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Q: Upper bound of the energy of the graph Let $\alpha_n \leq \alpha_{n-1} \leq \cdots \alpha_1$ be all eigenvalues of a graph $G$ (where the eigenvalues of $G$ is the eigenvalues of its adjacency matrix $A(G)$).
Let $n = |V(G)|$ be the number of vertices of $G$. Prove that an upper bound of the "energy of the graph $G$", definded by $\mathcal{E}(G):= \sum_{i=1}^{n}|\alpha_i|$, is $\frac{1}{2}n(\sqrt{n} + 1)$, i.e., $$\sum_{i=1}^{n}|\alpha_i|\leq\frac{1}{2}n(\sqrt{n} + 1)$$
I once use the following expression, if $m$ denotes the number of the edges of the graph, then using the Cauchy-Schwatz inequality, with the easy fact that the trace of $(A(G))^2$, $\mathrm{tr}((A(G))^2) = 2m$, we have the following coarse estimate:
$$\mathcal{E}(G) \leq \sqrt{n} \sqrt{\sum_{i=1}^{n} \alpha_{i}^{2}}=\sqrt{n} \sqrt{2 m}=\sqrt{2 m n}\leq \sqrt{2\binom{n}{2}n} = n\sqrt{n-1}$$
but compared with $\frac{1}{2}n(\sqrt{n} + 1)$, it is bigger unless $n = 1$ or $2$ and I now face the difficulty.
Can anyone offer some help?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This drawing is black colored pencil on coquille board, "They Miss You When You're Gone", 5″ x 7″, 1989 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski.
Years ago the owner of the veterinary hospital I used suggested he'd like to have customized sympathy cards. The project never came to be but I kept the ink and monochrome drawings I did in working out ideas for those cards and printed my own first set of note cards in 1992.
I liked this image of the two tabbies looking out just the hint of a window. Their attention is away from us; they are doing something that is typically "cat", and others like it for the same reason I did.
This sketch is drawn on "coquille board", an illustration board covered with a tiny raised pattern that would capture a drawing material like colored pencil, creating a sort of halftone pattern. This was used far more often when line art was required for printing in black and white, but I still like textured boards for things like this. These sketches are black and white yet techniques like this sketch on a textured surface can carry the feeling of the light and of the scene well.
Sometimes the simplicity of a single color line or tone on a beautiful paper stock tells the story more expressively than a full-color, scenic rendering. The expressions, coat patterns and close-cropped scenes of cats just being the individuals they are inspired me to create these little cameos.
This image is one in my Kitties Being Kitties set of note cards, first set of notecards I had printed from my artwork. They are still very special to me.
This entry was posted on August 4, 2017 by Bernadette.


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Livestreaming For Nonprofits
How Nonprofits Can Leverage Live-Streaming To Build Relationships & Raise Funds | taught by Chris Strub
Buy $497.00
Live-streaming is far from a novel concept. The first nation-wide live-stream took place over 65 years ago: a simulcast of President Harry Truman's address to the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco, California.
But in the last three years, international, high-quality live-streaming has become a tool easily accessible to anyone with a mobile device and a wireless connection.
In the spring of 2015, an app called Meerkat kicked off what has become the live-streaming revolution. Just weeks after Meerkat launched, Twitter introduced its own live-streaming app, Periscope.
As dozens of other iterations of live-streaming apps came to life, the world's largest social media network -- Facebook -- bided its time, gradually rolling out Facebook Live to the masses.
Now, 1 in 5 videos on Facebook is broadcast live, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has predicted that by 2021, "most of [Facebook] will be video."
Online video is disruptive, and it is changing the way the world's largest media companies do business daily. The world's attention has shifted to its video screens, with a never-ending thirst for compelling stories.
And it is this intersection, right here, that demonstrates exactly why your nonprofit needs this course: every nonprofit has compelling stories to tell -- most just need help telling it.
It is with great pleasure that I recommend Chris Strub. He is truly a leader in the social media field and I am so grateful for the assistance he provided me and my team as we were ramping up our social media efforts around Give Local Louisville. We were able to "go live" literally and figuratively with new strategies that helped our giving day initiative generate 28 million impressions through social media. Tons of practical knowledge and a super nice guy on top of it all! - Cara Baribeau, VP of Marketing & Communications, Community Foundation of Louisville
I have made it my life's mission to help nonprofits worldwide appreciate and share their stories with the world. With shortfalls of staff, resources and energy, nonprofits often struggle to effectively tell their stories -- leading them short on donations, volunteerism and awareness, and furthering the vicious cycle of helplessness.
This course will help your nonprofit understand the extraordinary value of its stories. This course will show you exactly how to best share those stories. And this course will help your nonprofit compete for that invaluable attention within your community -- right where they are spending all their time: on Facebook.
In my travels around the United States, I've met face-to-face with more than 100 nonprofits in all 50 states. I understand, first-hand, the struggles that your organization is likely feeling. I've fielded thousands of questions from executives, board members and staffers just like you -- and this course is designed to answer every single one of them.
Chris Strub is a rare gem. When he volunteered with our organization he was open, accessible, and so friendly to our teens. In addition, he introduced us to other programs that will allow us to share our work and stories with diverse people through various means we had never explored. I cannot thank Chris for enough for his compassion and caring he brings into this world. He is one of the most genuine people I have ever met. Beyond this he is extremely talented at marketing. If you have the opportunity to work along side or with Chris you should consider yourself blessed and you will not have a dull moment. - Kim Spurzem, former Director of Youth Programs, NCBI Missoula / Empower MT
There are hundreds of instructional courses and explainers about live video, but this course is designed specifically for nonprofits of all sizes. We'll outline non-profit-specific content ideas; technology that'll fit a nonprofit budget; show you how to raise funds directly from Facebook Live; answer all the frequently asked questions I've heard from coast to coast; and, most importantly, help you recognize the stories at your organization that you need to be telling.
The course begins with an extensive list of nonprofits around the country that are, in fact, seeing measurable, repeatable success with live-streaming, like Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa; the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Society in West Virginia; Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas; Eat Fit NOLA in New Orleans; and more. This course will teach you exactly the steps that they are taking in their own communities, and demonstrate exactly how you can pursue the same winning strategies.
If your nonprofit is struggling to share its message with the world, this course was made specifically for you.
Chris Strub
Chris Strub -- CEO, I Am Here, LLC
Chris Strub is a millennial keynote speaker, author of '50 States, 100 Days: The Book,' an experienced social media consultant and the first person to live-stream and Snapchat in all 50 U.S. states. In June 2017, Chris was the Facebook Live host for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America National Conference in San Diego, and five months later, he partnered with The Salvation Army US to complete the 'Fight For Good Tour' -- a 25-state, 38-day road trip to raise funds for the organization's Red Kettle Campaign.
In the summer of 2015, Chris visited all 50 U.S. states in 100 days, volunteering with different youth-related nonprofit and community organizations, and using live-streaming and Snapchat to share their stories. The trip was featured in more than 35 news outlets nationwide, including FOX 5 NY, ABC 6 Philadelphia, The Lansing State Journal, The Lowell (Mass.) Sun, the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser and more. In 2016, Chris worked as a traveling social media consultant with Humana through their 'Bold Goal' initiative, working directly with more than 40 organizations in seven cities around the southeastern U.S.
In 2017 and 2018, Chris has spoken at dozens of social media events around the U.S., including the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference in St. Louis, the Social Shake-Up Show in Atlanta, Social Media Day Wichita (Kan.), and Social Media Day Denver. Chris was the leading Twitter influencer at Social Media Marketing World 2018 in San Diego, according to Metricool.
Prior to his work as a traveling social media solopreneur, Chris spent two years as the social media director at Ad Elements, a New York advertising agency; and seven years at the Press & Sun-Bulletin, a Gannett publication in Binghamton, N.Y. Chris graduated from Binghamton University in 2007 with a double major in Economics and English, General Literature & Rhetoric. He grew up attending programming at the local YMCA, and is a vocal supporter of Pay Away the Layaway.
Chris, 32, is from Huntington Station, N.Y., and is single.
I'm very accessible through social media, particularly on Twitter: @ChrisStrub.
Livestreaming: What and why?
It's Working: Nonprofits Succeeding Around the U.S.
It's Working, Part 2: NPOs Succeeding Around U.S.
List of the Examples Discussed
90-9-1: The Most Important Statistic Of All
Making the Case: Helpful Statistics
Why Your Message Matters
Why I Visited 50 States
How My 50-State Adventure Made Waves
Why YOU -- yes, YOU -- are famous to a few people:
Content Alignment
The 'Think Like a Fan' Mentality
Idea #1: Frequently Asked Questions
Idea #2: Volunteer Spotlight
Idea #3: Employee of the Month
Idea #4: Board Member of the Month
Idea #5: VIP Event Access
Idea #5, Part 2: More on Livestreaming Events
Great Event Coverage Examples
Idea #6: Let's Take a Tour
Example: Touring BBBS of the Black Hills
Idea #7: Nonprofit News Update
Idea #7, Part 2: News Update & Module Wrap-Up
Just Push The Button
When It's Over
Three To-Do's After Every Live Video You Create
Follow-Up -- Is It Really Over?
It's a Wrap, Part 2: Advanced Steps to Max Value
Consistency ≠ Frequency
How often should we be live-streaming?
Snapchat 101: The Very Basics
Intro to Snapchat
Intro to Basic Tech
100% Honest Review Of My Tech
Equipment Follow-Up
Example Video: DJI Osmo
Example Video: DJI Osmo Mobile
Example Video: Walking with iPhone
Example Video: GoPro
More Tech, Part 1: Mics & Stands
More Tech, Part 2: Olloclip, Spectacles and More
Private, off-camera, confidential?
Don't Miss the Interview With Cliff
Should we answer every comment?
© Copyright Chris Strub's Academy 2019
Powered By Thinkific

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Home › News › If the wedding's off, who keeps the engagement ring?
If the wedding's off, who keeps the engagement ring?
by Anneka Frayne, Tamworth
Well, the wedding is off. Love fled when the couple got to know each other better and it was best to end it now before the walk down the aisle into wedded hell. So, what does the law say about what happens to the engagement ring and all the gifts and property the couple might have bought together?
Man breaks off engagement and demands return of gifts
You'd think that, as the marriage never happened, each party would withdraw with whatever property they had put into the relationship. That would be the sensible and least painful thing to do. But in these situations, anger and bitterness can overtake common sense.
The case of Toh v Su in the NSW Local Court illustrates this point.
He broke off the engagement after he had given her a $15,500 engagement ring and handed her two weddings rings costing $1,300 that she could show to her parents.
During the relationship, he bought her $5000 worth of gifts including an iPhone, Longines watch, diamond necklace and Louis Vuitton bags. Together they bought a $2,600 bedroom suite. This purchase was later cancelled.
Woman initially agrees to return gifts, then fails to comply
When he broke off the engagement after three months, she agreed to his proposal that they would return gifts they had bought for each other.
She wanted his shoes as she had paid for them. He gave them to her, along with other gifts she had given him. But when she refused to hand back the rings and his gifts, he took her to court.
Status of engagement ring if wedding does not take place
Under the law, an engagement ring is a conditional gift, in that it is a gift conditional on a marriage proceeding. It goes back to a British court judgement in 1926, which found there was an implied condition that an engagement ring shall be returned if the engagement is broken off.
However, the landmark 1926 Cohen v Sellar judgement by Sir Henry McCardie also determined that the person who breaks off the engagement cannot demand the return of the ring – unless there is a legal justification not to continue with the wedding, and that can be difficult under modern no-fault divorce laws.
Section 111A(1) of the Marriage Act 1961 abolished the right to recover damages for breaches of a promise to marry. But sub-section (2) of 111A does indicate that there might still be recovery of conditional gifts.
Wedding rings returned but not engagement ring
In the NSW Local Court case, Magistrate Rodney Brender ruled that the man could not demand the return of the engagement ring, as he was the one to break off the engagement. He was the one who broke the "contract" to marry.
The wedding rings were ruled to be the man's property, as the wedding did not take place. But she could keep the phone, watch and diamonds as they were his gifts to her.
It is always better to resolve these issues by mutual agreement than to end up in court. If the parties can't agree on their own, it would be wise to find a qualified mediator who knows the law.
Family LawSmall Claims
Do I need a lawyer to go to court?
Drink driving licence suspension in NSW – is it worth challenging?


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Q: Optimize Socket io In my current project I need to optimize socket.io. It can handle 500-600 Connections but I need 2300 at Least. Is there a way to optimize?

A: Only being allowed to support 500-600 connections is a very broad issue. You need to distinguish what's bottlenecking your code and analyze it to see if there's any way to fix it. This issue may not be socket.io specific and can be caused by some other module in your application. First profile your code and see if there's anything that is is really heavy and can use optimization. NodeJS has a built in profiling tool that can be used which you can find >HERE<. Once you've narrowed down your issue, it'll be easier for you to figure out what needs to be optimized and easier for us in the community to help aid you.
Another option you can do is completely scrap socket.io all together and write your own custom websocket protocol. Requires a bit more work, but it'll strip away a lot of overhead you may not need.
https://codeburst.io/why-you-don-t-need-socket-io-6848f1c871cd
If you do want to keep using socket.io and you find that there's nothing that sticks out while profiling your application, your machine probably needs more resources to support the number of connections. Only thing you can do for this is to upgrade whatever hardware your application is sitting on.


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FCKKDD Up: A Conversation with Raafae Ghory
Written by Maya Kotomori
The laptop rang on a Tuesday night. Dehydrated, STP's Maya Kotomori pinged artist and friend Raafae Ghory into the Zoom call, eager to quench her thirst with some good art-chat. Raafae Ghory (b. 1997, Lahore) is a photography based artist whose recent work explores the ways in which a persona can be performatively generated, dispersed, and then corrupted in and across digital and physical spaces. We chat about it all in the wake of his sold out book, 'FCKKDD.'
Maya Kotomori: What was the process of making this book like?
Raafae Ghory: It's funny to think about an artistic process when memes [are the] subject matter. That's so silly! Archiving these images was something I did naturally. I didn't think about it as a process or practice until I had the idea of making a book. Then I started going back through the images, re-experiencing them. I came across some really good texts that became the foundational theoretical framework of the ideas behind what I did.
MK: What did you read?
RG: The first one that put me in a good place was Giving An Account of Oneself by Judith Butler. After that, I read The Undercommons by Fred Moten, I would recommend that if you haven't read it. I read The Fisherwoman by Toni Morrison, also.
MK: Fire, I love her.
RG: Have you read that piece?
MK: YES!!
RG: Yes! And also, The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, which I just posted on my story yesterday, 'cause I was thinking about Debord, and some French Marxists too.
MK: So, the book is a processed version of your trap account on Insta that became a book! Beyond the account, where did you see that materiality going?
RG: I took the content of the account and wanted to recontextualize it into the form of a book. We're so used to seeing these types of images right in front of our faces - on a screen - all day. Outside of that, [the book] is a way of reading the world around you. It's subject matter that lives online! That's so ingrained in our heads that we often don't take the time to think about what we're sharing or consuming.
MK: There was a lot of personality within 'FCKKDD.' There's also a lot of homies in the book. How did they feel to have that shout out in print?
RG: I don't really know! A bunch of friends have seen the book in its earliest form when I made it three years ago. When I show it to them now, I get a lot of smiles. I think the content and just the nature of the book are both so overwhelming that people don't even like when they see themselves in it, and they're still processing all of the material in between that you have to go through, like on an online feed.
MK: If you could define that material in between, what is one word that you would use to define it?
RG: Ether.
MK: Ether - I love it. Did you know that not only is "ether" an imaginary space, but also a chemical? They used to use it back in the day as an anesthetic. I'm not super familiar with its structure, but I know it's really bad for you.
RG: Well, there you go.
MK: The book feels like a really broken down time capsule for 2018. Why did you pick that year specifically?
RG: That's a good question. I feel like the pain [of that year] was definitely an aspect to that. I also just happened to be in a class where I had free reign on what I wanted to create. I was trying to figure out a way to organize 'FCKKDD' in a way that made sense, and I also wanted to have a hard start and stop to the work. If there wasn't that start and stop, the work becomes just like our feeds - it just keeps on going. Having a "year" was a good way to contain that set of work.
MK: Do you hope to make more collections? The side of the book says 'Volume One' and I'm trying to try to see another one...
RG: That's kind of my intention. I mean, as you know, I still keep this 'FCKKDD' archive online and it's an ongoing thing that I'll do whenever I feel like it. I think the next one that I would do would be for the year 2020. It's kind of obvious because we basically lived that entire year mediated through our technological tools, and most of our social interactions took place through the Internet. I want to look back at that, but I'm not really in a rush. I don't really want to process that that year so soon.
MK: When you said 2020, it made me think back to Society of the Spectacle and the idea of the information highway, and the Agora, and how Debord made those connections with public space as a digital experience. With wanting a hard beginning and a hard stop, how would that translate into the layering that you used in the book? What are your opinions on time in that way?
RG: I did the layering and the collaging in the book as an aesthetic way to capture what it feels like to be in the internet. The "higher ups" have said Instagram is all clean lines and grids and you know, infinitely scrolling timelines, but it doesn't feel that way for the most part. It can just feel like a disorganized sort of overstimulating experience of information, that's never ending. I wanted to mimic that feeling.
MK: Logic question: is this the first physical book you've ever made in print?
RG: This is the first one that I'm putting out to the public. I made another book in 2017, that was just my photographs of my friends, and another for my project about Mecca. Books are my professional career right now. I work at a book publisher called Conveyor Studio in Jersey. It's a cool spot, there's only four of us in the shop. They have their own publishing label, and they do a lot of just on demand printing for museums and places like that.
MK: Bookbinding is fascinating!
RG: It is! All 2020 I was still consuming content online, and that was what I posted during that time on my private account. That [reminds me of] one of the main questions that I posed for myself when I was making the book: how can you negotiate a personal experience against the idea of a collective consciousness, how might a stranger who doesn't even know me be able to relate to the images based on content and subject matter? That [relationship] is ubiquitous, but then again, at the same time, it's definitely a piece specific to it's time.
MK: A lot of other artists right now put out self-defining work that is all identity politics, and you don't do that at all, while building that relationship with the audience. It comes out in a lot of your other work too! I was going through my story archives earlier, and I remember when you had 'Hajji' at the Tisch windows for all of January and February and March…
RG: And April ;)
MK: This man said we got a four month run! How do you relate yourself in terms of those two projects - 'Haajji' and 'FCKKDD'?
RG: That's actually something I've been thinking about a lot lately and most of my traditional photography work revolves around these two words: like social documentary in a sense. At the same time, I was thinking about documentary as a form and what exactly that means. Even though it (FCKKDD) doesn't really have the defining features of what one might consider a documentary, it's still very much an object, an artifact of smaller artifacts that connect to different people in society.
MK: Super leading question but: how do you feel about the Internet? It's funny how the internet was started, you know, as this big democratic network, and now, Trump is banned on Twitter? How do you see that [shift]?
RG: That's something I think about almost every day when I'm at work. I guess it's really just a big double-edged sword in a sense, because I, myself, when making this book, I wrote a 15 page paper about how memes are the single most democratic form of social critique that we have to this day. But then again, at the same time, the Internet has enabled a space of unparalleled consumerism and just enabled this sort of obliviousness, if you're not careful. Then you have all the other stuff that goes along with it, like the rise of the far right and that weird space.
MK: Yeah, because the Internet facilitates everyone, it facilitates everyone. And it (internet) also isn't a neutral thing either. The internet can fit certain agendas which is probably my favorite aspect of the book. The object itself is that the one thing that unifies it.
RG: Another question that I was asking myself was how does our relationship with these images and cultural obsessions change with time? Because there's a lot in that book that now exists as a dated cultural object in a sense, because we don't share those images. I was asking the question of what happens to these images that we move on from? I was scrolling on Twitter and there's people talking about ancient memes, which just popped up today. Like the original Wojack faces, you know what I'm talking about? Just out of nowhere, those are coming back up after what, 10 years of meme progression?
MK: That says a lot about the importance of the archive, because something really old can take on a new meaning, where the old thing is extra-important because it's really old. And now the Internet is speeding that up where even the book feels distinctly "2018" though 2018 was only three years ago.
RG: Yeah. It's insane. It's crazy.
MK: What is your favorite ancient meme and how did you feel about Pepe the frog censorship?
RG: I don't even know if I have an opinion on that. With memes, how can a certain group of people hijack an image, you know? [Pepe] has been recontextualized so many times on 4chan and Reddit. I don't know if you're active on Discord, but some of the Discord groups I'm in all use Pepe. The second you look at it, it just brings up these associations that have kind of been ascribed to it, when at the end of the day, it's a picture of a frog. It's so weird how a seemingly meaningless image can hold such cultural weight.
MK: The power of the zeitgeist, and also the power of concealing something is exactly what 'FCKKDD' subverts. It also has a dual existence. It still is a private account, and it is a [sold-out] book. Before you opened the book to the public, did anyone random who doesn't follow the account see it?
RG: Yeah, actually. It's a funny story. I brought the book to Dashwood about a [couple months] ago, and I was showing it to Miwa. She was really into it, but they're not taking in books right now. While I was showing it to her, this random man in the store just came up and entered the conversation. And he was like, "Oh, I'm actually working on a project about the Internet, your book seems like it's right up that alley." So I was like, "Yeah sure, you want to look at it?" And he was like "Sick, how much? I'll buy it right now." And then I sold it to him at Dashwood.
MK: So you subverted Dashwood at Dashwood.
RG: Yeah, exactly. I was like, "you got Cash App?" And that random person, I think his name is Dylan or something, got a copy of the book before I released it.
MK: Do you have a favorite style moment or time period?
RG: Kiko Kostadinov, or Old Navy.
MK: Bro, Old Navy is the shit. I remember like three years ago everyone was trying to bring Gap back and I'm just like, nah nah nah. It's all about $5 tees at Old Navy.
RG: When I was a kid my mom always used to get clothes for me from Old Navy. I used to hate it so much. And now I'm finding the sickest Old Navy objects on Depop and thrift stores. I was not with it back in the day.
MK: Should we be expecting any 'FCKKDD' clothing drops in the future or…?
RG: You know, maybe. It's not something I'm thinking about, but that might be cool. I don't know what I would do, but nothing's off the table.
MK: "Weigh all the options, nothing's off the table."


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Laughter at Market Harborough
Harborough Theatre
The first Ha Ha Harborough event of the new season returns next month.
Running at Harborough Theatre on Saturday September 2, it sees Andy White, Tom Taylor, Jason Neale and Mo Haroon providing the entertainment.
Andy is described as an energetic, confident and silly Brummie who combines silly voices and a mad afro to devastating comic effect. Andy has numerous media appearances, including the BBC new Comedy Awards on BBC Choice, Brand Spanking New on BBC Radio 7.
Tom Taylor combines music with comedy. He has won the Great Yorkshire Fringe New Comedian of the Year in 2015 and got through to the semi-finals of the BBC New Comedy Awards in 2016.
Jason Neale who was nominated for Best Show and Best Compere at the Midlands Comedy Awards. He also runs Leicester's proper Funny comedy Club.
Mo will present deadpan and surreal observations on living as a Muslim in the U.K.
The night is compered by Alan Seaman.
Doors open at 7.45pm with tickets starting at 8.30pm. Admission is £10. To book email shipoffoolscomedy@yahoo.co.uk or alternatively send a text to 07804 563371.
REVIEW: Marvellous Madness turn Franklin's Gardens into a House Of Fun!


Have you found yourself feeling more frustrated in work lately? Learn how to recognise the signs of compassion fatigue!
Compassion Fatigue is real, and it's not just a risk for people caring for others as nurses or therapists. Although it's not as well known of an issue in tech as it is in those professions, it's a real concern for support teams.
Working in customer support requires empathy and caring for the concerns of others every day, often in stressful situations.
While assisting a handful of customers may be easy to manage, the cumulative impact of supporting many people for months straight can take a toll.
Compassion Fatigue can cause anger, sickness, apathy, and more. The longer one feels that way, the easier it is to imagine work feeling hopeless and without purpose. It can be hard to come back from feeling like that.
Whether you're an individual working in support or a team lead keeping an eye on a group of agents, knowing what Compassion Fatigue is and how to recognize it, is essential to individual well-being as well as organizational success.
According to GoodTherapy.org, Compassion Fatigue "describes a type of stress that results from helping or wanting to help those who are traumatized or under significant emotional duress.� It's sometimes called "secondary stress reaction,� which seems particularly fitting from the view of working in customer support.
Compassion fatigue and burnout are not the same thing, although they do share some overlapping traits. The American Institute of Stress (AIS) explains the difference: "Compassion Fatigue has a more rapid onset while burnout emerges over time.� If recognized early, Compassion Fatigue is less severe with a faster recovery.
Sometimes the people around you are the most likely to notice your compassion fatigue first. If you've hit your "empathy quota� for the day, taking your stress home to your family and friends is natural. They might be the first ones to notice you're a little less understanding than usual.
Compassion Fatigue and Burnout can both include emotional exhaustion, reduced sense of personal accomplishment, mental exhaustion, isolation, physical exhaustion, and/or depersonalization.
Take a moment to reflect on your current state. Are you feeling a handful of the symptoms above? Have you found yourself becoming more easily frustrated with work lately? What about your team members? If you work remotely, it can be especially easy to miss if someone is more isolated than usual.
Before Compassion Fatigue strikes, it's important to watch out for the signs and work to prevent it. To avoid it yourself, make a note of the symptoms and self-assess on a regular basis.
Compassion Fatigue can cause anger, sickness, apathy, and more. The longer one feels that way, the easier it is to imagine work feeling hopeless and without purpose.
Consider setting a calendar reminder or adding it to your to-do list so it doesn't slip your mind and you remember to make time to check in with yourself. If you lead a team, check in with your team members regularly too. You can watch for signs among your teammates and help them recognize the issue when they may miss the early warnings.
The ideas below can help you prevent Compassion Fatigue, as well as recover from it.
Beyond watching for the signs, there are many things you can do to prevent it from taking hold. You're surrounded by people who get it. Your teammates experience the same types of interactions, know your customers and the challenges you face, and can be an excellent resource for clearing your head and feeling better. Make time to talk to them about your concerns.
Be sure to make note of Compassion Fatigue symptoms and check in with yourself regularly to assess whether you're suffering from it or not.
Sometimes a quick rant session between work friends can go a long way in releasing stress and moving forward. Using your dedicated 1:1 time with your manager can also be a good place to vent and make a plan to handle compassion fatigue going forward.
Further, if a certain type of customer–like the extremely needy one or the kind who starts off angry–seems to get to you more than others, practice the skills that will help you better deal with them. If handling an angry user is your weak point and drains your energy faster than any other, look for resources to improve your work and make those interactions go more smoothly.
To get you started, we've shared 4 Efficient Tips For Approaching Difficult Customer Conversations.
Remember that you can't be everything to everyone, not even the irritated user who demands it. Do your best, but set boundaries and maintain a good work-life balance. Ask your teammates or your manager for help when you need it.
If you find yourself shutting down instead of reaching out, recognize that and make an effort to connect with a colleague instead.
Another way to help prevent Compassion Fatigue is to develop your self-care routine. Make sure to eat food that makes you feel good, exercise regularly, and get enough sleep. Beyond the basics, self-care needs vary widely by person. So find what makes you feel good and make it a regular part of your life.
Personally, I'm fond of taking a midday break for a yoga session and Yoga with Adriene keeps me stocked with new videos to try. On the weekends, I can be found in my kitchen baking, and more importantly, avoiding my computer. The cake recipes have never failed me and always help me relax and become better prepared to tackle my responsibilities at work after a day away.
Find the things that do that for you. If you need ideas, I've compiled a big list to get you started.
If you're struggling with early signs of Compassion Fatigue, keep tabs on how you're feeling, reach out for help. Make a plan to improve your circumstances at work. Remember that the same traits that bring you success, like being motivated or a perfectionist, can also drag you down when things aren't going well.
If you're no longer able to find the energy to do the work, or a particularly rough interaction with a customer seems to be blocking you from your best work, remind yourself that it's temporary and can turn around any time, with the very next user interaction.
Working in a field requiring empathy and caring for others means Compassion Fatigue will always be a factor in your work life. Be sure to make note of the symptoms and check in with yourself regularly to assess whether you're suffering from it or not.
Why not set a recurring calendar and make pausing to check in with yourself a regular part of your routine? If you lead a team, check in with your teammates on a regular basis, too. When caught early, the tips above will help you move past it and get back to feeling motivated and satisfied with your work.
Sarah is a freelance writer and former Happiness Engineer at Automattic. When she's not renovating her house in Dallas, you'll find her baking in her (new) kitchen or reading romance novels. Find her on Instagram: @sarahblackstock.
The post Compassion Fatigue: What It Is and How To Handle It appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.


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Discipleship is a lifelong journey. When we hear Jesus' Great Commission to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19), we can be tempted to think Jesus is only talking about evangelism. But Jesus doesn't stop there; he continues, "and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (v. 20). Not only are we called to introduce people to Jesus—we're also told to grow them toward a mature faith.
Over and over, New Testament writers stress the difference between immature and mature disciples. Paul tells the Ephesians that Christ equips his people to grow from infancy to spiritual maturity (Eph. 4:11–14). He laments that he cannot yet walk the Corinthians toward deeper elements of faith because they're only ready for "milk to drink, not solid food" (1 Cor. 3:2). Peter encourages his readers to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 3:18).
A mature disciple SERVES OUT OF LOVE.
This gets to the heart of service in a mature disciple's life. Immature disciples may serve others when it's convenient or when it makes them look and feel good. But mature disciples follow Jesus' example by transforming into continuous servants. They serve others by taking God's love for people and making it their own.
A mature disciple APPLIES GOD'S WORD.
While new disciples may start reading the Bible out of a sense of obligation, a read-it-because-that's-what-good-Christians-do approach to Scripture rarely leads to tangible growth. Christ-followers can certainly benefit from immersing themselves regularly in God's Word, even when they don't really feel like it. That's a habit worth forming. But it's not enough. Many unbelieving Bible scholars read the Bible regularly and study it diligently but remain skeptical of its claims and unchanged by its contents.
A mature disciple JOINS IN A COMMUNITY OF FAITH.
The journey of discipleship should not be taken alone. The minute we are adopted as children of God, we become spiritual siblings of millions of other people who are on the same journey. Immature disciples might think they can walk the path of discipleship alone. They say things like, "My faith is between God and me. I don't need to join a church because I get more out of alone time with God." Yet whenever Scripture describes the life of a disciple, it's in the context of a community of faith. Paul addresses the members of the church in Corinth as "mere infants in Christ" (1 Cor. 3:1) because there is jealousy, quarreling, and disunity among them. Mature disciples seek unity and community with other growing disciples.
A mature disciple PRAYS SELFLESSLY.
When we are still immature in our faith, our prayers sound an awful lot like a Christmas wish list. We focus on ourselves—the things we want and need. These prayers of supplication aren't inherently bad. God is our protector and provider, and Jesus directs us to ask God for "good gifts" (Matthew 7:11). But with these simple prayers, we are only dipping our toes into the ocean of a more mature prayer life. Mature disciples use prayer to praise God for his blessings and for who he is. They thank him for his past faithfulness, ask him to bless and heal other people, and confess when they've disobeyed him and hurt others. In short, the prayers of a mature disciple aren't selfish; they're selfless.
A mature disciple SHARES HIS OR HER FAITH STORY.
The Good News of Jesus Christ is the greatest gift we can receive. Through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, his followers are adopted as God's children. We are made holy, receive the Spirit, and enter into eternal loving relationship with our Lord. Immature disciples recognize these truths in their own lives. Mature disciples follow Jesus' instruction to share his Good News with others: "Go into the world and preach the gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15). As mature disciples reflect on the transformation in their own lives and Jesus' influence on their journey, they yearn for those same things in others' lives. So they share the gospel and its influence on their story of faith with those who need to hear it most.
A mature disciple HAS A MENTOR and MENTORS OTHERS.
When you think through your own faith story, you can probably picture one or more people who took a personal interest in you, taught you the ins and outs of a life of faith, and led you down the path of discipleship. They probably had others who did the same for them. In fact, there's a chain of disciples leading disciples that reaches all the way back to Jesus and his first 12 followers. They left behind lives of comfort and safety to become disciples of Jesus—following him, learning from him, and imitating him (Matt. 4:19–20). But from the very beginning, Jesus made it clear that their discipleship was not for their benefit alone. He called them to "fish for people," to reach out and grow other people as followers of Christ.
As disciples grow spiritually, they should follow the disciples' example by actively looking for a mature Christ-follower to guide them toward Christ-likeness. But that's not all. For this chain of discipleship to continue, mature disciples should also look for less mature disciples to mentor through the highs and lows of their discipleship journey.
These are only a few key areas of growth you can look for as those in your ministry grow in maturity. Some signs of maturity, like a heart of worship, show up in multiple other traits: selfless prayer, joining in community, and serving out of love. What are some other areas of maturity you look for in developing disciples? Please share in the comments section below.


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NYC Renovation Q's
Brendan Coburn of CWB Architects renovated this 1910 limestone rowhouse in the Park Slope historic district. Changes included moving the kitchen entrance.
Interior design by Jessica Helgerson. Photo by Christopher Sturman.
By Evelyn Battaglia
It's hard to plan for the renovation of a NYC historic district brownstone—and keep your expectations and budget in check—when you're unfamiliar with a confusing landmark regulatory landscape.
Unlike with regular renovations, the Landmark Preservation Commission requires your architect to submit all plans for approval as an essential first step for work on buildings in designated areas.
"The commission is very much concerned with all the visible elements from the street, including the sides if you are on a corner, to preserve the historic fabric of the neighborhood," says Adam Meshberg, founding principle of Meshberg Group, an architect and interior design firm.
For that reason, David Sherman, partner at Abelow Sherman Architects, suggests differentiating changes that are "visible" from those that are not when setting priorities. Included in the non-visible category are interior updates (those are pretty much a done deal) and a few exterior rear modifications, like adding a deck or enlarging the garden.
However, changes to the facade—say, painting the front door and railings or swapping out light fixtures—are subject to more scrutiny.
"In those cases the general rule of thumb is to be as historically accurate as possible," says Meshberg. Any new additions, however, are more likely to be approved if they are more modern (and always out of the sight line). Confusing indeed.
Hiring an architect with landmark experience is therefore a must. "We know when the commission will say yes, when they will say no, and the gray area in between when the answer might be 'maybe,''' says Jack Esterson, principal at Think! Architecture + Design.
Consider this your go-to-guide for figuring out which is which in your situation.
What you can and can't do depends on getting the right approvals
Before you nail down your wish list, it helps to understand what's at stake. As Sherman puts it, "Anything is possible but not everything is likely. It's just how hard you are willing to push against the default review process."
And the review process is what makes renovating a historic district brownstone so potentially time-consuming and costly.
"The LPC regulations are fairly specific and yet still open to interpretation," says Brendan Coburn, founder of CWB Architects and a member of the board of directors for the Historic Districts Council (an advocacy group that also reviews every application that goes before the commission). It's possible to get a permit at what is called the staff level via email exchanges when the proposed work is specified in the regulations, such as mostly interior work as well as certain exterior changes, like replacing windows and restoring the facade.
On the other hand, work that affects significant architectural features (e.g. structural additions or window modifications) requires a formal hearing with the appointed commissioners to get the coveted Certificate of Appropriateness—a process that can add months to the front end. "They generally do not reject things but say you will need to work with staff to find something more appropriate," says Coburn.
"It's a fairly high-level and pressurized situation with a lot at stake usually for the client," says Sherman. So choose your architect wisely; paying more upfront just might save you money down the road. Plus because the commissioners are appointed by the mayor, "what's considered appropriate is an ever-shifting and unpredictable target."
Safe to say, however, that you will never be allowed to punch a giant hole in the front for a floor-to-ceiling window (save that for the rear) or paint the entire brownstone.
You can however build a thorough case for any other substantial changes by documenting other houses within the same historic district as well as those in other districts. "Showing precedent is often the only way to sell your idea," says Meshberg.
Now that you know the paths to approval, you can drill down on the usual updates.
All interior and some rear renovations are (typically) okay
Generally anything that you do on the inside is beyond the commission's jurisdiction, including changing an awkward layout to make the most of the usual 12-feet-wide footprint.
"You still have to file plans with the LPC," says Esterson, who renovated his own Clinton Hill historic district brownstone. "They don't care about what you do inside so long as it doesn't create something they don't want to see on the outside."
Case in point: Sherman says you will usually not be able to change the floor levels—maybe you want to raise the second floor up a foot or so for a higher parlor level—if they will be seen through the windows. (Coburn says lowering the garden level floor is okay though since it remains unseen.)
Otherwise the sky's the limit (pending DOB approval of course). You can move the kitchen to the back of the parlor floor and add sliding glass doors to the garden, carve out an en suite master bathroom or guest suite, and create a den and family room—all common requests according to the architects interviewed here.
Esterson prefers to do interior restorations rather than gut-renovations in order to preserve any original woodwork, doors, and other details. But there's nothing to stop you from ripping out all the (nonstructural) walls and creating an open loft-like environment.
"You'll also have more leeway with modifying the rear facade and also the garden," says Sherman. Here's where you can create a wall of windows outside the kitchen. expand the yard, and even add a deck. (Extending the rear of the house is a whole other matter; more on that below.)
As for doing a big, modern piece of glass on the top floor for the master bath? Etelamaki says that idea was rejected for a massive four-story house in Crown Heights, though the staff seemed to imply it might have been okay to do on a "less visible" lower floor. (He ended up doing a modification of the window instead.)
Facade repairs and restoration are encouraged
Brownstone is subject to flaking over time and needs some TLC evenutally.
"This can be very expensive depending on the condition and you have to do it properly with the right contractors and materials," says Meshberg.
According to Pamela Jerome, president of Architectural Preservation Studio, which specializes in exterior historic preservation, "You do not have to replace the original brownstone unless it is too far gone, in which case you have to install a new stone piece." More often, you are just patching with a special compound that's color-matched to the brownstone.
"In my case the commission came to make sure the color of the brownstone resurfacing matched the original, requiring the contractor to put up three different wall samples," says Esterson.
Jerome adds that if there are any extant architectural details, or if there is good archival evidence of those, the LPC may require that they be recreated. "All restoration work is dependent on the skill of the craftsmen, even non-decorated patching," she says. (Read: You will need to hire specialists.)
If the original facade has been stripped away over the decades, you stand a stronger chance of using another material (brick for one is cheaper than brownstone). Coburn worked on a brownstone in the Carnegie Hill historic district that had fake brick siding with green and pink shutters (likely added during the 1950s). "We were able to get a neoclassical limestone facade approved, even though it had never had limestone, based on the idea that it looked as if it had been converted in the 1920s."
Visible design details fall in the "maybe" category
Meshberg points to historical accuracy as the LPC's overriding goal when replacing windows (more on those below) and front doors and wrought-iron railings in like kind; same for altering stoops and cornices and other features.
"You can usually make a compelling argument for superficial things like light fixtures and paint color," says Jeff Etelamaki, founder of Etelamaki Architecture.
Not that you will always get what you want.
Etemalaki had to go through three rounds of the staff review and finally call a meeting before finally receiving approval for the front door light fixture. (After they rejected some retro fixtures from Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn, calling them too transitional, he went with one of their more "gaslight traditional" suggestions.)
What's more, "You can't move the light fixture from its original placement over the door to either side, or vice versa," says Coburn.
Same for the house number placement—be prepared to submit a font "specimen" for approval too (per Etemalaki).
The front door itself must match the original style, as does it's hardware, so no super sleek knobs and plates. And forget about the trend toward painting the door or anything else a bright, bold color. "Black or brown is always safe, or maybe a very dark blue or indigo or a very dark green," says Esterson. Or just stain the natural wood, another classic option.
Window replacements do not leave any wiggle room
Replacing old, splintering windows for better insulation factors into many upgrades. The LPC spells out fairly clearly the steps you'll need to take to find replacements with the same profile and sight lines and operation. "This is always going to be more of an investment than you think, what with the extra costs of working with a sanctioned window company and contractors at a higher level," says Etelamaki.
You'll also need to keep with the historical pane style—for the most part. For an unexpected twist, Coburn had a project in Cobble Hill where the new owners wanted to go back to the original two-over-two windows but the commission said the eight-over-eight windows that had been installed in the 1880s were now the standard. Go figure.
Additions are popular but require heavy oversight
The trend for years has been for people to buy smaller homes than they need with plans to expand square footage with rooftop additions and rear extensions. That's all well and good, say all the experts here, though they'll add at least three to six months to the approval process (yep, we are still in the proposal stage). But if you are dead set on enlarging your living space, these additions are your only option—and they open the door to updated design elements.
"You are usually better off going in a modern direction to make clear they are not part of the original structure," says Esterson. Meaning: What's old should look old and what's new should look new.
What the commissioners are looking for depends on the type of addition.
Rear extensions: "The commissioners mostly want to make sure it plays nicely with the neighbors," says Coburn, who as part of the Historic Districts Council reports that they are also looking for a composition strategy that is clear and well conceived. "We see things get sent back for having five different window types rather than composing the facade with the same window type used in different ways from top to bottom."
He has even seen more outrageous plans get approved when they are thoughtfully conceived (and proposed by a master architect with an exceptional reputation).
What they typically won't budge on is having any extension be at least two stories shorter than the brownstone, unless there is some precedent for having it be one story shorter (such as in Chelsea, where many blocks already have four-story row houses with three-story extensions). "But if you tried to do this in Boerum Hill, they would reject it," says Coburn. And they absolutely won't approve a full-height extension.
Mershberg points out that rear additions are also restricted by zoning ordinances, which deals with height, depth, and total square footage. "No one is even applying for a rear extension in parts of Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, and Prospect Park, where the brownstones are already larger than zoning allows," says Coburn.
Rooftop additions: Any vertical extensions will need to be positioned such that they are completely non-visible from the street, usually by way of a 15-foot set-back.
Etelamaki describes the level of scrutiny as being extremely thorough. "You have to submit a painted mock-up out of two-by-fours to show the volume and document the visual impact from all these different perspectives." (The same goes for putting new mechanical equipment on the roof.)
In other words, "You'll need to go around the block and take pictures from all the possible public spots proving your case," says Esterson.
(Coburn likes to imagine there's a six-foot-tall "Landmarks Person" standing against the ironwork of the house across the street; now draw a line that figure's eyes up past the edge of the roof and aim to have anything on the roof below that angle.)
That said, so long as they are not visible, you can and should go for a more contemporary look. Meshberg for one added an industrial metal-clad, vertical set-back on a brownstone on Jay Street in Tribeca. "We did that design on purpose because we know LPC prefers a more modern extension." He also points to many examples in Dumbo where the alteration is "not pretending to be part of the original."
You can even add a rooftop deck in front of the vertical extension, keeping the gate low enough to be non-visible. (Similarly, you could have your living room spill out onto a deck that's atop a rear extension.)
Be forewarned: If there's an existing addition, you might get stuck with it. Coburn describes working on a project where "this crazy, decrepit writing studio in the shape of an A-frame" had been built back in the 1960s, before the LPC was created—and which the commission deemed a cultural artifact and mandated keeping. Now the owners (who happen to love it, but still) have to spend much more on repairing it than having it removed.
Separate and apart from the many LPC approvals is your own threshold for timeline and expenses. The more elaborate your renovation plans, the lengthier and costlier they will be. "It's a very complex endeavor that will potentially be very expensive and time-consuming but doesn't have to be if you set your priorities early on," says Sherman.
You'll need to decide whether you'll be living there, for one thing. Sherman says in at least one project (a six-story townhouse) the clients were educated enough to know how long it was going to take. They came up with a two-phase scheme where the family lived downstairs while the upstairs was renovated and then everybody switched sides. "That worked well for the occupants, who didn't want to leave the house."
You'll also need to consider the basic brownstone upgrades, historic or not. Most of these old houses are in need of updating in terms of potentially hazardous electrical wiring. "It's a whole other category of work and budget and time," says Sherman.
Installing central air and updating the mechanical system are other frequent requests, and Mershberg says it can be difficult to get the new equipment far enough back on the roof so it is not at all visible from the street.
Esterson decided to split his renovations into two parts, immediately tackling only the interior updates and then saving the necessary funds to handle the exterior years later.
All in all, if you are on a limited budget or want to fast-track the renovation, you can keep all the changes at the staff level. You won't be able to add bulk to the house, but maybe you don't have to.
"It is often wiser to spend more money on less square footage," says Coburn, citing one project in Cobble Hill where he is advising the owners to avoid investing a million bucks (and the massive approval ordeal) on a rear extension just to get more space. "I know the house very well and they can get exactly what they want in the existing footprint." That's for sure sage advice.
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Realtor.com released a study Monday that showed Wichita ranked No. 8 in the country for homes bought by 20-to-29-year-olds. It found that millennials enjoyed low home prices and cost of living in this Midwestern state.
Who provides the more accurate home valuation: Zillow or Redfin?
Is now the right time to sell a home in Wichita? It depends on the house.


Al and I have been married for 15 years. Al has two children from his first marriage, and I have one. The first year that we were dating, we decided to take all three children (they were 21, 18, and 9 years old then) to Turkey. It was Al's and his kids' first time visiting Turkey. We did the typical tour for the first-comers plus some extra sites and one week of blue voyage from Kemer to Kas. Our tour included Istanbul, Ephesus, Bodrum, Fethiye, Hierapolis and Pamukkale, Antalya (with Kemer-Kas Blue Voyage), Ankara, and Cappadocia.
It was a wonderful vacation getting to know each other in a beautiful country without gathering in anyone's home territory and feeling awkward.
After visiting Istanbul and Ephesus, we drive inland on roads lined with oleander bushes crowned with purple, white and red flowers. We continue through the magnificent valley of the Meander River before arriving at Pamukkale.
After we check in at the hotel near Pamukkale, we drive to the Hierapolis-Pamukkale site – another location listed among Unesco World Heritage Sites.
First we visit the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, adjacent to Pamukkale. At one point, as we walk on a high wall, Abby screams.
"Oh my! I know this place! I know this place!" She is having a hard time to get the words out.
Interestingly, the spot she is looking at could not be in any of the photographs we would normally see in travel magazines or in any other place, since it is not one of those 'do-not-miss' photo ops.
Has she lived there before? Is reincarnation possible? I am not a huge believer of these things, but I do get excited if any possibility exists. I would have loved to see a place like Abby did and think about if I had lived there in ancient times.
Maybe she was a high priestess in Hierapolis or maybe she was Hiera!
Maybe, Abby was an Amazon woman in her previous life. Hiera was an amazon woman.
Hiera was the wife of Telephus,who was Heracles' (Hercules) son and Zeus' grandson. Hiera is assumed to be the mythic founder of the city of Pergamon. Apparently, around the same time as the Trojan War, Greeks attacked Pergamon. The Amazons, including Hiera, helped Pergamon defend the city. However, Hiera was killed during the attack.
It is believed that the ancient city of Hierapolis was named in her honor by her husband.
Or, other sources say, the name can just mean 'holy city' since the first building erected in Hierapolis was a temple, around 190 BCE. The temple was built on top of a cave emitting deadly toxic gases due to the source of the hot springs below. The entrance to this cave was assumed to be the "Pluto's Gate", gate to the underworld. Hades (the earlier Greek name) or Pluto (Roman name) is the god of death in mythology.
This cave was used as a ritual passage to the underworld. The castrated priests knows as the Galli sold birds and animals to the visitors so that they could sacrifice the animals and also ask questions of the oracle of Pluto. Priests of Hierapolis knew where the pockets of clean air were within the cave. So, they would enter the cave and come out alive showing off their immortality, although with a bit of hallucination. The entrance to the Pluto's gate was closed off and the temple was destroyed in the 6th century CE by Christians.
There are 13 places on earth that people believed were entrances to hell and Pluto's Gate is one of them. Although Hierapolis itself was discovered in 1965, it was not until 2012 that the archaeologists found two marble statues by a closed off cave: a serpent, and Kerberos (Cerberus) which is the three-headed dog that, according to myth, guards the gate of hell.
Pluto's Gate has attracted many pilgrims from all around the world to make sacrifices to Pluto. Adding the healing benefits of the hot springs, Hieropolis became a vibrant city of healing and religion in its time. The hot springs have been used as a spa since the 2nd century BCE.
Since many ill people come here to use the spa, they ended up staying until they died. The Christian apostle Philip was one of them. Therefore, Hieropolis has one of the largest and the best preserved necropolis with more than 1200 graves. There was also a large population of Jewish people reaching 50,000 living in Hierapolis around 60 BCE.
This post is on Hierapolis. I will cover Pamukkale, a natural wonder just adjacent to Hierapolis, on another post since it really deserves its own story.
This entry was posted in Historic Sites in Turkey, Uncategorized, Western Turkey and tagged amazon woman, cerberus, entrances to hell, galli, hades, heracles, hercules, hiera, hierapolis, kerberus, meander river, pamukkale, pergamon trojan war, phrygian city, pluto's gate, plutonium, telephus, unseco world heritage site, zeus on October 16, 2014 by nurayaykin.


The Indian single malt distillery is venturing into uncharted territory with its innovative coopering.
This torched fish makes a perfect match for the smoky richness of Islay malts and other peated whiskies.
Glenmorangie and Amrut are both releasing madeira-finished single malts, while there are new whiskeys from Barrell, St. George Spirits, Egan's, and Virginia Distillery Co.


Description: Shadow Puppets was originally titled "Shadow of Death." It is preceded by Shadow of the Hegemon and followed by Shadow of the Giant.
"Earth and its society have been changed irrevocably in the aftermath of Ender Wiggin's victory over the Formics. The unity forced upon the warring nations by an alien enemy has shattered. Nations are rising again, seeking territory and influence, and most of all, seeking to control the skills and loyalty of the children from the Battle School.
But one person has a better idea. Peter Wiggin, Ender's older, more ruthless brother, sees that any hope for the future of Earth lies in restoring a sense of unity and purpose. And he has an irresistible call on the loyalty of Earth's young warriors. With Bean at his side, the two will reshape our future.