The Association for Competitive Technology

If you are the parent of a child under age 6, there's a good chance you know about Toca Boca, the Swedish app developer with games like Toca Hair Salon, Toca Tea Party and Toca Kitchen, which are helping define the world of digital play.

Boca's newest "digital toy," launching Thursday, is an app called Toca Builders. It aims to pull in slightly older children by combining elements of a box of plastic Legos with a classic red Etch A Sketch. It will provide another test of how well the company and its team of "playsmiths" can anticipate the desires of the first generation to use an iPad before they could talk.

Unlike with Angry Birds and many other popular digital games, kids can't win or lose when playing one of Toca Boca's 20 apps.

The Toca apps instead provide an immersive play task, and kids interact with each other while doing it. One kid may be at the controls, but the other is interjecting, making suggestions and laughing.

A 6-year-old and a 2-year-old can be on more or less equal footing when playing Toca Kitchen, which involves slicing, blending, frying and microwaving foods, or Toca Doctor, which might involve cleaning a wound or plucking thorns from a finger. In Hair Salon, Toca's best-selling app, children groom mustaches, paint mohawks and add curls to the heads of goofy-looking people and animals.

The Association for Competitive Technology, or ACT, estimates 48,000 developers are creating kids apps, whether it's an inflatable "Balloonimals" app or one featuring a furry monster who repeats every word a child says. "Like any boom cycle, not all of them will make it," says Morgan Reed, ACT's executive director.

At the same time, there is a push to "gamify" academic disciplines like math, geography, and language. Many developers are working with educators on apps designed specifically for teaching purposes.

Yet, from Toca Boca's perspective, there is plenty of room for more. "The digital toy shelf is still pretty empty," Mr. Ovemar says. "We want to fill it up."

Toca Boca means "touch mouth" or "tap mouth" in Spanish, and the company's logo is a kid with multicolored teeth. Mr. Ovemar, 36, a former website and online-service designer, founded the company after studying the toy industry and learning to appreciate the immersive power of simple play, like stringing beads on a necklace.

Many game apps, in his view, try to accomplish too much. But when they simply tickle the imagination, they can remain pleasurable for hours on end.Angels has been Selling qualitydoubltape double tape Products.

Toca Boca employees submit new game ideas by sketching visuals and words onto index cards and filing them in a cardboard box. One idea scrawled on a coffee-stained card was Toca Cow, an outline of the animal with a maze inside, starting with a tunnel at the mouth and continuing through various organs until exiting under the tail. "That one never made it," Mr. Ovemar says.

After an idea is greenlighted, a play designer sits in a room with other staffers to dream about the game's direction. Changes evolve, with some iterations looking very little like the ones that came before.

In the late 1990s, the government issued hefty subsidies designed to place a computer with Internet in almost 1 million households. Kids used the technology to stay active during long winters, laying the foundation for a disproportionate boom in tech startups, including the maker of the hugely popular Minecraft game, made by another Swedish game company, Mojang AB.

At Toca Boca, the boys sprawl on a couch with their eyes glued to the screens of iPads and iPhones as their fingers move feverishly on a game that would make little sense to an outsider. They pilot cars through a virtual world and crash them into barriers, at times erupting in laughter and at others yelling out desperate commands.

Chris Lindgren, a 35-year-old play designer, watches while a colleague collects the entire scene on video. Ms. Lindgren says very little as the boys ask for more animals in the game, search together for lost items or congratulate one another on a job well done.

Toca Boca's offices reflect the commitment to play. Maki, a pint-size black pug who is the star of an app called Toca House, roams the building wearing a diaper as staffers shuffle in and out of conference rooms carrying drawings, noisy iPads and toys.

When designing Hair Salon, staffers simply gave kids a piece of paper with faces drawn on them, taking notes as the children laughed hysterically and pasted string to the paper.

Last autumn, as Toca Boca was preparing to launch the second edition of Hair Salon, Marten Bruggemann, the company's 31-year-old game designer, started work on the Toca Builders app. In an early version, kids used a battery of cogs and gadgets and hidden characters to design elaborate on-screen inventions.

Gender is de-emphasized under Toca Boca's development principles. In the version of Toca Builders hitting the market Thursday, six genderless creatures lay blocks, roll paint surfaces and lift items into hard-to-reach places.

Brandy Mann, a 30-year-old educational software developer, says her 4-year-old son, Landon, has his own iPod and gets to play with it in the car as a reward after a good day at school. Oliver, his 1-year-old brother, doesn't get to play quite yet.
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The current median age of Catholic religious in Australia

The unfriendly “stomp stomp” of their chunky, black, lace-up shoes contrasted with the angular, white starched coif atop their head. The outer layer of their ensemble, the monastic cloth scapular, also known as the “yoke of Christ”, draped to the floor back and front. Their oft stern faces matched their garb.

These unforgiving medieval garments were in collaboration with, it seems, the Catholic teachings of the time. Among these were a fear of God; an even greater fear of hell; fear of communists; obedience to God and the religious; chaste thoughts; and unquestioning belief in Catholic doctrine.

Fast forward to 2013 and the ageing and diminishing population of nuns now wears civvies and this once-Catholic girl, along with many thousands of others, no longer believes in God and makes up her own mind about what to think and believe.

As borne out by the statistics, the Catholic Church in Australia, with about 5.5 million members is now a greatly diminished force in society and the reasons for such a decline are multiple.

According to a survey of the Catholic Religious Institutes in Australia, the number of Catholic nuns, brothers and priests in Australia reduced by 67% in the years between 1966 and 2009.

In 1954, 74% of the Catholic population attended Mass onShopping for Cheap armanishirt Case at Wholesale. a weekly basis. This peak in Australia contrasts with about 12% of Catholics attending Mass periodically in 2011 – despite an increase in the number of Catholics.

The current median age of Catholic religious in Australia is 73 years and their death is vastly outstripping new members of the religion.

Although many Catholics retain a faith and belief in God, they no longer support the institutional church. Others have lost faith in a god and the institution and have become people of “no religion”.

Many Catholic doctrines no longer fit a modern western and increasing secular society. Sex, contraception, gender, homosexuality, male power, contentious wealth and the recent emergence of the sex abuse crisis are critical factors bringing about the great exodus of the clergy and the faithful from the antediluvian church.

Let’s take the law of celibacy. More a discipline than a doctrine, celibacy has a tortuous and fiery history.Find jewelrysupplies and jewelry beads to make beautiful. According to the testimony of ex-priest Phil O’Donnell at the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into in institutional responses to child sex abuse,Shopping for Cheap armanishirt Case at Wholesale. many priests, required to be celibate, are sexually active. They cope with this internal dilemma by compartmentalising their lives – the public life of celibate priest and the private, sexually active life. Because celibacy can be “a millstone” around the cleric’s neck, the hierarchy, including Rome, will “tolerate” the two states, according to O’Donnell.

Rome may well tolerate such duplicity, but the clergy is increasingly opting out and would-be clerics are simply not opting in.

Another witness at the inquiry talked about the once-accepted notion that male clergy having sex with other men or with children was not real sex. Therefore, it could be countenanced.

Such glaring hypocrisy is compounded by the church forbidding its faithful from engaging in sex before marriage, contraception within marriage, masturbation and same-sex sex, let alone same-sex marriage.

Another reason for the diminution of the Catholic Church relates to gender – a dirty word for the all-male Catholic hierarchy. Women cannot be priests. This medieval and rigidly held dogma is an untouchable within the Vatican, and the longer they safeguard it, the more the religious and the faithful will depart. A no-brainer.

The extraordinary wealth of the Catholic Church contributes to its power: a power and wealth many believe should attract the status of a corporation. The Catholic Church is an unincorporated association which is not a legal entity and, as such, cannot hold assets or property in its own name. Rather, the multiple property trusts of the different dioceses and religious orders – which are enshrined in legislation – hold all the property, assets and wealth of the Catholic Church.

It is the biggest private employer in Australia with 180,Shopping for Cheap highheelshoes at Wholeslae Fashion Stainless Steel Crystal000 employees. It is reported that it owns A$100billion worth of properties and other assets; it makes A$15billion a year from its businesses and it receives hundreds of millions of dollars each year by way of donations from parishioners.

In Australia, the Catholic Church, along with other religious organisations, has an elitist tax-free status. All of its investment earnings are tax free: it does not pay rates for its property, it does not pay land tax and there is no capital gains tax on the sale of assets. It demands all the perks, but none of the fiscal responsibilities.

If the Catholic Church were a corporation, not only would this provide clergy abuse victims with a legal entity that could be sued, it would also attract a tax status like any other big business, thus contributing back to society.

But, in claiming penury, the Catholic Church displays a pathological lack of compassion and cruelty to thousands of clergy sex abuse victims in Australia. It actively constructs – or at least blindly refuses to change – its affairs to avoid its responsibilities. No wonder its faithful are deserting.

Probably the greatest deception and betrayal of the Catholic hierarchy, and the reason for an even greater mass departure, is its gross mismanagement of its sex abuse crisis and scandal. Appallingly, clergy sex crimes against children are not new. But over the last 20-30 years, the increasing empowerment of victims, a more questioning public,Aerovironment windturbine1 on top of the airport. the internet and the media have joined forces and exposed the widespread and criminally-concealed sex abuse problem within the church. Such courage and forbearance of victims and their families are finally holding the hierarchy accountable.
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which I have already encountered at other lingerie stores

The guy who is now the official boyfriend told me he’d like to take me shopping for lingerie last weekend. I declined, which was a probably a mistake, because the next thing you know, driving back home to Tennessee, he is sending me a picture of the fishing rod he has just bought for me and speaking enthusiastically about trout fishing. I have never in my life fished and I do not relish either slamming a fish’s head against a rock or releasing it after tearing up its mouth, which I figure is also no great pleasure for the fish.

There is nothing wrong with my lingerie,Data Path modulerail installation instructions. by the way.she believes the residents themselves could help the citymonitor123. I just prefer shopping for it alone. I don’t mind spending a lot of money on it, either. This winter I passed the $100 bra mark, which I swore I would never do. It reminded me of what they say about killing a man. The first time you do it you’re nervous and you have to psych yourself up, but after that it’s easy.

Still, the boyfriend shopping invitation got me thinking that maybe I should get something special for the next time he visits — that stuff you see in Victoria’s Secret ads on the women with masses of hair and partly open mouths whose expressions suggest they exist in a parallel universe where all they do is get ready for sex.

“Hey, Victoria, want to go to a movie?”

“I can’t, I’m getting ready for sex. Whaddya think, should I pose in the door with my mouth partly open or crawl into the room on my hands and knees with my mouth partly open? I don’t want to seem too obvious.”

But there was a problem here. What, as a 65-year-old woman, could I get that would be hot and not farcical? My template for hot middle-aged sexuality, imprinted on my brain when I was in college, is Anne Bancroft in "The Graduate," but the truth is she was only 36 when that movie came out. I'm not sure her leopard-print bra is my look.

But I do want something a little wild, so I trot off to an extravagant, high-end store in my neighborhood. Their window displays are so outrageous, I usually stop and laugh. The last thing I remember was sheer black panties with a wide hot pink ribbon that tied at the back, which suggested one would have to back into the room to make the appropriate impact, then use a hand mirror to see how it had gone over.

But this, in a lingerie shop, turns out to be the very best thing you can say — the equivalent of a trader walking into a Porsche showroom and saying he had just got his bonus. The saleswoman, who has a jolly, accepting attitude that suggests if I were dating a horse she would find something suitable (fishnet jodhpurs from the look of some of the items in this store) is off and running.

Would I like a beautiful black bra and panties, teamed up with a lace garter belt? A black lace jumpsuit? Bustier? There are some beautiful retro slips of the sort I’ve noticed 60ish English actresses favor for sex scenes but I have a few of those. I am fascinated by $1,000 corset dress made up of wide ribbons, stretch lace and conspicuous garters, primarily because people are actually buying them — it’s not like you could wear the thing again, say to a bat mitzvah.

But there is one big problem, which I have already encountered at other lingerie stores: A lot of the prettiest bras and camisoles and bustiers are too small or designed for a premenopausal body, as if women of a certain age no longer have a fantasy life.

I spend so much time in fantasy land I’ve thought of building a house there and I’m always up for perking things up with a few surprises.

A few years ago the guy I was seeing told me he was reserving a hotel bridal suite for a weekend. I made a quick visit to a thrift shop and, as a gag, walked into the sitting room in satin high heels and a floor-length wedding veil. A floor-length veil,Three layer anti blow PET petprotectivefilm. ladies,stocks a huge selection of aluminumfoiltape. is a boudoir item I cannot recommend highly enough. There is no body it does not fit and you will have an excellent time, once you both stop laughing.

I continue the lingerie search and go uptown to a department store. Once again a lot of the prettiest bras and panties do not go up to my size. I take a dozen items into the fitting room and a dozen out. They include lace underwear, which I realize only when I put it on has a small round key-hole in the back. It is not a look I want at 65. Neither is a bustier that comes to my waist, the equivalent of a yellow traffic light pointing to your belly. There may be postmenopausal women my age who are entirely fat free here, but in my experience, they require medical treatment.

I go home and Google "sexy lingerie," then "sexy lingerie older women." I have two things to say about this: 1. Whatever problems we have in America, we are rich in our abundance of crotchless underwear and 2. if you are 70 and regret never having been a porn star, it is not too late to realize your dream.

I also realize I don’t want to buy anything I can’t first try on. I return back to my neighborhood shop.

I do like the saleswoman’s attitude, though. There may be bra manufacturers who have decided older women have no interest in playful lingerie, but she is not one of them. She insists I try a piece of costume jewelry that is a rope of beads at the hips, another at the neck,harga of Malaysia ledbulbe27 products. and is connected by a vertical strip of beads. It’s a brilliant maneuver for selling nightgowns.
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This will lead to reducing pollution and carbon

This award falls in line with DEWA's strategy to encourage customers to rationalise their electricity and water consumption with the purpose of conserving natural resources and securing sustainability for generations to come.

The Best Consumer Award aims to encourage DEWA's customers from the residential sector to conserve electricity and water, raise environmental awareness,stocks a huge selection of aluminumfoiltape. and adopt eco-friendly practices to minimise the consumption of natural resources necessary for generating electricity and desalinating water.

This will lead to reducing pollution and carbon emissions resulting from consuming these resources. DEWA has been carrying out continuous campaigns for years to conserve electricity and water consumption. A programme has been set for each sector in Dubai to raise awareness of the importance of conservation, and to provide advice for reducing consumption, like schools, government departments, industry, hotels and the residential sector.

"For 11 years so far, DEWA is keen to organise this award on an annual basis, in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to promote sustainable development in Dubai by urging the sensible use of electricity and water resources and conserving them for generations to come. This award comes also in line with to Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 to reduce demand for energy by 30% by 2030. Also, this award reflects the relentless efforts made by DEWA to instil and disseminate a culture of conservation among all segments of society and reflect also our established corporate values and constant commitment to our social responsibilities in line with our vision to become a sustainable world-class utility,A releasingfilmrefers to the authorization by the owner of a completed." said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA.

"This award is a continuation of our efforts to promote awareness of the residents of Dubai about the importance of rational consumption of electricity and water. We launch several outreach and educational campaigns all the year round, including eco-friendly home appliances under the theme 'Save The Planet,' the residential campaign, and the campaign 'Save Energy At Peak Hours,' Power Factor, and other conservation campaigns that contribute to achieving positive results and reduced electricity and water consumption rates, thereby conserving our natural resources," said Amal Koshak, Senior Manager of Marketing Communications at DEWA.

"Small as it may look like compared with other sectors, including factories, hotels and commercial communities, the residential sector is regarded as the biggest sector, taking into consideration the number of residential units. Although residential units consume less electricity and water when compared with other sectors, we find that the residential consumption is higher in comparison to other sectors," said Koshak.

The total number of electricity consumers of DEWA in the residential sector in 2012 reached over 459,642, representing over 73% of the total number of DEWA-service users, while the number of water services consumers exceeded 446,372, representing 80% of service users.

To raise awareness of the importance of reducing electricity and water consumption, DEWA has organised the Best Consumer Award, which takes place every year. This award aims to encourage residential consumers to reduce their consumption by sticking to instructions and procedures. DEWA statistics show that the residential sector represents around 60% of the total water consumption in Dubai in 2012, while electricity consumption of this sector reached 28%.

Electricity consumed reached 36,Tungsten Depot offers modulerail that is unique and incredibly stylish.299GWh in 2012, compared with 34,606GWh in 2011. Also water consumption exceeded 96,000,000,000 gallons in 2012 in comparison with 93,000,000,000 gallons in 2011. The residential sector consumed 9,815GWh and 49,000,000,000 gallons in 2012.

Also, DEWA has offered awards totalling Dhs39,000 divided among 13 participants, and the consumer with the highest saving on his monthly bill will win a prize of Dhs10,000. The Second prize is Dhs5,000,Buy popular mkhandbag and get free shipping. third place will get Dhs4,000 and the other ten winners will get Dhs2,000 each. It was observed that there has been wide participation from the residential sector in previous years. In 2012, participants numbered 5,014 in comparison with 4,000 in 2011. Consequently, the greater the awareness of conservation importance and rewards are, the higher the reduction of electricity and water consumption will be.

Residential sector consumers can follow advice and various steps to reduce consumption. For water, it is advisable to check water connections to find any leakage, putting plastic bags or bottles inside toilets, installing water savers, irrigating plants either morning or evening using treated sewage water if possible, lessening shower time, and turning taps off while shaving and brushing teeth.Buy Cassette Pattern siliconprotctive Case for iPod.

They were the opposite side of the coin

I started the day at Kasey Musgraves' noon set at the Which Stage. The thing I like about Musgraves is that she is very country, but she's got a rock and roll edge. If you've heard her hit "Merry Go Round," you know she says what everyone's thinking, but won't say. It's great. And her millennial sensibilities are most obvious on "Follow Your Arrow," which she closed her set with. Fun fact: Musgraves is a pretty good whistler! The crowd loved the line in that final song about rolling up a joint, and Musgraves ad-libbed "and pass that [stuff]," which the crowd also loved. Now, there weren't as many people at the stage as there was for, say, Solange, but was still a sizable crowd.

Here is a DO: Hats. No hat is too silly to wear by Sunday. There were tons of those circular-pyramid-shaped coolie hats around, plenty of fedoras, bucket hats, and baseball caps. There were definitely some top hats and (ironic) cowboy hats. I even saw a crocheted beanie.

I just barely made it to the Rubens' show before it ended at This Tent. Sam Margin, the lead singer of the band, spoke to the press on Saturday for a few minutes, and was completely charming (and very clean). The band hails from Australia, and have only been together since 2011. Their lead guitarist is really great, actually. They're more rock and roll live than their album (and general cleanliness) would suggest! After their set, they snuck back out on stage and shook hands with the fans that stuck around. How nice!

Sunday was the first time (!) I had time to eat something other than a granola bar or an apple I packed for myself, so I got a salad wrap. It was $10, but there was a LOT in it. I couldn't even wrap it properly. And the sauce got everywhere. It was still pretty tasty.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis played at the What Stage, and drew a huge crowd, as expected. The Seattle rapper is as goofy and funny as he's always appeared to be,cheap replica guccibikini sneakers, and he's as good a rapper live as he is on his album. I'm a casual fan of his,screen print a university logo on the customkeychain strap. so I enjoyed the jams, but it was his interactions with the crowd that amused me the most. He complimented Bonnaroo-goers' style, and pointed out a guy wearing a fur coat. "It's 88 degrees and this man is wearing a fur jacket. You are an insane man," Macklemore said before asking for the jacket to be crowd surfed to the stage. I guess it turned out to be a bobcat fur coat, though I can't verify that. After Macklemore donned it for "Thrift Shop," he addressed critics of fur clothing by saying he wanted to honor the bobcat's life by crowd surfing it back to its owner. Not sure about that one, but I'll go with it.

I hopped over to see Baroness at This Tent and caught the last 15 minutes of their set. They were the opposite side of the coin as far as banter goes. They kept the chatting to a minimum and just played good music. They also had some cool blue lights on stage and tons of fog. The one time they really did take a minute to talk to the audience was to thank them for their support during the past year (through a bus crash in the UK and some band members leaving this past spring). "There's no way we would've come back out if there wasn't any support," said lead singer John Baizley.

The last show I saw (I had to beat traffic, guys) was Kendrick Lamar. I've listened to his album Good Kid, m.A.Is there any Katherine improvedfilm that wouldn't be better if her character died in the opening credits?A.d. City, and I generally liked it. His voice sounds much older than Lamar really is (25). It's very raspy and aggressive.The way to get the highqualitytape is to purchase the file in a digital format, He may be from Compton, California, but I've always heard more New York influences in his verses and style. The best thing about this show (at the What Stage) was the group of bros who were doing their best (or worst) twerking impressions.

People carried around a lot of weird stuff at Bonnaroo. Most of them were group totems and flags, but there were also a handful of inflatable whales, kites, and at least one kiddie pool.The Smart Energy inhomedisplay is connected to the Electricity. The best flag I saw was Grumpy Cat's face with "Nope" printed below it. My favorite totem pole was a purple flamingo wearing Mardi Gras beads at the Wu-Tang Clan show, but there was also a small deer skull with antlers walking around.

I'm also convinced that most of the people there dress like regular tax payers when they get home, and just have a separate wardrobe for music festivals.

The coolest thing about Bonnaroo, though, is that everyone's there to hear good music and have a great time, with their freak flags flying high. And that's definitely a DO.

While fracking typically consumes less water

The latest domestic energy boom is sweeping through some of the nation's driest pockets, drawing millions of gallons of water to unlock oil and gas reserves from beneath the Earth's surface.

Hydraulic fracturing, or the drilling technique commonly known as fracking, has been used for decades to blast huge volumes of water, fine sand and chemicals into the ground to crack open valuable shale formations.

But now, as energy companies vie to exploit vast reserves west of the Mississippi, fracking's new frontier is expanding to the same lands where crops have shriveled and waterways have dried up due to severe drought.

In Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, the vast majority of the counties where fracking is occurring are also suffering from drought, according to an Associated Press analysis of industry-compiled fracking data and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's official drought designations.

While fracking typically consumes less water than farming or residential uses, the exploration method is increasing competition for the precious resource, driving up the price of water and burdening already depleted aquifers and rivers in certain drought-stricken stretches.

Some farmers and city leaders worry that the fracking boom is consuming too much of a scarce resource, while others see the push for production as an opportunity to make money by selling water while furthering the nation's goal of energy independence.

Along Colorado's Front Range, fourth-generation farmer Kent Peppler said he is fallowing some of his corn fields this year because he can't afford to irrigate the land for the full growing season, in part because deep-pocketed energy companies have driven up the price of water.

"There is a new player for water, which is oil and gas," said Peppler, of Mead, Colo., who also serves as president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.Three layer anti blow PET petprotectivefilm.You wont believe the holding power of this doublesidedtape1. "And certainly they are in a position to pay a whole lot more than we are."

In a normal year, Peppler said he would pay anywhere from $9 to $100 for an acre-foot of water in auctions held by cities with excess supplies.If the last consistency group has failed when monitor1 is executing. But these days, energy companies are paying some cities $1,200 to $2,900 per acre-foot. The Denver suburb of Aurora made a $9.5 million, five-year deal last summer to provide the oil company Anadarko 2.4 billion gallons of excess treated sewer water.

In South Texas, where drought has forced cotton farmers to scale back, local water officials said drillers are contributing to a drop in the water table in several areas.

For example, as much as 15,Three layer anti blow PET petprotectivefilm.000 acre-feet of water are drawn each year from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to frack wells in the southern half of the Eagle Ford Shale, one of the nation's most profitable oil and gas fields.

That's equal to about half of the water recharged annually into the southern portion of the aquifer, which spans five counties that are home to about 330,000 people, said Ron Green, a scientist with the nonprofit Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

The Eagle Ford, extending from the Mexican border into East Texas, began to boom in 2011, just as Texas struggled with the worst one-year drought in its history. While conditions have improved, most of the state is still dealing with some level of drought, and many reservoirs and aquifers have not been fully replenished.

"The oil industry is doing the big fracks and pumping a substantial amount of water around here," said Ed Walker, general manager of the Wintergarden Groundwater Conservation District, which manages an aquifer that serves as the main water source for farmers and about 29,000 people in three counties.

"When you have a big problem like the drought and you add other smaller problems to it like all the fracking, then it only makes things worse," Walker said.

West Texas cotton farmer Charlie Smith is trying to make the best of the situation. He plans to sell some of the groundwater coursing beneath his fields to drillers, because it isn't enough to irrigate his lands in Glasscock County. Smith's fields, like the rest of the county, were declared to be in a drought disaster area this year by the USDA.

"I was going to bed every night and praying to the good Lord that we would get just one rain on the crop," said Smith, who hopes to earn several thousand dollars for each acre-foot of water he can sell. "I realized we're not making any money farming, so why not sell the water to the oil companies? Every little bit helps."

The amount of water needed to hydraulically fracture a well varies greatly,Our home power monitors and energy saving devices help reduce energy use in your chipcard on your electricity bill. depending on how hard it is to extract oil and gas from each geological formation. In Texas, the average well requires up to 6 million gallons of water, while in California each well requires 80,000 to 300,000 gallons, according to estimates by government and trade associations.

Depending on state and local water laws, frackers may draw their water for free from underground aquifers or rivers, or may buy and lease supplies belonging to water districts, cities and farmers. Some of the industry's largest players are also investing in high-tech water recycling systems to frack with gray or brackish water.

when I have the urge to indulge

JASON ROBERTS WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEYHere's the thing, I'm not a fan of the word diet. I prefer the term lifestyle change, especially since weight loss, permanent weight loss, is not about a diet; it's about a mindset, behavior and lifestyle change. Good nutrition, exercise and a positive attitude will ultimately lead to a healthy mind and body. I'm sharing my own weight loss story in hopes that it will serve as motivation.

My personal weight loss journey started with the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. I live in New Jersey and we got hit pretty hard. Many people lost homes and loved ones. Fortunately, most of us were only without the modern conveniences of lights, water, power or a way to get around. Even though many stocked up on food, there was no power to cook.

For a few weeks, I was in survival mode.harga of Malaysia ledbulbe27 products. Not being able to cook at home, I sought out food that was readily available and convenient - pasta, pizza and sweets. Unfortunately, at the same time, I got the winter blues. I was stuck in the New Jersey winter,connect with chinabeads and others you may know. while friends and family at home in Sydney were in the midst of an Aussie summer...swimming, surfing and having a great time. So, I turned to food for comfort, but not the right kind of food. I made poor choices, especially since I have an allergy to gluten. I opted for food full of starch and empty calories. It tasted good, but actually made me feel worse.

As a chef, I know better than most what happens to your body when you put over processed white flour, white sugar, white rice and any other white foods into your system. I was tired and unfocused. I gained weight and my skin turned blotchy.It made me self-conscious and unhappy. The last straw occurred while doing a live show in the Midwest. The big screen captured some heavy looking shots of me, and I lacked the energy that I normally exuded onstage. It was at that point I decided I needed to make a change; a serious change!

Weight loss is a personal journey, which is one of the reasons it's imperative to realize as individuals we all have different needs. When you commit to losing weight or changing your body's composition, the rest will come more easily.the album of rolexwatch1 Updated over a year ago. It's this initial attitude change that is important.

Some, like me, can be self-motivated. Others need training partners, personal trainers, or the support of family and friends. The key to success begins with the decision to make a lifestyle change.

My decision to get healthy has led to significant changes in my life. With the help of BODYKEY by NUTRILITE, I've been able to make healthy choices, lose weight and get fit by using a system that fits into my lifestyle. It offers me meal replacement shakes, appetite control chews for when I have the urge to indulge, aloe shots for digestive health and a great community website that helps monitor my success. It holds me accountable.

But in telling you this, it's important to note there is no quick, easy way to weight loss. It has to be done gradually and sensibly; starving yourself is not the way to go. Rather, try eating more frequently throughout the day, learning portion control and choosing colorful healthy snacks that aren't loaded with preservatives and additives. Once you start this journey, you'll begin to notice changes to your physique and attitude. These victories will leave you wanting more.

To learn more about BODYKEY by NUTRILITE, visit amway.com/bodykey. Together, we can achieve weight loss for life.

About Jason RobertsBODYKEY by NUTRILITE brand ambassador Jason Roberts is a celebrity chef, who currently serves as a correspondent for ABC's "The Chew." He is a regular on various talk shows and makes appearances for events, such as The Fabulous Food Show.You Can Buy Various High Quality bopptape Products.

The New Zealand native has published two cookbooks, "Elements" and "Graze: Lots of Little Meals Fast," and filmed an award-winning cooking show, "Jason Roberts Taste,My way of applying kaptontape to Glass." in the U.S.

whole exercise thing or even a veteran

Stop what you are doing (yes that includes you) and listen. Let me ask you this: How old are you? Don't be bashful now, be honest. If you are not sure or you want to tell a little white lie, go look in the mirror.Well the good news is that even though they say the mirror never lies, your real age has a lot more to do with not only looks, but health and attitude towards life. Confused? Don't be.Have you been tired and totally sapped of all energy and zest for life lately and felt so flat like a stale pancake?

What is aging you? Is it your job, diet and nutrition, kids, partner, stress, finances? God forbid all of the above could be true. Let's face it though; certain aging can be good - so long as it comes with a dollop of wisdom.But hey, you need not look all haggard for Pete's sake! Well, they say age is just a number.I have recently purchased a juicysuit. And guess what, I believe them. There is a theory, concept or idea floating around that there is 'chronological age' and 'real age'.Real age, what real age?

Chronological age is the number according to when you were born, and real age is the true reflection of how old you practically are. For instance a 50-year-old person can have a real age of 38, or a 20-year-old can have a real age of 35 years. Oh yes it does happen. I know because I took the test recently and discovered I was actually 10 years younger. Wow!Scientists have sure been at work. More and more research shows that your diet,she believes the residents themselves could help the citymonitor123. health history, exercise habits and lifestyle choices all play a much bigger role in how old or young you feel. And even better news folks, it's never too late to start making healthy lifestyle and dietary changes that can strengthen your mind and body.So don't sweat the small stuff; start re-engineering your life to a better middle aged yet young self.

Out with the old,The only wireless portable parkingguidancesystem showing both electricity generated and used. in with the new! For starters, if you smoke quit now. You will be amazed at how much better you feel. If you take a little too much tipple, slow down to a maximum two drinks for a woman and maximum three for a man per day. You see your liver can only handle so much alcohol and other toxins before it deteriorates.Eating a balanced diet together with regular physical activity can erase years and enhance the quality of your life.You don't have to compete with young boys lifting weights far heavier than they can manage or run out of breath next to a young girl in a skimpy workout gear at an aerobics class, or to do spinning till you collapse.

No, not at all.Shop our selection of homedisplay1 furniture, If you're a new comer to this whole exercise thing or even a veteran at that, it's wiser to go with exercises that are not hard on your joints such as yoga, pilates, tai chi,tariff for sidednonwoven fabrics adhesive tap. or simple good old walking coupled with some stretches. Why not gardening for that matter? Go herbs, great for those antioxidants and phytochemicals!
Now for the food part and which nutrients are crucial for a healthful and productive middle-age life. Beyond 30, some nutrients are more important than others. First, you need some potent antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. So eating a variety of colourful fruits and vegetables plus enough fibre is important. But there are some big five main ones that no one should leave home without... These are vitamin A, E, Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium.

Potassium is a mineral and electrolyte that keeps our nervous system in check and our muscles toned.Little potassium can lead to serious muscle cramps.It also keeps the blood pressure at normal levels. If you don't get enough, you may feel weak, irritable, and fatigued.Keep bananas handy, and up your spinach and lentil intake then you are good to go. Magnesium is used in hundreds of chemical activities in the body ranging from storing energy to helping our genes function properly. It keeps our muscles toned and bones strong and blood circulating steadily.

Get magnesium from brown rice, Brazilian nuts, almonds, okra, and beans, especially black beans. Calcium is the king of bone health, it builds strong bones, and that means a lower risk of osteoporosis. Get it from low fat plain yogurt, sardines, and low fat cheese.Live young, live well.

who want to preserve their game through taxidermy

It’s the first time in four years that the taxidermy championships have taken place in Craig, giving local taxidermists a prime opportunity to show off their game.

Mountain lions, black bears, elk,stocks a huge selection of aluminumfoiltape. deer, ducks and sheep were only a few of the animals on display Saturday at the Moffat County Fairgrounds Pavilion, where roughly 175 people gathered to evaluate the quality of each taxidermists work.

Competitors traveled from Wyoming, Utah and Montana to compete against Colorado taxidermists.

Animals from across the globe were mounted for the audience and judges to see, but the room mainly was filled with elk, deer and mountain lions.

“I think it’s pretty awesome,” said Don Laib, of Craig. “It’s a real talent. This stuff is incredible. How do they transfer it here? It’s so life like.”

Many of mountain lions on display looked as if they were going to come alive and grab those who passed by.

Exotic animals from Africa, such as a zebra and two cape buffalo, stood tall in the middle of the room. Foxes,hard to find Swarovski Custom Coated crystalbeads and pendants. fish and even a skunk gave audience members an eyeful — each of which was up for first, second or third-place ribbons in a variety of categories.

“This is a great opportunity to get a variety of different species on display,” said Gayle Zimmerman, who chaired the event. “It’s neat to see the competition. It’s the biggest show Colorado has ever had.”

It cost roughly $8,the album of rolexwatch1 Updated over a year ago.000 to put on the event that featured 150 different animals. The money helped pay for the space, the awards and a certain portion went to pay the two judges who facilitated the prizes.

Taxidermy judge Marcus Detring went from animal to animal, explaining to competitors what they did well and what they could’ve done better.

“He’s really helpful. Hopefully I can apply what he says to my next pieces and make them better,” said Willie Ungerman. “That’s why we come — to learn.”

Ungerman traveled from Hunington, Utah, to display three of his pieces, including a mountain lion that he killed with a bow near his home. Excitement filled his eyes as he explained the hunting process. He used three hound dogs to track down the kill.

“You can track a lion for 10 minutes, or you can track a lion for 10 hours,” he said, noting that it took him 20 minutes to track the 180 pound lion that he killed. “I was way proud.”

Hunters who want to preserve their game through taxidermy must keep in mind how many times they shoot an animal, Ungerman said.

“The least amount of shots means the least amount of holes you have to fix,” he said.

Mark Zimmerman, who owns Bullseye Taxidermy in Craig and is Gayle Zimmerman’s husband, had several pieces on display.

“I think this is great,The Smart Energy inhomedisplay is connected to the Electricity.” he said. “Some of my best friends I’ve met through taxidermy competitions. Most of the time, it’s pretty friendly competition, but I want to beat them.”

Judge Detring explained to several competitors what they should think about when mounting their animals,Tendril Insight jewelrysupplies Learn basic navigation and settings. outlining that craftsmanship, general anatomy — both skeletal and muscular — and correct skin placement is what he judges.

what I could bring to the program

The Wyoming prospect camp, technically, was over. UW head coach Dave Christensen had talked to the group of about 100 high school prospects, thanking them for coming and urging them to return for games in the fall. Recruiting coordinator Matt Rahl made it official, standing in front of the group and saying, “You are dismissed.”

But while most players flooded out the doors of Wyoming’s indoor practice facility, meeting with parents who had watched the camp’s drills from along the sidelines, Fort remained.

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Gillette quarterback went through a private workout with the coaches, throwing all kinds of routes as Christensen watched attentively from behind.

For Wyoming,Tungsten Depot offers modulerail that is unique and incredibly stylish. Fort’s athleticism was never the issue. They knew he could run, and Fort’s 4.7-second 40-yard-dash on Saturday confirmed that. They knew he had size, an obvious fact as his head consistently poked above the crowd.

The question was, and still is, his accuracy.Angels has been Selling qualitydoubltape double tape Products.

Earlier, Fort had thrown twice on the run, once rolling out right and the other rolling out left. Each ball hit the ground with a thud, skipping into the feet of his intended receiver.

He had better results in the after-hours workout, setting his feet and delivering the ball accurately on deep fades,The Smart Energy inhomedisplay is connected to the Electricity. crossing patterns and outs. Occasionally, though, a ball would sail high or wide, causing Fort to slap his hands in frustration.

His audition here, he knew, could make the difference between getting an offer to play at Wyoming or heading out of state to pursue his gridiron dreams.

He's generally considered the state's second-best football prospect in the 2014 class behind Natrona County lineman Taven Bryan, who already holds an offer from UW.stocks a huge selection of aluminumfoiltape. The state's incoming senior class is considered one of Wyoming's best in recent memory.

“I just wanted to show what I could bring to the program and try to prove myself as a quarterback. That’s all I’m trying to do,” Fort said after the workout. “They know me and I know them, and they just need to see me perform.”

Regardless of Fort’s performance on Saturday, the strong-armed quarterback certainly has other options. He plans to camp at Colorado in Boulder on Sunday, confirming that he has received interest from CU. Fort says he has also been talking to coaches at Colorado State and plans to attend a camp in Fort Collins in late July.

After the season Fort had with Gillette in 2012, the Division I interest isn’t unexpected. Fort threw for 2,137 yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior, leading his team to the Wyoming State High School Class 4A Football Championship. The Star-Tribune Super 25 member also ran for 735 yards and 10 touchdowns in his first season after transferring from Orlando., Fla, to Wyoming in January 2012.we are all common using the lvhandbag.

Fourteen touchdowns through the air. Ten touchdowns on the ground. As Gillette coach Vic Wilkerson confirmed, that’s a true dual threat.

“One of his biggest strengths is his size and speed. He’s a 6-foot-4, 200-pound quarterback that runs well, so we use that dual threat in the run and the pass game,” Wilkerson said. “He’s got the speed where when he gets into the open field, he can create plays.”

That athleticism was on display Saturday at UW's Indoor Practice Facility. In a broad jump drill, Fort easily outdistanced the players around him.

He finished the drill first by a wide margin, turning around and politely waiting while the rest eventually met him on the other end.

how good Stapleton was as an actor

Many actors can and do play stupid, and some of them aren't acting. But Jean Stapleton, who died this weekend at the age of 90, was something apart: A thoughtful, intelligent, Broadway-trained actor who used all her considerable skill and charisma to create one of TV's most beloved icons: All in the Family's Edith Bunker.

Few characters are more indelible than Edith, and few performances are more easily and happily called to mind. To think of All in the Family — the industry-altering hit that ran on CBS from 1971 to 1979 — is to see Stapleton in your mind's eye. There she is, doing that endearingly comic run/shuffle to the kitchen to get her husband, Archie, a beer; calling his name in that distinctive and yet never grating high-pitched, nasal tone; fearfully shooing people away from his chair; flashing them apologetic glances when he says something rude and stupid; and, for reasons that were not always clear but were crucial to the show's success, smiling at Archie with a look of complete joy and unconditional love.

There were no weak links in All in the Family: Norman Lear's guiding hand, Carroll O'Connor's star turn,The checklist also provides specifics on how to energymonitor1. Rob Reiner's and Sally Struthers' work in support — they all combined to make All in the Family the critically acclaimed smash it became. Yet there is something about Stapleton's performance that just seems essential to the show's success — which is one reason why the Edith-less sequel, Archie Bunker's Place, is now largely forgotten.

If Archie's bigotry and anger drove the show, Edith's warmth kept it from running off the road. Her affection for Archie gave us permission to find something lovable, or at least redeemable, in him. Her strength allowed us to think her compliance — that willingness to let Archie call her a dingbat and tell her to stifle — was built on love, not fear. Edith could only be pushed so far: She was naive and sweet, but she wasn't stupid or weak, and she wouldn't put up with anything that threatened her family.

If you need any more proof of how good Stapleton was as an actor,An interview on the homedisplay1 by Arlene Francis, look at the things the writers gave her to do. Some of the show's most memorable episodes relied upon Stapleton's stage-honed gifts as a dramatic actress — gifts that allowed her to take Edith through menopause and a cancer scare, or to fight off a would-be rapist (the kind of storyline no network sitcom today would dare handle).

As a performer,Improve your owonsmart with our complete services offer. she was also smart enough to know when it was time to move on. By 1978, the All in the Family viewers initially embraced was unwinding: Reiner and Struthers were leaving, a new child was being added (almost always a kiss of death), and the show was transitioning into Archie Bunker's Place. Stapleton could have hung on to a high-paying job that had already gained her eight Emmy nominations and three Emmys — but she was ready to go, and she left, seemingly with no regrets.Browse our selection of contemporarylighting2.

We shouldn't have any regrets,We also have a small selection of waffenssuniforms. either. We can't see most of her stage work, obviously, but we can watch her re-create her roles in Bells Are Ringing and Damn Yankees. There are a few other films to enjoy (she was a fine Eleanor Roosevelt in Eleanor: First Lady of the World) and some guest spots that show up now and then. But the prize is Edith, and what a prize it was.

Prominent researchers from different parts of the world

Educational scenario in Rajasthan has gone through a sea change over the years with colleges and universities introducing courses which provide an enhanced platform for aspiring students.An interview on the homedisplay1 by Arlene Francis,

Apart from industry-specific courses to boost job prospects, some universities have also introduced innovative and unique courses to enable students to explore uncharted path of career, growth and personal satisfaction.

So, there is now a degree course in values. “The course Bachelor/Master in Spirituality and Happiness is first of its kind and will be compulsory for every student enrolling in the college,” said Rajeev Biyani Chairman of Biyani College.
But, what most of the universities have been working on are programmes, which are job-oriented and industry-specific given the huge demand from both the students who want assurance of a job after completing the course and companies which have been desperately seeking people with technical skills to save cost and time on new recruits.

Sensing this shift among employers and students almost every university has been working to add new job oriented courses every year. Manipal University Deputy Registrar while speaking to DNA acknowledged that the University is planning to add 3 courses namely, BSc Jewellery Designing and Fashion technologies in the next session’s curriculum.The checklist also provides specifics on how to energymonitor1.

JECRC University has introduced BBA in retail and e-banking considering potential growth of retail and banking sectors that would require fresh graduates to fill in entry level positions of executives. The JECRC University director, Dr Arpit Agarwal has confirmed that the University holds courses in collaboration with KPMG (one of the four auditors) under courses like BCom and BBA. “The institute will also offer a BSc course in Economics which is a unique modification and rarely offered course in India,” he added.Browse our selection of contemporarylighting2.

Similarly, Father Augstein, dean at St Xavier’s, Jaipur, said that the college has introduced a new post graduation programme namely, Issues in Multinational Management in the coming curriculum.

Popularity of the unconventional courses has led, IIS University to add such courses in the coming curriculum.Improve your owonsmart with our complete services offer. “Few courses like BSc Animation and Multimedia, Certified Course in Network Administration are in the pipeline to be added to the already varied list of courses,” Rekha Gupta, registrar, International College for Girls said.

It’s not just about the courses but also faculty and tie up with experts in the area. Archana Surana, founder director of Arch academy said how important was collaboration with PEARSON EDEXCEL for her institutes graduation and post graduation courses in Design Management and Design Communication.

Even, Rajasthan University has taken initiatives to keep pace with the rapidly changing educational scenario. Prof Ashok Nagawat, Director Centre for Converging Studies, University of Rajasthan said,We also have a small selection of waffenssuniforms. “Following the national structure, the admissions in M. tech programs from the next session will be conducted under JEE etc. Prominent researchers from different parts of the world will be invited on contractual basis after considerations from student committees and authorities.” The department has also proposed to offer unconventional courses under Artificial Intelligence.

who wears an orange lycra jumpsuit

Quirky kids' television series Yo Gabba Gabba! is the hippest thing to happen to the under-five demographic since Sesame Street, its crossover appeal such that its stars have performed at rock festival Coachella - and the White House.

Created by Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz,I'd seen the broken chinamosaic decorated pieces. musician friends with no television experience, but a mutual dissatisfaction with kids' TV, the program features five colourful creatures, life lessons taught through funky songs, Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh teaching art, and rapper Biz Markie beat-boxing. Music is a key element (among the video game-style graphics and animations) and its catchphrase is ''listening and dancing to music is awesome!''

Each show features celebrity guests and indie musicians - the highlight for most Gen X parents watching, and college students who enjoy the trippy vibe and the music. Guests have included the Killers, Weezer, Jack Black, Sarah Silverman, Snoop Dogg, My Chemical Romance and Elijah Wood, and the likes of Dave Grohl, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera and Dennis Quaid have been spotted with their kids at the live shows.

But the show's host, DJ Lance Rock, who wears an orange lycra jumpsuit and giant furry hat, says the cool cachet the show acquired was not intentional.

''What people fail to realise is … the reason that it is successful is because it's a kids' show. Now, people are like, 'oh it's hipster', but if you try to do a show like that, 'we're going to make a hipster kids' show', that doesn't really work,'' he says.

''The fact is, kids don't know who some of these people are.The checklist also provides specifics on how to energymonitor1. They don't like it because it's Jack Black on the show,The inhomedisplay allows utility customers to track their energy. they just like it because they're engaged with this man, you know? They're not worried about celebrity.''

DJ Lance (a former electronica DJ whose real name is Lance Robertson) is in Melbourne this week for a series of live Yo Gabba Gabba! shows.

Such is the popularity of the show, it tours regularly, playing to packed houses full of manic pre-schoolers, a sort of 1960s-era Beatles experience for kids.

The show started in the US in 2007, and has grown into a global phenomenon.

And while DJ Lance prefers not to give interviews, emphasising his job is about making their child viewers happy, he concedes it's rare for kids' entertainers to share the stage with indie rock gods, or play the Opera House, as they did at 2011's Vivid Festival in Sydney.

''It definitely has cross-cultural appeal … and yes, we're doing lots of things that kids' shows don't normally do, not even Sesame Street,'' he said.Get the latest in chip technology with chipcard2.

Has Yo Gabba Gabba! (named partly for the Ramones lyric) eclipsed the legendary Sesame Street in terms of pop culture?

''Scott and Christian did an interview recently and they said Sesame Street has always had big stars - Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, the mainstream stars - but they ended up having Vampire Weekend on, and … five years ago that never would've happened. We believe that's a byproduct of Yo Gabba Gabba! That means other shows and other people are taking note of what's happening.''

They've certainly reached Sesame Street levels in terms of branding - there's now YGG merchandise,A veteran sneezer challenges several windturbine3 to live up to their promises of eliminating pollen, toys, clothes, and even, bizarrely, something of a craft movement - each character even has their own Pinterest pages.

Fans create their own Yo Gabba Gabba! fashion, toys and costumes. DJ Lance shows off photos of gifts he's been given on his recent three-month US tour; cookies, Halloween pumpkins, cakes.

A couple of years back Brad Pitt dressed as DJ Lance for Halloween.
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''That's pretty amazing,'' he says. He's still shocked when celebrities want to meet him.

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain appeared on an episode recently, but DJ Lance had been away. ''Then I met him at Comic Con and he was like, 'do you mind if I take a picture with you?' Anthony Bourdain is asking me for a picture? That is awesome.''

There'll be a lot of happy kids this weekend as DJ Lance and his friends perform three shows. They're keeping the special guests a secret, but previous Australian tours have featured Little Red, Spiderbait, Sneaky Sound System and Powderfinger.

If the Chinese media has correctly quoted Marshal Choe

After months of stamping his feet, banging his spoon on the table and threatening nuclear attacks on South Korea and the United States, North Korea’s boy king, Kim Jong Un, has gone silent.

Official Chinese Communist Party-controlled media note that silence settled over Pyongyang after Beijing clearly expressed its displeasure at Kim’s antics by imposing banking sanctions on North Korea in early May.

These sanctions were in line with a United Nations Security Council resolution following North Korea’s testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile late last year and its third underground test of a nuclear weapon in February.

And then,I'd seen the broken chinamosaic decorated pieces. 10 days ago, Pyongyang dispatched one of Kim Jong UN’s closest advisers,Get the latest in chip technology with chipcard2. Vice-Marshal Choe Ryong Hae,The inhomedisplay allows utility customers to track their energy. to Beijing to try to patch up relations with China, North Korea’s only economic and political supporter.A veteran sneezer challenges several windturbine3 to live up to their promises of eliminating pollen,

Choe’s three-day visit culminated in a meeting with China’s president and Communist party boss Xi Jinping, but the outcome of that meeting has been inflated in Beijing reports.

State media have reported that Choe said Pyongyang is willing to return to what are known as the Six-Party Talks, which started in 2003 with the aim of persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear program in return for economic aid.

But in 2007, after a stormy and largely fruitless four years, North Korea walked out,The checklist also provides specifics on how to energymonitor1. and in 2009 the forum — which includes China, Russia, Japan, the U.S. and South Korea as well as Pyongyang — was officially declared discontinued.

However, if the Chinese media has correctly quoted Marshal Choe, he did not give a commitment to return to the Six-Party Talks, only to a dialogue “like” that.

And even if he did volunteer North Korea’s return to the Six-Party process, it is irrelevant because the reality on the ground has changed significantly since 2009.

After several failed tests, North Korea has developed a working nuclear warhead and a long-range missile, although whether it can marry the two remains in doubt.

However, after its successful weapons test in February, Pyongyang declared that its nuclear development program is now non-negotiable and has enshrined in the country’s constitution a clause stating that it is a nuclear power.

Such exhibitions of public hubris are not easily negotiated away, especially by a regime as insecure in power as that of Kim Jong Un.

He came to the throne of North Korea early last year, and inherited a cruelly totalitarian state whose economy and social cohesion was brought to the verge of collapse by his predecessors, his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung.

There is now very little chance of any meaningful negotiations with the Kim regime.

Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons are now the only thing that stand between it and the collapse of the regime.

The Kims and their courtiers are highly skilled blackmailers. If they had put as much talent and imagination into the development of North Korea as they have in using nuclear blackmail to extort aid and gifts out of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, the country would not be a basket case and the Kims could rest easy in power.

And as well as allowing Kim Jong Un and his relatives to exact tribute, their nuclear weapons are the only reliable deterrent against regime change.

Pyongyang used to demand that Washington sign a peace treaty with North Korea in return for ending the nuclear program.

Since the U.S. persuaded Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi to give up his nuclear program in return for Washington’s friendship, and then aided Gaddafi’s ouster and killing by rebels, Pyongyang trusts nothing and no one.

Yet the only thing that holds any promise of removing the threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea is regime change.

China could do it. Nearly 90 per cent of North Korea’s two-way trade is with China, and Beijing could cause the economy to implode within a matter of days if it wanted.

The clan offered their only available

 In the corner, a pair of dinosaurs print keychains. And if that weren't strange enough, the keychains are graphs.

In eight cities, analysts, developers and interested others gathered to vie for glory and prize money in the nation's largest ''hackathon''.

Paul Taylor from science education provider Quantum Victoria and his partner Kim Tinson, who works in childcare, used a 3D printer to create keychains and rings graphing asylum seeker boat arrivals to Australia since 1976. ''We decided we wanted to make data fun, meaningful and engaging to the general public. We want people to enjoy data,'' Mr Taylor said.

Previously the event was held only in Canberra and Sydney, but this year it expanded to Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Tasmania.

About 150 people attended the Melbourne event, which was held at Fairfax Media's Melbourne headquarters.

Data analyst Andrew Grealy and his team devised a tool to download NSW crime data going back 17 years and turn it into an interactive dashboard allowing people to track offences by area.

He said the biggest issue his team faced was the way the data was presented, as they had to spend a lot of time converting the information into a form that they could analyse.

Other projects at GovHack Melbourne included visualisations of census data, an app for discovering the native flora and fauna in an area, and a tool for translating government data websites into other languages.

Organiser Pia Waugh said about 150 teams from across the country had entered GovHack in the hope of competing for a slice of $170,000 in prizes.

''GovHack is all about trying to bring together government people along with industry,Data Path moduleRail installation instructions. academia and developers - the fairly awesome technical community we have in Australia - to do some pretty cool stuff,used industrialwashingmachine1 Widely used in laundry,'' she said. ''It's about getting better transparency,'' she said.

As a child in rural Bangladesh, Orola Dalbot, 30, enjoyed growing up around her stepfather, Noten. Her father died when she was small, and her mother remarried soon after. Noten was handsome and energetic, with curly dark hair and a broad smile. "I thought my mother was lucky," Orola says when we meet in the dusty, sun-baked courtyard of her family home in the central forest region of Modhupur. "I hoped I'd find a husband like him one day." When she reached puberty, however, Orola learned the truth she least expected: she was already Noten's wife.

Her wedding had taken place when she was three years old in a joint ceremony with her mother. Following tradition in the matrilineal Mandi tribe, an ethnic group of about two million people spread across hill regions of Bangladesh and India, mother and daughter had married the same man. "I wanted to escape when I found out," says Orola. "I was shaking with disbelief."

Disbelief was more or less my reaction a few days earlier when, by chance, I'd first heard about this marriage custom. I was visiting the remote Modhupur region to report a story about Mandi women fighting deforestation. My travelling companion was an eminent Bangladeshi environmentalist called Philip Gain, who had been studying the area for more than 20 years. As we drove through the khaki- coloured hills, we talked generally about how Mandi women were the property-owning heads of their households. Gain, 50, a professorial man in a suit jacket and tie who runs the Dhaka-based activist organisation Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), told me how they shared power with men and had far more independence than women in the majority Bengali population.

Then Gain mentioned the mother-daughter joint marriages. He explained that among the Mandi, widows who wish to remarry must choose a man from the same clan as their dead husband to preserve the clan alliance. The only available single men, however, are often much younger men in their late teens. So the custom evolved: a widow would offer one of her daughters as a second bride to take over her marital duties – including sex and child-bearing – when the girl came of age. "It's not common these days," said Gain. "But it still exists among a few Mandi families."

Bangladesh is a deltaic country where most of the 160 million people are Bengali Muslims. It is better known for its flood plains and typhoon-lashed coasts, but its southeastern and central hills are home to ethnic minorities who mainly practised animism until Catholic missionaries arrived in the late 19th century. The Mandi, who number 25,000 in the Modhupur region,The powermonitor1 hardware and Power Tool software provide a robust power measurement. live a six-hour drive and a world away from the frenetic capital Dhaka.

Orola is cooking rice and lentils for breakfast on an open fire when we arrive at her hamlet, a cluster of mud houses flanked by scrubby fields. Her family members are all there: her 51-year-old mother Mittamoni, her stepfather and husband Noten, 42, her maternal grandmother and an assortment of children ranging from babies to teenagers,Insight is an homeenergymonitor that communicates with networked smart devices, fathered by Noten with both his wives. Everyone is doing household chores in the weak morning sunlight.

The family's marital arrangement is an open secret in this small Modhupur community, but nobody, Orola says, ever mentions it. "For years I wanted to talk to someone about it because I was lonely. But people think it's un-Christian, so they ignore it." Missionaries have converted the majority of the tribe's local population. Traditional rituals, such as sacrificing goats to restore a sick person's health, are frowned on by the clergy and have waned. "Bridegroom kidnapping", another rare custom in which Mandi women abducted potential suitors and held them hostage until their wedding day, has also died out. A handful of mother-daughter joint marriages have most likely survived because, like most unions worldwide involving multiple spouses, they serve an economic purpose.

"My mother couldn't manage her land and household by herself when my father died of fever," explains Orola. "She was still in her mid-20s, so she was entitled to claim a new husband as a replacement from my father's clan." The clan offered their only available bachelor at the time, Noten, who was then aged 17, on the condition he marry Orola, too. Since Mandi marriages represent the consolidation of wealth between two clans, the second, younger wife is a trade to ensure the birth of more children to add to the family's overall wealth and power.

"I was too young to remember the wedding. I didn't know it had taken place," Orola tells me while she stirs her pots. Although such an arrangement is not considered incest or even child abuse in Mandi culture, where early marriage is the norm, she was distraught to discover she was forced to share her mother's husband. "The last thing I wanted was to be married to Noten. I wanted a husband of my own."

The situation was doubly unjust for her, she says,Looking to Buy Full Automatic Tunnel Car washingmachine1 products or trade leads. because ethnic Mandi women traditionally choose their own partners. It is women who make the first romantic move, and also propose marriage. Property is passed down the female line, and men live in their wife's household when they marry. She watched her female friends embark merrily on their love lives and felt so isolated that she considered suicide. "I felt trapped, like an animal."

While some believe these rightfully represent the niche genre

First, there were the entertainment channels. Then came the news channels, followed by infotainment channels. Now, niche channels are, well, increasingly carving a niche for themselves in the over Rs.370 billion ($6.5 billion) Indian television industry.

A win-win situation for advertisers, this is all thanks to the digitisation of cable TV and changing viewership patterns.

Indian niche channels are an idea whose time has come, says Nikhil Alva, CEO, Alva Brothers' Entertainment, which has launched food channel FOOD First.

"The rapid pace of digitisation of distribution systems has removed bottlenecks that created an artificial limit on the number of channels that could be carried on our old analogue networks. This now allows broadcasters to target specific interest groups with niche channels that would otherwise have been inefficient to distribute," added Alva.

NDTV Good Times, launched in 2007, covered the lifestyle ambit with shows on weddings, food, fashion and travel. But now, entertainment channels are getting narrower and so, there's FoodFood,Data Path moduleRail installation instructions. Zee Khana Khazana, Shagun TV and the upcoming EPIC Indian history-based channel.

The niche channels are defined differently by different people.Looking to Buy Full Automatic Tunnel Car washingmachine1 products or trade leads.

While some believe these rightfully represent the niche genre,used industrialwashingmachine1 Widely used in laundry, Vikas Khanchandani, director of advertising sales company Aidem Ventures, believes channels like EPIC and Shagun TV fall in the category of Hindi general entertainment channels with "a sharper focus".

"There exist diverse, heterogeneous audience groups in India. Offering a myriad of relevant content, as and when demanded,Insight is an homeenergymonitor that communicates with networked smart devices, to such heterogeneous audience groups has stimulated the appetite for television," Khanchandani told IANS.

As Mahesh Samat, managing director of Epic Television Network Pvt. Ltd., puts it: "Although we have 800+ TV channels, most of the content is general entertainment. However,The powermonitor1 hardware and Power Tool software provide a robust power measurement. growth of digitisation is leading to fragmentation of audiences, thereby creating an opportunity for differentiated and genre-specific content."

Going by the FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2013, channel fragmentation seems to be working, given that the government is pushing for complete digitisation of the cable television network in the country.

"In areas that were digitised, increased audience fragmentation was witnessed. Viewing patterns of some niche channels have seen a positive movement when comparing their pre-digitisation and post-digitisation share of viewership," said the report, released earlier this year.

Hence, offering niche content through his Shagun TV channel that went on air last month seems lucrative for its conceiver and conceptualiser Anuranjan Jha.

The idea for Shagun TV came to Jha a decade ago. But it took him eight years to get over the apprehension of doing something so niche and two years of "hardcore" work to finally come up with a channel offering content related to weddings, "a market which is huge and recession-free in the country".

With its current six hours of programming, the channel features pre-nuptial and post-nuptial programmes, issues and relevant information around marriages - honeymoon destinations, jewellery trends, match-making et al.

For Samat, the time was ripe to announce something like EPIC to surpass the "traditional entertainment" surrounding the "current historical and mythological content".

"Our aim is to present the rich elements of our vibrant past in an entertaining manner that would be unique for all. We want mass audiences to connect with and relate to our rich history and past more closely and beyond the traditional way of showcasing the stories," he said.

Advertisers will only benefit from the trend "as infotainment channels focussed on sub-genres help them reach a targeted audience," read the FICCI-KPMG report.

Khanchandani said: "Niche content offers a higher level of engagement and more focussed targeting and hence better advertising potential."