saints are concerned, Kerry Collins has been a winner.
With one quarterback on injured reserve, another limping around the practice field and another suffering from sack after sack, coach Mike Ditka was only too happy to claim Collins off waivers.
“All we’re trying to do is find a way to get better,” Ditka said. “He can give us more stability and leadership and I think experience at that position.”
So far, Collins, the fifth overall pick in the 1995 draft, has provided more controversy than leadership.
In 1996, the second year Carolina was in the league, Collins, 25, led the Panthers to a 12-4 record, the NFC West division title and was selected for the Pro Bowl.
That year Carolina defeated San Francisco 30-24 to clinch the NFC West, beat Dallas 26-17 in the playoffs and lost to Green Bay 30-13 in the NFC championship game.
Since then, Collins’ life and times have been rougher. He was sidelined for a time with a broken jaw. He has been accused of having a drinking problem. He once offended teammates with a reported racial slur. And he has been accused of calling it quits after the Panthers opened 0-4.
“Basically, there have been a lot of misunderstandings,” Collins said Thursday. “I never intended it to go as far as it did, but there’s nothing I can do now but go forward.”
Collins denied having a drinking problem or being racist, saying that the extreme attention players received in Carolina highlighted his nights out and his remark in August 1997 that offended teammate Muhsin Muhamamad.
“I don’t think he’s a racist,” said Saints receiver Qadry Ismail. “I talked to my brother (Raghib), who played with him in Carolina, and he said he never thought he was racist.”
Collins’ former coach, Dom Capers, told reporters that Collins said that his heart was no longer into being the quarterback for the winless Panthers. Based on Collins’ comments, Capers said, he made Steve Beuerlein the starter, Shane Matthews the top backup and Collins the third-stringer.
“Something in the conversation got misinterpreted,” Collins said. “There were a lot of things going on and it was just a misunderstanding.”
On Thursday, Beuerlein and Matthews said Collins spoke to them during Carolina’s quarterbacks meeting after he met with Capers and seemed to confirm the coaches’ version of the discussion.
“He told us he asked to be traded. His heart wasn’t into it,” Matthews said. “Those were his exact words.”
“All I can tell you is exactly what he told us in our meeting, and it was very consistent with what Dom has said all along to the media and everybody else,” Beuerlein said.


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‘He felt he had enough’: former Gophers reflect on Don Lucia’s resignation

Lucia stepped down Tuesday after 19 seasons with the Gophers.

Gophers players and head coach Don Lucia follow the game at 3M Arena at Mariucci on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015.

Alex Tuthill-Preus, Daily File Photo

Gophers players and head coach Don Lucia follow the game at 3M Arena at Mariucci on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015.

Jack Warrick

The winningest coach in Gophers men’s hockey history stepped down on Tuesday after 19 seasons at the helm. Those who played for head coach Don Lucia spoke of their admiration for the coach, while some fans of the team expressed frustrations with Lucia’s performance.

“I’ve always tried to do it the right way,” Lucia said at Tuesday’s press conference. “For the most part, we did a lot of good things and that’s what I remember. I’m sure a lot more people are going to like me now that I’m not coaching, but I’ve always tried to hold my head high and I’ve always tried to do it the right way.”

Lucia named Doug Woog as someone who helped him with the transition. Woog was the head coach of Minnesota for the 14 years before Lucia’s hiring. Woog stepped down after the 1998-99 season.

“I think he felt he had enough,” Woog said of Lucia leaving. “It’s never ending. I mean, it’s the same pressure the next week, then the next week, then the next week.”

Minnesota won two national championships in Lucia’s tenure as the head coach. He also coached over 80  Minnesota players drafted by the NHL.

Two of those players, Jordan Leopold and John Pohl, were coached by both Woog and Lucia. Leopold and Pohl spoke on KFAN radio Wednesday morning about Lucia stepping down.

“I’m happy for him that he was here that long, had all the success he had and affected so many lives,” Pohl told KFAN’s Paul Allen. “I feel bad for him that he kind of had to go out the way it ended by not making the NCAA Tournament.”

Pohl said Lucia is a players’ coach.

“We just put five guys over the boards that would play hard and play together and he was cool with that,” Pohl told KFAN. “I really appreciate that, just kind of letting the players play.”

Lucia’s tenure ended with less sparkle than it started out with — failing to make five of the last 10 NCAA tournaments, including in his last season with the Gophers. The 3M Arena at Mariucci experienced dropping attendance in the last years of his tenure.

“I think Don is somewhat relieved, in a way,” Leopold told KFAN. “Talking to him the last couple years, I could sense the tone in his voice where he knew [it] was coming to an end.”

Reilly Tegan, a senior at the University of Minnesota, said he’s only been a fan of Minnesota men’s hockey with Lucia as the coach, since he was so young when Lucia was hired.

“It seems like they just kind of leveled off,” Tegan said. “Aside from getting a top-end talent like Casey Mittelstadt every now and then, they don’t seem like a perennial powerhouse, so I guess it was time for change.”

University junior and season-ticket holder Malcolm Lindsay said it might have been time for Lucia to leave the program.

“Whether it’s good or bad for the program, it’s hard to tell right now, but I don’t see it as that bad,” Lindsay said. “I appreciate what he’s done over the last 19 years and now I’m just kind of excited going forward to see what happens.”


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Teen drivers need tougher restrictions

A bill looks to change Minnesota’s bad teen driving record.

Teenagers can be stubborn. They think they’re invincible, they like to take risks and sometimes they get distracted by things like cell phones and friends. While most make it through with only minor bumps and bruises, there are some whose lives are tragically cut short. Traffic accidents claim the most of these lives every year. And in Minnesota, teens are more likely than in any other state to be involved in a fatal car accident.

Many lawmakers believe Minnesota’s bad teen driving record is a result of its weak graduated license program. We’re one of only four states that doesn’t target restrictions on nighttime driving or the number of passengers allowed in the vehicle of a new driver.

These driving behaviors have been linked to fatal car accidents. Most accidents happen at night, for example, and adding another passenger in the car increases a teens’ risk of getting in an accident by 100 percent.

That’s why last week, the House passed a bill that will try to change Minnesota’s worst-state-for-teen driving record. Under the bill, risky behaviors for teen drivers would be restricted. They won’t be able to drive from midnight to 5 a.m. during their first six months of holding a license, except when traveling to school or work. It would also limit the number of people a new driver could have in the car. These provisions of the bill make clear sense. And other state’s who’ve enacted such restrictions have seen as much as a 40 percent decrease in teen related crashes.

Although Gov. Tim Pawlenty has promised to veto the bill because of certain provisions, with slight changes the bill should be cleared with no problem. The bill forces new drivers to complete 50 hours of in-car training – up from 30 hours – and requires parents to make a written log. We’d like to see the bill go back to the governor with these provisions lightened. Many single parent households simply don’t have the time for this task, and teens should be getting credit hours for take a driver’s ed course.

This bill seems like a no-brainer – and has been for 46 other states. We hope Minnesota lawmakers can work together to solidify a bill that will help keep our teenagers safe on the road.


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Memory’s caverns

Gabriel Shapiro

LOS ANGELES – A group of college journalists file in and slowly fill a conference room in a swank hotel – the kind that, as a public school student, you’ve probably never seen.

In a few minutes, these young people – this reporter included – are to be confronted with having to ask questions of some of the biggest talents in cinema today. Actors Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo and Tom Wilkinson, along with writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry, meet the college press to talk about their new film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

The mood is somewhat tense, and understandably so. Carrey and the others are major stars. Kaufman is one of the most sought-after and ingenious writers working today. Gondry has directed videos for Bjork, Radiohead, the Rolling Stones and tons of other bands, and his commercials, particularly for Levi’s, are among the most award-winning in history.

One student journalist pipes up, asking, “Do they all have to come in at once? It’s a bit intimidating.”

The United States’ culture of star worship and celebrity chasing aside, after this film reaches theaters next week, all of these people’s stock will rise significantly. The film is, in a word, remarkable.

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is a simple love story that gets driven into the realm of bizarre fantasy when one of the lovers decides to have part of her memory erased. This suffices for an outline, but doesn’t even scratch the surface of how wildly imaginative and fascinating the film is.

Beautifully filmed and written with a disarming subtlety, this will easily go down as one of the best films of the year. But with Gondry and Kaufman at the helm, that perhaps is not a surprise.

Carrey’s performance is the biggest shock. Known for his over-the-top antics and physical comedy, including the sometimes annoying mugging and flailing, “Eternal Sunshine” finds Carrey playing an introverted, neurotic everyman with uncharacteristic sensitivity.

When asked about his character Joel, who is utterly average on the surface, Carrey is quick to point out that nobody is “truly average.” He continued, “He doesn’t have guile, he doesn’t go into the world with a mask or a persona that he carries.” It is this quality that Carrey has latched onto, saying, “If you asked Joel a question; if he answered you, it would be honest.”

Hemming in Carrey required another character to assume the outrageous behavior typical to Carrey, and Winslet’s Clementine becomes the outlet for Joel’s crazy side. “Kate was really good at that in this movie, so she was the outward manifestation of Joel’s insanity, I think, and the things he can’t express. For me, the special effect in this movie is the script. You don’t need a whole lot of bells and whistles when the story hits home,” Carrey said.

This may sound like a bit of a bummer for those of us who occasionally delight in the guilty pleasure of watching Carrey talk with his butt or pull silly faces. But the mild thrill of a cheap laugh simply cannot compete with the larger satisfaction of the rare film that straddles bittersweet romance and engaging fantasy without losing itself in either genre.

And the romance is handled so well that it never dips into the sugar-shock Hollywood still largely favors. We are never beaten over the head with an implausibly perfect love story, the kind that makes everything black and white to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

“We felt that Joel and Clementine’s relationship, as Charlie had written it, is very real,” Winslet said. “In no relationship can you possibly live everyday as though it’s the first time you’ve ever met. And I, personally, just love that about this film, that whilst the film is told in this kind of crazy, unorthodox way, it’s actually a very simple love story about two people who are really meant to be together, in spite of this horrendous thing that they do.”

Carrey summed it up by saying, “It’s romantic, and yet, it’s not romanticized. It’s a real love, full of compromise and everything else that love comes with.”

It’s this sense of reality, the sense that Joel and Clementine could be anyone you would actually encounter on the street, that makes them endearing. Both of these characters are very believable.

“It seems real to me. I have experience with that type of character,” Kaufman said. “I draw on personal experience when I’m creating any character, not just my protagonists.”

With Kaufman’s unusual and extremely inventive script in place, the next task was for Gondry to turn Kaufman’s words into images. Gondry felt his background in videos aided him in approaching such a unique project. “We had to find some tricks to transform the environment, so in this regard, I could use some of the skills and techniques I have found in my years doing videos,” he said.

Turning the written description of deteriorating memories into an image involved a good deal of dialogue between the writer and director.

“(Kaufman) wrote in a very beautiful way to express the decay of memory, and I tried to match that with the visuals, only not necessarily by reproducing his work, because technically it might have been too contrived. So it was through going back and forth between he and I, and a lot of times we’d rethink shots, saying ‘Maybe that’s too technical, we should be more organic or visceral,’ ” Gondry said.

The result is the blending of two distinct imaginations to yield the chimerical world Joel and Clementine spiral into as their memories begin to blur.

Tom Wilkinson, a British actor who plays Dr. Mierzwiak, the inventor of the memory erasure procedure, put the film into a broader literary context: “Just as Lewis Carroll says things about perception, (this film) is in that tradition, in my humble opinion, in the honorable surrealist tradition of ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ “

This is fair, as Kaufman has a reputation for creatively engaging even the most mundane details of human existence through his own unique brand of absurdism.

The average college student might be compelled by the opportunity to see a film that doesn’t shrink from its own intellectual potential, but embraces its role as a meditation on relationships, commitment, love, loneliness and the difficulties presented by memory – both its persistence and its eventual degradation and gradual loss. We are sometimes slaves to our memories, good and bad. Would we choose to be relieved of them entirely, unable to choose to keep a few here and there, but rather only given the option to delete an entire person from our mind forever? Or is it better to deal with all of our memories, despite how painful some can be, in order to remember the good things?

The panel joked often, but this spoke to a deeper camaraderie among the cast. Carrey said, “In this film, I was really part of a troupe.” But the closeness seemed to have been born of more than just mutual affinity, and at several points during the interview, different cast members referred to the difficulty and strain they endured in making such a challenging film. Winslet apparently fainted during a break on the set, and Carrey and Gondry briefly discussed some friction that had arisen between them during the shooting.

In the end, though, everyone chalked it up to the cost of making what could be the most beautifully complicated, simple love story ever told.


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Tenants need to learn their rights

Having rented about 15 apartments in the last nine years, I know I am only one of the hundreds of tenants who’ve endured confrontations with landlords.
Every aspect of the landlord and tenant relationship favors the landlord. This is especially true concerning tenants in low- to moderately-priced housing because they are much less likely to have access to legal assistance or know the law.
This leads to a very low number of civil cases against landlords. The large majority of documented court cases filed by and favoring landlords supports and perpetuates the existing stereotypes of the irresponsible tenant. This leads to an overwhelming lack of support for tenants’ rights.
Landlords are businessmen. While they are not necessarily as bad as Joe Pesci in “The Super,” they are interested in making money. New landlords quickly learn their legal responsibilities and how to use the law to their economic advantage: keeping the damage deposit, charging late fees and often managing to avoid making repairs.
Tenants generally just want a roof over their head. Many tenants just skim over the lease and then sign it. With only one day to move in, wanting to avoid paying for storage or a motel, such a tenant often fails to notice the chips in the paint or simply ignores similarly needed repairs.
The inequity between landlord and tenant often begins before a lease is signed. The landlord screens applicants and chooses a tenant. The tenant waits. On move-in day, the landlord might choose to give the tenant a check-in sheet where the new tenant describes existing damages. Usually a landlord will not issue a check-in sheet because doing so may remind a tenant to closely scrutinize the apartment’s condition.
Landlords often provide a list of damages and charges to the tenant after the tenant moves out. This document tells the tenant why only a portion of the damage deposit was returned. The landlord might keep $50-$100, depending on the size of the deposit. This is just enough to become significant income over the course of time, but not enough to prompt any one tenant to take a landlord to court to fight it. This is called “skimming.”
My former landlord skimmed me good. My previously undefeated anti-skimming check-out plan consisted of setting up a time to meet the landlord at the apartment to return the keys. With the landlord present, I would ask how the apartment looked. The usual response was “pretty good,” or something. Then I would ask if it was good enough to get my entire deposit back. I also had a ready-to-sign-sheet of paper that said the apartment was worthy of return of the full damage deposit, which landlord after landlord reluctantly signed. Only then I would give the landlord the keys. Landlords are not legally required to schedule a check-out meeting.
Landlords now provide the service of background checks to make sure a lunatic doesn’t move in to the building by making prospective tenants pay a non-refundable fee, usually about $35. This fee applies to every apartment you apply for. The irony is many landlords use the same tenant screening companies, so the information is the same.
Some screening agencies are prone to mistakes, which means good tenants with common names (such as Jim Anderson) could be unjustifiably denied an apartment. A coalition working on new screening legislation includes the Jobs and Affordable Housing Campaign, the Legal Services Advocacy Project, the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group, the All Park Alliance for Change (a mobile home park collaborative), the Minnesota Tenants Network, the St. Paul Tenants Union and the Tenant Screening Advocacy Project.
Although an improved screening process will not solve all tenant-related problems, it is a good first step toward evening the playing field in the tenant-landlord relationship. In the meantime, good sources for more information about tenants rights and responsibilities and the leases that you may soon be signing include the University Student Legal Service, MPIRG and the Attorney General’s office.
This is Ed Day’s last column. Thanks Ed.


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Special teams unit has a day to forget versus Wildcats

Dan Miller

It started with a Northwestern 97-yard kickoff touchdown return. It continued with two blocked Gophers extra points.

No Big Ten special teams honors will be awarded to Minnesota’s football team this week.

“I am very concerned about our kicking game,” Minnesota coach Glen Mason said. “(And) our kickoff coverage was terrible.”

After the Gophers took a 27-10 lead with 11:22 left in the half, kicker/punter Rhys Lloyd drove the extra-point attempt straight into the hand of Northwestern’s Colby Clark.

Seven minutes later, after the Gophers went up 33-10, Lloyd’s kick ran into the same hand.

It appeared the first miss was a holding problem, and Mason blamed the second on a “protection breakdown.”

Lloyd averaged only 35.4 yards on five punts, with one landing inside the Wildcats’ 20-yard line. He also put a kickoff out of bounds for a penalty.

“There was too many of those mistakes, and let’s face it, in a tight ball game (they) can cost you the ball game, and we have to get those things fixed,” Mason said.

Do we have replay?

There was only one play reviewed by the Big Ten’s new replay system Saturday night.

Gophers receiver Paris Hamilton appeared to catch and fumble the football – which he then recovered – at the beginning of the second quarter.

The play was reviewed for approximately four minutes, and the call was reversed after the referee said there was “indisputable evidence” that the pass was incomplete.

It didn’t matter much.

On the next play, Hamilton caught a 50-yard touchdown from quarterback Bryan Cupito.

However, there were two questionably called plays that might have mattered.

With 5:35 left in the first half, Terrance Campbell intercepted a ball thrown by Wildcats quarterback Brett Basanez. The replay, displayed only once on the Metrodome’s jumbo screens, showed the ball might have hit the ground before the interception.

But the play was not reviewed, and the Gophers took over on the Wildcats’ 12-yard line and scored.

In the third quarter, Basanez scored a rushing touchdown but looked close to not having possession of the ball as he crossed the plane of the goal line. But the play was not reviewed.

Cupito’s headaches end

Cupito, after being knocked out of Sept. 18’s game in Fort Collins, Colo., with a head injury, said he felt fine after Saturday’s game against Northwestern.

“The headaches went away by Tuesday, and I felt confident I was ready to go,” Cupito said.

Cupito made no mistakes Saturday night. He was 12-for-21 with 155 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.


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MAS Calendar

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Minnesota HomeBrew Music Show

March 19, 2020 at 6:00 am - 7:00 pm

Hey, songwriters! Minnesota HomeBrew Music Show wants to play your original songs. We air from 6 – 7 p.m. every Thursday on KSRQ in Thief River Falls. Fancy recordings are nice, but not required.  Just try to make them as noise-free as possible and FCC clean.

March 19, 2020
6:00 am - 7:00 pm

Carl Unbehaun

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2020 Award Winners: Grand Prix and Chairman’s Award

Mobile Marketing

The winners of the 2020 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards were announced at a virtual Awards Ceremony last Friday. Over the next few days, we’re taking a closer look at the winner in each category, starting today with the winners of the Grand Prix Award, and of the Chairman’s Award, a special award chosen by Chair of Judges David Murphy.

Grand Prix Award
T-Mobile Netherlands and Velti – Boosting Revenues with AI Campaigns
T-Mobile Netherlands has been running CVM (Customer Value Management) campaigns on Daedalus, Velti’s Artificial Intelligence-based platform, since February 2019. The campaign plan has been designed to engage new customers, support new product and portfolio launches, boost top-up revenue, increase the penetration of bundles and packages, fight customer inactivity and maximize customer engagement and satisfaction.

In this holistic CVM program, Daedalus follows the journey a customer takes from the moment he or she joins T-Mobile, to the moment they become an active and loyal customer, and then until the moment they tend to stop using the service and become inactive.

The journey begins as customers join T-Mobile and get connected. At that stage, Daedalus targets new customers with the right campaigns to welcome them and get them engaged with the operator. The journey then continues as new customers learn about the T-Mobile’s products and decide which ones to buy. Daedalus machine learning algorithms are used at this stage to propose the right products/offers to the right customers. Once customers have bought the suggested products, Daedalus uses additional promotional and re-engagement campaigns to keep them coming back, while at the same time rewarding valuable and loyal customers when they reach specific milestones.

Finally, Daedalus is used to target customers who seem likely to churn. When customers tend to become inactive, they usually ignore the common promotional campaigns. With Daedalus machine learning algorithms, customers who tend to drop off and become inactive are identified throughout the lifecycle stages, and they are re-engaged and brought back to active status with the right offers.

The program involves the daily data collection and creation of 360-degree customer profiles. A scoring process then defines the Next Best Action for each customer. The campaigns with the highest probability scores are then sent to customers and the responses received are recorded by Daedalus and used to train its algorithms, creating a closed-loop, continuously optimized system.

The program has generated significant value for T-Mobile. The networks sends on average around 1m recommendations per month to its T- customers and has seen very high response rates across multiple campaign types.

To measure the success of the platform, T-Mobile and Velti established a control group which is targeted with the same campaigns, but without AI to inform the targeting. The response rates for the Daedalus Group are up to 236 per cent than the Control Group for top-up campaigns and up to 441 per cent better for cross-selling campaigns.

Judges’ View: “A worthy winner of the top prize, for its attention to detail, use of cutting-edge tech and success in upselling and cross-selling to its existing customers.”

Chairman’s Award
McDonald’s and Creata Germany – Superspace AR
At McDonald’s a Happy Meal used to mean a free toy. Now in McDonald’s German restaurants, children and parents can also choose a book, including, in some instances, an AR-powered book. In fact McDonald’s has given away more than 80m books since the program launched in 2015.

Parents and children can access the experience via a free app which, if they don’t already have it, they can download using the free wi-fi in McDonald’s restaurants. McDonald’s and its AR partner Creata say the business goal is to push the sales of Happy Meals, but also to encourage families and their children to read books, using AR to bring the books to life.

The book featured in this campaign, “SuperSpace AR”, brings the planets and the solar system to life in front of children’s eyes through the power of AR. They can watch, transfixed as, firstly, a rocket launcher appears before them and sends a rocket into outer space, culminating in an astronaut leaving the landing module as it touches down on the moon’s surface.

App download numbers were shared with the judges in confidence. They were very good, perhaps not good enough to take the award in the AR/VR category, but the concept of the campaign and the quality of the execution were enough to win it the Chairman’s Award as Chair of Judges David Murphy’s choice as his favourite from among this year’s entries.

Chairman’s View: “All entries in the AR/VR category were outstanding in terms of the quality of the AR experience, but for me, this was the best of them all. For a child to experience the thrill of seeing a rocket take off and land on the moon before their very eyes delivered by this app, must be absolutely spellbinding. A beautiful piece of work.”