A 29-year-old man wanted in connection with the recent seizure of firearms, drugs, and ammunition turned himself in to police and “another male has also since been arrested in relation to this matter, making it five suspects arrested as part of this operation.” A police spokesperson said, “Around 10:40 a.m. on Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024, […]

The Court of Appeal ruled that the “Chief Justice was wrong to conclude that the Respondent’s right to freedom of expression under section 9 of the Constitution was violated by the pursuit of criminal proceedings in this case”, in relation to former police officer Barbi Bishop who was alleged to have posted an ‘All Lives […]

The court has dismissed an appeal by Jahmico Trott, who was convicted of offences including attempted murder. The ruling noted that “On 30 March 2021, following a retrial, Jahmico Trott [“the Appellant”] was convicted by a majority verdict [11-1] of a jury for the offences of: attempted murder; using a firearm to commit an indictable […]

Roger Lightbourne and Gary Smith  have been charged with attempted murder in England, according to reports from the UK media and police. A statement from the Leicestershire Police said, “Two people have been charged with attempted murder after a man was found with stab wound injuries in Upperton Road, Leicester, last month. “Roger Lightbourne, 31, of […]

Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Owen Darrell recently attended Caribbean Week hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation [CTO] in New York from June 16 – 21, 2024. A Government spokesperson said, “This year’s event at the InterContinental New York Times Square, marked the organisation’s 35th anniversary. It brought together the region’s finest tourism representatives […]

Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Sport Owen Darrell is attending the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s conference in the Cayman Islands. A Government spokesperson said, “The contribution of tourism to Bermuda’s economy and aggressively promoting the island as a business and leisure destination are some of the topics of focus when the Minister of Tourism, Culture and […]

First light through the limbs of the trees. And then the trees. Each morning the hum of traffic through the freeway wall. And then the traffic we’re bottled in. Each thing first betrayed by the shapes around it. As if shadows held all our weight. Like the empty space that props each fiery nest of …

Read more "Poem from Dark Matter"

The post Poem from Dark Matter first appeared on Timothy Green.

Peppermint Patty Lucky Clover Cookies Hello folks, with these Luck o’ the Irish cookies you can make a Grand St. Patrick’s Day surprise for the whole family. They have a wonderful minty flavor from the Peppermint Extract so they are ‘Peppermint Patty’ Cookies. Get it? They are made without baking soda so they are like …

Now for the first time in our history, we're witnessing a broad and powerful attack on the principle of equality. Daily, we are told that all people are not in fact created equal. Some were born with moral stain, others were not. Some Americans are guilty, some are innocent. Nothing can change this because it was all determined at birth. All we can do is respond accordingly. Continue reading →

Elected Republicans, almost all of them, are in no hurry to stop the disorder. They appear to believe what we're watching is a version of the Rodney King riots from 1992. People saw an upsetting video on the internet, they're angry, and that's understandable. But they'll calm down soon, and we can get back to cutting capital gains taxes and sanctioning Bashar al- Assad. That's their view of it. They are wrong. This is not a momentary civil disturbance. This is a serious and highly organized political movement. It is not superficial. It is deep and profound. It has vast ambitions. It is insidious; it will grow. Its goal is to end liberal democracy and challenge Western civilization itself. This is an ideological movement. The ideas that fuel it have incubated for decades on college campuses. We paid for all of it, by the way. The rest of us were so thrilled that our kids got into Duke that we decided to ignore what Duke was actually teaching them and are continuing to send big checks. That was a mistake. It was one of the greatest mistakes we've ever made. Continue reading →

Democratic politicians don't fear the mob. Notice that? Why? Because they don't need to. They control the mob. The mob operates with their permission. These are their foot soldiers. This is their militia. Continue reading →

I'm very interested in eLearning designs that try to entwine content and exercise so thoroughly that the learner almost constructs their instruction – even if...

Being a relatively visible public Witch, I get plenty of requests for spells, which I politely decline to do. I tell people two things: One is that it's best to create one's own spells rather than have someone else cast them. The other is a caution against performing any magic that would interfere with the free will of another. The exception to that would be a binding of someone else, making them unable to do further harm.

If you believe someone has put a negative spell on you (usually called a hex), here are a few things you can do to protect yourself, and possibly reverse the spell.

First, purify your person. Take a shower, or better yet, soak for a while in hot water containing sea salt, bath salts, or Epsom salts. Allow the salt and water to neutralize any negativity within yourself; think of this as you soak. Let any contamination be washed away with the water spiraling down the drain, out of your house and out of your life. Drink lots of water to wash out your insides. Wash your hair, brush your teeth, put on clean clothes. You may also wish to drink mint tea or another tea that you find refreshing.

Second, purify your dwelling. Dust, sweep, vacuum, tidy up, polish. Air out the rooms. Wash the windows with a mild solution of vinegar and water. This allows purifying sunlight and moonlight to illuminate the room as well as making the glass more reflective to deflect unwanted energies.[1]

Circulate through the rooms where you live with sage or other purifying incense, making sure to fumigate everywhere -- stairways, closets, underneath stairways, basement, attic, garage if attached. If your dwelling is one that you can circumnavigate, you may wish to walk all around the outside of the building wafting this smoke.

Then mix salt and water and sprinkle it around the house. As with the incense, do this around the outside of the home, too, if you can. Be sure to cense and sprinkle all openings to the outside -- doors and windows, of course, but also skylights, electrical outlets, heating vents, chimneys, ventilator hoods, toilets, and sink, tub and shower drains. Also do this to mirrors.

While you're doing these things, speak the words, "With Earth and Water I purify this space," and "with Fire and Air I consecrate this space," because that's exactly what you're doing.[2]

Third, ward your space. If you're the witchy sort, trace a protective pentacle with the salt water on all doors, windows and mirrors. Rosemary grows in abundance where I live, so I like to use a sprig of it to sprinkle the salt water. Then I like to leave rosemary sprigs on all the window sills.

When you've done all these things, take a step back, be very quiet, look around, listen and note how different your space feels to you now.

You may also wish to perform these acts at other places where you spend a lot of time, such as work, if you can.

One last thing you may want to do, although it's not as easy and practical as the rest. You may wish to hang little mirrors in the windows or on the outside of the building to reflect away negativity. The mirrors aren't really necessary; they're just extra insurance, if you will. You should be fine just doing the other things I've recommended.

Now envision yourself within a bubble. Project this bubble around you and around your home. Nothing can pass through the membrane that has not been invited by you. Anything unwelcome bounces off the bubble. Build a strong image of this bubble in your mind. If you have a small object, maybe a clear quartz crystal or a piece of rosemary, that reminds you of this visualization, carry it in your pocket or keep it someplace handy. You can't be expected to hold this image in your consciousness all the time. But if you have this object, then at times when the image has faded and you feel you need to reinforce your working, take it out and look at it and touch it to reawaken your sense of your protective bubble.

As with all magic spells, you needn't stick with the formula offered here. If other ingredients call to you or other actions spring from you, trust your intuition and go with them.

These are my recommendations. For another approach, here's a Lemon UncrossingSpell (to break a curse). I have never tried this so I can offer no assurance of its efficacy.

[1] For a super-duper heavy cleansing of a home, say if you're just moving in after someone else has been living there, and if you have the time, get some dragon's blood incense and burn it on a piece of charcoal in a container left in the bathtub or shower. As soon as you light it, leave and let it fumigate the entire house. You don't want to breathe much of this stuff. Then return a few hours later and open all the windows to let out the dragon's blood fumes.

[2] Some additional things you can do to cleanse a new or dirty home: Walk throughout the rooms with noisemakers, rattles, a drum to frighten off unwanted spirits. Do this before censing and sprinkling. After censing and sprinkling, ring a little bell at the windows and mirrors.

NEWS – Matter, the connectivity standard for smart devices for the home, has recently been upgraded to version 1.4.  Every six months or so the Connectivity Standards Alliance releases a new version with support for more IoT devices.  Version 1.3 brought support for a variety of home appliances, things like dishwashers, washing machines, refrigerators, and […]

In the latest episode of their easily spotted podcast, Ken and Robin talk Invisible Men, coarse vs granular ability lists, and Ken's last book raid for the duration.

Good fundraisers typically stick with what works in a fund raising campaign choosing not to ask to many questions about why it works. While intuitively, many fundraisers know that women tend to make more donations in a given campaign or series of campaigns and perhaps if the fundraiser is intuitive enough, that men who give, generally tend to give higher amounts overall.

It’s not always easy to understand why this is so, and therefore for a fundraiser to take full advantage of this information.

Many studies have been done on philanthropy; fewer have been done on telephone fund raising, however the research on this subject is not insignificant. Two studies that we will highlight here at onfundraising are one commissioned by the Share Group Inc on fund raising and direct mail campaigns, and the other is “The Effects of Race, Gender, and Marital Status on Giving and Volunteering in Indiana” as published in the Nonprofit and voluntary Sector Quartley, in 2006 while report focuses on Indiana, much of the reporting is general in nature and therefore suitable for this post. The study’s main purpose was to examine whether factors like race, age, education or marital status make a difference to philanthropy of volunteering.

Both studies are available on line, and are linked to at the bottom of this article.

In 2006, Share Group. Inc, of Massachusetts participated in a comprehensive study on donor characteristics .Among other things this study quantifies some of the major difference between male and female donors; something that many people knew intuitively but lacked the hard data to validate. The study also measured donor contributions by age, and gave some general insights into what age group is the most supportive of charitable organizations.

According to the study, when contacted, women are more likely to support a charity campaign than men.

This data corresponds with past studies on philanthropic giving, but is limited to telephone fund raising The data indicates the women generally are more likely to donate to fund raising efforts and are also more likely to leave bequests to charitable organizations. The research indicates that woman as a whole are more likely to donate than men are.

However, the study found that based on the statistical evidence, men who do give to a campaign are likely to make larger contributions than female donors. This information as well is corroborated by independent research.

The study observes that the optimal donor age is fifty years old. Contributions tend to dwindle as donors reach retirement age. Donors ages sixty five to seventy five were most receptive to and renewal of support campaigns.

Interestingly for fund raisers, the study found that female callers secure pledges less often than male callers, but the average size of the pledges female fundraisers secure is larger than their male counterparts.

In general, women according to the research in both studies, are more likely give a larger contribution than they have previously given (upgrade). Men who could be convinced to upgrade generally upgraded at higher percentage versus female donors.

Breaking down the data further showed that when it comes to the actual giving of money, single women give twice as much as single men. These results are consistent with what has been published in the past. Furthermore, single women are more likely than men to give to a variety of charities and philanthropic efforts. A not so surprising finding was that married men also were 2-3 times more likely to give as much as single men or single women. However, the amount of money donated by single men was found to be far greater than that of married couples.

When the race factor is assessed for donation, there is little or no difference. Whites, Blacks and other minorities are no more or less likely to give relative to each other. The one obvious finding is that donations are significantly increased when the donor is educated, earns a higher income, and is older. This finding was again observed in all ethnic groups.

The Indiana study also looked at another aspect of giving-volunteering. The results are not much different to the philanthropic study. Again, single females are more likely to volunteer their time when compared to single men. Infact single females are more likely to volunteer for many more hours (>146 per year) than single men. The one surprising finding is that there is no difference in volunteering between married couples and single individuals when it comes to volunteering. It would be expected that married couples would have less time due to their familial obligations but this is not so.

Race did not reveal any differences in volunteering- Blacks, Whites and other minorities were just as likely to volunteer.

Volunteering was found to decrease when the levels of income and education were low. In fact, there was a sharp drop in volunteering levels for those with less than a high school education relative to the general population, and this was seen across all age groups.

However, increased income did not correlate with the numbers of hours volunteered. Individuals with low income were just as likely to volunteer for longer durations of time and vice versa.

The one curious observation from the study is that when individuals were asked if they had volunteered in the past, women were more likely to recall this act. Minorities could not recall if they had volunteered. Why someone can’t remember a dignified act like volunteering is a mystery- perhaps an error in how the questionnaire was set up or comprehension difficulty. The writers of the Indiana study surmised that often minorities do volunteer work without formally characterizing it as such.

Most of the results of these studies are also supported by many previous national surveys which have also found that education and higher income are the strongest and most consistent predictors of philanthropic activity.

Why single women volunteer more is not fully understood but it is speculated that because single women have less social and financial means, they compensate this by giving more of their time as volunteers while at the same time establishing their social networks.

These studies provide some insight into differences in donors by sex, marital status, race and income. Both men and women are motivated to give to charity for different reasons therefore when communicating with donors, fundraisers are advised to take this into effect and structure their solicitations accordingly.

We can take from these studies the fact that most Americans do give to charity in one way or another. Fund raisers can best serve the causes they work for buy understanding the broad characteristics of donors and structuring their donation requests accordingly.

well...what a bloody marvellous couple of days I've just had. Taking all my figures to a show for the first time was a little nerve racking, but the effort really paid off. I had an excellent time and met some great new friends too in the process.
The board and mountain were excellent too, crafted by the talented James Morris. I had never deployed my whole army in one go before, so what better time to do it than on a set up like this. Everything seemed to come together perfectly.
I started my battle with the orcs at the bottom of the hill advancing across the mountain river. However, due to my terrible dice rolling and the luck of the Elves, I was cut and shot to pieces. It wasn't long before my tattered ranks were tumbling back through the freezing water. The Elves just had time to redress their lines before another dark wave of Goblin folk arrived.
I love the walled up gate that James made, the little gaps in the stonework were perfect. It really reminded me of one of Alan Lees illustrations. Also a very clever use of silver fabric for the river...very effective!

The Eagles arrived later in the game and swept the Goblins from the mountain sides. The game was masterfully run by David Hunter, who made sure the flo was just right.
My Eagles looked very realistic on the slopes of the mountain too, better than I had hoped for. The extra poses were well worth collecting over the last ten years. The flying ones on stands were a very recent purchase and they really stood out.
The game in full flo, it drew a big crowd and it was great to talk figures with people. A lot of people wanted to know where I got my Orcs from and of course the answer was...everywhere. Also the amount of plastic model kits used was very hard to calculate. Just about every Dark age and Fantasy box set all mashed up and mixed together.



I love my Wood elves after lovingly creating each one individually and got a huge buzz from seeing them in action. I didn't really care they were cutting my forces to ribbons, just seeing them used in anger was enough for me.
Hordes of Goblins still plagued the mountainside, their numbers were too much even for the Eagles.
Thorin was cut down by Bolg's bodyguard as he tried to cut through their great shields. Bard of Laketown too, fell to the hacking Goblin blades. Dain of the Iron hills was holding his own but was badly wounded. At last it seemed like the Free people's luck had run out. 
Then with a roar like a thunderclap Beorn burst onto the scene. He tore through the Goblin ranks and made his way to Bolg. Approaching the rear of Bolg's bodyguard he shattered their formation.

It was at this point the Orc's morale was lost and the game was called. The rules were James' new Midguard ones and were perfect for this Dark age epic clash of men and monsters.

I had a great couple of days and it was a real treat to get out and do something exciting like this. To my amazement I didn't suffer any spear snaps of breakages and everything survived intacted. I was expecting a few casualties and had even taken a little repair kit but didn't need it.

Dain's Iron hills Dwarves push the Goblins from the ridge, supported by a group of Lake men.
An earlier shot of the swirl of battle.
The nine Black riders with their Dark lord 
My beloved Silvan elves holding their own against ravaging wolf packs.

I said it once, I'll say it again, what a bloody marvellous couple of days!

 I'm sure I'll have some more pictures soon to post on here of the day...
 

 Here's a shot of James Morris' Lonely mountain with the only missing element...thousands of blood drinking bats. 

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