I'm running for Sarnia City Council! You can follow along with my campaign on my Facebook page, or feel free to browse through the last fifteen years of my writing and community work on this site.
Here is an interview I did on CHOK (local radio station).
Below is an interview I did for Into the City.
A beautiful, creative and prosperous Sarnia is my passion, and I want that passion to be contagious.
I have been personally invested in Sarnia for nearly twenty years by way of founding successful local businesses, serving on a variety of boards, volunteering for programs and events, and by recruiting families to move to the city. Serving on Sarnia City Council would amplify my purpose to make Sarnia a leading community for quality of life, innovative practices, and sustainable economic development.
My education in social services, accomplishments in business, handling multi-million dollar budgets, and experience as a charity director have given me significant insight into organizational leadership and strategic planning. I am a strong supporter of unions and workers' rights, public services to boost the quality of life for everyone, and scientific research to implement policy. I lean towards people before profits, listening before speaking, unions before corporations, quality before quantity, honesty before inflated promises, respect before power, and local interests before global aims. I welcome criticism, speak frankly, and enjoy the process of debate.
I was born at St. Joseph's hospital in Sarnia and attended St. Clair Secondary School before continuing my education at York University. After receiving my undergraduate degree, I chose to move back home to help make Sarnia a great place to work and an even better place to live.
In 2006 I moved into downtown Sarnia to join with artists and local entrepreneurs. I knew that if Sarnia was going to become the kind of place that people wanted to invest in, it would start with grassroots efforts and community organizing. I have participated in the renewal of downtown Sarnia over the last ten years, and I pride myself on being an intricate part its transformation. My interests have since expanded to other parts of the city, but my focus remains unchanged.
I also started my first business in 2006, Storyboard Solutions, to help entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations communicate and live out their vision and values. (My client list included the City of Sarnia, County of Lambton, CAS, Rebound and many others). In 2013, I collaborated with friends to start Sarnia's most beloved business, Refined Fool Brewing Company. We've since created over forty jobs and simultaneously distributed our product and promoted Sarnia across the province. Most recently I helped launch the Burger Rebellion and Mexico restaurants creating an additional forty-five jobs in our community.
I am currently serving on boards of organizations that I think make Sarnia a better place to live for everyone, including: Habitat for Humanity, providing housing and handyman services to hundreds of people in need each year; theStory, a downtown church that seeks to create a safe space for philosophical and spiritual exploration while also offering their building as a venue for community use; Sarnia Artwalk, an art, music and ecology festival that attracts twenty-five thousand participants yearly.
In the recent past I have also served with: Lambton Circles, helping people leave cycles of generational poverty; Festival of Good Things, an event which ran for four consecutive years celebrating the best that Lambton County has to offer.
I am proud of this track record, confident in my abilities, and resolute in my dedication to our great city. It would be an honour to serve Sarnia as a City Councillor.
1. What do you think is the most pressing issue facing Sarnia-Lambton in the next four years?
Sarnia needs competent, cooperative, transparent and professional leaders who value seeing all citizens having a prosperous and enjoyable way of life in Sarnia. Leadership and management of our city has unfortunately become less about making steps together towards the future and been hijacked by immature and disrespectful discourse furthering an emotionally-charged culture of elitism, toxicity and unchecked management systems.
So the issue most pressing for me is changing this culture to refocus leadership's attention to the things that matter that serve to help the population flourish. I speak to some of the things I think we need to focus on in the next question.
2. What are the key initiatives that you might propose to help us solve this issue?
Entrepreneur Friendly – I've started multiple businesses in Sarnia, and I know first-hand the barriers that bureaucracy and irrelevant/outdated procedures create. Creating processes that allow for common sense approaches and people-centered solutions will give room for new businesses and local citizens to explore their potential.
Election Reform – There isn't a perfect system, but re-evaluating our electoral process will ensure that we have a system that best serves the people. We should explore alternatives such as term limits, mayor being elected as councillor with most votes and spreading out responsibilities from just the mayor more evenly across other city/county boards and organizations.
Ongoing Waterfront Development – Continue the efforts to emphasize our waterfronts on the St. Clair River and Lake Huron for business, tourism and residents. This includes downtown development, the Old Lakeshore Right-A-Way and Canatara/Centennial amenities and making space for local businesses to start.
Contractor Responsibility and Accountability – Ongoing accountability for the contracts that the city negotiates to ensure we are getting what we paid for and are not being taken advantage of by bureaucracy and defunct relations.
Innovative Organizational Directives – Introducing changes to management and organizational structure to allow for process to drive decisions rather than personalities. Good process does not allow for incompetence to get in the way. So a focus on updating processes and structures to avoid pitfalls will be pertinent.
Social Engagement – By listening to research and all citizens voices we can move towards holistic solutions that are not based in fear. We can do this by creating space for youth, people with disabilities, indigenous communities and racial minorities to participate in process development and ensuring there is a clear communication lines to understand the full scope of the effects of the changes. There is also opportunities to invest in facilities and programming that will reduce crime, drug and alcohol related deaths and create safer neighbourhoods across the whole city.
Brownfield Sites – Sarnia has a lot of property that was developed at one point and has been abandoned or operations are coming to an end. An updated plan to make it lucrative for business to work with these sites without municipal bureaucracy will make our city attractive to new economic initiatives.
Sports – The more hospitable we can be as a city to all sorts of sports, leagues, athletes and tournaments the stronger our community we will be. I have a soft spot for arena's, pools, courts, parks, fields, paths and lakes and ensuring that they are in prime condition to be used by all of us.
Local Events – As a long time organizer of local events, I want to see our city continue to work with event organizers to run regular and new events of all sorts.
3. What in your own personal experience has prepared you the most to be part of this solution?
My education in social services, accomplishments in business, handling multi-million dollar budgets and 70+ staff, and experience as a charity/non-profit director have given me significant insight into organizational leadership and strategic planning. I am a strong supporter of unions and workers' rights, public services to boost the quality of life for everyone, and scientific research to implement policy. I lean towards people before profits, listening before speaking, unions before corporations, quality before quantity, honesty before inflated promises, respect before power, and local interests before global aims. I welcome criticism, speak frankly, and enjoy the process of debate.
We are currently in a global crisis, with a media-worthy lack of competent political leadership. Here at home, over the past four years in Sarnia, we have also seen our share of political turmoil. If you are elected, how do you think you might help positively influence this negative trend?
I feel like the answers to the previous three questions was just a large answer for this question. I am disinterested in being stuck in whatever turmoil from the past plagued us and want to pour my energy into contributing to politics that is rich with integrity, healthy debate and thoughtful organizational development. To say it succinctly, I have very little energy or time for things that don't get us closer to a better, safer and healthier city for everyone and you won't see me getting caught up into things that will distract me from my vision of a flourishing city.
If you didn't get your voter card – please contact the Clerks Department by phone 519-332-0330 ext. 3320 or email [email protected] If you did, here is how you vote below.


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Home News Serratore Gets New Deal at Air Force
Serratore Gets New Deal at Air Force
Air Force and coach Frank Serratore have agreed to a new five-year contract that will keep Serratore behind the Falcons' bench through the 2013-14 season, the school announced Monday.
Frank Serratore
Serratore, who is in his 13th season with Air Force, has led the Falcons to three straight NCAA tournament appearances after Atlantic Hockey postseason championships.
He has a 200-216-32 overall record at the Academy and led the team to a program-best 28 wins last season.
"Frank has committed to building a successful program on and off the ice," Air Force associate athletic director Dermot Coll said. "The success the team has had the last few years is a direct reflection of the hard work and effort he and his staff have put into this program. The Academy is proud of the team and coaches and all that they have accomplished on the ice, in the classroom and in the community."
Details of the contract are being finalized, the school announced.
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OSCAR LEÓN, TRNN PRODUCER: In the wake of the Zimmerman acquittal for the murder of Trayvon Martin and the protests that followed, we move to L.A. The protest there last for a week, from Sunday 14th to the 21st. Los Angeles Times reported 17 total arrest, most of them for unlawful assembly, eight of which were juveniles. For many people, Zimmerman acquittal was the straw that broke the camel's back.
UNIDENTIFIED: Once again the criminal justice system has betrayed the black community. But was I surprised? Hell no, because I know in my heart that the white people on the jury were people who felt that Zimmerman was more their son then Trayvon Martin.
LEÓN: In downtown Los Angeles, many march protesting the verdict. But not only Trayvon's murder is the reason for the outrage.
UNIDENTIFIED: Well, Marissa Alexander, she got, what, 20 years for protecting herself from an abuser? And she had the right to. She was in–standing her ground to defend herself. So obviously the stand-your-ground law in Florida does not apply to black people.
LEÓN: On Tuesday, many gathered on Leimert Park to protest. Some people diverted from the march and caused numerous damages to public and private property. Even bystanders were assaulted. The local Walmart claims $15,000 of property damage. Many other business around the city are a testimony of the rage. The protest follow [[email protected]] Avenue until they reach Hollywood. According to AP, on [incompr.], 13 individuals were arrested. Mainstream media broadly broadcasted the violence. And conservative networks use it to set the tone for its talking panels.
However, Sunny Sasajima, LAPD senior lead officer of the Southwest District say the police are fully aware that those who vandalize are not the activists who protested in Leimert Park.
SUNNY SASAJIMA, SENIOR LEAD OFFICER, LAPD SOUTHWEST DIVISION: But just to make it clear, you know, we believe and in talking with a lot of people it really wasn't the case that the protesters or the folks that were gathered here at the park were causing the problems. It's people that use the protest as an excuse to come out here and cause problems.
LEÓN: He further states that LAPD is not a racist institution.
SASAJIMA: You look around our police department, if you go around and take a look at our department as a whole, you see black, white, Hispanic, Asians. You see black, white, Hispanic, you know, basically all races at various levels of our department. So to say that there's, like, blatant racism, I don't believe that that's the case.
LEÓN: However, while the individuals might not be racist, the policies might very well be. At least that is what the work of Ashley Franklyn from the Labor Strategy Community Center seems to show.
ASHLEY FRANKLYN, LABOR STRATEGY COMMUNITY CENTER: So we have 2.3 million people in prison. One million of them are black folks. Five hundred thousand and counting are Latino folks. We have the largest school police department, and they have over a $54 million budget, right, and at the time where we only have one counselor per 1,016 students. Right? Black students are six times more likely than a white person to be arrested. Latino students are four times as likely than a white student to be arrested.
So, given these conditions inside of schools, we have to talk about school-to-prison pipeline. What are the laws and the policies that are pushing our students outside of schools and making it so hostile and uncomfortable that they're not learning in schools?
LEÓN: Lola Smallwood Cuevas, from the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, believes unemployment is one of the main causes for the youngsters' outrage.
LOLA SMALLWOOD CUEVAS, LOS ANGELES BLACK WORKER CENTER: The poverty that generationally our families have experienced is pretty much the same for most African-American communities. I mean, here in L.A. County, we have an unemployment rate amongst black working-age adults of about 21 percent. We have an underemployment rate of about 35 percent. So you have, you know, over half of the black community in a compounded crisis.
LEÓN: The Black Worker Center is organizing a broad coalition of black workers in South L.A. to demand a fair share of the construction jobs created by the Obama administration's stimulus plan. She says that on the first stage, the jobs were filled mostly with Latinos and white workers, leaving the black community very unhappy. Smallwood believes the youth is especially at risk in this issue.
SMALLWOOD CUEVAS: You see sort of in the civil rights movement opportunities to come into jobs, and then in the '80s a complete shutdown and a closing of the door and sort of regression and going back to lack of opportunity. And so, you know, I would say in the last 30 years the crisis has gotten to a point where, you know, young black men like Trayvon, unemployment for those young men in our communities at 66 percent, right? So that's, like, a genocidal level. At this point, because of, you know, the deindustrialization of cities, because of the de-unionization, because of the deregulation that allows companies to just outsource work, to pick up and to move to places where it's cheaper and you can really profit off of people, because of all of that, we have been in this spiral down. And it's created–you know, what's left behind is violence, is hopelessness, is despair, is broken schools, is lack of credit, is poor health. You know. So the economic condition is the root of a lot of what's happening in the black community.
LEÓN: On Leimert Park we found Luigi, a rapper from the band Witchkraft. He incarnates a generation that meet criminalization and jail at an early age.
LUIGI, RAPPER, WITCHKRAFT: I mean, I'm from Long Beach originally. I'm from a neighborhood, I'm from [incompr.] everybody robbing people, shooting people. But my mom took the the determination to take me out the neighborhood and for me–to take me somewhere where I could be better and [incompr.] myself and graduate high school at least. [incompr.] people walking around this park right now ain't graduated high school. Know what I'm saying?
But look at them. Look at them looking at us. You know what I'm saying? Like, they're ready to hop out the car and beat–the cops are riding four deep. You understand? Listen, the cops are riding four deep in the car. You're not paying attention to what the cops are doing. You don't understand, 'cause you're not from around here. When the cop car is driving past, it's the cage behind the back seat. The doors are locked, so you can't unlock it. These guys take the cages out. Look at them looking at us. They take the cages out the back seat, unlock the back doors. So it's four people riding in one car. They're ready to hop out and beat somebody up and hop in the car and go do it to the next black man or a Mexican or a white, whoever is protesting. You know what I'm saying?
LEÓN: Osbe, another rapper from the band, has lost all faith in the system.
OSBE, RAPPER, WITCHKRAFT: This is an ongoing thing. Like, society [incompr.] all type of loopholes that we all know about that they're getting over with. You know. Injustice [incompr.] all of that, especially on black people and minorities, period, but especially on black people. You know what I'm saying? It's been going on for years, since slavery.
LEÓN: J Millz thinks generation X could change the world.
J MILLZ, RAPPER, WITCHKRAFT: If we–if our generation can put their mind to the point and the maximum capacity of what they can do, they can change the world.
LEÓN: However, many in Leimert Park doubt that the generation X can fight back and get real changes like those in the '60s.
RUDOLPH PORTER, L.A. PHILHARMONIC RETIREE: I think they're capable, but I must say I'm still in question about this young, wild, youthful generation now. I'm not quite sure where they're going to take it.
KUNTA SMITH, MUSICIAN: During my generation, we struggled for equality in this country. So when we couldn't get equality, we had to fight for it and march for it in the street. This new generation, they're all about tattoos, killing each other. So they're not about unity like we were.
LEÓN: The racial struggle is connected to the economic one. And if a change is to be implemented, a more tactical approach is needed. That is the thinking of David Hickman, a disabled war veteran.
DAVID HICKMAN, DISABLED WAR VETERAN: Young people today, they don't understand that. They think that they're supposed to create havoc and melee throughout the United States for what happened. That's not the way to handle that situation, because it is politically and politically minded to know how to handle that situation so you won't get in trouble. I don't want to go to jail. But I don't mind voicing my opinion.
After a week of demonstration, many arrests, and thousands of dollars of property damage and overtime for police officers, demonstrations readily toned down. Justice Department says it is determining if it will file civil right charges against Zimmerman. But many are demanding the Department of Justice take more profound action.
Reporting for The Real News, this is Oscar León.


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E3 2014: Mirror's Edge 2 is Explored in a Concept Trailer
Published by Josh Britton on June 9, 2014
Mirror's Edge 2 is one of the most interesting titles that EA has in its arsenal. When holding a catalogue of games that feature a wide selection of sports, as well as contemporary shooters, it is not surprising that followers of EA are anxious to see that amount of polish on a project that strays away from the traditional route. Not only that, but the original Mirror's Edge is a title that many would label as "innovative", which is yet another unique characteristic of this DICE-developed series.
EA confirmed today that Mirror's Edge 2 is continuing to venture into unsettled territory with the reveal of a trailer that delves further into the details of this next installment. What's interesting about this trailer is that it is very boldly stated as a "Conceptual Prototype", meaning that DICE is certainly taking a cautionary approach on how they will follow up on the last game.
One of the things I love to appreciate in a video game is the color palette, and Mirror's Edge 2 has one that really distances itself from the rest of the market. I especially enjoy how the cinematography in this trailer feels as though it was plucked from the colorfully pale art direction of the game itself. All of these things are making me very curious to see the finished product.
One of the things I personally disliked about the original Mirror's Edge was the monotony of the campaign, and being someone who did not play the game for timed runs I'm 100% ready to give the campaign of this title a second chance.
So what is everyone else thinking about Mirror's Edge 2? I know that this title was a very popular topic at last year's E3, and I'm wanting to know how that hype has transfered over to this year.
...AND, while you're at it, follow along with us at #4PNE3 during the press conferences to see all of those sweet, supple text reactions.
Unigma 5 years, 1 month ago
Can. Not. Wait.
Ikusa GT 5 years, 1 month ago
Isn't this a reboot and not a sequel? Nonetheless great to see this franchise back.
J52 5 years, 1 month ago
I'd prefer that. The big twist in ME1 was kinda stupid. I was never really convinced the bad guys were all that bad either.
Josh Britton 5 years, 1 month ago
DICE has said that Mirror's Edge 2 is a reboot, however it appears as though base mechanics and character details have not been changed a great deal. One of the things they said they meant to use the "reboot" label for was to reinvent the solitary ways of the city, so as to see it as a more living and breathing environment.
Sooo. yes, it is a reboot.. but in a seemingly cryptic way. Maybe this will play a larger role in the story?
I look forward to it. Though on a console. I wanna avoid Origin as long as possible.
overlordbaal 5 years, 1 month ago
Man I'm hyped for Mirror's Edge 2.
Sweet! Can't wait!
GamerBeck 5 years, 1 month ago
Add a wingsuit, DICE.


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Nick Kyrgios and royal mum, Nill, can claim tennis crown at Malaysian Open
ACT sport
By Chris Dutton
September 19, 2014 — 10.00pm
His mum is Malaysian royalty and Nick Kyrgios plans on ending the most intense year of his tennis career with a crown of his own in Kuala Lumpur.
Kyrgios and mum Nill left Canberra on Friday to prepare for the Malaysian Open as the 19-year-old tennis star gets a chance to mix his career with family history.
Nill and Nick Kyrgios at Canberra Airport. Credit:Jamila Toderas
Nill, or Norlaila, was born in Malaysia as a princess, but she dropped the title when she moved to Australia with her mother.
Nill has invited members of the royal family to visit her and Nick and watch him play at the tournament for the first time.
"It's going to be exciting going back to my mum's roots," Kyrgios said.
"I'm not going to be out and about or eating lots of food, I'm there to play. But having fans there and people to watch is going to be pretty cool.
"I've been to Malaysia a couple of times to see relatives ... I don't know much about mum's history. But hopefully they embrace me over there, too."
Kyrgios will use the Malaysian Open as the last event on his hectic 2014 schedule, deciding to prematurely end his year to recuperate.
The talented teenager has enjoyed a boom rise up the rankings and could rise into the world's top 50 with good results at the tournament which starts on Monday.
Nill is writing a book about her life, which includes details of the mystery surrounding her birth and her links to the royal family.
"Family and friends always asked if Nick would play in Malaysia when he was 16 or so and I said no," Nill said.
"But secretly I was hoping he would and I'm really happy, excited and proud now.
"I've invited all the royal side of my family to come over, I'm not sure if they will be there. All of my relatives are already waiting and cheering."
Kyrgios' preference is to always travel with a family member, including dad George, brother Christos or sister Halimah.
Nill will take charge of Kyrgios' schedule and her plan is to make things as simple as possible to allow her son to perform at his peak.
Kyrgios got fired up when his mum tipped world No. 1 Rafael Nadal to beat him at Wimbledon earlier this year.
The teenager used his mum's tip as extra motivation to prove her wrong and he toppled the world's best player in a four-set epic on centre court.
"I'm not a yes person, I'm going to say what I think when people ask him how I think he'll go. I told him not to get angry about it though," Nill grinned before the US Open in August.
A relaxed Kyrgios wants to finish his season on a high in Malaysia and the chance to win in front of his family adds extra incentive.
"Mum has always been there, you could call her my No. 1 supporter," Kyrgios said.
"Mum is a bit of a control freak, she likes things her own way.
"But she's going to look after me which is good and she's always going to be there if I need someone to talk to. We're only over there for a week and it's my last one so I'll give it everything I've got."
Chris Dutton
Chris Dutton is the sports editor at The Canberra Times.


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Apple granted new patent that could add touch controls to the bezel
- Jul. 2nd 2013 6:45 am PT
Apple has just been granted a patent for a new technology that could bring touch controls to the bezel of a device with a small display (via AppleInsider). The technology would be able to dynamically change between a place to simply hold onto the device with and an area for controls. Apple describes it as an "Electronic device, display and touch-sensitive user interface" and says the technology is centered around a layered stack of touch sensors and displays around the edge(s) of a device that could be selectively activated and deactivated.
For example, with the iPad mini, Apple wanted to get the 7.85-inch display in as small a package as possible, which meant a smaller bezel. A smaller bezel meant that it would be harder to hold without accidentally touching the display. To solve this, Apple developed a technology that was able to detect accidental touches versus intentional touches. This new patent could lead to a bezel that could only be present when needed and other times it could be used for controls or could even blend in with everything else and create a true full-screen appearance, ideal for gaming and consuming content.
Sylvania HomeKit Light Strip
Display devices and methods for operating the same are provided. In one embodiment, the display device has an electronic display having an active area for presenting visual content; a housing holding the electronic display and having an opening allowing a person to view a first portion of the active area; and a bezel about the opening, the bezel covering a second portion of the active area and providing a window through which at least a part of the second portion can be viewed. A sensor system senses when a person is close to touching the bezel or when a person is in touch with the bezel and generates a sensor signal; and a controller is operable to adjust the appearance of the active area in the part of the second portion when the controller determines that a person has touched the bezel or is close to touching the bezel.
Given recent rumors, the obvious implication here is that Apple will use this technology with its supposed iWatch, which it has recently filed trademarks for in both Japan, Mexico, and plenty of other nations. On the iWatch, this technology could make the display bigger when needed and add a bezel when needed. And on a display under 2-inches, a little bit can go a long way in terms of increasing screen size.
Patent iWatch bezel
Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.
Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com
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Planning to visit London anytime soon? Don't know what places to cover in limited days?
This might help!! So here are my 5 favourite places that you must see. You definitely won't be disappointed.
Behind the scene stories, Live sets, Actual props, Cloaks, and your very own interactive magic wand. This place is must visit for all you potter heads 😉 Witnessing platform 9 3/4, a personalized video of you playing Quidditch and actually getting to spend time in Hogwarts. Once in a lifetime opportune moment. Isn't it? You also have the souvenir shop from where you can purchase actual props including a customised magic wand, key chains and HP notebooks. So all the potter fans grab your nimbus 2000 and experience this place personally, I am sure you will remember this for rest of your life. Do not forget to sip on some butter beer!
P.S. – You need to pre-book your tickets way in advance through their website as the slots are usually full because of obvious reasons.
It's wingardium leviOsa, and not leviosAH.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Located near oxford street, this is one such place that you have to experience at least once. Everything here is made from Ice be it tables, chairs, the glass in which you will drink and the bar-counter as well. Glasses are made from crystal clear Thorne River ice which is harvested from the pristine winter wonderland of Jukkasjärvi in Northern Sweden. New concept, peppy music in the background. Again you need to pre-book your slot at their official website by paying a fixed amount and their basic package includes you entry charges and one drink. They do have different packages that you can select from as per your convenience. Their restaurant offers amazing food. I had a jolting experience drinking champagne and vodka cocktails and the ambience over there is worth per penny. You will surely come out having a great time.
Want to have the best adrenaline rush of your life? then this is the place to visit. This adventure park is one of the best in town and has something to offer to people of all age group. Apart from having scariest rides that will raise your heartbeats and throw, scoop and drop you in every directions, they also have some amazing in-door shows. Stealth, The Swarm, Saw-The Ride, Colossus, Nemesis Inferno and Derren Brown's Ghost Train are some of the rides that you should not miss at any cost. Prefer a weekday to visit this place as it'll be less crowded and you'll get to enjoy more and if you happen to visit this place during weekends do not hesitate to take an express ticket to complete the park.
Right in the heart of the city, this street is a shopper's paradise. You will get to see different stuffs for every budget. High-end brands have some enticing discounts to attract tourists. Branded clothes, luxury bags, expensive watches, perfumes, sunglasses, you name it and you will surely get that here. Even if you don't want to shop anything just give it a try. They also have some of the most amazing cafe's and dessert places for your hunger pangs. I am sure once you visit here you will surely end up buying some good stuff for yourself. This place has its own energy and I was totally bowled by that.
With so many top London attractions to tick off, your city sightseeing checklist could get very long indeed. So where do you start? The best way to do this is through hop-on hop-off bus. If you like walking then that's more fun! The first bus starts at around 8.30 am and would cover almost all major attractions. Each place has its own history and there are live guides in the bus to tell you some amazing stories about different places and answer all your questions. Tower bridge, London-eye, Madam Tussaud's, Trafalgar square, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London. You also have to witness the cruise ride near tower bridge at the end which is very entertaining, the hilarious stories you'll hear about every place from the guide. This tour will give you an insight of each and every place and will leave you with some fond memories.
For your second visit to the UK save your leaves and plan for an offbeat road trip through England. If you are into hiking and trekking skip being touristy and Explore. Beautiful country walks to Ashridge estate in Birkhamstead will take you to woodland trails. Which looks something like this. Consider London to Devon for an extraordinaire encounter with the countryside.
Brilliant blue carpets of bluebell.


text:
Q: Setting the creator for Google calendar events created via API I'm creating a bunch of events (a school timetable) via the Google calendar API v3. I'm authenticating my program via OAuth credentials obtains through the APIs console. Everything works well, except that all events have my Google account as their creator, and all of the calendars that the program creates appear in my 'Other Calendars' list. Is there any way of changing this behaviour?
The only thing I can think of is to log in to the APIs console with a service account (e.g. timetable@mydomain.com) and creating the client secrets from that.

A: Yes, you'll need to authenticate as a service account and impersonate the user who you'd like to be the creator of the event. The Google Drive SDK has a good tutorial on using service accounts to impersonate users with the API, your process would be nearly identical except that you'd be using the Calendar API.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


USA Online Casinos: Online casino gamble list - You might just discover a cool new hobby. One that has the potential to pad your wallet. Good news. The answer is "yes.
In some cases, availing a business credit card leads to overspending. Since it will be easy to charge purchases on this card, you may not realize at once that you are maxing out on your credit line for shouldering your expenses. In some cases, your personal expenses are even charged on your card for business. Another challenge that you should face is choosing the business credit card that will perfectly match your needs and spending. Getting the right card is crucial especially when basing on the rewards. There are lots of enticing offers that will catch your attention but beware of some deceptions.


text:
Disneyland Paris delays reopening to April 2 due to COVID-19
FILE PHOTO: Disney character Mickey Mouse is seen is seen on a clock at the entrance of Disneyland Paris, in Marne-la-Vallee, near Paris, as the theme park prepares to reopen its doors to the public following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in France, July 9, 2020. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/Files
PARIS (Reuters) - Disneyland Paris said on Monday it was postponing its reopening by almost two months, to April 2, due to the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Due to the prevailing conditions in Europe, Disneyland Paris will not reopen on the 13th of February as initially planned. If conditions permit, we will reopen Disneyland Paris on the 2nd of April, 2021," the group said on its Twitter account.
France has suffered more than 70,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, among the highest national tolls worldwide, and has begun a mass vaccination programme in an effort to ease lockdowns and revive the economy.
On Sunday, the health ministry reported that France had vaccinated more than 422,000 people since the start of the vaccination campaign on Dec. 26.
Reporting by Richard Lough; Writing by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Mark Heinrich


text:
// -------------------------------------------------------------
// CUDPP -- CUDA Data Parallel Primitives library
// -------------------------------------------------------------
// $Revision:$
// $Date:$
// -------------------------------------------------------------
// This source code is distributed under the terms of license.txt in
// the root directory of this source distribution.
// -------------------------------------------------------------

/**
 * @file
 * cudpp.h
 *
 * @brief Main library header file.  Defines public interface.
 *
 * The CUDPP public interface is a C-only interface to enable
 * linking with code written in other languages (e.g. C, C++,
 * and Fortran).  While the internals of CUDPP are not limited
 * to C (C++ features are used), the public interface is
 * entirely C (thus it is declared "extern C").
 */

/**
 * \mainpage
 *
 * \section introduction Introduction
 *
 * CUDPP is the CUDA Data Parallel Primitives Library. CUDPP is a
 * library of data-parallel algorithm primitives such as
 * parallel-prefix-sum ("scan"), parallel sort and parallel reduction.
 * Primitives such as these are important building blocks for a wide
 * variety of data-parallel algorithms, including sorting, stream
 * compaction, and building data structures such as trees and
 * summed-area tables.
 *
 * \section overview Overview Presentation
 *
 * A brief set of slides that describe the features, design principles,
 * applications and impact of CUDPP is available here:
 * CUDPP Presentation.
 *
 * \section homepage Homepage
 * Homepage for CUDPP: http://www.gpgpu.org/developer/cudpp/
 *
 * Announcements and discussion of CUDPP are hosted on the
 * CUDPP Google Group.
 *
 * \section getting-started Getting Started with CUDPP
 *
 * You may want to start by browsing the \link publicInterface CUDPP Public
 * Interface\endlink. For information on building CUDPP, see
 * \ref building-cudpp "Building CUDPP".
 *
 * The "apps" subdirectory included with CUDPP has a few source code samples
 * that use CUDPP:
 * - \ref example_simpleCUDPP "simpleCUDPP", a simple example of using
 * cudppScan()
 * - satGL, an example of using cudppMultiScan() to generate a summed-area
 * table (SAT) of a scene rendered in real time.  The SAT is then used to simulate
 * depth of field blur.
 * - cudpp_testrig, a comprehensive test application for all the functionality
 * of CUDPP
 *
 * We have also provided a code walkthrough of the
 * \ref example_simpleCUDPP "simpleCUDPP" example.
 *
 * \section getting-help Getting Help and Reporting Problems
 *
 * To get help using CUDPP, please use the
 * CUDPP Google Group.
 *
 * To report CUDPP bugs or request features, you may use either the above
 * CUDPP Google Group, or you can file an issue directly using
 * Google Code.
 *
 * \section release-notes Release Notes
 *
 * For specific release details see the \ref changelog "Change Log".
 *
 * \section opSys Operating System Support
 *
 * This release (1.1.1) has been thoroughly tested on the following OSes.
 * - Windows XP (32-bit) (CUDA 2.2, 3.0)
 * - Windows Vista (32-bit) (CUDA 2.2)
 * - Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 (64-bit) (CUDA 2.2)
 * - Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (32-bit and 64-bit) (CUDA 2.2)
 * - and Mac OS X 10.5.7 (Leopard, 32-bit) (CUDA 2.2)
 *
 * We expect CUDPP to build and run correctly on other flavors of Linux, but these
 * are not actively tested by the developers at this time.
 *
 * Note: CUDPP is not compatible with CUDA 2.1.  A compiler bug in 2.1 causes the
 * compiler to crash.
 *
 * \section cuda CUDA
 * CUDPP is implemented in
 * CUDA C/C++. It requires the
 * CUDA Toolkit version 2.2 or later.  Please see the NVIDIA
 * CUDA homepage to download
 * CUDA as well as the CUDA Programming Guide and CUDA SDK, which includes many
 * CUDA code examples.  Two of the samples in the CUDA SDK ("marchingCubes" and
 * "lineOfSight") also use CUDPP.
 *
 * \section design-goals Design Goals
 * Design goals for CUDPP include:
 *
 * - Performance. We aim to provide best-of-class performance for our
 *   primitives. We welcome suggestions and contributions that will improve
 *   CUDPP performance. We also want to provide primitives that can be easily
 *   benchmarked, and compared against other implementations on GPUs and other
 *   processors.
 * - Modularity. We want our primitives to be easily included in other
 *   applications. To that end we have made the following design decisions:
 *   - CUDPP is provided as a library that can link against other applications.
 *   - CUDPP calls run on the GPU on GPU data. Thus they can be used
 *     as standalone calls on the GPU (on GPU data initialized by the
 *     calling application) and, more importantly, as GPU components in larger
 *     CPU/GPU applications.
 *   - CUDPP is implemented as 4 layers:
 *     -# The \link publicInterface Public Interface\endlink is the external
 *        library interface, which is the intended entry point for most
 *        applications. The public interface calls into the
 *        \link cudpp_app Application-Level API\endlink.
 *     -# The \link cudpp_app Application-Level API\endlink comprises functions
 *        callable from CPU code. These functions execute code jointly on the
 *        CPU (host) and the GPU by calling into the
 *        \link cudpp_kernel Kernel-Level API\endlink below them.
 *     -# The \link cudpp_kernel Kernel-Level API\endlink comprises functions
 *        that run entirely on the GPU across an entire grid of thread blocks.
 *        These functions may call into the \link cudpp_cta CTA-Level API\endlink
 *        below them.
 *     -# The \link cudpp_cta CTA-Level API\endlink comprises functions that run
 *        entirely on the GPU within a single Cooperative Thread Array (CTA,
 *        aka thread block). These are low-level functions that implement core
 *        data-parallel algorithms, typically by processing data within shared
 *        (CUDA \c __shared__) memory.
 *
 * Programmers may use any of the lower three CUDPP layers in their own
 * programs by building the source directly into their application.  However,
 * the typical usage of CUDPP is to link to the library and invoke functions in
 * the CUDPP \link publicInterface Public Interface\endlink, as in the
 * \ref example_simpleCUDPP "simpleCUDPP", satGL, and cudpp_testrig application
 * examples included in the CUDPP distribution.
 *
 * In the future, if and when CUDA supports building device-level libraries, we
 * hope to enhance CUDPP to ease the use of CUDPP internal algorithms at all
 * levels.
 *
 * \subsection uses Use Cases
 * We expect the normal use of CUDPP will be in one of two ways:
 * -# Linking the CUDPP library against another application.
 * -# Running our "test" application, cudpp_testrig, that exercises
 *   CUDPP functionality.
 *
 * \section references References
 * The following publications describe work incorporated in CUDPP.
 *
 * - Mark Harris, Shubhabrata Sengupta, and John D. Owens. "Parallel Prefix Sum (Scan) with CUDA". In Hubert Nguyen, editor, GPU Gems 3, chapter 39, pages 851–876. Addison Wesley, August 2007. http://graphics.idav.ucdavis.edu/publications/print_pub?pub_id=916
 * - Shubhabrata Sengupta, Mark Harris, Yao Zhang, and John D. Owens. "Scan Primitives for GPU Computing". In Graphics Hardware 2007, pages 97–106, August 2007. http://graphics.idav.ucdavis.edu/publications/print_pub?pub_id=915
 * - Shubhabrata Sengupta, Mark Harris, and Michael Garland. "Efficient parallel scan algorithms for GPUs". NVIDIA Technical Report NVR-2008-003, December 2008. http://mgarland.org/papers.html#segscan-tr
 * - Nadathur Satish, Mark Harris, and Michael Garland. "Designing Efficient Sorting Algorithms for Manycore GPUs". In Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium, May 2009. http://mgarland.org/papers.html#gpusort
 * - Stanley Tzeng, Li-Yi Wei. "Parallel White Noise Generation on a GPU via Cryptographic Hash". In Proceedings of the 2008 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games, pages 79–87, February 2008. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=70502
 *
 * Many researchers are using CUDPP in their work, and there are many publications
 * that have used it \ref cudpp_refs "(references)". If your work uses CUDPP, please
 * let us know by sending us a BibTeX reference to your work.
 *
 * \section citing Citing CUDPP
 *
 * If you make use of CUDPP primitives in your work and want to cite
 * CUDPP (thanks!), we would prefer if you would cite the appropriate
 * papers above, since they form the core of CUDPP. To be more specific,
 * the GPU Gems paper describes (unsegmented) scan and multi-scan for
 * summed-area tables. The NVIDIA technical report describes the current
 * scan and segmented scan algorithms used in the library, and the
 * Graphics Hardware paper describes an earlier implementation of
 * segmented scan, quicksort, and sparse matrix-vector multiply. The IPDPS
 * paper describes the radix sort used in CUDPP, and the I3D paper
 * describes the random number generation algorithm.
 *
 * \section credits Credits
 * \subsection developers CUDPP Developers
 * - Mark Harris, NVIDIA Corporation
 * - John D. Owens, University of California, Davis
 * - Shubho Sengupta, University of California, Davis
 * - Stanley Tseng,   University of California, Davis
 * - Yao Zhang,       University of California, Davis
 * - Andrew Davidson, University of California, Davis (formerly Louisiana State University)
 *
 * \subsection contributors Other CUDPP Contributors
 * - Nadatur Satish,  University of California, Berkeley
 *
 * \subsection acknowledgments Acknowledgments
 *
 * Thanks to Jim Ahrens, Timo Aila, Ian Buck, Guy Blelloch, Jeff Bolz,
 * Michael Garland, Jeff Inman, Eric Lengyel, Samuli Laine, David Luebke,
 * Pat McCormick, and Richard Vuduc for their contributions during the
 * development of this library.
 *
 * CUDPP Developers from UC Davis thank their funding agencies:
 * - Department of Energy Early Career Principal Investigator Award
 *   DE-FG02-04ER25609
 * - SciDAC Institute for Ultrascale Visualization (http://www.iusv.org/)
 * - Los Alamos National Laboratory
 * - National Science Foundation (grant 0541448)
 * - Generous hardware donations from NVIDIA
 *
 * \section license-overview CUDPP Copyright and Software License
 * CUDPP is copyright The Regents of the University of California, Davis campus
 * and NVIDIA Corporation.  The library, examples, and all source code are
 * released under the BSD license, designed to encourage reuse of this software
 * in other projects, both commercial and non-commercial.  For details, please
 * see the \ref license page.
 *
 * Note that prior to release 1.1 of CUDPP, the license used was a modified
 * BSD license.  With release 1.1, this license was replaced with the pure BSD
 * license to facilitate the use of open source hosting of the code.
 */

/**
 * @page license CUDPP License
 *
 * \section licenseBSD CUDPP License
 *
 * CUDPP is released under the
 * BSD license.
 *
 * @include license.txt
 *
 */

/**
 * @page changelog CUDPP Change Log
 *
 * @include changelog.txt
 */

/**
 * @page cudpp_refs Publications that use CUDPP
 *
 * @htmlinclude doc/bib/cudpp_refs.html
 */

/**
 * @page cudpp_refs_bib Bibliography for publications that use CUDPP
 *
 * @htmlinclude doc/bib/cudpp_refs_bib.html
 */

/**
 * @page building-cudpp Building CUDPP
 *
 * CUDPP has currently been tested in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X
 * and Linux.  See \ref release-notes for release specific platform support.
 *
 * \section build-win32 Building CUDPP on Windows XP
 *
 * CUDPP can be built using either or MSVC 8 (2005) or MSVC 9 (2008).  To
 * build, open cudpp/cudpp.sln. Then you can build the library
 * using the "build" command as you would with any other workspace. There are
 * four configurations: debug, release, emudebug, and emurelease.  The first
 * two are self-explanatory.  The second two are built to use CUDA device
 * emulation, meaning they will be run (slowly) on the CPU.
 *
 * \section build-linux Building CUDPP on Linux and Mac OS X
 *
 * CUDPP can be built using standard g++ and Make tools on Linux, by typing
 * "make" in the "cudpp/" subdirectory.  Before building CUDPP, you should
 * first build the CUDA Utility Library (libcutil) by typing "make; make dbg=1"
 * in the "common/" subdirectory.  This will generate libcutil.a and
 * libcutilD.a.
 *
 * The makefile for CUDPP and all sample applications take the optional
 * arguments "emu=1" and "dbg=1".  The former builds CUDPP for device emulation,
 * and the latter for debugging. The two flags can be combined. "verbose=1"
 * can be used to see all compiler output.
 *
 * \section build-apps Building CUDPP Sample Applications
 *
 * The sample applications in the "apps/" subdirectory can be built exactly
 * like CUDPP is--either by opening the appropriate .sln/.vcproj file in MSVC
 * in Windows, or using "make" in Linux.
 *
 * On some Linux installations you will get linker errors relating to "-lXi"
 * and "-lXmu".  To fix this, you will need to install libXi and libXmu.  On
 * Debian and Ubuntu, for example, you can simply run
 *  "sudo apt-get install libxi-dev", and
 *  "sudo apt-get install libxmu-dev"
 *
 */

#ifndef __CUDPP_H__
#define __CUDPP_H__

#include <stdlib.h> // for size_t

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif

/**
 * @brief CUDPP Result codes returned by CUDPP API functions.
 */
enum CUDPPResult
{
    CUDPP_SUCCESS = 0,                 /**< No error. */
    CUDPP_ERROR_INVALID_HANDLE,        /**< Specified handle (for example,
                                            to a plan) is invalid. **/
    CUDPP_ERROR_ILLEGAL_CONFIGURATION, /**< Specified configuration is
                                            illegal. For example, an
                                            invalid or illogical
                                            combination of options. */
    CUDPP_ERROR_UNKNOWN = 9999         /**< Unknown or untraceable error. */
};

/**
 * @brief Options for configuring CUDPP algorithms.
 *
 * @see CUDPPConfiguration, cudppPlan, CUDPPAlgorithm
 */
enum CUDPPOption
{
    CUDPP_OPTION_FORWARD   = 0x1,  /**< Algorithms operate forward:
                                    * from start to end of input
                                    * array */
    CUDPP_OPTION_BACKWARD  = 0x2,  /**< Algorithms operate backward:
                                    * from end to start of array */
    CUDPP_OPTION_EXCLUSIVE = 0x4,  /**< Exclusive (for scans) - scan
                                    * includes all elements up to (but
                                    * not including) the current
                                    * element */
    CUDPP_OPTION_INCLUSIVE = 0x8,  /**< Inclusive (for scans) - scan
                                    * includes all elements up to and
                                    * including the current element */
    CUDPP_OPTION_CTA_LOCAL = 0x10, /**< Algorithm performed only on
                                    * the CTAs (blocks) with no
                                    * communication between blocks.
                                    * @todo Currently ignored. */
    CUDPP_OPTION_KEYS_ONLY = 0x20, /**< No associated value to a key
                                    * (for global radix sort) */
    CUDPP_OPTION_KEY_VALUE_PAIRS = 0x40, /**< Each key has an associated value */
};

/**
 * @brief Datatypes supported by CUDPP algorithms.
 *
 * @see CUDPPConfiguration, cudppPlan
 */
enum CUDPPDatatype
{
    CUDPP_CHAR,     //!< Character type (C char)
    CUDPP_UCHAR,    //!< Unsigned character (byte) type (C unsigned char)
    CUDPP_INT,      //!< Integer type (C int)
    CUDPP_UINT,     //!< Unsigned integer type (C unsigned int)
    CUDPP_FLOAT     //!< Float type (C float)
};

/**
 * @brief Operators supported by CUDPP algorithms (currently scan and
 * segmented scan).
 *
 * These are all binary associative operators.
 *
 * @see CUDPPConfiguration, cudppPlan
 */
enum CUDPPOperator
{
    CUDPP_ADD,      //!< Addition of two operands
    CUDPP_MULTIPLY, //!< Multiplication of two operands
    CUDPP_MIN,      //!< Minimum of two operands
    CUDPP_MAX       //!< Maximum of two operands
};

/**
* @brief Algorithms supported by CUDPP.  Used to create appropriate plans using
* cudppPlan.
*
* @see CUDPPConfiguration, cudppPlan
*/
enum CUDPPAlgorithm
{
    CUDPP_SCAN,              //!< Scan or prefix-sum
    CUDPP_SEGMENTED_SCAN,    //!< Segmented scan
    CUDPP_COMPACT,           //!< Stream compact
    CUDPP_REDUCE,            //!< Parallel reduction (NOTE: currently unimplemented)
    CUDPP_SORT_RADIX,        //!< Radix sort
    CUDPP_SPMVMULT,          //!< Sparse matrix-dense vector multiplication
    CUDPP_RAND_MD5,          //!< PseudoRandom Number Generator using MD5 hash algorithm
    CUDPP_ALGORITHM_INVALID, //!< Placeholder at end of enum
};

/**
* @brief Configuration struct used to specify algorithm, datatype,
* operator, and options when creating a plan for CUDPP algorithms.
*
* @see cudppPlan
*/
struct CUDPPConfiguration
{
    CUDPPAlgorithm algorithm; //!< The algorithm to be used
    CUDPPOperator  op;        //!< The numerical operator to be applied
    CUDPPDatatype  datatype;  //!< The datatype of the input arrays
    unsigned int   options;   //!< Options to configure the algorithm
};

#define CUDPP_INVALID_HANDLE 0xC0DABAD1
typedef size_t CUDPPHandle;

/* To use CUDPP as a static library, #define CUDPP_STATIC_LIB before
 * including cudpp.h
 */
#ifndef CUDPP_DLL
    #ifdef _WIN32
        #ifdef CUDPP_STATIC_LIB
            #define CUDPP_DLL
        #else
        #ifdef BUILD_DLL
            #define CUDPP_DLL __declspec(dllexport)
        #else
            #define CUDPP_DLL __declspec(dllimport)
        #endif
        #endif
    #else
        #define CUDPP_DLL
    #endif
#endif

// Plan allocation (for scan, sort, and compact)

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppPlan(CUDPPHandle        *planHandle,
                      CUDPPConfiguration config,
                      size_t             n,
                      size_t             rows,
                      size_t             rowPitch);

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppDestroyPlan(CUDPPHandle plan);

// Scan and sort algorithms

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppScan(CUDPPHandle planHandle,
                      void        *d_out,
                      const void  *d_in,
                      size_t      numElements);

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppMultiScan(CUDPPHandle planHandle,
                           void        *d_out,
                           const void  *d_in,
                           size_t      numElements,
                           size_t      numRows);

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppSegmentedScan(CUDPPHandle        planHandle,
                               void               *d_out,
                               const void         *d_idata,
                               const unsigned int *d_iflags,
                               size_t             numElements);

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppCompact(CUDPPHandle        planHandle,
                         void               *d_out,
                         size_t             *d_numValidElements,
                         const void         *d_in,
                         const unsigned int *d_isValid,
                         size_t             numElements);

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppSort(CUDPPHandle planHandle,
                      void        *d_keys,
                      void        *d_values,
                      int         keybits,
                      size_t      numElements);

// Sparse matrix allocation

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppSparseMatrix(CUDPPHandle        *sparseMatrixHandle,
                              CUDPPConfiguration config,
                              size_t             n,
                              size_t             rows,
                              const void         *A,
                              const unsigned int *h_rowIndices,
                              const unsigned int *h_indices);

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppDestroySparseMatrix(CUDPPHandle sparseMatrixHandle);

// Sparse matrix-vector algorithms

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppSparseMatrixVectorMultiply(CUDPPHandle sparseMatrixHandle,
                                            void        *d_y,
                                            const void  *d_x);

// random number generation algorithms
CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppRand(CUDPPHandle planHandle,void * d_out, size_t numElements);

CUDPP_DLL
CUDPPResult cudppRandSeed(const CUDPPHandle planHandle, unsigned int seed);

#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif

#endif

// Leave this at the end of the file
// Local Variables:
// mode:c++
// c-file-style: "NVIDIA"
// End:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I've been in major fashion disaster mode this week.
I really, really have a closet FULL (slap full as we say in the South) of clothes and nothing to wear. I've either worn it before (and too recently), don't feel it "represents" my mood at the moment or don't think it fits the way it should (I gotta work out more-ugh!).
But..I decided to force myself to wear something that I've bought and never worn – for one of those reasons I just mentioned. I settled on a beautiful Odille skirt that I bought from Anthropologie a couple of years ago.
I'll confess, shhhh….I've never worn this skirt! How is that possible you may ask?
I really love the color and the pattern. The fabric and even the detailing on the hem are beautiful! Why haven't I worn it? Well….after trying it on this morning, I remembered.
I'm. Not. Happy. With. The. Fit….its a fashion funeral.
At the time of purchase, I was caught up in the airy, woodland, magical fashionable fantasy that is Anthropologie. Their clothing is named usually (yes, how wonderful is that!) and this one was called the Splendid Celebration skirt. How could I turn that down?
I wanted to have a splendid celebration and look fabulous in this skirt while doing it! Unfortunately, after the fairy dust had cleared…I realized the skirt was really not for me. Add in a dash of "I'm too lazy to return it" and voila…a beautiful skirt becomes closet clutter.
Regardless, I resolved to wear the skirt today and it actually fit well enough. I eeked out a couple of suitable pictures and I did get a few compliments also.
P.S. If you want to check out some of the new Anthropologie skirts click here! I LOVE the Rhino Swing Skirt!


text:
Q: How long am I able to use SharePoint 2010 beta? How long am I able to use SharePoint 2010 beta version?
Thank you.

A: I'm not aware of any limitations of length of time.

A: But remember it's only a beta and you wont ever get any updates for it.


Dzenita Ovcina is a Strategic Recruitment Manager at TalenTrust, and she is based in Milwaukee, WI. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources Management and has extensive leadership and human resources experience focused on strategic talent acquisition. She has also worked in related areas of training, development, compliance, and operations.
Dzenita thrives on increasing operational effectiveness and streamlining processes and procedures for efficiencies. When asked why she joined TalenTrust, she says, "I know that I can make an impact by providing clients with forward-thinking solutions." In her free time, Dzenita enjoys reading, spending time with family, and hiking.


With your heat pump system providing an economical source of both heating and cooling to your home, any time of year is the right time to have your heat pump serviced or repaired. The best times to have your heat pump system equipment cleaned and serviced are in the spring before the weather becomes hot and humid, and in the fall before very cold conditions set in. However, you may choose whichever time is most convenient to you, as it is simply recommended that you have your heat pump system serviced once a year. Heat pump repair situations, however, often arise unexpectedly. Make sure to have a reliable service company that will be able to dispatch a repair person in a timely manner if you find yourself in a heating or air conditioning emergency.
Are you looking for Heat pump repair Towson? Finding a service company that takes pride in quickly responding to your repair issue is more than just a convenience to you. Sometimes, making sure that heating and cooling equipment is in working condition is a matter of life and health. We have all heard the cautionary tales. In the winter, people have caught colds and worse after being left without heat so long that they could see their breath indoors! In the brutal heat and humidity of summer, individuals who are forced to go without air conditioning are more susceptible to heat stroke. Infants and the elderly are especially subject to heat-related illness. You would be wise to avoid taking heat pump repair issues lightly, and to employ a service company that does the same. We have a responsibility to safeguard ourselves and the loved ones under our care.
Taking care to safeguard our loved ones doesn't just include those who live under the same roof. You might also need to help out by looking for Heat pump repair Towson for an elderly parent or young adult child who lives across town. If possible, it is better to be prepared in advance so you know exactly who to call when the need arises, or make sure your loved one has the number in a handy place. Do not blindly assume that your loved one knows what to do or who to call in case of a heating or cooling breakdown during extreme weather. Be proactive to ensure that all your family stays safe and comfortable.


Page 22 If you save the settings by clicking [Apply], the settings will be effective next time. Is the image size too small? Document Size Up to 8. View All Video Cameras. Register a Canon product or view service info.
If you want to use other scanners, click [Change Troubleshooting [Document Grayscale ]: Photography Enthusiasts Photography Enthusiasts.
To scan color photos. Page of 80 Go. For certain products, a driver is necessary to enable the connection between your product mt4200 a computer.
Page 77 Introduction Uninstall Scanning a To remove software installed on a computer and return the Document computer to its condition before the software was installed. Maximum Monthly Duty Cycle: Help me choose Help me choose. Introduction The following symbols are used throughout the manuals for the machine and indicate the warnings, cautions and notes you should keep in mind when using the machine.
You cannot edit text scanned with a scanner because it is in a graphic format, but with OCR software you can convert to a text file and then edit the text with word- processing software. Page 37 Introduction Creating a Cropping Frame Scanning a Select Crop on the toolbar, click on the preview image and Document drag over the area you wish to select. If you connect the machine to a USB 2.
Troubleshooting The buttons displayed differ depending on your selection in [Color Mode]. Scanning A Document Appendix Open the application you want to use. If the [Canon MF Toolbox 4.
Actual prices mf4020 determined by individual dealers and may vary. Specify the scanned area. Click on the title for more information. Click the corresponding scanner driver icon.
Introduction [Threshold Level] Adjust the threshold by moving the slider Scanning a Document [Reset] Troubleshooting NOTE The brightness of color and grayscale images are expressed as a value between 0 and but the brightness of black and white Appendix images is expressed in terms of either black or white, including the parts of an image which are a color between the two.
Some applications do not display an image properly at small sizes. Grab your camera and take on our challenge. Please read this guide before operating this product.
CANON MF TROUBLESHOOTING MANUAL Pdf Download.
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With gamma Document correction, the brightness of parts of an image in the middle of the tonal range is changed without changing the lightest or darkest Troubleshooting areas of the image, which means you can change the brightness of an image while maintaining contrast. See your browser's documentation for specific instructions. Red laser pointers with presentation functions.


.餐厅 is the Chinese translation of the English word "restaurant".
In the event that the applicant is engaging in providing food and beverage services, the applicant shall meet the identity requirement proving that its name is relevant to the second level domain name being applied, and the qualification requirement that it has been approved by the relevant authority or acquired certain license to provide services, if such are required by the laws and regulations of the place where the applicant is located.
In the event that the applicant is engaging in providing information on food and beverage industry, the applicant shall meet the identity requirement proving that its name is relevant to the second level domain name being applied, and the qualification requirement that it has been approved to operate the relevant website (supporting documents may include the URL corresponding to the website and proof of approval for operating the website, if such is required by the laws and regulations of the place where the applicant is located).
3:59 PM Domains will be allocated at the end of the phase. 2-year minimum registration required.


Creating your home from the ground up.
We're a family owned business providing flooring in Sacramento. We pride ourselves on providing the personalized, one-of-a-kind customer service experience you can only find at a small family business. You're looking for a partner to help you choose the right flooring for your home. Meet the craftsmen of Zothex Flooring.
These are just a few of the many brands we carry.


March 7, 2007. Chatsworth, CA. Chatsworth Data Corporation introduces its Mark-IT 2000 family of optical mark readers (OMR), offering more data capture flexibility and processing functionality than previous generations of OMR scanning technology, while maintaining the low cost, compact design, high reliability, and low maintenance features for which Chatsworth OMR technology has become recognized worldwide.
"The 2000 series is a more versatile alternative to our Mark IT 1000 family of OMR readers," said Chatsworth President Stewart Asbury. "Based on the industry´s leading microprocessor technology, the new family offers duplex reading and thermal printing capabilities that make them ideal for gaming, lottery, health records management, education and vote tabulation applications."
The 2000 series include hand-fed units designed to read double-sided forms quickly and easily in a single pass while eliminating common user errors automatically. It includes the intelligence to detect forms that have been inserted upside down and will read forms inserted in either direction, thus eliminating the need for operator presorting. The first model in the series, the Mark-IT 2220, has been successfully rolled out and tested in high-demand, production level environments and is now available for general release.
"More than 5,000 of the Mark-IT 2220 units were successfully deployed in the November Los Angeles County elections," noted Asbury, "and as reported in the LA Times, they worked like a charm."
Occupying approximately 6-1/2" x 4" of space and weighing just 4 pounds, the Mark-IT 2220 incorporates an accessible card path design that allows users quick access to the card path and optic lens, which easily allows for clearing obstructions and cleaning the lens. The unique design reduces the need for service calls and common maintenance problems, but still provides highly accurate data and reader reliability. The Mark-IT 2220 reads 1,500 to 1,800 forms per hour.
"The Mark-IT 2220 is in a class by itself," Asbury said. "It´s durable, easy to use, highly precise and can support numerous applications with a reliability rate that is second to none."
Chatsworth Data Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chatsworth Data Solutions, Inc. (OTCBB: CHWD.OB). Located in Chatsworth, CA, the company has been trusted worldwide for 35 years as a leading provider of innovative, highly accurate and economically priced intelligent data capture technology. Chatsworth provides the front end optical mark sensing and image scanning systems designed to meet the forms capture and document management needs of value added resellers, system integrators and applications developers who embed Chatsworth technology into solutions tailored for several key markets. Chief among them are gaming, educational testing, elections, surveying, and intelligence gathering. Over a million reader and optical head assemblies have been sold by the company to date, making Chatsworth one of the leading providers of forms data capture technology. The company also develops impact recording devices for packaging, shipping, insurance and transportation companies as well as organizations that manufacture fragile or sensitive products.


IGNATIAN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, FRIDAY 15 MARCH.
The Louvain Newman Society will host another Friday Night Clear Heads and Holy Hearts Discussion Series event on Friday, March 15th, at St. Kwinten's Church. Fr. Rob Faesen, Professor of Theology, KU Leuven, will present "St. Ignatius for Everybody: How to Include the Spiritual Exercises in Your Day." During the season of Lent we are called to conversion by turning away from sin and to renew our faith in Christ. Fr. Faesen will present the 'Spiritual Exercises' of St. Ignatius of Loyola and offer ways in which we can incorporate these exercises into our daily exercise routine. The discussion will begin with Holy Eucharist at 18:00hrs, with Fr. Faesen's presentation immediately following at Kwinten Huis, directly across the street from St. Kwinten's Church. All are welcome!


We had hoped to dedicate some time to discussing an article with a similar headline from the Progressive Tax Blog, but time has run out for the time being. Instead, we will merely point to the original article (which is a little technical for the non-expert, but worth the effort), and a follow-up from Accountancy Age, reaching similar conclusions.
It comes in the context of what George Monbiot described as the corporate tax Heist of the Century; Richard Brooks' recent submission to the UK Treasury Select Committee on the same subject, and this follow-up from Richard Murphy discussing how in the Finance Bill it has panned out even worse than had originally been feared.
George Osborne [UK Chancellor, or Finance Minister] is already hailing this is a vindication of his policies, and talks of the 'tax base' of WPP returning to the UK.
The Progressive Tax Blog exposes this claim as nonsense: the move will have little impact on tax or employment in the UK. And when it does return and tax kicks in, the tax payable on offshore financing profits will be so low (5.75%) that it will probably pay no UK corporation tax when combined with interest deductions in the UK.
"The amazing thing is that in order to claim the PR for WPP's return, George Osborne has relaxed the rules even further than previous proposals (already favourable) meaning that every other UK multinational that had no intention of leaving the UK is ecstatic. Given that WPP's return will not increase employment or corporate tax take in the UK, why has George Osborne waived through the death of UK corporation tax for multinationals?"
The chancellor is paying a lot of money for very good PR.
This is important, important stuff. The current British government is taking an axe to corporation taxes, at a time of stunning deficits and savage cuts. UK Uncut needs to keep returning to the streets, and continuing to mobilise people on this. It is, quite simply, horrifying what is being done.
We're sorry we can't, for now, give this the full overview treatment it deserves. We hope to return to it before too long.


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You are here: Home > Where we work > Ethiopia > Making forestry sustainable
Making forestry sustainable
Photo by Lisa Murray
Ethiopia's Bale Eco-region has experienced serious levels of deforestation with large swathes of forest territories being axed for firewood or converted into agricultural land.
The consequences of sustained deforestation in Bale could be devastating. The ecological hotspot is not only home to over a million farmers who rely on forest resources to make a living but the area's significant water resources underpin the livelihoods of millions of people living beyond Bale's borders.
What have we achieved so far?
Since 2006, Farm Africa and a consortium of partners have been working in Bale on a participatory forest management scheme, which supports local forests users and the government to manage the responsibilities and benefits of the region's forests together.
We've helped farmers earn an income from various forest-friendly businesses, such as beekeeping and wild coffee harvesting enterprises. However, the income that these businesses generate tends to be small compared to what could be earned by converting forests into croplands.
In 2012, Farm Africa helped the local community establish a REDD+ scheme to enable them to earn additional income from the sale of carbon credits for avoided deforestation.
Over the period 2012-2019, deforestation in the Bale Eco-region was 58% lower than it was projected to be in the absence of the project. This avoided deforestation resulted in more than 25,000 hectares of forest being saved and emissions being reduced by 10.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This achievement was externally verified, generating carbon credits that were sold on the voluntary carbon market.
The average annual household incomes of forest-dependent communities in the Bale Eco-region rose by 143% from an average 17,000 Ethiopian Birr per household per year at the start of the second phase project in 2016 to 43,000 Birr per household per year at the end of 2020.
Income from the sale of REDD+ carbon credits, which is additional to the average increases in household income mentioned above, is enabling forest management cooperatives to invest in new community development initiatives.
Farm Africa is working with a consortium of partners to strengthen the organisational and management capacity of forest organisations and businesses. We are increasing local communities' ability to earn money from the forest while protecting its resources for future generations. Project activities include:
Piloting sustainable timber production and marketing.
Improving the inclusivity of forest management organisations to ensure that women and other under-represented groups participate in and benefit from project activities.
Helping local communities reinvest the capital they receive from the sale of carbon credits in local eco-friendly businesses.
Impressive climate achievements have made Bale a global example in combating deforestation and reducing emissions. To sustain the gains made so far and share important lessons in participatory forest management, we will integrate the project and approach into national-level forestry and REDD+ programmes and policies. This project will continue to act as a knowledge hub for local communities, policymakers and forestry professionals.
Who are we helping?
This project aims to improve the livelihoods of over 350,000 people living in Bale and protect the delivery of ecosystem services to 12 million people living beyond Bale's borders. We are also helping the government to find long-term ways to preserve Ethiopia's forests.
Stories from the project
Saving the forest pays the community back
A flour mill paid for by carbon credits
Fuel-saving stoves save wood, time and health
We are carrying out this work in partnership with local NGO SOS Sahel and government agencies The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of Ethiopia, The Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise and The Oromia Forest, Environment and Climate Change Authority. This project is funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Addis Ababa.
What is REDD+?
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) is a framework that incentivizes forest protection and mitigates global climate change. REDD+ enables developing country governments and communities to be paid for actions that prevent forest losses and degradation.
We don't give handouts, we help farmers help themselves. Make a donation and help farmers grow themselves brighter futures.
Building resilience through agribusinesses
Digitising climate-smart agriculture training
Female farmers fighting climate change
Forest coffee value chain
Forests for sustainable development
Market-driven climate-smart agriculture
Marketing Bale's wild coffee
Preserving ecosystems in Bale
Producing and marketing forest products


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class AddAddressToBusinessTable < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    change_table :businesses do |t|
      t.string   "website"
      t.string   "address"
      t.string   "city"
      t.string   "postal_code"
      t.string   "province"
      t.string   "country"
    end
  end
end


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In Pictures: Eid celebrations around the world
Malaysian Muslims offer Eid al-Fitr prayers at the National mosque in Kuala Lumpur on July 6, 2016.PHOTO: AFP
Malaysian Muslims offer Eid al-Fitr prayers at the National mosque in Kuala Lumpur on July 6, 2016.PHOTO: EPA
Children browse toys during the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in Tunis, Tunisia on July 6, 2016.PHOTO: REUTERS
Indian Muslims offer prayers on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, in Jammu, the winter capital of Kashmir, India, July 6, 2016.PHOTO: EPA
Myanmar children wearing "thanaka", a traditional facial cosmetic, wait for alms outside a mosque in Yangon on July 6, 2016. PHOTO: AFP
Myanmar Muslim women ride a trishaw outside a mosque in Yangon on July 6, 2016.PHOTO: AFP
Emir of Kano, Muhammad Lamido Sanusi II (centre), rides a horse after attending the Eid al-Fitr prayers at Kofa Mata praying ground, to mark the end of holy month of Ramadan, in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, July 6, 2016.PHOTO: REUTERS
Yemeni girls sit on the back of a camel-drawn cart as people gather in the street during celebrations for Eid al-Fitr in Aden's northern Dar Saad district on July 6, 2016.PHOTO: AFP
Syrian children ride on an attraction as they celebrate Eid al-Fitr on July 6, 2016.PHOTO: AFP
People pray near relatives' graves as they visit the Martyrs' cemetery on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in the rebel-held town of Dael, in Deraa Governorate, Syria on July 6, 2016.PHOTO: REUTERS
Muslims in Sri Lanka perform their Eid-al-Fitr or Ramadan festival prayers on the Galle Face Green in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 6, 2016.PHOTO: EPA
Muslim worshippers gather at the Prophet Mohammed mosque for morning Eid al-Fitr prayers on July 6, 2016.PHOTO: AFP
Moroccan Muslim men perform prayers for Eid al-Fitr on July 6, 2016.PHOTO: AFP
Imam Said Ait Eljide (left) speaks during Eid al-Fitr mass prayers in Turin, northern Italy, July 6, 2016.PHOTO: EPA
Iranian Muslim women perform Eid al-Fitr prayers in western Tehran on July 06, 2016.PHOTO: AFP
Jul 6, 2016, 10:07 pm SGT
http://str.sg/4iPr
HARI RAYA PUASA


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Home, News, Planning Info
Cuadrilla Planning Application for Roseacre Wood Verified
June 25, 2014 keith
Planning Application from Cuadrilla Elswick Ltd has been validated and available to view/comment here
Ref LCC/2014/0101
Cuadrilla's Permit Application for Roseacre Wood
Cuadrilla have applied to the Environmental Agency for permits associated with the exploratory drilling and fracturing at Roseacre Wood. They need these permits to proceed if they manage to get planning permission.
The EA are seeking comments on the permit application,with the consultation period from now until 22nd July.
To view the application (which also contains much of the documentation submitted to Lancashire County Council as part of the planning application) and to input your comments/objections use the link below.
Link to Environment Agency Consultation page
This link will also provide access to the equivalent for Preston New Road consultation which closes on the 9th July.
Don't forget the EA are running a drop in session at Elswick village hall on Thursday 3rd July from 2:00 pm til 7:00 pm
Lancet article by Mike Hill
A MILESTONE IN THE DEBATE SURROUNDING THE HEALTH RISKS OF FRACKING:
Oil and Gas engineer Mike Hill has strongly criticised the burgeoning fracking industry and government in the UK for failing to properly assess the health implications of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in dense populations. Today his opinions are being published in the world's leading medical journal The Lancet.
Mike says "After a very thorough review of my correspondence on Shale gas regulation in the UK and health implications of fracking The Lancet will publish online this Friday and then it goes into the journal shortly after. Can I take this opportunity to thank The Lancet for their scrutiny of this piece and rigorous approach to ensure that the details were as accurate as possible. I am, of course, delighted and humbled that such a journal, with such a reputation throughout the world, has chosen to publish my words."
The correspondence brings the reader up-to-date with the lack of regulation and monitoring in the UK at this time. The health studies emerging from the US are now opening up the debate on the health implications of fracking with some serious results (abnormality in new borns, low birth weights, chronic health conditions). The UK Gov is constantly re-assuring the public that fracking is safe and strictly regulated. The reality seems to be somewhat different. With just 1 out of 10 Royal Society recommendations implemented in 2 years despite the governments acceptance that all are needed and fracking about to resume in Lancashire, then this letter explains just how far we have to go in the UK before we can possibly think of fracking again.
Fracking involves pumping millions of gallons of chemicals, silica and water down a borehole and raising the pressure to thousands of psi to fracture the shale rocks. The silica acts to hold open the tiny cracks and this then allows gas trapped at a microscopic level in the rocks to flow back to the surface along with approx. half the waste material in the form of liquid flowback (approx. 12 million litres/well). The main operator in the UK is Cuadrilla Resources. They have fracked one well in the UK at Weeton near Blackpool, Lancs. in 2011 causing two earthquakes and damage to the well. No fracking has occurred in the UK since. The UK Gov recently announced a new law to make fracking easier for the operators by allowing them to drill underneath anyone's property with no permission required. Cuadrilla now intend to drill 8 wells with vertical and horizontal sections ( approx. 4 miles) in Lancs this year and have recently applied for planning permission to do so.
Mike says " We are not ready to resume fracking in the UK. Our regulatory regime is inadequate, we have not implemented the necessary recommendations and the health impacts which are now becoming known through serious research in the USA are being ignored by the UK Gov. I hope that the letter assists the government, health professionals and public in knowing just how serious the situation is and the risks we are presently facing.
Mike Hill is a chartered electrical engineer with many years' experience in the oil and gas industry both direct (wireline, seismic) and indirect (process automation). Mike is an expert advisor to the EU Commission BREF Committee on Management of Tailings and Waste Rock (inc shale gas). He has written and presented several papers on the subject of regulation and monitoring of shale gas – most recently to the Institution of Engineering & Technology (old IEE) President, UK Gov and Royal Society Report authors on 20th May , assisted the DECC on inspection matters and was a contributor to the Royal Society/RAE Report on Shale Gas. He has also been a contributor to BBC Newsnight, BBC Inside Out, Private Eye, The Times, BBC Radio Big Fracking Debate and The Guardian. Mike has also worked with Friends of the Earth UK, Friends of the Earth Europe and The Greens in the EU Commission – advising on well integrity and engineering aspects of regulation.
Mike Hill :Lancet article
Home, News
Confirmation of Roseacre Wood exploration site planning application submission
Cuadrilla has submitted a planning application to Lancashire County Council (LCC) for its proposed Roseacre Wood shale gas exploration site. The proposal covers the works required to drill, hydraulically fracture and test the flow of gas from up to four exploration wells on the site.
A detailed Environmental Statement (ES), resulting from the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) produced by consultants at Arup has been submitted with the planning application. Both the ES and the application will be available to the public once validated by the council, which is expected to be within two weeks. Following this LCC will launch a formal consultation process in order to allow the public to comment. We anticipate that the application to LCC will be decided within a 16 week determination period which will start on the validation date.
More info from Cuadrilla site
More info from RAG facebook
Denmark leads the charge in renewable energy
June 17, 2014 rowland
Denmark is a leader when it comes to fighting climate change. By 2050, the country plans to meet 100 percent of its energy needs with renewables, creating more jobs, increasing exports and reducing its energy dependence.
(see more here)
Fracking and Earthquake Hazard
A REPORT PUBLISHED BY DECC that includes a BGS co-author concludes that the earthquakes near Blackpool in April and May 2011 were induced by hydraulic fracture treatments at the Preese Hall well (PH1), operated by CUADRILLA RESOURCES LTD. The report also concludes that further small earthquakes cannot be ruled out, however the risk from these earthquakes is low, and structural damage is extremely unlikely.
The report also recommends a number of measures to reduce the likelihood of earthquakes associated with hydraulic fracturing in future
See more from the British Geological Society on Earthquake Hazard (here)
News, Planning Info
Environmental Agency Permits for Little Plumpton
Cuadrilla have applied to the Environmental Agency for 3 permits associated with the planning application for Preston New Road (Little Plumpton). Comments/objections are invited before 8th July
Cuadrilla Bowland Limited – Preston New Road
The aim of this consultation is to ask members of the public whether you have any comments relevant to the permit application
We want to make the best decision when permitting. Listening to the views of others helps us to take account of concerns, or local environmental factors, that we may not be otherwise aware of.
We are seeking comments on the applications from Cuadrilla Bowland Limited for the Preston New Road exploration site, Plumpton, Fylde, Lancashire PR4 3PJ. Please use the reference numbers below when making comments on this application.
1. Environmental Permit for onshore oil and gas exploratory operations.
Permit Number: EPR/AB3101MW/A001
Regulated facility type: Permit for the management of mining waste involving waste facilities, the flaring of gas in plant with a capacity of over 10 tonnes per day and a groundwater activity.
2. Environmental Permit for a radioactive substances activity permit
Permit Number: EPR/KB3395DE/A001
Regulated facility type: Radioactive Substances Activity – Accumulate radioactive waste and Dispose of radioactive waste.
3. Environmental Permit for a groundwater activity.
Permit Number: EPR/BB3093RH/A001
Regulated facility type: Permit for the discharge, from oil and gas exploratory operations, of pollutants that might lead to an indirect input of those pollutants to groundwater.
NGR discharge point: A groundwater activity centred on SD 37408 32740
New action group formed against fracking proposals – Lancashire Evening Post
New action group formed against fracking proposals
Visualisation of the Preston New Road exploration site with Cuadrillas drilling rig.
Published on the 15 June 2014
Neighbours closest to a proposed fracking site in Lancashire have formed an action group, fearing the area is "unacceptably close" to their homes.
An application for drilling up to four exploratory wells on Land off Preston New Road, to the west of Little Plumpton, has been lodged with County Hall chiefs.
But members of the newly-created Preston New Road Action Group (PAG) say they are "deeply concerned" about the impact of shale gas exploration so near to their community.
Patricia Davies, who helped form PAG, said: "The group is designed to raise awareness in the area – a lot of people don't seem to understand what fracking is about.
"The main concern is that Fylde is a tourist location, and the first thing you're going to see coming off the M55 will be these drills which will flare methane gas."
She also said residents had health concerns about the plans.
Cuadrilla said they listened hard to local people before submitting their plans, but Patricia said families were concerned about the proximity of their homes to the proposed site.
She said: "There are 10 families within 230m of the drill site, and at the moment it's just green fields with cattle and sheep grazing."
Patricia described the site as "unacceptably close" to the homes, and she said 300 elderly residents would be living within 1,000m of the site.
She said: "Because this is the first real fracking site in the UK, the impacts are unknown so to do it so close to family homes is an unnecessary risk.
"From my home, everywhere you look you see fields.
"We bought into a lifestyle – we've got birds, foxes, rabbits – it's all very rural.
"But that will all change once it becomes industrialised."
She added: "The real concerns are the health impacts of siting something so close to the community."
Cuadrilla said they had worked hard to take on board feedback received during their consultations with local groups.
Chief executive Francis Egan said: "Where it has been reasonably practical to do so, we have amended our plans to incorporate feedback and suggestions."
via New action group formed against fracking proposals – Lancashire Evening Post.
Planning Application for Preston New Road Validated
Application Number:LCC/2014/0096
CAUDRILLA BOWLAND LIMITED
AGRICULTURAL LAND THAT FORMS PART OF PLUMPTON HALL FARM TO WEST OF THE FARM BUILDINGS, NORTH OF PRESTON NEW ROAD, OFF PRESTON NEW ROAD, LITTLE PLUMPTON, PRESTON
CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF A SITE FOR DRILLING UP TO FOUR EXPLORATION WELLS, HYDRAULIC FRACTURING OF THE WELLS, TESTING FOR HYDROCARBONS, ABANDONMENT OF THE WELLS AND RESTORATION, INCLUDING PROVISION OF AN ACCESS ROAD AND ACCESS ONTO THE HIGHWAY, SECURITY FENCING, LIGHTING AND OTHER USES ANCILLARY TO THE EXPLORATION ACTIVITIES, INCLUDING THE CONSTRUCTION OF A PIPELINE AND A CONNECTION TO THE GAS GRID NETWORK AND ASSOCIATED INFRASTRUCTURE TO LAND TO THE NORTH OF PRESTON NEW ROAD, LITTLE PLUMPTON
Growing Evidence of Fracking's Health Risks
By Jennifer J. Brown, PhD, @jjunebrown
Experts are saying that extraction of natural gas by fracking may have health risks we are only beginning to understand. Here's why they're pushing back against the fracking boom.
Links between fracking and potential health risks raise concerns.
Among water contaminants found at fracking sites are chemicals that can disrupt normal hormone function.
Polluted air is potentially dangerous for people with health problems like asthma.
Radioactive materials can contaminate water after fracking.
A growing body of medical evidence links fracking, the politically controversial process of natural gas extraction, to specific health risks, said a group of health professionals in a recent open letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and acting state health commissioner Howard Zucker.
Fracking, also called hydraulic fracturing, uses water and chemicals mixed with sand to blast open hidden gas reserves deep under the earth's surface.
Fracking has faced opposition around the globe because the chemicals used in the process may contaminate air and water, and also affect the food supply, according to the nonprofit advocacy group Food and Water Watch. One public health concern about fracking is the potentially toxic and hormone-disrupting chemicals Continue reading Growing Evidence of Fracking's Health Risks →