We have friends who have blessed our family by loaning us their beautiful home a few hours away, in the mountains. It?s been wonderful for our family to get away for quality ?face-time,? and our friends may never comprehend the impact that it?s had on our family. Face time is so important, and getting away to a new and different place is inspirational.
Unfortunately, there were a few times when we?d leave to head out of town where I left our house a mess. Dishes in the sink, clutter everywhere. Talk about depressing to come home to! I?m sure many of you can relate. It?s funny because my kids will say, Mom, why do we have to clean before we go? I just remind them, one day when they are an adult with a family ? they will know!
Today I want to share a few tips that I?ve learned when leaving town.
How to get your house ready when leaving on vacation
1. No matter how many dishes are loaded, start the dishwasher. Don?t let food sit in the sink.
2. Wipe down the counters (and if you have time the cupboards) with Mrs. Meyers Clean.
3. Do a quick SWEEP and SWIFFER of the kitchen floor.
4. Start in the living room and pick up and organize.
5. Clean off the dining room table and leave a simple centerpiece.
Vacuuming is a luxury, and most times don?t get it done as I?m rushing out the door.
I love walking into the house when I get home and having everything spotless.
It may depend on your personality, if you?re really uptight about coming home to a clean house, but I?d love to hear your thoughts.
How do you get your house ready for vacation?
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Hitting ?publish? is the modern version of seeing an article hit the newsstands, or the advertiser?s tradition of the ?big reveal,? where anticipation is built up and then BLAMMO there it is read it or save it for later but please oh god please just LOVE IT. Just accept it.
We publish because we want to be seen. And there?s a fear in that. For isntance, my routine is pretty standard: I write a blog post or an article, I hit ?publish,? and I run for cover. I release my thoughts and, within seconds, wonder what I?ve left out of place. We all do this, I suspect. If you?re a writer and you don?t have these moments of doom, I don?t trust you. You?re obviously a robot.
We?re afraid we might be wrong ? that we?ve forgotten something, or that we?ve completely missed the point. Writing is fear, and that?s what fuels the rush of hitting ?publish?.
But, what if?
What if that dread was gone, if we wrote like we build, one step at a time, publishing our final drafts and then adapting those final drafts as new . What if the ?final draft? was no longer a THING, and we only worked with ?deployment.? What if the fear of getting things wrong was diluted by the understanding that, yes, we can change this thing we just wrote and, yes, that is completely okay with the world?
Mandy Brown writes in her most recent Contents follow-up, ?Deploy?:
?How many times have you written something, published it, and then realized in retrospect that what you thought you said was not in fact what came through? (Even if you?ve never done this yourself, you?ve certainly witnessed it in others.) What if you could revise a work after publishing it, and release it again, making clear the relationship between the first version and the new one. What if you could publish iteratively, bit by bit, at each step gathering feedback from your readers and refining the text. Would our writing be better??
This is the second time this week I?ve read about our insistance in a final draft ? in the great reveal ? and how it?s being overtaken by the idea of gradual deployment. I first caught it in Robin Sloan?s 2009 essay from The New Liberal Arts, ?Iteration,? which says,
?Making things is a circle. You start the arc with an idea about the world: an observation or hunch. Then you sprint around the track, getting to a prototype ? a breadboard, a rough draft, a run-through?as fast as you can. Your goal isn?t to finish the thing. It?s to expose it, no matter how rough or ragged, to the real world. You do that, and you learn: Which of your ideas were right? Which were wrong? What surprised you? What did other people think? Then you plow those findings back into an improved prototype. Around the circle again. Run!?
I write for two reasons these days: I write for myself as some sort of leisure, where I explore the things that are interesting to me, and I write for my job, where I help others develop the processes they?ll need to be successful on the web.
When I write for myself, I slam it out and post it. There is one iteration: the final one.
When I write for my job, I employ a process. There is no end. There is only ?what?s next.? When I hand the project off to the client, my work doesn?t end ? it?s designed to keep moving forward, even after I?ve stopped actually writing words and speaking to the client.
There are iterations, and the client is expected to keep the documents and theories alive.
I still write for a finished product, because that?s what I was taught. But the technology I have access to allows me to move toward something less concrete ? and, ultimately, more in line with language itself: shifting, adapting and changing, all while keeping honest the history of the words.
There?s draft and there?s published. We should fight to be somewhere in between. The question is if the method to reaching that hazy middle-ground forces us to abandon the biggest thrill of publication: the rush of the big reveal.
Or maybe that?s just it; maybe, just maybe, the big reveal is already dead.
Westlake, OH ? The SpyGlass Group, Inc. is currently recruiting candidates to join its rapidly growing business to business sales team. Compensation for this entry-level position includes base salary, commission and bonuses, health, life, dental, and 401(k) benefits. Estimated annual income for this entry-level position is 35k ? 45k in year one. This is a unique opportunity to play an integral part in the? success and growth of a company that has doubled in size in the last year. SpyGlass promotes almost exclusively from within and is seeking individuals who want to advance upward to positions of greater responsibility and greater compensation at a young age. SpyGlass has a defined training and development program for all new members of the sales team. SpyGlass? model is to hire motivated individuals?
In this Feb. 11, 2012 photo, young drug addicts form a line after finishing prayers at the Dost Foundation in Peshawar, Pakistan. The flourishing opium production in Afghanistan has resulted in more than 4 million addicts in Pakistan. Some of the youngest end up in mud-walled rooms being drilled in extreme Muslim doctrine by the Taliban who roam relatively freely in Peshawar. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
In this Feb. 11, 2012 photo, young drug addicts form a line after finishing prayers at the Dost Foundation in Peshawar, Pakistan. The flourishing opium production in Afghanistan has resulted in more than 4 million addicts in Pakistan. Some of the youngest end up in mud-walled rooms being drilled in extreme Muslim doctrine by the Taliban who roam relatively freely in Peshawar. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
In this Feb. 11, 2012 photo, a 10-year-old former drug addict, center, sits on the floor, adding colors to a drawing with recovering drug addicts in a classroom at the Dost Foundation in Peshawar, Pakistan. The boy was just four years old when he spent his first night in jail, where he was sexually assaulted by an older inmate, and by five he was smoking hashish and eventually switched to glue sniffing. The flourishing opium production in Afghanistan has resulted in more than 4 million addicts in Pakistan. Some of the youngest end up in mud-walled rooms being drilled in extreme Muslim doctrine by the Taliban who roam relatively freely in Peshawar. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
In this Feb. 11, 2012 photo, young drug addicts line up for prayers on the playground at the Dost Foundation in Peshawar, Pakistan. The flourishing opium production in Afghanistan has resulted in more than 4 million addicts in Pakistan. Some of the youngest end up in mud-walled rooms being drilled in extreme Muslim doctrine by the Taliban who roam relatively freely in Peshawar. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
In this Feb. 12, 2012 photo, drug addicts play a ball game on the grounds at the Dost Foundation in Peshawar, Pakistan. The flourishing opium production in Afghanistan has resulted in more than 4 million addicts in Pakistan. Some of the youngest end up in mud-walled rooms being drilled in extreme Muslim doctrine by the Taliban who roam relatively freely in Peshawar. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
In this Feb. 11, 2012 photo, a tear forms in the eye of Inam, a 15-year-old drug addict, as he talks about discovering that he has HIV in Peshawar, Pakistan. He figures he got it from sharing needles with his friends. The flourishing opium production in Afghanistan has resulted in more than 4 million addicts in Pakistan. Some of the youngest end up in mud-walled rooms being drilled in extreme Muslim doctrine by the Taliban who roam relatively freely in Peshawar. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ? - The boy was 2 when his mother dumped him on the streets, 4 when he spent his first night in a tiny prison cell, being sexually assaulted by an older inmate. Prostitution for money and shelter followed, then hashish, and glue-sniffing.
Now 10 and gangly, he fidgets and stares at the ground, speaking in a near-whisper. "I'm ashamed," he says.
Yet in this rugged frontier city in northwest Pakistan, where people carry guns as casually as they would a daily newspaper, this boy has hope. He has found refuge in what for Pakistan is relatively rare: a charity-run boarding school for homeless, drug-addicted children.
Around Peshawar, heroin sells for less than $0.20 a high. "It's the cheapest place in the world to get heroin," says Mazahar Ali, the school's manager. He gestures beyond the school's high walls. Heroin and just about every other vice are just a short walk away, he says.
The drugs all come from nearby Afghanistan which, according to a 2011 U.N. report, provides 90 percent of the world's opium, from which heroin is made.
For Pakistan, the result is more than 4 million addicts. Some of the youngest end up in mud-walled rooms being drilled in extreme Muslim doctrine by the Taliban who roam relatively freely in Peshawar.
"Sometimes the militants take these children to North Waziristan and teach them to be suicide bombers and sometimes they give the children drugs and the child might not even know that he is going to be blown up," says Ali.
At the school, a boy named Osama told of memorizing the Quran, Islam's holy book, while the Taliban hovered over him. He said he was tortured. He escaped, and a month ago was found sleeping on the floor of a ramshackle hotel, said Umaima Zia, the school psychologist.
On the lawn in front of the four-story school, Osama sat cross-legged on a chair in the afternoon sun, his small body swaying as he recited Quranic verses to his fellow students in a lilting voice.
A single working woman aged 25, Zia is unusual in this conservative region where girls are often married off soon after puberty.
Quick to smile, she gently draws out the kids' accounts of what they have endured. She brings stuffed animals to the school, and even the older boys cling to them. She gave the sexually assaulted boy a furry lion-shaped hat which he rarely takes off except for prayers.
A while ago that child's mother was found, but she would not take him back. "She didn't want me," he muttered, almost inaudibly "She said I was garbage."
The Associated Press does not identify, in text or through images, persons who say they have been sexually assaulted.
Children generally stay three months at the boarding school, long enough to detox. Run by the Dost Foundation, a family-owned charity, it has 32 boarders, all boys. A separate facility for girls is planned, because mixing of the sexes in Pakistan is shunned. Zia told of finding one little girl knocking on car windows asking 50 rupees ($0.60) to bare her chest to the occupants. She was 6.
"It's sad, so sad that there is nothing for girls here," she said. "Most of the girls are homeless. Not so many are drug users. Many are scavengers but they are very vulnerable to abuse."
Eleven of the boys in the school are intravenous drug users and two have AIDS.
Dr. Sikander Khan, whose family started the charity 20 years ago, says the AIDS problem is getting worse. Pakistan is a poor country, and 70 percent of its 180 million people are under 30 years old, with more children using drugs intravenously and AIDS rates rising, Khan said.
Khan, a physician who interned in New York, estimated roughly 7,000 children were living homeless on the streets of Peshawar.
He said roughly half of Pakistan's heroin addicts are believed to be intravenous users, a dramatic change. Discussion of sex is taboo, and although the U.N. estimates there are 97,400 HIV patients, only 4,112 are registered.
Khan's charity also supports community-based schools and provides rehabilitation facilities for adult addicts as well as vocational training for young boys and girls. It gets money from the European Union, U.S. and U.N., but Khan says it is short of funds and has had to close some of the schools.
"There is a lot of (international) funding for infrastructure like roads, but when it comes to drugs, when it comes to street children and shelter homes, the funding is not there or it is very small," said Khan.
But he said the trend might be changing, if only because of the fear that the neglected children will become Taliban fodder.
He said there is evidence this recruiting is happening. There's no certainty the children are being turned into terrorists, but he sees a growing recognition that they are exploitable and need help.
Inam, 15, has been through detox at the boarding school several times. Short and squat, he is notorious as Peshawar's most accomplished pickpocket ? so notorious that he was the subject of a documentary. He has his own gang, has been in prison on attempted-murder charges, keeps police officers on his payroll and has scars on his leg from acid thrown by rivals who tried to steal his gun.
A month ago he discovered he has HIV, and his tough-guy image crumbled. He believes he got the virus from sharing needles with other drug users. As he spoke his eyes grew wet, but he quickly wiped them with his sleeve and composed himself.
On the wall of the children's dormitory, a poster tries to offer hope with words in English written against a backdrop of hellish red flames: "I am in hell but that doesn't mean I will stay forever."
___
Kathy Gannon is AP Special Regional Correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan. She can be followed on www.twitter.com/kathygannon
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Corporations and human rights groups are squaring off in a Supreme Court fight over whether foreign victims of war crimes, killings and other atrocities can haul multinational companies into American courts and try to prove they were complicit in the abuses and should pay damages.
The rights groups say a 223-year-old law gives foreigners such as Nigerian-born Charles Wiwa the right to try to hold businesses accountable for the roles they play in atrocities. Energy and mining companies have been among the most frequent targets of these lawsuits in recent years following efforts by the military in Indonesia, Nigeria and elsewhere to clamp down on protests against oil and gas exploration and development.
The justices will hear arguments Tuesday over the reach of the Alien Tort Statute and a 20-year-old law that allows victims of torture to pursue civil lawsuits against the responsible individuals.
The Alien Tort Statute lay unused for most of American history until rights lawyers dusted it off beginning in the late 1970s. Lawsuits have been brought against individuals who allegedly took part in abuses and, more recently, against companies that do business in places where abuses occur and in the United States.
"The corporations have a lot of money and are very attractive targets," said Northwestern University law professor Eugene Kontorovich, an expert in international law. "The idea is that they were in bed with the countries."
But the federal appeals court in New York stopped a class-action suit against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, saying the Alien Tort Statute does not allow suits against corporations.
Business interests argue that the legal tactic also will discourage investment in developing countries and they point out that they uniformly condemn human rights violations.
Wiwa, 44, fled Nigeria in 1996 following a crackdown on protests against Shell's oil operations in the Niger Delta. Wiwa and other natives of the oil-rich Ogoni region claim Shell was eager to stop protests in the area and was complicit in Nigerian government actions that included fatal shootings, rapes, beatings, arrests and property destruction.
He said an American court is the only place the Ogonis can seek accountability.
"Nigeria gets so much money from oil. There is no way the company will be held liable for anything in courts in Nigeria," Wiwa said. He now lives in Chicago, having been allowed into the United States as a political refugee.
In the most notorious incident of the crackdown, Nigeria's military dictatorship hanged author Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists, sparking international outrage.
In 2009, Shell paid $15.5 million to settle a separate lawsuit filed in New York under the Alien Tort Statute and alleging that the oil giant was complicit in the executions of Saro-Wiwa and the others. The company did not admit it did anything wrong. Shell's Nigerian subsidiary ended its operations in the Ogoni region in 1993, although a pipeline still passes through the area.
Other cases pending in U.S. courts seek to hold accountable Chiquita Brands International for its relationship with paramilitary groups in Colombia; Exxon and Chevron for abuses in Indonesia and Nigeria, respectively; Britain-based mining concern Rio Tinto for allegedly aiding the Papua New Guinea government in a civil war; and several companies for their role in old racial apartheid system in South Africa.
Those companies, other than Chiquita, are among 15 multinational businesses that are supporting Shell in the Supreme Court.
In 2004, the high court warily endorsed some use of the Alien Tort Statute, saying the door "is still ajar subject to vigilant door keeping."
Another lurking issue has the potential to wipe out almost all lawsuits under the 1789 law. Rio Tinto has an appeal pending with the court that argues that the law never was intended to apply to conduct by a foreign government against its own citizens within its own borders. It is not clear whether the court will deal with that issue in the Nigeria case.
The federal government has warned about serious foreign policy concerns over the broad application of the Alien Tort Statute. Then-South African President Thabo Mbeki said a lower court ruling in the United States in the lawsuit concerning apartheid smacked of "judicial imperialism."
In this case, however, the Obama administration is on the side of the Ogonis.
In a second case being argued Tuesday, the justices will consider whether the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1992 can only be invoked against individuals, not organizations or corporations.
The sons and widow of Azzam Rahim have filed a civil lawsuit against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Palestinian-born Rahim was a naturalized U.S. citizen who was beaten and died in the custody of Palestinian intelligence officers in Jericho in 1995. Three officers were jailed for their role in the case, according to a State Department report.
But when Rahim's relatives sought money damages for his death, the federal appeals court in Washington said they could not use the 1992 law to go after the Palestinian organizations. The law may be applied only to "natural persons," the appeals court said.
Some supporters of the lawsuits have drawn a link to the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case, which said corporations have the same rights as people to speak and spend freely to influence elections.
But if the court sides with businesses in these cases, it would be saying "corporations are not persons for the purpose of enforcing human rights violations. It's really a weird paradox," said Peter Weiss, vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the first lawyer to win an appeals court ruling backing the use of the Alien Tort Statute to sue over human rights violations.
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Gabe Watson, left, stands during a break in his capital murder trial in Birmingham, Ala., Thursday.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
Updated at 4 p.m. ET: BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --? An Alabama judge on Thursday acquitted the man accused of drowning his newlywed wife during a honeymoon diving trip to Australia eight years ago, ruling that prosecutors did not prove the man intentionally killed his wife to collect on a life insurance policy.
Circuit Judge Tommy Nail issued his ruling before the defense had even presented its case in the two-week-long trial and before jurors were given the case to deliberate.
Gabe Watson, 34, had faced life in prison without parole if convicted of murdering his wife, Tina Thomas Watson, in 2003. He already served 18 months in an Australian prison after pleading guilty there to a manslaughter charge involving negligence.
Nail agreed with defense arguments that prosecutors failed to show Watson intentionally killed the woman. Prosecutors claimed he drowned her for insurance money, but the only eyewitness testified he thought Watson was trying to save the woman.
The state's evidence was "sorely lacking" and did not prove Watson had any financial motive. "I don't think anyone knows for sure what happened in the water down there," Nail said.??
Defense attorneys had argued that Watson didn't stand to gain anything monetarily because Tina Watson's father was the beneficiary of her life insurance policy. They contended her death was an accident.
Gabe Watson's father, David, hugged his son in the courtroom after the judge made his ruling. He said every court that had looked at the case determined Gabe did not intentionally kill his wife.
"I'm just so relieved. Hopefully he can put his life back together," David Watson said.
"I hope everyone can begin to heal. The rest of his life will determine his legacy. Gabe is a good kid." ? Gabe Watson left the courtroom hand-in-hand with his second wife without commenting to reporters.
Tina Watson's father, Tommy Thomas, had testified earlier in the day. He described how his family's grief and shock over Tina Watson's death turned to suspicion of Gabe Watson.?He testified that he got the news of his daughter's death not from Watson, but from the defendant's father more than a day later.
Prosecutor Don Valeska walked with his arm around Tommy Thomas, who appeared to be in shock and stunned by the judge's decision.
"It should have gone to the jury for them to decide," Thomas said of the judge's decision.
The Alabama Attorney General's Office had sought to have Watson convicted on charges that he planned his bride's death in Alabama, before the couple departed for their honeymoon.
Thomas had testified earlier that shortly after the death, his wife, Cindy, was worried about Gabe Watson's condition. However, evidence showed relations between Watson and his wife's family frayed quickly as the Thomases began having doubts about what happened and Gabe Watson began asking for Tina Watson's belongings. ?? Gabe Watson's father called to tell them about the woman's death more than 15 hours after she drowned, Thomas said, and Tina Watson's family never heard from Gabe Watson until they attempted to contact him through the U.S. consulate in Australia.
Thomas said that in a phone call from Australia, Watson claimed his wife gave him a thumbs-up underwater, indicating she wanted to go back to the surface. Watson said he was leading her back to a rope when she panicked, knocked off his mask and air hose, and began sinking, according to Thomas.
But during a later talk at a lawyer's office, Thomas said, Watson changed his story and said the woman indicated she wanted to go back to the rope leading to the top rather than go directly to the surface. Staring directly at Watson from the witness stand, Thomas said he asked his former son-in-law at that time: "When Tina gave him the thumbs up sign to go to the surface, why didn't he just take her to the surface?"
The judge blocked Thomas from testifying about Watson's alleged desire to increase the woman's life insurance policy, a blow for prosecutors who earlier had been barred from presenting other evidence about Watson's actions after the death.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]AP - All four acting winners from last year's Academy Awards are returning to this weekend's Oscars as presenters.
While RNA is an appealing drug target, small molecules that can actually affect its function have rarely been found. But now scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have for the first time designed a series of small molecules that act against an RNA defect directly responsible for the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy.
In two related studies published recently in online-before-print editions of Journal of the American Chemical Society and ACS Chemical Biology, the scientists show that these novel compounds significantly improve a number of biological defects associated with myotonic dystrophy type 1 in both cell culture and animal models.
"Our compounds attack the root cause of the disease and they improve defects in animal models," said Scripps Research Associate Professor Matthew Disney, PhD. "This represents a significant advance in rational design of compounds targeting RNA. The work not only opens up potential therapies for this type of muscular dystrophy, but also paves the way for RNA-targeted therapeutics in general."
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 involves a type of RNA defect known as a "triplet repeat," a series of three nucleotides repeated more times than normal in an individual's genetic code. In this case, the repetition of the cytosine-uracil-guanine (CUG) in RNA sequence leads to disease by binding to a particular protein, MBNL1, rendering it inactive. This results in a number of protein splicing abnormalities. Symptoms of this variable disease can include wasting of the muscles and other muscle problems, cataracts, heart defects, and hormone changes.
To find compounds that acted against the problematic RNA in the disease, Disney and his colleagues used information contained in an RNA motif-small molecule database that the group has been developing. By querying the database against the secondary structure of the triplet repeat that causes myotonic dystrophy type 1, a lead compound targeting this RNA was quickly identified. The lead compounds were then custom-assembled to target the expanded repeat or further optimized using computational chemistry. In animal models, one of these compounds improved protein-splicing defects by more than 40 percent.
"There are limitless RNA targets involved in disease; the question is how to find small molecules that bind to them," Disney said. "We've answered that question by rationally designing these compounds that target this RNA. There's no reason that other bioactive small molecules targeting other RNAs couldn't be developed using a similar approach."
###
Scripps Research Institute: http://www.scripps.edu
Thanks to Scripps Research Institute for this article.
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AP - A swift series of bombings and shootings killed 35 people across the Iraqi capital early Thursday in attacks that mostly appeared to target police, officials said.
ROCHESTER, N.Y.?? Police in upstate New York say a 6-year-old boy snoozing in his father's car never woke up while the vehicle was being stolen after it was left running outside a store.
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Officers tell Rochester media outlets that a 26-year-old man from Irondequoit left his car running while he went inside a convenience store to get a drink late Saturday night.
While inside the store, someone jumped into the car and drove off with the boy asleep in the car.
Police say the car was found abandoned within 30 minutes. Officials say the boy wasn't harmed and had slept through the entire ordeal.
Police charged the boy's father with endangering the welfare of a child.
The car thief hasn't been found.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Dulce Albuquerque works in her carnival dress-making shop Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 in downtown Lisbon. Portugal's center-right coalition government has cancelled what is usually a day off on Tuesday for carnival celebrations saying that the country can't afford time off amid high debts and austerity measures. Others argue that the celebrations generate an important revenue for many small businesses, commerce and tourism. (AP Photo/ Francisco Seco)
Dulce Albuquerque works in her carnival dress-making shop Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 in downtown Lisbon. Portugal's center-right coalition government has cancelled what is usually a day off on Tuesday for carnival celebrations saying that the country can't afford time off amid high debts and austerity measures. Others argue that the celebrations generate an important revenue for many small businesses, commerce and tourism. (AP Photo/ Francisco Seco)
A dancer of Grande Rio samba school parades on a float during carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012. Nearly 100,000 paying spectators turn out for the all-night spectacle at the Sambadrome. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Dancers of Grande Rio samba school parade on a float during carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012. Nearly 100,000 paying spectators turn out for the all-night spectacle at the Sambadrome. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Dancers of Grande Rio samba school parade during carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012. Nearly 100,000 paying spectators turn out for the all-night spectacle at the Sambadrome. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Brokers are dressed as punks on occasion of carnival at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, Feb.21, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
LISBON, Portugal (AP) ? Garish costumes, scary masks and bright wigs trumped dreary economic austerity Tuesday as most Portuguese defied a government appeal to keep working on one of their deeply beloved holidays: Carnival.
It was a spontaneous "Ja chega!" ? "That's enough!" ? from a people who have suffered in Europe's debt crisis but have not rioted, set streets aflame and heaved chunks of marble at police like their fellow bailout colleagues, the Greeks.
The streets of Lisbon, the capital, were deserted and eerily quiet Tuesday, resembling a typical Sunday morning. Offices stood empty and banks were shuttered. Well over half of workers stayed home, local media estimated.
Instead, tens thousands of people, many dressed in colorful handmade costumes and men often in drag, were expected later to attend traditional street parades around the country featuring elaborate floats, loud Brazilian samba music and dancing.
The mild, sunny winter day was apparently just the ticket for the austerity blues.
Nationwide, the government's attempt to make people work more by scrapping the traditional Fat Tuesday holiday flopped as most companies and many public services shut down.
The spontaneous choice of revelry over austerity ? imposed last year in return for a euro78 billion ($103 billion) international bailout Portugal needed to avoid bankruptcy ? came at a particularly embarrassing moment for the government. Inspectors from the bailout lenders were in Lisbon for a regular review of whether Portugal is honoring its promise to reduce debt and improve economic output.
Government ministers, lawmakers and the head of state worked normally. Civil servants had to turn up for work too, but most local councils and state-owned companies closed, media reported. Train engineers went on a 24-hour strike to protest the government's anti-holiday call.
Marilia Gomes, a middle-aged worker at a Lisbon tax office, said she resented having to work on a holiday she cherished.
"Carnival is about getting rid of your sadness, letting your hair down," she said during her lunch break, calling scrapping the holiday "a lack of respect for working people."
Local television stations showed some civil servants going to work in outrageous wigs, masks and outsize glasses.
Others, however, agreed with the government's plea for people to knuckle down and beat the financial crisis by working more.
"We have to work for the good of the country," said Manuel Agostinho, an unemployed 54-year-old. "It's no laughing matter."
Portugal sunk into a double-dip recession last year, and the government forecasts the economy will shrink a further 3 percent this year. Unemployment is at a record 14 percent. Portugal's debt load and feeble growth over the past decade have contributed to Europe's financial woes, prompting its eurozone partners to grant it a financial rescue package last year.
Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho refused to grant the usual day off for Carnival, which is not an official public holiday. But the last time a government refused to recognize Fat Tuesday as a holiday was during the 1993 economic crisis.
The prime minister said he hoped people would understand the need for sacrifices.
"This isn't a normal year, it's an important year of national emergency," Passos Coelho said at the time. "(I hope) the Portuguese understand that this is no time to be talking about tradition, it's about finding out who wants to beat this crisis and who wants to cling to old traditions."
The government made no comment Tuesday about the public's rejection of its appeal.
Although unions have staged strikes and protests against the tax hikes and pay cuts, the Portuguese have largely accepted the austerity program with resignation, exhibiting none of the street violence that has wracked Greece.
While Carnival in Portugal doesn't match the glamor and all-night revelry seen in Brazil, it is tremendously popular with children and adults alike. Many rural towns and villages observe centuries-old traditions, some of them pagan, many of them comical, vulgar and satirical.
With local authorities who organize street parades feeling the economic crunch, festivities this year were scaled back. Brazilian soap opera stars are often invited to be kings and queens of Portuguese carnivals but this year the VIP guests were mostly national celebrities.
The celebrations in Torres Vedras, 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Lisbon, are known as "the most Portuguese Carnival" but the local council cut spending this year 16 percent. Even so, it spent around euro400,000 ($531,000) on Carnival events and expects to draw thousands of visitors.
In many places, the celebrations will end with a meal made of dried salted cod ? a typical Portuguese dish ? to mark the start of the Roman Catholic period of Lent.
By admin
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Diet pills are not considered medications, and therefore they are not regulated by the FDA.? This has enormous implications for people looking to lose weight and are thinking about turning to diet pills to help them with their weight loss goals.? For many people, diet pills can be the gateway to addiction and an array of negative side effects.? We?ve heard many tragic stories of people who became addicted to diet pills within a few weeks of beginning their regimen.? Diet pill manufacturers promise nearly impossible results and it is all too easy to be taken in by the allure of being free from obesity in a matter of a few months.? The effects of diet pill addiction are many.? In many people, diet pill addiction is noticeable only after a few weeks of beginning to take the pills.? Many people who become addicted say? that they just don?t feel ?normal? unless they take their pills.? They feel depressed, unenergetic, sometimes anxious, and experience highs and lows in their emotional state.? In even more extreme examples, those addicted to diet pills damage their cardiovascular system, their heart, or even their kidneys.? These cases are extremely serious, as heart and kidney damage accumulates and can be fatal if not treated by a physician.
In many cases, diet pill addiction is a sign of deeper psychological problems, and the person is not chemically addicted, but rather, psychologically addicted.? The phenomenon mirrors other types of psychological addictions, like people who feel the need to smoke cigarettes, but don?t feel the negative effects that would show chemical addiction.? In many cases, addiction to diet pills could point to much deeper self-esteem issues.? Some people have such poor self-image and self-esteem that they feel that they must constantly take diet pills to keep their weight in check. This starts a vicious cycle, where the person addicted to the pills is never satisfied with their appearance and takes more and more diet pills.? This can lead to kidney failure and heart disease, so the effects can be quite serious.? If you develop these symptoms, please see a psychiatrist and a physician as soon as possible to investigate the negative effects the diet pills may have visited on your body, and also how you can rebuild your self-image so that you do not feel you need the diet pills any longer.?
Diet pill addiction is serious and those entrapped by it spend long, painful months breaking the addiction, even under the supervision of a trained, medical physician.? This is why it is so important to try other, non-chemical ways to improve our self-esteem and lose weight.? People lost weight long before the invention of the diet pill.? Simply changing our diet to include healthier food, more exercise, and more positive activities can do so much more than a diet pill ever could.? If you feel depressed by your weight, take time out of your week to go for a walk or visit your local gym.? If you are a regular at your local fast food place, try cooking a meal at home and really making it something special.? A little candlelight and nice cutlery might be over the top, but you?re worth it!? You?ll find that treating yourself with respect will do so much more than any diet pill ever could.
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Let us face the facts, occasions are tough and finding business nowadays isn?t always easy. The economy in general isn?t producing just as much activity as previously so we have to branch out and check out other avenues for sales prospecting.
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See the employment section or among the employment websites like Monster or CareerBuilder. If your clients are employing a brand new project manager, for instance, they may require a project manager training program. If they?re employing a category of basic level sales students, they may need marketing items to provide them or training materials like books or manuals. Think outdoors from the box and find out in case your business pertains to the task posting. If that?s the case, achieve out and provide your merchandise.
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If you are part of the online Disney community on twitter, facebook or message boards, you have no doubt heard the buzz about the new interactive card game that has premiered under beta testing in the Magic Kingdom Park ? The Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. As a local, we saw the little portal stations being built for quite some time, as speculation swirled regarding what these new screens and areas would mean to the parks. Would they interfere with guests? experiences as they explored the lands of the Magic Kingdom? Would Imagineers be able to pull off the mixing of villains and animated film characters? The answers are a bit complex, but overall, I give the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom a hearty ?thumbs up.? I?ll go into further detail below.
First, let?s go over exactly what the game is all about. The premise is that certain villains, organized by Hades, Lord of the Underworld, are teaming up to steal pieces of the crystal of the Magic Kingdom. Merlin is on board to fight evil, and enlists us ? the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, to help defeat the foes.
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How it Works (the short version):
Head to the Main Street, U.S.A. Firehouse, pick up your cards and Sorcerers key card
Follow the icons on the map to defeat villains at various portals throughout the Magic Kingdom
Use your spell cards to defeat each villain and eventually become a Master Sorcerer
Come back again and again to collect more cards and defeat more villains!
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You can hold the key card any way, front or back to activate the portal
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How it Works (the long version):
You start off by heading to the Main Street Firehouse. There you can watch a preview, check in with your ticket media and receive a key card, 5 spell cards and a map marking the portal locations. You then watch a tutorial with Merlin so you know exactly what to do when you set out on your quest. Now here you must make a decision with your group ? you can all battle together under one key card, or if you each receive a key card, you will most likely be separated and sent to different lands to explore the portals at different times. When we first checked in, we got key cards for each of our family members, but only used one, so we stayed together. Now that we?ve been playing for about a week, my older kids or husband can go off and fight at a portal in a different location within the same land. We usually stay together until we all get portals in the same land though, so for example, if my son gets Adventureland and I get Fantasyland, we?ll go to one land and then wait until he gets Fantasyland too so we can be in the same area. Of course it?s up to you how you want to handle these battles. I have heard that sometimes if you have a large party they will tell you at the Firehouse that you must only use one key card. We have not run into this, however.
Who Can Play? As far as age-range for the game, this was something my 3 year old could play ? at least the unlocking of the portal with the key card. He could still use the spell cards, but only if we told him how to hold them, etc. I?d say in a year he?d be perfect at figuring out the right way to hold or picking out the spell cards he wants. However, from the sounds of level 2 and 3, it would probably take an older child or adult to weigh the options for each card?s skill points and so on.
Once you start collecting your cards, you will get doubles or duplicates of some of them. Especially with our family, we are getting 4 sets of 5 cards each day, so our collection has added up quickly. In the case of dupes, guests can trade with other Sorcerers players and pick up some missing cards that way. So far, we?ve run into new players, who don?t really have anything to trade, and seasoned players, who have almost everything and don?t really need to trade. But we have picked up I?d say about 10-15 cards through trading and it?s a great way to complete your collection. Especially if you have friends playing, they can hold cards for you and will be more willing to trade.
There are 70 cards ? but at this time cards 61-70 have been pulled from play. Cast members will say they are not sure when the cards will be back or in what fashion, but we have heard they will be selling those last 10. As of right now, the packs arriving at the Firehouse don?t have cards 61-70 within them, so you?ll have to wait, or find someone that?s been playing from day 1 of beta testing who?s willing to trade. The game is technically still in the testing phase until February 22, 2012. We are not sure if progress will be reset and all those playing will have to start from square one at that time. Since we?ve been playing, the game has been reset twice already, but you only need to tell cast members at the Firehouse which villains you?ve defeated to pick up where you left off. The exception to this is if you have defeated all the villains and become a Master Sorcerer, moving on to level 2, you will have to complete that last battle to become a Master Sorcerer again.
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Our first set of cards from the first time we played
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All About the Cards:
Once you start your collection of cards, you?ll notice some numbers and symbols on the face of each card. in the bottom left corner there will be a number out of 70, which tells you simply the number the card is in the collection. For example, Sorcerer Mickey is 1/70 and Cabellero Donald is 43/70. In addition, the cards are listed by spell ? Mystic Spell (blue background), Princess Spell (purple background), Toy Spell (red background), Machine Spell (black background), Warrior Spell (dark blue background), Monster Spell (green background), Hero Spell (dark teal background), Animal Spell (dark green background), and Fairy Spell (pink background).
Within each spell card, there will be three types of numbers: attack, boost, and shield. So Merlin?s card has a 5 Energy attack, 0 Energy boost, and 1 Energy shield. Other cards will have other types of spells. Options are Energy, Charming, Wishful, Quick, Flying, Strong, and Gross. Right now, in level one, these distinctions don?t really matter as any card defeats any villain. However when the game really goes live, or in higher levels, the type of card and type of attack will most likely matter.
Lastly, above the number is a symbol, with one of three designations ? a star symbol, which indicates a rare card; a moon symbol, which signifies an uncommon card; and a planet symbol, which indicates a common card. There are also cards out there with lightning bolt symbols, which seem to be the 61-70 cards that are now pulled. Hopefully we?ll get more facts as the game gets out of testing mode.
Game play:
Just head to the portal the Firehouse initially tells you to go to, and then you?ll be instructed where to go next. After you?ve played once, you can pick up where you left off, unless the system has been reset. You can always check where you are supposed to be by scanning your key card at any portal and it will tell you where you need to be. If the game has been reset, it will tell you to head to the Firehouse to get reassigned. There is also a booth in Liberty Square, behind Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe, staffed with cast members, who can fix errors, show you the tutorial and help you out. (You can also sign up there with usually no line compared to the Firehouse!) In no time you?ll have all the portals memorized and be able to go from place to place without even needing a map.
The game itself involves defeating 8 villains at this time:
Main Street, U.S.A. ? Cruella DeVil
Adventureland ? Jafar, Yzma and Scar
Liberty Square/Frontierland ? Dr. Facilier and Governor Ratcliffe
Fantasyland ? Maleficent and Ursula
Once you defeat ALL of those villains, you will have a final battle with Chernabog and Hades, and become a Master Sorcerer. Then you proceed to level 2 and from there, level 3. Here?s a video of the Master Sorcerer announcement. If you don?t want the finale to be spoiled, don?t watch! You can check out another video on my YouTube channel of the scene before this one, where you actually battle Hades.
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The first portal you go to tells you the story of the villain, and where to go next to help out. The next portal you will get to pick spell cards (you can combine spells up to 6 at a time!), and usually one of the portals will ask you to use the Sorcerer?s Crest on the back of the card (I actually don?t like this since you don?t get to pick the spells!). The final battle for that land?s villain will let you use two separate spell castings (again, up to 6 cards for each one). Then you have defeated that villain and Merlin will tell you if you?d like to continue to help, which land you should head to next.
The portal next to the Frontierland Shootin' Gallery, one of my faves!
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I highly recommend playing in both daylight and nighttime. At night you can see many details and lighting effects of the portals that just aren?t visible in bright sunlight. It?s also usually less crowded, though you must wait to play in Fantasyland until the fireworks have ended. I had way too many photos to post here, so I?ve created a flickr set for all our Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom adventures. Just click to see the portals ? I?ll be adding more as I make future visits to the Magic Kingdom.
Pros and Cons to the game:
As far as pros go, for the most part, I?d categorize the game as unobtrusive to the average guest. You don?t have to pay attention to it as you are passing, though some portals are hard to ignore and can all be a bit loud. I don?t think a single portal detracts from its land or the space it is in. If anything, the only problem is the fact that passers-by will often ask WHAT you are doing, and you?ll have to give a quick synopsis of the game, usually while your animated scene is playing. In addition, those with quite a few cards can expect smaller children who?ve just started playing to ask ?where did you get all those cards?? and even ?can I have some?? so just be prepared for lots of questions.
I can see how those on a one-time trip to Walt Disney World or even a once-a-year visit would perhaps get frustrated by the time it takes to become a Master Sorcerer, but of course, that?s what Disney wants: return visitors. Or, for guests to plan a day longer vacation to be sure you get enough game time. In the 4 times we?ve played, we have not gone on a single ride in the Magic Kingdom, and we?ve spent about 17 hours playing (not counting time spent dining). Again, being locals, this isn?t a big deal to us?but those on a yearly vacation may feel they are missing valuable ride time. What we did get to do was notice more details around the park, and enjoy the various parades and nighttime shows from different angles than usual.? And just like pins or Vinylmation figures, the cards become your own prize collection, free ? for now, and unlike Vinyls or pins, you get to actually use them in the park. There is a reward for your patience and your play.
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The window I like to call Merlin's lab, looks amazing at night!
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My hope, when the game goes officially live on the 22nd, is that cast members at the Firehouse are able to better explain the ins and outs of card use. What the symbols mean, what you want to do or not do in the second or third levels ? even if only to give us a vague idea and let us figure it out for ourselves. In addition, there needs to be a more pronounced explanation about keeping the map and cards. A handful of times, I have heard, ?do we get to keep these cards?? or ?do we have to give the map back?? from guests. I understand that given the only other comparison game within Walt Disney World ? the Kim Possible missions, you are instructed to return your Kimmunicator, but it makes me sad to think that people are worried they have to give their cool cards and map back, and the problem is easily solved by cast members up front.
With ALL of that said, I?m so excited to see where this game goes in the coming months and will of course update this page as I find out definitive facts or news. Even as I type this post, changes are happening to some of the portals; updates, props, new posters and banners?Disney really is working to make this an amazing experience. You can also follow all the latest updates on twitter at @DisneySorcerers, an unofficial account offering tips, news, photos, videos and more. Now go get ?em, Sorcerer!
