question stringlengths 14 1.69M | answer stringlengths 1 40.5k | meat_tokens int64 1 8.18k |
|---|---|---|
You've heard it before, Sassicaia is the most collectible Italian wine to come out of the Boot. The now historic wine is single-handedly responsible for launching the Super Tuscan movement and remains one of the most sought-after wines in the world. Marchese Nicolò Incisa della Rocchetta continues the 36 year old tradition at the Tenuta San Guido estate, which is considered by many to be the birthplace of Tuscan Cabernet. He is NOT influenced by the international demand to create a super-extracted, monster red wine; instead, he continues to produce the most elegant Super Tuscan there is!
The term "Super Tuscan" conjures up words like creativity, freedom, spirit, and defiance. In the time pre-dating the Sixties, no one considered making a wine crafted along Bordeaux lines on Italian soil, much less in<|fim_middle|> creativity, expression, and the qualitative potential of terroir.
It was the drive and foresight of Mario Incisa della Rochetta, along with guidance from Giacomo Tachis (Piero Antinori's winemaker) that made enological history and created the Super Tuscan movement. Mario believed in the evolution of Tuscany's viticulture and planted a small vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon in the Bolgheri hills in 1944. The estate, Tenuta San Guido, was influenced by the location's similarity to Graves in Bordeaux. "Graves" means "gravel" in French, and similarly, the earth at Tenuta San Guido gave Sassicaia its name, which in the Tuscan dialect means "stony ground." After 25 years of experimentation and relentless energy, Sassicaia entered the world stage in 1968 to critical acclaim with its first international release and thus the Super Tuscan Pioneer was born. | a region not yet established viticulturally. The theory back then was that vines exposed to the sea winds and salty air of Bolgheri would produce poor results. More importantly, the viticultural regulations set forth by the DOC and DOCG limited | 49 |
KERO - Bakersfield Scripps
Donation drive to help human trafficking victims
December 4, 2022, 12:52 p.m.
Latest Kern County, California and US & world news from 23ABC in Bakersfield, Calif.
Veritas Capital Completes Acquisition of Wood Mackenzie
NEW YORK & LONDON, February 02, 2023--Veritas Capital ("Veritas"), a leading investor at the intersection of technology and government, today announced that an affiliate of Veritas has completed the purchase of Wood Mackenzie from Verisk (Nasdaq: VRSK).
CSW Industrials Reports Fiscal 2023 Third Quarter and Year-to-Date Results with Record Revenue, EPS and EBITDA
DALLAS, Feb. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CSW Industrials, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSWI or the "Company") today reported results for the fiscal 2023 third quarter and nine-month fiscal year-to-date periods ended December 31, 2022. Fiscal 2023 Third Quarter Highlights (comparisons to fiscal 2022 third quarter) Total revenue increased 26% to $171.1 million, of which 17%, or $22.8 million, was organic growthNet income attributable to CSWI increased 68% to $15.6 million, compared to $9.3 million, with no adju
Tradeweb Reports January 2023 Total Trading Volume of $23.2 Trillion and Average Daily Volume of $1.15 Trillion
NEW YORK, February 02, 2023--Tradeweb Markets Inc. (Nasdaq: TW), a leading, global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets, today reported total trading volume for January 2023 of $23.2 trillion (tn). Average daily volume (ADV) for the month was $1.15tn, an increase of 2.8 percent (%) year-over-year (YoY).
What's new for Medicare in 2023?
A new year means changes to Medicare, including updated premiums and deductibles and sometimes big policy moves. In 2023, there's a little of everything: Some costs have gone down, others have increased, and there are some notable tweaks to how Medicare works. Understanding what's new can help you get the most from your Medicare benefits. Here are some key 2023 updates, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. PART B COSTS HAVE GONE DOWN Medicare Part B is medical insurance tha
Mortgage calculator: how much more you will pay as interest rates rise
The Bank of England has announced a 0.5 percentage point increase in its base interest rate, taking it to 4pc, its highest level since the 2008 financial crisis.
'Life changing.' Kansas City Royals say union labor will build new downtown stadium
"This has the potential to be life changing for a lot of people," said one leader surveying the Royals' $2 billion plan for a new downtown stadium.
The hike will push up mortgage bills for millions of people in the coming months.
Government urges British Steel to continue talks amid fears for hundreds of jobs
Business minister Nusrat Ghani said a generous package of support is still available for the steel works.
The Bank of England raised interest rates for the 10th time in<|fim_middle|> Bristol Myers Squibb said on Thursday its fourth quarter sales and earnings had fallen, hurt by lower sales of its blockbuster cancer drug Revlimid as it faced competition from generic versions in the United States. Sales of Revlimid, which began facing generic competition in the United States earlier in 2022, fell 32% to $2.26 billion from $3.33 billion a year before. Still, sales were better than analysts, expecting a sharper drop in Revlimid sales, had forecast.
10 Cities Where Home Prices Have Skyrocketed the Most Over the Past 10 Years
Although the real estate market is finally cooling down, home prices around the country are still significantly higher than they were a decade ago. But some cities have seen higher rates of home price...
Jos Buttler focusing on positives despite England's series loss in South Africa
There were some standout performances in the series as Jason Roy, Dawid Malan and Buttler all made hundreds. | a row on Thursday but dropped its pledge to keep increasing them "forcefully" if needed and said inflation had probably peaked. Softening their forecasts of recession this year, the BoE's nine interest rate-setters voted 7-2 to increase Bank Rate to 4.0% - its highest since 2008 - from 3.5%. The European Central Bank looks set to raise rates by a half a percentage point later on Thursday to 2.5%.
How To Handle It When Your Friends Are Richer Than You
Money is no longer an off-limits conversation topic for younger generations. Around 37% of Gen Zers aren't afraid to ask their friends how much money they make, and around 25% of millennials say the...
'Groundhog Day' Inspiration: 9 Financial Habits To Repeat Over and Over Again
In honor of Groundhog Day -- both the fun little Pennsylvania tradition in which residents await sightings of a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, and the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray in which he...
Drugmaker | 225 |
Point2 Homes gives you far more than a simple list of houses for sale. Get instant access to a lot of relevant information about Beasley, Hamilton, ON real estate, including property descriptions, virtual tours, maps and photos. The search results pages also have a wealth of information on Beasley, Hamilton, ON, if you scroll all the way down.
There are 17 houses for sale in Beasley, Hamilton, ON.
Searching homes for sale in Beasley, Hamilton, ON has never been more convenient. With Point2 Homes, you can easily browse through Beasley, Hamilton, ON single family homes for sale, townhomes, condos and commercial properties, and quickly get a general perspective of the real estate prices. Also, you'll never miss a bargain if you filter listings based on house price drops in the past six months.
Use the map view to find Beasley, Hamilton, ON homes and apartments for sale, based on amenities or city features that you may want close by. You can close in on a specific neighbourhood or area by simply drawing around them with the polygon or radius tools. Stay informed about the latest entries on the real estate market by saving your searches. This way, you get new listings in your inbox, daily or every week, based on your preferences. If you'd like to get in touch with a professional, agents are displayed next to their listings, and they're easy to contact through the online forms. If you want more options, you can click the Tools tab and Find an Agent, and you'll get a list of helpful and knowledgeable real estate agents in Beasley, Hamilton, ON. Visit the Point2 Homes blog and you can find up to date expert advice on many markets throughout Canada, regular market reports, neighbourhood scoops in cities throughout the provinces, real estate deals and useful recommendations.
Tucked away in the city core, the Beasley community offers a selection of gorgeous Victorian-era heritage homes, as well as several modern apartment-style condos which emerged from new city development.
This recently booming area is ideal for art lovers, entertainment seekers, foodies, and avid coffee drinkers.
Residents are surrounded by bounteous social and professional amenities, recreation centres, and accessible transportation options.
Beasley is a small downtown neighbourhood of Hamilton, Ontario located below the Niagara Escarpment, lying between James Street North to the west, Wellington Street North to the east, Main Street East to the south, and the CN Railway tracks to the north. As one of the oldest Hamilton communities and the home of City Hall, Beasley maintains a multicultural population with a hub of trendy destinations in Victorian-era buildings.
Once the poorest neighbourhood in the city<|fim_middle|> half the total population of the downtown city core. Beasley is comprised of many heritage homes; however, most residents choose renting over buying, with apartment and condo-style buildings the most popular housing options. Beasley is an affordable neighbourhood and has a high population of children and young adults compared to the rest of the city and a relatively low population of seniors.
Environment Hamilton implemented an air-quality improvement program to decrease the amount of cars on the road, and increase pedestrian and bike travel, as well as beginning tree-planting initiatives. There is some noise pollution in this area due to the popularity of this downtown community.
The most common crimes in Beasley are nonviolent, being grand-theft auto and residential break and enter.
Richard Beasley Elementary and Hess Street Elementary are the schools that children in Kindergarten to Grade 8 typically attend. For high school education, Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary is the prominent catchment public school for this area. For post-secondary education, Mohawk College and McMaster University are just a 15 minute drive from the downtown core. Both these institutions are highly ranked in their applicable provincial and national sectors.
Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) runs from 5:00 am – 1:00 am, with fares at $3.00/ride for an adult. The HSR public transportation system accepts cash, passes, and Presto. Residents have access to all bus routes, including transfers to nearby communities. Coach Canada and Greyhound Bus are both intercity traveling options available here. VIA Railway is another option for both intercity and national travel.
The year-round Theatre School run by Theatre Aquarius is a respected training ground for actors, singers, and dancers. Students develop discipline and necessary skills along with their individual creativity through a collaborative production that is put on stage at the end of the programme. Many students who complete this course move onto professional careers in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto.
FitBarre on Main Street East combines ballet technique with yoga and Pilates for an intensive yet inspirational group workout. On Wilson Street, the Beasley Community Centre offers a variety of recreation opportunities for youth, parents, and seniors.
Every second Friday of the month, James Street North hosts an Art Crawl where all galleries and studios have their new openings and displays out on the same night. This event highlights local fashion, film, and traditional artforms, in addition to live musical performances. Once a year in September, Art Crawl gets amped up into a weekend-long arts-music-fashion festival called SuperCrawl, an event which attracts regional and international talent and thousands of attendees, including hundreds of families. Admission is free of cost, and there are diverse shows to entertain young children, teenagers, couples, families and seniors alike.
Read more about living in Hamilton, Ontario. | , Beasley underwent a tremendous transformation in the last decade. Area residents strengthened their sense of community through collaborative clean-up projects and social initiatives, which attracted several development investors. Beasley is now regarded as the arts, culture, and entertainment gem of the city, drawing in many young couples and business people to the area.
From Book Crawl and Cheapies Record and Tape shop, to legal aid services and medical care, this neighbourhood seems to put endless amenities at your fingertips. Beasley offers many artistic institutions that are cherished by local residents as well as visitors. Founded in 1914, The Art Gallery of Hamilton is the largest and oldest public gallery in southwestern Ontario. The gallery holds rotating exhibitions of fine art, and is open six days a week, with admission costs free of charge on Floor 2, though it charges a small fee for the remaining sections of the gallery. Tours, film nights, and other events are frequent as well.
Factory Media Centre, located on James Street North, is a not-for-profit artist-driven resource centre for those with a passion for independent film, video, and other forms of digital media and technology. Down the street, Hamilton Artists Inc. works to maintain a bilingual contemporary art institution featuring new regular submissions in addition to showcasing Canadian Indigenous short films. James Street North is also the location of independent boutiques such as clothing, jewellery and accessories store White Elephant, and the workshop-meets-shop Needlework. On the corner, Mulberry Coffeehouse is one of the many unique cafes with fair-trade organic coffee, house baked goods, live music and local art displays. Some of the most popular places to eat on this street are Jack and Lois, featured on You Gotta Eat Here!; Mesa, with authentic Mexican cuisine; Mediterranean cuisine at Lake Road Restaurant; and Green Bar vegan eatery.
For live-performance shows, Theatre Aquarius and Dofasco Centre for the Arts is recognized as a leader in Canadian theatre. It holds fully-equipped performance and rehearsal spaces, a two-story glass-encased lobby, and an upscale Directors Lounge. Acting as Hamilton's professional theatre, both famous and locally developed performances are showcased. For grocery needs, The Hamilton Farmers Market, established in 1837, is open year-round with over 60 vendors. Local and international foods are available, from baked goods, produce and flowers, to meat and seafood – all dietary preferences and concerns are accommodated.
According to a City of Hamilton Census the permanent resident population of Beasley is 5,630, which is over | 515 |
By Dawn S. Onley
DFAS deployment. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service has completed its<|fim_middle|>0.
Research deal. The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded an $8.5 million contract to Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego for the study of advanced space-based radar technologies.
Under the five-year contract, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the company will develop and document new algorithmic approaches for space radar systems. | deployment of an enterprise financial management system known as e-Biz.
Developed by American Management Systems Inc. of Fairfax, Va., e-Biz uses Momentum, an AMS enterprise resource planning suite, to track funds from federal budget allocation to payment of personnel and contractors.
DFAS officials can now access real-time data on billing and cost allocations, general ledger and time productivity, according to an AMS statement.
'These early successes demonstrated we were on the right path in transforming financial management at DFAS to bring better value and greater accountability to the taxpayer,' said Patrick T. Shine, acting director of DFAS.
Call for ideas. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has issued a broad agency invitation for contractors and universities to form teams and compete for awards in several highly specialized research areas.
The one- and two-year awards, with a total fiscal 2004 value of $2.5 million, will focus on three areas: a radar-based automated data extraction initiative; the Neuroscience Enabled Geospatial Intelligence Initiative; and the Non-literal Spectral Processing, Exploitation and Analysis program.
Under the automated extraction program, NGA officials are looking for contractors with tools to draw information from images, hard-copy maps and text data to develop geospatial intelligence.
NGA also has a critical need in the areas of automated vision systems and systems to assist human geospatial analysts.
The agency said it hopes its neuroscience initiative will provide a basic visual-science foundation for future engineering.
The spectral processing program will seek to solve emerging problems in technical areas.
Proposals are due by May 27. Contract awards are expected by Aug. 3 | 334 |
ASSUMPTION<|fim_middle|> pre-season inspection by a dealer, he said, is great insurance against problems next fall. | , Illinois (April 11, 2018) – For farmers who didn't perform basic maintenance of their grain storage system following the 2017 harvest, it's better to tackle that work now rather than trying to fit it in later this season, says Gary Woodruff, conditioning applications manager for GSI.
- Check all conveyor belts for proper tension and any needed repairs.
- Inspect chain drives for tension and lubricate.
- Remove any debris from inside and outside the dryer, and clean the inside of the control box.
- Lubricate all greaseable bearings on dryers, conveyors and other equipment.
- Make sure safety cages are secure, and that all safety shields on motor drives and dump points are in good condition.
In addition to this basic work that farmers can handle on their own, Woodruff encourages them to contact their grain system dealer for additional pre-season maintenance that requires specialized expertise. A yearly or | 193 |
Perfecting the fencing element of your poolscape for both visual and practical purposes is just as important as the time and money invested in creating your dream pool.
Whether you have a young family or are adhering to building regulations which require a pool fence, your fencing needs to enhance your outdoor environment rather than detract from its elegance like some pool fences of the past.
Sentrel Australia offers a unique, functional and high-quality range of vertical cable balustrades and pool fences that fit seamlessly and stylishly into most poolside spaces. The fence is made of thin, vertically orientated cables tensioned between either beautiful hardwood timber or extruded aluminium, giving a sleek finish to pool areas and natural environments.
Sentrel's unique barrier system and subtle cables virtually disappear against the backdrop of natural environments, as opposed to other popular products that may detract from the beauty of the backyard space.
Unlike glass fences, Sentrel's fencing does not require cleaning to be at its most visually appealing, and it doesn't prohibit airflow, allowing for a natural and airy pool environment.
With Sentrel's clean product line it's easy to achieve a seamless finish and the aluminium system can be enhanced by under-rail lighting for a uniquely luxurious night-time look.
Aside from fulfilling visual and practical needs, the company's fences are incredibly easy to<|fim_middle|> Australia wide for simple on-site installation by a carpenter or competent handyman.
This award-winning company is proud to offer a unique product that exudes elegance and simplicity to the Australian building industry. Sentrel Australia prides itself on superior customer service by working closely with clients to ensure an effortless design, planning and implementation process. | install, require little maintenance and are delivered nationwide. Moreover, a Sentrel pool fence is an innovative safety product that enables cable barrier systems to be used around pools for the first time.
Previous cable balustrade systems used horizontal cables which continue to be a major safety concern, especially for children, but Sentrel's use of vertical cables puts them in an influential position for poolside design and safety.
For those aiming to leave a green footprint, the primary timber source of this product is NSW State Forestry-certified Australian hardwood, and all other timbers used are harvested from sustainable sources.
Sentrel's high-quality vertical cable balustrades and pool fences fulfill customers' desires for practical, affordable, safe and sustainable products. Sentrel Australia was founded in 2007 by Brett Harrison, a qualified industrial designer who has more than 25 years experience collaborating with designers and architects to create realities from new ideas.
Sentrel Australia manufactures pool fencing in panel form from its factory on the mid-north coast of NSW and ships | 207 |
HOSPITALS EVERYWHERE are struggling to<|fim_middle|> contact the PCP or the discharging provider for clarification. | find ways to reduce readmissions. Those with more ready resources—academic centers or suburban hospitals that treat more affluent patients—may be able to invest in post-discharge clinics or NPs/PAs to follow patients after discharge and try to drive readmission rates down.
But rural hospitals often don't have those kinds of resources. The good news for one 160-bed rural hospital in northeastern Kentucky is that a lay-health worker—someone from the community with only a high-school education and not a lot of formal training—can actually be more cost-effective.
"You can potentially hire two lay-health workers for the price of one RN, if not three," explains Roberto Cardarelli, DO, MPH, a family medicine physician and researcher with University of Kentucky Family & Community Medicine in Lexington.
Moreover, according to a recent study that Dr. Cardarelli was lead author of, lay-health workers may be much more effective than clinicians in preventing 30-day readmissions among high-risk patients.
Published in the February issue of Health Education Research, the study found that having a lay-health worker assess potentially high-risk patients in the hospital and then follow them for 30 days post-discharge cut their readmission rates nearly in half. In the study population, readmission rates dropped from 28.3% to 14.8%, a relative reduction of 48%.
In a previous study in the July 2017 issue of The Journal of Rural Health, Dr. Cardarelli laid out the return on investment of the lay-health worker program, which was piloted at St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead, Ky.
The return for patients covered by DRG-related payments "was just above a dollar difference, so fairly breakeven—but the quality scores were really increased," he notes. But for patients covered by pay-for-performance programs, he estimated that a hospital would derive $7 in revenue for every $1 spent on a lay-health worker program. And for a hospital that is part of an ACO, which was the case with St. Claire, he calculated that the return was $38 for every $1 spent. Other studies have found that care transition interventions can help hospitals avoid close to $4,000 per patient in costs over six months.
Patients from post-acute settings or those who were unstable or in isolation were excluded. Partnering with the research team was Kentucky Home Place, "a very well-known community health worker program in eastern Kentucky," Dr. Cardarelli says.
Over several months, researchers enrolled more than 100 patients from one general medical/surgery floor. Every morning, the lay-health worker was given a list of high-risk patients and, once cleared to do so by a floor nurse, approached individual patients to administer a Wellness Needs Assessment. That composite tool screens for depression and anxiety as well as social issues like transportation and housing problems and safety and financial barriers. The lay-health worker also received access to patients' post-discharge instructions, orders and appointments.
Once patients were discharged, the worker followed up by phone within 48 or 72 hours. She then maintained "almost daily" phone contact early on in the first 30 days, Dr. Cardarelli says, to see what assistance patients needed and to connect them with community services.
Social factors emerged as the biggest problems. Among patients in the study, 27% reported struggling with the cost of food, while 16% had transportation problems—related to either costs, access or both— that interfered with their ability to make follow-up appointments or pick up prescriptions. A majority (65%) had a medical condition that required them to have electricity, but close to 16% had their household utilities cut off either occasionally or frequently.
"They didn't realize that there's a form a physician can sign that doesn't permit the utility company to turn off electricity, even if patients can't pay," he says. Once the lay-health worker was aware of the problem, she would print the form and help the patient complete it. She also would connect them with food banks and with cab vouchers and medical transportation services that are covered by Medicaid. According to the February study, patients who reported transportation cost barriers were more than three times more likely than other high-risk patients to be readmitted within 30 days.
Since the research ended, St. Claire has decided to place its lay-health worker in the ED instead of on the floor. That way, the worker will be able to follow not only high-risk patients admitted to the hospital, but those discharged from the ED as well.
1 Comment on "Readmissions and resource-strapped patients"
I am a hospitalist nurse practitioner and have had to re-admit patients over and over due to the inability to timely follow up with their PCP and due to lack of close monitoring. After several discussions with patients, they often admit that they were confused over the medication changes and discharge instructions they were provided at discharge. The home health nurse visited the patient, but they were unable to | 1,027 |
The Minutes Tickets & Information
Cort Theatre
The Minutes Summary
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts and Tony-winning director Anna D. Shapiro return to Broadway together with The Minutes for the<|fim_middle|> it is a good bet you will recognize the play's lunatic version of democracy at work, and then be confronted by something far more pernicious than garden variety graft, corruption, chicanery and the pursuit of trivial personal agendas." - Chicago Sun Times
The Minutes Special Information
THE MINUTES GROUP TICKETS
The Minutes Cast Members:
Ian Barford, Blair Brown, Cliff Chamberlain, K. Todd Freeman, Armie Hammer, Tracy Letts, Danny McCarthy, Jessie Mueller, Sally Murphy, Austin Pendleton, Jeff Still
The Minutes Creative Team
Author: Tracy Letts
Director: Anna D. Shapiro
Producers: Jeffrey Richards, Rebecca Gold, Carl Moellenberg, Spencer Ross, and Jacob Soroken Porter
Press Agent: Polk & Co
The Minutes Related Links
The Minutes Broadway Official Website
The Minutes Broadway on Facebook
The Minutes Broadway on Twitter
The Minutes Broadway on Instagram
The Minutes Quick Facts
02/23 02/24 02/25 8:00 PM 02/26 2:00 PM 8:00 PM 02/27 8:00 PM 02/28 8:00 PM 02/29 2:00 PM 8:00 PM
03/01 3:00 PM 03/02 03/03 8:00 PM 03/04 2:00 PM 8:00 PM 03/05 8:00 PM 03/06 8:00 PM 03/07 2:00 PM 8:00 PM
$49.00 - $119.00 (Ticket prices include a $2.00 Facility Fee.)
Recommended for 14 +
February 25, 2020 March 15, 2020 June 14, 2020
Currently not open. Beginning January 27:
Sunday: Closed (Beginning March 1: Noon - 6pm (When there is an evening performance, open until curtain.))
No future sales 30 minutes before start of performance.
Telecharge Mail Order
Times Square Station
Yes (No strollers or furs) | first time since their Tony-winning sensation August: Osage County.
The record breaking hit production from Steppenwolf Theatre takes a look at the inner-workings of a city council meeting in the small town of Big Cherry—and the hypocrisy, greed, and ambition that follow.
This powerful, resonant, and funny portrayal of democracy in action proves that everything you know can change—it's just a matter of minutes. After all, the smallest towns keep the biggest secrets.
"Nothing in this explosive 90 minutes play is as it seems...A real-life heart-in-the-mouth experience," declares The Chicago Tribune.
"An astonishing new play. If you have observed the workings of a city council (or, for that matter, your condo board), | 150 |
I was inspired by Gregory Hildstrom to do some upgrades to my Lincoln AC-225. The first is to add some quick disconnects to the front panel.
The first step was opening it up and adding<|fim_middle|>ings/Trackbacks for "Adding DINSE Style Quick Disconnects to Lincoln AC-225" | quick disconnects to the front panel. I found some cheaper DINSE-style connectors that set me back about $15 for four male and four female from River-Weld. They aren't as solid as name brand connectors and are only "rated" up to 200 amps, but they should work fine for me.
I also found a post and also a video on doing this that was helpful. The video goes into the upgrade in-depth and he also explains the importance of keeping the panel connector separate from the body.
They aren't as strong or feel as secure as ones on 100% duty cycle machines I've used, but for my garage and the 2x a year I'll use it, they should do fine!
The next step is adding DC outputs.
1 P | 161 |
When we think of ship-wrecks, we usually think of skull and cross-bones, pirates with talkative parrots, and old wooden warships firing cannons<|fim_middle|> fishing vessels. One such place is our very own Algoa Coast, where ship skeletons lie eerily in the murky depths, having fallen victim to the savage tides and crashing waves. And their cargo? Not gold ingots, but something much more sinister. One such vessel succumbed to the power of the ocean just off the coast of PE recently, and we went along to investigate.
This week's Wonderwêreld features birds of all sizes, shapes and colours, and all of their amazing adaptations. From the regal eagles to the diminutive sunbirds –we celebrate our feathered friends in all their glory, and explore their unique role in the ecosystem.
Dolphins in South Africa's waters are protected by some of the strongest cetacean conservation laws in the world. Although numerous species of dolphin are spotted in SA waters, there are 3 common species encountered regularly. This week's instalment of Wildebure brings you a closer look into the world of dolphins that share the coastlines that we as South Africans are lucky enough to call home. | at each other on the high seas as they sink to the ocean floor carrying a king's ransom. Although maritime safety has improved dramatically in modern times, with high tech communication and lighthouses placed in in the more dangerous bays, there are still sections of coast that are famous for claiming hundreds of ships and | 62 |
Signing up for Clio is easy!
If you haven't yet started a trial with us, please go here for more<|fim_middle|> Settings panel then click "Account and Payment Info" in the System column. Click on the "Payment Info" sub-tab then click "Change Renewal Options". For more information about upgrading your Clio account, click here.
When you choose the Yearly Subscription, you will see the amount that you will be billed and can enter in your card details. Please note that the full amount for the year will be charged right away and in accordance with our Terms of Service there is no refund for any unused amounts if you cancel part way through the year.
Once you have completed your trial, you have the ability to purchase additional Attorney and Non-Attorney licenses that can be used for other members of your firm. Simply select the desired number of licences and, once you click on "Purchase Licenses", your card will be debited right away.
Once the purchase is complete you will see a summary of your licenses and which ones are currently in use. As you add new users to your Clio account, they will use the licenses that you have purchased.
What if a user leaves my firm, what happens to their license? It will remain unused until you add a new user to the account. Per our Terms of Service there is no refund for unused licenses.
What if I want to switch to Monthly Subscription? At the end of your Yearly Subscription you can switch to Monthly. You will see this option under "Renewal Options". Click here for more information about updating your subscription and renewal options.
What if I want to remove some licenses at the end of my Yearly Subscription? Under "Renewal Options" you will find the box to "Remove unused licenses at renewal". This will remove all unused licenses and only charge you for the ones in use.
I signed up for a Yearly Subscription, why isn't it starting today? Your Trial and/or any Monthly Subscriptions must expire first before the Yearly Subscription starts.
What if I have a Bar Member Benefit discount? If the discount was not applied during sign up for Clio, please contact Clio Support prior to signing up for the Yearly Subscription so that we can apply it. | information.
When you follow the sign up link on clio.com, you will be directed to this form on a new page.
Once you fill out your information and click the "Start Trial" button, you will be redirected to this page with further instructions to check the inbox of the email address you entered.
Once you've activated your account, you'll be brought directly to your new Clio account!
Within your Clio trial, the banner at the top of your account contains a link to Subscribe.
Once you click the link, you will be prompted to select your subscription type.
You can also subscribe to Clio within your trial account by going to the Clio Settings panel then click "Account and Payment Info" in the System column.
Click on the "Payment Info" sub-tab to select your desired plan, Clio billing period (monthly or annual), and enter your credit card information.
Clio has three pricing plans for various sizes and types of law practice. You can find a detail of all features that are available to each pricing plan by clicking here.
The list of available features is growing continually. To keep on top of new features being added to Clio, sign-up for our monthly email newsletter (click here and scroll to the bottom of the page) or check the for product update announcements here.
You can upgrade your Clio account to a higher plan level or change your billing period from "monthly" to "annual" at any time. To change your account level and billing details, go to your Clio | 307 |
Using the traditional Buddhist allegorical image of the Wheel of Life and the teaching of the twelve links of dependent origination, the Dalai Lama deftly illustrates how our existence, though fleeting and often full of<|fim_middle|> | woes, brims with the potential for peace and happiness. We can realize that potential by cultivating a wise appreciation of the interdependency of actions and experience, and by living a kind and compassionate life. A life thus lived, the Dalai Lama teaches, becomes thoroughly meaningful for both oneself and for others.
"Studded with jewels...The Meaning of Life brings together the theory of Buddhist teachings and the practice of ordinary life. The Dalai Lama's exposition-thorough, gentle and precise-reflects the depth and breadth of his training, communicating the living quality of the tradition."
"Conveys his personal warmth and compassion."
"Here, the Dalai Lama has very skillfully examined the existential questions of meaning, purpose, and responsibility, showing how every aspect of our suffering can be ultimately uprooted through a profound understanding of our true nature." | 170 |
We are sincere and candid with all individuals we interact with – clients, staff, colleagues, and court staff. We have placed honesty and integrity first, on our list of core values because honesty and integrity are<|fim_middle|> the only way we know how to work.We want to educate our clients about their legal transaction, so that they can make informed decisions, and be active participants in their file. Our commitment to service required us to take a hard look at some of the barriers that get in the way of lawyers optimizing the level of service they provide to their clients. We looked at those barriers, and developed innovative ways to dispense with them.
Are you the owner of Barrila Law? | the foundations of our law practice. We understand that we are in the business of "people" and take pride in our work. We ensure that you receive a level of service that not only meets your expectations, but exceeds them – that's | 48 |
Out of the many, many well-known characters and faces set to return to the big screen this year, one of the most unexpected and anticipated is that of Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's terrifying, beloved IT. Following the iconic miniseries adaptation from the 1990s - which featured Tim Curry giving one of his best performances ever as Pennywise - director Andr<|fim_middle|> report states that 81 million of the views and over 1.8 million of the shares came just from its U.S. Facebook instances.
So with the combined positive hype behind it and the recognizability of the property itself, IT is currently setting itself up to be one of the most-anticipated studio releases of the back half of this year. Considering the initial announcement of the remake was met with lukewarm reactions from Stephen King fans, that's certainly not a bad thing. Now, it's just up to IT to find a way to, hopefully, live up to these rather high expectations. | és Muschietti will be bringing the terrifying story to life in live-action form once again, with an R-rated, atmospheric take that has already received the stamp of approval from none other than Stephen King himself. That's something that, as fans of the critically-acclaimed novelist are aware, isn't easy to come by either.
IT's first trailer was released online earlier this week, mostly to positive reactions from both diehard IT fans and casual moviegoers who might not be as well-versed in the story of Derry, Maine. But it looks like, with several months to go until it actually hits theaters still, IT has already managed to acquire the kind of online hype for itself that just isn't very easy to come by.
Deadline is reporting that the first teaser trailer for IT managed to score more viewers in 24 hours than any other film in history. With 197 million views in that time period, the remake managed to beat the first Fate of the Furious trailer, which previously held the title for most views in 24 hours with 139 million. That means it scored almost 60 million more viewers than that trailer did in that time frame, and completely smoked all of the other previous record holders, including Beauty and the Beast (127.6 million), Fifty Shades Darker (114 million), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (112 million).
Aside from just the positive hype surrounding the new remake, these numbers are no doubt in part thanks to the excellent social media marketing strategies for it on behalf of New Line and Warner Bros. The trailer became a trending topic on Facebook and Twitter, landed at the top of the Reddit homepage, and even found its way to the Number 1 spot on the YouTube homepage. And in case that wasn't enough, the | 372 |
One of the advantages for businesses operating in the digital space is the sheer amount of data available, from search data to help you identify the types of keywords your target market is using or the topics and news your users are sharing on social media.
While you can collect this type of data from third parties, there is also a wealth of data that you can collect yourselves.
With the advent of Google Tag Manager (GTM), this is no longer the case. This is an incredibly simple platform to set up on your site and from the admin interface you can track a significant amount of on-site user actions. For example, you can track all clicks on external links, mailto: links and clicks on downloadable files such as PDFs. You can even get as granular as to track the number of times visitors play, pause and watch your YouTube video embeds to the end.
Once the Google Tag Manager script is setup on your site you will very rarely, if ever, have to change the code on your site to set up tracking.
Firstly, if you don't have a Google Analytics account set up you'll need to sign up for that (it's free). It's fairly straightforward so I won't guide you through that. Once that is set up, visit Google Tag Manager.
In Google Tag Manager, you will need to create an account before you do anything else. If this is the first time you are using GTM, then you should already be presented with an Add a New Account screen.
Once you have created you Google Tag Manager account, you will be presented with a snippet of code.
Installing Google Tag Manager into<|fim_middle|> track this download as a goal if you wanted to use a funnel. Let's take a look at how we would set that up.
Creating a click URL path variable.
Creating a PDF download trigger.
Finally, creating a PDF download tag.
Publish your changes and you're finished.
If you click on any links to PDF files on your site, then these will trigger virtual page views that you can use to set up GA goals with funnels.
Google Tag Manager is a fantastic tool for tracking user actions on your site. Hopefully, this post has made it clear just how easy it is to collect a variety of data without needing much development, if any.
Do you use Google Tag Manager? If so, share your examples in the comments below.
Hi Jo! Yes, Google Tag Manager actually allows you to get quite granular, even out of the box without much customisation. If you start digging into data layers and GTM then you can do even more.
It's really good because you don't need to keep adding new code to the website like you do with GA and custom events. We use this and once the GTM code is added our SEO team is in complete control of tracking. For non-developers, GTM is the best because it gives you a great UI and you don't have to mess with random snippets or hacking code or bugging developers.
Hi, could you please explain how we can track visitors and logged-in users with the new User-ID feature of Google Analytics and tag manager ?
that's great ! also please mention in the tutorial how to exclude wordpress admin traffic ! Looking forward for it :) How will I know when this is published ?
I was able to implement a weather/location tracking tag which wowed the office. Basically, it takes two open APIs for location and weather and records them as events. This way we can see what business is generated during different climates (snow vs clear, hot vs cold). Not fully useful for our company, but interesting nonetheless.
Also, per Joey… it appears that the GTM interface screenshotted here is an older version (?). Mine is much different as well. More streamlined. But you can still do what is being shown (in an easier way).
Before asking my question, I have to admit this article is excellent and very, I mean very helpful.
Now onto the question that regards the Download Tracking in G.T.M.. Many sites do not have the option of directly downloading the file but rather when you click on the file your browser opens a new tab with the preview of the file. From there, using the dropdown menu you can download it, meaning a click on the link of the file won't necessarily mean a download ( it might be just a pageview ). Now how can I track the downloads in this kind of situation ?
There are a couple of things you could do to force downloads, rather than allowing people to view files in the browser.
The simplest solution would be to add a download attribute to the anchor element. It isn't supported in all browsers, but it is in most. You can see the browser support for this here http://caniuse.com/#feat=download.
You can also edit your .htaccess file to always force specific file types to download http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/htaccess/force-download-htaccess.
Please make sure to test any changes thoroughly to ensure they are working as expected. Especially if you are making changes to the .htaccess file. | a WordPress theme is really easy. You can use a plugin; however, I still think it is best to paste the code snippet into your theme. Please note that if you are using a theme created by somebody else, then it is recommended to create a child theme to make edits such as this. If you don't, then you risk losing any changes you have made if the theme gets updated.
The code above is an example of a Google Tag Manager snippet. Replace GTM-XXXXXX with your tracking ID.
Easy done! You now have Google Tag Manager Installed on your WordPress site.
The Google Tag Manager interface can be a little confusing if you haven't used it before. Here is a breakdown of each of the sections.
The accounts interface in Google Tags Manager.
This is where you just set up your account and container. Here you can add more accounts if you manage multiple websites and you can also create new containers. For example, if you also have a mobile app.
Check out your Google tag activity.
This is where all of the fun stuff happens. Here you can see a dashboard with an overview of your tag manager activity and you can also navigate to tags, triggers, variables and folders.
Tracking tags in Google Tag Manager.
These are snippets of code that execute on a page, often to send data to a third party application like Google Analytics. Generally, tags will fire when a page loads, however, this can be changed within each tag's settings.
Setting triggers with Google Tag Manager.
These are conditions that are either true or false depending on how variables compare with values you set when defining the trigger. Triggers are then used to fire tags.
Setting variables in Google Tag Manager.
Variables can be virtually any value and some are predefined. For example, the "url" variable always contains the URL of the page that is currently loaded.
Managing your folders in Google Tag Manager.
These are simply a way for you to organise your tags, triggers and variables. You can create whichever folders you like and organise them how you see fit.
Keep an eye on which versions you're using.
For those that have used any service like Git, this is essentially GTM's version control. Imagine you make some changes to Google Tag Manager and you end up breaking something, but you aren't sure what. Here you can re-publish one of the prior, working versions of GTM.
The admin screen, as you would expect.
This section is what you would expect it to be. Here you can manage which users have access to your account, import containers, export containers as well as find your Google Tag Manager code snippet.
Your changes will go live when you hit the "Publish" button.
One of the most important parts of the interface. None of the changes you make to your tags will be live until you press the "Publish" button.
Now you know what each of the interface elements are, let's set up Google Tag Manager so Google Analytics will track visits to your site.
Event tracking in GA is a really useful feature for tracking user actions on your site. It can provide insights that will help you to make UX, UI and marketing decisions. You can track all manner of events, including external link clicks, video play button clicks and form submissions.
Events are made up of four fields: eventCategory, eventAction, eventLabel and eventValue. The first three fields are text and the eventValue field is an integer.
Let's get into our first event to track.
We'll track clicks on all email links, i.e. all links that contain "mailto:" within the "href" attribute. Why would we want to track email clicks? Well, we can't be certain an email is actually sent, but we can at least track which users have made an intention to send an email.
That's it! It seems like a lot of steps but it's actually really quick.
Quick tip: You can track telephone number clicks the same way. Simply set up a new trigger for clicks on links that contain tel: and then create a tag to track the event in Google Analytics.
We can track whether people are clicking on mailto: or tel: links, but what if we want to know whether people are clicking on a banner or whether they are clicking on a text link within an article? We can do that really easy within WordPress, GA and GTM.
There are actually a number of ways that we can set this up, but a really easy way is to make use of either class or id attributes. Before we set up anything in GTM, we need to make sure that the link we want to track either has a unique ID attribute or if it is multiple links of the same type, e.g. all footer links, then they should all have a class that is specific to them as a group (recommended) or each one would require a unique ID.
Depending on how your theme is built will determine the next step. If you can edit the links you want to track with the WordPress text editor, then it is an easy process to add an id attribute or class to your links. If you can't edit the link in the WordPress text editor then you may need to edit your actual template files to add the id or class attributes. Remember to create a child theme when editing your theme template files.
Creating a variable for internal link clicks.
Creating a trigger for internal link clicks.
Finally, creating a tag for internal link clicks.
Easy. We now have events being fired whenever our specified banner is being clicked.
Quick tip: Click events can be tracked on any element, not just links. When choosing the options for Configure Trigger, select All Elements instead of Just Links.
What if we want to track all clicks on external links? Well, this requires a slightly different approach as we will need to create a new variable, but it's still very simple to set up.
Tracking external links needs to be set up slightly differently.
And – you guessed it – you next to create a tag, too.
Easy. Google Analytics will now track every time someone clicks on an external link as an event.
Tracking embedded YouTube events can provide useful information regarding which videos are actually engaging your visitors. Setting up YouTube embed event tracking is a little more complex than any of the GTM examples so far, but luckily there is a great repository on GitHub which solves many of our problems.
There are actually two ways to get event tracking working with YouTube video embeds using this repo. We will set this up using the more manual approach so that we can understand each of the steps involved. If you would like to use the other method, which involves importing a container into GTM, then please follow the guidelines in this repository's readme.
Creating a custom YouTube embed API tag.
Creating a YouTube video event trigger.
Creating a YouTube embed event tag.
That's it! Publish your changes and then go to any page on your website that has a YouTube video embed. Play the video, pause and watch it to the end, then check your Google Analytics Real-Time events and you should see those events being recorded straight away.
Did you know that you can track virtual pageviews with GA? What are virtual pageviews? Well, the "standard" GA pageview is generally triggered when a web page initially loads; however, it is possible to create a virtual pageview in Google Analytics. This is tracked in GA as a pageview and you can set the URL path as whatever you would like.
You may be wondering why you would want to create virtual pageviews. Imagine you have a single page application (SPA) and a lot of the content is loaded dynamically via AJAX, then you are unlikely to be able to track this with a standard GA pageview. Virtual pageviews could be used to track AJAX content generation in this instance.
Virtual pageviews are also great for tracking GA goals that are set up for destination URLs. It is possible to set up GA goals for events, but you cannot set up funnels for them. Funnels can only be used with destination goals and sometimes a goal may not result in the visitor loading a new page.
A great example would be PDF files that visitors can download. In this instance you would have to set up virtual pageviews to | 1,662 |
Nathalie and Olivier<|fim_middle|>cake Lounge. | met online five years ago. Both still in school, "we were quite busy and didn't have much time to devote to dating," she said. Nathalie even canceled their first date because she was too busy with exams. A few months later, she rescheduled and they've been together ever since.
The couple have a tradition of taking a trip to Quebec City every summer, so on their trip in the summer of 2016, Nathalie suspected a proposal might be coming. "I was kind of expecting it because it's our little paradise over there," she said. "He was really nervous so I knew something was up." Nathalie had previously mentioned that when a proposal happened, she just wanted it to be the two of them. Olivier waited until every other person had left the park and got down on one knee to ask Nathalie to marry him.
The ceremony and party were both held outside. The couple wanted their wedding to have a rustic country feel, but still be unique. "I'd call it a natural vibe," said Nathalie. "I wanted everything to be really natural and a bit more casual." Nathalie's bouquet of wild flowers looked so natural, in fact, that someone asked her if she'd arranged it herself. In fact, the bouquet was a surprise even to Nathalie, who had simply asked the florist for a bouquet of wildflowers. She dry-pressed the flowers to preserve them and mounted them on a frame in their home. The meal was catered by the staff at Strathmere. Instead of a wedding cake, the couple opted for eight different flavours of cupcakes from The Cup | 331 |
PARLIAMENT OF AUSTRALIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Speech CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS Citizenship Wednesday, 3 February 2016 Clive Palmer – Member for Fairfax Mr PALMER (Fairfax) (09:42): On Australia Day I had the privilege to preside over a citizenship ceremony held in my electorate of Fairfax at Palmwoods. Joe Kearnay of Woombye-Palmwoods Rotary donated trees. The ceremony was to naturalise 22 new citizens who had made a<|fim_middle|> welcome in our society. At times like this, we remember what unites us as a people. It is greater than our differences that we may have from time to time. We are not just citizens of Australia but citizens of the world. We need to remember, as a wise man once said: we are all mortal; we all live on this one small planet; we all breathe the same air; and we all want a good future for our children.' Clive Palmer and new citizen at the Australian Citizenship Ceremony in Fairfax The Last Sentry at the Gate: Clive Palmer & the 44th Parliament of Australia 121 | serious commitment to become Australians. The local community started work early at 7 am decorating the hall with large Australian flags and historic memorabilia. Local Lions clubs and Scouts set up food and drink stalls outside the hall as the community gathered to support each other and to join in the ceremony. Jenny McKay, the local councillor, and I attended, and I was fortunate to have the assistance of Mike Burns as our MC. The hall had a capacity for 400 people and, when I commenced the ceremony, it was overflowing with Australians ready to welcome our new citizens into the community. Large hampers and trees were prepared by members of the community to present to each new citizen to celebrate the occasion. This was a historic occasion for each of the candidates for citizenship and their families. It was also a historic occasion for the descendants. Citizenship was not just for those present but it would change the destiny of generations yet to be born. It was their decision but, in so doing, they were committing future generations to our country and all that it stands for. To see the smiles on the candidates' faces, to present each of them with their naturalisation certificates, reminded me how all of us in this place and throughout the nation have a responsibility to do all that we can to make our new Australians | 260 |
The Swedish Academy has awarded its Prize for the Promotion of Swedish Culture Abroad for 2015 to the St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University's Department of German<|fim_middle|> Queen of Sweden and of Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess Victoria. The Director of the Academy Professor Tomas Riad and the Chancellor of the Academy Ms Kristina Lugn were also present. The laureates were announced by the Permanent Secretary Professor Sara Danius.
In its motivation of the prize, the Academy points out that the Department of German and Scandinavian Studies has been active in the field of Scandinavian cultures and languages for many years, and that it has furthered the collaboration between various institutions on different levels in Bulgaria and the Scandinavian countries. The Scandinavian Studies Section within the Department was established in 1992 and is the only one of its kind in the system of Bulgarian higher education. The principal language studied was originally Swedish; subsequently, Norwegian was added as an alternative. Since 1992, the Scandinavian Studies Section has played a key role in the promotion of Swedish culture in Bulgaria by the teaching of the Swedish language, literature and cultural history, as well as by its active research activity and by the organisation of scientific forums and other events devoted to subjects related to Sweden in collaboration with various Scandinavian institutions. | and Scandinavian Studies. The decision was announced at the yearly festive meeting of the Swedish Academy on the 20th of December in the presence of Their Majesties the King and | 36 |
Not that long ago, we talked in some detail about a couple of cool golf gadgets we'd been mucking about with, the Zepp Sensor 3D Swing Analyzer and Garmin's Approach S6 smartwatch. Since then, we've had a chance to play with a few more toys that promise to help hackers hack their golf game. After countless lost balls, three putts, and double bogies, these are the five best golf gadgets you can buy today.
The Garmin Approach S6 is still our favourite golf gadget. This touchscreen GPS smartwatch comes with a rich feature set that will appeal to golfers of all ability levels. Duffers like myself will find CourseView mode immediately useful, as it tells you the distance from your ball to the green, so you can select the appropriate club and (hopefully) avoid over or under hitting. More advanced golfers will like the fact that you can tweak the pin placement and customise yardage points. There's also a useful layup distances function, which is great if you're playing a course with lots of hazards, and you can pair it with your smartphone to get basic SMS notifications. Normally £329 direct from Garmin, you can usually find it<|fim_middle|> well as to hazards. It's also a bit more stylish than the Garmin Approach range, and can normally be found for under £200 on Amazon.
Where the Garmin Approach S6 and TomTom Golfer GPS watches excel on the course, the Zepp Golf 3D Swing Analyzer is your best friend for hitting the range. Just clip it to your glove, download the companion app, pair up, and a bunch of fascinating swing data you probably never knew existed gets automatically pinged to your smartphone via Bluetooth. Even if you don't grasp all the stats at first, they're presented as easy-to-understand visualisations so you'll know what you're doing right and wrong, including an overall shot 'score'. Within the app, you can also set swing goals, and Zepp offers tips and suggested drills for improving individual aspects of your swing.
Want to learn more? Read my in-depth review of the Zepp Golf 3D Swing Analyzer here.
The Game Golf system is similar to the Zepp sensor in that it's all about capturing golf data, but this gadget is built for the course, not the range. You clip the wearable on to your belt, fit the tags to your clubs, pair up with the companion app, and start playing. During the round, you tap your club against the device before each shot and it does the rest, detecting what club you're using, then translating your next shot into a bunch of useful stats, including fairway accuracy, GIR, scrambling percentages, average score and putts per hole. Most importantly, it also tells you how far you hit each shot, so after a few rounds, you should have a better idea of what clubs to take in various situations - if you're a consistent under/over hitter like me, this will be a godsend for your game.
Finally, one for the responsible risk-takers out there! The Ojee Talon is a training aid that promises to do something no other golf device we've seen can do, and that's sort out your criminally bad posture. Lining up to address the ball is one of the most important but underrated aspects of the game. With the help of this gadget, you'll be fed real-time data on your spine angle, shaft angle, club shaft-to-spine angle, and rotation angle, so you'll start to learn the difference between a good lineup and a shabby one. Again, this is a toy for the range - the digital display unit sits on top of your club's shaft, but you also have to wear a kind of back brace. It's currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo and you can learn more via the link below. | for less on Amazon. Garmin also offers a few cheaper models: the Approach S1, Approach S2, Approach S3, Approach S4 and Approach S5.
You can read my full review of the Approach S6 golf watch here.
Offering a similar feature set to the Garmin Approach S6 at a fraction of the price, the TomTom Golfer GPS Watch is the other wearable golfers will want to consider. The TomTom Golfer isn't quite as clever as its Garmin rival (it doesn't have things like SMS notifications or swing training) but for the average hacker, it has everything you need, namely a database of more than 34,000 courses and a GPS chip so you can see exact distances to the front, centre, and back of the green, as | 162 |
More and more advertisers are turning to online marketing to recruit franchisees with video content playing a vital part in this.With the average internet user spending 88% more time on a website with video than without, is it maybe time you started producing videos and including them in your annual marketing budget? Coconut Creatives explain more on the benefits of video content.
Looking to find out what services and products can help improve your franchise business? The Franchise Supplier Showcase event is a one-of-a-kind annual conference and exhibition which gathers franchise service providers in one place where franchisors can come to meet them and learn more about the services they provide. Taking place on the 19th October in Birmingham, this is a must-attend for those keen to develop their business.
Love it or hate it, the internet is here to stay. It has changed our lives in many ways and all human knowledge is just one click away. And of course, it has had a huge impact on business and more specifically, in our own sector, franchisee recruitment. Unfortunately, most UK franchisors are yet to respond to this change. Hear from Brian Duckett from the Franchising Centre on the changes to franchisee recruitment.
Atlas Mapping's<|fim_middle|> do Franchisors force franchisees (whose turnover is beneath the registration threshold) to register their business for VAT? | duty within the franchise market is to help franchisors create territories that are fair for both franchisees and the franchisor. The advice in this article will help you to make sure you are asking the right questions about the territory on offer but to also set realistic expectations.
You may believe that a new franchise isn't established enough to need an accountant. However, unless you're an expert in accounting and tax you may find a steep learning curve awaits. TaxAssist Accountants describes how appointing an accountant can provide your new venture with some essential advice and ongoing support that will steer you through that tough first year and beyond.
When running a franchise business, working from home may be a financial necessity for some. Whilst for others, the idea of working from home sounds ideal; there is no need to endure the morning commute and you can work in the comfort of your own home office. No matter what the reasons are, if you are considering a home-based franchise, it is important to understand what you are getting yourself into.
Every franchisee needs a good one but not every franchisee has a good one. Do they understand you? Do they understand your business model? If not take the time to explain what you and your business model is all about. Explain your life and your business objectives so that you are all 'singing off the same hymn sheet'. For example, do you want to show low profits because you want to minimise tax or do you want to show high profits because you want to impress your bank manager so you can borrow more money? If your accountant doesn't show an interest and 'buy in' to your business goals and strategy then it's time to find a new one!
Franchise Agreements often contain an obligation on a Franchisee to register their business for VAT and remain registered throughout the duration of the Franchise Agreement. Some Agreements go as far as making any failure to comply with this clause an event which allows the Franchisor to terminate the Franchise Agreement. But why is this clause present? And why | 410 |
What Is a BDC?
Understanding BDCs
BDCs vs. Venture Capital
Advantages and Disavantages
How to Invest in a BDC
How Does a BDC Make Money?
BDC FAQs
Business Development Company (BDC): Definition and How to Invest
James Chen
James Chen, CMT is an expert trader, investment adviser, and global market strategist.
Gordon Scott
Reviewed by Gordon Scott
Gordon Scott has been an active investor and technical analyst or 20+ years. He is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT).
Katrina Munichiello
Fact checked by Katrina Munichiello
Katrina Ávila Munichiello is an experienced editor, writer, fact-checker, and proofreader with more than fourteen years of experience working with print and online publications.
What Is a Business Development Company (BDC)?
A business development company (BDC) is an organization that invests in small- and medium-sized companies as well as distressed companies. A BDC helps these firms grow in the initial stages of their development. With distressed businesses, the BDC helps the companies regain sound financial footing.
Similar to closed-end investment funds, many BDCs are public companies whose shares trade on major stock exchanges, such as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), Nasdaq, and others. As investments, they are<|fim_middle|> & VC
Understanding Private Equity (PE)
Series Funding: A, B, and C | high-risk but offer higher rewards.
A business development company (BDC) is a type of closed-end fund that makes investments in developing and financially distressed firms.
Many BDCs are publicly traded and are open to retail investors.
BDCs offer investors high dividend yields and some capital appreciation potential.
BDCs' heavy use of leverage and small or distressed company targeting makes them relatively high-risk investments.
Understanding Business Development Companies (BDCs)
The U.S. Congress created business development companies in 1980 to fuel job growth and assist emerging U.S. businesses in raising funds. BDCs are closely involved in mentoring and developing the companies in their portfolios because it is in a BDC's best interest to help them become successful.
BDCs invest in private companies and small public firms that have low trading volumes or are in financial distress. They raise capital through initial public offerings or by issuing corporate bonds and equities or forms of hybrid investment instruments to investors.
The raised capital is then used to provide funding for the struggling companies. BDCs can use different financial instruments to provide capital, but in general, most issue loans or purchase stocks or convertible securities from the companies.
Qualifying as a BDC
To qualify as a BDC, a company must be registered in compliance with Section 54 of the Investment Company Act of 1940. In addition, it must be a domestic company whose class of securities is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The BDC must invest at least 70% of its assets in private or public U.S. firms with market values of less than US$250 million. These companies are often young businesses seeking financing or firms suffering or emerging from financial difficulties. Also, the BDC must provide managerial assistance to the companies in its portfolio.
Business development companies avoid corporate income taxes by distributing at least 90% of their income to shareholders.
If BDCs sound similar to venture capital funds, they are. However, there are some key differences. One relates to the nature of the investors each seeks. Venture capital funds are primarily available to large institutions and wealthy individuals through private placements. In contrast, BDCs allow smaller, nonaccredited investors to invest in them, and by extension, in small growth companies.
Venture capital funds keep a limited number of investors and must meet specific asset-related tests to avoid being classified as regulated investment companies. On the other hand, BDC shares are typically traded on stock exchanges and are constantly available as investments for the public.
BDCs that decline to list on an exchange must follow the same regulations as listed BDCs. However, less stringent provisions for the amount of borrowing, related-party transactions, and equity-based compensation make the BDC an appealing form of incorporation to venture capitalists who were previously unwilling to assume the burdensome regulation of an investment company.
Advantages and Disavantages of BDC Investment
High dividend yields
Open to retail investors
High-risk
Sensitive to interest-rate spikes
Illiquid/opaque holdings
Can magnify losses
Dividends taxed as income
Advantages Explained
High dividend yields: Because BDCs are regulated investment companies (RICs), they must distribute over 90% of their profits to shareholders. That RIC status means they don't pay corporate income tax on profits before distributing them to shareholders. The result is above-average dividend yields.
Open to retail investors: BDCs expose investors to debt and equity investments in predominantly private companies—typically closed to retail investors.
Liquid: BDCs trade on public exchanges, giving them a fair amount of liquidity and transparency.
Diversity: BDC investments may diversify an investor's portfolio with securities that can display substantially different returns from stocks and bonds.
Disadvantages Explained
High risk: Although a BDC itself is liquid, many of its holdings are not. The portfolio holdings are primarily private firms or small, thinly-traded public companies. BDCs invest aggressively in companies that offer both income now and capital appreciation later; as such, they register somewhat high on the risk scale.
Sensitive to interest rate spikes: A rise in interest rates—making it more expensive to borrow funds—can impede a BDC's profit margins.
Illiquid or opaque holdings: Because most BDC holdings are typically invested in illiquid securities, a BDC's portfolio has subjective fair-value estimates and may experience sudden and quick losses. In addition, the BDC-invested target companies typically have no track records or troubling ones.
Magnify losses: Losses can be magnified because BDCs often employ leverage—that is, they borrow the money they invest or loan to their target companies. Leverage can improve the rate of return on investment (ROI), but it can also cause cash-flow problems if the leveraged asset declines in value.
Dividends taxed as income: Dividends from BDCs are taxed as income because they don't meet the criteria for qualified dividends.
A business development company is a publicly traded firm with stocks trading on public exchanges, so you can purchase stocks through your broker.
Some BDC stocks are included in exchange-traded funds and mutual funds. For example, the VanEck BDC Income ETF is offered through many brokers and is available to retail investors.
Business development companies can make money in several different ways. One of the most common is to purchase equity from the companies they provide funding for and sell it when it appreciates.
If a BDC buys convertible bonds from a company it has invested in, it can receive yields from the bonds and later convert them to equity. Once converted, the equity can be held for appreciation or sold for capital gains.
Lending is another way BDCs make money. Similar to a consumer borrowing from a bank, a BDC charges interest on the loans it makes.
What Are the Benefits of a BDC?
Business development companies provide investors with higher yields and returns.
BDCs make money by lending capital to and purchasing equity or bonds from the companies in their portfolio.
What Is BDC Lending?
Business development company lending is when a BDC lends capital to a company it has invested in.
Business development companies are firms that exist to assist smaller or financially struggling businesses. BDCs use fundraising techniques to raise capital for themselves from investors and then use that money to invest in these smaller businesses.
They were created by Congress in 1980 to help small businesses grow while attempting to shield them from predatory tactics sometimes used to take over struggling businesses.
BDCs generally have higher returns than mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, but with these returns comes an equal increase in risk and volatility. If you're considering investing in BDCs, it helps to talk to a professional financial advisor to determine if they meet your investing goals and risk tolerance.
VanEck. "VanEck BDC Income ETF."
Middle Market Firm: Definition, Criteria, and How They Trade
A middle market firm is a company with annual revenues that fall in the middle of the range for its industry.
Dividend Yield: Meaning, Formula, Example, and Pros and Cons
The dividend yield is a financial ratio that shows how much a company pays out in dividends each year relative to its stock price.
Equity Financing: What It Is, How It Works, Pros and Cons
Companies seek equity financing from investors to finance short or long-term needs by selling an ownership stake in the form of shares.
Double Leverage
Double leverage is a situation wherein a bank holding company lends money to one or more of its subsidiary banks, which in turn issues equity back to the parent.
SEC Form N-54C
SEC Form N-54C is a document filed by a company in order to reverse its election to be regulated as a business development company.
Investing Explained: Types of Investments and How To Get Started
Investing is allocating resources, usually money, with the expectation of earning an income or profit. Learn how to get started investing with our guide.
What Are Non-Traded Business Development Companies (BDCs)?
Introduction to Institutional Investing
Is Finance a Good Career Path?
Salaries & Compensation
Best Paying Jobs in Finance
Private Equity | 1,669 |
Q: Passing nested values to class methods in scrapy I'm new to web scraping, please pardon the possible vagueness in my terminology :|
A snippet of an HTML page that I'm trying to write a spider for:
<h3>2019 General Meetings</h3>
<p><strong>Group 20:</strong> <br />Wednesday, June 5, 9 a.m. <br /> Bank & Trust, 10000 E<|fim_middle|> well.
I'm particularly interested in each parser to "pick up" on a pattern within the <p>'s it's going to parse, and if it's a date pattern then format it, and return.
If it's a location pattern.. and so on.
I'm trying to avoid using re.(), unless you'd advise it's the right thing to do here.
Any insights would be most welcome,
Thank you.
A: This should work:
for p_node in response.xpath('//h3[contains(., 'General Meetings')]/following-sibling::p[position() < last()]'):
address = p_node.xpath('./text()[last()]).get()
date = p_node.xpath('./text()[last() - 1]).get()
I used position() < last() to skip last empty <p> and also I'm parsing data from the end.
| . Western Ave.</p>
<p>Wednesday, July 11, 9 a.m. <br />Bank & Trust, 10000 E. Western Ave.</p>
<p><strong>Group 20:</strong> <br />Monday, July 8, 9 a.m.<br />Hubbard, 1740 W. 199th St.</p>
<p> </p></div>
The logic I'm trying to follow is:
I have the <h3> which is the "top level" (or at least I consider it to be), there are other h3's on the page, so I need to make sure only this <h3> gets passed to the following parsers.
For the above, I'm using
response_items = response.xpath("//h3[contains(@h3, 'General Meetings')]")
And I think I have it working. (But needs more testing to make certain.)
I need to pass each of the <p> to a respective parser within the class, and each should return a required piece of information about the meeting, e.g
_parser_date will return the date, _parser_address will return the address, and do on.
I'm coming short on finding the correct scrapy/xpath syntax for this. Following https://docs.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/selectors.html I can't get this to work quite | 293 |
Wildlife Explorer
Ribwort Plantain
©Amy Lewis
©Philip Precey
Scientific name: Plantago lanceolata
The brown, oval flower heads of Ribwort Plantain balance on top of thin, wiry stems; the resulting seed heads provide food for birds in winter. Look for this 'weed' in lawns, fields and grasslands.
Height: up to 50cm
Common.
When to see
January to December
Ribwort<|fim_middle|> providing corridors of green space between open countryside, allowing species to move about. In fact, the UK's gardens provide more space for nature than all the National Nature Reserves put together. So why not try leaving wilder areas in your garden, such as patches of buttercups in your lawn or nettles near your compost heap, to see who comes to visit? To find out more about encouraging wildlife into your garden, visit our Wild About Gardens website: a joint initiative with the RHS, there's plenty of facts and tips to get you started. | Plantain is a plant of grasslands, field edges and cultivated ground and tracks, and regularly pops up in lawns as a weed. It flowers between April and October; in contrast to the long flower spikes of Greater Plantain, the short, oval flower heads of Ribwort Plantain appear as if balanced on the top of their thin, wiry stems. Its seed heads remain for most of the winter providing food for Goldfinches and other seed-eating birds.
Ribwort Plantain has spear-shaped leaves that form a rosette at the base of the plant. Short stems grow from its leaves, with compact flower heads that display protruding white stamens. The flower heads gradually turn brown and seed.
Widespread.
Towns and gardens
Ribwort Plantain is the subject of a game that's similar to conkers - children pick the stems and knock the flower heads together, battling it out to see whose head drops off the stem first.
Our gardens are a vital resource for wildlife, | 204 |
Scary Movie 5 (201<|fim_middle|>: Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Trailer: Scary Movie 5 (2013) | 3)
Watch Scary Movie 5 (2013) full movie online free in hd HD720px, 1080p. World wide streaming available for Scary Movie 5 (2013) movie in hd. Watch and download Scary Movie 5 (2013) full movie without registration.
Are you suffering from lots of ads to watch Scary Movie 5 (2013) movie?
You can watch your favorite movie Scary Movie 5 (2013) from Cineb.
Home with their newly-formed family, happy parents Dan and Jody are haunted by sinister, paranormal activities. Determined to expel the insidious force, they install security cameras and discover their family is being stalked by an evil dead demon.
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)
Max the terrier must cope with some major life changes when his owner gets married and has a baby. When the family takes a trip to the countryside, nervous Max…
Country: USA, France, Japan
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family
One Piece: Adventure of Nebulandia (2015)
Kōmei devises a plan where Zoro and Sanji take part in an eating contest, and the two eat a strange "good-for-nothing-only" mushroom that turns them into good-for-nothing men. The two…
Genre: Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy
Vacation (2015)
Hoping to bring his family closer together and to recreate his childhood vacation for his own kids, a grown up Rusty Griswold takes his wife and their two sons on…
Genre: Adventure, Comedy
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (2011)
FBI agent Malcolm Turner and his 17-year-old son, Trent, go undercover at an all-girls performing arts school after Trent witnesses a murder. Posing as Big Momma and Charmaine, they must…
The Proposal (2009)
When she learns she's in danger of losing her visa status and being deported, overbearing book editor Margaret Tate forces her put-upon assistant, Andrew Paxton, to marry her.
Dr. Lily Houghton enlists the aid of wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff to take her down the Amazon in his dilapidated boat. Together, they search for an ancient tree that holds…
The Croods: A New Age (2020)
Searching for a safer habitat, the prehistoric Crood family discovers an idyllic, walled-in paradise that meets all of its needs. Unfortunately, they must also learn to live with the Bettermans…
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Witching & Bitching (2013)
A gang of gold thieves lands in a coven of witches who are preparing for an ancient ritual… and in need of a sacrifice.
Country: Spain, France
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Thriller
Woody Woodpecker (2017)
Woody Woodpecker is back with his signature laugh, wacky antics and wisecracks in the first ever live-action/animated film. Woody must protect his forest home from Lance Walters (Timothy Omundson) who…
The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)
The world's top bodyguard gets a new client, a hit man who must testify at the International Court of Justice. They must put their differences aside and work together to…
Country: USA, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Canada, UK, France
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Planet 51 (2009)
When Earth astronaut Capt. Chuck Baker arrives on Planet 51 — a world reminiscent of American suburbia circa 1950 — he tries to avoid capture, recover his spaceship and make…
Country: Spain, UK, USA
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Sci-Fi
Mad Money (2008)
Three female employees of the Federal Reserve plot to steal money that is about to be destroyed.
Genre | 865 |
Posted on January 11, 2021 January 11, 2021 by riversmccown_1rdkf6
There are many megachurches in Houston
I have been hoping to ignore this, because I know the kinds of comments these articles get and I don't want to invite them into my life. But it continues to be a major theme of the Jack Easterby Houston Texans: The overbearing injection of religion and values as a factor in football operations:
I have two comments on this snippet from McClain
1) They nearly ate tampering charges for a guy that Cal never even _talked_ to until Monday?
2) Yet another connection over religion. Osteen for DC. pic.twitter.com/oMIh0Tjwi4
— Rivers McCown (@riversmccown) January 9, 2021
It is clear from the Sports Illustrated article about Jack Easterby that Easterby's hold on the Texans and his initial connection with owner Cal McNair came from their shared faith.
This is something that was a gateway previously between Bob McNair and Rick Smith, and that is an open secret as the clear mesh point between Cal McNair and Easterby.
Albert Breer on Jack Easterby's influence on HOU on Rusillo podcast: "And I don't want to trivialize this at all, but the religious angle I don't think is insignificant here … built in that way, it makes sense that Easterby was able to saddle up to Cal McNair, right?" pic.twitter.com/JUx79jwVk5
I think that notation from Breer is a perfect way to put it: I'm not here to trivialize anybody's religion or faith, but it is notable that we keep getting dragged back here and I want to explore why that is as the franchise continues to weight themselves down with the Easterby anchor. I think a lot of fans are struggling with the question of why a preacher could have such a particular impact on McNair. Let's talk about it.
It is not all that notable that an NFL owner is getting grifted. NFL owners have been grifted by coaches and front office men since the dawn of football. The Cowboys hired Mike McCarthy this offseason after he went on an analytics photo opportunity at PFF. He brought along defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, who hasn't run a good NFL defense for more than a half-decade. There was almost no chance that it would end well on the merits of the coaching. In that way, save his background, Easterby is no different than several other would-be prophets.
This particular owner, though — and I say this with no joy — has been completely out of his depth as a speaker in every public appearance since his father's death. The 40 minutes he spent with us at Nick Caserio's press conference were a tour de force of ways to prove that he does not understand the gravity of the situation he finds himself in. He could not answer basic questions about Easterby's role in the company. He chummed around with reporters who he knew about ice bucket challenges and golf games. He continued to try to present an extremely optimistic point of view about a deteriorating situation — 4-12, one star gone, a second star pissed all season, a third star pissed by the reason for this presser — as if going 6-10 because of a better record in one-score games would have changed any of the underlying problems.
Cal McNair monologue. pic.twitter.com/LDtnw9pY4T
Press availabilities don't really stagger you if you know how to speak in them — you learn the ebbs and flows, and you understand how to give the kind of non-answer that can at least imply a hint of what you're doing. "Getting it corrected," in Bill O'Brien's parlance, conveys that he knows that something is wrong. If O'Brien had fielded a question about his running game and replied: "I want to talk about my running game, we ran a lot of plays and we saw some good results. We want to run the ball very good at all times, we ask our fans to believe in us," he would have been destroyed. McNair's inability to even tonally hit the answers that you don't want to hear speaks to how unable he is to see that any of this is wrong. Particularly given that he had to have been aware and briefed about grievances the fans have had and that it was no secret how this would play externally.
A lot of fans have attacked McNair through the bounds of regular fan logic: They see an issue and wonder why it isn't being addressed and why he can't see it. The thing about growing up rich and disconnected from any consequences is that it manifests itself in ways that make you, to normal people, profoundly weird. Take this quote from Tania Ganguli's profile of Cal McNair in 2012:
No normal Houstonian grows up not understanding what Bud Adams did to make fans mad at him. I empathize in a way, because if you are chummy on an ownership level, where you see all these little-publicized donations and charity events and galas, it's easy to just see the good you think you are doing and wonder what you could do that would be bad. The fact that this quote happened nine years ago and that McNair still doesn't seem to understand or appreciate what he has to do to connect with normal people is a window into why someone like Easterby was able to touch him. Fans like to project themselves on to ownership — probably because of the fetishization of having that level of money — and pretend they are owners and decide how they'd act. What if Cal McNair is just a family-focused goober who happened to own a football team and saw it as a cheat code for respect at cocktail events rather than a description to be lived up to?
Anyway, for no particular reason after that paragraph, this bit from the clips that didn't make this story is fairly revealing:
This is not to say that anybody has done anything wrong in this story — it is just tonally weird with how normal people live their lives. Many women who get approached like this would be understandably angry at best, and possibly file paperwork. I'm happy it worked out for them, and I'm not trying to shame anybody here. It's just one of very few windows we have into Cal's life. He met a girl he found attractive on Valentine's Day and decided that the way to make this happen was concierge services, like she was tickets to the opera.
I can't pretend that I know who Cal McNair is. I've never even talked to him, let alone in person. But it's not hard to interpret the signs of who someone is when a carefully-choreographed paper appearance and long press conference show us that he doesn't understand much about his fanbase or how life works for it. My guess, given the fact that he's tuned in to (hat tip Steph Stradley) Easterby's toxic positivity, is that he sees the fanbase as something that produces a lot of negativity in his life, and something that he has a mandate to ignore because they don't understand all the good he does. He chastised nobody in particular but obviously someone on the outside for "a lot of heat" that Easterby took for taking over as interim general manager. Even a last-ditch Sports Illustrated article effort couldn't get McNair to understand the legitimate grievances any fan or player would have with this culture.
All of us are attuned to hear the people who are positive to us a little louder — it is human nature to not want to be shamed and to be kind to those who are kind to us. McNair is no different than any of us in that regard. It is just that, by nature of his upbringing and his dismissal of the general outside, the potential audience of people who interest him is a lot smaller.
What is revealed, over and over again, is that "believes in family, believes in doing things the right way," is what the Texans want. Since Bob McNair's death, Cal McNair has run the team mostly in a hands-off way and wanted to build "consensus." It was a "consensus" deal that they'd trade DeAndre Hopkins, ergo it was nobody's actual fault.
O'Brien was asked how much it benefits him to be in charge, emphasized heavily there are many people in the building: "It's a consensus, we try to build a consensus, you know, that's one thing that Bob McNair talked about a lot, that's one thing Cal talks about a lot." pic.twitter.com/DBYjYPIOL3
— Rivers McCown (@riversmccown) January 13, 2020
As far as the consensus building goes, Easterby's LARPing campaign as Texans GM was a lot louder when he was part of the committee. The committee could afford to believe that replacing DeAndre Hopkins with David Johnson would work. Hopkins, after all, would give footballs to his mother in the stands, which is dangerously close to glory. David Johnson, one imagines in Jack's mind, calmly recited Psalm 34:18 as he waited for each gap that would never open. But once O'Brien ran out of HP and the decisions could actually be traced back to him, Easterby treated even Kenny Stills like an Elixir. You don't want to waste that in a random battle, what if a third-round pick came in return? Let's wait by the phone and see.
The most important part of the McNair family is that once you're in with the McNair family, you're there through thick and thin. A lot of faith is placed in you. Gary Kubiak coached here for eight seasons. Bill O'Brien for six and a quarter. Both of them had issues that would topple coaches in hotter markets fairly early.
But a family can only be as strong as the faith placed in it by all members. You're reading this and you haven't clicked out yet, so you're part of my greater readership family. If you suddenly decide that I'm bad at this, the family dissolves. If I suddenly decide that I'd rather never write about the Texans again — maybe more of a possibility than it should be — the family dissolves. There's a spirit of cooperation implicit in both a family and church structure where we don't always do things we want to do for the greater good. People we are obligated to listen to. These are generally shared values. They are values that the Texans are trying to project on to their team and roster, yet they are ones that ownership is happy to overlook when applied to the family in charge.
When you hire opportunists to be family, and they are given a chance to seize more power in the family, they will. It's how Bill O'Brien got Rick Smith out of the building. It's how Easterby knifed Brian Gaine and, later, O'Brien. Opportunists can read the room and understand when a challenge is ready to be faced and how to avoid it. There are lofty standards about how the players and staff supposed to act and be, but they are applied inconsistently.
Easterby was supposed to be O'Brien's right-hand man, but he understood that keeping power would not be easy after an 0-4 start, and distanced himself. O'Brien distanced himself from Smith because he was never interested in sharing power, something that was evident to anybody who watched their interactions on Hard Knocks. These people may have been "family," in the sense that they lived with each other, but they don't live up to the ideals and values that McNair set forth for them. They haven't done things "the right way." Easterby's play to get close to McNair was easier than probably even he expected. To be fair to McNair, promises towards shared values and faith look damn good compared against O'Brien's belief system of nihilism, inside zone, and the Yankee concept. To McNair, Easterby must have had an aura of extreme competency.
Because they can present themselves as people who did things the right way to someone without a discerning eye, they can be Houston Texans family and eat the family too.
Having subjected<|fim_middle|> of autocratic team owners – IIN
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners - Morning News
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners - News Portal by AfricaX
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners – Carditravels
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners - CC EveryBody
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners | Houston Texans – Squeaky News
Pingback: Deshaun Watson reveals black NFL stars are sick of autocratic crew homeowners - The Daily Podium
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners | Houston Texans – Bouncing Bill
Pingback: Jack Easterby is a distraction that will never end until he's gone - riversmccown.com
Pingback: Houston Texans: Head Coach rein, Quarterback raus | Sideline Reporter - Eier, wir brauchen Eier!
Previous PostPrevious At Nick Caserio's press conference, we learned that the Texans have no answers for why they're keeping Jack Easterby or his culture
Next PostNext Jack Easterby is a distraction that will never end until he's gone | myself to a couple of different Jack Easterby sermons in the grander service of trying to understand how someone could be under his sway, there is little but enthusiasm there. The nervous energy he puts out as he spins his yarn is no different than a fourth-tier YouTuber asking for you to like and subscribe mid-video. His major sermon, and the thing that his foundation is named after, is The Greatest Champion. It goes a little something like this:
In the world that Easterby preaches, we are all "a mess" (his words) in the eyes of God. The way that you create your value isn't through results, but through process and belief in the process.
Caillou-Manuel Propaganda over here preaches toxic positivity and improvement. The idea that if you're just overwhelmingly positive, and you do "the work," and "embrace humility," that everything is going to be great. That in and of itself isn't all that interesting — many people have written self-help books around that, and some of them, unlike Easterby, do it successfully. The problem isn't that applying values to a person can inspire the person to find paths that make them happier. The problem is that applying values to an organization's players isn't Moneyball For The Galaxy-Brained. If there were a way for religion and values to create a winning football team, trust me, someone in the NFL would have found it before Jack Easterby. Probably Mike Singletary, maybe Tony Dungy, if we're being honest.
The idea for his image of the team is self-contained: Why can't your poem be greater? Why can't you meet your challenge? The problem is that Easterby also preaches the process over the results, so the bar for the challenge is literally on the floor. Easterby's promise falls flat when laid out to someone like J.J. Watt, who already has extensive self-motivation and doesn't need to learn more about how to use his gifts from someone who can barely keep his anecdotes above the racially insensitive replacement level. If Whitney Mercilus gets four sacks but finds inner peace with his relationship with God, well, I'm very proud of Whitney but he's not worth $11 million a season. This should be a business of results. The entire point of the game is the results.
The results since Easterby has taken over have been horrific. Not just on-field, but the destruction of relationships, the trades, the contracts, the constant theme of Entrance of the Gladiators that follows anything they do. The inability of this year's team to give 300 snaps to a rookie on their way to 4-12, adjust to anything that this year gave them in terms of scheme, or do anything more than complain about the lack of tackling drills they had week after week for eternity. Once O'Brien was deposed, this team quickly became a loose collection of individuals playing in self-interest rather than an organization with any kind of direction. The Texans have brought up often that they are interested in competing for championships — McNair brought it up again on both Friday and Saturday — but nothing they do seems to understand the urgency involved with that goal.
Easterby's vision for what the Texans are is self-preservation for his principles. The only ounce of shame in the entire thing is that even he can't bring himself to go to the podium and speak about it. Jack tweets an awful lot about people who aren't in the arena for a man whose one arena fight was Cal McNair's bedtime on the team charter home from London.
But to Easterby, that line is just another challenge to motivationally Tweet through. If he has found a taker to his mantra in McNair, there's ultimately no way within his reasoning to ever judge Easterby for what has gone wrong. After all, we're all flawed creatures and we're just following the process of the worker and the spirit to get to a better poem. What other opportunity could you want? Amen.
To be honest with you, I have had a terrible relationship with Catholicism. My grandfather wielded it as a cudgel on my mother and I. He would withhold money and benefits from us if we did not meet his standard of Catholicism. I responded by withdrawing. I don't really mind that some Texans are religious and it doesn't bother me that Deshaun Watson or Brandin Cooks mentions God often — I don't connect with them in that light, but if that is what it takes to inspire their greatness then I embrace it. Likewise, I don't begrudge Easterby for his faith. If Easterby and McNair were running a car dealership in Maine instead of the Houston Texans, I would blissfully not care.
If the Texans fancy faith and family as a major part of their approach, I think that's both good marketing and a recognition of a major audience in Houston. But people don't talk about football teams because of the charitable acts they do. People don't consider the Texans in terms of them being a public good — if they want to be that way, McNair can turn ownership over to the city and we can pay teachers with their profits. People talk about how awesome Deshaun Watson is, how much help he needs, and how nice it would be if there were any chance he was going to get it. They talk about the last part that way because of Easterby's greatest hits.
The fact that Watson trade rumors have been allowed to generate shows how this culture has failed. Forget the jolly forced summer camp hike to the end of the season that Romeo led, and forget the legitimate grievances Watson has over an ownership family that listened to his front office suggestions in the same way that our government listens to its citizens. The entire NFL news culture is thirsty to create a typhoon of poorly-sourced fantasies about where Watson would go. It draws eyes, it creates hope for a million fanbases, and it plays into the demand that he be "freed" from the Texans, which were an obligation to him this year and an outright piano on his back being forced to run O'Brien's 2011 finest. This culture saw that and decided that the best move was to yank Watson around some more, as a matter of course, because the family is the family and they can't just be handing out Zoom interviews to anybody; it would disrupt the nothing they had planned. That it has blown up in their face is both unsurprising and — outside of the effects of potentially creating an orphaned franchise nobody ever wants to read about — hilarious in the way that any ACME package delivered to Wile E. Coyote is.
In the press conference on Friday, McNair spoke to the need to "build a wall," in an awkward word choice that possibly seemed like a nod to Joe Brady. In an interview with the official website on Saturday, McNair then said that he needed a head coach who would get players to run through a brick wall.
Cal McNair one-on-one on head coach search: "This guy's different, this guy's different from Nick … the head coach will not be the introvert … hopefully he'll give a speech and they'll all want to run through the brick wall for him which is what we all want." pic.twitter.com/xRdNzckTsP
It was just another example of McNair's public awkwardness, but it was also a perfect metaphor for what the mentality of this team has become since Easterby joined the front office. They want to build a wall, then they want to have the team run through the wall, and then they want to do it again. And again. And they want to embrace that philosophy eternally — defining walls and then breaking them down — because obstacles are what keep Easterby employed.
There are many megachurches in Houston. We don't need a football team to aspire to be another.
18 Replies to "There are many megachurches in Houston"
P. Zoller says:
Excellent work Rivers. It's like you asked yourself "how can a team with three slam dunk Hall of Fame players self-destruct so thoroughly and so quickly", and then wrote 3,000 words exploring the answers.
I'll offer three more: mutually reinforcing incompetence.
The relationship between Cal M and Jack Easterby seems to be based on shared values and religious faith. I have no difficulty accepting their integrity in this regard. Yes, even Easterby's. Having chosen their family, as you would say, they now rely on each other for reassurance. Everything they do is with the best intentions and outsiders just don't understand. As you have noted, competency and results just don't figure into it.
The only way this ends well is if Caserio is actually good at his job and manages to push Easterby out the door, and the sooner the better.
In other words, I'm saying there's a chance it may work out. There are two immediate signs fans can look for. The first is whether the Texans hire a credible head coach, preferably one who is not a Patriots retread. The new head coach and his staff will largely drive success in the second big task, i.e., restore good will with its marquee players, Watt and Watson.
I'm guessing that fans will learn a lot about how all this is going to play out before free agency starts in two months. That's not too long to wait, is it?
Ricki Hester says:
Nailed it. I am a retired pastor and I don't want my football team to build a culture I want them to win a super bowl. We need leadership that's what results in good culture. We need impact playmakers that's what will get us to the super bowl. Easterby should be a team chaplain somewhere. I'm not against letting your light shine, I'm for it. But if your vision is to make people stand in the light, you will need to build a wall around 'your' light to keep them in place.
Pingback: Lass uns heute mal über die Defense sprechen | Sideline Reporter - Eier, wir brauchen Eier!
Astor Pruit says:
You need to touch on the influence Bob's death has had on his son. I believe this to be significant in Jack's influence on Cal. It's been just over two years since his fathers passing. Can't say the degree this has affected Cal, but I believe it is the basis of Jack's influence on Cal.
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners | San Diego Trends
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners - Ball & Bells
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick of autocratic team owners - Meshraban
Pingback: Deshaun Watson shows black NFL stars are sick | 2,253 |
Sixers can't pull another stunner against Heat
PHILADELPHIA – The Miami Heat celebrated Dwayne Wade's 32nd birthday with a cakewalk....
Sixers can't pull another stunner against Heat PHILADELPHIA – The Miami Heat celebrated Dwayne Wade's 32nd birthday with a cakewalk.... Check out this story on delawareonline.com: http://delonline.us/1jcgal9
The News Journal Published 11:28 p.m. ET Jan. 17, 2014 | Updated 12:25 a.m. ET Jan. 18, 2014
Evan Turner fouls Miami's LeBron James in the second quarter of Friday night's game. James finished with 21 points in the Heat's win.(Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo
PHILADELPHIA – The Miami Heat celebrated Dwyane Wade's 32nd birthday with a cakewalk.
Chris Bosh scored a game-high 25 points, and LeBron James added 21 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists as the Heat routed the 76ers 101-86 Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center to avenge a stunning loss in Philadelphia's season opener and snap a three-game losing streak, their longest in two years.
"You didn't want to keep sliding," Wade said. "You can't ever look at it and say, 'Ah, it's only three games.' Well, no. Losing three in a row for us is something we haven't done often, in a long time, so it's nothing we want to become accustomed to."
The two-time defending NBA champion Heat (28-11) made quick work of the Sixers (13-26), surging to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and methodically building their advantage to as large as 25 points in the second half.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, stumbled through one of its sorriest shooting performance of the season.
The Sixers shot a season-low 10 percent (2 of 20) from 3-point range and 36.9 percent (31 of 84) from the field overall. Their previous low was 14.3 percent (3 of 21) from long range in loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 9. Their season low overall remains 34.3 percent (35 of 102) in a loss to the Indiana Pacers on Nov. 23.
The Sixers also shot just 59.5 percent (22 of 37) from the free throw line.
"Only a handful of 3s did I think were poor shots, where we perhaps could have driven it or early in clocks," Sixers coach Brett Brown said. "I thought we had some good looks. But 2 for 20 is 2 for 20. How about the free-throw number? … Those are enormous numbers. You would think you'd look down and say we lost to the Miami Heat by 50."
Sixth man Tony Wroten led the Sixers with 13 points on 4 of 13 shooting. Evan Turner scored 11, and Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes and Hollis Thompson each added 10. Hawes also grabbed 10 rebounds.
Rookie point guard Michael Carter-Williams, who burst onto the national scene with 22 points, seven rebounds, 12 assists and nine steals against Miami in Philadelphia's season opener, finished with just seven points on 1 of 7 shooting Friday. He also had five turnovers to two assists.
"It's a great lesson for him, to play against a team like that, who was desperate, relatively, to try to get back on track and get a win," Brown said. "It's a fantastic lesson for a young point guard."
Shane Battier and Norris Cole each scored 13 points for Miami, which scored 25 points off 23 Philadelphia turnovers.
The Heat led 58-41 at halftime. Philadelphia shot just 31.1 percent (14 of 45) in the first half and 7.7 percent (1 of 13) from 3-point range. Young, Hawes and Carter-Williams combined to shoot just 13.6 percent (3 of 22) at the break.
The Sixers sat their starters for the entire fourth quarter. Philadelphia cut its deficit to as little as 13 points with 4½ minutes to play but never closed to within single digits in the second half.
"At times it looked like we were in the game," Carter-Williams said. "The second group came in and played great, they played them tough in the second half, but for the most part they beat us up pretty good."
Most of the near sellout crowd of 19,286 fans remained until James headed to the bench with 2½ minutes remaining in the game.
The Sixers, expected by many analysts to contend for the worst record in the NBA, stunned the league by opening the season with three consecutive<|fim_middle|> "That's what it was about. We had a little funk the last few games. We understood that and came out with an aggressive mindset and we were able to play well. That's what we want to do. In order for us to win multiple games, in order for us to contend for a title, we have to defend. We know that. It was great to get back to defending how we know we're capable of doing."
Contact Jason Wolf at jwolf@delawareonline.com.
Stay or go: Eagles could be saying goodbye to some big names on offense
Ex-Hen Cubit steps down after one year on Delaware football staff
Stay or go: Eagles could be moving on from Malcolm Jenkins, others on defense
Blue Rocks hat ranks among best-selling in minor league baseball
Delaware high school basketball: Live scores and more
Oh, brother: Blums to coach against each other in Blue-Gold game | victories, including a win against Miami on Oct. 30 in Philadelphia.
But they've largely struggled since, with the exception of a four-game road winning streak earlier this month. Philadelphia has lost five of its last six.
"Personally, it seems 1,000 years ago," Brown said about the victory against Miami. "It really feels like an eternity ago. … If there's anything to gain out of it, perhaps there is the reality to our young team that they were able to beat an NBA champion. And you can't take that away from them. But from a reality standpoint, for me, it seems so far, a time gone by."
Miami entered Friday's game having lost three in a row to Atlantic Division opponents – the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards – and eight games this season to teams with losing records. But the result against the Sixers was never in doubt.
Mario Chalmers returned to the Heat lineup and scored 10 points after missing the last four games with a right Achilles strain. Reserve center Greg Oden, who made his season debut for Miami on Wednesday, was active but did not play.
"We just came out with a sense of urgency," James said. | 249 |
The Best New Music in Rock, Alternative, Hip-Hop, and More
Expertly Curated by the CoS Staff
Perfume Genius and Empress Of reimagine "When I'm With Him": Stream
The pair collaborate on a new version of Empress Of's Us track
Perfume Genius and Empress Of, photo by Quinn Wilson
Last fall, Lorely Rodriguez dropped her sophomore album as Empress Of, Us. The collection of gorgeous alt-R&B tracks took varying looks at relationships, including a distorted one on lead single, "When I'm With Him". Now, she<|fim_middle|>c" value="1"][/fu-upload-form] | 's teamed with Perfume Genius for a new reimagining of the track.
Technically billed as a cover by Perfume Genius, it's really more of a collaboration alongside Empress Of, who sings backup vocals, and the original's co-producer, Jim-E Stack. In Rodriguez's hands, the song is a bilingual, midtempo spiral in which she wrestles with being trapped in a romance that is overshadowing her own identity. For his take, Perfume Genius' Mike Hadreas translates some of the Spanish and slows down the emotional thrust. Here, "When I'm With Him" is a fragile, powerful rumination on an empty love that highlights the sad nature of such a situation.
Captivating in a completely different way than the Us version, this new take on "When I'm With Her" is a perfect demonstration of two artists fusing their vision together for a result that transcends either of them. Take a listen below.
Perfume Genius' last album was 2017's No Shape. In addition to releasing her own album, last year saw Empress Of appear on records from Dirty Projectors, Khalid, and MØ.
Jim-E Stack
alt R&B
Best Indie Rock
Collaborative Song
Collaborative Track
Indie Music Artists
New Song Releases
Reimagining
Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson to helm new documentary on The Beatles' Let It Be
Vampire Weekend announce 2019 North American tour
[fu-upload-form form_layout="media" title="Submit Your Photo"][input type="hidden" name="ug | 329 |
"Grimbo" (Greek/Greece + limbo) is a term that was used to describe the weak Greek<|fim_middle|> | economy in 2012 and in 2015. In October 2012, "Grimbo" was used by Alex White of JP Morgan.
In April 2015, "Grimbo" was used by Citigroup. BloombergBusiness credited Citigroup Inc. economist Ebrahim Rahbari, but a Twitter message a day earlier credited Citigroup Inc. economist Willem Buiter.
Goodbye Grexit, hello "Grimbo" - JP Morgan's term for the doubt, ambiguity + obfuscation likely to mark Greece's longer-term path of limbo.
'Greek limbo' is two words. TWO!
JP Morgan's Alex White points out that the next few weeks are going to be critical and that this one is likely going to the wire… again.
And, while we quite like White here at FTAV, we're not totally sure we can forgive his use of the term "Grimbo" — Greek Limbo — no matter how apposite it may be. To be honest, we were expecting more of a Halloween theme.
@Citi's Willem Buiter dubs drawn out Greece negotiations #Grimbo—Greece in limbo. Sees Grexit unlikely but cap controls more possible.
Citigroup Inc. economist Ebrahim Rahbari is again adding to the dictionary of financial markets.
In February 2012, he coined the term "Grexit" to describe the risk of Greece leaving the euro area. At the time, he and his fellow economists at Citigroup put the probability at 50 percent within 18 months. They later raised it to 90 percent by 2014.
As the euro proved more durable than he predicted a few years back, Rahbari has come up with a new shorthand. He now describes the outlook as "Grimbo"—an amalgamation of Greek limbo—"for those grey scenarios where Greece isn't going to get money from the Europeans and there's no resolution for a durable horizon," Rhabari told Bloomberg Television's Erik Schatzker and Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday.
I struggled with trying guess this one. I thought it might be a combination of 'Greek' (D'uh...) and 'bimbo', but couldn't see its relevance to the crisis.. | 476 |
Viewpoint: Building a brighter future
By Contributed Article Last updated Jun 18, 2019
By Premier John Horgan
In my travels throughout the province, I get to meet people who have different ideas about what makes B.C. a good place to live. Something that stands out to me is that most people agree on the power of education to change lives.
When I met a young<|fim_middle|>
Editorial: Anxiety education
Editorial: Keeping it in check
Input wanted on B.C. forests
Editorial: Fire Smart | woman named Makayla, the life-changing effects of higher education really hit home. Makayla is strong and determined. She has limitless potential, but she had a tough start in life. Being a former youth in care, Makayla never imagined that one day she'd be studying at university to help kids with backgrounds like her own.
Makayla is one of more than 800 former youth in care who are getting a post-secondary education through our government's new tuition waiver program. For many of these young adults, eliminating tuition is the key to unlocking a future that offers hope and optimism.
Many young people are like Makayla. They dream of a future where they can contribute and make a difference in their own way. They just need a chance. Our government believes in giving people the chance to succeed.
Education helps lifts people up by unlocking the opportunity to learn a new skill or trade, get a good-paying job, and pursue their dreams.
I'm deeply proud of the work our government is doing to bring down barriers and make higher education and skills training more accessible and affordable for British Columbians.
For too long, the high cost of post-secondary education stood in the way of people reaching their full potential. That's why one of the first things we did as a new government was to help level the playing field for more British Columbians by making adult basic education and English language learning programs tuition-free. Now, tens of thousands of people can upgrade their skills and pursue a better life.
Education should open doors, not create new roadblocks to getting ahead. We're helping graduates get off to a better start by eliminating interest from B.C. student loans. This means that someone who finishes school with $28,000 in combined federal and provincial loans will save about $2,300 in interest charges over their repayment period. Now, new graduates can worry less about their debt and focus more on building their careers.
Similarly, the price of textbooks shouldn't hold students back from reaching their goals. That's why we're investing in more education resources like open textbooks that eliminate royalty fees and use open copyright licenses to help students access affordable learning tools. About 100,000 students in B.C. have saved as much as $10 million because of open textbooks.
For people like Makayla, the first step to a brighter future begins when we open the door of opportunity to education. From there, the sky is the limit.
Simply put, helping people succeed is good for B.C. Businesses benefit when they have the skilled workers they need. Communities thrive when more people have good-paying, family supporting jobs. Services that people count on can expand and improve as our economy continues to grow.
Opportunity starts in the classroom, but it opens the door to so much more. Investing in people leads to a better B.C. for everyone.
educationJohn HorganNewsopinionpoliticsPremierQuality of LifeSalt Spring Island
Contributed Article 156 posts 0 comments
Islanders take Subaru race challenge | 623 |
Vico Rigassi (* 7. Dezember 1905 in Stampa; † 6. August 1983 in Maloja) war ein Schweizer Journalist und Sportreporter.
Leben
Vico Rigassi lebte von 1913 bis 1921 in Legnano in Italien, wo er auch zur Schule ging. Sein Vater arbeitete dort als Lehrer. Ab 1922 besuchte er die Kantonsschule Chur. Nach eigenen Angaben studierte an der Handelshochschule in Basel (heute Hochschule für Wirtschaft) und an der Hochschule in Grenoble.
Seine ersten beruflichen Schritte als Journalist machte er 1925 als Redakteur in Mailand bei der Zeitung Il Secolo. 1929 wurde er Redaktionsleiter der Zeitung in Bern, wo er auch für Schweizer Nachrichtenagenturen arbeitete. 1930 wurde er freier Journalist und arbeitete für Zeitungen und Medienagenturen in mehreren europäischen Ländern. 1931 siedelte er nach Lausanne um und gestaltete vermehrt Sportreportagen. 1946 zog Rigassi nach Genf.
Grössere Bekanntheit erlangte er in den 1930er-Jahren als Rundfunkreporter in Deutschschweizer Radiosendern. Er übertrug Wettkämpfe im Radsport, Eish<|fim_middle|> DDR-Zeitung.
Fussnoten
Journalist (Schweiz)
Hörfunkjournalist
Zeitungsjournalist
Sportjournalist
Schweizer
Geboren 1905
Gestorben 1983
Mann | ockey, Skisport und Fussball in mehreren Sprachen. Für die Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) war er als offizieller Sprecher bei den UCI-Bahn-Weltmeisterschaften und UCI-Strassen-Weltmeisterschaften in den Jahren von 1946 bis 1976 tätig. Er begleitete alle bedeutenden Radrennen in Europa journalistisch. Rigassi wurde mehrfach zur Übernahme von Funktionen und Ämtern im Sport gedrängt, lehnte dies jedoch immer ab.
Ab 1931 arbeitete er kontinuierlich für die italienische Zeitung La Gazzetta dello Sport, die Zürcher Zeitung Sport, für Schweizer Rundfunksender wie "Radio Sottens", die französische L'Équipe, die Genfer Zeitung Semaine Sportive. Zu dieser Zeit war er auch als offizieller Dolmetscher bei den Kongressen des Radsportverbandes UCI tätig, da er sechs Sprachen beherrschte. Rigassi begleitete mehrere Olympische Sommerspiele und Olympische Winterspiele als Journalist für internationale Medien. Auch von Weltmeisterschaften im Eishockey, Radsport und Skiweltmeisterschaften berichtete er als Reporter und Journalist.
1956 war er Gast der Internationalen Friedensfahrt. Auch von diesem Etappenrennen berichtete er täglich für Schweizer und italienische Medien, da Mannschaften aus der Schweiz und Italien am Start waren. Er schrieb zu jeder Etappe einen Gastkommentar für eine | 369 |
Are your dental bennies making you crazy? GreenRubino helped shed some light (and attention) on the bummer-ness of having your dentist be "out of network." Don't you hate that? Well, since Delta<|fim_middle|> and launched the 'In Network' campaign, extolling the virtues of belonging to the Delta Dental network (versus, um...not). Keep an eye out while you're on the airwaves or online to learn more about the widest network.
Are your dental bennies making you crazy? GreenRubino helped shed some light (and attention) on the bummer-ness of having your dentist be "out of network." Don't you hate that? Well, since Delta Dental of Washington offers the widest network of dentists in Washington State and nationwide, they can stake a unique claim to the offering of staying "in network" as a universal benefit. So we seized the moment and launched the "In Network" campaign, utilizing creative media strategy and extolling the virtues of belonging to the Delta Dental network (versus, um…not). Keep an eye out while you're on the airwaves or online to learn more about the widest network. | Dental of Washington offers the widest network of dentists in Washington state and nationwide, they can stake a unique claim to the offering of staying "in network" as a universal benefit. So we seized the moment | 41 |
Grace = No More Scorekeeping
Christianity, Front page, grace, Greg Albrecht
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.—1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Keeping score is one of the fundamental predispositions of human beings. Keeping score is the way we operate, it's the way we gauge<|fim_middle|>144,000 can be reached and realized by counting. Revelation says that God seals the 144,000 to protect them from the figurative harm caused to land and sea by four angels. On what basis? Their protection is because of their race—and it is specifically numbered and limited, because it is a picture of the limits of the protection afforded by the old covenant.
On the other hand, after describing the specific number of 144,00 who are sealed, then God reveals a great multitude in white robes.
Here's John's report of what was revealed to him:
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.—Revelation 7:9, my emphasis
This great multitude is assembled on the basis of the new covenant. The great multitude is beyond human calculation, because it is assembled and filled by God's grace, not by human calculation. The new covenant recognizes no limitations, no restrictions, no gender or race or culture. The new covenant does not count.
Grace = No More ScoreKeeping.
Those in this great multitude follow the Lamb of God in that, as Christ-followers, they suffer in their physical lives—for they live lives of service. But while they are not at all sealed from physical harm in their physical lives (precisely what Jesus tells us as Christ-followers) in eternity those who are part of this great multitude:
…are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; 'he will lead them to springs of living water.' 'And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.'—Revelation 7:15-17
Grace on Trial
Grace Without Reservations
It's All About Grace (Romans Series Part 3 of 3) - Greg Albrecht
In Need of Grace (Romans series part 1 of 3) - Greg Albrecht | our progress and that of others and it is one of the primary ways in which our culture motivates us.
I learned to keep score at an early age via two of my passions—sports and music. The first score-keeping experience I had in sports was with the game of baseball. As I recall, I was about ten years old when I was introduced to the intricate system of using a scorebook to record the performance of each player in the batting order of each team. I was fascinated and became an avid scorekeeper as I listened to a man named Vin Scully announce games on the radio.
About the same time in my pre-teenage years I became passionately interested in the performance of rock n' roll songs—as rated by the Billboard top 40. KFWB and KRLA were the two rock n' roll radio stations I religiously (and I use that word advisedly) listened to in Los Angeles. Both of these radio stations would announce their own weekly top 40 and distribute printed copies of the top 40 to local record stores. I was a regular customer, picking up the KFWB Fab Forty and the KRLA Top 40 each week on the way home from school. These surveys told me how each song was doing—if it was going up the charts or down the charts— what its ranking was the previous week—and if it was # 1 how many weeks it had managed to stay on top.
Scorekeeping was fundamental to these two religious pursuits in my life at the time. Between the two of them I spent hours every day, faithfully listening to my prized transistor radio, purchased with the money I earned delivering papers and mowing lawns. I was devoted to scorekeeping!
Keeping score is all about performance—it's how we determine success or failure. Scorekeeping, both physically and spiritually, fascinates and motivates us. But God's grace functions on an entirely different economy, an entirely different set of principles. Grace = No More Scorekeeping!
A few weeks ago I was looking at an intriguing book called The Universal History of Numbers. It's a comprehensive overview of numbers, looking at early decimal counting systems, calendars and numerical systems. The author, Georges Ifrah, explains and illustrates counting devices and their use. He traveled the world for ten years talking to mathematicians, historians, archaeologists and philosophers. He explains the history of counting on fingers and toes, of the abacus, of tally sticks—up through modern adding machines, calculators and computers.
Numbers make the world go round, don't they? Numbers are the primary way in which we keep score. Our human financial economies operate on the basis of how much and how many—specific numbers are absolutely necessary for human economies to work. Who would accept a job if they weren't promised a specific wage? How would people shop for groceries, clothing or goods of any kind if no price tag was attached?
I would be interested to see a similar book, exhaustively detailing the many devices invented, fabricated and used by religion, over time, to count, calculate and compute the human relationship (as religion defines it) with God. You see, physical scorekeeping is not only fundamental to our human economy of work and production, of payments and bartering, but spiritual scorekeeping is at the heart of Christ-less religion.
We prefer to have a method that enables us to measure and quantify our relationship with God. Even though any and all such methods of keeping score are religious contrivances, we still like to think that we can know exactly "where we stand" with God. Legalistic religion is all about how much and how often—it's all about records—spiritual bean-counting and bookkeeping.
Where would we even start in a survey of all the methods and practices used by religion in a grand pretense to let humans know how well they are doing in their relationship with God?
• Without excluding others we would have to include church/temple/synagogue attendance as one way religious professionals use to grade followers.
• Then of course there's confession and the specific penance that one needs to pay to "get right" with God.
• Christ-less religion describes and prescribes prayer as a pragmatic, mechanical exercise —chanting and reciting the right words, while the body assumes the right posture, logging appropriate lengths of time. Those who fulfill all the daily religious requirements of prayer are led to believe that God then places a gold star next to their name in heaven.
• Creeds and catechisms attempt to normalize and standardize specific and exact belief—which if deviated from means that the individual has failed to meet the standard.
• Christ-less religion approaches the Bible as another exact science—complete with humanly devised rules, standards, techniques and approaches for understanding it and obeying it.
• Of course religious score-keeping would not be complete without the many religiously mandated observances of special or so-called holy days, of giving a specific percentage of one's income to the church (called tithing) and a whole host of rituals and ceremonies, all prescribed in detail.
Jesus came into our hopelessly confused, contorted and corrupt world of Christ-less religion with a new and revolutionary way in which humans might relate to one another and to God. Jesus introduced grace and in effect, he said, "you can forget about counting your deeds and behaviors. Kiss that methodology good-bye, because it is meaningless as a method by which humans might relate to God."
God's grace is the end of religious score-keeping as a way of relating to him. Based on our keynote passage in 1 Corinthians 13:5, where we read that love keeps no record of wrongs let's briefly survey seven other biblical passages which will help illuminate the difference between religious scorekeeping and God's amazing grace.
• The Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:9-14).
The Pharisee thought he had religious credits—commendations and assets that God would regard. The Pharisee was counting on things he could count that were just a mirage, in God's eyes. The Pharisee proudly reported that he gave tithes (precise percentage) and that he fasted twice (specific number) each week.
On the other hand, the publican knew he had nothing at all to offer God. Which man was closer to God?
• The Unmerciful Servant (Matthew 18:21-35).
Jesus gave this parable as a response to Peter's sincere question: Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? (Matthew 18:21). As Peter was wrestling with the concept of forgiveness, we might paraphrase the way in which he explained his dilemma to Jesus: "Well, surely there has to be a limit to the number of times I should forgive someone. After all, we wouldn't want another person to take advantage of our forgiveness—so perhaps seven would be, at the very outside, where forgiveness ends?"
Jesus' response paints a clear comparison between God's grace and Christ-less religion. Jesus says that there is no end of God's love and forgiveness. In effect Jesus says, "It is not possible to count or compute God's love. Therefore, forgive others an infinite number of times—70 X 7."
• The book of Numbers—appropriately titled "Numbers"—here is an Old Testament example illustrating the futility of attempting to gauge, weigh or measure our relationship with God on the basis of human performance:
Numbers is an entire book of the Bible which, from our Christian perspective, offers a comparison between the old covenant, based on counting, and the new covenant, based on God, in Christ, who keeps no record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5). The book of Numbers lives up to its title—it is a book of specific instructions about amounts—it's a spiritual recipe book that gave the nation of Israel a way to measure their acceptability to God as well as a scorebook of some of their failed attempts.
• Gideon
Gideon was one of the judges of Israel—judges at the time were the national leaders of the nation. We find the story of Gideon, the judge, in chapter 6 and 7 of Judges, another appropriately named book. This is not a book about grace—this is a book about judgment.
The specific story of Gideon is about how God deliberately whittled down the size of Gideon's army, until at best it could be called a group or a troop. God drastically reduced Gideon's army so that no one could boast of the victory he would give Gideon and all of Israel. God wanted to ensure that everyone knew that there was no way, apart from him, that they had the resources necessary to accomplish what was needed. So even though Gideon was embodied within the old covenant, God wanted the message of his grace to ring loud and clear.
• Ephesians 2:8-10
By contrast with boasting and the pride of religious accomplishments which are kept and maintained in religious scorebooks by religious scorekeepers, Paul simply says this: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
• The Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7)
Jesus gave this parable by way of response to the self-righteous religious leaders of his day who felt that Jesus was spending too much of his time with losers—with people who would never "amount to much"—at least by their religious measuring sticks and standards.
Jesus told these self-assured religious professionals that a good shepherd doesn't keep score. According to Jesus a good shepherd doesn't regard the sheep as assets in a ledger, so much so that if one sheep in a herd of 100 was lost a good shepherd would leave the 99 and go after the one. That's grace—complete disregard for religious scorekeeping! The standards of religious score keeping and God's amazing grace are as far apart as east is from west and north is from south.
• Finally, let's briefly consider two groups of people mentioned in Revelation 7:
People often wonder about two groups that God presents, in a positive light, in Revelation 7. The first group is reckoned by old covenant standards—12,000 each from twelve tribes of Israel—numbering 144,000. It's a precise and specific number. This precise number of | 2,188 |
Dundee's real-time data innovations are as good as gold – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – December 2, 2013)
December 3, 2013 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Europe Mining, Gold and Silver
The Globe and Mail is Canada's national newspaper with the second largest<|fim_middle|> is now written on paper and collected at the end of the work shift, and the numbers are often inaccurate. "We want to turn an extremely low-tech industry into a high-tech industry," Mr. Howes says. "If this industry wants to advance, it's going to take a lot of software development."
Any mishap or slowdown, from a truck that has made an unscheduled stop to a miner who is behind schedule, is immediately transmitted to the surface and action is taken. The surface crew even knows the whereabouts of its workers because an RFID – radio frequency identification device – is embedded in the battery that powers the helmet-mounted lamps.
While the real-time monitoring sounds suspiciously like Big Brother, the company insists it's all about meeting production targets with the greatest efficiency, and ensuring the safety of its employees, not checking on whether their lunch or toilet breaks are overly leisurely.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/dundees-real-time-data-innovations-are-as-good-as-gold/article15708530/#dashboard/follows/
Chinese firms want to buy coal assets overseas, but on the cheap – by Sonali Paul (Reuters U.S. – December 1, 2013)
World Coal: UN climate chief Figueres 'ignoring reality' – by Sophie Yeo (Responding to Climate Change – December 2, 2013) | broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada's political and business elite.
CHELOPECH, BULGARIA – You would think an iPhone would be an utterly useless gadget in Dundee Precious Metals Inc.'s Bulgarian gold mine for the simple reason that the mine lies nearly a half kilometre below impenetrable rock.
But the underground reception is working well and that makes Mark Gelsomini, information technology director for the Toronto-listed company, smile like he has just tripped over a gold nugget the size of a golf ball.About 400 metres underground, his e-mails arrive without a glitch. Phones are static free.
"You're coming in clear," Mr. Gelsomini tells Dundee CEO Rick Howes, who is also deep underground in a dark tunnel that connects the mine's various operations.
The free-flowing communication at Dundee's Chelopech mine is thanks to a fully enabled underground WiFi network – a technological leap is attracting international attention.
One of the mine's visitors this week was Mark Cutifani, CEO of Anglo American PLC, one of the world's biggest mining companies. He was there to learn whether Anglo could adopt some of Dundee's communications and data systems for its own operations, perhaps in partnership with the little Canadian gold player.
He says he was impressed by what he saw: "This is where the innovations are, in the smaller mines."
Installing a data network in the mine puts Dundee at the forefront of the industry's next phase – treating mines as if they were just-in-time manufacturing sites. That means every activity, from the number of scoops of ore delivered to the crushing machine to the number of metres drilled into the rock face, is recorded and displayed in real time.
In most mines, this data | 367 |
Future proofing your cash handling processes during an IT-upgrade
Published: Friday 05 July 2019
The following is an extract from a LinkedIn article written by our Technical Leader, Martin Petersen.
The IT upgrade
Cashmaster has partnered with many multi-nationals as they have upgraded their IT systems and subsequent cash handling processes. Over the years, we have grown to understand the challenges these IT project teams face as multi-location, multi-till businesses, often with legacy IT systems that must remain operational. Whether the IT upgrade has come about due to an efficiency drive, the equipment becoming obsolete and no longer supported, or because it has become too expensive to patch and maintain, it is always an exciting challenge for our software team to work on integrating our device and delivering future-proofed solutions which will continue to meet the needs of the customer as they evolve.
The Project Brief
When one of our long-standing US owned supermarket clients decided to upgrade its cash office IT equipment across their estate, we worked closely with them to ensure their cash handling operations continued to deliver, and improve on, the time-savings they had come to rely on and to add a layer of future proofing into their cash management systems. The customer was using the advanced model of the previous generation of Cashmaster cash counters, the Omega 230, which already gave them a solution which was customized to them, integrated to their POS and transferred their till count data to their POS via a serial port.
Critically they needed a solution that was compatible with their new thin client platform, which didn't support serial communication. Having committed to upgrading their systems, they also wanted to ensure the technology was up-to-date and had longevity built-in.
We established a technical project team and worked closely with the client's IT specialists. The supermarket involved its UK and offshore IT teams, and we kept the project on track via regular communications.
We identified the communications methods that were compatible with our devices and the new thin client system the client was rolling out across their estate. With a robust, ethernet communication protocol at<|fim_middle|> lifetime of the product to keep in line with future process and technology changes. | the center of the customer needs, they selected the Cashmaster One Max as the best hardware platform to meet their needs.
With an agreed specification and a device chosen, it was a case of 'let the development and testing begin'. Cashmaster and the supermarket IT team shared development tasks, supporting each other to ensure the devices communicated reliably.
During milestone review meetings with the supermarket's cross-functional group, and we gained insights into small problems in the process and areas where there was room to improve existing cash handling procedures with further automation.
An essential requirement was that the product met stringent network security requirements. To ensure the technology would not place the new infrastructure at risk, a specialist team subjected the devices to penetration testing under controlled conditions, before connecting them to the live store systems. We passed the testing successfully, which may in part be due to our proprietary, embedded operating system, which is the foundation of all Cashmaster devices. Retaining full in-house control of our operating system rather than utilizing the conventional alternatives of Windows or Linux (which can be more susceptible to exploitation) is a core tenet of Cashmaster's business strategy.
An Agile Approach
With initial development work complete, the next step involved trialing the newly configured Cashmaster One Max in-store along with the new IT system. The success of this approach was influenced by a hugely supportive Project Manager at the supermarket who facilitated direct access to the cash office staff (the end users) who helped troubleshoot small issues and further optimize the functionality, which was then delivered via software updates and released with each iterative firmware version.
The Final Solution
The Cashmaster One Max is our flagship and our most connected device. It incorporates a wealth of features and functionality, including touch screen technology and Ethernet network connectivity. Ethernet enables much faster data transfer (1000 x faster than via the serial port) and the large touchscreen and intuitive UI results in fewer user errors. The device was configured to replicate the Cashmaster Omega 230, and we have leveraged touchscreen technology to create a solution that is not only familiar but also has incremental functionality, which removes even more manual processing, and it is faster to operate and faster to 'learn' for new staff. This approach completely personalized the end product and excited the client, who could see the immediate and long term benefits it brought.
An outcome for all
For Cashmaster, this was an exciting project for our team, which allowed them to exercise their creative muscles, build a strong relationship with the client team - and benefit from the boost to productivity and morale, that comes with positive feedback and a happy customer.
For the supermarket client, the Cashmaster One Max, with its wired Ethernet connection for data transfer, ensures a fast, secure and reliable transport mechanism for all cash count data. It also future-proofs the cash handling process with its modern platform, configuration capabilities, and upgradable software. The result is our client now has a highly optimized, efficient, automated cash handling solution which can be flexed, adapted and enhanced over the | 606 |
In the largest photovoltaic funding round of 2011, San Jose, California-based Stion, a manufacturer of CIGS-based thin film modules, raised $130 million in private equity led by AVACO and Korean private equity<|fim_middle|> Taiwan Semiconductor, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Braemar Energy Ventures and General Catalyst Partners -- also participated in the funding round, the company said. The firm is expanding manufacturing facility in its Hattiesburg, Mississippi facility, as well as opening a Korean manufacturing subsidiary.
Lead investor in this round, AVACO, is a supplier of thin-film processing equipment.
Stion's module are monolithically produced on glass, and the firm has achieved 14 percent efficiencies in early production. The firm has a tandem design in the works and has licensed its technology to Taiwanese foundry TSMC.
The company's CIGS-based product will offer "silicon efficiency at thin film costs."
Stion has demonstrated 14.1 percent efficiency on full-size panels with its single-junction product.
Farris also claimed that Stion can get to market in "half the time and with one-tenth the money." | funds, according to an article in peHub this morning. The firms's existing investors -- Khosla Ventures, | 23 |
The project aims to investigate whether modern robot arms – working together with laboratory staff – can help to streamline the processing of samples in a hospital laboratory.
screened<|fim_middle|>.
Illustration of robot arms. The project aims to investigate whether modern robot arms, which could work alongside laboratory staff, can help to automate the processing of samples in a hospital laboratory.
This is a public-private innovation partnership. The project involves the Clinical Biochemical Department at Gentofte Hospital, DanskRobotTeknik and Universal Robots. Relevant healthcare professionals and other users who are currently part of the process of handling blood samples are also taking part.
The project encompasses the development of a "proof-of-concept" for robot arms, to be connected to the Clinical Biochemical Department's current blood line in order to test staff safety, blood sample tube capacity, operational stability and the reduction in response times for blood samples. | off areas for reasons of staff safety. Modern robot arms now have builtin sensors which stop the movement before the robot touches the person. The project is also a cheaper and more flexible alternative to the costly total automation solutions offered by the large reagent companies | 49 |
Sembcorp Marine Investingnote 59 votes. Dbs<|fim_middle|> there clearly was an appetite for this simple, good financial advice. | . 86 votes. Best world. 44 votes. sembcorp marine. 303 votes. kepcorp. 36 votes. sembcorp ind. 43 votes. breadtalk. 38 votes. Suntec. 26 votes.
"Daily dips of 2% or more occur about 5x a year," the note read, and while that many 2% moves had already been logged even at that early stage of the year, even that isn't unprecedented.
Mar 9, 2017 … Here is all the investment advice you'll ever need – on a single index card.
Mar 09, 2017 · 9 Simple Money Rules All On 1 Index Card. The problem: the index card didn't exist. So, Pollack grabbed an index card from his daughter, wrote several personal finance principles, snapped a photo with his phone and posted it online. The actual index card was 4-by-6 inches (rather than 3-by-5).
The card came out of chat I had regarding what I view as the financial industry's basic dilemma: The best investment advice fits on an index card. A commenter asked for the actual index card.
Jan 08, 2016 · The ideas on the index card weren't new — pay off your credit cards, invest in low-fee index funds, etc. — but | 295 |
DJ Sonny Productions is always reliable and dependable! Their mixes are phenomenal and always keeps the crowd pumped!! I wouldn't pick any other DJ for my events after my experience with them!!
Great entertainers all around - can accommodate any crowd, music genre, and always have a great time!
Attended many events hosted by DJ Sonny Productions and his team and every event was better than the one before. American music or Bollywood music was always great and the dance floor was always packed to people enjoying and having a great time.
DJ Sonny and crew are top notch entertainers! I've enjoyed many concerts held by them.
Great music, always on point! They have a great attitude and I always leave their parties with my feet hurting from all the dancing!
I loved the New Years Event that DJ Sonny productions put on. The lighting and decor was amazing. The food was overwhelmingly delicious and the party was on fire. They're the best I know at entertainment. They are true visionaries. They're also meticulous executors and don't let any of the details slip. They know how to make sure everyone has a great time, and just when I had thought I had seen it all at this New Years event, they had even more surprises for the evening! I will always look to book DJ Sonny Productions for my events.
Salman Sonny Molu and Asma Molu are the epitome of entertainment!! A rare mix of personalised professionalism! I've seen my fair share around the world, but You guys are, without a doubt, unparalleled !!
#1 DJ in Atlanta! Always leave their event with a drenched shirt! Definitely recommend them for all your events.
Great sound and great people with great customer service, can't find words to say more. One should really get them for there shows and parties you would not regret.
DJ Sonny did my sons wedding and we were very impressed. His passion really shows in his work and we plan to use him again in the future.
When planning for an event, be it a wedding, birthday, concert, shower or a house party, DJ. Sonny Productions is the way to go. They are a one stop shop for all the entertainment needs for your event, big or small. From sound to lighting, dance floor set-up to MC, Sonny and his team works diligently to ensure your event is a successful one. I have had numerous opportunities to attend concerts and private events planned and hosted by Sonny and his team, and they have<|fim_middle|> guys to my family and friends. Thank you !!
On behalf of GA-APPNA and The President of GA-APPNA, Dr Mirza Ahmed, I thank you for taking on the Ladies Fashion Show 2015 and teaming up for its huge success... You guys delivered an Awesome job and nothing less than a Professional Job!!! You guys out did yourselves...worked tirelessly and delivered a job that entire Atlanta can't stop talking about... The training of the models, the lights, the sound...all were above par... Kudos!!! and Congrats!!!
DJ Sonny Productions is professional, innovative, and most importantly organized. DjSonny and his team provided music and lights for Maa Tujhe Salaam - MTS 2015 "Battle of Dance" competition !! MTS committee was privileged to have such experienced DJ for this year's event. The dance teams that competed this year appeared more colorful than ever! Thank you Dj Sonny for providing vivid lights and appearing to MTS with the most upgraded music system. We strongly recommend for others to contact DJ Sonny for their upcoming events!
The best!!! Thank you for the 10th annual Dhoom Machao... U guys rocked it!
Thank you so much Salman Sonny Molu, Ahsaan Gilani and Asma Molu for your rocking dj service at our wedding.. We really enjoyed at the wedding night and also guests at our wedding were really enjoying the music you all played. Afrin and Aslam.
Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved By DJ Sonny Productions, LLC. | been nothing short of excellent. I highly recommend them for your next event.
Sunny and Asma are both a lovely pair who are very very professional and know how to make an event beautiful to beautiful and wonderful !!!! Absolutely Skilled professionals !!
Thank you for everything Asma & Salman. Although you were already booked for 2 events, you agreed to Dj for our family event on our last minute request...totally appreciate that!! You guys rocked !!! Very professional and well organized!! Great setup w just right lighting... You kept the dance floor absolutely full till the end .. sorry to keep you guys bombarding with our non stop requests ...we all had a blast:) totally would recommend you | 144 |
Home » Energy » Forbes Blockchain 50 2022
Forbes Blockchain 50 2022
Cryptocurrencies hog the spotlight, but blockchain's biggest innovations are below the surface, saving billions each year for the world's largest companies.
Edited by Michael del Castillo and Matt Schifrin
Reported by Maria Abreu, Nina Bambysheva, Justin Birnbaum, Lauren Debter, Michael del Castillo, Steven Ehrlich, Chris Helman, Katie Jennings, Jeff Kauflin, Javier Paz, Jon Ponciano, Marie Schulte-Bockum
You've come a long way, blockchain! Since our inaugural roundup of the Blockchain 50, published in 2019, the billion-dollar companies (minimum, by sales or market value) on our annual list have moved beyond test projects and now rely on "distributed ledger" technology to do serious work. A lot of the action is in the back office, verifying insurance claims or facilitating real estate deals. It has also become vital to supply chains, whether checking the provenance of conflict minerals like cobalt or tracking auto parts for Renault. Nearly half of the Blockchain 50 are based outside the United States; 14% are Chinese. New this year: venture capital firms, which as a group invested more than $32 billion in the sector in 2021.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether grab all the headlines, especially after booming last year and then losing more than $1 trillion in value since November. But in many ways, speculative cryptocurrencies are the least intriguing blockchain application. The most lasting impact will come as more and more multinationals integrate blockchains into their daily operations, unleashing untold efficiencies.
2022 Forbes Blockchain 50: A Closer Look
Five Social Networks Defending Against Blockchain Disruption
How Crypto's Original Bubble Boy Is Pulling The Strings Of The Defi Boom
In October 2021, the company that makes Photoshop and the keeper of the PDF format launched Content Attribution, which lets creators export their images directly to certain nonfungible-token (NFT) exchanges: KnownOrigin, OpenSea, Rarible and SuperRare. The feature lets artists protect their work against fraudulent claims by irrefutably proving their provenance before "minting" them as NFTs ready for auction. The service will eventually be available to all of Adobe's 20 million Creative Cloud subscribers.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Ethereum
KEY LEADER: Will Allen, VP at Adobe overseeing its Content Authenticity Initiative
The insurance giant ($164 billion, 12-month sales) uses blockchain to streamline cross-border auto insurance claims in Europe. Different teams and incompatible databases used to mean lots of back-and-forth emails. Claims could take months to settle. Now there's a single source record of each claim. Processing time has been reduced to minutes, and costs have fallen 10%. So far it's being used by 25 Allianz subsidiaries to settle 850,000 claims.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Hyperledger Fabric, Corda
KEY LEADER: Bob Crozier, chief architect of Allianz Technology and global head of blockchain for Allianz Group
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA
Arguably the largest crypto investor in the world, the venture capital shop also known as "a16z" has raised around $3.1 billion in three dedicated blockchain funds over the past three years. That includes the massive $2.2 billion Crypto Fund III, which launched in June 2021. In total, the blue-chip firm has funded at least 60 startups working with blockchain and was an early investor in Coinbase, now valued at $34 billion. a16z also hopes to shape crypto regulation, having hired former officials from the SEC, Treasury and the Department of Justice to lobby policymakers.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Flow, Celo, Near, Arweave and others
KEY LEADER: Chris Dixon, general partner and leader of a16z Crypto
Ant Group
Since July 2020, this Alibaba affiliate has devoted 10,000 developers to blockchain. Already they've created 30 applications, generating over 100 million blockchain-tracked documents including patents, vouchers and warehouse receipts. The most mature AntChain application is Trusple (Trust Made Simple), which connects international buyers of products and components—beads in the apparel industry, say—to 6 million Chinese sellers. The app simplifies tax, customs and shipping, and enables banks to instantly complete payment, reducing auditing costs and default risk. Nearly 20 global banks including CitiBank, BNP Paribas, Singapore's DBS and Japan's Mizuho are providing financing via the platform.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: AntChain
KEY LEADER: Geoff Jiang, president of Intelligent Technology Business Group, Ant Group
The $137 billion (sales) Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee is testing the blockchain to try to speed up an arcane administrative process known as "coordination of benefits," which determines one's primary insurer. It usually requires a series of faxes (yes! faxes!) and phone calls and can take up to three months. Through a shared ledger with Chicago-based Health Care Service Corporation for certain Medicaid members in Texas, the companies now make this determination in minutes or hours. Anthem's blockchain program processes around 3,000 to 5,000 verifications a month.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Hyperledger Fabric
KEY LEADER: Rajeev Ronanki, Anthem's president of digital platforms
Unintended policy cancellations are a big problem for insurers and often occur when a customer underpays or forgets to pay a premium. In 2021, insurance broker Aon ($12 billion, 12-month sales) partnered with insurance carrier Zurich to move invoicing to an immutable blockchain ledger—already leading to a double-digit decrease in cancellation notices. The technology, known as Adept, was developed by a subsidiary of Acord, the Pearl River, New York–based body that sets standards for the global insurance industry. Aon hopes to bring 10 more counterparties onto its blockchain this year.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Corda
KEY LEADERS: Christa Davies, CFO
A.P. Moller—Maersk
The world's second-largest container shipper ($54.5 billion trailing 12 months) now counts 250 ports and 20 ocean carriers using its proprietary TradeLens blockchain, which cuts time and reams of paperwork out of tracking containers as they move through global seaports. Sportswear giant Puma, which ships out of northern Germany, can now track a specific container in seconds rather than hours, according to Maersk. TradeLens, which Maersk co-developed with IBM in 2018, has tracked more than 55 million container shipments and is now being used by other shipping giants such as Germany's Hapag-Lloyd and Singapore's Ocean Network Express.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: TradeLens, Hyperledger Fabric
KEY LEADER: Christian Hammer, chief technology officer, TradeLens
China's fourth-largest tech firm has 20,000 developers building (mostly) financial applications on its open-source blockchain. Last year they generated $47 million in revenue, a drop in the bucket for the $15.5 billion (sales) firm, but the future looks bright. In September Baidu won its largest contract to date, a $25 million deal with the government of Tongxiang, a city southwest of Shanghai, to build software to track the supply chain for the roughly $5 billion worth of synthetic fibers used to make clothes in the textile center. Efficiencies from moving its workflow to a shared ledger have already cut lending costs by 50 basis points. Baidu estimates that the blockchain has helped reduce the supply chain's energy consumption by 17% and could remove 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the environment each year.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: XuperChain
KEY LEADER: Xiao Wei, chief manager of Baidu Blockchain
In 2020 BHP, the $61 billion (sales) Anglo-Australian multinational mining outfit, sold its first "paperless" shipment of Australian iron ore to China. That evolved in 2021 to trading cargoes of copper concentrate to China, with all documents, assays and emissions data enshrined on its MineHub blockchain platform. BHP has since adopted blockchain-based traceability to ensure there's no "dilution" of the nickel it sells to Tesla's Shanghai battery factory and to track the carbon emissions of the copper it sends from Chile to electric cable maker Southwire in Carrollton, Georgia. BHP is now in talks with suppliers to use blockchain to guarantee that the rubber in the 6,000 giant truck tires it uses each year was produced without slave labor or illegal deforestation.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: MineHub, Hyperledger Fabric
KEY LEADER: Michiel Hovers, group sales and marketing officer
Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey's other company, formerly known as Square, generated $42 million in fees from its Cash App's bitcoin brokerage in just the third quarter of 2021. It's a safe and easy way for crypto newbies to get into the game: Block generated $9.8 billion in revenue from bitcoin sales in the 12 months ending September 2021. Dorsey left Twitter in November and is a vocal crypto booster, so expect Block to lean into its new name. In July, it created a business called TBD, which focuses on building a decentralized financial system and is looking to build an energy-efficient bitcoin mining system.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Bitcoin
KEY LEADER: Jack Dorsey, CEO
This 238-year-old bank is fully embracing the future: The institution that Alexander Hamilton started now wants to be king of back-office servicers for crypto ETFs. The firm already has 90% market share in Canada, meaning it provides tax and administrative services to most of the 17 crypto ETFs currently trading up north. In October it announced another big ETF applicant, Grayscale's $23 billion Bitcoin Trust. New York–based Fireblocks, which provides crypto custody services, is a new BNY Mellon investment valued at $8 billion.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Bitcoin, Ethereum
KEY LEADERS: Roman Regelman, CEO of asset servicing and head of digital; Mike Demissie, head of digital assets; Ben Slavin, global head of ETFs
Boeing is partnering with Canada's TrustFlight and developer RaceRocks to build a so-called digital aircraft record system that helps airlines keep up with required maintenance. This expands on Boeing's earlier blockchain initiative with Honeywell's GoDirect Trade platform, which in 2020 securely sold $1 billion in Boeing aircraft parts. In time they envision a global airworthiness records platform, which could save 25% in maintenance costs—worth billions annually across the industry.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Go Direct, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Indy
KEY LEADER: Charles S. Sullivan, president, Boeing Canada Operations
GRENCHEN, SWITZERLAND
The luxury watchmaker now tracks 320,000 timepieces on the blockchain, giving customers access to detailed product history and proof of authenticity. Breitling is also using it to move into the resale market. Want to sell an Avenger you were given a decade ago? You can get an instant appraisal via your digital wallet. Looking to buy? Like consulting Carfax before purchasing a Toyota, you can easily check out the number of previous owners and repair history. In February, Breitling will let European owners buy, sell or trade timepieces online; it already allows customers to trade in old watches for store credit. It's running tests in Switzerland to let customers quickly alert police to stolen goods via their digital wallet and is experimenting with blockchain-based warranty claims for lost watches.
KEY LEADER: Antonio Carriero, chief digital and technology officer
The world's second-largest bank, with $4.7 trillion in assets, has so far processed $141 billion worth of transactions on private blockchains for everything from supply-chain financing to cross-border payments. Among its more recent products is EasyPay, designed to make it simpler for corporations to send large, paperwork-intensive transactions with fewer errors and less need for audits. If a company in Guangxi wants to buy palm oil from Labuan, Malaysia, the counterparties can load their trade contract, receipts and waybills into the shared ledger. Local CCB branches can then process both halves of the trade in parallel, instead of sequentially. The result: Total settlement time is reduced from two days to about ten minutes. The platform now connects 14,000 bank locations.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Tianshu BaaS, CCB Chain, BC Trade 2.0
KEY LEADER: Lei Xing, senior manager at CCB Financial Technology Company
In October, the dollar value of Chicago Mercantile Exchange crypto futures reached $4.7 billion daily, temporarily making the CME the largest crypto derivatives exchange in the world. That same month the SEC approved the first U.S. bitcoin futures ETF, Proshares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), which now has $1 billion in assets. CME has launched crypto futures contracts for ethereum, as well as "micro" bitcoin and "micro" ethereum futures, tailored for those who want to invest $150,000 or less.
KEY LEADER: Tim McCourt, global head of equity index and alternative investments
The largest crypto exchange in the U.S. went public in April 2021, and its market value soared as high as $94 billion before settling to a recent $40 billion. In the third quarter of 2021, Coinbase logged more revenue ($1.3 billion) and net profit ($406 million) than in all of 2020, while its customer base swelled from 43 million to 73 million in the first nine months of the year. Next: diversification. Its "Coinbase Cloud" software aims to help developers build crypto applications, and in October, it announced an NFT marketplace to compete with OpenSea. A month later, CEO Brian Armstrong told investors Coinbase NFT could become "as big or bigger" than its trading business.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Bitcoin, Ethereum and dozens of others
KEY LEADER: Brian Armstrong, CEO
The $5.1 billion (12-month sales) diamond producer has registered more than 400,000 stones, worth some $2 billion, on its Tracr blockchain, up 50% since January 2021. The platform records a diamond's cut, color, clarity and karat, then tracks it along the supply chain. Users can instantly verify the rock's origin and authenticity with a simple scan as it's mined, cut, polished and sold—eliminating the need for costly and time-consuming mail-in verification. Tracr now has more than 30 industry participants, including Zales, Jared and Kay Jewelers.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Tracr, Ethereum
KEY LEADER: Jason McIntosh, chief product officer, Tracr
Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation
If you bought or sold a security in the U.S. last year, odds are that the clearing and settlement services were provided by DTCC, far and away the largest post-services firm in the world. In September DTCC, which processed $2.3 quadrillion in 2020 trades (total face value of the securities; trailing 12-month sales $2 billion), successfully completed a six-month test on a blockchain project that will reduce errors and cut settlement times from two days to less than one. DTCC's main business remains publicly listed securities, but its new Digital Securities Management application is targeting pre-IPO companies with privately traded shares.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: ION, DSM, Hyperledger Fabric
KEY LEADER: Rob Palatnick, managing director and global head of tech research
Think of DCG as a crypto conglomerate. The firm owns five major crypto companies: trading platform Genesis, news site Coindesk, digital asset exchange and wallet Luno, bitcoin mining firm Foundry and Grayscale, the largest digital asset manager in the world, with more than 150 portfolio companies and $39.6 billion under management. In November, DCG raised $700 million in a private stock sale led by Softbank at a $10 billion valuation, bumping founder Barry Silbert's net worth to $3.2 billion. DCG's newest startup, Foundry, has taken advantage of crypto miners being banned from China in May to create the world's largest bitcoin mining pool, providing 19% of the network's total processing power.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and others
KEY LEADER: Barry Silbert, CEO
Fidelity started mining bitcoin in 2015 when it was trading below $500, making the $11.1 trillion asset administrator one of the first traditional institutions to dabble in crypto. But true to its conservative nature, the 401(k) giant (2020: $21 billion sales) steered retail customers clear of owning crypto directly. Its main crypto niche today is not retail but providing custodial services and research to institutional clients through its Fidelity Digital Assets unit. The number of these big clients doubled to nearly 200 in 2021. Next: overseas expansion. Last year, Fidelity launched a Canadian bitcoin ETF and secured a permanent crypto license from the U.K. financial regulator.
KEY LEADER: Tom Jessop, head of Fidelity Digital Assets
Led by 29-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried, the world's richest crypto billionaire (net worth: $26.5 billion), FTX dominates the hypercompetitive crypto exchange landscape. It handles some 10% of the $3.4 trillion face value of derivatives (mostly futures and options) traded by crypto investors each month. FTX pockets 0.02% of each of those trades on average, good for around $750 million in nearly risk-free revenue—and $350 million in profit. Additionally, the company hauled in a record $1.5 billion in private funding last year, rocketing its valuation from $1.2 billion to $25 billion. Eager to become a household name, FTX is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing, signing up a slew of celebrity brand ambassadors including Tom Brady, David Ortiz and Kevin O'Leary.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and dozens more
KEY LEADER: Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO
The $32 billion (12-month sales) telecommunications and computer hardware company runs a blockchain innovation lab in Brussels with more than 40 clients— from a rice-trading startup to giant brewer Anheuser-Busch. The companies use the lab to test fresh ideas, backed by Fujitsu's technical expertise. In November, for example, water purification firm Botanical Water Technologies started building a trading platform using Fujitsu's in-house distributed ledger technology, which will allow sugar mills, distilleries and cola makers to sell or reuse the water they would normally discard during production. The platform, launching in April, will trace the water as it's purified, sold and delivered, and give companies the option to donate a portion of their purified water to water-scarce communities.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Hyperledger Fabric, Besu and Cactus, plus Ethereum
KEY LEADERS: Frederik De Breuck, head of Enterprise Blockchain Solution Center; Shingo Fujimoto, manager of data and security laboratory, Fujitsu Research
The largest bank on the planet ($5.6 trillion in assets) has 40 blockchain applications, which last year handled a total of more than $48 billion worth of transactions for local governments and industries including construction and transportation. Among its most innovative apps is Icago, which rewards users for making use of energy-efficient vehicles, whether trains, buses or electric cars. The bank's blockchain connects wallets owned by ICBC customers to government transportation data. Carbon credits issued by the transit commission as nonfungible tokens can be redeemed for China's new central-bank digital currency. In the future, securitized carbon emissions will be sold as bonds to companies looking to meet carbon reduction requirements. In Qingdao, a city known for its beer, the program removed 99,000 kilograms of carbon in 2021. This year, the program will expand to Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chengdu and seven other cities.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Emperor Seal Chain
KEY LEADER: Chaowei Liu, principal manager
JPMorgan's Onyx Digital Assets network is making waves in the massive ($1.5 trillion a day, face value) repo market, the overnight government bond market that's a steady source of profits for large financial institutions. By using smart contracts and JPM Coin, a digitized version of the U.S. dollar, Onyx repo trades settle in real time instead of overnight, reducing settlement risk and manual processing. The intraday repo application has so far facilitated the movement of $230 billion in trades, completing about $1 billion in transactions a day. In June, Goldman Sachs began using Onyx.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: ConsenSys Quorum
KEY LEADER: Umar Farooq, CEO of Onyx by JPMorgan
Kakao Corporation
Jeju-si, South Korea
South Korea's dominant mobile messenger application, KakaoTalk, is used by nearly 90 percent of the country's 52 million people, and as of May 2021 it has a marketplace for trading NFTs. Called KrafterSpace, the exchange is fully integrated with OpenSea, the San Francisco–based NFT bazaar that recently raised money at a $13.3 billion valuation. On KrafterSpace users can purchase tokenized artwork directly through Kakao's messenger app with the accompanying digital wallet, called Klip Drops. Both KrafterSpace and Klip Drops are built on Kakao's own blockchain, Klaytn, which has more than 800,000 active users. Separately, in August, Kakao launched a $515 million Klaytn Growth Fund to support developers willing to contribute to its blockchain's ecosystem.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Klaytn
KEY LEADER: David Shin, head of Klaytn Global Adoption
Part of Z Holdings, the $36 billion (market cap) Japanese internet conglomerate that also owns Yahoo Japan and Japan's PayPal competitor, LINE is the country's largest messaging app, with 300 million users. The company has developed a proprietary blockchain, also called LINE, owned by Softbank Group and South Korean internet conglomerate NAVER Corporation. Its services include a cryptocurrency exchange, an NFT marketplace and a digital wallet with more than 254,000 registered accounts. The associated cryptocurrency, LINK, is a big hit, attracting nearly a million miners. As of late January it had a market cap of $669 million.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: LINE Blockchain
KEY LEADERS: Woosuk Kim, CEO of Unblock and LINE Tech Plus; Keun Koo, head of blockchain development at Unchain
Marathon Digital Holdings
Five years ago, Marathon was mostly known as patent troll, filing a raft of lawsuits (most settled out of court) against corporate giants like Apple, Amazon, Dell, Yahoo, Pinterest and Twitter. In 2017 the operation had annual revenues of less than a $1 million and a market cap of less than $10 million. It aggressively pivoted toward bitcoin mining in 2017, and the Nasdaq-traded company now has a market cap of $2 billion on revenue of less than $100 million. A big beneficiary of China's bitcoin-mining ban, Marathon currently holds at least 8,133 bitcoin worth $300 million. The company intends to put to work 70,000 more servers in early 2022, increasing its computers devoted to crypto mining to 199,000, good for approximately 1.2% of total global bitcoin mining activity.
KEY LEADER: Fred Thiel, CEO
PURCHASE, NEW YORK
Twenty-four crypto cards, including Gemini, Uphold, CoinJar and BitPay, have been launched by Mastercard, letting customers spend their digital assets at 80 million vendors around the world. In October, the credit card giant partnered with Bakkt, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (owner of the New York Stock Exchange), which will provide technology to allow even more Mastercard issuers the ability to accommodate cryptocurrency transactions. Mastercard also runs a blockchain incubator called "Start Path," which has so far assisted 12 crypto startups, giving them direct access to the multinational company's products, customers, workshops and mentoring.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Terra, Rootstock, Monero, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Avalanche
KEY LEADERS: Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of digital assets and blockchain products and partnerships
Facebook's decision to rebrand as Meta and go all in on the (mostly) theoretical "metaverse" could be a boon to blockchain as well as Facebook, with its 2.9 billion member global community. After all, an immersive, all-encompassing virtual world is a natural environment for cryptocurrencies, custom avatars, NFTs, blockchain gaming, digital wallets and more. Let's hope Facebook has more success with the metaverse than it did with Libra, its much-hyped cryptocurrency that was announced in 2019, renamed "Diem" in 2020 and sold to California bank Silvergate Capital in January 2022 for $182 million. To date little is known about the technology underlying Facebook's metaverse.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Unknown
KEY LEADER: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO
TYSONS, VIRGINIA
Enterprise software provider MicroStrategy and its crypto-Kool-Aid-guzzling CEO, Michael Saylor, are corporate America's biggest bitcoin owners. The D.C.-area firm, which nominally makes boring back-office business software, has transformed itself during the pandemic into a crypto trading powerhouse. MicroStrategy now holds 124,391 coins worth $4.6 billion at today's prices and has booked nearly $846 million in crypto trading profits since August 2020.
KEY LEADER: Michael Saylor, CEO
The NBA's Top Shot platform has transformed the sports memorabilia business, bringing NFTs to the average fan. Powered by Vancouver, British Columbia–based Dapper Labs' "Flow" blockchain, users can buy, sell and collect "moments," akin to digital trading cards—such as a LeBron James dunk that recently sold for a record-setting $230,023. Its popularity isn't slowing, either. Since November 2020, 1.3 million people created Top Shot accounts, and total sales have soared from $2.5 million to $992 million. Top Shot's outsize success has generated broader curiosity about crypto within the league. The NBA formed a blockchain subcommittee to evaluate future opportunities, launched a WNBA version of Top Shot and entered a multiyear partnership with crypto exchange Coinbase.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Flow
KEY LEADER: Adrienne O'Keeffe, vice president of global partnerships and media
The 141-year-old maker of cash registers and ATMs wants to create a massive global network of 1.5 million locations that will allow passersby to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In January it bought Boston-based LibertyX, a bitcoin ATM company that has 30,000 machines scattered across America. In June, NCR spent $2.5 billion to buy Cardtronics, a Houston company with 285,000 ATMs at Circle Ks, CVSs and Krogers in the U.S. and nine other countries. Bitcoin, ethereum and a few other cryptocurrencies should be available on these machines by the end of the summer.
KEY LEADER: Tim Vanderham, CTO
Nornickel
Through its Swiss Global Palladium Fund, the world's largest producer of palladium and refined nickel ($17.7 billion, 12-month sales) has issued $1.3 billion worth of tokenized contracts for its precious and base metals, including gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper and nickel. The contracts, stored on the Atomyze blockchain, help industrial firms like Umicore, Traxys and Glencore track the origin and environmental bona fides of their metals and make it easier to adjust inventory levels.
KEY LEADERS: Marco Grossi, CEO, Atomyze AG; Alexander Stoyanov, CEO, Global Palladium Fund
By 2030, some 40% of all new cars will be electric. Demand for cobalt, used in EV batteries, is soaring. Nearly two-thirds of the world's cobalt supply is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war-torn country where child labor and other human rights abuses are common. Oracle and British startup Circulor, a raw-materials supply-chain tracking company, have built a blockchain-enabled platform to trace the provenance of high-risk, conflict-area raw materials such as cobalt. Many of the world's largest EV manufacturers, including Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Polestar, have signed on for the service, which is built on Oracle's blockchain.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Hyperledger Fabric
KEY LEADER: Wei Hu, senior vice president, high availability technologies
Started in 2018 by Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam and former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang, Paradigm has quickly become one of the most prominent crypto VC firms. Investments ranging from $1 million to over $100 million include FTX, Coinbase, Chainalysis, Uniswap and Sky Mavis. Sixteen are already valued at $1 billion or more. In November, Paradigm announced a new $2.5 billion fund, the largest crypto-centric venture capital fund ever.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Bitcoin, Ethereum and others
KEY LEADERS: Fred Ehrsam and Matt Huang, cofounders
In October 2020, PayPal launched a crypto brokerage service as part of its grand plan to become a one-stop financial super app. Crypto users engage with the app twice as much as regular clients, and its offering of crypto rewards through the Venmo credit card has been a big hit with younger users. Although the company now lets U.S. customers purchase up to $100,000 in crypto per week, most transactions are much smaller; daily trading volume is estimated to be under $50 million. Looking ahead, the company wants to expand its crypto offerings beyond the U.S. and U.K. and is exploring the launch of its own stablecoin.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin
KEY LEADERS: Dan Schulman, president and CEO; Jose Fernandez da Ponte, SVP and general manager for blockchain, crypto and digital currencies
Ping An (OneConnect)
Through its subsidiary OneConnect's blockchain financing platform, the sixth-largest company in the world has made more than $12 billion in loans to a million small and medium-sized businesses in China's Guangdong province since January 2020. OneConnect's software uses government data to analyze a borrower's risk profile for banks, cutting transaction processing to as little as 10 minutes—a massive money saver for its 788 client financial institutions, including $5.6 trillion powerhouse ICBC. In November, a OneConnect subsidiary partnered with the People's Bank of China to use blockchain to track and process the financing of imports and exports from mainland China and Hong Kong.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: FiMAX
KEY LEADER: Li An, associate director of product
In 2019, Providence, a not-for-profit Catholic health system, acquired Seattle health-tech startup Lumedic. The prize? Lumedic's blockchain, which helps solve time-consuming administrative problems like "prior authorization"—when a doctor needs to check with a patient's insurer to ensure certain surgeries or medications will be covered. In 2021, 16 of Providence's hospitals and four clinics across Washington, Montana and Oregon were using its shared ledger to speed up prior authorization processing time from days to hours. Last year, more than 40,000 treatments were processed on Lumedic's blockchain.
KEY LEADERS: Kimberly Sullivan, chief revenue cycle officer, Providence; Mike Nash, CEO, Lumedic (acquired)
BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT, FRANCE
In response to European regulators' ever-growing technical requirements, the French automaker ($53 billion 12-month sales) launched blockchain platform Xceed in April to track thousands of car parts going into every vehicle manufactured in 16 factories across Europe. If any characteristics—such as the size of a screw or a headrest's positioning—aren't up to standard, the manufacturer is automatically alerted and can then notify suppliers with the push of a button, saving weeks of time on audits. Partners include top suppliers like Faurecia, one of the world's largest makers of automotive interiors, with $18 billion in annual revenue. By 2024, Renault hopes to enlist 3,500 suppliers in a bid to track every one of its 6,000-plus regulated car parts and features. Renault has also started 20 other in-house blockchain initiatives tackling everything from car-buying transactions to supply-chain traceability.
KEY LEADER: Odile Panciatici, blockchain VP
SUWON, SOUTH KOREA
Most Americans know Samsung for TVs and other electronics, but those are just one aspect of the largest ($220 billion 12-month sales) chaebol (conglomerate) in South Korea. It also makes ships, runs theme parks, sells life insurance—and, since 2020, has been using a blockchain-based loan platform to make it easier for small and midsize enterprises to request government loans. Previously, such a request required documents from three parties—the government, the credit guarantor and the bank—which would take three weeks on average to process. The platform reduces paperwork, cutting processing time to 12 days and saving about 13,000 working hours a year.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Nexledger
KEY LEADER: Jihwan Rhie, head of Blockchain Business Planning
In 2015, Signature became one of the first banks to accept crypto customers. It was a prescient move: Total crypto deposits have surpassed $22 billion, and the bank has processed more than $200 billion worth of payments on its ethereum blockchain–based proprietary network, Signet. This year the company began offering bitcoin-backed loans. It has also partnered with stablecoin issuer TrueUSD to allow clients to mint and send instantaneous payments using the dollar-denominated asset. The market is a fan: Over the last 12 months, Signature's stock has almost doubled.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Signet, Ethereum
KEY LEADER: Frank Santora, chief payments officer
Last year France's third-largest bank released Cast Framework through its Forge subsidiary. The software lets both mainstream financial firms and crypto startups create regulatory-compliant digital securities on a blockchain. A recent application was helping Banque du France refinance $45 million in securities backed by some of the bank's home-mortgage portfolio, tracked on a blockchain. Using the blockchain reduced transaction time and saved on auditing costs. SocGen is also developing a so-called "smart contract" library of reusable code specific to financial services and has applied for a French regulatory license that will allow them to manage digital assets for clients.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: MakerDAO
KEY LEADER: Jonathan Benichou, chief financial officer, SG Forge
The 278-year-old art auctioneer, known for selling Picassos, van Goghs and Warhols, is now gleefully hawking cartoon primates and pixelated cyberpunks. In April 2021, Sotheby's held its first NFT sale, moving a body of work by digital artist Pak for $16.8 million. That was only the start: In all Sotheby's did more than $100 million in NFT sales last year, contributing to the auction house's record-breaking gross sales of $7.3 billion. In September, cashing in on the craze for unique NFT profile pictures on social media, Sotheby's<|fim_middle|>ana Sristy, senior director, blockchain, Walmart Global Tech; Tejas Bhatt, senior director, global food safety innovation
One of WeBank's latest blockchain apps encourages sustainable living by rewarding users for doing things like walking, taking the bus or recycling clothing. The Chinese digital bank, which is 30% owned by Tencent, issues Green Bud Points via a mini-app on WeChat that can later be exchanged for vouchers and gifts. All records are stored on its blockchain to ensure transparency and traceability. The platform already has 1 million daily active users and reports that it recorded a reduction of more than 2,500 tons of carbon emissions over 2021. Overall, WeBank has more than 70,000 coders working on its proprietary "FISCO BCOS" blockchain.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: FISCO BCOS
KEY LEADER: Henry Ma, executive vice president and chief information officer
Tags: ArtsbusinessCars & BikescloudCrypto & BlockchainDaily CoverEditors' PickEnergyEnterprise TechFinTechHealthcareInnovationinvestingManufacturingMarketsMoneyRetailSportsMoney
Instagram doesn't know what to do about your 13-year-old either
SoftBank: US IPO would compensate most for Arm deal fail | sold 101 images of monkeys, part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of 10,000 animal avatars, for $24.4 million. The auction house now accepts bids in fiat currency and cryptocurrency.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORM: Bitcoin, Ethereum
KEY LEADERS: Stefan Pepe, CTO, Sotheby's; Sebastian Fahey, managing director, EMEA, and executive lead for Sotheby's Metavers
Stone Ridge Holdings Group
In 2017, the financial firm that already owned a $13 billion asset manager, launched New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), a subsidiary aimed at helping institutional investors buy and hold crypto. Stone Ridge has since bought and held some 20,000 bitcoin (worth $740 million at current prices) and last December NYDIG raised $1 billion from nine VCs including WestCap and Bessemer Venture Partners at a $7 billion valuation. Institutional clients include JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley; last year it cemented partnerships with banking software giants FIS and Fiserv.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin,Bitcoin Cash
KEY LEADERS: Ross Stevens, executive chairman; Robby Gutmann, CEO
The technology arm of Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group (2021 revenue: $5.1 billion) has developed more than 60 blockchain-based products spanning telecom, media and entertainment, manufacturing, retail and energy. One of the most interesting: VaccineLedger, which was developed in collaboration with a startup funded by Unicef and Gavi, the vaccine alliance that oversees a worldwide Covid-19 vaccine database with the World Health Organization. The blockchain helps prevent counterfeiting and reduces the number of vaccines that go to waste by tracing the shots from manufacturer to recipient. It records data related to custody, temperature, location and purchase orders for each vial. VaccineLedger already operates in two states in India, with plans to expand globally.
KEY LEADER: Rajesh Dhuddu, global practice leader of blockchain and cybersecurity
Over the past decade, Tencent has built a Chinese "super app," used by more than 1 billion people for everything from gaming and social media to messaging and shopping. Now it's developing a one-stop blockchain platform, Tencent Cloud Blockchain. Ten provinces and cities including Hainan, Guangdong and Beijing already use it to issue electronic bills for things like health care and transportation. As August 2021, Tencent's blockchain had processed more than 15 million transactions in one city alone.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: ChainMaker, Hyperledger Fabric, FISCO BCOS
KEY LEADER: Powell Li, general manager of Tencent Cloud
Crypto's town square, where Elon Musk shamelessly pumps canine coins and where millions of tiny traders try to send their latest purchases to the moon in 280 characters or less. There were 220 million tweets about NFTs in 2021 and an additional 60 million in January 2022 alone. And just because its crypto-obsessed CEO, Jack Dorsey, left in November to devote all his time to Block (see page 68) doesn't mean corporate Twitter is forsaking its claim to the decentralized future. Twitter is doubling down on creator tools, like tipping other tweeters with bitcoin and letting users display their NFT collections as profile pictures—for a fee.
KEY LEADER: Parag Agrawal, CEO
The credit card giant has partnered with more than 60 crypto platforms including FTX, BlockFi, Coinbase and Binance to make it easy for people to spend digital currency through crypto-linked cards. All 80 million of Visa's merchants now effectively accept crypto as payment, with the funds automatically converted to fiat currency before they receive it. While crypto transactions can be expensive, Visa leaves that headache to its partners, which charge as much as 2.5% in Coinbase's case. Consumers have spent more than $6 billion using Visa crypto cards since October 2020.
KEY LEADER: Terry Angelos, SVP and global head of fintech
After hundreds of listeria, salmonella and E. coli infections last year, and millions of pounds of recalled food, the FDA finally seems to be getting serious about food safety. It announced in September 2020 that manufacturers and retailers will henceforth be responsible for tracking more than a dozen types of risky foods such as romaine lettuce, soft cheeses and fish at every point along the supply chain in order to identify and toss contaminated items more rapidly. The retailer is already tracking 1,500 items on the blockchain, triple that of a year ago. Its food safety initiatives are becoming more visible to shoppers: A recent Sam's Club pilot in China let shoppers scan a QR code to gain information about where the produce was grown and when it was harvested.
BLOCKCHAIN PLATFORMS: Hyperledger Fabric, Walmart Blockchain
KEY LEADERS: Arch | 1,039 |
After I hung up the call, a bitter feeling of disappointment struck me. Suddenly, all the hours dedicated to that application had resulted in a dead end. I had spent at least 20 hours preparing for it, which included: writing my CV and cover letter, attending the company's presentation, going to their cocktail, dinner and coffee chats, and training for fit and case interviews. What was wrong with me? Why did they reject me? Revolving thoughts were all over my mind as I got back into class.
I could not let this "ding" beat me. After all, I still had a considerable batch of interviews to follow. It was impossible, though, not to feel my confidence dip a little bit. Sharing the bad news with colleagues was not easy as well: dressed-up for the big day, it was more than obvious<|fim_middle|> with my career coach to discuss the feedback I received and how to incorporate it. My coach, the exceptional Mr. Pierre Barny de Romanet, was able to calm me down and helped me to figure out the next steps. The appointment ended up being extremely helpful, as the coach helped me both emotionally and practically, boosting my confidence again and getting me prepared for the next fight.
For most of us at INSEAD, getting 'dinged', failing, or getting a no as an answer is not always a common thing. Getting through these failures in this very short, concentrated time span in P4 has definitely made me more resilient because, after all, there is no time to mourn, as I am the sole person responsible for my career.
PS.: Interestingly enough, this is my second post about a Phone call. In case you have questions about my career journey at INSEAD, do not hesitate to send me an e-mail at leandro.salles@insead.edu.
The INSEAD MBA Experience for Leandro will be a year of first times: first time living abroad, first time living with his partner, first time outside his parents' house (doing the laundry is not cool, after all). But the first time he is most excited about is the opportunity of taking a deep dive into this sea of diversity that INSEAD is: he promises to live it to its full extent.
When the hard times come, I like to remind myself to "Keep walking".
I hope all the best in the next interview.
Thank you for your reply. I will certainly take your advice! | that I had an interview, so it seemed as if every single person stopped me on campus to ask: "How did it go?" – This question, though well-intended, helped to worsen the feeling. Going home to change was the inevitable solution: hiding the fact that I had an interview was the best way to avoid telling each person about my failure.
At Freddy's, 'dinged' students may ring a bell, triggering a free drinks tradition following a negative interview answer.
Each person has their own way of dealing with a "No". This experience enabled me to know myself better and discover an important trait: I prefer sticking with the closest group of people who I trust the most when sharing such moments. I would not be the one abiding to INSEAD's tradition of ringing the bell at Freddy's (the bar), summoning friends to buy drinks for me.
After a few hours of self-reflection, I decided to schedule an appointment | 193 |
The Seattle Department of Transportation tenant improvement of Floor 31 in the 800 Fifth Avenue<|fim_middle|> existing grid ceiling and installation of new ACT tile. This fast-paced project was originally scheduled at 12 weeks but through close coordination with the client and design team Schuchart reduced the project schedule to 8 weeks. | building in downtown Seattle. Highlighting the space is the elevator lobby which features reclaimed wood slats and local artisan glass tiles created using recycled glass.
Work consisted of the full demolition of existing non-core elements and upgrade of MEP and Fire Protection systems including three new heat pumps and one VAV box, new fire alarms and sprinklers. Build out included new offices and partition walls for owner-provided demountable wall systems, new paint, custom casework, carpet, glass walls and entry doors with frames and hardware, re-painting of the | 108 |
The B<|fim_middle|> | uncher Company has been a leader in developing and leasing high-quality business space since 1954. Real estate decision makers place their confidence in our reputation to deliver results that support their real estate goals.
Our real estate professionals exclusively control the development, leasing, and management of The Buncher Company's properties. Because we build, lease, and maintain our own properties, The Buncher Company can deliver results to fit any real estate requirement. We work with you to analyze your requirements, make design and material recommendations, and submit preliminary drawings with a firm proposal at no cost or obligation.
The combined experience of our Real Estate Group, coupled with our dedication to individualized attention, provides our clients with unmatched service and support. We focus on every client from the initial meeting through the planning, implementation, construction, and occupancy phase of each project. | 171 |
With 18 minutes remaining in the second half of No. 2 Maryland women's lacrosse's contest against No. 6 James Madison on Sunday, the Terps needed a goal to reignite their offense.
Maryland had gone almost 12 minutes out of the break without a score, and though the squad still had a five-goal edge, they had lost their foothold on the game.
The defense weathered the storm, though, allowing just one goal during the stretch. Then, off a free position chance, midfielder Erica Evans found fellow midfielder Meghan Siverson for a close range finish to end the drought. The strike restored a six-goal lead for the Terps, and began a scoring burst that turned a relatively close game into a blowout.
While it took some time to get going, a strong final 20 minutes on both ends of the field carried Maryland to an 18-5 win against the reigning national champions.
On the<|fim_middle|> made their impact, putting the game well out of reach. Midfielder Hannah Warther scored on a dramatic solo effort for an 11-goal lead to activate a running clock with nine minutes remaining, and two other non-starters scored for the Terps.
"To be able to get some new faces in there and not miss a beat is what I'm really proud of," Reese said.
So despite a slow start to the half, Maryland weathered the physical game, and easily toppled the Dukes to continue its perfect start. | opening possession, Maryland (10-0) immediately faced pressure from a stingy James Madison (7-3) defense. But attacker Kali Hartshorn found an opening. With six seconds remaining in the shot clock, the senior threaded a pass through to Evans, who finished under pressure to establish a 1-0 lead that wouldn't be relinquished.
"People were just cutting at the right time and we were all capitalizing on those chances," Hartshorn said.
Despite the level of talent on the field, both sides were loose early with their passes, due to aggressive defense, and the two teams combined for four turnovers in the first five minutes.
Maryland had a response to the physical play, though. Off a free position opportunity, Siverson found midfielder Grace Griffin for a 2-0 lead. Midfielder Jen Giles benefitted from a similar set play just two minutes later, and the Terps looked to be in control with a three-goal advantage.
However, the Dukes stuck around. They pressured the Maryland defense and forced a loose ball following a blocked shot. Attacker Maddie McDaniel reaped the benefits of her team's hustle, picking up the ground ball and finishing into an almost empty net.
For the next few minutes, the teams traded shots to no avail. But Giles reopened the scoring with 18:26 remaining in the half, evading multiple defenders for a highlight reel finish and her second goal of the day.
James Madison had its moments in the opening period. Though they shot a meager 27 percent, the Dukes were still causing problems in other areas, forcing the Terps into eight first half turnovers and staying close on draw controls. The hustle plays kept them within four for most of the half.
But Maryland wouldn't surrender its lead.
For every James Madison forced turnover, the Terps seemed to produce one of their own. Maryland began to overwhelm the Dukes, and with goals from Evans, attacker Brindi Griffin and Grace Griffin to close the half, the Terps held a 9-3 lead.
To start the second half, Maryland was out-hustled by Caroline Sdanowich on a draw control, and the Dukes immediately went on offense. McDaniel found space inside the arc and finished past Taylor to set the stage for a potential comeback. The Terps struggled on offense, missing shots and going 12 minutes without a goal.
However, they eventually came alive. After the unprecedented scoring drought, Maryland caught fire with five goals in just more than five minutes of game time.
While James Madison continued to create some looks, Maryland's defense held strong for the remainder of the game.
"On the defensive end, we did a really nice job of sticking with our scouting report and limiting offensive opportunities that they had," Reese said.
After Giles capped the scoring burst with her fourth goal of the game with 13 minutes remaining, Maryland began to substitute out its starters as it often has in its frequent blowouts.
The Terps' bench players | 615 |
TWO Males AND A TRUCK® locations across the country gather donations for females each and every spring and deliver them to local women's and household shelters on or just before Mother's Day. Franchises companion with regional shelters, schools, and other neighborhood organizations to collect goods that will make Mother's Day special for moms living in shelters. This annual campaign is called Movers for Moms®.
Steer clear of unfortunate moving day chaos by creating a comprehensive moving program. Recruit the proper employees to assist program the timeline, research enterprise moving businesses, get the workplace organized, and create a strategy to preserve company flowing uninterrupted. That consists of your tech group, who demands to be positive that all wiring in the new workplace is appropriately installed and<|fim_middle|> alternatively of hunting back. In addition, I have permitted myself to be sad at leaving, following all, if leaving isn't sad then possibly you in no way actually enjoyed the time you spent in the 1st place. Now when I really feel sad I remind myself that I was blessed to have skilled every thing New York had to supply and I will experience other close friends, places and adventures in my new town. | functioning. Be sure you think about when to move — avoiding occasions when big projects are coming to a close, or client activity is at a peak.
Of course, we know that as well a lot of a great thing can be overwhelming. That is why we allow no a lot more than seven certified companies to make contact with you with their moving quotes. This way, you will have enough moving estimates to examine and select the best choice without the headache of combing by means of extra data.
1 just needs to make a call to packers and movers Mumbai and soon they will at your door actions to serve you greatest. These service providers certainly make your activity simpler and less difficult. movers and packers mumbai companies tackle each and every job with considerably care and concern so just have faith on them. Allow them as soon as to make your move cozy. It's an assurance of the firms that their help will make the move easier and simpler.
Leaving New York City can be an emotionally difficult point to do. I have enjoyed my time right here and will treasure the folks, locations and memories I've collected since coming eight ½ years ago. Leaving is akin to leaving a partnership that is no longer operating…you hate to go but you know you have to. So for me, I've had to muster all my mental stamina to preserve from turning back to the city that just isn't operating for me any longer. I decided to do a juice fast, I kept up on my exercising, and I am purposely seeking ahead | 307 |
Thomas is organising all the helpers for the camping sites and the guided tours. His many tours and rallies both at home and abroad means that he is the most experience person to do this.
Thomas has been driving Vespas since he was 27. That was 1996. In those days he owned a Vespa PX 200. Since then more than one scooter has been added to the collection, including a GS3, a GL and a variety of Vespa PX for daily use. "Changing gears" is his scooter philosphy!
This is why his best scooter experience was restoring his own Vespa GS3, because once he was finished everything worked immediately!
Thomas' Vespa friends come from all groups and he spends the whole year going to various tours and events with the.<|fim_middle|>6 that he can't even count them. The furthest by scooter was the Eurovespa in San Marino. But he isn't quite sure any more.
He also believes that scooter boys and the VCVD belong together, himself going to various events from both scenes. The motto being: "We are many, we are one!".
Ride, eat, sleep, repeat – that would be his perfect life. Which is why it is the people which he loves so much about Vespa life. "Normal" people, who are just as crazy as he is! | In fact, so many since 199 | 10 |
No one in Suffolk thought the Huntington High School boys' soccer team would be this good, but the Blue Devils have been surprising the county this fall.
Huntington graduated many of its top players and the starting lineup includes more<|fim_middle|>ato (1g, 2a), Alex Rivera (1g, 1a), Luis Ortiz (1g, 1a), Jose Turcios (1g), John Tucker (1g), Julien Rentch (1a) and Aidan Forbes (1a) have also notched points for the Blue Devils. Returning All-County goalie Nat Amato has stopped 31 shots.
Pagano and assistant coach Jason Suarez have developed a winning program at all levels in the district. The pair spent several days giving free clinics last spring at several Huntington elementary schools.
The Blue Devils have many talented players in the pipeline. The program has hit a winning stride. Huntington wasn't ranked in a pre-season poll among the top 15 teams in Suffolk Class AA this fall, but with each victory the squad is gaining many believers across the county. | than a few underclassmen. But longtime head coach John Pagano has his team riding high five games into the season. The Blue Devils are 4-1 after defeating highly touted Newfield, 2-1.
Huntington has toppled Connetquot (2-1), Sachem East (4-2), Smithtown West (2-1) and Newfield. The Blue Devils' only loss came at Rocky Point, 3-1.
Earlier this week, Newfield took a 1-0 first half lead. But Huntington didn't panic. The Blue Devils methodically moved the ball around the field until Manny Reyes passed to Freddy Amador who put a shot past Louie Chen to tie the score with about 12 minutes remaining in the half. Just two minutes later it was Amador passing to Reyes, who scored what proved to be the winning goal. Blue Devil goalie Nat Amato made nine saves in the net.
Eight Huntington players have scored goals in the first five games. Amador has two goals and three assists and Eren Aydin has three goals. Freddie Am | 225 |
Report: Facebook Eyes Hollywood for Original TV Push
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Facebook is in talks with 'Hollywood studios and agencies about producing TV-quality shows.'
By Angela Moscaritolo
Angela Moscaritolo
Senior Analyst, Fitness and Smart Home
I'm PCMag's expert on fitness and smart home technology, and I've written more than 6,000 articles and reviews in the 10-plus years I've been here. I unbox, set up, test, and review a wide range of consumer tech products from my home in Florida, often with the help of my pitbull Bradley. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/report-facebook-eyes-hollywood-for-original-tv-push
Netflix has Orange is the New Black, Amazon has Transparent, Hulu has The Handmaid's Tale, and Apple has… Planet of the Apps. Now, another web giant is trying the original programming game: Facebook.
According to The<|fim_middle|> budgeted a pretty penny for this push into original content: up to $3 million per episode, which is about the same price as other premium TV shows, according to the report. The company is also interested in "more moderate-cost scripted shows in the mid-to-high six-figure-per-episode range," the newspaper's sources say. Facebook is also reportedly soliciting short-form, mostly unscripted content from creators like BuzzFeed and Refinery 29.
Unlike Netflix and Amazon, Facebook is planning to release its shows one episode at a time, the Journal notes. The social network also isn't interested in programs "about children and young teens as well as political dramas, news and shows with nudity and rough language."
Robert Downey Jr. Wants to Voice Zuckerberg's Jarvis A.I.
Someone Calling Themselves Elon Musk Has Issued Google With Takedown Notices
By Marco Marcelline
Twitter Update No Longer Switches You Back to Algorithmic 'For You' Feed
TikTok & Beyond: The Best Mobile Video Editing Apps
By Michael Muchmore
Need a Twitter Alternative? Try Mastodon or One of These Other Social Media Networks
By Max Eddy
About Angela Moscaritolo
Before becoming an analyst in 2020, I spent eight years as a reporter covering consumer tech news. Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Read Angela's full bio
Read the latest from Angela Moscaritolo
Brush, Sleep, and Pee Your Way to Better Health: The Best Fitness and Wellness Tech of CES 2023
Air-Purifying Furniture and Aromatherapy Bathtubs: The Best (and Wackiest) Smart Home Tech of CES 2023
CES 2023 Hands-On: Testing the Dyson Zone Air-Purifying Headphones
Dyson Zone Futuristic Air-Purifying Headphones Launch in March for $949
PSA: The Gucci x Oura Ring Is Back in Stock
More from Angela Moscaritolo | Wall Street Journal(Opens in a new window), Facebook is in talks with "Hollywood studios and agencies about producing TV-quality shows." The report, citing unnamed people "familiar with the matter," says Facebook plans to launch its original programming at some point before the end of this summer, with shows aimed at viewers in the 13- to 34-year-old range.
In a statement to PCMag, Facebook's Vice President of Media Partnerships, Nick Grudin, confirmed that the company is "supporting a small group of partners and creators as they experiment with the kinds of shows you can build a community around—from sports to comedy to reality to gaming," adding that they're "focused on episodic shows."
"We're funding these shows directly now, but over time we want to help lots of creators make videos funded through revenue sharing products," Grudin added.
Facebook "appears to be seeking shows along the lines of the drama 'Pretty Little Liars' on Freeform… or similar to ABC's 'Scandal' and reality hit 'The Bachelor,'" the Journal reports.
Facebook has already given a greenlight to Refinery 29's drama Strangers, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and is "nearing a deal" for a reboot of MTV's Loosely Exactly Nicole, which Viacom cancelled earlier this year after one season. The Journal also corroborated an earlier report(Opens in a new window) that Facebook has ordered the reality competition series Last State Standing, from the producers of American Ninja Warrior.
Recommended by Our Editors
And the Emmy Goes to...Facebook?
Facebook has apparently | 333 |
Customer focus is a good idea. Loyalty, a good customer relation, is good business acumen – a good customer is a returning customer. And people living in modern society have more choices than they know what to do with; if a business doesn't afford them customer satisfaction, there are lots of other places to go.
Therefore, the interest in<|fim_middle|> has to be gathered "in the field", where it counts. This also means working out structures in which the organisation's knowledge and experience can live. Channels for them to propagate inside the company so everyone can benefit from this ressource. This may all sound like it's difficult to implement – but here's the motivation: If you don't do this, other cultures will emerge instead, ones you'll have zero control over and very little insight into.
I the absence of "What is our relation with the customers like around here" structures, it's easy for a "f**k the customers, they're annoying and demanding" culture to arise instead. Or an "it's not my responsibility" culture. Tendencies like these can thrive below the radar in an organisation – and if they do, I guarantee you're sinking more ressources into them than it would take to launch some positive, constructive activities. A bonus effect is that the employees will feel like they're involved, that their knowledge and experience matters. This increases motivation and job satisfaction, which is very beneficial to a business in and of itself. | customer focus – and various other synonyms and concepts speaking of delivering a good experience and building customer relations – is growing rapidly. More and more companies, and their executives, speak of it, more and more strategies contain it. As a speaker and workshop guide I meet nodding heads, lit-up eyes and deep resonance when I speak of these things out and about in the business world. From product development to service, marketing, even economy – everyone increasingly understands the importance of this topic.
And then comes everyday life.
I bet you, as a consumer, have had experiences that are in brutal conflict with all of the above. You may have even had one this week, or today, or at least heard of one from a friend, or on social media. Maybe you work in a company where these ideas float around at the top floor, but you can't see or feel them in your workday, or among your colleagues. Perhaps you're a CEO or business captain, and you read and talk about these things, but you can't see them reflected in your own organisation, or at your customer frontline.
It's obvious that there are places where all of this is moot. Is it really so hard to turn all of those good intentions into everyday work for a business?
Well, if you want it all at once, then yes. This goes for most strategies: If you want to stand at the top and see "Clever Plan" stretching to the horizons, now, right away, then it almost feels as if you might not even bother. It becomes overwhelming – and it you try that way anyway, it tends to become an act of going through some of the motions, with little real impact.
The good news is, there are other ways. When it comes to customer focus there are almost always low-hanging fruit to be picked right away, whether any work on this has been done before or not. In the words of Vestas VP Svend Ottesen, customer relations development is a job that's never finished. There's always something to do.
Assuming everybody's on board that this is worthwhile, a first step might be to found out where, in the existing organisation – from the customer frontline inwards – the responsibility for customer satisfaction resides. Do you know? Do the employees know? Is the responsibility accompanied by the agency to do anything about it?
Another way of getting into this is to examine reward structures. Do the employees have reason to believe that customer focus is valued? Is it rewarded, implicitly or explicitly? Or are there incentive structures in place which work against it – again, directly or indirectly?
You could also look into what, if anything, the company knows about what "a good experience" means in their particular circumstances, for their customers – and who, if anyone, within the organisation knows. Does the frontline personnel know? Are there employees in customer service with profound knowledge, from their everyday interaction with the customers, about this, but nowhere to go with it? Do the leaders know – and can they convey it?
Also, this: Start trying out new initiatives in the real world. You can't micro-manage customer experience from the top – experience | 641 |
Central Jersey educator salaries are in line with public school salaries throughout the state, according to the latest teacher pay data released last week by the state Department of Education.
The statewide average salary for administrators and teachers is $75,166. In Union County, the average educator salary was $77,346, followed by Middlesex County at $76,613, Somerset at $74,995 and Hunterdon at $70,346.
Administrator's pay was led by Union at $130,710, Somerset at $129,500, Middlesex at $126,996, and Hunterdon at $118,6485.
Union had the highest average teacher's pay at $74,373, followed by Middlesex at $73,797, Somerset at $72,299 and Hunterdon at $67,755.
Salaries are based on longevity and educational level.
But it's not salaries that have become the main point of contention between school boards and teacher unions. Most school districts, in negotiating three-year contracts with the unions, have agreed to annual salary increases between 2.5 and 3.0 percent.
The main driver of school budget increases throughout the state is the cost of health insurance.
In a May report by the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA), for new teacher's contracts which begin with the 2017-2018 school year, the average increase was 2.94 percent for the 2017-2018, 2.94 percent for 2018-2019, and 2.92 percent for 2019-2020.
The main sticking point in negotiations between school board and teachers unions is not salaries, but benefits.
For example, in the new three-year contract with teachers in Manville approved in February 2018, teachers received a 2.95 percent raise this school year and will be receiving 3.0 percent raise next year.
But the main part of the negotiations was changing the details of the medical plan with increase in co-pays for office and emergency room visits and increasing deductibles.
A similar settlement was reached in Edison where teachers received a 2.90 percent raise this year and will receive a 2.96 percent raise next year. Like Manville, co-pays increased for visits to the emergency room and specialists. Co-pays also increased for prescriptions. In addition, a new health<|fim_middle|> percent, up to 144,985 from the 2016-17 to 2017-18 school years, according to the state data.
Despite the slow growth of teacher salaries, New Jersey teachers remain some of the highest compensated in the country, ranking seventh in the nation, according to an October report by financial news website 24/7 Wall Street.
According to US Census figures, New Jersey also ranked seventh in 2017 in median family income.
Statewide educators with doctoral degrees earned the highest average salary, at $106,403. Masters degrees proved the second most lucrative, at an average salary of $82,207. Bachelor's degrees, on average, earned educators $67,074.
Amanda Oglesby contributed to this story. | plan was mandated for new hires.
That also happened in Hunterdon's Lebanon Township. Teachers received an annual 3 percent salary increase, but the workday increased by 15 minutes and the number of afterschool faculty meetings went up from 10 to 18.
The state teachers union, New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), is lobbying the legislature to change the Christie-era Chapter 78 law which regulates the teachers' contribution for health benefits. The NJEA is pushing for a new bill that ties public employees' contribution for health benefits from a percentage of premium cost to percentage of salary. According the NJEA's website, the bill, co-sponsored by Central Jersey legislators State Sen. Joe Cryan (D-District 18) and State Sen. Patrick Diegnan (D-District 23) would reduce the amount most NJEA members pay toward their health insurance.
Steve Baker, NJEA spokesman, said rapidly rising health insurance premiums are rising faster than raises and leaving public school staff with shrinking take-home pay year after year. In addition, pension contributions have grown to consume 7.5 percent of employee salaries, he said.
Many Central Jersey teacher talks remain unsettled as both sides wait to see if the legislature takes action.
Adding to the difficulty of reaching settlements is the state-mandated 2 percent cap on property tax increases, though waivers can be granted for benefits costs.
The statewide salary numbers show that though education continues to be a growing field in New Jersey, salary increases are not keeping pace with inflation, From the 2016-17 school year to the 2017-18 school year teacher and supervisor salaries grew statewide by just 1.6 percent, according to the state. However, prices of goods and services rose more than 2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Overall in New Jersey, the number of teaching and supervisory positions grew more than 4 | 397 |
Despite the threat of rain and the dark clouds lingering overhead my camera was ready and my enthusiasm<|fim_middle|> macro and landscape photography and by the end of the afternoon my camera was full of acres of a variety of rich purples and pale lilacs. And, thanks to Sue, my head was inspired to venture out into the garden and the local park to practice my new skills – even if it's been raining. | undampened as I arrived at Cotswold Lavender.
I was here for a Light and Land Photography course with Sue Bishop – an expert at taking stunning images of flowers.
Over cups of tea and coffee Sue took us through some of her photographs and explained how she'd achieved these intricate, macro views. It's easy to assume that taking a close-up of a flower is as simple as getting in as tight as you can and clicking the 'take the picture' button. But as we soon discovered, there is a lot more to it.
It's not just about choosing the right specimen, it's also about the composition – and most importantly the light. Sue showed us some images, that looked very nice and seemed a lot like the sort of macro photograph I would take. Then she showed us the same flower – but taken with a light diffuser overhead, and suddenly it all made sense. It was immediately obvious why her photo worked, and 'mine' didn't.
This is exactly the sort of revelation than can shift your skills, in any area, and why spending time with an expert is worth the investment. There is nothing wrong with being self-taught – and it's often a great way to start. But in my experience, some time in a small group, or one-to-one, with someone who really knows what they are doing can make a big difference.
With our new found knowledge the group headed out to the lavender fields and started snapping away. Soon the promised rain appeared – but rather than seeing that as an excuse to scuttle indoors, Sue was able to show us a whole new dimension to our photographic subjects – droplets of water.
These tiny sparkles decorate the plants and offer opportunities to see the world reflected on their surface. Ignoring soggy knees, we crouched on the ground looking for interesting angles.
The Snoshill Lavender fields offer lots of opportunities to practice both | 387 |
UCSI University
UCSI Architecture students win 7 Prizes at the 25th Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) Architectural Students Workshop
More than 60 Architecture students from UCSI University's School of Architecture and Built Environment (SABE)
UCSI University's Architecture students all set to perform their 'Michael Jackson meets PSY' routine during the 25th PAM Architectural Students Workshop
banded together to participate in various categories in the recent 25th PAM Architectural Students Workshop, bagging seven prizes as the reward for their efforts.
Designing LED-illuminated dance suits and constructing a unique wood-based structure, among other works, the students made a formidable team, edging out tough competitors from local universities – both public and private – as well as foreign universities from Korea, Indonesia and Brunei.
Notably, the young talents won in three categories, namely, Performance Art, Installation and Ideas. For the first two categories, UCSI was given the theme 'Visible and Invisible'.
The 'Performance Art' category saw the students choreographing a unique 'Michael Jackson meets PSY' dance that drew an overwhelming response from the crowd and won them the 1st place, Best Performance and Best Costume awards.
Meanwhile, a separate team made a clean sweep of the top three awards in the "Ideas" category. The students were
Award-winning architecture design from UCSI University
required to design a living capsule and a 1:10 scale model — built within a week — as well as architectural drawings.
In the "Installation" category, the varsity team's unique creation of a wood-based structure earned them the second place.
"We spent 20 hours a day – five days a week – in the workshop. Some of us werepermanent (fixtures) there," grins Architecture and Interior Student Association president Ashkan Shirazizadeh Moghaddam, while explaining that it took them approximately two weeks to come up with the idea and design.
"It was challenging to build the<|fim_middle|>CSI University's School of Architecture and Built Environment
Previous Best Universities in Malaysia to Study Biotechnology Course
Next Pathway to Become an Actuary in Malaysia through Society of Actuaries (SOA) Exams
Taylor's University is now Asia's Top 50 University
What's the Entry Requirements for Architecture Degree & Foundation at Malaysia's Private Universities? | structure on such a large scale, the biggest among all other university entries. It is easier to work with a model because you only need glue to stick the pieces together."
Further elaborating on his experience, he points out: "Unlike past entries, Architecture students from semesters one to six were invited to join the team this year. The teamwork was just amazing and I gained so much experience, especially in terms of design and construction."
In line with their theme, the 'The Invisible Project' was created; a visible structurefor the 'invisible' in society.
UCSI University is ranked Tier 5 or Excellent in the SETARA 2013 offers state-of-the-art facilities at their strategically located campus in Cheras, KL
Highlighting that the entire structure symbolised society as a whole, Ashkan adds: "The hollow wood panels – covered by wire mesh – symbolises the poor and the needy – while the other panels are solid wood that represent how our lives are 'full'," he explains.
This structure is part of the students' efforts to raise funds for a village in the Hulu Langat area.
In an effort to connect to society, the structure was part of the students' efforts to raise funds for a village in Hulu Langat
Further elaborating on the design concept, Ashkan says "When money is donated, it goes into the wire mesh and 'completes' the lives of the underprivileged, making it whole again."
Such innovative pieces successfully illustrate that the School has nurtured its students to become problem solvers who strive for the best – a sentiment shared by UCSI Group founder and chairman Dato' Peter Ng.
"I can see that this project draws all of you together as a unit and (the win) must have been a highlight – a definitive moment – for the School," says Dato' Peter.
"It is an amazing feat. This is our biggest win (since 2006) and it is a fantastic show of winning spirit."
EduSpiral Consultant Services- Your Personal Online Education Advisor
Established since 2009, EduSpiral Consultant Services helps provide information and counselling on courses and universities inMalaysia. EduSpiral Consultant Services also represents Northampton University, UK, MDIS Singapore and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
EduSpiral Consultant Services represents the best colleges and universities in Malaysia offering a wide range
I whatsapped EduSpiral to find out which university and course suited me. He took me for a campus tour & provided a lot of information which helped me to make the right choice.
Vivi Tan, Architecture at UCSI University
of choices for students to choose from. These colleges and universities offer value for money in the quality of education and excellent facilities that you get.These universities and colleges are chosen by EduSpiral because they represent the best in their fields in Malaysia and affordable.
EduSpiral provides in-depth information and counseling on their courses so that students are able to make the right choice.If you are still not sure what to study, please contact us and we will send you a free EduSpiral Career Assessment Form.Please contact us for more details.
Top Diploma in Architecture at the Best Private University in Malaysia at UCSI University
Best Diploma in Architecture at Top Ranked UCSI University in Malaysia Written by EduSpiral Consultant Services For more…
Apply Online for UCSI University Malaysia Courses
Online Registration or Application for UCSI University, Malaysia for Students after SPM, O-Levels, UEC, A-Levels…
42% of UCSI University A-Levels Students Achieve Straight As
Top A-Levels University in Malaysia "You can do anything you like. But the most important…
Top Rank UCSI University Offers Architecture Degree Programme Accredited by Lembaga Arkitek Malaysia (LAM) Part 1
Best Bachelor of Science (Hons) Architecture Degree at Top Ranked UCSI University in Malaysia Written by…
UCSI University Sarawak awards 28 students for their outstanding performance
UCSI University Sarawak Campus honoured 28 students at its Annual Awards Day aimed at recognising…
Tags: 25th PAM Architectural Students Workshop, award-winning architecture university in malaysia, best university for architecture in malaysia, best university to study architecture in malaysia, study architecture in malaysia, top architecture school in malaysia, top architecture university in malaysia, UCSI University architecture degree, UCSI University architecture program, U | 911 |
Few things can ruin your day like a car accident.
Even minor fender-benders can be incredibly stressful experiences. Not only are you disoriented and possibly physically hurt, but suddenly you've got a whole host of financial issues to worry about.
How are you going to pay for repairs?
Will your insurance cover it, or are you going to have to dig into your own pocket?
What about getting back and forth to work while your car's in the shop?
This combination of disorientation and stress can cause people to make mistakes in how they handle themselves at the scene of an accident. That's only natural - but the problem is that how we handle ourselves at the scene often dictates what happens to us after the accident. Saying or doing the wrong thing can have unforeseen and potentially serious legal consequences.
First, check yourself and your passengers for injuries. Always do this before you do anything else. Your health and physical well-being are paramount.
Remember, some injuries might not be evident until after the accident. You're probably pumped full of adrenaline as a result of the accident, and that can help mask any injury symptoms. If there is ANY doubt at all as to whether you or one of your passengers has sustained an injury, you should always err on the side of caution and call an ambulance.
Call your insurance company. They need to know what's happened, and depending on the terms of your policy, they may dispatch an agent to the scene.
If it's still moveable, clear your car from the road. If you can't move your car without causing more damage, or if just isn't drivable as a result of the accident, just leave it where it is and hire a tow truck to move it (you can often get your insurance company to take care of this).
Turn on your vehicle's hazard lights and move out of the path of oncoming traffic.
Take pictures. If you've got a mobile phone, you probably have a camera. Do your best to get a few shots of the scene of the accident, preferably before you move your car to the<|fim_middle|>, even if you're only saying "I'm sorry." It's probably best if you don't talk to the other driver except to make sure they're OK and to get their insurance information. You'd be surprised at how easily your own words can be turned against you in court - so don't give them any ammunition. And NEVER sign anything, unless it's for the police or for your OWN insurance agent.
Even if you don't think it's necessary, it's always a good idea to get checked out by a doctor in the days following a car accident. They're trained to spot problems that we might not be aware of until some time after the event.
Don't let an auto accident turn your world upside-down. If you need legal representation as a result of a car accident, contact the Andriotis Law Firm today. | side of the road. This will make things easier for your insurance company and for accident scene investigators.
If there are any witnesses, try to get their names and contact information.
NEVER ADMIT FAULT | 41 |
The police have done nothing wrong in the case of four environmental<|fim_middle|> police will apologise to the four, Lo said there is a complaint mechanism in place. The environmentalists could follow up using this mechanism if they were not happy with the way the police handled the case, he said.
The police were criticised by one of the environmentalists, who said that an officer made a misleading statement when he talked to the press about the arrests.
"I think everyone can think what the possible uses could be," police superintendent Chow Kwong-chung told reporters on February 11.
Lo said Chow's statement was made on the basis of primary investigations. "There could be different [findings] after another round of investigations – what he said at first was not our final conclusion," Lo said.
Chow has been promoted to a senior superintendent since then.
Chow Kwong-chung. Photo: TVB Screenshot.
Miss Chan, one of the environmentalists, suggested that the police should hold another press conference after the case was dropped.
"To inform all Hong Kong people, including us four, about the investigation process and the final reply from the Department of Justice, so that the public will know all the developments and give us the justice we deserve," she told Apple Daily.
The police returned the confiscated items after the case was dropped. | ists who were arrested for possessing "weapons" from a recycling centre, the police commissioner said. The case against the four was dropped after six months.
They were arrested after the Mong Kok unrest in February. Police confiscated items such as knives, metal rods, and wooden batons from an industrial building unit which served as a warehouse for recycling discarded materials. The environmentalists were told by the Department of Justice that there was little chance of conviction this week.
Stephen Lo. File Photo: GovHK.
Asked whether the | 102 |
Was regular weekly fasting a widespread, formal tradition in the early Church?
In The Story of Christianity,* author Justo Gonzalez offers the following:
There were indeed times set aside for sorrow for one's sins, in particular during the two weekly days of fasting, which the church adopted from Jewish practice. At an early date, however, at least some Christians began fasting, not on Mondays and Thursday, like the Jews, but rather on Wednesdays and Fridays. It may be that this shift took place in commemoration of the betrayal and the crucifixion.
Was this fasting practiced in a majority of early churches? If so, at what point in history did the tradition cease? Is there more information as to why the days of Wednesday and Friday were chosen over Monday and Thursday?
* Revised edition, Volume 1, Chapter 3.
tradition church-history early-church fasting
Philip Schaff
Philip SchaffPhilip Schaff
Catholics are still supposed to fast on Friday – Greg Balajewicz Jul 11 '13 at 15:58
I've been taught that early Christians fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays as well as on other occasions, and this is still practiced in Eastern Orthodoxy today. But I have no good scholarly sources to back this up aside from brief (but not explicit) references to it by Gonzalez, Pelikan, and Payton. – Dan Jul 26 '13 at 6:36
Eastern Orthodox (and I think Greek Catholics too) fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and some other opportunities. Roman Catholic fast on Fridays and some other opportunities. Protestants fast when they want and as often they want (usually not regularly). So regular weekly fasting was likely abandoned during reformation and observed all the time before, since the<|fim_middle|> by the early church?
What was Martin Luther's perspective on the early Christian church?
What was the Original Purpose of Fasting from "Wine" and "Olive Oil" in the Orthodox Tradition?
What did the early Christian twice weekly fasts consist of?
How prominent was "prosperity theology" in the early church?
Was universalism the majority belief of the early church?
When did the Early Church begin and end their twice weekly fasts?
Was James the early church leader? | death of Jesus (before the disciples had the groom with them, so no reason to fast). But I have no solid sources for this. – Pavel Aug 1 '13 at 19:30
As far as we can tell, Christian twice-weekly fasting was based on Jewish twice-weekly fasting. Given the later tension between Jews and Christians, this makes an early adoption date likely.
Further evidence comes from the Didache (dating probably to the first century):
Your fasts should not be with the hypocrites, for they fast on Mondays and Thursdays. You should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. (8.1)
This passage seems to indicate that a formal twice-weekly fast was the norm—a practice which appears to be analogous to (but distinct from) the Jewish practice.
John PeytonJohn Peyton
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged tradition church-history early-church fasting or ask your own question.
What are the first references to a tradition of fasting before partaking of the Lord's Supper?
Was tithing 10% required or encouraged | 225 |
Performance diary: MAKE IT BIG
The New York Pops celebrated its 31st birthday gala by honoring Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for their three decades of writing music and lyrics for Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, the West End, movies, and TV. I snared a last-minute ticket and vicariously kvelled for Shaiman and Wittman, whose work I've watched and enjoyed from the beginning. It's one thing to have your music recorded in the studio for a soundtrack album or original cast recording.<|fim_middle|> known in universities she seemed to have been particularly well educated. From childhood forward, she was tutored in the cafeteria at M-G-M."
And, of course, another great Roz Chast cartoon:
Posted in In this week's New Yorker | Leave a Comment »
Tags: elizabeth taylor, emily nussbaum, evan osnos, george packer, john mcphee, roz chast | It's very cool to hear it coming out of a Broadway orchestra pit. But to get to witness a whole evening (well, 90 minutes) of a full orchestra playing your stuff at Carnegie Hall? Golden.
Some magic moments:
* the three gals who got famous playing the lead role of Tracy Turnblad — a curiously tan Marissa Jaret Winokur (Broadway), Nikki Blonsky (movie musical), and the now-svelte Ricki Lake (original John Waters movie) — belting out the opening number of Hairspray, "Good Morning, Baltimore";
* Sophie von Haselberg reading a funny and loving poem that her mother, Bette Midler, wrote for Shaiman's 50th birthday;
* Martin Short doing a lovely song called "Simply Second Nature" from the current London hit Charlie and the Chocolate Factory;
* Capathia Jenkins reprising her hilarious and roof-raising number from Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me called "(Let a Big Black Lady) Stop the Show."
Some version of that last phenomenon had already happened earlier in the show when Jenifer Lewis came out to deliver the 11 o'clock number from Hairspray, "I Know Where I've Been." Lewis let it be known that when it was freshly written, Shaiman and Wittman asked her to record a demo of the song. "So I like to think they wrote it for me. Everybody who's sung it since then thinks the same thing. But bitches: I. Sang. It. First." She proceeded to sing the hell out of it. The audience stood up. Including me.
The show closed, of course, with the rousing anthem that closed Hairspray, "You Can't Stop the Beat," with most of the original cast (Winokur, Clark Thorell, Corey Reynolds, Kerry Butler, Laura Bell Bundy, and Linda Hart), joined halfway by Wittman and Shaiman (above). I surprised myself by getting a little teary-eyed because, even out of its dramatic context, this catchy little pop romp still sneaks in its funky political punch, equivalent to the last speech in Tony Kushner's Angels in America: the world only spins forward.
Posted in performance diary | Leave a Comment »
Tags: make it big, marc shaiman, new york pops, scott wittman
Quote of the day: IDEAS
For ideas to be born and stay alive through their precarious infancy they must be welcomed warmly so that their native power can come fully to mind. Skepticism and irony don't belong at the start. At first, better the wacky and the weird than ideas whittled down to fit preconceived slots. Here we need courage to face their destructive force, for ideas also can lay waste cherished habits of mind. We now call this destruction of old ideas, politely, a "paradigm shift." "Catastrophe theory" would be more appropriate. The vitality of a culture depends less on its hopes and its history than on its capacity to entertain willingly the divine and daimonic force of ideas.
— James Hillman, Kinds of Power
Posted in quote of the day | Leave a Comment »
Tags: ideas, james hillman
Photo diary: early spring, New York City
Laura, Bill, and Andy on Houston Street after drinks at the Pegu Club
pre-show at the screening of BIG JOY at Anthology Film Archives
sad shoe on Sixth Avenue
Andy and his cousin Heather at RedCat
screen cap from HOUSE OF PLEASURES
O, New Yorkers!
springs comes, at last, to the Sheep Meadow
Quote of the day: TOADS
"Plains Spadefoot Toad"
Toads are smarter than frogs. Like all of us who are not good-looking they have to rely on their wits. A woman around the beginning of the last century who was in love with frogs wrote a wonderful book on frogs and toads. In it she says if you place a frog and a toad on a table they will both hop. The toad will stop just at the table's edge, but the frog with its smooth skin and pretty eyes will leap with all its beauty out into nothingness. I tried it out on my kitchen table and it is true. That may explain why toads live twice as long as frogs. Frogs are better at romance though. A pair of spring peepers were once observed whispering sweet nothings for thirty-four hours. Not by me. The toad and I have not moved.
— Tom Hennen
Tags: frogs, toads, tom hennen
In this week's New Yorker
There's some fine reporting by Evan Osnos on West Virginia's environmental crisis, George Packer on recent examples of war literature, and Emily Nussbaum on Norman Lear and his impact on TV. But nothing beats "Elicitation," John McPhee's essay on the craft of reporting, specifically of conducting interviews. I associate McPhee exclusively with long and, frankly, boring New Yorker pieces (a three-part series on sand!), but he was a staff writer at Time magazine writing about entertainment in the 1960s, and his reminiscences here include succinct and fascinating portraits of Woody Allen, Jackie Gleason, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Maggie Smith (the last three on the set of The V.I.P.'s), along with a well-placed dig at Truman Capote.
Here's a choice passage about Taylor: "In comparison with a great many of the actresses I had met in my years of writing about show business, she was not even half full of herself. She seemed curious, sophisticated, and unpretentious, and compared with people I had | 1,187 |
Home Business News SriLankan joins global crackdown on illegal wildlife trade
SriLankan joins global crackdown on illegal wildlife trade
6 June 2016 10:03 am - 0 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
SriLankan Airlines recently joined a landmark worldwide drive to crackdown on illegal global trade in wildlife that has brought many of the world's rare species close to extinction. SriLankan was among several international airlines which pledged their full support for the ʻUnited for Wildlife' initiative, at the Annual General Meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on 2nd June in Dublin, Ireland. The initiative by major organizations involved in conservation is being supported by the global transportation industry.
SriLankan Airlines CEO Captain Suren Ratwatte, who signed on behalf of Sri Lanka's national carrier, said: "SriLankan Airlines has long been a pioneer of conservation within the global air transport industry, with ground-breaking initiatives such as our 'Planet Friendly Flights' as far back as 2009, and our own extensive conservation efforts are driven by our'Green Team'. We are delighted to join this valuable initiative which we have no doubt will significantly reduce trafficking in illegal species and animal products, and we hope this initiative will help to bring many species back<|fim_middle|>SL),with The Royal Foundation. IATA has been inspirational in gathering many aviation related organizations towards this global initiative and in a media release, IATA noted: "The interconnected air transport network is being exploited by criminal gangs to smuggle animals or their products from the killing field to the market place. The air transport industry can help stop this trade by providing additional intelligence to enforcement authorities about suspicious shipments." IATA is the trade association of global airlines, Airports Council International the association of the world's international airports, and the African Airlines Association. | from the verge of extinction."
The initiative was created by the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry of the UK, bringing together seven of the world's most influential wildlife protection organizations - Conservation International (CI), Fauna & Flora International (FFI), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), WWF-UK, and the Zoological Society of London (Z | 96 |
Founded in 1994 by Dr. Bill Kellner, Ark Veterinary Hospital has been providing<|fim_middle|> a small but mighty team of veterinary technicians and receptionists.
Ark Veterinary Hospital offers its clients a wide variety of services, ranging from wellness exams and vaccines to dentistry, oncology, and surgery. The Ark team believes in providing each and every patient with thorough, non-rushed, comprehensive care.
We are thrilled to welcome Ark Veterinary Hospital to the VetCor family! | care to companion animals and pocket pets for over two decades.
Dr. Kellner is a graduate of Michigan State University. He is a member of many professional organizations, including the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association (VVMA), the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), and the American Veterinary Dental Society.
He works alongside Drs. Andrew Koenitzer and Sarah Smets. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Koenitzer has special interests in surgery, dermatology, internal medicine, ultrasound, and dentistry. Originally from Belgium, Dr. Smets earned her DVM degree from Ghent University and has a special interest in internal medicine.
The doctors are joined by their hospital manager, Nicole Curler, and | 155 |
PHILLY BOXING HISTORY November 16, 2013
Home Boxers Fights Arenas Non-Boxers Gyms Relics More About Contact
GLAZKOV HOLDS OFF WILSON
by John DiSanto
Photos by Mike Gladysz & Doreen Donnelly
Philly's Garrett Wilson stepped in at the last minute on Saturday afternoon at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY, against Vyacheslav "Czar" Glazkov, and put up a spirited fight in his first heavyweight assignment. Glazkov won a comfortable unanimous decision, but the 10-round bout was anything but relaxed for the undefeated heavyweight prospect. Lightweight Karl Dargan also won a 10-rounder on the same NBC-nationally televised fight card. While Dargan put in a career-best performance, Wilson managed to log an exciting performance that, even in defeat, may win him future ring opportunities.
Czar Glazkov was scheduled to fight Tomasz Adamek on this day. However,<|fim_middle|> afternoon. Around the fourth round, Glazkov found the target several times on Wilson, and the Philadelphian appeared hurt. Although the crisis slowed Wilson down in the middle rounds, he was clearly not going anywhere.
Unlike many fighters who get thrown into a high-odds situation that they are supposed to lose, Wilson did not collapse, nor did he back off and allow what was expected to happen take place.
After hibernating for a few rounds, Wilson dug down and started roaring back. By the second half of the fight, he was well-behind on points, but Wilson is no stranger to last minute comebacks.
In a second wave, Wilson showed the crowd and TV audience why he is called the Ultimate Warrior. Midway through the seventh, Wilson started landing, and then drilled Glazkov with a booming right uppercut that wobbled Glazkov. Garrett continued to swing wildly at his foe, but Glazkov avoided another bomb and survived. By the end of the round, the favorite had regained control of the action and continued to pile up points.
Glazkov dominated the fight in many ways. The punch-stat numbers confirmed that he was in charge of the fight the whole way. However it was Wilson who had won the crowd with his earnest effort and go-for-broke attitude.
By the end of the fight, Glazkov was well-up on the cards. Judge Don Ackerman scored it the closest at 97-93. John McKaie had it 98-92, and Tom Schreck scored 99-91, all for Glazkov, 16-0-1, 11 KOs. Wilson fell to 13-7-1, 7 KOs. The defeat may have raised Wilson's stock however.
Wilson is a fighter who is better than his record indicates, and he has fought his entire career off television. This high-profile platform (free, Saturday afternoon broadcast TV) served as his introduction to boxing fans.
At the post-fight press conference, promoter Kathy Duva praised Wilson's performance and said that she had every intention of bringing him back for another fight on the NBC Sports Network Fight Night series.
So even without the upset, Wilson's big risk may have still been his big break. He's a hard-working pro who deserves to fight for a larger audience than he usually does.
In the co-feature bout, Karl "Dynamite" Dargan also lived up to his nickname, winning a 10-round unanimous decision over Mike "Lefty" Brooks. For the second straight bout, Dargan looked better than ever.
The free-swinging Brooks made the fight exciting, but Dargan dominated the action with his cool and collected style. Dargan piled up points and kept Brooks from building any kind of momentum in the bout. It was an excellent performance by Dargan, who as a pro, is starting to look like a contender.
All three judges scored the fight for Dargan. Tom Schreck and Don Trella both had 99-91 cards, while Wynn Kintz had it a point closer at 98-92.
Dargan improved to 14-0, 7 KOs, while Brooks, 10-1-1, 2 KOs, lost for the first time as a professional. It was the first time either fighter went 10 rounds.
Other results in the off-TV bouts were as follows:
Light heavyweight Isaac Chilemba W8 (U) Michael Gbenga
Cruiserweight Sevdail Sherifi D6 (M) Quantis Graves
Super middleweight Andy Mejias W4 (M) Latif Mundy (Philadelphia)
John DiSanto - Verona, NY - November 16, 2013 | when Adamek fell ill, Wilson answered the call as a late substitute, and jumped into the heavyweight division to do it. Glazkov had a 6-inch height advantage and weighed 18 pounds more than the usually-cruiserweight Wilson. The size difference was significant in the fight, but Wilson gave it the old college try.
From the opening bell, Wilson swung for the fences and managed to land a few hard shots in the early going. The wild attack rattled the rising heavyweight star a bit, but to his credit Glazkov kept his cool and used a strong jab and his own power shots to cool Wilson's jets. The message was clear however, Wilson had come to Verona to fight.
In round two, a clash of heads caused a vertical cut over Glazkov's right eye. The wound bled the rest of the way, along with a pair of left eye slits that Wilson opened later in the bout.
Many of Wilson's attacks were crude, but they kept Glazkov on his toes all | 211 |
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.
Theism is generally the belief in a god (or gods) who exists in some higher (supernatural) or hidden (metaphysical) location, supervising human affairs. A god may be more or less directly involved with these humans (commonly called believers or devotees). There is typically a reciprocal relationship between believers and their god, where worship, offerings, and obedience are directed toward the<|fim_middle|> of deities – and devils, who were mischievous or malevolent deities – representing the forces of nature and concerns of cultural life. When the Mosaic revolution in Judaism rejected the existence of any god but Yahweh, something had to be done with them besides simply dismissing them out of hand, along with their diabolical counterparts.
One solution was to preserve the existence of these other deities and devils, but demote them to subordinate status as angels and demons. A variant of this was employed later, in the idea of a divine council assisting Yahweh in his administrative duties. As a member of this heavenly committee, Satan was depicted as "the adversary" who tested the faith and loyalty of Yahweh's human subjects (as in the literary example of Job).
At about this same time (sixth century BCE), a prophet known as the Second Isaiah suggested the more radical idea that Yahweh is the only one behind the "weal and woe" that humans experience. For this writer, having one supreme cause behind everything that happens was a way of giving meaning to the universe and all possible events. This was his way of answering the national tragedy of exile by the Babylonians (587-538 BCE).
Eventually, however, the generally accepted solution to the problem of good and evil was a dualistic one. God was put in charge of the good (blessing, prosperity, salvation) and Satan was moved out of the heavenly boardroom and into his own nether region, where he orchestrates the cause of evil (iniquity, calamity, and damnation). As a messianic movement within Judaism in the first century, Christianity carried forward this dualism, joining it to an apocalyptic expectation of a fast-approaching end of the world.
Wherever we may stand on the issue – one god with several angelic and demonic ministers, a single supreme will behind everything, or a polarity of agencies in the war of good and evil – the key to remember is that all solutions are efforts to make meaning of what human beings sense, suffer, care about and hope for. Truth is not really a question of accuracy, but therapy in helping people work through the challenges and opportunities of life. | deity in exchange for protection, blessing, and perhaps beatitude in the next life.
Early polytheism entertained a variety | 24 |
NewsRegion/State
Cuomo: Budget likely to include higher minimum wage, no SUNY tuition hike
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) walks through the Assembly Chamber after leaving Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office at the Capitol on Monday, March 28, 2016, in Albany. Credit: AP / Mike Groll
By Michael Gormley and Yancey Roy michael.gormley@newsday.com, yancey.roy@newsday.com @GormleyAlbany Updated March 29, 2016 10:00 PM
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Tuesday that a state budget is expected to avoid a tuition increase for the State University of New York and include a phased-in minimum wage increase, paid family leave and a tax break for middle-class New Yorkers and businesses.
"We all agree there will be a minimum-wage increase," Cuomo told reporters. "We are now discussing how much, by when, and where."
The latest version of a proposed minimum-wage hike from the current $9 an hour to $15 had a three-tiered phase-in, with New York City hitting the $15-per-hour mark first in three years, Long Island and Westchester County after six, and upstate after about eight years, according to rank-and-file legislators.
But after at least two closed-door negotiating sessions, agreement remained elusive.
Cuomo wouldn't answer when asked specifically if some parts of the state — such as lower-cost and more economically fragile upstate — could have a final wage lower than $15.
"We're talking wages and phases and I don't want to announce anything until we lock everything in," Cuomo said when asked repeatedly if $15 is still the goal statewide.
The Senate's Republican majority has opposed the proposal as a job killer. "We're having ongoing discussions on that," said Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-East Northport). "There is no final resolution."
Get the Breaking News newsletter!
Get the latest breaking news as it happens.
Earlier Tuesday, Flanagan said he was confident of a budget deal by "the end of the day," but no final deal was announced Tuesday night.
Cuomo and legislators missed the Monday night midnight deadline to pass the $154 billion budget on time without special orders called "messages of necessity." They suspend the constitutional requirement of three days' public review of bills before they are voted on. The budget is due by midnight Thursday.
Cuomo also said the paid family leave would be phased in over years, to provide workers 12 weeks of partial compensation to care for a sick relative or newborn. He said there would be no exemption for either an increase in the minimum wage or for paid family leave.
"I think we're in a good place," said Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx), the leader of the Independent Democratic Conference, who has sponsored the paid family leave bill for years. "I think we're going to have the best budget in memory."
Cuomo said he doesn't expect an increase in SUNY tuition in the budget after five straight years of increases.
"They are OK this year because they just had five years of tuition increases," Cuomo said.
A major sticking point continued Tuesday over whether Cuomo would rescind his plan to make New York City pay for more of its Medicaid bill.
Cuomo continued to defend the need to make the city pay for more to provide an incentive to cut waste and fraud. Albany has for years fully covered annual increases in Medicaid costs.
"You are basically writing checks on the state's account," Cuomo said. His point would apply to all counties, but Cuomo said he's focusing on New York — where he has been feuding with Mayor Bill de Blasio — because New York City is 70 percent of the state Medicaid program.
That clearly rankled Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx). "I've been clear from day one: Until Medicaid is resolved, it is very difficult for us to come to a budget resolution," he said.
"We're still concerned with having the city, in a punitive way, having to cover this $250 million," Heastie said.
By Michael Gormley and Yancey Roy michael.gormley@newsday.com, yancey.roy@newsday.com<|fim_middle|> has covered Albany since 2001.
Minimum wage, school aid tie up budget dealALBANY — Minimum wage, education aid, state university tuition and cost shifts to New York ...
Connetquot psychologist: District not enforcing mask mandate
Ex-principal put on leave as retaliation for his defense of bullied student, lawsuit says
AG James says Trump's company misled banks, tax officials
4 longtime anchors, reporters leave News 12 LI in newsroom shake-up
Latest State/Region news
Highlights of Gov. Kathy Hochul's 2022-23 budget
Brentwood twins hope to make Regeneron finalist list
Roy: 'New York has lots of money to spread around this year'
Hochul extends lead in poll, cash over Democratic rivals
Hochul's proposed budget would increase school aid funding by 7%
Ex-NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio won't run for governor | @GormleyAlbany
Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He | 34 |
MOD Sandbox Workshop: Planning, Regulatory, and Privacy Perspectives on Data from MOD Partnerships
By Prashanth GururajaJune 27, 2018Events, MOD Sandbox, Transit
The MOD Sandbox Innovation & Knowledge Accelerator workshop concluded on March 13, 2018 with a panel session on issues and potential solutions around data sharing in MOD partnerships.
Moderated by Prashanth Gururaja of SUMC, he framed the panel discussion around the challenges that have been encountered in a number of the MOD Sandbox pilot projects. The transit agency's data needs are driven by four basic principles – planning, operations, accounting, and auditing. Depending on the need, the level of detail can vary. For example, courser data is often sufficient for planning purposes but for accounting and auditing, finer data is more useful. Prashanth went on to note that providers' concerns around data sharing are often related to trade secrets, competitiveness, rider privacy, and public records disclosures. Thus, a tension around data sharing has arisen due to these seemingly dichotomous sets of concerns. However, a variety of possible pathways to overcome this tension are starting to be explored.
With the topic laid out, Bob Sheehan from US DOT then spoke about the importance of creating a standard accessible data platform and a set of standard metrics to evaluate MOD projects, including examples from research from universities.
Adam Cohen, from the University of California – Berkeley, talked about the independent evaluation that UC Berkeley is tasked to do for MOD Sandbox program. He spoke about the process that they undertake starting with a logic model where they outline the desired outcomes, identify each project's guiding principles, including the hypothesis, establish the performance metrics, identify and collect data, and define the methodological approach. Data privacy and protections are highly valued in this process and are stored on a secured server with institutional review board (IRB) oversight. Once in place, the data are then aggregated and sanitized for use in reports that will be shared with the DOT. Breaking down the decision-making procedures to successfully evaluate project metrics is a necessary step for entities to hit the target when striving for optimal project performance.
Marla Westervelt, from Los Angeles Metro, mentioned how LA's project with Via was created to provide first and last mile connections for residents between transit stops and the end destination. Her presentation elaborated on data collection and the need for qualitative and quantitative analysis for new mobility. Marla stressed that it is important for transit agencies to have access to data to fully grasp ridership behavior and work with shared mobility providers, treating challenges around data sharing as problems to solve rather than impenetrable barriers.
LA Metro is planning to use the data for understanding how the pilot program can be scaled to a full program, to understanding customer behavior, service auditing, and research. The research presents a series of data needs where they might not fully understand what all the needs are at this point or what questions they would like to answer. Having access to the data itself allows for greater flexibility and could help program facilitators answer the questions that arise as a pilot project matures. Identifying your questions and your project goals are critical to having a constructive data conversation.
Marla also offered different ways to share data under consideration by LA Metro, including third-party aggregators, creating a data warehouse with pre-selected queries, and also called for a set of public data standards. The first two options offer potential streamlined solutions but at the same time, are limited to the flexibility that is needed because of the underlying difficulty from underdeveloped results in the early stages in the program timeline. Possession of the actual data with legal protections against public disclosure is the most powerful approach LA Metro is using<|fim_middle|> (UW), stated the importance of having data protection measures in place similar to something that is used by HIPAA, given the sensitive nature of the origin and destination data that are now being collected. Understanding that location data is sensitive and can be used to identify individual users is a top priority, and it was a resounding theme by Meg and other presenters that this data should be protected.
Todd Plesko, from Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), discussed why transit agencies need to have access to MOD partnership data. As app-based services become more widely available, so does the level of detailed data that are available–including detailed origin and destination trips by date and time of day. DART's data needs stem from a necessity to validate that a contracted trip occurred and for service planning purposes. DART's position is that they have a right to access to data for TNC trips that they are subsidizing. On the other hand, TNC's are concerned about sharing personal data for privacy and competitive edge considerations, despite assurances by DART assuring privacy protocols are in place. DART took proactive steps to encourage the Texas legislature to protect transit riders' privacy by exempting data collected through their GoPass app from Freedom of Information disclosures. The legislation, which became effective in 2015, protects personally identifiable and transactional information, such as the name, email address, and location information.
Todd acknowledged that there is also a gap in terms of transit agencies be able to process large datasets, so it often sits there and is not used. While transit agencies are good at collecting data, capacity constraints often limit how much they can learn from it. Having access to data scientists could help to change this.
Todd concluded his presentation showing a map microtransit destinations at a detailed level that later sparked a debate on whether or not it is appropriate to show that level of detail given it can be used to identify who is actually using the service.
Matt Daus of the International Association of Transportation Regulators (IATR) and former member of the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) spoke about methods and examples of governments having access to private data, including agreements between government entities and companies, regulations, and Freedom of Information Laws/Acts (FOIL/FOIA).
He explained that while FOILs are designed to create transparency in governments by requiring them to release information upon request from a member of the public, exemptions typically exist to protect releasing certain data that could result in an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, are needed for law enforcement, or could reveal trade secrets. These exemptions can vary from state to state and at the federal level.
Matt then highlighted several examples of cities using regulations to require data from TNCs for specific legitimate government purposes, along with corresponding exemptions. Examples from Boston, Chicago, NYC, and California showed specific but varied data reporting requirements around trip information, spatial aggregation levels, wait times, driver information, vehicle information, and other information that were necessary for safety and enforcement purposes.
Matt stated that protection of passenger data is an important issue in Sandbox projects. Important legal questions are whether cities and states can enter into agreements that contradict FOIA laws, whether federal grant programs or funding authorizations should require ways to protect data, and whether FOIA laws apply to third-party entities who hold the data. In the end, Matt speculated that perhaps the concept of a third-part lockbox is where this may end up, and recommended that state and federal legislatures amend FOIA laws to address the issues discussed.
In the ensuing discussion, the panelists talked about how the Sandbox program is a great opportunity to evaluate the assortment of data sharing approaches being considered or implemented – ranging from course aggregation to detailed data sharing to third-party repositories – for their effectiveness in delivering information about the project performance for the transit agency. This could potentially inform a national standard or best practice around MOD data sharing agreements. | to analyze and learn from their project.
Meg Young, from the University of Washington | 16 |
Cole relishes Torres link-up
New Liverpool midfielder Joe Cole says he is looking forward to helping Fernando Torres score more goals for the team, as the new Premier League season fast approaches.
Cole made his debut for the Reds on Sunday during the 1-0 friendly defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany, but could make his competitive debut in this Thursday's Europa League third qualifying round second leg against FK Rabotnicki at Anfield.
With Fernando Torres returning to training today, Cole says he hopes to start playing with the Spanish World Cup winning striker soon.
He said, "One of the main reasons I came to Liverpool was because I wanted to play with these great players and I'm going to work every day to make Fernando as many chances as I can.
"I've been watching the way he plays ever since he came to the club and, the season before last, he was the best striker in the world, without a shadow of a doubt.
"I love playing with strikers who play on the shoulder of the last defender. The best striker I played with at Chelsea was Crespo; his movement was absolutely<|fim_middle|> I can't wait to play alongside him." | unbelievable.
"I had a good relationship with him and hopefully I will be able to have that kind of relationship with Fernando. My job is to make chances for the front men and | 35 |
There's been quite a lot of build up for Adele's next album, 25. It seems like the world's been holding its breath since she dropped the glory that was 21. In May 2014, the day before her real 25th birthday, Adele posted an enigmatic message: "Bye bye 25... See you again later in the year x," leading everyone to believe the album would be out by the end of the year. We kept waiting... and waiting.<|fim_middle|> some seriously heavy hitters: OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder, who co-wrote and produced her song, "Rumour Has it"; Ariel Rechtshaid, who produced "When We Were Young"; and Tobias Jesso, Jr. (see above). She also worked with Bruno Mars, who co-wrote "All I Ask," and the man behind most of Katy Perry's hits and Taylor Swift's 1989, Max Martin.
2.) "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)"
4.) "When We Were Young"
6.) "Water Under the Bridge"
8.) "Love in the Dark"
The album hasn't even come out yet and it's already breaking records. So sit back, relax, and put "Hello" on repeat in anticipation until Friday. | But, it looks like that wait is finally almost over, and because we can't wait we've rounded up some details about Adele's 25.
While it's easy to speculate about why the album has taken so long, Adele told Rolling Stone that life just happened. But life, specifically the birth of her son, is also the reason she's returned to music.
"I think actually the pregnancy was perfect timing in the end. It might've seemed like the most ridiculous time to have a baby, but I was starting to get a bit afraid of everything...When I had him, it made everything all right, and I trusted everything because the world had given me this miracle...I don't know if I would've come back had I not had my kid."
So now that she's made her big return, what do we know about the album thus far?
Sigh. Of course it happened. Adele's 25 leaked ahead of its release, but that doesn't mean you should be heading to find it. Instead, wait for it to come out officially on Friday, and enjoy it the legal way! You love Adele's music, so you might as well support Adele the right way.
In an interview with Beats 1's Zane Lowe, Adele said, "I think this will be my last age one, definitely." 25 follow 21 and 19, all of which have been named after the singer's age, but she's says she's changed. She's become a parent, she has responsibilities. In short, she's all grown up.
And of course I'm always gonna change my opinions on things and change my feelings of myself and for other people and stuff, but I feel like the idea of calling albums after my age is always to sort of show a photograph, almost, of what was going on in my life then and there. And I feel like not that much is going to change profoundly in me from now on, in terms of like how important years of my life are to myself.
"Hello" is our first taste of the album, and the video is a flip-phoning, anthemic whirlwind. Back in October, a snippet of the song was teased in a UK commercial, a clip was featured during The X Factor, and then a few days later, the video was released to the world and it broke the Internet. That's what happens when you wait three years to release a new single, Adele. The people get RABID.
On Nov. 16, four days before 25's release date, Adele leaked a preview of her collaboration with Tobias Jesso, Jr., and it, too, is amazing. "When We Were Young" is like "Hello" in that it's a nostalgic and heartbreaking ode to moving on (I'm sensing a theme...), which always makes for great music.
For 25, Adele collaborated with | 601 |
While roll off dumpsters are usually left on location, front load dumpsters will come pick up debris on a set schedule. This makes it possible for sanitation professionals to remove garbage and rubbish for multiple residences and companies in the area at reasonable prices.
One of the most important things to do when you're considering a building or remodeling project is to plan ahead. Section of that procedure will be researching your dumpster needs for the job. Understanding ahead of time how waste bin rental<|fim_middle|> and ask about their prices. You can also request a quote online on some websites. These websites may also contain full online service that's always open. On these websites, you can select, schedule and cover your service whenever it's suitable for you.
Variables that affect the price of the container contain landfill fees (higher in some places than others) and the size of the container you select. You need to also consider transport costs and the type of debris you will be setting into your container.
Price quotes for waste bin rental in Alturas generally contain the following: the size of the container, the type of debris involved, the base price for the dumpster, how much weight is contained in the estimate, a specified rental period and delivery and pick-up fees.
3. Keep in contact with the rental business. If anything changes in your program, contact the company when possible to inform them. That way, you can fix the appointment as needed without limiting your choices.
Front-load dumpsters have mechanical arms that could lift heavy things. This is a handy alternative for jobs that include a lot of heavy things like appliances and concrete. In addition , they are great for emptying commercial dumpsters like the sort eateries use.
Roll-off dumpsters are generally the right alternative for commercial and residential jobs like fixing a roof, remodeling a basement, or adding a room to your house. They've doors that swing open, letting you walk into the dumpster. Additionally they have open tops that let you throw debris into the container. Rental businesses will commonly leave a roll-off dumpster at your job location for many days or weeks. This is a handy alternative for both little and big jobs.
If you are seeking to rent a dumpster in Alturas, one of your main considerations is going to be price. There are generally two pricing options available when renting a dumpster in Alturas. Flat rate is pricing determined by the size of the dumpster, not the quantity of material you place in it. Per ton pricing will bill you based on the weight you need hauled.
One type of pricing structure isn't always more expensive than the other. In the event you know exactly how much material you have to throw away, you might get a better deal with per short ton pricing. On the other hand, flat rate pricing can help you keep a limitation on costs when you are coping with unknown weights. Whether you frequently rent dumpsters for work or just need a one-time rental for a job around the house, you want to look around for the best rental costs based on your demands.
Dumpster rental companies usually have set prices, but the fine art of negotiation is consistently in play. If you would like to dicker on the purchase price, call around to other firms first so you know what the going rental rate is. When you're talking to the business you want to utilize, merely mention other prices which are better than theirs. Some firms WOn't just match that lower price, they will actually surpass it to please their customers.
You can even ask about discounts when you're renting a dumpster in Alturas. Some firms will provide special discounts to active members of the military, veterans, seniors, members of the neighborhood Chamber of Commerce and much more. It really never hurts to ask; you can sometimes save up to 10 percent or more with this method.
You may also save on the price by asking about the best approach to prevent additional expenses (such as tipping fees or overage costs) and making sure you order the right size container; you do not desire to pay for more container than you actually need. | in Alturas functions will make things simpler when you start the procedure. You'll locate the majority of the general information you need online, but for information specific to your region, you may need to call your local business. Be sure to ask about any hidden or extra fees so you do not get stuck with a surprise bill.
One of the largest parts of your research will be determining the correct size container you should rent based on the size of the project. This is going to be your biggest cost, so be sure you get a size that's large enough to last for the entire job. Other problems to research first include a possible place for the container, the kind of waste which you're throwing away and the duration of time you will need the dumpster.
If you would like to rent a dumpster in Alturas, you'll find that prices vary significantly from state to state and city to city. One means to get genuine quotes for the service you need will be to phone a local dumpster business | 198 |
CfBT school group selects Double First Engage
The CfBT Education Trust has selected Double First Ltd to provide the Engage School Management System across its UK schools.
Having worked closely with the team at Double First for some time, this decision will now see<|fim_middle|> relationship."
About CfBT
CfBT Education Trust is a leading education consultancy and service organisation. Their object is to provide education for public benefit both in the UK and internationally.
Established 40 years ago CfBT Education Trust now has an annual turnover exceeding £100 million and employs more than 2,000 staff worldwide who support educational reform, teach, advise, research and train. | the software rolled out over the next few months.
Operating as a group with multiple schools, CfBT's Reading based HQ will be able to monitor both activity and progress at all schools with Engage by Double First. This will provide the information needed for effective decision making.
Common Platform
The decision to select Engage by Double First means there will be a common platform across the schools in the group.
This sees the replacement of all existing School Management Systems from different providers which have been working independently in each of the schools.
Kim Hollamby, Managing Director at Double First, explained why this was so important. "A single management system across all sites brings schools into closer working together. This leads to a far more cohesive approach and the sharing of best practice at all sites. We're very happy to be working with CfBT and look forward to an excellent working | 172 |
What is the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction?
Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), was originally developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues. It has gained popularity in recent years and has been found to be a rather effective means of stress relief.
It is a form of stress relief rooted in the practice of mindfulness and cognitive therapy and based around a<|fim_middle|>, it's also possible to practice mindfulness exercises learned online to effectively manage stress." | structured programme originally developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn approximately 20 years ago, at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre.
He worked with patients who were referred from clinics where they had been unsuccessfuly treated for their symptoms for a number of years.
The programme uses mindfulness meditation to reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression and pain.
Kabat-Zinn used mindfulness meditation techniques based on Buddhist meditation practices, particularly insight meditation or Vipassana.
At root mindfulness has been described as paying attention or observing what is going on inside your head and your body with intention but without judgment ot internal narrative.
Typically, a mindfulness based stress reduction training includes lying, sitting and walking meditation, and later everyday activities like brushing your teeth, washing dishes and taking out the rubbish.
Practitioners are encouraged to observe all of their experiences, thoughts and feelings with a detached interest.
This is all about bringing your awareness into the present moment - focusing on what is happening now.
A mindful, present moment awareness reduces stress, anxiety and depression, which are invariably triggered by worrying about future or past events.
"Our findings suggest the usefulness of MBSR as an intervention for a broad range of chronic disorders and problems. In fact, the consistent and relatively strong level of effect sizes across very different types of sample indicates that mindfulness training might enhance general features of coping with distress and disability in everyday life, as well as under more extraordinary conditions of serious disorder or stress."
"Used therapeutically, mindfulness-based therapies have been shown effective as a treatment or complementary treatment for more serious conditions such as borderline personality disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and depression.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction has been effectively used to help treat everyday stress, as well as the more significant stresses experienced by people with HIV, heart disease, and other serious chronic health conditions.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction can be learned through classes or by a trained therapist; however | 384 |
The health and wellbeing benefits that result from exposure to natural environments<|fim_middle|> of ongoing investigation. Within the resulting interdisciplinary literature, the impact of specific outdoor recreational activities for men's health and wellbeing is less well understood. This research examined the experiences of men who enjoy fishing and/or tramping in the New Zealand outdoor environments, and the role that these outdoor activities fulfilled in their lives.
A qualitative descriptive approach using semi-structured interviews and open-ended questions was used to document the experiences of 10 men who undertook tramping or fishing excursions on a regular basis. A thematic analysis approach identified five key themes in their responses. Participants experienced health-related benefits across the physical, mental/psychological, social, personal development, and self-actualization domains. The reduction of stress was a prominent experience for all participants. In addition, the early life influence of fathers, families, close friends, schools, and youth group programmes was found to be instrumental in men developing committed and enduring healthy attitudes to natural environments, and to their pursuit of outdoor recreational activities.
There are ample opportunities for further research into the significance of outdoor recreation in natural environments for men's health in New Zealand. Such research might employ longitudinal approaches to measure the permanence of improved health and wellbeing outcomes for men who regularly participate in specific outdoor recreational activities (e.g. camping, tramping, fishing, hunting, biking, diving, skydiving, water skiing and canoeing/kayaking). The accessibility and affordability of outdoor recreation for men warrants further investigation, particularly for men from lower socio-economic households, minority ethnic groups, and those with disabilities. Future research might also investigate the significance of regular early life exposure to outdoor recreational activities for the health and wellbeing of male teenagers, and whether any positive effects of early life exposure might transfer into adulthood. Research in these and related areas has the potential to deepen our understanding of the role that regular participation in outdoor recreational activities in natural environments can play for men's health and wellbeing. | through various outdoor recreational activities are the subject | 8 |
Few other investments in the world compare to those involving real estate. That said investing in this type of asset is often more complicated than investing<|fim_middle|> surrounding homes is typically a very profitable venture.
In addition, smart real estate investing frequently involves finding and comparing wholesale properties. A savvy investor in real estate will typically avoid paying full price for an investment property. Focus on looking for wholesale properties that are available at a deep discount. Those that require major rehab or remodeling or foreclosure properties are just a few examples. Maximizing return on investment begins by making a smart purchase at the very outset. Equally important is to consider the tax benefits associated with investing in real estate.
The tax credits and advantages associated with investing in real estate can be substantial and rewarding. Real estate investors can write off depreciation and take a wide range of other important tax deductions. Consulting with a tax advisor is the best strategy in this regard. One example of a depreciation related tax benefit is that of the depreciation write-off. This can be taken on a residential building and can last as much as 27 years. Conversely, an Oak Harbor commercial building investment can enjoy the tax benefit of depreciation for more than 39 years. Consider these simple yet important tips and strategies as a way to maximize your returns as a modern real estate investor. Contact Nicole Haun today to learn more about investing in Anacortes real estate as a profitable long-term venture. | in things like stocks or commodities. As such it is a good idea to first gain an education on the subject of investing in investment properties. Here are a few smart strategies for investing in today's modern real estate opportunities. For example, location should always be a prime concern. The old saying that location matters is just as true today as it was years ago.
Before handing over a huge down payment on an investment property, always make sure that you have carefully chosen the best location for a given area. Compare the worst and best houses on the street to help you determine if your investment is indeed sound. Obviously, choosing the least desirable house in an excellent neighborhood can be a smart move financially. Investing in fixing up and selling a home and by bringing it up to the standards of | 155 |
Law alumnus publishes money guide for students
A recent Surrey graduate has used his university experience to put together a guide to saving money and managing a budget to help students.
Ali Alalawi graduated this year in Law and says that, as an international student from Bahrain, he initially had difficulty working out how to save and make the most of his limited funds.
He said: "When I came to the UK four years ago I had no idea how to utilise my student status efficiently. I decided to take the initiative to challenge the idea that students cannot make the most out of their university time due to the budget limitations."
The result is 'Guide Me Booklet - The Perfect Guide To Manage Your<|fim_middle|> most of the time, it's a combination of those three. From flying around Europe regularly for less than £20, to getting cash back on anything I buy online, to being rewarded for grocery shopping; it's all in there.
"Ultimately this is four years' worth of research, personal trials and experiences to give students that ultimate step ahead. There's no intention of making any profit out of the booklet as my main goal is to help as many students as possible."
Share what you've read? | Student Budget' – now in its second edition and available on Amazon. Ali shares tips, tricks and his own experience:
"For the past two years I haven't purchased anything at full price. I either get a discount code, cash back or some sort of reward for any purchase, and | 57 |
Haptic feedback is most often associated with smartphones; you know, that tiny yet reassuring vibration you feel as you type. The technology is also used in a number of other fields but perhaps the coolest implementation yet comes from researchers with the Bristol Interaction and Graphics group.
Using versatile ultrasound (sound pressure waves), the researchers created a device that lets its users touch and feel 3D shapes in thin air. We've seen similar implementations used to create 2D virtual surfaces but this is the first to do it with 3D shapes.
The idea is pretty simple in theory. By focusing complex patters of ultrasound, the air disturbances it creates can be felt as floating 3D shapes. The resulting invisible shapes can be added to 3D displays so users can actually see what they are feeling.
Those that need a bit more convincing can see what's happening visually when the ultrasound is projected onto oil. As shown in the clip above, this creates disturbances on the surface of the liquid.
The researchers envision the first practical real-world use<|fim_middle|>) convention beginning December 3. | could come in the field of medicine. Specifically, it could one day be used to assist doctors in find tumors based on CT scans before they even begin working on a patient.
The system will be demonstrated at the annual SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques | 55 |
Best Legit Way to Frisbee on the Beach
Bay Area Disc Association Beach League
Nothing caps off a nice day at the beach like a mouthful of sand — especially if the grit in your teeth is the reward for the grit required to splay flat-out on your stomach, for the prize of a plastic disc in your hand, and all the glory that comes along with it.
Best Musician to Listen to When You're Missing Summer
Day Wave, Marin native Jackson Phillips' lo-fi, indie-pop band, sounds like a red popsicle that melts between your fingers as you lick it while sitting Indian-style on a patch of grass.
Top Music Stories
By Jessie Schiewe
Faith No More Will Re-Release Its Out-of-Print Debut After Founding Bassist Bill Gould Discovered The Masters
White Lung's New Record, Paradise, Is The Canadian Punk-Rock Band's Most Accessible Album Yet
By Will Reisman
French Cassettes @ The Independent
By Steven Edelstone
Alabama Shakes @ The Greek Theatre
By Zack Ruskin
Ben Harper @ The Fox Theater
Music Some Thoughts of a Certain Sound
Top Five Parties This Week Plus Notable Local Records
By Chris Zaldua
K. Michelle @ Mezzanine
February 23, 2000 Music
Perfectly Weird
Happily, Zmrzlina's members aren't sure what their own music sounds like
By David Cook Wednesday, Feb 23 2000
Garrison O. Scott
Zmrzlina: All over the place and proud of it.
At a pair of shows the last weekend in January, local quintet Zmrzlina demonstrated an unusual -- some might say downright weird -- versatility that few bands can convincingly pull off. At a punk-oriented show at the Mission's Tip Top Inn -- sandwiched between 50 Million and Me First & the Gimme Gimmes -- the band played appropriately loud, fast, and somewhat out of control, and fit right in. The next night, at Polk Street's Kimo's, they dabbed on a little eyeliner, rearranged their set list, and headlined a dreamy glam-pop evening with Troll and Warm Wires. They were playing the same songs, but streamlined and slightly toned down, and once again, they fit right in.
Given the band members' eclectic tastes, with a little tweaking they could play an improv jazz show; stripped down to basics, lead singer and guitarist Jeff Ray's quirky, personal songs would be appreciated by the singer/songwriter set for their simple beauty. Though the band has only one self-titled album out and another set for release in March, it's been compared to everyone from the Velvet Underground to X to Sonic Youth. And while all of those sounds are in there, in conversation band members do nothing to narrow the scope of their influences, both apparent and otherwise. In fact, they only broaden.
"When we first started," says Ray, "I put up a flier that said our influences were the Fall, Mekons, Sebadoh, stuff like that. And I was really into Elliot Sharp and Shockabilly, Eugene Chadbourne, Fred Frith, and all those people that really got caffeinated and played, but were still kind of acoustic and countryish to a degree." That was in 1993, when the core of the band consisted of Ray, guitarist/keyboardist Mark Frischman, and violinist/guitarist Tracy Hankins, all of whom shared an affinity for the musically weird. Other musicians and singers filtered through, among them local movement artist Dominique Zeltzman, who stayed long enough to give the band its name, which means "ice cream" in Czech. Drummer Heather Snider and bassist/keyboardist Sean Dorn joined in 1995, bringing a host of new influences to the already varied mix.
"When I started<|fim_middle|>Psychedelic Bluegrass." Ray says the band has had some indie label interest, but remains unsigned for now.
Asked how he deals with Zmrzlina's unique approach as a producer, Goldring says, "First thing is to try and stop everybody talking at once, so I can actually find out what they're going on about. They're excitable but everybody in that band has something they're really good at. You know, Sean is brilliant -- you could put some weird analog synthesizer in front of him, and in a matter of seconds he's come up with some brilliant part. And everybody has their roles.
"I like dealing with them," he adds, "'cause their music's quite skewed. I can't use my regular aesthetic for dealing with rock music that I'm used to dealing with in the studio. It's exciting, it's definitely not like any other band I've had to deal with. It's a wrestling match, you know? But not an unpleasant one."
The open, collaborative spirit of Zmrzlina extends to the music community as a whole. Not only does the group delight in writing songs about its favorite local bands, like Fantasy and 50 Million, but it also frequently works with members of other bands and organizes thematic shows. When Ray read about the impending eviction of the St. John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church in SF Weekly, he immediately set about organizing a benefit concert, which will be held March 15 at Bimbo's, featuring the Broun Fellinis and the Coltrane church band.
While he laments the closing of clubs such as Star Cleaners and the Chameleon, and admits that the current situation in the Mission is "disheartening," Ray says, "At least we're trying. There's something I started called the Mission Creek Music Festival, and it happens every year at El Rio." The festival, which will be in June this year depending on the band's tour schedule, pulls in musicians of every sort, most of whom live in the Mission, like Carney, Beth Lisick, Virginia Dare, and Tom Armstrong. "The festival has become a big annual event for musicians in the Mission," says Frischman. "It unifies the community. It's like a music community event."
That's rare enough in a town that increasingly seems more likely to host a Web designers' convention than a music festival. But that's the kind of band Zmrzlina is -- sincere, optimistic, and, as Carney says, mixing the ice cream metaphor somewhat, "like Almond Joy -- indescribably delicious."
Tags: Music, News & Features, Jeff Ray, Ralph Carney, Drummer Heather Snider, Tracy Hankins
Sonic Soul Food: With His Debut Album, Jentrify, Elujay Speaks For Himself and Oakland
Why Electronic-R&B Duo Lion Babe Will Forever be Tied to its Breakout Single
The Keys to Success
Nancy Einhart @ 4:00 AM On Wed, July 3
Who Is Joanna Newsom
Jessie Schiewe @ 5:00 PM On Wed, March 23
Legendary memories of Mission of Burma
Mike Rowell @ 4:00 AM On Wed, September 24
Magnetic Fields: Stephin Merritt Goes Heavy on the Deadpan
Rob Trucks @ 4:00 AM On Wed, February 27
Tales of a Blank Box: Perfect for All Shows but Always the Same, The Independent Is the Zen Master of Clubs
Ian S. Port @ 4:00 AM On Wed, February 19
The Pessimist: Experiencing "1 Night" With Lil Yachty | playing with these guys," says Dorn, "I had just stopped playing in a band called Bakamono, a high-volume kind of Sonic Youth-y, alternative guitar tunings, but definitely loud, rock band. And I could tell these guys had more of an affinity for country and new pop songs, but I knew you guys felt more like ... an off-kilter, post-punk kind of thing, like Beefheart." Snider, meanwhile, nearly leaps out of her seat when Elephant 6 bands Apples in Stereo and Olivia Tremor Control are mentioned. "I'm a huge Olivia Tremor Control fan," she says. "If it weren't for them I might be more discouraged as a musician. But when I see a band like that -- if Olivia Tremor Control can make it as far as they are, which is just that people nationally can somehow come across their music, and it's so whacked, that's just an inspiration to me. If those guys can do it, I think we can do it.
"A lot of it, too," she continues, "is we have very different -- not very different, in the bigger world of music we probably have very similar tastes -- but in certain fundamental ways we have very different styles, so there is this weird tension."
Joe Goldring, who plays in Touched by a Janitor and who produced most of Zmrzlina's first album and all of its new one at his Pigs Head Studio in the Mission, agrees with that assessment. "Those guys have a lot of ideas," he says. "There's five of them -- they all have very different ideas about what the band is about. They all come from very different places musically." It was just this sort of playfulness that attracted saxophonist Ralph Carney, frequent Tom Waits collaborator, to the band. Carney met Hankins because their children went to the same preschool, and she gave him a record. "Everybody gives me records and I hate them all," he says. "But I didn't hate [this]. It had an original sound, and it had that Beefheartian spirit that I like." Carney liked it so much, in fact, he wound up sitting in with the band at a couple of gigs, and will appear on at least one track on its new album.
"It was very loose," Carney says of playing with the band. "I mean, they had their stuff down. That's what I liked about it, they have their own logic to it, you know? It's like, wow! How do they rehearse this stuff? That's kind of my feeling on it, like, God, there's actual parts, but they sound totally crazy. And I dug that. It was a real rush."
The band rehearses in a dank, subdivided warehouse in the Mission that it shares with two other groups. Twice a week Zmrzlina gathers in a tiny, boarded-up room to work out the members' musical differences -- mostly by not trying too hard to reconcile them. "Basically," says Hankins, "Jeff will come in with this chord progression that he's written, some lyric ideas, and we all just come up with whatever we come up with. It's all trial and error. Sometimes it works perfectly, sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it needs some fine-tuning. But because we have these different sensibilities and we all have freedom to write our own parts, it comes in whacked."
Nowhere is this more evident than in a new song the band is practicing called "Supermarket Radio." Rich and densely layered with grooves, the song is liable to remind one of a dozen different groups or genres of music, without really sounding quite like anything you've heard before.
Listening to the band describe the song is almost as much fun as hearing them play it -- and certainly, it's just as challenging to keep up. "It's basically about the music you hear on the supermarket radio," begins Ray, who works at Rainbow Grocery. "It's about an old star who ends up in Vegas. I went to Community Thrift and got all these Engelbert Humperdinck albums, all this cheesy stuff, and then I went over to Sean's, and we sampled the stuff and got it on the keyboard. So then Sean hops on the bass, while Mark is on the keyboard, the Chaos Pad, he's coming up with where to put it -- "
"Then Tracy jumps on guitar," adds Frischman.
"No -- I'm on violin," says Hankins, "but I'm on your rig with a delay."
"See," says Snider, "since he was on the keyboard, she went and plugged her violin into his guitar effects."
"I had a whole new set of pedals to work with," says Hankins, "and it actually opened up a whole new set of sounds on the violin."
"Sean puts in this rippin', Black Sabbath kind of bass part," says Ray, "and they go off each other, and then we have a long jam and I put on the wah-wah thing, and so it turns into a disco groove -- "
"And the idea," concludes Frischman, "is that it would not quite be right, but it would have this reference to kind of like Muzak and to bad '80s disco. But at the same time, no one who hears the song is ever going to recognize it as Muzak samples."
"Let's hope not," says Snider.
The product of this sort of open collaboration is a song that starts out, true to form, with a Curtis Mayfield-like groove, spurred by Dorn's bass and Snider snapping on the high-hat cymbal; Ray introduces an atmospheric guitar riff, and suddenly the song explodes into a dense, vintage Pavement-like cacophony, as Ray belts out the lyrics in his distinct, nasal voice.
The collaboration also produced a debut album that, despite being recorded in bits and pieces over two-plus years by Goldring in San Francisco and Myles Boisen in the East Bay, sounds remarkably cohesive, even as it ranges from the quirky, pretty ballad "Fantasy" to the high-powered country rawk of "Wonderland" and "Hiptown" to the utterly indescribable " | 1,296 |
fleetwoodtrax writes"24 Track 2' Highest Fidelity Analogue Recording forMaximum Punch and<|fim_middle|>57 197"
andy writes"Reputable touring guitar tech available for gigs, tours as well as workbench repairs, maintenance and setups. Professional attitude and equipment. Visit my website at www.productionservices.com.au or call me on 0438281418"
steveo writes"rockin country band playing original and covers such as .hank williams .dwight yoakum.alan jackson.merle haggard.and many more 4 pce band with own pa and lights. available for all types of gig,s .need a country theme band for corporate .hotel,s or partie,s then this is the band for you .contact steve for a promo pack including demo .cd steve@stevelowry.com" | Warmth. We are able to convert to Pro-tools or from pro-tools to analogue. 4 rooms with full vision to each other- perfect acoustic tuning great vibe and Very experienced & friendly staff. Contact Geoff on 0404 611 428 or visit www.tarahall.com/fleetwoodtrax for further details and client list. We offer the finest studio in the Metro area at a fraction of the City studios' prices. Talk to you Soon"
soundmaster writes"Pro Tools HD 2 w/ Control 24 Console. Classic outboard gear -Manley,Urie,Universal Audio,Focusrite,Oram ,TL Audio. Microphones -Neumann, Rhode ,AKG ,Sehnhiser ,Sure ,Beyer. Monitoring -NS 40's Comfortable and relaxing atmosphere near Geelong waterfront @ The Mill (Historical Woolmill Site). Contact David 0416 25 4248 or (03)52 222609"
beebarry writes"Live sound engineer - 2yrs experience, Audio Engineering Degree, available for live mixing work in Melbourne Metro. Previous experience inc. The Espy, Young & Jacksons, Elephant & Wheelbarrow, Rob Roy, Arthouse + more....Styles inc. Rock, Metal, Covers, Indi, Jazz + more... rates from $30 - $150 per show contact on 0439 3 | 307 |
Each Phoenix Public Library location offers several computer workstations for use at no cost to library card holders. Public access computers may be reserved by users with a valid (non-expired) library card with a password. These computers offer Internet access, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and have USB ports for accessing and saving documents to flash drives. Fee-based printing, copying and scanning services are also available. Library customers may use a<|fim_middle|> one is waiting. Computers in the children and teen areas of the library are for use by children and teens only.
Library card holders may also reserve express computers which are available on a first come, first served basis in 15-minute increments. Express computers allow multiple sessions per day but must be surrendered at the end of a 15-minute session when others are waiting.
Every library also has catalog computers that provide access to the library's online catalog, subscription databases and event calendar. Catalog computers do not have general Internet access and are available to all customers (a library card is not required).
Any resident of Maricopa County is eligible to get a free Phoenix Public Library card. Visitors who live outside of Maricopa County should speak to a staff member if they need to access computers while visiting.
Print or copy jobs may be paid for with cash only and may be paid with one-dollar and five-dollar bills as well as coins. Prices vary due to contractual agreements with the leasing agencies involved.
Library staff will assist you with printing or copying. | reserved PC for up to 1 hour per day at any Library location. Time may be extended if no | 21 |
ELT Entrepreneur – Marie Goodwyn
by Blog Editor | 24 Feb, 2015 | EdTech, Startups | 0 comments
We've been featuring ELT Entrepreneurs and EdTech start-ups for a few months now and we have tended to focus on those who are quite far down the line in terms of their business and product. But what do they look like at the beginning of the journey? Last May, ELTjam co-organised an EdTech Start Up Weekend with the Judge Business School. At the time we commented on how few educators there were in the room and it was no surprise that it took educational insight more than tech to come up with the<|fim_middle|> be featured in the ELT Entrepreneur series, drop us a line at blog editor at eltjam dot com.
Grassroots language technology: Glenys Hanson, exl-exos.info | EFL Notes - […] 2. ELT Entrepreneur – Marie Goodwyn […] | idea that won: Bright Stream.
The Bright Stream team winning the Cambridge Accelerator Weekend
Since her win, Marie Goodwyn has successfully gone through the first round of the Cambridge University Judge Business School Accelerator programme with her idea Read It, now called the Bright Stream Reader, and is at the beginning of the second phase of the programme.
Marie is a Primary school teacher with a 20-year background in EFL, GCSE and A-level English, Drama and Media Studies and a passion for art, both in its pure form and as a therapeutic process. She was probably one of the most experienced teachers in the room on the Start Up Weekend, and yet she only ended up there by chance, she says.
'I've always been somewhat geek-like as far as technology is concerned; often supporting others at school with Information Computing Technology (ICT), acting as ICT coordinator and experimenting with it in my teaching practice. I also had an interest in entrepreneurship, having, in a small way, begun to explore the possibilities of creating a business combining my expertise in Education and Art.
'So, when the newsletter from 'Innovate Education' dropped into my inbox, it immediately piqued my interest (as a learnaholic). I was curious and became interested in finding out more about technology for education, and looked forward to the experience of working in a team, in possibly the most effective format possible: learning by doing! As a teacher, it also meant that I could probably learn something that would be useful in the classroom later.'
Among the other sixty participants, mainly MBA students, developers and super confident Start Up Weekend regulars, it would have been easy to be intimidated.
'I arrived at the Cambridge Hotel for the reception feeling a bit nervous – there was a real mix of people there including a guy who had come all the way from Italy to be there. I was asked a few times if I was going to pitch, but said – in total honesty, "No".'
Even after the ice-breaker activities, Marie stuck to her earlier decision to just listen during the 'Pitch Fire' activity – a 60-second opportunity to throw your business idea into the room and hope people would vote for it to be one of the projects that would get worked on during the weekend. However, a young woman she had chatted to earlier presented an idea Marie had come up with and triggered something.
'She did me a huge favour as it made me realise that if the idea I had shared with her was pitch worthy – perhaps another idea I had rattling around in my head could work too! And it did. My concept won Pitch Fire (to my astonishment).'
The concept hasn't changed that much since it won the Accelerator weekend, which Marie puts down to the fact that the concept of the Bright Stream Reader itself, at its core, is incredibly simple.
'It came from observing the struggle that several of the children in my Year 3/4 class were experiencing. They had taken phonics (a strategy for sounding out letters and groups of letters and then blending them to read a whole word) on board but were struggling with automaticity – the ability to read fluently so that you can focus on the meaning of what you are reading. What we're developing is a multi-platform e-reader style application that works like stabilisers on a bike and supports readers in becoming fluent. We also check for comprehension and gather a wide range of data so that parents and teachers can track children's progress.
'The only thing that's really changed since the Start-Up Weekend is the number of different categories of people that it could help. Whenever I get into a conversation with anyone about Bright Stream their first response is to tell me about their own experiences, or those of someone they know, and how our 'reader' could help them. Or, they tell us of another potential user group that the Bright Stream Reader could help, like EAL and EFL students as well as adults with literacy problems.'
Together with Ian Sandham, the co-founder of Bright Stream who was on her winning team, Marie found that the business experts and coaches on the Start Up Weekend were very positive about their idea and they left with business cards from publishers who wanted to hear from them. That might well have been it but Bright Stream was accepted onto the Accelerator programme which started with what Marie calls 'an MBA in a weekend'.
'Given the pretty bad image that The Apprentice and Dragons' Den have given to entrepreneurs it seems a bit like a 'dog eat dog' world… but nothing could be further from the truth. I have experienced nothing but support and encouragement from my fellow 'Acceleratees' – we have become a bit of a family. And the mentors, too, are very generous with their time and advice. You could do this on your own – I know people who do, but it makes a really tough journey easier if you have a team to work with and having mentors to support, advise and push you on makes all the difference.'
The biggest difference of all has to be the transition in such a short amount of time from idea to viable product with interest from potential customers. The Bright Stream Reader is at prototype stage and has a Headteacher at a local school keen to trial it. They're looking for more schools to help them in the trialling process, so anyone who is interested should get in touch via the Bright Stream website. Not only does involvement at this stage mean shaping the development of the product but it will lead to preferential rates when the Reader is released.
All that remains is to form partnerships with publishers, so that the children who are being helped to read fluently are already familiar with their authors and book series by the time they are ready to fly.
And the 'flying' stage is the reason behind the entire project… 'Illiteracy leads to horrifying statistics such as 70% of children being excluded from school. Nearly 50% of the prison population cannot read well. It leads to vastly reduced life chances and, perhaps equally importantly, denies people the joy of disappearing into a really good book. And the more people I can help do that, the better.'
We hope to catch up with Marie at a later stage in the Bright Stream project and we wish her the best of luck!
Featured Photo Credit: JimmyMac210 – just returned home from hospital via Compfight cc. Text added by ELTjam.
If you'd like to | 1,305 |
Tucked away in a<|fim_middle|> to involve parents and rally a community around the outdoor school.
Gervais notes they will be hosting community events at the school as well. There will be a harvest celebration community potluck dinner at the South Canoe School Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. that will be open to parents, family members and South Canoe residents. They also hope to host an information session in early October for parents who are curious to learn more about the outdoor school and see if it might be a good fit for their children. | quiet little stand of trees and surrounded by the natural beauty of the Shuswap, just over 100 students in Salmon Arm spent their first week back to school learning in the great outdoors.
The South Canoe school is an outdoor school project that has been talked about extensively in Salmon Arm, with many parents, educators and students alike seeming thrilled at the idea of taking learning out of the typical classroom setting. With the first week of classes for the 2018-19 school year underway, the outdoor school has finally come to fruition.
The first days are turning out to be a bit of a learning experience for the staff at the outdoor school, but principal Isabelle Gervais says the outlook and energy levels for students, staff and parents at the school is sky-high.
For both the teachers and students the transition from classroom-based learning has been a bit of a change — albeit, one they seem eager to make.
As for the students, Gervais says that even after only a few days she noticed increasing engagement with their surroundings, other students and even with their work.
In fact, Gervais says parents and teachers alike are already reporting some positive results — notably that kids are actually enthusiastic about doing their homework.
The staff at the outdoor school have also made it a point | 262 |
Learn from an expert panel the benefits of listing on Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) and how to use the Canadian capital markets to finance and expand your business.
Vanessa Grant,<|fim_middle|>., completed its initial public offering of HealthLease Properties REIT on The Toronto Stock Exchange. After growing rapidly through several bought deals on the TSX, HealthLease was sold to Health Care REIT – now Welltower Inc.- for approx. C$1 billion in 2014.In Spring 2016, Mainstreet returned to Canada by completing a reverse take-over of Kingsway Arms Retirement Residences, renaming it Mainstreet Health Investments Inc, and completing a US$109 million public offering on the TSX.
This series of three short videos, highlights key aspects of the Mainstreet/HealthLease experience on the TSX: from its innovative IPO, through its growth, to its going private transaction and return.
This presentation and any information contained therein is provided for information purposes only. Neither TMX Group Limited nor any of its affiliated companies guarantees the completeness of the information contained in this presentation and we are not responsible for any errors or omissions in or your use of, or reliance on, the information. This presentation is not intended to provide legal, accounting, tax, investment, financial or other advice and should not be relied upon for such advice.
The views, opinions and advice provided in this presentation reflect those of the individual presenters. The presentations are not produced, reviewed or endorsed by TMX Group or its affiliated companies. | Partner, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP "Laying the Groundwork for Accessing Canadian Capital"
Jason A. Saltzman, Partner, Dentons Canada LLP "Best Practices for Going Public on TSX & TSXV"
Richard Raymer, Partner, Dorsey & Whitney LLP / Rubin Rapuch, Partner, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP "Regulation A+ Changes the Way US Companies Can Access Capital on TSX and TSXV"
Stephen Pincus, Partner, Goodmans LLP "An Efficient Path to Capital"
To help tell their business story, senior executives from companies listed on TSX and TSXV are participating in a video interview series, titled "The View from the C-Suite", highlighting the unique perspectives of listed companies and the objectives they aim to achieve, or have achieved, by listing on Canada's leading public equities markets, TSX and TSXV. To learn more, please visit www.tsx.com/c-suite.
Steven N. Davidson, CEO, Agility Health, Inc.
David Field, President and CEO, OneRoof Energy Group, Inc.
In 2012, Indiana based Mainstreet Property Group, LLC, the largest developer of transitional care properties in the U.S | 254 |
London Irish: Small squad has hampered chances of success this season, says George Skivington
Exiles' captain says lack of numbers has stretched side this year
London Irish lock George Skivington (Image: Eddie Greville)
London Irish captain George Skivington admits the club's small squad size has meant they have been unable to compete with the top sides in the Aviva Premiership this season.
The Ex<|fim_middle|> there's been a lot of hard lessons learned.
"But from the club's point of view it's moving forward nicely and hopefully next year we can compete a little bit more."
George Skivington | iles have won just seven of their 20 games in the league and find themselves in 10th place with two rounds of fixtures remaining.
Skivington confessed the season overall had been a rather mixed one, and the lack of consistency in results ensured they were unable to climb the table.
He said: "I think we've had so many highs and lows it's probably knocked it out of us emotionally because we think we've cracked it one week and then we've slipped back a little bit.
"And then the next week we're up again and that's probably the stability we need to find.
"We haven't got a big squad either.
"A lot of guys have played a lot of rugby.
"That's possibly the difference between us and the teams at the top of the table."
Irish made it to the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup, before being beaten by losing finalists Edinburgh Rugby.
The Exiles lost all four games in their LV= Cup in a campaign which also saw director of rugby Brian Smith head back to Australia and be replaced by Glenn Delaney in January.
Skivington admitted it had been a rollercoaster season, but said the club will reap rewards from it in the long term.
He said: "I'd say we started the season off well and we had a massive blip about a third into the season which knocked us back out of league contention.
"We've had highs and lows and been a bit erratic in our quality of performances.
"From a players' point of view it's not where we've wanted to be but from the club's point of view I think some of the young guys have really put their hands up this year and come long way.
"Players like Scott Steele, Richard Palframan and Alex Lewington have really shown what they can do.
"The club can be very happy with what's coming through the ranks."
The 32-year-old added: "The club is very realisitc in what it wants to achieve and I think this year it's probably ticked the box.
"As players you always want to achieve more and you're never going to be happy down at the bottom of the table.
"It's been a tough year and | 446 |
"Philately" (get your mind out of the gutter) is the proper term for the studying of stamps and stamp collecting. It was coined in 1865 by Georges Herpin, who very well<|fim_middle|> become the game we know today and that history is embedded in the design of its fields, stadiums, and equipment. I recently wrote a three–part series investigating this design history for Design Decoded and learned some surprising facts about America's favorite sport, including the rationale behind the so-called Boise Rule, which mandates turf color, and the link between naval paratroopers, cobblers, & college football. | may have been the first stamp collector, from the Ancient Greek φιλο (philo), meanning "love of" and ἀτέλεια (atelīa), meaning "without tax." Of course, because the ancient Greeks didn't have postage stamps, there was no proper Greek word for the idea. But, as we shall see, the term is actually a reference to the earliest days of paid postage.
Postage can reveal more than the history of a letter, it can reveal the history of a nation. As noted by the National Postal Museum, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month, "every stamp tells a story"—and, I might add, it sometimes tells how the story should be told (fat Elvis or skinny Elvis?).
The forthcoming book A History of Britain in Thirty-Six Postage Stamps by Chris West tells the story of the stamp. And of Britain. West is himself a philatelist (seriously stop snickering) who inherited a collection from his uncle that included a "Penny Black"—the first postage stamp issued in Britain and, more importantly, the first postage stamp issued anywhere.
The Penny Black bears the image of Queen Victoria, but the first British postal service did not originate in Victorian England. In 1680 an entrepreneur by the name of William Dockwra started a public service that guaranteed the quick delivery of a letter anywhere in London. His system was quickly nationalized with Dockwra in charge. It was far from a perfect system, burdened with seemingly erroneous charges and tariffs that made it unreasonably expensive to send a letter. Worse still, recipients were expected to pay. As you might imagine, this presented some problems—either people weren't home or flat-out refused to pay. Not to mention the blatant corruption. The system just didn't work, but it remained in place for far too long.
About 50 years later, an ambitious polymath named Rowland Hill thought he could do better. Hill ran a progressive school, for which he also designed a central heating system, a swimming pool and an observatory. Hill's skills weren't just architectural and pedagogical, he was also an accomplished painter, inventor and essayist. In one of his most famous pamphlets, Post Office Reform, its Importance and Practicability, Hill argued for abolishing the postal tariffs and replacing them with a single national rate of one penny, which would be paid by the sender.
Sports are good design. American football is no exception: helmets are perhaps the most highly engineered piece of protective equipment in professional sports; the football field is unique in that it's not designed to accommodate a ball, but to serve as a metric of progress in a battle for territory; the ball itself is an index of the game's evolution, shrouded in myth and hearsay. It's taken more than 100 years for professional football to | 597 |
La Sagrada Familia con San Juanito, conocida comúnmente como La Perla, es un cuadro de Rafael Sanzio pintado entre 1518 y 1520 que se conserva en el museo del Prado.
Descripción
Se trata de una Sagrada Familia con el Niño Jesús en el regazo de la Virgen María, acompañados de San Juan Bautista niño y su madre, santa Ana. Tanto María como Ana tienen expresiones severas, como previendo el sufrimiento de Jesús y la degollación de san Juan Bautista, mientras que San Juanito y el Niño Jesús, ajenos a estos presagios, adoptan un gesto alegre. Al fondo, a la izquierda, aparece San José dedicado a su profesión de carpintero.
Las figuras están enmarcadas en un detallado y sugerente paisaje nocturno. El Niño Jesús ocupa el centro de una composición piramidal —típica del equilibrio renacentista— y mira hacia una luz brillante, sobrenatural, que ilumina su cara, la de su madre y la espalda de Juan Bautista (vestido con la piel de camello que le caracterizará en su vida adulta). La combinación de la extraña luz que ilumina y potencia las figuras, con la natural del ocaso que tiñe el fondo de la escena, es notable.
La relación entre las figuras es, como siempre en Rafael, de gran dinamismo y naturalidad. La Virgen, cuyo cuerpo adopta la forma serpentinata, pasa su brazo por encima del hombro de Santa Ana en un gesto de cercanía y protección que señala a su vez su superior jerarquía. Por contraste, José, padre putativo, permanece marginado y recluido en su taller, representado en una figura de pequeño tamaño. Santa Ana se acoda en la pierna izquierda de la Virgen y, con la otra mano, adopta un gesto reflexivo, apoyando el mentón en el puño, en una pose característica de Miguel Ángel.
Son notables asimismo el cromatismo, visible en los rojos, cárdenos, añiles, azules y rosáceos de los drapeados de la Virgen, matizados como veladuras; o los matices de los blancos y marfiles de la ropa de la cuna del primer término del cuadro.
Se debe destacar también el paisaje de puesta de sol entre ruinas romanas, uno de los más trabajados que ejecutara el urbinate. Los reflejos dorados entre las penumbras añiles del paisaje de la derecha, o la evocación del que se vislumbra a la izquierda, al fondo de las ruinas que forman el habitáculo de San José, realzan el misterio de la obra.
Procedencia
El cuadro fue pintado, presumiblemente, por encargo de Ludovico Canossa, obispo de Bayeux. En 1604 fue comprado por el duque de Mantua Vincenzo Gonzaga, y en 1627 pasa a manos de Carlos I de Inglaterra incluido en un formidable conjunto de pinturas de los Gonzaga, que el monarca inglés adquirió para realzar la Royal Collection.
La Perla llegó a España tras ser adquirida por Luis de Haro para Felipe IV en 1649, en la almoneda que se celebró tras la ejecución del rey inglés. Fue el Rey Planeta quien dio el sobrenombre de La Perla al cuadro, por considerarlo el mejor de sus colecciones. Desde 1656 decoraba el Monaster<|fim_middle|>dena ha presentado en fecha reciente un pequeño cuadro con la efigie de la Virgen, considerado preparatorio para la obra del Prado. Este supuesto modelo o boceto, apodado La Perla de Módena, había permanecido mucho tiempo almacenado al creerse simple copia.
Autoría
La autoría del cuadro ha estado sujeta a polémicas desde el siglo XIX, ya que se pensaba que no era totalmente autógrafo sino producto de una colaboración con algún ayudante, como Giulio Romano. Esta hipótesis se basaba en parte en el incipiente manierismo de la obra, un estilo que se entendía como ajeno al clasicismo más reconocible de Rafael y que se tachaba de «corrupción» o defecto propio de sus seguidores e imitadores. Los últimos estudios avalan la plena autoría de Rafael, según esgrimen Tom Henry y Paul Joannides, expertos británicos que organizaron la muestra El último Rafael (Prado y Louvre) en 2012.
Véase también
Anexo:Cuadros de Rafael Sanzio
Referencias
Rueda de prensa de Paul Joannides, comisario de la exposición El último Rafael, en su presentación. Véase especialmente minuto 1:20 al 2:20, en que declara que existe consenso entre la crítica para considerarla totalmente ejecutada por Rafael
El último Rafael. Relación de obras
Prado Media. Sagrada Familia o La Perla
El último Rafael. Exposición. Vírgenes y Sagradas Familias de gran formato
Jesús María Caamaño Martínez, Sagrada Familia, llamada «la perla» [Rafael]. Enciclopedia en línea del museo del Prado.
Sabina Chiara Steri, «El último Rafael renace en el Prado», Suite101. Arte, 9 de junio de 2012.
Enlaces externos
Prado
Pintura italiana del Museo del Prado
Pintura de Italia del siglo XVI
Cuadros de Rafael Sanzio
Cuadros de los años 1510
Pinturas representando a Juan el Bautista
Pinturas representando a Santa Isabel
Pinturas representando a San José | io de El Escorial, donde la conoció el viajero ilustrado Antonio Ponz. José Bonaparte, a su caída, se la llevó como botín a Francia junto con otras obras de Rafael, pero todas fueron devueltas a España en 1818.
La Galería Estense de Mó | 72 |
As of late, companies plus people have determined the advantages of getting a web site and optimizing it. Gone will be the times when internet sites were only a secondary selling and shopper relations resource, today online websites have taken the guide. This paves way for the optimization of websites and with this comes the introduction of guest posting. Vendors that have embraced this avenue of guest posting to reach out to some larger audience are having fun with the fruits in their conclusions.
Back linking is likely one of the terms that you just has to be accustomed to if you ever are during the Search engine optimization organization, or if you are receiving these services. A backlink is self-explanatory, like that a reader on yet another webpage will be connected back to your site should they occur to return throughout your post and need to have further more material. Back linking operates top in the event you submit a blog on a webpage that is definitely sure to acquire<|fim_middle|> be relevant to some unique search, you'll find quite a few things which they look into, and the variety of again links best to your site is among them. These again links are owing to the posts you'll have positioned in various sites, and so, the more the posts you'll have, then the greater the position your web site will get. | a number of guests, and this will ultimately guide them to your website.
This is actually the end goal for every single websites. A web site which includes no visitors will be thought to be useless, irrespective of how spectacular it happens to be. Any time you see that individuals and capability clients find it difficult to get to you, you'll be able to write a guest submit and ask for the website exactly where they recurrent, for an opportunity to position it there. It will get started directing traffic to your website and it can also produce further connections that could be effective in your home business. Other bloggers may perhaps question to blog on your own site as well, which will still immediate traffic to your site.
For any internet site to publish your post, the subject material managers of your site must guantee that the write-up is of top-notch top quality. Which means for those who supply substandard do the job, it may not be published, and you will need to return to the drawing board. Owning this information will help you to put in writing incredibly really good subject material, and in so doing you can be increasing on your own expertise.
When search engines are rolling out the list of online websites that can | 243 |
Entertainment, News and Relationships
Home » Entertainment » CBS's Bob Schieffer Bio: Age, Net Worth, Family, Daughter, Cancer And More
CBS's Bob Schieffer Bio: Age, Net Worth, Family, Daughter, Cancer And More
Date: 01 Nov, 2018
American media personality, Bob Schieffer once diagnosed with cancer is a strong man who doesn't give up easily. He has lived his life as a successful journalist and also a good family man.
He met his future wife at a restaurant and eventually tied the knot several months later. The couple has been holding each other's hands over five decades.
The retired journalist is best known as the moderator of CBS's Sunday morning political interview show, Face the Nation. Bob has interviewed all the American presidents from Richard Nixon to Barrack Obama on the CBS's show.
CBS Evening News: Bob Schie<|fim_middle|>?
Brianna Keilar & Husband In Post Pregnant Bliss! Big-Eyes Son Steals Hearts
©2020 Hollywood Mask and All Rights Reserved
By using hollywoodmask.com you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Published contents by users are under Creative Commons License. | ffer anchors for CBS evening news in 1994 (Published on Dec 3, 2017)
For his notable work in the journalism sphere, he was awarded six Emmys and was also named Broadcaster of the Year in 2002 by the National Press Foundation.
Find Out: CBS' Vladimir Duthiers A Married Man? Insight On Personal Life
Besides Journalism, he even paddled in the literature realm too. He has penned four books Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award-Winning News Broadcast, This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV, Bob Schieffer's America, and The Acting President.
The Veteran Journalist's Bio And Career
Bob Schieffer Short Bio & Net Worth
Bob was born as Bob Lloyd Schieffer on 25th February 1937 in Austin, Texas as the eldest child in the family. He has a brother, Tom Schieffer and a sister, Sharon Schieffer. Tom is an entrepreneur, who has also served as an American diplomat.
He received his academic education from North Side High School. Later, he went to Texas Christian University, where he got graduated in Journalism and English in 1959.
Bob ignited his career in the realm of journalism when he was still a student at Texas Christain University. Firstly he started a job at Fort Worth-based radio station KXOL in 1957 for which he was paid $1 an hour. Bob even worked for three years in Air Force. Then after, he garnered journalism experience by working for WBAP in Dallas.
Know more about: CBS' Juliana Goldman Marrried With Husband! Plus Family, Baby To Salary and Net worth
A breakthrough came in his career after joining CBS in 1969 where he anchored the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News from 1973 to 1996. As most of the audience applauded his reporting talent, he was signed as chief Washington correspondent in 1982.
Furthermore, he even became a moderator of the Sunday famous public affairs shows Face the Nation in 1991. He marked himself as a unique journalist to cover up all four of the major Washington national assignments: the White House, the Pentagon, United States Department of State, and United States Congress.
Looking at all his career achievements we can surely say that he established himself as a notable journalist. He has a net worth of $10 million
Bob Schieffer Diagnosed With Cancer
Bob Schieffer was at the peak of his career but something went wrong at the time. Bob was diagnosed with bladder cancer on the verge of his career in 2003.
He blamed his habit of smoking as the reason behind his cancer diagnosis. In an interview with CBS, he stated that:
"I was one of the heaviest smokers. I started chewing tobacco when I was 16 years old because I hung around rodeos and played baseball."
However, he overcame his state and now speaks as a bladder cancer advocate, raising awareness against cancer that had threatened his health state.
As of now, Bob is far from cancer and is living a healthy life with his family.
Bob Schieffer's Married Life; Spans Over Five Decades
Bob, who is 81 years old shares the marital relationship with beautiful wife Patricia Neville Penrose Bishop. The couple has been married for more than a half-century since 15th April 1967. They were first introduced at a restaurant and later got engaged three weeks of their meeting in January 1967.
Bob and his wife: Bob and Patricia attends 22nd Annual Hall of Fame Induction Gala at Beverly Hills, California in March 2013 (Photo: Zimbio.com)
Bob and his Patricia share two grown-up daughters from their relationship; Susan Penrose Schieffer and Sharon Penrose Schieffer. Their youngest daughter, Sharon was married to William Dinwiddie Baird at the age of 32 in September 2003.
Discover: CBS's Steve Hartman: Family Man With Wife And Example Of A Great Father
Sharon is the director of public relations for Teen Vogue magazine in New York. Bob currently resides with his wife in Washington, D.C.
We wish for long life and good health Bob Schieffer!
#American journalist #Washington national assignments #Face the Nation #Chief Washington Correspondent
More On Entertainment
Mehdi Hasan Origin, Family Life With Wife And Parents! Net Worth, Height & More
Meredith Vieira Feels Cheated With Husband! Talks On Married Life In Interviews
Longmire's Zahn McClarnon Married With Wife? Personal Life Insight On Long-Haired Actor
Erica Stoll Wiki Gives Out Age, Wedding Details, Family & Essential Details
'Are You The One' Kathryn Palmer Bio, Boyfriend, Engaged
Abby Huntsman Biography: Family, Father, Siblings, Height, Measurements - Huntsman Tree
Will Castro Bio: Contently Married With Blooming Family; Age, Net Worth & More
CW's Nafessa Williams Love For Lesbian Superhero Swirls Girlfriend/Partner Talks
Who Is Nancy Cordes Married To? Husband Unveiled Of The Gorgeous Journalist!
Cliff Curtis Married With Family! Who Is Wife Of 'Fear The Walking Dead' Star | 1,115 |
Today was the first day that we did not have to wake up so early and I had more energy to follow the program. The weather was sunny so this<|fim_middle|> did so many things and these are memories I would share with everyone when I go back home. | also helped my mood to get even better. At 9:30 we left the Hostel to go to the Forum Dom and met with the German Team. They had a little surprise for us; they gave us all Advent Calendars to sweeten our Christmas! What a nice and sweet gesture right?
After that, our Radio Producer and expert Barbette, took us on the top of the building that she works to see end enjoy this amazing view. Her office is right across the Dom Cathedral, and the view is breathtaking! After a lot of pictures, we went downstairs and we took a panoramic photo in a heart shape.
At 12:30 we were free to go and do as we want, so I went to EL-DE Haus, which is the former headquarters of the Gestapo and now a museum documenting the Third Reich. Afterwards, I decide to go to the Museum Ludwig - Modern Art museum. The museum houses a collection of modern art and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. In my opinion this is a "must go" place for everyone to visit in Cologne!
At 14:30 we all met together again in the Forum Dom and we went right across the street, inside Dom Cathedral. The view is literally breathtaking! You need to go up 533 stairs in order to get to the. And getting there, as you can imagine is not easy. But the moment you are there, you feel like you conquered mount Everest.
Lastly, we went to the town hall of Cologne where the Deputy Mayor welcomed us in a very warm way and we stayed for an hour there, talking and looking at the beautiful architecture of the building. After we finished our team leaders took us to traditional German restaurant and we tasted some of the traditional food .The food, the drinks and of course, the atmosphere at the restaurant was really nice and we had a great time.
Closing up, I would like to confess, that for me, this was the best day ever, because we went to a lot of places, we had so much fun, we | 423 |
<|fim_middle|> of Healthiest Companies in US | Metro Vancouver Opening Community Office
Port Metro Vancouver said May 12 that it is opening a community office in the city of Delta this summer in order to give those in the area an opportunity to speak with staff about port operations, initiatives and projects, including the proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project.
The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project is a proposed new three-berth container terminal at Roberts Bank in Delta that would provide further capacity to potentially meet forecast demand until 2030.
"Many important port activities are taking place in Delta, and the new office will be a location where local community members can drop in to get information and provide input that will help Port Metro Vancouver balance growth demands with the need to protect our environment and respect the quality of life of our neighbors," Port Metro Vancouver President and Chief Executive Officer Robin Silvester said in a statement announcing the office.
The office is expected to open in late July at the Trenant Park Shopping Center in Ladner and is planned to be open 10 am to 6 pm Wednesday to Friday and from 10 am to 4 pm Saturdays. The hours may be adjusted in the future based on community interest.
Delta Mayor Lois Jackson said she was "extremely pleased" that the port was opening an office in Ladner.
"Port related activities and growth are a major source of interest for our community," she said. "With the upcoming environmental assessment process for the proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion, this office will help to ensure timely and effective communications between Delta residents and Port Metro Vancouver."
Labels: Port Metro Vancouver, Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project
Foss Holds Dedication Ceremony for New Fireboat
New Assistant Managing Director at POLB
Maritime Achievement Awards
Russia From My House
Trade Groups Urge Speedy Labor Contract
Panama Canal Workers End Strike
Port Connector Road Closing for 2 Years
Crowley Named One | 386 |
The Festival of Premium Qatari Vegetables and Qatar Farms has opened at LuLu Hypermarkets under the patronage of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME). The inaugural ceremony at LuLu Hypermarket - Al Gharafa was attended by Sheikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser al-Thani, assistant undersecretary for Agriculture and Fisheries Affairs, and Yusuf Khalid al-Khulaifi, director of the Agricultural Affairs Department at the MME, representatives from a number of local farms and LuLu officials. The festival offers certified premium local vegetables in boxes, and LuLu officials indicated that premium Q<|fim_middle|> outlets until the end of the season. The event is being held as part of the ongoing 'Premium Qatar Farms Programme' launched by the MME at major commercial outlets, according to a press statement by LuLu. Pictured are MME and LuLu officials at the launch of the festival. | atari vegetables will be made available at all Lulu | 11 |
This wikiHow teaches you how to make plans to hang out with friends using IRL (In Real Life) on your iPhone or iPad.
Open IRL on your iPhone or iPad. It's the white icon that says ″irl″ in rainbow cursive letters. You should find it on one of your home screens.
If you haven't installed IRL yet, see Use IRL ‐ Let's Hang on iPhone or iPad to learn how to download the app and create an account.
Custom activity: Tap the purple and white envelope icon at the center of the bottom toolbar, then type the name of the activity.
Suggested activity: Tap the house icon at the bottom-left corner, and then scroll down to check out activities. Tapping an activity creates a new invitation.
Select a date. If you chose a suggested activity that occurs on a specific date, it should already be entered. Otherwise, tap the circle that describes when you want to do the activity. Select Today, Soon, or Pick a Date to enter one manually.
Allow friends to invite other people (optional). If the switch next to ″Friends can invite friends″ is green, your friends can invite others to join. To limit the event to people you invite only, tap the switch to turn it off.
Tap Select friends to invite people. This opens your contacts, where you can tap each person you'd like to invite to the activity.
If you haven't given the app permission to sync your contacts, you'll be prompted to do so. Tap Sync Address Book, and then follow the on-screen instructions.
If you invite someone who does not have IRL, they will receive a text message prompting<|fim_middle|> bottom half of the screen. You can search for a location by address or keyword. Tap the location when it appears, then tap Select to choose it.
If the location is already specified, there's no need to make any changes.
Tap Time to select a time. Enter the time that everyone should meet at the location, and then tap Set Time.
Tap Date to enter or edit the date. If you need to change the date, do so now, and then tap Set Date(s).
Tap Poll to ask invitees to vote. This is especially useful when you aren't sure what time and/or date works best for the people you're inviting.
Tap Recurring to do the activity more than once. For example, if you want the event to continue every Tuesday, you can specify so here.
Type a message. Whatever you type here will be sent along with the invitation. Include any information you want invitees to know about the activity.
Tap the Send button. It's the paper airplane icon. An invitation to the event will be sent to all selected recipients who have IRL, and a text message will be delivered to those who do not.
Chat with people on the invite list. Invitations also serve as chat rooms for everyone invited. Type your message into the typing area at the bottom, then tap the paper airplane icon to send it.
To open the chat later, tap the profile icon (at the bottom-right corner), tap the invitation, then tap the Chat tab at the top.
1. Select an activity or tap the envelope.
3. Select friends to invite.
4. Set the time, date, and location.
6. Tap the send button. | them to download the app.
Tap Location to specify a location. It's the purple icon in the icon bar at the | 24 |
A brief history of Contamac
The brainchild of trained chemist John McGregor, Contamac (ContactlensesMacGregor) is the quintessence of a simple idea, well executed.
We remain fiercely proud of our status as an independent, family-owned company, that customers can trust and end-users can rely upon, but our pedigree is the result of years of hard work, cutting-edge research and investment.
From humble beginnings the company today prides itself in having a truly global presence and employing more than 80 specialist staff. Founded in Britain in 1987, we became the first maker of contact lens (CL) materials to<|fim_middle|> instrumental in bringing products to market that have restored sight to so many people globally – but it couldn't have been done without the skill and commitment of everyone who works here".
Let us empower your vision.
Your Marketing Permissions
Contamac will use the information you provide to share consented marketing efforts. Please let us know which marketing efforts you wish to receive from us:
Sales Communications
Global Insight - Newsletter
You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at comms@contamac.co.uk. We will treat your information with the highest level of respect. For more information about our privacy policy please visit our website. By clicking below, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.
© Contamac 2019 Terms & conditions
You are being redirected to Global Insight.
This will open in a new tab or window. | be ISO9002 and EN46002 accredited. In 2002 we launched into the US, establishing Contamac US Inc as a sister company. A few years later we were recognised as a key supplier to a winning product in the 2008 Medical Design Excellence Awards. Our silver anniversary year witnessed the opening of Contamac China, our announcement as a UK National Champion in the European Business Awards, and our receipt of the Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade (the first of two Queen's Awards for Enterprise).
In 2016 we moved into our current state-of-the-art 35,000sq ft headquarters. Located in the market town of Saffron Walden, just 20 miles south of the famous University of Cambridge, our new base includes modern offices and presentation suites, research and testing laboratories, manufacturing and despatch facilities, a fully-functioning contact lens fitting surgery, and even our own ISO7 (Class 10,000) clean room.
Today, Contamac is more than just a manufacturer. As an educator we collaborate with the world's leading universities, and as a research partner we work alongside some of the biggest names in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. Yet, thirty years on, we're also still selling to our very first customer!
John McGregor sums it up best, "This is a company that's about people. It's a source of great personal pride that Contamac has been | 303 |
My graphics card is running AT IDLE at 1607mhz core clock, and 4050 mhz memory clock. These are the stable numbers I was able to get in my Overclocking. When I take off<|fim_middle|> and audio files on a computer is easy using the default media player found in all Windows operating systems. Windows Media Player lets you control the playback rate of videos, DVDs and CDs. Speed up CDs or view movies in slow motion using your computer and Windows Media Player.
Adjusting the playback speed of video and audio files on a computer is easy using the default media player found in all Windows operating systems. Windows Media Player lets you control the playback rate of videos, DVDs and CDs. Speed up CDs or view movies in slow motion using your computer and Windows Media Player. | the OC, they run also at... Cadence is a critical part of running, lowering the stress on ankles, knees, & feet, improving Running Economy, reducing injury rates, and enhancing Running Form. Cadence is how often your feet touch the ground and it's easy to modify.
So the target watch is running 0.2 seconds slow. On the other hand, if the stopwatch reading is 00:04:70 (i.e. 4 seconds and 70/100ths) then you calculate 4.70-5 = -0.3. So the target watch is running … how to bring yourself to study Adjusting the playback speed of video | 143 |
The following are rules and regulations that apply at all times at our marinas.
Quiet hours are 22:00 to 07:00.
While on the docks, children under the age of 12 years SHOULD be accompanied by an adult at all times.
All pets visiting the marinas MUST BE ON A LEASH and accompanied by their owners at all times. Owners are responsible for cleaning up any pet waste deposited<|fim_middle|> docks or the Lower Causeway walkway.
Lines must be adequate and sufficient in such a way as to be safe in any type of weather. Nylon or polypropylene lines are not acceptable.
Harbour Regulations are administered by Transport Canada and are strictly enforced by the Harbour Master and the Harbour Patrol.
Prior to berthing, please hail GVHA dock staff on VHF 66A for a moorage assignment. Moorage is available on a first-come, first-serve basis unless a reservation is made (see Reservation Information).
If Victoria is your port of entry into Canada, please report to the Canada Customs dock for clearance prior to requesting moorage. You must contact Canada Border Services Agency at 1-888-226-7277 before arrival in Canada on a recreational vessel. | at GVHA facilities. Baggies are provided on the docks.
For safety reasons, rollerblading, skateboarding, bicycle or scooter riding is not permitted on GVHA | 35 |
Recap: Ill-Focused Borussia Dortmund Fall to Disciplined Ein<|fim_middle|>ussia dortmund eintracht frankfurt | tracht
Borussia Dortmund have lost further ground in the table after suffering a 2-1 defeat on the road to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
(Alex Grimm/Bongarts/Getty Images)
We've seen this story before: the 2016 Hinrunde Borussia Dortmund squad plays a match in which Julian Weigl is negated by the opponent, can't break down the opposition and allows goals in which the back line looks asleep.
Goals by Szabolcs Huszti and Haris Seferovic lifted the Eagles to a 2-1 victory over the Ruhr side who dominated possession but were unable to find many gaps in the Eintracht defence. Although BVB limited Frankfurt in the first half, they allowed two goals in situations that tend to showed the team wasn't focused.
The match began normally enough: Dortmund lined up with Sokratis Papastathopoulos and the recently steady Matthias Ginter at centre-back with veterans Marcel Schmelzer and Lukasz Piszczek flanking them. Regulars Julian Weigl, Mario Götze and Götze Castro patrolled the midfield with a front three of André Schürrle, Pierre-Emerick Aubemyang and maybe the lone surprise, Adrian Ramos. The Borussen arguably had the better of the chances in the first half, including a majority of the possession and an Aubameyang shot wide of the post after a nifty flick to get past his marker.
The second half opened with a goal just 18 second after kick-off. Marcel Schmelzer failed to intercept a pass to Timothy Chandler, as the captain left the inside lane open. An unmarked Szabolcs Huszti fired a shot past Roman Weidenfeller. After Marco Reus, Sebastian Rode and Ousmane Dembélé came on as substitutes, Aubameyang
After Marco Reus, Sebastian Rode and Ousmane Dembélé came on as substitutes, Aubameyang connected with a Dembélé cross from the right wing in the 78th minute to level the score, but Frankfurt striker Haris Seferović immediately answered Dortmund's goal, beating a lethargic Weidenfeller from just outside the penalty area to reclaim the lead.
Should you judge the match solely on possession percentage, it might be assumed that Die Schwarzgelben were more confident on the ball and largely controlled the match. To the contrary, Eintracht frustrated and annoyed BVB in the attacking third which led to poorly weighted passes, rushed decision-making and a cumulative lack of flow in their attack. The Dortmund midfield spent much of its time shifting to receive passes from the back line, then playing lateral or passes back to create space which usually didn't materialise. Ramos added little to the attack despite the occasional threat of a large, physical target. He failed to place a shot on target and completed a mere 9 of his 16 pass attempts.
A worrying trend for Borussia Dortmund is the successful tactic of Bundesliga opponents using pressure and physical play to neutralise Weigl in midfield. Without the threat of İlkay Gündoğan, Weigl has been less effective in boosting his club's build-up play.
(DANIEL ROLAND/AFP/Getty Images)
This is problematic on two fronts. First, Dortmund's possession game hinges on Weigl's steady passing play and good decision making. His link to the attacking options makes the system work. Second, as was evident today in Frankfurt, he doesn't bring much protection for the back line. He has a small frame and doesn't try to win the ball back with regularity. Therefore, when he isn't adding as much to build-up and possession, his defensive limitations exacerbate his ineffectiveness. Perhaps this is why Tuchel brought on Rode. If Weigl wasn't offering much on either front, Rode could at least bring some intensity to help protect the defence.
Eintracht Frankfurt won this match by playing within their identity: they played in a well-organised fashion, limited their opponent's attack where possible and broke fiercely on the counter. Without Omar Mascarell, one of the keys to the Frankfurt build-up, the Eagles still made the best of the opportunities they created. Niko Kovac looks more and more competent by the week and his club's results will continue to raise eyebrows around the Bundesliga and Europe.
Mixed-Zone Interviews: Eintracht Frankfurt – Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund continue to be a bit of an enigma. They fly high against the likes of Bayern and Real Madrid yet appear disinterested or lackadaisical against sides like Ingolstadt, Leipzig and Frankfurt. This is understandable for a team composed of such young players but at times feels a little lacking after the spirited play in the Klopp era.
Especially on the road the Black and Yellows suffered by their lack of aggression, as they conceded 11 of 14 goals away from the Westfalenstadion. After Matchday 12, the Ruhr side stand with 21 points, 9 off the pace of Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig.
Tags bor | 1,055 |
An apartment in<|fim_middle|> the residential complex.
You can see more apartments for sale in Munich elsewhere on our website. | a new residential complex.
The residential complex includes apartments of 25 different types ranging from 28 to 94 m² and underground parking.
The cost of apartments is from 259,900 €.
There is a possibility to purchase parking spaces which cost 44,900 € for one parking space.
Additional cost option for buyers: three optimal design concepts for apartments to choose from (including fully furnished).
The building was completely renovated in 2012.
The ceiling height is more than 5 meters.
The property is located a few minutes walk from the center of Munich, the largest city of Bavaria with a population of more than 1,500,000 people.
Modern Munich is not only a concentration of cultural and museum values, but also a major industrial and research center, and also the IT capital of Germany.
The city is famous for its brewing traditions. There are six large breweries here that supply beer to the famous Oktoberfest.
There are supermarkets and food shops, cafes and restaurants, a night club and a casino, a cinema, a park, hospitals, an educational center in a walking distance from | 238 |
Westinghouse WR8 "Columaire"
Tube Lineup: 24, 24, 27, 24, 24, 27, 45, 45, 80
The WR8 "Columaire" cabinet is a magnificent example of Art Deco skyscraper styling designed by Raymond Loewy and was advertised as a versatile piece of furniture that only occupied one square foot of floor space.
The WR8 has a built-in Westinghouse electric clock with an unique movement. The seconds hand moves like a ticking clock, but is really operated by an AC motor with gearing that abruptly advances once a second. There's an interesting little lever above the clock hands for setting the amount of minutes that the AC power can go out without stopping the clock. For instance, setting the lever to 2 minutes means if the total power outage times are within 2 minutes then the clock will resume operation once power is restored, otherwise the mechanical timer inside the clock counts down and stops the motor from starting up again to alert the user that the clock has to be reset.
The radio is a RCA Radiola 82 and is a two-piece chassis for the receiver and power supply/amplifier. The chassis were originally designed to be mounted horizontally and Westinghouse mounted them vertically to fit in the cabinet. Filament sag was evidently a concern with the 45 audio output tubes and the 80 rectifier. A socket strip was mounted<|fim_middle|> subtle on mine than other original examples but I like how it came out. The radio had signs of repairs done in the past and unfortunately had bad interstage and audio output transformers. The Hammond 124A (10K primary and 90K secondary impedance) and 125E universal tube output transformer worked well for replacing the interstage and audio output transformers respectively. | on the side of the cabinet seen at the bottom right of the rear view image below so these tubes could be inserted vertically. Long wires connect this strip of sockets to the original sockets on the chassis and looks like an amateur solution but is straight from the factory! The WR8 was originally offered for $193 without the remote and $259 with the remote. WR8 radios are not very common and the remote version is even less common.
I purchased the radio locally from a lady who held onto it for 34 years before posting it on Craigslist in Austin, Texas. My example had been refinished in all mahogany and was not the correct original finish. The original finish was two-tone with dark walnut on the sides and the center strip was a light maple color. I stripped and refinished the cabinet with special walnut on the sides and plain urethane with no stain for the center piece. The two-tone contrast is more | 189 |
How AI is changing office suites
Review: Windows 10 October 2018 Update delivers modest but useful tweaks
AR and VR bring a new twist to collaboration
Get to know the Premier 100 Class of 2017
National Library launches 'enormous' archive of Australia's Internet
By George Nott
"The Australian Web Archive [AWA] is one of the biggest in the world. And when we say big, we mean enormous," says director general of the National Library of Australia, Dr Marie-Louise Ayres.
The new archive, which launched last week, contains around 600 terabytes of data across 9 billion records. In bookshelf terms; if the records were printed and stacked they would stretch from Canberra to Cairns.
The archive contains thousands of .au domain web pages – some still popular and others defunct – allowing users to see how they looked at different points in time from 1996 to the present.
The project has been some 20 years in the making, with the archive's functionality developed over the last two years by National Library's small technology team, led by chief information officer David Wong.
"The sites have been collected form when the Internet was more or less born," Wong says. "They're all preserved in perpetuity so the intention is to have them available forever."
While the concept will be familiar to users of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which was launched in 2001, the AWA features significantly more functionality as it is fully text-searchable.
To discover pages in the Wayback Machine, users need to know the URL. With AWA, they can find content via a Google-like search built in-house by Wong's team.
"You can type in a search term and find sites with that term on there. It makes content a hell of a lot more accessible and discoverable. It's a very compelling feature," Wong explains.
Collecting what's important tomorrow, today
The National Library was one of the first organisations of its kind globally to build an Internet archive.
The collection and storage of web pages began in 1996, when library curators picked out 'sites of significance' for archiving, forming the PANDORA Web Archive. Later, all government websites were included in the collection effort, in the Australian Government Web Archive.
"It was really good foresight. A lot of the sites you see disappeared many years ago. We're grateful to our predecessors for having the idea and carrying it out," Wong says.
In 2005, the library began doing an annual 'bulk harvest' of all sites on the .au domain. The harvest involves web crawlers,internet bots which browse the web and index the pages.
Although the bulk harvest means the collection is a truer picture of Australia online, the volumes involved make the repository much harder to browse.
"It's our most complex search project we've done to date," Wong says.
Four of the library's developers used their own and open source code, to allow for text searches of the repository.
The Computerworld Australia site as it looked in 1999
"We used our version of Google's PageRank algorithm and<|fim_middle|> a challenge collecting what's important tomorrow, today," Wong says.
The method of harvesting could also adapt.
"There's so much content on the web, we're going to have to explore other mechanisms for capturing using machine learning and artificial intelligence, but right now we have curators playing that role and doing it very effectively," Wong adds.
Custodians of history
The archive of Australia's internet activity is expected to be a key resource to future historians and researchers.
"[We are] building the foundations for the next 100 years. When people want to find out about today, what happens today, rather than accessing digitised books and journals and newspapers they're going to want to find out what was on Twitter, what was on news sites and in the comments section. It's going to be based on content on the web," says Wong.
The National Library considers the effort part of its responsibility as "custodians of Australian history," says Ayres.
"For those of us who lived and worked before the dawn of the website, it's a fascinating reminder of how much things have changed. For those who've never known a world without the web, it's a remarkable history lesson," she said. | we offer some Bayesian filtering and machine learning. It took us quite some time to come up with that algorithm, and tuning over many months," says Wong.
The team also used machine learning-based image recognition to identify and delete pages with pornographic material displayed.
"We had to think of ways of suppressing the noise and the junk but also provide users with what they want. We used a few techniques combined," says Wong.
The size of the repository presented significant challenges. The team had experience with such problems having developed the Trove service,an interface launched in 2008 to search more than 90 million items from libraries, museums, archives, repositories and other research organisations. The AWA is accessible via Trove, which can draw up to 70,000 users a day.
"We had to modify the approach and implement a new solution, because when you look at the Web Archive it's got a much larger corpus, but we expect the user base to be lower. We had to rearchitect the solution to suit the content. We had to invert the design," Wong explains.
"Our servers are specially configured to run the service. With Trove, the servers have lots of RAM and then for the Web Archive it's the other way round mdash; there's less RAM and more for disk," Wong adds.
For the medium term, the archive will remain in the library's on-premises servers, but could move to the cloud as it expands.
"Going forward it's going to be | 307 |
IOD-3 Amber ready for first UK satellite launch
AAC Clyde Space's has shipped the small satellite IOD-3 Amber™ to the launch site Cornwall Spaceport where it has been prepared for launch on a Virgin Orbit launch vehicle, the first ever launch from UK soil. The launch is planned to take place before year-end.
IOD-3 Amber forms part of the Satellite Applications Catapult's In-Orbit Demonstration<|fim_middle|> Horizon Technologies
"This inaugural launch illustrates the strength of the UK space industry, placing several domestically developed cutting edge small satellites into orbit. AAC Clyde Space is proud to have a central role in the UK's development of a sustainable, commercial small satellite launch market," says AAC Clyde Space CEO Luis Gomes.
"Glasgow is a global hub of small satellite manufacturing, pioneered by companies like AAC Clyde Space and supported by a thriving sector across the country. We're building a sustainable, commercial launch market to give these companies access to space from UK soil and catalyse investment from all over the world. As we countdown to the first launch from Spaceport Cornwall, it's very encouraging and exciting to see British-built satellites, including IOD-3 Amber, beginning their journey to orbit from the UK," says Ian Annett, Deputy CEO of the UK Space Agency. | (IOD) programme, which supports UK businesses to rapidly develop and launch a satellite data service into orbit. The 6U cube satellite has been developed by the Satellite Applications Catapult, Horizon Technologies, the UK Space Agency and was designed and built by AAC Clyde Space.
The cutting-edge satellite is designed for communication missions and carries Horizon Space Technologies' AMBER Payload, dedicated to delivering Maritime Domain Awareness intelligence data. It is highly integrated and utilizes in-built precision engineered avionics with decades of heritage from AAC Clyde Spaces widely used subsystems.
IOD-3 Amber will be able to locate and track vessels worldwide by geolocating and demodulating RF signals in a system that can be used to fight piracy, illegal trans-shipments, illegal fishing, and refugee smuggling, but can also be used for other purposes such as detecting and tracking a variety of RF emitters. The satellite will be the first of more than twenty in Horizon's planned Amber constellation.
"The whole team at Horizon Technologies applauds this critical step in our path to orbit. We have been working closely with AAC Clyde Space and the Satellite Applications Catapult for many months now, and it's great to see that our customers are now closer to receiving the unique dataset from the Amber™ constellation," says John Beckner, CEO of | 260 |
This is one of the best items I<|fim_middle|> B decks. Get the whole set! Needless to say, these are as rare as hen's teeth! Price is per deck map.
The ghostly outline of where these were attached to the bulkheads can still be seen on the ship to this day. | have ever found for Luxury Liner Row. "You are here" deck maps from Queen Mary. Given the attitude of the owners of the QM at the time of the conversion, it was always assumed that these plans were simply tossed into a scrap bin, but I am happy to say that they were not. Sadly, though, too much of this great liner went into the trash.
These amazing deck maps are in very good condition considering their age. They are chrome-plated brass with the ship's particulars painted on. Own an intriguing and fascinating part of the ship. Each measures about 47″ x 6″. I can have these mounted onto a veneered backer board, if you would like, at a small additional cost. See the photo for the map in my personal collection being mounted. Needless to say, I know when I find items that make me this excited that other collectors will love it too!
These are available for Main, A, and | 196 |
← Madcap Comedy of Errors
Ice cream (and hot sauce) inventions at the Heaven and Hell Takedown →
My local dance experience has been fairly peripheral, so I was looking forward to seeing Daniel McCusker's This That Show No. 4 at the relatively new Central Square Theater. The show, which highlights the works of local choreographers, should be regarded as a template for an ideal evening dance programme: intermissionless with a running<|fim_middle|>ly titled "in-progress" (is it a premiere or not?), a kinetic male solo — and Nell Breyer's "From the Floor: 5 Studies", a theme and variations with each movement presented singly and that formed a framework for the show as a whole. The latter proved to be the most ambitious, if not wholly satisfying, of the evening's works, and not just due to its multiple parts and use of video. The first "study" was the video "Perspectives on a Dance in Sol LeWitt's 'Bars of Color Within Squares (MIT)'", a brilliant Escher-like play with perspective in which three dancers seem to climb, crawl, and hang down from three squares of the completely two-dimensional Sol LeWitt work "Bars of Color within Squares" installed at MIT in 2007. The remaining four studies provided increasingly diminishing returns as the variations of the central conceit became less and less novel (none of which matched the surprise of the first study), despite an assured solo by Sarah Baumert in mustard ("Study #2"), a gradual increase in the number of dancers, and some fancy but hollow technological special effects in which ghostly shadows of the dancers appear on the stage's backdrop in real time ("Study #3"). The works have a general aesthetic that would not be out of place in an Ok Go video, with its assortment of dancers garbed in a crayon box range of colors, Capoeira-like movement, and bodies sliding and undulating flat against the floor. Although that work doesn't succeed as a whole, it ended an evening that did leave me feeling that I should be making more of an effort to catch local dance.
This entry was posted in Cambridge, dance, FWC, local, reviews. Bookmark the permalink. | time under an hour and a half and a nice amount of variety but with some interesting connections among the pieces.
The majority of the evening focused on exploring the relationships between women, and included two pieces (one by Brian Crabtree and the other a work-in-progress collaboration between Lara Binder and Sheriden Thomas) pairing an older and younger woman and both featuring repeated alternating acts of the older pushing the younger away and then pulling her close. These themes climaxed in the larger ensemble piece "Roots" by Audra Carabetta, which examined the evolution of friendships between women over time that lacked any leavening sharpness or conflict, although the inclusion of two young dancers brought a freshness to the proceedings that was compelling. "Rewind", presented earlier in the evening and also by Carabetta with memorable music by Nick Zamutto of The Books, was more interesting due to its more abstract nature and the interlocking movements of the three dancers, and the odd veneer of detachment, perhaps unintentional, from the constantly smiling trio.
The evening was rounded out by two overly repetitive works by Adriane Brayton — "Here", a light, comic duet between two young lovers, and the confusing | 240 |
'Legal App Store' Reynen Court Bags $3m In New<|fim_middle|>ifio Founder Launches Patent Attorney Network To Leverage AI Drafting Tech | Funding – 120 Tech Companies Lined Up To Join 'Re-Seller' Platform
7th January 2020 artificiallawyer Investment 0
And, in further funding news 'legal app store' Reynen Court has secured $3m of additional financing in preparation for its official first quarter of 2020 commercial launch.
The platform, which aims to make the use of SaaS applications easier by handling issues such as security, gained an initial $7 million funding in December 2018 from Latham & Watkins and Clifford Chance, and other investors.
Prins H LLC, an investment vehicle controlled by Reynen Court founder and CEO Andrew Klein, is investing in this round together with Ventech, a global early-stage venture capital fund. In which case it's perhaps fair to say that at least part of this could be seen as a key owner of the company investing in their own assets.
The company says it now has 120 third-party legal tech vendors that 'are in the process of making their products available on the platform'.
If they did all land on the platform it would make it the largest single 're-seller' of legal tech on the planet – which would be quite a feat.
Artificial Lawyer has heard from several companies that have been contacted by Reynen about joining in, and it's fair to say not everyone is convinced of the benefits to them.
However, that said, if being on the platform gains you even a handful of new customers then it may well be worth it. But, much remains to be seen, especially as to how much law firms will really make use of the applications available – and if the tech vendors are happy with the results.
CEO, Andrew Klein said: 'This additional capital allows us to keep our heads down to focus on on-boarding application vendors and robustly supporting the law firms launching our platform.'
Tech, Transformation & Talent – BCLP's Business Academy
Spec | 399 |
Just finished watching C4 on the Challenger Disaster. The whistle blower engineer<|fim_middle|>. | for the "o" ring subcontractor left his job while his spineless boss (who agreed to the Challenger launch) got a promotion.
Just finished reading "Flight Discipline" by Tony Kern. Lots of good stuff on being a better PIC plus a good chunk on having the courage to stand up and call out unsafe flying/practice/policy in yourself, your peers and your management.
Anyone got any less emotional anecdotes on when doing the right thing was wrong for the career but good for safety? Positive examples would be good too!
Happily, I can offer a positive. I work for an oil major and when they say "safety first" they mean it - safety always takes priority over production.
It's forcefully engrained in the working culture, e.g. every meeting with visitors begins with mention of fire exits and assembly points. When the NTSB (?) report on Challenger came out, we had a presentation on it and were invited to discuss the root causes - and seek lessons we could use.
The current campaign's called "Stop The Job" and stresses that we're not just permitted to stop unsafe acts, we're expected to. In the past, I've seen guys dismissed from worksites for failing to use the right equipment or follow the procedures.
Never used to Crepello .
Man lost an arm on the drill floor , crane went over the side ,near had a blowput and nearly lost the rig in high seas.
All this while slipping around the deck in yer Redwings in a slosh of Copenhagen spit and hydraulic oil | 313 |
Alumnus Burt launches reality show pilot Jan. 1 with deep MTSU ties
Calling himself a "coachepreneur," Middle Tennessee State University alumnus Micheal Burt is a leadership coach of the highest order — bold, demanding and encouraging.An entrepreneur, motivational speaker and author of nine books on<|fim_middle|>enville, an associate professor in the MTSU Department of Health and Human Performance.
"What we're trying to do is find additional ways to bring the book to life," said Burt, a Woodbury, Tenn., native and former high school championship basketball coach who hopes the pilot leads to a full season of six to eight episodes. "When I call people zebras and cheetahs, what I'm really saying is that they distinguish themselves. They look different. They run faster or they jump on opportunity."
The MTSU ties certainly don't end with Burt and Jubenville.
MTSU alumnus Brock Patterson, also an adjunct business communication professor in the Jones College of Business, is executive producer of the show. Other MTSU connections on the show's production include alums Rob Janson, director of photography, and Ty Whitaker, cameraman; and MTSU students Jacob Cleaver and John Martinez, assistant cameramen.
"The process was truly transformational, not only for the contestants, but for the rest of the staff," Burt said. "I had concerns going in if we could make it compelling enough … where a viewer would sit there and say, 'I want more of this!' It was a great experience."
To top it off, recent MTSU graduate Cody Hawkins of Gallatin, Tenn., is one of the five contestants featured on the show. Other contestants are Jason Goolesby of Alabama, Emina Hotilovac of Kentucky, Brandon Maxwell of Nashville, and Christy Neal of Nashville.
"I was very adamant about having a college graduate on the show, because so many college graduates are underprepared when they go out into the workforce," Burt said. "It's not that they don't have the theoretical knowledge. A lot of times they don't have the practicality."
Patterson, who is also chief optimizer of Micheal Burt Enterprises, said the program sprung from a lunch discussion with Burt, who wanted to do something special to motivate people going into the new year. Patterson describes the show as a hybrid of popular reality shows "The Apprentice" and "The Amazing Race" in which Burt uses his gifts as "an incredible speaker, author and trainer" to bring out the best in those he's coaching.
"We're at the point where we want to expand our reach from community to country, that's our goal," Patterson said of the show's purpose. "There's going to be heartache, there's going to be tears, there's going to be laughter, there's going to be frustration. There's going to be a wonderful transformation that happens over the course of the television show. It far exceeded our expectations."
The contestants will compete in three challenges: The Zebra Challenge — Trying to understand what makes them unique; The Cheetah Challenge — Determining how agile and quick thinking they can be; and The Final Challenge: Appearing before a three-person board of advisers to make their pitch.
"Coach challenges five people who have high aspirations for 2014, but are not taking that next step," Patterson said. "He's going to force them to evaluate where they are, determine what makes them unique and what's going to help them stand out, either in their businesses as entrepreneurs or as individuals."
Potential contestants submitted videos about how they wanted more from their lives in 2014 and wanted to be coached by Burt to achieve their goals. Burt and his staff looked at 20 to 25 videos and narrowed the list to five contestants, whose backgrounds range from a former teacher/coach to an office manager.
"We picked those candidates based on their stories, their backgrounds, how bad we thought they were interested in coaching and the diversity of the group," Burt said.
The final challenge takes place at The City Club in downtown Nashville, with a grand-prize winner selected at the end. Middle Tennessee restaurateur Peter Demos, real estate agent Kendra Cooke, and investment and retirement specialist Phil Cavender make up the three-person panel.
"The board represents the world … to get contestants in front of them and say, 'This is why you should have a relationship with me,'" Burt said of the final challenge. "These advisers are experienced zebras and cheetahs in the world critiquing these contestants. They ultimately decided who the winner was."
Burt said he and his staff will be engaging with the audience on social media now and throughout the show, on Twitter @michealburt, hashtag #ZebrasCheetahs and also on his Facebook page. He thinks the show will give viewers plenty to discuss online.
"We laughed, we cried. Every contestant said it changed their life," Burt said. "And it changed our lives. It shows us how we can truly affect people, and it doesn't take years to do it. We can do it in a very short period of time if we just get in the boat with them, and it's that intense of an interaction."
For more information, visit Burt's website www.coachburt.com. | how to improve businesses, Burt is embarking on a journey into the world of reality television to start the new year. And he's bringing several MTSU alums along for the ride.
The pilot episode of Burt's reality show, "Zebras and Cheetahs," will air at 9 a.m. CST Jan. 1 on The CW Network on cable and satellite providers in the Nashville area. (A teaser of the show can be watched on YouTube at http://youtu.be/WhGkGWX8XdU.)
Cameras were there earlier this year to chronicle a two-day leadership boot camp in the Nashville area in which Burt coached five contestants on "how to look different, run faster and be agile in today's concrete business jungle" — to turn them into zebras and cheetahs for 2014.
The show title harkens to Burt's latest book, "Zebras and Cheetahs: Look Different and Stay Agile to Survive the Business Jungle." It was co-written by Dr. Colby Jub | 221 |
In year 5 we start the morning with practising grammar and spelling that we can then apply in our English lesson. We take time for the children to respond to marking from the previous days learning in Maths and English.
English lessons and opportunities for practical maths skills to be developed in science, DT and Geography.
We have daily guided reading sessions to read one-to- one or with small groups of children. Children also have access to our school library and have guided reading comprehensions with one of our lovely teaching assistants.
This year we have continued teaching French as a foreign language. This language teaching is led by the class teachers and is linked to our main topic, par example Charlie et la Chocolaterie.
Year 5 are having Roald Dahl Day to enrich and inspire our love of reading and storytelling.
Homework is set weekly on a Thursday, it is based on the learning from that week and due in on a Tuesday.
<|fim_middle|> lunchtime, but please remember homework is for home time so that you can share in your child's learning. | Year 5 are set project based homework on a termly basis; this may include; a trip to a museum, a comic strip to show cocoa production or a letter to a famous scientist. We have a homework club on a Friday | 47 |
Sowon's Album & Song Reviews
A blog by sowon
A blog made for reviewing albums and songs from various Korean pop artists.
All of the songs are listened and reviewed through Spotify on my PC, so the timestamps displayed are indicative of Spotify's times. If a song is listened to using another service such as YouTube, I will say so in the opening.
Gear used:
FiiO FH5 IEM
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Fx
Spotify set to 320kbps
My K-pop heart
Itzy - IT'z Different
Itzy are a new-generation girlgroup from JYP Entertainment, following on from the success of Twice, one of JYP's most successful girl groups to this date. Itzy's concept was to stand out and be different, and so they have debuted in 2019 with their first extended play 'IT'z Different'. I'm curious as to how Dalla Dalla, the title song will sound, as a member of Itzy was formerly a contestant on JYP's reality show Sixteen, which was a competition to decide who would become part of 201
sowon
Berry Good - Fantastic
Fantastic is a 5-member Berry Good group comeback that marked the last comeback before leader Taeha, would make her departure due to contract expiration. Fantastic features the bubbly and sincere 'Oh! Oh!' along with a range of B-side tracks that I will be listening to today. Having been a fan of Berry Good only recently with their recent 2018 album 'Free Travel' which had awesome songs such as 'Green Apple,' 'Mellow Mellow,' and of course Seoyul's solo song 'Can I Dream Again?' I wa
Cherry Bullet - Q&A (Single)
Cherry Bullet is a new-generation girl group under FNC entertainment, who house artists like AOA and FT Island. Their debut album 'Let's Play: Cherry Bullet' features their titular track 'Q&A' which FNC hopes can encapsulate the public in their cuteness. Cherry Bullet's concept is video games hence the abundance of pixels, 8-bit icons, and sound effects in their music videos, and obviously their music. Today I'll be listening to Q&A alone, but the entire album also has two ot
True Damage - GIANTS
True Damage are a new, virtual hip-hop group created by Riot Games derived from the game League of Legends. The group features artists Duckwrth, Thutmose, Becky G, Keke Palmer, and Soyeon from (G)I-DLE, the last of which also featured in Riot Games' virtual K-pop group K/DA, also playing Akali. As a fan fo K/DA and vibing with POP/STARS, I was very interested in True Damage when they were announced. I honestly had thought True Damage would've been similar to K/DA, but True Damage tur
LOONA (Olivia Hye) - Egoist (Single)
Olivia Hye of LOONA is the youngest member of the 12-member girlgroup, born in 2001, and being a trainee for only a reported single day before debuting in LOONA (or technically getting selected, LOONA did not 'debut' until after the individual promotions). Olivia Hye got her chance to take the spotlight with her turn at the microphone, with the 2018 single 'Egoist' inside the 'Olivia Hye' album under LOONA's name. Yeah, it's kind of confusing but that's how LOONA's timeline worked, t
fromis_9 - Glass Shoes
fromis_9 are a 9-member girlgroup formed through the 2017 reality show 'Idol School', with the name 'fromis_9' meaning 'from Idol School 9'. Today I'll be taking a listen to their pre-debut single 'Glass Shoes' which aims to project them into the hallyu wave, with a soulful and pure schoolgirl vibe, similar to that of earlier Gfriend works. Being a fan of girlgroups and especially ones with bubbly and sweet tones, I anticipate Glass Shoes will meet my expectations and be a song I'll
fromis_9 - Fun Factory
fromis_9 returns with their 2019 album 'Fun Factory' after riding off the success of last year's hit song Love Bomb. The title track 'FUN!' aims to be a bubbly and gleeful Summertime song to bring a cute and playful atmosphere, and who better to represent a bubbly Summer song than the innocent and pure girls of fromis_9! Having been a fan of fromis_9 since the explosion of cuteness from Love Bomb (no pun intended) I've been looking forward to see what fromis_9 come up with next, cons
Apink - One & Six
Apink returns with their 2018 album 'One & Six' and the title track 'I'm So Sick' also known as ' 1도 없어' officially. Apink aims to transition into a more mature and feminine concept over yesteryear's 'No No No' and 'Mr. Chu' hits. One & Six being one of Apink's more recent works at the time of review, the members have developed and grown their vocals and trained their singing to be top-notch over the years given that the group debuted all the way back in 2011. I have hig
EXID - I Love You
EXID's 2018 single, I Love You, marks the comeback of their vocalist and leader Solji, who was absent from previous comebacks due to complications with her health. The five-member group returns with their new single, I Love You, a single that harkens to the themes of 80's disco and pop culture with the overly-engineered synths, VCR effects, polaroids, extreme shots of saturation and color, as well as the amazing vocal performances from the girls. I've been a big fan of EX<|fim_middle|> a lot so having all the vocalist in a subunit like this seems like it will make for a soothing, relaxing, comfortable, warm ballad to listen to when it rains, no pun intended.
Jeong Eunji - The Space
Eunji's EP, The Space, features her next exploration into her solo career, with her new title track, The Spring, a ballad made for thinking about the season of Spring. I am a huge fan of Eunji due to her amazing voice, and I put Eunji as South Korea's #1 vocalist. Her voice is also unique and soothing with a cool tone to it. I can't wait to listen to this EP and share my thoughts on each song. I have chosen to leave out the piano version of The Spring due to it being relatively the same as the o
Ace of Angels - New Moon
AOA's latest EP, New Moon, released November 2019, has officially come out, and having bene a long-time fan of AOA for the latter part of my life, I am extremely excited to check it out. This time around, AOA has 5 members with the departure of Kwon Mina, but if their Mnet Queendom appearance taught us anything, it's that AOA can slay the entire K-pop industry no matter how many members leave. Their title sing Come See Me has been highly anticipated, so I will be sharing my thoughts on not | ID and am gl
SuperM - SuperM
Dubbed 'The Avengers of K-Pop', the Korean pop SuperM is a group comprised of SM's current greatest male vocalists, rappers, and dancers. The group has made their official debut with the release of their self-titled album 'SuperM' with the title 'Jopping' which is described as jumping & popping. I find it cool that SM has decided to create a super group with all the elements of the individual groups together into one. I believe this is for North American success projection, but o
Oh Hayoung - OH!
Oh Hayoung of Apink makes her solo professional debut as a singer in her first mini-album, the lovingly-titled 'OH!', which is cutely her surname. I was super excited to hear that she was making a solo album as I am a huge fan of Hayoung, she's my second favorite member of Apink, closely behind Jeong Eunji, South Korea's #1 vocalist and absolute fluffball of cuteness. I find Hayoung's voice unique with its misty, pillowy soft natural tone and ability to effortlessly reach highs. She blends
BTOB Blue - When It Rains (Single)
BTOB Blue is a subunit consisting of BTOB's Eunkwang, Changsub, Hyunsik, and Sungjae, essentially all the vocalists of BTOB minus the rappers, Ilhoon and Peniel. When It Rains is the quartet's 2018 single, and of course will follow the ballad style that the vocalists of BTOB are known for. I love the vocals of BTOB | 355 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.