My Queen

Degreasing Your Chain Problem:  My chain isn't shifting correctly, and it skips a lot. What Happened : You may be an uber luber, and the excess sticky stuff is attracting grime to the chain and cassette. First clean, rinse, and dry your chain and cassette (the gears in the back). You can buy bike-specific degreasers and chain-cleaning gizmos, but dish soap and a toothbrush work, too. Next, carefully apply one drop (more is not better) of lube onto each roller as you turn the cranks backward for two or three rotations. Finally, take a clean rag and gently grip the chain's outer plates as you spin the cranks for one more rotation. Keep going until you've wiped off all the excess lube—it should be mostly inside the chain on the rollers, not on the outside where it can attract dirt.  http://yellowbikes.org Aligning Your Wheel Problem:  I fixed a flat. Now the tire is rubbing one of the brake pads. What Happened : You reinstalled your whe...

When Zafar Achakzai, a journalist in the restive Pakistani province of Balochistan, heard a loud, insistent knocking on his door just before sunrise on June 25, he did not quite know what to expect. When he answered, he was met by about a dozen armed men, some in Pakistani paramilitary uniforms. "They ordered me to come with them," the 21-year-old reporter told Al Jazeera by telephone. "When we were some distance from my home, they blindfolded me, and then I was held at some unknown place." For hours, he remained in the dark. Eventually, men came to ask him questions, to confirm his identity and take down details about his work. It was then that he asked them why he had been taken. "I was told that I use Facebook quite a lot. That is all that they said." Achakzai was held without charge and interrogated repeatedly over the next three days. His interrogators, who refused to identify themselves, only said that they were concerned about several Fa...

Throughout my lifetime I have visited quite a few countries.  While serving in the Foreign Service for over two decades, I was lucky enough to travel to countries around the world that included one country which most of us might not have even thought about or if so was unable to visit due to various reasons. Other countries that I have been to are places which most of us have been and nothing much to say about them. Whenever I mention this country my friends give me a strange look wondering what kind of a person was I to visit this place. http://wherewelive.org  Some even inquired why did I go there or did I enjoy being to this country. My simple answer was I was a civil servant and wherever I was assigned I had to go as I had no choice. This country was Russia. I suppose most of us have no idea about this country or even dreamed of going there. However, I don’t mean all as there might be some fortunate guys like me. As soon as I knew I was assigned to the ...

The first thought that newly engaged brides-to-be have is starting their search for their perfect wedding dress. Most women have dreamed of their big day all their lives, and the pressure to find the wedding dress that matches those dreams is unreal. Although planning the wedding and finalising the design of the dress is a fun process, for many it can be extremely stressful and confusing. Relax! De-stress and enjoy the experience. The trick is to start planning very early so that you don’t have to run around at the very last minute. Decide on your budget for the dress and whether it will be a readymade one or customised to your taste. Your dress should suit the activities and style of your wedding. Ask yourself questions like, “Do I feel beautiful in this dress?”, “Can I dance and move around all night?”, or “Can I sit down?” http://weddinghairstyless.com Dresses with beautiful trains, and detailing across the hem are great, but don’t forget about the top of your dress as well as...

A Partner and Co-Chair of Olshan Frome Wolosky’s Activist & Equity Investment Group, Andrew Freedman is one of the leading attorneys in the U.S. practicing in the area of shareholder activism and advises some of the nation’s most prolific activist investors, including Starboard Value and Elliott. He has been ranked by Chambers USA as a “Leading Lawyer” in the inaugural Corporate/M&A: Shareholder Activism category. According to Chambers USA, Freedman “really understands what his client wants and is creative in figuring out ways to get there." Christopher P. Skroupa:  From the activist perspective, what were the major wins in engagement this past year?  http://wearecephalization.com Andrew Freedman:  After a relatively sleepy 2016 for large cap activism, the top-tier shareholder activists came back with a vengeance in 2017, mounting high-profile campaigns against well-known, large-cap target companies. Most recently, Bill Ackman fell short in his campaign against ...

Madrox has been in the comic spotlight on three separate occasions, and each time, things have been... weird. For those who aren't fans of the comic book exploits of Marvel's  X-Men , the news that James Franco and Simon Kinberg are developing a stand-alone feature based around Jamie Madrox might seem an unexpected choice. After all, who even knows who Madrox  is ? For comic book fans, however, it's a sign that Fox's plans for the larger  X-Men  franchise have likely just gotten weirder — and a lot more fun. Madrox debuted, of all places, in a 1975  Fantastic Four  comic ( Giant-Size Fantastic Four  No. 4, to be exact, by future  X-Men  writers Len Wein and Chris Claremont, with art by John Buscema) before fading into the background for a number of years. That's not to say he hasn't had his time in the comic book spotlight, however, and it's those brief shining moments that tease some strange, wonderful movie possibilities ahead.  http://wayneindustri...

For close on a century, researchers have hypothesised that the universe contains more matter than can be directly observed, known as "dark matter." They have also posited the existence of a "dark energy" that is more powerful than gravitational attraction. These two hypotheses, it has been argued, account for the movement of stars in galaxies and for the accelerating expansion of the universe respectively. But -- according to a researcher at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland -- these concepts may be no longer valid: the phenomena they are supposed to describe can be demonstrated without them. This research, which is published in  The Astrophysical Journal , exploits a new theoretical model based on the scale invariance of the empty space, potentially solving two of astronomy's greatest mysteries. In 1933, the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky made a discovery that left the world speechless: there was, claimed Zwicky, substantially more matter in ...

A  Bloomberg  interview has revealed Old Mutual Gold & Silver Fund has set aside roughly 11 million USD from its holdings since spring of this year to purchase the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin. It’s another feather in the decentralized currency’s cap, even as debate rages as to whether it will ever supplant gold’s tradition of being a hedge against tough economic times.    http://wabbo.org   Bitcoin Paving Way for Reintroduction of Gold as Global Money Ranjeetha Pakiam reports: “The Old Mutual Gold & Silver Fund, which manages $220 million of mostly precious metal equities, is jumping on the bitcoin wagon.” Fund manager Ned Naylor-Leyland explained to Ms. Pakiam how they’ve been gobbling up bitcoin since April “with a mandate to allocate as much as 5 percent to cryptocurrencies,” Ms. Pakiam writes. A response back in 2015 from the fund manager, to an individual who viewed bitcoin as too volatile. “Bitcoin is paving the way for the reintroduction of ...

South Punjab comes on top in agricultural economy as it has 96% share in cotton production in Punjab and 80% in the entire country as well as pays more taxes than the industrial hub of Faisalabad, emphasized Malik Asrar Ahmed Awan, President of the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He was giving a briefing to the visiting probationary officers of grade-18 of the 24th Mid-career Management Course of the National Institute of Management, Karachi. Awan pointed out that south Punjab offered great opportunities for investment in the areas of agriculture, dairy products, livestock, fruit and vegetable processing and packaging. He cited the surveys conducted by the World Bank and its financing arm International Finance Corporation that ranked south Punjab second in the country for making investment. However, the region lags far behind upper Punjab in terms of development, which necessitates the need for providing health care facilities and potable water to the people.  ...

“I get so many emails from people saying they thought the game looked atrocious and they played it just to laugh at how bad it was.” Nelson Sexton has a pretty good attitude towards his game, Unturned [Steam page]. On first glance, the Fisher Price art direction of this Early Access zombie survival sandbox surely wouldn’t trouble old man DayZ and his gang. But it’s had 17.5 million downloads on Steam, with 1.25 million people playing it in the past two weeks. Players  really  like Unturned: its Steam ratings are 92% positive. And Sexton, its sole maker, is just 18. I was really curious who this guy is, so I rang him up. I think you might like him – and maybe Unturned, too.  http://unturneditemid.com Nelson Sexton lives in Calgary with his dad. He’s gently and precisely spoken, self-assured given his years, and has that cute Canadian burr. Continuing that opening quote, he said, “But then – and that’s not to say it isn’t bad, but who knows – they tried it and they actually really...

The 2017-18 season is two weeks old, yet the second-ranked Arizona Wildcats already have two losses on their resume following a 66-60 defeat to the SMU Mustangs on Thursday at the Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas. CBS Sports' Gary Parrish put the Wildcats' start in perspective: SMU 66, Arizona 60. So the second-ranked Wildcats are 3-2 with losses to the teams picked 12th in the ACC (NC State) and 4th in the AAC (SMU). SMU prevailed despite shooting 31.4 percent from the field as a team. The Mustangs also hit just eight of their 22 attempts from beyond the arc.  http://undertale.site Arizona shot itself in the foot with 20 turnovers. The Wildcats also struggled from three-point territory, going 5-of-20. In particular, Allonzo Trier lost his shooting touch for the second straight game. While the junior guard made a solid eight of his 16 field-goal attempts, he was 3-of-9 on three-pointers. He was 0-of-5 from deep in Ariz...

Christmas Day couldn’t be the same for me without my carving set and enormous serving plate. A few years ago, while researching my book The Modern Kitchen, I started noticing these huge platters on eBay. They are not by any means beautiful pieces of china. These are thick, coarse ware — made from a rough material not much better than plaster and looking, from their overwrought patterns, to be Victorian or early 20th century. I couldn’t quite fathom why there were so many but found myself oddly drawn to them, bought a few and tried to find out more. The patterns were not the delicately applied enamel and gold leaf of the great potteries but usually some kind of cheap transfer, rarely applied without small tears and folds. Some were rough approximations of traditional Chinese willow pattern, others had strange mottoes or quite random images. Many of the larger versions don’t sit completely flat on the table — they would have been rejected as “second” or “third” quality items at the kiln ...

ROBERT AND GAVIN PAISLEY’S architectural models have earned a cult following. Leading architect Alex Michaelis of Michaelis Boyd owns several, as does the New York veteran modernist Richard Meier. Each model is a precise replica of a real building, whether it’s a landmark like Battersea Power Station– their bestseller – or a private home. These aren’t just for design buffs, though. They possess the Lilliputian charm of a doll’s house, which holds universal appeal, as their rising popularity–70 per cent year-on-year increase in sales since 2014 – proves. I t was the seemingly limitless potential of 3D printing that spurred the brothers to swap their computer-programming business in Nutley, East Sussex, for modelmaking in 2011.At first they experimented with using purely digital technology to create the models, but they soon decided against it. "Although 3D printing is expensive, the results didn’t feel expensive and the models lacked that luxury c...

One in six Virginia children live in families that struggle with hunger. Across the state, schools are ramping up efforts to ensure students are getting the meals they wouldn’t have otherwise — especially breakfast. Through the end of the year, Virginia schools are competing for prizes and recognition through increased school breakfast participation. The second annual Virginia Breakfast Challenge encourages state schools to get more students to eat breakfast through a program — “Breakfast After the Bell” — that aims to break the stigma of eating school breakfast. In the first Virginia Breakfast Challenge last year, 1,325 schools participated and about 25,000 more students had school breakfast compared with when the challenge started.  http://thefoodrevolution.org During the 2016-17 school year, Virginia schools served about 10 million more breakfasts than four years prior. The numbers are improving, but there’s still room for ...

A few days ago, this 1972 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV was brought to my attention. What made the car remarkable wasn’t the fact that Lamborghini made so few Miuras and seeing one in this beautiful color scheme was an absolute treat. No, it was that the seller, Kulu Motorcar Inc., wrote on its listing that it only had 150 miles on the clock. One-hundred and fifty miles. On a car from 1972. The listing is very light on the details, but for something like this, the mileage is usually that low either because it was only factory-driven up until this point or that its owners just never drove it. I’m not going to pretend to know anything about this Lamborghini or its backstory, but I really hope it isn’t the latter. Because if you don’t drive a car, you are effectively wasting it.  http://the-cars.org This kind of story isn’t new or really unique in our industry, especially when it concerns instantly special cars like a Miura or a McLaren F1. But, even as I went to visit that incredi...