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BiS: - Business news for the creative coast.
In Case You Missed It

Savannah Taste Experience offers walking food tours

BiS Company Profile

Savannah Taste Experience

118 Barnard St., #9412

Savannah, GA 31412

Stu Card

Donald Card

April 2012

what we do

“Walking food tours of historic downtown Savannah.”

how we’re different

“Because Savannah Taste Experience is the only tour company in Savannah dedicated to bringing unique, delicious culinary adventures. It’s all we do. Also, while there are many great tour companies in town, Savannah Taste Experience differs in that our tour routes and tasting locations rarely change. This provides our guests with a level of confidence that they will enjoy the same incredible, fun and delectable journey that guests from a year ago experienced. Additionally, the consistent, repeat business that our partner restaurants and specialty food stores experience allows the tour to be competitively priced, while boosting the restaurants’ exposure and good will.”

number of employees

“Other than the owners, Savannah Taste Experience currently has four tour guides.”

a measure of our success

“Success as we defined it a year ago is very different than what it means to us today — the point being to always challenge ourselves and push ourselves to new heights. As the saying goes ‘if you’re not growing, you’re dying.’

“With that being said, we’ve enjoyed growing our business from the unknown to over 2,000 guests in a span of a year, 100 reviews on TripAdvisor with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars, purchases from guests from Europe, Asia, Australia and South America, and recognition among local restaurant owners as a powerful marketing and promotional tool.”

how that happened

“Mostly, I would say, our ‘success’ would have to be attributable to our risk-adverse nature. We did everything we could to minimize our risk from the outset. We had a game-plan from the very beginning, and we were careful in our execution.

“Perhaps sometimes we overanalyzed or talked an issue to death, but our cautious and deliberate mentality to forge strong relationships with our tasting location partners and grow a strong online presence helped eliminate a lot of uncertainty, giving us the confidence to make the right business decisions.”

“And then again, we run a food tour in a town full of delicious food and amazing family-owned restaurants and specialty food stores. We would have to work pretty hard to mess that up.”

best business advice received

“There are so many clichés that we repeat to ourselves on a regular basis — ‘Avoid paralysis through analysis,’ ‘Controlled growth,’ etc. But probably the best piece of advice we received was actually something we read in Inc. Magazine and not something told to us directly.

“The article was about Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial, and what the future holds for Deal-of-the-Day sites. According to the article, Mr. O’Shaugnessy said ‘If you’re not nervous about one or two decisions every day, you probably aren’t trying hard enough.’

“It is such a great reminder to our risk-adverse nature that no success is without its risks and that if want to continue to grow we sometimes have to make some nerve-racking decisions. Too safe can, in fact, be fatal.”

our self-employment journey

Stu: “I guess my journey started when I was working as a medical malpractice trial attorney in Chicago. My partner and mentor, Mary O’Connor, is both a ruthless trial attorney and a savvy businesswoman. When I was named partner of the firm, Mary challenged me to start thinking about my practice more from a business perspective — I had previously only concerned myself with the litigation.

“The more I analyzed the business, the more I started noticing other great business opportunities. It was at this same time I started to become overwhelmed by the extreme hours I was keeping and the utter lack of any work-life balance. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to sustain the career I made for myself and keep my incredible family (wife and two young boys).

“That’s when I came to Savannah for the first time. I came to depose an expert in one of my cases. I immediately fell in love with Savannah, its pace of life and of course its food. The wheels were spinning about all of the great potential in this reborn city.

“Six months later I had retired from the practice of law and moved my family to Savannah to start Savannah Taste Experience with my brother and invaluable business partner.”

Donald: “For me, this whole journey started with a phone call. My career working for the news had sent me on many adventures to many incredible places for many incredible events. So it should have come as no surprise to my brother Stuart that when he called to see if I wanted to team up with him and start a food tour, that I would jump right in

“I viewed it as yet another adventure in my life. And an adventure it has turned out to be. There were the tough moments (passing the incredibly difficult tour guides exam), and there were also the easier moments (the ‘research and development’ phase). But most of all it has been an amazing and fun journey with my brother and partner Stuart.”

advice for other businesses in Savannah wanting to open

“Patience. Things will move fast once you get your company open, but it will never feel fast enough. It often takes several months, if not a full year, to see the full effects of a major marketing campaign, so give it all a chance to work.”

things to avoid

“Avoid knee-jerk reactions. It is easy to fly off the deep end when something goes wrong. However, oftentimes we have found that there are little anomalies in business and one bad day, or one bad review does not mean your product and/or business is failing. Similar to our advice above, patience is a virtue — wait to see trends before deciding on a course of action. Making knee-jerk reactions could inflict more damage than it fixes.”

why Savannah works for us

“First and foremost, it’s a great foodie town. For a food tour company, this is obviously important. But Savannah is also stunningly beautiful and rich in history, while also having a youthful, artistic and even modernity to it — and shan’t forget the constantly growing massive tourist market. All these things make Savannah the absolute perfect place for a business like ours.”

business motto

“We don’t really have a motto per se. But the thing that is probably most often repeated in our business is ‘Don’t freak out!’ ”

groups we support

“We support our troops above all else. We are in constant awe of the sacrifices our soldiers and their families make on a daily basis. We offer discounts for all military and work with the local spouses’ clubs — our food tour is a great mini-vacation that is so necessary for our troops’ families while they are on deployment.”

“We also have worked with Lowcountry Hospice and Wilmington Island Farmer’s Market.”

Web: www.SavannahTaste

Email: info@SavannahTaste

Hours: Booking — open 24 hours 800-979-3370

Compiled by: Shawndra Russell. Read about Shawndra’s work and social media services at

In Case You Missed It


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Sunday, January 6, 2008

Steelers season blows up on 3rd & 7

With just 3 minutes in change on the clock the Pittsburgh Steelers had a one point lead, they had momentum, and they had the ball. All it would take would be one maybe two first downs to run out the clock and survive to play another day. Not that the play up to the end had been spectacular but it was enough to survive. Then the offense went brain dead.

On 3rd and seven, Steeler's Offensive Coordinator, Bruce Arains, must have had a brain cramp. Just get the first down, cause the Jaqs to use up their time outs, get another first down and the game would be Pittsburgh's.

The Steelers run "The Slowest Mammal" play. This can be the name of the caption under the picture describing the play. Needing 7 yards, mind you, 21 feet, of football field to a first down, the ball is snapped to Ben Roethisburger to run! He heads left with the speed of the tortoise. Give Mr. Arians, credit, on paper, with a movable Quarterback this might be a possible solution. Something broke down. The left tackle decides he is blocking for a QB that can be timed in the 40 yard dash with a stopwatch not a calendar. Ben, looking like the number of letters on his jersey are causing him to run in slow motion heads to the left. His tackle decides to run past two Jaguars who put the Steeler's QB on his can. The clock is stopped and the rest, as they say, is history.

Mr Arians, please go find that page in the playbook and remove it unless you find someone in the back field with greater foot speed than a three toed sloth. Being an Alabama fan I have seen your play calling before. I somewhat recognized that play that I believe ended with a similar result in Bama. But, no. He couldn't have gone back to the same bag of tricks?

Let's get rid of the play, 3rd down and seven, Run the slowest Mammal on the field.

Rant over. Steelers go home until next fall. Oh! so sad.

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Talking about home, children, parenting, homeschooling, recipes, faith and much more. Hope you'll join me!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

My Best Friend, My Childhood Room, and Senior Trip

I am linking up today over at Jen's Ink Pen!

Jen asked her readers to share the following:

What do you remember about your very first best friend?
What did your childhood bedroom look like, smell like, feel like, or sound like?
Do you remember being allowed to do something as a child or teenager...that you would not think of letting your own child do today?

Simply reading her post brought back vivid memories, so I thought I'd join in!

My First Best Friend

My very first best friend was Tammy King.  I met her in my kindergarten class and quickly learned that she lived only 5 minutes away from me.  She lived with her grandparents in this sweet little home on a few acres.  I remember playing together in her beautiful room with a huge canopy bed.  It wasn't my style, but it totally fit her!

She was so very sweet and a lot of fun!  We'd play dolls, draw together, and play outside.  We were inseparable in school - always sat next to each other and always found stuff to do together on the playground.

In November of 1977, my parents finished building our home which was nearly 4 hours away.  The next summer, 1978, I was 9 years old and went on a trip with Tammy and her grandparents down South to Tennessee.  It was a great time!  It seemed though that after that time, we stopped writing as much and, sadly, eventually lost touch.

I still have photos of her (found one!!) and wonder what ever happened to her.  Did she get married?  Have children?

My Childhood Room

Ah yes, my room!  It was blue, all blue, with beautiful ruffled curtains that my Momma made me.  I had one painting hung on the wall (that my Momma painted).  I had a double size bed covered with a beautiful white chenille bedspread.  My first desk was a simple green tabletop with metal legs.  I loved that desk!  I think my parents still have it in their basement.

My next desk, later in high school, was one that my Momma's daddy had built - very sturdy and a deep dark brown color.  I had my typewriter on it and would sit there to do my homework.  My fondest memory of using that desk was when I had a research paper due my senior year.  I spent countless hours at that desk poring through books to find information and then typing it out with that ole' typewriter.  My goodness, am I ever thankful now for Microsoft Word!  Can't tell you how much white out and correction tape I went through!

My room was my haven, my refuge.  I had everything I needed in there to curl up with a good book, listen to music, and just spend time doing whatever I liked.

Right outside my window was a dogwood tree that my Daddy planted for me when we first moved there.  It was then and still is now my favorite flowering tree.  In the spring, I would wake up to hear the birds singing and see the gorgeous blooms right outside.  It was my first view of the day...what a blessing!

My husband and girls and I sleep in that very room whenever we visit my parents.  I feel so blessed to still be able to visit the home where I grew up.

The Senior Trip

What bright person ever came up with the idea of sending several hundred seniors out into Cedar Point without chaperones?  When I think about that  Yes, we were seniors, but my, my.

As a chaperone, I can't imagine the stress of making sure that each and every one of us got back onto the buses at the end of the day!  There weren't cell phones back then, so it was definitely the honor system - that you would show up when you were asked to do so!

We had a blast, my friends and I, but I still marvel at the fact that we were let loose in a huge amusement park, even at that age.  We rode the rides, ate entirely too much cotton candy, took goofy photos, and made memories laughing together.  It was fantastic!

 Diana, Julia, Me, Missy, Lorna

Will I let my girls go on a trip like that?  Hmmm...well, admittedly I'm one of those moms who will likely be a chaperone!  (shhh...don't tell my girls yet).

So that's my 'lil trip down memory lane.

All my best to you!

Karen said...

Great memories! What a fun post!

Jen said...

Hi! So much fun...thanks for linking up! One of my best neighborhood friends had a pink canopy bed. I was so jealous!
I love you still visit your childhood home. I hope my kids will be able to do that too!
And oh my...the typewriter research paper does bring back memories for me too.
I went to many amusement parks unchaperoned too. I, like you, will have to be the chaperone for my kids and their friends. No problem!
Have a great day!


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BU Hoops Blog

:: Can You Believe We've Been Doing This Shit for Six Years Now? ::

Monday, November 21, 2005

Heard it through the grape vine

This is very bad news if it's true. I only heard this from my friend, so I don't know if it is true, but he knows Ben Coblyn personally. I guess he's been in some classes with him. Anyway, he said he saw Ben last night with a big plastic boot on one of his feet. If he really is hurt, then so is our team. He played so well against Duke, and I could tell that he's gonna have a good year. Hopefully he's not hurt. See you all at the arena tomorrow night!

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March 8, 2011

jumping in the rain...

no this will not be some profound post today
with hidden meaning
{not that I'm a profound person by any means}

simple as...

the girls wanted to jump/play in the rain with their rain boots
I agreed
got a few pictures
{perhaps blurry pictures}

and now I'm a sitting wet dog
that needs to finish painting a dresser and bed
for my daughter's birthday next Tuesday

okay maybe not a wet dog
but just soaked
I'm drenched since apparently my jacket I
so smartly
wore did
not have a hood on it

my Grandma W's 80th birthday was over the weekend...
special little celebration with family

also realized for every celebration
I seem to wear purple

date night last fall
got a new shirt

got a gift certificate from my sis-in-law for Christmas
what do I purchase with it?
a purple shirt and blue dress

received another gift certificate from my parents recently
what'd I pick out
shoes/headband for my daughter
and a purple shirt

what did I wear to a girls night in February
a purple shirt

you think now that I'm actually starting to wear more color
I'd pick something other than purple occassionally

note to self:

need to be a little more conscious of what color I wear
especially since purple isn't my favorite color
a likeable color I'd say

but no more purple
for celebrations
at.least.for.awhile, right?

on the way home from my Grandma's party
we stopped at our favorite pizza shoppe
in Columbia
Shakespeare's Pizza

to get dinner to go for when we got home
it was super busy and a 45-minute wait
so we got some drinks
sat with the girls

the girls had their stuffed animals doing lunges
yes...I said lunges

they had several restroom breaks

because checking out the restrooms in restaurants
seems to be the big-thing for my 3-year-old
right now

so both girls are wearing a St. Patty's head band my Grandma gave them
we are washing our hands for the 4th time
{or so it seemed}

and a lady behind us started talking with us...

I get asked...
well actually Madison got asked...

about the fact she was wearing a St. Patty's headband
apparently it's weird to wear one in March I take it
needless to say we felt a little questioned

then she looked at us
{a lingering look}
and asked

Are you Irish?

two dark-haired girls can't possible have Irish in them
no way....

I said

seriously, I can't seem to get over why people question my ethnicity so much
but whatever floats their boat you know

St. Patty's day is only 8 or so days away
so to me,
I think it's pretty natural to see St. Patty's day things
err...especially on kids

yes, I get that I don't look an ounce Irish
but I've got plenty in me
and so do the girls from Bobby's side too

one of those moments
that you ask yourself

did that really just happen?

moving on...

we are doing a little bedroom redo for Hayley's birthday
and I have four 84" curtain panels for sale if any of you are interested
dark pink and white gingham
they are in great condition
just a little fading on one from the sun it looks
they are washed in my fav lavender detergent
 and ready to ship
is $25 fair for all four + $5 shipping
they are originally $20+ for each one from Pottery Barn Kids
price is negotiable

Tish said...

My stepfather is black irish meaning he looks italian...people are slow at times...not all irish have red hair, freckles and stouts in their hands.

Heck, I'm Irish! you just never know people!

Julie said...

haha, same here! my dad's side has a lot of irish in it so when i say i am irish, people do seem surprised.

and i'm cracking up about the purple - i'm noticing it too when i think back on a lot of your pictures. it's a great color on you though!

Kasey said...

such a sweet grandma yo have.
and the kids jumping in the puddles is priceless.


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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Inspiration Thursday: Late 1920's Dress

Something I love about vintage is how one item on it's own can be so inspirational. There are so many elements which make it special. The cut of the garment, embellishments, fabrics, design, and colors are so fantastic. I could just gush about it for ages. This particular dress is one that I bought at a flea market. I had walked around to all the different vendors, becoming disappointed because there weren't any clothing vendors there that day. I passed by a furniture vendor and noticed a large cardboard box labeled, "clothing" near a cabinet. I decided to browse through it and what I found was quite exciting. This 1920's/early 30's dress was in the box, quite rumpled up. Along with it were several turn of the century items, including blouses, jackets, and skirts. According to the labels of the items, there are a couple from around 1890. As far as I can tell they are not reproduction. This dress is particular is exquisite, but obviously falling apart. I dare not even put it on for fear that it will just disintegrate. I would love to do a photoshoot with it someday though. The dress is adorned with such exquisite detail I could look at it all day long. I decided if I couldn't wear it, it would hang on my wall so that I could be constantly inspired by its beauty.
One of my pet peeves when looking for vintage clothing is finding items that were obviously not taken care of or shoved places and crumpled up. I realize that most people aren't as passionate about old clothing as I am, so they probably don't care if they just shove it in a corner, but it is just such a shame when you find pieces like this full of tears and shreds. It's loveliness shines through, even through the wrinkles.

God Bless!

1 John 4:11-12
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Marlen said...

aww i know, it's always so disappointing when you see that type of damage. how do you even begin to repair a material like that? but that's such a gorgeous find- i LOVE the hem detailing! it's very great gatsby

xo marlen
Messages on a Napkin

Jacqueline said...

what a beautiful, special dress. i love that you're displaying it on your wall!

Jenny Rainey said...

Oh, it breaks my heart to see this kind of damage to such a gorgeous vintage piece. I was just at an antique show over the weekend and saw what could have been a stunning 1950s sun dress, but it just hadn't been taken care of well enough (and my meager mending skills certainly couldn't have saved it!)

At least you saved this beauty from any further damage and put it somewhere were people can see it and appreciate its beauty. :)

Cathy said...

What a shame. It looks like such a beautiful dress!

Laura Whitman said...

This is so pretty and heartbreaking - I feel the same way about vintage clothes, they should be respected - oh, if everyone thought that way.


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Panic causes and how to manage it

Do you know what causes panic and how to manage it? Here, you’ll discover the causes, treatments, and, the key element you must address in order to overcome your panic attacks and cure your general anxiety.

Opinion varies about what actually causes panic attacks, at least at what the root cause is. But there is a broad belief that they may be caused by one or more of the following; stress, family history of anxiety and attacks, traumatic life experiences, major life changes, underlying medical conditions, even some medications.

Treatment for panic attacks is usually by prescribed medications such as anti-depressants, tranquilizers and beta-blockers. These can work very well for a lot of anxiety and panic attack sufferers, but they do have several very bad side effects, including dependency.

But there are other non-drug therapies such as CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy), exposure therapy, counselling, support groups, etc. Often, these are combined with drug treatment as well. And there are other natural treatments such as hypnosis, self-hypnosis, acupuncture, yoga, etc.

All in all, the treatments above are very good for helping you cope with, and manage, your condition. But what about actually getting rid of your panic attacks for good?

Let’s look at a very important issue in your fight to prevent anxiety / panic attacks and get rid of anxiety. A key element in all of this is your ‘fear’ of having another attack. And this is perfectly understandable because the symptoms of an attack are so horrifying that you don’t want to experience another. You may be fully aware of this fear, or it could just be a subconscious fear, nevertheless it’s there.

Now, as an anxiety attack sufferer, you’re highly likely to have higher than normal general anxiety and stress. Basically, you are in a place where you constantly worry and stress about things in a way that is totally out of kilter with their significance. All it then takes is a stressful event or situation, such as having a job interview, to add to your already high anxiety levels and push you over the top into an anxiety attack.

And this occurs because your body has ‘read’ your sudden elevated anxiety levels as a signal that you are in danger. What happens is that your body triggers its in-build ‘fight or flight’ response to help you in what it ‘perceives’ as a dangerous situation. Except, there isn’t one, and you know there isn’t one, which is why you get confused at the changes happening in your body, and so start to believe that something is seriously wrong with you, like a heart attack, for example.

Now, here’s the thing, your very fear of having another attack can provide the additional anxiety that can trigger an actual attack. This is a vicious cycle of – anxiety – fear – panic attack – anxiety – fear – panic attack, and so on. You need to break out of this vicious cycle in order to prevent panic attacks and then be better able to address and cure your general anxiety.


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Friday, December 26, 2008

Listen to Magic 89.9 from the Web

Listen to Magic 89.9

Free online radio. Listen to Magic 89.9 live stream from the internet.

Thanks for viewing my blog. Most of you landed here after searching for Magic 89.9. You can bookmark or add this page to your favorites. You can also link to this page from your personal website or blog. Please feel free to look around. You might find something else that interests you.

I will also be posting the complete links to radio stations' websites and streaming for your reference.

Anonymous March 19, 2009 at 5:34 PM

Thanks! nice Blog

its too difficult to find a site for this FM station, due to our Network Restriction.... ^_^

thanks a lot

-Banana Man

Start Blogging March 19, 2009 at 6:57 PM

Banana Man, thanks for your comment. Glad I could help.

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Share Activity Lifted for SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF (FEZ) in Session

Needle moving action has been spotted in SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF (FEZ) as shares are moving today on volatility -1.03% or -0.40 from the open. The NYSE listed company saw a recent bid of 38.56 and 666220 shares have traded hands in the session.

Investors might be searching high and low to find some good deals in the equity market. With the market riding high, it may be difficult to find great bargain basement stocks. Filtering through the technicals may help locate some stocks that are poised to make a run even higher. Many investors will choose to look at all the technical indicators while some will zoom in on a few hand-picked ones. Shuffling through the markets may get dizzying at times, but that little extra research might just help locate that diamond in the rough that has yet to break out. Investors may be holding on to a big winner or two in the portfolio. At current market levels, it may be tempting to take some profits, and this may create a major dilemma for the individual investor.

Deep diving into the technical levels for SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF (FEZ), we note that the equity currently has a 14-day Commodity Channel Index (CCI) of -134.11. Active investors may choose to use this technical indicator as a stock evaluation tool. Used as a coincident indicator, the CCI reading above +100 would reflect strong price action which may signal an uptrend. On the flip side, a reading below -100 may signal a downtrend reflecting weak price action. Using the CCI as a leading indicator, technical analysts may use a +100 reading as an overbought signal and a -100 reading as an oversold indicator, suggesting a trend reversal.

SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF’s Williams Percent Range or 14 day Williams %R currently sits at -91.67. The Williams %R oscillates in a range from 0 to -100. A reading between 0 and -20 would point to an overbought situation. A reading from -80 to -100 would signal an oversold situation. The Williams %R was developed by Larry Williams. This is a momentum indicator that is the inverse of the Fast Stochastic Oscillator.

Currently, the 14-day ADX for SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF (FEZ) is sitting at 22.66. Generally speaking, an ADX value from 0-25 would indicate an absent or weak trend. A value of 25-50 would support a strong trend. A value of 50-75 would identify a very strong trend, and a value of 75-100 would lead to an extremely strong trend. ADX is used to gauge trend strength but not trend direction. Traders often add the Plus Directional Indicator (+DI) and Minus Directional Indicator (-DI) to identify the direction of a trend.

The RSI, or Relative Strength Index, is a widely used technical momentum indicator that compares price movement over time. The RSI was created by J. Welles Wilder who was striving to measure whether or not a stock was overbought or oversold. The RSI may be useful for spotting abnormal price activity and volatility. The RSI oscillates on a scale from 0 to 100. The normal reading of a stock will fall in the range of 30 to 70. A reading over 70 would indicate that the stock is overbought, and possibly overvalued. A reading under 30 may indicate that the stock is oversold, and possibly undervalued. After a recent check, the 14-day RSIfor SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF (FEZ) is currently at 41.26, the 7-day stands at 29.06, and the 3-day is sitting at 20.99.

Making the grade in the equity market may not come easily. There is constantly news and information swirling about the next big stock that is ready to take off. Doing a deep-dive into the fundamentals of a specific company may help uncover some data that may help sway the decision whether to jump in or stay out. Some investors may choose to take a contrarian approach when selecting stocks. A contrarian investing strategy may involve buying when everybody is selling, or vice-versa. Contrarians may take the mindset that markets have the ability to overreact to good news or bad news. Going against the grain may not be the easiest strategy to adapt for the novice. Investors may need to fine tune their skills in order to go generally against the crowd. There may come a time when everyone may be selling out of a stock for no real apparent reason. Taking a closer look at stocks like this may reveal some information that may help put the mind at ease.

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Saturday, 29 November 2014

Health Endpoint in API Design: slippery slope that it is

Level [C3]

Health Endpoint is a common practice in building APIs. Such an endpoint, unlike other resources of a REST API, instead of achieving a business activity, returns the status of the service and while it can gather and return some data, it is the HTTP status that defines whether the service is "Up or Down". These endpoints commonly go and check a bunch configurations and connectivity with the dependent services, and even make a few calls for a "Test Customer" to make sure business activity can be achieved.

There is something above that just doesn't feel right to me - and this post is an exercise to define what I mean by it. I will explain what are the problems with the Health API and I am going to suggest how to "fix" it.

What is the health of an API anyway? The server up and running and capable of returning the status 200? Server and all its dependencies running and returning 200? Server and all its dependencies running capable of returning 200 in a reasonable amount of time? API able to accomplish some business activity? Or API able to accomplish a certain activity for a test user? API able to accomplish all activities within reasonable time? API able to accomplish all activities with its 95% percentile falling within an agreed SLA?

A Service is a complex beast. While its complexity would be nowhere near a living organism, it is useful to draw a parallel with a living organism. I remember from my previous medical life that the definition of health - provided by none other than WHO - would go like this:
"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
In other words, defining health of an organism is a complex and involved process requiring deep understanding of the organism and how it functions. [Well, we are lucky that we are only dealing with distributed systems and their services (or MicroServices if you like) and not living organisms.] For servies, instead of health, we define the Quality of Service as a quantitative measure of a service's health.

Quality Of Servie is normally a bunch of orthogonal SLAs each defining a measurement for one aspect of the service. In terms of monitoring, Availability of a service is the most important aspect of the service to guage and closely follow. Availability of the service cannot simply be measured by the amount of time the servers dedicated to a service have been up. Apart from being reachable, service needs to respond within acceptable time (Low Latency) and has to be able to achieve its business activity (Functional) - no point server being reachable and return 503 error within milliseconds. So the number of error responses (as a deviation from the baseline which can be normal validation and business rule errors) also come into play.

So the question is how can we, expose an endpoint inside a service that can aggregate all above facets and report the health of a service. Simple answer is we cannot and should not commit ourselves to do it. Why? Let's take some simple help from algebra.
API/Service maps an input domain to an output domain (codomain). Also availability is a function of the output domain.

A service (f) is basically a function that maps the input domain (I) to an output domain (O). So:
O = f(I)
The output domain is a set of all possible responses with their status codes and latencies. Availability (A) is a function (a) of the output domain since it has to aggregate errors, latencies, etc:
A = a(O)
So in other words:
A = a(f(I))
So in other words, A cannot be measured without I - which for a real service is a very large set. And also it needs all of f - not your subset bypass-authentication-use-test-customer method.

So one approach is to sit outside the service and only deal with the output domain in a sort of proxy or monitoring server logs. Netflix have done a ton of work on this and have open sourced it as Hysterix) and no wonder I have not heard anything about the magical Health Endpoint in there (now there is an alternative endpoint which I will explain later). But if you want to do it within the service you need all the input domain and not just your "Test Customer" to make assertions about the health of your service. And this kind of assertion is not just wrong, it is dangerous as I am going to explain.

First of all, gradually - especially as far as the ops are concerned - that green line on the dashboard that checks your endpoint becomes your availability. People get used to trust it and when things go wrong out there and customers jump and shout, you will not believe it for quite a while because your eye sees that green line and trusts it.

And guess what happens when you have such an incident? There will be a post-mortem meeting and all tie-and-suits will be there and they identify the root cause as the faulty health-check and you will be asked to go back and fix your Health Check endpoint. And then you start building more and more complexity into your endpoint. Your endpoint gets to know about each and every dependency, all their intricacies. And before your know it, you could build a complete application beside your main service. And you know what, you have to do it for each and every service, as they are all different.

So don't do it. Don't commit yourself to what you cannot achieve.

So is there no point in having a simplistic endpoint which tells us basic information about the status of the service? Of course there is. Such information are useful and many load balancers or web proxies require such an endpoint.

But first we need to make absolutely clear what the responsibility of such an endpoint is.

Canary Endpoint

A canary endpoint (the name is courtesy of Jamie Beaumont) is a simplistic endpoint which gathers connectivity status and latency of all dependencies of a service. It absolutely does not trigger any business activity, there is no "Test Customer" of any kind and is not a "Health Endpoint". If it is green, it does not mean your service is available. But if it is red (your canary is dead) then you definitely have a problem.

So how does a canary endpoint work? It basically checks connectivity with its immediate dependencies - including but not limited to:
  • External services
  • SQL Databases
  • NoSQL Stores
  • External distributed caches
  • Service brokers (Azure RabbitMQ, Service Bus)
A canary result contains name of the dependency, latency and the status code. If any of the results has non-success code, endpoint returns a non-success code. Status code returned is used by simple callers such as load balancers. Also in all cases, we return a payload which is aggregated canary result. Such results can be used to feed various charts and draw heuristics into significance of variability of the latencies.

You probably noticed that External Services appear in Italic i.e. it is a bit different. Reason is if an external service has a canary endpoint itself, instead of just a connectivity check, we call its canary endpoint and add its aggregated result to the result we are returning. So usually the entry point API will generate a cascade of canary chirps that will tell us how things are.

Implementation of the connectivity check is generally dependent on the underlying technology. For a Cache service, it suffices to Set a constant value and see it succeeding. For a SQL Database a SELECT 1; query is all that is needed. For an Azure Storage account, it would be enough to connect and get the list of tables. The point being here is that none of these are anywhere near a business activity, so that you could not - in the remotest sense - think that its success means your business is up and running.

So there you have it. Don't do health endpoints, do canary instead.

Canary Endpoint implementation

A canary endpoint normally gets implemented as an HTTP GET call which returns a collection of connectivity check metrics. You can abstract the logic of checking various dependencies in a library and allow API developers to implement the endpoint by just declaring the dependencies.

We are currently working on an implementation in ASOS (C# and ASP.NET Web API) and there is possibility of open sourcing it.

Security of the Canary Endpoint

I am in favour of securing Canary Endpoint with a constant API key - normally under SSL. This does not provide highest level of security but it is enough to make it much more difficult to break into. At the end of the day, a canay endpoint lists all internal dependencies, components and potentially technologies of a system that can be used by hackers to target components.

Performance impact of Canary Endpoint

Since canary endpoint does not trigger any business activity, its performance footprint should be minimal. However, since calling the canary endpoint generates a cascade of calls, it might not be wise to iterate through all canary endpoints and just call them every few seconds since deeper canary endpoints in a highly layered architecture get called multiple times in each round.


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Thursday, December 31, 2009

News from the KDEWin front - Part 2

Following the previous article, there's more exciting news in Windows-land ! In addition to Akonadi, we have another core technology of the KDE Platform (+10points) up and running: Nepomuk

The main task was to adjust to Virtuoso now being the official backend for Soprano, but only a surprisingly small amount of work was needed in order to get the Virtuoso backend to run on Windows. And guess what, it works like a charm, and it's fast. A big thumbs up to the people at OpenLink for providing us with a great open source version of their database.

With both these technologies at hand, there's a lot of potential for things we can achieve, on linux of course but also on Windows. To give you a little teaser, have a look at  the screenshot below :

This is the akonadi console on Windows showing a running agent based on Nepomuk: the contact feeder. This agent scans your resources and automatically extracts all contacts found (based on email addresses, event organizers, address book entries, etc...) and adds them to the Nepomuk storage.

You can then use the convenient querying API of Nepomuk to extract that information and put it back in context. For example, the following screenshot shows the results of searching Akonadi contacts by email address, these contacts having been automatically extracted by the Nepomuk contact feeder agent :

As you can see, the results are Akonadi items, not just strings. (note that for that example we use a SPARQL query, which is the querying language used internally by Nepomuk and Soprano).

Pretty cool huh ? :) This is just one simple example of what we can achieve by combining Akonadi and Nepomuk, and there many many more at hand...

Thanks a lot to Sebastian Trueg, the man behind Nepomuk and Soprano, for his help and cooperation in getting the Virtuoso backend running on windows, and to his employer Mandriva for their support !

So...that's it ! 2009 is out, and it was a good year for KDE in general and KDEWin in particular. Now it's time to go celebrate another great year to come !

Happy New Year everybody, and see some of you in a few weeks at CampKDE in San Diego !

  1. This is indeed really cool. But on Linux (Fedora to be precise), do we have a working Nepomuk-Virtuoso setup?

    This says the future is bright:

  2. It's wonderful.... Good Article


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2017 Summit at Williams College

The Transformative Power of Race in the Academy:
Measuring Change, Charting Futures

Friday, April 21 to Sunday, April 23, 2017
Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Welcome to the 2017 Creating Connections Consortium (C3) Summit! Hosted by Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, the Summit brings together participants from both liberal arts colleges and research universities.
The Creating Connections Consortium is a cross-institutional collaboration among liberal arts colleges and research universities dedicated to progressing the goals of inclusion and full participation in the academy. We are especially focused on facilitating pathways into graduate study and the professoriate for a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students, and on initiating and introducing cross-institutional structures that will build and support these changes in the culture of higher education.
At the past two Summits, more than four hundred undergraduates, graduates, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, administrators, and special guests gathered to collectively focus on diversity and innovation in the academy.
Building on the 2015 Summit, “Practicing Communities: The Transformative Power of Race in the Academy,” this year we turn our attention to assessing the institutional transformation we explored at the last two Summits. Our framing questions and goals include: What are our current goals and tools for institutional transformation? What is the relationship between racial justice activism and academia? How do we move from vision to action, and what are the roles of students in this process?
Broader goals for this year’s action-packed Summit include: Providing opportunities for intellectual development and communion, skill and strategy building, fostering mutual learning, and developing strong and sustainable networks between participants.
We look forward to seeing you in April!
Planning Committee Members:
Denise Buell, Dean of the Faculty and Cluett Professor of Religion, Williams College
Celina Chatman Nelson, Director of GRAD Development and Diversity, University of Chicago
Siri Colom, C3 Postdoctoral Fellow, Connecticut College
Miguel Fernández, Chief Diversity Officer and Professor of Spanish, Middlebury College
Carrie Greene, Director of Commencement and Academic Events, Williams College
Leticia Smith-Evans Haynes, Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity, Williams College
Rachel Hynson, Research and Program Associate, Creating Connections Consortium (C3)
Mark Kamimura-Jiménez, Assistant Dean for Programs, Policy, and Diversity Initiatives, University of Michigan
Alberto Ledesma, Graduate Diversity Director, University of California, Berkeley
Ngonidzashe Munemo, Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity and Associate Professor of Political Science, Williams College
Tyrone Scafe, Williams College Class 2017
Ian Shin, C3 Postdoctoral Fellow, Bates College


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Jeffrey Phillips ‟S v. Fulton-El Camino Recreation

June 8, 2011

This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff Jeffrey Phillips‟ ("Plaintiff") Motion to (1) Alter/Amend Judgment per rule 59(E) FRCP and (2) Remand case to state court per 28 USC § 1447(c) (Doc. #45). Defendant Fulton-El Camino Recreation and Parks District ("Defendant") opposes the motion. *fn1

Plaintiff alleges that he volunteered his time as a part-time Ranger for Defendant beginning in 2004. In July 2007, Fulton-El Camino ended the Ranger program‟s use of volunteer Rangers and 5 began paying both full and part time Rangers. In July 2007, the Chief Rangers communicated to the Rangers at a meeting that Plaintiff attended that they were prohibited from volunteering their time and that they were required to fill out employment paperwork and to make sure they worked each month. On or about July or August 2007, Plaintiff alleges that he requested a 90-day leave of absence from then Chief Ranger Bonine because he had to attend to issues involved in his military service.

On or about October or November 2007 through February 28, 2008, Plaintiff allegedly returned from his leave of absence and left messages requesting to be put back on a work schedule. Plaintiff alleges that he never received emails or a written notice that he was no longer a Ranger. Defendant contends that in March 2008, Fulton El-Camino administrators separated Plaintiff‟s employment because there was no record of him working as a Ranger and that Ranger Bragg wrote Plaintiff a letter in March 2008 ending his employment with Defendant for not making himself available to work. Defendant alleges that in or about March 2008, Ranger Bragg met with Plaintiff‟s wife at Mercy General Hospital, where Plaintiff was hospitalized, to inform her that Plaintiff was not working for Defendant and that he should return his badge. Plaintiff claims he was not formally informed of the termination until Defendant responded to his Notice of Claim in August 2008.

Plaintiff argues that he was not properly given an opportunity to contest the termination.

Plaintiff filed this action against Defendant in the California Superior Court for Sacramento County alleging two causes of action: (1) violation of Plaintiff‟s Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights; and (2) violation of the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act, California Government Code Sections 3300 et seq. ("POBRA"). Defendant removed the action to this Court 9 and filed a Motion for Summary Judgment/Summary Adjudication. The Court held a hearing on Defendant‟s Summary Judgment Motion on March 23, 2011. After considering the briefs and oral arguments, the Court granted Summary Judgment in favor of the Defendant. Plaintiff now brings this motion requesting that the Court reconsider its Order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendant on the Second Cause of Action, i.e. the POBRA claim, and remand that claim to state court.

A. Legal Standard

1. Motion to Alter/Amend Judgment

While Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) permits a district court to reconsider and amend a previous order, "the rule offers an "extraordinary remedy, to be used sparingly in the interest of finality and conservation of judicial resources.‟" Carroll v. Nakatani, 342 F.3d 934, 945 (9th Cir. 2003), quoting 12 James Wm. Moore et al., Moore‟s Federal Practice § 5930[4] (3d ed. 2000). "A motion for reconsideration should not be granted, absent highly unusual circumstances, unless the district court is presented with newly discovered evidence, committed a clear error, or if there is 2 an intervening change in the controlling law." Id. (internal 3 citations omitted). Moreover, a "Rule 59(e) motion may not be used 4 to raise arguments or present evidence for the first time when they 5 could have been raised earlier in the litigation." Id. Local 6

Rule 230(j) specifies that when requesting a motion for 7 reconsideration, the moving party must include "(1) when and to 8 what Judge . . . the prior motion was made; (2) what ruling, 9 decision or order was made thereon; (3) what new or different facts or circumstances are claimed to exist which did not exist or were not shown upon such prior motion, or what other grounds exist for the motion; and (4) why the facts or circumstances were not shown at the time of the prior motion." L.R. 230(j).

B. Analysis

Plaintiff argues that the Court should alter or amend its judgment because it committed a clear error of law. Plaintiff contends that the POBRA applies whether or not there was an investigation and that Plaintiff did not knowingly or intelligently waive his rights to an administrative appeal. Defendant counters that no manifest error of law exists because the Court did not disregard controlling law or credible evidence when it found that Plaintiff failed to state a claim as a matter of law under POBRA sections 3303 and 3304(b). Defendant also argues that there was no error of fact because Plaintiff failed to appeal his separation once he had notice of it. Finally, Defendant points out that Plaintiff‟s knowing and intelligent waiver argument could have been raised earlier, and it is improper to raise it now.

POBRA, California Government Code Sections 3300 et seq., sets forth a number of basic rights and protections which must be accorded individual public safety ...

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Wales lick wounds, All Blacks contemplate perfection

Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:05am EDT
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WELLINGTON (Reuters) - While the All Blacks met homecoming NBA star Steven Adams and contemplated how they could inch their game even closer to perfection on Wednesday, Wales were licking their wounds after a humiliating defeat to Super Rugby's Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton.

The encouragement of the tourists' bright and entertaining display in the 39-21 defeat in Auckland last weekend was buried on Tuesday under the weight of six tries as they crashed to a 40-7 loss to the Chiefs.

Wales coach Warren Gatland had hoped some of the fringe players in his squad might put their hands up for a place in the team for Saturday's second test in Wellington but it was back to the drawing board for the New Zealander.

The world champions, meanwhile, have spent the week talking about improving the things that did not work as well as they had hoped at Eden Park and warning against complacency.

Assistant coach Ian Foster's analysis of how the All Blacks had performed at the breakdown in the first test was typical.

"As part of the review we've learnt that we had three or four rucks (where) we weren't as good as we needed to be and we're doing what we always do; if we think it's a weakness, we've got to get better at it," he told reporters.

Fullback and vice captain Ben Smith, who dropped a high ball in the lead-up to Wales's first try, also indulged in some self criticism.

"There's probably a few things I just need to fix up, I wasn't as accurate as I could have been at times and I'm going to work hard on that this week," he told reporters.

The only consolation for Hamilton-born Gatland after his trip home was that most of the players beaten by the Chiefs will not feature in the starting side in the New Zealand capital on Saturday.   Continued...


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CANADA STOCKS-TSX falls as lower oil price weighs on energy stocks

Mon Nov 9, 2015 4:09pm EST
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TORONTO Nov 9 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index ended lower on Monday, weighed down by energy stocks as oil prices fell and as heavyweight banking stocks also slipped.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index unofficially closed down 70.68 points, or 0.52 percent, at 13,482.62. Six of its 10 main groups retreated. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editingby Diane Craft)


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Civeo, provider of oilfield 'man camps,' plans move to Canada

Mon Sep 29, 2014 11:43am EDT
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Sept 29 (Reuters) - Civeo Corp, the provider of oilfield accommodation services recently spun off by Oil States International Inc, surprised Wall Street on Monday by saying it would not convert to a real estate investment trust (REIT) and would instead relocate to Canada for tax purposes.

Civeo, currently based in Houston, said its board believes converting to a REIT would do little to reduce most of the company's taxes, since nearly all corporate income comes from more than 20,000 dormitory-style rooms - commonly known as "man camps" - across remote parts of Canada and Australia.

Shares of Civeo plunged 45 percent to $13.95 on Monday morning.

Hedge fund Jana Partners LLC, Civeo's largest shareholder, had pushed for the Oil States spin-off and also for the REIT conversion, a step that would bring tax benefits but require the company to pay out at least 90 percent of taxable income to shareholders, limiting cash for growth. Jana declined to comment.

Civeo said it plans a "self-directed redomiciling" to Canada, which it believes is allowed under U.S. tax code since more than 25 percent of revenue, assets and employees are based in Canada.

Converting to a REIT would have required a one-time payout of $720 million for taxes and other items, a step that would sharply increase debt, said Civeo. It plans to remain a C corporation, which under U.S. tax law refers to companies that are taxed separately from their owners.

In Canada, Civeo expects a tax rate of 25 to 26 percent, which it says is at least 4 percent lower than the rate it would have had in the United States had it converted to a REIT.

However, Civeo warned its move to Canada "is subject to potential future changes to tax laws and regulations."

The Obama administration earlier this month put in place tough new rules designed to prevent so-called corporate inversion deals that make it appealing for U.S. companies to relocate abroad. The rules are expected to have the biggest effect on companies that invert to gain access to earnings held overseas to avoid U.S. taxes.

Civeo spun off from Oil States four months ago to focus on its core business, which includes selling cranes for offshore oil platforms, as well as other oilfield services and equipment.

As part of that deal, Civeo took out a $775 million loan and sent $750 million to Oil States as a special dividend, helping settle its share of its former parent company's debt. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Williston, N.D.; editing by Matthew Lewis)


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Election rivals square off over economy

Fri Sep 26, 2008 7:14pm EDT
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CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper lashed out at his opponents on the campaign trail on Friday, saying they wanted the country to sink into a recession as the world economy slows.

The Conservative leader has stuck to his line ahead of the October 14 election that only his government's prudent care of the public purse has protected Canada from the economic and financial meltdown that has hit the United States -- an idea that has come under attack from Stephane Dion, the leader of main opposition Liberal Party.

"We have seen commentators around the world and respected figures here emphasize the strong foundations of the Canadian economy," Harper said at a campaign stop in Calgary.

"And the leader of the opposition and his leading critics (are) going around and trying to tell Canadians the opposite, trying to drive down confidence in the Canadian economy without foundation and, quite frankly, sitting on the sidelines virtually cheering for there to be a recession."

Harper, Dion and New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton are battling it out over who is the better financial manager as economic fear spreads.

Dion retorted to Harper's attack by saying that the last recession in Canada was during Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's government in the early 1990s and that the Liberals pulled the country out of it.

"This kind of blindly partisan rhetoric is a glaring example of what is wrong with Mr. Harper and his government," Dion said in a statement.

"Rather than debating with their opponents, their first instinct is to resort to the low-blow attack and baseless character smears."

Layton accused Harper of ignoring the potential impact on Canada of the U.S. economic turmoil, and said the Canadian economy was also threatened by "unprecedented levels of personal debt."   Continued...

Conservative leader and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper listens to a question during a news conference in Calgary, Alberta September 26, 2008. Canadians will head to the polls in a federal election October 14. REUTERS/Chris Wattie


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Just a Minute With: Steve Coogan for "Hamlet 2"

Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:04pm EDT
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By Iain Blair

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British comedian Steve Coogan's specialty is over-the-top characters. In Britain, he gained notoriety as radio personality Alan Partridge, and in the United States, he currently appears in Hollywood action flick send-up "Tropic Thunder" opposite Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Ben Stiller, who also directed the movie.

Now Coogan, 42, is appearing in one of this summer's most eagerly awaited "sequels" -- "Hamlet 2," which debuts in major U.S. cities on Friday -- playing a high school drama teacher who attempts to mount a musical based on his radical, upbeat re-interpretation of the Bard's great tragedy.

Coogan, whose films include "Night at the Museum" and "24 Hour Party People," spoke to Reuters about "Hamlet 2," his first-ever action figure toy and his comic ways.

Q: How would you describe "Hamlet 2?"

A: It's this odd, strange Frankenstein-monster of a film and no one will ever be able to say, 'It's another one of those kind of movies.' When I first read it I started laughing at the bit where this failed drama teacher is directing a school version of (film) 'Erin Brockovich.' I just understood it right there and then, and understood who this person was.

Q: So you could relate to your character, Dana?

A: Yes, because I went to drama school and met people like him. He's overly emotional and theatrical, but he's very honest and earnest, and trying to do something worthwhile. Comedy often comes from duplicity and people trying to conceal their true feelings, but Dana's very sincere and open.

Q: You have an action figure, "Rock Me Sexy Jesus," that ties in with "Hamlet 2's" big show-stopping musical number. Are you worried it might offend some people?   Continued...

British actor Steve Coogan attends a news conference May 24, 2006. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler


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Iraq asks U.S. to return millions of archive documents

Wed May 19, 2010 8:32am EDT
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By Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's national archive has asked the United States to return millions of historical documents seized by U.S. troops in the mayhem that followed the U.S. invasion in 2003, along with its Jewish archive.

The papers include intelligence reports on Iraqis kept by Saddam Hussein's dreaded secret police, detailed plans for massacres of his regime's enemies and information on weapons arsenals, said Saad Eskander, director of the Iraqi national library and archives.

The Jewish archive, found soaked in sewage in the basement of Saddam's intelligence service headquarters in Baghdad, was taken to the United States for restoration under an agreement between the two countries and will be returned to Iraq.

Iraqi and U.S. officials met recently in California for talks on the documents.

"This was the first time that Iraq presented an official demand to retrieve all the documents, not only the Jewish archive," Eskander told Reuters in an interview this week.

The documents include historical, political and legal papers, some of which may be needed to solve crimes and charge suspects, he said.

"These documents are sensitive ... no less important than the antiquities, if not more important," Eskander said.

The archive documenting Jewish history in predominantly Muslim Iraq contains books, documents and a codex of the Torah.   Continued...


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Greece a "prison" for migrants amid EU policy mess

Thu Nov 6, 2008 9:30pm EST
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By Daniel Flynn

PATRAS, Greece (Reuters) - The West's war against the Taliban drove Khalid Mohamed from his home. But his search for asylum in Europe has left him trapped in a shanty town in Greece, ignored by the government and abused by police.

Greece's western port of Patras has become a frontier for Europe's unwanted migrants. Hundreds of Afghans live crammed into dirty shacks in a slum overlooked by plush apartment blocks, hoping to stow away aboard a ferry bound for Italy, where asylum conditions are easier.

For Mohamed, who fled central Afghanistan last year after losing friends and family in the war, it is a prison camp. He is caught in a limbo without papers or rights: forbidden to stay in Greece but prevented from leaving.

It is a situation human rights campaigners say illustrates a deepening chaos at the heart of EU migration policy.

"We never came here to be in prison. We came to be free," said 28-year-old Mohamed, as his five room-mates huddle around a bubbling hookah. Mohamed, who worked as a UN translator in Afghanistan, has a receipt for his asylum request but has lost hope of being accepted: "Life here's miserable. We've nothing."

Greece is a new frontline for immigration in Europe. As Spain and Italy have cracked down on migrants from the Middle East and Africa, those arrested by Greece rose to 112,000 last year from 40,000 in 2005, many of them from countries at war.

In Patras, Afghan men in dirty T-shirts live in shacks cobbled together from bits of wood and draped in plastic sheets, with a communal shower and no electricity. Skin and respiratory diseases are rife, but going to a hospital risks arrest.

One man has an arm in plaster, another has a bandaged leg: injuries from police beatings, they say. Medical volunteers at the camp say they often treat victims of police abuse, including a man with a broken jaw last week, but the Interior Ministry said it was unaware of any problem.   Continued...

Immigrants rest inside a camp at southwestern town of Patras September 1, 2008. REUTERS/John Kolesidis


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Bloomberg sets sights on illegal gun sales online

Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:21pm EST
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Almost two thirds of a sample of private online gun sellers in the United States were willing to sell a firearm to someone who could not pass a background check, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday.

Bloomberg, who is leading a national campaign against illegal guns, said a national investigation into online gun sales by private investigators hired by New York City uncovered a "vast and largely unregulated market for illegal guns."

The inquiry focused on 10 websites with 25,000 guns to buy and investigators contacted 125 private online gun sellers in 14 states. The investigators, posing as buyers, told sellers they probably would not pass a background check, Bloomberg said.

"When illegal guns can be bought and sold without background checks, tragic and deadly consequences result," Bloomberg said in a statement.

"Over the past decade, we've launched a wide-ranging attack on illegal guns," he said. "We're opening a new front in that battle by targeting what has become an increasingly prevalent and dangerous problem: illegal gun sales on the internet."

Bloomberg is co-chairman of the national coalition of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which he helped found in 2006 in a bid to make cities safer by cracking down on illegal guns.

More than 500 mayors from more than 40 states are now members of Bloomberg's coalition. The group says 30,000 Americans are killed every year by gun violence.

Bloomberg said the city's inquiry into online sales, conducted by investigative firm Kroll, found 62 percent of sellers were willing to commit a felony by selling a firearm to someone who likely wouldn't pass a background check.

The National Rifle Association, the powerful U.S. gun lobby, was not immediately available for comment on the study.   Continued...


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Poland seeks investigation into KGMH's Quadra FNX purchase

Wed Aug 24, 2016 3:03pm EDT
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WARSAW Aug 24 (Reuters) - Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) has asked prosecutors to investigate copper miner KGHM over the purchase of a Canadian firm with metal deposits in Chile, the secret services minister said on Wednesday.

Minister Mariusz Kaminski said people who managed state-run KGHM from December 2010 until March 2012 may have inflicted a large loss upon the company, a crime punishable in Poland by up to 10 years in prison.

KGHM bought Quadra FNX for C$2.87 billion ($2.2 billion) in 2011, the largest ever foreign acquisition by a Polish company, gaining partial ownership of the Chilean Sierra Gorda copper mine. Kaminski did not name Quadra but gave details that identified it.

Herbert Wirth, KGHM chief executive at the time of Quadra purchase, told Reuters the board had conducted the transaction with due diligence. "This transaction had already been checked by the state treasury," Wirth said.

KGHM's purchase of Quadra, intended to boost output and help it become a global player, was questioned by the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) which won last year's election.

The new treasury minister launched an audit into whether KGHM's investment in Sierra Gorda was justified.

A KGHM spokeswoman said she would not comment on the case which was being handled by the prosecutor's office.

The spokeswoman for the regional prosecutor's office in Wroclaw said she did not have information on whether the ABW's request has been delivered.

Kaminski said in a statement that ABW has collected "material indicating a justified suspicion that a crime was committed in relation to the purchase of a Canadian company owning metal deposits in Chile".

Kaminski said the AWB had documents that suggested KGHM made errors which led to it signing a "disadvantageous" deal.

A plunge in copper prices drove KGHM to a record loss of 5.01 billion zlotys ($1.3 billion) last year, much of it due to an impairment loss on Quadra's Sierra Gorda copper mine, which KGHM co-owns with Japan's Sumitomo . ($1 = 3.8294 zlotys) (Reporting by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)


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One | Comfort

There are days where all this Service Dog needs to do is this:

... and I am one happy customer.

life together

among other things,
Cader Cade is adjusting to life here in Stroesslerland.

very, very well, I might add.

catching some Inside the American Mob with me on a Friday night.
we are living large, people.

family cookout at the Nana & the Jaj's. brilliantly placed to shark some of the food that my Boomps may or may not drop on the floor while he eats.

my favorite moment so far. at our favorite breakfast place, right around noon (have you MET my boys?) with sweet Cade asleep on my foot underneath the table. life is good.

hanging out with Jim Gaffigan.
I haven't laughed that hard since ... well ... probably since his last show. I was sweating and out of the ability to breathe or make the classic Karin Laugh we all know.
again, Cade was mostly asleep on my foot underneath.
a shame, too.
it was a damn good show.

snuggle up.

today's fun: trying out the new dog bed we scored off groupon.

it was major summer thunderstorms all day, rendering my body fairly irritated.

Shu, Cade & I, however, nailed the Rainy Day, Lazy Day program to the wall. movies, books, Kongs, planes & cars, more movies, jammies until Mark got home from work.

we are amazing at Rainy Days.

I mean...

...what is this life I have right now?

what a gift.
your love & support to bring me here does not escape me, kids.

as Shua would say,
my heart's so "freaking full."

I don't know where he learned to talk like that......

my last obstacle course

we are home, we are home, we are home!

i cannot believe this. its been so beautiful and natural and unreal to have this gorgeous little four-legged make himself right at home here in stroesslerland. he wanders around the house, loves his big backyard, eats like the lab that he is...

we're loving it.

but allow me to backtrack a bit, catch you up on the last few days of Camp.

we walked through all the cues that i had learned, giving me time to really learn this new language. and i was able to shape a new behavior with Cade. they asked me to pick anything i liked, so i figured i would go for something that would be helpful in my life. my brilliant Ginger of a sister-in-law suggested asking Cade to get a blankie for me when i need one.

i often use old blankies of joshua's to cover my skin when it is feeling extra sensie. that soft, super-overly-washed flannel makes a touchable barrier that can block air or other fabrics from touching my skin. basically telling it to shut it, i'm not interested in its opinion. :)

here's a little clippy-clip of my Cader knocking it out:

the other bit i'd love for you all to see is the last 'obstacle course' that Cade and i went through.

Lauren, Janet and Kim set up the training space with spaces to work just about every cue and behavior that Cade and i had learned during Camp. it was awesome. i loved so much the challenge of things like this during my time in VA. i knew there was no other way for Cade and i to bond up and work it than to test ourselves like this.

you'll see him walk through a gate calmly, turn and wait for me. he'll weave through some cones while ignoring piles of food on the floor-- totes not easy. he'll back up when i ask which is not a natural movement. we'll come up to a big door, and he'll grab a tug, pull it open for me and hold it, allowing me to pass through. in that sequence, you can see me ask him to regrab the tug and hold it again-- that's because he released it before i asked him to do so. totes rude.

at the end we do a big, long down stay with a release and recall to me. oh my word, i love seeing him run like that towards me.

and then Kim turns the video off.

and then Kim and i hugged and cried for a very long time.

and here's where i won't tell you that she, a bit overwhelmed with emotion, left me sitting in a chair, crying while she walked out the front of the building and down the sidewalk to get some air.

but i won't tell you that.

she's SUCH a kickass and dedicated sister, dog trainer and sister.

and sister.

here's the video:

isn't that the coolest?
(she says with humility, of course...)
there's so much depth there. so much totally life changing in that little 6 and a half minutes.
no more wearing out my legs squatting, no more getting dizzing leaning over too far, using up my stupifyingly precious energy picking things that i drop up off the ground.
totally life altering. delish.

your support is the same to me.
completely life altering.
thank you.

much loves,

feeling better is so much nicer than, you know, not feeling better.

I'm very sure you needed me to explain that.

I'm here for you, guys, with my incredibly sound and intelligent statements.
Here. For. You.

a few pictures to catch you up on CampityCamp:

Cade and I have worked on life with a scooter. We also now have a new tethering system on the scoot (who clearly needs a name, we're open to suggestions) so that neither he nor I need go back from whence we came on Tuesday. thank you Kim and Janet and Lauren and your combined brain powers. my rotator cuffs thank you, too.

Mark loves to pet Cade.

Cade loooooves to get pet by Mark.
(another casualty to Gingeritis.)

or is the Ginger just buying his way into Cade's heart??

my little hero can open big, heavy doors for me.

he can also sleep VERY well.
he's a Stroessler, after all.

Cader can also help me get my toddler fix. He's so sweet on these meet & greets.

here is a short clip of us practicing him picking up something I drop. In this one, its my wallet.

and just in case you need a Shua fix...
I know I do!!
here is a video we were sent today.
look what he's learned to do on his Blast!
my preface contains two bits of ShuFact:
1.) he was barely putting his face in the water when Mark & I left OH.
2.) just two days ago, he came up from underwater, wearing the goggles he has owned for two summers now, looked at Madison and exclaimed, "Madi! You can SEE UNDERWATER with these things on!"
(not real, real sure what he thought they were for... but that's a whole other post. probably a whole other blog...writer...Internet...)

tonight we head to Janet's house for a fun cookout and playtime.

my brain is growing increasingly fried, so this will be a welcome break.
expect plenty of pictures.
labs, Bernese Mountain dogs, a Great Dane puppy...

reality whiplash

today was a short day.
t'was not supposed to be,
but my MS got in the way.

to be more specific, my MS got in the way of my hands giving Cade a treat for giving me such nice eye contact. I fumbled the treat, as these fingies are wont to do, so it dropped and rolled in front of my scooter. Cade, feeling ever so entitled to that there treat, also dropped and dove head down for the treat... taking my right shoulder and neck with him. Lab-induced whiplash. I don't recommend it, my friends.

I was hooked into a hands-free leash, which has its place and time... we just learned that there and then were not that place and time.

I could have worked through the muscle ache- I am, truthfully, in muscle aches and pains most days. but this kind of thing doesn't produce in me only an annoying muscle ache anymore. with this ridiculous disease, I got bizarre shots of icy-hot tingles all up and down my arm, right into my hands, right through my fingertips.

that kind of sensitivity I experience is super painful and distracting and annoying as hell.

and today, it broke me.

I just couldn't work with it. couldn't hold the leash, couldn't drive my scooter, couldn't pet Cade or treat him... couldn't even really concentrate on what was happening around me. Mark, Lauren, Kim, and Janet (another wonderful SDVA trainer) took over, tried to help, waited to see if things would settle. but my tingling just wouldn't shut up.

so, I cried quite a bit, as you can imagine.

in pain, yes,
but mostly?

mostly, y'all, I was pissed.

if you, dear reader, have even a slight knowledge of a Larson-Lusnia woman... you know this:
we cry when sad.
we really cry when pissed.

I was pissed off at this body that circumvents my decision making and does things "to" me that I sure wouldn't opt into myself. pissed off at this insidious disease that can suck the life out of me, the humor out of me, the joy out of a moment in a snap. pissed off that I can't always do what I want to do, dammit.

(did I just say that?)
(did someone bring a three year old in here??)

so we took the afternoon off :)

Mark went to the store and bought me some small heat patches. I've had one on and off my shoulder, and it's been working well on the muscle pain. the tingly schmingly is what it is. a good night's sleep with my guys here should help a lot.

tomorrow is another day.
we'll see what hand I'm dealt and go from there.

because here is the thing:
I'm here at this Transfer Camp because of this crap. despite it.

despite being waylayed by MS, I'm still constantly moving forward in life.
I'm still finding ways to giggle like I always have, from the joy and hilarity I find in life.
I'm still enjoying life with my Ginger, doing my best to make him laugh out loud at least once a day.
(a girl has to have goals.)
I'm still loving the heck out of my Shu. I miss him dearly and want to share every single experience I have with him...and know every single detail about the experiences he has.
I'm still engaged with family, grateful for how beautifully gifted I've been with those I've been surrounded with in this world.
I'm still loving and engaging with dogs, only now it's in an incredible new and inspiring way.

so let me show you this.
to end on a high note, because this post is For Serious right now,
check out this video of Cader and I working the scooter for the first time today. we scooted the shiznit out of a grocery store and then worked our way down the strip mall's sidewalk. just look at my boy here, keeping pace with me. such a good four-legged.

and, as usual, we end with a shot of sweet Dillon, gazing upon Markus. (sigh.)

I love this school.

what I have loved the most about this experience so far is the sheer amount of fun I'm having. I'm eating this information up, reveling in being side by side with Cade all day, laughing at all the personalities of a center full of dogs at work and play. It's a bit of heaven on earth for Mark and I. at times I think I shouldn't being having this much fun... but then I realize that's possibly the dumbest think I've ever thought.

we have talked and worked quite a bit with the notion of breaking any task down into small, incremental bits. this helps the young pups learn what we want without being overwhelmed. we've set them up to succeed every step of the way-- something that is so crucial.

the beauty of this way of teaching is that when things start to disintegrate (say, during the transfer of Cade from Kim to me...), we can break the task down.
take Cader as far back on the learning process as he needs to go to be able to "remember" the task... or take me back there, have me learn exactly what the criteria have been all the way through so I know what to look for in the finished "product" of a task.

if that makes little to no sense to you... just let me know in the comments. I'll be happy to clarify. by which, of course, I mean I'll have Kim swoop in here and answer for me :)

now for the fun.
for the part I always jump to in blogs...
the pictures.

here's Lauren. she's fantastical.
clearly she's listening to me make some phenomenally intricate insight into the world of dog training.
or not.
I'm more likely asking the same question I did earlier, just phrased slightly differently to mislead her into thinking I really do have some memory retention.
(and there's poor Dillion, sick with Gingeritis. sing it to me, Dill. I hear you barking.)

yep. see my hand going up? I'm very insightful.
(dog trainers are a very patient bunch.)

here's Cade knocking out the cue "your mat" like it's his job.
which it is.
which is great.
because he knocks it out.

I'm holding my hand behind my back because (slightly more than) occasionally I can't keep my hand out of the treat bag.
and when your hand is in the treat bag, your dog is thinking about nothing else
which frankly, I can totes relate to. more than most, I dare say.

learning "back."
the "back" cue is a nice one to know when you're in an aisle of Red Walmart (otherwise known as Target, for those of you without children named Joshua who will immediately yell "Target? Can I come? Can I get a treat?") and you missed what you were going for by a couple of feet. rather than having to do a spin turn that can make a girl like me a little wonky, Cade and I can just back up right next to each other. we practiced next to those white gates so the pups knew we wanted them right by our sides. although, you're all correct in thinking it (and you know you are) who would leave that redhead's side?

poor Dillon. I'm paying for therapy when we leave. I know what I'm like without him...

so today's our rest day. if you're on Facebook or Instagram, you'll have seen that my two gentlemen here have been in a sleep competition that would put just about everyone to shame. it warms my heart. but not my stomach.

someone needs to get this girl a treat bag.

love and clicks and treats,

the Shu

while Cade is being transferred to us, the Shu has been transferred to Kristen & Jeff's house for what he has told me via phone is, and I quote, his "Ten Day Blast."

as in, "I only have six days left of my Blast, mom."

Madison & Noah are hooking their cousing up. big time. via their parents, of course.

post-out to dinner squinty-eyed ice cream love.

squinty-eyed pooling.

bright eyes while lunching between errands. (I love this kid.)

wait for it,
I have a couple videos of this, but my Blogger app & I are calling it a truce for the day.

we shall meet again, dear sir. or madam.

anyone have any insights?


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Editor's letter (March 26 issue)

It sounds blunt, but a refusal to change and to move with the times is partly responsible for killing off the fancy. Which is why it is always so pleasing to hear about clubs that are prepared to try new things in an attempt to broaden the appeal of the hobby and to keep club memberships afloat.
The Scottish National CBS is one of those organisations that isn’t prepared to rest on its laurels. It broke with tradition this year and, for the first time in 100 years, moved the date of the Scottish National from New Year’s Day to see if it would attract a bigger entry.
Unfortunately, club officials weren’t convinced that the date shift to January 10 and 11 had been as successful as it could have been, and so they have taken the unusual decision of changing the date yet again (see our News story on page 5 of this week's issue), this time to the week before Christmas.
Such flexibility and a willingness to experiment should be welcomed by all those concerned about the future of the hobby. That the club is also considering asking others, from the fancy pigeon world and the rabbit world, to join in also speaks volumes about its desire to succeed and keep the Scottish National relevant and exciting.
Similarly, it’s refreshing to see the East of England Border Fancy Canary Club widening its appeal by including Fife canaries at its open show later in the year (see our News story on page 5 of this week's issue). The move will also be reflected in a name change to the East of England Border and Fife Club. Who says two different types of canaries cannot co-operate successfully in this manner? We wish them well.
While on the subject of canaries, I need to remind readers that our next Hot Debate (in next week’s issue) is looking at whether canaries should be closed-ringed or not. What do you think? If you’d like to have your say why not send your thoughts – no more than 50 words, please – to us, either by mail or email as soon as you can. We’d love to hear what you think.


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Sunday, January 29, 2017

3 or More Layers

Welcome back to Come and Get It! We have a FUN new challenge this week, but first we need
to announce our winner and favorites from our  No DP Challenge
Our winner of 3 images from Nikki Burnett is:

#57 Scatty Jan

Please send an email to Julie at with the Title and the sponsor's name in the subject line. Also grab our Badge from the side bar for your blog.

Our Top Three Picks are:

#12 Karasiowa

#14 Lynn

#29 Patricia

Please grab our Favorites Badge from our sidebar-

This week our Challenge is
3 Or More Layers

Our Sponsors is:
Paper Nest Dolls

Thanks for visiting us today at Come and Get It! We look forward to visiting you and  your
 creations for this challenge.
The CAGI Design Team

  1. Thank you for choosing my card as a top 3. Congratulations to the other winners! Hugs, Patricia (Kinda Cute Cards)

  2. wonderful cards from team!

    hugs, Ŧĭƙĭ

  3. thanks for the fantastic challenge AND the pretty DT cards!

  4. Thanks for the wonderful challenge.


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Skip to content

Members of Parliament pass Anaphylaxis Awareness Motion – May 22, 2013

Members of Parliament pass Anaphylaxis Awareness Motion

Canadian Anaphylaxis Initiative pleased with “step in right direction”

May 23, 2013 – OTTAWA – MPs’ votes in the House of Commons last night included the passing of Motion 230, a motion to raise awareness of anaphylaxis, a life-threatening medical condition brought on by severe allergies. This is welcomed news for family members of the Canadian Anaphylaxis Initiative (CAI), a volunteer network of concerned families who have been working with MPs to raise awareness of severe allergies in Ottawa.

The anaphylaxis motion passed with unanimous, all-Party support. Niagara West-Glanbrook MP Dean Allison initiated the debate in the House of Commons, moving: That in the opinion of the House, anaphylaxis is a serious concern for an increasing number of Canadians and the government should take the appropriate measures necessary to ensure these Canadians are able to maintain a high quality of life.

By bringing more attention and awareness to the Canadian public, our debate in Parliament has helped Canadians understand the signs, dangers and consequences of an anaphylactic reaction,” said MP Dean Allison. “With the passing of this motion, Canadians living with anaphylaxis receive much needed recognition from our government. We stand with them in their efforts to promote awareness of the condition.”

We thank Dean, and MP Rick Dykstra before him, for raising our concerns for a more focused approach to the issues of anaphylaxis in successive Parliaments,” says Ms. Paskey, a CAI founder present in the House of Commons gallery for the vote. “We are so pleased to have such overwhelming support for greater awareness. It’s a step in the right direction and we hope MPs and officials in Ottawa will follow through with some important actions which can provide greater safety for a growing number of Canadians coping with anaphylaxis.”

The CAI has identified 5 policy areas that Ottawa can review that include:

  • Federal Coordination – of programs and services dealing with anaphylaxis and food allergy information
  • Coordinated Awareness Campaigns – of national, general public information initiatives and accurate and targeted information to specific professional groups
  • Long Term Commitment to Research – supporting a strategic response and more dollars for research
  • Improved Allergen Labeling – for foods, drugs, cosmetic and personal care products
  • Improved Transportation Safeguards– relating to airline and public transportation policies that reduce risks for food allergic passengers

Our group of families would like to see the increased awareness of the condition spur progress on the 5 policy areas, all which are in line with Motion 230.” Ms. Paskey adds, “There is a constituency of thousands of families across Canada who will support MPs who wish to pursue activities, whether it is with Health Canada, or in the MPs’ health committee, or a more accommodating allergy policy for airlines.”

3 Comments Post a comment
  1. Oh happy day! This is wonderful news! Thank you so much to CAI for making this happen! I am very happy to hear that the decision was unanimous! This is wonderful.

    May 24, 2013
  2. debi Mathew #

    Very exciting news for my family! Thanks for sharing. I was wondering of you could eleborate a little more on the Transportation safeguards for airlines. What do you expect to change?

    May 26, 2013

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Anima Sound System - Gipsy Sound Clash - Rapidshare

Anima Sound System is a Hungarian electronic band founded in 1993 in Szombathely. Anima is one of the first and most important Hungarian electronic acts, a unique fusion of Eastern-European folk music and modern electronic styles. The band soon developed strong ties with the underground Tilos Rdi station in Budapest. Their first international performance, in 1996, took place in Vienna at "Soundsfair Festival", (as the only Eastern-European act) along with bands like Red Snapper, Goldie and Nightmares on Wax.

Anima Sound System - Gypsy Soundclash - Review

Album Review:

Starting out sounding like the Upsetters in the studio with Lee Perry on the opener, "Authar Manca," Anima Sound System seem to set the tone for the album -- a sound clash, after all, having its roots in reggae. But the mood shifts throughout the album. On tracks like "Mg, Mg" and "Sinsemillia," for example, airy female vocals and a chilled beat give a distinctly European feel, and the growling Roland 303 bass that introduces "Po Drom" leads into a beat that's more jungle than ragga and spends ten minutes working around ideas before heading into territory that's quite gypsy. In some ways, it's the sound of a band with a lot to say and not enough room for all the ideas. "Kalls" heads them back to reggae territory, with the accent on the off beat, but the ideas, floating between dub and ambience, are more abstract. This is music that hits you in the head more than in the gut. And they're not afraid of lightness and occasionally sounding quite poppy and accessible, as on "Tekerd," which seems more aimed at the chart than anything but works within the mad, varied context of this record. "Slow" doesn't exactly live up to its name, taking more of a sinewy weave through a groove, with brass and horns sliding in and out. But it makes a good end to a fabulous disc. ~ Chris Nickson, All Music Guide

Anima Sound System - Gypsy Soundclash - Tracklist

01 Anima Sound System - Authar Manca
02 Anima Sound System - Fj A Szl
03 Anima Sound System - Jiddis
04 Anima Sound System - Romano Funk
05 Anima Sound System - Morog
06 Anima Sound System - Mg, Mg
07 Anima Sound System - Cimbalom
08 Anima Sound System - Sinsemillia
09 Anima Sound System - Po Drom
10 Anima Sound System - Kalls
11 Anima Sound System - G.S.C.
12 Anima Sound System - Tekerd
13 Anima Sound System - Tilos
14 Anima Sound System - Slow

Anima Sound System - Gypsy Soundclash - RAPIDSHARE DOWNLOAD HERE (PART 1)
Anima Sound System - Gypsy Soundclash - RAPIDSHARE DOWNLOAD HERE (PART 2)


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Donation Totals

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Treadmill 'Track' Workout.

Because of the terrible weather (it was sleeting and there were still a couple inches of snow on the ground), I was forced to do my track workout indoors on a treadmill over in the NRL gym. It actually wasn't too bad; close proximity to a slightly ajar window kept me cooler and had my Ipod to keep me motivated. Furthermore, my last two track workouts have been plagued but subpar 800 times, so by doing an interval workout on the treadmill, I could set the pace to ensure that I was pushing myself. The workout was 5x800 with a 400 jog following each effort. Started off with a 1 mile warmup at 8:36 pace, then got off and stretched and got going on the workout shortly thereafter. Kept my 800 times at 3:15 pace (9.3 mph) and finished all five in good form. I took the jogs at a 6.6 mph pace (about 9 min/mile) and then did a cool down mile in 8:41. Overall I felt pretty good throughout, although I labored a bit on the second half of the last 800. What was fairly disconcerting is the worsening of the blister on my left foot right where my big toe meets my foot. It has opened up a bit more and was painful to walk on following the workout. I may be forced to take tomorrow off to ensure that I will be good to go for a 4 miler on Friday and my long 16 miler on Sat morning.

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2010 Efforts!

This year, like last year, I will be riding for Mary Payton's Miracle - My friend Steve Kogos from Trigators informed me that his friend Joe's daughter, Mary Payton, was diagnosed a number of years back with Late Infantile Batten Disease. This is a disease with no cure, however, there are special experimental (and extremely expensive) treatments which have shown some significant signs of success! In order to assist with the costly treatments and research, Mary Payton's Miracle was created to raise money to find a cure, hopefully in time to save little Mary Payton as well as the many others affected by this terrible disease!

Total Mileage

Current Challenges

Valid 2/1-12/1/2009


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Following three years of construction and about $1.4B, the West LRT in Calgary is officially open for commuters to take the transit into the core.

The new line is just over eight kilometers long and runs from 69 St. S.W. into the downtown core.

The total trip takes about 12 minutes.

The city expects the line to see about 25,000 passengers a day at first and that number could reach about 40,000 passengers within a few years.

Dignitaries gathered in the city on Saturday morning for celebrations to mark the completion of the project.

Premier Alison Redford had high praise for the new LRT leg which was one of the city’s largest infrastructure projects, at a cost of $1.4 billion.

“The West LRT line is a shining example of our government’s commitment to connecting residents with the people and services important to them, and to supporting municipalities as they plan for the future,” says Redford. “Together, we are building better communities.”

“I want to especially thank the project team and all The City of Calgary employees and contractors who made this project happen,” says Nenshi. “It is the biggest public works project in our history and an amazing accomplishment.”

As part of Saturday’s celebration, the public was permitted to ride the new line for free between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. with free hot chocolate, fireworks and family entertainment at the stations.

The project was approved by council in 2007 and construction began in March 2010.