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Mr. Spencer-Edwards, whose novel was read by all-boys classes and is about avoiding materialism and the need to be “jiggy,” or well-dressed, dolled out life advice that he said helped him get where he is today.
In response to a student who asked how he felt about his teachers when he was young, he said, “They had their job to do and I had my job to do. My job was to get an A,” he said.
And though Mr. Spencer-Edwards was able to avoid answering questions about the bulk of his bank account by instead recounting how many books he had sold, Ms. Gresseau tackled the tough question of what she would change about her life.
Nothing, she said. Because the things she didn’t like about herself, being tall and quick to get into fights, had helped her write a novel about a girl with similar issues.
Finally, a student asked a question that stumped her. What animal did she most identify with.
After some thought, she answered.
“I’d be a cockroach,” she said. “Because they’re survivors and I feel like I’m a survivor, you know?
Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis met with French Minister of Defense Florence Parly today during the Munich Security Conference.
Secretary Mattis and Minister Parly agreed on the need for a strong stance against the threat posed by the Iranian ballistic missile program and the need to address Iran's proliferation of ballistic missiles to terrorists and militants. Secretary Mattis thanked Minister Parly for French leadership in counter-terrorism operations in Africa and the Levant, which have been critical for restoring stability. He reiterated the global coalition must remain focused on the Defeat-ISIS fight and keep pressure on the remnants of the terrorist organization to ensure they do not regroup. Secretary Mattis also stressed that a strong Europe is a better security partner, but that the EU defense initiatives should complement, not compete with NATO.
Secretary Mattis thanked Minister Parly for France's contributions to global security, and the two leaders agreed to continue strengthening U.S.-French defense cooperation.
Condo sales offices are often expensive and wasteful things, with buckets of money thrown at temporary buildings or expensive interior renovations, only to be hauled off to the dump when construction starts. So for all of the complaining that I do about shipping container architecture, a condo sales office is one place where it makes a lot of sense. Because shipping containers are designed to move, and when the sales cycle is over for this Toronto project, Cabin by Curated Properties, that's what they will do.
The exhilarating walk into the dining and living area, however, cannot be overstated. Here, four containers have been married to create a grand, airy and light-filled room. The only clue that corrugated ceilings, walls and floors have been removed to create this room is the long, slender “beam” overhead, where all once linked together.
This would normally be my cue to say "what a waste"- they have cut out walls, floors and ceilings, almost half the containers, to create a space of habitable size, which could have been done a whole lot more easily if built from scratch. But in this case, where it is clear that the building is going to be moved, it makes some sense. Because as Adam Ochshorn notes, these things ain't cheap.
The building itself is interesting too, being six storeys built out of wood, (and not shipping containers, which has evidently confused some visitors) which just became legal in Ontario. It is an example of the kind of development that I hope we will see a lot more of: smaller, mid-rise buildings on main streets, throughout the city. You can do this effectively in wood, whereas concrete is too expensive unless you can spread the fixed costs of cranes and formwork over a taller structure. I will follow up with more detail on the building itself in another post.
This makes so much sense for temporary buildings.
A popular sports bar in Miami has temporarily been reimagined as the Xfinity Reality Bar.
To promote itself as a destination for some of today’s most popular reality TV, the Xfinity X1 platform (with agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners) took over a Miami sports bar and temporarily relaunched it as the Xfinity Reality Bar.
The pop-up bar will be open through this Wednesday with select memorabilia reality TV fans might recognize, including the original duck phone from Jersey Shore. The bar also has a fun bar and drinks menu, with cheeky references to delight reality TV watchers, like “skinny guac,” “tell me it’s about the pepperoni” pizza, “cougar on the loose” (a cosmopolitan), “desperate story line” (sangria), and “mascara tears” (rosé).
There are also scheduled appearances from reality TV celebrities including Chad Johnson, of MTV’s Ex On The Beach; Margaret Josephs, of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey; and Jenni “JWOWW” Farley of MTV’s Jersey Shore.
Live interviews will also be conducted in partnership with Betches and FabFitFun.
“Xfinity TV brings together the best of reality television and we wanted to create a physical destination that reflected the curated experience we offer our customers,” said Todd Arata, senior vice president of Brand Marketing at Comcast, in a prepared statement.
To access the new reality TV destination, which will include programming like NBC’s The Titan Games and MTV’s Ex On the Beach, Xfinity X1 customers just have to say “Reality Week” into their X1 remotes.
Additional content will be available on Facebook Live and through the hashtag, #XfinityRealityWeek.
That’s what I wanted. I wanted to see power forward Tim Duncan’s big smile after his fifth championship with the San Antonio Spurs.
The man is known for his stoicism, so a wide, radiant smile is a rare thing.
Some teams are lovable and some teams are hateable (cough, Yankees). The Spurs are loveable for their ethos. They are known for civility, humility, and for unselfish team play.
Sunday’s game in San Antonio was a thing of beauty. The intricate passing, the way players set their teammates up to succeed, all epitomized the Spurs’ system. The Spurs beat the Heat 104–87 in Game 5. They won the NBA title that slipped away in last year’s heartbreaker against the Miami Heat.
Afterward, Duncan sat with his two children nearly glued to him. It was an endearing Father’s Day image. His small daughter and even smaller son kept nestling closer and closer, as the big guy refrained from gloating.
He told a reporter that the Spurs were not as fast or as athletic as the Heat, so their strategy was to keep the ball in motion in order to compensate. Praising the opponent. Downplaying the Spurs. As if it was simple. As if the passing and the team play was anything less than highly honed skill and great coaching.
Spurs Point Guard Tony Parker credited Duncan’s unselfishness and humility with inspiring his own. During the championship series and the final game, Parker did his best to help younger player Kawhi Leonard shine.
Leonard was named Most Valuable Player.
Sports, competition, the workplace, the battlefield, the boardroom, the classroom, all provide chances to show character. Friction and conflict, trying to achieve something, bring out the ego or the hero. The Spurs, with the leadership style of Timmy, are ego-free, and that is their great strength.
Sports are one the few things in American life that still belong to everyone. It is universal, not in silos built for various members of “our patchwork nation,” as Dante Chinni, author of the book of the same name, calls it.
Liberals may eat at Whole Foods while conservatives enjoy Cracker Barrel, but we all share baseball and football and basketball.
Yet those American pastimes are often tarnished by crimes and scandals. So, to have the nice guy Spurs finish first, ah yes.
For one night, all was right in our republic.
OVER several decades, a series of books, and hundreds of articles and drawings in the South Wales Argus, historian, artist and headmaster Fred J Hando became something of a household name in his beloved Gwent.
Now his first cousin (once removed) – president of Newport County AFC, retired teacher, and former Newport councillor – David Hando, has himself gone into print to tell the story of his ‘Uncle’ Fred.
It is among many stories and anecdotes David Hando tells, in print and conversation, with a warmth illus-trating a deep affection for a man whose work as a teacher at Maindee School and later as headmaster at Hatherleigh Central School, also in Newport, shaped the lives of generations of boys and girls.
“The launch of my book (last month, at St Julians Methodist Church) was attended by, among others, three authors, two poets, a judge, and a number of ex-Hatherleigh pupils, one of whom discharged himself from hospital to be there,” said David.
Fred J Hando was awarded an MBE in 1953 for services to education and to Monmouthshire, and by then his words and drawings had been a regular feature in the Argus for 30 years, as they would be until just days before his death, in February 1970.
These are generously represented in David Hando’s book, Fred J Hando, A Proud Son of Gwent, which contains examples of Fred’s drawings of local landmarks, the area’s more out-of-the-way places, and the covers of – and a chapter from – each of his books.
“He had a great appreciation of the beauty of the countryside, prompted by his experiences in France (in the Royal Engineers) during the First World War, and seeing the devastation in Flanders,” said David.
* Fred J Hando, A Proud Son of Gwent, is available, priced £14.50, by contacting David Hando on 01633 413166.
Looking for quality camping products that won’t cost an arm and a leg? Look no further than SUPA-PEG. We are a proudly established Australia company that proudly manufacturer and supplier quality tent pegs, tent poles, caravan awnings, side awnings trailer frames and bows. With over twenty years’ experiences, you can rely on us to provide you with the best products available for all your camping needs. Visit http://supapeg.com.au/ and feel free to have a look at all our products and services. Alternatively, we can be contacted on (07) 3804 5544.
The aquarium will feature trained staff, sensory bags with noise-canceling headphones, weighted blankets and an ID card for non-verbable autistic children. The aquarium will also feature quiet spaces.
NEW ORLEANS – The Audubon Aquarium is becoming the first aquarium in the nation to be certified as sensory inclusive and to celebrate, the aquarium will hold an event on Sunday.
The event, called Sensory Sunday, will take place on February 25 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. with partners KultureCity and former NFL Pro Bowl running back, Tiki Barber.
The aquarium will feature trained staff, sensory bags with noise-canceling headphones, weighted blankets and an ID card for non-verbal autistic children. The aquarium will also feature quiet spaces, a reading corner, animal encounters and six sensory stations.
“The beauty about that is that families no longer have to feel they have to stay at home, if their son or daughter or someone else in their family can’t be out because they feel sensory overloaded,” Barber said.
Barker’s godson was diagnosed with autism about five years ago. He says around the same time, he met Doctors Julian and Michele Maha and learned more about KultureCity.
“I didn’t know how to help my friend who was going through a very difficult time with his son and this became a way for me to outreach," Barber said.
Barber said that KultureCity hopes to make as many public spaces as sensory inclusive as possible.
“What this sensory inclusive initiative does is makes all spaces comfortable so there is an understanding that this isn’t you being a bad parent, this is an issue that we know how to deal with and we are going to make you as comfortable as possible,” Baker said.
For more information on Sensory Sunday, click here and for more information about KultureCity, click here.
OTTAWA—The International Monetary Fund is warning about the risks to the Canadian economy due to a possible correction in the housing market and urged governments to do more to protect against them.
In the preliminary findings of its annual review of the Canadian economy, the IMF said Wednesday that a further tightening of macroprudential and tax-based measures to mitigate speculative and investment activity should be considered.
It also called for greater co-ordination between federal and provincial regulators as well as government efforts to collect more comprehensive data on real estate transactions.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau said there were no surprises in the IMF warning.
“What the IMF has said is ... that there’s a level of household indebtedness in Canada that is significant, something for us to watch. The housing market, of course, is something we’re paying close attention to,” he said.
Ottawa has moved several times in recent years to tighten mortgage lending rules, including expanded stress tests on mortgages.
A foreign buyer tax of 15 per cent was implemented in the Vancouver region last summer, while Ontario recently announced plans for a similar levy for the Greater Toronto Area.
Moody’s Investors Service recently downgraded Canada’s six big banks amid concerns about consumer debt and housing prices that could leave them vulnerable.
Cheng Hoon Lim, the IMF’s mission chief for Canada, said there are a few policies that could help deter speculation in the housing market and alleviate concerns about rising debt burdens.
“Among these measures, a cap on household debt to income or more stringent qualification criteria for household debt above a certain threshold will go directly to addressing household indebtedness,” she said.
The IMF also encouraged B.C. and Ontario to replace their foreign buyer taxes.
“This could include a combination of prudential and tax-based measures that discourage speculative activity without discriminating between residents and non-residents,” it said.
Every software developer these days seems to be working on a Facebook app, but relatively few get any traction. Tim O’Reilly reports that of the more than 5,000 Facebook apps available today, only 84 account for nearly 90 percent of all the usage. Of those, only about half boast more than 100,000 active users, and only three have more than one million active users. For instance, Top Friends has 2.8 million active users, FunWall has 1.9 million, and Super Wall has 1.1 million. Then it drops off to 500,000 by the No. 10 app (Likeness), and to 270,000 by the time you get to No. 20 (Scrabulous). Now, some of these apps may have become popular by notification spam or other questionable means, but that’s another story.
Milford police helped break up a fight, then as they were leaving found out one of the previous combatants started a scuffle with someone else.
As inclement weather closed down activities Aug. 11 at Milford Memories, police responded to complaints about fights that resulted in one man being arrested.
At about 11:45 p.m., officers assigned to patrol the beer tent reported that activities were being shut down due to the weather, but people who had sheltered in the tents remained and initially no effort was made to direct them out of the area.
While waiting near the entrance tent, officers were alerted to a fight in the entertainment tent. Two men were being separated by bystanders. An event representative told police one of the men — a West Bloomfield man — was helping at the event. The second man was escorted out of the tent.
While the officers were leaving, they received reports of another fight — this time in the pavilion. Officers found the West Bloomfield man, 26, was involved again. This time, officers decided both men would be escorted from the area.
The West Bloomfield man was being escorted out by event staff when officers reported he appeared to be breaking away and behaving in an aggressive manner. An officer tackled him and other officers joined in taking him into custody — he was laying on his hands and refusing to put them behind his back to be handcuffed. The man was eventually placed in a patrol car and held on a charge of disorderly conduct. Police noted he appeared to have been drinking alcohol.
When it appeared there was potential for several more fights, the officer contacted command with a request for assistance from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. Officers then dispersed the crowd remaining in the tents.
Officers subsequently obtained statements from witnesses to the altercations involving the West Bloomfield man. One witness told police the suspect had been aggressive and he had feared he was going to be physically attacked. The second witness said the man was involved in two separate altercations and his friends tried unsuccessfully to calm him down.
The man was also reported to have been uncooperative with officers during the booking process at the police station.
This winter has been epic in Tahoe. The ski resorts have measure snow by the foot since early December.
That will make for a great Snowfest 2011. Snowfest boasts of being one is the largest winter carnival west of the Mississippi.
It kicks off this weekend and runs through March 13. The festival kicks off with a fireworks show and torchlight parade at Squaw Valley.
So if the massive base snow isn't enough to bring you the slopes, how about the zany/wacky events that begin this weekend. From hometown parades to polar bear swims and extreme food challenges.
“Smart shrinkage” is a phrase referring to the downsizing of a city while simultaneously advancing it.
Smart shrinkage is the premise behind the SMART2 Network — a project started by Eastgate Regional Council of Governments looking to perform makeovers on many of the streets from downtown Youngstown to the North Side were Mercy Health is located.
Some of the changes to Downtown would include adding landscaped medians, bus-drop off lanes, narrower traffic lanes, biking lanes and stations along with a few other beautification details.
The basic goal of SMART2 is to make Downtown and some of its surrounding businesses feel more connected, making it feel like less of a travel from the Youngstown Business Incubator on West Federal Street to Mercy Health on Park Avenue, for example.
Executive Director of Eastgate, Jim Kinnick, said the project has been around for a couple years and has been proposed two times prior but was unsuccessful in receiving the needed funding to bring SMART2 to life.
To make it a reality on its third attempt, Eastgate is relying on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, or BUILD, grant.
Current street setup of Fifth Avenue.
Eastgate has requested $10.8 million from BUILD toward SMART2, which is expected to cost $26.2 million. The rest of the funding will be supplied by Eastgate, the City of Youngstown, Youngstown State University, WRTA, Mercy Health and others through donations and in-kind contributions.
If the 10.8 million is not granted, Kinnick said changes will still be made; they just won’t be as drastic and will take a bit longer to develop.
Kinnick said without the grant, there will definitely still be improvements made to Fifth Avenue — minus the autonomous transit shuttles.
Of all the streets affected by SMART2, Kinnick believes Fifth Avenue will have the most improvements made to it. This would include two self-driving shuttles traveling up and down the street.
Associate Professor of Computer Science & Information Systems at YSU, Abdu Arslanyilmaz, said having autonomous transportation on Fifth Avenue would benefit residents of this region.
“It will reduce the number of accidents by eliminating driver errors and distractions as well as improving the level of decision-making and reaction time before a dangerous situation,” Arslanyilmaz said.
He described some of the characteristics that make a vehicle self-driving. One of which was the technology in the vehicle having the ability to sense surroundings such as other vehicles, people, traffic signs and signals, lane lines and curbs among other things.
Proposed setup of Fifth Avenue.
“Based on this, the artificial intelligence built into these vehicles is able to make important decisions such as when to start slowing down to stop safely, which turns to take for an optimal path to a destination and how fast to travel based on the road and weather conditions.” Arslanyilmaz said.
He said these autonomous vehicles are created to improve safety but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect.
Michael Hripko, the associate vice president of research at YSU, has helped collect data for SMART2. He said the BUILD grant requires an aspect of the project to include innovative technologies such as autonomous travel.
Hripko said the grant is highly competitive but he feels the commitment to the third attempt may be what sets it apart from the competitors.

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