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Spreading the Word of Your Web Blog by Social Networking

Making use of Twitter I have spent hours on end gaining contacts for Twitter. You may become discouraged when you first get started trying to establish contacts/followers but persistence will pay for itself eventually. Like any good search engine optimization you must maintain a constant campaign to prove to be effective. Social media marketing is […]




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Are you Ready for the Next Round of EMD Updates?

Empowering Spam While this may seem like a good ideal, I believe it to be a problem at this point. Could be wrong, but it would seem that these domain names are targeting keywords and not so much opening the door to new domain names for businesses. Of course as you may or may not […]




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Shaded Metallic Thread Sets – They’re Fabulous!

Last week, I briefly mentioned the shaded metallic thread sets from Au Ver a Soie that I’m so happy to …




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Holiday Open House at Needle ‘n Thread!

I’m so excited to announce this today! If you live somewhere in the vicinity of Northeast Kansas – or if …




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ININ & Strictly Limited Games Sale Thread

 I just noticed ININ Games is having a Gaming Season Sale on Amazon starting today. 
 
Here are the deals:
 
 
 
 
 
Note:  I would jump on this since who knows how many Egret II mini's are left in-stock and this year is TAITO's anniversary, this is an insanely good price on the arcade unit and controllers.
 
 
 
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    It's SDS Awareness Week! Read the latest on Pilotlight

    It's SDS Awareness Week (#SDSBlether) so we want you to know the latest about our Pilotlight project. 

    Pilotlight is working with co-design teams of people who use and deliver services across Scotland to design pathways to self-directed support. 

    read more



    • Self-directed support

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    'I Wrote The Law': Warren Says Trump Already Committing 'Illegal Corruption'

    Massachusetts Sen. Liz Warren called out Donald Trump for 'corruption' even though he hasn't been sworn into office yet. Who would have thought Trump would violate a law that Warren wrote before getting the keys to the White House -- besides all of us?

    Trump has not submitted a legally required ethics agreement stating he will avoid conflicts of interest, which must be signed before the presidential transaction occurs. According to the Presidential Transition Act, the signed agreement was due by Oct. 1.

    Warren took to Xitter, and she was not pleased, but it doesn't do any good unless something is done about it.

    Xitter had some thoughts:

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    SOUP DAY by Melissa Iwai: A Soul-Satisfying, Delicious Comfort Read

    I've been gradually adding new and older BookADay posts to my new Bookstagram. One of the most recent:

    SOUP DAY by Melissa Iwai (Henry Holt): Celebrates the importance of making a nutritious meal and sharing in the process as a famly. Also be sure to check out Melissa's newest book, DUMPLINGS FOR LILI (Norton Young Readers).




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    Reader Squee: Window Watching

    Susan says: "Hey, how do I chase cars and birds from inside!?"

    Doggies have been asking this question for years. Let us know if you find the answer widdle guy.

    -Sally Squeeps

    Do you have a squee pet that you want to share with the world? Send us your pet pictures and stories, and they could end up on Daily Squee!




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    Reader Squee: Snug as a Hedgehog?

    MidnightRayne says: "This is my Hedgehog Albert all snuggled up in a towel after a pampering bath!"

    What a lucky hog! Getting the full fancy spa treatment.

    - Sally Squeeps

    Do you have a squee pet that you want to share with the world? Send us your pet pictures and stories, and they could end up on Daily Squee!




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    Reader Squee: Stanly

    BrandyPoshie says: "Here`s my Manx mix, Stanly!"

    Stanly has a super squee Manx mustache!

    -Sally Squeeps

    Do you have a squee pet that you want to share with the world? Send us your pet pictures and stories, and they could end up on Daily Squee!




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    Reader Squee: It's a Hard Life

    Kerkopithekion says: "Our 14-week-old puppy Storm living the hard life of sofa naps and belly rubs."

    Oh, what a hard life! I do not envy him... just kidding, I totally do.

    -Sally Squeeps

    Do you have a squee pet that you want to share with the world? Send us your pet pictures and stories, and they could end up on Daily Squee!




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    Reader Squees: Need a Napkin?

    ZombieGeisha says: "My guinea pig, Spooky, making a mess of his orange snack."

    Now Spooky, who is going to take you seriously when you can't even bother to wipe your chin?

    Do you have a squee pet that you want to share with the world? Send us your pet pictures and stories, and they could end up on Daily Squee!




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    These zero energy ready homes are solar and energy efficient

    Lots of people want to have more sustainable homes, not just to help the environment. Because at the end of the day, it's a lot more affordable to get your energy from the sun and the wind than to pay some oil or coal plant to provide it. But for many people, being sustainable means having a home built. Hiring an architect and a contractor and going to all that trouble gets pretty expensive. Thanks to Clayton, sustainable living is about to get much more accessible.[...]




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    Vampire bats have a really strange way of getting energy, scientists discover after putting them on treadmills

    Vampire bats rely on amino acids from their blood diet to fuel their exercise, scientists discovered after observing the animals on tiny treadmills.




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    Cybercriminals Use Excel Exploit to Spread Fileless Remcos RAT Malware

    Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new phishing campaign that spreads a new fileless variant of known commercial malware called Remcos RAT. Remcos RAT "provides purchases with a wide range of advanced features to remotely control computers belonging to the buyer," Fortinet FortiGuard Labs researcher Xiaopeng Zhang said in an analysis published last week. "However, threat actors have




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    Posts Spread Unfounded Claim of Race-Based Threat of Violence in Georgia

    Posts shared on Facebook make an unfounded claim of racially motivated threats of violence in Gwinnett County, Georgia, "from now until the Inauguration." The county sheriff's office said it had "not received any information indicating threats to any group(s) on or after election day."

    The post Posts Spread Unfounded Claim of Race-Based Threat of Violence in Georgia appeared first on FactCheck.org.





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    Grissini (Italian Breadsticks)

    Everything I know about making grissini. These beloved, pencil-thin Italian breadsticks are made with just five ingredients. No mixer is needed and you don’t need to proof your yeast.

    Continue reading Grissini (Italian Breadsticks) on 101 Cookbooks




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    Wool Applique + Thread Embroidery + Beads = Happy Quilts!!!

    Oh dear, busy me, four months since I've posted here. Lots of quilting, a little beading, some travels, and recently several sets of house guests have made "retirement" a bit of a joke. For now, since the La Conner Quilt Festival is just around the corner (October 2-4), my subject is one small exhibition on the first floor at the Museum, which is currently up, and will remain through the Festival.

    Last year at the Festival (and again this year!) Sue Spargo taught workshops on her wool applique embroidery methods. Those of us who were lucky enough to get in were invited by the Museum to exhibit our finished pieces. These marvelous creations are the subject of this post. Uneven lighting makes it difficult to get good photos, so please forgive poor color or tone on some of these photos.

    In case you are unfamiliar with Sue's work, below is an example of her work. Students in her class could choose to make chicks, circles, or flowers. Most chose the chicks. Eight of her students are showing their work in the current exhibit.

    My vote for the most awesome-creative piece goes to Bunny Starbuck for She Has Flown the Coop! Here it is:

    Having put my chicks all in neat rows similar to Sue's example, I find it amazing that Bunny's mind took the idea and made a whole different story of it... a coop full of chicks, with two in line on the roof ready to follow the one already in the air. Don't you just love the way the lines divide the space?!




    Note Bunny's use of whispy yarn to suggest little chick feathers, her use of snaps for eyes, the one chick turned full front, the one with a bead-tassled braid and glasses, and the one with beaded loop fringe and a gathered yellow ribbon (?) yo-yo. I love them! I'm in awe, Bunny!

    Below is Chicks on Parade by Dorie Benson. It's so fun the way they are so close together, with two of them going in a different direction, just as you might see in a little cluster of chicks. If you click the photo to enlarge it, you can see some of Dorie's excellent stitching and hand quilting!

    The next one is Chicks by Glenys Baker, who not only did all 36 chicks but also made a second quilt featuring circles (shown further down). Awesome work, Glenys!

    And next is Birds of a Feather Can Dance Together by Lorraine Jones. The fun of the title is matched by the fun of Lorraine's embellishments, including her border treatment. (You'll have to see this one in person, because the light from a table lamp, made the lower corner of the photo look terrible.)

    I guess most of us like to "swim the other way," as you can see in the next piece, Chickadees, by Carrie Unick. I thought many of Corrie's embellishments were especially fun and creative, so I've also included a couple of detail photos.




    Last of the chicks is my piece, simply named Chicks. It was so much fun, that I made another small piece (also in the exhibition), shown at the top of this post. Both are displayed in shadow-box type frames to protect them from dust and moth damage.

    Glenys Baker, in one year, made not only a 36-chicks quilt (shown above), but also a 48-circles quilt, Circles. How she keeps thinking of new embellishment variations I can't imagine. Yet each of her circles is completely unique! Her choice of border fabrics is perfect for the quilt, complimenting the flow of color among the circles.


    I love the fun color combinations and the way the beads enhance her embroidery on Nancy Anders' Bodacious Blooms, a joyful wall quilt if ever there was one! (Again, I couldn't quite get the color right in the photo, so you'll just have to go to the Museum to see it in person.)


    The name of Roberta Roberts' flower quilt, Memories, invites us to look closely at the flower with three ladybugs. I don't know the story, but I can tell there is one here... and I love that. Her embellishments are varied and fun as well.



    There you have it... 10 quilts by 8 students who learned some methods of wool applique and embroidery from Sue Spargo, last year at the La Conner Quilt Festival. I'm so grateful to be one of them!




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    Music and Philosophy IHUM Reading Group

    Philosophers have historically played a foundational role in musicology, from theorizing the origins of music to its potential for political liberation. In this reading group, we aim to closely read the central philosophical texts on music to understand their arguments and why they have remained prominent among musicologists and cultural theories.




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    Fall 2024 Student Reading

    Selected students from fall creative writing courses read from their work in fiction, poetry, screenwriting and literary translation as part of the Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series, presented by the Program in Creative Writing. Open to public.




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    Trump Reelected President Of United States: Discussion Thread

    An outlet for Cartoon Brew readers to share what you're feeling and how you're doing today.




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    Custom Feeds in Feeds Reader are Deprecated

    We have one “gray” and one great news. Which one to start with? The “gray” goes first. We are removing Custom Feeds feature from our Feeds Reader. The great news comes right after! From now, personal feeds will replace custom feeds functionality. All your custom feeds will be automatically converted into personal feeds and show […]

    The post Custom Feeds in Feeds Reader are Deprecated appeared first on RSSground.com.





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    Pinkbike's 2024 Community Survey: How Do Pinkbike Readers Spend Their Money?



    Time to drill down into the cold, hard cash.
    ( Photos: 2, Comments: 133 )




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    Pinkbike's 2024 Community Survey: What Bikes Do Pinkbike Readers Ride?



    The most-desired bike brands, what travel Pinkbike readers expect their next bike will have, and whether you're sold on mullets.
    ( Photos: 2, Comments: 112 )




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    Input spreadsheets to your digital signage, data and graphics

    The spreadsheet control within Repeat Signage software allows you to display existing Microsoft Excel .xlsx files and allows you to use the built in editor to create spreadsheets within your presentations. You can also create and display spreadsheet graphs from your information. This gives you an easy way to display formatted information in grids and you also have the ability to insert pictures as well.




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    Louisiana schools use Artificial Intelligence to help young children learn to read

    In Louisiana, more than 100,000 students are using an AI tutor that is helping to raise reading scores.




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    Reporter Reads

    Organised crime gangs are thought to be behind a rising number of cheese thefts.





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    Liverpool's to lose? Is Premier League title race down to two already?

    Is the Premier League title race down to two teams after just 11 games? BBC Sport looks at the chances of the top four.




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    velocityconf: @tsantero @garethr No, there's just a lot that goes into producing #velocityconf. Plus the chairs are getting ready for Santa Clara + NY! :)

    velocityconf: @tsantero @garethr No, there's just a lot that goes into producing #velocityconf. Plus the chairs are getting ready for Santa Clara + NY! :)




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    4 Ways to Teach Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension

    Teachers can use evidence-based strategies for delivering vocabulary instruction to improve reading comprehension and vice versa by integrating literacy across content areas. These should engage students in active processing, which is essential to student learning and retention.




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    How to encourage children to read more books this summer

    Every year, educators worry about “summer slide,” the potential for learning loss when children are not in school. This issue is more pronounced among low-income families who don’t have access to summer camps or other enrichment activities. One way to battle summer slide is through reading for fun, which is associated with many academic and health benefits, including strengthening the brain, increasing ability to empathize, reducing stress and building vocabulary.




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    Students need over 4 months of extra learning to return to pre-pandemic math, reading achievement

    Pandemic academic recovery in both reading and math is lagging notably behind pre-COVID achievement trends for students in grades 4-8 during the 2022-23 school year, according to a new report by NWEA analyzing MAP Growth test scores of 6.7 million students across 20,000 public schools. Third-graders were the only group who saw improvements, and they were slight, according to NWEA, an educational research organization recently acquired by learning technology company HMH.




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    What People Are Getting Wrong About the Science of Reading

    The science of reading, while typically villainized for solely advocating phonics, is misrepresented as a phonics program, while really, it is a body of research that informs the most effective way to teach decoding and language comprehension. The definition of the science of reading, provided by The Reading League, is “the vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing.” The term “science of reading” does not equate to phonics. That term does not equate to comprehension.




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    New Report Highlights States that Are at the Vanguard of the Reading Revolution

    A new FutureEd report, The Reading Revolution: How States Are Scaling Literacy Reform, tells the story of how Mississippi, Tennessee and other states at the vanguard of the reading revolution have redesigned reading instruction and raised student achievement in thousands of public schools through bold, state-level leadership. These states have addressed every aspect of early literacy, from how teachers and prospective teachers are trained to the curriculum they use, how students are assessed and whether children are retained rather than promoted to the next grade.




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    Opinion: Why the Science of Reading Is Right for My Young Learner

    I’m writing this for all the parents out there: Don’t leave your child’s reading success to chance. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I was one of those parents. Sure, my wife and I read to our son every night, and we had plenty of books, newspapers and magazines around the house. Our local public school spent a lot of time on literacy too, but I cringe now as I look back on how they did it. They taught kids to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words using pictures, the first letter or other context clues.




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    Ready for Reading Adventures

    We want readers to make connections between books and their own lives and the world around them. Connecting real experiences for kids with literary ones is something that I’ve found also helps readers value books and knowledge. And it is so much fun to extend the pages of a story into a real-world activity!




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    Current State of the Evidence: Examining the Effects of Orton-Gillingham Reading Interventions for Students With or at Risk for Word-Level Reading Disabilities

    Over the past decade, parent advocacy groups led a grassroots movement resulting in most states adopting dyslexia-specific legislation, with many states mandating the use of the Orton-Gillingham (OG) approach to reading instruction. Orton-Gillingham is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive approach to reading for students with or at risk for word-level reading disabilities (WLRD). Evidence from a prior synthesis and What Works Clearinghouse reports yielded findings lacking support for the effectiveness of OG interventions.




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    Simple RSS Feed Reader v3.8.0 released

    Today we're releasing version 3.8.0 of the Simple RSS Feed Reader module. This new release brings back Joomla 1.5 support (by popular request), it introduces a new sub-template & changes the remote image resizing service from Mobify to Images.weserv.nl.

    Here's what's been added or changed (in more detail) with the release of v3.8.0:

    • Re-instated Joomla 1.5 support.
    • Added new sub-template for rendering YouTube Playlist feeds as a list of videos. This sub-template requires the use of our free plugin AllVideos to render the videos in a responsive format.
    • Swapped Mobify with Images.weserv.nl (powered by CloudFlare) since the former was bought out by Salesforce and subsequently dropped.
    • Improved compatibility with PHP 7.4.

    The next update will offer compatibility with the upcoming Joomla 4 release (currently in "beta") and will also be tested against PHP 8.

    Simple RSS Feed Reader is fully compatible with Joomla 1.5 to 3.x & PHP versions up to 7.4.

    DOWNLOAD

    You can download this version by visiting the product's page at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/simple-rss-feed-reader

    UPGRADING

    Simply install on top of any other 3.x release. The update will also appear in the Joomla extension updater (for Joomla v2.5 or newer).

    DEMO

    You can see a demo of the extension at: https://demo.joomlaworks.net and https://demo2.joomlaworks.net (right column on both sites)




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    Simple RSS Feed Reader v3.9.0 released

    Today we're releasing version 3.9.0 of the Simple RSS Feed Reader module. This is a bugfix release.

    Here's what's been added or changed (in more detail) with the release of v3.9.0:

    • Fix the installer for Joomla 3.x on new installations. The introduction of support for Joomla 1.5 all the way up to 3.x unfortunately broke the installer for 3.x (oh, the irony) for new installations. Upgrades from previous versions to 3.8.0 had no issues for any Joomla release.
    • Improved the image parser/extractor. Removed support for .bmp type images.
    • Fixed various warnings/notices.

    The next major update (v4) will offer compatibility with the upcoming Joomla 4 release (currently in "beta" and soon going into "RC" status) as well as entirely new layouts. ranging from simple lists to more complex grid layouts utilizing CSS grid properties.

    Simple RSS Feed Reader is fully compatible with Joomla 1.5 to 3.x & PHP versions up to 8.0.

    DOWNLOAD

    You can download this version by visiting the product's page at: https://www.joomlaworks.net/extensions/free/simple-rss-feed-reader

    UPGRADING

    Simply install on top of any other 3.x release. The update will also appear in the Joomla extension updater (for Joomla v2.5 or newer).

    DEMO

    You can see a demo of the extension at: https://demo.joomlaworks.net and https://demo2.joomlaworks.net (right column on both sites)




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    The Role of Word-, Sentence-, and Text-Level Variables in Predicting Guided Reading Levels of Kindergarten and First-Grade Texts

    Texts classified according to guided reading levels (GRL) are ubiquitous in U.S. beginning reading classrooms. This study examined features of texts across three grade bands (kindergarten, early first grade, final first grade) and the 10 GRLs within these bands. The 510 texts came from three programs with different functions in beginning reading instruction: core, intervention, and content areas.




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    Differentiation Done Right: How “Walk to Read” Works

    When we’re asked to switch to explicit, systematic instruction, many teachers worry that we’ll no longer be able to tailor our teaching to the students in front of us. Calls for whole-class phonics instruction lasting 30-45 minutes, for example, summon fears that our  students will be bored by concepts they already know or aren’t yet ready for.




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    Shared Reading in the Structured Literacy Era

    Teacher question: Can you provide clarification on how to promote shared reading in the structured literacy era and how that differs from shared reading in the balanced literacy era. I would think a teacher could certainly initially read the text aloud to students to model fluency and expression, but then must ensure students can get the words off the page and reread by decoding the words, rather than parroting the teacher or memorizing the shared reading text that may be a rhyme/song that is catchy. Shanahan's response:




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    How to read a book a week in the age of Facebook and twitter

      Background When my son was nearing 14 years, I mentioned to him that I read James Clavell’s epic novel Shogun  (1136 pages) around the age of 15 i.e. his age. Reading a book like Shogun at age 15 is admittedly not typical reading for a 15-year-old. But I have always been an avid reader [...]





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    News24 | 'We already miss him': Brackenfell family looking for missing teen last seen visiting a friend

    A family in Brackenfell, Cape Town, is looking for their missing teenage son, whom they last saw on Saturday morning heading to visit a friend in the area.