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How to Create a Retro Website Design in Adobe Illustrator

Quick Tip: How to Create Glowing Progress Bars

This tutorial aims to introduce many of Adobe Illustrator's tools which are essential to any designer's toolkit and would help beginners and intermediate Web Designers gain confidence in using Illustrator for Web Design. We will start by setting up the document for the web and discuss how Artboards can be used to set multiple screen sizes. We'll learn how to Create a Baseline grid (Inspired by Teehan+Lax's Baseline Grid using Illustrator's built-in tools). We'll also learn how to use Symbols, Alignment Tools, as well as Character and Graphic Styles to create a consistent design with ease. Not only will this aid us in wire framing but also in experimenting with the design's appearance far easier than Photoshop would allow.

Step 1

Ah... Adobe Illustrator. Often a neglected part of a web designer's toolkit, however, happens to be one of the most powerful web designing tools available. Not only is it much more stable than Photoshop, but it also allows us to create precise and consistent layouts with precision and ease. If you haven't yet experimented with Illustrator as a wire framing tool, or integrated it in your web design work flow you are missing out. Not to worry, the day can still be saved.

I have attempted to be as comprehensive and thorough as possible in order to appeal to beginner and intermediate users alike, however, a step once detailed may not be repeated and some details would be left to the reader to fill in. Furthermore, this tutorial will teach how to set up Artboards and grids for three separate screen sizes, however the design itself would be for the screen size.

With that out of the way, Let's begin. But before that, download League Gothic, Goudy Bookletter, Ostrich Sans, and Chunk Typefaces from The League of Movable Type

Step 2

We're going to begin by creating a 1280 x 800 pixel document with 3 Artboards, one for Screen, Tablet, Mobile respectively. I've decided to lay them out horizontally and at a distance of 400 pixels so that the other document doesn't distract us from working. The more important details concern the Units (set to pixels), the Color Mode (set to RGB) and the Preview Mode (set to pixel). All of these may be evident to you save for the preview mode perhaps.

Since Illustrator is a vector program, any graphic created can be infinitely zoomed and retain its accuracy. While particularly advantageous for maintaining retina compatibility and staying lossless, it may distort our more refined pixel-pushing taste we've all grown to love. Setting the preview mode to pixel would allow us to zoom in and see our artwork in pixels. You can toggle between Pixel and Preview using Ctrl + Alt + Y shortcut.

With that out of the way, we will go to Edit > Units > Preferences and set all units to pixels, if they had not been done so already.

Step 3

As you'll see you have 3 Artboards sitting in front of you. Open the Artboards panel (Window > !rtboards) and adjust the settings for the Artboards however you want. In our case, I'll use the 1280 x 800 px size for the Screen artboard and rename it as such. For the Tablet and Mobile Artboards I will chose the built in presets for iPad and iPhone. Also, set the Mobile artboard to portrait mode and continue onwards.

Step 4

Now we'll create the grid. Create a blue (can be any color) rectangle with the following sizes. The width is meant to be the size of the grid, while the length is arbitrary and easily adjustable. Since I know beforehand the length of the document I'd end up creating I've chosen the grid for the 'Screen' artboard at 4920 px.

Step 5

With the rectangles created, select the one in the 'Screen' artboard and go to Object > Path > Split Into Grid. This provides a powerful tool for creating grids. I've chosen 12 columns and a 24 px gutter for a total size of 960 (The column width is automatically calculated). This splits the rectangle into 12 grids and we must group them first in order to move them around as a single object. To create the guides, we'll duplicate the grid we just created and press Ctrl + 5 or View > Guides > Make Guides to create the guides. Repeat these steps for the Tablet and Mobile Artboards with the settings listed below. A final step for the grid is to set the Opacity to 40%.

Step 6

For the baseline, we're going to draw out a 1px Stroke Weight line across the length of all three Artboards and use the Transform effect to make copies at fixed intervals. This gives us the benefit of being able to re-adjust the baseline or even extend it by simply re-adjusting the number of copies or the interval in between. For this baseline grid, we'll stick to Teehan+Lax's 6 pixel baseline grid. Set the Opacity to 20%.

Step 7

Et Voila! Our Baseline Grid is created. All that's left is to lock the layer and we're good to go. Create a new layer and name it header. We'll be organizing a different section for each layer as the sections come up.

Step 8

For the header we're going to have three elements. The first is the logo, the second is the navigation and the third is the typographic treatment. The logo is created by drawing out a 140 x 168px rectangle with a 15 point start with an out radius of 48px and inner radius of 42px. You can manually create the star and adjust the number of points by holding the mouse button and pressing the up and down arrow keys. The inner radius can be adjusted by pressing the Ctrl keys and dragging the mouse with the button still pressed. Use "League Gothic" at 48px for the logo text.

Step 9

The navigation is a rectangle 795px by 48px. The ribbon is created by adding an anchor point on the middle of the right-end edge and dragging back the anchor point as shown. The navigation items are created individually using a 16 px "Goudy Bookletter" Font. The inactive links are given a separate character style which at this point is a lighter color. To equally distribute the navigation items, go to the align tool. If the Distribute Spacing option is not available, then click on the panel drop down and show options. Align the objects to a Key Object. In this case you'll select Home and distribute spacing by 36 pixels.

Step 10

The typographic treatment has two elements with ribbons. The first ribbon we'll create by drawing out three rectangles. For the two equal-sized rectangles at the back, add anchor points in the middle and drag them back to create a ribbon as we did previously for the navigation. Select both shapes and Unite them using the Pathfinder panel and make a Compound Path (Ctrl + 8) out of them. Then select the rectangle at the middle and Offset Path by 4 pixels.

Step 11

Select the Offset Path and the ribbons at the back and subtract the paths. Add the resulting shapes to achieve the desired outcome. Use "Ostrich Sans" to add in a "Hello" at 72px Bold and we're done with this particular ribbon.

Step 12

The second ribbon is created using the same method. Create a ribbon. Then duplicate and mirror it using the Transform effect.

Step 13

Offset Path and subtract the resulting path from the ribbon behind. Use "Ostrich Sans" at 40px Bold.

Step 14

Now that our ribbons are made we will go ahead with the type treatment. This is the part where I'd hold less hands and more or less hope that the visuals are easy enough to follow. The text itself is easy to create without explanation. The strokes vary by 1px, 3px, and 6px thickness. The circular strokes are achieved by creating dashed lined of size 0px with a gap of 12px and a rounded radius edge. The repeated star effect is made by creating a single star and using Transform effect copies every 18px.

Step 15

In new layer called "About" we'll create the next section. Lock the previous section created by now. First, we'll create the Heading and its background. We're going to use the same ribbon as in the logo, with the only difference being the size. Create two rectangles with the following settings. Unite them and make a Compound Path (Ctrl + 8).

Step 16

We'll also convert this into a symbol so that we can reuse it for other sections. Save the shape we just created and save it as a Graphic symbol. The Heading uses the "Chunkfive" typeface at 21px. We will save this as a Character style called H2 - Section Heading.

Step 17

For the about section, I've decided to have a lot of text and two floated images. Illustrator can simulate such an effect. Start by creating the two paragraphs. The first paragraph will have emphasis and will be saved as a Character Style (Emphasis) whereas the Paragraph would deserve its own Character style to be reused across the design.

Step 18

Create a 304 by 247px rectangle on top of the text we just created. Go to Object > Text Wrap > Make to create the a floated image. We will adjust the margin to 24 px by going to the text wrap options through Object > Text Wrap > Text Wrap Options.

Step 19

Repeat these steps for another image and place it as shown.

Step 20

As we have already created the symbol, we will simply drag it in this new section (Layer : Portfolio) and Type out the text and apply the H2 - Section Heading character style. For the portfolio item drag out a rectangle and create text as shown.

Step 21

Once the portfolio item is created, we'll make a symbol out of it for reuse. Create a Portfolio Item Graphic symbol, and drag out two of its instances below and evenly distribute them by 64 pixels.

Step 22

By now we're just repeating the same things. The block quote is floated around using Text Wrap.

Step 23

The Horizontal Rules are created using Effect > Transform & Distort > Transform at an 30px interval with the relevant number of copies.

Step 24

Grab The Vector Social Icons from Graphic Design junction for the social media buttons.

Step 25

For the footer we'll copy the logo from header and paste it here. We'll also add the the site menu and the copyright notice.

Step 26

Our wire frame should look like this by now. You can click on it to get a larger preview.

Step 27

And now the fun bit. We'll start working on appearance, beginning with the background. Create a new layer on top of Guides and below every other layer. Draw a rectangle to cover the entire artboard using RGB (247, 94, 80). For the textures we'll create two separate fill layers, both colored RGB (0,0,0). Use Texturizer under Effect > Texture > Texturizer to apply a Grain effect and a Note Paper with Opacity of 5%, Blending Mode Overlay and 10% Overlay respectively. Lock this background layer so that we don't end up accidentally moving it (Illustrator takes out a pretty big toll on the Computer otherwise as a result of an accidental movement).

Step 28

Create a new Swatch group in the Swatch Panel and add in colors with the following settings: RGB (247,94,80); RGB (233,200,97); RGB (232,223,156); RGB (145,192,158); RGB (125,119,105). Illustrator has a color guides panel which gives color options such as Tints/Shades, Warm/Cool and Vivid/Muted

Step 29

Apply roughen to the header at a relative size of 0.05% and set detail of 100. Set the fill layer to RGB (63,60,53). Below this fill create another fill RGB (247, 94, 80) and apply Transform effect to it (Effect > Distort & Transform > Transform) with the following settings.

Step 30

For the last fill layer, we'll first create a pattern. Zoom in at 6400% and create a 4 x 4 white rectangle. Create 1 x 1 px squares across the diagonal. With a pixel pattern created, just select it entirely and drag it to the swatches panel. You will now be able to use it. Create a new fill layer and apply the pattern we just created and set Opacity to 40% and Blending Mode to Multiply. Also apply the Transform effect at 4px Horizontal and 6px Vertical. Finally save this as a graphic style in the graphics panel.

Step 31

Use the Graphic style we just created and apply it to the navigation and the ribbons in the main text. For the logo, go to Effect > Stylize > Round Corners and set the radius to 5 px. Set a 1px stroke colored RGB (63,60,53) and then apply a Transform effect scaling the stroke down to 93% for a total of 3 copies. Next create the fill layer colored RGB (237, 211, 129) with a 2px (X and Y Offset) Drop Shadow set to 8% Color Burn mode.

Step 32

For this effect, set the fill layer to RGB (233,200,97). Create a fill layer below it at RGB (55, 52, 46). Apply a Horizontal and Vertical Transform of 1px to this layer and create three copies (which creates a 3d text effect similar to dragging the whole thing out after duplication in Photoshop). We're going to use a 2 x 2 px version of the pattern we made earlier. Create and drag this pattern to the Swatches panel and apply it to the new fill layer below. Set it to 50% Opacity and Transform it by 6px Horizontally and Vertically. Save this as a Graphic Style.

Step 33

For the regular dark text we applied a Roughen effect of a relative 2% size and with detail set to 7. The various strokes are created using the pattern we created at the beginning or by using roughen of a relative size of 0.1% and detail set to 100. This is how our typographic treatment looks like.

Step 34

For the strokes I used combinations and variations of patterns used earlier along with the Roughen effect.

Step 35

It is now a simple matter of re-applying styles we've created earlier. This is better left understood visually which is why I'd suggest taking a look at the images. Select the text and you'll see the relevant character style appear. This is where our initial effort pays off. Modify the text you selected and go to the panel options and select Redefine Character Style and this will apply everywhere the character style has been used in the document.

The last appearance style that we'll create is the Image Placeholder. Set the stroke to 4px inside with white color. Apply a Drop Shadow of 2 px (X and Y offset) and set the Blending Mode and Opacity to Multiply at 35%

Step 36

Keep working onwards. You will have to Double-click the symbol so that you can edit it. Apply the character and appearance styles we've grown to re-use endlessly. Once satisfied with the result, hit Esc to exit isolation mode, and you will see the effect applying across the other portfolio items. (An alternate way would have been to break link to the symbol, edit the style to your heart's content and later redefine the symbol.)

Step 37

Patience, perseverance, hard work and repetition yields a clearer picture fleshing out.

And here is the final result. I hope you found the tutorial useful and are just brimming with excitement. You can try working on the Tablet and Mobile versions, as well as adding in Illustration and, perhaps, more depth and experimentation with layout and coloring. I've added social media icons on the navigation bar as well. I would love to see what you make as a result, so do share.

Looking for something to help kick start your next project?


Pennsylvania Impressionism 1915 – 1950

Pennsylvania Impressionism refers to an American Impressionist movement from the first half of the 20th century that was centered in and around Bucks County, Pennsylvania, particularly the area around the town of New Hope The movement is sometimes referred to as the “New Hope School” or the “Pennsylvania School” of landscape painting

Artists in the Pennsylvania Impressionism movement include but are not limited to: John Fulton Folinsbee, Walter Emerson Baum, Rae Sloan Bredin, George Sotter, Nate Dunn, Fern Coppedge, Edward Redfield, Daniel Garber, Roy Cleveland Nuse, Mary Elizabeth Price and Walter E Schofield Similar to the French impressionist movement, this style of art is characterized by an interest in the quality of color, light, and the time of day This group of artists usually painted en plein air, or out of doors, to capture the moment According to James A Michener Art Museum’s Senior Curator Brian Peterson, “what most characterized Pennsylvania impressionism was not a single, unified style but rather the emergence of many mature, distinctive voices: Daniel Garber’s luminous, poetic renditions of the Delaware River; Fern Coppedge’s colorful village scenes; Robert Spencer’s lyrical views of mills and tenements; John Folinsbee’s moody, expressionistic snowscapes; and William L Lathrop’s deeply felt, evocative Bucks County vistas”

[pt_view id=”1e51aa1p8j”]

Art historian Thomas C Folk defines the movement as the Late Pennsylvania School, those artists that “came to prominence in Bucks County after 1915 or after the Armory Show and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition” According to Folk, the three most notable artists in this group were John Fulton Folinsbee, Walter Emerson Baum and George Sotter

One of the artists, Walter Emerson Baum, worked as a teacher and educator and through his founding of the Baum School of Art and the Allentown Art Museum, would serve to expand the influence of the movement out of Bucks County and into Lehigh County, specifically Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, where the movement continued to flourish into the 1940s and 1950s Today, this group of artists is collectively known as the Baum Circle


China in the 15th Century AD

“We, Zheng He and companions, at the beginning of Zhu Di’s reign received the Imperial Commission as envoys to the barbarians. Up until now seven voyages have taken place and, each time, we have commanded several tens of thousands of government soldiers and more than a hundred oceangoing vessels. We have … reached countries of the Western Regions, more than three thousand countries in all.

We have … beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising sky high, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away, hidden in a blue transparency of light vapours, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds, day and night continued their course, rapid like that of a star, traversing those savage waves.”

(Stone inscriptions in the Palace of the Celestial Spouse Chiang su and Liu Shia Chang, dated 1431)

From back cover. The inside front cover states as follows.

On 8 March 1421 the biggest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China. The ships, huge junks nearly five hundred feet long and built from the finest teak, were under the command of Emperor Zhu Di’s eunuch admirals. Their mission was to proceed all the way to the end of earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. That journey would last over two years and circle the globe.”

“… They had also discovered Antarctica, reached Australia three hundred and fifty years before Cook and solved the problem of longitude three hundred years before the Europeans.”

The above are extracts from ‘1421. The year China discovered the world’ by Gavin Menzies. He is a retired Royal Navy Submarine Commanding Officer, born in China. He “spent 15 years tracing the astonishing voyages” of Admiral Zheng He’s fleets.

The book contains many pages of supporting evidence; eye witness diaries; key charts “describing the first navigation of the world”; and the “determination of longitude by the Chinese in the early 15th century.” A somewhat comprehensive presentation.

As said on the inside front cover “His compelling narrative pulls together ancient maps, precise navigational knowledge, astronomy and the surviving accounts of Chinese explorers and the later European navigators. It brings to light the artefacts and inscribed stones left behind by the emperor’s fleet, the evidence of sunken junks along the route and the ornate votive offerings left by the Chinese sailors wherever they landed, in thanks to Shao Lin, goddess of the sea.”

The reviews shown by had an average rating of 4 (out of 5) from more than 500 reviewers.

Eurocentric readers, fed on Columbus and Magellan (both of whom had maps to follow), will need to rely on the achievements of European colonialism from the 15th to the 20th century AD, and today’s neo-colonialism. Ironically, the former colonial powers are now led by a new nation created by European emigrants within this colonial period.

Will the West be overtaken? (Part 2)

‘Why the West rules – for now’ by Ian Morris is interesting while challenging. His representation of China as the East is somewhat selective; he ignores any significant historical developments in mid-Asia. How could the Indian civilisation be the oldest continuous culture on post-Deluge Earth? Indic philosophy, not being consumer-oriented, allegedly developed an understanding of mankind in the universe a long way back in history.

Morris also conflates West Asia (“the first Westerners”) with Europe and the USA (the latter two normally known together as the West).

Then, is consumption of food the best criterion for comparing social development? A high average figure of consumption may cover vast disparities within the community. Is there not a place for moral or spiritual progress? Man shall not live by bread alone.

Yet, the Morris thesis is worthy of attention. There is this question: Did not Europe develop industrially and philosophically much later than the core cultures of Asia? Only after the 15th century CE was Europe joined by Morris to Western Asia as ‘the West’, except for the 500 years from 250 BCE when Rome was first linked to West Asia as ‘the West.’ A new nation created by European emigrants, viz. North America, was subsequently added to ‘the West.’ Ultimately, it is the USA, as ‘the West’, which is compared with China.

Morris, who writes in a very erudite manner, is most knowledgeable about all the major events of human history. He shows how ‘the West’ was ahead of China for at least for 2,000 years until 541 CE in terms of social development (as defined by him). Then China moved ahead until 1773. Industrialisation and battle-capacity subsequently enabled the West to get ahead again. China will, however, soon catch up, he expects (a somewhat unavoidable conclusion).

The reality is that China already contributes to consumption in the USA. Its recent economic, technological, and military advances, allied to a probable future in association with most of East Asia and probably all of Southeast Asia, while simultaneously linked to Central Asia through the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, will soon equal the military and industrial might of the West (the USA and its satrapies and NATO).

While Morris’ analysis is most impressive, his scenario seems to be much ado about little. A combination of economic success and military power (subsuming the necessary information technology and organisational competence) will probably result in China, Russia, and the USA eventually forming a tripartite global system of power-based governance – – by necessity.

Like the poor in developing and developed nations, the rest of humanity will survive, hopefully in peace; with energy consumption more equitable than at present, in the penumbra of this most probable governance relationship.

How will geography, impacted also by sporadic cosmic catastrophes, respond? Would the presence of 3 powerful nations, eyeing off one another with some suspicion, provide more protection than hitherto to the smaller, weaker, and unprotected nations?

Will the West be overtaken? (Part 1)

When I watched the video on ‘Why the West rules – for now’ by Ian Morris, an archaeologist/historian, I was intrigued. Morris gives the West no more than 3 generations before it loses its lead on the East on ’social development.’

The West is initially the ‘Near East’ or Western Asia; ultimately it is the USA. This is confusing. The term ‘Eurasia,’ which seems to me to represent an ambition by some modern Eurocentric writers to expropriate for Europe the early achievements of the cultures of the former Fertile Crescent of West Asia, is also used by Morris.

The East is consistently China, because it was allegedly the first culture to grow rice. However, Stephen Oppenheimer asserts that rice growing began in the terrain of the now-sunken Sundaland of Southeast Asia. Oppenheimer’s historical cultural pathway is based on genetics, a more reliable way of reading the movements of cultures or peoples through history.

Overcoming my scepticism, I read on. What is social development? “… social development is the bundle of technological, subsistence, organisational, and cultural accomplishments through which people feed, clothe, house and reproduce themselves, explain the world around them, resolve disputes within their communities, extend their power at the expense of other communities, and defend themselves against others’ attempts to extend power. Social development … measures a community’s ability to get things done, which, in principle, can be compared across time and space.”

“The simplest way to think about energy capture is in terms of consumption per person, measured in kilocalories per day.” Then one needs to organise the energy capture, aided by information, and a capacity for war. It seems to me that, in the history of mankind, war is as important as geography, Morris’ initial causal factor in energy capture.

Geography, subsuming climate, determines social development, which then affects geography. So says Morris. Biology is irrelevant; people everywhere behave in much the same way. Sociology (group behaviour) explains how development occurred.

Further, similar things happened to both East and West; and in the same order. But the West had a 2,000 year advantage. Where was this West? West Asia, not Europe (the latter presumably recovering from the residual effects of the last ice age). Perhaps, the Universal Flood (mentioned in about 70 and more cultural histories) of about 13,000 to 15,000 years ago, had a role in enabling the lands east of the Mediterranean Sea to create what is known as the first post-Deluge civilisations.

In this context, Oppenheimer speculates that the escapees from Sundaland, not only went north to seed the cultures of Vietnam, China and neighbouring terrain, but also went west; having become skilled in managing water (rising seas), they may have been the ‘dark-headed people from the East’ to control the Tigris and Euphrates. Like so much of early history, that is mere speculation.

Morris identifies the geography of the Hilly Flanks (the re-named Fertile Crescent of yore) as the original site of energy capture. He describes this area as Western Eurasia. How so? One would expect Western Eurasia to fringe the Atlantic coast, not the Mediterranean.

However, leaving aside the challenging terminology, how credible is Morris? Refer Part 2.

Hiding from the actuality of history

“Instead of the cultured Chinese, instructed to “treat people with kindness,” it was the cruel, almost barbaric Christians who were the colonisers. Francisco Pizzaro gained Peru from the Incas by massacring five thousand Indians in cold blood.” So wrote Bruce Pascoe in ‘Dark Emu Black Seeds: agriculture or accident?’

As Gavin Menzies has pointed out, when the Chinese sought to cement trade ties in the 1950s, they took envoys back to China, treated them royally, and then returned them to their homelands.

Pascoe: “… the Portuguese used Chinese cartography to show them the way to the East. Then they stole the spice trade, which the Indians and Chinese had spent centuries building. Anyone who might stop them was mown down. When fifteenth-century explorer Vasco da Gama reached Calicut he told his men to parade Indian prisoners, then to hack off their hands, ears and noses.”

I recall Nehru in ‘Glimpses of World History’ stating that Vasco was shown the way to the East via the cape at the southern of the African continent (the Cape of Good Hope) by 2 Indian sailors he had met in Lisbon. (The Indians obviously knew the west coast of Africa). So much for Vasco’s gratitude. I have always wondered why the Christian explorers and buccaneers of the period were so blood-thirsty.

Pascoe again: “Invaders like to kill the original owners of the soil they intend to plunder, but even better than that, they like to humiliate them. Once that work is over, their grandsons re-write the history of the re-named land and paint their grandfather as a benevolent visionary.”

In contrast, the Bradshaw paintings in the Kimberleys in north-west Australia show a Chinese junk, and people dressed in the traditional long gowns with long sleeves. There has obviously been trade between the Aborigines and Chinese during the 15th century. Yet, modern Aborigines have no memory of such contact. In those circumstances and against the foolish claim that Lt. Cook discovered Australia relatively recently, these paintings may somehow not become known.

As Pascoe said, the “history of colonisation is dense with examples” of fabrication. He continues: “The urge to legitimise occupation is compared by McNiven and Hull to the warping of history and archaeology by Nazis to justify extermination of the Jews. In thinking of the effects of colonisation on Australia, contemplation of the workings of the European mind of that era is inevitable. There were other colonists from other continents, but it was Europeans who attempted to dominate the world, sometimes by dominating each other. “ (Is it any different now?)

“It seems improbable that a country can continue to hide from the actuality of history in order to validate the fact that, having said sorry, we refuse to say thanks.” (Pascoe)

Comment: I wonder how the foghorns on radio and other white supremacists will react to Pascoe’s well-researched words.

Pascoe’s ‘Dark Emus Black Seeds’

Here are the reviews contained in the book. White Australian supremacists, who seem to be thick on the ground, will not like what they say. What explains the derogatory views expressed publicly by white Aussies? A sense of collective guilt? No! One cannot feel guilty on behalf of one’s forebears. ‘Why can’t they be like us?’ is a better explanation.

Since the Irish Catholics were allowed to be a separate people, with their own systems of education and charity, should not the Australian Aborigines (who was here first) be a separate people within an integrated ethno-culturally diverse population?

Would that mean recognising them as First Nation People? Yes, but over the dead bodies of many a whitey. What about giving them a right to have a say in how they are now to be uplifted societally and integrated? Since terra nullius was proven false, could white-man superiority not be up to a requisite standard to ‘bridging the gap’ (a favourite mantra of politicians who prefer words to effective action)?

The reviews:
• “in 156 pages, Pascoe has inverted almost everything I thought I knew about pre-colonial Australia. Importantly, he’s not relying on oral history, which runs the risk of being too easily bunked; his sources are the journals of notable explorers and surveyors, of pastoralists and protectors. He quotes them verbatim, describing all the signs of a complex civilisation but viewed through the blinkered lens of appropriation and White superiority. As a teacher – I recommended it as essential reading for any educator.” Lisa Hill, blogger and educator.
• “This very readable, strongly argued study turns the accepted nation of the Aborigines as a hunter-gatherer people completely on its head” Steven Carroll, Sydney Morning Herald.
• “He has done a great service by bringing this material to students and general readers, and in such a lively and engaging fashion.” Richard Broome, Agora Magazine.
• “This is an important book that advances a powerful argument for re-evaluating the sophistication of Aboriginal peoples’ economic and socio-political livelihoods, and calls for Australia to embrace the complexity, sophistication and innovative skills of Indigenous people into its concept of itself as a nation … an important and well-argued book.” Dr. Michael Davis, Honorary Research Fellow at Sydney University.
• “A remarkable book.” Max Allen, The Australian.

The literary quality of Pascoe’s book about the settled lives of his ancestral people is demonstrated by being short-listed for the Queensland Literary Award and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, both in 2014; the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Award as ‘Book of the Year’, and the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Award as winner.

(Comment: The Bradshaw cave paintings show that the Chinese had visited the Kimberleys.

Regrettably, prejudice against the Aborigines by many of the movers and shakers of Australia is quite strong.)

An Aboriginal writer on Aboriginal culture

The plight of Australia’s Aborigines is so sad that I was pleased to hear about Bruce Pascoe’s book ‘Dark Emu Black Seeds: agriculture or accident?’ A retired school teacher drew my attention to this valuable book. Have our media paid any attention to its findings?

A book about pre-invasion Aboriginal culture, written by an Aborigine, is far more credible than writing by even a sympathetic non-Aboriginal writer. Pascoe’s sources are journals and diaries of (white) pastoralists, explorers, and the like. His sources are plentiful. When British beneficiaries of invasion, killing, and despoliation of native culture say honestly what they saw and experienced, one would expect Pascoe’s narrative to be accepted by one and all.

Not so! A retired Anglo-Aussie school teacher told me that she did not find the book credible. I repeat a belief I uttered way back in the racist 1940s and 1950s: that the oldest generation of (British) Aussies had to join their Maker before the lives of Asian students in Australia would be easier. That did happen.

Those supremacist white Australians who will not even accept that their indigenes are First Nation People, or who are unwilling to allow the Aborigines to have a say on policies to ‘bridge the gap’ in life expectancy, health, education, and a jail-free life have to leave us – in my view, as soon as possible.

Pascoe’s report also suggests that the behaviour of settlers generally, and some explorers, was decidedly despicable and un-Christian. Pascoe’s book also confirms what the redoubtable Dr. Coombs had earlier written about the Australian Aborigines. Their lives had all the hallmarks of a settled people, an organised polity, and a civilisation; and they had spiritual values of a high order, as well as a view of the Cosmic order.

Would not any intelligent person expect that a people who had survived this harsh land for 35,000 to 60,000 years know how to relate to Nature and to heavenly bodies? I doubt that modern man does. He wants control, not balance.

British settlement turned a settled people with agriculture, aquaculture, solid buildings, and a co-operative way of life into nomads. Being converted to Christianity did not protect the indigene from exploitation for more than two centuries. Now, they are expected to be ‘like us.’ Some already are; what about the rest?

Multiculturalism policy permits, even encourages, ethnic communities in Australia to identify themselves as identifiably separate; but not our indigenes. Why so?

A settled First Nation People

Australian Aborigines were a settled people long before the invasion by Britain, contrary to the crap peddled after the invasion, killing, and societal and cultural despoliation (destruction). Clever administrators looked for a fresh dumping ground for those disadvantaged by their government’s cultural cleansing, since North America was no longer available.

Rapacious settlers ‘cleared’ the land they occupied so ruthlessly. Pseudo-historians turned historiography on its head by finding no documentation in Britain authorising the settlers to take whatever they wanted by killing the natives; therefore, no killing had occurred.

A settled people, who had survived in a harsh land for thousands of years, were now made nomadic by Britain. Terrible things were done to the women and children. The behaviour of some explorers casts doubt on their morality. While missionaries were busily gathering black souls to the bosom of their coloured Saviour, one has to wonder at the depth of belief in Christianity within the white communities.

And, quite naturally, white men were opportunistically busy creating a creole (hybrid) people. That seemingly led officialdom to believe that black skin could be bred out in time; “Fuck them white” was reportedly part of the policy encouraging the natives to “become like us.”

Now, an aboriginal researcher and writer, Bruce Pascoe, has recently published ‘Dark Emu Black Seeds: agriculture or accident?’ He has drawn upon the journals and diaries of explorers. The bibliography listed in his book is vast. The superior-white ‘foghorns’ (on radio) and their acolytes in politics and elsewhere will have great difficulty in countering Pascoe’s book.

My impression, after 70 years of a highly interactive and contributory life in Australia, is that ordinary people are more tolerant and understanding about the plight of their indigenous people. A retired history-teacher friend of mine bought a copy of Pascoe’s book for each of her many grandchildren. Truth will out!

In this context, it is worth noting that the redoubtable Prof. Henry Reynolds has pointed out that Australia’s Aboriginals had never ceded their lands, or their sovereignty.

From the back cover of Pascoe’s most impressive book: “If we look at the evidence presented to us by the explorers and explain to our children that Aboriginal people did build houses, did build dams, did sow, irrigate and till the land, did alter the course of rivers, did sew their clothes, and did construct a system of pan-continental government that generated peace and prosperity, then it is likely that we will admire and love our land all the more.” – Bruce Pascoe.

Reviews of the book were most positive.


So What are Song-Writing Lessons Anyway?

Let’s say you have a great idea for a song. You record yourself singing or playing it, and you enjoy listening to your creation. So then what happens to it? Does it just stay on your Smart Phone until it dies? Do you avoid playing it for anyone else but yourself because you’re not sure if it’s any good? Maybe you have been writing some songs for a while and feel like you’re running out of ideas because you need some new material?

These are the reasons to take song-writing lessons (also known as composition lessons). Just like singing lessons, composition lessons help you learn and refine skills that help you create music that not only sounds good to you but that others can play and enjoy too. When I begin teaching a new student, they learn the basics of writing music notation and gradually apply these basics to the songs they write. In addition, we discuss how to create music which tells a performer how to express the meaning of the song more effectively.

Maybe you’re thinking…but I already take lessons with someone, couldn’t I study with my teacher?

While most music teachers have some basic composing skills (and either fondly or not-so-fondly remember the assignments they used to do in their music theory classes) not everyone is a skilled composer. Composition teachers have an intimate knowledge of how music is put together. They also know the subtle nuances of how music theory concepts can be applied to produce a beautiful and memorable piece of music. This is why many music students take composition lessons along with their normal instrument.

Studying with a teacher specialized in composition helps students to build a palette of tools to bring their music to the next level, much like an art teacher can help those who are skilled in visual mediums to expand their own abilities and produce pieces that draw out the emotion they see in what they create.

Have you ever thought about studying composition? If so, I encourage you to look around for a good instructor or mentor. While it’s encouraged, but not always necessary to find someone with a degree in composition; it is important is to find someone who has a thorough knowledge of the composition process, and has composed music which is or has been performed. You should also take an introductory music theory class as many composers do not start working with students until they know at least the basics of music notation. There are some excellent courses online and at local colleges and music schools.

And of course, my shameless plug! If you’d like to start composing music and are in the Rhode Island area, you might be interested in the Songwriting 101 class I am putting together this June. It’s a six-week course designed for beginners who want to start getting their music out of their head, and onto a page! For more information, check out my upcoming classes page.

Until next time!

In Song,

The Importance of Good Posture

When I teach my voice classes and lessons, many students comment on how surprised they are to notice a difference in their sound simply from changing the position in which they are standing. Voice, as it is a physical instrument is strongly influenced by our posture. With the amount of time that we spend at computer screens, it is not surprising that many of us are developing negative posture habits. These are things we need to fix when we begin singing.

There are three great benefits to maintaining a strong singing posture:

  1. You create more space in your torso, which allows for better, lower breathing. This establishes better control over your sound. This is why it is important to keep your chest high and your shoulders down. Breath should fill the body from the belly up and it is harder to do this when your shoulders are hunched forward.
  2. You are more balanced, which helps the body focus on breathing rather than keeping yourself upright. This is why keeping one foot slightly in front of the other, and your spine lengthened. When you have a stronger balance, you are more likely to keep less tension in your body. Lack of tension = better sound.
  3. You present a more powerful image and message to your audience. Think of it this way, if you saw someone come out on stage with their shoulders hunched forward and their head down (and they weren’t performing a song by a character depicted as an old crone) what would your first impression be?

So the next time you are getting ready to sing, check your posture. Are you getting the most out of your position?

And for more information on this, stay tuned. I have been working on a free video course that will be available for people to access to get started on their singing journey. The series will be geared toward beginners who are thinking about lessons, but not quite ready yet. So keep a look out!

In Song,

The Vocal Virtue of Patience

  • Identify your best vocal range
  • Establish new habits which promote healthy and efficient singing

In Song,

Reading Music is Essential!

I have often been asked if it is important for singers to be able to read music. Speaking from experience, I can certainly say that I have noticed a difference between singers who read music and singers who don’t.

Many singers start singing by listening to others, and the development of recording technology has made this much easier for those who have not yet learned the skill of reading music to access a multitude of songs. The drawback to this is that it limits the repertoire a singer can learn to only what they can hear. Learning to read creates flexibility and a larger volume of songs a student can master. It also creates independence as it means they do not need assistance from a pianist or other musician to learn their part.

This leads me to my second point. Singers who do not read music tend to take a longer time learning the music assigned to them. This results in a lot of time in the lesson focused on learning the song, rather than applying proper vocal technique to the selection, which is the real goal to vocal lessons.

This is one of the main reasons that I opted to offer longer lesson times to students with a portion of each lesson dedicated to the learning of music reading or what some term “musicianship.” The remainder of the lesson focuses on technique and vocal development while applying these techniques to musical selections. I encourage students to learn their notes outside of the lesson so that we can maintain an efficient education session. My studio also offers an 8-week summer class which teaches the foundations of music to musicians of all types.  There are also a great number of music theory lessons that aspiring singers and musicians can access online.

Ultimately, the choice to learn the skill of reading music is up to the student and the teacher they are studying with. From my experience the learning of musicianship skills help to create independent and well-versed singers with a large repertoire available to them that they can present to the world.

In Song,

The Underestimated Importance of Relaxation

I think that one of the most common concerns I notice with singers, especially those starting out is excess tension in the body. Tension can be present while singing for a number of reasons – probably the most common one being nervousness or lack of confidence.

So how does this affect the voice? Quite a bit actually. Because the voice is a physical instrument, it requires a relaxed body and relaxed vocal folds in order to work at its highest potential. Because many of us have extremely busy lives, we frequently hold a lot of tension particularly in our neck and shoulders (and I wouldn’t be surprised if because we are constantly looking at screens and smartphones if the tension in these areas are doubled now).

This is why one of the very first lessons I give new students is releasing tension in the body. We usually start off by turning the head from side to side, up and down and then rolling the head gently around. We then move onto some shoulder rolls and arm stretches and then some Qigong exercises to release tension in the joints, arms and legs. I have found that overall this really makes a difference once we start engaging in more involved vocal warm ups because it allows the student to let go of whatever stress they are carrying before their lesson.

So what do you do to release tension before you sing? Have you tried Yoga or Tai Chi before you sing? If so, what results have you had?

In Song,

Getting Started in Singing

With all of the great new technology out there it is so easy to access vocal lessons. An aspiring singer can find some great tutorials on YouTube, websites and even purchase complete courses on online shopping pages. Why then, is it important to take lessons from a teacher, one might start to ask?

The answer to this is simple, and it’s something that I learned when I first started teaching and read the book “The Complete Handbook of Voice Training.” I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who is considering teaching voice and singing as the author provides some wonderful insights and techniques. One thing in particular he says which has always stuck with me is this:

“The student ‘buys’ the ears of the teacher.”

This is probably the most important reason to study with an experienced teacher, whether you do this in person (which I personally prefer) or via skype or google chat. We do not hear our voices correctly…we hear our voice inside our own head, which is not the same sound that others hear around us (and if you want to check this, just listen to your voice mail message!). This means we may be trying out best to mimic the pre-recorded lesson we’ve purchased on a CD or video lesson but we don’t actually know whether or not we are doing what we are supposed to.

This can lead to dangerous situations, as the voice is an instrument which if not learned properly can result in long term damage to the vocal folds and our larynx. A vocal coach or instructor can listen for signs of straining and improper technique that you may not be able to hear if you’re a beginner. They can help you change singing habits to improve your sound that you may not even realize that you have been using.

So what are you waiting for? If you are interested in taking your singing to the next level and creating that beautiful, flowing, and confident sound get out there and find a teacher that can help you make the most of your unique voice. My studio offers lessons on Friday and Saturday of each week (as of this writing). Visit our “Registration page” above to start your journey.


Daily SB431542CC-5013OSU-03012 Wrap Up Is Certainly Starting To Feel A Bit Old

The maintenance OSU-03012 of homeostasis and complex cellular adaptations in Schistosoma mansoni demand unique extracellular signals that needs to be integrated to create an ideal response through the sensory receptor via intracellular proteins. Signal transduction entails non linearly integrated networks that interact mainly by switching activity standing by means of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of amino acid residues, or even the incorporation of GTP. Other cellular non protein messengers contain cyclic AMP, Ca2 and diacylglycerol. Protein kinases play a central role in mediating intracellular signals by including a phosphate group from ATP or GTP to an amino acid residue leading to a con formational change inside the target protein that can switch its activation status.

Most research only PKs have a catalytic domain, which binds and phosphorylates target proteins, and also a regulatory area. Numerous PKs are autophosphory lated or could be phosphorylated by other PKs, an interac tion regulated through the accessory protein domains. PKs are classified into two superfamilies containing the eukaryotic or conventional protein kinases that share a conserved catalytic domain, along with the atypical pro tein kinases. The catalytic domain of ePKs is composed of 250 300 amino acids and it is divided into 12 subdomains with hugely conserved individual amino acids and motifs. aPKs are reported to have biochemical kinase activity, but lack sequence similarity for the ePK catalytic domain. According to their sub strate recognition internet sites, ePKs are divided broadly into two significant courses, serine threonine kinases and tyrosine kinases.

Dual specificity kinases, which phosphorylate serine, threonine, and tyrosine, can also be located. ePKs are further classified into eight groups primarily based on sequence similarity of their catalytic domains, the presence of accessory domains, and their modes of regulation. In accordance with KinBase, a database Bioactive compound that holds data of PKs encoded from the human genome and their homologs in other eukar yotes, the eight ePK groups are, AGC, CAMK, CK1, CMGC, RGC, STE, TK and TKL. A ninth group, known as Other, consists of a mixed assortment of kinases that can't be classified effortlessly in to the past households. PKs are viewed as druggable targets in the healthcare and chemical viewpoints as being a expanding quantity of PKs inhi bitors have been developed and authorized for remedy of different human disease. An instance of a effective PK inhibitor is Gleevac, that induces a conformational change in PTK and mimics substrate binding and there fore prevents activation by upstream kinases.


Appalachian Trail

Appalachian trail

The Appalachian Trail is one of America's most legendary hikes.

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, generally known as the Appalachian Trail or simply the AT, is a marked hiking trail in the eastern United States extending between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine. It is approximately 2,184 miles long and is one of the premier long backpacking trails in the United States. The trail passes through the states of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The path is maintained by 30 trail clubs and multiple partnerships, and managed by the National Park Service and the nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The majority of the trail is in wilderness, although some portions traverse towns, roads and cross-rivers.

The Appalachian Trail is famous for its many hikers and backpackers, some of who, called thru-hikers, attempt to hike it in its entirety in a single season. Many books, memoirs, web sites and fan organizations are dedicated to this pursuit.

An unofficial extension known as the International Appalachian Trail, continues north into Canada and to the end of the range, where it enters the Atlantic Ocean.

The Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail form what is known as the Triple Crown of long distance hiking in the United States.


Offering Highly Bespoke Individually Tailored Health & Easy Life –Enhancement Services, For You Are As Unique & More Complex Than a Fingerprint!

What is it?

Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis is not a state of deep sleep.  It does involve the induction of focus-centred thinking, but when in it, the patient is actually in an enhanced state of awareness, guided by the therapist's voice.  In this state, the conscious mind may become more relaxed and the subconscious mind is revealed.

Working with the person (at all times in client-led sessions,) with their shared information and the skills of the trained therapist; the therapist is able to suggest ideas, concepts and lifestyle adaptations and ellicit potential new positive, easier and enabling ways to feel more comfortable and achieve resolutions.

The practice of promoting healing or positive development in any way is known as hypnotherapy.  As such, hypnotherapy is a kind of psychotherapy.  Hypnotherapy aims to re-programme patterns of behaviour within the mind, enabling irrational fears, phobias, negative thoughts and suppressed emotions to be overcome. As the body is released from conscious control during the relaxed trance-like state of hypnosis, breathing becomes slower and deeper, the pulse rate drops and the metabolic rate falls.   Similar changes along nervous pathways and hormonal channels may support more comfortable states.

How does it work?

Hypnosis is thought to work by altering our state of consciousness in such a way that the analytical left-hand side of the brain may relax, while allowing the non-analytical right-hand side to become more alert.  The conscious mind more relaxed, and the subconscious mind more accessible.  Since the subconscious mind is a deeper-seated, more instinctive force than the conscious mind, this is the part which has to change for the person's behaviour and physical state to alter.

For example, a person who consciously wants to overcome their fear of spiders may try everything they consciously can to do it, but will still fail as long as their subconscious mind retains this terror and prevents the person from succeeding.  Progress may  be supported by acsessing  the subconscious so that deep-seated unhelpful instincts and beliefs may relax allowing for more useful, positve ones..

Helpful for what ?

May be a useful tool and helpful to support all emotional and physical symptoms/issues.

Hypnotherapy - NLP - Life-Coaching Combined

Kazy Vincent-Janes is an advanced practitioner, international tutor and examiner, trained in the advantageous and unique combination of using all 3 integrated modalities of NLP, Hypnotherapy and Life-Coaching for exceptional and highly individually tailored approach.

Description Fee
Initial consultation 2 hours £160.00
Further consultations per hour £80.00
Initial consultation- Stop Smoking Package £240.00
Weight Loss Programme £240.00
Deep Journey Process 2 hours £160.00
Hayfever Resolution 2 hours £160.00
Private Tuition for Student Practitioners charged per hour £80.00

Cancellations of Appointments - 48 hours notice or less will charged at the full appointment rate.

Consultation Phone/Email or Texts In-Between Appointments at the nearest half-hourly rate - this excludes new enquiries and pre-arranged LP follow-up support.

Important Notice: services do not guarantee results and no attempt to diagnose, treat to cure is ever intended or given. The information on this site is not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult your medical physician.


Todrick Hall American

Todrick Hall

Todrick Hall is an American rapper, singer, actor, dancer, director, choreographer, and YouTuber. He rose to prominence on the 9th season of American Idol, where he made it to the semi-finals. Since then, Hall has become notable as a Broadway veteran, YouTube star, and judge on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Born April 4, 1985 in Plainview, Texas, USA

$20.00 - $194.00

This is a General Admission standing room show! Seating is available upon request only on the day of show.

Who’s Going

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Datingfirst com

* These documents are provided for information and research purposes only.

This can leave you feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed.

You need to have the time to yourself necessary to sort out all of these emotions and learn how to use your coping skills. You might land on a six, but there’s just as good a chance you’ll land on a one or a two.

Positive feelings caused by the possibility of falling in love are directly connected to your ‘feel good’ hormones.

Unfortunately, as an addict, it’s very easy to clamp onto these emotions, relying on them to get us through our days.

It isn’t just a place to go where people help you stay away from alcohol and drugs. Some addicts experience certain emotions again for the first time.


Amy Tara Koch | vitamins | Amy Tara Koch
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Nobody has time to get sick. After years of practice, I have tried and true methods to nip a potential cold in the bud.  The trick is to catch the illness before it blooms into a full fledged snot fest. The moment I feel the...


The Drinklings (2018)

A group of friends meets regularly in a pub. They all work as respectable and esteemed scholars at an ancient university, but they all also write fantastical fiction in their spare time. The larp is made up of scenes depicting a series of their monthly meetings, at which they talk about their writing and how it’s going, and bounce ideas around the table. The last scene, set much later, involves a group of critics discussing the work of these giants.

This is a light-hearted larp, with themes of friendship and the tension between support and envy/competitiveness. When your friend gets a book contract for the work you’ve been helping them with, while your own (far superior!) masterpiece languishes unrecognized, how do you feel? What will the judgment of history have to say about you?

The Drinklings is written by Mo Holkar and me.

Download the game here!

Parmiddagen (2017)

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Parmiddagen (eng: The dinner party) was a project that was made with the Swedish Radio. It was both a drama series produced for Swedish radio + podcast listening, and a live action roleplay that anyone can download and play at home. I was in the writing team for the drama series, and I designed and wrote the larp script for the interactive downloadable version. (There will be a translation to English, shortly)

Duration: ~6 hours (including workshop).

Number of players: 6

Listen here (Swedish)

Download and play (Swedish)

Read more about the process from the creative lead and director of Parmiddagen, Malin Axelsson

See me talk about Parmiddagen at the conference Interaction / Unfinished:

BRUDPRIS (2013, 2014, 2016)

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Brudpris is a larp that seeks to explore honour and honour-based cultures, but also to draw parallels to contemporary society and how we perceive gender and culture. The game takes place in a fictitious world, in a fictitious culture, but the details are borrowed from real-world cultures. The goal is for all participants to gain insights into how honour-based cultures function and feel, from many perspectives. Both as the one who upholds the norms and as the one punished for endangering the honour.

In working with Brudpris I was lead designer with Carolina Dahlberg. We made the world, the lore and the culture from scratch. It is heavily influenced by 19th century Sweden and contemporary honour cultures. Brudpris has been played four times. Sweden 2013, Norway 2014, Denmark 2016.

Duration: 60 hours + 8 hour workshop
Number of players: 50

Read article about Brudpris at Nordic Larp

DECAMERONE (2012, 2017)

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Decamerone is a game that’s written as a prequel to Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. The game deals with the question of staying and fighting for your ideals or fleeing a hardening oppression. The game take place just before the new nation Gilead is founded, a strict and violent theocracy. The characters are people who are in the crossfire for religious repercussions, and they are waiting in a safe house to (hopefully) get smuggled over to Canada. Everyone has harsh reasons to leave, and good reasons to stay.

Duration: ~6 hours (including workshop).

Number of players: 12

Script (in Swedish): Decamerone larp script

The Monitor Celestra (2013)

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The Monitor Celestra was a crazy project with 20+ people in the dev team. We played the game in an old destroyer in Gothenburg: Jagaren Småland. It was a game that built from the TV-series Battlestar Galactica; a ship that had become lost from the fleet of the surviving humanity after the Cylon attack that wiped out almost all of the human population. The ship carried people from the Tauron ethnicity group, and wasn’t all pleased when it was boarded by a (mostly) Caprican crew from Battlestar Galactica. The game touched themes such as paranoia, racism and fear of the unknown. I worked as a game writer, developing the Tauron culture, writing characters and game mastering the game.

Duration: 48 hours

Number of players: 144 (the game was played 3 times in March 2013)

Duration: 48 hours

Number of players: 144 (the game was played 3 times in march 2013)

Game trailer

See me talk about the world building

JOAKIM (2012 -)

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Joakim is a game about a person and his name is Joakim. Every year the class of the prestigious theatre school meet to eat and reconnect. They have their own jokes, their own way of speaking, and they have Joakim, their clown and punching bag. But this year, Joakim isn’t here. And everybody knows it’s because of what the group did last year. But nobody wants to talk about it. And nobody wants to be the new Joakim.

Joakim explores grownup bullying and how it can be that a group that doesn’t feel evil or oppressive can be really mean. It’s a game about how a group can force you to become someone you don’t want to be at all.

Joakim is a 360° larp with a few meta techniques used to enhance the theme of group pressure and not daring to say what you really feel.

Duration: ~6 hours (including workshop).

Number of players: 8-13

Download game (English)

Download game (Swedish)


Sunday, June 19, 2011

This Week At The Ontario Court of Appeal: 11-06-09

Ontario (Labour) v. Black & McDonald Limited. An appeal from an Ontario Court of Justice trial where charges laid under the Occupational Health and Safety Act were dismissed and the Crown then appealed, and appealed again when the first appeal failed.

Black & McDonald was hired as a subcontractor to construct concrete pipe in underground trenches. In the process of doing so, they constructed a wooden framework to pull pipe sections into place. One day, a piece of the wooden framework snapped and struck a worker in the head, killing him. The Crown charged Black & McDonald with five counts of violating the OHSA: failing as a constructor to ensure that a project was designed to support and resist all loads and forces to which it is likely to be subjected, failing as a constructor to ensure that every employee and worker complied with OHSA standards, failing as a constructor to take every precaution possible for the protection of a worker, failing as an employer to ensure that a project was designed to support and resist all loads and forces, and failing as an employer to take every precaution possible for the protection of a worker.

At trial, the judge dismissed the first, second and fourth counts for being "duplicitious," "disingenuous," "convoluted," and that "in some instances barely discloses an offence." The Crown appealed to the Superior Court, where the Superior Court judge agreed with the trial judge and further overturned the convictions on the third and fifth counts. The Crown appealed again.

The Court of Appeal set aside the dismissals and ordered a new trial. They stated that the trial judge had confused a duplicitous count (one that joins separate and distinct offences in the same count) with a duplicative count (one that overlaps another distinct count). The Court stated unequivocally that a single incident could obviously give rise to multiple offences. The Court also felt that the counts were drafted precisely enough that the defendant corporation knew the charges against it, and noted that the defendant did not ask for further particulars than it was provided.

Finally, the Court stated that the trial judge did not have discretion to outright reduce the number of counts, as he had attempted to do, as the employer standard of conduct and the constructor standard of conduct were two different standards and therefore overlapped but were not duplicative. They further noted that under the common law, even if the multiple counts were duplicative, the end result could not be an acquittal but instead only a conditional stay. Read-the-whole-case rating: 2.

R. v. Soules. Mr. Soules was involved in a four-car accident. During police questioning after the accident, the constable believed that Mr. Soules might have been impaired, and when he subsequently made an approved screening device demand, Mr. Soules failed his breath check test and was arrested for operating a vehicle while impaired.

Mr. Soules was summarily acquitted on the basis that his statements while being investigated by the constable were compelled and inadmissible, and in the absence of those statements there was no reasonable suspicion for the approved screening device demand. The trial judge also held that the breath results would further have been excluded on the basis that Mr. Soules did not receive a Prosper warning. The Crown appealed; the summary conviction appeal judge upheld the acquittal. The Crown appealed again.

The Court of Appeal granted leave to appeal the summary conviction on the basis that the case raised important questions of law about the police-driver relationship and whether Charter rights demanded reinterpretation, and also on the Crown's contention that the ruling, as it stood, had the potential to "cripple the investigation of drinking and driving offences where a collision has occurred."

The Court considered this case in light of the decisions in R. v. Powers and R. v. White, two impaired-driving cases where, following a collision, a driver had thought he reasonably was compelled to report the accident and details thereof, and as a result provided inadmissible information to a police officer. The Crown, seeking to distinguish this case from those precedents, cited R. v. Thomsen, an impaired-driving case where a motorist's participation in an ASD test was viewed as admissible to support an officer's breath demand. However, Justice LaForme disagreed with this comparison, specifically suggesting that Powers was the proper precedent because Thomsen was a situation that did not involve a compelled answer by the motorist. The Court therefore dismissed the appeal on the grounds that Mr. Soules' testimony was inadmissible due to his s.7 Charter rights against self-incrimination. Read-the-whole-case rating: 3.
- Christopher Bird, Toronto
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The 10 Most Unanswered Questions about Foods

Tips for Choosing an Italian Restaurant

Though most people think that they cannot get bad food in Italy, this is an occurrence that happens commonly. As a matter of fact, many people tend to complain about the bad food offered. You are likely going to have a hard time trying to find a good Italian restaurant. You may not be looking to spend all your time researching and making reservations for restaurants before making your trip. You should know what you should look for when looking for the Italian restaurant to go to.

Avoid going to the restaurants that have to lure you in. Keep in mind that the food is not good if the restaurant has to pay people to make banter to attract customers. In most cases, they tend to mention some of the Italian foods that you may be familiar with. They will have their menu in English and also promise you a welcoming drink on the house. You will find that the great restaurants are always full and may not have space for accommodating you. They will not need to stand outside luring diners to their space.

You should select the menu that is only in Italian. If you are not an Italian speaker, then this may be intimidating to you. When the restaurant, however, has their menu in different languages, then this will mean that they mostly serve tourists. In most cases, you are likely going to recognize a few dishes in the menu even when they are written in Italian. Picking a phrase book for foods is another choice that you have. Getting a phrase book that has been translated to English will make it easy to use. These phrase book will also include most of the dishes that you will find at these Italian restaurants.

If you find that the Trento Restaurant offers pizza at lunch, then you should avoid going to it. Pizza is not a meal that Italians take at lunchtime. You should know that the restaurants that offer pizza at lunch mainly deals with tourists. You need to know that the Italian pizza is cooked ina wood-burning oven that will take an extended period of heating. Restaurants tend to avoid firing their oven during the short hour of lunch as it will take a lot of time and energy to heat it.

You should choose the Italian restaurant that is full of Italians. English is not widely spoken in Italy. When you walk into a restaurant where the staff and the customers are mostly talking Italian; then you will find that their food is great.


A King Paris show is not just a concert; it’s an experience – a magical ride across fields of enticing sounds and alluring visions.
The King meshes flavors of House and Punjabi/Bhangra music with bluesy slide-guitar riffs to create an enthralling west-meets-east sound that is uniquely his own.
Backed by Bollywood-style belly dancers, the King lays rockabilly jams over his band’s exotic rhythms. Flooded in colors of a foreign bazaar, the mood created by the visuals and the music fills the air like sweet smoke from a gypsy’s lamp.
Don’t get me wrong. A King Paris show is not just smoke and mirrors. The pulsating sound is moving and the vibe is enchanting; more importantly, the musicality is top-notch, Grammy-nominated fare. The variety of guitars alone is enough to impress even the most discriminating of music aficionados.
Maui Zan highly recommends that you take the magical journey that is a King Paris concert. You will be pleased.
Suzanne Kayian


الإثنين 23 أبريل 2018
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radiotheational is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers, typically actors or actressess, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience.


Unified Network becomes Unified People

Most people go through life looking for answers.

When Unified Network was established back in February 2011 the dream was namely to help individuals find these answers. Bringing people from the unconscious to the conscious in order for them to gain insight which will provide a better outlook.

Our slogan at the time was: “WE CHANGE THE WORLD!” It still is, but from July this year we have decided to change our name to: Unified People.

Why is that?

The answer is simple…

Because that is what we do!

We unify people with our deep knowledge, insight, and experience by consolidating them with themselves to achieve authenticity! We join together employees in their workplace: management teams, departments or the entire company culture, striving for enhanced unity.

In many cases people within a company have an individualistic mindset, hence the added value of being joint into a whole is often greater than you dream of. Unified People helps to create a unique unity, where employees as well as costumers are attracted by the uniqueness of the company.

All in all, we help bring forward authenticity in the individual and thereby a framework to have a corporate culture where employees “Bring their heart to work”, and contribute to the energy and dreams of the company.

What we have achieved since our existence speaks for itself. The dream of “changing the world” is accomplished every day. The reason for our success can be explained in a few words: “The ones who master the synergies from the energies will be the ones who win the future”.

At Unified People we look forward to keep transforming your world.

This post is also available in: Danish


Elizabeth Blackburn (UCSF) iBio 2: Telomeres and Telomerase in Human Stem Cells and in Cancer

Telomerase, a specialized ribonucleprotein reverse transcriptase, is important for long-term eukaryotic cell proliferation and genomic stability, because it replenishes the DNA at telomeres. Thus depending on cell type telomerase partially or completely (depending on cell type) counteracts the progressive shortening of telomeres that otherwise occurs. Telomerase is highly active in many human malignancies, and a potential target for anti-cancer approaches. Furthermore, recent collaborative studies have shown the relationship between accelerated telomere shortening and life stress and that low telomerase levels are associated with six prominent risk factors for cardiovascular disease.


23rd April 2018

Blog Page

What fake news tell us about uncertainty.

Fake news owes some of its success to our incapacity to tolerate uncertainty. It can be easier and less painful to believe that our streets are teeming with malicious terrorists than to have to cope with feeling lost, discarded, scared, purposeless, or any of the other emotions that manifest as feelings of uncertainty.

Fake news gives us reassuringly easy, if improbable, answers with which to fill a very uncomfortable void.
But a degree of uncertainty is a necessary component of the therapeutic process and is often expressed in statements like “I don’t know why I feel this way”. The temptation is then to fill that gap with a definitive answer; “I / you feel this way because…”.

The real reasons we feel the way we do are rarely quite so cut and dried. Our feelings about any given situation are composed of layers of similar experiences and influences, each one overlapping the other; those experiences will be unique to each and every one of us.
Allowing a degree of uncertainty gives us space to explore, reflect and understand. Space we don’t have if we rush to fill the void with a glib or simplistic answer.

Uncertainty is anxiety provoking but can prove very valuable. Instant certainties can be the psychological equivalent of fake news – temporarily satisfying but ultimately misleading.

14 March 2018

On International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day so I've taken a little time to reflect on the differences between the women and men who have sought my help over the years.

The single biggest difference is this: 99% of the women I have seen in my consulting room have been sexually assaulted. That's right. 99%. To put that into context, I have been seeing clients for 10 years from every imaginable background and circumstance. That's a lot of women.

And the men? While some have experienced sexual assault with devastating consequences, it is by no means as universal.

The assaults described by these women vary in the degree of violence, frequency, relationship to perpetrator etc, but the stark fact remains that I spend a great deal of my working life facing the trauma inflicted by sexual violence towards women and girls.

Sexual trauma can be ruinous, and can echo around us for decades after the event, but that doesn't need to be the end of the story. Sexual violence is survivable. Not in a let's-just-pretend-it-never-happened way that feeds our collective denial about the subject, but in a truthful way. Finding the freedom and safety to talk about the experience can begin to repair the damage and unlock the silencing burden of shame that so many survivors carry.

And so, on International Women's Day, I wish us all (women and men) freedom from sexual violence and intimidation. And if we can't have that yet, I wish us all the courage and support to confront and transcend the trauma we have endured.

8 March 2017

How do we know if we are narcissistic?

Today I was contacted by a journalist wanting to talk about narcissism and social media, a topic as complicated as it is popular.

At the end of our conversation she asked me if we would know if we were narcissistic. But narcissism isn’t necessarily a bad thing, we are all narcissistic to a greater or lesser degree. We all need validation now and then, we all need to pay attention to ourselves and to how are feeling and doing. There is such a thing as healthy narcissism, and it is expressed through good self-esteem and self care.

However narcissism is more commonly thought of as negative. Essentially, people who have high levels of narcissism use other people as their mirror, they need to receive a positive image of themselves reflected back at them most of the time and may get upset, angry or withdrawn when a consistently high level of positive reinforcement isn’t forthcoming.

High levels of narcissism (self regard, self obsession and feelings of specialness) are just strategies we have developed to cope with feeling small and deeply wounded. A wound that originates in early childhood, injures and warps our budding sense of self and leaves us needing high levels of validation and reassurance and often feeling destroyed by relatively minor criticism.

Unhealthy narcissism can be destructive as we cannot fully and reciprocally relate to others. If we only use other people to validate and elevate us then that is damaging and will ultimately leave us feeling lonely and unloved.

So, to try and answer the original question, how do we know if we are unhealthily narcissistic? We could start by asking ourselves some honest questions such as:
1. Can I really put myself in other people’s shoes?
2. Do I turn every conversation back round to me?
3. Am I only able to use myself as a frame of reference, e.g I’m feeling bad so you should too, I did it so can you, It’s all my fault, I’m better / worse off than everyone else.
4. Do you secretly believe that you are better / much worse than most people you meet?

Answering no to the first question and yes to the last three may mean you are more narcissistic than is entirely healthy. However, it may also mean that you are having a bad day as we can all feel as though we are at odds with the rest of the world when we are vulnerable and struggling (which is the great failing of these kinds of ‘assess yourself’ type questions).

You could ask a trusted friend what they think. Or, perhaps, you could book an initial appointment with a therapist and talk it through with them?

16 February 2017

Hate hurts

The US election result is less than two days old and in my little corner of the world, as in so many others, the impact is being felt.

Since the result was confirmed on Wednesday morning, the levels of anxiety amongst some of my clients, and the levels of anxiety that some of my colleagues are seeing, has risen sharply. It's not just that people are catastrophising or projecting their anxiety onto events they cannot control (which is what we see a lot of on social media); what really seems to be hurting is the fear that the election result further legitimises hate.

LGBT clients, people born of immigrant parents, or who are immigrants themselves are understandably scared. The vocal, and now sanctioned, bigotry of the election campaign taps into and builds on people's past experiences of predjudice and discrimination.

Being on the receiving end of life-long discrimination cumulatively and toxically erodes our sense of self and self-worth, leaving us feeling painfully unsafe, inadequate, ashamed and consequently vulnerable to debilitating anxiety and depression.

The therapy room is a safe space where we can talk without being judged, where we are able to express ourselves freely regardless of where we were born or who we love.

And this week, for a lot of people, the world feels more unsafe, more intolerant, more directly threatening. It is very early days, we can't begin to grasp the ramifications of this election result yet for the UK. But certainly in my consulting room, the effects are being felt and the value of a safe space feels that much more poignant.

10 November 2016

Brexit Blues

As I write we are days into post-referendum Britain. The main political parties seems to be eating themselves alive and no-one know where we are heading or how we are going to get there.

With this climate of unprecedented political and economic uncertainty it is no wonder that I am noticing significantly increased levels of anxiety. Huge divisions have opened up as a result of the vote, with rifts in families and friendships severed overnight.

It is no exaggeration to say that some Remain voters are feeling distraught and furious, while some Leave voters are wounded and baffled by the hostility directed at them.

So here is an article to try and help you make sense of what you may be feeling at the moment. Here's hoping clarity emerges from the chaos.

Why the Referendum result is hard to deal with.

30 June 2016

Social media and narcissism

Here is an interesting article on links between social media and narcissism. The article explores whether social media causes unhealthy levels of narcissism, or whether it just makes high levels of narcissism more noticeable than they are offline. I have to admit to a vested interest here though as I am quoted in the article: Social Media and Narcissism

Perhaps your anxiety is telling you something

Early on in my training I was told the following apocryphal story …….

A man walks into a doctor’s office with his right arm awkwardly locked, his elbow at a right angle to his body and his hand held up against his neck. After a thorough physical assessment, the doctor prescribes muscle relaxants and suggests hypnosis.

The man duly undergoes hypnosis which successfully frees up the spasmed arm. He then kills himself by cutting his own throat with his now mobile right hand.

It’s a grisly probable myth with multiple versions, but, the point of it (and the reason it was told to me) is to illustrate that sometimes symptoms have a meaning or a purpose of their own. In this case, the man’s rigid arm was his unconscious protection against acting on his desire to end his life.

I was reminded of this story when a friend drew my attention to this article. Is mindfulness making us ill?

Mindfulness is a meditative practice often aimed at lowering anxiety and stress levels. It can be very effective in helping people find ways of stopping their mind racing, repeatedly imagining the worst, and feeling out of control. If you were to go to your GP today reporting high anxiety you might well be handed a leaflet on local mindfulness courses. And you might find such a course very useful indeed.

However, rather like the doomed man with the rigid arm, it might be that your anxiety is telling you something worth listening to.

People who have a history of trauma often exist in a state of hyper-vigilance, which means that they are semi-permanently poised to respond to threat, whether real or perceived. The threat may be long-gone but their bodies have remained in fight-or-flight mode as a means of physical and psychological survival. They are therefore likely to experience high levels of anxiety.

Many people who have a history of trauma fear a more relaxed state as, in removing or reducing their anxiety, they can feel life-threateningly vulnerable. Sometimes anxiety, like the mythical man’s arm, is an unconscious protection against traumatic memories. Asking a traumatised individual to let go of their anxiety has the potential to be re-traumatising as you are asking them to remove the mechanism that they feel is keeping them safe.

I suppose the moral of these stories, apocryphal or not, is that careful, thorough assessment is absolutely essential before any psychological intervention is attempted.

"I don't think we're meant to do it alone"

Late last year Brene Brown said, about self-help “I don’t think we’re meant to do it alone”. The Guardian

Her comment got me thinking about the various messages we take from the self-help industry.

For some, self-help books can feel like a life-line, a way of connecting with your own sense of agency in a world where many feel powerless. For some, they provide helpful new ways of addressing difficult situations. However, the message we take from the self-help industry isn’t always so benign.

Our capacity to meaningfully use self-help depends on what the term ‘self-help’ means to us. Do we take it to mean, as Brown implies, that we are meant to sort ourselves out armed with a couple of books or podcasts and a few free hours? Does it mean that we, as individuals, are exclusively responsible for our own wellbeing; that all accountability for our contentment rests firmly on the single self? If so, then it’s a short step to concluding that it is up to you alone to help yourself, if you don’t / can’t then you are lazy and deserve the misery you are wallowing in.

I have heard so many people say that if only they could ‘think more positively’ or ‘challenge my negative thoughts’ or ‘take responsibility’ then they would feel so much better. And, of course, there can be a great deal of sense in all those statements. It is also true that taking responsibility for our emotional states can be a necessary and liberating process.

But the difficulty lies in the emphasis being exclusively on the self, on an individual striving to feel better by shouldering the responsibility of their mental state in isolation. Because that just isn’t going to work. Nobody can face up to their darkest thoughts and most distressing feelings alone. We need a real, felt, human connection.

Undoubtedly, part of the self-help appeal can be the idea that we fix ourselves by ourselves, that we don’t need to take the risk of making ourselves vulnerable to another human being. But it is precisely the process of taking that risk and connecting with another that allows us to unfold.

If we want to feel better, to take charge of a life that feels like it is spinning out of control, then we need a support network within which to do that. We are relational creatures, hardwired to respond to and depend on each other. Like most other mammals our survival depends on it.

Sometimes the message we take from self-help is one of relentless self-reliance, whereas perhaps what we really need to learn is mutual healthy interdependence.


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Monthly Archives: January 2018

Meditation Tips for Beginners

For a long time now, meditation has been used by many for a variety of reasons. In the old times, meditation was a way of communicating with the Buddha or achieve a higher level of consciousness because the practice of meditation first started with the ancient Buddhists. Meditation was not just a way of relieving oneself from stress but more of actually being able to keep the balance in one’s self and exercising the mind to concentrate and focus. For beginners who do not know what to do when meditating there are a few tips they can make use of.

All about Mindfulness and Me

Another friend said mindfulness teaches you how to listen fully to others when they are talking. “Well,” he said, “Now that I’ve learned to listen to people I forget what I was going to say.”

If I thought too much about it, though, I would not have signed up for the classes. Meditation was never something I practiced. Too deep for me. I could never sit still that long without jumping up to do something. There is always something.

However, at the orientation, the practice, as they call it, sounded as though it could help me to focus better as a writer. I wanted to see if I can slow down the chatter in my head and think more clearly of the task at hand.

The formal definition, as described by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts, said mindfulness is a way of bringing meditation into the medical mainstream. He describes it as a basic human quality, a way of learning to pay attention to whatever is happening in your life that allows you a greater sense of connection to your life inwardly and outwardly.

Kabat-Zinn earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1971 from MIT and also studied with the Insight Meditation Society and eventually also taught there. In 1979 he founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he adapted the Buddhist teachings on mindfulness and developed a stress reduction practice or MBSR.

The formal course is set up for 8 weekly sessions of two and half hours. Between the sixth and eighth meeting there is an all-day retreat that includes several hours of “noble silence” and guided meditation.

My apprehension doubled. In the first class I struggled with meditating for 30 minutes. A whole day of silence seemed impossible. I’m a writer, a journalist and a talker.

After week six, on a rainy Sunday in November, we gathered at a large cabin-like home in the Redwoods. Couldn’t have been a more perfect day for a meditation retreat; Dark clouds overhead and a steady rain with short periods of pounding thunder.

We were warmed by a wood stove, cozy in our cushioned chairs and blankets. The mood started out with a fair amount of anxiety admitted by each of the attendees. None of us was practiced in long-term silent treatment… at least not outside of our various personal relationships.

While I was feeling insecure about my ability to embrace five hours of not talking, I was unaware of my vulnerability at the same time.

We started our session with a practice called “Standing Yoga Meditation.” As we were in a personal home, there were family mementos around the room. While in a pose, I turned to face a different direction and there on an end table were two bronzed baby shoes.

A bolt of lightning pierced my chest. Tears suddenly dripped down my face. I held the yoga pose longer than called for. I couldn’t turn away. The shoes brought me back to my childhood, my mother and father both dead now, and playing with my brother. I was back on the front yard of the small, WW II built house in North Hollywood, CA. I can see the rose trees my mother planted. My older brother with silver caps on his two front teeth and me with my skinny braids and cowboy boots. It was profoundly sweet and sad at the same time.

Unknown Facts About Meditation

1) Mediation can be done!

The term meditation relates to the term “Dhyana” in Sanskrit. “Dhyana” is the seventh stage of the “Patanjali Yoga Sutra”.[1]

Patanjali Yoga Sutra is the most ancient and vivid documentation depicting elaborately about the psycho-physiological connections and analyses the minute strata’s of mind and intellect.

According to this 8-fold system, meditation (Dhyana) is the stillness of mind with an active consciousness. So, the “I” awareness slowly dissolute into the consciousness and merges into one (The last step: Samadhi). So meditation couldn’t be done. We go into it or rather slip into meditation. What we consider as meditation is actually the practice of concentration with an active mind. The state of meditation can be achieved but cannot be practiced. So; to earn the desired level, start practicing concentration religiously.

2) It can be practiced solely!

It was well understood that without having a sound body; it is not recommended to practice meditation (read concentration) because it may lead to mental numbness.

This dormancy can provide a blankness inside which is basically due to the inactivity of mental conditions. It can be compared to a self-hypnotic condition which eventually results into sleepiness. The brain gets confused about the physical and mental inactivity and treats this state as a pre-sleep stage. It secrets melatonin hormone which naturally induces sleep as it does when anybody prepares to sleep.

This state is sometimes related with actual mediation but it is quite far from it.

So, to get into the basic of meditation; one should have a sound body and a sound sleep. Proper nutritious food helps in getting into a productive meditation.

A bit of freehand exercise, proper food and sleep and cultivating dispassion; when maintained regularly can lead to the goal.

3) Meditation is a religious practice

This is a practice to still our mind. A still and focused mind leads to a wide awareness. This awareness fires up the conscience (Viveka) which becomes a vehicle for inward journey. This “Viveka” is also a tool for realizing the oneness within.

This journey is common for all, the path may vary. So, practicing concentration for achieving meditative state does not fall into any classifications based on religion or belief.

You are fully free to choose you path if you want to walk independently. You will reach there, irrespective of any religion.

4) The practice takes huge time to provide benefits

This may vary with the effort given but the benefits of practicing concentration generate immediate effects on psycho-physiological system. Within a week, a devoted practitioner shall feel the lowering of blood pressure (if they have), release of stress, diminishing anxiety and an elevated experience of serenity within. It also boosts memory, feeling of empathy. It regulates sleep cycle for proper cleansing of the body toxin. It eventually develops the persona with a more elevated sense of humanity.


What is "Curly hair" - Definition & Explanation

Stuffing consisting of half horse hair and half pig hair.

Some other terms

Some more terms:

Dyeing under pressure higher than atmospheric pressure with the object of raising the temperature of the dye liquor above its normal boiling point. NOTE: The term "pressure dyeing" in this...
Indentation Load Deflection (ILD) refers to the firmness of a piece of foam. The lab puts a 4" x 15" x 15" piece of foam on a flat surface. Then a round metal plate, 8" in diameter, pushes down on...
A tankini is a type of two-piece swimsuit. The tankini is disguished from the classic bikini by the difference in tops. The tankini top extends downward to somewhere between just above the navel and...
refers to the application of material such as plastic resin, wax, oil, varnish or lacquer to the surface of the fabric. Application methods include dipping, spraying, brushing, calendering or knife...

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