Benefits of Installing Steel Fencing

When you start to thinking of building a fence around the perimeter of your property you have to think about the materials you will use to construct this fence. One of the best things that you could do is create steel fencing around your perimeter. Steel fencing has many great benefits for the homeowner and the business owner alike.

Steel fencing is made of a durable, weather resistant, tamper resistant, material. It can be designed to be appropriate for the type of enclosure you are making, or it can be designed to look attractive and appealing.

Steel fencing adds value to the property you place it around. Whenever you make improvements the property value increases, and adding this type of barrier around the property would be considered an improvement to the place.

Steel fencing can lower the cost of your insurance. When you have commercial property having steel fencing in place can deter criminal activities like vandalism and theft. The insurance providers give discounts to businesses that install these types of deterrents. These barricades can also be constructed to keep people from being able to wander into areas where they could possibly be injured or come in contact with something that could injure them. The insurance providers will offer discounts to customers that use this type of barricade to stop accidents from occurring.

Steel fencing is strong enough to deter criminals from getting onto the property because it is difficult to penetrate the barricade. Some applications of this type of fencing have increased height and increased strength so that the criminal would need a power tool to be able to cut into the fencing material. This will significantly reduce the amount of vandalism and theft that a business has each year.

There is an old saying that says "good fences make good neighbors". This saying is true to this day. If you have a barrier that defines exactly where your property begins and ends then there will be no question of whether something is on the neighbors property, and there will be no question as to whether your dog is in your yard or not. This means that there will be less disagreements and more harmony in the neighborhood.

Responsible pet owners establish enclosures within their yards so they can keep their animals safe from harm, and they can also protect the neighbors from their animals. Your pets can be run over if they play in or near the road, they can be blamed for damages to the neighbor's property, and they can be abused by people who are prone to acts of violence against these creatures. Steel fencing can keep your animal at home so that you can protect them from the dangers in the neighborhood.

There are certainly a lot of choices in the styles of barriers that you can establish around the perimeter of your property. It would be wise for you to consider what you need the fence for and how you want It to look before you go out and purchase materials to construct it.

Steel fencing has many benefits for the property owner. Steel fencing may reduce the amount you have to pay for insurance and it may even increase your property value.

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Cops Vs The Mentally Ill

Several of my family members and friends are employed by law-enforcement. On the other hand, having spent a better part of my life in the arts, several of my close friends and loved ones have had bouts of mental illness. (The arty types are more sensitive and high strung and typically have more instances of mental problems than other groups.)

Since I am concerned for the welfare of both sides and having no interest in seeing either side win (whatever that means) I can better address the controversy without personal feelings or prejudices becoming an issue.

So let's get ready to rumble!

First we must logically and without preconceived notions, look at what the police were hired to do. Simply put, their job is to be the first line of defense against criminals.

Period.

By definition criminals are people who, willingly and knowingly, break the law for personal gain with no regard for the pain and suffering they cause their victims.

Now let's look at the mentally ill. One of the facts of mental illness is that the brains of the people suffering from it are malfunctioning and sending them incorrect information. We should not blame them for this anymore than we would blame a person with an extremely high fever for hallucinating. A perfect example is people with phobias. Because your brain is functioning properly, you cannot understand why a seemingly 'normal' person would become nearly catatonic with fear at the sight of a spider, or being trapped in an elevator, or being on the roof of a tall building. People with phobias don't understand it either but in those instances their brain reads these circumstances as life threatening and throws the body into a panic.

I'll give you an example. Imagine you are relaxing during a flight home from some tropical paradise. You're looking out the widow, watching the world below go by when suddenly, there's an explosion and you see the wing buckle, then snap off. The oxygen masks drop down and the plane suddenly plummets at an ever increasing speed. People are flying out of their seats. The ground below is rushing toward you, people are screaming. Your heart is pounding, you can't think, you want to run but there's nowhere to go. You're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die!

Can you think of any scenario more horrifying?

Well, my friends, that very feeling is what claustrophobics go through when they get stuck in an elevator.

Clearly, people who are mentally ill are not criminals. But since the brains of the seriously mentally ill are sending them seriously wrong information, their actions often are.

Which brings us to the subject of police brutality against them. Typically people who join law-enforcement have some college education, some military background and enough self confidence and courage to believe they can confront criminals in dangerous situations and win the day. They are trained how and when to confront criminals, how to secure a perimeter, how to get hostages to safety and how, when necessary, to use lethal force.

What they are not trained for and what they cannot be trained for is how to anticipate the actions of a psychotic. Any psychiatrist or specialist in psychiatric disorders will tell you that because you cannot know what a mentally ill person's brain is telling them, there is no way a police officer or anyone for that matter can prepare themselves for what the psychotic might do. They may appear docile and ready to surrender one moment and charge at you with butcher knife the next.

And if a medically trained and licensed psychiatrist, a person who has spent their entire career studying mental illness cannot figure out how to get a dangerous psychotic to surrender peacefully, then what chance does the average police officer have? Therefore for the protection of both sides, the responsibility of apprehending them should be taken out of the hands of the police and turned over to the Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

In these situations the police would be called in to determine whether the person is a criminal. In this case let's say a person is wielding a samurai sword and chasing people down 5th Avenue declaring that the teen-age mutant ninja turtles are harboring members of AL-Qaida. Seeing that this person is clearly suffering from mental illness, the cops call for an ambulance then walk away and let the EMT's handle it.

This way as the person lops off heads and punts them into trashcans, the paramedics can focus on reasoning with him and appealing to his humanity and the cops can go back to focusing on their real job, fighting crime.

This is truly a win-win situation. With the police prevented from engaging violent lunatics, the police brutality law-suits would dry up. They would not longer have to risk their lives dealing with psychopaths and the only downside would be the brutal slayings of innocent people whose only crime was being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Besides, their murderers aren't bad people. They're sick people who aren't responsible for their actions. And they can't be blamed for not taking their meds because again, they're not responsible for their actions. And you can't jail them because that would be a terrible thing to do to someone whose only crime is being sick.

Now here's something to ponder.

You've all heard of Typhoid Mary. Irish immigrant and a typhoid carrier who became a cook and spread the disease killing many of the members of the families she worked for. She was eventually apprehended and placed in a leper colony called Little Brother Island off the coast of the Bronx. For 5 years she fought for her freedom, denying she was a carrier because she herself had never been sick. Finally she was released on the condition she never work as a cook again. She agreed.

Several years later she was apprehended following a major typhoid outbreak and multiple deaths at Sloan Maternity Hospital where she worked as a cook under an alias. She was sent back to Little Brother Island and remained there until her death in 1935.

Imagine doing that to a person whose only crime was being sick!

This summer, the long awaited sequel to 'Noon The Rise to Power' will be released. The title is: 'Noon 2, The Resurgence' and it picks up right where the first one left off.
To get your copy of Noon The Rise to Power go to http://www.amazon.com/NOON-The-Rise-Power-ebook/dp/B004EBTGZG/ref=sr_1_8?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1339201377&sr=1-8

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The Secrets of Mezhyhirya

All three previous presidents of Ukraine have to various degrees made use (or perhaps move appropriately: abuse) of those rules.

But the fourth one, the currently serving president Victor Yanukovych, seems to have taken this abuse to a whole new dimension. Partly in a literal sense: the former government residence located near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in the area called Mezhyhirya is huge - it measures up to 150 hectares (370 acres).

But partly because of the way how the ownership right to the residence was transferred from the state to a string of foreign shell companies with clear links to Mr Yanukovych. And also because of the frantic construction activity, financed from intransparent sources, which has taken place within the residence since the president came to power in 2010.

All this factors taken together explain why residence Mezhyhirya became a byword for high-level corruption in Ukraine.

A museum of kitsch almost the size of a smallish European state

As widely known in Ukraine, the main building in Mezhyhirya is a mansion built by a Finnish company Honka which specialises in custom-made log homes.

It is this wooden palace - three-storeyed on one side, five-storeyed on the other - what is said to be the true home of Viktor Yanukovych after its completion by the end of 2010.

The Honka-palace is surrounded by a park with exotic plants and artificial lakes. The Google Maps' satellite view provides evidence that all the construction works have been completed within one year after the president had taken office.

Around the main building there are an underground shooting range, a bowling and an indoor tennis court as well as wellness facilities.

Currently, beyond the area where Honka-palace is located there is a huge empty space covered by sand. As recently as last year it was covered by vineyards but they have been axed away. Now a golf course is being speedily constructed here.

This golf course is surely going to be one of the most prominent landmarks on Mezhyhirya's proper. Mr Yanukovych once admitted to the journalists that he loves golf and showed his collection of golf clubs.

Golf is an aesthetic amusement requiring big investments. According to the specialist website golf.ru the average construction cost of an 18-hole golf course range from two to three million Euros. Complementary infrastructure is going to cost roughly the same amount once again.

During 2011 a helipad and a hangar have emerged on a hitherto empty patch of land. The helicopter itself, according to a previous investigation by Ukrainska Pravda, is being rented from a company called Tsentravia. Interestingly, this company is interlinked with entities which pose as nominal owners of Mezhyhirya. The rental payments for the helicopter are made out of the public purse.

Close to the helipad another large white building has sprung up since last year - a parking to house a collection of cars belonging to the president. The parking is said to have a capacity of up to 70 vehicles.

A yacht marina is also being built nearby. Interestingly, the yacht hangar is being constructed on the land plot adjacent to the residence. This means that the residence's owners have got their hands onto another plot of state land, but already outside of the residence - just next to the reservoir of Kyiv Hydro-Accumulating Power Station.

Next to the yacht hangar a new fire station has also been built.

Initially the yacht marina was planned at another site - a small artificial bay at the residence's shore. But now that bay is occupied by a "palace on water". This is a barque with finishing of gold leaves, crystal, marble and rare sorts of wood.

It is in this "palace on water" where the president has all he needs to show off his talent as a karaoke-singer, according to one story told by a former bodyguard.

Close to the (relatively small) two-storeyed building, where Mr Yanukovych used to live until the construction of Honka-palace has been finished, a horse stable and a riding range are being completed.

Also during the last year a three-storeyed office building has sprang up near the main entrance to Mezhyhirya. It shelters a plethora of companies responsible for facility-service: construction, landscaping, taking care of security and cleaning.

The obscure owners of the residence continue working on it. Most recent information which Ukrainska Pravda obtained from trustworthy sources provides an insight of what is still going on behind the residence's huge fence. Last summer a barge of crushed stone has been ordered for the residence's needs from a Poltava region stone-pit. Such stone is usually being used in shore-protecting and hydro-engineering works.

Guarded like a fortress

The land borders of the residence are shielded off by a six-meter (!) fence (that's almost 20 feet!). The journalists were able to estimate the height of the fence by measuring it up against a police bus "Bogdan".

This police bus so close to the fence of Mezhyhirya is a conundrum of its own. That is because Yanukovytch maintains he has nothing to do with the whole residence and privately owns only an (already mentioned above) small house on a small patch of land within it (1.76 hectares or 4.35 acres; although the price he supposedly has paid for this property is still a closely guarded secret).

Nevertheless for some reason the special police troops inside the bus do not concentrate on that small patch of land, but guard the whole outline, which runs for many kilometres of the supposedly privately-owned residence. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine responded to the official request by saying that special police troops "guard the civic order and road traffic safety around the place where a person requiring safeguarding by the state lives".

The waterfront of Mezhyhirya is thoroughly guarded too.

In a yacht club on the opposite side of Kiev water reservoir (also known as Kyiv sea) the correspondent of Ukrainska Pravda was told that after the election of Mr Yanukovych to the presidency, they were visited by the representatives of the Department of State Guard who forced them to sign an obligation not to approach the shores of Mezhyhirya and not to take any journalists on board.

However such restrictions on water do not compare to those in the air.

Ukrainska Pravda found out that the space above Mezhyhirya was recently assigned the status of a no-fly zone.

The Ukrainian State Air Traffic Service Enterprise in response to a request by Ukrainska Pravda maintained that the no-fly zone status of the area is not related to Mezhyhirya but to the Kyiv Hydroelectric Station (Kyiv HES) nearby.

But this statement contradicts the facts: a close look at the aeronautical map reveals that the no-fly zone is centered not on Kyiv HES, but precisely on Mezhyhirya.

Moreover, according to the sources of Ukrainska Pravda, initially flying was indeed prohibited only above the HES, but after Mr Yanukovytch has taken the presidential office the no-fly zone was extended to include Mezhyhirya and, apparently for additional safety, even a couple of kilometres beyond it.

This again discredits the official version according to which Mr Yanukovych has nothing to do with Mezhyhirya and just owns a small house inside it.

Murky intermediaries providing cover to the true owners of Mezhyhirya

Viktor Yanukovych continues to vigorously deny any link to the "8th Wonder of the World" sprawling on the shore of Kyiv sea in the village of Novi Petrivtsi. When questioned about residence Mezhyhirya at a media conference in July 2011 he recommended addressing this question to Mezhyhirya's owners "who live abroad".

"...If you want [to talk to] the landlords - search for them. I am sure they will turn up. Sometimes they visit Ukraine..." - said Mr Yanukovych.

Heeding the president's advice Ukrainska Pravda started its investigation into the nature of those "foreign landlords". The results obtained were unsettling - all of the "landlords" have attributes of shell entities and their only purpose seems to be to hide the true owners.

Pointing out that the owners of Mezhyhirya come from abroad, Mr Yanukovych simply stuck to the official version that the residence belongs to Tantalit Ltd., a Kyiv company, 99.97% of which are owned by Euro East Beteiligungs GmbH, an Austrian firm.

So in fact the president himself indirectly admitted that Tantalit is just a formal paper entity.

Yet judging by its balance sheet Euro East Beteiligungs GmbH also hardly looks like a respectable company: its cash holdings are much smaller than its debt which, in turn, is 600 times larger than its equity! And according to its annual report it has not a single employee.

So this company is just a letterbox which channels money and conceals the real owners.

Dubious owners from Vienna, London and Vaduz

Until recently the equity stakes of Euro East Beteiligungs GmbH were divided up between two owners: 65% of it belonged to Euro Invest Bank AG, also from Austria, and the remaining 35% - to Blythe (Europe) Ltd., incorporated in London.

Euro Invest Bank is a family business of Johann Wanovits. In exchange for a fee they offer to act as nominal owners for customers who want to preserve their anonymity. For example, it was also Mr Wanovits who helped another pair of Ukrainian politicians - the Klyuev brothers, to set up their business in Austria.

Lately however life has not been easy for Mr Wanovits - he stands accused of price manipulations of Telecom Austria shares.

Perhaps this is the reason why Euro Invest Bank AG is no more one of the owners of Euro East Beteiligungs GmbH - the company which through Tantalit Ltd. owns Mezhyhirya.

Now all 100% of Euro East Beteiligungs GmbH belong to British Blythe (Europe) Ltd.

Its address is: Suite B, 29 Harley Street, London. But no company sign is visible at the entrance.

Yet there is another company which is physically located here - a firm called Formations House. It is specializing in creation of shell entities which provide fictitious storefronts for anonymous customers.

As it seems, Blythe (Europe) Ltd. is just one of such shell entities - a letterbox created with a single purpose to hide its real owners.

Blythe (Europe) Ltd. was founded by an attorney from Liechtenstein DDr. Reinhard J. Proksch who is an Austrian citizen. Mr Proksch is also the firm's director. His Liechtenstein trust company P&A Corporate Services Trust is also a single owner of Blythe (Europe) Ltd.

Ukrainska Pravda has recently reported that P&A Corporate Services Trust is also a nominal owner of Austrian company Activ Solar GmbH, which is linked to the already mentioned Klyuev brothers and is building solar power plants in Ukraine.

Yanukovych family stooge

As described above the nominal owner of residence Mezhyhirya is Kyiv company Tantalit Ltd., which in turn is 99.97% owned by Austrian Euro East Beteiligung GmbH.

The owner of the remaining 0.03% in Tantalit is its director Pavlo Lytovchenko who, like Mr Yanukovych, also comes from Donetsk. And the only reason, it seems, for him to hold those paltry 0.03% is to make him eligible, under Ukrainian law, for the director's post.

Mr Lytovchenko's person is one key evidence proving the link between president Yanukovych and residence Mezhyhirya, the link which Mr Yanukovych is trying so hard to conceal.

Would Mr Yanukovych be completely unrelated to Mezhyhirya why then would he keep Mr Lytovchenko, a director of the residence's owner and its minor shareholder, so close to his family?

In 2004 to 2007 Mr Lytovchenko worked at Association "Donbass Financial Settlement Center". This entity belongs to the older son of the president Oleksandr Yanukovych. Coincidentally, after the president came to power this company suddenly started to win government contracts to supply clean coal worth billions of hryvnias.

In parallel to his job at Association "Donbass Financial Settlement Center" Mr Lytovchenko from 2005 to 2007 also moonlighted as deputy CEO of Capital Building Corporation Ltd. Again, this company is directly linked to the oldest son of the president: the founder of Capital Building Corporation is another company - MAKO, who's CEO and owner is Oleksandr Yanukovych himself.

Besides common business with the president's elder son, Pavlo Lytovchenko has things in common with his younger offspring as well.

For instance, the 2011 tax statement of Victor Yanukovych-junior was filled-in and submitted to the Tax Administration by Mr Lytovchenko.

Ukrainska Pravda discovered that the letter of attorney from Victor Yanukovych-junior to Mr Lytovchenko, giving the latter power of attorney, is valid until 2013. The president's younger son in a recent interview with Ukrainska Pravda confirmed that Pavlo Lytovchenko is "the man who takes care of certain legal matters".

All those facts, in a view of Ukrainska Pravda, give enough reason to think that Pavlo Lytovchenko acts like a "consigliere" to Mr Yanukovych's family. In other words he is a confidant who has knowledge about the family's deepest secrets and tries to white-wash the family's ill-gotten property with help of a myriad of shell entities.

And the crown jewel among all the family property holdings is residence Mezhyhirya.

All those facts, in a view of Ukrainska Pravda, give enough reason to think that Pavlo Lytovchenko acts like a "consigliere" to Mr Yanukovych's family. In other words he is a confidant who has knowledge about the family's deepest secrets and tries to white-wash the family's ill-gotten property with help of a myriad of shell entities.

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Is Desalination Along America's Coasts In Our Future - Most Definitely

Not long ago, I was talking to a columnist and writer and we were discussing the need for desalination. It is my contention that desalination must be a priority, and we need to bring the cost down, and deal with the salt waste. Now then, I live out in Southern California, and water is a huge issue here. So, our think tank has been discussing some strategies for our future water infrastructure. Okay so, let's talk shall we?

It is my contention that there are ways to do this. So take the land between San Onofre and Camp Pendleton along the coast and put in ocean wave generation to power up the desalination plant, as they do take a ton of energy, then use the cross-RO-fire on a hot plate (solar heated) as the method, they have this latest desalination technology now in some Middle Eastern countries.

Next, take the left over salt and allow bacteria to eat it, and leave us with bio-fuel and minerals we need, so we have a complete system, this saves us from having to take rail cars to the desert to dump it or leach out the brine there, although we may have to do it there anyway. There is a very good TED Talk video on YouTube you ought to watch titled; Damian Palin - Mining Minerals from Seawater."

Oh, now I didn't say any of these strategies would be easy. You see, the problem with all these projects are the EIRs take years, and really the fluctuations of the Colorado snow pack and Lake Meade don't give us that much warning ahead of time. I can recall Santa Barbara building a desalination plant as their lake above them was in a severe drought, but the time they got done with the plant, financing, environmental impact reports, and bringing in all the equipment the drought was over.

Still, as populations increase the drought effect is worse and more drastic each time, thus, yes, it's both an issue of needing more, plus using what we have wisely. In fact, I wrote a decent essay about all this back in 2003 "The Flow of Water" and you know what? Since I wrote that in 2003 after following the challenges for a couple of decades, well nothing has really changed except now, another ten-years later the problem is worse. Not just here in So Cal, but really everywhere, perhaps the biggest notable places are in China, Africa, Middle East, etc.

My acquaintance suggested that the Federal Government take on this important responsibility. Okay, yes, the Federal Government could take a more decisive role, but more mandates and regulations without funding is not going to sit well with the states, counties, communities, towns, or special assessment districts. The water companies do indeed have decent PR, but the whole community needs to get on the same page. Interestingly enough, regarding politics, well, Water is so serious everyone can agree on it, it's almost above politics from a personal voter standpoint so any administration could take the lead on this.

Anyway, I was formerly in the car wash business so I do know a little about water, filtration, systems, and the industry. So, what I am saying here is; time is running out, and we are going to have to deal with this issue, make it work, float the bonds, and watch the costs or we must prepare for a time in the future where water becomes scarce. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative eBook on Future Recycling Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Rae Won't Run for Liberal Leader

Bob Rae, who is currently interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, confirmed his earlier commitment that he will not be running for permanent leader of the party. He will stay on as interim leader until the leadership vote is held in April 2013. His announcement came as something of a surprise as all indications were that the party executive planned to adjust the rules so Rae could run. Rae says he plans to play the role of "benign father figure" and will not endorse or recruit anyone in the upcoming race.

The next question for many will be if Justin Trudeau will run. He has been firmly saying he won't. He is just 40, has a young family and as the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, knows only too well the difficulties a high-level political job can create for families. However, in the last week or two his denials have been getting less emphatic.

Other possibilities include former astronaut Marc Garneau, the MP for Westmount-Ville-Marie and Liberal House Leader, MPs Dominc Leblanc and David McGuinty, and former MPs Gerard Kennedy and Martha Hall Findlay. A year is a long time in politics though, and a lot can happen in that time. Given the low ebb of Liberal fortunes, the party can only hope that it does.

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Pick From An Extensive Variety Of Hues In Joanna Chen's Xscape Dresses

Taste the rainbow of colors in Xscape dresses by fashion designer Joanna Chen, from handsome pastels to glowing reds and brilliant blues. Clean crisp whites and ivories, simple black, and navy been available in many styles and sizes as well. Regardless of what it is you are looking for, you will find a match in Xscape Dresses.

Looking for the perfect little black dress? Xscape provides many styles to choose from. A strapless bow-tied bodice complements the sexy mermaid bottom in a long taffeta and tulle gown. Another gown-length choice is a sleeveless V-neck in both front and back, fitting nicely with a full-length mermaid skirt in taffeta. If you are looking for something shorter, try the chiffon topped minidress with snug pleated skirt, which comes in both regular and plus sizes. A little sparkle on your shoulder lends a nice contrast to the black plus-size knee-length pleated cocktail dress. A swaying chiffon one-shoulder minidress is flirty and fun. Several black satin sheath dresses offer the casual look, coming with several choices of V-neck collar or ruffled collar.

If you want the drama of a dark dramatic dress without going all the way to black, Xscape Dresses come in many styles in the color navy. Beautiful beadwork on the bodice and above a sultry attention-grabbing deep slit on the hip adds dazzle to a flowing mesh gown. A one-shoulder swagged gown with a built-in belt of beads and crystals will make you feel like a Greek goddess. In shorter lengths, try the one-shoulder chiffon cocktail dress which features flattering vertical pleats. A curvy minidress shows off your figure and delights with a unique U-shaped bodice trimmed with jewels.

If you need a light colored beautiful gown for a formal occasion, try the vertical-pleated ivory gown in chiffon, which features a stylish cutout back. On the casual side, a short and strapless number in white has a front panel that invokes the image of a butterfly. Simple yet elegant describes the sleeveless ivory cocktail dress in stretch satin. An ivory one-shoulder featuring criss-crossed jewels at the bodice adds delicious sparkle to a full length chiffon gown.

Designer Joanna Chen also delivers numerous choices in bright colors and pastels. Magenta one-shoulder gowns in either regular or plus sizes feature a jeweled brooch atop the one shoulder. A strapless chiffon in cool, hot bright blue features the popular new high-low hem. Coral offers several choices, from a criss-cross bodice on a strapless gown to a jeweled one shoulder chiffon cocktail. Be a tangerine dream in a high-low hem swaying chiffon strapless. The graded-color look of ombré shows up in several dresses in the Xscape line, frequently in shades of blue.

Many colors await you in dresses from Xscape designed by Joanna Chen, where you will be sure to find a dress to meet your occasion and taste, in a size that fits. Bright colors, pretty pastels, dramatic blacks, navy, and clean whites are all part of the Xscape collection. From plain black or white, to bright colors to pastels, Xscape dresses by Joanna Chen come in a wide assortment to meet your taste and the occasion.

See the colors of the latest Xscape dresses collection at http://www.xscapedresses.org/. Liz Baumann is an LED clothing designer and a fashion blogger living in Boulder, Colorado.

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The Royal Family: Why Are Some People Obsessed With The Royal Family?

Over the ages the purpose of the royal family has changed. Today they are not only an attraction for people from all over the world and for people in Britain: they are also idolised and worshiped by thousands of people.

The royal family are the modern day celebrities and this is of course a far cry from their original purpose. However, unlike other celebrities that are often elevated and then toppled by the media; there identity is rarely tarnished.

Modern day celebrities are all too familiar with being scrutinized and pulled down, some get back up and others do not. One of the reasons that this doesn't happen to the royal family is because they are generally portrayed as being perfect human beings. And out of this perception is the creation of an incredible illusion.

A Deeper Look

Here I will present my own views on this obsession and they are not to be taken as the absolute truth. My intention is not to label the royal family as being appropriate or inappropriate or as good or bad, but to simply look at the psychological dynamics that are involved.

On The Surface

No matter what one is talking is about, something exists because it has a purpose and the royal family are no different here. On the surface they could be described as individuals that posses esteemed quality's such as; morality, integrity and compassion.

As a result of this, The Royal Family, are role models to people from all over the world. How they behave and the way that they conduct their life is what people of honour are made off. Their behaviour is magnified as a result of there being so many examples in the media of people who act without a sense of morality or who are without higher values.

Two Options

Now, this can either cause one to see these people in two ways: as role models and an example of how life can be lived. Or one can end up seeing them as superior and out of this superiority comes the feeling of being inferior.

And if one feels inferior to something, then one can either worship or disdain that which is causing them to feel inferior.

The Royal Illusion

One of the things that the royal family have done extremely well in upholding, through the assistance of the media, is the royal illusion. As part of this illusion, they are treated and perceived differently and are almost seen as being above other human beings.

Questioning The Unquestioned

However, in order for an illusion to exist it has to be believed and if it's believed, it will never be questioned. If one has been brought up by to see life a certain way by their caregivers and then grows up to see that the majority of society see life the same way; it will be unlikely that another way of seeing life will ever be considered.

Fairytales

Life is made up of many illusions and falsities. When children are younger they are often told fairytales. There are also numerous films that can be watched by children about princess and princesses.
These fairytales are not meant to be taken literally and contain a deeper meaning or message. They are symbolic in nature as opposed to being literal.

And in the modern day royal family we have a fairytale that has been manifested into a reality. It would appear that this manifestation doesn't carry a deeper meaning or anything symbolic.

A closer Look

I mentioned above, that something only exists because it has a purpose. And in order to understand what psychological needs the royal family are fulfilling; I believe we have to look at the role of the ego mind, childhood development and the inner child.

Although the royal family are perceived differently and live a life that is materially and socially different from the majority of people on this planet, they are still human beings. And inherently they have no more value than anyone else and they will also live and die like everything else.

A Projection

What this means, is that the only reason they have such power and influence over people is due to what an individual has not realised within themselves. Here the parts that have not been realised will end up being projected externally. This is what the ego mind does and it does this as a result of seeing life through polarities.

To the ego mind, everything is split and separate; wholeness does not exist. And through projecting these parts outside they will show up in certain individuals or groups of people. If one is conscious of this process then they can embrace what is within, but if this doesn't happen then these external figures will be seen as being superior or inferior.

Childhood

This way of looking at the world and others is usually formed and influenced in ones childhood. Whether one had their developmental needs met during this time and to what degree they experienced trauma, will go a long way to defining what one will unconsciously seek or not seek in other people as an adult.

As an adult it will not matter that these childhood needs were neglected all those years ago and no longer have the same importance; because one will be pulled back to these moments. This will happen through the defence mechanism known as regression.

Here one will regress to their wounded inner child and have the same feelings and behaviour that they did all those years ago.

Inner Child

The power that this Wounded inner child has over present behaviour and feelings cannot be dismissed or minimized. One can become completely overwhelmed and lose all awareness through regressing to the wounded inner child. And this wounded inner child, just like a real child, has a strong need to be safe.

So How Does This Relate?

If an individual regresses to their inner child, as a result of certain childhood needs being neglected or trauma that needs to be processed, one will perceive these needs as coming from someone else. They will also see other people as mother and father figures. And this will mean that certain people will be seen as being superior and as having more power.

And if this wounded inner child didn't have a functional or happy childhood, it will constantly be looking to make everything perfect and to receive what it didn't have all those years ago.

With one regressing to this wounded inner child that has such a strong need to be safe; one will then feel more of a need for external support and familiarity. The ego mind is conditioned during these early years and sees what is safe based on what is familiar.

The Royal Family

So in many ways the royal family are there because they are being perceived as parental figures. There are seen as god like and worshiped, which is the way children typically see their parents.

Through the illusion of the royal family being perfect, they give some people that have regressed to their wounded inner child the perfect parents that they never had. Here people's wounded inner child can identify with the image that is being portrayed.

And through the royal families familiarity and there constant exposure, they create a sense of being safe in people and this creates an inner stability through external familiarity.

Conclusion

Each of these elements is not necessarily dysfunctional if one is aware of what is taking place, but if one is not aware it can lead to an obsession and to seeing the royal family as more than they truly are. This will not assist in ones realisation as a human being and will cause one to be perpetually trapped in an illusion.

My name is Oliver J R Cooper and I been have been interested in self enquiry for over eight years. For just over a year, I have been expressing my understandings with these transformational writings. One of my intentions is to be a catalyst to others, as other people have been and continue to be to me.

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Torn Apart By a Tornado

It is hard to put into words what it is like when your world is torn apart by a tornado. I live in Carthage, Missouri near Joplin, where on May 22, 2011 my family and I survived an EF-5 tornado. Unfortunately, 161 people and over 7,000 homes did not.

The pictures on television cannot accurately portray the reality of the city after that storm. Much of the city's infrastructure and landmarks were destroyed. I am a US Naval Academy graduate, Class of 2000 ('00 for short). As it happens, during this time a team of midshipmen (the name for Academy students), led by one of my classmates, LCDR John Woods '00, were in the area for a USNA summer training evolution through the Oceanography Department called SWIFT (Severe Weather In-Field Training). Two days after the storm, the training group diverted to the Joplin area to assist with Search and Rescue before returning to Annapolis. During their search in the debris field just outside of town, the team found a tattered American flag in the woods and took it with them back to USNA.

Those mids never forgot Joplin or the aftermath they witnessed of the storm. Four of the members of the original team, along with six other members of MAG (Midshipmen Action Group), decided to return to Joplin in March 2012. Led by Midshipman Stephanie Migut '12, this group of ten mids gave up their spring break. My guess is they gave up a lot to come to Joplin, but looking back on it, I bet they were glad they chose "the road less traveled."

The storm was ten months ago. Joplin has come a long way since then; yet there are still jarring reminders of what happened. Houses still in shambles and businesses are still torn apart; the rebuilding of lives continues. The midshipmen were put to work with a local Lutheran church-based foundation called Transform Joplin. The team worked on cleaning glass and debris out of yards for people who were unable to do so for themselves, re-shingling roofs and preparing housing foundations for new homes. The mids worked very hard for Joplin, and the families they helped are incredibly grateful.

As a Blue & Gold Officer for the Four States area (SW Missouri, SE KS, NW OK and a tiny bit of AR), I jumped at the chance to support these mids when they offered to visit a local school to promote the USNA STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Math) program. At a local elementary school, Stephanie Migut '12, Ryan Schmidt '13, Marhall Liu '14 and Lucille Lu '14 conducted science experiments with the kids and answered their sweet, very honest questions. Who knows? Maybe one of these young fourth graders will become a midshipman one day.

Remember the flag the mids had found during shortly after the tornado hit? John Woods arranged to have the flag delivered to CDR Timothy A. Rexrode, CO of the USS MISSOURI (SSN 780) to fly over the submarine in honor of Joplin. A case was made specifically for the tattered flag at USNA which was then presented to the Mayor of Joplin, Mike Woolston, during the mids' trip. The Mayor is a former Marine Corps officer who was touched not only by the fact the midshipmen brought the flag back home but that they were helping Joplin's citizens. There is a plan to build a museum in Joplin dedicated to the tornado, and the flag will be prominently displayed there.

Toward the end of the trip, the mids and I travelled south of Joplin to Bentonville to meet with the Arkansas alumni, most notably RDML Luke McCollum '83, at Wal-Mart headquarters. There we had a short leadership symposium with other Walmart alumni where we told sea stories and some lessons learned for the mids. After a wonderful lunch together, we all visited Crystal Bridges, the brand new Museum of American Art in Bentonville. Again, the visitors to the museum were amazed to see midshipmen in uniform. It was uplifting to have civilians, adults and children stop the midshipmen to ask them about where they were from and their experiences. The more we can promote the Naval Academy the better!

To bring this story to a close, I can only say I was intensely proud of the midshipmen. As we transit through the Academy and leave its hallowed halls, we can only hope that the classes that come after us will continue to uphold the traditions and honor of our school and the Navy. This team showed the Southwest Missouri area the best of what the United States Naval Academy stands for.

It should be noted that funding for the trip was made possible by the USNA Alumni Foundation, and assistance with lodging and food were provided for by alumni from Missouri and Arkansas.

Lori Buresh
CEO, The Professional Development Team

Learn more about how leadership training and process management can make a difference for your business! Visit us on the web at http://www.the-pdt.com/ or email info@the-pdt.com

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Is School Fencing a Necessity?

The subject of whether or not school fencing is a necessity is a frequently debated one by the citizens of the community. On one side of the issue are the people who feel like a school campus is public property and all taxpaying members of the public should have equal access to the property. On the other side of the issue are the school officials and the people who feel that the protection and security of the children is more important than the rights of the taxpayers.

Arguments in favor of school fencing include the following:

• School fencing can be used to keep people from being on the campuses without the proper officials knowing of their presence. That means that the children would not be vulnerable to predators that would like to take them away from the campus and do them some harm. If school fencing is properly used then all people who come to the campus would have to check in at the office before they could proceed any further into the institution. This means that the personnel inside the office would know who was there and what child they were speaking to.

• Providing an enclosure ensures that a child will not be distracted while playing and run out onto the highway and be injured. It also means that the children would not accidentally toss a ball into the highway and cause an oncoming car to have an accident.

• Having an enclosure surrounding the property would deter theft and vandalism during the hours that the educational facility was closed.

• These enclosures could lower the amount the school district has to pay for property insurance. This would be directly related to the fact that the school fencing would reduce the number of acts of vandalism that were perpetrated on the property. They would also keep people from coming onto the campus when officials were not present and falling or otherwise being injured and suing the school district for these injuries.

Arguments against school fencing include the following:

• The presence of school fencing deters the ordinary taxpayer from being able to access the property whenever they please. All homeowners and property owners in the community pay for the school so they should have access to the school grounds.

• The materials to build these enclosures will cost money and that money will come from the pockets of the taxpayers.

• Having these enclosures would mean extra work duties for the maintenance department in up-keeping the items so they did not become hazardous to the children. This would also include additional work for the groundskeepers.

Both sides of the issue make excellent points, but the majority of public school districts have to install these items because they have to put the safety of the students attending the classes at the facility above everything else. These children are the future of our nations and they are the most valuable commodity a community possesses. No amount of money is too great to spend doing this job.

To find out more about the styles and types of school fencing that are available talk to the experts at Zaun. Then you can debate your side of the school fencing argument in a more informed manner.

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The Golden Age We Didn't Know We Had

I will be in the Chicago area this weekend to watch my younger daughter receive her journalism degree from Northwestern University - the same degree, though from a different school, that I received 34 years ago.

History may repeat itself, but it never repeats itself exactly.

I graduated in what is now sometimes called the Golden Age of American journalism. This was a period of just over a quarter-century that began with Walter Cronkite's affable celebrity and The Washington Post's pursuit of Watergate and ended around the millennium, when television audiences fragmented and the Internet began to siphon newspaper readers and advertisers. In my era, newspapers were adding sections, cable news was invented and broadcast networks raced to add news magazines and late-night coverage. ABC's Nightline was born amid the Iranian hostage standoff of 1979-81.

When I pick up certain newspapers today, I actually wonder where all the news has gone. Staffs have been decimated by round after round of layoffs and buyouts. From the columns they write and the comments they post on social and business web sites, I sense that a lot of my former colleagues feel victimized, though I'm not sure precisely by what. "Corporate greed" seems to be a recurring theme, though the alternative of "corporate altruism" would seem to be an oxymoron. The decline of the labor movement - most big-city newspaper staffs are unionized, though they seldom refer to it - and the rise of Google and other search engines, which divorce advertising dollars from the creators of content, are other culprits. The multiplying demands of technology is yet another. Reporters today don't report breaking news the way I did; they blog it, they tweet it, they upload it, and they discuss it endlessly on comment pages with their audiences.

The funny thing about golden ages is that we usually don't recognize them while they happen. There was a lot of griping about corporate greed in my day, too. There was never enough staff or enough space or, for that matter, enough money, back when inflation was running in double digits. I went to my office in Albany, N.Y., one night around 1982 not knowing whether I might have to walk out mid-shift when our union contract expired. (Thanks to a last-minute settlement, I have never carried a picket sign.)

Despite all the challenges today's journalists face, I wonder whether my daughter will look back at this era as a golden age in its own right. Precisely because everything is so new and change is coming so fast, her generation has opportunities that mine never envisioned.

A lot of people have forgotten how rigid the business world was back in the 1970s. If you wanted to buy a truck and carry freight between, say, New York and Philadelphia, you had to first get permission - for the route and for your rates - from the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington. Airlines needed a green light from the Civil Aeronautics Board before they could launch new service routes; such permission was often denied if the incumbent carriers objected to the prospect of more competition. If you are a young person and have never heard of the ICC and the CAB, it is because both agencies were abolished years ago.

It took courage and deep pockets to launch a significant new outlet for the news, or something that might pass for news, back then. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church backed The Washington Times, which it hoped would be a conservative counterweight to The Washington Post's influence in the nation's capital. Gannett launched USA Today. Time Inc. created People and Money magazines.

Although there were specialty newsletters in which a single reporter-editor might cover a narrow topic in depth, it was almost impossible for a lone journalist - or even a small group - to launch a new, advertising-supported general news venue that would attract a regional or national audience. We had no practical way to create a Drudge Report or a Patch or a Business Insider.

Some friends of mine once tried. It was in Montana in 1979. Four of the state's five largest papers at the time were owned by Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa; the fifth was the Great Falls Tribune, then locally owned and now part of the Gannett chain. Three reporters with whom I had gone to school at the University of Montana decided to try to start a statewide weekly that would focus on politics, government, the environment and similar weighty concerns. Joined by an advertising salesman and a circulation employee at Lee's Missoula newspaper, they drafted a prospectus seeking $10,000 to launch an experimental issue of the "Montana Sun."

The Tribune got wind of the enterprise and wrote a story about it, at which point the Missoula paper summarily fired the four individuals who worked there, including Jonathan Krim and Gordon Dillow, who are among the best journalists of our generation. The fifth member of the group was Barbara Miller, who had been my editor on the college paper; she resigned a job at the Lee paper in Butte.

Montana's loss turned out to be America's gain. Krim went on to help win two Pulitzer Prizes at the San Jose Mercury News; he then became a news executive at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, where he still works. Dillow did brilliant work at the Orange County Register in California, which foisted him onto the Marines as an embedded reporter on the first night of Operation Desert Storm. Miller remains in Butte, where she directs the National Affordable Housing Network.

If journalists of comparable talent decided to launch an online Montana news outlet today, they wouldn't need to raise outside money to do it - and the folks at Lee and Gannett would never see it coming.

Walt Disney liked to say, "If you can dream it, you can do it." Our family's many visits to his Orlando theme parks were not wasted, because both daughters absorbed this philosophy early. One, who loves to work with young people, is pursuing a doctoral degree in psychology; the other is about to launch her post-college journalism career.

Despite all the challenges in today's economy, Disney's philosophy may be truer today than ever before. If so, we are living in a golden age. We just don't know it yet.

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