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At The Apex Of The Changes

Dr. Michael LaitmanBefore our world was created, the spiritual Kli was created, and now in our world, it is up to us to restore it, to connect it anew from the shattered parts. These parts are us, and the shattering is in the mutual rejection between us. Parts of the Kelim, meaning us, receive an awakening from above, and, in this form, we ask ourselves questions about the meaning of life.

The meaning of life is found above our lives because we don’t ask about this in the framework of this life. We think only how to get along better in life, and, when we begin to ask, “What is the reason for living,” this is already a question beyond the limits of our world. This is already a question directed at the source of our existence, at the Creator.

In general, all of humanity is in a movement toward unity, but in a most unpleasant way and not with the greatest speed. All of us have advanced in such a form and reached this moment where our development has brought us to the finish line where all of us must begin to connect.

There is a group, all whom received the awakening from above, and it is up to us to realize the method of correction in ourselves, to connect with the Creator minimally. This is because connection with the Creator is possible only to the degree that we accept shortcomings from the entire world.

We receive the usual shortcomings from the entire world; in other words, all six shortcomings that Baal HaSulam enumerated, desires that are relevant to a person, to his body, which are food, sex, and family, and in addition to this, there are desires that are related to the connection of the person with society directed toward money, respect and information.

All six desires are active in every person in our world, but they are discovered in each one differently, and in each one of them, there are a multitude of different components, smaller desires.

All of human development first was directed toward developing desires related to food, sex, and family in humans, leading them to the growth of desires for money, honor, and knowledge so that they would pass through them and discover lack of fulfillment in them. Yet, in the meantime, it is difficult to say that all of humanity is found in such a condition.

Food, sex, and family are corporeal desires that don’t require any correction, in principle. However, in the higher desires for wealth, honor, and knowledge, a greater ego is discovered within humanity. Also, this ego is generally only preliminary, required so that a lack of true fulfillment would be discovered in it as well. This is the crisis. The lack of true fulfillment is the feeling of the crisis.

Therefore, we now are in a stage where humanity is passing through different crisis phenomena, and these crisis phenomena change all the time. Some of them have more of an influence on the economy, others on ethics, and part of them on politics and on the family. In general, there will be many and varied crises, and, accordingly, we must understand how we need to work with people.

In principle, the method is the same method, but the approach to people must be according to their needs. In other words, for every civilization, for every culture that exists in the world today, there must be a unique approach. Therefore, desires are developed in different nations, in different people and areas, according to the place in which we must work.

Look, for example, at how Latin America leaped with a desire to realize spirituality and how much Europe lags behind it. There is no singular approach. We don’t know why it happens this way.

Accordingly, it is up to us to be sensitive to the pulse all the time, to see where to invest more efforts, where there is a greater need, an opportunity for more exposure. The world is in a global connection. Yet, nevertheless, many changes are taking place in all the different parts of the world.

Therefore, it is up to us to concentrate on a place where there is a need for correction, for spirituality, for inner change, or, as Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, where the question: “What is the reason for my life?” “How can I be fulfilled?” exists; when a question like this appears, people already are prepared for us to turn to them.

As we already have said, this question can expand into different areas, beginning with everyday problems in life to higher, more psychological, more internal problems. Therefore, this places a difficult problem before us.

The idea is that we cannot connect to the Creator if we don’t function as a conduit for His connection, for His bestowal, for His control of the entire world in order to pull all of humanity after us. You see, the entire system is undergoing a shattering only to be able to begin to feel the Creator through this shattering so that we will rise to His level. That is how the entire problem of His relationship with the creatures will be discovered and resolved. The “good and benevolent” is expressed in the creatures rising to His level and becoming like Him. This means everyone together, without exception.

In this way, it is up to us to have our hand on the pulse; and, besides this, it is up to us to be very sensitive to all changes, no matter how small. We now also are found in the higher world, in the world of Infinity (Olam Ein Sof), surrounded and penetrated with the Ohr Ein Sof, with the light of the Creator. There is no difference between our place now and in the future. Nothing changes except our feeling, our senses. The sensitivity is changed. It is up to us to develop and discover it in order to feel the Light. We are found within it, and nothing exists outside of it. So, all of the changes take place within us, and there is no need to travel anywhere. It is necessary only to work all the time on increasing sensitivity to the upper Light within us. This is our goal.

The problem is that, without movement, matter doesn’t exist. Matter exists only in constant motion, in change. Theoretically, if the movement were to stop, everything would disappear immediately. We see this with the atoms, with the elementary particles from which the atoms are composed. If we want to feel the upper world, we must increase our sensitivity to the changes that are taking place in us. Sometimes, it seems to a person that nothing is changing, that everything has frozen, has stopped, that there is no movement. The feeling that life has frozen is intended to show us that we must increase our sensitivity to all movement, and all the movements take place within desire.

At the moment that we begin to be integrated within a group that requires us to concentrate on the Creator through the connection between us, we immediately receive a countless number of changes at every moment. You will begin to feel that every second is an infinite unit of time, from beginning to end. During that second, we pass through a multitude of changes. This sensitivity to change is what we must discover.

I hope that the mutual integration between us through which all of us together are passing—among all of the various continents, civilizations and cultures—will embed in us the fundamentals of greater sensitivity to changes, and, inside of us at every moment, we will begin to feel tremendous changes in desire, direction, emotion, and perception. All the time, more and more, we will examine and direct them at every moment toward the Creator through the group, and, in this way, we very quickly will move the rest of the required way for the first discovery of the Creator.

Discovery of the Creator takes place specifically within these incessant changes because permanence or fixation doesn’t exist. The moment that you stop, everything disappears!

Therefore, the incessant changes guarantee that we are feeling the upper world, feeling the Creator. In our world, our feeling can be something permanent, but, in spirituality, this cannot be. Therefore, come, and let’s remember well that this condition can be fulfilled only if I am linked through the group, locked all the time on the Creator.

So, how do we raise sensitivity to the spirituality in which we are found? If I go out of myself and try to listen to what the friend says, suddenly I find myself in an empty void within the friend. So, within this empty void, how can I feel all kinds of changes and movements so that I will enter into his inner desires directed toward the Creator so that we will yearn for Him together?

We discover and attain the Creator to the degree that we are sensitive to Him; in other words, when the surrounding expanse is revealed to us and we try to feel its characteristics, the changes in it, its vibrations in regard to us, or more correctly, our vibrations in regard to it, our changes in regard to the characteristic of bestowal and love.

Our entire world was given to us in order to direct ourselves toward a particular wave, toward the characteristic of bestowal and love, like in a radio receiver. In the beginning, a rough, approximate tuning is made between the friends. As we continue, we connect to greater and greater external circles of our world, and, as a result of this, we direct ourselves more and more precisely, emotionally discover more of the characteristic of bestowal and love, and in such a form, we begin to feel the Creator more and more clearly.

For our entire world, all of the creatures, the fragmentation and the corrections are required only in order to direct ourselves toward feeling the characteristic of bestowal and love, the Creator, and as long as all of humanity has not entered into this system of mutual feeling—of mutual vibrations, of the tuning of the self—we cannot discover the Creator at all, not any person in the world.

The Kabbalists carried out great work in the past, but they reached a very limited range of attainment because humanity was not at all ready to begin to feel this yet.

However, as of today, we already have been able to determine that humanity is ready to integrate into clarifications of feelings of mutual bestowal and love and from them, to become aware of the Creator. In other words, today, the general rule, “From the love of man to the love of the Creator,” is being actively realized specifically by tuning into a high sensitivity to bestowal, to mutual connection, mutual integration according to the principle, “That which you hate, do not do to your friend,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Our mutual tuning leads us toward the Creator, and, through gradual expansion of our circle of sensitivity, to all of humanity, in this way, we discover the Creator within this new sense of bestowal and love.

That is how the general rule of “From the love of man to the love of the Creator” is realized, but it is specifically through feelings, through increased sensitivity.
From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day One 2/2/14, Workshop 4

Related Material:
Steps To The Path Of Unity
Nine Stages On The Path To Unity, Point 8
The Soul Is A Tool For The Revelation Of The Creator

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Tomato harvest 2018 has begun!

sunpeach cherry tomato closeup

Organic Cherry Tomatoes are here!

The wait is finally over! The 2018 Tomato harvest is ON!!

Tomatoes are hands down our FAVORITE crop here at Langwater. Nothing beats a fresh, vine-ripened Tomato at the peak of flavor. We take a lot of pride in our Tomatoes because we think they are the essence of summer–juicy, sweet, flavorful & ephemeral.

We’ve got several kinds and colors of Cherry Tomatoes ripening like mad in the field–pink ones like these, plus red Grape Tomatoes, red round ones, and yellow Grape Tomatoes. We’re just starting to pick some red slicing and heirloom Tomatoes as well, and the harvest will increase each day as the week goes on.

red tomato close up 1

Red slicing Tomatoes (aka Beefsteaks) are ripe & ready!

Time for the first BLT of the summer, or a flame-grilled burger with a thick slab of juicy beefsteak Tomato on top. MmmmMmmm!

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Madonna & Child

February 24, 2016

Kinda Khalidy’s paintings are naive, playful and jubilantly colourful. They remind me of Wassily Kandinsky’s Blue Rider period. My fondness for Kandinsky is less about his paintings and more about the personal memories attached to them. In our late teens, a group of us arrived tipsy on Diamond White to a school trip at the South Bank to see a Kandinsky/Wagner inspired performance art piece. Well –– yawn, yawn — we made such a raucous, that audience members (namely ones with chewing gum in their hair) complained to the school the next day. Our art history teacher was devastated, and when Kandinsky came up in the curriculum a few months later, we squirmed in our seats. All of us except Polly, that is. “I see the Madonna and child,” she proclaimed as “painting with red spot” appeared projected on the classroom wall. Maybe she really did see the Madonna, or maybe she was just taking the piss, but it’s all I can see now when I look at his paintings. After Polly died, the same group of friends who drank Diamond White down by the River Thames, gathered in NYC to celebrate her beautiful life. The minute we walked into the Neue Gallery and saw the Kandisnkys on the walls we regressed to the kind of silly school girl behaviour that only Polly could provoke in us. I’ll never own a Kandinsky, but it would be wonderful to own a Khalidy. I’ve got my sights on one with a giant red splodge.

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German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote these lines down more than 200 years ago but they feel like they could have been written today. A girl taking a picture in front of it “enslaved” by likes, by social presence and mass surveillance. This Cut-Out is hand-cut and comes with a frame.

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(I found out what Obama was talking about. See So This Is What Obama Was Talking About….)

Unfortunately, this week President Obama echoed the typical stuff that has been coming out of his administration about schools in his speech at a Wisconsin school.

However, there was one part that I found intriguing. Maybe others know what he’s referring to in the last line of this excerpt. If you do, please leave a comment.

But what we want to do — what we want to do is finally get testing right. So it’s not about more tests, it’s about being smarter about our assessments. It’s about measuring not only whether our kids can master the basics, but whether they can solve challenging tasks, do they have the skills like critical thinking and teamwork and entrepreneurship; assessments that don’t just give us a snapshot of how a student is doing in a particular subject, but a big picture look at how they’re learning overall; and assessments that will help tell us if our kids have the knowledge and the skills to thrive when they graduate.

So we’re not just interested in can they fill out a bubble. What we want to do is to take a look generally — are kids learning and gaining the critical thinking skills that they need to succeed. Now, these are the kinds of assessments that our states should be putting in place, and we’re setting up a separate competition where they can win grants, extra grants to help them do just that.

I had not heard anything about this effort to have states compete to develop better assessments.  Is he serious?  Or is it just window-dressing to make all the bad stuff seem more palatable?


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Lisa Ling's new documentary series premieres to strong ratings on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network

February 16, 2011 |  5:10 pm

Lisaling Lisa Ling says that the folks at OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network care less about ratings than content. Maybe that's so, but the numbers for Tuesday's premiere of Ling's new documentary series, "Our America," show how a recognizable name can still rope in viewers.

"Our America," which examines hot-button topics such as online bride services and sex offenses, averaged 574,000 total viewers durings its 10 p.m. time slot, according to the Nielsen Co. That's a modest total by broadcast standards, of course, but not bad at all for a cable network that's just 6 weeks old.

Ling, who developed a following years ago on "The View" and has more recently served as a field correspondent on Winfrey's syndicated show, delivered a better number than OWN did in prime time during its heavily promoted launch week last month (505,000 average). "Our America" also improved by 242% what Discovery Health — OWN's predecessor on cable systems — was doing a year ago.

The show was preceded at 9 p.m. by another premiere, a seven-episode documentary series about women in prison, "Breaking Down the Bars," which drew just 366,000 viewers.

Show Trackers, did you catch "Our America"? If so, what did you think?

With OWN's new series, 'Our America,' Lisa Ling wants people to 'think differently.' Is that enough?

— Scott Collins

Photo: Lisa Ling in Pasadena last month. Credit: Matt Sayles/Associated Press.


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Brazil: Bush Visit Boosts Business

The visit to Latin America by President George W. Bush should help boost two-way business and trade with Brazil.

Sergio Raposo, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Rio de Janeiro is pleased with the visit to Brazil last week of President George W. Bush. "Mr. Bushs visit was very fortunate," he says.  "We think this is a very favorable sign and we definitely hope that this will [be followed by concrete] actions."

Other business leaders voiced similar opinions about the trip and Bushs meetings with his host, Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. "The meeting exceeded expectations," Alexandre Silva, president of GE Brazil and the American Chamber of Commerce in Brazil (Sao Paulo), said in a statement.  Meanwhile, Mark Pitt, general manager of Sherwin-Williams in Brazil, sees the meeting between the two presidents as a good start for further improvement in trade relations.

Raposo is especially pleased by the announcement that the United States and...

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“You’ve got to see them in your mind’s eye as just as real as all the people that surround you in the living world today. People that if you knew them, you would love them.”

Family History enthusiasts from the San Francisco area share some of the inspiring experiences had while researching their ancestors and their stories. Ranging from finding documents against all odds, to discovering common feelings and even physical similarities, these remarkable stories motivate and inspire.


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“Any meadow blessed with the Rom’s presence, with all of our
eiderdowns spread about, was nocturnally transformed into an ornate
Persian carpet.

We called them dunhas, their rich deep tints inspired by the
flowers growing in the leas around us: periwinkle from bluebells and
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from violets; scarlet from Indian paintbrush; crimson from Sumac berries which
emerged in autumn’s frost to announce the impending winter.”
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151 F.3d 1034

NOTICE: Seventh Circuit Rule 53(b)(2) states unpublished orders shall not be cited or used as precedent except to support a claim of res judicata, collateral estoppel or law of the case in any federal court within the circuit.
Salvatore CECOLA, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 97-3523.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued June 10, 1998.
Decided June 30, 1998.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division No. 96 CR 248 Charles P. Kocoras, Judge.

Following a jury trial, appellant Salvatore Cecola was convicted of conspiring to defraud the United States, from 1984 through 1995, by impeding, impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service in the ascertainment, computation, assessment and collection of income taxes and payroll taxes in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Cecola was also convicted of filing false tax returns for the tax years 1989 through 1993 in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1). At sentencing, the district court found that Cecola was "a leader and organizer" of the conspiracy, and adjusted his sentence upward by four levels pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a). The district court sentenced Cecola to 46 months' imprisonment, three years' supervised release, and a fine of $10,000. On appeal, Cecola argues that the district court erred in finding that he was a leader of the conspiracy because his activities were limited to his involvement in a legitimate business and had nothing to do with the conspiracy. Because the district court plausibly interpreted Cecola's activities as revealing leadership of the conspiracy, we affirm.

In 1993, agents of the IRS began to investigate the finances of Odyssey Video, in Bristol, Wisconsin, and Ogden Books, in Downers Grove, Illinois. Odyssey and Ogden were adult entertainment stores that sold videos, magazines, lingerie and other similar items. The stores also featured video arcades. In December, 1993, the IRS agents searched Ogden and the home of Ogden employee Raymond Magray. During the search they seized cash registers and register tapes that had been discarded in garbage cans. Thereafter the agents interviewed various employees of Odyssey and Ogden. From the seized evidence and information provided by cooperating employees, the agents were able to conclude that the owners of Odyssey and Ogden were evading income taxes by skimming sales proceeds. Specifically, the agents reconstructed the following facts.

In 1983, Frank Panno, John Spudeas, and Salvatore Cecola purchased property in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In 1984, they established Odyssey on that property. However, they kept their ownership of Odyssey hidden, and enlisted Robert Burns as the store's "front owner." Burns signed a phony leasing agreement with LaSalle Management, a video equipment leasing company owned by Cecola. Although LaSalle never provided any of the equipment used in the store, Odyssey paid LaSalle $5,500 per month. Cecola was frequently present at the store and made inventory decisions when he was there. Profits of Odyssey were split as follows: Burns received 10%, James Gaudie (a former LaSalle employee who worked at Odyssey) received 5%, and Cecola, Panno and Spudeas split the remaining 85% equally.

In 1984, Panno and Gaudie instructed various Odyssey personnel, including Burns and Fred Stern (who was later to be a government witness at the trial) on how to skim proceeds from Odyssey profits. When instructing Burns, Gaudie explained: "this is the way we do business." During the next decade, the Odyssey personnel systematically destroyed cash register tapes and records and replaced them with false tapes and records to create the impression that the business received approximately twenty-five percent less cash than it actually did. Further, only 50% of the coins that clients inserted into the video machines were deposited in Odyssey's bank account and reported to the IRS. False records were supplied to accountants who prepared false income tax returns to be signed and filed by Burns. In addition, the store's employees received half of their pay in cash, and this income was never declared to the IRS.

In 1984, Cecola negotiated a lease for the Ogden store. Similarly to the situation at Odyssey, the real lessors were Panno, Spudeas and Cecola, but the front lessor (i.e. the individual who signed the papers) was an individual named Spero Palladino rather than Burns. Again, the conspirators implemented an elaborate skim scheme. Employees who had implemented the scheme at Odyssey were brought to Ogden to implement the scheme there. Thus, Craig Solomon worked at Odyssey until Cecola made him manager of Ogden. Later, Cecola fired Solomon and replaced him with Stern, moving Stern from Odyssey. In addition, Cecola fired Jim Moses, who had worked first as a clerk at Odyssey and then as a maintenance man at Ogden. Cecola also fired Stern when he discovered that Stern was stealing money from the skimmed proceeds. However, Cecola then payed Stern $1000 to teach him how to keep the fake records. When Stern was contacted by the IRS in 1994, Stern called Cecola and asked for help with legal fees. Cecola told Stern that someone named Don would contact him and that he should remember that Palladino owned Ogden. A short time later, a man named Don remitted $1000 to Stern, apparently to cover Stern's legal fees.

The IRS agents concluded that the conspirators skimmed more than $2,500,000 in gross receipts from the two stores, of which Cecola's total share was $610,901. On this basis, the Presentence Investigation Report recommended assigning Cecola a base offense level of 18. However, the PSI recommended that this base level be enhanced by two points for use of "sophisticated means" (viz. the creation of false cash register tapes) under U.S.S.G. § 2T1(b)(2), and by four points on account of Cecola's role as a leader and organizer of the offense under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1. The PSI justified the four-level enhancement by referring to Cecola's "overall level of authority" and to the fact that the conspiracy "involved more than five participants." Elsewhere the report noted: "Salvatore Cecola and Frank Panno are viewed as being more culpable than the other defendants due to their ownership interests and their decision-making authority." In written objections to the PSI and at sentencing, Cecola submitted a different calculation of the skimming proceeds and maintained that only a tax loss of $178,340 should be attributed to him. Cecola argued that he and the other conspirators did not use "sophisticated means," and that he had not played a role as leader or organizer. Cecola asserted that he exercised ownership interests and decision-making authority only to the extent that he was involved in the legitimate business operations of Odyssey and Ogden. Moreover, Cecola moved for a downward departure on the basis of his wife's illness, potential job loss to innocent third parties, and on the grounds that a briefer period of incarceration would facilitate payment of restitution.

The district court adapted all of the PSI's factual findings and denied the motion for a downward departure. The district court sentenced Cecola to 46 months' imprisonment, three years' supervised release, and a fine of $10,000.

Cecola appeals only the district court's ruling that he was a leader and organizer of the conspiracy. He argues that the court failed to engage in any meaningful analysis of the leadership issue and clearly erred in failing to recognize the distinction between his conspiratorial activities and his involvement in the legitimate business operations of Odyssey and Ogden.

I. Aggravating role

We review for clear error a district court's determination under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a) that a factual basis exists for concluding that a defendant was an organizer or leader of criminal activity. United States v. Porretta, 116 F.3d 296, 299 (7th Cir.1997). The district court's factual determinations should be upheld "unless, after reviewing the record, we are left with the firm conviction that a mistake has been made." United States v. Tanksley, 104 F.3d 924, 925 (7th Cir.1997) (per curiam).

A minimal requirement for any enhancement under § 3B1.1 is that the defendant "must have had some real and direct influence, aimed at furthering the criminal activity, upon one other identified participant." United States v. Mankiewicz, 122 F.3d 399, 405 (7th Cir.1997) (citing United States v. Mustread, 42 F.3d 1097, 1103 (7th Cir.1994)) (emphasis added). The purpose of a § 3B1.1 enhancement is "to assign relative responsibility." Id. at 406. Section 3B1.1(a) provides for a four-level enhancement to the sentence of a defendant who has been "an organizer or leader of a criminal activity that involved five or more participants or was otherwise extensive." United States v. Magana, 118 F.3d 1173, 1203 (7th Cir.1997). A "participant" is "any person criminally responsible for an offense, whether or not he was convicted." Mustread, 42 F.3d at 1103.

In order to qualify as a leader or organizer, the defendant must also have exercised a measure of influence over "at least four other participants in the offense." Magana, 118 F.3d at 1203 (citing United States v. Hall, 109 F.3d 1227, 1234 (7th Cir.1997)). Thus, beyond the requirement of "real and direct" influence over one participant, the defendant must have had some measure of control over at least four additional participants. However, the standard defining the relationship with the additional participants is less stringent than the "real and direct influence" of the initial requirement. Rather, the defendant's control over the other participants may be either "direct or indirect." Id. (emphasis added). A mere "isolated incident" does not make the defendant into a leader or organizer, Mustread, 42 F.3d at 1104-1105, but the word "control," in the context of § 3B1.1(a), is used "in a broad sense to mean some kind of supervisory or organizational role with respect to [the four additional] participants, including recruitment...." Magana, 118 F.3d at 1203.

Cecola concedes that there were five or more criminally responsible persons, but denies that he led or organized them. A review of the record amply supports the district court's determination that Cecola did lead and/or organize five criminally responsible persons. Cecola reassigned Stern from Odyssey to Ogden, thereby indirectly exercising control over Burns and Palladino, the front owners of the two stores. Later, Cecola fired Stern; but still later Stern turned to Cecola when the IRS contacted him and Cecola sent a messenger to him with a thousand dollars for "legal fees." Before firing Stern, Cecola ordered Ogden employee Magray to preserve and bring him the true, original records of proceeds in order to compare those records with Stern's records and determine whether Stern was stealing from the skimmed money. Cecola also hired and fired Craig Solomon. Cecola fired Jim Moses. In addition, Cecola ordered Burns to sign phony leasing agreements between Odyssey and Cecola's own company, LaSalle, so that $5,500 could be diverted to LaSalle each month. All of these actions are legitimately regarded as indicative of a "supervisory or organizational role." Viewing Cecola's involvement in the tax evasion scheme in light of all the trial evidence, the court properly determined that Cecola led or organized at least five participants in the scheme. The court's determination was based on the plausible testimony of many witnesses, and therefore contains no clear error.

Cecola also claims that his involvement (or leadership) was limited to "legitimate business" activities. This claim is belied by the fact that Cecola and his colleagues carefully concealed their ownership of the Odyssey and Ogden businesses. For example, a document used by Ogden's accountants states at the top: "Ogden Book Store notes. Do not use Sam Cecola's name on any mail to store. Just address all mail to store only. Contact for store Fred Stern." From this document the district court was entitled to infer that Cecola himself hid his ownership of Ogden by giving particular instructions to the accountants. It is thus difficult not to accept the government's argument that both Ogden and Odyssey existed for the sole and unique purpose of evading taxes through the skimming scheme.

Finally, Cecola points out that if he had been a leader, the other defendants would not have "snubbed" him by "exclud[ing]" him from participation in three other business enterprises. Contrary to the government's assertion, Cecola did present this argument to the district court; thus the argument is not waived. However, the argument is unconvincing. Of the three additional businesses, two were not doing well enough to engage in skimming, and the third never opened. The businesses that provided the tax loss figure for the Sentencing Guidelines base offense level were Odyssey and Ogden. Therefore, the district court appropriately considered Cecola's role in reference to Odyssey and Ogden alone.

II. Paucity of analysis on the part of the district court

With respect to Cecola's denial that he had played a role as leader or organizer, the court found as follows:

I have had some difficulty with the level of your involvement, but I do honestly believe--and I tell you that--that you were a leader in this case and an organizer. I know Mr. Stern had to teach you how to effect the skim, but that was simply the mechanics of it. I do think you were beyond someone who was a manager or supervisor, and there were a number of people involved--five or more--that you lead [sic]. I do think you were a leader and organizer of this activity beyond simply your ownership position, and I so find.

Cecola maintains that the district court "did not offer a basis for its ruling, refer to the grounds urged by the probation officer, or address any of the factors contained in the commentary to § 3B1.1...." Rather, in the "statement of reasons" portion of the judgment, the court marked the box indicating that it adopted the factual findings and guideline application of the presentence report. However, the PSI also did not engage in any analysis of the factors contained in the commentary to § 3B1.1. Rather, the PSI stated simply that "Salvatore Cecola and Frank Panno are viewed as being more culpable than the other defendants due to their ownership interests and their decision-making authority."

We have held that "prior to imposing an aggravating-role enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a), the district judge "must identify five participants in [the] offense ... [and] determine whether [the defendant] exhibited leadership of or control over all of the five participants." United States v. Zaragoza-Baraja, 123 F.3d 472, 483 (7th Cir.1997). In general, we have admonished district courts to "state in open court the reasons for the particular sentence [and to] make a finding on each part of the presentence report that the defendant challenges," United States v. Pippen, 115 F.3d 422, 424 (7th Cir.1997). Nonetheless, we have stated that "while we require specific findings to support an enhancement under § 3B1.1, our decisions in this area also make clear that the district court's failure to make such findings need not result invariably in a remand. Rather, we will uphold the sentence so long as the enhancement is adequately supported by the record." Zaragoza-Baraja, 123 F.3d at 483.

While Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(c)(1) generally requires explicit findings, "there are no 'magic words' a court must use; so long as it actually resolves the disputed issues on the record, a sentencing court fulfills the purpose of Rule 32." United States v. McKinney, 98 F.3d 974, 980 (7th Cir.1996); see also United States v. Demski, 72 F.3d 533, 546 (7th Cir.1995) (affirming sentence where "the statements made by the sentencing judge reflect that she did consider the record in its totality and did make findings on the 'matters controverted,' as required by Rule 32, even though she largely pointed to the PSR instead of providing detailed responses to each of the defendant's objections"); United States v. Anaya, 32 F.3d 308, 312 (7th Cir.1994) (a sentencing adjustment based on a trial judge's "hunch ... unsupported by facts" constitutes error, but a trial judge may rely on his instincts "which relate to the facts of the case"). Since the district court resolved the disputed issues regarding Cecola's role, and since the record adequately supports the district court's determination that Cecola was a leader or organizer of the conspiracy, we will uphold that determination here.

The district court did not clearly err in enhancing Cecola's sentence for his role as leader or organizer of the conspiracy.


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Fathalla Industries Maxivision Roller Shutter

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MAXIVISION is a transparent security roller shutter system designed to provide maximum transparency where vision is required through the shutter at all times.

Maxivision gives a clear view and allows window shopping combined with secure impact resistant strength.

The growing need for security into buildings coupled to secure but attractive door systems is influencing new products in the market. Planning authorities, architects and designers are looking for interesting solutions which would offer security coupled with a high transparency : Maxivision has been developped.

Maxivision can be used as internal or external see-trough barriers for shops fronts, counter tops and terrace fronts by offering up to 90 % vision thereby continuing to show off window displays after closure.

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Spring and Summer Lawn and Garden Care.

Lawn maintenance: Includes trimming edges, bagging and removing clippings. You choose the cut height with or without mulching.

Yard work, fertilizing, herbicide and pesticide treatments are available based on on an hourly rate of $25.00. Request a quotation.

We give a customized service. Please give me, Chris Chianelli, a call to arrange to meet and discuss your particular needs.

Chris at 613-352-1163(h) 613-484-5350. Now…enjoy the summer!

Fall and Winter Care

Osprey will again be looking after any fall household chores you may require;

  • Eaves trough Cleaning.
  • Leaf Raking and shrub removal
  • Lawn and garden maintenance.

As we all know, last year was very easygoing for us in the the snowfall department. Some may have opted for a set fee for the season. We at Osprey are continuing our policy to offer

  • ‘Pay as you go’ services for driveway and walkway clearing.
  • We offer very reasonable rates, using
  • Brand new Snow throwers, and, because
  • We’re based in Loyalist Estates, we’re a phone call away.

We also offer service to those travelling for the winter;

  • Checking sumps, furnace, assuring all doors and windows are secure
  • Regular watering  for plants in the house,
  • We check your insurance policy and make sure we comply
  • Removing delivered newspapers

This will be our 6th year offering this service, with great response.. In addition, Osprey can arrange drop off or pickups at the Airport in Collins Bay to make your trip more pleasant, and the same said for Appointments that need to be kept.

Material contained in this advertisement or editorial does not constitute, or imply an endorsement by the Loyalist Country Club Residents Association (LCCRA). The views and opinions expressed in this or any referenced document do not necessarily state or reflect the beliefs of the LCCRA.

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Outsourcing Appointment Setting

How many hours does your sales staff spend in face to face time with clients? Chances are it could be as low as 4 to 6 hours per week. If the rest of their time is spent in finding leads and setting up meetings, you could make a huge difference to their producti vity by having professionals who specialise in those jobs take them over, and free your sales reps to sell.

Appointment Setting Services

Professional appointment setting services break the sales process down in distinct steps, and have specialised professional’s focus on each of those steps. Therefore, instead of having one person build a list of prospects, screen them, identify buyers in need of your product or service and in a position to make a buying decision, set the appointment, and make the sale, you might have a team do the following:

  • Monitoring social networks and harvesting data to build a responsive list
  • Nurturing those leads and guiding them through the pipeline
  • A specialist appointment setter calling pre-qualified leads to set face to face or telephone appointments for your sales staff, and only then
  • Then your sales reps closing the deal

Choosing An Appointment Setting Company

Consider the following when selecting an appointment setting company for your business:

A professional appointment-setting company will employ highly trained sales professionals with extensive knowledge and experience of your industry, not students in a call centre in another country.

They will use relationship managers who are mature and experienced enough to engage potential clients while diplomatically identifying those who are not yet in a position to buy.

They will profile client accounts, highlighting potential product and service matches, and provide your sales staff with the information they need to tailor their offerings to the clients’ challenges.

They will incorporate inbound and outbound telemarketing campaigns, enhanced by social media research to identify decision makers, prioritising quality ready-to-buy prospects over the usual suspects.

They will work with you to maximise your ROI, using targeted marketing, pre-screening and brand building techniques to ensure the leads delivered are sales-ready, and measure results against key performance indicators (KPIs).

Why Your Referral Network Is Inadequate

Word of mouth advertising and referrals will always be an important source of new business, and should never be neglected. If you want to maximise your results, though, you shouldn’t rely on your referral network alone, unless you enjoy the ‘feast or famine’ nature of waiting for referrals to call you.

However large your network, it will never reach every prospect in your industry. In fact, you’ll be lucky if it reaches a quarter of the market. If you want to reach the other 75%, you need to reach out to them. Also, your referral network doesn’t have the skill to screen out time wasters or clients who pay late, move the goal posts and generally cost you more than you earn.

A good appointment setter effectively expands your referral network by acting as intermediary between you and your prospect, preselling them on your value proposition, presenting your brand in its best light whilst evaluating the fit between you and your prospect. Most importantly, a professional appointment setter will only pass over leads that are ready to convert, and will position your sales staff optimally for that conversion.

Article By:

James Cashmore

James Cashmore

Why are we so good at appointment setting?

Find out what makes us so effective at appointment setting

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Helen Hall Library

  1. The Library is closed for the July 4th Holiday

    July 3, 2021 - July 5, 2021

    The library will be closed Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The library will reopen on Tuesday, July 6th.

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Online Editions

21st Sep, 2021

Residents warned over Covid vaccine scams

AUTHORITIES in Warwickshire are warning residents to beware of a scam Covid vaccine message which attempts to trick people into handing over their bank details, after it was reported more than 1,000 times in 24 hours.

Criminals are exploiting the pandemic by sending convincing-looking text messages or phone calls which appear to be from the NHS, telling people they are eligible for the vaccine.

Recipients are asked to click on a link to accept or decline an invitation to receive the vaccine. If they click accept, they are asked to input personal information and their bank card details.

Head of Action Fraud Pauline Smith warned the public to remain vigilant.

She said: “It’s despicable that fraudsters will take advantage of such an important tool in the fight against this evil and deadly disease. Not only are the people being targeted with this email at risk of losing money, or having their identity stolen, but they are also at risk of not receiving the real vaccine.

“The public have been fantastic at reporting these scams to us and raising awareness in their local community as well. But unfortunately, as this latest phishing campaign shows, we still have to remain cautious and alert. Remember, anything purporting to be from the NHS asking you to pay for the vaccine, or provide your bank account or card details, is a scam.”

Coronavirus vaccines are only available via NHS. Residents can be contacted by the NHS, their employer, a GP surgery or local pharmacy to receive a vaccine. The vaccine is free of charge and no-one will be asked to pay.

The NHS will never ask for bank account or card details, ask for a PIN or banking password, arrive unannounced at homes to administer the vaccine, or ask for copies of personal documents such as passports, driving licences, bills or payslips.

Anyone who receives a call they suspect to be fraudulent should hang up.

Suspicious emails can be forwarded to and suspicious text messages to the number 7726, which is free of charge.

Anyone who believes they are a victim of fraud can visit or call 0300 123 2040 to report it to Action Fraud.

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ADT error code 103 (solved)

In this article, I explain how to fix the ADT error code 103.

This problem usually appears on the ADT Safewatch Pro 2000 and Pro 3000 series, but you don't need to call a technician because there's a quick solution, and you can do it yourself.

ADT Error code 103

If you see the message "103 check lngrng radio" on the ADT panel, this means there's an issue related to the system's backup communicator.

How to fix the ADT error code 103

All you need to do is put the system into test mode and then open the keypad to execute a reset procedure. Just follow the steps below.

  • Close the doors and windows the same way you usually do when you are about to turn on the alarm;
  • Enter your code and type 5;
  • Open the keypad;
  • Disconnect the white cable for 20 seconds;
  • Connect the white cable back and close the keypad;
  • Enter your code into the keypad;
  • Press the "Off" button two times.

That should reset the ADT system and solve the error code 103.

See the pictures below for details...

Pull the connector to disconnect the cable.

ADT Error code 103 Disconnect cable

Wait 20 seconds before re-connect the cable.

Close the Keypad and press the "OFF" button twice.

ADT Keypad Off button

That's easy, isn't it?

And that's how you can fix the ADT error code 103.

You can now avoid paying $90 to have an ADT technician coming to your house just to reset the keypad.

I hope this article can help you; please share it with your friends.

The Learn CCTV blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and Sovrn which are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to and Vigilink Associate Companies.

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When I had seen the tree that was marked as a cedar but turned out to be a Juniper in South Dakota, I knew that Lebanon, Nebraska would provide an answer as to whether that first town was the only one that got a fake cedar, or whether there were more of them.  More so, I was hoping it would answer some pressing questions I had from before I even left Beirut.

I headed towards the center of the town in Lebanon, Nebraska and, as with many of the small towns I had seen before along my trip, there were no people to be seen; I was alone on the empty streets. The stores around me looked as if they were abandoned decades ago. One of them had in front of its locked doors a vending machine that belonged well in the 1970s. A few steps away was a public telephone post with its receiver off the hook. The sign at the town entrance said Lebanon had a population of 70, and I was wondering where they all disappeared.

Town Entrance

I continued walking on that road and, at the intersection, I found the town hall, a small one-story building. Right next to it, there it was, a tall juniper tree, not unlike the one I saw in South Dakota, but better maintained. There wasn’t any plaque next to it, but I was almost certain that this was the supposed cedar that was sent from Beirut and stayed in a nursery in Ohio for 2 years before being sent back to town. And herein lies a key question I was trying to find answers for. Back when the delegates from the Lebanons of the US came to the country of Lebanon in 1955 for a visit, the representative from Nebraska was a tree expert and he – not the one from Ohio(1) – was meant to take care of the saplings for two years. But a tragedy prevented this from happening.

Lebanese First Lady Zalfa Chamoun giving Charles Harris a cedrus libani sapling. (Photo: L’Orient-Le-Jour)

In March, 1955 six of the delegates returned home to the United States. Charles Harris from Nebraska stayed behind to go on a tour of the Holy Land. On April 15, he was shot dead in Jerusalem.
He wasn’t the mayor of the town, but was chosen by the elderly mayor, Chester Keith, to represent him. He was only 24 years old, an Agronomy senior student at Nebraska University, and he had taken the semester off so he could go on his visit to the Middle East.

I left Lebanon and headed towards McCook, the nearest town with a library, some 40 minutes away. I wanted to research their archives for any information I could get on Charles. I found many newspaper articles about him that ran following his death. One in particular mentioned his last home address. Coincidentally, it was only a few blocks from the library. Charles Harris had been born in Lebanon, but he, his parents Tipo and Jessie Mae, and his sister Margaret, 6 years his junior, had moved to McCook later on.

I walked towards the house wondering who might be living in it after all these years. I knocked on the door and introduced myself to the lady who opened. She was very surprised to hear the Harris name after all these years. She and her husband had bought the house from Tipo, and she very well remembered the family and how devastated they all were after Charles’ death. Especially his father. She remembered Tipo as a jovial man who, as a lodge Mason, used to dress up as an Indian snake charmer in the town parade. But he was never the same after the loss of his son.

Last house of Charles Harris in McCook, Nebraska.

My fascination with Charles’ story doesn’t stem only from his death, but rather from the peculiar circumstances under which he was killed. Back in 1955, Jerusalem was a split city, the Jordanians on the East side, the Israelis on the West. In between the two was a territory controlled by neither party, aptly called No Man’s Land. On April 15 Charles, wearing blue Jeans and a red fez hat(2), wandered into that area and was shot by a Jordanian guard. The reports following his death were very contradictory. One such report mentioned the guard saying he shouted a warning when he saw the young man walking in the restricted area, but Charles ignored his warning so he shot him(3). Another said that Charles had been talking to an Israeli soldier and then he went crawling by the Old City wall, after which the guard opened fire (4). There wasn’t even a consensus about where he was shot, either with three bullets and the deadly one lodging in his chest, or with one single fatal bullet to the head.

Ironically, just one month prior, Charles had written to his Farm Fraternity in University saying: “We in America have much to give these people in the Near East, but we have so much to gain from them too, in the way of love and understanding.”

A United Nations investigation followed. Colonel Brewster, head of the Israeli-Jordanian Mixed Armistice Commission, issued a statement saying the death was a tragic error and that there was no violation of the general armistice agreement. He said that Charles had probably crossed the line from Jordan into No Man’s Land, an area which is forbidden to all persons and therefore a most dangerous spot. He, however, added: “We are time and again called upon to act when an animal wanders into No Man’s Land. Why should we not be alerted when a human being crosses the demarcation line?”(5)

I returned to the McCook city park with my RV that evening, figuring I would return to Lebanon the next day, hoping to meet someone who might have more clues about Charles’ story. Early in the day, I had posted a picture of the town’s sign on Instagram, and I received a message from a woman who lives there, asking if I talked to anyone about the history of the tree. I told her about the tragic event that surrounded the tree, and then came the unexpected answer: “My mother was a classmate of Charles’ sister. Would you like to meet her?” I couldn’t believe my luck and, yes, I very much wanted to meet her.

The next morning, Mrs. Virginia Grafton and I met at the Lebanon Presbyterian Church; a very welcoming, soft-spoken lady who must be in her late seventies. We talked a little about the history of the town, but I really wanted to know more about what happened in 1955.

She described Charles as a man who was mature well beyond his years. Even our government attested to that fact. Lebanese officials had sent a letter to his parents, dated March 13, praising him for his serious-mindedness. It was the last word on him his family ever received(2).

Lebanon United Presbyterian Church where I met with Mrs. Virginia Grafton.

Mrs. Grafton later drove me to the tree I had seen the day before, and it was the supposed cedar they received. “I can attest to the fact that this is the tree because I was there when we received it; it came in a very small package.”, she said. I asked her if Mayor Keith had regrets for sending Charles on the trip and whether the town people had negative feelings about the tree, given the tragedy. She said that the mayor did feel guilty for a long time, but that he couldn’t have gone himself due to his age. As for the tree, people didn’t associate it with Charles. “In fact,” she added, “when the tree grew a little, we started decorating it for Christmas every year. Mayor Keith used to be the one decorating at first. And we kept with this tradition until a couple of years ago when someone stole the decorations, and then we stopped. By then it was too tall to reach anyway.”

The cedar tree by the town hall.

Mrs. Virginia Grafton.

Going back to the subject of Charles, I asked if she had any memories from the time surrounding his death. “It was devastating”, she said. “His dad took it very hard. We were all told that he went to some place where he shouldn’t have been. No Man’s Land. Growing up around here you can go anywhere you want to go; Charles probably never realized the area where he was going was restricted.”

I am in no way a conspiracy theorist, and never was. But this story has one additional element of intrigue. Back when I was researching the mayors’ 1955 visit to Beirut, I found out that the trip was organized in the United States by the now-defunct “American Friends of the Middle East.” (AFME) When gathering information about this association, I discovered that despite its friendly name, the association was a front to, and was funded by the CIA, seeking to advance a pro-Arab view in the USA. At first I thought this must have been a typo or false information. CIA and pro-Arab? Certainly a joke.

Then I followed the source, and it was a book by Hugh Wilford: “America’s Great Game: The CIA’s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East.” Purchase instantly. As the title mentions, it wasn’t the whole agency that was pro-Arab, but a secret faction within it. AFME was one part of their covert operations. On paper, this association was headed by Dorothy Thompson, the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany after writing an article critical of Hitler, and who Time Magazine called in 1939 the second most influential woman in the United States after First lady Eleanor Roosevelt. But behind the scenes, AFME was led by Kermit Roosevelt Jr., grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and personal friend of Jamal Abdel Nasser; he was the Chief of CIA covert operations in the Middle East. Kermit’s cousin, Archibald Roosevelt Jr., was the head of the CIA’s Beirut desk, and husband to a now-renowned Lebanese-American journalist of Druze origins called Selwa Shkeir (Americanized as Showker). AFME’s recruiter was an anti-Zionist rabbi called Elmer Berger.

New York Times – 15 April 1955

How are AFME and the CIA connected to Charles Harris’ trip and eventual death?, I kept asking. Isn’t it possible that this was all just a coincidence? And if AFME was pro-Arab and if Charles was truly passing a note, wouldn’t he pass the note to the Jordanians instead of the Israelis? Was my imagination taking me too far? Perhaps. But there are still two nagging questions that can’t be answered. First, at the end of February 1955, before the mayors’ delegation came to Beirut, they all convened at AFME’s headquarters in New York City, a building called “Middle East House”. Then Charles Harris flew alone to Beirut on March 1st, and the other six followed him a day later. Why?

Second, as Mrs. Grafton told me, the family never got Charles Harris’ body back. She drove me to the cemetery and showed me the stone they had put as remembrance. It read that Charles Harris was buried in “Ramallah, Jordan.” (Ramallah was still under Jordanian rule in 1955). I had read in one of the newspaper articles that the US State Department informed his parents that, under law, the body could not be removed for one year after the burial. But Mrs. Grafton mentioned that Tipo went to Amman, Jordan after that to try and repatriate his son’s body, but they wouldn’t allow him. Even today, Charles’ remains are confined to stay in Ramallah. Why? Was – and is – there any fear that exhuming the body might reveal a different story than the one mentioned in the press?

Since Ramallah is now in Palestine and since, as a Lebanese citizen, I can’t go there, my research unfortunately ends here. Was Charles Harris a spy? No one knows. But there are too many question marks around his story that any person with a shred of curiosity would get intrigued by. Maybe one day, if he truly was a spy, details about him would become declassified by the US government. I know I will keep hanging on to these threads I have. But until then, it was time to continue my trip and to move on to another Lebanon.

Lincoln Evening Journal – 5 March 1955

Abandoned gun club in town

1: Albany Democrat-Herald – 7 September, 1955.
2: Lincoln Evening Journal – 15 April 1955.
3: New York Times – 15 April 1955.
4: Jerusalem Post – 18 April 1955.
5: New York Times – 17 April 1955.
6: Lincoln Evening Journal – 22 April 1955.

24 thoughts on “Lebanon, Nebraska: A 60-year-old tale of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the CIA, and a death in Jerusalem.

  1. How impressive and utterly unexpected! Stunned that you could end up digging such a story, just by asking about a tree! What will the other Lebanons have in store for you, I wonder…

    Happy new year, by the way! Happy wandering and discoveries!

  2. Hi Fadi, it is Joe Hackman, the videographer from your trip to Lebanon, Ohio. Would you mind if I use some of your pictures as b-roll for the segment that I am producing for our cable show? I searched through City Council agendas and minutes from 1955 and 1958 for any more information on Mayor Fraser’s trip, but didn’t find anything that would add to what you already have. Hope all is well wherever you are.

  3. I just drove through Lebanon Ne yesterday evening. Such a neat town. The old houses there are beautiful! I took a picture of one that had what looked like hands on a clock so I started looking up the history of the town and found this article. Very neat story!!

  4. If the body was not allowed to be released, I would presume that He was still alive! Would you not keep a prisoner alive and try to torcher them for info? We have prisoners here from past wars, what would make them so different?

  5. I grew up in that area of Nebraska. Even though I was young I remember the discussion of this event. It a a bought on the nation of Lebanon and the Middle East.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Interesting Story about the town I grew up in, and a great interview with my big sister. I remember when it happened I was all of 12 years old at the time, Talk of the area for several months even would be brought up years after it happened.

  7. Please take a look at this picture that my boyfriend sent me a few days ago…he drives through Lebanon every day too to work, so I had showed him your article & he had tracked the cedar down one day…..but now… PLEASE CLICK ON OR GO TO THIS LINK!

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A Medical Movement Driven by Committed Uruguayan Business Leaders

Few crises, if any, have ever had the worldwide impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having. As literally every country in the world has braced for the onslaught of negative health care and economic impacts, a tsunami of aid and support is gaining ground against the tidal wave of need.

Many business leaders across the world have been on the front lines of these efforts, showing crisis leadership amid this global pandemic.

Crisis Leadership: Uruguay chief executives step up

In Uruguay, a new YPO chapter with only 27 members launched an initiative to help the government deal with COVID-19 using WhatsApp groups to work remotely to identify three areas where business leaders could provide expertise and support authorities: sourcing in China, importing and fundraising.

For the #NosCuidamosEntreTodos (“we all take care of each other”) campaign, chief executives leveraged the expertise of two of its members — a banker and a media owner — to create a gift-matching campaign. Mauricio Levitin, Director of Peninsula Investment Group and Martin Naor, CEO of Bankingly, are leading the project and calling upon their YPO colleagues to lend a hand. More companies also are getting into the mix — more than 50 companies are supporting the effort.

Rapid results

The group first met on 17 March and in just a few days, they raised USD4 million. The onslaught of support was so great in fact, that their donation platform collapsed as they were doing a television interview. Dollars are being used to address purchasing testing kits, ventilators and protective clothing for doctors and nurses.

“We saw what was happening in China, what was happening in Italy and what was starting to happen in Spain, and we said, ‘we need to do something for our country’,” says Levitin. “One of the issues we always discuss in YPO forums and events is looking for a purpose to unite us and get us together.” This represented a critical opportunity to do just that.

Uruguay’s Undersecretary of Public Health, Jose Luis Satijdan, participated in the initial video meeting and outlined the government’s needs for testing kits, diagnostic tests, clothing and respirators. Donations toward the purchase of these items are being received through payment networks and digital media channels.

“We’re not only changing lives, we’re starting to change the image of the business community in Uruguay.” Mauricio Levitin, Director Peninsula Investment Group

Match donations

No gift is too small. Naor points to an amazing outpouring of support, including from those who have been personally impacted. One donor who recently lost their own source of income gave a USD30 donation, which, says Naor, is a “huge amount” in Uruguay.

The next phase of the campaign will add a matching component as an incentive to drive even more awareness and contributions.

The team’s process is an excellent example of how quickly things can happen when a dedicated group of people makes a commitment to make it so. An initial acquisition and donation of 1,000 diagnostic tests were confirmed on 25 March — they’re similar to the tests used in Korea’s drive-through system, which had 99% accuracy. An additional 30,000 outpatient diagnostic kits, involving a fingertip puncture similar to an insulin test, arrived from China the last week of March.

Safety garments are also being ordered for medical personnel. “We decided to buy the fabrics in Uruguay and have them manufactured by a group of 40 seamstresses who were unemployed,” says Naor.

Respirators have also been purchased — about 100 will be imported based on an agreement with a Chinese company. The group have supplied 100 monitors for ICU beds as well as 15 ambulances to transport patients from the interior states of Uruguay that don’t have ICU beds to hospitals in the capital city of Montevideo.

Coming together for a critical cause

Business connections, sourcing and logistics expertise of the YPO members and participating companies helped to make the right connections to expedite the process. Truly, where there’s a will — and a YPO member — there’s a way.

“For me it was extremely interesting to see how quickly the solidarity of our fellow colleagues and business owners appeared,” says Naor. “In 48 hours, we moved from 20 people inside YPO to 40 companies and we are up to 100 companies now.”

It’s a movement that could have impact beyond the immediate crisis and pandemic, says Levitin. “We’re not only changing lives, but also, hopefully, starting to change the image of the business community in Uruguay.”

To get more information visit Charidy.

For more crisis leadership stories like these check out the COVID-19: Leading Through Crisis page on YPO.org.

YPO member-only resources
All YPO members can find breaking news, offer insights and view current discussions happening about COVID-19 impact within the YPO community on the YPO member-only platform.

YPO is the global leadership community of more than 29,000 chief executives in 130 countries who are driven by the belief that the world needs better leaders. Each of our members have achieved significant leadership success at a young age. Combined, they lead businesses and organizations contributing USD9 trillion in annual revenue. YPO members become better leaders and better people through peer learning and exceptional experiences in an inclusive community of open sharing and trust.


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LegArt’s size guide: Shop with confidence!

Because we offer a variety of styles from leggings, joggers, jeggings, jeans, tops, dresses and more we try our best to give you all the details you need to get the best fit in the styles you choose. Not all our products are produced by the same manufacturer so please check for fit and size.

We want you to be comfortable and happy with your choices and that’s why we offer Canada’s largest collection of prints in all sizes; from Petite to XXL our options are presented to you in such a way to pick the best size so you can enjoy them for years to come. We like to say If in doubt, size up for ultimate comfort!

To learn more about your products sizing, please read the product description there may be notes on fit then click on the Size Guide right beside the product information to view all the additional sizing information avalible.

LegArt is pleased to offer an easy return system, allowing you to shop with confidence! View our return policy here


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John Vines

John Vines is a design scholar and practitioner, whose research examines the fluid boundaries between design discourse, HCI, cognitive science, philosophy of mind and gerontology. Currently, he is in the final stages of a PhD candidacy with Transtechnology Research at the University of Plymouth, UK. His PhD research critically examines design practice and theory as it relates to developing digital media in light of scientific knowledge on human ageing, specifically in relation to models of temporal changes to cognition. Currently, John is developing practice-led postdoctoral research collaborations and editing his doctoral thesis for dissemination. John is also Associate Editor for Leonardo Reviews. Email: john.c.vines(at)

For ongoing updates to his research, please see and

Journal Articles

Leonardo Reviews

Designing Things: A Critical Introduction to the Culture of Objects by Prasad Boradkar. Berg Publishers, Oxford, U.K., 2010. 336 pp., illus. ISBN: 978-1-84520-427-3

June 2011
Leonardo Reviews

Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing by Paul Dourish and Genevieve Bell. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 2011. 264 pp., illus. Trade. ISBN: 978-0-262-01555-4

October 2012


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Allison Carter, Ben Doller, and Sandra Doller at Poetic Research Bureau

PRB-Doller-CarterPlease join us at the Poetic Research Bureau for readings by Allison Carter, Ben Doller, and Sandra Doller.

Saturday, March 14, 2015
Doors open 7:00pm
Reading at 7:30pm

Poetic Research Bureau
951 Chung King Rd
Chinatown, Los Angeles

Join the Facebook event page here.

About the readers:

Allison Carter is the author of A Fixed, Formal Arrangement (Les Figues Press) and Here Vs. Elsewhere (forthcoming from Insert Blanc Press) as well as several shorter collections, including Sum Total (Eohippus Labs), All Bodies Are The Same and Have The Same Reactions (Blanc Press) and Shadows Are Weather (Horse Less Press). Her work has recently been included in Fence, Diagram, and other journals. Allison teaches creative writing to adults suffering from eating disorders in Los Angeles, CA.

Ben Doller is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Fauxhawk, forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press in 2015. His previous books include Radio, Radio (selected by Susan Howe as winner of the 2000 Walt Whitman Award), FAQ:, and Dead Ahead. A collaborative book of visual anti-sonnets with Sandra Doller, titled Sonneteers, was published on Éditions Eclipse, and their new collaborative prose book, The Yesterday Project is forthcoming from Sidebrow. Doller is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing in the MFA program at University of California-San Diego.

Sandra Doller’s books include OriflammeChora, and Man Years, and two chapbooks: Mystérieuse by Éric Suchère and Memory of the Prose Machine. The founder & editrice of 1913 Press & 1913 a journal of forms, Doller has taught at Hollins University and Boise State University, and she currently teaches film, literature, and writing at Cal State-San Marcos. She lives in California.

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Covid 19 Business Update: Click Here for Details.

Stokke® Tripp Trapp® Chair Oak Natural

Children love interacting with the family. In today's hectic lifestyle it is more important than ever to encourage these special moments of togetherness. The dining table is more than a place for mealtimes. It's for playing, homework or simply just talking, enjoying quality time together.

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More Information
Colour Oak Natural
GTIN 7040354952016
MPN 495201
Age Suitability From 36 months (suitable from earlier age, when used with New Born or Baby Set) up to 136 kg / 300 lbs (chair mode only).
Weight 7kg
Open Dimensions L49 x H79 x W46 cm
Materials Oak wood
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Friulslider Evo Plugs

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Friulslider Evo Plugs

fruili evo plugOnce in a while we something which might be a game changer! Well we all grew up with wooden rawlplugs, which at least meant you didn’t need to hammer bits of timber into the wall. Then we got plastic rawlplugs, which became ubiquitous. Bit like hoover (for vacuum cleaner) the plastic plug had become a commodity and we all bought on price.

Then came the friulsider EVO fixings. These look like a standard plug but are capable of bridging the gap for using in solid walls, plasterboard, stone, concrete and blocks. They can also be used with wood screw, machine screws, threaded rod and coach screws! Unlike other types of nylon plug, the EVO has the flexibility to be used with virtually anything that is machine threaded, even hexagon bolts and setscrews.

On the technical bit, it has four-sided geometry, thin and countersunk collapsible rim, retractable wings and is suitable for concrete, stone, solid and honeycomb brick, as well as concrete and plasterboard.

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The EVO comes in two distinct lengths normal and long. In normal sizes, they are stocked in 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14mm diameters. In long format, they are stocked in 6, 8 and 10mm diameters. Clearly the lengths change dependent on diameter. We can supply in box quantities, which in 6mm come in boxes of 100, to 14mm in 25’s. In long lengths, box quantities stocked are 200 in 6mm diameter, 100 in 8mm and 50 in 10mm.

So if you want only one type of plug on the van or in the toolbox, maybe this is for you. As with any new product, we’ve tried it ourselves, specifically using them in plasterboard and honeycomb brick, with great results.

As this is a new product to us – call for prices. Availability is normally next day.


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Oral Histories

This page provides in-depth interviews with more than 60 early leaders of LGBTQ+ religious movements. You can either listen to the audio or read the transcript of an interview.  You can also view biographical information and photographs about this diverse group of early activists and leaders.

Preserve your history!  Learn what you can do.

Oral Histories tagged with: TheologySan FranciscoOpen Church Group (Oslo)MinneapolisMoore, John V.San FranciscoJewish (ethnic, Reform, Reconstructionist, Orthodox)Wheatley, Bishop MelvinDoclar, CharlotteGramick, JeannineTownes, Emilie M.Alison, James

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Playwright Spotlight: Elena Naskova

Playwright – Driving Through the Fog (Quickies 17, June/July 2015)

Bio: Elena was born and raised in Macedonia. She immigrated to USA when she was twenty-five. Elena’s plays have been produced and read in Portland, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, North Hollywood, Chicago, Nantucket, Mesa/Scottsdale, Sheffield – UK, New York, Toronto, Bloomington, Oakland, San Francisco, Madrid – Spain, Spokane and Seattle.

She is a member of the Dramatist Guild and the Seattle Playwrights Circle.

Where did the idea for your play come from?

I was on 5 driving north from California.  And I ended up in Motel 6, or one of those cheap motels.

What was your favorite moment in working on this piece?

 The moment the two women connected.

What’s the most interesting thing you have found on the street?

A woman singing blues.  She was brilliant.

If you could instantly find something today that you have lost in the past, what would it be?

My youth

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m working on a play about Nikola Tesla.

Finish this sentence- “I love theater that…”

Leaves me thinking for weeks afterwards.

What was the best advice you were given as a theater artist?

To learn fucking English.

What is your favorite and least favorite word?

My least favorite word is a bad word that I would never say or write down.  My favorite word is ‘multicultural’.

Outside of theater, what are you really into right now?

Haiku and watercolor.

Any other thoughts you’d like to share? (About Live Girls! Theater, Love, Life, Puppies, …really – anything at all?)

another Spring…

out of my thoughts my new

self emerges


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Friends ukraine dating ukraine

Posted by / 18-Dec-2020 17:00

Friends ukraine dating ukraine

We, Ukrainian people, are very attentive to details.

We would like to choose special places for dating, the first impression is kind of very important. A quick fact about current Ukrainian dating trends, we look for good personals in dating websites, then we talk to them for couple a of weeks & finalize whether to go for dating or not.

Despite the obviousness of the situation to an outsider, it happens. Yeah, the same guy was the “victim” of yet another Ukrainian brides scam less than six months after the first one.

This time it was even worse, but it reads almost the same.

And again, he had to take a taxi way out to her town or village outside of Odessa.

She made no efforts to see him again, repeatedly blowing him off because she was “busy” with a number of excuses. He was obviously quite upset with these developments.

She calls him and tells him that she’s held up at customs, she can’t get through. He tries to solve the problem, and ends up just upsetting her. He has not heard from her since, and I’m sure he never will.

Again, he met a girl on a dating website or agency, the majority of which are He meets this girl, and again he “falls in love”. “She” is gorgeous (the young one), you can see for yourself: Before he knows it (within two months), they’re making arrangements for her to come to the United States and live with him. She has to fly back ASAP, and could he please send some money to help with the funeral arrangements? The funeral is taken care of, but now she has nobody else left for her.

He starts sending her money so she can obtain her visa, as well as giving her some other money for miscellaneous expenses. She’s heading to the United States, but has to travel for a layover in Istanbul first. She wants to leave the country and come live with him in the US.

Ukrainian Friends Date is an exciting & completely FREE Ukraine dating service that enables to connect with international singles.

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Deanna Heller and Rosie

Oct 10, 2020

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Senior Receives February Good Neighbor Award

On Thursday, Senior Camilo Rivera received the State Farm Good Neighbor Award for February.  The award recognizes students of good character who best reflect the school’s values through their commitment to respect,  accountability, honesty, responsibility, and community contribution. It was presented by RJ Collins of State Farm Insurance.

“Camilo is one of the most outstanding students we have at Lindale High School,” Principal Jeremy Chilek said. “He works so hard everyday, not to mention he works outside of school as well.”

Along with the award, Rivera was given a gift package that included jumper cables, a Doc’s Pizza gift card, and a Lindale sweatshirt.

“It feels amazing [to win the award],” Rivera said.  “I like going to school here because they keep it simple. There’s not a lot of disrespect like at some schools.”

Rivera and his father own a lawn business called Rivera’s Lawn Care. He works early in the mornings and in the evenings during school and all day during the summer.

“He’s here every day with a smile on his face,” Chilek said.   “Anything you ask him to do he does.  He’s a great example of somebody we want here at Lindale High School.”