text:
Dining with the Wizard 2: Sara
© Copyright 2012 - K - Used by permission
Storycodes: M/f; dance; ball; majick; spell; transform; doll; ballerina; windup; key; pole; cons/nc; X
(story continues from Dining with the Wizard 1: Jane)
Part 2: Sara
It was a fine dinner. A gourmet dinner. One to remember as much for it's delicate mix of styles and flavors, as its substance. In ordinary circumstances, it was a dinner that would have made Sara exceedingly content. But these were not ordinary circumstances. So, for all the temptation that passed before her, heaped on fine silver platters, she ate barely enough to satisfy a slip of a girl - let alone her own six feet of lean and lanky appetite.
For it was the dinner of the condemned man. Or in this case, the condemned girls. Jane. Meg. And Sara. She did not know what slight the other two had inflicted upon the wizard to incur their fates.
Rumors abounded that Jane had laughingly rejected his amorous advances. 'If true', thought Sara ,'then the wizard's renowned sense of humor most certainly guaranteed her a fate that would be embarrassing and humiliating in the extreme'.
But what had she, Sara, ever done to him? Nothing. Except refuse to dance. Unwittingly, alas.
Every now and then - once, perhaps, in a generation - the wizard opened his doors to celebrate the mid-Winter festival of renewal. The local gentry were invited. Nobility. Villagers. Country people too. Few refused. It was a rare opportunity to see the inside of his dark, hilltop palace. It was, too, an occasion renowned for its lavish hospitality: whether your poison was feasting or drinking, music or dancing, you were sure to be more than satisfied. So almost all went happily along. Those few who did not care for such show usually went too. Just in case, you understand; just in case a refusal might give offence. For when it came to wizards, who knew where offence might lead?
So it was that not long after midnight, the Ball in full swing, a man - tall, slim, not unattractive, dressed all in black - had bowed before her tall begowned figure. He extended one hand. And Sara would have taken it on the spot, had not Meg and a couple of boys from the village come bounding up and rushed her away for livelier entertainment and familiar faces.
For the rest of that night and most of the next day, Sara remained in blissful ignorance of her gaffe. It was not until evening that her mother, looking drawn and serious, sat her down and asked if she had anything to tell her about the previous night. "Because", she said, "there are dreadful rumours going around as to how yourself and Jane and Meg have... offended... his Lordship".
Sara shuddered then. There were too many stories about what befell those who had given such offence in the past. Tales of dark and twisted transformation. Men and women turned to slaves or beasts or...
She swallowed nervously. She remembered, as a young girl, being scared by the story of great aunt Emily and the uncanny resemblance between her distant relative and a pristine white and marble statue positioned near the entrance to the wizard's palace. She had almost forgotten Emily entirely, until the night of the Ball. Then, passing the statue on her way in, she had laughed and made some silly joke about it.
She remembered, too, the story of the vain serving girl, supposedly transformed into a gilt-edged mirror: forever, now, illuminating the beauty and vanity of others. Countless others sprang to mind. A myriad half-confirmed myths surrounded the wizard's career. Glib, easy threats to put young children in their places - or to marvel at, after dark, in pleasant company.
Wonderful tales they were. So long as they applied to someone else. Not her.
She was scared then. Desperately scared. But as a day, and a second and a third day passed without further incident, her fears quieted. She stopped frighting at sudden noises and shadows: was almost calm once more.
When the invitation arrived. Gilded envelope: expensive paper. The pleasure of her further acquaintance was requested at dinner the following night. At the palace.
Lest there be any doubt as to the circumstance of her summons, she quickly learnt that she would not be alone: two other girls from the village - the very two believed to have offended the wizard - were also invited.
The hours passed all too speedily thereafter. For a moment, as all must do who receive such a summons, she contemplated defiance. But that would never do. Whatever fate awaited her on the morrow, she knew it would be served up a hundredfold if she added disobedience to her list of misdemeanors.
So, with heavy heart, she put on her best and lightest evening dress, bade farewell to her friends and family, and ascended the carriage sent to collect her.
And apart from the knowledge of impending retribution, it would have been a perfect evening. Driven from home to palace: greeted and waited upon by the most proper of servants; a fine dinner; the company of a wizard who, for all his terrible reputation, was also a witty, charming and attentive host; and finally, for each of the three girls, a delicate, finely wrapped package. Their going home present.
If, that is, it were intended that they go home.
For they had heard the telling of enough stories to understand the significance of this final gesture. The wizard must have his fun: cat-like, he had invited his prey into his home, and played with them for a while; had wined and dined and entertained. Now, if there were a price to be paid, it came served on a silver platter, bound up with pretty silk bows.
Silence fell across the table.
The wizard smiled.
No-one wanted to be the first to open her gift.
He picked up a knife, and balanced it carefully between thumb and forefinger. "Does nobody wish to know what her gift might be?"
The air buzzed with silence: the shimmering tension of three people trying as hard as they might to say nothing; to become unnoticeable.
"Meg?" The wizard's quiet inquiry sliced through the silence.
"Sir?", she asked meekly.
"Open your prize."
With trembling fingers, fearful of the consequence, yet even more afraid to disobey, Meg tugged at the ribbon surrounding her present. It came easily undone. She peeled back the paper and slowly, gingerly, lifted the lid of the box inside.
She turned white as a sheet.
"No", she breathed, almost inaudible. "Please, no." The wizard said nothing.
Gently, she replaced the lid on the box, put the box back on the table. For a few moments more, she sat, staring forlornly at it. Then, summoning up some inner resource, she picked up the box and stood up.
"Then I must leave you", she stated. Outward bravado went some little way to disguising her inner terror.
The wizard nodded. "You may go."
And then there were two. Jane seemed, if anything, to be even more terrified than Meg. So, Sara realized with sinking heart, her turn would be next.
If Meg could do it, so could she!
Yet could this be a test? The wizard had asked, not commanded. She had come. The gift was offered to her. She did not have to take it. Did she?
She shook her present gently. Inside the pink paper and red ribbon: inside the box, something rattled. Something heavy and solid. A brooch? A ring? It had that sort of feel to it.
She would rather not find out for sure.
Boldly, she stood up. "My Lord," she began timidly, "I have been honoured by your invitation. I beg only that you excuse me now and grant me your permission to leave your table."
A smile. A nod. Not exactly release. But an opening, and one which Sara seized with both hands. Still clutching her present, she bowed as graciously as she could, and started to walk away from the table.
The journey, from table to door, was one of the longest of her life. With every step, she expected to be stopped in her tracks. Called back. Or frozen to the floor. Ensorcelled. Her back itched with a sense of imminent menace.
Nothing happened.
She reached the heavy wooden doors that opened out into the Palace's main corridor, and passed through without incident. She closed the door behind her. She walked, more quickly now, down a broad corridor, lit at even intervals by cheery torches mounted on the wall.
'Yes', she told herself, and 'YE-ES!' she exulted into the still air.
Not out yet. But out of the frying pan, with no sign yet of any fire. And maybe.... just maybe, a magical gift that would make her fortune when she got back to her village.
Except for one thing. She wasn't out. And now, through her elation, came the faintly disturbing realisation that she didn't quite know HOW to get out. The servants - so attentive before - were no where to be seen. The corridor stretched on for what seemed like miles. Occasional doors punctuated its walls. Once, twice, she opened one to see what she might see.
First, nothing - a nothing so dark and blank and empty that it hurt her eyes to gaze upon it. That door she closed quickly.
The second time, warmth and half-light and heavy myrrh-laden air. Shapes moving, slowly, sensuously within. Shapes that were human and maybe something else as well. Naked shapes. Bodies writhing and twisting with pleasure, inside a warm, comfortable womb of a room. There she tarried a while longer, breathing in the air and feeling a sense of dark excitement welling up within her.
"No". A burst of cold anger replaced the warmth that was starting to build.
She slammed the door, angry at the realization that she had almost been seduced - sucked in to whatever degeneracy that room contained. Angry, too - though she would not admit it - that she would not allow herself to give in. It was tempting. So tempting. So much easier than fighting her way out of this place and trekking back to her ordinary life in the village. Would it really be so bad to give in?
After that, no more doors. She understood how dangerous they could be - and how dangers did not always come in easily recognizable packages.
Packages?
She remembered - how could she have forgotten? - the present she held close to her breast. Would it be better to leave it behind? If it were intended to do her harm, surely its potency would not fade just because she escaped the wizard's home?
Not yet. She would decide when the time came.
For still she was no nearer getting away. The corridor seemed to curve back on itself. If she were not careful, she would soon be back in the wizard's Dining Room. The last place she wanted to go right now. They had come up stairs to get there. She needed stairs!
And behold: rounding a slight bend in the corridor, she found herself facing an arch - and through the arch, a stairwell. 'Was this a trap? Could the castle actually respond to what she was thinking?'
She dismissed that idea with a shrug. If it could, then she was truly lost. Best just to press on and hope that an exit would eventually present itself.
Forward: down broad, well-lit stairs that circled downward for at least two floors. The stairs issued out into a circular chamber. Four doors led into it. Or rather, four entrances. The archway through which she descended: and at the three remaining points of the compass, three more arches; three more doors.
Those to right and left were locked. The one ahead responded to her touch. It swung easily open, giving on to another downward staircase.
Sara sighed. Had they really ascended so far? Or was she now creating a trap for herself - propelling herself willingly, perhaps, into the wizard's dungeon?
It was disturbing. Yet Sara was pragmatic about such things. She might as well go forward as back: and down she went. Once more, she felt like she was spiraling two floors down. She had no way of telling exactly.
Once more, the stairs exited through a door that led into a circular chamber. Once more, four doors led in - or out - depending on your point of view.
This time, though, disaster struck. As she stepped into the center of the room, the door behind her swung shut. Sara whirled around, not fast enough. She sensed, even before she tried to turn the handle, that it was now locked fast. She was right. For a minute she heaved and panted, trying desperately to push open the solid wooden door, before giving up and turning to face the door opposite.
No matter, she told herself. They weren't ALL locked before. She strode across the room and twisted a second handle, only to find it as immoveable as the first.
Then came disaster number two.
As she stood, once more, contemplating her options, she heard a slight noise behind the third door - the one, that is, that was on her left when she entered the chamber. Had she imagined it?
No. There was definitely a footfall outside the door. Now the sound of a key in the lock: the squeaking of tumblers in need of oil; and the handle was starting to turn.
Only one thing for it. Door number four. It must be... it had to be... open, she prayed silently to herself.
Open.
So it was.
And blessedly noiseless in the opening of it, too.
With the merest fraction of a second to spare, she pulled the door to behind her: placed one eye to the keyhole; just in time to spy the wizard entering the chamber and stride into the middle of it.
Where he paused. And bent down. Smiled. And picked up a small rectangular object. A box, wrapped up in pink paper and bound round with a red ribbon, tied off neatly in a bow in the middle.
Sara cursed her stupidity. In her efforts to escape the chamber, she had put down her gift: and when the wizard arrived, she had been in too much of a panic to retrieve it. He must know that she had been this way. Even if he had given her permission to leave, she had no idea what he might do if he found her still wandering around his property. She had no desire to find out.
He was going to find her now. He had only to take a half dozen steps forward and open the door to find her.
In her panic, she hadn't yet examined the room into which she had fallen. Perhaps she could hide herself in it.
Turning away from the door - it took some effort to turn her back on where she knew the wizard to be - she almost gasped out loud. This room was beautiful. Amazing. Wonderful. She didn't have words to describe it. How could she possibly not have noticed before?
A room full of light.
Not quite circular, like the chamber she had just emerged from: in truth, six-sided, hexagonal. Slightly smaller: six or seven paces, perhaps, from side to side.
And filled from wall to ceiling with glass and crystal. A motley of mirrors covered each wall. Not single, plain mirrors. That would be too coarse. A myriad of multi-faceted mirrors, reflecting Sara back at herself, and reflecting reflections of Sara back again from a thousand different points around the room. Even the door, she saw now, was mirror coated.
If she focused on one small mirror, she could see herself, very small, as though at a great distance. If she took in a whole wall, she saw herself again, reflected back at herself in tiny fragments.
Move - and her image moved with her, like a wave, rippling across the sand.
At intervals between the mirrors, candles flickered a bright yellow light back at her. So not only could Sara see herself moving: she could also feel the light flicker and shimmer back at her. With the least draught the candle light bent and changed direction. Her image altered its shape. The play of light and image shimmered around her.
Above her, too.
For the ceiling was mirrored as well.
From its center hung a great crystal chandelier. A hundred candles, maybe more, flickered there. Each light bounced back from the ceiling and refracted through a dozen crystal pendants before it mingled with the light below and started its own merry dance around the walls.
Sara stood entranced, her back to the door.
For the moment, all thought of her own danger was gone.
Never had she experienced anything like this. Never again, she thought, would she experience this. If she was to be confined to the dreariness of village life hereafter, for now she would drink in the light: fill herself with it.
According to some philosophers, Beauty was just an abstract concept. Sara knew better. As long as she could, she would stay and drink it in. Beauty. As solid and sustaining as fresh spring water in the middle of a hot and dusty summer's day.
The light filled her with joy. To her astonishment, it excited her, too. The merest tingling across the surface of her skin told her so.
She stepped forward. The further into the room, the better it was. The more she was central, the more the patterns seemed to play with one another, swooping and soaring and blending, one with the other.
Another step. Stood, now, at the very centre of the light, she felt different sensations sweeping through her. Joy, yes. Excitement. Even more so. To her embarrassment, she sensed her nipples pop up and rub gently against the fabric of her dress. If she brushed one hand downward...just....so... if she pressed down at the point where her dress gathered itself in just below her waist, she felt little hot shivers dancing up and down her skin. Beneath her dress, she was velvety warm, wet.... ever so comfortably turned on.
She felt the tightness of her bodice pressing in on her ample bosom, gathering up her breasts, pushing them up and out. She enjoyed the feeling it gave her: a feeling of sexiness and of being attractive. With breasts like these - firm, rounded, desirable - she would be the center of attention at any Ball.
So good. Although.... Sara paused for thought. She didn't really have large breasts. She was tall, a little on the skinny side. Not unattractive. But she didn't look the way she was feeling right now.
She pushed her shoulders back and lifted her head. The mirror-Sara gave the lie to her self-image: for the Sara that looked back at her, she could see now, was more than well provided for in that area.
Was it only illusion? It didn't appear so. She looked like she had breasts. She felt like she had breasts. Raising her arms to her chest, she kneaded her two beautiful fleshy mounds, enjoying the sensations that action sent sweeping down her body, luxuriating in the sheer knowledge of her own desirability.
She definitely liked her image.
She loved the way she looked under this light, reflected back from a thousand mirrors. She would see what pose showed her off best.
Hands on hips.
That looked good: perhaps a little too assertive.
One hand on her right hip. Just lightly resting there. The other hand raised up and stopped behind her neck.
That was better. Assertive and yet demure at one and the same time.
How had she not noticed before? The body of her dress was so much tighter than she had intended.
She felt it now, squeezing her waist and firming her tummy. That felt good: and in the mirror, it looked good.
But underneath: that same tightness seemed to be pushing upward, flattening her lips and pressing delicately against her clit. It couldn't possibly have been that tight before. She would have noticed.
Sara nearly swooned from the pleasure of it. As she tried to step forward, the tightness of the material became all too apparent. Her clit was completely surrounded: controlled and subject to pleasure. It was an awful sensation; a wonderful feeling.
Moving - any movement - was so nearly impossible. Because the slightest movement sent her tottering to the edge of orgasm which, for some reason, she knew was not presently possible.
An image of the wizard flitted briefly across her mind. Of course: mustn't come, or he will hear!
'Shhh!', she shooshed herself soundlessly.
Best just to stand and wait until he goes. Best to stand and wait and admire the way I look. Because I AM so beautiful.
Sara stood quite still, admiring the way she looked. Her body was just perfect: slim, elegant, doll-like almost. A thin waist and boyish hips, topped by a pair of well-rounded breasts.
Her dress, she saw now, was the most perfect dress for showing her off.... The top half clung to her body and hugged her figure. The skirt, all scrunched up, came out from her body - was that the way it had been before? Sara couldn't remember - like a ballerina's costume. So the remainder of the dress hugged below the waist as tightly, if not more so, than the bodice did above. Lovely. Lovely.
She could stand all day and watch herself in the mirror. Although: she must be imagining; it couldn't be THAT tight; surely she couldn't really see the outline of her pussy, her nether lips, pressing through the material down there.
She shivered. It certainly felt that way. A little twist of her hips was all it took to send her scuttering once again to the brink of orgasm.
Remember: Not allowed.
Sara shook her head and continued to fall in love with her reflection.
She looked so perfect in pink. Perfect pink, with a perfect red ribbon, tied, sash-like, around her waist and fastened in a bow at the back.
(Had she really put on pink to come out tonight? Vaguely, a memory of something darker and so much less elegant stirred in the depths of her mind. But it was pink now - and that was good enough... perfect enough.... for her. The independent thought subsided.)
And her pose. That was pretty perfect too. Almost. She liked the way she stood so straight and proud, looking herself in the eye. That was a good sign: the sign of a woman in control. Her hands. They were right, too. Standing like that was just perfect for showing off her breasts: showing off her perfect breasts to prove to all who passed what a beautiful figure she had.
They were so lovely and smooth. Doll-like. Sara paused. The second time she had thought that. Why?
Because that is what they look like. Smooth. Held neatly in place, nipples nicely smoothed down so as not to spoil the perfect symmetry of an ideal figure.
Just like below. Where the pattern of her cunt that had been pressing through the material of her dress and spoiling the smoothness of it all had now vanished. She felt smooth. Perfectly smooth all over.
Especially down there. Her labia had always felt so coarse. So inelegant. How could one be a proper, perfect lady with sexual equipment that looked like THAT?
Almost, almost, almost perfect. There was just one more thing to do.
If she stood up on tiptoe. Like this. And drew one foot across the front of the other leg...
Like so.
She looked even taller, more elegant than before.
To balance: she needed only to rest back lightly against the metal pole, so conveniently positioned in the centre of the room. She hadn't noticed that before. Of course, she had had other things to notice instead.
She looked good: she felt good.
Resting back like this, she could hold her pose for hours if she had to.
She would try to hold her pose. If she could only be beautiful for a while, she would hold on to it for as long as she could.
Behind her, Sara sensed movement. A slight draught, as though someone had opened the door and entered the room.
The wizard!
He must not see her.
If she stood perfectly still, held her position rigidly as long as he was there, he would not notice. He was looking for her. She would fool him.
The draught set the crystal in the chandelier tinkling. Yet more beauty! Sara listened to it with half an ear. A part of her was still fearful: another part was confident, now, that so long as she stood absolutely still he could not find her.
The music, she knew, was part of that same process. So long as there was music and so long as she stood there, being perfect, he could not see her.
And if she joined with the music? Why, she would be totally, perfectly invisible to him.
For a moment more she listened to it, letting it fill her with its soft irregular cadence. It flowed through her, becoming one with herself and the light and the Beauty that filled the room. It moved her, quite literally.
As the music swayed first this way, then that, she felt an irresistible urge to move with it. To turn, ever so little, letting the light shift its patterns in time with the music.
Turn again, Sara. Leaning back on the pole, she swivelled a few more degrees. The arm on her hip jerked upward an inch or so. The one behind her head came down. She lifted the leg that was already raised. Another inch.
That felt delicious. Music and light and Sara moving together in perfect harmony.
Swivel. Jerk. Jerk. Jerk. Swivel.
Slowly, deliberately, Sara turned around the room. A quarter. A half. Three quarters. Full circle. As she turned, she alternately raised one arm and lowered the other: raised one leg, until it was fully outstretched and she balanced impossibly on one toe.
She understood now how perfectly clever of her it had been to use the pole. Because she needed it - needed it inside her - to accomplish all she needed to do. It nestled cool, firm, hard inside her ass. That was a good place for it to be, since she had never much liked that part of her anatomy before
Swivel. Jerk. Je-erk. Je-e-e-rk.
She felt herself slowing down.
It was sad to slow down. She was less excited. Less joyful. It was the music going away. The chimes had ceased to swing. The tinkling was fading - and with that fading, Sara faded too.
Sw-i-i-i-i-vel. Je-e-e-. Stop.
Sara came to a halt and froze in mid-movement. Her arms were half way between hip and neck: her leg half extended.
Not perfect any more.
She felt blank, unable to think properly like this. Wizard was behind her. Wizard was opening something. A little box, wrapped in pink paper and red ribbon.
Wizard was taking something out of the box.
Sara could not see.
She only knew when he pressed it against her back, pushing it inside of her, where it fitted.
It was her key.
Her beautiful key.
She remembered.
She needed to be wound up. Else she didn't go.
Wizard started winding. Sara felt the life beginning to return to her limbs. No more sadness. She could hear the music: hear it tinkling merrily around her. She could feel the light. Once more, she needed to dance.
So she did.
Wizard stepped back. He smiled.
Sara had worked out well.
He watched for a few minutes as she went through her mechanical routine. Turning, turning, always to her left: bringing up first one arm; then the other. Raising and extending her leg. Then back again.
She had a good body. Almost beautiful. Her face was pretty too - although the slightly exaggerated doll features she now wore might not be to everyone's liking. Still, he liked deep red lips, plenty of rouge, and sharp, black eye-brows. It meant you knew were you were: could tell the difference between doll and human.
And Sara was definitely all doll.
He could tell that the position suited her. And since she needed winding just once a day, she was going to be his perfect, happy ballerina for many years to come.
He turned and walked back into the main chamber.
Of course, it could have been very different. Neither Jane nor Meg had had a chance. For them, his enchantments had been inevitable. But he had given Sara a chance. Stay inside the castle, and sooner or later, the spell would get her.
His present would simply seal it in. He smiled at the memory of Sara dancing mechanically, the key clicking away slowly in her back.
The irony of it was that a key can have more than one use.
It could be used, for example, to seal a spell.
But it could also be used to open doors.
It could, for example, have opened the other door to the chamber. The door that led outside his Palace walls and, after a brusque walk, back to the village.
If Sara had not been so careful: if she had dared to open his present; would she have figured it out.
Perhaps not.
Whatever will be, will be.
Che Sara, sara.
How incredibly apt.
And besides: she really does make the perfect ballerina.


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These two beautiful sisters sound like angels. Jessie is quite the accomplished writer. Her writing about ChamJAM Summer Camp was written so well I felt like I was there. Thank you for blessing me with the talents God gifted you both with.


being naïvely ignorant can call to itself in today's world..
I'll start by sharing this letter I received recently from a client of mine.
also passed away a couple months ago.
depression, and he has recently been hospitalized for shock treatments.
the way of lobotomies, but I guess not.
the chance. Just sharing my observations of the human condition I guess.
His farm sale is April 13th."
have been blowing across this country in this the 21st Century.
friend of mine was witness to one and confirmed it personally.
is what electro-shock, lobotomies, and most psychiatric meds do.
buried - to leave a spirit, quiet and desperate. Little more.
is "all that could have been," as is often claimed.
To call on another adage "God helps those who help themselves."
And "the proof is in the pudding!" is another applicable here.
proclaimed "responsible professionals" (whose "standard of care"
you be?" To not choose consciously and act is to make a choice.
to our darkness (unconsciousness) or light (awareness).
able to say that "psychiatry gets in the way" of emotional healing?
is to share Truth and Beauty, from their loving soul and Self.
be there are, and that components that don't belong aren't.
and suffering," and an ability to face "man's inhumanity to man"
and our personal experience of it.
bogged down in it. Be happy. "Follow your bliss." Be wise.
Oil up and have a good month!


Increasing a woman's chances of conception is not all about diagnostic testing and medications. Eat these foods, ladies, to help become pregnant.
One of the most powerful foods on earth may be found in a grocery story near you. You'll never look at seaweed the same way again.


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Rated 1 out of 5 by dals from EverSleek vs Keratin Eversleek was a fantastic product, I don't understand why they discontinued it and replace it with the Eversleek/keratin. I tried the Keratin shampoo and it is horrible! It left my hair feeling like straw! Very, very disappointed!!!!!
Rated 4 out of 5 by Rarebeauty91 from Great shampoo This shampoo not only smells good but leaves your hair smelling good too. It feels good on your hair and it actually helps tame the frizz on your hair you can blow dry it and see a difference. Tip leave it on your hair for 3-5 minutes before you wash out This product was complimentary.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Ecat from Hair felt great. Soft & controlable I bought the Everpure for damaged hair. Yes I agree, the no bubbles takes getting use to. Im 58 so hair is dry. But very long. I wouldn't advise for teens with oily hair. After drying ( on warm!) it was so soft, I actually looked in mirror ,said wow, stuff is good! Elyce in Pennsylvania.
Hi There, This product is still available and has not been discontinued. Our products are available at mass market retailers, drugstores, and supermarkets nationwide. We also have a store locator on our website Lorealparisusa.com. Hope this information is helpful!
What does the l'oreal Paris sunflower smell like?
Thank you for contacting L'Oreal. The EverSleek Keratin Shampoo has a fresh aromatic fragrance. We suggest you check it out! This product is sold at Target, Walmart and larger drugstore chains.
Hello there, we appreciate your interest in our Keratin Caring Shampoo. The sodium chloride ingredient in this product is used to control the viscosity and thickness of formula, while remaining gentle for use on processed hair. We hope this was helpful :)!
I have got extremely dry,frizzy and curly hair.I have tried kerastese oleo curlz and discipline but it did not work.I also tried L'Oréal intense smoothing conditioner but to no use.Please suggest a range for settling down the frizz completely.
Hi There, Thanks for reaching out! Sorry to hear about your experience with our products. We suggest you try our Sleek It Frizz Vanisher Cream. This product tames and controls frizz. Hope this information is helpful!
I just has a Keratin hair treatment done.  Will this shampoo (Keratin Caring Shampoo)strip, lessen or damage my Keratin hair treatment?
Hi Melinda Levin, Thanks for reaching out! Our Everpure line of shampoo's are sulfate free, and can be used on Keratin Treatments. The Keratin Caring Shampoo is designed specifically for treatments. Thanks for your interest in Loreal!
Hi Vanessa410- Sulfates in shampoos are surfactants which function as foaming agents and emulsifiers. The term "sulfate" refers to the sulfate portion of the molecule. This portion of the molecule is associated with greater cleaning and foaming effects. Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate and disodium laureth sulfosuccinate are also foaming agents and emulsifiers but the sulfate portion of the molecule has been replaced. These ingredients are not chemically classified as "sulfates" and are generally perceived as milder surfactants. Chemically, surfactants clean by binding dirt and grease while remaining dissolved in water. The salt portion of the molecule, of which sodium is a part, allows it to remain dissolved. We hope you find this information helpful.
Hi Gini! Thank you for inquiring about EverSleek collection. Our EverSleek collection has been reformulated and is now the EverSleek Keratin Care Shampoo and Conditioner. To locate this in a store near you, go to the products page hereL https://www.lorealparisusa.com/products/hair-care/products/shampoo/eversleek-keratin-caring-shampoo.aspx?shade=keratin-caring-shampoo and select "Find Nearby." Enter in your zip code and hit search. Hope this helps!
Not to sound dumb, but since this product does not lather, are you supposed to just massage it throughout your hair? I was ready to toss it also but just wanted to get more info first. And how do you know that it is truely cleaning your hair?


The mental health carers officer supports individuals who provide regular and substantial care to service users with a mental health condition.
Employed by Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust, the Officer is based with the Poole Community Mental Health Team for Adults of Working Age at Alderney Community Hospital, Ringwood Road, Poole BH12 4NB. Telephone: 01202 305062.


text:
import websocket from 'socket.io-client'
// $FlowFixMe
import cytoscape from 'cytoscape'
import defaultConfig from './config'

class GraphWs {
  ws: any
  url: string
  graph: any
  config: any

  constructor (ws: any = websocket,
               url: string = 'http://localhost:8080',
               graph: any = cytoscape,
               config: any = defaultConfig) {
    this.ws = ws
    this.url = url
    this.graph = graph
    this.config = config
  }

  start () {
    const socket = this.ws(this.url)

    socket.on('connect', () => {
      console.log('connect')
    })

    socket.on('disconnect', () => {
      console.log('disconnect')
    })

    socket.on('modules', allModules => {
      console.log('render')

      const { nodes, edges } = this.config.elements
      nodes.length = 0
      edges.length = 0

      Object.keys(allModules).forEach(filePath => {
        nodes.push({
          data: {
            id: filePath
          }
        })

        const modules = allModules[filePath]
        const { imports, exports } = modules

        Object.keys(imports).forEach(importFilePath => {
          edges.push({
            data: {
              source: filePath,
              target: importFilePath,
              label: { imports, exports }
            }
          })
        })

        socket.emit('render', true)
      })

      this.graph(this.config)
    })
  }
}

export default GraphWs

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home headline CHP leader says prison cell prepared for Berberoğlu before court ruling
CHP leader says prison cell prepared for Berberoğlu before court ruling
Leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu walks with a placard reading 'Justice' during a protest march in Ankara on June 15, 2017, after CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years in jail for handing secret information to a newspaper. Thousands of supporters from Turkey's main opposition party took to the streets of Ankara on Thursday to protest the jailing of one of its MPs, vowing to march to his jail in Istanbul. / AFP PHOTO / ADEM ALTAN
Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Monday said three prison cells were prepared in İstanbul's Maltepe Prison for CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu before a court convicted and sentenced to 25 years on June 14, the tr724 news website has reported.
Kılıçdaroğlu said this shows how the government wields control over the Turkish judiciary.
"Just think: A person is being tried in court and no ruling has been made, but three special prison cells are prepared in Maltepe Prison. Final preparations are made because it is known beforehand that the person will be convicted. It is known how long a prison sentence he will be given, and a place is readied for him," said Kılıçdaroğlu at a press conference held on the 12th day of a "March of Justice" he launched to protest the arrest of Berberoğlu.
Berberoğlu was sentenced to 25 years in prison by an İstanbul court on June 14 for leaking information for a report on National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks transporting weapons to jihadists in Syria.
"This situation is one of the most concrete examples showing the link between the government and the judiciary. This is one of the basic things that legitimizes our march. A decision which was expected to be made by a court was made by the executive body. The court just read it," added Kılıçdaroğlu.
But Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ denied Kılıçdaroğlu's claim about the Berberoğlu ruling, calling it an "explicit lie" and "slander."
The Birgün daily has reported that the CHP's March of Justice attracted the biggest crowd on Monday and that about 10,000 people walked with Kılıçdaroğlu.
The march, which was launched on June 15 in Ankara, is expected to last for 25 days and end at Maltepe Prison in İstanbul, where Berberoğlu is jailed.
On Saturday, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) decided to participate in the CHP's March of Justice as well.
arrest of CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu
CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
CHP walk of justice
Turkey lack of judicial independence
Previous articleErdoğan calls for expanded witch hunt against Gülen followers
Next articleMHP's Bahçeli slams CHP's 'March of Justice'
Survey shows 66 percent of Turkish students do not understand what...
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Journalist sentenced to seven-and-a-half years over Gülen links
Suspect in Dink murder trial sentenced to 99 years, six months in prison
Tunceli mourns death of 2 Kurdish children in explosion
Vehicle crash kills at least 15 migrants in Turkey's east: report

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
namespace WebSocketSharp.Tests
{
    using System;
    using System.Threading.Tasks;

    using WebSocketSharp.Server;

    public class TestEchoService : WebSocketBehavior
    {
        protected override async Task OnMessage(MessageEventArgs e)
        {
            switch (e.Opcode)
            {
                case Opcode.Text:
                    var text = await e.Text.ReadToEndAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
                    await Send(text).ConfigureAwait(false);
                    return;
                case Opcode.Binary:
                    await Send(e.Data).ConfigureAwait(false);
                    return;
                case Opcode.Cont:
                case Opcode.Close:
                case Opcode.Ping:
                case Opcode.Pong:
                default:
                    throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException();
            }
        }
    }
}


Senior Coastsiders provides opportunities, support and resources for older adults and adults with disabilities living on the coastside, from Montara to Pescadero and Skyline to the Sea. We strive to celebrate the value of seniors and act as a community resource for information, caregiver support and innovative approaches to successful aging.
Executive Director Cara Schmaljohn talks about how Senior Coastsiders meets the changing needs of community seniors.
The vision for a senior community on the coast began in the early 1970s, with a focus on providing services to seniors using a model of volunteerism, community partnerships and fundraising. Ted Adcock was a major force in realizing this vision. Senior Coastsiders has been operating since 1977, became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 1990 and moved to our new site in 2014.
Senior Coastsiders continues to focus on providing programs and services for all seniors 55 and over and adults with disabilities. The organization also serves as a resource for the entire local community for information on aging, support of caregivers, and development of innovative approaches to address issues of aging. We moved to our new space in April 2014 and we are serving more people than ever before. Please stop by and say hello!


Mammoth Hospital is a critical access hospital located in Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546 that serves the Mono county area. This facility is a public hospital with emergency services.
The hospital patient survey at Mammoth Hospital is administered to a random sample of adult inpatients after discharge. The following are the results of some the survey's five-star quality ratings.
These performance measures at Mammoth Hospital show how rapidly emergency departments give recommended treatments known to get the best results for patients with certain common conditions. This information could help patients compare which hospitals provide the right care at the right time.
Time Before Admission: 4 hours 4 minutes before being admitted to hospital.
Transfer Time: 1 hour 1 minute admitted before being taken to room.
We have identified the following individual quality measures where Mammoth Hospital has better average ratings than other hospitals in California or where the hospital is performing better compared to national averages or benchmarks.
The provider's Emergency Department performance of 244 minutes for time before admission is better than the statewide average of 335 minutes in California.
The provider's Emergency Department performance of 61 minutes for transfer time is better than the statewide average of 129 minutes in California.
The provider's Preventive Care performance score of 96% for the quality measure healthcare workers flu immunization is better than the 82% average score of California.
The provider's Blood Clot Prevention and Treatment performance score of 100% for the quality measure icu treatment to prevent blood clots is better than the 96% average score of California.


"I believe in him 100 percent," Stewart said of Newman. "I truly wish we were able to facilitate four teams."
Newman said he's "had a good run" at SHR.
"I look forward to the opportunity to make the Chase this season and win the championship. I do not know what my future holds," Newman said.
"There are organizations out there that are capable of winning races and championships and it is obvious there are seats that could potentially become available."
Kurt Busch has already accomplished a lot this season, making it into the Top 10 in points with the single-car Furniture Row Racing team, but there is more work to do.
Busch wants to cement the Chase berth and have a chance to win the championship, but he also must consider his options for the future.
"Right now is the most important thing; living in the present," Busch said. "There are a lot of irons in the fire."
Joey Logano announced the formation of his Joey Logano Foundation on Friday. The organization will host 200 members of the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad and their families this weekend at New Hampshire.
This weekend's event is one of five JLF events designed to serve individuals in race communities across the country. The JLF's mission is to inspire, mobilize and empower the "NASCAR nation" to improve the lives of children and families with life-altering needs in their communities.
JLF will host events Aug. 18 at Michigan; Sept. 1 at Atlanta; Oct. 12 at Charlotte; and Nov. 10 at Phoenix.
Newman returns to scene of success at N.H.


text:
National / Media | BIG IN JAPAN
Will the Takeshima dispute break the Korean wave?
Just want to dance: K-Pop group KARA has reportedly tried to distance themselves from the territorial dispute, pleasing their Japanese fans but angering some South Koreans. | KYODO
by Mark Schreiber
"There's something sad, when a political problem goes so far as to spill over to the entertainment industry," rues journalist Kaoru Kikuchi in Sunday Mainichi (Sep. 9).
Kikuchi reported that on Aug. 21, Korean male actor Song Il Gook, who was slated to appear in leading roles in police dramas on two different Japanese satellite networks, was being stonewalled for permission to enter Japan for filming.
Indeed, no less a figure than vice- minister of Foreign Affairs Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi had informed the press that it would be "difficult" to grant Song entry permission. The two networks have been forced to delay the broadcasts.
Song's transgression was to have taken part in a swimming relay on Aug. 13 to the island of Takeshima (referred to as Dokdo in Korean), focus of a long- running territorial dispute between the two nations.
Japan's mainstream vernacular newspapers have reported that the current discord is largely the doing of South Korea's soon-to-be-departing president Lee Myung Bak, and they give a variety of interesting theories for Lee's ulterior motives, which mostly involve his efforts to survive in Korea's rough-and-tumble domestic politics.
But some magazines and tabloids are happy to add fuel to the fire. The weekly magazine Asahi Geino (Aug. 30) ran a hypothetical war scenario between the two nations. Tabloid newspaper Yukan Fuji (Aug. 28) went out of its way to discredit South Korean actors and entertainers who have in public made "anti-Japanese remarks" related to the Takeshima dispute. The list of eight offenders included Song and the K-Pop female group Girls' Generation, referred to as Shojo Jidai in Japanese, who in 2008 performed a song in rehearsal (but not in concert) claiming Dokdo was Korean.
At the top of the Yukan Fuji's list was actor Bae Yong Joon, male lead in the melodrama serial "Winter Sonata," which was broadcast on NHK's satellite channel in 2003. Bae, accorded the princely title of "Yon-sama," set off a phenomenon referred to as "Yonfluenza," attracting dozens of middle-aged housewives who converged outside the arrival gate at Narita International Airport to meet his flights.
Since the fuyu-sona boom, Korea's slick melodramas have become a staple on Japanese TV, and their various spinoffs have created a huge market, valued by some estimates as high as ¥1 trillion.
Buoyed at least partially by the Hanryu boom, tourism between the two countries has also thrived. In 2010, points out Flash (Sep. 4), some 2.44 million South Korean tourists traveled to Japan, accounting for 28.5 percent of all foreign visitors. Japan reciprocated by sending 3.02 million tourists to Korea, accounting for 34.8 percent of all South Korea's foreign visitors. Both countries respectively rank first overall as the sources of foreign tourism to their counterparts.
"As tensions rise in the territorial dispute, attempts by the state and some media to block the flow of Korean pop culture into Japan are worrying," says Steve McClure, former Asia Bureau Chief of Billboard magazine and publisher of McClureMusic. com, an email newsletter covering the Japanese and Asian music industries. "I hope the grassroots, people-to-people communication that the 'Hanryu wave' has nurtured will be strong enough to weather this ridiculously petty fracas.
"I think most Japanese fans of Korean pop culture will keep on lapping up Korean TV dramas and pop music regardless of jingoistic posturing by nationalists on both sides," he added.
McClure's view appears to be validated by a survey featured in a seven-page article in women's magazine Josei Seven (Sep. 6). Titled "South Koreans' century of 'anti-Japan' enmity that has even Hanryu fans squirming," the article gives results of a survey of 100 fans of Hanryu dramas, females in the 20-to-60 age segments.
In response to the question, "What was your reaction to the news about Takeshima?" 47 percent of respondents replied they would "not tolerate" the Korean actions. Nevertheless when asked, "While anti-Korean sentiments continue to rise in Japan, what are your feelings as a fan of the Hanryu dramas?" an overwhelming 71 percent said they agreed they regard politics as being "apart from the arts," and "have no intention of giving up being a fan." Another 12 percent replied, "I support additional efforts at building bridges (of understanding)." Only 10 percent said they were in the process of changing channels.
"Korean entertainers are being coerced into saying that 'Dokdo belongs to Korea,'" says Park Il, a 3rd-generation Korean resident of Japan and professor of economics at Osaka City University. "To use celebrities for nationalistic purposes reveals the immaturity of a country's civil society. We need to transcend politics and create an environment where the ring of cultural exchanges will keep widening. Otherwise, the Hanryu boom is likely to wither away."
And what about the sentiments on the other side of the water?
"Despite the country's anti-Japanese education policies, many young Koreans are fans of Japanese fashion and entertainment, and are reacting calmly," Katsuhiro Kuroda, a special correspondent in Seoul for the Sankei Shimbun newspaper told Josei Seven. "While the mass media and politicians are trying to stir up anti- Japanese sentiments, I can see with my own eyes that Koreans, somewhat unexpectedly, are actually sanguine over the issue. I don't think the cultural exchanges will stop."


text:
Arts+CultureNews
31July 2014
TextThomas Gorton
The Tor security breach occurred from early February through July 4 – so who was watching?
Have Tor users been watched for months?
The uber-secure network might not be so secure after all – a security breach may have revealed users' identities
Tor's USP is that it allows users to access sites (like Silk Road) untracked and unmonitored by prying eyes – but it seems like it may be less secure than originally thought. Developers at the Tor Project have revealed that an attack on the network may have revealed the identities of users for a period of up to five months.
According to a blog post on the site, the attacking relays joined the network on 30th January and were eventually removed by July 4. Tor says that "any users who operated or accessed hidden services from early February through July 4 should assume they were affected." However, it remains unclear what that attack actually constituted and how much information was exposed.
The Tor Project believe that the culprits were most likely two Carnegie Mellon researchers who were set to give a talk entitled "You Don't Have to be the NSA to Break Tor: Deanonymizing Users on a Budget" at the Black Hat USA 2014 security conference. Alexander Volynkin and Michael McCord, the security experts behind the talk, claimed that they would show how to crack Tor on a budget of $3,000 or less.
Unfortunately, Volynkin and McCord's talk was pulled from the line-up less than a week before the conference opened. According to a statement issued by the conference organisers, this was because "the materials that (Volynkin) would be speaking about have not yet been approved by CMU/SEI for public release".
The Tor Project said that it had been trying to extract information from Volynkin and McCord for months without much luck, but said it would be relieved if the researchers were behind the security breach "since otherwise it means somebody else was".
Earlier, this week it was revealed that the US government had increased Tor's annual funding to $1.8 million in 2013, despite reports that the NSA was trying to shut down the network. Federal funding for Tor reportedly increases annually. Could there be a government interest in shutting down a talk revealing how to deanonymise Tor users?
Arts+CultureNewsinternetTechnologySurveillance culture


text:
This is the China Site
Go to New Caledonia's site
Go to Vale Japan's Site
Donation in China
Vale & 2010 Shanghai Expo
Vale Innovation Program for the Environmental Protection of Western China
Home • Initiatives • Environmental / Social • Genesis Project
A photographic journey through
the planet's unspoiled regions where man lives in harmony with nature. A visual tribute to the majesty and fragility of planet Earth.
Sebastião Salgado was born in 1944 in Aimorés, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. He graduated in economics, but then launched himself into the world of photography in 1973. He worked extensively for the international press, receiving recognition and a variety of awards for his reports on Africa. During the 90s, he and his wife, Lélia Wanick, embarked on a life project that turned out to set the foundations for his Genesis photography expedition. This involved the recuperation of a completely dilapidated building, which today is the headquarters of the Earth Institute, an institution dedicated to maintaining the forest ecosystem of the Vale do Rio Doce region in Minas Gerais. Salgado is also a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
#Let'sPreserve
Find out who were the 15 winners of #Let'sPreserve photography contest
View photos and videos of Genesis and discover the locations of photos and exhibits
Genesis is a photography project put together over many years that focuses on the natural world. Sebastião Salgado travelled the world between 2004 and 2012, visiting 32 extreme destinations such as Alaska, Patagonia, Ethiopia and the Amazon. On this journey, he captured striking images showing the majesty and fragility of nature, as well as its relationship with humankind and the animal kingdom. Vale has been a sponsor of the project since 2008. "Genesis is all about the earth's origins, the untouched planet, its purest regions and the traditional way of life in which man lives in harmony with nature. I want people to see our planet from another angle, to be moved and to create a closer relationship with our world," explains Salgado.
Travelling on foot, by bus, in small boats, airplanes and even in hot air balloons, Salgado has captured giant deserts, frozen lands, icebergs, volcanoes, forests, mountain ranges and animals in their natural habitat – from penguins, sea lions and whales in Antarctica and the South Atlantic, to leopards, wildebeest and elephants in Africa. In his search for primitive peoples, he has discovered tribes with ancient customs and little or no contact with the outside world, such as those who still live in "isolation" in the Amazon and New Guinea rainforests.
In previous projects, such as Workers and Exodus, Salgado captured images of humanity's adversaries. While the Genesis project pays tribute to nature, it also carries a warning about everything that humanity currently risks losing. He does not take a journalistic, scientific or anthropological approach, but instead that of a passionate photographer following the romantic dream of capturing nature in its prime. The entire collection is presented to the public in the form of over 250 black and white images, a book, exhibitions that will tour the world and a documentary filmed by the directors Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. Lélia Wanick is the exhibition curator and the book designer.
The roots of Genesis and of Vale's partnership
For Vale, the Genesis Project is an exceptional artistic illustration of our company's mission, vision and values, as well as its commitment to the integrated development of the communities where it operates around the world. The project shows that harmonious coexistence between man and nature is fundamental to the planet's equilibrium, and plays an informative and educational function, encouraging the preservation of nature.
The roots of the Genesis Project began to take shape in the 1990s, when Sebastião Salgado and his wife, Lélia, agreed to take care of a family property in the Doce River Valley, where Sebastião had grown up surrounded by lush vegetation, birds, wild animals and rivers full of fish. But this paradise had vanished: deforestation and erosion had dried up the land.
Lélia then had the idea to recreate the forest with local species. More than 300 different types of trees were planted and, as they grew and the land became green again, the flowers and animals returned. "After a while, we saw everything being born again. The birds, insects and animals came back. Life began to return on all sides inside my head, and so the idea of photographing Genesis came to me. I went to see life, the most fabulous things on the planet." says the artist.
In 1998 the reforested property became the Instituto Terra ("Earth Institute"), an NGO that seeks to restore the Atlantic Rainforest. In addition to sponsoring the Genesis Project since 2008, Vale also supports the Instituto Terra. We have already donated 500,000 seedlings from the Vale Nature Reserve for the institute's reforestation actions – since it was founded, the NGO has already planted more than 2 million trees. We are also partners with the entity in a project that aims to recuperate hundreds of headwaters of the Doce River – the Olhos D´Agua program.
Take a look at our Sustainability Report and Vale's other environment preservation initiatives.


text:
Sir Jeremy Heywood – Sell-off of BAE, the Last of Britain's Great British Defence Manufacturers
Post author By caltonjock
1 Comment on Sir Jeremy Heywood – Sell-off of BAE, the Last of Britain's Great British Defence Manufacturers
October 5 2012: Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet enforcer and a web of cronies, at centre of incestuous NEXUS lobbying to end independence of BAE
The controversial merger of the defense giant BAE Systems with a foreign conglomerate has been described by one respected global affairs expert as the 'biggest redrawing of global defenses since the Cold War'.
The Government is now under intense pressure to stop the deal by refusing to sell its golden share in BAE (which last year sold £19?billion of defense and aerospace equipment). The golden share gives ministers the power to block a change of control of the company, to bar any non-UK nationals from top jobs at the firm and prevent any foreign investor owning more than 15 per cent of the company. Yet there are widespread fears that the merger is a done deal and that David Cameron doesn't mind that one of the last great British manufacturing institutions, whose history dates back to Vickers-Armstrong which built the Spitfire, will fall into foreign hands.
The Prime Minister is said to be in favour of the move after coming under pressure from the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood. He has been advocating the merger to the PM and has had a series of meetings with BAE and Morgan Stanley, the American investment bank which is advising the firm and which is in line to get millions from its work on the deal.
However, there is profound disquiet over the fact that 50-year-old Heywood has very strong personal links with Morgan Stanley staff, having worked at the bank as a director during a four-year break from the civil service. There is no suggestion, though, that he will benefit financially from the BAE merger. There have been claims that as the most important civil servant in government, the uber-ambitious Heywood (who was knighted by Cameron in January) is in danger of opening himself to charges that he could compromise the scrupulous independence expected of someone in his position. Heywood's involvement has also led to widespread suspicions that the £28?billion BAE deal is being stitched together by the Whitehall establishment.
Several MPs want him to be questioned by the Commons defense select committee, which is investigating the merger. Heywood was a highly-paid director of Morgan Stanley as recently as 2007 — having taken a break from his Whitehall career. (Previously he had been Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair and Head of Domestic Policy and Strategy at the Cabinet Office under PM Gordon Brown.)
Heywood's stint at the U.S. bank was itself highly controversial. He was accused of making a large sum of money while employed by Morgan Stanley, which dealt with the ill-fated Southern Cross care homes group. Heywood was the ultimate head of the Morgan Stanley team which advised on the sale of Southern Cross in 2006 to a U.S. equity firm which soon hived off many of the freeholds of the homes to another company. In turn, that company sold them off. The result was that 31,000 frail and elderly residents in 750 homes faced being made homeless and 3,000 jobs were lost. Although he was not directly involved in the deal, it was never made clear how much money Heywood was paid by Morgan Stanley at the time, but banking sources said it would have been a handsome sum. Justin Bowden, a union boss, said Heywood was in the scandal 'up to his neck.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213626/SPECIAL-INVESTIGATION-Sir-Jeremy-Heywood-centre-incestuous-nexus-lobbying-end-independence-BAE.html
Tags Heywood
Sir Jeremy Heywood – The Big Society Debacle & Allegations of a Misuse of Government and Charitable Funds.-
1 Comment on Sir Jeremy Heywood – The Big Society Debacle & Allegations of a Misuse of Government and Charitable Funds.-
July 26 2014: David Cameron's Big Society in tatters as charity watchdog launches investigation into claims of Government funding misuse
David Cameron's flagship Big Society Network is being investigated by the Charity Commission over allegations that it misused government funding and made inappropriate payments to its directors – including a Tory donor. The organization, which was launched by the Prime Minister in 2010, was given at least £2.5 million of National Lottery funding and public-sector grants despite having no record of charitable activity. The Independent has learnt that it has now been wound up, having used much of the money on projects that came nowhere near delivering on their promised objectives.
Two senior figures on government grant awarding bodies have also made allegations that they were pressured into handing over money to the Big Society Network despite severe reservations about the viability of the projects they were being asked to support. Liam Black, a former trustee of Nesta, which was then a public body sponsored by the Department for Business, said Nesta had been "forced" to give grants that totalled £480,000 to the Big Society Network in 2010 without a competitive pitch. He described it as a "scandalous waste of money". Another senior figure involved in the decision to award £299,800 from the Cabinet Office to the organization said the funding request had initially been turned down. "When we did the analysis we turned them down because the bid did not stack up," they said. "But we were told to go back and change the criteria to make it work."
Tonight Labour said it was writing to the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, asking him to investigate whether political pressure had been applied to give an organization with close ties to ministers, "special treatment". The Independent understands that the Charity Commission is also looking into allegations that some of the "restricted funds" given by the Cabinet Office for a childhood obesity project were transferred to pay down the deficit of a linked company. It is also investigating payments made by the charity, "for consultancy services" to two directors of the charity and its chair, Martyn Rose. Mr Rose, who helped set up the Big Society Network, also contributed more than £54,000 to the 2010 Conservative election campaign.
Tonight he said he had no memory of the payment but added that it was possible "one of my companies did work on its behalf". He said he had personally put £200,000 into the Big Society Network which he had not got back. "With hindsight, of course, if we had all known that the projects were not going to work we would have been idiots to do them," he said. "[The truth] is that in the early stages of social investment some will work and some won't." Giles Gibbons, a trustee of the charity and a former business partner of Steve Hilton, David Cameron's "blue skies thinker", added that he did not believe any of the payments made by the charity had been in any way inappropriate.
An examination of the Big Society Network projects, funded by the Government and the lottery, reveal a marked discrepancy between what they claimed they would achieve and what they did. They included: A project called "Your Square Mile" whose purpose was to encourage and enable local people to improve their community. It was awarded £830,000 by the Big Lottery Fund – despite officials assessing the application as "weak" in three out of the six criteria. In February 2012 the project had attracted just 64 signed-up groups compared with the one million predicted in the funding application.
A project called Get In – to tackle childhood obesity through sport. In April 2012 it was awarded a grant of £299,800 from the Cabinet Office despite officials concluding it was unlikely to meet its stated objectives. They were told to change their selection criteria and approve the grant. The project was never even launched.
Britain's Personal Best, which aimed to build on the Olympic Games by encouraging people to excel in athletic, educational or creative challenges. Given £997,960 in April 2013 by the Big Lottery Fund, it claimed it would sign up 120,000 people to take on challenges in their community – but was wound up within months after failing to meet all the milestones the Big Lottery Fund had set.
A long-running investigation by Civil Society News into Big Society Network funding has also discovered that the organization was given statutory grants totalling £480,000 in 2010 by Nesta – which was then an arms-length body of the Department of Business – without a competitive pitch being held. About £150,000 was to part-finance the core costs of running the organization in its early stages and £330,000 was to support four projects – called Nexters, Spring, Your Local Budget and It's Our Community. Nesta is now an independent charity but said, "While the vast majority of Nesta's grants are made following open calls for proposals, we do have the ability to provide grants to projects that fit with our vision and advance our objects outside of open calls for proposals. That is what happened with the grants to the Big Society Network."
Labour is now demanding an inquiry into links between the Big Society Network and senior Conservatives. Several members of the network's staff had worked with and for ministers including Michael Gove and Theresa May, and two had stood as Tory candidates. Giles Gibbons had been a partner in the same firm as Steve Hilton and co-wrote a book with him. He said tonight: "Am I disappointed that the network didn't have a more positive impact? The answer is 100 per cent yes. Do I think we could have done more about that? Yes I think we could have. "There was powerful core at the heart of what we were trying to do but was our delivery was not good enough. Is there anything untoward in the way in which we have worked? I genuinely don't think there is." But Lisa Nandy, the shadow minister for civil society said: "It's bad enough that millions of pounds of public money were squandered, but the connections between these organizations and the Conservative party are deeply concerning."
A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said: "Our case into the Society Network Foundation remains open and ongoing. We have received a response to questions we had relating to connected-party transactions and the use of a grant. "However this does not fully address our concerns and we are in the process of engaging further with the trustees. We are also awaiting copies of documents that explain the grounds on which a grant was given."
Steve Hilton: A former advertising executive who became David Cameron's, "blue skies thinker". He championed the idea of the Big Society, and was instrumental in getting government backing for it when the Tories came to power.
Martyn Rose: A businessman who gave £60,000 to the Tories in the run-up to the last election and became chairman of the Big Society Network. Worked with both Theresa May and Michael Gove.
Giles Gibbons: Co-wrote a book with Steve Hilton called Good Business. He became a trustee of the Society Network Foundation – the charitable arm of the Big Society Network. It is now being investigated by the Charity Commission.
Steve Moore: Worked for the Tories in the late 1980s and became chief executive of the Big Society Network. Was ultimately responsible for delivering the projects that failed. Had close links with Mr Hilton and the Nick Hurd, the minister responsible for the Big Society.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-camerons-big-society-in-tatters-as-charity-watchdog-launches-investigation-into-claims-of-government-funding-misuse-9629848.html
August 20 2014: Since publication of the above, an application dated 7 August 2014 has been made by the Trustees to have the corporate entity Society Network Foundation Ltd struck off the Register of Companies. The controversial charity that received over £2.5m of lottery and government grants is to be wound up amid allegations that it misused funding and made inappropriate payments to its directors. The Society Foundation Network, which ran the Big Society Network, is being probed by the Charity Commission following several failed projects.
The Network was also investigated by the National Audit Office over allegations that Government money was incorrectly allocated. The charity denies all the allegations. Yesterday, "The Independent" revealed that one project run by the organization had made a series of claims for nearly £1m of lottery funding that are now being disputed by other charitable organizations it referred to. The Charity Commission said that the trustees of the organization had contacted it to tell them that they planned to voluntarily wind it down. It said its "operational compliance" case into the terms and conditions of a grant awarded to the charity and other accountancy issues were still on-going and the trustees were co-operating.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/big-society-charity-winds-up-after-claims-it-misused-up-to-25m-in-funding-9681836.html
Supply of a Corona Vaccine to the UK is awarded to AstraZeneca – Tory Financial Backers are Happy Bunnies Yet Again
1 Comment on Supply of a Corona Vaccine to the UK is awarded to AstraZeneca – Tory Financial Backers are Happy Bunnies Yet Again
Coronavirus – A Safe Vaccine ??
Drug manufacturers and regulators have been under intense political pressure from Governments to deliver a safe vaccine and AstraZeneca recently reported it expected to be able to introduce to the market before Christmas 2020, a coronavirus vaccine with a success rate of 90%-10%. But the announcement was premature.
Shortly after US (Food and Drug Administration) regulators, the FDA stopped trials enabling it to conduct a probe into an adverse event in the UK involving a patient on a trial of the vaccine falling ill with unexplained neurological symptoms, previously believed to be consistent with transverse myelitis.
Trials were not halted in the UK since the regulation of vaccines, which are technically biologics, falls to the (European Medicines Agency) EMA's remit, until the UK leaves the EU.
But Boris Johnson recently announced that the UK will bypass the EMA's regulatory regime and grant a production and distribution license to AstraZeneca enabling the roll-out of a vaccination programme in the UK, from December 2020.
The EMA Rolling Review Procedure
At the beginning of October 2020, the EMA started the first 'rolling review' of a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the company AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford. This meant that the committee had started evaluating the first batch of data on the vaccine, which had come from laboratory studies (non-clinical data). It did not mean that a conclusion had been reached on the vaccine's safety and effectiveness, as much of the evidence had not yet been submitted.
A rolling review programme is a regulatory tool that the EMA uses to speed up the assessment of a promising medicine or vaccine during a public health emergency.
Normally, all data on a medicine's effectiveness, safety, and quality, and all required documents must be submitted at the start of the evaluation in a formal application for marketing authorization.
In the case of a rolling review, EMA's human medicines committee (CHMP) reviews data as they become available from ongoing studies before a formal application is submitted.
Once the CHMP decides that sufficient data are available, the formal application should be submitted by the company.
By reviewing the data as they become available, the CHMP can reach its opinion sooner on whether or not the medicine or vaccine should be authorized.
There are at least 64 companies worldwide involved in the research and production of a safe vaccine and many are nearing production.
So it is expected that a number of vaccines, perhaps safer and more efficacious will become available to the market in the early months of 2021.
Time will be the judge that will decide if the UK Governments' decision is right.
(https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-starts-first-rolling-review-covid-19-vaccine-eu)
2 June 2014: Just let me ask the wife!!! says Civil Servant and UK Tory Government Cabinet Secretary
Heywood advised the Prime Minister on the view to take on the Pfizer takeover bid for its British rival AstraZeneca.
And just as it happened that Heywood's wife (who worked for McKinney's) had only just recently written a report, circulated to Tory politicians, advising pharmaceutical firms to restructure, including mergers with rivals, 'to navigate turbulent times'.
The Pfizer bid was subsequently withdrawn. Heywood and his wife's role needed to be independently investigated. But it didn't happen.
Brexit Uncertainty
AstraZeneca, headquartered in Cambridge UK is headquartered in Cambridge and is the world's fifth-largest pharmaceutical company. It is on record as saying that a hard Brexit would mean moving some of its operations away from the UK.
An organization spokesman said that moving manufacturing takes several years but the likelihood of the company relocating to the EU is high in the event of a hard Brexit and the company has taken the first steps in planning for a scenario in which no divorce deal is reached between the UK and the EU by the 31 December 2020 deadline.
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