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Home/Skepticism/Jesus wants you to be rich.
Jesus wants you to be rich.
carr2d2 Send an email March 26, 2008
38 9 4 minutes read
I've finally settled back into a normal routine after finishing a month of overtime work at the nuke plant. Now that I'm back to a regular work week on a more conventional job site, I'm getting caught up with all of my podcasts. Forgive me for being a month late to the game, but I just got to the Skeptic's Guide interview with Robert Fitzpatrick about pyramid schemes, and I thought you all might be interested to read about some of my experiences and knowledge on this topic.
How do I know about this? Well, I grew up in Amway.
My parents discovered Amway in the late seventies, between getting married and having me. I'm not entirely clear on how they became involved, but my parents don't do anything half-assed. They went for it big time. They recruited a few couples with whom they have remained very close over the years, and have maintained a small base of customers who do actually buy products from them.
Driven by the desire to "be his own boss", my dad would go through phases of motivation, in which he would be out almost every night to "show the plan" to prospective new recruits, trading his grungy construction day wear for a clean suit and tie. Despite his natural charisma and friendly demeanor, he was never very successful at this endeavor. I think in the 15 or so years of his heavy involvement, he may have recruited 3 or 4 couples who stuck with it for any amount of time.
A constant memory of my childhood is of my parents getting all dressed up to go to local Amway meetings. These were the only times (apart from special church holidays) that I ever saw my mother in a dress or high heels or a purse (she's a bit of a tom-boy). I remember knowing they'd come home when I heard the comforting clomp of her heels late at night. We would also travel to different locations throughout the country so they could go to Amway conventions. Sometimes these would be incorporated into a larger family vacation, which was cool in that we got to visit some places that we otherwise wouldn't have gone to.
Then there was the constant harping about "brand x" products (anything that wasn't made or sold by Amway). Like I said before, my parents don't do anything half-assed. If Amway made it, we used it. In their more fervent phases, my siblings and I were not allowed to bring "brand x" items into the house.
My childhood was steeped in the language of the "can do" attitude. My dad would continually use cliches like "Are you a weiner or a winner?" (No, I am not making this up.) We were given Amway t-shirts with positive phrases on them, and subjected to the music of the Goads, an Amway musical group (again, I am not making this up). And then there were the motivational cassette tapes. Though, I must say, my brother and I had entirely too much fun creating our own tapes using the portable tape recorder my parents purchased so they could listen to their Amway tapes. I wish I knew where those ended up.
Despite our parents clear attempts at indoctrinating us, my brother and I adopted a fairly skeptical attitude toward all this. From our perspective, our choices were being limited, we could see that our dad's attempts at recruitment were largely failures, and other people didn't seem to take any of it seriously. Also, the higher up Amway people we had met were really fake and cheesy, and nobody like us seemed to be getting rich off of it. So we sort of made fun of it all behind our parents' backs, and hoped for the day when they would realize it wasn't getting them anywhere.
When I was 16 years old, my dad had some sort of transformative religious experience (or manic episode) which radicalized my family from a somewhat involved, church-going Catholicism to a cultish charismatic "evan-tholicism" (my husband's word). So basically, they switched obsessions from Amway to Jesus.
My mom still sells Amway to a handful of people. I have to admit, I buy laundry detergent from her. What can I say? It's highly concentrated and comes in a big jug, so I only have to buy it once a year. She doesn't really make any money off of it. I think they still have 2 or 3 "downline" recruits, but are no longer actively pursuing expansion.
Do I think Amway is a cult? Definitely. The meetings were scary for me as a kid, and are even scarier in retrospect. Is it fraud? I'm not sure. Probably. From what I've seen, no one but the top tier are making any kind of substantial money off of it. I don't know that I agree that the products are a token to disguise the true pyramid nature of the scheme. It definitely started that way, but I think as Amway has had to contend with legal challenges, they've put more energy into developing a legitimate product line. In all fairness, the stuff is generally pretty good. It is relatively expensive, but in my opinion is comparable to similarly priced "brand x" items. I think a big problem with this is the fact that most of the (working class) people like my parents who join Amway to achieve the "American dream" end up spending a lot more on their monthly expenses, because instead of buying generic shampoo at the supermarket, they are buying the equivalent of a salon brand from Amway–it's good stuff, but they don't really need to be spending $15 for high grade shampoo when they could get a perfectly serviceable brand for $1.
Amway definitely sells false hope and preys on people's desire to find a quick way to get rich and be financially independent. It also churns out rhetoric about "winners" and "losers" that makes it difficult for people to place blame with the corporate structure when they do not succeed. It presents a bizarre fusion of capitalism and Christianity that first bolsters self esteem with feel good messages and ultimately tears it down when the system doesn't work.
After all, Jesus wants you to be rich, and if you can't do it selling expensive products to people who can't afford them, well, you must just be a loser.
carr2d2
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Skeptigator says:
I agree that the "core" Amway products (ie, Soap) is good stuff, nothing earth-shattering but still quality stuff. But let's be honest, no one gets into Amway to sell soap. Let's just say when I was 19ish I… um… was looking to "be my own boss", as well.
When I told my wife I was a "skeptic" (well I actually discovered there was a label for me at least), the first thing she said was, "Is that like Amway?". True story.
Which actually now that I think about it, skeptics have at least one major convention (TAM), and I'm pretty sure you are required to own at least one snarky T-Shirt (Viva la evolucion, Don't high-hat the monkey) and listen to "skeptical" podcasts.
Dammit! I've been hoodwinked again…
Skepti-Double-Diamond-gator
writerdd says:
Oh my, I went to those Word of Faith churches in the 80s! A lot of evangelical Christians sold Amway back in the day… I didn't know they were still around.
Sam Ogden says:
I recall having more than one person coming to our house when I was a kid to try to bring us into the Amway fold. I didn't really know about it or care at the time. But I think they pissed me off because my parents forced me to come in from playing to liten to it all. Cruel thing to do to a kid.
Something else just occurred to me . . .
Am I mis-remembering or are Amway people not supposed to come right out say it's Amway they're pushing.
See, my mom was unable to say no to people who told her they had a fabulous opportunity to tell her about, so she would allow random people from her church to come over for the spiel. And I think I recall my father once asking right up front "Is this Amway?"
And the presenter seemed to hedge and sort of refused to answer. My father got more agitated and kept asking until the woman finally said something like, "Well, yeah, Amway makes the products," or something like that.
carr2d2 says:
sam, i'm not sure if that's true or not. it seems to me that, regardless of the official policy, people would try to hide the amway name in order to prevent the immediate skeptical reaction that the name would evoke in most people.
from what i can remember, my dad referred to it as simply "the business".
in north america, amway is now operating under the name quixtar. i assume this is because most people won't take amway seriously due to decades of bad press.
TheSkepticalMale says:
I am embarrassed to admit that my sister actually tried to sell me Amway once. I honestly thought Amway had morphed into a bunch of other sales organizations.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' phenomenon a loose mix of capitalism and Christianity as well?
So what about "[i]t is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God" (Matt. 19:24)?
sam, i'm not sure if that's true or not. it seems to me that, regardless of the official policy, people would try to hide the amway name in order to prevent the immediate skeptical reaction that the name would evoke in most people.
Sounds reasonable, I suppose. That's exactly the reaction my father had. I don't think he stayed for the rest of the presentation. The lucky bastard.
i don't know too much about rich dad, poor dad, but it seems to fall in that general category.
as for the bible verse you quoted, trust me, the contradiction is not lost on me. it seems that especially since the reagan years, this sort of evangelical capitalism has become dominant in mainstream american christianity. i wonder if it has anything to do with the mass exodus of christians from the democratic party after the roe v wade decision? maybe they needed to adapt their faith to the rest of the republican ideology?
That's an interesting comment – I agree with you, but I have a different personal experience with the religio-capitalist evolution (a friend of mine on this board has taught me the fine art of neologisms) … My mother was raised a hardcore Catholic (immigrants from Germany and Poland) and is the epitome of the "Reagan Democrat" (voted for Carter in 1976, Reagan in 1980, and Republican thereafter) … It had more to do with economics – between 1976 and 1980, my parents went from being blue-collar to being small business owners, so it had more to do with perceived fiscal conservatism … I say "perceived" because Republicans spend as much as Democrats (if not more), but they spend on different things and instead of raising taxes, they just borrow …
To be completely honest, I never heard anything about abortion in our house growing up … But I don't dispute that you may be right – I was only two years old when Roe v. Wade was decided, but I got to know Sarah Weddington (lawyer who won the case) in her gender-based discrimination class years ago, and she pointed out that abortion was legal in a number of states before that case and there was not an outpouring of protest as there was after that case …
pauk says:
I had totally forgotten about it until I listened to the Amway episode, but my mum was into it years ago also. Obviously I knew nothing about Amway at the time, I thought they were just a company that made powdered milk or something. But we did have the cassettes and videos lying around everywhere. I taped over just about all of them to make mix-tapes and record episodes of Red Dwarf… which, I think, may have saved my mum from the clutches of Amway. In fact the more I think about it the more it makes sense… I am a hero.
I should ask her about it now. See how much money we lost.
wow…saved from smegging amway by red dwarf…
David Harmon says:
I've known a couple of people who got sucked into "multi-level marketing" schemes… it was pretty sad. One of those took me to a meeting, and it was pretty blatantly cultish. I actually asked the leader, "So, what percentage of the [people] in your group actually reach that high-income level?"
The guy guffawed and said "why would you want to know that?" [Umm, because you want me to pay you money and are promising implausible riches?] In this case, I could easily tell it was a canned response, and that's saying something, what with my social disabilities and all. (Or possibly because of them?) As I learned later, that derisive laugh and dismissal is a standard cult tactic for squelching inconvenient questions.
The leader also told my then-friend that I would not be welcome to return to their meetings. (Yeah, I lost the friendship….)
it's sad when people lose what's important in life to something so silly.
It's money. People like money more than people sometimes.
i'm not sure it's necessarily money, at least for the people at the bottom…i think it's more about the freedom that money could offer.
Well… the promise of money still counts I guess.
mass exodus of christians from the democratic party after the roe v wade decision?
The beginnings of the religious right had nothing to do with abortion. It was in 1975 when the IRS was threatening to revoke tax exempt status from discriminatory Christian schools such as Bob Jones University that the shit hit the fan.
The Southern Baptists and other evangelical groups actually supported Roe v. Wade, both before and after 1973.
It wasn't until the late 70s and early 80s that they adopted the anti-abortion stance as a way to carry the momentum forward into a long-term political movement. This was not a grass-roots effort, but something that was started intentionally to create a political movement.
I think one of the first anti-abortion tracts was written by Melody Green and published by Last Days Ministries in 1979.
You can read an account of this here and I'm working on a post about this topic, too.
Also, the "Word of Faith" or "Name It, Claim It" movement was really at its peak in the 1980s. This is the group was led by Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, and several others who said that God wanted his followers to be rich. This teaching, while outwardly rejected by most other Christian sects, has actually been absorbed into their doctrine unconsciously, especially in the mega churches. This is just a personal observation. I haven't seen this written about anywhere, but I'm sure I'm not the only person who has noticed this phenomena.
thanks for the info, donna…i guess most of my knowledge about this stuff in the late 70s and early 80s comes from catholic sources when i was still involved in all that, and assumptions i've made since based on that (probably very biased) information.
i look forward to reading what you have to say about it.
theantichick says:
I did Amway, and I think I'm still a Quixtar (the current incarnation) distributor (I'll have to check and see if my account is still active). Amway never asked anyone to pretend they weren't pushing Amway in the presentations, but there are two power structures in the Amway business… Amway and the Diamonds. The Diamonds are the ones who make all the motivational tapes and materials and put on all the seminars & stuff. The Diamonds make more money on that stuff than they do on Amway products… the Diamonds are the ones who tell you to obfuscate what you're really selling until you've got the prospect "hooked" on the "dream".
Frankly, I haven't been able to afford the Amway stuff in a year or so because we're getting rid of our debt and my hubby went back to school. But I like a lot of the products, so I never dropped my distributorship. But I am doing just fine with "Brand X", the only thing I'd probably still keep buying even if I dropped my distributorship is the vitamins, because I physically feel better when I take them, but they're BLOODY EXPENSIVE, so I haven't had them in over a year. ::shrug::
Even when I was trying to make the business go, though, I quit the tapes and seminars, because I hated them, and I refused to do the pressure sales pitch. I will never have a significant downline or make money with Amway, I know. Anyone thinking it's a way to make it rich is nuts.
Melusine says:
When my step-mother got into her born-again phase while I was in Junior High, she got all caught up in the Amway cult. Yes, it certainly looked like a cult to me and when the people would come over my father hid in the bedroom. They were like Stepford Wives/Husbands who smiled way too much and sounded way too chirpy. Not only that, the products such as cleaners, were no better than Fantastik, imo, and too expensive. I think my father finally told her to stop it.
At the same time she started watching the 700 Club. Ugh. Then Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Oh, the early 80s…then I got "attacked" by Mary Kay people she got involved with. It was one thing after another (and still happens).
Some people have an addiction to "clubs" of these sorts and live in a sort of fantasy world where they believe all the infomercials about get-rich schemes and success. And it's sad because through my job I saw many many people, especially the elderly, get ripped off. And as with my step-mother, she spent more money being involved in the thing than what she ever got in return.
Glad to hear your experience.
thanks for the info, donna…i guess most of my knowledge about this stuff in the late 70s and early 80s comes from catholic sources
I was in the middle of it, but I couldn't see what was happening. I knew that certain Christian groups wanted to take over the US government and there was a lot of fear of the World and the Devil to make people buy into that dream, but I never thought they had a chance at success. Sigh. The things you can't see except in retrospect… the same fear mongering is still going on today, but it seems like the younger generation of Christians are smarter than I was and are not buying it. At least I hope that's the case.
Augustus says:
When I first moved to Texas I answered an ad in the paper for salespeople. Turns out what I would be selling was off-brand perfume an cologne out of the trunk of my car. It had all the trademarks of a "cult of capitalism." They wanted to send me out of town for weeks at a time (why I couldn't stay local I never could get a straight answer to even though others came from out of town to sell where I lived), there was the warning that some of my friends/family wouldn't understand and would try to stand in my way, there was the promise of owning my own franchise within a year if I just worked hard enough. And to top it all off, they didn't want us selling door-to-door at people's homes so they wanted us to go door-to-door at buisnesses.
At the time I was to naieve and/or desperate to see it for what it was worth but thankfully my unwillingness to peddle crappy cologne to people while they work saved me.
In regards to the rise of the cult of capitalism in general I've heard it said that one of the reasons why Scientology has become so popluar among celebrities is that it teaches that their wealth is deserved.
waltdakind says:
Thanks for the engaging post.
I had a friend try to sell me on Amway in the early nineties. Even though I was not nearly as skeptical as I am today, I managed to say that it just seemed a little too cult-like for me to be interested. He has since left Amway, and has been apologetic over having pitched it to me and we're still friends.
I now have a friend whose wife sells 4Life (an equally cult-like MLM) and I am really concerned about her and my friend. Aside from infiltrating the organization to find out enough to debunk it, I'm running short of ideas.
Anyone have experiences with 4Life?
i've never heard of 4Life before. i'd say if your friend won't listen to reason, you just have to stick to your guns. don't be obnoxious, but don't let false or misguided statements go by unchecked. from what i've seen, most people get disheartened very quickly and start to see through it, but then there are those who keep at it…imagine what they could bring to the world if they'd just apply their hard work and ambition toward something other that making other people rich.
gwenny says:
Amway was big with Mormons, as well, when I was in the church in the 80s. In fact, Utah is like the center of multi-level marketing. I've been approached by four different companies that sell nutritional products in the past three years and when you do the research, it's all the same family in Utah.
Improbable Bee says:
Doesn't matter what the name is … it's the same rigamorale, and it irritates me that so many Christians get involved in it and try to mix the two belief systems together. I had a conversation recently with a good friend whose wife used to be much closer to me than she currently is, and we were talking a little about why the wife and I had drifted apart. I finally came out and said, "I just felt like every time we were really getting into a good conversation, it turned out she was trying to sell me something."
And that RIGHT THERE is why I think Christians and Mormons are such a good fit for multi-level marketing. They've already spent their whole life starting conversations with a hidden agenda, steering them in the direction they want them to go so that they can casually drop the sales pitch into the conversation. So all they have to do is shift from selling Jesus to selling soap.
well said, bee.
JSug says:
This is kind of a pet topic for me. I had an online friend that got into one of these multi-level marketing groups. He became an "independent distributor" for one of those mangosteen health drink companies (headquartered in *gasp* Utah). He kept posting messages on the forum we were both members of, singing the praises of this stuff. He claimed repeatedly that it was a magical cure for what ails ya. He proudly admitted that he'd sold cases of it (the drink is ridiculously expensive) to a friend's mother, and claimed that it was curing her breast cancer. Of course, when I asked him if he was actually making a profit from selling the product, he sidestepped the question. When I pointed out that you can buy it on ebay for significantly less than what he was paying as a distributor, he accused me of being jealous of his opportunity for success. Then he stopped posting to the forum for a while.
When he came back, several months later, it was to post a long apology. Turns out his friend's mother had relapsed after stopping her treatments in favor of the drink, and she was very ill. Meanwhile, he'd nearly lost his shirt trying to sell the stuff to everyone he knew while trying to keep up with his purchasing quota. He'd had to stop paying a lot of bills, including internet, which explained why he hadn't been posting.
If anyone is interested in learning more about how these sort of companies operate, Rob Cockerham of Cockeyed.com has an excellent report he published in 2002 (and has updated several times since) after spending a lot of time researching the Herbalife company. They're the ones ultimately responsible for the vast majority of the "work from home" and "lose weight" signs and ads you see posted all over the place.
Although the business practices of these companies are reprehensible, they are notoriously difficult to prosecute. Because their entire sales force consists of independent distributors, they claim no responsibility for the sales tactics that are used. And as long as they have a salable product, they don't legally qualify as a pyramid scheme. The key, though, is that very few people, if any, ever make a profit selling the actual product, no matter how good it is. They can make much more money by selling the overpriced training materials and getting commissions for bringing in new distributors. The goal, then, becomes recruiting more and more people into the organization rather than actually making sales. Which means they are, in reality, pyramid schemes.
Oops, forgot the link to the Cockeyed report:
http://www.cockeyed.com/workfromhome/workfromhome.html
note: Rob's page formatting isn't the easiest to navigate through, but the report makes for some very engaging reading.
icerat says:
I'm an atheist, a liberal, a skeptic, and Amway distributor. There's a deal of ignorance about how Amway operates, and unfortunately quite a lot of that is shown in many of the posts given above. First of all, for at least 25 + years, if you've ever been to an "Amway meeting", it's highly unlikely it was a meeting run by Amway. As theantichick pointed out, most meetings are run by individual diamonds or other organisations that have sprung up to support Amway distributors (currently called Quixtar IBOs). Given the very nature of networking, these groups tend to reflect the leaders that developed. Some of the largest in North America sprung out of the religious south, and as such they have a very strong christian base in them. To an atheist like myself their meetings, tapes etc do indeed feel very "cult-like", quite scarily so. On the other hand, the group I work with developed out of the kitchen of an aerospace engineer. While he's a christian, he doesn't promote it, and his group has many other engineering types. We're not exactly leaping in the air and chanting and singing at our business seminars.
Skepchic – I'm not sure where your comment regarding "legal challenges" comes from. Amway itself has had extremely few legal challenges since the FTC first investigated the company in the 70s. There have been lawsuits involving disgruntled former-distributors, but most of these have related to problems with other distributors rather than the company itself. As for Amway products, they've pretty much always been considered some of the best around, with their first products also being some of the first environmentally friendly products on the market. Their brands such as Nutrilite, Artistry, and eSpring are some of the biggest selling in the world and have one numerous awards.
Finally, I think it's worth pointing out that Amway, and it's current North American counterpart Quixtar (being renamed back to Amway this year) actually has rules against things like promotion of religion and politics at Amway related seminars. They've been extremely poor at policing such rules, however in the last couple of years they've launched an "accreditation" program for the organisations that run these seminars, and they've now linked accreditiation to quite a number of the commission payouts. If the organisation you choose to work with or yourself doesn't obtain accreditation, then you don't get the payments/free trips etc.
Hopefully many of the types of stories given above will become footnotes for the history books.
I've done a more complete analyses of the FitzPatrick interview over on the Skeptics Guide Forums
icerat, thanks for your comments. i have to admit, the information about legal challenges i cited came from the fitzpatrick interview. sometimes we forget we should be skeptical of the skeptics, too. i'm interested to do some more digging on this topic.
what you're saying about the amway corporation's views on the issues i've raised is interesting. i hope they do take more initiative in correcting some of the cultish behavior out there. until they do, i think my criticism stands.
i spent 15 years of my life immersed in it, and there was never any distinction made between the diamonds and the corporate structure. they were seen by my family and everyone else we knew in the business as the face of amway.
if this wasn't indeed the case, i think it was irresponsible of the amway corporation to allow this to become the common view of their company. by saying nothing, they essentially condoned it.
i think it's clear from the comments on this blog that many people have had similar experiences to mine, and have the same general understanding of how amway operates and the messages associated with it. as i said above, if these are indeed inconsistent with the amway corporation's intentions, then they should have stepped in long ago and corrected it.
carr: Frankly, it reminds me of the Church of Scientology's strategy of decentralisation. Rather than having a single, large lawsuit magnet, they form a bunch of splinter groups to diffuse the liability and protect the organisation as a whole.
The Diamonds in the Amway case seem to play the role of, say, the CCHR in Scientology of pushing the controversial stuff that might attract lawsuits for fraud or libel (respectively). At least, that's my read of the situation.
that seems to make sense…i'd be interested to hear what icerat has to say about that.
carr2d2 – you are correct about them being "the face of Amway", my point is that as such there were *many* such faces. Historically the corp. itself used to run seminars etc, but some groups, primarily the evangelicals, became enormously successful running their own seminars with an even stronger religious and political bent. This plays extremely well to those who like that kind of thing, and through the late 70s and 80s these groups grew significantly. In the early 80s the corp. tried to take back a sembelance of control, but some of these "big pins" effectively called a boycott and in 1983 Amway sales dropped more than $300 million in one year, then nearly a quarter of total corporate turnover.
The corp. itself had little choice but to go into "survival mode" and effectively ceded control of the "field" to the "big pins" and pulled back much of the corp. training . Others who were not part of those organizations were effectively forced into forming their own organizations for running seminars etc. and you ended up with literally dozens of different organizations supporting and promoting the Amway business., each with their own methods of doing things and organizational culture. Through the 80s the evangelicals were still the major players of these groups in the US, but through the 90s other groups and Amway itself focused on international expansion, eventually reaching the place we are today, with Amway being far larger outside the US and the evangelicals having had their power dramatically curtailed. Today the non-evangelicals make up a much greater portion of Amway's revenues both globally and within the US, allowing Amway to wield a big stick against miscreants without fear of being forced out of business. Groups have until the end of this year to abide by accreditiation guidelines (www.quixtaraccreditation.com) or they will forfeit the right to all of the higher bonuses and commissions.
Joshua – there's actually been remarkably few Amway related lawsuits given the size and nature of the organization, and except for one recent case involving a dispute between distributors, Amway is pretty much always named as a co-defendent. In most cases the accusations have been Amway didn't do enough to stop "abuses", and in my opinion there's some justification to that charge, though it carries little legal weight. Diffusion of liability just isn't an issue when you're attracting few lawsuits in the first place.
Skeptisch says:
How else can you defend something so far removed from the truth but with untruths, spin and faith?
We can all sing in the same choir of truth, reason and common sense here at SkepChick, but maybe more of us should also have our songs with the deluded and gullible masses on other blogs. There is some evidence that many faith heads leaving organised religion end up with something even more bizarre and delusional, and that is some New Age guru's word that the paranormal is normal and the supernatural natural.
Some of us were doing our best at http://www.intentblog.com the Deepak Chopra family blog where he tells the world that RCB (remote cutlery bending) is a fact. Can you imagine, in this day and age telling your readers that mental spoon bending is a reality that our society is trying to deny? He says, "Let's not waste any more time on spoon bending. For millions of people it is now a trivial example of mind and matter as inseparably one". http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/10/my_last_message.html
http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/10/a_letter_to_all.html
These pretenders are doing their stuff often without the slightest challenge! Please have your say at http://www.intentblog.com. Your first comment should be a mild one in order to be approved and displayed in up to 24 hours. Subsequent posts will appear quicker. We must try to tell these gullible folks to give reason a chance to find the truth before accepting some charlatan's word and advice not to be skeptical and to have faith in his teachings
i may have to give that a shot, skeptisch, but this makes me think we've lost the battle before we've even entered the game:
NOTE: We do not tolerate comments that are disrespectful, slanderous, or generally unrelated to fulfilling a mission of collective empowerment. If community members are found to consistently violate this mission, they are banned from contributing
that sounds like they could find grounds to ban just about anyone they don't like. it almost makes me mad enough to try it, though. i guess if enough of us do it, they'll have a hard time filtering us out.


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(denoted by i ) integrates over the time interval from to . INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS has a similar effect for -steps in the REACTION data block.
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Line 0: INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS [( True or False )]
INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS is the keyword for the data block. If value is true , reaction steps for REACTION and time steps for KINETICS data blocks are incremental amounts of reaction and time that add to previous reaction steps. If the value is false , reaction steps and time steps are total amounts of reaction and time, independent of previous reaction steps. Initial setting at the beginning of the run is false . If neither true nor false is entered on the line, true is assumed. Optionally, t [ rue ] or f [ alse ].
Frequently, kinetic reactions are faster at early times and slower at later times. The integration of kinetic reactions for the early times is CPU intensive because the rates must be evaluated at many time subintervals to achieve an accurate integration of the rate equations when reactions are fast. If the time steps in the KINETICS data block are 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 s (seconds) and the time steps are not incremental (default at initialization of a run), then the kinetic reactions will be integrated from 0 to 0.1, 0 to 1, 0 to 10, and 0 to 100 s; the early part of the reactions (0 to 0.1 s) must be integrated for each specified time. By using incremental time steps, the kinetic reactions will be integrated from 0 to 0.1, 0.1 to 1.1, 1.1 to 11.1, and 11.1 to 111.1 s; the results from the previous time step are used as the starting point for the next time step, and integrating over the same early time interval is avoided.
If the time steps in the KINETICS data block are defined as " -steps 100 in 2 steps " and INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS false , then the kinetic reactions will be integrated from 0 to 50 and from 0 to 100 s. By using INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS true , the kinetic reactions will be integrated from 0 to 50 and from 50 to 100 s. Although the calculation procedure differs, results of calculations using the " in " form of data input should be the same for INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS true or false .
For consistency, the INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS keyword also has an effect on the interpretation of steps defined in the REACTION data block. If the steps in the REACTION data block were 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 mmol (millimole), then by default, solution compositions would be calculated after a total of 0.1, 1, 10, and 100 mmol of reaction had been added to the initial solution. By using incremental reaction steps, solution compositions would be calculated after a total of 0.1, 1.1, 11.1, and 111.1 mmol of reaction had been added.
If the reaction steps in the REACTION data block are defined as " -steps 1 in 2 steps " and INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS false (default), then the solution composition will be calculated after 0.5 mol of reaction are added to the initial solution and after 1 mol of reaction has been added to the initial solution. By using INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS true , the solution composition will be calculated after 0.5 mol of reaction are added to the initial solution and again after an additional 0.5 mol of reaction are added to the reacted solution. Although the calculation procedure differs, results of calculations using the " in " form of data input should be the same for INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS true or false .
If INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS true , REACTION is defined with a list of steps, and more batch-reaction steps (maximum number of steps defined in KINETICS, REACTION, REACTION_PRESSURE, and REACTION_TEMPERATURE) than REACTION steps are defined; then, the last reaction step is repeated for the additional batch-reaction steps. Thus the reaction continues to be added to solution during the final batch-reaction steps. If no additional reaction is desired in these final batch-reaction steps, then additional reaction amounts equal to zero should be entered in the REACTION data block. Similarly, if more batch-reaction steps are defined than kinetic steps, the final time step from the KINETICS data block will be used for the final batch-reaction steps.
If " in " is used in -steps in the REACTION data block and the number of batch-reaction steps is greater than the number of steps defined in the REACTION data block, then the reaction step is zero for REACTION in the remaining batch-reaction steps. Likewise, if " in " is used in -steps in the KINETICS data block, and the number of batch-reaction steps is greater than the number steps defined in the KINETICS data block, then the time step for kinetic reactions in the remaining batch-reaction steps will be zero.
The incremental approach is not implemented for the MIX keyword. If a MIX data block is used, then solutions are mixed only once before any reaction or kinetic steps. REACTION_PRESSURE and REACTION_TEMPERATURE steps are always nonincremental.
Example problems
The keyword INCREMENTAL_REACTIONS is used in example problems 6, 9, 17, 20, and 22.
KINETICS , MIX, REACTION, REACTION_PRESSURE, and REACTION_TEMPERATURE.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It's been a low key week with my kiddos being sick and home from school. I haven't had much computer time but I threw this casual holiday look together which would be perfect for Thanksgiving day. I'm not one to dress up...I prefer to be casual and comfy especially when I'm about to throw down on some good food and some buttery chard. I'm still loving distressed jeans, stripes & fringe (last post for awhile with it I promise ;) although joggers are quite the rage right now and that's one trend I don't mind. How is your stripes & fringe situation looking this fall?
Happy Friday to y'all and I plan on getting to the store today for all of my T-day groceries before next week's madhouse begins!
Ha ha! I would love to see you eat buttery anything, girl! You are so healthy.
I'll wear stripes any time of year but I've always avoided fringe ever single time it comes back into style. It's just never been my thing.
Love those jeans and top though!
loving those fringe booties! super cute outfit!


Phone Cards Central PC-2-Phone - Software Informer. PC-2-Phone allows you to make international calls directly from your PC.
PC-2-Phone allows you to make international calls directly from your PC; all you need is a PC with internet access and a headset. You must create an account with the developer and purchase/add credit to your account before you can make calls or send SMS messages.


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Q: How do I hold the value of a React Function Component even after it is unmounted Is there a way to hold the value of a React Function Component's location even after it is unmounted so that the value doesn't change once it is mounted again?
I am new to react. My question might sound simple.
I am sending some session values in the location the below React Function component ConsolePage from another Function Component. But when the ConsolePage gets unmounted and mounted again, the value that I had previously sent gets erased.
Console Component

const ConsolePage: React.FC<ConsoleProps> = ({
  history,
  isAdmin
}) => {

  const [showModal, setShowModal] = useState(false);
  const [isNewInitiative, setIsNewInitiative] = useState(false);
  const [successfulSubmitToast, setSuccessfulSubmitToast] = useState(false);
  const [displayedInitiatives, setDisplayedInitiatives] = useState<
    Initiative[]
  >([]);
  const [editInitiative, setEditInitiative] = useState<Initiative>();
  const [lastCategory, setLastCategory] = useState<string>("Environment");
  const location = useLocation(); //<----- This gets erased once the component is unmounted and mounted again
  .
  .
  .
  .
  .}

This is how I send the location params from the Login Component:

  history.push('/console',{
                                token:response.token,
                                companyID: response.user.companyID,
                                firstName: response.user.firstName,
                                lastName: response.user.lastName,
                                emailAddress: response.user.emailAddress
                                }
                    );

I need the above params to stay in the ConsolePage component.

A: In React, data is "remembered" via something called state.  State is a per-Component concept - each component (or FunctionalComponent) has its own state.
So, how do you pass data from one Component to another? Props. But what if you want to change its value and send it back? You do not do so by changing the props value. Instead, you can send a function along with the props (as a separate prop). When the value is changed in the next component, you invoke this function, with the new data value as a parameter, and that function sends the data back to the parent component - until you reach the parent component where that data is stored in state (rather than being received as a prop value). It is there that you update the state in the usual manner (setState or useState).
But isn't there an easier way that doesn't involve batoning the data from component to component like a relay race? Yes - it's called "Context".
Context works like this. In a low-level component (usually your base component) you have some data stored in state. You then define a context to share that data, and then you surround your routes with the context Provider.
Within each Component that is enclosed within the MyContextName.Provider, you then useContext within the component to read the context value and assign it to a local state variable.
Here are some articles with code demos and better explanations than I have provided above.
https://ui.dev/react-context/
https://blog.flexiple.com/provider-pattern-with-react-context-api/
https://www.cronj.com/blog/react-context

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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History Guide to Ogham & Ogham Jewelry
Posted on 17th April 2022 27th September 2022 by Stuart McGrath
Home » Blog » History Guide to Ogham & Ogham Jewelry
Irish Ogham writing (pronounced 'Oh-m') is a prehistoric alphabet that was used between the 4th and 10th century AD in the country of Ireland. There are various theories about how it came to be associated with mysticism; for example, some think it was developed by Ogma, The Sun-Faced God, while others believe it was made by someone else. It is also known as the Tree Alphabet since each letter represents a different natural Irish tree (for example, B stands for Beith) (birch).
The ancient Celts revered trees as spirits or as things possessed by spirits, and they worshipped them as such. Celtic mysticism is heavily based on the magical powers of certain trees, which are discussed in detail below. Ogham was a cryptic written language that linked the ancient beliefs of the Celts to the beauty of trees. The markings are centered around a long vertical reference line, known as the 'stem,' which is then crossed by characters made up of lines or slashes, known as 'twigs,' representing the branches of trees.
History Of Ogham
Although the alphabet was developed much earlier, evidence indicates that the surviving ogham inscriptions in Ireland date mostly from the fifth and sixth centuries. With 20 symbols organized in four groups of five, the original version of ogham conveyed roughly 80 sounds from Gaelic. Each letter was represented by one, two, three, four, or five strokes and arranged in sequences of one to five to the left, right, diagonally across, or in the center of a central stem-line (one stroke to the right is a 'b,' two strokes is an 'l,' three strokes is a 'v/f,' and so on).
The fact that ogham contains five vowel symbols (whereas Gaelic has ten) is one of the reasons scholars think the Latin alphabet, which employs five vowels, affected the system's creation. The surviving stones reveal changes as new symbols were created and older ones were lost, indicating that Ogham was not a single, permanent system. A few stones include carved crosses and the Primitive Irish word KOI, which is believed to be a translation of the Christian Latin burial phrase hic iacit, which means "here lies."
Ogham inscriptions have also been discovered in the United Kingdom, mostly in regions of post-Roman Irish immigration in Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Scotland, but archaeologists have also found instances in Roman Silchester and Orkney. New symbols were created, existing symbols were modified, or certain characters were doubled to represent various sounds when the alphabet was used to write non-Gaelic languages. Ogham has been discovered in Shetland to depict Norse terms like dattur (daughter) and krosk (cross), and at Killaloe, Co. Clare, a particularly interesting stone contains a memorial from c.1100 dedicated to a Scandinavian settler, Torgrim, which is inscribed in Norse runes and then reproduced in ogham.
Norse and Anglo-Saxon interest in cryptic runes, as well as monastic pleasure in codes and cyphers, inspired other bards. As a result, they developed ogham adaptations that were deliberately intended to confuse the reader. For example, Nathair im ceann (snake around the head) is written as a palindrome, in which the initial letter of a word is put in the middle of a sequence, and the remainder of the letters flow out in either direction from that central point. Cossogam (Foot-ogham) or Sronogam (Nose-ogham) are adaptations of Cistercian sign language. Two fingers represent 'l,' while a finger laid on the nose represents an 'a' and two fingers an 'o'). Gall-ogam (foreign ogam) and ogam lochlannach (Norse ogam) are two writing systems in which runic symbols are combined with ogham to create new, hybrid alphabets.
In Auraceipt na n-Éices, a seventh-century collection of grammarian knowledge known in English as the Scholar's Primer, these medieval experiments are described. Many of these alphabets may also be seen written and drawn in the Lebor Oghaim, or Book of Oghams, in the late 14th- or early 15th-century Book of Ballymote, which can be viewed on the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies' website Irish Script on Screen. Under the direction of Dr Nora White, the Institute is also working on a project called Ogam in 3D, which is leading worldwide cooperation on this interesting area of European writing history and early language research.
Despite its short existence, ogham shows the flexibility and creativity of its creators, as well as the diversity of cultures that coexisted in Britain during the period.
How Did Ogham Originate?
According to legend, when God created man, he created many different languages to prevent the people from communicating globally, acquiring power, and ultimately overthrowing the god who made them. The Irish people want to develop their own distinct language that would be superior to all others. When developing the Alphabet, scholars are believed to have drawn inspiration from Latin and Greek literature, and links between the two have subsequently been discovered.
According to ancient myths, Ogmios, the Celtic god of eloquence, is said to have conjured it up. According to more recent academic speculation, it was created as a secret language that was indecipherable to neighboring British tribes that used the Latin alphabet at the time. Another theory holds that it was developed by early Christian communities who were having difficulty translating Gaelic sounds into Latin letters.
As six of the letters are named after trees, Ogham is sometimes referred to as the "Alphabet of Trees." They were well-known for their reverence for trees and their belief that the souls of loved ones may sometimes be found inside trees after their deaths. As a result of the Ogham as an Alphabet of Trees, artists like Katie Holten have created their responses to the ancient alphabet.
Ogham Today
Even though we may never know its true origins, Ogham jewelry continues to fascinate. It's a mysterious and one-of-a-kind writing that's buried in the Irish landscape. We can only speculate and continue this legacy by reading and using this beautiful language.
Love, life, and language have always had a symbolic relationship throughout history. Because the ancient Celtic civilizations recognized this, they created the Ogham alphabet, which was inspired by the trees that were important to their existence. Claddaghrings.com have grown to appreciate the power of symbols as a means of conveying sentiments when words are inadequate to communicate our emotions in modern times. As a result, a thoughtfully presented piece of jewelry communicates a message in a language that everyone understands.
We have a one-of-a-kind selection of Ogham jewelry for men and women, including necklaces and pendants and handcrafted traditional Celtic jewelry. Also available is an outstanding collection of eternity, engagement, and wedding rings in various metals such as gold, platinum, and Claddagh.
Trinity Knot Meaning
The Best Mothers Day Gifts For Irish Mothers


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The Alderton School was built in 1915, the two-story brick schoolhouse and brick gymnasium reflect the second period of rural school development in the county. The buildings are among the few extant properties associated with the development of Alderton, and one of only two rural school buildings remaining in Central Pierce County.

Historical
Pierce County was settled in the 19th century by families attracted by the area's vast forests, rich mineral deposits, fertile farmland, and saltwater harbors. In Alderton, the economy was dominated by extractive industries—principally logging and farming. Extractive economies lead to the creation of widely scattered rural communities near the resources.  They are often inaccessible to urban areas. While Tacoma had a diversified economy based on heavy industry, trade, and transportation, the sparsely settled rural areas dominated by a single economic mainstay.

Appearance
The School is a two-story brick structure. It is located at the crossroad or Washington State Route 162 (Military Road) and N 96th E, near the community founder's home and an older store. Next to the schoolhouse is the brick gymnasium. Both structures were built in 1915.  An older wood frame building was replaced by these buildings.
The school building is constructed of Clay City brick (a local product), is two stories in high, and is rectangular in shape. It has a front bay with an interior stair. A rear addition houses the furnace. A truncated hip roof is irregular. A chimney with a metal hood is placed on the rear slope. The front and rear wings have flat roofs. Previously the parapet over the front door had a school sign board.

Bibliography
Bonney, William Pierce, History of Pierce County, Chicago, 1927.
Auditor's Annual Exhibit, Pierce County, Washington, Tacoma Bell Press, 1910.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Pierce County, Washington

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Comfort is at the forefront philosophy of Yohji Yamamoto. After wearing these clothes, you will be convinced that it is the most comfortable piece you have ever seen. This black wool blend wide brim hat from Yohji Yamamoto.


So before the great pyramids the British were building elaborate burial chambers. In this really cool photograph you can see the nature of the room as it was originally built. This the famous burial mound on Orkney, off the coast of Scottland.
The modern form of 'masquerade' the folks of cosplay are well to all we gamers of the convention stripe. It began at Worldcon some 70-80 odd years ago and has gradually spread everywhere our fellow gamers and role playing enthusiasts have gathered.
Here's some culled from the web!
Sometimes you just have to go with it. Even if that means getting shot out of a tree with a tranquilizer dart and bouncing on a trampoline. Boulder, Co.
The worlds largest ship graveyard. Back in 1944 the United States hit the Japanese in harbor sinking some 60 ships and over 200 airplanes.
Thanks to Sir Ironside from the message boards. Sometimes batman needs to think before he speaks.
Here ya go, this one will date you!
Classic Monsters The Manual, print version, is rolling out of the Dens. We've begun shipping the kickstarter and pre-order copies of the book. You should have your soon and for those waiting on the sidelines, order today for immediate shipment.
Impressions Advertising and Marketing has a new website. Check it out! Impressions has been consolidating TLG's books for 47 years now! Since the early d20 era! He also does Free RPG Day or some such thing!
Who ever would have guessed that water could be good for you in more ways the one? This study, costing millions upon millions of dollars (pounds in this case) no doubt, found that people who are in their first year of school/college and have a drink with them during exams. . . preferably water . . . might do better. Apparently such drinks have no affect on students later in their school careers.
Job clarification experiment for the day link.
Okay, this is pretty cool, gives us a good idea of how much space we have to stretch our legs in to!
So for those interested in visualizing the big and small follow this link!
We received "Classic Monsters" later Friday night. The book looks awesome. Mr Hartsfield has done a bang-up job with a Castles and Crusades rendering of a metric ton of those old classic monsters found in those tomes and volumes from the early years of The Game.
Now we need a "Classic Adventures" line of modules to bring back that hack and slash and hack and slash and death and dying of those early games.
In High School we playing up in the attic of the apartment complex we lived in and had a "Wall of Death" where everyone would proudly pin their dead characters. When we moved out, the wall of death had many hundreds of sheets pinned to it.
The surviving characters went away with the players. Good times, good times.
Lego is going to make a Lord of the Rings and Hobbit series. Awesome. New minis.
That's Potala Palace. The Smithsonian has an interesting article on the Dalai Lamas and some rather nefarious activities that occurred in the 19th century.
during the first half of the 19th century, the palace was the scene of a grim battle for political supremacy fought among monks, Tibetan nobles and Chinese governors. Most historians of the country, and many Tibetans, believe that the most prominent victims of this struggle were four successive Dalai Lamas, the ninth through the twelfth, all of whom died in unusual circumstances, and not one of whom lived past the age of 21.
This is just a cool site, check out all the winds and to which and where they are blowing!
fun looking movie. if only the characters in the game could be, well, less worried about loot.
So I was looking for some Rapunzel pics for my daughter to go a drawing and crayoning on and all that and I came across this. These are pics by famed photographer Ryan Astamendi (famed for what, I don't know). So anyway he got up some real look-a-likes and photographed some well done almost real to life images of the famous Disney Princesses. Of course, it would take a metric ton of plastic surgery to make them look exactly like the princesses, but all said and done, this was a good effort.
No we need some real life looking photographs of papa smurf!
From here. There are videos and stuff online as well.
Hitchcock had it backwards with his movie The Birds. The birds weren't going mad for some strange reason, but rather it was an attempted coup to return the world its rightful owners! THE BIRDS!...or in this case the dinosaurs. Seems that they've uncovered a very large feathered dino in China...well bone collectors found em anyway. They've long postulated...the archeologists, not the bone collectors...that dinosaurs are related to birds. Here's another piece in the puzzel it would seem.
Check out the full monty.
Often confused as to the nature of items found, adventurers approach clerics and wizards alike in search of knowledge of many items looted and stripped from the dead and dying, objects stolen from the tombs of the dead and other rapacious and ill thought of methods of acquisition, the worshippers Makicoradario have declared there services open to one and all.
For a small fee, theses clerics allow people to pileup objects before them and they will forthwith cast spells upon them and detect magics amongst the pile. Come one come all. There are dozens of clerics just waiting to serve you. Some are even willing to travel with adventurers and continually cast there magics in an effort to detect these magical items.
They guarantee 100% detection of magic within a ten foot wide by fifty foot long cone in front of them, though not its nature. For an extra fee they even reveal whether the magic is strong or weak.
Worse than any fireball spell! The universe IRS super destructive and no act of congress seems likely to stem the tide of violent implosions, explosions and incenerative moments. Oh our little old universe, such a rapscallions.
There is a three hour long documentary available here aptly entitled, The Violent Universe.
There is a skull thing over at the California Academy of Sciences. Go visit, its waaaay cooler than anything else you are doing right now.
A movie called Jack the Giant Killer is coming out this year. It looks pretty good. One can watch the preview here. The interesting thing about the movie, to me and at the moment, is that it takes a classic fairly tale and turns it into a more adventurous exploit and explodes it onto screen for a modern and more adult audience.
Throughout my long game running career, I have done much the same, though not in quite so literal a manner. For example, for the Death on the Treklant series oif adventures. I took a simple and calssic plot hook, rescue the beautiful princess, and churned a massive plot around that simple quest.
I hold to my belief that many fairly tales and such contain the germs of some very fundemental human explorations of self and one's place in society (as well as offering lessons on how to behave in society). To take these fairly tales and myths and re-expolore them in a game context can, I ardently believe, add depth of meaning to one's game.
Give it a whirl. Pick a classic and turn it into a new and more magical adventure. One not about the loot, but about the theme.
My two cents and worthless advice.
So I was looking at swords again and found this cool drawing by Z. Edward Lohse. See his page here.
Like this done in greater detail. Maybe Peter has some time?
The first Total Recall featured the ex governor of California. It was OK but I doubt I could sit through it again.
The newer Total Recall seems a little more polished.
Both deoictions are form ancient Babylon. The discussion can be found, at least in part, here. I find, you decide.
Cochem Reichsburg or something or other. It's early and I am having a difficult time actually focusing. anyway, I was looking for some inspirational images and found this castle image.
The castle was destroyed or damaged in the 17th century I think, and then reconstructed in the 19th century.
These windows would not have been an element of the original castle.
It's a cool looking place. It also served to remind me that the castle was used to house locals in times of conflict. Or, at least some locals, or at least that was the idea. I keep forgetting this aspect of a castle when laying them out. Well, there it is, reminded.


2. Use a fiber stick or flat blade screw driver to pry the lower trim from the liftgate.
3. Once lower trim is loose, close the liftgate.
4. Open the flipper glass.
5. Pull up glass seal at bottom of window opening.
6. Remove small trim panel around liftgate glass striker.
7. Close flipper glass and raise the liftgate.
8. Continue removing the trim.
9. Disconnect the two trim panel lights.
10. Tail lamps are now visible. Rotate socket(s) counter clockwise.
12. Reinstall the socket(s) 13. Reverse process to reinstall the liftgate trim.


We are back with a very special instagram girl of the day. One of the more popular woman in the Philly area and very well-known. The granddaughter of a Philadelphia Flyers icon a former Barstool Smokeshow and my personal friend Samantha Parent. Sam grew up in the Philly area and loves all thing Philly sports, she recently moved out to San Diego and is now a cool Cali girl.
THE EAGLES ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL.


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Missing father and son hikers found safe in Sycamore Canyon area
A father and son who were reported missing while hiking in the Sycamore Canyon area were found safe and in good health Sunday, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office said.
Patrick Gardner, 36, and his son, Matthew, 5, had planned an afternoon hike Saturday, the sheriff's office said.
Authorities said they were notified about 10:30 p.m. Saturday that the pair were hiking around Sycamore Canyon near Pacific Coast Highway and had failed to return on time.
Their vehicle was located in the day-use area of Sycamore Park.
Search and rescue mounted and air units began searching for them and found them safe Sunday at about 9 a.m. Gardner said he and his son got lost sometime after sunset. They spent the night in an unoccupied dwelling east of the Sycamore Canyon campground.
The father and son walked out of the search area with minor cuts and scratches, but otherwise in good health and spirits.


Sensory Play helps children learn about their environment and also as a child becomes older can help them learn other subjects by catering for their different learning styles. This weeks features from last weeks Tuesday Tots are all about sensory play with dough – with a mix of play dough, cloud dough and other types these are easy to get hold of of create at home and perfect for play and fun.
Starting for with some Fairy Garden small world play with homemade gold play dough from Fantastic Fun and Learning.
Edible dough is great with young children – and when it's as simple to make as this 2-ingredient bread dough from Danya Banya it's perfect for busy mums.
Salt dough is one of our favourite doughs and this idea for salt dough mosaic tiles from Life Lesson Plans looks easy to create and fun for kids of all ages.
Foam dough looks great and I love the extra sensory elements of colour and scent in this raspberry foam dough that Crayon Box Chronicles has create bunnies from.
Cloud dough is fun and can be very messy – over on Munchkins and Moms they have been having some sensory fun with rainbows and cloud dough and B-Inspired Mama has been using cloud dough to help bring Ancient Egypt to life on the sensory table.
We've explored Cloud dough before – creating a snow cloud dough sensory tub and love playing and making with salt dough including using our quickest ever salt dough recipe.
Welcome back to another week of Tuesday Tots – each week the linky is hosted on Rainy Day Mum, Learn with Play at Home and One Perfect Day – remember to pop by and check out the other sites each week to see what we are featuring.
Thank you for including our fairy play dough!
These are neat activities! I love sensory play.


Another outstanding Swiss Peak lifestyle gift which is designed for use in the home, car and of course the outdoors. The powerful flashlight converts to a lantern or flashing red emergency light but the features don't stop there. It also boasts a 4000mAh power bank which has plenty of power for charging phones and other small electronic devices. It is beautifully presented in a printed gift box along with a smart carry case, carabineer and a micro USB cable. Output power is 5V/2A, input power is 5V/1.5A and Apple connectors are available for an additional charge. Gift box.
Power Bank: 108mm x 53mm x 53mm (closed).
Gift Box: 162mm x 104mm x 70mm.
Pad Print: 30mm x 40mm.


hristopher Combs has a strong drive to create, having experience as a musician, songwriter, tattooist, and graphic artist. Hair is one more artistic medium with which he loves to express himself.
Chris has been an ERGO Styling Tools Educator since early 2016, but his love of ERGO started many years ago when he was first introduced to the ERGO er43ci round brush in 2014.
Having studied Health Education in college, he is very passionate about ergonomics and loves to share this passion with fellow stylists and guests through his love of Ergo Styling Tools.
Chris was first drawn to the industry in 2006, working as a hair model for current Education & Artistic Director Shannon King, and soon after began his career in the hair industry working for Robert Cromeans in Las Vegas before moving to Chicago, and eventually returning to his home state of Michigan.
Chris also currently works as an educator for Keune Haircosmetics and as a brand ambassador for ExtHand Shears. He is focused on guest experiences and attention to detail, and is especially passionate about color, styling, and graphics.


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Which Marks & Spencer stores will be open to midnight in the run-up to Christmas?
Marks and Spencer, Primark and Waitrose are some of the retailers planning to open for longer hours in the run-up to Christmas.
Nov 24, 2020 5:00 PM By: Charlotte Moore
M&S Brotherhood are opening later in the days leading up to Christmas (photo: Google Maps)
M&S has announced that from December 21 to December 23, hundreds of its stores - including the Peterborough Brotherhood store - will be open until midnight to allow shoppers to social distance while shopping for the things they need for the festive period.
Although it is not the first time that the retailer has opened stores until midnight in the days leading up to Christmas, the extended hours last year were limited to 15 sites. This year, 403 shops will be trading.
All food-only stores, except those in travel locations, and combined clothing and food shops at retail parks are the sites expected to be kept open. Some high street and shopping centre sites have been allowed to open until 10pm, but the Queensgate branch will be opening until 8pm.
Sacha Berendji, the company's retail, operations and property director, said: "We want our customers to be able to shop with confidence this Christmas, which means supporting social distancing in our stores and minimal queuing outside as the weather gets colder.
"To help with this, our Sparks Book & Shop service is now live at every store and we'll be operating our longest ever opening hours just before Christmas to help customers purchase everything they need to make the big day special – however they are celebrating – whether it's picking up the turkey, or collecting a last minute present they've ordered online.
"Along with the wider industry, we continue to ask for Sunday trading hours to be extended to help us increase our capacity to serve everyone safely this festive season."
Similar news has been announced at Waitrose, though details on which branches will stay open are yet to be revealed.
A spokesperson said: "Waitrose shops will trade normal hours in the run up to Christmas Eve, with the exception of some stores which will open for extended hours on 21, 22 and 23 December.
"The latest these shops will open will be 11pm for convenience shops and 10pm for our supermarkets."
Customers were directed to check individual store opening hours online closer to the time.
Bosses at Primark spoke at the beginning of the lockdown period about extending opening hours in the run up to Christmas, with George Weston, chief executive of Primark parent company Associated British Foods, saying: "In some locations we could even open 24 hours. We know the demand is going to be there."
Aldi has also said it intends to trade until 11pm in most stores from December 21 to December 23.
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Just a short walk from the picturesque village of Eastsound and built by one of the best custom home builders on the island, the Crescent Beach Cottage is truly heaven on earth.
This secluded home enjoys sweeping views looking south over East Sound. The home is found by driving down the beautiful wooded Lois Lane before it opens up to home site. A large wrap around deck is an ideal place to enjoy the warm summer sun.
Newly constructed three bedroom home just outside of Eastsound Village. Bright and cozy, overlooking Ship Bay, Madrona Point, and across to Turtleback Mountain.
This Orcas Island vacation rental home enjoys a dramatic waterfront setting with fantastic views all the way down East Sound. Within walking distance of the shops and restaurants in Eastsound Village. Perfect romantic getaway.
Wonderful Sunsets and Morning Light- GORGEOUS, sweeping views over East Sound and the Marina from the hillside overlooking Rosario Resort & Marina. Spacious, rambling custom home with family room, deluxe kitchen, fenced yard, & decks.
Turning onto the quiet Thistle Lane you will see your vacation home perched up on the hillside. A bright blue metal roof and spacious deck give a glimpse at the homes high quality build and spacious layout.
This dramatic multi-level home offers breathtaking westerly views. Built high over the water, it's both spacious and upscale, with a large hot tub, chef's kitchen, great fireplace, even a Baby Grand!
Imagine 300 feet of high bank waterfront, five acres of gorgeous grounds, sauna, fireplace, Viking range, Sub Zero, and phenomenal sunrises. This contemporary vacation home offers all this & more! Dogs considered.
This Orcas Island beach house has 200' of private, no bank, pebble/sand water frontage plus a mooring buoy. Also mountain views, a hot tub, cozy island charm & modern comforts for the whole family to enjoy.


Behind Anna are Lions Club representatives Linda Wheele and Sharon Hay and Anna's teacher, Gail Mastel holding the Cecitech Video Book, which is the technology tool Anna needs to make learning truly accessible.
The Lions Club, which has a long history of assisting blind or visually impaired persons, donated a Cecitech Viseo Book to Sacred Heart School for the use of Anna, a highly intelligent Grade Three student who is visually impaired. Earlier, this technology was tried for a week to make sure that it is the right tool to make learning accessible to Anna. Priced at nearly $5,000.00, the Cecitech Viseo Book is more than a school can afford for one student, so Sacred Heart School went looking for help, and was thrilled when the Lions Club chose to cover the complete cost. Sacred Heart School is so appreciative and calls the Lions Club "amazing".
The Cecitech Viseo Book has a camera which can be pointed anywhere and puts the image on a screen in a size which allows the user to see it as clearly as possible. This makes material on the board at the front of the class, on posters on the wall, or in books available to Anna. It is cordless and slightly bigger than a laptop, and can make a number of adjustments such as changing contrast. It will open up a whole new way of learning for Anna.
Sacred Heart School has a policy of recognizing each child's needs and accommodating physical disabilities. Here there is recognition that different is not bad. When Anna's Grade Two teacher, Gail Mastel, decided to move to teaching Grade Three, it was thought that it would be best for Anna to be in her class, continuing their good relationship. Such caring is the norm at Sacred Heart.


Ecobaby Sales And Marketing supplies hand-picked products for newborn baby and up to 3 years old toddler. Our main office is located in Johor Bahru (JB), Malaysia.
Address: 26, Jalan Tiong Emas 1, Taman Perindustrian Tiong Nam, 81100 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.


This is a MMD Dance Conversion into The Sims 4, originally created by Natsumi San, and converted by me, UPlayR94. I have attached a full readme within the ZIP-File, in which you can read the full details about the MMD Dance Motion.
Special credits belong to Natsumi San, who really makes nice MMD Dance Motions on her YouTube channel.


text:
Roster & Coaches
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(Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images)
Lakers History: Kobe Sinks Clutch Free Throws After Tearing Achilles
by Rodrigo Azurmendi
Even at 34 and with a hand full of rings, the Black Mamba was never satisfied.
Gunning for the 8th seed in a stacked Western Conference, Kobe Bryant had played 226 out of a possible 240 minutes in five games in April. Mike D'Antoni's banged up squad had won 8 of their last 9 games to get back in the playoff picture.
The night of the 13th wasn't any different, with a frisky Golden State team also gearing up for the playoffs.
And despite hyperextending his knee in the first half – and nursing a sprained ankle – Kobe stayed on the court every possible second until a run-of-the-mill drive to the hoop that would change the trajectory of his career forever.
Bean had shot 9-for-21 from the field until that point and led the purple and gold effort with 32 points. That fatidic penetration drew a foul call from the officials, but the contact from Harrison Barnes was nowhere near the injury:
#MambaForever pic.twitter.com/e8NRjD4D6K
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 8, 2020
"I made a move that I've made a million times, and it just popped," he said after the game.
Bryant tore the Achilles tendon in his left leg and crumbled to the floor in pain with 3:08 to go in regulation.
What happened next would probably get rejected if presented as a Hollywood script for being a little too dramatic:
Kobe not only got up, but he also walked all the way to the home bench on the opposite side of the court – with only minimal help from Pau Gasol.
After being briefly treated by head athletic trainer Gary Vitti, Bryant slowly made his way back to the charity stripe in what seemed like an endless procession of baby steps.
There, he sank both free throws to tie the game, and after the Lakers fouled on the inbounds play, marched back to the locker room.
"I think it's his gutsiest moment," Vitti said.
Free throws on a torn Achilles. #BestOfLakersWarriors pic.twitter.com/f16cSDwYOd
Led by Jack Nicholson from his courtside seat, STAPLES Center serenaded him with a deafening standing ovation. His season was officially over along with the most dominantly mature phase of his story-book career.
"He walked off stoically, but in the locker room he became very emotional as he realized what had happened to him," Vitti said. "But when his wife Vanessa and his little girls walked in he stopped because he didn't want those girls to see their father that way. That was Kobe the human being."
In 2016, Bryant told ESPN that in the moment he even tried to devise a plan to keep playing. Vitti patiently explained to him that it was impossible.
"I just tried to buy a little bit of time," he said. "I was trying to figure out a way to play around it because if I can walk on my heel, maybe I can get around it because I don't have to get up on my toe. I had worked so hard to get us there. I'll be damned if we lose this f------ game and all that hard work goes to s---. I tried to finish the job."
A pair of key buckets from Gasol and Dwight Howard plus two free-throws from Steve Blake in the final minute allowed the Lakers to win the game, surviving a 47-point masterpiece from Stephen Curry in what in hindsight was a passing of the torch moment.
L.A. would go on to win its remaining 2 games before being swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. A little over 2 years later, the Warriors won the first of three rings with Steve Kerr at the helm.
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RNS2, a conserved member of the RNase T2 family, is necessary for ribosomal RNA decay in plants.
Impact of early initiation of intravenous therapy for acute decompensated heart failure on outcomes in ADHERE.
Proteomic-based discovery and characterization of glycosylated eosinophil-derived neurotoxin and COOH-terminal osteopontin fragments for ovarian cancer in urine.
The differential role of extracellular signal-regulated kinases and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase in eosinophil functions.
Eosinophil recruitment is associated with IL-5, but not with RANTES, twenty-four hours after allergen challenge.
Allergen-specific IgG1 and IgG3 through Fc gamma RII induce eosinophil degranulation.
Experimental chronic hypoxic neuropathy: relevance to diabetic neuropathy.
Purification of human eosinophil-derived neurotoxin.


Our Long Beach Car Accident Lawyer is experienced in hundreds of cases. You are entitled to many different benefits when you get injured in a car accident. Our Long Beach Accident Lawyer will ensure that you receive the maximum amount of medical treatment and compensation from your accident case.
Our lawyer will recover the salary you lost as a result of your accident. If you have sustained any permanent impairment, our accident lawyer will also recover money for your loss of earning ability. Our Long Beach Accident Lawyer is experienced in recovering all your lost wages from your accident. Our lawyer leaves no stone unturned.


To get some advice on how PR pros should handle new media, I conducted an interview with Cece Salomon-Lee.
She runs her own blog, called PR Meets Marketing, where she discusses how marketing is changing the way she practices PR.
After nearly 12 years with high-technology public relations agencies, Cece Salomon-Lee took her first in-house PR position in early 2006. In addition to managing public relations and media programs, Cece provides corporate messages and strategy in her current position as marcom manager with ON24, Inc.
In her spare time, she shares her experiences on her PR Meets Marketing blog. Please note: Her comments on this site are her own and don't necessarily represent ON24's positions, strategies, or opinions.


One of the key-points of PHP 5 OOP that is often mentioned is that "objects are passed by references by default". This is not completely true. This section rectifies that general thought using some examples.
A PHP reference is an alias, which allows two different variables to write to the same value. As of PHP 5, an object variable doesn't contain the object itself as value anymore. It only contains an object identifier which allows object accessors to find the actual object. When an object is sent by argument, returned or assigned to another variable, the different variables are not aliases: they hold a copy of the identifier, which points to the same object.


The Swiss Kooaba just keeps on innovating. In January Kooaba was behind the first daily newspaper that was fully augmented. Now it is the first (as far as I can tell) that offers a public, free (though limited) to their image recognition capabilities.
Using the api, one can send up to 50 daily image queries to Kooaba's servers that cover "close to ten million" movie poster, books and cd covers. They were even nice enough to provide sample code in several programming languages to get you started writing your own application. So basically, you can make your own SnapTell (or a simple Google Goggles clone).
You can find more details about it over at Kooaba's blog. It's an interesting move, but I fear that in the long run it won't suffice to fend off Google. Google has the largest image database, and I would like to see Kooaba open up their "image uploading api" (the one that lets you enter new images to the database) in order to compete with them.


text:
HomeNewsWhen can I get HBO Max? Everything you need to know
When can I get HBO Max? Everything you need to know
by: Bec Heim
The streaming wars are well underway. Disney+ has arrived and brings some serious competition for Netflix with it. Nipping at the heels of Disney and Netflix is the streaming service for Warner Bros: HBO Max.
While we have an idea of the content for HBO Max from a Gossip Girl revival to DC adaptations to some new content, many are wondering just when they can nab all that HBO Max has to offer. Fingers crossed that it doesn't have the issues Disney+ had on its launch day.
Here's everything we know about the release, the price, and what to expect on HBO Max.
When will HBO Max be released?
While we don't have an official release date for HBO Max, it was revealed in October that the launch will be in May 2020. HBO Max and Disney+ were announced roughly at the same time. Hopefully, the delayed launch will allow any bugs to be worked out in the service and for a greater breadth of original shows to be shot.
No one can plan for everything in regard to a new streaming service's launch. Despite Disney+ being owned by, well, Disney, it's launch day was plagued by users not being able to access their accounts. Some were even hacked and their information sold on the dark web. So despite having The Mandalorian amongst the entire Disney and 20th Century Fox catalogues, the Disney+ launch wasn't as big of a success as one would have hoped.
Hopefully, with the May 2020 release, HBO Max will able to anticipate those kinds of launch disasters for a smoother launch day.
How much will HBO Max cost?
Prepare to feel that strain on your wallets, people. HBO Max will cost $14.99 USD per month. This is not without precedent as HBO Now costs about the same in terms of price.
Still, in comparison with Disney+'s $6.99 USD, it's definitely higher than average. If you have a Netflix Standard tier, however, you won't notice too much of a difference. Netflix's Standard tier is $12.99 USD so that's only two dollars more.
Now here's where it gets a little confusing. In addition to HBO Max, there is the previously mentioned HBO Now and, of course, HBO Go. Now some HBO Now subscribers can switch over to HBO Max and not lose anything. They can only do that, however, if they're subscribed through hbonow.com and not a third-party service such as Amazon Prime Video.
If you're subscribed to HBO through parent company AT&T, then you're also pretty golden. If you have a premium package with AT&T, then you will be able to bundle in your HBO Max with everything else.
If you have HBO Go, however, then you have to get HBO Max like everyone else.
So what can we expect from HBO Max?
You can expect a lot of HBO Max. The streaming service will have content from networks and companies such as Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS, Crunchyroll, CNN, Sesame Street Workshop, CNN, DC Entertainment, Looney Tunes, Studio Ghibli, and more.
HBO Max also has a ton of series in the works from Greg Berlanti, Elizabeth Banks, Ava DuVernay, Anna Kendrick, Ridley Scott, Mindy Kaling, Lena Dunham, and more. Three original movies are in the works. Those will feature Melissa McCarthy and Gina Rodriguez. Basically, there will be some famous names attached to ambitious projects for the nascent HBO Max.
If you want to know more about the HBO Max Originals to get excited for, then check out Film Daily's favorites.
Bec Heim
Bec Heim is a freelance writer who has contributed and edited for sites like NetflixLife, ScreenRant, and 4 Your Excitement. When not talking and writing about pop culture (especially superheroes or any show with a paranormal bent), she is usually tackling her mountain of books, writing scripts or stories, or listening to podcasts.
bheim@filmdaily.co
Anna KendrickAva DuVernayDCDisneyElizabeth BanksGreg BerlantiHBO MaxLena DunhamMindy KalingRidley Scott
Here's everything about the new 'Star Wars' Obi-Wan Kenobi show
Who is Cathy Yan? The DC newcomer directing 'Birds of Prey'
Party Monster: Chloë Sevigny's best and worst performances
Everything we know about 'Green Lantern' on HBO Max
Kristen Bell and everything else about HBO Max's new 'Gossip Girl'
Legendary: The HBO Max Originals you should be excited for


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Q: Can't get secs from CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in SQL server When I try to do select CURRENT_TIMESTAMP I get 2013-09-06 13:55:17.217 in table form. But when I try to do print CURRENT_TIMESTAMP I get Sep  6 2013  1:58PM I don't get secs here. what is the problem, did I make any wrong here?

A: SELECT convert(varchar, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, 113)

or
SELECT FORMAT(CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, 'dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss')

See here for more formating options

A: From PRINT (Transact-SQL)
@ local_variable

Is a variable of any valid character data type. @local_variable
  must be char, nchar, varchar, or nvarchar, or it must be able to be
  implicitly converted to those data types.

So thisa would just be how SQL Server implicitly converts the value to a VARCHAR/NVARCHAR to PRINT
Have a look at CAST and CONVERT (Transact-SQL) using the default convertion types to change the output format types.