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Posts Tagged'dark paranormal romance'
Posts Tagged 'dark paranormal romance'
There are lots of reasons why Medusa is the most interesting character in mythology to me, and why she inspired my
Medusa's Consortium series. One of the biggies for me is that Medusa gets in your head in ways no one else can.
For Freud, she represented the male fear of castration. You'd expect that from Freud though, wouldn't you? According to Freud, this fear is associated with that first view of mature female genitals — back in the day when muffs really were muffs – thus the association with snakes in the hair. The turning to stone is the resulting erection. Apparently there's no evidence in the literature surrounding Medusa that she ever turned a woman to stone.
Medusa is also a classic example of god-bashing or in this case goddess-bashing. A conquering people often debased the gods of the conquered lands, the assumption being that they were able to conquer because 'our-god's-stronger-than-your-god.' Greek mythology often shows this through the rape or seduction of someone by one of Greek pantheon – most often Zeus. Those being raped or seduced are usually local goddesses. Poor Medusa, however, gets a double whammy. She is raped by Poseidon in the temple of Athena, where she should have been under the protection of the goddess. Then, in the classic example of victim blaming, Athena curses her for debasing her temple – thus the snakes in the hair and the face that turns anyone who looks at her to stone.
From a feminist point of view, Medusa represents female rage. I suppose that's as much why I chose to tell her story my way as anything. Strangely enough, I didn't know about the feminist viewpoint when Medusa's Consortium was conceived. I only knew that her story made me rage, that I wanted revenge for Medusa. That being the case, like everything a writer puts to pen, the story of Medusa's anger has to be, on some level, the story of my own anger. The way Magda Gardener works through it as a modern anti-hero in my novels is, no doubt, on some level my way of working through my own issues. That, I guess, is far more Jungian than Freudian.
But then not everything is about penis envy. At least, for me, and from the point of view of Magda Gardener/ Medusa, it's not the penis that is envied so much as the power it represents. It is the desire for the power and the freedom to control one's own destiny. It's the lack of that control that causes the rage. Magda Gardener and her consortium give me a wonderful way to retell her story in a modern setting, in a place where her revenge is ongoing, as is her redemption. And Magda Gardener's redemption, her need for family and connection is every bit as important as her need for revenge. Here's a little excerpt from Blind-Sided, in which Paul Danson, a New York City police detective in way over his head, meets Magda Gardener for the first time. Enjoy.
Blind-Sided Blurb:
In New York City away from those she loves, living with the enigmatic vampire, Desiree Fielding, Susan Innes struggles to come to terms with life as a vampire whose body serves as the prison for a powerful demon. When Reese Chambers arrives unexpectedly from England, desperate for her help, she discovers that Alonso Darlington, his lover and her maker, has been taken captive and Reese has been warned to tell no one but her. Before the two can make a plan, Susan receives her own message from a man calling himself just Cyrus. He not only holds her maker prisoner, but also her lover, the angel Michael, and if she wishes to see either of them alive, she'll come to him and not tell Magda Gardener, the woman they all work for and fear. With no help coming from Magda or her Consortium, Susan and Reese must turn to the Guardian – the terrifying demon now imprisoned in her body. He alone can help them, but how can she possibly trust him after all he's done?
We Meet At Last — Excerpt:
When he saw Magda Gardener for the first time, Paul was on his way back to his desk, updating Margaret on the phone. … At the sight of her, everything around him faded to background noise and he had a rabbit in the headlights moment. The only thing he wanted more than to run away before he caught her attention was to be the center of her attention. For a moment he stood unmoving, seriously fearing that he'd forgotten how to breathe. She wore faded jeans over legs that went on for miles all the way down to the black leather ankle boots that were totally soundless as she moved across the ageing tile floor with a dancer's ease. Even in the baggy white cable knit sweater it was not difficult to tell that there were dangerous curves beneath. She had a yard of fiery golden ringlets just like in those Pre-Raphaelite paintings his mother used to love. My God, they looked almost like they lived and breathed and moved around her shoulders in adoration of the woman they belonged to, and yet, they were simply and carelessly tied back in a black ribbon. He couldn't imagine what the eyes of a woman with such porcelain skin and such breathtaking hair must look like, and he had to imagine, because she hid them behind a pair of tortoise shell sunglasses. He didn't know how long he'd stood there looking at her with Margaret all but shouting in his ear, asking if he was all right. It was only when she came to him, offered a smile and extended a hand that he remembered himself.
"Margaret, I'll call you back," he said and disconnected nearly dropping his phone as the woman's warm fingers closed around his. For a second, he felt the room tilt and go slightly out of focus, and then her voice pulled him back.
"Detective Danson. My name is Magda Gardener. I need to talk to you about some missing persons." She glanced around the room. "Preferably in private."
"Of course," he managed, nodding down the hall toward one of the empty interrogation rooms, very aware that all eyes were on them. He mumbled something about getting her a coffee or a Coke. She thanked him but declined.
"Please leave the door open," she said when he made to pull it shut behind them. A slight flush of pink tinged her cheeks. "Afraid I'm a bit phobic where closed doors are concerned."
He did as she asked, then pulled the chair usually reserved for suspects around to his side of the table and she settled into it, not waiting for him to ask how he could help her. "I've spoken to Vince Layton, and I know that the man calling himself Cyrus Rivers, has my people."
After a couple of fish gasps, Paul responded. "You talked to Layton?"
"I did, yes. He was happy to talk to someone else who believed him, and he told me that you were the person I needed to see. Of course Desiree Fielding told me the same, but not very willingly, I'm afraid." She offered him a warm smile that had his heart racing. "The woman means well, but she's sometimes way too secretive. I, on the other hand, am not, Detective. I want my people back, and I want this Cyrus and the monster who pulls his chains … neutralized."
"Neutralized." Paul suddenly felt light-headed, like maybe he'd helped Layton finish off the bottle of Jack. "Look, Ms. Gardener, the two of us are on the same page here, and I assume you're talking about Darlington and Weller."
"And Susan Innes. He also has her now, though I'm sure Desiree didn't tell you that."
"Jesus," he whispered, fighting the urge to hang on to the edge of the chair, which felt strangely unstable at the moment. "No she didn't. Why not, is what I want to know?"
"Because you've been accusing her and Reese and Susan of … well of all sorts of things, and if you've talked to Layton and gotten the same responses I have then I'm sure you must understand that the three of them would like to keep the situation secret, and frankly the lives of Alonso and Michael may well have depended on it in the beginning, though now circumstances have changed."
"And how exactly have they changed, Ms. Gardener?"
Her glasses slipped just the tiniest bit and his whole body erupted in goose flesh. He found that he desperately wanted to look away and yet at the same time, he never wanted to look away from her again. "Cyrus and his boss have my people, and they're counting on me coming for them." She pushed the glasses back up the bridge of her nose.
He swallowed hard with a throat that felt like it was full of sawdust. "What, you mean like an exchange – you for them?"
"More like I'm the cherry on the cake," she said with a quirk of a smile.
He ran a hand over his stubble and puffed out a sharp breath. "So what exactly do you want from me, Ms. Gardener – a stake-out? Because if that's the case, then you're going to have to tell me exactly what the hell is going on before I put you, or my men, at risk."
"Actually," she stood and moved to pace the room, "I want to know what you know, Detective, and if you tell me what you know, I'll tell you what you don't know." He was about to say that it didn't work that way, when she continued. "For instance, I know that you and the lovely Dr. Margaret – she is delightful by the way – are battling with the fact that there just might be vampires in the world. I'll make it easier for you. There are, lots of them, and yes both Desiree and Susan are vampires and Reese is the lover of one – Alonso Darlington. Though I reckon you've probably already figured that out – I mean about the two being lovers, since you've been in touch with the Cumbrian authorities."
Paul heard everything after there are vampires in the world through a loud ringing in his ears, and the woman pacing back and forth in front of him seemed suddenly out of focus. She turned and settled herself on the edge of the desk looking down at him. "If you struggle with the existence of vampires, Detective, then the rest of the story is going to be a very hard pill for you to swallow." The smile she offered him was empathetic and, to his surprise, she reached out and took his hand. "Detective you already know the monsters are real. You encounter them every day. While Desiree was shocked that she couldn't glamour you, she shouldn't have been. You have the capacity to understand the darkness better than most, Paul. I know this about you. I've done my research. You have the capacity to look for answers that others doubt, that others don't believe possible. That being the case, why wouldn't you be able to figure out for yourself that there are vampires and things much, much worse in the world? She gave his hand a squeeze and settled back on the desk. Her hair swayed as though it were suddenly caught in a breeze, "much worse." Her voice was little more than a whisper and the look on her face was one of deep sadness. Paul just sat there. How could he respond to that? How could he respond to any of it?
"What do you want from me?" He managed at last, realizing that it was the question she should be asking him.
"I want you to help me find where Cyrus is keeping my people. I want you to take me to this place where you found Mr. Layton. I may be able to pick up something from it that you missed." When he made no answer, she raised a golden eyebrow. "Detective?"
"She really did pull that man's head off? Susan Innes did?"
"She did, yes, and that man was no man."
"And she …"
"She healed Reese Chambers with her own blood, yes."
"Jesus." About now he was seriously wishing for his own bottle of Jack. "I can't … How can I bring in the department on this? How can I get anyone to take me seriously about what you just told me – they already think I was drunk on my ass that night and that I went home with some bimbo."
"It's simple, Paul, you can't bring them in." She waved a hand dismissively, "Believe me it's better that way. I have my own people and they're prepared to deal with this sort of thing."
"This sort of thing?" he snorted. "It happens often, does it?"
"More often that you would imagine. I clued you in because you basically already know, and because you can help. But you have to believe me when I tell you that stepping in yourself or bringing anyone else in will just get someone killed. I don't want anyone killed, and I don't want anything making us monsters look like the bad guys."
"Us monsters?" he managed.
She gave him a bored look. "You knew that the moment you saw me, didn't you?" She heaved a deep sigh and
shrugged her sweater down over her hips, "Look Paul, I can take from you what I need, and unlike Desiree, you won't be able to stop me. I'm the one Cyrus and his people want for reasons that don't concern you, reasons you and your whole department are far better off not knowing. What does concern you is that I can help you understand what's going on and help you end it. What does concern you is that you'll know the truth and if I believe you can live with it, which I do, then I won't take it away from you when everyone is safe, and warm and happy at home again." She gave him a look that felt like a warm buzz across his body and then she added. "There aren't many people who really want the truth, Paul, but you do, and I believe you're capable of handling it. What I want is your help to find the place where Cyrus is holding my people. The rest I can handle, and trust me, when I say, its better that way."
July 4, 2017 Tags: Blind-Sided Excerpt, dark paranormal romance, Medusa, Medusa's Consortium, upcoming release
Category: Blog Comments Off on Medusa in Your Head
Landscapes: FREE M/M Download in Anticipation of More Medusa!
I'm elated to offer Landscape as a little pressie to all my lovely readers because this is one of my very favourite novellas with two of the most complex, most intriguing characters that I've ever written, if I do say so myself, and two that just keep right on surprising me.
As you know, I'll be releasing Blind-Sided, book two of the Medusa's Consortium Series this summer, with book three, Buried Pleasures, hot on its tail. That being the case, I'm starting the celebration early by offering a FREE download of one of the prequel novellas to the Consortium series, Landscapes! I originally wrote this novella for a wonderful anthology of sexy M/M stories called Brit Boys: On Boys boxed set. It was my first ever M/M and my first ever vampire story.
To say I fell in love with Alonso and Reese would be an understatement. I hope their story doesn't cause a meltdown on your device because they're players in a much, much larger story you won't want to miss out on. I didn't know this until I started writing In The Flesh, book one of the Medusa novels, only to discover Alonso and Reese right there in the thick of it. (if you've not read In The Flesh, be sure to before Blind-Sided comes out. I wouldn't want you to miss any of the fun.) Needless to say, that hasn't changed. Because Alonso and Reese are right in the middle of all the trouble in Blind-Sided as well. So I thought an introduction to these two sexy men was a great way to introduce all of you to a couple of guys who are so amazing that Medusa herself wants them on her team.
Here's the blurb for Landscapes:
Alonso Darlington has a disturbing method of keeping landscaper, Reese Chambers, both safe from and oblivious to his dangerous lust for the man. But Reese isn't easy to keep secrets from, and Alonso wants way more than to admire the man from afar. Can he risk a real relationship without risking Reese's life?
Note: Landscapes has been previously released as part of the Brit Boys: On Boys boxed set.
More About Medusa's Consortium Series:
Contrary to popular belief, Medusa is alive and well. Ever since she escaped Greece and the Olympians, Medusa/AKA
Magda Gardener has been secretly kicking ass and taking names.
Scheming to keep one step ahead of the Olympians and the havoc they wreak, Magda is a rescuer of monsters and demons and a thief of all things sacred to the gods who betrayed her. She is irreverent, powerful, rich and has her own agenda in which the lines between right and wrong are not always clearly drawn. For those she helps, those she draws to herself, life will never be the same. Like the Godfather, those who owe Magda Gardener never know when she'll call in the debt, nor what will be required of them when she does. But the price for those who cross her, for those who hurt the ones under her protection, is worse than death.
As her Consortium of powerful misfits grows into a cohesive family, as plotting from Olympus threatens the modern world, it Magda finds it more and more difficult to keep herself apart from the lives of those she has drawn to her. Perhaps the Gorgon doesn't have a heart of stone after all.
Here are Blurbs for the first three books of Medusa's Consortium:
Book I – In The Flesh Blurb:
When Susan Innes comes to visit her friend, Annie Rivers, in Chapel House, the deconsecrated church that Annie is renovating into a home, she discovers her outgoing friend changed, reclusive, secretive, and completely enthralled by a mysterious lover, whose presence is always felt, but never seen, a lover whom she claims is god. As her holiday turns into a nightmare, Susan must come to grips with the fact that her friend's lover is neither imaginary nor is he human, and even worse, he's turned his wandering eye on Susan, and he won't be denied his prize. If Susan is to fight an inhuman stalker intent on having her as his own, she'll need a little inhuman help.
Book II – Blind-Sided Blurb:
Book III – Buried Pleasures Blurb:
The neon and glitz of Las Vegas is no vacation for SAMANTHA BLACK. All SAM wants is to get her friend, EVIE HOLT, away from ruthless magician, DARIAN FOX, who wants Sam to perform at his club, Illusions. A neon circus tent of strange and mystical acts, Illusions is one of the biggest draws in Vegas, and he's hell-bent on including Sam in the program, holding Evie in his seductive thrall in an attempt to make that happen. But Fox isn't the only one who wants Sam. The reclusive MR GRAVES, owner of Buried Pleasures, the most exclusive, and most mysterious casino in Sin City wants Sam. Behind every powerful man, there's a woman, and MAGDA GARDENER is the shadowy woman behind Graves. Magda has her own reason for wanting Sam. Everyone wants Samantha Black because Samantha Black's got talent! Besides the seductive musical genius she was born with, Samantha Black can literally kill with her song.
As the threat Sam lives under becomes darker and more violent, her only ally seems to be JON, the enigmatic homeless
man who lives in the storm tunnels beneath Vegas with his ginormous dog, GUS. When Jon gives Sam a poker chip from Buried Pleasures worth a fortune, and Magda Gardener is willing to do almost anything to keep her from cashing it in, Sam's world turns upside down as she discovers what the chilling power of her voice really means. With Jon's help, she learns to walk the line between life and death and comes to realize that it's only her voice and her affinity with death that can get to the bottom of the horrors surrounding the outrageous success of Darian Fox and his magic.
As her feelings deepen for Jon and she becomes more and more fascinated with his underground world in the storm tunnels, she soon learns Jon has his own secrets. Too late she realizes that not only is she walking the line between life and death, but she may actually be falling in love with Death himself, and the poker chip she holds on to may well be the only thing keeping her in the world of the living. Death is taking no holiday in Vega. His reasons for being there are not pleasure. As powerful as Death is, there's someone even he fears. If Sam is to understand her heritage and win the battle against Darian Fox, the stakes will be higher than she could have ever imagines, and not only will she have to work hand in hand with Death, but they'll both have to work for the true queen of the darkness, Medusa herself, if they are to accomplish their task.
June 18, 2017 Tags: anticipation!, dark paranormal romance, Free download, m/m, the Medusa's Consortium Series
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A Sneak Peek at Blind-Sided
As you can see, I'm working hard on the final rewrite of Blind-Sided, and yes I am a heavy drinker, when I work. coffee — hot and cold, iced tea and water. The clutter, well that's just a part of my creative process, that and being too tunnel-visioned to notice. All that aside, I'm so excited with the rewrite of Blind-Sided. In addition to our usuals, Alonso, Susan, Michael, Reese, Magda, there's a whole panoply of new players, and wow, are they fun … and scary. I thought this weekend I would give you a shameless selfie that involves a bit of a tease from Blind-Sided, book 2 of the Medusa Consortium Series, a tease in which the plot seriously thickens. For those of you who haven't read book 1, In The Flesh, be sure to check out my book page for a preview. Enjoy!
Blind-Sided- Now that I have Your Attention:
I killed someone tonight, Michael. I just snapped his neck. It wasn't about blood, it wasn't about losing control. I knew exactly what I was doing. He hurt a friend of mine – tried to slit his throat, so I killed him without remorse.
Susan paused, device in hand. She decided it best not to give details that it was Reese she spoke of and that his throat actually had been slit. She didn't want to alarm Michael, if Michael actually even read her texts anymore. She continued.
My regret now is the constant reminder that I'm no longer human in that I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Sadly, Susan discovered that vampires couldn't hide away in shock and sleep through their depression and trauma like humans could. Neither did sedatives or anti-depressants or alcohol work. A good topping up of blood, and lucidity, in all its ugliness, returned with a vengeance. For a long time she sat staring at the text on her iPhone. She could call him, but he wouldn't pick up. She'd tried to call him, and she got only his voicemail. She didn't want to trouble Alonso until she could talk to Reese about why he was here. She certainly didn't feel comfortable bringing her problems to Magda Gardener. As for Desiree, well she'd made it abundantly clear that she wasn't sympathetic. Susan had never felt more alone, nor more envious of Reese, sleeping peacefully and well healed on the wide four-poster bed she could easily imagine him sharing with Alonso. Desiree had them taken to Hawthorne House, which was in a secluded area on Long Island that felt a million miles from the hustle and bustle of the city. Susan had never been there before, but when she arrived a whole new staff of familiars and employees were there to serve, and Millie had already arrived with Doctor Carlson.
Once Susan was certain she'd get none of the easy rest and oblivion that engulfed Reese, once she had changed out of her ruined clothes and showered, she insisted upon staying with him, even though there was little she could do. He was drunk on her blood and sleeping like a baby – as for the wound at his throat, it had healed into a thin pink ribbon of a scar that looked as though he had done it years ago.
"Because he's the familiar and the lover of a vampire," Dr. Carlson had said, "he already has better healing abilities than the average human, but, there's no way he would have survived what happened without your blood."
Without her blood, her precious fucking blood – all of which she had taken from someone else, including the one who loved Reese, the one who had loved her too, in a different way. She stood and paced, device forgotten in hand. She was a thief now, as surely as Michael was for Magda but, unlike Michael, her survival depended on thievery. She deleted the text and shoved her phone in her pocket.
"You're beating yourself up." She turned to find Reese wide-awake watching her pace. "I've seen Alonso do it a thousand times. It doesn't surprise me that his fledgling would do the same, though I suspect you were prone to it before you ever met Alonso."
He made an effort to sit up, and she came to his side to help. As she rearranged his pillows, he eased his way into a sitting position. He moved slowly at first, as though he wasn't sure everything would work okay. She realized she'd never seen him without a shirt before. The man wasn't quite as big as Michael, but he was as well muscled, muscles he'd gotten from hard physical labor. As he shifted and the duvet fell back to reveal the hard ridges of his belly, an image of him feeding from Alonso's heart's blood, of him wrapped in her maker's arms left her breathless with its power and its passion. How could Alonso not love him? She'd always liked and respected Reese, and she knew the extent to which he had fought to make sure their plan for the recapture of the Guardian had worked. He was worthy of Alonso's love. In every way, he was worthy. Once he was comfortably seated, he cautiously lifted his fingers to his throat, which he cleared experimentally a couple of times.
"How do you feel?" She carefully sat down on the edge of the bed, as though she feared she might break him, strangely close to tears at seeing him like this. At least this one thing she had done right. Alonso would not lose the one he loved.
"Fine, I feel fine. A bit of a blood hangover, but then you know, that's not a bad thing." A blush crawled up his newly healed throat, and he rearranged the duvet in his lap to cover the more obvious symptoms. A blood hangover meant a buzz no drug could possibly match, and it made both the giver and the receiver horny as hell when it was shared during lovemaking. Fortunately the exchange had been only one way. She had been in no position to experience anything but the horror of the situation. At least he had been spared that. She'd leave him to take care of himself in a minute, but first she had to ask. "Do you remember what happened?"
"Of course I remember," he said. "You didn't shield yours elf when you fed me." His face darkened. "You had other
things on your mind, like saving my life. Oh God! Oh
Christ!" He caught a deep breath and his pulse hammered wildly in his throat just above the scar. For a second she thought he was having some sort of seizure. "It's Alonso. That's why I'm here. Alonso's been taken, kidnapped!" He tried to shove his way out of the bed but she held him.
"Fuck! What? Who kidnapped him? Reese, who has Alonso?" At last she gave up trying to be gentle and shoved him hard against the headboard. "Calm down, and tell me what the fuck's going on. I can't help until you do."
She had just managed to settle him and get him to drink some water when his cell phone rang and they both jumped. It lay on the bedside table where one of the servants must have tossed it when they undressed him. With a move surprisingly fast for a human, he grabbed it and switched it on. The color that her blood had returned to his cheeks left. He nodded to her and put it on speaker.
"It's as I suspected then," came a rough baritone voice on the other end, a voice that sounded like whoever it belonged to was a two packs a day sort of person. "Reese Chambers is alive and well in spite of my Myrmidon's best efforts." There was a chuckle that sounded more like a cough. "Which is more than I can say for him, from what I understand. Seems like our little scribe of a vampire is not so jealous of her maker's lover that she wouldn't move heaven and hell and pull the head completely off my poor unsuspecting servant to save him. But then unlike you, Mr. Chambers, she has another lover. Don't you Ms. Innes? An angel named Michael, am I right?" Before Susan could respond he continued, "Never mind. You don't need to answer that, I know all about your angel. You see he's now keeping your maker company as my guest."
Susan's blood turned to ice in her veins, and her nails cut half moon circles into her fisted palms. "Who are you," she asked, "and what do you want?"
"You may call me Cyrus if you wish. As for what I want, all shall be revealed to you in good time. I'll expect you to meet me at midnight tomorrow. I'll let you know the place. Though there have been rumors, Ms. Innes, that you are a vampire who's able to walk in the daylight. While I'm intrigued by the idea, I prefer the mystique and the magic of the midnight hour, don't you?"
"It isn't going to be easy for me to get to the UK and be where you are by midnight tomorrow," she said.
The chuckle was like a clearing of the throat. "Oh I'm not in the UK. I'm plenty close for you to sleep late, have a nice snack and still be there on time."
"How do I know you have them? How do I know you've not killed them already?"
Susan's phone rang. She nearly catapulted off the bed and yanked it out of her pocket. "Pick up, Ms. Ennis," Cyrus said. "Lover boy is dying to talk to you." There was the laugh again. "Well not actually dying, and he won't be as long as you two do as I say."
With fingers icy even for a vampire, she connected. "Susan, don't worry," came the blessed voice before she could speak, the voice she'd been desperate to hear, "I'm all right, Susan. Alonso's all right too. Cyrus has us safe underground so Alonso won't be caught out and –"
One didn't have to have a vampire's preternatural hearing to recognize the sound of a fist slamming against flesh. She roared, and Reese cursed, then Cyrus came back on the line.
"I'm curious, Ms. Innes. If while you're here, I slit your angel's throat and restrain you just long enough that your only alternative is to let him die or turn him, could you do that? Could you actually turn an angel into a vampire?" He chuckled to himself. "I would think that would be the ultimate abomination to your god, wouldn't you?" Susan's stomach clenched to a painful knot. "Can you imagine such a thing as an undead angel cursed to roam the earth and feed on the blood of those he is sworn to watch over and protect?
"I'm retired," she heard Michael's voice in the background, clearly struggling to breathe through the pain of what must have been a gut punch. She swallowed back a sob of a laugh. One of the things she loved about the man was his sense of humor.
And then anger threatened to strangle her. "If you hurt him, or if you hurt my maker, I won't rip your head off like I did the vermin you sent tonight. I'll make sure you live long enough to suffer for your deeds."
For a moment there was silence, for a moment she thought she'd lost the connection, and then Cyrus spoke again. "You may have the blood of your maker in your veins, woman, but he's such a civilized vampire. You're not like your maker at all. No, I see you have the barbaric heart of the vile bitch who owns you." This time there was no chuckle.
"So you know Magda Gardener?" With stealth she supposed came from living among monsters, Reese had moved to her side, holding the throw from the end of the bed around his waist with one hand and shoving his phone close to hers with the other. It was then that she realized he'd been recording the conversation, and her respect for the man, which was already high, went up still another notch.
"Let's just say she's … an old friend of the family – one we'd do anything to reconnect with. Which brings me back to our little rendezvous, Ms. Innes. You are to come alone and –"
"She's not coming without me," Reese interrupted, pressing in close enough for her to feel his body heat and smell the
scent of him, so like Alonso, and yet so different.
"You may come if you like, Mr. Chambers, though it'll do you no good. It is only that I wish to meet face to face to tell you my terms. You'll not be allowed to see your lovers, neither of you. Nevertheless, you will come to me, and the two of you will bring no one else, and you will tell no one. You will most especially not tell Magda Gardener. If you do, I'll make sure your lovers are delivered back to you in pieces much too tiny for you to resurrect with your vampire blood, Ms. Innes. Do I make myself clear?"
"You're clear," Susan growled.
June 3, 2017 Tags: Blind-Sided, dark paranormal romance, In the flesh, Medusa Consortium, Sneak Preview, tease
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Exploring the Darker Side of Being Human through Paranormal Romance
I've got my head down at the moment working on the final rewrite of Blind-sided, the second of my Medusa's Consortium novels, which is the sequel to In The Flesh. For me the rewriting of the final draft of a book has never been a hardship, but rather something I thoroughly enjoy. It's the time when the story deepens, becomes more textured, more three-dimensional. And it's the time when I get to know my characters and their motivations better. What's not to love?
It's the easiest thing in the world for me to get lost in my writing and enjoy the wonderful experience of letting my characters tell me what happens next. Characters are often so full of surprises when I let them tell the story. It's especially exciting when I'm writing paranormal because a good bit of the time, it's a vampire or a demon, or even Medusa herself whispering in my ear. (I always keep my eyes shut when she's doing the talking, though.) I'm never thought I'd write vampires. In fact, I balked at writing paranormal in general until I realized that paranormal is the perfect place to explore the darker side of the erotic without all the rules and regulations that restrict contemporary erotic fiction. In fact, paranormal is a great way to explore the dark side of human nature, full stop! And it's the perfect place to contemplate that age-old question: Who are the real monsters? I'm discovering that, quite often, it's not who I think. Having said all that, there are several aspects of reading and writing paranormal stories with erotic elements that particularly intrigue me.
The first off, no one insists on vampires and shifters and other scary dudes wearing condoms. It's pretty much a given that there is nothing safe about fucking a vampire or a demon, and if the whole idea doesn't scare the reader as much as it turns her on, then it's not proper paranormal, is it?
That brings me to the second reason I love to read and write paranormal — the very close relationship between fear and arousal. The iconic sex scene between the young and beautiful couple in a horror movie is always followed by the ghoul, serial killer or other baddie killing the lovers in a horrible way. I suggest that a part of what is so arousing about paranormal sex is the breaking of so many taboos, the attraction to something that the world says should horrify us. And it is horrifying – of course it is. Still, we Just. Can't. Resist. That the boundary between what arouses us and what terrifies us is so permeable, that crossing that boundary can get us into all kinds of trouble and then some, means that the story of that boundary crossing is unputdownable, even as it gives us goose bumps and makes us want to hide behind the couch.
The rules of what is forbidden in erotica by most publishers don't apply to paranormal. Some of the most erotic scenes I've ever read are of vampire taking blood from or giving blood to their lovers. Blood is the river of life. It contains the magic of who we are as individuals, and yet we don't have to lose a whole lot if it until we die. That it's all contained in such a fragile sensitive vessel as the human body only amplifies its preciousness and its power.
The final fascination for me is that paranormal is the perfect place to explore dubious consent and loss of control. When dealing with vampires, demons, witches and magic, is consent ever less than dubious? And is there any other place to explore safely that total loss of self-control that is giving oneself over to the forbidden? Add to it the very real possibility that, with all our human frailties, there's no guarantee of survival, and how can the resulting story not be intriguing?
The truth is that while we might be happy to dabble in the darker side of our sexuality, on a fundamental level, the very act of sex is frightening. It is the losing of self in the other, the opening to the unknown. It is the allowing ourselves to be more vulnerable than we are in any other act. It is the giving up of control. All of these elements are, by nature, a
part of sex — sex that carries at its core both the possibility of conception and of death.
That all we fear and all we desire in sex can be raise to the nth degree when placed in a paranormal setting and examined from the intimately terrifying safety of a book gives us a vicarious experience that allows us to experience the darker side of our desires, of our humanity. I would suggest that there are few better ways to explore our humanity than taking an erotic journey with the monsters who are more like us that we can easily admit.
May 29, 2017 Tags: dark paranormal romance, erotica, vampires and demons in erotica
Category: Blog Comments Off on Exploring the Darker Side of Being Human through Paranormal Romance
In Pursuit of Mr. Sands Part 2
Mr. Sands' story, as I suspected, is far from finished. Last week we left Elise North at a Wetherspoon's keeping an eye on Daniel Sands as he kept an eye on the woman who had been his inflight meal. Elise North is a PI with something extra, and … you guessed it, she works for Magda Gardener. Can't tell you how much fun Elise and I are having pursuing Mr. Sands in this unfolding Medusa's Consortium tale. I hope you're enjoying our voyeuristic encounters as well.
If you missed Part 1, follow the link
In pursuit of Mr. Sands Pt. 2
Safely tucked in my booth at Wetherspoon's, I observed Daniel Sands observing his victim. The word victim didn't really feel right under the circumstances. The glow in the woman's face spoke of a well-satisfied lover rather than a victim. And if I wasn't mistaken, Daniel Sands observed the woman with true affection and more than a little bit of pride. I knew Magda Gardener had at least one vampire on her consortium, and there was a succubus. Both could drain a life away easily and without batting an eye to satisfy their needs, but they didn't. It was clear that neither did Mr. Sands, though I didn't know if that were always the case or simply because it was not wise to leave a string of dead bodies on a commercial airliner. As I watched him watching her, I couldn't help but bask – vicariously of course — in a little bit of their afterglow.
I followed him following her to the car park. Oh they didn't notice. I have a way of going unnoticed when I want to. It's one of the skills Magda hired me for. I watched him watching her from beside a black Audi, and I felt the exact moment when he chose to let her see him. She had just settled into her Mini – an older version — but she didn't start the engine, as I knew she wouldn't. Instead she looked around her in nervous anticipation. Oh she wouldn't have seen him if he hadn't wanted her to. Being able to hide in plain sight was one of his survival techniques just as it was mine. At the moment when her heart rate had accelerated just so — you know that moment I'm talking about — when the serious gallop of foreplay isn't enough any longer, when the body demands more. At that moment when her anticipation was palpable and so was his, he took from her once more. Oh it was just one little nibble. I suspected from a distance he could do little more, but that was another question to add to my growing research list. With his taking, he offered her one last little reward before he freed her completely from his thrall. It only took a raise of his hand to rest and a slight flexing of his fingers, and she came. I felt the pulsing of her orgasm deep in my chest. And him, well there was a sense of euphoria that radiated off him like heat waves. If it were even possible the glow of good health and maleness at its prime that he exuded grew even stronger. And then he just stood there watching as she drove away.
I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders and got into the car Magda's people had provided – an apple red Merc AMG that fit me like a glove. Inside I pulled up Magda's number on the blue tooth.
"He touched me," I said when she picked up. "On the plane when he was making his rounds. I had to let him. I had no choice really."
"Why, yes, I'm fine, thanks for asking and no, he didn't hurt me and he didn't suspect anything."
Her silence told me in no uncertain terms she was unimpressed with my sarcasm. "And?" She repeated.
"He's staying at a flat in Soho. He stays here in London until he's ready for another night flight, unless he decides to fly home." I recited the address.
"You found all that out from touching him?"
"No. I found that out by taking a peek at his landing card in the Passport control queue."
Her chuckle was like fur against bare skin and I couldn't help but wonder if our fearless leader was perhaps a powerful succubus. I'd heard that she could be very charming, hypnotic, in fact. But mostly I'd heard she was flat out terrifying, and she liked it fine that way. It left no doubt as to who was in control of the Consortium. Other than that I knew little about her. I'd never met her personally. She recruited me through a friend of a friend. In the year I'd worked for her, I'd not spoken to her at all until I was assigned to tail Daniel Sands. Him, for some reason, she took a personal interest in, so I was given a phone with only her number programmed in. It was equipped with several other high tech upgrades that made me feel a bit like 007. I knew it was as much her way of tracking me as it was mine of finding her, but then I did have a subcutaneous chip for that. So, what I could glean from the situation was that Magda Gardener wanted Daniel Sands very badly, that Magda Gardener had very deep pockets – which I already knew, and that I was not nearly as expendable as she might have me believe. Listening to her voice and even knowing what I knew, I still had a hard time imagining that she could be more terrifying than some of the nightmares I'd come up against. The thing is, working for her was interesting, and the pay and the benefits were incredible.
"You're a resourceful little shadow, aren't you," she all but purred in my ear. And I all but preened my response.
"I do my best." I smiled at my reflection in the mirror above the visor as I refreshed my lippy.
"You'll be texted the address of your flat in Soho as soon as we secure you one. It'll be ready when you arrive."
I was practically drooling at the thought. Magda Gardener had expensive tastes, and she treated her employees as though they did too. Having said that, she would have no qualms about making me stay in a crack house if that's what it took to secure what she wanted, and I'd certainly stayed in worse.
I'd barely made it to the motorway before I got the text with the address of my temporary digs. I was impressed. Clearly I wasn't the only savvy person who worked for Magda Gardener. The place was right across the street from Mr. Sands' flat with a perfect view of his big bay window and the entrance to the building. I arrived to find the fridge was fully stocked and the closet full of clothes. We're talking high-end designer stuff that I knew would fit me like a dream. Most of the time I'm called upon to travel at the drop of a hat. There's seldom time to pack. I receive a passport, credit cards and cash – whatever I'll need for my cover. Can't count the number of gorgeous outfits and expensive jewelry I've had to leave behind because of time restraints and other … more pressing issues. The necessary accouterments are usually waiting for me when I arrive. As I said, Magda Gardener has expensive tastes. The place was also equipped with state of the art surveillance equipment. The bugs, I would have to find a way to get into his flat myself. But I was confident I could do that with no problems. I made a quick sandwich, drank a gallon of water and, after a quick shower, I went to work.
Pretending to be doing a customer relations survey for the airline, I telephoned the woman who had been Mr. Sands' inflight meal. Sarah Martin was her name, and she managed a bookstore in Brixton. She had scrimped and saved for her holiday in the Big Apple, had gone with empty suite cases and came back with them crammed with bargains. Being upgraded to first class for the trip home was the cherry on the fabulous holiday cake for her. Sadly, all she remembered about her first class flight was that the food was fab and she'd slept right through most of it. Oh, and the flight attendants had been particularly helpful. Perhaps that one final orgasm had also wiped her memory of events Mr. Sands would prefer she not share with nosy people like me and Magda Gardener. None of the flight attendants who knew about Mr. Sands could be reached for comment. I was informed they'd all made quick turnarounds on other international flights, which I found rather strange since after an international flight, one would have expected at least an overnight layover to rest.
All this I did by phone, along with loads of online research of incubi in general and what information I could find, scant little that it was, on Sands specifically. We suspected he lived somewhere in the Hebrides. But no one knew exactly where, and in truth he was nearly as much of a highclass vagabond as I was. Most of the research was connected to resources Magda had given me when she gave me the assignment. I had lots of time for research and phone calls because for two days and nights Mr. Sands didn't leave his flat. I know because I could see him moving about inside. He wasn't secretive about his presence. He never drew the curtains, even when he was fresh from the shower or undressing for bed. Perhaps it was a part of his thrall to hide in plain sight and yet be so irresistibly visible that he was like a peacock fanning his tail and advertising for a mate. At any rate, he had my full attention.
It was the second morning that I began to suspect he knew he was being watched, that he even relished the idea. Of course he would, wouldn't he? But I never thought for a moment that I was in danger. He was, after all, just an incubus. I'd dealt with worse.
He slipped from the bathroom in a wave of steam with nothing but a towel tucked low around his hips. I nearly spilled tea down my shirt at the exquisite view he afforded me. I watched with heart racing as he disappeared momentarily and returned with a cup of coffee and a copy of The Guardian. Okay, I'll admit it delighted me more than it probably should have, since this was my job. But he parked himself in the wing backed chairs smack dab in front of the big bay window and, as he sipped and perused the paper, folded for an easy one-handed read, his other hand strayed to his lap. As though he were barely mindful of the act, he opened the towel and cupped himself absently. Any man might sit in the privacy of his living room on a Sunday morning and, without giving it a second thought, reach for a fondle and a caress and perhaps a little scratch of his junk. I would do the same if I were a man, if I had such an interesting, intriguing appendage there between my legs always vying for my attention. But that Mr. Sands was indulging in such an ordinary act of maleness was what made it so extraordinary. I don't know why I expected him not to indulge in what was such a quintessentially male act, but by the time he laid the paper aside, leaned back into the chair and opened his legs for a good grope, I couldn't have looked away if I wanted to.
He couldn't see me. I was sure of it, and it was my job to spy on him. Still there was something so naughty about me watching while he stroked and caressed his lengthening cock, that it was all I could do not to feel guilty. And perhaps the guilt, the little niggle of shame put the edge in my own growing arousal as I adjusted to hold the binoculars in one hand and slip the other inside my panties.
His fingers were long and slender as they curled around his heft and moved up and down the length of him. His efforts became ambidextrous as he palmed and cupped his sac while fisting and stroking his erection. The shifting of his hips, the tensing of the muscles in his thighs and his flat, tight belly, the way his toes curled into the soft carpet — together they were all such human acts that it was easy to forget they were being performed by someone who was not human. With a start I realized I was mirroring his efforts, toes curling, hips thrusting, fingers darting in and out of slick depths and over rising hardness. I could hardly believe what I was seeing, nor what I was doing, and it was only as my shuddering release shook the binoculars fracturing the arching spasms of his own release, unashamedly poured out onto the floor in front of him that I raised the lenses just enough to take in his face. I expected to see a man lost in his own pleasure, not a man whose cold eyes were locked on me. I swallowed a yelp of surprise, as though he might somehow hear me and the last thing I saw before I dropped the binoculars on the floor and fled my vantage point was his mouth quirking in a wicked smile.
May 13, 2017 Tags: dark paranormal romance, erotica, free read, Medusa's Consortium story, Mr. Sands
Category: Work in Progress Comments Off on In Pursuit of Mr. Sands Part 2


This is a large adjustable ring. Fits a size 8 comfortably as is but can be expanded or contracted to fit larger or smaller size fingers. Once adjusted it should not be readjusted as silver is brittle. Fox size is approx 1.25" x 1.25".


Anyone hoping that the Justice Committee's questioning of Rory Stewart, prisons minister, and MoJ officials on 26 June would give a clearer picture of the Department's finances was emphatically disappointed (1). The event illustrated the limitations of the Commons Committee system, in which each of a dozen or so MPs is in turn given the chance to ask 'their' list of questions. When the answer is unclear or evasive, the questioning often moves on without the issue being resolved. Particular so, when complex financial matters are discussed (2). The effect is like watching a confused battle at night, where the occasional flash briefly illuminates something - but you are not quite sure what – or how it connects to the rest of the battlefield.
In my analysis of 14 May, I described MoJ's finances as out of control, bursting the settlement agreed in SR 2015 in many directions simultaneously, by, I estimated, as much as a billion a year.
losing European Social Fund grants – I recall the splendid pioneering work by Area Managers that drew that money in! - will cost another £32m, which is needless to not covered by SR15.
Is the switch from capex to revenue £125m in 17-18, £245m in 18-19 and £185m in 19-20?
Confusion still reigns. However there is nothing here to suggest that my analysis of 14 May wasn't broadly right.
e) to match d), all costs of the programme including building, fitting out and staffing and opening new prisons, estimated capital receipts from closure, transitional revenue costs of closure e.g. redundancy and of opening e.g. training, showing extent of double running (old capacity still operating while new is still not fully operational).
When the Committee has that, it could have a useful further oral examination. Trouble is, I doubt MoJ know half these things.
A final curiosity. The CFO told the Committee not once, but three times, that MoJ has a 'very strong system of financial management'. Now, believe it or not, I am very sympathetic to the position finance officials in MoJ and elsewhere in Government find themselves in. It is a far more challenging job than the one I had as FD of the HMPS around 2000, and to know that you are spending your working life systematically degrading vital public services, while publicly supporting minsters' pretence that funding is adequate to maintain services, must be hellish.
Still, when one considers that on their own admission, the last SR was disastrously mishandled, that on their own admission, maintenance contracts collapsed because MoJ didn't understand its own costs, resulting in additional spending, that MoJ as been forced to partially reverse deeply damaging cuts in prison staffing and hence exceed again the SR 2015 settlement, that probation contracts have become sustainable because MoJ didn't understand volume risk and this too may exceed the settlement provision, that MoJ's massive building programme has utterly failed, that MoJ cocked up increases in fees , that the court modernisation programme is costing more than budgeted but say the NAO may realise fewer savings than planned, that MoJ is so far adrift financially that its PUSS has had to tell Parliament he cant yet set a proper budget for the current year – when you consider all those things, then if I were the CFO, I would not go around telling Commons Committees that the MoJ has 'very strong financial management systems'.
Brilliant down-to-the-bone analysis of the financial chaos the MOJ is really in - and astonishing that neither the Prisons Minister nor the MOJ CFO have any real understanding of just how dire things really are; Julian, thank you for it.
Thanks Mark. It is so depressing, because how can we ever get back to something half way decent again? There just isnt the money and isnt the political will and (I am sorry to say) isnt the competence.


As photojournalists go, Antonin Kratochvil has sunk his teeth into his fair share of upheaval and human catastrophes whilst going about his documentation of the time in which he lives.
As people go, Kratochvil's own refugee life has been much in the way the same as what he has rendered on film. Kratochvil's unique style of photography is the product of personal experience, intimate conditioning and not privileged voyeurism.
Over the years his fluid and unconventional work has been sought by numerous publications stretching across widely differing interests. From shooting Mongolia's street children for the magazine published by the Museum of Natural History to a portrait session with David Bowie for Detour, from covering the war in Iraq for Fortune Magazine to shooting Deborah Harry for a national advertising campaign for the American Civil Liberties Union, Kratochvil's ability to see through and into his subjects and show immutable truth has made his pictures not facsimiles but uncensored visions.
And yet, what set his kind apart from the many is his consistency and struggle to carry on.
For Kratochvil this fact comes in the form of his numerous awards, grants and honorable mentions dating back to 1975. The latest of these are his two, first place prizes at the 2002 World Press Photo Awards in the categories of general news and nature and the environment.
The next is the 2004 grant from Aperture publishing for Kratochvil's study on the fractious relationship between American civil liberties and the newly formed Homeland Security since the World Trade Center bombings.
In addition, Kratochvil's fifth book Vanishing was presented in April 2005 and marks another significant milestone for the craft to which he belongs.
Vanishing represents a collection of natural and human phenomena that on the verge of extinction. What makes this book so innovative is the twenty years it has taken to produce, making it not only historical from the onset, but a labor of love and a commitment to one man's conscience.
Monacelli Press, New York 1997.
* Mother Jones International Fund for Photography, USA.
* 1994 Ernst Haas Working Grant USA.
* 1995 Hasselblad Foundation Grant for Photography / Sweden.


text:
https://www.ctpost.com/entertainment/article/Fairfield-s-Kershner-Gallery-to-host-Color-14802727.php
Fairfield's Kershner Gallery to host 'Color in Motion' exhibit
Published 3:25 pm EDT, Friday, November 1, 2019
Guy Phillips' "Triple Nude Combo."
Photo: Kershner Gallery / Contributed Photo
The Kershner Gallery in the Fairfield Public Library is inviting the public to "Color in Motion," a reception for the artwork of Guy Phillips and Matthew Samuels.
The event takes place on Friday, Dec. 13, from 6 to 8 p.m. The artists will talk about their work at 6:45. The show can be seen from Saturday, Dec. 7, to Sunday, Jan. 19, during library hours.
Samuels' signature splatter paintings have been collected and exhibited in many facilities in New York, including Bloomingdales in Garden City, Lennox Hill Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College; and in Connecticut, including the Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport.
"I am a self-taught, abstract painter always looking to expand the boundaries of my work and practice," he said in a news release. "I get inspiration by looking, I learn by doing, and I create by experimenting. From toothpicks to industrial brooms, I use all types of unconventional tools to achieve the effects I desire...
"I place my canvases on the floor of my studio, and paint by standing on ladders, stools, and the floor. I have devised a method of heating acrylic paint to attain just the right consistency for my purposes. With energetic gestures I fling, squirt, drip, squeeze, spray, drop and throw paint from all angles and heights until a finished piece emerges. Each completed painting resonates with its own unique color vibrations and inherent rhythm and tempo."
Phillips was born in Sydney Australia, later lived in London and New York, and eventually settled in Westport, where he is manager and a partner in Sylvan Tennis Club. In Sydney, he worked as an art director, attended art classes there and in London. Guy had solo shows in London, Sydney, and later in a gallery in Chelsea in New York.
"From the beginning, painting the figure has been my main interest. A singular form has evolved; hard edge, flat solid colors, and angular geometric shapes. The figure as design! I paint figures in motion, figures in chairs, hanging cutout figures and figures on grids. Also windmills and chairs and tables in the same hard edge style. I like to think this is a unique and original way of displaying these forms; creating and solving pictorial puzzles and the ensuing development of one's own visual style."
Fairfield Public Library, 1080 Old Post Road. Click here for information or call 203-246-9065 or email bskgallery@gmail.com

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Archie Battersbee's mother asks judge for more time to keep unconscious boy, 12, on life support
Friday 13 May 2022, 9:42am
Hollie Dance wants more time to keep her son Archie on life support
The mother of a 12-year-old boy at the centre of a High Court life-treatment dispute has urged a judge to give the youngster "more time".
Specialists treating Archie Battersbee at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, think it "highly likely" that the youngster is dead and say life-support treatment should end.
Bosses at the hospital's governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, on Thursday asked Mrs Justice Arbuthnot to rule that a test to establish whether Archie, from Southend in Essex, was brain-stem dead would be in the youngster's best interests.
Student, 24, dies four years after eating peanut at London restaurant
A doctor told the judge that the brain stem was responsible for the functions which kept people alive.
Archie's parents Hollie Dance, 46, and Paul Battersbee, 56, who are separated, have raised concerns about doctors' proposals and want treatment to continue.
Mrs Justice Arbuthnot is due to deliver a ruling on Friday.
Miss Dance has told how she found Archie with a ligature over his head on April 7 and thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge.
She urged Mrs Justice Arbuthnot not to approve the brain-stem test.
"Everyone is in such a rush," she told the PA news agency.
"I'm asking the judge to just give him more time – give him time to fight back."
She added: "It's only been five weeks – it took me longer to get over the flu. What's the rush?"
Mrs Justice Arbuthnot oversaw a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London, but said Archie could be named in media reports of the case.
A campaign organisation called the Christian Legal Centre said it is supporting Archie's family.
"We are standing with Archie and his family every step of the way," said the centre's chief executive, Andrea Williams.
"We want to give him every chance of life."


Your cancer journey is as unique as you are. The treatment that may work for one person may not be the best option for you. If you've been recently diagnosed with cancer or if you're currently undergoing treatment, you have the right to seek a second opinion.
There are many reasons why patients choose to get another opinion. Perhaps you have been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, you're questioning your diagnosis, or your current treatment plan isn't working.
One of the main reasons why patients don't seek out a second opinion is because they don't want to tell their current physician they would like another doctor's point of view.
What type of diagnostic testing do you perform?
How many patients have you treated with my type and stage of cancer, and how successful have you been?
What happens if a treatment approach doesn't work for me?
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A cancer diagnosis can make you feel like you've lost control, but getting a second opinion is one way to get back in the driver's seat of your own health.
Learn more or contact the Second Opinion Clinic.


2017 Angry Birds Space is a game on uHappyGame.com.
Get ready to join the global phenomenon of angry birds as it goes galactic. The Angry Birds Space is the fifth game of the angry birds' video games. This physics-based puzzle game is not only intriguing but also fun and enjoyable.
With brand new birds and an extensive galaxy to explore, blast the birds into space. Take advantage of gravity to slingshot around the planets as you take out pesky pigs in the galaxy.
Unlike the previous models which had a flat stage, Angry Birds Space comprises of alien planets with different gravitational fields. This affects the trajectory force of the birds after launch. However, it has an amusing aiming system that makes it easy to aim the birds.
Winning Angry Birds Space is pretty simple and exciting. There are more than 300 interstellar levels crossing ten planets including own solar system. Win the challenge by creating proper launch balance dependent on the gravitational force on the specific planet. Destroy the pigs as you advance levels.


text:
Faux pas with foreign buyers
From Chinese tax law to Russian commodities, a broker's guide to avoiding cultural pitfalls
July 2012 Issue /
Jul.July 01, 2012 07:00 AM
By Katherine Clarke
With Europe's debt crisis mounting, foreign interest in New York's ultra-luxury real estate is increasing yet again. Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev's $88 million purchase of a 15 Central Park West penthouse is now the stuff of Manhattan real estate legend, while a Chinese buyer reportedly purchased four separate units at Extell Development's One57 for $20 million apiece.
International buyers contributed $82.5 billion, or 8.9 percent, of the $928 billion spent on residential real estate in the United States for the year ending in March, according a survey released last month by the National Association of Realtors. That's a 24 percent jump from the previous year.
While New York real estate agents have long been focused on international purchasers, they're now scrambling more than ever to add foreign buyers to their client rosters.
But that's often easier said than done: Depending on which country the buyers hail from, doing deals with foreign purchasers can require a working knowledge of everything from tax laws to feng shui. Plus, navigating cultural differences can be a minefield, and if brokers aren't careful, one misstep can end a client relationship before it's even begun.
This month, TRD looked at the dos and don'ts of working with some of the most active groups of international buyers: Russian, Chinese and Brazilian purchasers, as well as those from Western Europe and the Middle East.
Chinese buyers have been among the most active groups of international purchasers in New York in recent years, due partly to the growing number of Chinese millionaires and the strength of the yuan.
New York real estate appeals to these buyers, in part, because in China there's no private land ownership, explained Bill Seto, principal broker at Flushing-based Fultonex Realty and president of the Chinese American Real Estate Association. Instead, residents obtain land leases, usually of up to 70 years.
Still, Chinese buyers face unique obstacles to purchasing U.S. property. For example, Chinese citizens are only allowed to transfer $50,000 out of the country each year because of government restrictions.
As a result, in order to buy properties here, many Chinese buyers find friends, family or acquaintances in China who are willing to send $50,000 to the U.S. to help them make the purchase. (The buyer reimburses them in yuan at home.)
The process is normally kept from brokers, one of whom said that it was better to be kept in the dark about it. While the practice is not technically illegal, they said, it's frowned upon by the Chinese government.
Buying property in the U.S. is easier for Chinese citizens who already have businesses or investments abroad, from which they can withdraw funds. Perhaps for that very reason, some one-third of Chinese citizens worth over $1.58 million have overseas investments, according to a recent Bank of China estimate.
When working with Chinese buyers, American brokers should also be cognizant of certain cultural differences, brokers said. For one thing, feng shui — the Chinese practice of creating harmonious surroundings — is often dismissed as superstition by American brokers. But it is taken very seriously in China, and can indeed make or break a deal.
Tristan Harper, a European-born Prudential Douglas Elliman broker, recently had a Chinese client who was about to go into contract on an apartment, but pulled out at the last minute. It turned out the apartment's views of a nearby domed church are considered bad feng shui.
Seto, whose firm is in the process of setting up a website allowing U.S. brokers to advertise properties to the Chinese market, said he instructs all brokers at his company to take at least an introductory course in feng shui.
Brokers should also be aware that in Chinese culture, the number four is considered a bad omen; in regional Chinese dialects, the word is almost homophonous to the word for death. As a result, Harper said, "one of my purchasers wouldn't even consider 74th Street, although the apartment was perfect for her."
The number eight, by contrast, is associated with good fortune.
Other cultural differences also come into play for brokers with Chinese buyers. New York brokers may know far more about real estate here than their clients, but to avoid coming across as rude, Seto said, they should be careful not to voice their views too strongly.
"You have to be careful how you're putting your thoughts across," he said. "You should always let them finish what they're saying and agree with them. If you disagree, it's best to say, 'I understand. However …' "
Likewise, Seto said, when Chinese buyers say they'll consider your thoughts on a given subject, it generally means they disagree.
Dmitry Rybolovlev
When former Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill found a buyer late last year for his $88 million 15 Central Park West penthouse, the real estate community was less than shocked when the buyer turned out to be Russian.
Thanks to a commodities boom and other factors, the number of billionaires in Russia and the Ukraine has more than tripled since 2009, according to Forbes. And many of these wealthy buyers have been putting their money into real estate: Russians have purchased more than $1 billion worth of U.S. residential real estate in the last four years, according to a recent New York Times report.
But buyers from the former Soviet Union often have an especially cautious approach to dealing with brokers and attorneys. Accustomed to rampant corruption in post-Communist Russia, these buyers are often unwilling to trust even their own agents or attorneys, brokers said, and will sometimes attempt to circumvent them and deal directly with the seller.
"Because there's so much corruption overall in Russia, people are more skeptical in general — and more careful," said Angela Rapoport, a Corcoran Group broker who is originally from Estonia. To help ease the process, Rapoport suggested that brokers introduce prospective Russian buyers to an American attorney even before looking for apartments, so that they have a good working relationship by the time money transfers occur.
And in today's difficult lending climate, it's common for New York brokers to ask detailed financial questions early on in the home search. But that strategy can backfire with Russian buyers, who don't consider it appropriate to ask what someone does for a living — or how much money they make — on the first meeting, Rapoport said.
"If it's a very corporate job, they may tell you upfront, but if a person is more entrepreneurial, they don't like to discuss what they do or how much they earn," she said.
Edward Mermelstein, a Ukrainian-born real estate attorney, agreed that Russian buyers tend to be very private, even secretive, when it comes to financial information. As a result, he said, they are often unprepared for the detailed board packages now required by co-ops and even condos, especially when it comes to showing proof of income.
"Typically, a Russian's income will be derived from various off-shore entities, of which there may be multiple layers," he said.
To aid in the buying process, he said he advises all Russian clients to open an American bank account as soon as they begin the home search, so they can start building a credit history while they look for properties to buy.
Western Europeans have long made up a crucial segment of New York real estate buyers. But now more than ever, European purchasers — faced with economic turmoil at home — are attracted to the relative security and stability of the U.S. residential real estate market, brokers said.
European investors bought $1.6 billion worth of commercial and residential real estate in the U.S. in 2011, more than twice the $700 million they invested in 2010, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle cited by the Wall Street Journal.
The process of doing a real estate deal in cities like London, Paris and Berlin tends to be similar to how it's done in New York, said Alex Karalanian of Citi Habitats, whose parents were born in France and Romania. So unlike other groups of international purchasers, for example, Western Europeans are no strangers to the idea that New York sellers want offers close to the asking price.
But when scheduling closings, brokers should be aware that wire transfers from European banks can take up to three weeks, Karalanian said, especially if the buyer is relying on a local bank based in their home country, as opposed to an international bank like HSBC.
"If you don't plan for it," he said, "it can hold up the deal."
Karalanian is proficient in French and Romanian, but said most European buyers speak enough English to get them through the home-buying process. Still, language can be an obstacle when it comes to conveying technical real estate terms, so he frequently turns to Google Translate to make sure he's using the right phrases.
Residents of this South American economic powerhouse, who have been actively buying up property in Manhattan for the last five years, tend to demand a much higher level of service than New York brokers are used to, said Brazilian-born Elliman broker Marcos Cohen. That's partly due to the fact that in Brazil, even the middle-class commonly employ cooks, cleaners and maids. As a result, they often expect concierge-level attention from their brokers.
"I've been asked for doctors, dentists and all kinds of referrals," Cohen said. "It becomes more than a broker-client relationship. You become more like a family friend."
Town Residential broker Christian Benites, who spent time growing up in Brazil, said he's spent almost as much time browsing through Gucci and Hermès stores with Brazilian clients as he has showing them apartments.
And while American buyers may find it reassuring to have a family member or friend recommend a broker, many Brazilians — who tend to be focused on maintaining their privacy — can be turned off when brokers mention the names of their other clients, thinking that means the broker will blab about them to others, Cohen said.
When it comes to financing, many Brazilian buyers would rather go without, Cohen added. The mortgage market in Brazil was almost nonexistent until a few years ago, due to massively high interest rates, he explained; residential mortgages have only become commonplace in the last few years.While attitudes toward financing are beginning to change in Brazil, the old guard still prefers to pay all cash.
"Brazilians don't have the mortgage mentality," Cohen said. "They say they wouldn't be able to sleep at night."
Luckily, there are few restrictions on moving cash from Brazil to the U.S., Cohen said.
Like Chinese buyers, Brazilians also tend to bid low with expectations of haggling, Benites said.
"Their culture is one of negotiating," he said. That can backfire in the New York market, where sellers expect to sell their homes for close to the asking price.
It's up to brokers to "convey to them that properties will have less room for negotiation," he said.
Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani
Recent reports of Middle Eastern investment in the United Kingdom — Middle Eastern buyers made up 16 percent of prime central London residential sales in the last quarter of 2011, according to CBRE — have, to some extent, overshadowed such news in New York, particularly on the residential side.
Still, New York has seen its fair share of Middle Eastern interest in both residential and commercial properties. Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal's Kingdom Holdings, for example, owns a stake in the Plaza hotel. And in May, Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani made an offer to buy two of the late heiress Huguette Clark's apartments at 907 Fifth Avenue, but was rebuffed by the co-op board. (Brown Harris Stevens' Mary Rutherfurd, the units' listing broker, did not respond to a request for comment.)
Town Residential's Terry Naini is an Iranian-born broker who has worked with a number of Middle Eastern clients, particularly purchasers from Saudi Arabia. She said many Middle Eastern buyers prefer to stay under the radar, often buying with LLCs and looking for the utmost discretion from brokers. And like other groups, Middle Eastern buyers prefer to avoid the topic of money. In fact, Naini said she finds that it's best to not even ask for the buyer's price range, but rather to show them a few differently priced properties and gauge their interest accordingly.
The Qatari Prime Minister's attempt to buy a co-op was unusual, she added, since Arab buyers often prefer townhouses or free-standing houses. That's especially true because wealthy Middle Easterners are used to having luxurious gardens and open courtyards in their homes, so they often want the same thing in New York.
"If a property doesn't have outdoor space, forget it," Naini said.
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Business Entertainment Money News Technology U.S.
L.A. Cannabis News / October 26, 2021 / No Comment
Beringer Capital acquires majority stake in Benzinga
Strategic partnership to propel growth and deliver expanded value to retail and professional users
Beringer Capital ("Beringer"), a leading North American private equity firm specializing in the media, marketing services, and technology sectors, is proud to announce it has acquired a majority stake in Benzinga. Created by the people for the people, Benzinga is a tech-enabled financial media platform that delivers dynamic news, investment analytics, and market information. The partnership between Beringer and Benzinga validates and will accelerate Benzinga's mission to level the playing field for individual investors.
Benzinga was born out of the Great Recession in 2010. Founder Jason Raznick has since built Benzinga to be the resource most widely used by individual investors, integrated into every major online brokerage and recognized as an indispensable resource for best-in-class content, data, events and information. Its staff of more than 100 delivers timely and actionable insights to nearly 25 million readers each month—spanning more than 125 countries worldwide—and organizes industry conferences to connect individual investors with public companies.
Beringer Capital's acquisition of Benzinga reflects its deep media sector expertise, as well as its investment philosophy of partnering with robust founder-led companies that are focused on augmenting digital transformation efforts. Its team was particularly impressed by Benzinga's authentic voice, which seeks to bring investors highly digestible, understandable, and timely information; as well as its broad yet expert editorial coverage that spans traditional financial markets, politics, biotech, cannabis, cryptocurrencies, sports betting and more. This transaction comes on the heels of a year in which Benzinga parlayed broader investment trends—including a growing interest in stock trading and alternative assets such as cryptocurrency—into record subscriber numbers.
Working closely together, Benzinga and Beringer Capital will seek to deliver unparalleled value while helping to grow the platform's subscriber and user base further still. These efforts will include deeper content vertical coverage, new forms of media, expanded B2B partnerships, continuous UX/UI improvements, and more.
"Benzinga is just entering the second inning of what we will build. Partnership with Beringer drastically accelerates the timeline to realize our ambitions of what we can provide investors globally," said Jason Raznick, founder and CEO of Benzinga, who will retain a significant stake in the company and continue to play a key leadership role in charting Benzinga's future growth and vision. "I call myself the co-founder of Benzinga because I truly believe Benzinga is co-founded everyday by our amazing team of Zingers who are empowered and encouraged to build everyday."
"Benzinga was built by being honest and genuine with our users. We are excited to step forward not only hand in hand with Beringer, but also our users," said Benzinga's SVP of revenue Luke Jacobi.
"We're thrilled to partner with Jason and the team at Benzinga, a company at the forefront of trends affecting the next generation of investors," added Perry Miele, chair and managing partner at Beringer Capital. "To date, Benzinga has done a remarkable job of differentiating its offerings and building a vibrant, engaged community across its various platforms. We're looking forward to building on this impressive trajectory, collaborating closely with its team on exciting new offerings that empower more investors to take control of their financial futures."
Beringer Capital has a strong track record of partnering with companies in the digital media space, helping them to adapt and thrive amid a rapidly changing business landscape. Earlier this year the firm announced its acquisition of Inman News, a foremost source of news and insights for the real estate industry. In 2016, Beringer acquired leading media and events company Adweek, helping to diversify its product offerings and drive significant growth.
Benzinga was advised in the transaction by Canaccord Genuity. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
About Beringer Capital:
Beringer Capital is a private equity firm specializing in the rapidly evolving media, marketing services, commerce, data and technology sectors. The firm leverages its financial and intellectual capital to invest in middle-market companies that are strongly positioned to benefit from the accelerating trend toward digital transformation. Beringer's collaborative approach, as well as its strong track record with add-on acquisitions, helps visionary leadership teams to deliver exceptional customer experience and achieve impressive results.
Beringer Capital has offices in Toronto and New York. For more information, visit www.beringercapital.com
About Benzinga
Benzinga is a dynamic and innovative financial media outlet that empowers investors with high-quality, unique content that is sought after by Wall Street's top traders. Benzinga provides timely, actionable ideas that help users navigate even the most uncertain and volatile markets – in real-time with an unmatched caliber. Benzinga's flagship product is Benzinga Pro, a renowned real-time stock market information source providing intelligence that, until recently, was only available to institutional investors. Investors depend on Benzinga Pro everyday to power their investment decisions, understand why markets are moving and share ideas with a dedicated community.
SOURCE Benzinga
https://www.benzinga.com
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Customers have responded so well to our Dress-A-Dolls, we have added this fun pair of pages featuring 13 dolls from the comics. For these cute gals, you can design costumes with pen and ink, collage, colored pencils, and more. From Public Domain Copyright-expired comic books of 1941 to 1960.
Both pages are printed on 8.5x11" 75 pound coverstock. This satiny finish paper is a dream to cut! Presented in a clear archival binder sleeve for ease of storage in your own three-ring binder.


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Why Pakistan's water crisis needs urgent attention?
Tariq Mahmood Khan highlights that despite having more glaciers than anywhere else in the world and its location in the Indus River Basin, Pakistan is at risk of acute water scarcity. Its surface and groundwater sources are both increasingly stressed. The problem is made worse by poor governance and management in the water sector.
By Tariq Mahmood Khan
Water is the most basic necessity of life on the earth. The presence of water anywhere in the universe indicates the presence of life there. It simply means that depleting quantity of water and its poor quality is creating difficulties for life. Water is not only needed but also its quality matters. So life needs a big quantity of water with good quality and if an area meets both of these requirements, it is called water secure. Water security means the water should be available, accessible, affordable and portable. When we think deeply in this context, we find Pakistan a water-scarce country.
Pakistan is, basically, an agricultural country and we use about 80% of our total consumable freshwater for agricultural purposes and most of the remaining 20% is used to fulfill urban needs. According to a study of our urban consumption, 53% is used domestically, 13% is used in industry and the remaining for other purposes. With the increasing population and industrial growth, its usage is beefing up.
Read more: Water scarcity making country a wasteland
Pakistan as a water-scarce country
Pakistan is one of the world's most populous countries where the number of people living per square kilometer is increasing with its increasing population. This uncontrolled rise in population is creating a lot of and numerous types of problems for the country. One of them is water insecurity and scarcity. According to IMF, Pakistan ranked third among the countries facing acute water shortages. This is obvious when we compare ourselves with the Falken Mark Indicator which is a relation between available water and population.
In Pakistan per capita per year water availability was 5260 m3 in 1951, which reduced to 902 m3 at present. It is projected that this will further reduce to 787 m3 in 2025. Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) says that water shortage in Pakistan was 11% in 2004 and this will increase in 2925 up to 31%. PCRWR conducted many surveys and found that 80% of our drinking water which is provided to the public is unfit for drinking. The most important pollutants detected in drinking water are Arsenic and Naegleria (brain-eating bacteria). They analyzed samples of water from a total of 29 sources and 20 out of them were found toxic for human health. So in Pakistan, the available drinking water is also of poor quality.
Many factors are responsible for this deteriorating situation of water in Pakistan. Most important is the high population growth rate and obviously, this needs to be controlled. The second one is the mismanagement of present water resources. The main sources of water in Pakistan are rivers, glaciers, lakes, rainwater and aquifers. Water from the River Indus and its major tributaries is not used to feed urban needs. The potable water is supplied from the lakes, dams and aquifers. In most of the urban areas, to fulfill water demand, underground water is pumped at large scales which is more than their capacity and its result is the falling of underground water table at an alarming rate.
Read more: Water scarcity in Pakistan
The deteriorating situation of water in Punjab
According to a study of LEADS, our underground water table is falling at a rate of one meter per annum which is a dangerous sign. In the plains of Punjab, our water table was, on average, just 10 meters below the earth's surface in 1980 which is now about 40 meters deep and according to their projection, this will be about 70 meters in 2025 and about 100 meters in 2040. This falling water table is creating many problems for our people. Our underground water is already slightly saline and can be used for domestic, agriculture and industrial purposes and it is not fully fit for drinking.
This salt concentration in water is increasing making its use more difficult for common folks. Moreover, the cost of pumping it out is increasing. These aquifers need to be recharged quickly and continuously if we want to keep them in use in the near and far future. The main sources of their recharge are rivers and rainwater. After Indus Water Treaty in 1960, our annual inflow in rivers has decreased from about 115 MAF to 80 MAF annually. River Ravi, Sutlej and Beas have almost dried up. The inflow of River Ravi was about 1300 million m3 in 1960 which decreased to 175 million m3 in 2009 and now it is about 100 million m3.
It means that it has reduced about 13 times since 1960. This highly decreased amount of water in Ravi has greatly affected the underground water table of Lahore city and other areas on its banks. The reason is simply that that is, these areas have lost their most important source of recharge. Similar issues of recharge are being observed in the bar of River Sutlej (Ganji Bar) and around an old bed of River Beas. Moreover, our urban areas are jungles of concrete and our urban planners have never kept in mind the need of recharge of underground recharge. The rainwater has very little chance to absorb and recharge underground water. It is clear evidence of mismanagement of our water resources.
Read more: Pakistan's Peculiar Water Scarcity: Role of Private Sector
Global warming: another added challenge
Our glaciers are melting at a high rate due to global warming. Another study of LEADS shows that the Himalayan glaciers are melting at a rate of 3.3 feet per year. Ice bodies throughout the globe are melting but these glaciers are melting at the highest rate in the world which is an alarming situation to us. In 2010, Pakistan had 2400 glacial lakes but in 2020, this number increased to 3600 which is a clear-cut indicator of glacial melt at a high rate. Global warming is also affecting our rain pattern very strongly. According to Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), we are facing a 10-15% reduction in rainfall annually for the last ten years. It means that if it continues as such, we may lose a quantity of water in our rivers that will ignite the problem of water scarcity in Pakistan.
Water reservoirs are another important source of potable water in Pakistan. Lake Manchar, a natural lake in Sindh, is an example. We have built many dams in the past to fulfill the water needs of urban areas. Rawal dam was built for water supply to twin cities. Once it was enough for this purpose but now it is due to increase in population and spread of cities, more such reservoirs are needed.
How can we resolve these issues?
Pakistan needs to solve the problem of water scarcity on an immediate basis. The most important hurdle is the poor local government. All major cities need master plans to solve their issues but none of our major cities have such plans because our whole powers in government are concentrated in few hands, that is, our Prime Minister is like the clock tower of Faisalabad, having all powers in his hand. The remaining powers are in the hands of Chief Ministers who play the role of a clock tower in their respective provinces.
We need an effective and strong plan of devolution of power. The empowerment of local bodies is the need of the time just like China where more than 47000 municipal governments exist. Turkey is another example of it that has about 3000 city governments. If we are able to follow the Chinese and Turkish model of local governments, our problem will be solved more effectively and quickly because they will be able to develop strict guidelines and implementation procedures.
Read more: Water Scarcity: Pakistan's dire condition
Private-Public-Partnership Model should be adopted which has generated valuable results globally. Our traditional irrigation method is responsible for wasting more than 60% of irrigation water, so this needs to reform on the modern lines. This will save a large quantity of water that can be used to fulfill our water demand and also be helpful in restoring the natural riverine ecology.
The author is a lecturer in Pak. Studies and Head of Social Studies Department at the University of Central Punjab, Faisalabad Campus. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.
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Q: How to force a mobile device to ask for a computer site I have a website that is optimized for both mobile and desktop devices. It turns out that on some mobile devices the following error appears:

ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE

However if I ask the site for computer it already lets run the site. Is there any way to get the default web site to run on computer version. Or some other
solution? Thank you.

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Brazil, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Wetland protection / management, disaster-prone areas, land use systems, private investments, qualitative indicators, soil organic carbon
(-) soil organic carbon (27)
(-) private investments (17)
(-) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (3)
(-) qualitative indicators (1)
Land Degradation and Development (articles just published)
Modeling variations in soil salinity in the oasis of Junggar Basin, China Ligang Ma, Shengtian Yang, Zibibula Simayi, Qing Gu, Jiadan Li, Xiaodong Yang and Jianli Ding Version of Record online: 15 FEB 2018 | DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2890 Carbon Balance as Affected by Biosolid Application in Reforestations…
Soil cannot halt climate change
Long-term field experiments at Rothamsted Research, dating back as far as 1843, prove that modern carbon emissions cannot be locked in the ground to halt global warming
GLF summit: Leveraging investment portfolios to manage sustainable landscapes
"Land degradation is estimated to cost the global economy from $2 to $4.5 trillion a year, while economic benefits of restoration efforts are an estimated $84 billion a year, according to a report in Environmental Research Letters, and statistics from World Resources Institute. The purpose of the…
Soil Biodiversity and Soil Organic Carbon: keeping drylands alive
This year's theme for the World Day to Combat Desertification focuses on sustainable land management (SLM) as a way to regenerate economies, create jobs and revitalize communities. Under the slogan "Land has true value – Invest in it". Over the years, IUCN has focused its efforts on advocating for…
Managing Soil Health for Sustainable Agriculture (Vol.I and Vol. II)
There has been growing concern that both intensive agriculture in the developed world and rapid expansion of crop cultivation in developing countries is damaging the health of soils which are the foundation of farming. At the same time we are discovering much more about how complex soils are as…
Rising carbon will mean shrunken harvests
Higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere don't just mean a warmer world: they could also mean both shrunken harvests and a less nourishing diet.
New article: Land-use emissions play a critical role in land-based mitigation for Paris climate targets
Scenarios that limit global warming to below 2 °C by 2100 assume significant land-use change to support large-scale carbon dioxide (CO2) removal from the atmosphere by afforestation/reforestation, avoided deforestation, and Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). The more ambitious…
Land systems at European level — analytical assessment framework
An EEA briefing published today proposes an analytical framework that aims at developing a strategy for monitoring and integrated assessment of the state of land and its key resources
SDG Bonds & Corporate Finance: A Roadmap to Mainstream Investments
Calls on institutional investors to increase their allocation of capital towards the SDGs, and to drive the demand for a diverse set of SDG investments ranging from sovereign bonds to corporate bonds and equity.
Living Planet Report published this week shows a 60% decline in wildlife populations over the past 40 years
The biannual Living Planet Report published this week shows a 60% decline in wildlife populations over the past 40 years driven largely by the pressure placed on habitats by the food system and in particular western diets high in meat and processed foods. The report, produced for WWF by the…
New Article:Technologically achievable soil organic carbon sequestration in world croplands and grasslands
Reported potentials for sequestration of carbon in soils of agricultural lands are overly optimistic because they assume that all degraded cropland and grassland can be subjected to best management practices. Two approaches for estimating this potential are presented.
New article: Soil erosion is unlikely to drive a future carbon sink in Europe
Understanding of the processes governing soil organic carbon turnover is confounded by the fact that C feedbacks driven by soil erosion have not yet been fully explored at large scale. However, in a changing climate, variation in rainfall erosivity (and hence soil erosion) may change the amount of C…
LANDMARK - European Research Project on the sustainable management of land and soil in Europe.
LANDMARK is a European Research Project on the sustainable management of land and soil in Europe. The questions that LANDMARK aims to address are: "How can we make the most of our land ? How can we ensure that our soils deliver on the many expectations we have of our land ?"
EU Commission just adopted the landmark EU2050 climate strategy for a Climate Neutral EU by 2050. Europe will be the world's first major economy to go for NetZero2050
The European Commission calls for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. On 28 November 2018, the Commission presented its strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate-neutral economy by 2050. The strategy shows how Europe can lead the way to climate neutrality by…


be equality of opportunity and this is the key issue.
productive evolving members of society.
Thanks, I had totally forgotten about this. I noticed a few errors in the text also so obviously I didn't proof it too well.
The concept of social enterprises has many originators, covering European organisations like CIRIEC, CRIDA, CECOP and others.
Within the transnational project "Community Economic Development and Social Enterprises" the European Network for Economic Self-Help and Local Development has developed the following working definition of Social Enterprises which sustained several discussions and comparisons with other researchers' groups since 1994.
1) They seek to tackle specific social aims by engaging in economic and trading activities.
2) They are not-for-profit-organizations, in the sense that all surplus profits generated are either re-invested in the economic activities of the enterprise or are used in other ways to tackle the stated social aims of the enterprise.
3) Their legal structures are such that all the assets and accumulated wealth of the enterprise do not belong to any individuals but are held in trust to be used for the benefit of these persons or areas who are intended beneficiaries of the enterprise's social aims.
4) Their organisational structures are such that the full participation of all members is encouraged on a co-operative basis with equal rights accorded to all members.
It is a further characteristic of the social enterprise sector that it encourages mutual co-operation between social enterprises and with other organizations in the wider social and local economy.
Is it not better to work and be active in a community and receive a share of the wealth or to exploit our communities to extract wealth from them.
Maybe Keynes did not account for the state we find ourselves in so it is time to seek alternatives and improvements.
To be clear this does not meaning limiting competition but simply utilizing it appropriately. Some times co-operation is more appropriate to competition and at other times the reverse will be true.
We should all be satisfied to have what we need and work hard for what it is we want.
I was recently lucky enough to catch a radio documentary called Capitalism On Trial. Not sure if it is still available but here is some of the transcript and there are theorists and commentators mentioned who should come in useful.
You, are the author here..