Nude Tones

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They say that fashion is cyclical and that everything comes back (hello, power shoulders and hippie headgear!), but who knew the turnaround would be so fast! You see, dear readers, around this time last year, your trusty WhoWhatWear.com editors reported on an exciting new spring trend: New Nudes. And while that was then and this is now, this pale palette still feels decidedly fresh and evergreen this season. From blush to beige to ecru and eggshell right now neutral apparel has some serious appeal. Of course, there are a few differences to the way our favorite fashion-philes are incorporating this hue into their repertoire, so we are happy to highlight all the particulars in today's How They Wear: Nude Tones feature! Nude is nice for an elegant evening event, as our two favorite KatesÂ--Bosworth and MossÂ--prove. Seen at the Love Ball in London, Moss went for a Chiffon Tank Top Embroidered With Pearls from the Valentino Spring 2010 Couture collection and Christian Louboutin's Pigalle Python Pumps ($995). The texture and eye-catching pop of color plus the subtly patterned heels add up to a truly successful lavish look. Be sure to try this Asymmetrical Ruffle Dress ($348) from Milly, Camilla & Marc's Constantine Dress ($560), or Topshop's Lace Slip ($90) for some similarly fantastic styles!

Another way to wear neutrals is to play with shape and proportion, as the lovely Caroline Sieber wisely did. Sieber opted for a beautiful Valentino Side-Draped Dress ($4590) while attending the fashion house's Haute Couture S/S 2010 at Couvent des Cordeliers. The oversized scale of the swirled organza bow adds a fashion-forward feel to her pale party frock, and we love how she tempered the drama of the dress with dark textured stockings and chic Chanel soles. Though it's not quite as bold, we also like Diane von Furstenberg's Milton Dress ($465) for it's Sieber-like style!

Of course, some of our style stars are reaching for a nice nude-noir mash up, and that is perfectly fine with us, considering how fresh it feels for spring. For example, Chanel beauty ambassador Poppy Delevigne opted for a crÃ¨me colored jacket and blouse with skinny black trousers when she attended the Vanessa Paradis-hosted Chanel Rouge Coco dinner during NYFW, while Olivia Palermo opted for a high-contrast combo on a recent UK visit. Seen here at The Langham Hotel in London, Palermo mixed up her muted Friends With Benefits Giselle Tweed Jacket ($1000) and Alba Tweed High Waisted Shorts ($400) by adding Freda's Silk Vest ($219). Adding a layer of silky sheen in a soft champagne shade is a seriously smart strategy, so make sure to check out Tucker's Camisole ($176) and wear it under your favorite jackets all season long!

And while contrast is a chic choice, we also like how Ashley Olsen kept the palette of her ensemble consistent. Snapped at the S/S 10 Tommy Hilfiger show at Bryant Park, OlsenÂ--who is still riding the wave of excellent press she received from The Row's first runway showÂ--looked gorgeous in an all-griege outfit. A pair of The Row pantsÂ--or these Narrow Capri Pants ($595) from Piazza SempioneÂ--combined perfectly with a heather Tommy Hilfiger top, proving that two lights can most definitely make a right. Â--KM


A move by Brunei to punish gay sex by stoning to death has been condemned as “inhuman” by the UN.

The new penal code is due to be implemented on Wednesday and is in keeping with sharia law, according to the Asian nation.

In a statement on Saturday, the office of sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said the changes would “criminalis[e] and dete[r] acts that are against the teachings of Islam”.

The new punishments will also include the death penalty for people committing adultery, amputations for theft, as well as introducing whipping for sodomy, adultery or rape.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN’s top human rights official, urged the government “to stop the entry into force of this draconian new penal code, which would mark a serious setback for human rights protections for the people of Brunei if implemented”.

LGBT+ rights around the globe Show all 9 1 /9 LGBT+ rights around the globe LGBT+ rights around the globe Russia Russia’s antipathy towards homosexuality has been well established following the efforts of human rights campaigners. However, while it is legal to be homosexual, LGBT couples are offered no protections from discrimination. They are also actively discriminated against by a 2013 law criminalising LGBT “propaganda” allowing the arrest of numerous Russian LGBT activists. AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Brunei Brunei recently introduced a law to make sodomy punishable by stoning to death. It was already illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Mauritania Men who are found having sex with other men face stoning, while lesbians can be imprisoned, under Sharia law. However, the state has reportedly not executed anyone for this ‘crime’ since 1987 Alamy LGBT+ rights around the globe Sudan Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal under Sudanese law. Men can be executed on their third offence, women on their fourth Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Saudi Arabia Homosexuality and gender realignment is illegal and punishable by death, imprisonment, whipping and chemical castration Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Yemen The official position within the country is that there are no gays. LGBT inviduals, if discovered by the government, are likely to face intense pressure. Punishments range from flogging to the death penalty Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Nigeria Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal and in some northern states punishable with death by stoning. This is not a policy enacted across the entire country, although there is a prevalent anti-LGBT agenda pushed by the government. In 2007 a Pew survey established that 97% of the population felt that homosexuality should not be accepted. It is punishable by 14 years in prison Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Somalia Homosexuality was established as a crime in 1888 and under new Somali Penal Code established in 1973 homosexual sex can be punishable by three years in prison. A person can be put to death for being a homosexual Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Iraq Although same-sex relationships have been decriminalised, much of the population still suffer from intense discrimination. Additionally, in some of the country over-run by the extremist organisation Isis, LGBT individuals can face death by stoning Getty

Her statement comes amid global outcry at the development in Brunei, which is a former British protectorate and welcomes thousands of British tourists each year.

After the actor George Clooney called for a boycott of all Brunei-owned hotels around the world, Sir Elton John said he and his husband David Furnish had “long refused to stay at these hotels and will continue to do so”.

He listed hotels including The Dorchester in London and The Beverly Hills Hotel in California, saying: “We hope you will join us in solidarity.

“I commend my friend, George Clooney, for taking a stand against the anti-gay discrimination and bigotry taking place in the nation of Brunei – a place where gay people are brutalised, or worse – by boycotting the sultan’s hotels,” he wrote on Twitter.

Brunei, a tiny patch of Borneo island with a population of 400,000 people, has long enforced Islamic teachings far more strictly than other neighbouring Muslim-majority nations such as Malaysia or Indonesia.

Under the rule of Hassanal Bolkiah, the second longest-reigning monarch in the world, the country has banned alcohol and forbids the propagation of religions other than Islam.

Wednesday will see the complete roll-out of a new penal code first drawn up in 2014. While Brunei has never outlawed the death penalty in writing it has until now been abolitionist in practice, carrying out its last execution in 1957.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has recently updated its advice for Brunei, warning of “serious penalties for doing something that might not be illegal in the UK”.


[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]I[/dropcap]n what is turning out to be a damning indictment of The Administrative Service’s propensity to make deals in exchange for sexual favors, another audio tape of Narada News journo Angel Abraham has surfaced, this time with KTDC (Kerala Tourism Development Corporation) Managing Director Ali Asgar Pasha, IAS.

The 48-minute late night tete-a-tete between Angel Abraham (30) with the elderly IAS officer heading the prestigious KTDC shows that they had already had sexual encounters…

In this conversation, the lady journalist is sexually inducing the pliable IAS officer and getting her missions done. The conversations are believed to have happened in January 2016. Now Pasha is working as Director in Schedule Caste Department in Kerala.

This explosive tape of 48 minute talk was first released by Malayalam portal WiFi Reporter: http://thewifireporter.com/another-honey-trap-for-ias-officials-by-narada-angel

Ali Asgar Pasha (54) is a conferred IAS officer from state service, who started the career as Deputy Collector. A few days back PGurus had reported Mathew Samuel’s talks with Angel Abraham on honey trapping state Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson and working out certain deals from state PSUs related to Industries Ministry.

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]he 48-minute late night tete-a-tete between Angel Abraham (30) with the elderly IAS officer heading the prestigious KTDC shows that they had already had sexual encounters and the IAS officer Ali Asgar Pasha is aware of her connections with Jiji Thomson. The talks gave an impression that Chief Secretary introduced the honey trapping lady journalist of Narada News to junior IAS officer Ali Asgar Pasha holding the plum post.

She was also asking the IAS officer to pass her projects at KSIDC and SIDCO, another big Public Sector Underaking (PSU) under State Industries Ministry under the then Muslim League Minister Kunjalikutty.

The pliable officer IAS goes wild at the thought of biting her lips and remembering her body shape, the lady journalist remembers him of passing the cheque and deals in between. The Tourism Hotels head IAS officer goes on how to give her flight tickets and five star hotel accommodations to him from government exchequer, if she escorts him to Ahmadabad, Delhi or London. The funny part is that while the officer is going mad in the anticipation of a tryst that night, she pretends that she is unwell and can’t step out of the ladies hotel. The lustful officer even tells that he would deliver medicine and medicinal tea to her by that night itself by coming to her hostel.

While the IAS officer goes wild, expressing a desire to bite her lips, the lady journalist reminds him of passing some cheque and some contracts. We are not sure if Narada got advertisements from KTDC, which is an international advertiser on Kerala Tourism. She was also asking the IAS officer to pass her projects at KSIDC and SIDCO, another big Public Sector Underaking (PSU) under State Industries Ministry under the then Muslim League Minister Kunjalikutty. In the earlier tape, the editor of Narada News Mathew Samuel was heard talking to Angel on how to get clearance from Kunjalikutty and Jiji Thomson.

Here are the main excerpts from late night conversation between lady journalist Angel Abraham and Ali Asgar Pasha IAS.

Angel Abraham (AA) : I am unwell today.

Ali Asgar Pasha (AAP) : Where are you?

AA : At hostel

AAP : May i come to your hostel with medicinal tea, which can cure your body ache.

AA : No no …coming to hostel?

AAP : I love you so much, i want to see you now…i want to kiss at your lips…i want to bite at your lips

AA : Oh oh…you like me so much…

AAP : Shall we go to Ahmadabad or Delhi..Angel, I have some trips now

AA : I have no money, here i am busy with the website project..cheques to be passed and work in SIDCO

AAP : Your ticket can be taken from KTDC…tickets can be taken from government…let us stay at Taj

AA : Taj..oh…Taj?…i am poor girl

AAP : I too poor….these are all government expenses

AA: Luck of IAS officers…i should have studied for IAS…any way i am lucky to have IAS people like you.

………….

AAP : Let us go to Andman

AA : Ohh…sir here i am busy with my work…when is my cheque passing…and you promised me to get SIDCO work done and KSIDC too…

…..

AAP : I like you a lot…you are too cute in jeans…i want to bite your lips….really dear i want your lips

AA : So you like my lips most….that is the only best part of mine?

AAP : You are so cute….super shape in jeans….shall we go to Andamans….(IAS officer sings Andamanai paarungal in Tamil…) You need permission from Jiji Thomson to go with me?

AA : Oh no…Jiji is nice man…he introduced me to you…he is a nice man…he won’t object…

AAP : He is a nice man…he is our person…nice guy

…………

AAP : You are sexy…want to see you now… coming to your hostel…want to bite at your lips…

AA : go and sleep dear…i am coming to meet you tomorrow to pass that cheque…

AAP : Not tomorrow…busy with meetings… i will call you tomorrow… i really want to come and hug you all over and bite at your lips my dear Angel…i love you my sweetie Angel

AA : Thanks…i know you like me…i too like you…you are cute and having a great artist…i like your songs..

AAP : Your voice is sexy….

AA : My God…you are the first person in this earth saying my voice is sexy…really

AAP : you are totally sexy…your voice and your shape….love your Angel…love you honey..

AA : Thanks…. for saying that… we both are poor souls having same wave length…. i too like you a lot… you are naughty too… he he he… love you…

Is this Journalism or Prostitution? Where is Editors’ Guild of India? Shame. Blackmailing and Prostitution in the garb of Journalism is a crime. These people should be booked for pimping prostitution.

Here is the link of their 48 minute audio tape:


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Daniel J. Penseyres

Prior to the position of CIO at HSBC Private Bank in Monaco, Mr. Penseyres was the Chief Executive Officer at BOC (Suisse) Fund Management SA. Previously, he was Managing Partner at Bedrock Alternative Asset Management. Prior to this, he was the Head of Alternative Investments Advisory and Marketing at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch Cie. Mr. Penseyres also served as the bank’s Member of the Surveillance Committee for Alternative Investment Products.

Between 1991 and 2001, he set up Alternative Investments Marketing, Sales, and Advisory platform for Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) and he was in charge of several multi-funds and co-created a marketing and sales platform for the distribution of alternative investment products for Republic National Bank of New York (Suisse) SA in Geneva.
Mr. Penseyres started his financial career in Geneva working in the corporate treasury risk management group of two top 500 US multi-national companies with headquarters in Illinois and Connecticut.

Rafael Micha

Rafael Micha graduated with an MSc degree from the London School of Economics. As founder and director of Grupo HABITA hotels, twelve in Mexico and two in the U.S., he manages its public relations and writes for Excélsior. He has also been published in: Moi and Vanity Fair México among others. He is a blog collaborator and was guest editor for the special tourism issue of Milenio Diario published in 2016.

Neil Santos

Neil Santos is a Travel and Lifestyle Specialist with Element Lifestyle. He is an easy-going adventurer from Fullerton, California with a live-in-the-moment mentality. Having graduated from California State University in Communications, he went to Italy to further his studies where he immediately caught the travel bug. His fascination with different cultures, fashion, entertainment and incredible places around the world are what drew him to Element Lifestyle. He believes in making the best of any situation by always staying humble and hungry while on the lookout for the next adventure.

Luis Vaquero

Luis Vaquero graduated in International Commerce at both Valladolid University and Southampton Solent University. He has lived and worked in Barcelona, London and Los Cabos and has a true passion for business and traveling around the globe.
Mexico became his home in 2014 as International Accounts Manager with CS Imports and Cofer Studio, focusing on growing the domestic market for international leading high-end brands in the world of interior design, such as Clarke & Clarke and de Gournay.

Noel Peterson

Noel Peterson is an Arizona MBA graduate with an unconventional yet exceptional history in client managment and promotion. He has worked with major entertainment companies such as Warner Music Group and E Networks, as well as the consulting firm, Mint Lifestyle in Beverly Hills. His expertise is currently engaged at Element Lifestyle where he is the Director of Client Management.

Carlos Jalife

Jalife has a master’s degree and a PhD from the American University in Washington D.C. His prior experience includes: FASTmag magazine editor, Televisa’s F1 commentator, Racing Program Director, and the first nonnative English author to receive the Dean Batchelor Ward Book of the Year award for his English ‘Pulitzer’ of racetrack literature, The Brothers Rodriguez. He is the only Latin-American motor racing specialist worldwide and as such, he is a consultant to endless organizations on this subject.


The English Golf Union (EGU) and Fuller’s London Pride, the official beer of the EGU, are once again looking for that extra special person who provides exceptional service at their golf club bar. The contest, which has become an event that is eagerly anticipated each year, aims to find the club steward or a bar person at the 19th hole who provides the most welcoming and enjoyable experience for golfers, be they members or visitors.

After the initial round of judging regional winners will be invited to a celebratory lunch that will be held in the autumn when England’s overall London Pride EGU Steward of the Year 2011 will be announced.

A great welcome in the clubhouse is one of golf’s many pleasures and golfers have voted in their thousands for those staff behind the bar who really do go out of their way to make their club special. Nomination forms have already been sent to all EGU clubs and golfers are also being encouraged to vote online at the EGU website.

David Spencer, Brands Marketing Manager for Fuller’s said, “We know that golfers don’t just appreciate the courses they play but also recognize the value of someone who provides a great welcome and great service in the clubhouse. Steward of the Year is all about appreciating and celebrating that extra special service.”

Last year’s winner, Andy Shaw from Southport Old Links, fought off tight competition to take the award. His ever-immaculate bar, committed staff and extensive charity work demonstrated that there are unsung heroes in clubhouses throughout England.

Whoever takes this year’s London Pride EGU Steward of the Year accolade will collect a pair of tickets to a day’s play at a Lords Test Match, complete with accommodation for two nights in a Fuller’s Central London Hotel.

In addition each regional winning club will receive a promotional pack, including logos and ‘ready-made’ advertisements highlighting their achievement that they can use in their own marketing literature or on their website. The overall London Pride EGU Club Steward of the Year 2011 will also win their club the opportunity to work with Fuller’s London Pride to create advertising for the club to promote their special status in local press.

Everyone who nominates a candidate for the award will go into a prize draw to win a case of London Pride and a London Pride rugby shirt.

Paul Keeling, EGU Club Services Manager added, “Service is becoming ever more important, from the moment a golfer drives into the car park until when he or she leave the clubhouse. We know the welcome visitors get at the end of a round can leave a lasting impression for and keeping members happy and content in their clubhouse both affect a club’s business. So we are delighted that our partnership with Fuller’s London Pride allows us to recognize and reward those that strive to deliver something a bit special.”

The London Pride EGU Steward of the Year is part of a five year deal between Fuller’s and the EGU which supports amateur golf and provides greater recognition to clubs and their members.

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Canadian author Alice Munro poses for a photograph at the Canadian Consulate’s residence in New York in this Oct. 28, 2002 file photo. Munro was Thursday Oct. 10 2013 been named as 2013 Nobel laureate for literature in an an announcement made in Stockholm, Sweden.

Photograph by: PAUL HAWTHORNE
, AP

TORONTO — When Ontario-raised short story master Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, she told a representative from the award committee that the honour may change her mind about her decision to retire from writing.

But her longtime editor and publisher, Douglas Gibson, says he doesn’t think that will happen.

“It’s not going to change. Certainly it’s not going to change her,” Gibson said in an interview from his Toronto home.

“She’s 82 ... she lost her husband in April and that was very hard for her, her health is frail, she hasn’t been writing and I don’t think this is going to change.

“And that’s sad, of course, but the point to celebrate is that in her 82 years she’s given us more than a dozen great books to read, and they’re all out there.”

Gibson has been working with Munro since 1976, when he was a “young, impecunious editor” and author Harry J. Boyle encouraged him to meet with the “genius” short story writer from Wingham, Ont.

Gibson took the bus to London, Ont., and lunched with Munro at a Holiday Inn hotel, where she confided she was facing pressure from some to “get serious” and write a novel, but that she “was blocked” and unable to do so.

“I said, ‘Alice, they’re all telling you that? They’re all wrong. You’re a great short story writer: You’re a sprinter, you’re not a marathon runner, so if you want to go on writing short stories to the end of your life, I’ll go on publishing them and you’ll never ever hear me ask you for a novel,”’ recalled the Scottish native.

“We’ve kept that bargain and there have been 14 collections of short stories ever since, and the world has got on just fine without a novel from Alice Munro. It seems to have worked out.”

With the Nobel now achieved, Gibson is now hoping his work with Munro will pay off in another way.

“I have the joke that if I make it to the pearly gates and St. Peter is in a grumpy mood and says, ‘Oh, what have you ever done in your miserable, selfish life to deserve to get in here?’ I can say, ‘I kept Alice Munro writing short stories,”’ he said.

“And St. Peter, if his English is any good, will say, ‘Holy smokes, Alice Munro? Come on in!”’

Munro and Gibson are clearly as good friends as they are collaborators.

In his living room, he has a hanged caricature drawing of Munro done by artist Anthony Jenkins for Gibson’s book “Stories About Storytellers,” for which she wrote the introduction.

He also has a bookshelf with all of her works, including “The View from Castle Rock,” which is dedicated to Gibson. In his copy, Munro wrote in pen underneath her dedication: “For Doug, who is even more loyal & admirable & funny than this indicates. Alice (Munro) Sept 2006.”

Their first publication together was the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning “Who Do You Think You Are?” in ‘78 and their last was her most recent book, 2012’s “Dear Life,” which contains four stories she feels are her most personal.

Getting personal is something that’s rare for the notoriously private and media-shy Munro, who is “very funny” behind the scenes, said Gibson.

In the ‘90s, she even acted onstage in two theatrical fundraisers — including a comedy — at the Blyth Festival Theatre near her home in southwestern Ontario.

“I said, ‘What, what?”’ Gibson said with a laugh, recalling the time he learned of her acting debut.

“This is the shy Alice Munro, and she said ... she had great fun doing it and she said, ‘It’s different, because when you’re acting, you’re in a role,’ and so she didn’t feel that this was invading her own privacy in any way.”

Gibson said Munro has been a great supporter of the Blyth theatre in other ways as well, including the time she helped with a fundraiser chicken dinner.

As Gibson tells it, an American tourist was at the dinner and said to a grey-haired waitress who was collecting the dirty dishes: “’I hear there’s a very famous author who lives around here. Could that be her over there?”’

“He pointed at a very elegant-looking woman who was framed against the window, and the hard-working waitress was sort of brushing her hair and stacking up the dishes saying, ‘I’m not sure. Yes, it might be,”’ said Gibson.

“Then Alice Munro, the waitress, gathers up all the dirty dishes and goes back to the kitchen and dumps them with the rest of the volunteers. And that’s Alice: hard-working, getting her hands dirty, part of the community and this wicked sense of humour.”

Some artists can be “hell to deal with, and Alice is absolutely the opposite,” said Gibson, former publisher of Macmillan as well as McClelland & Stewart, who started Douglas Gibson Books.

“She’s decent and modest and helpful, and that’s why if you talk to Canadians about Alice Munro — ‘How do you feel about her?’ — it’s very clear that they admire her work and they’re very fond of her, and that’s an amazing combination.”

Gibson said he’s never had to do “heavy editing” with Munro because any version of her work he’s seen “has always started off very, very strong.”

“She will tell you she’s a bad speller, but that’s OK, we can handle that,” he said, chuckling. “But everything else, she always brought in really polished versions.”

Gibson’s main problem in the past few years has been to get Munro to stop rewriting.

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Canadian author Alice Munro poses for a photograph at the Canadian Consulate’s residence in New York in this Oct. 28, 2002 file photo. Munro was Thursday Oct. 10 2013 been named as 2013 Nobel laureate for literature in an an announcement made in Stockholm, Sweden.

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Homewood Park (3 Star)

Address: 1 Hinton Charterhouse Bath
England Phone number: 44-1225-723 731 (Reservation can be made right now online for Homewood Park)

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The Homewood Park is a very gracious country house near Bath and 6 miles from the Bath Inter-national Airport. This property is one of the loveliest country house hotels in the west country. Set in the beautiful countryside it is only 6 miles from Bath and only 30 minutes from the M4. Homewood Park has received many accolades and much praise for the service and facilities provided and guests always appreciate the warm welcoming and relaxing atmosphere. Although the main part of the building is Georgian with some Victorian additions the foundations of the original building date from the Thirteenth Century. The Homewood offers banquet facilities outdoor park conference rooms ice machine restaurant on site Free morning tea/coffee newspaper full room service full break fast evening turndown service shoe shine service wake up calls and night porter. This is also a pet friendly hotel with a Free doggy pack. Room amenities include coffee private bathrooms bathtub in bathrooms hairdryers TVs DVD and Playstation available on request. Pets are not to be left unattended in bedrooms and are not allowed in the restaurant.

facilities and options available at Homewood Park

Pets welcome Family Rooms Room service Breakfast Included Swimming pool in Hotel Can be accessed by Wheelchair Dining Restaurant Meeting/conference rooms Non-smoking rooms

London Pass UK Hotels Tours is a tour organizer in England. We offer room reservation at best
available rates for Homewood Park in Bath.

Our online reservation system is fully automated you will get instant
availability and instant reservation. Once the reservation is made you will get a hotel voucher which you can print and present to hotel when you arrive at the hotel.

You may also confirm your reservation from the hotel directly by calling Homewood Park Hotel.


If you are a tourist to London or planning to visit London to have a look at the beauty of the marvellous palace you can book your stay as soon as possible, moreover you can go for Hotels Near Paddington London to check out some of the best accommodation suits that can fit your budget.

Some of the greatest attractions includes:

Sculpture by Canova and Chantrey. Exquisite examples of Sevres Porcelain. You will see some of the finest British and French furnitures in the world. Some of the best paintings like by Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Poussin, Canaletto and Claude.

The vibrant and the beautiful city of London is currently going through huge excitement and joy due to the opening of Buckingham Palace Tour that started from 22nd July and will continue until 1st October 2017. Here at the event you can witness and explore the lavishly furnished state rooms of one of the world’s few remaining working royal palaces.

Check out this video below:

A couple of more exciting features that you gonna see in the exhibition are more than 200 official gifts from around the world given to the Queen under her reign including wide variety of objects like a dinosaur bone turned into a paperweight, a Union Jack flag badge worn in space, an honorary BAFTA Award and a portrait of the Queen made from banana leaves.

To book your ticket you can also visit their Official website here

This year however it would be extra-special as to mark the 20 years since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales there will be an additional display in the music room in tribute of the princess’s commitment to her official duties. If you are still excited to see all these things you can go for Hotel Near Paddington London now.


Bern’s Hotel Schweizerhof Wins "Best Hotel Interior Europe"

London - The historic Hotel Schweizerhof in Bern, which has been re-planned and refurbished by MKV Design, has won Best Hotel Interior Europe and Best Hotel Interior Switzerland in the International Hotel Awards 2012.

The oldest grand hotel in Bern and deeply valued by local people since it opened 150 years ago, the Schweizerhof was once the hotel of choice for visiting celebrities and state occasions. Having fallen into decline and closed for several years, the new owners were challenged with how to reinvent the hotel within the constraints of the existing heritage façade in such a way as to meet the expectations of today’s well-seasoned business and leisure travelers.

The client’s brief called for the recreation of a hotel that was luxurious yet functional and which would therefore stand the test of time. This entailed extensive internal re-planning in order to achieve more and larger guestrooms as well as to introduce spaces that typify contemporary luxury hotels, such as a spa and cigar lounge.

It also involved significant re-planning of the entrance lobby areas to provide an immediate and welcoming retreat from the busy thoroughfare outside and the shops which flank the entrance on both sides.

Hotel Schweizerhof now stands apart from all other leading hotels in Bern with its clearly stated, individual personality. It has been reinvented for the future, within the spirit of its inheritance but not as a replica of the past.

By combining design influences from across Western Europe, the international culture of Switzerland is now celebrated and by combining the new with the historic MKV Design has created a hotel that is contemporary, not merely fashionable, which respects its architectural envelope while delighting guests with its 21st Century comforts. The story of Hotel Schweizerhof goes on.

The International Hotel Awards celebrate the highest levels of achievement by companies operating in the hotel sector across all regions and are a world-renowned mark of excellence.

MKV Design is a London-based interior design practice that specialises in the luxury international hotel and resort sector.

Working with owners, developers and leading global hotel groups, MKV creates outstanding and award-winning environments that distinguish its projects and ensure they serve the test of time.

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Consistently ranked among the world’s top ten cities for quality of life, Bern, the capital of Switzerland, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for its medieval Old Town, built in 1191 - and in springtime, few places are as beautiful.

The hotel’s interiors evoke the élan and striking presence of all the leading ladies that have graced the environs of the hotel and in this way rekindle the heart of its legacy as the home of its namesake, Spain’s revered Queen Consort Maria Cristina.

The elegant red brick building built in 1906 was revolutionary in its time because of the reinforced concrete building structure which provided large bright spaces and ideal working conditions for employees.


Happy Birthday Ravel

February 2nd is Ravel Morrison’s birthday and this year, it could mark the turning point in what has been a very checkered career so far. Tales of petty theft from team-mates at Manchester United’s Carrington training ground, through public social network bust-ups with Sir Alex Ferguson and ending up with a conviction for Witness Intimidation.

Clearly Ravel Morrison is troubled in his private life. As a result, Manchester United and Sir Alex have decided that they are no longer social workers and have offloaded him to West Ham for a bargain price.

Without knowing the history of Mr Morrison the deal looks to be amazing on paper. Indeed, if we were to look solely at Ravel’s ability on the pitch, it’s still very possibly one of the best bits of business done on Deadline Day.

Signed to the Manchester United academy at age 17, he is one of the brightest prospects from their youth system. His first-team appearances, though minimal in number, are outstanding in their quality. I saw him playing last year at Yeovil Town in a pre-season friendly and he was certainly a “jack-the-lad” character during the warm-ups, even playing with a dodgy Huish Park sprinkler to soak team-mates and the former youth manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Nothing but harmless fun there, and when the whistle blew it was strictly business for the young midfielder.

His talent is obvious, and the comparisons to a young Paul Scholes are certainly justified. His playmaking ability is up there with the best in the Premier League and his attacking nous is where Solskjaer’s influence is most apparent.

However, like Jekyll and Hyde there is a darker side to this prodigious talent. Growing up in the Wythenshawe area of Manchester, Ravel Morrison has so far stayed close to his roots and inevitably his childhood friends. This may well have been his downfall, and its no stretch of the imagination to suggest that some of his friends and acquaintances have seized upon his talent and access to the seemingly glamourous lifestyle of professional football.

Morrison has been accused of stealing watches from the first-team dressing room, and it is definitely feasible that these watches may now be clamped around the wrists of some of Wythenshawe’s teenage residents.

Ravel Morrison’s arrival at the Boleyn Ground has perhaps overshadowed that of one of the Championship’s best strikers in Nicky Maynard. The intense scrutiny on Twitter and in numerous newspaper articles has possibly left Mr Maynard wondering if he was the most important person at West Ham.

Morrison will reportedly be staying at a four-star hotel in Central London initially, a bold move by Sam Allardyce and the two Davids; Gold and Sullivan. Perhaps this is a statement of the “respect” that Morrison clearly demands and feels he warrants, however if reports of trouble emerge then one can certainly see the player being put with a host family, or even with the manager himself.

Ravel himself has stated on Twitter, “…appreciate the people who have wished me luck with the move to west ham just need to get my head down and play now and show everyone what I can do”. If this is an honest statement, and not just transfer day fodder, then the future looks more bright for Ravel Morrison and West Ham.

West Ham themselves have a history of taking in waifs and troubled individuals, we only have to look back to Ian Bishop, Paolo Di Canio and Tomas Repka. However, Morrison is not just a tearaway on the pitch, he has “form” off it too, something very different to those former players.

He clearly needs a strong guiding hand from the club, the manager and to be removed from those influences that have caused him so much trouble in his past. The big question is, if a strong hand from Sir Alex Ferguson wasn’t enough, will a strong hand from Sam Allardyce be sufficient? I have no doubt that the club are well aware of the history of Morrison and I’m sure they are primed to do whatever necessary.

I hope too, that the fans have at least done their Youtube homework and seen some of the outstanding skills he’s shown in Youth appearances. If they have, then they will certainly be excited about Ravel Morrison as a player and can’t wait for him to make his debut.

However, the biggest issue in the Man U/Morrison/West Ham tryst is of Morrison himself. This is a young man of considerable talent and obviously influenced by his friends and acquaintances in Manchester, however Manchester to East London is not quite Manchester to Australia in distance terms so there is always the worry of his influences making their way down the M6.

If Morrison can tame his behaviour and make a clean break from whatever or whoever was his problem in Manchester then I see him as being one of the best players for West Ham that they have seen in a decade. It is not often that Sir Alex Ferguson makes mistakes, and that is certainly the first hurdle that everyone in this saga will have to overcome, but this may well be the time that Ferguson has made a crucial error. Morrison’s contract is based around performance, so it is in his interest to perform well.

If he does, and West Ham are promoted in May, then next years return to Old Trafford for Ravel Morrison may be his moment to finally prove his doubters, and his former manager wrong. How many former Manchester United players can say they’ve done that?

Author Info

James Benwell

James is a Sports Photographer who spends his life sitting in the cold and rain at the side of Football pitches. He is immensely jealous of journalists who sit in the warmth and dry with hot drinks. He wants to be one of them so is aiming to show that he can write as well as take pretty pictures.

If we want to get all “statto” on it, Repka had 5 red cards in 87 appearances for Fiorentina (making it a red card every 17 games) and 4 reds in 84 appearances (a red every 21 games) for Sparta Prague the first time round. However, it all comes down to the position he was played in during his time in Italy, he generally was played as a centre-back enforcer. His job (if my memories of Football Italia on Channel 4 serve me correctly) was to defend “by any means necessary”.

Ian Bishop on the other hand, was perhaps a little undeserved in my comments. He had a few minor scrapes and other “issues” at Man City but was certainly no Morrison/Di Canio or Repka.

I hope Morrison really can go on and be the player his initial games promised, however his lack of recent game time means it might be a month or so until he’s up to full fitness.


Bulgari Hotel and Residences

The Bulgari Hotel and Residences is a luxury hotel in Knightsbridge, London. When it opened in 2012, it was the most expensive hotel in London.

Location
The hotel is located in Knightsbridge, near The Knightsbridge Apartments, One Hyde Park and 10 Lancelot Place. It is close to Harrods and Hyde Park.

History
The hotel was built by Sir Robert McAlpine from 2010 to 2012, where once stood the Normandie Hotel. It was dedicated in May 2012. It was designed by Antonio Citterio, Patricia Viel & Partners. It was built with Portland stones. There are ten floors up and six underground floors.

There are 85 rooms and suites. All the rooms are designed in the same manner. The main thematic design is silver. The hotel is also home to a cigar shop, a cinema, a spa, an indoor swimming-pool, a ballroom, and the Rivea restaurant. The ballroom, which has a silver chandelier, can be rented for wedding receptions. It is "eco-friendly"; for example, the rainwater is recycled for the toilets. There is also a garden on the roof, or "green roof", with bat boxes.

In 2012, it was the most expensive hotel to stay in London, before The Ritz Hotel and the Savoy Hotel. In 2013, it signed a two-year contract with the Royal Albert Hall to be referred to visitors as its preferred luxury hotel.

In 2017, Bulgari London Hotel Private Screening Room was named as one of the top private screening rooms in London by Ikon London Magazine.

It is owned by LVMH.

References

Category:Hotels in London
Category:Hotel buildings completed in 2012
Category:Knightsbridge
Category:LVMH


As an Academy-Award nominated actor, and as part of the ensemble making up arguably the world’s most popular superhero franchise to date, Mark Ruffalo is in a unique position to support causes that will make our world a better place. Fortunately for us, he has chosen to stand for an issue both close to the heart of DiscountFilterStore.com and critical to our world as a whole: clean water.

As founder of Water Defense, Ruffalo is a champion for those demanding both access to clean drinking water, and for those demanding to know just what’s in the water that they are drinking. As part of his organization’s mission, he is among the first to support the latest technology and social platforms to drive engagement on this issue – and ultimately – find the best solution for this global problem.

Earlier this year, we spoke to Scott Smith, founder of OPFLEX water purification foam technology (seen in the third post image just below) and Chief Scientist for Water Defense. Smith was hand-selected for the role by Ruffalo and frequently joins him in presenting on behalf of clean drinking water. If you have yet to read this amazing interview, we highly recommend you spend a few minutes with it now.

Using The Power of ‘Green’ to Support Clean Water Here…

Months later, we remain thankful to Smith for granting us an interview and sharing more about the mission of Water Defense, and of course, to Ruffalo for taking advantage of the opportunity his celebrity brings to launch this amazing organization. And while a single Tweet from Ruffalo will undoubtedly bring more exposure to his mission than our modest blog could ever hope to, we still want to take the opportunity we have to give his organization that little bit extra of exposure with our readers like you.

With that said, here are two initiatives from Water Defense that we wanted to bring to your attention:

…and here

The We Are There Campaign: As part of this campaign, Water Defense responded to water contamination disasters worldwide, gathering data to set new clean water testing standards that they will soon put into action in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives have supported this mission, to the tune of a $50,000 amendment, which will help more quickly and effectively establish baseline clean water readings and water contamination monitoring strategies for the entire nation.

For those of you living in the Cape Cod area, Ruffalo and Smith will be hosting a live press conference sharing these results tomorrow at the UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station at 180 Polpis Road. This press conference begins at 10am and is open to the public. Read more about the event in this press release.

Win A Trip to The Avengers 2 Set: Talk about burying the lead! In perhaps the most exciting initiative ever launched in support of clean water, Ruffalo announced via social media yesterday that he will be giving away a trip to the London set ofThe Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. A flight from anywhere in the world and hotel accommodations will be included.

So how do you enter? Simply make a donation of $10 or more to Water Defense, on Ruffalo’s Prizeo page. But hurry – this contest ends seven days from the June 27th publication of this post.

Our thanks go out to Mark Ruffalo, Scott Smith and all those working on behalf of clean drinking water throughout the world.

If you have ideas for how best to ensure everyone throughout the world has access to the clean water they need, we’d love to hear your thoughts and invite you to leave them via a comment below.

We also invite you to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or +1 us on Google+ to be the first to see exclusive new filter sales and discounts.

Are you a veteran, currently serving in the Armed Forces, or buying a gift for a veteran or soldier? Use the discount code ‘VETERAN’ at checkout to take 5% off your entire order!

Valerie Mohler provides support for customers of DiscountFilterStore.com. As a proud working mother of two children, Valerie offers tips, insight and advice that helps her readers provide the cleanest tasting drinking water, freshest indoor air and healthiest environments for themselves and their families. Valerie has been recognized by the Water Quality Association as a Certified Water Specialist since 2013.


Peter Shapiro -- co-producer of The Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well shows in Chicago and California, owner of the Brooklyn Bowl franchise and more -- isn’t just a Deadhead. He dates the beginning of his career to a 1993 show in Chicago that inspired him to produce two documentaries on the group while still a film student at Northwestern University. After a brief stint as a filmmaker, Shapiro entered the live-music business as owner and operator of the jam-band mecca Wetlands in Lower Manhattan in 1996. After rising real estate costs forced the club to shutter in 2001, Shapiro set his sights across the river, and opened the first Brooklyn Bowl, a sprawling venue with great sightlines and sound, food and, yes, bowling. The franchise has since expanded to Las Vegas and London, with Chicago next on tap.

Shapiro, whose business interests fall under the DayGlo Ventures umbrella, grew his venue portfolio by reopening the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y., in 2012. A year later, he launched Lockn’, a four-day, jam-centric festival in Arrington, Va. Along the way, he bought Relix magazine, executive-produced seven Jammy Awards shows and co-founded 3D tech company 3ality Digital. He also was a producer of the 2007 U2 concert film U23D.

Grateful Dead's Fare Thee Well: Stage Revealed as Secondary Ticket Market Heats Up

But Shapiro’s crowing glory to date is uniting The Dead’s "core four" (Phil Lesh, 75; Bob Weir, 68; Mickey Hart, 71; and Bill Kreutzmann, 68) with Phish’s Trey Anastasio, 50, for 50th-anniversary shows in Santa Clara, Calif. (June 27-28) and Chicago (July 3-5). The 210,000 Chicago tickets sold out in minutes -- with requests in the millions -- prompting the addition of another 130,000 for the California dates, along with simulcasts in theaters and live streams on TV and Internet pay-per-view. All told, Fare Thee Well could be the highest-grossing live event in history: The five sold-out shows will earn an estimated $50 million in ticket sales, coupled with as much as $8 million to $10 million in merchandise sales, the global streaming and theater presentations, and the robust secondary market for both merch and tickets, the reunion could be worth $150 million or more in total revenue generated.

The New York-raised Shapiro, 42, who lives in Manhattan with wife Rebecca (a publicist for Shore Fire Media) and their young children Roxy and Simon, talked to Billboard about his own long, strange trip.

What were some of the challenges in putting The Dead back together?

We all know about the magic and challenges of dealing with family, and with The Dead, you’ve got four family members of 50 years -- and now the newest one. We spent a lot of time working with each of them to make sure this event met what they wanted.

People have been trying to reunite them for years -- how did you succeed where so many failed?

I wouldn’t give up. And I had this idea about how to do it: July 4 weekend, in the middle of the country at Soldier Field, the last venue the band played [with late bandleader Jerry Garcia in 1995]. Judging by the response, people wanted to go back to another era -- people missed it.

Grateful Dead's 50th Anniversary: See All Our Coverage

What was your relationship with the Dead prior to Fare Thee Well?

I worked with all of them. I had Bob Weir do the 10th anniversary of Wetlands in 1999, and I have an exclusive relationship with Phil Lesh. I’ve had all four of the guys in different years at the Jammies, they’ve each headlined the Capitol Theatre and the Brooklyn Bowl in their own bands. The truth is, I listen to the Grateful Dead. I go to shows by different bands, but when I’m in the shower, I want to listen to Jerry. That passion is inside me, and I think that helped me get the [Fare Thee Well] gig. When they’re all the together, something’s going to happen, there’s an incredible power there.

Fans have been celebrating but also complaining, about everything from scalping to locations. You’ve gone out of your way to engage them. Why?

It’s important to do the right thing. One of the benefits of message boards and blogs is the instant feedback. I follow the feedback that rises to the top and, if they make a good point, I take that to heart and change my plans and actions accordingly.

Why Trey Anastasio?

I’m 42, so I’m between the Dead era and the Phish era. The first time Trey played with one of the [Dead] members was in 1999 at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco. I was there, because I’m a fan, I saw what happened when they dropped Trey into this, so I know what’s gonna happen.

The time has come to bring these two spiritual things together. And I’m not sure all these Deadheads give Phish a shot, you go to a Phish show, it’s all people that have seen Phish 30 times and younger. A lot of the older Deadheads don’t go see Phish, so it’s a great moment to bring it together. Everyone thought it would be a great thing, but I don’t think anyone could have told us that it would be the biggest concert ever by one band.

What’s an example of that?

When we did ticketing via an online lottery for the California shows. Everyone had four days to enter to buy tickets, and an equal chance, regardless of when during those four days they submitted their information. That is different than a traditional Ticketmaster on-sale that can sell out in a minute.

Tell me as much as you can about the production of these shows.

I believe that when people see the production, they’ll believe it is what a Grateful Dead production should be 20 years later. I do believe that we’re pushing some knobs up, in terms of what we’re doing with sound, lighting and video, and we’re trying to do it in a way where the music leads. People will have to remember to pick their brain up off the floor and put it back in their head after the show. And that’s on me to do that, and do it in the right way, with the right touch, in the spirit of the Dead, but still push it. The Dead were at the forefront then, they’ll be at the forefront now.

What led you to take over Wetlands?

The owner, Larry Bloch, was a Deadhead, and he passed it on to me. I paid him on a note -- I didn’t have the money. My parents said, "You’re crazy, what are you doing?" I was 23, but I thought, "If I can do a good job owning this club, in 20 years I’ll be a veteran, but I’ll still be young."

Grateful Dead Announces 80-Disc '30 Trips Around the Sun' Box Set

With Brooklyn Bowl, why have bowling at a rock club?

A normal music venue is a tough business -- it opens at 8 p.m., then the concert’s over and people leave. I had to bring something new to the table: You can bowl, eat and listen to music. And on Saturdays we do kids’ bowling from noon to 6 p.m. Because of the other revenue streams, we can keep the ticket price down, and every weekend I do a late show. I’m doing 10 shows [across] seven days a week. It has been a great run. We’ve had Roger Waters, Guns N' Roses, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello.

How does the operation work in Las Vegas and London?

In Vegas, it’s the only major venue not tied to a casino or hotel property: It’s a stand-alone 2,500-capacity building. The partner is Madison Square Garden, and Caesars [Palace] is the landlord. The London Brooklyn Bowl is at the O2 [Arena], partnered with AEG. I’m independent but I partner with bigger guys when appropriate: Bowery Presents helps me book in New York and at the Capitol Theatre, which is killing it as a rock palace.

What are your plans for July 6, after the Dead shows are over?

I’ll probably be doing another interview with Billboard, then I’ll be in bed all day.

This article first appeared in the July 4 issue of Billboard.


This for sure helps ReSharper code inspection as you can see on the following screenshot

Now I can navigate from View to ViewModel, can avoid to have developer deleting properties that are sued in XAML bindings, but I can also get an idea of where a ViewModel property is used by using ReSharper Find Usage (Alt-F7). I see right away that the StatusBarView.xaml is using the property ShowActivityProgress.

When you build automated WPF functional test using White in which you need to open a file through a Windows open file dialog, you will be confronted with the following issue. Windows open file dialog remember the last path with which you opened a file.

So you might have some unit tests that are green for a while which starts to be red for no apparent reasons.

The solution I came to is as this.

First I use Visual Studio, Copy to Output Directory, to copy the needed file to the output directoy in which your software will be started by the unit tests, e.g. for notValidVersionZip.zip

So now I am sure that the needed file is in the same path than the application. I then also need to be sure that when the application start the Windows open file dialog it points to this path. In the past implementation I was just using a filename and was lucky enough the path used by the Windows open file dialog was the correct one.

To get to the correct path is easy. We just navigate to the correct path using the Windows open file dialog in an automated way. The correct path is the path in which the application as been started, so you can get it like that:

Basically we split the path into it different path parts that White will enter into the dialog followed by a enter. Don’t forget to use the method WaitWhileBusy() after each enter, otherwise it will be too fast and sometime your test will not go to the correct path and then will not find the file.

Finally White enter the filename followed by enter and the file is opened.

Nice!

If you are using like me ReSharper to run your unit tests don’t forget to set it up to run tests from Project output folder.

White supports all rich client applications, which are Win32, WinForm, WPF and SWT (java). It is .NET based and hence you wouldn't have use proprietary scripting language. You can use your favourite .NET language, IDE and tools for developing tests/automation programs. White provides consistent object oriented API for all kinds of applications. Also it hides all the complexity of Microsoft's UIAutomation library and windows messages (on which it is based). (While WHITE is completely ready to be used, the documentation is still work under progress. Please do point out the areas which needs documentation.)

When I found White with it’s version 0.19, I was a bit skeptical about the state of this piece of software. But it is really ready to be used.

I had the need to automate some functional tests of a WPF application that I am working on. When such an application is growing it becomes more and more difficult to do functional tests manually, so it needs automation.

So what I was searching for was something that would let me write unit tests in C# with NUnit which automate a WPF application. It is not that I don’t want to learn another language but I needed to be efficient so I preferred to use something I knew. And what I have found is White.

If you are starting with automated functional testing I recommend you to read the Functional Testing. It explains step by step how to write automated functional tests with White. The basic can be also used with another tool.

It is funny to see you application running without you clicking around.

I still need to have this run by our build server, TeamCity. I have currently not done any investigation on that point. I plan to have those tests running at least nightly, but I have to see how the unit tests could be started on an environment with a desktop.

At Innoveo Solutions we are using .NET and WPF for our Innoveo Skye® Editor application. Skye® Editor is a distribution channel editor targeting business people letting them edit and configure their insurance products.

From the beginning we have adopted the Model-View-ViewModel architecture. Having our solution growing we were facing the issue of having our ViewModels dependency growing too. Some ViewModel became too much dependent of others. This was obvious in our unit tests whose complexity to setup were growing too. It was time to find a solution to decouple the ViewModels.

The solution came out after a discussion with Laurent Bugnion, the famous author of MVVM Light Toolkit. At that time we used the V1 that already helped a lot in this decoupling.

Now with MVVM Light Toolkit V2 it is even better with the new Messenger API. What we also really appreciated in comparison to other frameworks is that it is really light and the ability to open and edit the user interface into Expression Blend.

So Thank you Laurent for this GREAT framework and I looking forward for V3!

I also would like to thank my managers at Innoveo Solutions who understand Open Source and the need to have people contributing to Open Source projects, even during their professional working time. A Win-Win situation and not just a one way benefit as often.

I am working for a couple of months now with WPF and MVVM on an a business application using .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Lately I faced a memory leak. Not the easy kind of memory leak with events handlers which keeps objects and its element tree alive, as explained here.

No it was something else ! I searched in our code for quite some time without finding anything.

With a perfect timing I got an offer from Red Gate to test their latest tool still in Early Access Program: ANTS Memory Profiler 5

You might watch a two parts video here (part1) and here (part2) and read about it here. You can even download a version from their forum, check it out.

First I used ANTS Memory Profiler 5 Timeline to see that the memory wasn’t released at certain points in which it should. The red line shows the Bytes in all Heaps and should go down after each vertical line (gray, blue and red)

Same result with Process Explorer, Memory usage going up without going down.

So we got on the screen the memory leak. Next step was to identify it.

Using Memory Profiler Class List, I browsed to the class that I new should be released, and proved it wasn’t: Live Instances is 3 and Instance Diff is +2. So at that time I knew that this class was maintained by something in memory.

Watching the Memory Profiler Instance list, I could identity the different instances still in Memory and one wasn’t new, so a good candidate to look at:

Finally switching to the Memory Profiler Object Retention Graph, I could navigate up the graph to see that DropShadowEffect was maintaining a reference:

Up to my application RessourceDictionnary, as exaplained in point 1 from Ramon de Klein blog post, as you can see.

All those information gave me the opportunity to find the blog post from Ramon and led me to the solution.

This is the result of the fix I implemented, as you can see I have now only one Live Instance of the ProductViewModel class and an Instance Diff of –1. This shows that the object wasn’t retained in memory and cleaned correctly.

Next month I will attend with my colleague Robert the “WPF FOR LOB” training Tour in London (5/15 -5/16). Our flights and hotel rooms are already booked. We fly from Zurich to London Heathrow on Thursday 14 Mai arriving at 20:15 in London and I fly back to Mulhouse on Saturday evening.

OverviewThis two day training is designed to teach developers how to create Line of Business (LOB) applications using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

Day One is an introduction to the WPF graphics subsystem, the tools used to build WPF applications, and the core UI services: styling, data binding, templating, layout and input-

The second day begins with interop (Windows Forms and Win32) and then quickly dives into LOB topics, including building applications using the Model-View-ViewModel pattern, creating unit testable applications, implementing data validation, and error handling.

After completion, attendees will have a solid understanding of WPF, its advantages over other Microsoft UI platforms, and how to use the M-V-VM pattern to create great WPF LOB applications.


The mere mention of the term “organised crime” instantly conjures up brutal imagery of a crime family going about its day-to-day business to the tune of Coppola’s “Godfather”.

One of the ironies here is that life began to imitate art as US and Italian Mafia families (reportedly) imitated the mannerisms of the over-stylised characters in the movies.

But this imitation was mostly aesthetic, because research is revealing a very different picture of organised crime to the close-knit family ties of the silver screen classics; one of a complex and shape-shifting world of career criminals.

A recent EU-funded Organised Crime Portfolio research project, to which we contributed, has estimated that organised crime costs the EU economy about €110 billion. There are many ifs and buts around the precise definition of “organised crime”, but no matter how you look at it, the bottom line is that it is very costly to society.

Drug supply, organised fraud and organised immigration crime are all thought to have major impacts on the UK economy, but also on society more broadly. Child sexual exploitation and abuse, criminal use of firearms, cyber-crime, economic crime and organised theft are identified as key threats by national authorities. In terms of geographical impact, organised criminal activity seems to be mainly concentrated in London and the South-East, the North-West and West Midlands, but other areas of the country are affected as well to a lesser extent.

Career criminals

One of the key concerns in the UK is the structure of organised crime groups and the extent to which they reflect or differ from the socio-geographically based mafia groups found in Italy and elsewhere. The picture of organised crime in the UK leans away from the traditional Mafia model towards conglomerations of career criminals who temporarily join with others to commit crimes until they are completed and then reform with others to commit new crimes.

As of December 2013, the number of organised crime groups operating in the UK was estimated by the National Crime Agency (NCA) to be about 5,300, comprising about 36,600 organised criminals. A Home Office study of criminal profiles of organised criminals in the UK has shown that the vast majority (87%) were UK nationals. While the majority had been convicted for drug-related offences (73%), only 12% of them specialised in a particular crime type – most are generalists.

While kinship and ethnicity remain important factors for group cohesion, multiple cross-ethnic linkages also play an important role in group formation and such mixed networks may be more viable, successful, continuous and respected. The evidence points to domestic groups and networks, but there is some indication of activity by foreign-based organised groups operating legal businesses in the UK.

Markets

These constantly adapting organised crime groups are shifting towards less risky and less violent – but still lucrative – market niches where detection of organised crime is more difficult. Our research shows that fraud, drug trafficking, counterfeiting and tobacco smuggling are currently the largest organised illicit markets in the UK. Other profitable markets are trafficking for sexual exploitation and organised vehicle crime.

Our estimates show that the profits of particular criminal enterprises can vary from tens of thousands to hundreds of millions of pounds. Contrary to popular belief, not all organised crime is associated with vast profits; many offenders just make enough to cover living expenses they “offend and spend”, partly an effect of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which empowers various agencies to seize the profits of crime.

When criminals do invest, their main motivation is to satisfy personal and family consumption needs and lifestyle preferences. They may also create illegitimate businesses or use their profits to facilitate further crime such as money laundering, rather than accumulate wealth.

Criminals do tend to buy themselves “toys”. It is common to see high-value assets and consumer goods such as properties, cars, bikes, number plates, boats – even private jets and helicopters. They are important as symbols of success and patterns of luxury lifestyle. High-value antiques, art and jewellery are particularly favoured investments and a way to launder money. Criminals may also make functional investments – investments in businesses used as fronts for illicit activities, to launder illicit proceeds, or to perform criminal activities.

These businesses tend to be wholesale and retail trade, bars and restaurants or transport companies. Convenience stores and off licences can be used to sell illicit goods (for example smuggled alcohol) or act as fronts for other illicit activities. Other profitable sectors for organised crime groups are construction, sports and gaming, money service businesses, payday loan companies, sex, tattoo and other personal activities, hotels, sports and casinos.

Unsurprisingly, London emerges as the area where organised crime groups invest the most, but there is also a significant presence of business investments in Scotland (North-East, East and South-West) and in real estate abroad, especially in Spain.

The picture of organised crime emerging from the project is that of an evolving, adaptable transnational business model which clearly points to the need for a fundamental change in the general approach towards policing organised crime in the UK. The current hierarchical and rigid model we have is perhaps more suited to targeting traditional socio-geographical mafia type organisations, but 21st-century organised crime requires a bit more thought. It must be based on our better understanding of the threat of organised crime and of approaches to harm reduction, and be supported by a stronger evidence base of the kind the EU’s Organised Crime Portfolio project provides.

US marines walk through the rebuilt palace of King Nebuchadnezzar, in the ancient town of Babylon, in April 2003. The ruins suffered serious damage when American troops set up a military base amid the ruins during the Iraq War.
Reuters/Jerry Lampen

In Muenster, Germany, the Christian Social Union (CSU), Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and European People’s Party (EPP) launch the European election campaign on April 27, 2019. In the center, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of the CDU. Second from left, Markus Soeder, leader of the CSU. Between them, Manfred Weber, top EPP candidate for the European elections.
Tobias Schwarz/AFP


Sport

Quigg named Britain's best young boxer of the year

SCOTT Quigg has joined a prestigious list of the country’s greatest ever fighters after being voted Britain’s best young boxer of the year by the British Boxing Writers Club.

The 23-year-old Bury boxer, who trains out of Amir Khan’s Gloves Gym in Bolton, pipped heavyweight hope Tyson Fury by a single vote in one of the closest polls in the 61-year history of the club.

He will now be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn, Frank Bruno, Barry McGuigan and John Conteh, who all received the honour before going on to become world champion.

Joe Gallagher, Quigg’s trainer, said: “There was an excellent field this year so this was a very tough award to win.

“A lot of people will have expected Tyson Fury to win as he makes a lot of noise, but this just shows what high regard Scott is held in by those in the know.”

Quigg, who has won 24 and drawn one of his 25 professional fights, beat Jason Booth last October to become British super-bantamweight champion and successfully defended his title against Jamie Arthur at the Reebok earlier this year.

His next bout will be on the undercard of Ricky Hatton’s comeback fight at the Manchester Arena on November 24, when he will take on Rendall Munroe in a re-run of their WBA interim super-bantamweight title bout.

Their first fight – at the Manchester Velodrome in June – ended as a technical draw after a clash of heads in the third round opened up a deep cut over Munroe’s eye.

Before the rematch, Quigg will receive the Geoffrey Simpson award at the Boxing Writers' annual dinner at London’s Savoy Hotel on Monday, October 15.


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People are becoming more interested with publicly flaunting their sexual lifestyle.

Just recently, a kinky nudist sex cruise was announced to sail through Europe.

And Daily Star Online revealed last week the best holidays to go to if you want wild sex.

And now, we can reveal a whole host of sex clubs – slap bang in the heart of London.

Le Boudoir prides itself as a “unique and stylish venue” where partygoers can enjoy the “freedom of their sexual expression”.

Based just a few hundred metres from Aldgate tube station, the club welcomes anyone and everyone – no matter what sexual orientation.

They hold weekly hook-ups every Friday and Saturday where customers can enjoy “non-judgemental fun between consenting adults”.

To attend the steamy nights, you will have to join up and become a member.

Famed for their upmarket swinger parties, Killing Kittens holds X-rated events all over the world.

It describes its parties as “an electrically-charged environment where girls and couples can explore their sexuality in a daring yet safe and controlled way.”

Many of the racy events are held in swanky locations, from a secret London Mansion to a five-star hotel.

Like Le Boudoir, membership is required before attending any kinky nights.

Torture Garden is arguably the best-known fetish party-organiser in the world.

Leather-clad lads and lasses interested in S&M can enjoy some of the best DJs around and dance the night away or head to the club’s darker rooms to play out their sexual fantasies.

The company hosts saucy parties all over London – often with specially-selected themes.

(Image: GETTY)

Unlike the other three nights out on this list, Skirt Club has a strictly girls-only policy.

Its events are hosted in posh penthouse suites and luxury apartments for “women who want to intimately experiment with other women”.

Like Killing Kittens, the company hosts the sex-fests all over the globe, with its next London event happening on Saturday (February 11).

Strictly members only, locations are announced two to three days before the event.


The Tale of the 2p Phone Call

Tales from End to End
The Tale of the 2p Phone Call

by David Craig

Fawsley gets its name from the Saxon word ‘falepe’ – the colour of fallow deer, a herd of which still inhabit the local woods, though not in the same numbers as at the start of the 20th century when the Fawsley herd was the largest in the country.

Fawsley was owned by the Crown at the time of Domesday. It was probably a substantial estate long before that – there is evidence of a Saxon settlement here. Then at the beginning of the 14th century, it came into the hands of the Knightley family where it stayed until the baronetcy died out in 1938 (though they’d sold up the furniture from the house before the First World War).

Fawsley Hall

The Dower House at Fawsley is credited with being the oldest brick building in the county, but Fawsley Hall, grander and more recognizable as an English country seat, is the product of some seven or eight hundred years of development. The Great Hall contains two columns which are believed to be part of an early Norman Great Fireplace – possibly from the early 12th century.

A sixteenth century Knightley rebuilt the Hall – in which he entertained Henry VIII (bet the deer population fell during that feast). Then later that same century, Elizabeth I stopped here – she was on her way to visit Shakespeare at the time.

In the eighteenth century another Knightley enclosed the common land around here. As part of the enclosure settlement, a plot of land at nearby Badby was due to be handed over to the villagers. As a favour, Knightley asked to be allowed to plant and harvest one last crop. The villagers agreed. But it was a cunning April Fool – Knightley planted oak, ash and elm trees.

Then in the nineteenth century, Louisa Knightley lived here. She heard about the sad story of Joseph (‘John’) Merrick – the so-called ‘Elephant Man’. Merrick had been confined to city accommodation, and kept from society, because of his ‘hideous’ appearance. Consequently, he was suffering ill-health and low morale. Merrick’s doctor wanted to take him out to the country – to ‘take him out of himself’. Unfortunately, the only offers he had came with strings attached – that Merrick couldn’t venture out by day. When Louisa heard this, she wrote to Merrick’s doctor and offered him Fawsley’s woodcutter’s cottage – and leave to come and go as he pleased.

Merrick came, and was extremely happy here – there are letters from him to London, expressing his delight at this chance to experience the beauty of nature. Merrick was but one example of Louisa’s charitable nature. When she was ill, Queen Victoria came to visit her – such was the old Queen’s respect.

It was Louisa’s death in 1911 which started the long decline of Fawsley Hall. By 1938, the Hall had been sold off, and headed towards desuetude and decrepitude. In the 1960s, the building was used as a timber factory and suffered much damage. The building which had entertained three monarchs boasted a magnificent carved wooden ceiling above the Great Hall. The timber company took a few quick snaps of it then hacked it out to solve a problem they were having (that the ceiling was being shaken to pieces by the machinery above it, and threatened to fall on someone).

In 1976, Fawsley Hall was included in a Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition called ‘The Destruction of the English Country House’ – already written off as lost. But a local antique dealer called Ted Saunders heard (in a pub in Weedon) that the Hall was up for sale. He borrowed 2p, so the story goes, and phoned his solicitor with instructions to buy it. I like to think he took time to finish his pint.

Then started the massive job of restoration. By 1979, the family had moved into (fittingly) the Brew House. Over the following years, they contrived to bring Fawsley back from the dead – even managing to retrieve enough of the magnificent carved ceiling to be able to re-carve a copy, which is now in place.

Towards the end of the eighties, one of those pesky recessions put Mr. Saunders’ dream under some strain. At one point, he even put it up for sale – at £2½M. But an alternative emerged. Ted made a deal with a London company (Halcyon Hotels), and now Fawsley Hall is a luxury hotel.

David Craig (www.strum.co.uk) gave me this Tale.
He received it from a friend of a friend of a friend of a …
Imagine, then our astonishment when, on our walk, we called in at the Red Lion pub in Hellidon and, completely unplanned, we met Simon Saunders, the son of Ted Saunders who had rebuilt the Hall. Simon confirmed the gist of the Tale for us.


Ward Morehouse III

Ward Morehouse III (August 11, 1945 - May 21, 2019) was an American author, playwright and newspaperman. He was known particularly for his books on the grand hotels of New York City and London.

Early life

Morehouse was born in New York City on August 11, 1945, the son of newspaperman/drama critic Ward Morehouse II and actress-turned-publisher Joan Marlowe. He grew up in New York City hotels and relocated to Darien, Connecticut, when his mother remarried. He graduated from Darien High School in 1963 and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts for two years before joining the acting company of the American Shakespeare Festival in 1966.

Morehouse held various jobs from 1966 to 1969 while writing plays and attending Columbia University School of General Studies at night. In 1969, he joined the New York Post as a copy boy, briefly becoming a police reporter in 1972.

1970s and 1980s

Morehouse was a staff correspondent at the Christian Science Monitor from 1973 through 1983. From 1973 to 1976, he covered business and consumer issues in Boston. He also wrote a lengthy series on New England railroads, rural poverty and business. After transferring to The Monitor’s New York City bureau, Morehouse covered politics, stories of New York life, and increasingly, entertainment-based pieces about Broadway from 1977 to 1983. After 1983, he continued to freelance for The Monitor and write for additional publications including Theatre Magazine, The Baltimore Sun and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Morehouse's play, The Actors, was first produced Off-Off Broadway at the Troupe Theatre in November 1982. In 1986, The Actors  was produced at the Royal Court Theatre on Manhattan’s West Side and ran until May 1987. He produced his next play My Four Mothers at the Jan Hus Theatre with a $10,000 grant from the Lambs Foundation of the Lambs Club. Over the next few years, Morehouse had two other plays produced Off-Off Broadway.

1990s

In 1991, M Evans & Company published Morehouse's first book The Waldorf-Astoria:  America's Gilded Dream. In 1993, Morehouse began freelancing on a regular basis for the Reuters, covering The Business of Broadway and writing occasional reviews of Broadway shows for Reuters as well as Reuters TV. In 1994, he returned to the New York Post adding a weekly "On & Off Broadway” column to his reporting, until 1998. Morehouse was the first to report in July 1994 that Disney's The Lion King was headed for Broadway, which Disney vigorously denied. Morehouse left The Post in 1998, but continued to freelance celebrity news stories for them until 2000.

2000 to the Present

Morehouse ended his freelancing with The New York Post in 2000, his last interview with Katharine Hepburn. In 2002, he joined the [regenerated] New York Sun as the Broadway After Dark columnist, reviving the popular column initiated by his father for the original New York Sun. He held that post until late 2004 when he joined amNew York. Morehouse worked for amNew York for two years, after which he brought the column to The Epoch Times.

In 2001, If It Was Easy, a play Morehouse co-wrote with Stewart F. Lane, a Broadway producer and theater owner, was produced Off-Broadway at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre. It ran for four months. Also that year, his second book, Inside the Plaza: An Intimate Portrait of the Ultimate Hotel was published by Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, an imprint of the Hal Leonard Corporation.

In 2006, Morehouse wrote Life at the Top: Inside New York's Grand Hotels, one of three books to be published with BearManor Media. This was followed by Discovering the Hudson, a history of the historic Hudson Theatre in 2007. In 2010  Morehouse wrote London's Grand Hotels, a history of nearly 30 London grand hotels, including The Savoy, The Dorchester, and Brown's. It was also published by BearManor Media. This book made Morehouse one of the top hotel authors in America.

In 2010, Morehouse co-wrote the play Gangplank with Mark Druck, which was produced by the American Theatre of Actors on West 54th Street as an Off-Off Broadway production.

Present
Morehouse wrote a monthly Checking In column for TravelSmart Newsletter about hotels from San Francisco to New England and a number in London, Brussels and Paris.  In April 2012 Applause Theatre and Cinema Books published a revised and updated version of his book "Inside the Plaza". He was also a drama critic for Black Tie Magazine.

Works

Plays

 The Actors, November, 1982
 Trunk Full of Memories, 1989
 My Four Mothers,  1987
 Mr. Doom Gets A Letter (based on a play by Ward Morehouse II), 1991
 If It Was Easy (with Stewart F. Lane) (Performing Books/Applause, 2002)
 Gangplank (with Mark Druck) 2010

Books

 The Waldorf-Astoria: America's Gilded Dream, (M Evans & Company, 1991)
 Inside the Plaza: An Intimate Portrait of the Ultimate Hotel (Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, 2001)
 The Caedmon School: An Anecdotal History and Appreciation, with Gregory A. Minahan (Xlibris Corp - April 2003)
 Life at the Top: Inside New York's Grand Hotels (BearManor Media, 2006)
 Broadway After Dark, Ward Morehouse II & Ward Morehouse III (BearManor Media February 2007)
 Discovering the Hudson (BearManor Media, 2007)
 London's Grand Hotels (BearManor Media, 2010)

References

Category:1945 births
Category:Living people
Category:American male writers


“If they dropped a bomb here we would have no one left to write about awards season,” one publicist joked about the eager and heavy turnout of bloggers, critics, and other mainstays of Oscar spitballing that showed up at today’s 1 PM (PT) screening of Steven Spielberg’s much-awaited Bridge Of Spies at West Hollywood’s London Hotel. This screening was held by Disney (whose Touchstone label, with DreamWorks, Amblin, Fox 2000 Pictures and Participant Media along with Reliance Entertainment are the main entities behind the film) to coincide with the first press screening in New York, where the film had its world premiere Sunday night as part of the 53rd annual New York Film Festival.

As the end credits rolled it received massive applause and standing ovation. In terms of NYFF it really is the only other previously unseen piece of the Oscar-season puzzle the fest is offering up this year, so there was obviously going to be intense interest among those who cover this stuff religiously (like me, of course).

Related Story Spielberg, DreamWorks SKG In Negotiations With NBCUniversal Now To Join Studio

So what’s the verdict? From my point of view this completely engrossing and compelling Cold War spy drama is a masterful piece of filmmmaking — definitely one of Spielberg’s finest films, his best since Saving Private Ryan, and one that contains another great and solid turn from star Tom Hanks. He plays James Donovan, an insurance claims lawyer who after agreeing to defend a captured Soviet spy (Mark Rylance) finds himself smack in the middle of a Cold War showdown when he is sent to East Berlin to effect a prisoner exchange. I say solid because despite the dark hallmarks of many a classic noirish spy film with all the deception and duplicitous actions expected in the genre, Hanks plays an American stalwart who reminds me more of an Atticus Finch, a man representing the American ideal in the sort of part Gregory Peck or James Stewart often played.

It’s not flashy, he’s not covered in makeup, but man is Hanks good. Of course he is the heir apparent to that kind of screen icon as he proved in Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and more recently in Captain Phillips, and inevitably in Clint Eastwood’s upcoming Sully Sullenberger hero pilot film that just started shooting. Watching this true story of this ordinary lawyer thrust into an extraordinary situation that tests his skills, will, and basic decency, I kept thinking we have gotten sooooo far away from this kind of quiet American hero in this hateful Internet-driven age that it is like watching someone that just doesn’t seem to exist anymore, or at least that movies want to portray. I certainly hope that is not the case, but at any rate Hanks’ performance reminds us of what once was.

The film, though a period piece that starts in 1957 , has a lot of pertinence for today as well, particularly since the cat-and-mouse games between the Americans and the Russians have again heated up. The script is simply outstanding, an original screenplay by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. You would expect a movie with the Coens’, Spielberg’s, and Hanks’ names on it to be an instant contender for Oscars. Certainly, Bridge Of Spies is that and then some. This is prime Academy fodder and I think you can rightly expect it to be a major player in Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actor (for the great Rylance who plays Rudolf Abel, the spy in question), Thomas Newman’s score, editing, and cinematography from Spielberg regulars Michael Kahn and Janusz Kaminski respectively as well as top Production Design from Adam Stockhausen.

My full video review and longer print review will run Tuesday, but suffice to say this film should put Spielberg and company back in the awards hunt for the first time since Lincoln three years ago.


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