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Kansas legislators push for regulations on college employees’ political speech

KANSAS — When Kansas state representatives met Wednesday to discuss a new education bill, they weren’t trying to create a new law. They met to send a message to the state’s college professors.

The Committee on Education held a hearing Wednesday to discuss a bill to prohibit college employees from including their job titles on columns they wrote about state politics for newspapers.

Mentioning the affiliation might confuse readers, some of whom could believe the professors’ speech represents that of the university, said Rep. Ron Highland, a Republican.

The Committee on Education won’t try to pass the bill, Highland said, adding that the bill was only written to start a conversation. Instead, they’ll approach the Kansas Board of Regents and request a policy change.

Some of the state’s professors have publicly decried the legislation, insisting it’s an attack on their freedom of speech. Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University, said he believes state legislators drafted the bill to intimidate critics within the academic community.

“This bill is very possibly a reaction to anybody questioning or opening up for discussion the actions of legislators,” he said. “But the country was founded on the idea of people being able to question and open up for discussion the leaders.”

A murky background

The legislation, introduced on Feb. 4, would require colleges to adopt a policy prohibiting employees who write political newspaper opinion columns from including their “official title.”

The bill would not allow colleges to opt out of writing a policy, but would not require colleges to penalize faculty and staff for submitting political columns, as long as they did not disclose their academic affiliation. The bill does not address how officials should react if newspapers print professors’ credentials without their knowledge.

The bill was introduced and sponsored by the Standing Committee on Local Government, rather than by an individual lawmaker. Representatives have shied away from discussing the legislation’s origin.

When the bill was introduced, Committee on Local Government chair Rep. Steve Huebert said

Rep. Virgil Peck was responsible for it, according to The Topeka Capital-Journal. Peck initially denied having introduced the bill, but eventually conceded he must have just forgotten.

On Wednesday, while testifying in support of the bill, Peck vehemently denied requesting it, according to the Lawrence Journal-World.

“I want it to be known publicly, for any fruitcake that may want to write something about me, I did not author the bill,” Peck said during the hearing. “I did not ask for the bill to be written.”

The bill is a response to a group of professors circulating political writing “bashing a candidate,” Highland said, adding that “two or three representatives” drafted the legislation because the professors’ opinions might be mistakenly associated with the university.

Highland declined to name the legislators or the professors.

“In a roundabout way, they’re claiming their university believes this as well,” he said. “What we’re trying to get the universities to do is to put a policy in place where, if they do something like that, to claim that they don’t represent the university.”

Although no colleges expressed a need for the bill, some legislators and citizens had, Highland said, adding that some readers might find it difficult to distinguish college employees’ opinions with those of their institutions, potentially putting colleges in a sticky situation.

“The universities should actually be the ones more alarmed at this than we are, because that puts them in kind of a precarious position in saying that we either go along with this or we don’t,” Highland said.

Media and academics alike have questioned the constitutionality of a bill, arguing it would limit professors’ freedom of speech, but Highland said the bill is “not a constitutional issue.”

Insight Kansas

In March 2011, Peck made headlines when he said illegal immigrants should be shot like feral hogs during an appropriations committee meeting. He later said the comment was meant as a joke.

Now, a group of political science professors believe they are in his sights.

Several Kansas newspapers have speculated the legislation is aimed at Insight Kansas, a group of political science professors whose columns on state politics are syndicated in papers throughout the state.

Beatty, a former Insight Kansas contributor, wrote a column for condemning Peck’s feral hog remark and another discussing Peck’s apology, which Beatty said he found insincere. He said the columns, which ran in about 15 newspapers, may have been a factor in the committee’s decision to introduce the bill.

The bill violates professors’ First Amendment rights, Beatty said, threatening their ability to initiate discussion on government decisions and policies.

“I keep coming back to it as a way to at the very least de-legitimize criticism of elected leaders, which I don’t think is what this country is based on,” he said.

Washburn University professor and Insight Kansas contributor Mark Peterson responded to the legislation with a column published in several Kansas newspapers last weekend. Although legislators haven’t provided a detailed reason for drafting the bill, Peterson said he believes the language is too specific to be directed at anyone else but Insight Kansas.

“There isn’t any other group of college professors in the state of Kansas who consistently write opinion columns on Kansas politics,” he said.

He said he took a tongue-in-cheek tone when writing the column, questioning why, during a legislative session when lawmakers must wrangle with issues like “the fiscal crisis facing the state, the lack of significant population growth and job opportunities, the perilous state of the Ogallala Aquifer, the unmet needs of the state’s medically underserved population,” they would choose to focus on this particular issue.

“I point out that it’s nice that folks read us, and apparently we have enough of an impact that they actually take the trouble to craft a piece of legislation that’s aimed straight at us,” Peterson said.

Peterson and Beatty said Insight Kansas’ columns are intended to spark discussion, and while they criticize some government actions, they also highlight ones they agree with.

Both professors said they often choose not to attach their university affiliation to their Insight Kansas columns, instead citing other credentials.

“We’ve never made it a big part of what we do to point out that we work for Washburn,” Peterson said. “That’s been purely consensual, but I imagine if this thing passes, we’ll probably change our attitude on that.”

A trend in Kansas?

If the Board of Regents chooses to honor the legislature’s request, the new policy will follow a 2013 social media policy to restrict faculty members’ online speech.

The social media policy, proposed in December 2013, allows administrators to fire employees over social media posts deemed “contrary to the best interests of the employer.”

The policy came in response to University of Kansas professor David Guth’s tweet directed at the National Rifle Association following the September 2013 shootings that left 13 dead at the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard.

“blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters,” Guth’s tweet said.

Guth apologized and was placed on academic leave following backlash over his post.

In spring 2014, a faculty Social Media Workgroup comprised of 13 Kansas professors, suggested revisions to the policy, arguing it was too restrictive and did little to protect faculty free speech.

Max McCoy, a journalism professor at Emporia State University who served on the Workgroup, said that although the Board of Regents updated the policy to include some of the group’s suggested language about First Amendment protections and academic freedom, the heart of the policy remained unchanged: colleges can still discipline, or even fire, employees for social media posts.

McCoy said he believes suppressing professors’ speech is becoming a trend in the state.

“What’s disturbing about the social media policy is that it was the board criminalizing free speech,” McCoy said. “And now we have this bill that’s come out of committee that, if it’s passed, would actually criminalize free speech.”

Contact SPLC staff writer Katherine Schaeffer by email or at (202) 785-5451.


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Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)

The Trump administration has rolled back yet another policy directive set by former President Barack Obama, this time involving protections for transgender prison inmates.

BuzzFeed reported Friday that the Bureau of Prisons has modified its Transgender Offender Manual to strike language guiding the Transgender Executive Council (TEC), which evaluates issues related to prison management and security for transgender inmates, to recommend housing by gender identity. Instead, the new policy instructs the TEC to “use biological sex as the initial determination for designation.”

The manual adds, “The designation to a facility of the inmate’s identified gender would be appropriate only in rare cases.”

The policy change follows a federal lawsuit by four evangelical Christian women in a Texas prison who claimed that sharing living quarters with transgender women placed them at a greater risk for being raped. The Justice Department said last August that it would review the lawsuit. Friday’s change to the manual is a response to that review.

The manual also states that prison officials must “consider whether placement would threaten the management and security of the institution and/or pose a risk to other inmates in the institution.”

David Stacy, government affairs director of the Human Rights Campaign, called the new rules “harmful and disrespectful,” according to Reuters.

In a statement, National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director Mara Keisling said, “Transgender people already know the Trump-Pence administration is dedicated to stripping away our rights. Their cruelty is only made more evident as they continually go after the most vulnerable among us.”

Keisling added, “The extreme rates of physical and sexual violence faced by transgender people in our nation’s prisons is a stain on the entire criminal justice system.”

Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Nancy Ayers told BuzzFeed that, “The manual now addresses and articulates the balance of safety needs of transgender inmates as well as other inmates, including those with histories of trauma, privacy concerns, etc., on a case-by-case basis.”

The Obama administration introduced the guidelines in January 2017, just before Obama left office.

The Trump administration’s response to the lawsuit comes just two months after the White House announced it would ban transgender people from serving in the military. Several lawsuits have since been filed challenging that announcement.

Recent reports noted that a panel of officials from the Defense and Homeland Security departments that met in 2017 and favored allowing trans people to openly serve in the country’s armed forces seem to have been overruled by Vice President Mike Pence’s own “working group” composed of anti–LGBTQ activists.

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MLB Home Runs Continue to Increase

By |2017-07-18T17:35:40+00:00July 24th, 2017|Baseball|

As home runs continue to increase, there have been more strikeouts in the MLB. Why are players hitting more home runs this year? MLB Home Runs Continue to Increase Of course, we all like to see a home run as long as it is the team we're rooting for. Since everyone remembers the records set by Mark McGwire (70 in 1998), Barry Bonds (73 in 2001), and Sammy Sosa (66 in 1998), we are now seeing home runs are being hit at a high rate. So, back in the late 90's and early 2000's, this was a big time in the [...]


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Spiderman dunk

Beermen are going to miss Arwind Santos’ Spiderman dunk

January 16, 2019 BY:  Mark Giongco
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Did The Right Guy Win The Heisman Trophy?

ON Saturday night Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson joined an illustrious group of footballers, as he was named the 2016 Heisman Trophy winner, an award handed out to the best college footballer each season. While Jackson’s season with the Cardinals was incredible was he deserving of the award? Or was someone else robbed?

I hate using stats to hammer home a point, but when making the case for Jackson it’s hard not to. He finished 12th in passing yards in the country and his 51 total touchdowns for the year outscored a large majority of schools entire offense. But what stands out are his rushing stats. Jackson rushed for the 4th most TD’s with 21 and finished 8th in the country for total rushing yards. F*cking EIGHTH. There were seven running backs, whose entire job is to run with the football that had more than Jackson. That’s it. His ability to reel off huge running plays not only improved his highlight reel, but kept Louisville in the hunt for a top seed for most of the year. He started the year on fire and defeated some notable teams with games over by half time thanks to his stellar play. In his first game of the year he set the school record for touchdowns with eight, followed it up with five first half TD’s against Syracuse (effectively ending the game) and against one of his toughest opponents, #2 ranked FSU, he single-handedly put the game out of reach by half time with four of his five touchdowns passing and rushing coming in the first 30 minutes. If he was his own school he would have been 70th in the nation for total offense.

did-the-right-guy-win-the-heisman1Image from sbnation.com

Lamar Jackson’s dual threat ability to attack defenses in the passing and running game steered him to the top of the Heisman rankings early in the season.

TAKE away all the domnant statistics and numbers and break it down to its simplest form. When Jackson needed to win to keep Louisville in the College Football Playoff hunt and he couldn’t get it done. Going into the last fortnight of the season the only game the Cardinals had lost was a close battle 42-36 to one of the best teams in the country in Clemson, led by another Heisman contender in Deshaun Watson. However, Jackson laid an egg over the last two games, especially against Houston when he only completed 20 of 43 passes and rushed for a measly 33 yards on 25 carries. Deshaun Watson however, who finished 2nd in the Heisman voting, led his team to the ACC title game, and drove them to a victory which led to a berth in the 2016 College Football Playoff.

LOOK, it’s very easy to knock Lamar Jackson for the way he played against Houston, but let’s face it there was no way he wasn’t going to win this award. The Cardinals wouldn’t have even been in the position they were against Houston if it hadn’t been for Jackson’s amazing play earlier in the year. Besides the Heisman trophy is an individual award and individually Jackson was on another level compared to every other player in college football. Watson and the other finalists all had exceptional years, but no one could top what Lamar Jackson achieved.

Banner image from timesnews.net

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South Pointe Girls Varsity Softball

  • Overall Record: 4 - 0
  • Conference Record: 2 - 0

rss_feed Latest News

Today Game Schedule April 17th

Today -Senior Night!! Boys Tennis will celebrate its seniors – Matthew Mullis and Martin Jackson as they take on region opponent Westwood at the courts beginning at 5:00pm Baseball has two seniors – Trey Prince and Justin Beam – who will be recognized before the varsity game against Westwood.  JV game begins at 5:00pm. Varsity


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01:23 GMT +326 March 2019
Listen Live
    People shout slogans during a rally in Rabin's square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, March 7, 2015. Tens of thousands of Israelis are gathering at a Tel Aviv square under the banner Israel wants change and calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be replaced in March 17 national elections.

    Thousands of Israelis Protest New Law That Makes Arabs ‘Second-Class’ (PHOTOS)

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    Tens of Thousands of people reportedly gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest new Israeli legislation declaring the country to be the nation-state of the Jewish people. Israel’s Druze population comprise the core of the protest.

    On July 19, the Israeli parliament passed a constitutional law declaring Israel to be a "nation-state," which meant that only Jews now  have the right to self-determination. The legislation also declares Hebrew as the official language, stripping Arabic of the same status. The new law has been widely criticized as a complication to the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and as discrimination against the Druze, the nation's most integrated Arab community.

    Gathered into Tel Aviv's Rabin square, protesters, who also included many Israeli Jews, waved Israeli and Druze flags with signs demanding the law be retracted.

    "No one can preach to us about loyalty and the military cemeteries testify to this. Despite our utter loyalty, the state does not see us as equal," Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif, the Druze spiritual leader, told the demonstrators in a speech.

    "Just as we fight for the existence and security of the state so we are determined to fight together for the character and right to live in it in equality and dignity," he added.

    According to Reuters, the new legislation has provoked outrage among the country's most integrated minority, the Druze, which are ethnic Arab members of a religious minority that is an offshoot of Islam incorporating elements of other faiths. Their biggest communities are reportedly in Lebanon and Syria.

    In Israel they reportedly number 120,000, less than two percent of the total citizenry. Notably, unlike other Arab Israeli residents, who are exempt from military service, Druze are drafted into the conscript army and widely active in mainstream governance and media with some even rising high in the political and military world, Reuters reported.

    In June, Israel faced a wave of Druze soldiers and officers quitting the IDF.

    "Why should I serve the state of Israel, the state that I, my brothers and my father have served out of devotion and love for our homeland […] in the end, what do we get? To be second class citizens," Amir Jmall wrote in a Facebook post earlier this week.

    "What makes Israel special is its unique social fabric — Jews, Arabs, Druze, Muslims, Christians, Bedouin, Circassians — together we are all Israel," said Yat Salamy, 53, a Druze teacher who attended the protests, cited by Reuters.

    The new legislation has been strongly condemned by left-wing groups and Arab community leaders in the country. However, despite their smaller numbers, the Druze community in Israel has great political effect due to their reputation as supporters of the state. Faced with an unexpected backlash, Netanyahu has attempted damage control.

    "There is nothing in this law that infringes on [Druze] rights as equal citizens of the state of Israel, and there is nothing in it that harms the special status of the Druze community in Israel," Netanyahu declared on Sunday.

    "The people of Israel, and I among them, love and appreciate you. We deeply appreciate our partnership and the covenant between us," the Tel Aviv prime minister said, addressing the minority, but his words have had little effect.

    Arab Israelis make up around 20 percent of the country's 9 million population. However, Israeli legislation guarantees them full equal rights. According to Reuters, they face constant discrimination, citing inferior services and unequal allocations for education, health and housing resources.

    According to a recent poll published by The Jerusalem Post, almost 58 percent of Israelis support the controversial nation-state law anchoring the privileged status of Jews in the country. Moreover, the new legislation has a solid support of 85 percent among those, who define themselves as right-wing party supporters.

    Over Half of Israelis Support Jewish Nation-State Law – Reports
    Israeli Law on Jewish Nation-State to Mount Tensions in Country – Palestinian MP
    Speaking Arabic in Israel: Jewish Nation Law 'Enshrines Existing Situation'
    'Defining Moment in History of Zionism': Israel Passes Jewish State Law
    jewish law, druze, protests, jews, Israel
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01:58 GMT +326 March 2019
Listen Live
    Rifles shown at the exhibition of weapons taken from Syrian militants as part of the 4th International Military Technical Forum, Army 2018, in Kubinka

    Damascus Reportedly Finds Huge Cache of US, Israeli-Made Weapons Close to Golans

    © Sputnik / Vitaliy Belousov
    Middle East
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    Syrian militant groups have left many weapons caches behind, when they were retreating from the Syrian army, which are now being discovered during sweeping operations conducted by the country's authorities.

    The Syrian army has discovered an underground militants' cache close to the border with the Israeli occupied Golan Heights to the west of Jibbat al-Khashab in Quneitra province, Syrian state news agency SANA reported. According to the media outlet, Syrian authorities discovered the cache in a dug out den during the course of a combing operation with the help of locals.

    Inside it there were various types of weapons, such as anti-tank missiles, mortars, rifles and machineguns, produced in the US, Israel, and Jordan, as well as huge amounts of ammunition. Apart from the weaponry, the Syrian army found protective gear, satellite communication devices and medical equipment, which was also made in the US and Israel.

    READ MORE: Militants' Warehouse With US Weaponry Found in Southern Syria (VIDEO)

    Earlier, Syrian Security Forces discovered on 21 December another big warehouse with weapons left behind by terrorist groups in Daraa province in the south of the country. It contained numerous rifles, mortars, US-made Tao anti-tank missiles and recon drones. Damascus regularly finds such caches with most of them containing US or Israeli weaponry and medical equipment.

    Syrian Army Reportedly Seizes New Cache of US-Made Weapons (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
    Syrian Army Digs Up US-Made Guns in Terrorist Arms Cache Near Damascus (PHOTOS)
    Syrian Army Troops Discover Huge Terrorist Weapons Cache in East Ghouta
    Syrian Army Strips Militants of Suicide Belts, Vast Cache of NATO Arms (VIDEOS)
    Syrian Army Discovers Ex-Militant Base and Weapons Cache Under Hospital in Douma
    Syrian Army Reportedly Finds Cache of French Weapons in Liberated Eastern Ghouta
    WATCH: Syrian Army Finds Huge Weapons Cache in Deir ez-Zor
    weapons cache, Israel, Syria, United States, Jordan
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Huge audio files download of the teachings on Foundations of Vedic Astrology. You can right-click on the link and download the audio files or left click on them and listen online. You are free to download, store and listen to these audio files. If you have questions, write in the forum.

CD01 Foundations of Jyotish

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  1. I would love to get the learnings from sanjayji and its disciples. Plz ptovide a way to get hold of u r lectures online way

  2. anilbhat1962

    It is wonderful to hear to Pt Sanjay Rath Ji. After hearing this difficult topics seem so simple. Thanks

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Pt.Sanjay Rath belongs to a traditional family of astrologers from Bira Balabhadrapur Sasan village of Puri, Orissa, which trace their lineage back to Shri Achyuta Das (Sri Achyutananda).
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Canadian Iron Ore Exports Slow in the 1h17

Iron Ore

Canada’s iron ore exports (excl. shipments to the US) fell by 0.2 Mt year-on-year in June to 3.2 Mt, according to the Tex Report. This contributed to a 1.5 Mt annual decline in 1h17 shipments to 17.9 Mt. Exports to both Europe (-0.9 Mt to 9.4 Mt) and China (-1.8 Mt to 2.2 Mt) fell in the 1h17, by contrast, there was strong growth in shipments to Japan (+0.8 Mt to 2.7 Mt).


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Get your Christmas Card Class delivered to your mailbox!

FullSizeRender (21) Do you want to get started on your Christmas Cards now? Are you gonna miss my in-home Christmas Card Class next Saturday but want another card making option? I am offering a class to-go option which includes a brand new stamp set and all of the materials and instructions to make 10 cards for $35, which includes shipping and your envelopes.  All you have to provide is your adhesives.

How?  Go to the To-Go Class Option on my Meetup Page and “RSVP” by August 19th to prepay and order your kit.  Your kit will be mailed to you by USPS priority mail the first week of September.  Please email me at if you have any questions.

Thanks and happy stamping!


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I was a teen mom.  I left home 2 days after I turned 17.   Left with my boy friend~ who was 4 years older then me.  My boyfriend & I lived in a car for a few weeks.  Getting to school was hard.
He had friends who were getting there girlfriends pregnant or already had  kids, so we decide we wanted to have a baby too.  I did get pregnant.  I quit making it to school all together.  We moved into a house with friends.  It wasn’t a home but a party house.
We didn’t stay there to long before he was put in jail.  When he left I moved in with my grandparents.  They were very generous to me, unfortunately I didn’t appreciate it then.  This all happened in a matter of months.  It seemed like a long time but it wasn’t~ my life was completely changed within the first semester of my Junior year of high school.  By the time the second semester started, I was pregnant, living with my grandparents, my boyfriend was in jail.  I was back in school & experiencing not morning sickness but all day sickness.
My due date was in August, my boyfriend got out of jail a month or two before.  We moved into a place together.  My grandparents were upset & wanted me to stay with them.  My baby was born about a week late with no problems.  In October I started at an alternitive school & finished my senior year within 6 weeks.
Before my baby had even turned one my boyfriend & I had broke up & I was pregnant again, with no idea what I was going to do.
I had a choice to make, & it wasn’t an easy one, it would affect my life & my children’s lives.

When you are young & you know you don’t have what it takes to raise the child growing inside of you it’s scary.
We don’t talk about all the choices we have enough.  Girls are left with alot of questions.  They are mislead, they are manipulated, & corerhersed into choices they didn’t feel comfortable with.
I have been a teen mom.  I am also a birthmom who released a child through an open adoption.  I have recieved blessing & joy, as well as heartache from this descision~ but those are things that come with life.  I feel very strongly that the choice for adoption espeacially open adoption be talked about & people be educated.  If you have questions you want to ask please ask.

I’ve been a teen mom, I am a birthmom, I am a mom who has lost babies to miscarriages.
I have been there , I have experienced the pain.   I have come through it & have healed.


text: My Life has change for the better since i had Skyler almost 4 years ago. I was 16&pregnant n going throught life making bad choices n make the wrong kind of friends. After i  found out i was having skyler i changed my ways for my daughter to make her proud of her mommy. I quit hanging with then. got my life on the right track. i did all my homework, i worked really hard to keep my grades up. I think being pregnant made me work harder to provide for my daughter n change my life for her. I got all highs 80’s n 90’s in high school. Having skyler make me believe just becuase im a mom doesn’t mean i can give up on my own future. i worked to be better student, better, sister, better daughter n better mother to my daughter, show her that even though i was pregnant i still put school work first from friends. I wanted to make my daughter proud so i fought to stay in school to have a better education n so i can teach my daughter. Then i had sylan 10 months after skyler same time. i kept my grades up n never missed any work. i graduated on time with my class. i took a year off to be with my kids and get ajob so i can support my children n get wat they need like food, diaper,clothes.. I never though i would be buying baby diapers at 16 years old instead of buying a prom dress or goin drinking with friends. I grow up faster then normal teens but it made me strnger for skyler n dylan n baby #3 on the way. im working to keep my kids happy n so they can live a happy normal life like i wish i had. I wouldn’t change nothing bout my life.. Now im a 20 year old mother of 2 amazing adorable girl n boy n baby on the way. Amazing friends who help me if i need them, wonderfull sister’s who helped my during my pregnancy with  skyler n dylan, taugh me everyting i now to this day. i would be the mom i am now with out my sister’s help. I own my life to them both for helping with everything.


text:
Hey Everyone

I gave birth too my son Noah Jay on April 27th and what a blessing he is soo glad that i decided too keep him even though the father wanted nothing too do with him and he still doesnt i believe i am doing a good job on my own as a solo parent even though it is extremely difficult i wouldnt change one thing he is my world i love him soo much.

He is 7 weeks on Wednesday and he is smiling and talking baby talk (gooing)

Love him sooo much : )


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Monday, 20 January 2014

Oopsie, it's been a while..

Above, a late Christmas present from Canada =) Jen had made a lovely ceramic coaster, with the photo I sent her of the back garden, with "Jen's plant" and Oimo's grave! I love it, and it's on my "desk" in the attic. (And I haven't even emailed Jen yet - must do that today!)

Life's been mainly about Thatsit, lately. She spent over two weeks at the clinic (with weekend breaks at home), but now she can stay home, which is great. Still, she's not allowed to walk around, so when I can't keep an eye on her, she needs to live in a cage =/ She hates being in the cage, so I stay in the living room all the time, to let her chill on the sofa. I've slept on the sofa as well, so I can hear her if she needs anything during the night, but I'll have to stop that as it's killing my back;

Thatsit does have a litter tray, comfy blanket bed, water bowl, and a food bowl, in her cage, so she should be fine even if I sleep elsewhere. (She's actually using a turkey tray now, instead of a regular litter tray, because it's larger and higher. It has worked really well - she no longer sits on the tray and pees outside of it.)

Her sores didn't need dressing anymore when I collected her on Friday morning, but they still look quite raw and delicate, on the right leg. The left leg is really good. Yesterday, she attempted to lick the sores, though, and I knew she'd be very uncomfortable and distressed with a "lamp shade" collar, so I put a sock tube on her right leg instead, and she's left it alone since. I'll probably take the sock tube off tonight, and see how it looks.. Then maybe put a lighter sock tube on, to let the sores breathe, yet protect them from her tongue. She has a check-up appointment on Wednesday, at Brayvet.

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Resilient - How To Peach - Stereo Stickman

Resilient How To Peach

Resilient have a sound that fans of creative and characterful rock and punk will be immediately grateful to discover. It’s refreshing to witness the opening pace, distortion and individuality of Crickets, and as things progress throughout the How To Peach project, the hit of the music satisfies even further.

Fusing a touch of theatrical, creative freedom with a well educated and structurally aware musicality, Resilient present audiences with instrumental prowess and a wonderfully unique leading vocalist. Once you’re involved, you also get the varying subject matters and the meandering emotional depth. On a song like Ceiling, the performances move unexpectedly from the subtle and soft to the almighty and passionate. The guitar riff alone presents a touch of swagger that will again make you glad you visited. Then you get the unfolding story line, the fresh and ever-interesting use of melody, and the overall strength of the songwriting – the band have crafted this collection with absolute consideration and skill, and not at the cost of that crucial creative freedom that makes it so unique.

The album has a fairly nostalgic feel to it, there aren’t too many bands composing in this way anymore, so it stands out. The songs are free from the influences of mainstream pop, and that in itself creates something completely new sounding. You’ve also got the weight and passion of rock throughout, though it’s broken up intermittently by these softer, perhaps more reflective moments. There’s honesty in the lyrics, there’s also attitude, angst, and a little chaos. The same goes for the instrumentation. Broke it as Soon as I Got it showcases effectively the chemistry between band members. When the mood changes, every musical moment involved reflects and enhances that feeling. They’re tight in their performances, so when the energy is high it’s sky-high, and that makes the prospect of a live show extremely appealing.

Resilient, How To Peach, Album Review, Indie Blog Features, Independent Music Blog, Unsigned Bands, Music Promotion, Submit Music,

The songs on this project, and indeed the title, the concept, the art work – the band have created a level of intrigue with their image and their approach to expression. In some cases, this can be nothing but glitter scattered over an otherwise average and overly familiar collection. In this case though, the songs throughout the album are everything you’d hope for and more. From An Eruption has a superbly relevant, erupting hook line, and an equally mesmerising guitar solo that soaks you in authentic rock freedom. Medication follows on in a thought provoking yet masterfully manic manner.

On occasion when listening to How To Peach I was pleasantly reminded of classic albums ranging throughout the likes of Queens of The Stone Age, Skunk Anansie, Incubus, even Smashing Pumpkins. However, that’s something our minds conjure up just briefly to make sense of new things. The Resilient sound is exciting, everything from the bass lines to the beats to the riffs to the concepts, and finally, to that faultlessly captivating leading voice – it all works in unison to offer something brand new; something you can comfortably add to your long journey collections, to utilise the sound whenever you need a little pick-me-up.

Comin Yer Way has a quality blues-rock vibe to it, stunning riffs and rhythm, a contrasting gentle, almost whispered opening vocal, soon exploding into a full on, poetic and thoughtful piece of rock and roll. The Duchess Act surrounds you in atmospheric ambiance with an introduction that is blissfully well placed within the project. Erin Fox’ leading voice is laid fairly bare here, just briefly. It highlights the hypnotic beauty of her voice, and the softness again creates a powerful contrast with the weight and intensity of what comes later. The poetry throughout this section of the album reiterates that theatrical element of drama and further underlines the band’s unquestionably impressive writing skills.

Green is brilliant, beautiful, provocative, refreshingly unique – a definite highlight. The song evolves in a powerful and compelling way. Despite the strength of the opening track on this album, somehow things still seem to get better and better as it moves along. The band’s approach becomes familiar, but nothing gets predictable. Slack is stylish and smooth, creating a somewhat cinematic ambiance around you, soon enough intriguing and astounding you once again with its story-line. The musical set-up is sensational, but this true of every song on How To Peach.

As a band, Resilient have it all. Concluding with the vibrant and fast paced How To Preach, this album will leave you keen to listen over again and again. The sound is huge, the band are an absolute must for rock fans looking for an unmissable, infectious new sound and live shows to seek out.

Resilient are Lennon Cantwell, Alicia Dickerson, Erin Fox, and Katie Fox. Download the album today via Bandcamp. Find & follow them on FacebookTwitter & Instagram. Visit their Website for more information.

Rebecca Cullen

Founder & Editor

Musician & writer with an MA in Songwriting.

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Monday, March 25, 2019

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Concrete vs wood buildings

Which is better concrete or wood buildings? Well, it's a popular question, concrete vs wood buildings- which is better and what do you recommend I...
The views expressed are those of the author, Steve Saretsky, A Sutton West Coast Realtor, and do not necessarily reflect those of Sutton West Coast. It is provided as a general source of information only and should not be considered personal investment advice or a solicitation.


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Farm life practicalities

I find myself worrying that our recent trend of posts have offended some of you. Now, most of you are probably aware, at least on some level, that life in the country is not all idyllic and peaceful. Especially not when you’re surrounded by 100’s of acres of what is essentially idle land that has been planted in native grasses, trying to raise domestic animals that are by their very nature prey to the predators that live in those 100’s or acres of native grassland. But, Steve’s rather blunt about the measures that we have taken to protect our investment. I’ve tried to suggest that he move on, but he’s rather stubborn. I suppose that’s a good thing, as I’m rather stubborn as well. So, I hope you’ll stick with us and not judge us too harshly for having to protect what needs protecting. I promise this trend will end soon – or at least I hope it will. I’m not a big fan of searching for the angry racoon at 3:30 in the morning dressed in Steve’s robe, and carrying a 22 rifle and a flashlight.
In the meantime, I’ll gush a little bit about how exciting it is to have the barn useable this winter. No, the roof will not be repaired, nor will the entire floor be fixed. But, remember that the sheep had next-to-nothing for shelter last winter. Even with a big hole in the roof at one end, the rest of the barn will provide more shelter than they had last year. We’ll start repairing the floor at the end nearest the house, and stop when we run out of time. We’ll put panels up at the end of the good floor, and that will be where the sheep get to stay for the winter. We only have 7 of them (or will only have 7 by winter). They don’t need very much space to sleep and eat in anyway. The hay has been moved into a much more secure location (thanks to Hector), and we have a plan that will eventually allow easy access to that space for future unloading. And, it’s in the barn – right where we will need it.

You see, this barn was built by folks who knew how a barn was supposed to operate. There’s a large open space where the animals live. I suspect that this space originally had stalls for the draft horses, but that’s just supposition. And there are two very large feed bins. Bins is really not the right word. Imagine rooms approximately the size of a decent living room. But empty with a tunnel over the door. When Grandpa fed the sheep, he fed chopped hay, and the chopped hay was literally dumped into these rooms. The tunnel over the door allowed a person to walk in and scoop what they needed from right by the door. The feed would shift and re-fill the space, always keeping the feed handy, at least until the level dropped. Then you had to go a bit further in. Still, it was a good system, and it works just fine for baled hay too.
It feels like a win that we’re going to be able to salvage a good portion of the building and put it to good use again. It’s been standing for over 100 years. Here’s hoping that with a little rejuvenation and minor (okay sort of major) surgery, it can stand for just a little bit longer.
On another note, this is Sarah’s favorite of the photos she took. She doesn’t really like Steve’s favorite. Anyone want to weigh in with their favorite? We need some neutral voices to break the tie. I’m staying out of it, because I’m just very proud that she took the initiative and then took some great photos.

Predators 14, Steve 6

It was a short night.  I had to stay up late doing work on computer (my fault I procrastinated) and Annmarie woke me up at 0330 thinking she heard the chickens squawking.  I was not really awake.  She got out of bed and saw a raccoon out our back bedroom window.  By the time I got the screen out of the window and she got the flashlight (moon was about 90% full, but not quite enough light to see through a scope) the coon was gone.  I went back to bed while she did the armed perimeter sweep.  We got a twofer!!!  Two teenage raccoons in the trap!  She left them alone and came back in the house.  The rooster started to crow at 0430.  It was hot.  Needless to say I did not sleep well.  So I dispatched the raccoons this morning.  Hopefully, the weekend will see the last of the raccoons vanish.

Predators 14, Steve 4

Another one bites the dust!  So what is worse than 1 raccoon?  Two.  What is worse than 2 raccoons?  A family!  The one Annmarie killed and the one I dusted this morning were both from this year.  They are the size of a large cat.  A very mean and nasty cat that hisses and spits at you.  So based on my last experience with a raccoon family (I had to kill 2 adults and 6 teenagers) I have a ways to go still.  I looked into an automatic door for the run so that the chickens would be let out of the yard automatically at sunrise and locked in automatically at sunset.  It will cost $200.  I could patch one together for about $60, but it would have exposed parts and subject to more external forces.  We are still discussing the need for one, and do realize that any lapse in memory is going to mean more dead chickens.

I had two “fairy” eggs for breakfast.  They are the first eggs to come out of chickens.  They are typically very small and have no yoke.  I added them into my scrambled eggs.  This is good news.  It means my other 11 chickens are going to start laying soon.  The people at my work will be happy about that.  I haven’t had very many eggs to take to work.

Predators 14, Steve 3

Well this is my catch up post.  We have been very busy with other things and haven’t had time to make a post.  So I am going to try and catch everything up.  For starters I snagged another raccoon in the live trap on Monday night.  I had to go to work very early Tuesday morning so Sarah and Annmarie had to finish it off and take it up to the bone yard to dump off the body.  Of course I managed to lose one more hen in the last week.  I haven’t done an official count in the last week, but I saw a new pile of feathers.  I will do one next week.  So I reset the trap and baited it with dog food tonight when I locked the chickens up.  I have been looking at my new baby chicks and I think I ended up with more roosters than hens.  The chickens are definitely of different sizes now.  I have 7 huge chicks and 4 small ones, plus one normal small showgirl and one showgirl that is so small if I did not know any better I would say she is a brand new chick.  Just tiny!  I played with them for a little while today.  We try and get them used to some handling.  We haven’t had one as friendly as “Wally” our WalMart greeter that got eaten last year.  Wally would jump up on the perch and want to be petted whenever you went into the coop.  She got eaten by a raccoon.

The barn is dug out!!  I am not sure of the total hours exactly, but it is somewhere just over 80 hours.

Hector did a great job.  The barn floor is in real rough shape.  I never could have used a piece of equipment to dig it out.    We did go over our budget by about 50% but it was worth it.  Now I need to work on the floor and supports after I figure out how to get the last 1 inch of sheep crap off of the wood floor so I can tell what is salvageable and what isn’t.  You can see the “dirt” on the wood floor (it is sheep crap).  I tried to use the hose with a spray nozzle, it got about 40% off but that glued on stuff was not coming off.  So I am going to use a pressure washer on it and I am sure it will work.  I will also pop a board up off the floor every 10 feet or so to spray the crap under the barn instead of working it toward an outside door.  Pretty obvious where the crap level was!
Hector also dug out the attached lean to on the end of the barn.  It was even deeper than the barn as the cows used to get in there and hang out.
So this is all completed now.  It was finished today.  The floor is some menagerie.  I cannot sense any rhyme or reason to the direction of the different floor sections or why there are so many different sections.  Kinda weird.  This section is going to get ripped off so I can use the tin ceiling for the main barn and the wood in the barn.
This is the pile of crap from the main part of the barn.  In the middle is a path so you can get to the barn.  Once this gets wet I expect those large chunks to turn into a smelly mush.  In a couple of years this will be primo compost!  The metal silver topped building is my chicken coop and the building to the left of that is the old house that we are using as a shed.  It is the shelter for my future wood shop.  You can see by the dryness that Summer is here.  We had a very impressive lightning storm today.  I expect some fires from it.
This is the pile for the lean to.  All this was removed with a pick ax, shovel and wheelbarrow.  Not easy work, but Hector did a great job and wants more work.  I had a hard time explaining that I had run out of money and he did great work, I just could not afford for him to keep working.  I managed to get it across and wrote his phone number in the wood of the barn with a nail for future reference.
I took this picture through one of the old barn windows.  They had some heavy duty screen on them.  We are going to screen them again and place wooden shutters inside the barn for ease of operation of the shutters.  I am still not sure if I will use fly screen or just use some hardware cloth (heavy duty mesh wire with 1/2 inch openings).  I figure the bugs can get in anywhere, but the hardware cloth will keep the birds and predators out.  Sarah took this last picture at Sunset the other day.  The longer I look at the picture the more I like it.  The symmetry works, the sky and ground lines line up, let me know what you think of it.
Sarah’s sunset picture

Barn washing

The main section of the barn is shoveled out.  Hector is now digging out the lean to enclosure.  It is even deeper than the barn.  I went out and spent a couple of hours washing the inside of the barn.  I had to buy some more hose to reach the barn.  The barn floor and walls are covered in sheep shit and it is not easy to get off.  The floor has almost an inch of crap glued to the wood.  I am having a hard time getting it off.  So I will borrow my parents pressure washer and give that a try.  I will have to string a bunch of extensions cords together so I can power the washer.
The floor has 1 inch gaps between each board.  I am sure this is due to shrinkage over the last 100 years.  So I am definitely going to have to do some work on the floor to make it safe for the sheep.  We have about three large holes in the floor.  I figured I would get the crap washed out of the barn then I will crawl under the barn and shore up the foundation.  It is nice and hot here so it won’t take long for the area under the barn to dry out.  Nothing like crawling around on top of sheep poop on my belly and back.  At least it will be dry.  I had to strip outside before coming in the house tonight.  I had wet poop all over me.

I did remember to lock the chickens up tonight.  I had to replace a couple of the yard sprinklers so I can keep the grass green inside the chicken run.  Letting them run around helps immensely.  I planted grass, but the chickens ate most of the seed.  I did get a little to sprout.  We have decided that a door that opens automatically when the sun rises and shuts when it sets is a necessary option.  I will need to order one and wire the coop for power.  Just one more thing to do.

Barn cleanup – leaps and bounds

It is amazing!  The progress is fantastic.  After seeing more of the floor, I am really glad I did not try to drive any piece of equipment into the barn.  It would have fallen through in places.  Hector is out there digging away right now (1000).  Probably another two days.  It will have taken him seven days to dig it out.  I will need to work on the foundation before I can move the wall in.  After surveying the rafters, I am going to have to halve the barn on that side.  The wind tore up the roof support beams that were left for almost another 20 feet.  I hate to make the barn smaller, but in reality it is so much more barn than we will ever use even after it is shrunk.  If we do nothing the barn will disappear by falling apart.  Not a very dignified ending.

Look at the dark patch along the walls.  That was the height of the sheep dung in the barn!  Hector is still digging (1530). I went out and had a conversation with him.  It was an effort in frustration.  He wants to work, as he can see all the stuff that needs to be done on the farm, but I had a hard time communicating that I could not afford him to work all the time.  I got him set up to take a day off tomorrow and come back on Thursday.  He will finish the barn and then dig out the attached lean to on the back side of the barn.  That will let me tear the tin off of that roof and take down that addition to the barn.  I will use the tin over the part above where the sheep will be hanging out.  I truly do understand the importance of mucking out the barn in the Spring now.  I will need to get some straw to use in the winter.

You can see the different levels and layers in the barn here.  I will get a hose and pressure washer out here before I do anything else and get it all cleaned up.  Seems like overkill, but it will make it far easier for me to tell what is good wood and reusable.  Besides once every 100 years the barn can have an inside shower.  See the black mark on the wall?  It is much higher in the back of the barn.  Everything is starting to dry out here.  I have not been watering the lawn (no mower, and sheep have been banished from the yard for eating my roses).  So I tried the age old tactic of not watering.  It helped but I almost killed my grape plant in the back yard.  So I am now watering the yard and starting to drag our hoses to the surrounding sheep pasture to get about 50 yards watered around the house.

Annmarie forgot to lock my chickens up the other night and I think I lost another one.  I have 27 hens now and 1 rooster.  This doesn’t include the 13 babies I just got a couple of weeks ago.  Predators are not my friends this year.  If only I could keep a weed eater going…

Here is a picture of the fields I just took yesterday.  We have cheat grass everywhere!!

The grass is greener….

So, apparently our sheep are dissatisfied with their pasture. Before Steve went to work, he chased a ewe and one of her lambs back inside the fence. This morning, I looked out the kitchen window and noticed two of the adult sheep laying out on the hillside next to the fence. It was already pretty warm, and the rest of the sheep were huddled against the woodshed or under the bridge. It was kind of odd to see these two out in the sun. Then it dawned on me that I hadn’t heard the coffee girls in a while. They are quite vocal usually. So, I went out and checked, and sure enough, Long Tail and coffee girls were outside the fence. Speckle-butt was still inside the fence, but was apparently keeping Long Tail company while they all cooked their brains. I opened the gate and walked the wayward children back in. They rushed right over to the shade of the tree by the chicken coop and rested for a while. They appear to have recovered quite well, and the coffee girls are once again talking.

A little before 7:00, I was on my way down to Mom’s for some conversation and coffee, and I noticed that Short Tail was acting quite agitated, and her boys were not near her as they usually are. Then I noticed some unusual movement in the tall grass near the cars – definitely outside the fence. Of course it was Lucky and Darky, Short Tail’s boys. There was not a convenient gate this time, so I just urged them back towards the fence, and they wiggled under in what was most likely the same place the came through the first time. Now, the feed is a little dry, no doubt, but it’s no drier than anywhere else. Still, we’ll start a sprinkler next week.
On the barn front, our laborer returned today and made more great progress. He cleared another 12 feet or so today. I am absolutely thrilled with how much he’s getting done. And he’s gladly coming back tomorrow too. Conversation is a bit of a challenge, and even something as simple as “have a good evening” does not apparently translate well. Now, I have a tiny tiny bit of Spanish, but I don’t ever recall the phrase I need until after I’m back in the house and we’ve stumbled through with what little English he has. We manage, but it’s not easy. Still, we get the important points through. And, he’s an incredibly hard worker and seems truely happy for the job, so everyone wins.


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Ctr. for Constitutional Rights v. DOJ, No. 12 Civ. 135, 2013 WL 4864773 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 12, 2013) (Buchwald, J.)

Thursday, September 12, 2013
Re: Request for images of detainee held at United States Naval Station, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba Disposition: Denying plaintiff's motion for summary judgment; granting defendant's cross-motion for summary judgment
  • Exemption 1:  The court finds that defendant, "has satisfied its burden of establishing the applicability of FOIA Exemption 1."  The court explains that, "[t]o satisfy this burden, [defendant] asserts that the Withheld Videotapes and Photographs are properly classified as 'military plans, weapons systems, or operations,' 'intelligence activities (including covert action), intelligence sources or methods, or cryptology,' or 'foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States,'" and, "that the release of these materials can reasonably be expected to damage national security."  The court finds, "that [defendant's] submissions provide adequate justification for [defendant's] invocation of FOIA Exemption 1."  The court notes that, "[i]n particular, we find it both logical and plausible that extremists would utilize images . . . (whether in native or manipulated formats) to incite anti-American sentiment, to raise funds, and/or to recruit other loyalists, as has occurred in the past."  "Moreover," the court finds "it entirely plausible that disclosure of the Withheld Videotapes and Photographs could compromise [defendant's] cooperative relationships with other Guantánamo detainees."  The court also notes that defendant's, "prior disclosures are 'of limited legal relevance' in the context of FOIA Exemption 1," and that, "[a]s [plaintiff] concedes, the Withheld Videotapes and Photographs were not previously disclosed."  The court states that, "[f]inally, we note that, contrary to [plaintiff's] speculative suggestion, there is no evidence that any of the Withheld Videotapes or Photographs depict illegal conduct, evidence of mistreatment, or other potential sources of governmental embarrassment."
  • Exemptions 1 and 3, Glomar:  The court finds that defendant's, "Glomar response is proper and sufficient."  The court notes that defendant, "contends that the existence of any responsive records must be withheld under FOIA Exemptions 1 and 3."  The court states that, "[w]ith respect to Exemption 1, [defendant] argues that either confirming or denying the existence of responsive records would necessarily reveal whether [defendant] has ever had any interest in [the detainee] or his affiliates."  The court notes that defendant, "maintains that disclosure of this information could reasonably be expected to damage national security by, inter alia, aiding terrorist organizations and extremist groups in avoiding [defendant] surveillance and exploiting existing intelligence gaps and/or harming the United States' relationship with [the detainee's]  home country."  The court is, "satisfied that the agency has provided sufficient detail to justify its invocation of FOIA Exemption 1."  The court rejects plaintiff's, "sole argument to the contrary," specifically, "that 'official acknowledgements' have already detailed [defendant's] involvement in detaining and interrogating [the detainee]," because, "the referenced statements cannot satisfy the 'strict test' for official disclosure because they were not made by [defendant] itself."
District Court
Exemption 1
Exemption 3
Updated August 6, 2014


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Atlassian Confluence

Top 5 New Add-ons for Atlassian Confluence – Fourth Quarter 2015

It’s time to overview new add-ons appeared on the Atlassian Marketplace in the 4th quarter of 2015. Today’s post will feature 5 new plugins for Confluence that we thought can be most useful for our readers. Articles with add-ons for JIRA and DevTools are coming soon.

Earlier we have published posts about best add-ons for Confluence of the first, second and third quarters of 2015 as a part of the ‘Top New Add-ons for Atlassian Products’ series.

Top 5 new add-ons for Confluence that had their first release during October-December 2015:

Let’s overview these add-ons and see what benefits they can give you.

1. Keywords for Confluence

Keywords for Confluence allows to associate words with definitions, Confluence pages or external links. Such words get highlighted on all Confluence pages of one space (if it’s a space keyword) or across all spaces (if it’s a global keyword). It is useful when you have words (terms, acronyms, etc.) that you commonly use in your Confluence instance and that you would like to add a definition or link to so that readers could click a highlighted word and get useful information in a bubble on the sidebar.

There are 3 types of keywords:

  • definition – associates a keyword with its text definition (e.g. for your users to easily find out what a word means)
  • Confluence page – associates a keyword with a Confluence page (e.g. to refer to a Confluence page that also uses this keyword or is somehow related to it)
  • external link –  associates a keyword with a link (e.g. for your teams to learn more about the keyword)

Confluence Administrators can add and manage keywords on a global level. To do that, open the Global Keywords Configuration page in the Keywords section section in Confluence Administration and create keywords by entering their name, type (definition, Confluence page or external link) and content (text, Confluence page name or link).

Once a global keyword is added, this word will be highlighted on all pages in your Confluence instance.

Space Administrators can create keywords on a space level. They can do that either in Space Tools (Space Tools>Add-ons>Space Keywords) or directly on a Confluence page that contains a word they want to add to keywords:

  • select a word
  • choose icon in the pop-up
  • the ‘New Keyword’ dialogue opens
  • select keyword type, enter its content
  • press ‘Add Keyword’

As a reminder, keywords added on a space level will apply to all Confluence pages of that space.

Confluence users can’t add keywords, but can request a keyword to be created. To do that, a user needs to highlight a word on a Confluence page, choose the add-on icon in the pop-up and enter keyword type and content in the ‘Keyword Request’ dialogue.

When a user creates a keyword request, a space administrator receives an email and workbox notifications. It is up to admin to approve or delete that keyword.

Confluence Administrators can change the keyword highlight color on the Getting Started page in the Keywords section section in Confluence Administration.

Pricing: Keywords for Confluence is available for Server instances.Its commercial license costs 300$ for 25 users; 550$ for 50 users; 1000$ for 100 users.

Try it

2. Confluence Image Captions

Confluence Image Captions is a simple neat tool that makes working with images in Confluence more powerful. It allows to add captions with description to images in Confluence. Each caption comes with a permanent link that you can use to refer to an image.

Steps to follow when adding a caption:

  1. Select an image in the Confluence editor
  2. Click the Properties button
  3. Select ‘Title’ on the sidebar in the Image Properties dialog
  4. Mark the ‘Display the Image’s Title as a Caption’ checkbox
  5. Enter caption text in the ‘Title text’ field
  6. Click Save

You can also change the caption style using Space Stylesheet.

Pricing: Confluence Image Captions is available for Server instances. Its commercial license costs 20$ for 25 users; 30$ for 50 users; 40$ for 100 users.

Try it

3. Content Rating for Confluence

Content Rating for Confluence makes it easier for creators of Confluence pages to gather feedback about pages content and get insightful information about possible improvements. The plugin adds the ‘What do you think about this content?’ section with rating wheels on the bottom of each Confluence page and blog post in your Confluence instance. At the moment there is no capability to disable/enable the add-on on a per-space or per-page level. By default there are 3 wheels (rating criteria): perspicuity, significance and structure.

Content Rating-1

To provide feedback, a user needs to hover over a wheel and click it. Depending on what area a user clicks, his rating will be from 0 to 100. If to imagine that a wheel is a clock face, 12am is the 0 rating and it increases up to 100 clockwise.

Each wheel has two rings. Outer ring shows the rating of the user who is currently viewing a page and inner ring is an average rating. A user can see the average rating only after providing his own feedback.

Confluence administrators can configure available criteria (wheels) on the ‘Content Rating – Criteria Configuration’ page in Confluence administration. It is possible to edit or delete existing criteria and add new ones. When creating a new criterion, you need to give it a title and optionally enter description, and select a Font Awesome icon that will be displayed inside the rating wheel.

Content Rating-2

A rating wheel is displayed on a page only if its criterion is enabled in criterion configuration.

Pricing: Content Rating for Confluence is available for Server instances. Its commercial license costs 60$ for 25 users; 120$ for 50 users; 180$ for 100 users.

Try it

4. Pivot Table

Pivot Table is the add-on for generating pivot tables from static data or from tables created by the JIRA Issues macro. Here you can read how to create a pivot table.

Pivot Table-1

Major parameters:

  • values – column name of the body table, which data will be used as values of the pivot table
  • type of calculation – function (count, sum, average) used to calculate the values of the pivot Table
  • rows – column name of the body table, which data will be used as rows of the pivot table
  • columns – column name of the body table, which data will be used as columns of the pivot table

You can also set displaying grand total for rows and columns.

Based on configuration in macro browser, you can generate pivot tables of different types:

  • without column and row (displays only sum, count or average of the selected value)
  • with row (a simple pivot table)
  • with column and row (a 2-dimentional pivot table)

It is also possible to embed pivot table in the Chart macro to create a chart based on the data.

Pivot Table-2

The add-on is compatible with the JIRA Issues macro, which can be used to generate the body table.

Speaking about pivot table, can’t help mentioning Table Filter and Charts for Confluence (has Server and Cloud versions). Besides table filtration, this add-on allows to create and work with pivot tables, generate charts based on tabular data. Pivot tables of the Table Filter and Charts add-on:

  • have control panel in the view mode to easily change parameters and dynamically update the table
  • can be exported to PDF and Word
  • allow hiding source table
  • can be created based on body tables generated by such macros as JIRA Issues macro, SQL Connector, HTML macro,  Page Properties Report macro, Advanced Tables for Confluence and others
  • can be embedded into the ‘Chart from Table’ macro to visualize the table data (charts generated by the ‘Chart from Table’ macro support dynamic update upon remote data refresh, have tooltips, control panel in View mode and other benefits)

Pricing: Pivot Table is available for Server instances and it’s free.

Try it

5. Space Admin for Confluence

Space Admin for Confluence facilitates management of spaces and pages for space administrators. All the major operations are centralized and can be performed in one place in Space Tools.

Available features:

  • Edit permissions for one or multiple spaces
  • Copy pages out of several spaces
  • Copy/delete/rename spaces
  • Copy/delete pages in/excluding child pages
  • Compare two pages
  • Delete multiple pages
  • Create new pages, and more

When a space administrator opens the Space Admin Browser (Space Tools>Content Tools>Space Admin Browser), he can see a drop-down for selecting spaces, page tree and two control panels.

Space Admin-1
By default, only the pages of the space an administrator navigated from are displayed. But it is possible to add another space and see pages from several spaces.

In the page tree you can move pages in real time (including across spaces) using drag-and-drop, select several spaces or pages to delete them in bulk, select two pages and compare them in a pop-out dialogue, set a new homepage, view a selected page in a pop-out window, etc.

When editing permissions of one or multiple spaces, you can see:

  • tree with existing permissions for groups, users and anonymous users
  • a drop-down for adding new groups or users

As you click a group or a user, the tree expands and you can see the current permissions. It is possible to change one permission at a time or select several permissions and click ‘Grant’ or ‘Deny’ on the bottom panel.

Space Admin-4

Pricing: Space Admin for Confluence is available for Server instances. Its commercial license costs 120$ for 25 users; 220$ for 50 users; 400$ for 100 users.

Try it

If you get any questions or want to discuss one of the add-ons, feel free to comment below.

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RELATED: Father Marciano thanks Episcopalian efforts to help Catholic school (Warwick Beacon, Jan. 10, 2017)

Jan. 16–Many thanks to these kind and generous sponsors of the Mayor Scott Avedisian Scholarship to benefit Saint Kevin School:

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  • Warwick Firefighters, Local 2748
  • Chief and Mrs. James McLaughlin
  • Rep. Joseph Solomon, Jr.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Francis Finn, Jr.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Lamothe


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FICTION: Skipping by Ronald J. Pelias

I love to skip. Such a sensation! It’s the closest I get to feeling like I can fly. I know it’s not something a man is supposed to do, particularly a guy my age, but I do it anyway. My childhood friend, Kerry, taught me how, and we would skip up and down the street while our parents chatted on the porch. She also taught me how to play Jacks, a game I never managed to win when playing against Kerry. Maybe that’s why I preferred to skip with her, to fly hand in hand, ready for take-off. Such joy!

Like my recurrent, middle-school dream, the one that so many people report having during those adolescent years, the one where you’re flying above your friends, waving to them, free from all the eyes that tell you what you can and cannot do. I use to see Bonnie in my flying dreams, the first girl I really kissed, the one who is responsible for teaching me the link between kissing and sexual stirrings.

I shouldn’t go there, although I did just read a CNN post that there’s a relationship between frequency of intercourse and marijuana usage. It seems the more you smoke, the more likely you are to have more sex, which doesn’t surprise me. If it wasn’t so juvenile, I’d say being laid back helps you get laid.

I don’t know if the connection is correlational or causal. People confuse the two all the time. I don’t mean the people who did the study. I’m not saying that, but in everyday use. I don’t claim to be an expert, particularly given I wasn’t the best of students in my statistics class, but that’s where I learned the difference. I liked how you could plug in some numbers and out came truth. It was all so neat and clean. I just didn’t like how those numbers made people disappear.

I’ve always been most interested in individual lives—how they come to believe what they do, how they relate to one another, how they live together; like how did so many people come to believe that voting for Trump was a good idea, like how could a Trump supporter and Clinton supporter ever agree on what might be best for the country, like how could a couple on different sides of the political aisle possibly live together. How people make sense of the world has always fascinated me. I love watching people, listening in on their conversations. That why my wife, Liz, sometimes tells me to get my nose out of other people’s business. But I like sniffing around, seeing how people go about their daily lives. I think most people do.

People seem to be at the center of everything and that can be a problem. That’s why we can so easily exploit the animal world without seeing ourselves as just another animal in the menagerie. That’s why we are destroying the earth without realizing that we are destroying ourselves. Just think about all the people who deny climate change so they can keep on living like they do. They’re in for a shock. We all are.

I read somewhere that trees communicate with one another, send each other signals about how their roots might thrive together, about how they might allow each other to receive the maximum sunlight. I also read somewhere else that they scream when we cut them down. I wonder if they send signals about how stupid we are. I wonder if they will survive. We should think about that.

And we should take into account all those ways that technology alters who we are. It changes us. Every day we become something different. It’s really quite remarkable. We’re becoming part machines, cyborgs. But people will always be people. I just wish these electronic innovations would help us be more reasonable and more compassionate. And it would be nice if these devices would give you an electrical shock if you ever acted like an arrogant ass.

I’ve never much enjoyed being around people who thought they had all the answers. I prefer people who are attracted to questions, who like to hang around what might be possible. Sometimes though, I do want concrete answers, like I want to know how much a loaf of bread I’m considering buying cost; I want to know if the bridge I’m crossing is strong enough to support the passing vehicles; I want to know how much money I have in the bank. Sometimes, even though I want a definitive answer, I will never know for sure, like when I ask if I will be aware of my own death, if humans are destined to live in conflict with one another, if Liz loves me. I think I’ll skip over that last one.

Early on in my marriage I showed Liz how I could skip. Her response was simple: “Don’t do that anymore. Okay?” I laughed, but I knew it wouldn’t be good for my marriage if I didn’t heed her words. Trying to figure out relationships isn’t easy, but that was an easy one. She seldom uses direct statements so when she does, I pay attention. She often speaks in the language of innuendo. In other words, I have to read her mind, which, to be honest, I don’t do very well.

I wish I could read minds. That would be a great superpower. Those clairvoyants, like the ones you see on America’s Got Talent, don’t really read minds or predict the future. They’re just entertainers. They have tricks, some pretty good ones, that make you think that’s what they’re doing. If they actually had such power, they wouldn’t be spending their time on a talent show. People can be so gullible. That’s why so many of them voted for Trump, even though they were told over and over again that Trump spent his whole business career scamming people. Now he’s scamming all of us.

It must be hard to wake up every morning knowing you’ll be looking for ways to rip people off. What do you say to yourself that makes you feel okay with that? People are so stupid they deserve what they get? That’s how you have to make a living? Everybody does it? Maybe they don’t even think about it—it’s just how they are. That must be it because I don’t see how you could sleep after seeing the hurt on people’s faces when they realize what you’ve done.

It’s funny how faces can stay with you. I remember the look my high school coach had when I kept messing up a play in practice. He started yelling at me and his face got so red I thought it was going to explode. And then there was the time a good friend of mine discovered his partner was seeing someone else. He looked so sad, so beaten down. I never saw him look like that before, his eyes so red and glassy I thought they would shatter. And my mom’s fifty-one-year-old face right before she died. It was hard to tell if she was surprised or frightened. I’ll always remember that face.

Prosopagnosia. That’s the word for people who have difficulty recognizing familiar faces. In some cases, they can’t even identify their own face. That would be hard. You look in the mirror and don’t know who you’re looking at. And just imagine not remembering people you’ve met several times and not acknowledging them. You can guess what they would think about you. Even worse would be the people who you love, them having to explain over and over again who they are. I had college roommate who was dating this woman for about six months. They were getting serious, but one day he ran across her in the mall, and it took her several minutes to remember who he was. At first, he thought she was joking, but then, when he realized she wasn’t, he saw it as a sign that they weren’t right for each other, and he broke it off. I didn’t know about facial blindness back then, but I bet that she had a mild case.

Some things you remember you’re glad stay with you, like my dad’s platitudes. Dad makes those sayings his own. He lives by them. Some are about money, straight, I guess, from the days of the Great Depression: “A penny saved is a penny earned.”  “You can’t buy today’s groceries with tomorrow’s dime.” Many more are about dealing with everyday difficulties: “This too shall pass.” “It all comes out in the wash.” “Time heals all wounds.” “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” “Everything happens for a reason.” He offers such clichés as life lessons, ones that carry the collected wisdom of generations. For him, they move across time and place as universal truths.

I’m pretty skeptical about the idea of universal truths. Is there anything that is true for all people for all time? Even how we understand physical reality changes, and when you think about the universe, there is so much we don’t know. God, for some people, is the universal truth, but that’s just their personal truth. Not mine. At best we might say that we have some earth truths, like you can’t walk through a brick wall. You have to live believing some things hold steady; otherwise, you wouldn’t know what to do when you wake up in the morning.

When I start talking like this, Liz says I should keep my thoughts to myself. I’m always a bit taken aback when she stops me like that. I know I’m not saying anything profound, anything that others haven’t already said, but by saying what I do out loud, I realize what I believe. You need to let other people know what you think to see if you’re crazy or not. You can’t just skip it and say nothing.

When I took Theatre Appreciation in college, I had this old professor—I’m sure he was over seventy—who made everyone at the beginning of each class skip around the stage five times. We had to hold hands with a different person each time we skipped. I loved it, but I think a lot of people initially felt embarrassed. They thought it was silly. But this professor would always join in, leading us around and around, telling us to enjoy our bodies being so free. At some point during the semester there were more of us who looked forward to skipping than who were resistant. By the end, it felt like a daily celebration. It started feeling like something special we shared, something that was just ours. The professor said that’s what being in show is like—doing something special together.

“Well, isn’t that special.” That’s an old Dana Carvey line he used for his Saturday Night Live character, the Church Lady. My step-mom, Jenn, loves this bit. She had me watch as many sketches as she could find on-line. The framework, if you never saw Carvey do this routine, was a talk show called “Church Chat.” Church Lady would interview famous people, usually ones played by a Saturday Night Live cast member or the guest host. During the interview when the Church lady felt she wasn’t hearing proper Christian thought and actions, she would say, “Well, isn’t that special” or “How convenient!” At the end of the routine she would ask, “Could it be Satan?” who led them in the wrong direction.  Jenn and I would laugh and laugh as we watched the Church Lady’s guests become the target of her Christian righteousness.

I considered becoming a minister, but once I learned the history of how the Bible was put together, how it changed from one version to the next, I felt like my whole Christian education was a lie. The word of God was really just the words of a bunch of different men across centuries who shaped the Bible to suit their own interests. I figured if I didn’t believe the Bible was God’s word, I shouldn’t become a minister. I didn’t want to be a hypocrite like those religious leaders and politicians who claim to be Christians but act in such unchristian ways. You know, the ones who stand by Trump. People do seem, though, to need something beyond themselves. Religion is just a good story that gives people comfort, helps them make their lives meaningful. People want assurance that the end is not the end. Maybe that’s why the sun and the moon calm us. They’re predictable; they keep coming day after day, night after night.

I always knew that “once in a blue moon” meant that something happens rarely, but I just learned that the expression comes from the infrequent occurrence of having two full moons in a single month. Even less frequent is having two supermoons in the same month. I could stare at a supermoon for hours. Did you know that they appear 7% to 16% brighter because of how close they are to the earth? Perigee. Isn’t that a great word? That’s the word for when in the lunar cycle the moon is closest to us.

I don’t know why the moon became associated with romance. Just think of all the love poems and song lyrics that reference the moon. It’s also connected to the foreboding, and I guess you can put those two things together. You could add in lunacy—that’s linked to the moon too.

I couldn’t see the man in the moon until just few years ago. I’d hear people reference it and I’d have people try to explain its shape, but I couldn’t see it. That changed one night when I was on the back porch of a friend’s house that looked over a field. A full moon was shining as if it had just been polished and there he was, clear as can be. What we can see and what we can’t always fascinated me. Like those perception tests that play with what appears and what stays in the background, like whether you see the vase or the two women facing each other. My favorite one is an image created by coal that had fallen into the snow. Supposedly you could see the image of Jesus. I had a photo of that for years, but Jesus never appeared to me. It fascinates me how other people can see what I can’t. This is another reason why it’s a good thing I never became a minister.

I hope you don’t mind that I’ve been skipping around, talking about this and then that. I do that sometimes. It helps me figure things out. I repeat myself until I can find the difference. It’s like when you see birds sitting on a wire. You often don’t know if they just arrived, if they’ve been there for a long time, or if they’re ready to fly away. Like Liz and me. I don’t know if we’re just beginning, in the middle, or at the end of our sitting together. Who knows where our next hop, skip, and jump will take us. Nothing stays the same. We are always becoming something else.

Ronald J. Pelias

ron pelias photo 1

Ronald J. Pelias is currently teaching part-time in the theatre program at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. He taught performance studies from 1981-2013 in the Department of Communication Studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He works on the stage primarily as a director and on the page as a writer committed to non-traditional forms of scholarly representation. His most recent books exploring qualitative methods arePerformance: An Alphabet of Performative Writing (2014), and If the Truth Be Told: Accounts in Literary Forms (2016), and Writing Performance, Identity, and Everyday Life (in press, 2018).

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