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Woman Pepper-Sprays 20 In "Competitive Shopping" Spree on Black Friday

She claims it's not a problem, "It's just a food product, essentially."




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Winners of the INDEX- Design For Life competition announced

Some of them are surprising and all of them will make a real difference.




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Upcycled carpet installation highlights plight of world's dying corals

'Coral Garden' is a handcrafted installation that's inspired by the world's threatened coral reefs, and made with upcycled materials.




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Picks and pans from the INDEX: Design To Improve Life Competition

A look at some of the nominees which are brilliant, and others that are something else.




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Peter Qvist uses computers, CNC milling and hand finishing to create "highly modern handcrafted furniture pieces"

Computers and technology let designers do things that were unimaginable just a decade ago.




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Plants could compete with tech for reducing air pollution

Restoring plants and trees near US industrial sites could reduce air pollution by an average of 27 percent, new study finds.




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West Coast Green 2010: Michelle Kaufmann Interviews Peter Yost

Eco-architect extraordinaire Michelle Kaufmann speaks with Peter Yost from BuildingGreen about working with Lawrence Berkeley National Labs on energy efficient window treatments in this TreeHugger exclusive from West Coast Green. Peter Yost has been




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How sustainable is pet ownership?

Pets bring so much joy and extend our lives. A new study looks at some of our pet maintenance choices.




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Prepare for the rise of robotic pets

An animal welfare researcher says the prospect of robopets is not as far-fetched as we may think, and may have potential impact on how we view actual animals.




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15 houseplants that won't poison pets

Many houseplants are toxic for curious cats and dogs. These ones are all pet-friendly.




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Homemade cat food can be dangerous for your pet

A new study finds that most recipes for homemade cat food lack essential nutrients and even contain potentially toxic ingredients.




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Video: Kangaroo petting a dog

They're just like us.




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A petal-powered bike project in Denmark’s second city

Green-fingered volunteers in the Danish city of Aarhus have given abandoned bicycles a new lease of life – by turning them into tiny urban gardens.




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These special bees craft nests from flower petals

The colorful papier-mache cocoons provide a safe haven for bringing baby bees into the world.




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10 common myths about bike lanes, challenged by Peter Walker

Bike lanes carry the shock troops in the never-ending war on the car.




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How to grow and harvest 'cut and come again' lettuce, for perpetual salad greens

Harvesting a large crisp head of lettuce from the garden is a wonderful thing, but for faster yields and longer harvests, a cut and come again lettuce bed can put salad on your plate all season long.




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Disorder is the theme of this year's Prix Pictet Photo Competition

Bees, ivory poaching, and war are amongst the themes portrayed in this year's shortlist.




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TreeHugger and UNEP Announce Third Annual World Environment Day Blogging Competition

TreeHugger and UNEP announce return of World Environment Day Blogging Competition.




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Vote Now for the UNEP & TreeHugger Blogging Competition

Let the blogging begin! Help determine the winner of the Rio+20 Blogging Competition.





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November Marks National Pet Cancer Awareness Month - Associates at VPI share their stories in honor of National Pet Cancer Awareness Month. [...]

Associates at VPI share their stories in honor of National Pet Cancer Awareness Month. Find out how you can help #CurePetCancer, visit www.CurePetCancer.com






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PetSafe® Brand to Award More Than $250,000 to Help 25 Communities Fund and Maintain Off-Leash Dog Parks - PetSafe® Bark for Your Park™ Video

Learn more about the 2016 PetSafe® Bark for Your Park™ grant-giving program in this video.






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PetSafe® Brand to Award More Than $250,000 to Help 25 Communities Fund and Maintain Off-Leash Dog Parks - PetSafe® Bark for Your Park™ Video

Learn more about the 2016 PetSafe® Bark for Your Park™ grant-giving program in this video.




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Impressed by PetroChina's earnings: Barclays

Somshankar Sinha, Director, Asia ex-Japan Oil & Gas Research at Barclays, highlights the firm's lower capex spending as a key area to look out for in the year ahead.




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How Am I Doing? Peter & MaryJo

Peter & MaryJo, both 44 years old, want to retire at age 62 and keep their activity-filled lifestyle. Are they on track to meet their goal?




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Upcoming event could turn the market into a 'minefield,' says Peter Boockvar

Bleakley Advisory Group CIO Peter Boockvar on navigating this earnings season. With CNBC's Seema Mody and the Futures Now traders, Jim Iuorio at the CME and Anthony Grisanti at the NYMEX.




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This upcoming event could turn the market into a 'minefield,' says Peter Boockvar

Earnings season could negatively impact the U.S. stock market as companies begin to feel the pain of the global economic slowdown, warns Peter Boockvar.




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How Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg donations measure up

CNBC's "Power Lunch" team discusses the Democrats racing for donations with CNBC.com political finance reporter Brian Schwartz and Robert Frank.




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This is a classic bear-market bounce: Cantor Fitzgerald's Peter Cecchini

Peter Cecchini, Cantor Fitzgerald global chief market strategist, joins "Closing Bell" to discuss markets.




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My favourite game: Panini pest Zoltan Peter comes unstuck against USSR | Paul Doyle

Before the 1986 World Cup my brother and I had nearly 100 stickers of the Hungarian and we wanted him to lose, badly

Before the internet ruined the World Cup there was wonder in ignorance. You could look forward to discovering great players and teams about whom you knew next to nothing. In 1986 my brother and I hoped the tournament would be all about some Hungarian called Zoltan Peter. Our reason was bad.

All we knew about Peter was his name and his face because he seemed to be in every pack of Panini stickers we bought. Every time we removed that shiny wrapper there he was, seemingly mocking us with his Lego-man hairdo and the haunting expression of someone who knew there is no problem so grim it cannot be made worse.

Continue reading...




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Never Rarely Sometimes Always review – tough, realist abortion drama | Peter Bradshaw's film of the week

A teenager bonds awkwardly with her cousin as they take the bus from a rural community to New York so that she can have a termination

The four words in this title are the four possible replies to bureaucratic tick-box questions about the frequency of your various sexual experiences. A young woman here must answer them, before she is allowed to have an abortion. However rigid and blandly routine it seems, the four-part answer grid is cleverly designed to get information about vulnerability: it is so easy instinctively and evasively to deny a difficult question structured as a yes/no, but much harder to check the “never” box, when “rarely”, “sometimes” and “always” are coolly offered as equivalently non-judgmental options.

The lead character in Eliza Hittman’s tough, realist drama is confronted with this central, four-part inquisition about her life in one brilliantly controlled, enigmatic scene. Theoretically, it is just a bit of form-filling that doesn’t appear to promise any real revelation to the audience. Yet it does just that, delivering a penny-drop moment of realisation. Or perhaps it’s more of an ambiguous hint and all the more disquieting for that.

Related: Sleazy bosses, exploited barmaids: US cinema finally discovers the left behinds

Continue reading...




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A new short story by Pete McTighe

A new short story by Kerblam and Praxeus writer, Pete McTighe: "Press Play”.




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GST Update on whether Rajasthan AAR competent to decide on registration requirement in another State?

The present update intends to discuss the Advance Ruling given in the case of M/s T & D Electricals. The question placed before the Advance Ruling was the requirement of separate registration for executing works contract in another State and leviability of tax-whether CGST/SGST or IGST if separate r




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How A Taco Bell Competition Changed My Life

The true story of how a fast food restaurant indirectly led to our indie game studio's success.




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2020 A’ design award and competition – call for entries

Registration deadline already soon...





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spaced repetition & Darwin’s golden rule

Spaced repetition is a memory hack. We know that spacing out your study is more effective than cramming, but using an app you can tailor your own spaced repetition schedule, allowing you to efficiently create reliable memories for any material you like. Michael Nielsen, has a nice thread on his use of spaced repetition on … Continue reading "spaced repetition & Darwin’s golden rule"






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Contest Scam Alert: Legaia Books Online Book Competition


Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware®

When is a literary contest not a literary contest?

When its purpose is to make money for the contest sponsor. Alternatively: when its purpose is to assemble a list of likely customers.

Take the online book competition (or book literary contest, or books competition--it doesn't seem to have an actual name) recently announced by Legaia Books, a publishing and marketing scam I've featured on this blog. Here's one of the solicitation emails that are going out:


Sound tempting? Here are all the reasons to kick this "contest" to the curb.

1. Legaia is a scam. This company--which claims a North Carolina address but really operates out of the Philippines--exists to rip off authors. That's really all the reason you need to give this contest a miss...but let's move on.

2. It's a scam within a scam. Legaia's contest has all the elements of a profiteering awards program--a different kind of scam, whose template Legaia is borrowing as a way to make some quick bucks and boost its customer list. Here are the markers:
  • Solicitation. See the email above.
  • A fat entry fee. You have to dig into the contest guidelines to find this: $40 for entries now, $70 for entries after May 11.
  • Policies designed to maximize entries. Most profiteering awards programs offer dozens or scores of entry categories, in order to attract the largest number of entrants and thus the biggest pot of entry fees. Legaia's contest doesn't have categories--but it's "open to all aspiring and established authors", which, combined with what is doubtless a sizeable email solicitation campaign (Legaia is a prolific spammer), is basically the same thing.
  • Mystery judging. The prestige of a literary competition is tied, in part, to the reputability of its judges. If the judges' identities aren't revealed, you have no way to know whether they have any credits or experience that would qualify them to be judges. They could be just the contest sponsor's own staff--or no one at all. Legaia's guidelines include multiple mentions of "judges" but, in true scam contest style, no names.
  • Opportunities to spend more money. This is where entrants' email addresses--which are required for entry--come in handy; non-winners will almost certainly be solicited to buy Legaia's publishing packages and other services. (Contest guidelines also invite entrants without a book cover to "call us for a professional book cover.")
  • Worthless prizes. Profiteering contest sponsors avoid cutting into entry fee income by offering "prizes" that cost them little or nothing to provide. Legaia is no exception. Given that its services are overpriced and substandard, a "Free Book Publication Coupon" is more like a lump of coal than a Christmas present. The "Seal Awards" aren't actual seals--just digital images. Winners are promised a "pitch program" that will expose them to "literary offices and film productions"--despite the fact that Legaia can't cite a single "literary office" or film studio that has ever picked up a book thanks to its (likely nonexistent) efforts. As for the "Marketing Platform worth $15,000"...Legaia offers only junk marketing ("marketing" that's cheap to provide, can be sold for giant markups, and is not effective for book promotion), so the actual worth is closer to zero. 
3. You have to work. In addition to submitting "your (a) manuscript, (b) synopsis, (c) book cover (front and full)" the contest guidelines indicate that there will be a public voting phase (see #7 and #8), which means you will have to bug your friends and family and annoy your social media followers with multiple vote-grubbing posts and announcements. Additionally, you must create a "pitch to the judges" which is "one of the criteria in the second phase of the contest as indicated in Rule 8". You have the option of making a video or using Legaia's "Free Pitch Template," whatever that is; the guidelines offer no guidance on length, content, or anything else.

4. Nobody has heard of it. The supposed benefits of a contest win or placement are often touted by sketchy contests or awards as one of the benefits of entering (not to mention a justification of a big entry fee). You'll be able to tag your book as an "award-winning book" and yourself as an "award-winning author". It'll impress agents and editors! It'll bring visibility to your work! It'll increase sales!

Most contests, however, don't have the prestige or name recognition to accomplish any of that. Agents and editors are well aware of how many dodgy contests are out there competing for writers' money; "I won Grand Prize in this contest you never heard of!" is unlikely to impress them. As for readers and book buyers, how much they care about award and contest wins is an open question--especially, again, where they've never heard of the award or contest. Is it worth $40 (or $70) to you to test that question?

5. A serious lack of literacy. Both the email solicitation reproduced above and the contest pages on the Legaia website are littered with grammatical and other errors (like its many brethren--see the sidebar--Legaia is based overseas). This really shouldn't need saying, but the sponsors of an English-language contest for English-language books should be able to demonstrate a good command of English.

Any one of these factors should be enough to at least cause you to give this contest the side-eye. Taken all together, they add up to a giant, screaming red flag.

My own feeling about literary contests is that they are mostly a waste of time (even if not of money). Scams and exploitation abound in this space (if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know how many posts I write about problem contests). Even where the contest is legit and doesn't have "gotchas" in its guidelines, those that can genuinely benefit your writing resume are a tiny minority. Again in my opinion, writers' time is better spent on publishing or submitting for publication.

That said...if you still are attracted by contests, there are resources on the Contests and Awards page of Writer Beware to help you research ones that won't rip you off. Also be sure to use the search box in the sidebar to search this blog for any contests I may have written about, and feel free to email me with questions.




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Thailand's pet groomer reopens as new coronavirus cases slow

Chewy and Miley, both two-year-old Schnauzer dogs, are getting their hair cut at a groomer in Bangkok for the first time since the new coronavirus outbreak began in Thailand in January.




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Hayley Williams: Petals for Armor review – one of the year's biggest revelations

(Atlantic)
This solo debut from the frontwoman of pop-punk stadium stars Paramore is a riot of lust, funk and femininity

Maturity is an often derided concept in a youth-facing art form. But when Simmer, a song about repressed feminist rage buoyed by creepy electronics – the lead track from Hayley Williams’s debut solo album – was released in January, it signalled an intriguing sea change in an artist previously known as a bouncy, flame-haired emo cheerleader.

The story of how Hayley Williams, now 31, went from leading angsty emo shoutalongs in the Tennessee pop-punk band Paramore to releasing these startling songs about rage, femininity and suicidal thoughts is one of the knottier yarns in contemporary American guitar music. Her trio-of-EPs album is now complete, with the final EP – and a physical album uniting all three – released last Friday.

Continue reading...




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How to Prevent Your Pet From Developing Separation Anxiety Post Quarantine

During this crazy time many of us have been confined to our homes and for some that means to be home 24/7 with our best friends. Our pets. However, because of this, many pets have become accustomed to having us home with them. 

But then the question is... will they be okay once bans are lifted and people are able to slowly go back to their daily routines?

Will they be able to handle their best friends not being by their side 24/7?

It is expected that many dogs (even cats!) can suffer from separation anxiety, and pet experts are saying that it's a good idea to get your pet ready and used to post-quarantine separation now, to minimize their stress later. 

Here are some useful tips for both dog and cat owners.

More videos on Cheezburger's Youtube Channel 





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How to pet a bison




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Petals For Armor

This album shook me to my core. From the day simmer was released to present day, where the album has been out for over 24 hours it's meant the world to me. Hayley said herself that this was about her, and how not everyone was going to be able to relate to all the songs, but I relate to pretty much all of them and they all resonate deeply within my soul. There is no bad song on the album.
Talking about a few song (not all):
Watch Me As I Bloom is actually starting to motivate me (something that happens once in a blue moon). It hasn't fully motivated me yet, but with more plays I have a feeling it will. I can perfectly imagine that as a closer to her shows, and feels like a great wrap up to the album's symbolism so the final song can be relaxed and beautiful
The lyrics with Simmer mean the world to me (my mom actually wants to get one of the lyrics tattooed, and she doesn't have any tattoos) and the song sounded so different and unique. It was a perfect song to lead the album. The music video, which lead to a three part series, was outstanding.
Dead Horse was unapologetic with every single line, airing out everything from Hayley's last relationship. It's also one of the biggest bops on the album
I really slept on Why We Ever. I don't know why, but it took the full album to be out in order for me to fully appreciate it. The way it transitions into the pure piano speaks to my soul
Sugar On The Rim is vouge at it's finest and I expect a mosh pit of gays at every show not hitting each other and just vouging. Not to mention Hayley's lower register really comes out, which I love.
The flower theme throughout the whole process was amazing, and I'm absolutely living for it. I truly believe that there is nothing Hayley can't do and I am completely in love with her and her music. I want to talk about more songs but this is already really long so I'm going to leave it off here. This album is a 10/10 and I need it on vinyl haha




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Neighbors Go Full Petty, Guy Tows In Pro Revenge

We love a good neighbor revenge story. People can turn real petty on their neighbors, and sometimes that pettiness is addressed with a calculated, borderline genius, pro revenge. In this case, the dude had had enough of his neighbors' rampant pettiness, and how they'd park in his spots. So, he towed in a whole lot of "redneck hardware" and parked it out front of their place, when the moment presented itself. Just imagining what those two weeks must've been like for those neighbors; oh boy. 

Get some more neighbor revenge goodness over here with this entitled neighbor who tasted his own medicine.