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Sly Stone Admits To Cocaine Use

The latest development in sad Sly Stone news shows the soul icon looking weakened, lying in his camper and discussing his drug addiction in an interview with Splash. The New York Post broke the news last weekend that Stone, who once lived in a mansion, is now homeless and parked in a camper in Los Angeles. Stone's camper van lifestyle was first alluded to in a 2010 documentary on the legend, "Coming Back for More."

"Are you clean?" Splash's reporter asks.

"I'll tell you what, not like that kind of clean, but I sleep at nights, and the rest of the time I fake Van Cleef & Arpels Clover necklace black do my music," a hoarse Stone responded. He goes on to reveal his cocaine addiction, noting that he did the drug as recently as a "week and a half ago."

In April of this year, Stone was arrested for cocaine possession, a charge he pleaded not guilty to. It's not clear when Stone's drug addiction began this time around (he was also convicted in 1987 on cocaine possession charges), but he does express a desire to get better in the interview.

"I'll tell you what I got a rehab [inaudible] chosen," Stone says. He plans on copy van cleef necklace parking his van outside the rehab and setting up a studio inside the van, so he can get clean and create music at fake Van Cleef & Arpels Clover Necklace the same time. He may still drink beer, though.
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
Slave Girl In Illinois

Girl with the HollyhocksIn many parts of the country there are local figures known through the lore of the area, but perhaps not so well known otherwise.

One such fascinating piece of local history relates to an Illinois Plains hamlet called Mulkeytown. This frontier village became the permanent residence of a girl born into slavery, forced to march The Trail of Tears, and then freed thanks to the intervention of a wealthy Southern Illinois farmer.

Slave GirlSlavery in the United States was not only the concern of its white residents. Native Americans held slaves as well, when their finances and living conditions allowed for it. Although historically Native Americans used captured enemies as slaves, they also occasionally kidnapped settlement children (raising them as their own), or purchased Africans outright as slaves. Into this world, in about 1824, a girl was born in the extreme western part of North Carolina where it meets Georgia and Tennessee. She was named Priscilla. Almost all historians note she was classified as a In the slave trade, blacks were categorized by how much African ancestry was van cleef and arpels clover necklace part of their genetics. Genetic descriptors like that were based upon the race of each contributing parent, and changed by factors copy Van Cleef & Arpels clover necklace of two with each generation. Thus, a person with a black father or mother but a second parent of a different race (a black person) was classified as a A one fourth black person was called a the product of a with another non black person. A further grade of (one eighth black) was imitation van cleef arpels clover necklace recognized as well. [As recently as the 1970s in Louisiana if one had as little as one sixteenth African blood in one current one was classified as by the state. It is certain the African part of her genetics came from her mother.

Almost all plantation owners spent time in the slave quarters, raping the female slaves. is the correct term for such activities. No slave woman could ever freely engage in any intercourse with her owner and the act not be termed as rape. These women had no power massa could have her beaten, maimed, separated from her children or husband (if she had one did), or even put to death.

Massa did not always have to use physical force, either implied imperiousness was threat enough for these women. Her inability to avoid any coercion qualifies these acts as rape. The same is true of Thomas Jefferson and his relationship to his female slave Sally Hemings. Although Jefferson genuinely cared for her, Sally powerlessness in the relationship meant any act of intercourse between her and Jefferson was rape, even if she willingly submitted. As a result of their more visits to the slave quarters, children were born to the slave women and white owners. Most owners, though not all, brought their half breed children into the Big House to work as house slaves. It is appalling to consider having one own child indentured in such a way, but that was the practice.

Priscilla lineage has also been described as three quarters Cherokee, though, and this is where her origins are murky. This implies she was descended from a Cherokee father and a mulatto (half black, half Cherokee mother). This means Priscilla mother was the product of a Cherokee male and an African female. It is a tantalizing look into societal dynamics to think of this, but it cannot be confirmed at this late date.

Priscilla quadroon status, however, meant in the world of slavery she was a higher priced commodity. The lighter skinned blacks were more desired to serve in Massa home and to tend his children. Some quadroons and almost all octoroons were termed sometimes as yella (meaning their skin tone was shaded toward a more pale tan color). Many of these for white later.

Priscilla was a just a slave girl, though, born into bondage with no status. Her early life is undocumented. She was certainly born into slavery, but it is believed she was sold, along with her mother, to another owner in about 1828 (when she was 4). She lived in the area known as the Cherokee Nation, a sovereign land (which they called New Echota) set up and initially recognized by the United States government as a homeland for the Cherokee people. This land covered the northwestern section of Georgia and sprawled into North Carolina and parts of Alabama.

The Gentleman Farmer from Illinois

While Priscilla was living her early childhood in slavery in North Carolina, a man named Barzilla Silkwood (born September 9, 1801) lived at the other end of the social strata in America. Barzilla was a very wealthy gentleman farmer in Southern Illinois.

He was married to a woman named Mariah (born July 23, 1798; died December 27, 1874). The Silkwoods had no children of their own, although Barzilla had nieces and nephews. [One nephew was also named Given the unusual name, it is probable he was named in honor of the elder Barzilla as a means of ingratiating his family into Silkwood good financial graces.] The childless Silkwoods fostered and adopted sixteen orphans over the years.

The main trail westward to St. Louis from Shawneetown, Illinois (on the Ohio River), ran right past the Silkwood property. This was a well traveled route known originally as the Shawneetown Kaskaskia Trail. [Kaskaskia, Illinois, was wiped off the map many years later when a major Mississippi River flood caused the river to permanently change course.]Credit: public domainBarzilla Silkwood built a very lucrative inn on the route in 1825 (originally a log cabin, then expanded in 1828 to grander proportions). It was first called Halfway House (because it was halfway between Shawneetown and St. Louis). Later, it became known as The Silkwood Inn. The inn had lodging accommodations for stagecoach and foot travelers, and was a popular place to stay on the Kaskaskia Trail.

Chief MassaBarzilla Silkwood business interests took him many places, and in 1837 he was traveling in the southeastern US. He stopped at a plantation in North Carolina near the Great Smokey Mountains. His stay was not brief; while there he met and became friendly with most of the plantation slaves. In particular he became enchanted by a pretty little quadroon girl who worked in the Big House named Priscilla. She was about 12 or 13 years old at the time, and Barzilla was completely taken by her.

He spent much leisure in watching the slave children play and gambol about. He was impressed by Priscilla (though it is almost certain her outward cheer was a put on for visitors). She became friendly with Barzilla, however, calling him Silkwood.

Silkwood left for his Illinois home with the memory of this delightful slave girl tucked securely away. Soon after he departed, the owner of Priscilla plantation died, and his slaves and properties were sold off at public auction. An Indian chief Rev. Jesse Bushyhead (1804 1844) of the Cherokee Nation lands in Georgia Priscilla.

This chief motivation for purchasing her can never be known. She has been described as pretty; in consideration of her maturation, he may have wanted her for a concubine. Or, he may merely have wanted her as a servant. Regardless, she was forced away from North Carolina to the Cherokee lands in Georgia as the slave of a Cherokee chief.

A poignant element of Priscilla story occurred just before she left her old plantation. She gathered up some hollyhock seeds to take along as a remembrance of her place of birth and early childhood. Settled into her new Georgia life, she planted these, and they took root.

Trail MarchPriscilla did not live in peace long in her new Cherokee sovereign homeland.

Gold had been discovered on the lands, and the state of Georgia had agitated to force the Cherokees out of the area. President Andrew Jackson finally signed the Indian Removal Act that would displace the Natives from Georgia. It was President Martin Van Buren, however, who marshaled US Army troops (over 7,000 of them) to force the 15,000 Cherokee Nation residents off their property in 1838.

In routing the Indians the US troops burned many of their homes and simply confiscated their possessions. The soldiers refused to wait for better weather before leaving Tennessee, and ended up marching the Indians through bitter cold starting in late 1838.

Although many died on the trail from exposure, the greater number of them had died before much distance had been traveled at all. The Cherokee Nation refugees had been given thin blankets to carry that had been used in a Tennessee small pox hospital. The pox burned through the group as they set out, and their contagious status meant no town or village along their travel route would allow them in. They had to walk many extra miles to go around settled areas.

Abuses were heaped upon them almost everywhere. When attempting to cross the Ohio River into Southern Illinois, the opportunistic ferry operator charged the Indians almost nine times the regular rate (a dollar, equal to about $22 today). Also, this operator only carried the Cherokee refugees after all other paying white passengers were processed. Some of the Natives, waiting on the Kentucky side for days, were murdered by locals.

Once into Illinois, they began moving westward.

When Worlds CollideWhen Priscilla new Cherokee owner was forced to start The Long Walk, she gathered up some of her hollyhock seeds and took them along.

The Cherokee Nation ambled through Southern Illinois during one of its coldest winters on record. Most were on foot, with threadbare clothing, in moccasins or shoeless. As the Cherokees were not welcome to camp in any town because of the small pox contagion, they passed through on their way to settle in a place of rest outside the Southern Illinois town of Jonesboro. This site is only a few miles east of the Mississippi River. They made camp along a creek in mid December 1838.

Barzilla Silkwood was in Jonesboro, Illinois (about 45 miles SSW of The Silkwood Inn), on or around December 15, 1838. His lodgings were at the town Willard Hotel, and one morning he stood outside the hotel as the Cherokee refugees passed through town on their way to make camp.

He spotted a girl about 13 or 14 years old pass by in the group. She looked familiar to him, andshe turned and seemed to recognize him as well. Somewhat further up the street she suddenly broke from the pack and ran back to the hotel where Silkwood stood. She asked if he was Silkwood; at that moment he recognized her as the slave girl he met the previous year in North Carolina.
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
scoffs at Vancouver mayor

While "The Donald" moved ever closer to being "The Nominee," another Donald was landing in Vancouver.

Donald Trump Jr. left the campaign trail and travelled here just as his father became the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee after a victory in the Indiana primary forced Ted Cruz and John Kasich to suspend their campaigns.

The magnate eldest son was in town on Thursday to visit, vet and, of course, "Trump" the shiny new Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Vancouver, which is to be up and running by the end of August.

In true Trump fashion, the son echoed the father's voice when Frivole necklace replica it came to assessing the quick, successful sale of the residential part of the project, which put $363 million into Holborn Development coffers.

not surprised because I have seen us do this time and time again, Trump Jr., wearing a blue blazer, checked monogrammed dress shirt, jeans and dusty black running shoes, said as he sat in a downtown boardroom.

The sales come on the Van Cleef & Arpels necklace imitation heels of you guessed it a very successful build.

budget and ahead of schedule it the only way we do things, said Trump.

The hotel will be run by the Trump Organization, and will hire 300 employees from a pool of a purported 10,000 resumes.

"When you have the accolades we been able to aggregate as a hotel company, I think (potential employees) see that as a good catapult for their careers, said Trump.

As for the controversy a few months back when Mayor Gregor Robertson sent a letter and a petition with 50,000 signatures asking Holborn Development to dump the Trump name over his remarks about Mexicans, women and Muslims, Trump Jr. said: "That's just the nature of politics."

days, when you get into politics, there is a lot of faux outrage that is created. politics. Jr. said that his father is speaking for Americans who want an accountable immigration policy and an fake Van Cleef & Arpels butterfly necklace diamonds end to debt and influence by special interest groups.

"Politicians usually don have the guts to have an original thought or to actually challenge the system and I think my father has changed that," said Trump Jr. "He has given a voice to a lot of people who haven had a voice, who haven had the benefits of his soap box, which is rather large. That why he has won more votes on the GOP side in the history of any politician in a GOP primary."

So who is voting for his dad? It's been said that, and footage from the rallies back it up, the Trump voter is an angry white guy. So what are they so angry about?

think it is a convenient sound bite," said Trump Jr. "I think (the left) try to make everything about race today. You can say anything without being called a racist.

"You have to be able to have dialogue, you have to be able to talk about it. We should be enforcing immigration laws actually understand who is coming into our country.

"I can come into Canada without going through a process. that racist. No, it not. You have to talk about it."

Trump Jr., a father of five kids under the age of nine, isn't rushing back to the campaign trail to stump for dad. downtime first. have spent a lot of time here and the Yukon. I a big outdoorsman, big fisherman, all that stuff. I spent a lot of time camping in Canada. also an outdoorsman who has spent time hunting in Africa. Social media users may have come across photos of him holding a severed elephant's tail and posing with his brother and a dead cheetah.

But he's a Trump, and it's clear one of the family mottoes is to make no apologies.

an outdoorsman. I a hunter. What started up as an uproar is, we went over to Zimbabwe and we weren't poaching. We were doing everything legally. We are big hunters and we big conservationists. All the public land we have in America all started because of hunters, so that is an important thing."

Trump Jr. said he's not afraid of the increased attacks that will come now that his father is the presumptive Republican nominee.

"Yes, we be scrutinized but, honestly, when the establishment candidates and a candidate with Hillary track record, when they start attacking you and they show how scared they are of you, that a good thing," he said.
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
The History Of Vans Skate van cleef alhambra necklace imitation Shoes

Vans skate shoes, like most other things these days, began with the dream of one person. This person was Paul Van Doren, and with his dream of manufacturing shoes and selling them directly to the public.

Paul Van Doren actually began to make sneakers when he worked in a factory on the east cost. He also teamed up with people who had experience in the business of making shoes. They were Jim Van Doren, Gordy Lee, and Serge D'Elia. Unfortunately none of them actually had any experience van cleef alhambra mother of necklace imitation in retail.

Despite that little setback they managed to open their first store in the year of 1966 on the 15 of March. That was the very first Vans Shoe store and it was located on 704 east Broadway in Anaheim, California. At this point they only offered three styles of shoes. They were priced at $2.49, $4.49, and $4.99 but they were sold as display only shoes.

The very first day that they were open they got 12 costumers. Since they didn't actually have that many shoes they asked the costumers to come back later in the afternoon and then rushed into their factory and made each of the selected shoes. There was one little problem. When each of the 12 costumers came to pay for their newly made shoes they needed change, and since nobody on their group had retail experience replica Van Cleef & Arpels butterfly necklace they didn't actually expect this, so they gave the costumers their shoes and asked them to come back later and pay. Luckily fir them, all 12 of their costumers were good honest people who did indeed come back to pay for their shoes.

In the beginning the Vans shoes had a diamond patter sole, however it was quickly found that that case them to crack around the balls of the outside easily that way. They didn't lie this, so they decided to try something different. It was decided that the ball area would have vertical lines added so that the shoe would be stronger and able to handle more. The waffled like sole design of Vans shoes set theirs apart from others.

In the year 1976 skateboarders began to use Vans shoes as skate shoes. On March 19th of that year the very first Vans skate shoes were designed and made. The were the Vans Era and they were in red and blue. The pro skaters Tony Alva and Stacey Peralta are the designers of these early Vans skate shoes. Pretty soon there were new colors and even slip on Vans skate shoes, and they became the latest craze of California. And, after the nation saw Jeff Spicoli the Californian surfer dude wearing a pair of their checkered slip on Vans Skate shoes during the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" they were a must have across the United States.
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
Sarah Gregorius is striking it lucky

After kicking off her career on a whim, Sarah Gregorius has played in Australia, Britain (for Liverpool) and Germany as well as holding a place in New Zealand's Football Ferns. Photo / Greg BowkerSeventeen, straight out of school, and just one big idea short of a life plan. A typical teenager really, so Sarah Gregorius' parents must have been curious when she sat them down for a chat."A friend and I are moving to Sydney to play football," she told them.Now, as you might expect, several parental concerns were raised over that statement. "It was pretty funny actually," Gregorius says, "but I've always done things in my own way, so I just let them talk about it until they eventually became comfortable with the idea. As long as I'm safe they're usually with me on whatever I decide to do."Even so, not even Gregorius thought a year of running about for Manly United in Sydney would be a career kickstarter. "I wasn't thinking about making a go of sport at all. It was more that I was asked to go and I thought: 'Yeah, why not? I've got nothing else to do at the moment'."You could even say it's admirable she turned up to every game match fit, considering and this was only nine years ago woman's football barely registered on the world's sporting radar. Sure, FIFA supported a World Cup and there were leagues popping up in various parts of the world, but it struggled for media interest or to even pay its way.Even now you could be forgiven for not knowing of this now 26 year old striker. Yet she is a fair dinkum, full time professional who has made a great living from representing New Zealand in 50 international matches, including two World Cups and the 2012 Olympic Games, while also turning out in the German woman's Bundesliga and for Liverpool FC, one of the world's most famous sporting brands.All of which makes her a compelling argument for the claim that woman's football offers the best potential for success of any sport, in either gender, in the country.While a minnow sport in New Zealand when compared to netball (143,000 registered netballers against 23,500 footballers), of the present Football Ferns squad, 13 players now play overseas full time, including six undertaking football scholarships at American universities such as UCLA, Louisiana State and Syracuse. Then there are another three overseas based Ferns at present unavailable through injuries, six from the wider under 20 squad who are based at United States colleges and two former Ferns now working for FIFA."I think we've completely flown under the radar," says Gregorius, now looking for a new club after ending her stint at Liverpool. "But I think with stories like Betsy [Hassett, now playing at Manchester City] people are starting to see the opportunities that are out there. I mean playing for your country will always be the highest honour, that goes without saying. But playing as a pro in the biggest women's sport in the world, that's just amazing. It's insane that I'm paid to play football. I've already paid for my university loan and I'm making a life out of sport which is something I'd never imagined possible."How, then, did she do it?Well, it didn't start back home in Upper Hutt. Her Dutch and Haitian parents, Balt and Marie Joelle, aren't sporty types, although growing up with two older brothers did mean a trial by rough and tumble. Mostly she'd knock a ball around a bit with mates at a nearby park, but it wasn't until she was 12 that a close friend invited her to join Upper Hutt City.Until then Gregorius had been a sporting dabbler. She'd already had a crack at cricket, tennis, hockey and touch rugby but doesn't have the height for netball.Initially dropped in midfield, a few games of running in confused circles saw her pushed up front where she's stayed ever since and by her second season she'd done enough to be selected for her first rep side."I think I took to it straight away," she says, "and that was the end of me being interested in anything else. I just loved the team aspect, the physicality and that, for someone like me, it didn't discriminate against my size."That's all well and good, but one ubiquitous element of this most fake Van Cleef & Arpels Cosmos ring diamonds tribal of sports somehow passed Gregorius by she doesn't have a favourite team, and that, quite frankly, is weird. An uncle tried flooding her with all things Arsenal during the 80s, but it didn't take. She even had to learn all the words to You'll Never Walk Alone while playing at Liverpool and yet, nothing. At most, she professes an appreciation of Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero and says she'll be "interested" to see how Argentina do at the upcoming World Cup.But mostly she's interested on her own game. It's that focus which has been a big part of her success, beginning with making the Wellington Federation rep side before shifting to Sydney. She returned home as a far more mature player in 2006 and her growing ambition saw her move to Auckland where she started training with the national under 20 squad. They were off to the age group World Cup in Russia later that year and Gregorius wanted in."That was such a great year, we travelled all over the place, then to go to Russia, that was just next level. I mean you can imagine what it's going to be like, but you just have no idea. It's so huge and exciting and completely unlike anything you've done before. I find it really difficult to articulate ."For a while, though, that looked like being the end of her road the opportunities available now didn't exist back in 2006 and she turned her attention to her business degree and a potential career starting job with AA Tourism. She didn't abandon football and kept playing at club and federation level, but while former team mates began jumping to the Football Ferns, her name never featured: "That period really was a test of my resilience and it was hard not to get down about it."Her spirits rose considerably in 2009, with an email invitation for a one month trial with the Ferns as they built to their qualifiers for the 2011 World Cup in Germany. Then one month turned into several months, until she found herself selected for a tour to Japan. She hit the training ground even harder and two weeks out from leaving, felt a nasty twinge in her knee.However, that wasn't going to stop her: she blanked out the pain, got plenty of treatment and flew off only for her knee to completely fail the day before her impending debut. She'd torn her anterior cruciate ligament, meaning surgery, six months of rehabilitation and another test of how much she wanted to make it.So, it was a hugely emotional moment when she was tapped fake van cleef jewelry to play Vanuatu in a World Cup qualifier in September 2010. "Hearing my name felt like the end of longest and most difficult journey of my life with this nervousness mixed with a real sense of pride. Then you think about what it means to play for your country you start imitation van cleef & arpels jewelry to feel very patriotic and humbled . it's sort of overwhelming I guess."Her big moment came and The Ferns won 14 0 but their striker didn't get within a bull's roar of scoring."Getting my first touch felt good, like a new journey had started, and then I was just terrible, a wreck, but I guess that was all part of getting a start and I wanted more."Fortunately, the selectors saw past her nervy display and she rewarded them with seven goals over her next five matches.The following year was a blur of international travel as the team played in Cyprus, Australia, China and Switzerland before finally arriving in Germany for the World Cup finals, the biggest event in women's sport."Well, getting there is one thing, dealing with it is something else. You just have to try to soak it all up and use it to play better. But then running out for our first match against Japan it was roasting hot, just so loud, and you can't help thinking that the whole world's watching. Then you're looking around wondering what's going on and you remember, 'Oh yeah, I'm going to play football in front of all these people'."
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
The Grand Caravan tours the country asking for your secrets

"Even as the performer who brings people in, I have no idea what people have said," says Dan Goronszy, the co founder and chief spruiker of The Grand Caravan (and the woman in grey).

She explains that once numerous people have had time to lay down their recordings on blood, sex or tears, her colleague, sound artist Sharyn Brand, cuts them into audio collages of six to eight minutes and plays them as a public event at the same location.

"When we were in Adelaide 80 per cent of people chose sex, which I thought was really interesting. We've never had that anywhere else before," says Ms Goronszy.

"But for them to come back and listen to it was a little risqu. They got a little giggly."

When I stumble upon the arts project cum social history repository, it's parked at the Women of the World Festival in Melbourne, having also appeared in South Australia, Geelong, and Marion Bay in Tasmania.

"I think there's something really special in being given a little space on your own to just speak without judgment or without anyone watching you," says Ms Goronszy.

The caravan itself began life in the 1980s as accommodation for a family of six, but was reborn in 2015 after a refit, debuting at the Melbourne Fringe Festival with room for 15 spectators to squeeze into fake van cleef & arpels clover diamond ring its tiny grandstand.

Though people often think they have nothing to say, according to Ms Goronszy the main problem is getting people to stop.

"We have women speaking about having miscarriages or having abortions," she says.

"People have spoken about their children dying and find this a safe space to have a moment, and come out and feel like they've had a connection."

When you enter the Grand Caravan you sit at the recording desk and Ms Goronszy asks which one of three red envelopes labelled blood, sex and tears you want to choose.

I choose blood. Ms Goronszy pulls out a card, shows me the cassette recorder and explains I only have 30 seconds to record my thoughts before the recording light goes out. Then she exits the van.

There's only one other instruction: don't use the words blood, sex and tears in your recording.

When I ask Ms Goronszy why, she explains that removing the "signifier" gives the final sound collage a sense of the universal.

"It creates opportunity for people to connect to anything that's happening in their own lives it makes it ambiguous about what people are speaking about and it draws people together."

Subscribe to the podcast Life Matters is your guide to a better life for you and those you love.

The Grand Caravan plays an unusual role. Through its recordings it's a storehouse of replica VCA ring community values and personal storytelling wherever it opens its door, but it retains confidentiality in the public performance.

Back in Adelaide, where the subject of sex got top billing, Ms Goronszy tells me that on successive nights, a man and a woman separately decided to simulate self love in the 30 seconds they had to record.

And did those moments find themselves in the final sound work?

"Oh, of course!" says Ms Goronszy, laughing.

"You've got to keep that stuff in, because that's where fake van cleef ring the conversation comes from!"

The Grand Caravan continues to tour in 2017 and its founders hope they can get the funding to take it north to the Northern Territory and Queensland.

"The personal is how we connect the world," says Ms Goronszy. "You get to offer people a way for them to have a voice where they may feel their voice is left out."
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
street race with

Mounties say 13 high end luxury cars were impounded and 13 people fined after an alleged street race in Metro Vancouver on Wednesday afternoon and police are looking at permanently Van Cleef & Arpels wedding ring replica seizing the vehicles. local time, police received several complaints of high end cars speeding southbound along Highway 99 in the area of the George Massey tunnel.

Witnesses reported the cars were travelling at speeds up to 200 km/h, and Van Cleef & Arpels ring copy on several occasions two cars would travel side by side and slow down to allow vehicles in front of them to take off in a race.

The cars exited the highway into Surrey, where six of the 13 vehicles were stopped by Surrey RCMP. The other seven cars were located and stopped by White Rock RCMP a short distance away.

Thirteen drivers were pulled over and their cars worth a total of more than $2 million were impounded.

"The vehicles that we're dealing with here were Lamborghinis, high end Mercedes, Maseratis, Aston Martins, high end Nissan sports cars," said RCMP Insp. Bryon Massie.

"The majority of them had personalized plates as well and were souped up, so they're fairly distinguished and the witnesses had no problem in providing us with the descriptors that were tracked back to the vehicles."

The drivers have each been fined $196 and will have to pay for the cost of impounding and storing their vehicles for seven days.

However, RCMP Supt. Norm Gaumont said police are looking at tougher measures.

"So we've asked our team to be looking at the possibility of criminal charges and . if we have enough evidence to lay a charge of dangerous driving. We're also going to be looking at seizing the vehicles for good," Gaumont said.

The names of the drivers have not been released, and Massie said it's not clear where they are from.

The registered owner of the Lamborghini, Massie said, is only 18 years old.

He said it appears the group was getting together to celebrate one of their colleagues leaving the area.

Massie said the incident highlights an important message to drivers: "Speed is fairly unforgiving. Whenever you're involved in a motor vehicle imitation Van Cleef ring accident where there's any speed at all, it's unforgiving . Slow down, be responsible and understand that speed limits are there for a reason."
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
Roger Moore had prouder achievements than playing James Bond

"I felt small, insignificant and rather ashamed that I had traveled so much making films and ignored what was going on around me," he would say years after starring in seven James Bond movies and upon accepting a role that his friend Audrey Hepburn inspired him to take on, goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.

Moore, who died Tuesday at age 89, didn't seem to take Bond that seriously even while playing him. Burdened with following Sean Connery as Agent 007, Moore kept it light, using a wry, amused tone and perpetually arched eyebrow as if he had landed on the set by accident. Connery embodied for millions the role of Bond as the suave drinker, womanizer and disposer of evil. Moore didn't so much inhabit the character as look upon him with disbelief.

"To me, the Bond situations are so ridiculous, so outrageous," he once said. "I mean, this man is supposed to be a spy and yet, everybody knows he's a spy. Every bartender in the world offers him martinis that are shaken, not stirred. What kind of serious spy is recognized everywhere he goes? It's outrageous. So you have to treat the humor outrageously as well."

The handsome, dark haired actor had long, full lives before and after his debut as Bond, in 1973. 1950s 60s TV series "Maverick" as Beauregarde Maverick, the English cousin of the Wild West's Maverick brothers, Bret and Bart. series "The Alaskans." In England, he had a long running TV hit with "The Saint," playing Simon Templar, the enigmatic action hero who helps put wealthy crooks in jail while absconding with their fortunes. By the time the series, which also aired in the United States, ended in 1969, his partnership with its producers had made him a wealthy man.

He succeeded even as critics scorned. His performance opposite Lana Turner in the 1956 movie "Diane" was likened by Time magazine to "a lump of English roast beef." In the 1970s, New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby dismissed Moore's acting abilities as having "reduced all human emotions to a series of variations on one gesture, the raising of the right eyebrow."

He was more inspired when helping others. He became the UNICEF ambassador in 1991 and five years later attended the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, and disclosed that he too had been a victim.

"I was molested when I was a child not seriously but I didn't tell my mother until I was 16, because I felt that it was something to be ashamed of," he told The Associated Press at the time.

He gave no details, but said it was important to encourage young victims not to feel guilty.

"They're being exploited. We have to tell them that," Moore said.

In 2003, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, not for his acting, but for his humanitarian work. Moore received the Dag Hammarskjold Inspiration Award for his contributions to UNICEF and was named a commander in France's National Order of Arts and Letters in 2008, an Van Cleef & Arpels wedding ring replica award he said was worth "more than an Oscar." In a statement Tuesday, UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake praised Moore as one of the "great champions for children."

"In his most famous roles as an actor, Sir Roger was the epitome of cool sophistication; but in his work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, he was a passionate and highly persuasive advocate for children," Lake wrote. "He once said that it was fake van cleef jewelry up to all of us to give children a more peaceful future. Together with Lady Kristina, he worked very hard to do so."

Born in London, the only child of a policeman, Moore had studied painting before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He played a few small roles in theater and films before his mandatory army duty, then moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. He appeared opposite Elizabeth Taylor in 1954's "The Last Time I Saw Paris" and with Eleanor Parker in "Interrupted Melody" the following year.

In 1970, he became managing director for European production for Faberge's Brut Productions. With the company, he co starred with Tony Curtis in "The Persuaders!" for British television and helped produce "A Touch of Class," which won a best actress Oscar for Glenda Jackson.

Three years later, he made his first Bond film, "Live and Let Die." He would make six more, "The Man With the Golden Gun," ''The Spy Who Loved Me," ''Octopussy," ''Moonraker," ''For Your Eyes Only and "A View to a Kill" over the next 12 years. And while the Bond of the Ian Fleming novels that the films were based on was generally described as being in his 30s, Moore would stay with the role until he was 57.

He continued to work regularly in films after handing over Bond to Timothy Dalton, but never with Van Cleef & Arpels ring imitation the same success. His post Bond films included such forgettable efforts as "The Quest" with Jean Claude Van Damme and "Spice World" with the Spice Girls.

Moore was divorced three times, from skater Doorn Van Steyn in 1953, English singer Dorothy Squires in 1969 and Italian actress Luisa Mattioli, the mother of his children Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian, in 2000.
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
Research dispells doubt about authenticity of Van Gogh still life

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS A still life once thought to be by Vincent van Gogh but later downgraded to the work of an anonymous artist because of doubts about its authenticity is indeed by the tormented Dutch impressionist, researchers said Tuesday.

The process leading to the confirmation reads like a cold case detective story, with a new X ray technique helping experts re examine what they already knew about the painting and draw on a growing pool of scholarly Van Gogh research.

A detailed X ray of an underlying painting of two wrestlers and knowledge of the painter period at a Belgian art academy combined to lead a team of researchers to conclude that life with meadow flowers and roses really is by Van Gogh.

The painting is owned by the Kroeller Mueller Museum in the central Netherlands and was being hung there Tuesday among its other Van Gogh works.

There was no real eureka moment for the team of experts studying the still life and the underlying image of wrestlers, said Louis van Tilborgh, a senior researcher at Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum who took part in the confirmation process.

the pieces just fell into place, he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The painting, on a 100 centimetre by 80 centimetre (40x31 inch) canvas, was bought by the Kroeller Mueller Museum in 1974 as a Van Gogh. The work was thought to come from the artist period living with his brother Theo in Paris from late 1886.

when they hung it (in the museum), doubts crept in about its Van Cleef & Arpels necklace imitation authenticity, said Van Tilborgh.

Experts thought the canvas was too large for that period, the depiction of a vase brimming over with flowers and yet more flowers lying on a table in the foreground was too exuberant, too busy. The signature was in an unusual position for Van Gogh the top right hand corner.

With the doubts piling up, the museum in 2003 decided to attribute the painting to an anonymous artist instead of to Van Gogh.

But the detective work did not end there.

An X ray taken five years earlier had already revealed an indistinct image of the wrestlers and continued to interest researchers.

Now, a new more detailed X ray has shown the wrestlers in more detail, along with the brush strokes and pigments used. They all pointed back to Van Gogh.

can see the wrestlers more Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra Necklace replica clearly and the fact that they are wearing loin cloths, said Van Tilborgh.

Having models pose half naked was a defining characteristic of the Antwerp academy where Van Gogh studied in early 1886. So was the size of the canvas, the Kroeller Mueller Museum said in a statement.

Vincent wrote to his brother about needing the large canvas, new brushes and paint. Theo helped the penniless artist buy the materials and a week later Van Gogh wrote back that he was delighted with the painting of two wrestlers.

Van Tilborgh said the brush strokes and pigments in the wrestlers painting also corresponded with what experts now know about Van Gogh work in Antwerp.

The wrestlers also help explain the exuberance of the floral still life, the Kroeller Mueller Museum statement said Van Gogh had to cover up all of the old image with his new work.

The detective work is described in a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace replica new publication by the Van Gogh Museum titled of a flower still life in the Kroeller Mueller Museum and a lost Antwerp painting by Van Gogh.
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
The End of the Euro

In every economic crisis there comes a moment of clarity. In Europe soon, millions of people will wake up to realize that the euro as we know it is gone. Economic chaos awaits them.

To understand why, first strip away your illusions. Europe's crisis to date is a series of supposedly "decisive" turning points that each turned out to be just another step down a steep hill. Greece's upcoming election on June 17 is another such moment. While the so called "pro bailout" forces may prevail in terms of parliamentary seats, some form of new currency will soon flood the streets of Athens. It is already nearly impossible to save Greek membership in the euro area: depositors flee banks, taxpayers delay tax payments, and companies postpone paying their suppliers either because they can't pay or because they expect soon to be able to pay in cheap drachma.

The troika of the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB), and International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proved unable to restore the prospect of recovery in Greece, and any new lending program would run into the same difficulties. In apparent frustration, the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, remarked last week, "As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time."

Ms. Lagarde's empathy is wearing thin and this is unfortunate particularly as the Greek failure mostly demonstrates how wrong a single currency is for Europe. The Greek backlash reflects the enormous pain and difficulty that comes with trying to arrange "internal devaluations" (a euphemism for big wage and spending cuts) in order to restore competitiveness and repay an excessive debt level.

Faced with five years of recession, more than 20 percent unemployment, further cuts to come, and a stream of failed promises from politicians inside and outside the country, a political backlash seems only natural. With IMF leaders, EC officials, and financial journalists floating the idea of a "Greek exit" from the euro, who can now invest in or sign long term contracts in Greece? Greece's economy can only get worse.

Some European politicians are now telling us that an orderly exit for Greece is feasible under current conditions, and Greece will be the only nation that leaves. They are wrong. Greece's exit is simply another step in a chain of events that leads towards a chaotic dissolution of the euro zone.

During the next stage of the crisis, Europe's electorate will be rudely awakened to the large financial risks which have been foisted upon them in failed attempts to keep the single currency alive. When Greece quits the euro, Van Cleef & Arpels fake necklace its government will default on approximately 121 billion euros of debt to official creditors, and about 27 billion euros owed to the IMF.

More importantly and less known to German taxpayers, Greece will also default on 155 billion euros directly owed to the euro system (comprised of the ECB and the 17 national central banks in the euro zone). This includes 110 billion euros provided automatically to Greece through the Target2 payments system which handles settlements between central banks for countries using the euro. As depositors and lenders flee Greek banks, someone needs to finance that capital flight, otherwise Greek banks would fail. This role is taken on by other euro area central banks, which have quietly lent large funds, with the balances reported in the Target2 account. The vast bulk of this lending is, in practice, done by the Bundesbank since capital flight mostly goes to Germany, although all members of the euro system share the losses if there are defaults.

The ECB has always vehemently denied that it has taken an excessive amount of risk despite its increasingly relaxed lending policies. But between Target2 and direct Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra Necklace fake bond purchases alone, the euro system claims on troubled periphery countries are now approximately 1.1 trillion euros (this is our estimate based on available official data). This amounts to over 200 percent of the (broadly defined) capital of the euro system. No responsible bank would claim these sums are minor risks to its capital or to taxpayers. These claims also amount to 43 percent of German Gross Domestic Product, which is now around 2.57 trillion euros. With Greece proving that all this financing is deeply risky, the euro system will appear far more fragile and dangerous to taxpayers and investors.

Jacek Rostowski, the Polish Finance Minister, recently warned that the calamity of a Greek default is likely to result in a flight from banks and sovereign debt across the periphery, and that to avoid a greater calamity all remaining member nations need to be provided with unlimited funding for at least 18 months. Mr. Rostowski expresses concern, however, that the ECB is not prepared to provide such a firewall, and no other entity has the capacity, legitimacy, or will to do so.

We agree: Once it dawns on people that the ECB already has a large amount of credit risk on its books, it seems very unlikely that the ECB would start providing limitless funds to all other governments that face pressure from the bond market. The Greek trajectory of austerity backlash default is likely to be repeated elsewhere so why would the Germans want the ECB to double or quadruple down by suddenly ratcheting up loans to everyone else?

The most likely scenario is that the ECB will reluctantly and haltingly provide funds to other nations an on again, off again pattern of support and that simply won't be enough to stabilize the situation. Having seen the destruction of a Greek exit, and knowing that both the ECB and German taxpayers will not tolerate unlimited additional losses, investors and depositors will respond by fleeing banks in other peripheral countries and holding off on investment and spending.

Capital flight could last for months, leaving banks in the periphery short of liquidity and forcing them to contract credit pushing their economies into deeper recessions and their voters towards anger. Even as the ECB refuses to provide large amounts of visible funding, the automatic mechanics of Europe's payment system will mean the capital flight from Spain and Italy to German banks is transformed into larger and larger de facto loans by the Bundesbank to Banca d'Italia and Banco de Espana essentially to the Italian and Spanish states. German taxpayers will begin to see through this scheme and become afraid of further losses.

The end of the euro system looks like this. The periphery suffers ever deeper recessions failing to meet targets set by the troika and their public debt burdens will become more obviously unaffordable. The euro falls significantly against other currencies, but not in a manner that Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry copy necklace makes Europe more attractive as a place for investment.

Instead, there will be recognition that the ECB has lost control of monetary policy, is being forced to create credits to finance capital flight and prop up troubled sovereigns and that those credits may not get repaid in full. The world will no longer think of the euro as a safe currency; rather investors will shun bonds from the whole region, and even Germany may have trouble issuing debt at reasonable interest rates. Finally, German taxpayers will be suffering unacceptable inflation and an apparently uncontrollable looming bill to bail out their euro partners.

The simplest solution will be for Germany itself to leave the euro, forcing other nations to scramble and follow suit. Germany's guilt over past conflicts and a fear of losing the benefits from 60 years of European integration will no doubt postpone the inevitable. But here's the problem with postponing the inevitable when the dam finally breaks, the consequences will be that much more devastating since the debts will be larger and the antagonism will be more intense.

A disorderly break up of the euro area will be far more damaging to global financial markets than the crisis of 2008. In fall 2008 the decision was whether or how governments should provide a back stop to big banks and the creditors to those banks. Now some European governments face insolvency themselves. The European economy accounts for almost 1/3 of world GDP. Total euro sovereign debt outstanding comprises about $11 trillion, of which at least $4 trillion must be regarded as a near term risk for restructuring.

Europe's rich capital markets and banking system, including the market for 185 trillion dollars in outstanding euro denominated derivative contracts, will be in turmoil and there will be large scale capital flight out of Europe into the United States and Asia. Who can be confident that our global megabanks are truly ready to withstand the likely losses? It is almost certain that large numbers of pensioners and households will find their savings are wiped out directly or inflation erodes what they saved all their lives. The potential for political turmoil and human hardship is staggering.

For the last three years Europe's politicians have promised to "do whatever it takes" to save the euro. It is now clear that this promise is beyond their capacity to keep because it requires steps that are unacceptable to their electorates. No one knows for sure how long they can delay the complete collapse of the euro, perhaps months or even several more years, but we are moving steadily to an ugly end.

Whenever nations fail in a crisis, the blame game starts. Some in Europe and the IMF's leadership are already covering their tracks, implying that corruption and those "Greeks not paying taxes" caused it all to fail. This is wrong: the euro system is generating miserable unemployment and deep recessions in Ireland, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain also. Despite Troika sponsored adjustment programs, conditions continue to worsen in the periphery. We cannot blame corrupt Greek politicians for all that. and others, to work on how to dismantle the euro area. While no dissolution will be truly orderly, there are means to reduce the chaos. Many technical, legal, and financial market issues could be worked out in advance. We need plans to deal with: the introduction of new currencies, multiple sovereign defaults, recapitalization of banks and insurance groups, and divvying up the assets and liabilities of the euro system. Some nations will soon need foreign reserves to backstop their new currencies. Most importantly, Europe needs to salvage its great achievements, including free trade and labor mobility across the continent, while extricating itself from this colossal error of a single currency.

Unfortunately for all of us, our politicians refuse to go there they hate to admit their mistakes and past incompetence, and in any case, the job of coordinating those seventeen discordant nations in the wind down of this currency regime is, perhaps, beyond reach.

Forget about a rescue in the form of the G20, the G8, the G7, a new European Union Treasury, the issue of Eurobonds, a large scale debt mutualization scheme, or any other bedtime story. We are each on our own. This post is cross posted from The Baseline Scenario. Read more from the Fiscal Affairs series here. Peter Boone is chair of Effective Intervention, a UK based charity, an associate at the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, and a principal in Salute Capital Management Limited.
Sep 16 '17 · 0 comments
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