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Behavior-Based Safety: Myth or Magic?

When it was introduced, behavior-based safety (BBS) was seen as a magic panacea for everything that ailed safety programs. “It was the Swiss Army Knife of safety programs. It could take care of everything,” says Ron Bowles, director of operations for Portland, Ore.-based Strategic Safety Associates. “Now people realize that it is just one tool and more are needed.”

Decades after the initial launch of BBS programs, the process has lost favor with many safety managers, who claim the cost — such programs can be expensive — and the long-term results are not what they expected.

Some experts argue that expectations for BBS were unrealistic from the start, while others believe the process has been corrupted at some companies, transformed into an auditing program that assumes a “blame the employee” attitude about safety failures. “Behavior-based safety makes the assumption you know what behaviors you should be doing,” says Robert Pater, managing director of Strategic Safety Associates. “It assumes you know what to do and need to be reminded to do it.”

Not surprisingly, that approach failed at many companies, says Larry Hansen, CSP, ARM, author and principal of L2H Speaking of Safety Inc.

“My intro to behavior-based safety was being asked by my employer at the time to go to an Indiana food distribution company to analyze the safety program,” remembers Hansen. “At 9 a.m., I walked in the door and the general manager said, ‘Stop right there. I just bought a gun, and the next SOB who mentions behavioral safety…’”

Hansen said the company had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a behavior-based safety program and it had failed miserably. “It never had a chance,” he says. “There was a poor manager and a sick organization. They bought into it because they thought it said what they wanted to hear about the cause of incidents, what I call PDDT: people doing dumb things. In other words, employees are the problem and a BBS program can ‘fix’ them. It's a core misconception that leads to failure.”

The Myth

Jim Spigener, vice president of BST Inc., a global safety consulting and solutions firm that was one of the pioneers in the concept of BBS, says BBS caught fire because “for years and years and years, there wasn't much new in safety. Then someone seized on the fact that management might want to pay attention to employees. But very few companies were ready to embrace the whole movement.”

Even without a total commitment to changing the safety culture with BBS as a part of that process, BBS caught on “because it was getting results and it seemed to make sense,” says Spigener.

BBS was meant to be part of a bigger safety system, he adds, mentioning what he calls the “fatal error” of assuming that BBS in some form or another works as the only approach necessary to improve safety and reduce incidents.

“BBS, the way people talk about it now, is really a myth,” says Spigener. “A lot of companies jumped on the bandwagon, grabbed a BBS program off the shelf and now are disappointed with the results. And unions have a very good case for going after traditional BBS programs [that ‘blame’ the worker]. Traditional BBS programs don't examine what drives employees to be in a hazardous situation.”

Hansen offers a perfect example to illustrate Spigener's point. Hansen says he visited a facility that incurred repetitive losses from injuries employees suffered running up the lunchroom stairwell. Finally, an employee fell and broke his leg, at which point management adopted a BBS program, installing monitors in the hallway leading to the stairwell to remind employees to walk up the steps and to reiterate the company policy, which called for no running. Despite the focus on employee behavior, employees continued running up the stairs until a second major incident occurred, leaving an employee paralyzed. Finally, someone got smart and began to examine systemic causes for employee behavior that ran contrary to company policy and, even, common sense.

“They weren't asking the most basic question of employees: ‘Why are you running up the stairs?’” says Hansen. “The answer was, ‘There aren't enough chairs in the lunchroom.’” Employees knew, says Hansen, that if they were late entering the lunchroom, they had to stand to eat their lunches.

“Behavior-based safety done right can be very effective at helping you discover what's wrong with an organization, find the core organizational causes of risk,” Hansen adds. “Done wrong, it can be used to mask organizational and management failures.”

It's the Culture, Stupid

E. Scott Geller, Ph.D., talks of attending a session at a safety conference where the presenter asked audience members if they had been injured in a workplace incident and then asked, “How many [incidents] were caused by another person? An equipment failure? Your behavior?”

“When the majority raised their hands when he asked if their behavior caused the incident, he said, ‘I rest my case,’” Geller, alumni distinguished professor at Virginia Tech and director of the Center for Applied Behavior Systems in the Department of Psychology, remembers. “But he didn't go to the next step and ask the next question: ‘What influences behavior?’ It all happens as part of the culture.”

BBS has its virtues, says Donald Eckenfelder, CSP, P.E., the principal consultant with Profit Protection Consultants and a past president of the American Society of Safety Engineers, but it also has its faults, one of which is the lack of focus on the overall safety culture and environment at a facility. To its credit, Eckenfelder says BBS:

  • Focuses on the human side of safety;
  • Defines safe and unsafe behaviors;
  • Encourages safe behavior and discourages unsafe or destructive behaviors;
  • Involves employees in safety;
  • Requires management to put its money where its mouth is; and
  • Engenders commitment and passion, especially in the early phases.

“There are clearly good things about behavior-based safety,” says Eckenfelder. “But there is more negative than positive” in many of the BBS programs companies have adopted, he adds.

For example, many BBS programs, as packaged by the provider or used by the customer, don't deal with the causes of safety failures; they deal with the symptoms. “Behaviors of employees are a long way from the root cause,” says Eckenfelder.

If corporate management supports and encourages safe behavior by eliminating root causes — such as engineering, process, communication or training failures — then employees are more likely to want to adopt safe behaviors. Employers, managers and supervisors who actively and vocally support safe production and put money and resources behind that support are less likely to get pushback from employees regarding safe behavior.

“Safety isn't primarily a technical problem or a behavioral problem,” Eckenfelder points out. “It's a cultural problem. If the culture's wrong, nothing else works.”

He notes that when we walk into clothing stores or restaurants, we know if the culture is good or bad. “Can't you feel the culture?” Eckenfelder asks. “If they've got the culture ‘right,’ you say to yourself, ‘Wow! I'd really like to come back here.’”

And the quickest way to ensure safety culture failure, experts agree, is to try to “force” safe behavior on employees.

Experts equate such pressure to a parent telling a teenager how to behave … and say it gets about the same response. As Robert Pater, managing director of Strategic Safety Associates, says, “You can't mandate people to monitor themselves. You can invite them to do it. Forcing change creates pushback.”

If you really want behavioral change, says Pater, “employees have to see the value of change. They have to believe they can change. They have to know how to change. They have to practice, because behavioral change doesn't happen from one exposure. And the new actions have to be reinforced through acknowledgment, celebration and external monitoring.”

The key to true, positive behavior change, adds Bowles, “is to create an environment where, rather than have safety as something that is being done to me or for me, it's something that's being done with me or by me. Once I begin to own it, I can have incredible success.”

“Real change happens inside out,” Eckenfelder adds. “People get better because they change their attitudes, not because there is pressure placed on them from the outside.”

BBS and Beyond

Everyone we spoke with agrees that one of the original basic concepts of BBS — pointing out to employees how they contribute to a safe work environment by informing them when they are performing safe or unsafe acts — can be an essential part of a system that contributes to a healthy safety culture.

And encouraging all employees to take an active, thinking role in their safety and the safety process is a step in the right direction, says Geller, another of the pioneers of BBS.

Geller now says he believes in “people-based” safety. He promotes what he calls ACTS — actions and coaching, which are behavior-based, and thinking and seeing, which are people-based.

“The key challenge to safety is to inspire people to be self-accountable. We need to transition from programs that promote other-directed accountability to ones that promote self-directed accountability,” says Geller.

In order for any system or program to be successful, he adds, the corporate culture must be taken into consideration. “What works for Coca-Cola is not going to work for a company with a different culture,” Geller points out. “The cookie-cutter approach never works.”

And “fixing” employees without fixing a broken culture never works either, says Pater. “BBS was sometimes used as an excuse to not make changes to the corporate culture,” he notes. “In other words, ‘I'm OK, you're broken.’ We need to move beyond that.”

“The reason I lack a thorough understanding of the movement is because I abandoned the process very early in my career following a very bad experience.

One of the companies I worked for used a safety observation program. This program essentially required supervisors to record observations and turn them in for review. The program almost destroyed the positive culture that had been fostered by our forward-thinking operations manager.

The regional safety folks for this company established quotas for these observation cards. The supervisors would sit around a table fabricating observations to meet their quotas on the Thursday before they were due. When they did record field observations, the employees resented it because the program seemed to assign blame to the workforce (whether that was the intent or not).

In many cases, the supervisors knew employees were engaged in “unsafe” behaviors because they were short on resources, equipment or some other necessary tool, system or process necessary to perform their work safely. The program almost caused a riot.

When I took over the program from my predecessor, I threw a barbecue and we burned all of the materials. We invited all the employees to attend. Culture restored, friendships renewed!

My gut reaction, based on early experience, is that the behavioral movement was an effort to sell a cure and sell measurement of the safety process. I think behavioral safety measures reactions and not processes. I also think it can create more problems than it solves. I think people find the “bandwagon” easy to sell to management (most believe employees are the problem anyway) and it's easier than turning a mirror on the organization.” — Dan Zahlis

Dan Zahlis is president and founder of Active Agenda Inc., a Web-enabled, community-developed, risk management solutions project, and a 15-year practitioner of risk and safety management.

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Building Safety Board by Board at Koppers Industries

At this producer of carbon compounds and treated wood products, safety and environmental values are the foundation on which the company is built.

By Sandy Smith

In 2002, 12 Koppers Industries'' facilities qualified for the National Safety Council''s Excellence Achievement Award.

Those facilities, in Alorton, ll., Clairton, Pa., Green Spring, W.Va., Grenada, Miss., Guthrie, Ky., Harmarville, Pa., Portland Ore., Roanoke, Va., Superior, Wisc., Denver, North Little Rock, Ark., and Florence, S.C., represent more than half the facilities the company operates in the United States. The NSC Excellence Achievement Award program recognizes companies that implement safety processes or systems, and honors efforts to build a workplace culture and environment that focuses on safety.

"We commend our employees for focusing their attention on safe work practices," said Randall D. Collins, vice president, Safety, Health & Environmental Affairs for Koppers. "These plants have created a safety climate where workers care about each other''s well being, and these awards are a reflection of our company''s commitment to continuous safety improvement."

"At Koppers, safety, health and environmental (SH&E) values and principles are paramount, according to Walter W. Turner, CEO and president. "They ensure the well-being of Koppers employees and that of the communities in which Koppers operate. At Koppers, these are words that we live by, every day," he says.

SH&E Policy

According to Turner, the company''s SH&E policy affirms its commitment to designing, implementing and managing workplace and product safety processes that protect the environment, customers, employees and neighbors. "Our business decisions are guided by this policy," says Turner, "because we know that SH&E performance must lead profitability."

The policy includes the following elements:

  • Compliance with all applicable federal, state and local SH&E laws, regulations and with other requirements to which Koppers subscribes;
  • Pollution prevention in order to preserve the environment for the health, productivity and enjoyment of future generations;
  • Continuous improvement of safety, health and environmental systems and performance;
  • Communication regarding business operations and potential risks, both internally and externally.

Sidebar 1

  • Koppers Inc., Pittsburgh Pa.
  • Koppers Inc. is a global integrated producer of carbon compounds and treated wood products for use by the utility, construction, railroad, aluminum, chemical and steel industries.
  • Koppers operates 39 facilities in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and South Africa.
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How to Get Employees Involved in the Safety Program

Safety committees are a hallmark of effective safety programs, but many find employee participation a nagging problem. These practical steps can help build participation and support by employees and supervisors alike.

The experience of participants in OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) over the past 20 years has demonstrated that management of worker safety and health protection is a decisive factor in reducing the extent and the severity of work-related injuries and illnesses. The VPP participants' experiences and my own research indicate that safety and health programs that incorporate a high level of employee participation are likely to be more successful.

OSHA's Voluntary Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines1 consist of program elements that represent a distillation of applied safety and health management practices that are used by employers who are successful in protecting the safety and health of their employees. The OSHA guidelines listed below target employee participation and include the following recommendations for employers:

  • Regularly communicate with employees about workplace safety and health matters;
  • Provide employees with access to information relevant to the program;
  • Provide ways for employees to become involved in hazard identification and assessment, prioritizing hazards, training and program evaluation;
  • Establish a way for employees to report job-related fatalities, injuries, illnesses, incidents and hazards promptly and to make recommendations about appropriate ways to control those hazards; and
  • Provide prompt responses to such reports and recommendations.

Although these guidelines offer practical recommendations, companies were often confused about how best to implement them. One of the most widely recognized means for encouraging employee participation is the safety and health committee. However, attempts to implement the guidelines via safety and health committees often yielded mixed results in achieving employee participation. A common barrier that precludes many committees from realizing their potential is the failure to achieve active and meaningful employee participation. The challenge for most companies is determining how to make their safety and health committees work.

A few years ago, I conducted a survey of New Hampshire employers to gather information for a workshop about forming safety committees that I was asked to conduct for the Safety and Health Council of New Hampshire. The survey's data provided so much information that I eventually published a manuscript about my observations and conclusions (Building A Better Safety and Health Committee, American Society of Safety Engineers, 1998).

One of the most fascinating observations was the response to the question about employer satisfaction with their current safety and health committee. Only 62 percent of the respondents declared satisfaction with their safety and health committee2. Based upon this response, I began to study what factors separated those employers that were satisfied with their safety and health committee from those that were not. My research identified five management tools budget, orientation, schedule, agenda and minutes that were common to those committees with the highest level of employer satisfaction. Committees that utilized all five management elements reported uniform satisfaction with the functioning of their committee. Employer satisfaction declined as the committees utilized fewer of these five management tools. Let's examine each of these management tools.

Almost every business function has a budget, a plan to allocate the company resources to complete the task at hand. Yet this was a foreign concept to most safety and health committees I surveyed. When a company decides to implement a safety and health committee, the first detail that should be determined is what kind and how much of the company's resources are going to be dedicated to it. Determine what activities are within the scope of the committee, how much time is allocated to the performance of these activities and what expenses are anticipated. Budget time, resources and money for training, conducting planned safety and health activities, and committee expenses such as meeting costs and supplies.

A budget that establishes the parameters that a safety and health committee should operate within can also alleviate potential employee barriers to participation. Communicate these expectations to the committee members and management, especially first-line supervisors. Establishment of realistic time requirements for committee activities will help to find people willing to actively participate and supervisors that can plan for their subordinates' participation.

Most safety and health committees I have encountered rotate members periodically. Some rotate as frequently as every 6 weeks, while others may go several years without changing members. Regardless of the frequency, each time someone new comes into the group, a learning curve begins. How many times have you joined an organization and had to learn on your own how that group functioned? What were the mission, goals and objectives of the group. How did things get done? What were the various members' roles within the group?

The best organized safety and health committees include a well-designed orientation to teach new members how to start contributing to the effectiveness of the group in a much shorter time frame by explaining these issues. An orientation tailored to your specific safety and health committee will also establish expectations of the company management as well as other committee members.

Scheduling conflicts become more common as we try to meet the many obligations to job and family. How much more difficult is it to attend a function that meets at irregular times? Obviously, you can never eliminate schedule conflicts totally, but by establishing when and where the safety and health committee will meet, participants and non-participants can plan in advance and minimize conflicts.

The most common adaptation observed was the same date and time for meetings, usually monthly or even weekly. A few cautions about planning these same time/place meetings. Both weekly and monthly meetings should aim for a time that has few potential conflicts. Mondays and Fridays are often part of long weekends and should be avoided if committee members enjoy taking time off in that manner. Don't forget that many holidays also fall on Mondays to allow a three-day weekend for employees. These days off can be minor inconveniences or they can cause significant disruptions to safety and health committees that do not plan for them. The scheduler should also look for other conflicts that can be avoided so that meeting attendance can be encouraged.

Most safety and health committees prepare a written agenda. The problem with agendas, however, involves following them. There are numerous reasons safety and health committees do not follow the planned agenda. First, the agenda should always be in writing as verbal agendas tend to encourage drifting from the plan. The agenda should identify topics, who has responsibility for each topic, what type of topic it is (e.g., discussion vs. announcement) and how much time is allocated to that topic. Each agenda should have a start time and an end time, and both should be respected. Because priorities change, the agenda should be reviewed and approved by the committee at the start of the meeting. If a new higher priority item arises, it can replace another agenda item.

The committee leader has the responsibility to make sure the agenda is followed. This may mean tabling a topic for a future meeting, dropping some other agenda item to continue with the current topic or bringing the current item to closure as planned. It also means keeping the discussion focused on the current topic. Focus may mean minimizing banter among committee members, setting ground rules for discussions or curtailing unrelated debates. The committee leadership has an obligation to guide the committee toward completion of the agenda topic in the time allotted.

The most frequently used management tool is the meeting minutes. Minutes should reflect what actions and decisions the group made. They do not record verbatim every word spoken during the meeting but do serve as the record of the meeting. A secretary or scribe should be tasked with keeping the minutes. A draft should be distributed to committee members as soon as practical after the meeting but certainly prior to the next meeting. Minutes should be reviewed and approved by the entire committee at the next meeting. The biggest mistake in most meeting minutes is the failure to bring items to closure. Once an item appears on the agenda, the meeting minutes should describe what the outcome of that item was. Failure to close the loop leaves doubts about what actions, if any, were taken by the committee.

Case Study

Let's examine how one organization implemented a strategy to overcome obstacles to the success of their committee. It is one thing to select employees to serve on a committee and quite another thing to have them contribute. The first step in breaking down this barrier is to determine why employees are not participating. Identify the problem(s) affecting employee participation and solve them.

This organization's committee members were not attending meetings because the supervision didn't support employees participating. Reasons for this lack of support included reduced effectiveness of the supervisors' teams in the form of lower utilization rates. To solve this problem, clear roles were established for safety and health committee members and communicated to all employees and management. Committee membership became a part of the employees' regular jobs, not an extracurricular activity.

Next, management communicated clear time expectations to supervision so they could plan for other team members to cover critical work assignments in the event of conflicts. When supervisors knew that a subordinate was budgeted to conduct committee activities for a specific number of hours per week/month/quarter/year, they were able to plan accordingly.

Third, meetings were scheduled with consideration of the supervisors' team needs. While not all conflicts could be avoided, supervisors were more willing to compromise if they felt their views were considered.

Lastly, a labor account was established that permitted committee members to charge the time spent performing committee duties. This time was not calculated in the team utilization rating, and the respective team and supervisor were not penalized for the time a member spent on non-team activities. Management insistence that safety and health committee members had an expanded job coupled with accommodations to their supervisors and establishment of clear time commitment expectations removed most of the barriers to employee participation in this organization and resulted in a nearly 95 percent participation rate by committee members.

Employee involvement allows workers to develop and express commitment to safety and health, improves employee morale and contributes to the bottom line.

Utilizing the suggested management tools will help ensure employees and management employ a successful safety and health committee implementation strategy.

John Spath is the manager of Occupational Health and Safety for the Boston regional office of Clayton Group Services Inc. He has more than 30 years of environmental health and safety (EHS) experience with over 12 years as a consultant. He has managed division-level EHS departments for several Fortune 500 companies and has extensive experience with aerospace, electronics and automotive manufacturers; municipal agencies; medical facilities; metals producers; and the telecommunications, insurance, real estate and railroad industries. Spath serves as a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers' (ASSE) Council of Professional Development. In 2001, he was named the Regional Safety Professional of the Year (SPY) by ASSE and was named the Greater Boston ASSE Chapter's SPY in 2000.

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Latest News from Ehud Arye Laniado

Follow all the latest diamond news, views, events, endorsements and more from Ehud Arye Laniado

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Diamond Portraits – Charles Tiffany

Diamond Portraits – Charles Tiffany

Iconic Tiffany & Co. is among the most recognizable brand names in the world and one of the most valuable retail jewelry companies. A 2015 brand survey ranked it as the 66th most valuable brand name in the world, with a brand value in excess of $6 billion. Surprisingly, however, the company did not get its start in jewelry nor was it even called Tiffany & Co. The company began operating in 1837 as Tiffany & Young, a stationary and fancy goods emporium in lower Manhattan founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young. It wasn’t until Charles Tiffany took control of the company in 1853 that he shortened the name to Tiffany & Company, and established the firm’s emphasis on diamond jewelry.

Charles Tiffany was born in 1812 in Killingly, Connecticut. At the age of 15, he began to manage a small general store started by his father. At the age of 25, with a loan of $1,000 he received from his father, he opened a store with his friend John Young, whose sister he was dating and would later marry. The pair developed a reputation for selling only the finest quality goods and specialized in Bohemian glass and porcelain. The company was changed to Tiffany, Young & Ellis in 1941 after they brought on a partner, J.L. Ellis. Unlike any other store in the 1930s, Tiffany would clearly mark a price on every item to avoid haggling over prices and give birth to the ‘price tag.’ Legend has it that after their first three days in business, the store had brought in just $4.94 in sales.

But the partners persevered, and by 1845 they would establish the first-ever mail order catalog in the United States, known as the “blue book.” Charles Tiffany would establish the color palate for his catalogue in the familiar Tiffany blue we know today. He would soon extend the same color scheme to all Tiffany marketing and packaging materials, later culminating in the immortal Tiffany Blue Box. Some believe that the robin-egg blue color was chosen because of the popularity of the turquoise gemstone as a wedding day memento in that era. Tiffany blue is now one of the very few trademarked colors in the world.

By 1848, the company would begin focusing more on jewelry, most of which was imported from Europe. John Young would have the good favor of being in Paris on a buying trip in 1848 at the height of France’s second revolution. Many wealthy nobles, who were desperate to flee Paris, sold their diamonds to him in large quantities at heavily discounted prices. He would return with the gems to America, and the company would shift its interests to diamonds and precious jewelry. Two years later, they would open a location in Paris at 79 Rue de Richelieu. Its presence in Paris allowed the firm to keep abreast of the latest trends from Europe. In 1851, after observing the popularity of silver jewelry in England, Charles Tiffany would adopt the standards of English silver, coining the term ‘sterling silver’ in the United States.

After buying control of the company in 1953, Tiffany would establish himself as one of the world’s pre-eminent jewelers. But as the American Civil War became a reality in the early 1860s, Tiffany recognized the demand for expensive jewelry was likely to wane. He shifted his focus towards supplying swords, medals and light armor for the war. His role as a designer and supplier of Civil War medals would not be forgotten after the war’s end. In 1877, he was commissioned to design a medal for the New York Police Department. Their “NY” logo design, would become immortalized when the New York Yankees Baseball team adopted it as their logo in 1909, and today it is one of the most valuable sports brands in the world. The company would later be asked by the US Navy to design a medal for a sailor or Marine who “in action involving actual conflict with the enemy, distinguishes himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty without detriment to his mission.” The design would become known as the Tiffany Cross Medal of Honor, and it has been awarded to 22 people.

The end of the war also permitted Charles Tiffany’s focus on diamonds to begin anew. By the 1870s, Tiffany would be known as the King of Diamonds, and his influence and buying power continued to grow. His innovative work won acclaim at international expositions (Paris 1878, 1884, 1889, 1900; Chicago 1893). In 1867, Tiffany & Co. won the Award of Merit at the Paris Exposition Universelle, the first time an American company had been so honored by a European jury.

In 1879, Tiffany acquired a 287-carat yellow diamond mined in South Africa two years earlier. He would entrust its cutting to a 23-year old gemologist who had just joined the company. The now famous Tiffany Yellow is an 82-facet cushion shape weighing 128.54 carats. In over 100 years, the stone is only known to have been worn by two women: Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse at the 1957 Tiffany Ball and Aubrey Hepburn in 1961 in a publicity photo for the movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

In 1886, frustrated by ring settings that covered all but the table of a diamond, Charles Tiffany himself designed a new clasp to allow more of each diamond’s brilliance to be seen. What soon became known as the Tiffany Setting, was a six-claw setting with minimal use of metal that would expose more of the diamond. It has been called the most “brilliant ring ever” and is now a universal term to describe any diamond mounted in a claw setting, Tiffany or not.

In 1887, Charles Tiffany successfully purchased about one third of the French crown jewels when they were sold off after the collapse of the Second French Empire. One of his buyers, Thomas Banks, was coincidentally in Paris at the time, and Tiffany became the single largest buyer during the sale, which further raised his prominence and influence among wealthy European society. He purchased several famous stones, including some depicted in artwork having been worn by Queen Elizabeth I and Napoleon.

By the time of his death in 1902 at the age of 90, Charles Tiffany had transformed a $1,000 investment into a $35 million dollar fortune. At the time, that represented 1/616th of the entire United States GNP.

  The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity. No one should act upon any opinion or information in this website without consulting a professional qualified adviser.

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16 oz Dark Chocolate Almond Signature Gift Box

Our signature almond toffee is available in a rich dark chocolate. Almonds are added to our toffee during the cooking process so they toast to a perfect flavor and crunch. After enrobing the toffee in a dark chocolate, we top it off with more crunchy almonds.
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Brock Turner's Sentence Has Already Been Cut in Half

He'll get out September 2.

Brock Turner's sentence has already been cut in half, Sergeant James Jensen tells

"The court system tells us when they should be released from our custody and that is September 2," says Jensen, the public information officer at Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, where Turner was booked. The release date is confirmed by online inmate records, which indicate that Turner was booked June 2. He will have served three months.

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Turner was originally sentenced to six months in jail for raping a woman behind a dumpster in January 2015. People have been protesting that a six-month sentence was too lenient. Judge Aaron Perksy defended the length of the sentence, saying, "A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.… I think he will not be a danger to others."

The unidentified victim wrote about the original sentence:

I told the probation officer I do not want Brock to rot away in prison. I did not say he does not deserve to be behind bars. The probation officer's recommendation of a year or less in county jail is a soft timeout, a mockery of the seriousness of his assaults, an insult to me and all women.

Jensen said the abbreviated stay was conveyed to the sheriff's office by the court.

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Hi! I thought thats its time I updated my own page, but i do think the old one is quite sweet, so u can visit it by clicking the link at the bottom. I'm doing my gsces this year so there's lots of coursework, but you can do it if you put your mind to it. I'm still doing lots of other suff as well. I'm doing duke of edinborough at the moment so i've created a link for that as well. In fact i've created lots of links! Take a look at some of them:

Kathryn (my first page)

Duke of Edinborough

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VCC goes down in semifinal nail-biter, finishes fourth

by Tom Coombe -

A furious comeback came up just a little bit short, and the Vermilion Ironmen's state title and national tournament hopes were dashed Saturday afternoon at Coon Rapids.

The community college basketball team trimmed a 12-point gap to one with just a minute to go, but the Ironmen wouldn't score again and Akeem Smith nailed two key free throws to ice Rochester's 81-77 victory in a sloppy but entertaining state semifinal,

Vermilion lost 78-70 to Central Lakes in Sunday's third-place game and finished 18-12 overall.

The Ironmen looked good for half of the semifinal, a rematch of last year's title tilt, and grabbed a 45-39 lead by halftime in part by forcing 10 Rochester turnovers.

Momentum shifted in the second half as VCC coughed the ball up three times and a Malik Jones three-pointer gave Rochester its first lead at 52-50.

Jones, who had 20 of his game-high 28 points in the second half, joined Smith in fueling a spurt that extended the Yellowjackets' lead to 75-63 with four minutes to go.

But the Ironmen weren't done, outscoring Rochester 16-4 in a furious three-minute span, with Demetrice Mitchell pulling VCC to within 80-79 with his basket at the one-minute mark. Mitchell was fouled on the play, but missed a free throw that would have tied the score.

Rochester got all the breaks in the final minute, gaining an offensive rebound on a missed free throw and forcing a turnover with 19 seconds to go and the score 81-79. Smith buried two free throws to finish the Ironmen off.

Freshman guard Cliff Lloyd had 24 points for the Ironmen, while sophomore forward Devonta Whitaker had 19 points and 19 rebounds.


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Hook and Bullet Club by Nick Wognum - Season over

The freezer is full of venison. It took two 16-day hunting seasons but we’ll be able to dine on deer meat this winter and hopefully right up to the 2018 season.
Heading into the last weekend of the muzzleloader season there were some doubters among my hunting partners. I had to send photos of two deer on the ground to prove them wrong.
Saturday morning was a chance to hunt on my buddy Jim’s land up the Fernberg. Twenty-five years ago we used to park trucks there and walk north, crossing ridges as we headed toward the invisible BWCA line.
Today not only are there hunting shacks but year-round homes as well. Jim’s land lies in this area and had been holding deer all fall.
The deal was I would sit in his enclosed tower stand and when I was done, take down the fabric covering the stand and haul it back to town.
It was crisp Saturday morning. Getting out of what little wind there was seemed like a fantastic idea. I unzipped the window that looked to the south and settled in.
Otto was hunting just north of me and had spied my truck when he drove past before sun up. We traded text messages and hunkered down for the morning.
There were fresh tracks when I walked in, likely from the night before. Because nothing moved while I was there. Otto had the same luck and pulled the pin to go watch Army kick the crap out of Navy in the annual football battle.
I took a ride further up the Fernberg but there were fewer tracks that way. Time to head west, back to the special state park hunt in the Soudan Underground Mine State Park.
The weekend before I had a doe walk in behind me and stomp her hoof to get my attention. This time I was keeping an eye behind me as well as over the clearing in front of me.
A black lab came to visit me, her owner walking down the trail off to the south. That’s how the state park hunt works. There are big signs that state “SPECIAL HUNT IN PROGRESS.” But people ignore them.
Figuring the dog scent wasn’t going to help my hunting luck, I took a slow walk around one of the mine pits. This is really a nice trail to walk, with towering white and Norway pines and fairly easy terrain.
The views down in to the pit are staggering. As in don’t stagger or you’ll go over the fencing and never be heard from again.
Coming back around to where I started, a doe was standing on top of a ridge. Well, it could’ve been a buck because all I could see was a big body of a deer.
After figuring out which end was which so I could place my shot, the muzzleloader roared and we were one deer closer to a full freezer.
Thanks to Evan, Tommy and Mikey for the assistance in getting the deer loaded in the back of my truck. Can’t wait until they are of age and can bring a cold beer to top off the day’s hunt.
Sunday was the last day of gun hunting in 2018. With one tag left to fill, the park was going to be the place to fill it.
The big decision was whether to go back to the truck at noon and tune the radio to the Vikings game. Always enjoy hearing Greg Coleman’s pre-game preach where he mixes bible verses with a rally speech for the fans right before kick-off.
The decision was made when a small doe came walking through the clearing. One puff of white smoke and the tag was filled. Season over.
Evan and I will still need to make another trip out to the shack to pull a heater left in a stand in case I went there during muzzleloader season.
Now it’s time to figure out how many pounds of meat will go into wild rice brats, enjoy some steaks and begin thinking about next year. And smile knowing the freezer is full of venison.


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If you are planning a trip to Macao from Spain be aware of current Macanese visa requirements and regulations as these tend to change over night. There are different types of visas which are available for foreigners intending to enter Macao and you will have to make sure that you apply for the correct visa that suited to the purpose of your trip.

Read about the types of Macanese visas from the links below to ensure you are applying for the right type of visa.

Macanese Tourist Visa | Macanese Business Visa
Other Macanese Visas | Macanese Visa Forms
Macanese Visa Letters | Macanese Embassy in Madrid

Macanese Travel Visas

Macanese tourist visa is granted for a limited time of leisure travel and no strictly business activities allowed.

Macanese business visa is for partaking in short term commerce in Macao.

Macanese Transit visa, is generally valid for 3 days or less, for transferring through a port in Macanese to a third destination.

On-arrival visa for Macao is given at a port of entry in Macao. This is different from not needing a visa at all, as the visitor sholud still get the visa before they can in fact seek to pass through immigration.

Student visa for Macao, which permits its holder to study at an institution of higher education in Macanese.

Macanese temporary worker visa, is for people to work in an organisation in Belgium.

Spousal visa or partner visa, given to the spouse, civil partner or de facto partner of a resident or Macanese citizen.

Macanese Marriage visa is given for a lengthy time prior to civil partnership wedding based on a proven relationship with a citizen or resident of Macao.

For all other types of visas please visit Macanese visa information.

Please note: In individual situations, you may be expected to furnish additional documents. Procedures and rules in Embassy of Macao can and do, alter overnight. We accept no responsibilty for any such changes or any transaction initiated directly between an applicant and the Macanese embassy.

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DevBlog – Jail Cells & Achievements

There was no development blog post in a while now. That’s mostly because I’m updating the game constantly and you can see all the updates & changes through the updates. There will be a bigger pause until the next update so I’m going to talk more about the next map and achievements – both will see the light in the next content update smile

Jail Cells

If you were following previous game updates you may know what is this map taking that long, if not, read on. I wanted to make Jail Cells more action oriented but just when the map was almost finished I found out that won’t work, at least not in that map. Jail Cells is a theme perfect for darkness, creepy moments which would be ruined with adrenaline action and I can do so much more with it if I remove the action part and so I did, deleting 50% of the map and changing it.

You’ve seen this before for sure. You’ll be able to visit that place soon!

Watch out, small spoiler ahead!
In this map you will find more about the mysterious cultists that you’ve seen in the dreams and learn just a bit more what were (are?) they doing in the crypts. If you’re reading the scrolls through the game then you know a bit more but if you don’t then you don’t have a clue about the history of the crypts. That’s why I need to include some more storyline in this map. You’ll also find new enemies and you may even learn how to summon the dead.

Is this a Salami machine? Body grinding machine? You’ll have to find out by yourself.

It’s going to be a really nice map, something fresh, something ever more ominous, something to play!

I was talking about the achievements long time ago but it was never high on the priority list. Now that the game is on Steam I can do this much easily. I know some of you don’t like achievements at all but for all of you who enjoy them, there will be quite some of them. I really don’t like grindy achievements so I’ll be adding some of them that will give you some extra challenge but don’t worry, I’ll add some casual ones like kill X spiders as well.

Since the game is in Early Access I won’t include all of them but there will be some to start with. Everyone who bought / will buy the game in Early Acceess will get a special one for trusting in me. It’s not much but it is something to show off with wink

DRM Free versions won’t have achievements at this point because I need to do some extra work to implement UI for achievemnts and achievements database but at some point I’ll get there as well and you’ll have everything the game on Steam has. Worry not.

So, the first achievements will be available with the next content update which will be out by the end of the coming week or on the beginning of the week after that.

Reviews on Steam

If you bought the game and have it on Steam, your review would be the most helpful. Just few words will do. You don’t have to write something like the review below but hey, if you can, I’ll be extra happy bigsmile

Have you heard about checkpoints?

Checkpoints just got into the game recently so you’ll have less frustrations on your adventures. Here’s the video that was released with the update release.

Do you have Courier of the Crypts yet? No? You can get it on quite few storefronts:

Humble Store:
Game Website:

If you have I would love to hear your thoughts on the game. Critics, wishes, praises, everything works smile

If you want to see extensive review of the game, check it out on They’ve nailed it!


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We are offering a comprehensive assortment of kitchen and household appliances that are highly required in every household for sustaining in the modern day life style. Our appliances are bestowed with high end features like extended durability, effective performance, aesthetic looks, low power and voltage consumption, ranging variety, cost effectiveness etc. Our product range comprises Juicer Mixer Grinder, Mixer Grinder, Hand Blender, chopper, Electronic Gas Igniter.

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The Regrettable Edible

jello maragarita

You know what the relationship is between inspiration and perspiration? Inspiration allows you to think outside the box, which sometimes leads to magical creations. Perspiration is what happens when life bends you over the Counter of Good Intentions and pile drives your inspiration into deep regret. Case in point; I got a call from a special ‘friend’ who is a single mom with two great kids who are Cub Scouts. My friend has a demanding, full-time job and was hosting her sons’ Cub Scout meeting after work, and she asked me if I could help her out by preparing some lime Jell-o desserts for the troop before she got home. I knew that I would be compensated for this in a way that I can’t describe, so I quickly agreed and went over to her place to make the treats.

While I was looking for some pots I found her liquor stash and unopened bottles of tequila and margarita mix. Suddenly – inspiration!

What if I substituted half the Jell-o water with tequila and margarita mix? If this worked that would be a cool little treat for my friend and myself once the Cub Scout meeting was over and it was time for my compensation. I prepared the Jell-o and added my margarita substitute; then I put the sauce pan into the fridge to chill. Once it set up I’d cut a bunch of small square margarita shots for me and my favorite Den Mother to enjoy later that evening. I still had plenty of time to run out and get some more Jell-o to make for the Scouts before the meeting so I jumped into my ride and took the freeway shortcut to the store.

Uh…did I mention that I live in L.A.? Yeah, well…on the way back I was a quarter-mile from the exit when something happened to the tractor-trailer up ahead and before I knew it the rig was lying on its side across the freeway! The driver got out okay but all four lanes on my side came to a grinding halt. I was gridlocked with no way out when I made a shocking discovery; in my haste to rush out and get the additional Jell-o I had left my cell phone in the kitchen! Up to this point I wasn’t worried that I hadn’t memorized her number because I knew it was in my phone. Perspiration!

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Top 10 American Flags Made Out of Food

Here at Endless Simmer, we pledge allegiance to two things: this great country we call America, and all the ridic food treasures it holds within. Fine citizens of our sea-to-shining-sea have taken it upon themselves to honor the former with the latter; there are so many entertaining food flags lurking around the internet. Just in time for the daydrinking-fueled, explosion-laden meatstravaganza that is the celebration of our glorious nation’s birth, here are our T10AFMOOF: Top 10 American Flags Made Out Of Food.

10. Taco Bell Hot Sauce Flag

Like many of life’s greatest and most inspirational mysteries, we’re not sure exactly where it originated… but this beautiful Taco Bell Hot Sauce Flag has been making the rounds on Twitter lately. We support it. Not a bad idea for a festive “tablescape” if you’re serving tacos at your holiday gathering.

 9. Cake Pop Flag

Cake? Fine. Cake pops? Sure, whatever. Cake pops remade into cake?! Invention and the freedom to do what you want is the backbone of this great country! We’ll take it! Thanks, Bakerella.

 8. Pancake Flag

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas has the right idea: start your day the American way! To turn boring, regular pancakes into spectacularly patriotic pancakes that even George Washington would be proud of, all you need is some food coloring and chocolate chips.

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Easter Candy for Grown-Ups: Peep-Stuffed Jello Shots

The Easter bunny is coming to you this year…by way of a Peep-stuffed jello shot!

Here’s the thing: I’m not a fan of dyeing eggs. In fact, I kinda hate it.  I don’t like the smell of those PAAS kits. I did it for the first time two years ago when my kid was 2. Pure torture. I know — what kind of mother am I?

Well, I’m the kind of mother who makes jell-o-colored eggs shot up with booze for adults and mixed with juice for kids.

See the bottom half, the egg? I went and shot it up with some of Pinnacle’s Cotton Candy vodka. The Peep remains a virgin — although if you wanted to, you could certainly make some boozy Peeps, too. I had to skip the boozy Peep making since my now-5-year-old was anxious to get Easter started once he saw me messing around with the plastic eggs.

This is as close as I will get to artificially dyeing an egg for Easter — even if it’s a wannabe egg.

Easter Egg Jello Shots

Read More

Booze Bites: Irish Car Bomb Jell-O Shots

Chewable beer bite? Sure, you probably associate that phrase with a less-than-pleasant experience, something that might have involved hanging out a car door window like a dog on a drive. Luckily, we’re here to supplant that memory with a chewable beer bite you can enjoy. Let’s talk Irish Car Bomb Jell-shots.

No more worries of having to invoke those college days when you had guzzle this drink quickly just to avoid the curdle. No, we’ve grown up, we can self-moderate and we can do so gracefully with a treat that won’t leave guzzling trails at the corner of our mouths.

*To make this fun treat we we used two types  of molds. The layered Jell-o shot  on the right is made using a mini  muffin pan. To acheive the shot-in-the-glass look like the ones on the left we used this mold found here.

Irish Car Bomb Jell-o Shots

Read More

Booze Bites: Royal Velvet Jello Shots

Ever been in a mood when you can’t decide whether what you need is a snack or a cocktail? We’ve got you covered. Our new series, Booze Bites, is for those times when what you need is something tasty…and drink-y. We’ll be bringing you boozy marshmallows, pudding shooters and  Jell-o shots.

To get things started we are featuring a Royal Velvet Jello Shot. Set against a raspberry backdrop, the whiskey comes through strong but is mellowed out by the sweetness of Chambord.

Now that you know what we will be consuming for our next happy hour, we want to know what you would like for yours. Order-up and leave us a comment letting us know if there is a drink you want to see turned into any one of our three boozy bites.

Royal Velvet Jello Shot

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Jell-O Goes Naughty

Jell-O has a new product – and apparently it’s R-rated. Jell-O Temptations. As Kraft (who own Jell-O) describes on their website, “Enjoy the naughty taste of new TEMPTATIONS by JELL-O with 150 well-behaved calories or less.” Damn! This Jell-O is so naughty it needs a spanking.

But how can Jell-O protect the innocence of children but still market their saucy, naughty little product to adults? Kraft’s new marketing tool, a vending machine that dispenses product samples to adults only, addresses this issue. Free Jell-O Temptations for adults ONLY!!!

So how does the machine differentiate between children and adults? They use a simultaneously creepy and cool feature developed by Kraft and Intel that uses a facial recognition sensor on the machine to determine the age of the user. A camera scans your face and measures the distance between your facial features to determine age.

I don’t have anything against children — in fact sometimes I even like them — but why should they always get the free cookie? I think Jell-O’s new marketing campaign is brilliant, and I’ll tell you why. I previously had absolutely no interest whatsoever in trying a Jell-O Temptations pudding mousse — in fact I detest Jell-O in every form (the food wiggles and MOVES ON ITS OWN – so wrong) — but here I am talking about it, extolling the virtues of a vending machine that yells at children. A vending machine that yells at children?! YES! Well it doesn’t exactly yell, but it beeps loudly and flashes this screen:

Read More

10 Christmas Treats Better Than Christmas Cookies

Last week I couldn’t figure out what the deal is with Christmas cookies. And after some ranting, I was still curious-slash-irritated. I decided that I’d actually rather eat the dreaded cupcake over some  snickerdoodle. Let’s stroll through some other Christmas eats more exciting than those damn cookies.

10. Ho! Ho!

(Photo: Strange Days)

9. Life is Like…

(Photo: omgitsrenzo)

8. Honestly, I Don’t Know What This Is Made Of, But It’s Gorgeous, Right?!

(Photo: Icy Snow of Winter)

Read More
Next »


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24 Aug

Air Cooled Cylinder Liner- The Engine Performance Enhancer

Air Cooled Cylinder Liner- The Engine Performance Enhancer

The importance of Air Cooled Cylinder liner can be seen mostly in the automobile industry where the demand comes in bulk. There are numerous companies who deal with the manufacturing of such a product in the global market. The availability of such type of liners varies in assorted sizes and dimensions which can also be tailor made as per the requirements of the customers. The liners are known for having the ability of centrifugally compelling the impurities to the bore surface from where these are removed with the support of different machining processes.

Air Cooled Cylinder Liner

The offered range exhibits excellent efficiency in terms of functionality and performance. The air cooled cylinder liner is precision made to serve the desired requirements which are as per the engine specifications.

Salient features:
• Optimum performance
• Wear and tear resistance
• Tough construction
• Corrosion resistant
• Minimal maintenance
• High durability
• Affordable price

The Auto Parts manufacturing process basically consists of the liners being centrifugally cast. These products are manufactured for various engine requirements in the international market which are in accordance with stringent quality standards. The production is carried out keeping into consideration the need to have strict tolerances for such products which ensures that the liners are optimally fitted within the engine block. The additional quality features of such air cooled cylinder liner are the material used, the structure defined for various engine purposes and the surface quality. To attain a specific dimension as per requirement, the composition of the melt, the machining process and the treatment of the melt are determined in close coordination with the engine manufacturers.The Auto Parts Manufacturing processes are comprehended with the most advanced technological work benches and tools.

By amalgamating different grades of metal with chromium and nickel makes this type of cylinder liner corrosion resistant. Stringent micro structure and material are made to be analyzed to attain the highest quality standards and comply with the international specifications. The sensitive controlled machines are utilized to test the product to avoid any flaw in them. To suit the engine specification, The Auto Parts Manufacturing companies take utmost steps to deliver the air cooled cylinder liner products as per the original specifications, metallurgical as well as dimensionally

Source URL : http://www.engineliner.com/blog/2016/08/24/air-cooled-cylinder-liner-the-engine-performance-enhancer/

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Penn Arts & Sciences Logo
SEVEN LECTURES ON HAMLET a new play by Cary Mazer
Monday, May 15, 2017 - 7:00pm to 9:00pm

The Bluver Theatre at the Drake Hicks Street, off Spruce Street between 15th and 16th

While her country is emerging from colonialism, a young graduate student travels to Europe to study Shakespeare. After she returns to her homeland to become a professor, she discovers that the stakes are higher in the real world than in any of the literary theories she likes to lecture about.


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In the summer of 2012, the duo started brainstorming ideas for a new TV show when St. Clair pitched a story about them ...

Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham are either very committed to their craft or they have impeccable timing.

In the summer of 2012, the duo started brainstorming ideas for a new TV show when St. Clair pitched a story about them raising a baby together. "She was like, 'This is insane, right?' And I was like, 'Actually, I kind of love it,'" Parham tells "That's definitely a dreamy idea that you'd get to raise a baby with your best friend."

Lo and behold, the two were shooting the pilot for Playing House eight months later and both pregnant with their first child. Parham was more than eight months along, while St. Clair was less than three. "I was throwing up in various lawns in Pasadena," St. Clair recalls, "but I couldn't tell anybody so I'd be like, 'Lennon, say that you need some water.'"

Season MVPs: The year's best performances

Fast-forward a year, and the duo are now mothers, as well as the stars, creators, and executive producers of USA's new series Playing House. In the half-hour comedy, which premieres Tuesday at 10/9c, Parham plays a mom-to-be who leaves her cheating husband and calls upon her workaholic best friend (St. Clair) to move back to their childhood hometown to help her raise her baby. "It's like a romantic comedy but it stars two women and it's sort of their love story as a friendship," St. Clair says. "Basically, how if they hadn't come back together, they wouldn't go on this path where they're going to choose to live the life they were meant to lead."

That sense of destiny is one of the many things Parham and St. Clair have in common with their on-screen counterparts. After meeting more than a decade ago at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City, the two became fast friends and writing partners. Influenced by classic TV shows centered on female friendship like The Golden Girls, Laverne and Shirley and Kate & Allie, they created the half-hour comedy Best Friends Forever, which premiered in April 2012 on NBC. The series got the axe a month later, but it gave St. Clair and Parham a small but fiercely loyal fan base and a valuable learning experience. "We put every piece of ourselves, like literally flesh, into the show," Parham says. Despite the show's cancellation, the two became even more determined to work on a show together. "We had the time of our lives on BFF and so that idea that we could have a job where we got to work together ... we were like, 'We have to do this again,'" St. Clair says. "It's now ruined us for everything."

Exclusive Playing House video: Chuck's Ryan McPartlin gets real tight with the ladies

Although the two stars and most of the crew from BFF returned for Playing House, there was one change the two wanted to make. "We decided we really wanted to do something on cable because that would allow us to have lives, write fewer episodes, be able to write them and then go and shoot them," St. Clair says. Adds Parham: "And we thought maybe we'd have more control over the content and the voice of it." The two soon found a home at USA - which was looking to break into half-hour comedies. "It felt like USA, because they had only done dramas, was maybe the place that would be home to something that wasn't just total comedy," St. Clair says. "A lot of comedy on television has a reserve to it and it's a little too cool for school ... but what we really wanted to do was a show where you laugh and you also can cry."

Indeed, the show is a little less snarky and a lot more optimistic - much like St. Clair and Parham themselves. "The other thing that BFF taught me is that we need to enjoy it while it's happening because literally, the process of shooting it, if we are joyful in that moment, that will read and we are and we have been," Parham says.

It helps that many of the other actors who appear on Playing House are friends from St. Clair and Parham's UCB days. In addition to fellow cast members Key & Peele's Keegan Michael Key and The Office's Zach Woods, Malcolm in the Middle vet Jane Kaczmarek, SNL's Bobby Moynihan, The League's Jason Mantzoukas, Lindsay Sloane (Weeds), Eastbound & Down's Andy Daly, 30 Rock alum John Lutz and The Daily Show's Larry Wilmore will all guest-star as various residents of the show's fictional Connecticut town. "It's almost like Gilmore Girls, but with some of the weirdest weirdos you've ever seen in your life," St. Clair says. "We really wrote with people in mind. If you write for somebody that you know, then your job is so much easier."

Watch Best Friends Forever here

Making their jobs easier on Playing House was vital because of the ladies' new additions. While writing the episodes, Parham was a new mom and St. Clair was on the verge of her due date - "I'd be like, 'Stay in there, man. Mommy needs to make her scratch!'" - and both brought their babies to set regularly during filming. However, the ladies don't seem to mind the juggling act. "We had to let people do their own jobs because we literally, physically, could not do everything," Parham says. "We have some boundaries in place, and I feel like the show is better for it."

And although the two might be knee-deep in dirty diapers and spit-up these days, they're also now full of story ideas for Season 2. "Every morning in the trailer we're like, 'This could be a scene or this could be a scene,' when we're talking about pumping enough milk and all that stuff," Parham says. "Gross," St. Clair interjects with a laugh. "Don't tell America that the story lines are all going to be about pumping enough milk." Parham (jokingly) concedes: "No, that's not till Season 7."

Playing House premieres on Tuesday at 10/9c on USA.

View original Friends Forever: Second Time's the Charm for Playing House's Stars at

Other Links From Malcolm in the MiddleJane KaczmarekLindsay SloaneThe Daily Show With Jon StewartThe OfficeWeedsKeegan-Michael KeyJessica St. ClairLarry WilmoreBobby Moynihan30 RockEastbound & DownLennon ParhamThe LeagueJohn LutzZach WoodsBest Friends ForeverKey & PeelePlaying HouseAndy Daly

TV Guide iPhone App TV Listings New Tonight on TV


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Important: Happy New Year 2018 - Pick and Delivery will be effected due to holidays payment will be process 2nd January 2018

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Important: Happy New Year 2018 - Pick and Delivery will be effected due to holidays payment will be process 2nd January 2018

Important: Delhivery courier service activated now

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Important: Entry/OCTOI Tax will be applicable/levied as per State Norms.

Alert! International Shipment - Customs, levies or duties enforced by the government shall be charged extra as applicable by customer

Send Courier Surat to Australia at Cheap Price

Surat,GJ - 395008 TO Australia - .5kg

*No pickup on Saturday, Sunday & National holidays. NOTE: 1st Pickup, will take 24-48 hours

*No pickup on Saturday, Sunday & National holidays. NOTE: Pickup, will take 24-48 hours. Choose any service to handle your parcel, and that courier company will come to your address to pick up the parcel. All service provides a label and an invoice which will need to be PRINTED OUT and attached prior to collection of your package. Collections are made 2pm - 7pm, Monday to Saturday.

  • 5-7 Days Courier Services

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(i) Exodus Moses and The Kundalini Energy An Introduction

Exodus Moses and The Kundalini Energy describes in detail how the Biblical scripture of Exodus has rich allegory surrounding this mystical spinal energy.

six of cups

The lower mind (or carnal mind as the bible refers to) is mystically represented by EGYPT.

The ego which screams at us and keeps us in line = PHARAOH

Our spiritual impulse within that helps lead us out of bondage of the lower mind = MOSES.

KUNDALINI is an energy which rises up the spine. It is referred to as a female energy and a sleeping serpent. When it reaches the brain it impacts on the PINEAL GLAND which is a conduit for spiritual experiences during meditation.

A Moses grows he comes into conflict with the other aspects of us and he is driven out into the wilderness of meditation.

Moses talking to the burning bush representing being touched by the fire or spirit in meditation.

The stem of the bush is planted, the stem in the centre of the brain and we communicate with the fire which is spirit.

(ii) Moses and Kundalini : Scripture Interpretation

It is difficult for religious people to deal with our spiritual realisations. Moses indicates that people of the time will not believe him.

If we take the bible literally and believe that God created women out of the rib of Adam then it shows how far away from God we really are. We are dwelling on something that is written in deep symbolisms and taking it literally. Belowwe will discuss the Moses and Kundalini symbology behind the scripture.

Exodus 4 : 2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

Rod becomes serpent

Rod = spine = physical aspect of our nature, our EGO. It is our authority and our foundation.  When we put this down and relinquish control of the lower self the kundalini will activate within us becoming the serpent.

The spiritual force will awaken within us when we sit in meditation and relinquish control of our physical foundation as being our identity and reason for existence.

Exodus 4: 4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

Hand taken by the tail = point of origin of the kundalini starts with the coccyx at the tailbone. When we throw it down it will become spirit and spiritualize our physical. We still have the physical it does not disappear and we can take back that authority whenever we like only we will see it in a totally different perspective as a result of the insights in our meditation.

The kundalini rises up to consume all of the fear, hate and guilt within us.

Hindu: when the flute is on the lips of God the serpent will rise:

Exodus Moses and The Kundalini Energy

Exodus 4:  6 And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

Hand was like snow (white) = the hand always means energy, the left hand is energy that comes in, the right hand is energy that goes out. So when we place our physical energy inside of our self (our bosom) it becomes white = free of all the stains of thoughts, fear and guilt etc. It becomes as pure as snow.

Exodus 4 : 7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

Putting hand in again and it was turned as his other flesh = the same as taking control of the serpent.

Exodus 4: 8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

If they wont believe you after you have had these spiritual realisations they never will.

Exodus 4: 9 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

Water on dry ground turning into blood.

Blood symbolically is the same as the fourth stage of consciousness which is fire.

Here we have taken our lower mind (dry ground) and gone into the water which is the second stage of consciousness, we have risen up in the air to the third stage which is no thought.

Water turning into blood means the truth is becoming a spiritual power within you and this comes across in our teaching of others. So when we are talking about the spiritual path to others they may not on the surface be in agreement with us but something deep within them knows that we are talking with authority. We give them the unfolding flower of truth that knows nothing of wars or violence, but is the source of all creation and is nothing but UNIVERSAL LOVE.

Most people have not the slightest idea about why they are alive and what the purpose of that life is.

The above verse is describing a demonstration of spiritual knowledge within us when speaking to others and we will touch people spiritually in many ways whether they recognise it or not.

Buddha says the earth has been made into a hell by the negative vibrations of many people in the world because they are not one with themselves or nature.

All we generally know about ourselves is what we have been told by others, e.g. our parents, schools, employers, religious institutions, government and none of these know either. So we have the ‘wounded child’ within which represents our spirit and this is all God wants; for this child to grow so that we may become enlightened and know ourselves.

To recap we are in the book of Exodus and the movement out of Egypt across the Red Sea to the Promised Land, a journey inside of us.

Exodus 4: 10 And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

Moses says that he is not eloquent enough to teach maybe others can but not him. But the whole purpose of this encounter with God is to say YES you can teach because there is a part in you called Aaron – Moses brother.

Aaron = the part of us that God will allow to grow in us despite our lack of faith in our selves (if we have been beaten down in confidence). It will take us to Pharaoh and it will allow us to confront the pharaoh (our ego) and say let me go I don’t want this anymore and upon enlightenment we explode with light, love and understanding of what our lifes purpose and human existence is all about. We will then know true PEACE within.

Many of us have been so traumatised in our life that we have lost all confidence in our spiritual path and ability to follow it.

God says Come to the mountain and ill send everything necessary to you as ill show you that part in you that is untouched by all of these things (Aaron) who will confront your ego (Pharaoh).

(iii) Moses & Kundalini YouTube Links

Bill Donahue : “Rod Spine Becomes Serpent Kundalini”

Bill Donahue : “Kundalini”

Exodus Moses and The Kundalini Energy

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South Africa v Australia, 2nd Test, Port Elizabeth, 1st day February 20, 2014

Elgar shines but Australia hold the edge

South Africa 214 for 5 (de Villiers 51*, Duminy 2*) v Australia
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Video report - Port Elizabeth not a Mitch Pitch

The opening day at St George's Park was less traumatic for South Africa than the four in Centurion as Dean Elgar shone on his return to the side, but loose strokes in the evening session left them vulnerable. They avoided the sort of performance that could have handed the series to Australia on a plate - and which threatening to develop during a rough first half an hour - only to slip as the light faded on an overcast day to close on 214 for 5.

A third-wicket stand of 112 between Elgar and Faf du Plessis provided the cornerstone of the innings. However they will rue the strokes played by Elgar who, having fought for nearly five hours and 193 balls, tried to clear the in-field against Nathan Lyon and then debutant Quinton de Kock who became the latest batsman to fall to a Steven Smith full toss. AB de Villiers, the only batsman to counter Australia in the first Test, remained unbeaten 51 as he made it a world record of 12 consecutive Tests with at least a half century.

South Africa have lengthened their batting order for this Test - Elgar was in line for a recall and de Kock was called in when Alviro Petersen was ruled out ill - so they still have the chance to post something around 350 and challenge Australia with scoreboard pressure which has been rare in the last few months.

The opening exchanges did not bode well for South Africa. The lead-up to the toss was chaotic with uncertainty over Vernon Philander's fitness to go alongside the three team changes. Some hasty scribbling eventually put Philander on the team-sheet, but it was perhaps no surprise that Graeme Smith departed early when he played around a full, swinging delivery from the probing Ryan Harris on a muggy morning.

In the next over, from Mitchell Johnson, Hashim Amla was firstly beaten by a ball that swung in from outside off and then trapped lbw by another delivery that did the same but had been pitched straighter. It gave Johnson his 50th Test wicket since the beginning of the Ashes and few would have bet against him quickly adding No. 51, but that is not how the day unfolded.

Elgar was still on nought by the time Smith and Amla departed. On his only previous appearance against Australia, on his debut in Perth, he bagged a pair and it took him 20 deliveries and 43 minutes for him to score his first run against this opposition.

However, during that wait to open his account he had not appeared ruffled. His composure was further evident when he slog-swept Lyon for six to register his first boundary and he later deposited the offspinner straight down the ground. Between those grand shots there was good judgement around off stump, the occasional punchy cover drive, plenty of nudges into the leg side and no little bravery as he was willing to take blows around the body from Johnson.

There was also the occasional edge - when he was 15 a combination of soft hands and the slow pitch meant a nick fell short of Brad Haddin - but, by and large, he was in control as he brought up a 112-ball half-century.

Du Plessis played equally impressively and it was he who eased the early shackles imposed by Australia's bowlers with a brace of cover drives off Peter Siddle. He, too, used his feet against Lyon and shortly after lunch clipped him over deep midwicket for six.

Two boundaries in three balls against Johnson, the second a well-controlled pull, took him to his fifty from 117 balls but he fell moments later to the curse of the drinks break when he prodded forward against Lyon and popped a catch to short leg. A soft dismissal which emphasised the absence of the ruthlessness with the bat that characterised South Africa's rise to No. 1

However, it had been a rare occasion of Australia having to work for a wicket: this was only the second century stand they have conceded since the beginning of the Ashes. The other belonged to Kevin Pietersen and Joe Root during the second innings in Adelaide. Their bowling rarely wavered and Johnson remained a threat despite the slowness of the pitch.

Without Shane Watson's medium pace, the value of Lyon in keeping the scoring rate down and chipping key wickets was priceless for Michael Clarke. He continued to use Harris and Johnson in short spells, and both were primed for late bursts before the light closed in. Moments earlier Smith had done his job when, in a first over the largely consisted of long hops and full tosses, de Kock came down the pitch to a one that did not land and heaved an ugly mow to mid-off.

De Villiers reached his half-century from 124 balls - an indication of how hard the batsmen were made to work - when he pulled another half-tracker from Smith. That was enough for Clarke who, when told he could not use his quicks, was content to leave the field. South Africa know what will hit them in the morning.

Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo


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Corporate / Worksite Wellness Program

Your personal health and wellness does matter…

groupexerciseWith E’SSENTIAL HEALTH PROMOTIONS, we strive to give you the tools to manage it. Studies past and present point to the positive returns on investment in corporate/worksite wellness initiatives, many of which include improved employee morale, reduced healthcare costs, reduced absenteeism and increased productivity.

The key to the success of our corporate/worksite wellness program is the focus on preventative care for the whole person. It is a program that addresses basic nutrition and physical activity, stress reduction and lifestyle management.

With over 20 years experience, E’SSENTIAL HEALTH PROMOTIONS designs, implements, staffs and organizes comprehensive wellness programs for small, medium and large companies. These customized programs range from awareness campaigns to intervention programs, wellness fair, and motivational and outreach activities, all designed to provide organizations with a competitive edge.

We have worked and continue to serve many Houston locations including: Kirkwood Atrium Health Club III, GTAC (Galleria Tennis and Athletic Club), Four Leaf Towers, Montebello, Villa de Esta, Bayou Place High-Rise Living.
We are looking forward to a partnership with you.

Scipio Ezenwa, President

E’ssential Health and Wellness, Inc.


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It’s a busy time for Ocado. Supermarket giant, Morrisons, and a new, unnamed, European retailer are now using the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) to run their eCommerce businesses. While Ocado itself is also in the midst of moving its own operations onto OSP.

“Ocado aren’t on OSP yet, we’re a mature user of our own platform,” explains Paul Clarke, CTO of Ocado. “That’s a significant project in its own right, to do the replatforming piece, and we have enough on our plate right now.”

Clarke says he is often asked whether the e-tailer will end its online grocery efforts to concentrate on being a platform provider.

“No, we’re growing just as fast as any other online grocery retailer in the UK and it’s profitable,” answers Clarke. “Why would we stop doing that? And it’s a fantastic source of learning and innovation – when we build something we can put it into harm’s way and test it in our business. That’s got us where we are and we’re not going to stop doing that.”

Artificial intelligence

Speaking to Clarke at the AWS Summit 2017 in London, he tells Essential Retail how one of Ocado’s five technology priorities is artificial intelligence (AI), along with big data, robotics, cloud and the internet of things (IoT).

He describes how many retailers look at AI and think they need people with PHDs and particular specialities to tackle all the different strands of AI, because, as Clarke says, “AI comes in many flavours – it’s a palate you paint with”.

“In the same way years ago everyone was scrambling around for data scientists, people are scrambling around for AI – although you could say it’s a strand of data science anyway.”

But the development of cloud-based services coming from the likes of AWS and other vendors “in different shapes and sizes” is democratising AI, according to Clarke.

“They will make it accessible to engineers who are not experts in AI and who couldn’t build the underlying technology from scratch – as long as you have the data to train the models and you’ve architected your applications to be able to plug AI services in.”

But for Ocado, as both a retailer and a supplier of all these new technologies, in-house expertise is critical. Clarke says because these technologies are so new, skills are in relatively short supply, leading the e-tailer to build development centres overseas in order to gain the right talent.

“One of the changes I’ve seen over recent years is that people didn’t quite get that we were this incredibly strong and exciting technology business, as well as a household name in terms of the strength of our retail business – and I think now they increasingly do,” he explains.

“There are people who are interviewing with us now and we’re definitely on their [career] bucket list and there are people writing articles describing us as one of the most exciting technology companies in Europe and that’s a great place to have got to.”

Clarke insists being able to hire talent is “absolutely key” to its ongoing journey to build up its OSP capabilities.

Clarke says the shortage of technology talent in the UK is around the wider issue of how the country teaches technology in schools from an early age, which is one of the reasons Ocado began its Code for Life Programme to encourage digital literacy.

“It’s about us trying to give something back and being part of the solution rather than moaning that there’s not enough people coming through with these skills,” he says.

“We need to be teaching the next generation to manipulate data and about AI ultimately, even if it’s at a simple level, because they’re all going to be living in a smart world, full of AI and robots and for those who aren’t going to end up working with those technologies, from a wider educational point of view, it’s part of what needs to be in the mix.”

The government has identified this problem and has even asked Clarke to help solve the issues. “I’ve got about four dates in the diary to be part of various different government consultation groups around AI and it’s great to see that now it’s starting to happen and the government is making it such a big part of their industrial strategy, including automotive driverless vehicles.”

He adds: “That’s the positive side, the UK is on the front foot to trial those types of technologies. We just need to be doing more right at the primary school stage onwards to fill the hopper.”


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About Us & Activities

The Winter's Tale

Kansas City ESU members and guests attended the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival's production of The Winter's Tale on Monday, June 30, 2014.  This annual ESU Group Night gives ESU members and guests a special group price for reserved seating close to the stage.

This year's Shakespeare tragi-comedy, The Winter's Tale was written toward the end of  Shakespeare's theatrical career, The Winter's Tale (1609-1611) is a story of loss and redemption. In a fit of wild and unfounded jealousy, Leontes, the King of Sicily, convinces himself that his pregnant wife is carrying his best friend's love child. Leontes's jealousy turns to tyranny as the King proceeds to destroy his entire family and a lifelong friendship. Sixteen long years pass, and we witness one of the most astonishing endings in English literature.

Photo by Roger Ridpath; rogerridpath.com

It was an exceptional production with lavish stage sets, colorful costuming, a musical quartet playing off to the side giving during scene transitions and some of the best Shakespearean actors in Kansas City. Sidonie Garrett directed the this rarely produced play.

Robert Trussell, Kansas City Star, theatre critic, commented on the professional actors in the production, "(Bruce) Roach and many of his fellow players represent the best Shakespearean actors in Kansas City. John Rensenhouse as King Polixenes, Leontes' boyhood friend, brings effortless authority to the stage. Cinnamon Schultz is a marvelous model of economy as the virtuous Hermione, queen to Leontes."

Scene from The Winter's Tale produced By Heart of America Shakespeare Festival Southmoreland Park, Kansas City, Mo. Photo by Roger Ridpath; rogerridpath.com

Kansas City ESU's First Place 2014 Shakespeare Competition winner, Makenna Lockhart, was in this production of The Winter's Tale as one of the Bohemian Peasants and was her fourth production with the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival.

Sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate with outdoor stage productions and the night our ESU group attended, the second act after intermission, had to be cancelled due to the major storm approaching the KC area.  Fortunately, the cancellation was timed just right because the audience left the park about 15 minutes before the storm arrived.  ESU members and guests who attended the performance were offered a return visit see the entire play.  Subsequent nights had perfect weather in the low 70s.

Every year, before each performance, two Shakespeare enthusiasts, Felicia Hardison Londré and Philip blue owl Hooser give audiences an entertaining and educational preview of the play.  This 30 minute overview of the plot and historical background on the play gives theatre-goers a good opportunity to learn more about the play.  Several ESU members and guests attended Felicia's "Show Talk."

(L to R) Jeff Schnabel, Carolyn Connor, Deborah McArdle, Rosalie Lavery, Maria Meyers, Lee Vandenbos, (not pictured: Paul Lavery, Bob McCoy).

Return to News & Events


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Brooklyn Beckham Sweetly Supports Mom Victoria Backstage at Her NYFW Show, Rocks Safety Pin Earring

Victoria Beckham certainly has a supportive family!

The designer's husband, David Beckham, and their 18-year-old son, Brooklyn, were spotted sitting front row next to British Vogue Editor In Chief Edward Enninful during the former Spice Girl's Spring/Summer show at New York Fashion Week on Sunday.

Getty Images

Brooklyn also shared Instagram video of the show, writing, "very proud," in the caption.

And he snagged a chic shot of his mom on the runway, showing off his photography skills

Victoria got to hug her equally stylish son backstage, where he can be seen sporting a safety pin earring.

It's a definite statement piece, but it's unclear if it's a nod to punk style, or as part of a wider movement of stars wearing safety pins to show their support and willingness to stand up for vulnerable groups like immigrants, minorities, or LGBT individuals.

Of course, David was happy for his accomplished wife as well, sharing a pic of himself and Brooklyn at the show. "Great show today very proud to be in NYC with this handsome young man @victoriabeckham ?," he wrote.

The designer's mom also came by to support her daughter. Victoria posted a post-show pic with her mom, Jackie Adams, writing, "Post show lunch with family x love u so much!!! X @jackie.adams."

For more on this famous and fashionable family, watch the video below!


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EXCLUSIVE: Jennifer Lopez Talks Going Into Business With Alex Rodriguez and Their 'Locker Room' Dance Parties

Jennifer Lopez is "absolutely" down to mix business and pleasure with boyfriend Alex Rodriguez.

The triple threat star showed up with her handsome beau to NBC's World of Dance celebration at Delilah on Tuesday night in West Hollywood, California, and chatted with ET's Cameron Mathison about the possibility of one day working with the 42-year-old former MLB pro.

When asked if she would ever go into business with Rodriguez, Lopez exclaimed, "Absolutely. We're already thinking about all the things we can do together."

While Lopez is busy promoting the second season of World of Dance, among other things, she always finds time to cut loose. The 48-year-old entertainer shared that after her Las Vegas shows, she and Rodriguez have dance parties.

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez attend NBC's World of Dance celebration at Delilah on Sept. 19 in West Hollywood, California.Getty Images

"We take every opportunity we can to celebrate life these days," she said, adding that they dance in her Vegas dressing room, which they now refer to as the "locker room."

"Because of Alex, everything is a baseball term," the mother of two quipped. "We do an after show kind of thing where we sing and we dance and everybody just kind of lets loose for a couple hours. ...It's not kids, it's more adults. It's too late for the kids after my show."

Lopez admitted that she feels most herself when she's dancing. "I started out as a dancer and I love it so much," she confided. "Whenever I get to go to the dance studio and work on that, I feel like myself again. It's when I feel the most excited. It's the craziest thing."

Lopez and Rodriguez might be working on more than just a business plan.

A source told ET that the power couple could soon be talking marriage. “Those in J.Lo’s inner circle see her relationship with A-Rod going the distance,” the source said. “They definitely see marriage potential here. J.Lo loves that they have so much in common. They’re both parents and they’re both successful in business. Their lives, while busy, really complement each other.”


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'Scandal': Olivia Has a New Love Interest -- But Where's Fitz?

SPOILER ALERT!! Do not read if you haven't watched Thursday's season seven premiere of Scandal

This is Olivia Pope's world, and we're all just living in it.

Scandal started its final season with a bang on Thursday night -- in more ways than one.

Within the first five minutes of the premiere, Olivia was back in bed with Jake Ballard, but despite their second round in the sheets, our favorite White House Chief of Staff made it clear that the romantic relationship was just for the sake of convenience.

RELATED: 'Scandal' Star Katie Lowes Welcomes Son -- See the First Pic of Her 'Baby Gladiator!'

Instead, Olivia had other things on her mind, like shutting down reporters on TV (more on that later) and walking through the White House likes she owns the place (because she kind of does).

Olivia was definitely on a power trip, and the minute someone tried to tell her otherwise, she shut them down -- big time.

"This is over," she told Jake after he tried to tell her how to run B613. "Go home to your wife, Admiral Ballard."

EXCLUSIVE: 'Scandal' Cast Reveals What They're Stealing From Set!

With Jake out of the picture, Olivia had room for another man.

"There's a car waiting outside. It'll take you to the District hotel. Room 523... You will find a door, the door will be unlocked," Olivia tells Curtis Pryce, after giving him the cold shoulder THE ENTIRE EPISODE (What do you want, Olivia?!) "I'm going to get up now. Let's give it, I don't know, 30 seconds? Then you come."

Scandal newbie Jay Hernandez is definitely easy on the eyes, but what happened to Fitz? See what Tony Goldwyn told ET about the final season in the video below.

Scandal airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.