Nancy and Roberto's Boston Public Garden Civil Ceremony | Boston ...

Simple, pure, honest, family, love and happiness? these are the take home messages that Dan and I took home from Nancy and Roberto?s Boston Public Garden Civil Wedding Ceremony. These two walked up, read over the plan and then simply took their place before their closest family and friends. The ceremony began humbly and with only one intention: to join these two in legal marriage forever. They laughed, she cried a little bit, and they promised to love each other forever. With a kiss and an embrace they were married.

Behind them, we could see over 3 brides and 3 bridal parties, and even one very happy?Quincea?era group! Even though they were all lovely, I felt like we were with the coolest couple in the park? the CITY for that matter. The only thing that mattered that day to them was love and it showed. Walking around with them we passed a crazy stressed out bride focused intently on her photos and I looked back at Nancy and Roberto and loved that they had just gotten married too? and she was happily walking around the park, with all the attention going to the other brides. It was a really sweet feeling for me, to see that humility and the happiness that these two were showing on this, their wedding day.

We had a blast in the park and then headed to their dinner, where they hosted?their?family?and friends, celebrating?their?newly born marriage. It was a wedding I will never forget.

Justice of the Peace: Leslie Ann Zises ? | ? Venue: The Boston Public Garden ? | ? Dinner: Bistro du Midi

Source: http://www.bethanydanblog.com/nancy-and-robertos-boston-public-garden-civil-ceremony/

kevin hart living social elizabeth warren Earthquake Costa Rica Clinton speech Michael Strahan Griselda Blanco

Syrian violence spills into Jordan, Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) ? A Jordanian soldier was killed in clashes with armed militants trying to cross the border into Syria on Monday and sectarian clashes overnight in Lebanon left four dead as Syria's civil war spilled into neighboring countries.

Jordanian Information Minister Sameeh Maaytah said the soldier was the first member of the country's military to be killed in violence related to Syria's civil war. He died in clashes with militants trying to illegally enter Syria to join rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime. Maaytah did not say whether the militants were Jordanians or foreign fighters trying to jump into the fray in the neighboring country.

A statement by the Jordanian military said the soldier was killed in a shootout with a group of eight suspected militants armed with pistols and machineguns. Jordanian troops detained the suspected gunmen and authorities are questioning them, the statement said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner blamed Syria, saying "the onus for this kind of violence rests squarely on the Assad regime."

A number of foreign Islamists have been fighting in Syria alongside the rebels. Jordan's banned Salafi movement ? which promotes an ultraconservative brand of Islam ? has sent several fighters to Syria in past months and Jordanian border patrols have caught some of them recently.

In Lebanon, troops launched a major security operation to open all roads and force gunmen off the streets, trying to contain an outburst of violence set off by the assassination of a top intelligence official who was a powerful opponent of Syria. Sectarian clashes overnight killed at least two people.

Sporadic cracks of gunfire could be heard in the Lebanese capital as troops began the operation a day after the funeral for the slain official, Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan.

Opponents of Syria have blamed the regime in Damascus for the al-Hassan's killing in a Beirut car bomb on Friday. With Lebanon already tense and deeply divided over the civil war next door, the assassination has threatened to drag the country back into the kind of sectarian strife that plagued it for decades ? much of it linked to Syria.

In the Lebanese capital, soldiers backed by armored personal carriers with heavy machine guns took up position on major thoroughfares and dismantled roadblocks. At times, troops exchanged gunfire with Sunni gunmen.

Al-Hassan was a Sunni who challenged Syria and its powerful Lebanese ally, the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. The uprising in Syria is dominated by the Sunni majority fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, who like many in his regime is a member of the Alawite sect ? an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Lebanon and Syria share similar sectarian divides that have fed tensions in both countries.

Most of Lebanon's Sunnis have backed Syria's mainly Sunni rebels, while Lebanese Shiites tend to back Assad.

The assassination has imperiled Lebanon's fragile political balance. Many politicians blamed Damascus for the killing and angry protesters tried to storm the government palace after al-Hassan's funeral on Sunday, venting their rage at leaders they consider puppets of a murderous Syrian regime. But were pushed back by troops who opened fire in the air and lobbed volleys of tear gas.

Meanwhile, cease-fire efforts by U.N. and Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi appeared to be faltering.

Syria's state-run news agency SANA said Damascus supports the truce proposal, but would not commit to halting fire during a four-day Muslim holiday until Western countries and their Gulf allies stop supporting rebels and halt their weapons supplies to the anti-regime fighters.

Brahimi met with Assad in Damascus on Sunday as part of his push for a cease-fire between rebels and government forces for the Eid al-Adha holiday, which begins Oct. 26. He told reporters following a closed-door meeting that he also had held talks earlier with opposition groups inside and outside the country and received "promises" but not a "commitment" from them to honor the cease-fire.

SANA said Assad assured Brahimi that he supported his effort, but that any political solution to the conflict must be "based on the principle of halting terrorism, a commitment from the countries involved in supporting, arming and harboring terrorists in Syria to stop doing such acts."

The U.N. peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous, said Monday that the United Nations is already planning for a peacekeeping force in Syria should a cease-fire take hold and pending a Security Council mandate.

Ladsous said, however, it is still too early to say how many peacekeepers might be deployed in such an eventual force.

Diplomats say that Ladsous has told Brahimi he could put together a force of up to 3,000 peacekeepers in the event a longer truce took hold.

But Ladsous said, "it certainly would be premature to mention a figure because it would depend on the situation." He spoke to reporters at a U.N. briefing in New York.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged the international community to support Brahimi and his cease-fire proposal. Ashton toured the Zaatari refugee camp Monday, the first day of her five-day visit to the Middle East.

Jordan hosts around 210,000 Syrian refugees ? the largest number in the region, according to the U.N. refugee agency. The Zaatari camp is home to some 35,000 Syrians.

More than 33,000 people have been killed since the uprising started in March last year.

Syrian authorities blame the revolt on a foreign conspiracy and accuse Saudi Arabia and Qatar, along with the U.S, other Western countries and Turkey, of funding, training and arming the rebels, whom they describe as "terrorists."

____

Associated Press writers Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, Bradley Klapper in Washington and Michael Astor at the United Nations contributed reporting.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-violence-spills-jordan-lebanon-113714536.html

Wimbledon 2012 TV Schedule anderson cooper fourth of july Jason Terry IFE Fireworks 2012 4th Of July emma stone

Paul Kurtz, "giant" of humanism, dead at 86

GENEVA (Reuters) - Paul Kurtz, a leading U.S. philosopher who devoted his life to fighting prejudice against people who reject belief in a god and promoting a non-religious stance in life, has died at the age of 86, websites reported on Monday.

The secular humanist Center for Inquiry (CFI), which he founded in 1991, said the one-time Buffalo university professor - who as a young soldier helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp in 1945 - died in Amherst, New York, at the weekend.

"He was one of the most influential figures in the humanist and skeptical movements from the late 1960s through the first decade of the 21st century," said an obituary issued by CFI -which he had left over a succession dispute in 2010.

In Geneva, he was hailed by Roy Brown, chief representative at the United Nations Human Rights Council for the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) which Kurtz co-chaired from 1986-1994, as "a giant of our movement".

Brown, a former IHEU president, said Kurtz was especially important for founding in 1969 the not-for-profit publishing house Prometheus Books that issues works critical of religion that many other publishers are reluctant to handle.

In recent years, the U.S.-based Prometheus has brushed aside threats to publish studies on the origins of Islam that question the traditional history of the faith, and on the situation of atheists and agnostics in Muslim countries.

Kurtz, born into a New York Jewish family in 1925, wrote or edited more than 50 books on ethics without religion, critiques of religion and the paranormal, and on skepticism, or the challenging of received wisdom.

When receiving a lifetime award for his work in 2007, he declared: "I am a secular humanist because I am not religious. I draw my inspiration not from religion or spirituality but from science, ethics, philosophy and the arts."

His last book, "What is Secular Humanism?", appeared in 2006. 30 years earlier he founded the journal "Free Inquiry" which circulates widely in U.S. universities and is credited with driving a shift from religion among younger Americans.

Kurtz is widely seen as the forerunner of what is sometimes dubbed the "New Atheist" movement - represented by figures like British biologist Richard Dawkins, French philosopher Michel Onfray and U.S. professor Daniel Dennett.

He is also known for inventing the term "eupraxsophy" to describe philosophies of life like secular humanism that reject supernatural belief and emphasize the importance of living an ethical life based on reason, logic and science.

His "Center for Inquiry" - aimed at fostering a secular society based on those principles - spawned a movement that spread from the United States across the world from the 1990s, and today has offshoots in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

(Reported by Robert Evans; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paul-kurtz-giant-humanism-dead-86-190458448.html

thursday night football At&t Wireless apple apple 9/11 Jerry Lawler andy murray

Happy Hour Projects: $50 Mikarose Giveaway!

I recently had the opportunity to?try a lovely dress from Mikarose. ?Mikarose offers stylish dresses, skirts and tops with a modest cut.

Ever since I went to work for a company that lets me wear jeans every day, my wardrobe has gradually gotten lighter and lighter when it comes to clothes I can wear for special occasions. ?I have a few dresses that are perfect for a date night on the town... but for family events like baby showers and weddings, or parties with co-workers there, I want to look nice AND feel?comfortable?about what I'm wearing.

I got the Sophie dress, and it fits the bill on both counts! ?I love the chiffon and the ruffles - really feminine without being over-the-top. ?It's high quality and a great, true-to-size fit.

I love this dress, and I think you will love Mikarose too - so I'm happy to tell you that Mikarose is giving away a $50 gift certificate so that you can try one of their skirts, tops, or dresses too!

Rafflecopter will walk you through the ways to enter below. ?The giveaway ?is open to U.S. and Canadian readers and ends at 12:01 EST on 10/25. ?Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: I was sent a free dress from Mikarose so that I could offer you my honest opinion about it for the purpose of this review.

Source: http://www.happyhourprojects.com/2012/10/50-mikarose-giveaway.html

the voice season 2 ron paul maine safe house jay z and beyonce baby cpac powell the last lecture

Sudan: 660 dead since 2011 in fighting with rebels

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) ? Sudan says that fighting in two states along its disputed border with South Sudan has left over 600 people dead over the past 16 months, releasing rare casualty figures in an ongoing conflict that has inflamed tensions between the two countries.

Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud told the Sudanese parliament Tuesday that 662 people had been killed in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, where rebel forces are battling government troops, since fighting broke out in June 2011. The minister's comments were quoted by the daily paper Al Sahafa on Wednesday.

Mahmoud said that the military and police sustained heavy losses in battling the insurgency, but did not break down the figures between civilian, government, and rebel casualties.

The fighting pits the Khartoum government against rebel groups allied with the guerrilla forces that eventually came to power in South Sudan, but were left on the north's side of the border after the south became independent in July 2011 according to a deal that ended decades of civil war.

It broke out first in oil-producing South Kordofan shortly before South Sudan's declaration of independence, then spread to neighboring Blue Nile state. Rights groups have reported government bombings of villages in the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan during the fighting. The Sudanese government has denied bombing civilians in its Nuba Mountains campaign.

A spokesman for the rebels told The Associated Press by phone that his group rejects the figures. "The government of Sudan is continuing to lie and give false information," said Arnu Lodi of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, questioning the government's ability to gather statistics on the fighting. He declined to provide any casualty figures of his own.

Khartoum says the SPLM-North fighters are backed by South Sudan, an accusation the Juba government denies.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 700,000 people have been displaced or severely affected by the fighting in the two over the past fifteen months. More than 200,000 alone have fled to neighboring Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Since the fighting began more than a year ago, access to the remote region by the United Nations and international aid agencies has been restricted by the Sudanese government, making it difficult to verify conditions in the area.

Meanwhile, this week the parliaments of Sudan and South Sudan both ratified an agreement signed by the two countries' presidents last month in the Ethiopian capital. The deal calls for a cessation of all hostilities that brought the countries to the brink of all-out war earlier this year. The deal enables the resumption of oil exports from South Sudan, which the Juba government suspended in January in a dispute with Khartoum over transit fees for southern oil.

Also, an ambush by unknown assailants killed a U.N.-African Union peacekeeper in the western region of Darfur, the mission said, bringing to 43 those killed in the region since the mission started its work in 2007.

UNAMID said in a press release that three others were wounded in the ambush Wednesday in North Darfur state as a convoy was on its way to assess reports of violence in the region of Habasha North.

The release said UNAMID personnel came under a combination of automatic and mortar fire by unidentified assailants. It called on the government of Sudan to investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice.

At the United Nations, the Security Council issued a statement condemning the attack "in the strongest terms" and called on the Sudanese government to "swiftly investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice."

Sudan's government has been battling rebel groups in Darfur since 2003. More than 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Four Nigerian peacekeepers were killed and eight wounded in an ambush in Sudan's restive West Darfur region on Oct. 2.

___

Associated Press writer Maggie Fick contributed reporting from Cairo and Associated Press writer Ron DePasquale contributed from the United Nations in New York.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sudan-660-dead-since-2011-fighting-rebels-202021330.html

bret michaels pekingese tcu football westminster bonnaroo 2012 lineup twisted metal sea lion

Cranberry Juice Drops Blood Pressure : Easy Health Options?

Sam Rolley | Oct 17, 2012 | Comments 0

Cranberry juice has steadily gained a reputation for improving health and as a particularly helpful food for protecting the bladder and urinary tract. And now studies indicate that antioxidants in cranberry juice also effectively support the cardiovascular system and lower blood pressure.

Researchers have measured the effects of cranberry juice on blood pressure as part of a controlled diet over the span of two months.

At the end of two months, blood pressure values for people drinking low-calorie cranberry juice dropped from an average of 121/73 mmHg to 118/70 mmHg. The researchers believe the antioxidants found in cranberry juice are responsible for bringing down the blood pressure readings.

Like this:

Be the first to like this.

Filed Under: Alternative Medicine ? Easy Health Options News ? Heart and Cardiovascular

About the Author: Staff writer Sam Rolley began a career in journalism working for a small town newspaper while seeking a B.A. in English. After learning about many of the biases present in most modern newsrooms, Rolley became determined to find a position in journalism that would allow him to combat the unsavory image that the news industry has gained. He is dedicated to seeking the truth and exposing the lies disseminated by the mainstream media at the behest of their corporate masters, special interest groups and information gatekeepers.

Source: http://easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/cranberry-juice-drops-blood-pressure/

mike jones just friends chronicle george lopez bedtime stories micron susan g komen

Do Your Homework Before the Interview | Healthcare News ...

Once you?ve landed that all-important job interview, your next move is to gather as much information about the company as possible. To do that you?ll need to scout around. Remember the scouting motto ? be prepared!

Every job candidate should know what the prospective employer?s product is, if the company had a good year and if the corporation is global or local.

?Having more than a casual understanding of the company shows a commitment to the company and provides insight into how you?ll work if hired,? says Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com in Wellesley, Mass. ?Nothing turns off an employer more than interviewing someone who doesn?t have a basic understanding of their business, products or industry.?

Coleman explains that by understanding the core values of the company, job seekers can make a point of highlighting their own personal goals that support those same values.

?Research the company in professional journals, newspapers, associations, on the Internet and research the company product,? said Kenneth Goldberg, assistant professor for public administration at National University in San Diego, CA. ?Find out how the industry is doing and who their major competitors are.?

To be competitive in the job market, accurate and timely information is essential. You can gather a tremendous amount of business intelligence on the Internet. Here are some Web resources:

• www.hoovers.com for public and private businesses.
• www.business.com for news and research on 10,000 public and 44,000 private companies.
• The career center at your alma mater and the alumni association.

Five to 10 hours of good research should be enough to be prepared with a solid understanding of the company, suggests Coleman.

Leonard P. Morrison, director of the MBA Center for Career Development at F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, near Boston, says research will allow the job seeker to develop a holistic understanding of the organization.

This understanding can be tested by a single interview prep question that every candidate should be prepared to address: ?For the next 20 minutes talk to me about our firm, our industry, the job for which you are applying and why you are the best candidate for the position.? Morrison says if you can answer that question, you?re ready to take on the job interview.

Time spent gathering information before the interview can take some of the apprehension and anxiety out of the process.

Now, take a deep breath and show your future employer you?ve done your homework.

As a freelance journalist since 1997, I write for national consumer and trade magazines, websites, and custom publishers. I also write two blogs, one called Living Green, Living Well and the other on interior design called Design Eye. My writing specialties include the environment, canine health, design, construction and technology, careers and health. When not writing, I'm busy being an incurable tree-hugger and avid dog lover with two badly behaved chocolate Labradors.

Source: http://career-news.allhealthcarejobs.com/2012/10/17/do-your-homework-before-the-interview/

david wilson playstation all stars battle royale kim zolciak kim zolciak travis pastrana quinton coples a.j. jenkins