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Iraq: Unsanctioned Voices

Over lamb chops in a busy Baghdad restaurant, Ahmed looks around nervously, falling silent when anyone comes close enough to listen.

Dining with a Westerner can raise suspicions. Even now, after decades under the rule of President Saddam Hussein, Ahmed fears that he will make the mistake that will bring the authorities to his door.

"If you are arrested," Ahmed says, "your life is over."

Ahmed is no subversive. "That is not my character," he says. But he does resist quietly, carving out a small circle of freedom in which his family and a few friends can say what they really think about Iraq's "beloved leader."

Within this circle, they mock Mr. Hussein, remember the dead and the disappeared who have run afoul of the regime, and hope aloud for something better to come along.

"Ahmed" is a pseudonym for an Iraqi businessman and father of three who lives in Baghdad. Even speaking to a foreign reporter about life here entails risk. But at a time of international scrutiny of Iraq and its regime, Ahmed agreed to provide an intimate picture of his life during the reign of Hussein.

Ahmed's candor reflects a growing willingness among some Iraqis to speak out. For a few days earlier this month, following a general amnesty for Iraqi prisoners, scores of Iraqis approached the Ministry of Information in Baghdad and a police facility on the city's outskirts, demanding to know why their relatives had not emerged from prison. The demonstrators mixed their complaints with praise for Hussein, but such protests are unprecedented in this city.

During more than seven hours of interviews, Ahmed never mentions Hussein's attempts to acquire biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons, but he talks at length about life under Hussein's dictatorship.

Some specifics of Ahmed's account cannot be confirmed, including allegations that the regime has imprisoned and executed people known to him. Attempts to verify such details would likely compromise Ahmed's anonymity and safety. But his assertions are consistent with the accounts from exiled dissidents, human rights organizations, and scholars.

He was interviewed without the presence of Ministry of Information "guides" with whom foreign journalists in Iraq are required to work.

Ahmed seemed most at ease driving a reporter around Baghdad at night. His vehicle offered privacy. He seemed certain that it wasn't bugged. On the road, speaking his mind about the regime, he seemed to breathe more freely.

A 'gray man' in Baghdad

Ahmed has a narrow, oval-shaped face and close-set eyes. He combs his thinning black hair over his balding head and wears a trim, slightly graying mustache. He doesn't stand out. He wants to escape notice, to be an innocuous 'gray man.'

But he has lived this way a long time, maybe too long. "You can do that for a temporary period, but what about your whole life?" he asks. "You can't. You get fed up. You make mistakes."

A few years ago he found that he was being searched intensively every time he left or arrived in the country; his work demands frequent travel. Security officials were leafing through every document in his possession, unpacking his luggage item by item, and threatening to confiscate his laptop in order to read the contents of its hard drive.

A friend in the security services confirmed Ahmed's suspicion  his security file contained an instruction to search him carefully, perhaps because someone had submitted a negative report about him. Perhaps he had said the wrong thing, seemed disloyal, made a mistake.

This time a bribe cleaned up the file. But Ahmed worries that he has moved one step closer to arrest. What happens next time? What if money won't be enough?

Ahmed was a teenager when the Iraqi Baath Party seized power in 1968, ending a decade of frequent coups d'état that followed the 1958 overthrow of a British- imposed monarchy. The party touted socialist economic principles and made broad appeals to Arab unity and renaissance.

But the immediate goals of its leaders, which included the young Saddam Hussein, were political vengeance and consolidation. The party persecuted communists, those loyal to a competing pan-Arab leader, members of the country's small Jewish community, and even dissident Baathists. Many were accused of spying for Israel or Iran.

Some were hanged in public, others shot dead and strung up. Ahmed remembers that year because he went to Baghdad's Liberation Square to see the bullet-ridden corpses for himself. He describes the scene dispassionately; the regime's threat was still personally distant.

But in the early 1970s, during his first year at university, Ahmed was "in touch"  not "involved," he emphasizes  with an Islamic-oriented political group.

'We shrunk ourselves back'

One day, members of the group began to disappear. Most were jailed for several months and then released. Some were killed. The hand of the regime, which by now had Hussein as its behind-the-scenes strongman, had nearly grasped Ahmed.

Ahmed's parents took steps to dodge the crackdown, seeking to protect their two sons from arrest. He and his family are Shiite Muslims, as are the majority of Iraqis. But as a result of the divide-and-rule policies of the country's Ottoman and then British overlords, the Sunni Arab minority has dominated the politics of modern Iraq. The secular Baath party has never tolerated Shiite political activity aimed at promoting an Islamic state.

The family moved away from their predominantly Shiite neighborhood. They also burned their books  anything political, philosophical, or religious. "We shrunk ourselves back," he says.

During this time, just as he was deciding on a career, Ahmed realized that surviving the regime would be his life's most severe challenge. But he also saw that survival did not have to mean support.

Membership has its privileges

While at university, Ahmed was advised to join the Baath party in order to win permission to study abroad. He refused and stayed in Iraq. "I didn't want to be used against my friends, my family," he says, referring to the intentions of party leaders. "They want to use you, they want you to be their eyes."

After earning a master's degree in 1976, Ahmed completed 18 months of compulsory military service. Then he found another way to reject the regime: He declined to work for the government and found a job in the Baghdad office of a foreign company. As in many developing countries, joining the bureaucracy in Iraq is considered a path to a secure and prestigious future. But Ahmed knew he would never advance to a senior position without becoming a Baathist. He also believed that working for a foreign company would allow him a greater measure of privacy and autonomy. It did, but not right away.

In 1979, Hussein became president and quickly led Iraq into a bloody, eight-year war of attrition with Iran. During the 1980s, Ahmed spent another 7 1/2 years in the Army.

Shortly after Ahmed was forcibly called up in 1982, an Army officer suggested that he join the party. If not, the officer said, Ahmed would be sent to the front. A small opportunity to defy the regime had presented itself. "What," replied Ahmed, "are all those people up there defending the country not party members?" The officer seemed nonplused at his impertinence and told him to shut up.

Ahmed says he spent five wasted years at the front, but never had to fight the Iranians. In 1988, when the cease-fire was announced, he and his comrades emptied their rifles into the air in celebration.

The conflict was pointless, he says. "The only effect of the war was dead bodies." Iran acknowledged that nearly 300,000 people died in the war; estimates of the Iraqi dead range from 160,000 to 240,000.

The suffering continued with Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the ensuing Gulf War. United Nations sanctions paralyzed the economy  and the Iraqi branch of Ahmed's company  until the government agreed in 1996 to a UN program that would allow it to use oil money to buy food and medicine, begin rebuilding the country, and pay war reparations.

Ahmed began to have more to do at the office.

One leader, many eyes

Thanks to the UN oil-for-food program, business is good now. But survival demands accepting the intrusions of the regime.

Ahmed suspects his international phone calls are monitored; he knows his e-mails are read by the authorities. He once complained to the state-run Internet service provider that his messages were taking days to reach their recipients. An official advised him to write more simply, presumably to speed the work of the intelligence agents vetting Ahmed's e-mail.

In his office Ahmed keeps a picture of himself and a senior member of the regime. They met only once, but Ahmed made sure to have a photograph taken.

"We keep it here in case police or people from the security services visit, so they can see we have relations with people high in the regime," he says. "So they know we are not easy people."

Party officials visit him several times a year, both at home and in the office, and require him to fill out detailed questionnaires or submit to interviews. The interrogations are always the same  about his background, his work, his travel; about whether he or anyone in his family has ever been involved in politics or been in trouble with the authorities. They are an unsubtle method of keeping tabs on Ahmed's life.

A couple of years ago, Ahmed bought a black-market satellite dish  they are banned in Iraq  and set it up where it could be seen only from the sky. He was interested mainly in better entertainment. Iraqi television presents a limited menu of Arab and Western programs and features hours of propaganda about Hussein every day.

After a month or so of enjoying his satellite television, Ahmed learned that the government was in the midst of an unannounced crackdown. Those found with dishes were being sentenced to six months in prison and fined the cost of the dish. Worse, the government was promising half the fine to informers.

Such are the methods of the regime. "You begin to worry about your neighbors," Ahmed says. "You never know when someone might overhear one of your children talk about a satellite show."

He dismantled the dish.

Ahmed's personal prosperity  the foreign company pays well, especially by the standards of Iraq's atrophied economy  brings certain liberties many Iraqis do not have, such as the freedom to travel, to own a car, to eat well. When Ahmed shops in the market, and sees people buying an egg or two as he buys 30, he knows he has it good.

But by rejecting the party and denying any voluntary support to the government, he has also created a priceless space in which he can resist the regime. This circle of freedom extends only as far as the people he trusts: his family and perhaps a dozen friends he has known since childhood.

Among these people, he can discuss the dictatorship in frank terms, even deride it. He tells a joke that ridicules the dictator. It goes like this:

Hussein hears that many people are emigrating. He can't understand why and goes the airport to investigate. He sees large numbers of people waiting to proceed through immigration and takes a place at the back of a line.

The people in line recognize him and invite him to the front. Then he realizes that the vast crowds of departing Iraqis have suddenly disappeared. He catches one man leaving the area and asks him where he is going. "Well," the man replies, "if you're leaving the country, we're staying."

Telling this story as he drives through Baghdad's darkened streets, Ahmed breaks into laughter even before the punch line. He tells another joke, one that imagines a deposed Hussein fleeing a mob of Iraqis. But it is too crude for a family newspaper.

'We want change, but...'

Ahmed's dissent only goes so far. Over the years he has watched the regime silence its enemies with death, imprisonment and fear. He concluded long ago that any sort of organized, violent struggle against Hussein and the Baath party was futile. What he has seen and heard helps explain his enduring fear of arrest.

In the early 1980s, the authorities detained one of Ahmed's cousins, and the man's wife, and accused the couple of spreading rumors about the regime. The cousin disappeared. Eventually the government sent his family a death certificate. "We consider him dead, but there is no coffin, nothing," Ahmed says quietly. The wife spent 15 years in prison and was released in the late 1990s. She has moved abroad.

A few years ago, a friend of Ahmed's disappeared for a week. When the friend resurfaced, he explained that he had been detained by the authorities and then released after they realized they had mistaken him for someone else. The man was clearly in shock from the experience, but refused to discuss the treatment he had received. After several months, he and his family emigrated to Canada.

Charles Tripp, a British historian of Iraq, has written: "[T]he selective, exemplary, and often terrible use of violence and the seductions of privilege have been used to drive home to all Iraqis the rewards of conformity and the price of dissent." Ahmed is living testament to Dr. Tripp's observation.

In the early 1990s, Ahmed says, he heard that Raji Tikriti, a prominent military doctor from Hussein's own Tikrit region, had been arrested for not revealing the existence of a plot against the regime. He was reportedly killed by hungry dogs as Hussein and several cabinet ministers watched. "It shocked everyone," says Ahmed.

True or untrue, it is exactly the sort of story that the regime promulgates, says Tripp, who teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, because the fear it instills helps Hussein maintain control. If Hussein could brutally kill someone from his own clan, many Iraqis would conclude that he could do the same to anyone. "We are hopeless," Ahmed sighs, speaking of the Iraqi people as a whole. "We are controlled." And later: "Maybe we are defeated within ourselves."

He wrestles constantly with the temptation to leave, but worry about those he would leave behind keeps him home. That is not all. "It's my country; I feel comfortable here. Why should I have to leave?" Referring to the regime, he adds: "They should have to go."

The American way?

With President Bush threatening to depose Hussein, Ahmed has begun to consider an American intervention in Iraq's affairs, one that might end the regime. Would he support the US in such a war?

The quandary pains him. "This is the critical question," he says, rubbing his eyes and forehead. "We want change but we want it a different way." He is skeptical about the aftermath  the prospect of a US occupation followed by the imposition of a leadership made up of members of the exiled Iraqi opposition, many of whom are regarded as cowards and opportunists by those inside the country.

The problem is that change the American way seems to be the only option available. "They always say, let the Iraqi people decide," he says. "That's like telling a man in jail to free himself. He can't."

The only thing Iraqis can do, Ahmed says, is wait. They have no influence over the US. They can't change their government themselves. "We are like cockroaches feeding on sewage," he says. "We survive."

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Islamic State: Why ethnic reconciliation is a tough sell in northern Iraq

Jihadists are on the defensive in battleground states in Iraq, but the mistrust and fear engendered by their murderous campaign present a tough challenge to future cohabitation.

Ari Jalal/Reuters
A displaced boy from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, walks at a refugee camp in Duhok province, Iraq, on Jan. 2, 2016.

When Islamic State fighters gathered Yazidi men in the village of Kujo, lined them up and shot them, the killers weren’t foreigners, says survivor Kichi Amo Slo. They were from the next village.

“I knew them personally,” says Mr. Slo, the only one of 10 brothers in his family to have survived the 2014 massacre. “People say they were foreigners, but it’s not true – they had been our friends.”

Slo, a former officer in the Iraqi Army, says he cannot imagine reconciliation with anyone in the neighboring Arab villages. “If you saw someone kill your father, kill your brother, and take your children, could you ever live with them?” he asks in Arabic. “Impossible.”

If Iraqis can envision any future as a unified country after years of internal strife and conflict with jihadist insurgencies, achieving reconciliation between tribes and ethnicities looms as a major hurdle. Yet, even as Islamic State (IS) forces are being pushed back in Iraq, communities are being pulled apart.

With IS in retreat in the north and west of Iraq, one of the biggest challenges is how to mend relations between communities and tribes who joined the group, or were perceived to have supported it, and those who were the jihadists’ victims.

Although IS mainly targets religious minorities and Shia Muslims, the group also declared war against fellow Sunnis who joined Iraqi government forces in Anbar Province. In deeply conservative Anbar, upholding tribal honor for the victims requires money or revenge.

“Enforcing the law is the foundation of reconciliation,” says Anbar’s governor, Suhaib al-Rawi, in Baghdad. “If we have money to compensate people, this will greatly forward the reconciliation process. We would compensate people who have suffered because of ISIS so they don’t take revenge.”

An unimaginable step

For the Yazidis, returning home and reconciling with their neighbors seems unimaginable. Moreover, their difficulties with neighboring communities predate the IS insurgency and are entwined with the complex politics of northern Iraq.

“Reconciliation is very complicated and it doesn’t occur in the beginning of the process of recovery,” says Barbara Hamm, founder of the Victims of Violence program at Harvard Medical School, during a visit here.

“There are so many ways to live together,” says Dr. Hamm. “Some of them are side by side, some of them are joined, and we are not always going to reach the kind of relationship that you or I might want.”

Saddam Hussein’s campaign to Arabize the nation’s Kurds and other minorities meant that ethnically Kurdish Yazidis of the Ninevah plains couldn't register land in their name. And their traditional reticence – born of a history of repeated massacres and hostility towards their ancient religion – left them without a political base in the larger Kurdish struggle for autonomy.

Both Iraqi government forces and Kurdish forces that had pledged to protect the Yazidis retreated when IS invaded from Syria, leaving them to be slaughtered and enslaved on Sinjar mountain. President Obama cited these massacres in August 2014 when he authorized US airstrikes in Iraq. Several thousand Yazidi women are believed to be still held captive by IS.

“Now it is too early,” says Mohammad Ihsan, a former human rights minister in the Kurdish regional government. “They need to reconcile within themselves first … They need to sort out whether they are going to be part of the Kurdistan region or with the Iraqi government.”

This land is our land

Before the IS onslaught, Sinjar, part of the Yazidi homeland, was governed by the Iraqi province of Ninevah and its capital, Mosul. Part of a large swath of territory claimed both by the Iraqi central government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, it is now under Kurdish control.

“The issue is land in my opinion,” says Jamil Khider, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Sinjar. “Between the Arabs and the Yazidis there needs to be a demarcation line, otherwise they will never accept Arabs who have committed crimes against them and they will take revenge against them.”

According to Yazidi figures, the Sinjar region is only three percent Arab and 84 percent Yazidi. But some of the Arab villages spawned the most virulent Al Qaeda and later, IS, supporters, who believe it is their religious duty to kill those who don’t share the same ideology. “It is only three percent, but they are killers and believers,” says a former senior Kurdish official.

Activists promoting reconciliation say that while governments need to ensure security for displaced people and try those accused of crimes, it’s the communities themselves that have to take responsibility for repairing relations and forgiving past wrongs.

For now, however, human rights groups say they have documented isolated cases of revenge killings against Arabs by the increasingly militarized Yazidi community, and say they fear more.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to

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Literacy Texas To Hold West Texas Literacy Symposium on Adult Literacy

From the Literacy Texas website:

The West Texas Literacy Symposium will be held March 19 at the McKenzie Merket Alumni Center, 17th St, Lubbock, TX 79401. This professional development program will feature a variety of training topics to promote adult literacy awareness and initiatives, including a keynote from TWC AEL Director Anson Green.

See the Literacy Texas website for more information or to register for this event.


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Adult Programming Workshops

Please join us for a workshop/discussion of Adult Programming ideas!

This 3-hour session allows library staff an opportunity to show what they do and for those who are just starting to do adult programs a chance to ask questions & share ideas.

Book clubs, exercise groups, craft lessons, genealogy gatherings, parenting classes, ESL, Literacy, whatever you do for adults in your community: bring handouts and be ready to show-and-tell.

Retirees and stay-home moms need the stimulation and human contact that a program at the library provides. Our libraries are helping people cope with isolation & boredom.

Make new friends & gain new library supporters at the same time!

3 hours CE credit given.

Facilitator: Laurie Mahaffey

Dates, time & locations: Registration 9 to 9:30 a.m. End around 12:30 p.m.

April 22, Wednesday, Tye Preston Memorial Library, Canyon Lake

April 24, Friday, Friench Simpson Memorial Library, Hallettsville

April 29, Wednesday, Stewart C. Meyer Public Library, Harker Heights

April 30, Thursday, W. Walworth Harrison Library, Greenville

May 7, Thursday, Jeff Davis County Library, Fort Davis

Cost: $10 per person for CTLS members. $20 for non-members

Sign up on our website at

Contact Laurie Mahaffey at or 1-800-262-4431 with questions.

See you there!


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18 carat white-gold Signature "Cherish" wedding band set

Sale price Price RM4,698.00 MYR Regular price Unit price  per

Tax included.

A pair of wedding band which looks modern and elegance, the gent ring feature the manly combination of brush finishing contrast and looks bold, whereas the lady ring looks dainty with the twisted design along with diamonds.

* prices given are based on Gent ring HK ring size 18 below & lady ring size 14 below.

please contact us for the order enquiry.

Gent WB0017 selling at RM2199.
Lady WB0018 selling at RM2499.


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Japanese girl drinking tea

We have launched our curious subscription service

Curious Tea’s website is now live! We are extremely excited to announce that we have now officially launched our monthly tea subscription service. Look around our shiny new website. You can now browse the different types of subscriptions we have on offer – you can choose either monthly or quarterly…
Read more

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December 2020 – Gourmet Loose Leaf Tea Subscription | Curious Tea

Welcome to the December 2020 edition of the Curious Tea subscription! Here’s a closer look at the four exciting new teas that we are sharing with our subscribers this month.

The first light tea this month is a smooth green tea from an unusual terroir: the Colombian Andes!

The second light tea is a characterful summer Daejak-grade green tea from Jirisan in South Korea.

For the dark side of the selection we have an Assam from Kathaldanga, a fine tippy tea that delivers classic Assam flavours and is completely handmade.

Finally, the last tea we are featuring this month is a highly oxidised Oolong made from the Jin Xuan cultivar grown in the highlands of Doi Mae Salong in northern Thailand.

This month’s teas
Light boxes Dong Cheon Daejak Nokcha Discovery boxes
Mixed boxes Bitaco Leafy Green
Assam Kathaldanga Royal Gold
Dark boxes Santikhiri Milk Ruby Oolong

Our Discovery subscription boxes contain 10g taster pouches of all of the above mentioned teas. If you are a subscriber you will benefit from a 10% discount on all teas from our tea shop!

Let’s get into further detail on the products featured in our December tea subscription boxes.

Bitaco Leafy Green

Bitaco Leafy Colombian Green Tea

Bitaco Colombian Green is a most unusual tea. The country of origin, Colombia, is not really known to be a tea producing region. Colombian coffee is well known and regarded around the world but this unique tea is a perfect example of what can be achieved in terms of tea production in the mountainous regions of Colombia. This Bitaco Colombian Green tea is from the spring 2020 harvest.

Bitaco, Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Bitaco Colombian Green tea is grown near the town of La Cumbre, situated high up in the West Andes. The altitude of the tea plantation is between 1,800 and 2,050 metres, making the growing conditions perfect for high grade tea. The prevalent weather, consistent rainfall, rich soil and mountainous slopes all combine to make a perfect but unique terroir. The area is also remote and surrounded by unspoilt natural terrain. This tea is certified as organic under USDA, EU and Colombian regulations.

Bitaco Tea Estate is run by Agricola Himalayas S.A. and they have extensive social responsibility programmes run in the area. These focus especially on education of children in the local area but also provide extensive support for other rural projects. You can find some more information (in Spanish) as well as photographs of the plantation on their website.

Bitaco Colombian Green tea consists of quite large dark green leaves that are wiry and twisted. It produces a light yellow liquor with a slight floral aroma. The smooth flavours are quite multilayered with a good depth but minimal dryness and astringency. The classic vegetal green tea profile leads to a creamy and sweet mouthfeel with light floral and fennel notes. The vegetal aftertaste is clean and brisk.

We suggest brewing parameters of 80°C for 2-3 minutes according to your taste, brewing 3 or more times.

You can also buy Bitaco Leafy Green tea in our online shop.

Dong Cheon Daejak Nokcha

Dong Cheon Daejak Nokcha Korean Green Tea

Dong Cheon Daejak Nokcha (동천 대작 녹차) is a lovely green tea from the Dong Cheon co-operative of farmers. A Daejak (대작) grade is plucked in summer and is the final flush of the season. It is also normally the flush when the largest leaves are plucked from the trees. While earlier flushes are more prized, they also attract very high prices due to small scale of tea production in the country. This Dong Cheon Daejak Nokcha green tea by contrast has a great balance between great quality, unusual character and a reasonable price. It has full organic certification and was picked in May 2020.

Dong Cheon, Hadong, South Korea

Although Korean teas may look similar green teas from other countries, their taste can be quite unusual due to quite different production methods. This particular tea is produced using the Jeong-cha production method where the freshly hand plucked leaves are plunged into near boiling water. After this hot bath they are shaped and dried in a hot iron cauldron until finished. The result carries a stronger, bolder and deeper flavour that is quite distinctive.

Dong Cheon Daejak Nokcha is a semi-wild green tea, which means that the trees are from an ancient cultivar from Hadong Province that used to grow wild. This cultivar is thought to have been brought from China by buddhist monks over 1,200 years ago and many temples around Jirisan (지리산) still grow their own tea. So the majority of tea from Hadong comes from the descendants of those original tea plants. Presently the tea plants of this ancient Hadong cultivar are normally planted by the farmers but are then basically left to grow on their own as they are grown organically without pesticides or herbicides.

The dry leaves of this Daejak tea are dark green and have a faint grassy and toasty aroma. The liquor is refreshing and has an aroma of toasted corn with a subtle grassy and sweet taste. The herbaceous profile has a vegetal flavour with some more roasted notes coming through that are reminiscent of toasted corn. The smooth taste has a creamy and sweet quality that leads to a pleasantly soft finish with minimal astringency or dryness.

Dong Cheon Tea Field, Jirisan, Hwagae Valley, Hadong County, South Korea
Dong Cheon Tea Field in Jirisan, Hwagae Valley

It is best brewed at 70°C for 1 minute or less according to your taste. This tea should definitely be brewed multiple times to enjoy the different flavours from each brew.

You can also buy Dong Cheon Daejak Nokcha green tea in our online shop.

We have an extensive range of teas from Dong Cheon, so why not try our any of the three other teas that we offer: Sejak Hwangcha (second flush balhyocha) and Sejak Nokcha (second flush green), Jungjak Nokcha (third flush green).

Assam Kathaldanga Royal Gold

Assam Kathaldanga Royal Gold Black Tea

Assam Kathaldanga Royal Gold is a completely handmade Second Flush Assam from a very small family-run tea garden located in Kathaldanga Village on the north bank of the Brahmaputra River in Upper Assam. The careful hand picking and processing in small individual batches results in stunning looking leaves and a complex taste. This tea was harvested in late May 2020 from plants grown naturally and without use of chemical fertilisers or pesticides.

We work together with a specialist wholesaler in Assam who only works directly and supports small scale farmers. They do not just resell the farmers’ teas but also provide support and financial help to farmers to enable them to produce great quality tea – such as investing into machinery and providing them with knowhow. This guarantees the farmers a fair price for their tea and provides investment into their farm to support their families’ future. This is in complete contrast with teas from many large Assam estates where most of the price paid for the tea ends up with the estate and little trickles down to the farmers.

Assam Kathaldanga
Assam Kathaldanga Tea Garden

This Assam Kathaldanga Royal Gold is a Second Flush Assam, having been picked in late May. Generally this is the most prized picking for the Assam region as the trees are in full power, producing leaves that make a tea with a strong pronounced Assam flavour. This tea is particularly precious as it consists almost entirely of buds and small fine leaves. Compared to the sister productions from Latumoni or Koliapani, the Kathaldanga version is the tippiest of them all. The use of the smaller leaf results in tea that has an elevated degree of complexity.

The dry leaves of Assam Kathaldanga Royal Gold have a very appealing black and gold appearance with a typical Assam malty aroma. Brewed leaves open up nicely into choicest buds that produce a dark umber liquor. The robust flavour is unmistakably Assam in character. The flavours are clean with a malty and mineral profile. The complex notes start with sweet malty molasses, mineral leather and dark wood with light tobacco overtones. The tasting then progresses to a tangy aftertaste that is pleasantly tannic and dry with a lasting mouthwatering finish.

We suggest brewing at 90°C for 3-5 minutes according to your taste. It can be brewed a couple of times depending on your taste preferences. Definitely try it first without the addition of milk or sugar. Nevertheless, due to the tannic aspect in this tea, it can take a splash of milk if you so desire.

Santikhiri Milk Ruby Oolong

Doi Mae Salong Ruby Milk Oolong

Santikhiri Milk Ruby Oolong is a smooth, highly oxidised oolong that is produced from a Taiwanese Jin Xuan TRES #12 cultivar. This oolong comes from around Santikhiri village (formerly Mae Salong) located in Mae Fa Luang District around the highlands of Doi Mae Salong mountain, close to the border with Burma and Laos. Santikhiri Milk Ruby Oolong is an organic tea grown at an altitude of around 1,200-1,600 metres and this particular lot was plucked in Summer 2020. We source this tea directly from the owner of the plantation in Doi Mae Salong.

Mae Fa Luang, Chiang Rai, Thailand

This Milk Ruby Oolong tea is made from a Taiwanese cultivar called Jin Xuan ‘Golden Daylily’ (金萱) or TRES #12, the number given to it by the Taiwan Research and Extension Station. Milk Oolong is also sometimes known as Nai Xiang (奶香) ‘Milk Fragrance’ in Chinese. The Jin Xuan cultivar is very popular with farmers since the plants are more hardy and produce a higher yield. From a tea lover’s point of view, Jin Xuan is an attractive aromatic drink with a lovely sweet and creamy character when made into a lightly oxidised oolong. However the Ruby version is oxidised to a high degree, almost pushing it into the black tea category. This results in a smooth flavour with attractive fruity and honey notes and zero astringency or bitterness.

Santikhiri Milk Ruby Oolong comes in tightly rolled leaves that open slowly to produce a golden liquor. The flavour profile starts on the tangy and fruity side, progressing onto fuller flavorous that are sweeter with floral notes and a soft creamy mouthfeel. The clean aftertaste is comforting and warming, with lingering notes of acacia honey.

We suggest brewing at 90°C for 3-4 minutes according to your taste. Since the leaves are slow to open we suggest the first infusion to be longer than subsequent infusions. It can be brewed 3+ times.

View over Doi Mae Salong and Santikhiri Village
View over Doi Mae Salong and Santikhiri Village

We really do hope that you enjoy the tea selection for December and are looking forward to the selection in our next box. Our January box will be a Taiwan special, featuring both classic and unusual Taiwanese teas!

If reading this has made you curious about our teas, but you don’t yet subscribe to a monthly tea selection, you can sign up for our tea boxes in just a few clicks. We ship worldwide from London, UK.

We always love to hear from you, so if you have any questions, suggestions or just want to chat about tea, email us at, via our Facebook page or via Twitter.

You can also follow us on Instagram for pretty tea photos.

Happy tea discoveries!

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Above the Levels

"Come & Sing Day" – Sat 29 Sept

Back home  /  Latest News  /  "Come & Sing Day" – Sat 29 Sept

by Stephanie Taylor

Mid Wessex Singers are having a "Come and Sing Day" on Saturday 29 September, 10.00am to 4.00pm in the Long Sutton Village Hall.

Led by Musical Director Graham Coatman.
Featuring works by Vivaldi, Stanford, Parry and Bob Chilcott (which will be included in our programme for our Armistice Concert in Curry Rivel on Saturday 10 November).
Cost £15 per person including music hire and refreshments (please bring your own lunch). All welcome.
For further information and booking:
Tel: 01963 240794 or 07502 280596

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• Category

Social Media Creates Relevancy and Customer Loyalty

Social Media Can Enhance Your Lpyalty Program

Consumers today are time-starved, overwhelmed by messaging and more digitally enabled than ever before. In this fast-paced world, retailers struggle in finding ways to still offer the personalized experience consumers expect. According to a recent study from Empathica, loyalty marketers are increasingly taking advantage of social media to foster customer loyalty.

The inherent customization of social media creates opportunities for marketers to return to a time when successful retailers had relationships with their customers and their specific preferences. Even so, how do you break through all the noise to really engage your audience and engender customer loyalty?

Retailers must create relevance across all channels. A recent study from NCR Corp. found that,

81% of survey respondents said they’re more likely to pick retailers that enable them to interact via their preferred combination of online, mobile, self-service, and in-store channels.

This startling statistic is evidence of consumers’ decreasing brand loyalty to retailers, but also the opportunities companies have in fostering a “consumer-side loyalty” through relevance and personalization. To enhance customers’ experience, companies must ensure a seamless multi-channel retail experience and then find ways to integrate their social media strategy across all channels.

According to the study, 42% of respondents want information to be consistent across multiple channels, while 44% also agreed that their retail experiences would be much quicker and enjoyable if brands offered tools for greater personalization.

Social media is here to stay and marketers that can find ways to integrate relevant experiences for their customers will be better positioned for growth and increased consumer loyalty. Where does social media fit into your existing loyalty strategy?

Sallie Burnett
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Custom Round Top Knotty Alder Doors

32 x 96 round top doors.
These doors can be made to your needs in size, shape, color,style or wood choice.
Custom finish matching is available as well as aging and distressing the wood to give it that ancient feeling.

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Tree Pruning

Cutting Edge Tree Services provide a variety of tree pruning options to ensure the good health of any trees on your property. This includes:

Our arborists can identify any areas of the tree that may require pruning to improve its long-term health.

We recommend annual inspections by a qualified Mount Waverley arborist to ensure the health and structure of trees on your property. This can significantly reduce the risk of large branch falls resulting in property damage.

For your peace of mind, all pruning is carried out to Australian Standards AS 4373-2007 Pruning of Amenity Trees. Further information of these standards can be found on the SAI Global website.

Arrange a no-obligation quote for tree pruning with us today!

We would love to assist you with any tree-related questions you may have, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.


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Sext users

Added: Sandra Escalera - Date: 30.12.2021 06:06 - Views: 47505 - Clicks: 1931

Sexting — or using your phone to send sexual pictures, videos, or texts — might seem like no big deal. But before you hit sext users, there are some pretty big consequences to consider. Sexting means using your phone, computer, or camera to take or send sexy messages or images — usually selfies.

But sexts can outlast your crush or even your relationship. Sexting can cause serious problems whether you send them or share them. The pics might get sent around or posted online, where people like your family, teachers, and friends could see them. Does your boyfriend or girlfriend ask for or send you naked pictures?

sweet moms Penny

You have the right to say no to any form of sexual behavior, including sexting. You always deserve to feel safe and respected in your relationship. Is it legal? Sending, owning, or taking naked or sexual pictures of someone under 18 called a minor is generally illegal, even if you both said it was ok. Never send, store, or forward a naked picture of a sext users. Is it what you want? Will it get shared? When you like or trust someone enough to send them a sext, you might never imagine that they'd show your private messages to others.

But sometimes people do mean things you'd never expect, especially after a fight or a breakup.

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They may share your sexts as a way to get back at you. There are a of ways sexts can get into the wrong hands on purpose or by accident and cause some damage. So think twice before sending anything to anyone that you wouldn't want the whole world to see. Honestly — you just can't guarantee sext users. You might think you're only sharing things with certain people, but anyone can save and send pictures and texts to others even with Snapchat or other hidden photo apps. Once it's out there, you have no control over who can see your picture, and no way of getting it back. Even if you delete it from your phone,or profile, other people can save or copy the image and spread it around.

Sharing naked pictures is abusive and a major violation of trust. Talk to them about why sexting might not be a good idea. There are lots of others ways they can flirt or let you know how they feel. Delete the sext as soon as possible. If your phone is lost, stolen, or borrowed someone might see it and share it with others.

stunner madam Makenzie

Remember, it's NEVER okay to share or post someone else's private photos or sext users, even if you're in a fight or don't like them. This is a cruel form of bullying and sexual harassment, and it can really hurt people.

Help us improve - how could this information be more helpful? Chat online to get answers about pregnancy, birth control, emergency contraception, STDs, and abortion. Or call Was this helpful? Yes No Help us improve - how could this information be more helpful?

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email: [email protected] - phone:(171) 163-1193 x 5847

14 Best Free Sex Apps (For Sexting, Games, Gay & Couples)


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Elf Esteem

elf presentsOne of the North Pole Toy Shop employees just up and quit after last season and moved to New York City. She has a new position with the Philharmonic.

Now she is a Metro Gnome.

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    Soon it will be time to call Parson Brown again.
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    He's not deaf - he's ignoring you.
  • Cat Line Cut or Lion Cut

    Line Cut First: The explanation that goes with these pictures circulating on the net. My…


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Topeakmart Home Office Computer Desk, Sturdy Writing Table w/ 2 Storage Shelves, Work Desk with Pull-Out Keyboard Tray and Drawers for Living Room, Multipurpose Modern Style PC Desk, Black - Cyburthur Stores - Topeakmart
$124.49 $160.99
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Product Description

Brand: Topeakmart

Color: Black

  • SELECTED MATERIALS: This computer desk applies CARB P2-compliant MDF to reduce the harmful emissions to the minimum amount. This desk furniture piece is all finished in fine material to keep it well protected from scratches and liquid corrosions.
  • AMPLE STORAGE SPACE: On the right of this computer desk is a smooth-sliding drawer with a handy pull for stashing workday essentials. Under the drawer is an open cabinet with a height-adjustable shelf, which can be customized for your different storage needs.
  • COMPACT HOME WORKSTATION: The home office desk features a spacious working surface, a full-width top shelf, a smooth-sliding keyboard tray, a pull-out drawer and a roomy open cabinet with a height-adjustable shelf to meet your home office workstation needs.
  • PRACTICAL HUTCH DESIGN: The versatile top shelf can serve perfectly as a monitor shelf which raises the monitor to a comfortable height. Still, you can make good use of the hutch shelf to put plants, table clocks, photos and notepads.
  • HEAVY-DUTY CONSTRUCTION: MDF wooden work desk holds a high load capacity up to 50kg/110lb on the tabletop, 11lb in the drawer, 22lb for the compartment board and 11lb for the keyboard tray. Please avoid standing/sitting on the table for your safety concerns.

Package Dimensions: 47.0 x 22.0 x 5.5 inches


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Cygnet Rowing Club
on the Tideway since 1890
CSSC Sports and Leisure

Cygnet Weekly Update

6th June 2017

Firstly congratulations to Tim on the birth of baby Josephine on Friday, mum and baby are doing well and Tim seems pretty much ok on very little sleep.

It was a great weekend of race training on Saturday and Sunday with the two race crews for Barnes and Mortlake honing their starts amongst other race drills. The river was quiet enough for a series of side by side starts with honours pretty even between the two crews. They are racing in the same event on Saturday so bragging rights are certainly going to be fought hard over. The new novices had their first post LTR outings and there are clear signs of developing skills and increasing control over the 8. Racing starts for you guys next.

So this Saturday is Barnes and Mortlake "International" Regatta, the last of the summer regattas on our local stretch of river. It is based out of Mortlake Anglian and Alpha club just up river of Chiswick Bridge (for anyone who doesn't already know). We have two Novice 4+ racing (Sam, Scott, Ian, Robin, and Bjarne, Cris, Niall and Vasil) and Dave in IM3 single sculls. Do come down to MAA to watch. I'll let you know the race times once the draw is out.

Bjarne's crew is still looking for a cox for the day, so if you can help out please let me and Cristobal know.

So this week....

Race training outings for race crews at 7pm focusing on starts, starts and more starts.

Squad ergos 6 x 500m with 2 min rest

Novice outing, meet at 7pm OTW by 7:15 at the latest. Make sure your availability is bang up to date and put the crew listing out tomorrow.

Barnes and Mortlake Regatta

For those not racing, squad outings meet at 7:05, OTW at 7:30
Novice Squad, Meet at 9, on the water at 9:30, crew listing will be put out on Thursday

7:05 meet at the club, 7:30 on the water
The focus will be preparing for Richmond Regatta (24th June) and giving the prospective crews more race and start training.

That's all for now, have a good week, see you at the club soon,

Author: Neil Pickford

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Street Performer

Whether acrobat, troubadour, or thespian, the street performer mixes with the masses, singing for his supper.

Bardic Performance

A street performer gains the following types of bardic performance:

Disappearing Act (Su): A street performer can use performance to divert attention from an ally. All creatures within 30 feet that fail a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the bard’s level + the bard’s Cha modifier) treat one creature chosen by the bard as if it were invisible. This performance affects one additional creature at 5th level and every 6 levels thereafter. If the targets take any action that would cause them to become visible, they become visible to everyone. The bard cannot use this ability on himself. This ability is a mind-affecting effect that requires visual components.

This performance replaces inspire courage.

Harmless Performer (Su): At 3rd level, a street performer can use performance to appear meek and unworthy of being attacked. While using this performance, whenever an enemy targets the street performer, the enemy must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the bard’s level + the bard’s Cha bonus) or be unable to attack the bard this round, as per sanctuary. The enemy loses the attack that targeted the bard, but may spend additional attacks targeting other creatures. If the opponent was targeting the street performer with a spell, it must succeed at a concentration check at the same DC or lose the spell. If this check succeeds, it may target another creature with the spell instead. This mind-affecting ability requires audible or visual components.

This performance replaces inspire competence.

Madcap Prank (Su): At 9th level, a street performer can use performance to discomfit a target within 30 feet, causing its clothing to become tangled, its headgear to fall down over its eyes, or even causing it to slip and fall or otherwise be made to appear a fool. The target must make a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 the bard’s level + the bard’s Cha modifier) each round that it hears or sees the performance, or it takes one of the following random effects each round:

5—fall prone,

Each effect lasts 1 round.

This performance replaces inspire greatness.

Slip through the Crowd (Su): At 15th level, a street performer’s disappearing act enables affected creatures to move through crowd squares and enemy-occupied squares without impediment. Affected creatures are treated as if having greater invisibility, but enemies gain a new saving throw to notice them each time they are attacked.

This performance replaces inspire heroics.

A street performer earns double the normal amount of money from Perform checks. As a standard action, he may use a Bluff check in place of a Diplomacy check to improve a creature’s attitude for 1 minute, after which its attitude becomes one step worse than originally.

This ability replaces countersong.

A street performer gains a bonus equal to half his level on Bluff, Disguise, Knowledge (local), and Sleight of Hand checks, Diplomacy or Intimidate checks made to influence crowds, and Diplomacy checks to gather information (minimum +1).

This replaces bardic knowledge.

Quick Change (Ex)

At 5th level, a street performer can don a disguise as a standard action by taking a –5 penalty on his check. He can take 10 on Bluff and Disguise checks and use Bluff to create a diversion to hide as a swift action. He can take 20 on a Bluff or Disguise check once per day, plus one time per six levels beyond 5th.

This ability replaces lore master.

Section 15: Copyright Notice
Advanced Player’s Guide. Copyright 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn.


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TikTok/@candlejennerofficial Brooke Sjoberg

‘Ma’am this is a Wendy’s’: Group of Karen parents allegedly show up to wrong place to protest masks for 5 hours

'Showed up to wrong building thinking it's a school board meeting.'

Brooke Sjoberg

Internet Culture

Published Sep 27, 2021   Updated Sep 27, 2021, 10:17 am CDT

A video showing a group of parents protesting a school district’s mask policy has gone viral on TikTok. The group, however, was allegedly protesting at the wrong building.

In the video, a large group of parents can be heard shouting, “No more masks!” Text overlay on the video states that the group of parents showed up at the wrong building and protested masks for at least five hours. The text overlay also refers to the “angry parents” as “Karens and Kevins.”

The caption of the video pokes fun at the parents possibly being at the wrong location: “Ma’am this is a wendys.”

However, some commenters suggested that this is an older video and that context is missing. The parents, they say, may have been in the right place, but the meeting was canceled. It was reposted without very much context to a TikTok meme account. There is no visible signage to indicate where this took place.

“This has a bit of misinformation,” one commenter wrote. “There was a meeting. But due to the sheer size of the crowd and (obviously) no one was masked up they canceled it.”

Another commenter suggested that these people were actually turned away from a school board meeting because it was full.

Multiple people in the comments section referenced this happening somewhere near them or in their hometown, saying the reposter got the story wrong. They did not provide the name of the alleged location.

Others simply remarked on the parents’ opposition to mask policies.

“What do they really have against masks?” one wrote. “Like I genuinely don’t even understand why they are this mad about a piece of material on your face.”

The video has been viewed 1.5 million times and liked 250,000 times since being posted over the weekend.

Share this article
*First Published: Sep 27, 2021, 8:30 am CDT


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Downstate dumping case brings intrigue to Rochester Town Court

  • Mid-Hudson News Network

    April Van Heusen

  • Mid-Hudson News Network

    This photo shows some of the debris dumped on April Van Heusen's property in the town of Rochester.

ACCORD, N.Y. >> One matter stood out among the others in Rochester Town Court on Wednesday.

Despite hushed whispers exchanged between attorneys, it was impossible to hide from residents this particular discussion: an illegal dumping sting that made news last month.

Statements overheard by news reporters during a previous court proceeding, conducted in neighboring Wawarsing, suggested the loads might have originated with the New York City bomb squad.

An array of uncommon spectators further distinguished this week’s out-of-ordinary hearing. Activists demanded that officials speak louder, reporter cupped their ears, and Rochester Supervisor Carl Chipman watched silently from a back corner.

“I’ll be back. I’m emotionally invested in this,” Chipman said afterward, adding that he has spoken with Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright. The supervisor said Carnright promised he would look into the complaints.

After a brief interaction, and yet another postponement, April Van Heusen was left outside, wondering if two dozen truckloads of waste that were delivered to her front yard from Long Island instead of clean fill will ever be removed from alongside her driveway on Van Tine Road.

State Department of Environmental Conservation cops nabbed the truck drivers on June 5, following an early morning stakeout conducted from Van Heusen’s front porch. Nobody has explained to Van Heusen how the police were tipped off, or why investigators were dispatched from DEC Region 2 (Brooklyn/Queens) instead of Region 3 (Hudson Valley).

Other questions left unanswered include why Department of Environmental Conservation police were absent from court on Wednesday, as was the town constable who issued separate charges against the four arrested truck drivers. The defendants, charged with the misdemeanor of dumping illegal waste, also did not appear on Wednesday.

Attorney Scott Russell of Rock Hill, in Sullivan County, answered the charges, saying the responsible firm would “step in and do the right thing for their employees,” Russell said. “… If the offer remains the same, I will plea to the charge with the maximum fine. I don’t see that I have much of a choice.”

But Justin Stenerson, the Ulster County assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, offered little in terms of leniency, requesting a guilty plea to the charges and a maximum fine. He called the charge against the defendants serious.

The defense argued Wednesday that Rochester Town Court lacks jurisdiction because the charges fall under an obscure section of the state environmental code.

Van Heusen, meanwhile, said she has not yet gotten test results from the Department of Environmental Conservation regarding the dumped debris, which she says is contaminating her well water. And she worries that delays might make cleanup impossible if the winter freeze sets in first.

The defendants – identified in previous published reports as Franklin De La Rosa, Anthony J. Daniels, Juan A. Cosme and James Spoto – are due in court Aug. 2.

Editor’s note: This story was modified 3:26 p.m. Aug. 3, 2017, pending clarification regarding the trucking firm for which the drivers allegedly worked.


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Jump around the lpatform, get all the oranges and find the keys the hidden charcters have. Earn points and reach the exit. USe arrows to move and space bar to jump.

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Celebrate African American history with CLC virtual Juneteenth event

  • The College of Lake County will host a Juneteenth celebration from 2-4 p.m. Thursday, June 18, on Facebook Live.

    The College of Lake County will host a Juneteenth celebration from 2-4 p.m. Thursday, June 18, on Facebook Live. Courtesy of the College of Lake County

Updated 6/16/2020 11:52 AM

In honor of the day when all enslaved African Americans were freed after the Civil War, the College of Lake County is hosting a virtual Juneteenth celebration from 2-4 p.m. Thursday, June 18.

To create awareness and understanding of diversity, multiculturalism and social justice concerns, the college community will come together for a free Facebook Live program that is open to the public.

"History has been painted through the lens of those in power, and we take back that power by celebrating moments like Juneteenth," said Leila Manthi, a student from Round Lake Beach studying social work with plans of becoming a film director.

"Juneteenth is black history and black history is American history. By celebrating with us, you acknowledge the true history of America. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?"

As a community college committed to equitable high-quality education, cultural enrichment and partnerships to advance the diverse communities it serves, CLC events will evolve due to COVID-19 social distancing. Juneteenth speakers and performers will educate attendees about mental health in the black community, voter registration and a history of the holiday.

"It is important our mission is not just something merely in writing, but in action," said Christina Gardner, multicultural retention coordinator.

by signing up you agree to our terms of service

"As an active member of the multicultural community at CLC, it is important we as college employees create an environment for our students to become increasingly culturally conscious."

The Multicultural Student Center, African American Student Success Network and Black Student Union will organize this social event celebrated annually at the college and across the country. Faculty, staff, students, alumni and local community members will inspire participants to take action to make Lake County a better place to live, work and play.

Visit www.facebook.com/events/3086647824723612 to view the livestream event.

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Escape cattle class! Upgrade your train ticket to first-class from just a fiver with nifty new Seatfrog app

  • Seatfrog allows train passengers to bid for upgrades before they travel
  • Can only be used on Virgin - but other operators expected to be available soon
  • Firm also plan to make it available for flights before the end of the year

Train passengers who want to escape cattle class can now upgrade their tickets on the same day they travel for a fraction of the usual cost with a new app.

Seatfrog - launched today - enables Virgin Trains passengers who have already booked standard class tickets to bid on empty first-class seats from as little as £5.

Travellers need to download the free app available on Apple and Android devices and enter their ticket booking reference to bid on available first class seats.

A smart way to upgrade? Seatfrog gets you into first class from as little as £5 extra

A smart way to upgrade? Seatfrog gets you into first class from as little as £5 extra

They will be asked to confirm how much they wish to bid and enter their payment details. There are no credit card or booking fees.

The online auction opens two hours before the train is scheduled to leave the station and ends 30 minutes before departure.

While passengers can choose to up their bids while the bidding is underway, they are also given the choice to put in a 'pre-bid' from as soon as they book their original seat.

This will kick in as soon as the auction goes live to save them the time and hassle of manually updating their bid.

There's also an option to upgrade instantly with the 'upgrade now' button in the app - a bit like eBay's 'buy it now' option - from five days before departure for a fixed price depending on the individual journey.

Easy bidding: set your maximum bid and the app will automatically take care of the auction for you

Easy bidding: set your maximum bid and the app will automatically take care of the auction for you

Upgrade costs

Costs vary by journey but are likely to be more than secured through the auction process but the upgrade will be guaranteed in advance.

Seatfrog chief executive Iain Griffin told This is Money passengers using the auction function will never be allowed to pay more than the 'pay now' price through the bidding process.

All upgrade costs depend on demand so while passengers may be able to secure a first-class seat from as little as £5 on quieter services and shorter journeys, for peak times and routes - such as Friday night trains leaving London - you can expect to pay more.

During the testing phase of the app just before today's full launch, Seatfrog's first upgrade went to a man travelling mid morning on a Friday from Leeds to London for £10.

And another good deal was had by a traveller going from London to Edinburgh midweek for an extra £15.

After a winning bid has been placed and the auction has closed, a card payment is taken and new travel details are sent to the passenger's app instantly so there's no need to make a last-minute dash to collect new tickets.

Tips for getting a good deal

Seatfrog advises bidding early. 'Place a pre-bid any time before you travel and Seatfrog will bid on your behalf up to that price.

'The software is much faster than you'd be able to do it yourself,' says a spokesperson.

1. Download the free app and create an account with your email address. You will also have to give payment card details.

2. Enter your train booking reference and set your maximum upgrade bid.

3. App will notify you when the auction begins.

4. Travellers can view the current price and what others are bidding.

5. After a winning bid has been placed, Seatfrog will send an updated train ticket to the passenger's smartphone to board the train.

'And bid your best price – there's no point hanging back, bid your highest, because Seatfrog will bid against other travellers for you up to that price and you'll always get a deal.

'So you can sit back and watch the upgrade roll in.'

At launch, only passengers travelling on Virgin Trains will be able to use the app to upgrade cheaply.

But the network is extensive, with routes spanning the majority of the mainland Britain - from London to Glasgow.

And more train operators are expected to join Seatfrog in the coming months.

What's more, the Seatfrog upgrade tool will also be available for flight upgrades before the end of the year, Griffin told This is Money.

A large number of airlines are expected to take part in the Seatfrog auctions seeing as the company has partnered with Amadeus, the global e-ticketing provider.

The online auctions will close approximately three hours before take- off.

Passengers will be able to upgrade both train and plane journeys through the same Seatfrog app.

First trains, next planes: Seatfrog is expanding into airline upgrades by the end of the year

First trains, next planes: Seatfrog is expanding into airline upgrades by the end of the year

About Seatfrog

Seatfrog claims its service gives passengers greater flexibility and the travel industry greater returns.

The Australian-based tech firm announced its launch plans down under last year but the roll out of the app has been delayed until now.

The company says 37million airline seats fly empty in premium classes each year across the world's the top 30 airlines, with more than 480millions seats sitting empty across the top seven European rail countries.

And yet, it says more than 90 per cent of air and rail passengers never experience first or business class travel.

Seatfrog app lets you upgrade to first-class train from £5

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Home > Cloud PRWire > Eugene OR Metal Carport/Steel Building – Equipment Storage Solutions Updated

Eugene OR Metal Carport/Steel Building – Equipment Storage Solutions Updated

Oregon Carports, commercial and residential storage specialists based in Eugene, OR, have launched updated metal carport and outbuilding retail services for customers in Eugene, Salem, Gresham and Portland. The launch provides durable and economical storage for a range of assets, including vehicles, business inventory or household accessories.

More details can be found here https://carportview.oregoncarports.com

The newly updated range comes with a 20 year warranty against rust invasion for 12 gauge materials, beginning on the date of an installation’s completion. Oregon Carports are an authorized dealer for American Carports, providing engineer certification along with shipping and full installation at no extra cost.

Metal buildings offer a weather resistant, cost-effective solution to both domestic and commercial storage requirements. They are commonly made from thick, galvanized steel and coated with special paint to prevent rusting.

Customers can order versions with extra snow load bearing capability and wind resistance. Wind Warranty packages are also available, offering a guarantee of protection from winds of 90mph and upwards.

Oregon Carports metal structures come with 360 degree roof bracing. This provides reinforcement on corners and on central trussing, preserving structural integrity and preventing internal collapse over the long-term.

Customers can choose from a range of carport roof styles. These include the modestly-priced standard carport design which offers simple, swift assembly for a still sturdy and durable structure.

An A-Frame Horizontal Roof version is also available, along with a Vertical A-Frame option depending on customer requirements and preference. Vertical designs help water and snow run off quickly before they can pool on the roof.

A variety of colors are on offer at no extra cost and orders are fulfilled and delivered within 4 to 8 weeks, with assembly normally completed within a day.

The company website features a Build and Price tool which provides a 3D rendering of customer designs, as well as an instant quote.

Oregon Carports are a division of American Carports, Inc., one of America’s leading and best-selling metal carport manufacturers.

A satisfied client says, “The entire experience was fabulous from beginning to the finished product. The installers were very hard workers, did a great job and left everything clean. I would recommend this company to anyone who wants a carport.”

With the launch of their updated metal carport supply and installation services, Oregon Carports continue to make durable rust-proof storage solutions the standard for customers throughout the state and beyond.

For more information, please visit https://oregoncarports.com

Oregon Carports
Oregon Carports

United States

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Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Daily Pune journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.


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The Daily Tar Heel

Serving the students and the University community since 1893

Monday October 25th

UNC students consider how their lack of sleep affects wellness and school work

DTH Photo Illustration. Students are having trouble finding a balance between sleep and work.

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DTH Photo Illustration. Students are having trouble finding a balance between sleep and work.

Sarah Scarborough has an alarm set for 7 a.m. She hits snooze until 9, then attends her online classes, Diet Coke in hand. It gets dark, but she’s not tired yet since she still has some pent up energy considering she’s not walking to classes these days. Motivation during the day has been low, so she has enough work to keep her occupied until she falls asleep at 2 or 3 a.m. Rinse and repeat.

It’s not an unusual schedule for a student this semester, but it goes against almost every one of the “baseline things” CAPS psychologist Anna Lock recommends to students when it comes to sleep hygiene.

It’s familiar advice: don’t do work or use your phone in bed, avoid caffeine and alcohol late in the day and stay active.

Although a college student struggling to maintain healthy sleeping habits is not unique to the pandemic, challenges like a lack of routine, being stuck in the house and struggles with mental health have notably impacted the sleeping habits of students like Scarborough over the past year.

“It’s weird, I feel like I do less, but I still have less energy,” Nykolas Zollbrecht, a junior struggling with sleep, said. “I haven’t felt well-rested in a long time.”

In the National College Health Assessment conducted during the spring of 2020, UNC students were asked how many days per week they got enough sleep that they felt rested. Sixty percent of the students surveyed responded zero to two days. Forty-one percent reported getting less than seven hours of sleep per weeknight on average.

Lock and Dean Blackburn, director of Student Wellness, pointed to sleep as foundational for student health and well-being.

“Sleep is that thing that I always ask about first when I’m working with a student and wondering what may be underlying some of their current struggles,” Lock said, “[Lack of] sleep makes it harder for us to concentrate, it makes it harder for us to encode new information… it makes it harder for us to manage stress, so it can exacerbate anxiety and it can exacerbate depression.”

But it’s not always clear what constitutes healthy sleeping habits. Lock said for some people, five hours of sleep might be enough, while others need eleven. In terms of sleep schedules, some students prefer to work late at night and sleep into the afternoon.

Lock said if this sort of schedule is consistent, it’s possible to get restful sleep, but noted that humans have a natural response to light – our mood and circadian rhythm can be thrown off by working in the dark.

Jack Brownlee, a junior, struggled with that schedule after daylight saving time. He woke up late and saw sunlight for four hours before darkness would descend again; it was depressing, he said, and he started feeling lethargic and unproductive.

“I don’t think people should measure their self-worth or their self-esteem to their productivity right now, which is the advice that I gave everyone except myself,” Brownlee said. He felt anxious about the amount of work he saw piling up to the point that he didn’t want to do it.

Brownlee wondered if he could improve his mental well-being through a physical change, namely, remedying his sleep schedule.

He started keeping his blinds open and leaving his phone in another room, buying an alarm clock as a replacement. Then, he started setting his alarm clock in increments; three days set at 9:30 a.m., then two days at 9 a.m., and so on.

Once he was consistently waking up at 7:30 a.m. and physically getting up by 8, he established a morning routine he takes pride in: read a chapter of something fun, eat breakfast and get ready by 10.

Brownlee's new routine has led to desired improvements in his mental health.

“Existing during the sunlight rather than during the night has definitely helped make me feel like a real human. Being able to get my work done by a reasonable hour – most days – has also helped a lot,” Brownlee said.

For students with chronic sleep issues, though, other interventions may be necessary.

Lock recommends that students who have been struggling to get enough restful sleep for several weeks to a month reach out to CAPS or Campus Health.

If applicable, they may be referred to the Integrative Health Program, which offers non-pharmaceutical interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy. Students struggling with insomnia or struggling to rest without sleep aids like cough syrup or melatonin shouldn’t hesitate to reach out, she says.

“[Using sleep aids] doesn’t preclude continuing to explore other alternatives or better understanding why this thing works,” Blackburn said.

Both he and Lock said they understand students’ desire to address their own needs.

“The need for sleep and the desire for sleep can really be overwhelming,” Lock said. “It is so hard when you’re not getting good sleep, and it is so hard when anxiety kicks in when you’re trying to go to sleep and that’s getting in the way.”

At the end of the day -- literally -- students will continue to seek out and adopt the strategies that work for them.

To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.

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Games & Horoscopes

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A good tape is so hard to find...Sticker Mule to our rescue.

Updated: Jul 16, 2020

We have been working on several design concepts over here on 9th Street and in all of that branding and design and ordering we have been struggling to find one thing over and over again: custom logo tape. This was something as a design team we were surprised about. We assumed you could simply go to any custom site and get the design that we made printed. On tape. Simple as that. Why not, we had seen it before? Couldn't be that hard, right? Very wrong.

Layer that on top of the fact that (of course ) we on the team had our hearts set on a specific size and a specific salmon pink. Finally, in swooped sticker mule with the exact packaging tape size that we needed and the ability to make it custom.

We thought we should share here, because now that we have moved on to another design project, we have found that tape was becoming a challenge again- but this time we knew where to go first. If we are running into that issue, maybe other designers following are as well.

Check out Sticker Mule's shipping tape here if you have run into the same road blocks that we have.

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Tobirama (Shinobi World Supplement)

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This content deviates from 5e standards. Its use could dramatically alter campaigns, take extreme care. DesignDisclaimer.png
Caution - Here there be monsters!
This content intends to provide a different experience, or goes beyond the scope of the anticipated subjects and situations, than the 5e rules were intended to handle. Some portions of the content below may not be what you expect from traditional game content. When implementing this content, DMs and Players should read over all the information carefully, and consider the following specific notes of interest:
This class was created as part of the Player Equivalent CR variant rule using the Naruto: Shinobi (5e Class) class, and Genin (5e Background) background, and as such is not follow traditional CR.

Tobirama Senju[edit]

Medium humanoid (Senju), lawful evil

Armor Class 20 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points 110 (20d8 + 20)
Speed 60 ft.

10 (+0) 18 (+4) 12 (+1) 20 (+5) 12 (+1) 9 (-1)

Saving Throws Dex +10, Int +11, Wis +7
Skills Acrobatics +10, Arcana +11, Deception +5, History +11, Intimidation +5, Investigation +11, Insight +7, Perception +7, Persuasion +5, Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +10
Senses passive Perception Expression error: Unexpected number.
Languages Common
Challenge 20 (25,000 XP)

Chakra. Tobirama has 33 chakra points which he can expend. All chakra points are regained at the end of a long rest.

Evasion. When Tobirama is targeted by an area effect that lets him make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, such as fireball, he instead takes no damage if he succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if he fails the save.

Ninja Speed. Tobirama can take the dash, dodge, and disengage actions as a bonus action, and can move along vertical surfaces.

Mastery. Tobirama can add half his proficiency bonus rounded up to all checks and saves he is not proficient in.

Multiattack. Tobirama can make 3 unarmed strike or kunai attacks.

Unarmed Strike. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (4d4 + 4) magical bludgeoning damage.

Kunai. Thrown Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, range 30/60 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d4 + 4) piercing damage. Tobirama may spend up to 3 chakra when he takes this action, making one additional attack per chakra point spent. Each additional kunai deals 3 (1d4 + 1) piercing damage on a hit.

Heavenly Weeping (5 Chakra). Ranged Spell Attack: +11 to hit, range 30 ft., two targets. Hit: 8 (1d6 + 5) magical piercing damage. This jutsu can be used even if the user is restrained or incapacitated, but not unconscious.

'Water Prison (4 Chakra). One creature Tobirama can touch must make a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, they are restrained and begin suffocating for 1 minute (concentration). At the end of each of its turns, the target can make a DC 19 Strength saving throw. On a success, the effect ends. If Tobirama can no longer touch the creature, he loses concentration on this jutsu.

Water Style Shadow Clone (4+ Chakra/Clone). Tobirama creates up to 5 clones. The clones have 5 hit points each, and they have the chakra spent creating them. The clones can take actions as normal, however they do not benefit from the Extra Attack feature. Tobirama controls them and they act on the same initiative as him. They last until they are reduced to 0 hit points, they expend all of their chakra, Tobirama dismisses them at will, or Tobirama falls unconscious. If the clone still has chakra when it dissipates, he regains any remaining chakra from the clone - 4 (minimum 0).

  • Clones have no range limit as to how far away they can be.
  • Tobirama may increase the number of hit points each clone has to 30 for 1 chakra point, also causing them to dispel if they leave a 60 ft. radius of him.
  • Any effects affecting Tobirama when the clone is created carries over to the clone.
  • A clone carries a copy of all his equipment, however it does not carry the magical effects over from it beside any base attack roll, damage roll, or AC bonuses (i.e. a cloned vorpal sword is just a +3 sword in the hand of a clone).
  • While the clone is active, Tobirama is aware of its current activities (such as sleeping, eating, running, fighting or even calculus). When a clone dissipates, the main body will receive any knowledge, experiences and memories it has acquired as if it experienced it itself, as well as matching his clone's exhaustion and gradual blindness, deafness, and numbness level (i.e. If he has an exhaustion level of 2 while his clone clone has 5, your exhaustion level will increase to 5), but it will not suffer negative effects such as curses, poison or anything of the like.

Water Dragon (15 Chakra). Tobirama forms a dragon from water within 60 ft. for 1 minute (concentration). He can form and control up to 3 dragons at a time. Beyond being Large, vulnerable to fire damage, immune to non-magical and cold damage, not being able to move, and having 90 hit points and 18 AC, it has the same statistics as you. It acts on your initiative and has the following actions:

  • Multiattack. It can make one bite attack and two claw attacks.
    • Bite deals 3 (1d6) piercing damage
    • Claw deals 2 (1d4) slashing damage
  • Grapple. The dragon uses the grapple attack. While grappled in this manner, a creature can not breath.
  • Self Destruct. The dragon can be sacrificed, ramming itself into a target at high speeds as a ranged spell attack. The target is pushed 40 ft away and takes 36 (8d8) cold damage on a successful hit.

Bringer of Darkness (10 Chakra). One creature within 50 ft. must make a DC 19 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, they are blinded for 1 minute (concentration). As an action, the target can repeat the saving throw.

Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags (2 Chakra). One creature of Tobirama's choice that is controlled or charmed by Tobirama, including himself, has their movement speed halved. At the beginning of each of their turns, all creatures in a 10 foot radius of the creature, including the creature themselves, must attempt a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, they take 16 (3d6 + 5) fire damage until the creature is reduced to 0 hit points.

Giant Vortex Jutsu (20 Chakra). All creatures within a 20 ft. x 120 ft. line must attempt a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, they take 20 (3d12) cold damage, are knocked prone, and lose their next action coughing up a copious amount of water. On a success, they take half as much damage and are knocked prone.

Instant Water (3+ Chakra).' As a bonus action or reaction, Tobirama moves 15 feet in any direction, including straight up. He may double this jutsu's cost to make an unarmed strike immediately after.

Flying Raijin (10 Chakra). Tobirama places a Flying Raijin Seal anywhere he can touch.

Flying Raijin Teleport (2 Chakra). As a bonus action or a reaction to being targeted by an attack, spell effect, or mild annoyance, Tobirama teleports to a Flying Raijin Seal.

Revolving Flying Raijin (5 Chakra). As a bonus action or a reaction to being targeted by an attack, spell effect, or mild annoyance while Tobirama is within 5 ft. of a Flying Raijin Seal that is not on himself, he teleports to a Flying Raijin Seal, and a creature within 5 ft. of the selected seal is placed at his previous location.

Flying Raijin Slash (6 Chakra). As a bonus action or a reaction to being targeted by an attack, spell effect, or mild annoyance while Tobirama teleports to a Flying Raijin Seal and makes an unarmed strike with advantage.

'''Impure World Reincarnation (15+ Chakra/Target). Tobirama targets an amount of living humanoids that are paralyzed, restrained, or unconscious within 15 ft. of him. They are killed instantly and become another dead humanoid, the DNA of which Tobirama must have, in every way. The creature is resurrected and restored to its maximum hit points. This counts as casting true resurrection for the sake of overcoming limitations. After being resurrected in this manner, their type becomes Undead, they regain 10 hit points at the end of each of their turns even if they are at 0 hit points, their maximum chakra points are reduced by 1/4, any non-jutsu damage they deal is reduced by 1d4, if the campaign uses the #Chakra Exhaustion|Chakra Exhaustion variant rule, they can not spend jutsu below 0 chakra points, and they can not benefit from Rinnegan Mastered. They can only be killed if they are killed instantly or if Tobirama undoes any instance of this jutsu under his control of his choice as an action. Once killed, any part of their body is reduced to ash.

Tobirama may choose to either allow creatures under the effect of this jutsu to act on their own initiative count independently, or control them directly on his initiative count. Switching between levels of control requires an action. A creature who is under the effect of this jutsu may break your control as an action for twice the amount of chakra he spent. A creature that knows this jutsu must spend an equal amount.

Fulfilling the role of Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village in the wake of his brother Hashirama's death at the hands of Madara Uchiha, Tobirama Senju's distrust of the Uchiha never faded. This ultimately resulted in the Hidden Leaf Police Force being primarily Uchiha, partially to gain trust on both ends of the relationship and partially to have a tighter watch over their movements. While not the "God of Shinobi" his brother was, Tobirama is considered one of, if not the, most influential shinobi in history in regards to creating jutsu. After his death in his second battle with the the Gold and Silver Brothers, his successor Hiruzen Sarutobi took the title of Hokage.

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Teaching resource

I’ve been looking — for quite a while now — for a teaching resource of some kind that shows how some Christians and some Christian groups do in fact support persons of non-binary gender.

The anti-LGBTQ+ Christians are loud and vocal, and they dominate both media and the popular imagination. But I know there are plenty of progressive Christians who feel their religion is fully compatible with being LGBTQIA+. Unfortunately, as is so often the case in our society, most people think it’s a zero-sum game, so the loudest group gets to take charge of the discourse. In addition, as is so often the case in our religiously illiterate society, everyone seems to assume that all religions are monolithic; everyone assumes that one Christian group gets to represent all Christian groups everywhere, ignoring the fact that Christianity has tremendous internal diversity.

As a religious educator, I’ve long tried to teach people both about Christianity’s internal diversity, and about how some Christians are fully supportive of LGBTQIA people. But in a the context of our zero-sum-game, religiously-illiterate society, I haven’t had much success. I kept thinking: If only I had some great teaching resource that showed how some Christians do not have a binary understanding of gender.

So I was pleased to discover this video, which profiles several interesting non-binary Christians. The interviewer, Grace Selmer Baldridge, happen to be a non-binary Christian, which I think makes this video especially powerful. I could wish that Grace Baldridge had been able to interview some non-white non-binary Christians, but aside from that weakness, the interviewees are diverse in their gender identity, in their age, in their expression of their Christianity.

This video may not work well as a teaching resource for those Unitarian Universalists who suffer from anti-Christian bias. Nevertheless, I’m thinking this video could be a great teaching tool for showing both the internal diversity of Christianity, and showing how some Christians believe their religion calls them to a non-binary understanding of gender.

To watch the video on Youtube, click on the image above.

To whet your appetite, here are some quotes from the video:

“We just have to be honest that using the pronoun ‘he’ for God is a habit, but it has no theological justification.” — Dr. Lizzie Berne DeGear, independent scholar

“When I imagine a trans child coming to understand, ‘I might be a girl in this boy body,’ I’m like, ‘Thank you, God, the child is becoming aware of who they really are.’…. God creates out of love. God creates love out of love. We who are in the image of God are all awesome. So when I’m talking to you, I’m learning a little more about God. Because you’re in God’s image. And when you’re talking to me, the same is true.” — Rev. Dr. Jacqueline J. Lewis, senior minister, Middle Collegiate Church

“As a church, we said: We’re publicly going to affirm the LGBTQIA community. We don’t have to be uniform in that belief right away, we can question it, we can disagree, but this is the stance our church is going to take from here on out.… We lost lots of people. We lost thousands of dollars. And it was such a good move. We can sit here and be comfortable, and say OK, the money’s still rolling in and there’s a lot of people coming through my doors, and we can feel good about that. But when there’s literally people out there who are told that they’re not loved, people whose families are disowning them for this, we need to step up and become safe spaces.” — Jonathan Williams, former lead pastor, Forefront Church, Brooklyn, and son of a trans woman

“We really feel that the only way we can combat that negativity [about LGBTQIA people] is with people of faith standing up and saying: No, this is actually not in alignment with how we understand our faith, that you can be Christian and trans, and you can be Christian and gay, and that they’re not mutually exclusive.” — Jamie Brusesehof, mother of a trans child