question stringlengths 14 1.69M | answer stringlengths 1 40.5k | meat_tokens int64 1 8.18k |
|---|---|---|
Tucson man to run 12 hours to raise money for charity
By: Pat Parris
Tucson man, Dan Heston, will run 12 hours to raise money for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.
On Saturday, a Tucsonan will run for 12-straight hours, hoping to cover 62-miles, all for charity.
KGUN9 spoke with Dan Heston, who said he's never even considered quitting.
"Once your brain tells your body that you're going to keep<|fim_middle|> going to keep going," said Heston. "I'm going to go left hand turns -- NASCAR style -- until we finish, 12 hours later."
This run -- unlike others -- will be at Mountainview High School in Marana, around a quarter mile track. That may sound dull, but Heston won't be alone.
"This time we're going to have a lot of people out there running with us so -- it's going to be a little bit nicer," said Heston.
You can run with Dan anytime between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m January 19.
Last year, Heston was running more than 100 miles in el tour de Tucson, and this isn't the first time he's used his super-human stamina to help feed hungry Tucson families.
"There is a need... There's a need in every community," said Heston. "Some people are economically strapped and they can't afford the food... If there's a place they can go to get food and there's a way i can help get that food to him... I'm gonna do it."
So far in his running career -- heston has raised more than 50-thousand dollars for the community food bank. This month's goal is 20 thousand dollars.
He is nearly 90-percent of the way to his goal.
If you'd like to donate to Dan Heston's cause, or if you'd like to run with Dan, please visit www.communityfoodbank.org/Dans-Run , courtesty of the Tucson Food Bank. | going... You're | 4 |
A non-profit and for-profit company that both supply digital tools to help students and schools with educational resources will team up to create a curriculum intended to help at-risk students prepare for careers. The partnership has been created in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative America, a branch of the Clinton Foundation.
Roadtrip Nation, a non-profit that prepares career exploration resources, and Hobsons, which creates digital tools to help schools with personalized learning, academic planning and post-secondary enrollment tracking, will launch the curriculum via a digital platform for students in grades 6-12, targeting communities with large numbers of at-risk, low-income, minority populations that have historically high dropout rates.
Called the Naviance College and Career Readiness Curriculum, it is a blended learning program that is intended to help students build non-cognitive skills, college knowledge and the confidence to persevere in working toward long-term academic and career goals.
The curriculum will be distributed to 50 counselors in school districts with<|fim_middle|> not have sufficient resources to meet every student's individual needs," said Roadtrip Nation Co-founder Mike Marriner. "This addresses this challenge by providing a personalized student-driven tool that covers a range of critical topics."
Among those topics, Marriner said, are goal setting, self-confidence and planning for college. Along with a number of self-directed exercises, there will also be a series of video interviews with professionals and college students, all intended to offer real-world advice about overcoming life challenges. Different components of the curriculum will be tailored for each grade level.
The program, which the two entities will collaborate to design, is a program of the Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action, which has as its goal the promotion of economic recovery in the United States. | unusually high student-to-counselor ratios. The hope is that 30,000 students will be able to participate.
"Schools often do | 32 |
"Just wanted to say a big thanks to you folks - we love our logo, can't<|fim_middle|> have seen." | wait to get some promo materials created with it. If you're ever up around Ontario make sure you stop by, and fingers crossed that one day our dollar is close enough to par with yours that we can buy one of your great horses. :-) "
"I am so excited! ProbarnManagement.com has a brand new website and blog created by www.stoneyswebdesign.com. Connie does an amazing job and I would recommend her to anyone that is looking to get a new website. She truly understands the equine industry and how to make your website fit you and your needs. She is professional and extremely easy to work with, Thank you Connie Stoney!"
"Thanks for your amazing work on the ARHA site. It looks so good. I am so grateful I found you for this project! Coming from someone with a graphic arts background on top of using many, many website and ad sources over the last 15 years, I can say you are in the right line of work for your talents."
"You are a freaking genius!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE it....The text...is phenomenol ~ PERFECTLY said with few words, just enough for someone to read quickly and making the website address in roan lettering.... I'm speechless."
"That is cool!..love it! I cannot say enough about what a joy it has been working with you!! I am IN LOVE with the pictures....you blew me away....just beyond impressed!!
"Wow. Do you know your stuff or what? I'M IMPRESSED. I'm also upset that I didn't do this (redesign) earlier. No wonder I wasn't high any more on the search engines. I can't believe that I'm already up there on Google...This is unbelievable. From nowhere to the top pages. Thank you, thank you. I'm back on the web!!"
"I have had some nice comments on the RGMDA website, 'professional' was one of them. That is what you do - you make things look so professional. It all looks fantastic. I love the newsletter design. I really like it! Not too southwest...It really makes it 'ours'. Great job, as usual."
"Connie, you are amazing, I can't believe how fast you put this together and how great it looks! I love the calendar, it will work perfect for me. I LOVE the way you have the different background photos behind the logo. It made me want to look at the entire site ASAP to see what was next! Beautiful, entertaining, yet informative! I think it's going to be fabulous!"
"Thanks. You are a pleasure to work with. I just now put in miniature donkeys on google and Frontier Legends came up on the first page. WOW! How exciting. Thanks for your great help!"
"WOW!!!!! Our stats are up over 2 1/2 times the amount of viewers from December!!! Eeebray's new look & major internal searchability tools are really working!!! Our newly designed SaleYard & Herdsire Register Pages once again got a huge amount of the visitors! We expect continued expansion & increases! Eeebray is now global, with new jacks from Canada & England!"
"You have done such a wonderful thing with this site (www.whoazone.com)! I love having the information in such an easy format, and it's all right there. Great site, Great job!!"
"Your website is absolutely beautiful - by far the best equine website we have ever seen."
"I just finished browsing your website and really enjoyed it. You have designed it beautifully, and it's very easy to find your way around."
"I was looking through your website, which by the way is the nicest horse website I have ever been to...."
"I found your site for the first time today and thought it was really awesome."
"Kudos for the best website dedicated to reiners and their riders that I have seen, and I have spent hours scouring the web for sites!"
"...we just love your site. It is by far the best work I have seen for the ranch industry. Very nice job."
"Connie, I really like your website. It is informative and appears to contain some really good horses..."
"You have one of the best equine websites I | 870 |
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Eli Manning isn't the only Giants star who will have a weekly appearance on "Mike's On: Francesa on the Fan" throughout the 2012-'13 football season.
WFAN host Mike Francesa announced on Thursday that star wide receiver Victor Cruz will speak with Francesa every Tuesday at 5:05 p.m.
The announcement comes roughly two weeks after Francesa announced that Manning would be his guest at 5:05 p.m. on days following games.
In addition to the two Super Bowl champions, Francesa will welcome an assorted list of knowledgeable guests throughout the NFL campaign.
Francesa will speak with<|fim_middle|>, Antrel Rolle on Tuesdays at 12:05 p.m. and Carl Banks on Fridays in the 11 a.m. hour. | Troy Aikman on Fridays at 5:05 p.m., Jay Glazer on Fridays in the 2 p.m. hour and Gary Danielson on Fridays in the 3 p.m. hour.
Other weekly guests on WFAN will include Mike DeVito on Tuesdays in the 10 a.m. hour, Terry Bradshaw on Tuesdays in the 11 a.m. hour | 82 |
Some thoughts on Godzilla 2014
I'm going to preface this by saying there's bound to be spoilers ahead. If that thought bothers you, avert your eyes.
That said, this isn't going to be a review or a recap. Just a few thoughts I took away from my screening of the new Godzilla film. I'll start out by saying that overall I enjoyed the film. It's not a Toho Godzilla film, but it's not the Tri-Star Godzilla either. This Godzilla is kind of it's own monster (ha!) and if you go in with that in mind, and you're a fan of kaiju, you're bound to find something you'll like.
The monsters look great...when you can see them. I'm not 100% in love with the design of Godzilla, but it is growing on me. At the very least, it's clearly in the tradition and completely recognizable as a Godzilla. The movement is great and I especially liked how expressive the face and tail were. I really loved when he had to stop and catch his breath while fighting off the MUTOs. It gave the character a bit of vulnerability that I think worked well. The MUTOs were pretty cool, but I couldn't help be reminded of the Heisei Gamera era Gyaos especially when looking at the male MUTO.
The battles were fun to watch<|fim_middle|> wishing that this Godzilla could have landed somewhere in the middle of that and where it did.
Record StoreDay 2014 Wrap-up Part 2 | . Loved Godzilla's atomic breath. Loved seeing Honolulu, Las Vegas and San Francisco get destroyed. What I didn't like was the way Gareth Edwards filmed some of the battles. For example, you'd see a big, juicy chunk of action, but it's just reflected in a bus window. Or there's the peep booth window effect where just when things are getting good, a door literally closes and the action fades to black. I'm all for teasing it to add tension, but too often I felt let down that Edwards chose a more artsy shot over directly looking at what's going on.
The human element is kind of a problem as well. For me, the best, most fleshed out character was Joe Brody (played by Bryan Cranson) and he got killed off early in the film. His son, Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is pretty mechanical and barely shows much emotion. The token scientist, Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe,) plays to stereotype, looking shellshocked throughout and warning against using nuclear weapons on the creatures. The military folks are the stereotypical two-dimensional types we see in every kaiju film. Considering the movie focuses so much on the people rather than the monsters, it's surprisingly hard to get very involved in any of their stories. The film touched a bit on the actual human cost of a giant monster battle, which I liked, but, the Heisei Gamera films did it better.
The only other thing I can really think to add at the moment is that this is a pretty dark and serious movie. While Godzilla plays the hero, the mood and tone harkens back to the original Godzilla. It's got a pretty heavy vibe for a film that is based on a pretty silly premise. I think it works, though the sequel ready ending left me a little cold. It'll be interesting to see where Legendary Pictures takes things in that already announced sequel.
Labels: Godzilla, kaiju
Agreed on Brian Cranston being the only relatable protagonist. If they had stuck with his character's story throughout the film, it would have been much better to me. The rest of the characters all seemed called in, which would have been fine if they hadn't been the apparent focus of the story. I kept thinking of the relentless bombast of Pacific Rim, and | 476 |
This is the place that we can reminisce about those three times Australia has been graced with a Beatle on tour. Starting back in June 1964 with the Beatles one and only tour downunder then moving onto Paul's triumphant return in November 1975 with Wings and finally Paul's unbelievable March 1993 trek. We'll also bring you interesting mementos on George's frequent holidays and Ringo's one and only solo visit to these shores as well as Yoko, Julian and Sean's tours and promotional jaunts.
Let's go back twenty<|fim_middle|> was around 15 minutes late. The entire concert went for more than two hours with a smattering of Beatle classics thrown in amongst the best of the Wings material. Unfortunately security guards prevented the fans from dancing and tried valiently to keep them in their seats, though at every oppertunity Paul incited the crowd to get up and bop along. | years to mid September 1975, when there was a small article hidden at the bottom of a page in the daily newspaper that read "McCartney and Wings To Tour Oz!". This was to be taken with a large pinch of salt at the time for we had seen that heading no fewer than four times previously going back as far as 1972. The tour was eventually confirmed in early October and tickets went on sale shortly after. No one, let alone thc promoter, could have expected the huge rush for tickets which prompted additional concerts in all cities bar Perth. The tour ended up being a enormous success which suprised Paul more than anyone. He really believed that he would have a hard time selling out one concert in every city but the truth was he could have set up residency here for a whole year! The tour was negotiated between Australian promoter Paul Dainty and Paul's manager, Brian Brolly and had been in the work's for the last twelve months. Originally Wings were to tour Australia in 1973 but at the last minute negotiations broke down mainly because Paul unexpectedly sacked his then manager, Vincent Romero, who incidently has never been heard of since. As soon as Paul secured a new manager, the concept for a world tour was put in motion and Australian promoter Paul Dainty began to negotiate for a tour down under straight away. Of course the tour was a great success and all the fans and critics alike were ecstatic about the concerts, with the only dissapointment that there should've been more shows. The tour was filmed with bits and pieces used in Paul's 1979 tv special "Wings Over The World". Throughout the tour Paul and Wings seemed to give numerous radio interviews, particularly after the Perth and Sydney concerts. Most of these are undoubtedly still preserved in the archives of the radio stations who did the interviews at the time. If anyone has any radio or for that matter, television broadcasts from the tour we would love to hear about it, so please drop us a line as soon as you can.
The first stop of the tour was Perth in Western Australia.
For the fans out west this was to be their first sight of a Beatle, because back in 1964 the fabs didn't do any concerts over there. When tickets went on sale in mid October, the fans started lining up early the day before and when the box office opened, 8000 tickets were sold in 3 hours!, a record for ticket sales in Perth and back thcn they only cost $7.90 and scalpers were asking $50! Paul, Linda and the kids couldn't even leave England without making the papers. Seerns that they'd slept in or as Paul said after arriving down under "I couldn't find my toothbrush", and Linda smirkingly added "and the eggs wouldn't boil. Anyway their plane waited an extra half hour so they didn't miss it. The other passengers were not impressed. Previous to Paul and family arriving, most of the crew and 25 tonnes of equipment had been flown in and was being set up for their first concert, scheduled for November 1st. Paul, Linda, Mary, Stella and Heather plus their housekeeper arrived on Tuesday afternoon on October 28th. They were greeted by a handful of media and fifty or so fans. Paul was his gracious self and said he was thrilled to be here and couldn't wait for their first concert. The Macca family, after signing the obiligatory autographs, headed off to their suite at the Sheraton hotel in the centre of Perth. Acting more like tourists than celebrities they were spotted the next evening strolling around the city streets doing some sightseeing and as Linda put it when confronted by a journalist, "we're looking for a big juicy hamburger, there just has to be a hamburger in town somewhere". Vegetarians for over twenty years?, doesen't sound like it. When asked about Perth and if they'd been hassled at all Paul said "We haven't been bothered at all. Not like in some cities. This seems a nice place, we're just trying to relax at the moment and maybe we'll take a landrover out tomorrow and push up into the hills". In reality they stayed close to the city the next day and had their first rehearsal in the afternoon and then threw a suprise birthday party for Denny Laine in the evening. On Friday the 31st October, Paul and family went on a boat cruise to Rottnest island which must have made an impression on Paul because later when asked how he liked it quipped "it's the rottenest island in the world!". Oh well you can't please all the people... .Again in the afternoon there was another rehearsal. The next day, Saturday Ist November was the big day - Wings first Australian concert. It was held at Perth's only true concert venue back then, the Perth Entertainment Centre, a wonderful complex for it's time that held all 8,000 ticket holders. The concert was scheduled to begin at 8.15 but | 1,043 |
Above: Wratten 25A Infragram of Hedwigia ciliata taken with a modified Mobius ActionCam and Filter-O-Matic.
This research note from several days ago demonstrated that a Canon PowerShot and the Mobius ActionCam made different assignments of near infrared light to the three color channels.
This research note from yesterday demonstrated that the assignment of NIR light to the R, G, and B, color channels by a PowerShot could be dramatically altered by custom white balance settings.
Earlier research notes have demonstrated that CCD PowerShots converted to Infragram cameras can be fooled into producing photos that make meaningful NDVI images if wildly artificial custom white-balance procedures are performed on them first. Much less work has been done with CMOS-based cameras except for webcams and other similar cameras which generally do not allow custom white balance.
A new player on the CMOS scene, the Mobius ActionCam may shake things up because it allows custom white balance settings. Unlike PowerShots which allow you to point the camera at any surface and push a button to create a white balance setting, the Mobius allows you to enter any value (100-999) for each of the three color channels (R,G,B).
Canon PowerShots (e.g., the A810, upper) and the Mobius ActionCam (bottom) have built-in white balance presets<|fim_middle|>0 photo.
The white balance settings for the Mobius camera must be entered using a computer or Android device connected via USB. You can find the appropriate software here. The values for R, G, and B used for the photos above were determined by trial and error to demonstrate that a particular histogram can be reproduced. The photos above involve only a narrow band of NIR light, and are not taken with infragram filters in place. I have not yet used these particular white balance settings to take Infragram photos of plants, but I took a few photos with similar settings and the results were promising (see top image).
I had concluded earlier that the Mobius ActionCam could not produce good NDVI images because too much infrared light was being captured in all the color channels. It is possible that the auto white balance algorithm was just assigning lots of light to the blue channel, and that the suspected contamination with infrared light was not such a big issue. I'm not really sure what the issue was, but I now have some confidence that with an appropriate filter and white balance values these cameras can make photos that produce meaningful NDVI images. We will presently learn just how meaningful.
Dear Cfastie, Very informative. Thanks for posting. I was interested to know, which method is more preferred and accurate, white balance with your procedure( LED) or using Standard Reflectance Target. Also, how to determine the spectral sensitivity ( spectral response) of the modified mobius camera? I look forward to your reply.
Setting a custom white balance on the Mobius camera can be done numerically. Determining which numbers to use requires trial and error and subjective judgements (my method) or some form of calibration (linking to a known standard). If the goal is true calibration (as Ned Horning has done) then no white balance setting is required and it is best to use RAW image files. Raw image files ignore white balance information.
Measuring the spectral response of a camera requires some specialized equipment (e.g., integrating sphere, spectrometer, calibrated light sources). | . The "Sunny" presets in these cameras produce different results, and none of the built-in presets allows Infragram modified versions of either camera to produce photos which make meaningful NDVI images. The photos above are full spectrum (the IR block filter is removed and no filter replaced it), and the only illumination is from a single 850 nm LED. Producing NDVI from a photo with a histogram like the Mobius one (bottom) with the visible light channel (blue) brighter than the NIR channel (red) yields all negative NDVI values, so fail.
The earlier work referred to above identified particular white balance settings that resulted in meaningful NDVI images. For example, in infrablue Infragrams (e.g., with a Rosco 2007 filter) these settings rearranged the color histogram so that much more light was assigned to the red channel, which was then used as a source of information about infrared light. Much less light was assigned to the blue channel, which was used to represent visible light. It is very difficult to produce meaningful NDVI images without altering the histogram in this way. It appears that the custom white balance capability of the Mobius ActionCam will allow modified cameras to capture photos with histograms suitable for making meaningful NDVI images.
Photos of an infrared field taken with full spectrum cameras (no IR filters). Top: Histogram of a photo from a modified Canon A810 with the standard infrablue (Rosco 2007) custom white balance setting. The golden color and the pattern of the histogram are typical of photos that produce meaningful NDVI images. Bottom: Histogram of a photo from a modified Mobius ActionCam with carefully selected values for R, G, and B entered in the custom white balance interface. These values were selected in order to reproduce the histogram of the Canon A810 photo. .
Photos of an infrared field taken with full spectrum cameras (no IR filters). Top: Histogram of a photo from a modified Canon A810 with the standard super-red (Wratten 25A) custom white balance setting. The blue color and the pattern of the histogram are typical of photos that produce meaningful NDVI images. Bottom: Histogram of a photo from a modified Mobius ActionCam with carefully selected values for R, G, and B entered in the custom white balance interface. These values were selected in order to reproduce the histogram of the Canon A81 | 497 |
Donate NowVolunteerAttend an EventStay ConnectedShare my StoryHost a Fundraiser
Stories of Hope and Giving
A Transformative Approach to Mental Health
Why give to Cincinnati Children's
Leadership Letter
Responding to a Community in Crisis
Partnership Matters
Creating Your Legacy
Studies show you can prevent about 50% of mental health challenges if you catch and address them early.
Artificial Intelligence and Telehealth Help us Prevent Mental Illness
When Kristen's* daughter Olivia* threw herself down a flight of stairs during a school field trip, she never imagined that her child had been dealing with urges to self-harm. But after moving to a new school and facing bouts of bullying, Olivia's mounting anxiety and depression became too much.
"Mental illness isn't like a broken arm, where you put a cast on it and wait for it to heal," Kristen says. "It's a chronic, lasting disease."
Pressure at school, social media consumption, isolation, and family upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are just a few of the<|fim_middle|>. Similar to pediatric growth charts that project height, weight, body mass and head circumference, this innovative research will help us predict patient trajectories for mental illness.
To do this, we're assembling large amounts of data from sources known to play a role in influencing the mental health of a growing child. Our team is looking for patterns in medical records, genetic factors, economic disruption, housing conditions, family dysfunctions, substance abuse, systemic racism and—like Olivia—bullying.
It's a massive task that involves more than 25 leading scientists in nine different research divisions within the medical center, as well as collaborators at the University of Cincinnati, the University of Colorado and Oak Ridge.
"The computer takes in all that data and learns about mental illness in a matter of hours, just a fraction of the time a normal computer would take," says Dr. Pestian. "Over time, trajectories will allow families and providers to take action early enough to prevent the dangers of self-harm and even the tragedy of suicide."
Real Progress Demands Community Collaboration
Olivia has trekked a slow and rocky road toward recovery. She's had multiple stays at our dedicated psychiatric campus in College Hill, yet Kristen believes her daughter's experience has been life-changing thanks to our tireless pursuit to provide family-centered care.
"There were daily family rounds from Olivia's team. I also got updates over the phone every single day, and I needed that," says Kristen. "They did an amazing job taking care of me while they were taking the very best care of her."
Olivia's experience here has inspired her as well.
She hopes to one day become a psychologist, and her dream is to make her way back to College Hill as a care provider.
As we focus on technology-based solutions that make mental healthcare more accessible and prevention more effective, we'll continue to rely on our community of supporters so that our children can not only survive a world of daily stress, but thrive in it.
For more information on how you can support our mental health research, please contact Ashley Titus at 513-803-6593 or ashley.titus@cchmc.org.
*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of this family.
Zeroing in On Aggression to Prevent Violence
Our researchers are developing a screening tool to predict a patient's risk of aggression to prevent acts of violence, like school shootings, in adolescents.
The rise in school shootings and other forms of violence has specialists alarmed. Similar to our Mental Health Trajectories Project, our research experts are working on a screening tool to determine a patient's risk of aggression.
This is the largest mental health study we've ever conducted, with more than 10,000 patients.
Results support the use of a tool called the Brief Rating of Aggression by Children and Adolescents (BRACHA) to predict aggression during inpatient psychiatric admissions.
Our team plans to validate the BRACHA in patients up to the age of 25 to help reduce violence in adults.
"The BRACHA has improved safety and quality of care at Cincinnati Children's," says Michael Sorter, MD, director of our Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and co-founder of the study. "We'll continue working to refine the results to provide the best care possible to our patients."
Support sick and injured kids. Give today. | stressors our youth face today. They have shined a bright light on the mental health crisis, yet the problem has been mounting for years.
In the United States, more than 53 percent of parents and guardians report they're concerned about the mental state of their kids. This startling statistic is why we've become the largest inpatient mental health provider of any children's hospital in the nation. We meet a critical need for kids and teens in our area.
"Cincinnati Children's has always been there for us," Kristen says. "They're committed to providing the care my daughter needed—care we couldn't find anywhere else."
As more kids find themselves struggling, we're transforming our approach to mental healthcare by improving access to treatment and enhancing innovative research to identify children at risk so we can prevent problems from occurring altogether.
And we're seeking dedicated, committed partners to help advance these efforts. By working with donors, the tech industry and others in our community, we can help more kids like Olivia.
Access to Quality Mental Healthcare is a Must
When Olivia began struggling with severe anxiety and depression at just 12 years old, it was a community counselor who first recognized she needed further evaluation from our experts. And while Olivia was able to be seen, many other families aren't—due to challenges like the pandemic, their location, or not having enough local providers to meet the need.
For the last eight years, the Maxon Foundation has helped us expand our circle of care with telehealth programs, connecting our experts to community caregivers and equipping them with the tools they need to help kids stay healthy.
The Maxon Foundation's most recent gift specifically supports our mental health work, helping us educate pediatricians and school counselors to better identify symptoms, provide treatment, or give referrals when more specialized care is needed—before things escalate to a crisis level.
"Early implementation of the telehealth program put into place an infrastructure to seamlessly provide the highest level of care to all throughout the pandemic," says James J. Ryan, Jr., trustee of the Maxon Foundation. "The prescient vision of Cincinnati Children's to focus on the development of its telehealth program years ago is making a great impact on mental healthcare today."
By developing interactive tele-mentoring courses through our Extension for Community Care Outcomes (Project ECHO), we're able to make an especially needed impact for families living in underserved and rural areas, which are particularly lacking in accessible mental health professionals.
We're working to improve access to quality mental healthcare and implement early interventions so all kids can reach their full potential.
"We've seen how Project ECHO is making a difference, but we know there is still a tremendous need to provide better services to people who may have trouble traveling to see doctors in Cincinnati," James says. "Our goal has always been to help this program grow, to show how it can improve lives. Now we hope others will see its impact and join us in supporting it."
While improving access to care is critical in preventing devastating outcomes, we understand it will take effort from all fronts to truly make a difference. To this end, our research experts are leading bold new initiatives aimed at early identification of those most at risk—so we can create laser-focused interventions.
Predicting a Child's Mental Health Trajectory
Studies show that about 50 percent of mental health challenges can be prevented if they are caught and addressed early. That's why we're engaging partners to solve mental health issues right at the start: during childhood.
We've teamed up with Oak Ridge National Laboratories, home to one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, for our Mental Health Trajectories Project. Through the Decoding Mental Health Center, we're working to find patient-specific mental health patterns so that we can identify children with the highest risk of developing a mental illness.
"It's our goal to cure depression, anxiety and suicide ideation through early intervention," says John Pestian, PhD, co-director of the mental health trajectory program, and Professor and Endowed Chair, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Biomedical Informatics | 818 |
A few weeks ago, my son and I were out and about at the park enjoying great company and beautiful weather. My sunglasses fell from my head (they were sitting on top of my head) and they fell to the ground when my son accidentally stepped on them! They were my favorite pair of sunglasses too. A few days later, I was wearing another pair of sunglasses and saw that they were cracked and broke a few minutes later.
Summer can't start without your favorite sunglasses. On June 27, 2018, kick off your summer with stylish sunglasses from Visionworks. Sunglasses are not only a must-have summer accessory; they are an eye health necessity. With 75% of Americans concerned about the effects of UV-rays on their eyes, and only 31% wearing sunglasses, we need you to join the movement and start your summer with your suns. Throughout the summer, we invite you to wear your favorite suns around our favorite sunny holidays – National Sunglasses Day (June 27) and Fourth of July! Visionworks has the largest selection of frames in the industry, making it the perfect spot to find your summer suns.
I received my first pair of Ray Bans! I've always dreamed of having a pair of Ray Bans but never knew what kind of frames I wanted. I received three beautiful frames, including: Ray-Ban Tortoise Wayfarer RB 2132, Ray-Ban Tortoise RB 4101, and Ray-Ban Black Wayfarer RB 4340. I chose all three pairs because they look classy, chic, and timeless! I knew they would work with any style or outfit!
My boyfriend loves the Ray Ban brand and knew I had to try them as well. I can see why he loves them! Since these are my first Ray Ban sunglasses, I can tell you that they each come with their own case and cleaning cloth. The frames are incredibly sturdy, thick, and high quality. They also feel evenly weighted. I am completely sold on the Ray Ban brand. I will be purchasing all of our future frames at Visionworks!
Are you looking to update your sunglasses? Try sunglasses from Visionworks to style yourself chic for summer!
Speaking of my boyfriend, he loves watermelon! It's super cute. I tease him about it. Even when we go to our favorite smoothie place, he gets the watermelon smoothies! Watermelons always remind me of summer. They are juicy and refreshing! Such a great treat on a sunny day!
I chose the Slice of Summer Eyeglass Case and the Slice of Summer Mini Zipper Pouch just in time for summer! I also chose the Midnight Navy Pebble Wristlet Strap to use with eyeglass case or the pouch. The eyeglass case comes in handy to keep my Ray Ban Sunglasses safe and protected! I like to use the mini zipper pouch when I am going out for a quick errand or on a walk! I don't like to carry a lot when I am out walking, especially when I am with my son. I need the little pouch to hold my phone, ID, cards, keys, and cash!
It is so much fun and so easy to style yourself chic for summer with Thirty-One!
I love the Ditty Dot Organizing Shoulder Bag! I just love polka dots. I have a cute pair of pants that would match the Ditty Dot design, even my boyfriend loves those pants (my favorite pair too)! The crossbody design allows me to have both hands free, which comes in handy when my son is with me. The shoulder bag is generous in size and features several pockets! It is so perfect for my busy lifestyle! I like to carry my essentials in my purse, and this bag works for me.
How would you style yourself chic for<|fim_middle|> this would also keep my hands free.
You can never have to many pairs of nice sunglasses!!
I love these sunglasses! I always have at least 5 pairs. These are really cute!
I love sunglasses but have never owned a pair of Ray-Bans. Love the polka dots and watermelons with stripes – super cute.
I love those sunglasses! I want a pair of Ray-Bans! So cool! I am going to see some at the mall!
Too cute! Love the watermelon design . I am a big bag woman ,I would love to see larger cross body bags in these cute designs. Love the Ray Bans ,super sweet! Thanks for sharing!
I would love to have this crossover bag I love the style of it. Thank you for sharing.
That watermelon duo is the cutest thing! I would love that for just my daily glasses! My boyfriend had wanted a pair of horribly expensive sunglasses that broke quickly. I will be getting him these Ray Bans now to try!
I like the slim profile of those sunglass cases.
Ive never yet had a pair of ray bans or fancy sunglass cases! I do believe though that I may find a case for my favorite ones now!
Ray Bans are my favorite, I will check out Visionworks. Thanks for sharing. | summer? What designs and styles are your go-to?
I received my first pair of Ray Ban sunglasses many years ago and I just love them. Someday when I get tired of the sunglasses I already have, I will definitely be buying a new pair of Ray Bans….
I had Ray Ban for three years and they were as good as hell. Good quality and nice price!
I am one of those people that have hardly wore sunglasses. My granddaughter owns a pair of Ray Ban's and I nearly fainted when I heard how much she spent on them!
I used to wear glasses and I couldn't wear contacts. So it was hard to wear sunglasses over my regular pair of glasses. I do think eyes are important! I did care more about my kids' eyes more than mine though. They didn't wear Ray Ban, but they did wear sunglasses.
I would style with the crossbody so I could carry my sunglasses and my makeup | 188 |
Click the button below to add the 25 White Chinese Lanterns Solar | Warm White LEDs Green String to your wish list.
Gorgeous string of 25 Solar Powered White Chinese Lanterns with Warm White LED's - no need for electricity.
Buy online and decorate your home or garden with these lovely White Wedding Lanterns for a soft mood lighting effect.
25 White Solar Chinese Lanterns with warm white LED Fairy Lights - just stunning<|fim_middle|> ordered and will definitely be getting more. They last longer than any I have bought elsewhere. | !
Each individual Chinese Lantern is approx. 7.5cm in diameter and made from a mock silk material (NOT PAPER) suitable for light exposure to rain.
8 gorgeous lighting sequences to choose from including 1. Steady On 2. Fast Twinkling 3. Slow Twinkling 4. Slow Flashing In Series 5. Slow Flashing In Reverse Series 6. Fast Flashing In Series 7. Slow Flashing In Series followed by Reverse Series 8. All LEDs Off. The sequence chosen will be held in memory and will automatically return to this mode the following night unless turned off.
Have purchased products from here before and they deliver the exact item I | 141 |
I'm a product designer at Facebook helping businesses connect with people.
Recently I graduated from the University of Maryland where I studied Product Design & Software Innovation. Previously I was<|fim_middle|> design, technology, and business. It is here where we can solve problems with sustainable products.
In my free time, I like to cook, rock climb, and recently took up drawing. I'm also an avid gamer. Challenge me in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Overwatch, or Blokus. | a product design intern at Bread ― a fintech startup changing consumer financing. Before then I was the director of events at Startup Shell ― a student-run incubator for student-run startups at UMD. Last summer, I was working on Passenger, a company I co-founded with my brother to improve the commuting experience. I also worked with Slide and was a founding student of Make School. You can download my resume here.
I'm passionate about the intersection of | 91 |
It's the time of the week when I'm planning my furbabies' dinner menu. Yep, you read that right. Instead of meal planning for the family, I meal plan for the dogs. They're such picky eaters, and they while they do eat dry dog food, they really just "snack" on it.
Bianca has a sensitivity to almost<|fim_middle|> like a preservative, so after it's cooled off, you can store it in zip bags for the week, stick them in the refrigerator or even in the freezer! I love making big batches, that way I don't have to cook for them EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Delicious, fresh and hearty stew for your furry buddies.
In a large pot add in your ground beef.
Leave the heat on high and allow the broth to reduce - It'll become thick and gravy like.
Once the stew has thickened stir in the puree.
Allow it to cool and serve it to your pups!
You can freeze or refrigerate the rest.
Sandy couldn't wait to try it! and even knocked the spoon and napkin out of my hand! No I was using the spoon and napkin for something completely different!
If you want to give Purina Pro Plan a try go right ahead! In fact you can even do it for FREE by redeeming this rebate.
So tell me, do you cook for your pets? | everything, and ever since she was a pup, we've cooked for her, and it basically just stuck. So this week, I'm making their favorite – Beef Stew with Purina Pro Plan Puree.
1lbs of ground beef – 70-30 is just fine, the dogs need the "good" fat.
When I looked in the cupboard, I realized that I was out of the pouches, so it was time to take a trip out to PetSmart. Even though it's a good drive from us, we prefer PetSmart over other pet stores for a variety of reasons. The main one being, that we know they have the best prices for the things we use most for our girls.
I love being able to go right into the aisle I need and pick out my girl's favorite foods. I had Sandy helping me, but she wouldn't sit still enough, she made friends with a Boxer pup and had my husband dragging her all over PetSmart. It was hilarious!
The girls love lamb, and this one they go bonkers over! Before I can even place it in their bowls, they're trying to knock the bag over themselves!
So you're probably wondering, why Purina Pro Plan right? Well besides taste and an amazing new formula – real chicken, beef, lamb, or salmon is the #1 ingredient found in all Purina® Pro Plan® dry formulas. Yes real pieces of meat is in every bag!
I can't wait to see what it does to my girl's coats! One thing I can attest to is that since we made the switch to Purina Pro Plan the girls absolutely love the taste so much better than their previous dog food.
If you notice in the picture below, the shelves are almost bare! Yes folks, every person I encountered in Petsmart was picking up Purina Pro Plan! How cool is that! My girls are in the cool club!
Once I got everything I was looking for, I went home and got ready to make the girls their stew. What's really cool about this recipe, is that the extra fat from the ground beef almost acts | 430 |
KC Crain named CEO of Ad Age parent Crain Communications
Media company also publishes Crain's Detroit Business, Automotive News and nearly 20 other trade and business titles in North America, Europe and Asia
Published on November 23, 2020.
KC Crain
Credit: Crain Communications Inc.
KC Crain has been named CEO of Crain Communications Inc., the Detroit-based, family-owned media company that is the parent for Crain's Detroit Business, Automotive News, Ad Age and nearly 20 other trade and business titles in North America, Europe and Asia.
He had been president and chief operating officer. His father, Keith E. Crain, remains chairman of the board.
The action was ratified at the company's annual board meeting on Nov. 18.
"We're proud of the 104-year legacy of our company and of the continued leadership from within our<|fim_middle|> the pandemic. The result is an increase of new paid subscribers of 50 percent for 2020.
"Leading the company my grandfather started 104 years ago is a true honor," KC Crain said. "Our audiences have never been stronger, and the growth prospect of this business is really exciting. Our platforms continue to evolve in amazing ways to serve our readers."
KC Crain started in the family company as a reporter for Automotive News and worked through a series of roles, including group publisher, executive vice president and director of corporate operations. The company's brands have been serving niche audiences for decades in print and now digital formats. As president, KC Crain oversaw the acquisition in 2019 of GenomeWeb, an all-digital news source based in New York serving a global community of scientists, technology professionals and investors focused on advanced tools in molecular biology research and molecular diagnostics.
Active in a number of civic and business activities, KC is board chair for the Detroit Children's Fund. He also sits on the boards of the Young Presidents Organization and the College for Creative Studies.
KC Crain earned a B.A. in Communications from Denison University. He and his wife, Ashley, live in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with their four daughters. | family," the elder Crain said. "KC has done a terrific job of steering our company in recent years, including strategic acquisitions. This year in particular has been challenging for many media companies, and KC and his entire team have led us to a successful year."
A companywide effort to increase paid subscribers began even before | 64 |
Kingdom Arts (KA) Festival is an annual celebration of the creative arts and is hosted in Barbados by Islandworship (IW). These exciting events feature creative artistic expression; worship and prayer; and practical teaching about God and the arts and how this dynamic combo can positively influence a nation.
Holiness: Have and maintain a lifestyle of clean hands and pure hearts as servants of the King.
Hunger: Have an earnest and passionate longing for more of God and His Kingdom.
Humility: Submit our accomplishments and ambitions to His will and let Him have His way.
Matthew 6:9-10 – In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom<|fim_middle|> and co-create with Him to bring transformation to the nations.
KA leadership is looking for committed volunteers to be a part of the 2018 Team. These posts include photographers, videographers and general volunteers. | come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
The official music of the Kingdom Arts movement. Kingdom Arts Music is a collective of worship leaders and artists who love God | 38 |
I was very sad last night; having failed to find a supply of purple plastic goblets at Reading Tescos (long story), I decided to make use of the inclusive Travelcard zones and headed out to Brent Cross. For old time's sake, stopped off in Golders Green and went to the noodle place. Amazingly, they recognised me from several years ago.... I obviously went too often! Still, it was good; wish there was something equivalent on the Victoria->Reading track that was open as late... Reading completely shuts down around 6pm. It got me musing about the time I was living<|fim_middle|> converting my membership into a joint membership with Sue, becuase she's been mentioning she needs to do something like this... we'll see. | in London, and remembering that there were some good things and times, but also some bad ones (esp in Golders Court-- hot water stopping, dripping into flat below, falling frontage almost crushing Sue). It's interesting to reminisce, but you have to stop yourself after a while.
Eventually managed to get not only a couple more goblets, but also tumblers and plates from the same range. What we'll do with them, I don't know. But they're potentially useful for taking along to any other BBQ-style events, and actually quite funky.
I have also sold another chunk of soul, by way of joining a gym near work. I've had my fun being smug about not being a member of one, so now it's time :} Seriously, it's a bit of a drag having to rush to get home around 8.30pm *just* so that I can go in, say "hi", and rush back out again to go to the pool before it shuts, or go running in time to have food before midnight. I've also got a price quote for | 224 |
On November 11, 2<|fim_middle|> Style Bar, I wouldn't have been able to do this without you thank you so much!!! Also thanks to everyone that supported even if they couldn't be at the event yet still helped in some form, THANK YOU!!!!
Looks like it was fabulous CONGRATULATIONS. | 018, I hosted my very first event, presented by "The Cave Style Bar", Beard Grooming 101 with Rah Mosley. After initially announcing that I was going to hosting an event, I immediately began planning and assembling my panel of Master Barbers! I also contacted various vendors to be apart of this grooming experience as well. Anyone who's ever planned any type of event knows that anything that can go wrong probably will… LOL! I can honestly say that while all didn't work out the way I originally planned, I was very proud of the event and the turnout!
Mike asking a question to the panel.
After the panel discussion, we had a gift bag giveaway and a live demo from @pyro_the_artist with model @barringtonthemodel.
While doing his beard demonstration @pyro_the_artist also explained in detail each step in the process from using the hot towel on Barrington's head, to shaving his head, lining up and trimming his beard!
Yolanda asking a question during the demo.
My Morehouse Brothers came to support!
Michigan Love, from high school too now & they all came to support me!!
All in all my first event was a success and a great accomplishment! A very special thanks to Rhonda Wilkins at The Cave | 261 |
Home » Boucher's Buckle
Boucher's Buckle
March 19, 2021 - December 2020 Issue No Comments
Caroline Boucher and Julien Veilleux's KN Snap Back winning the 2020 Pink Buckle Futurity Championship. Photo by Olie's Images
Trainer Caroline Boucher was thrust into the spotlight with the 2<|fim_middle|> other riders to follow their dreams, too, because it just might work out.
"My husband Olivier that is even crazy than me, always ready to do something new and always cheer me loud and shake me smooth when I need that. Our team at Ranch Rebel is awesome, dedicated for the horses; we are blessed to have a team like that," Caroline said. "I always say since years to everyone around me and want to share with everyone, keep your dreams alive. It can happen to you as well!"
This article was originally published in the December 2020 issue of Barrel Horse News as part of our Pink Buckle Barrel Race coverage. Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here.
Caroline BoucherPink BuckleprofileSlidertraining
Understanding the Feel with Samantha Flannery
Choosing a Feed for Your Horse | 020 Pink Buckle Futurity Championship, but the Canadian horsewoman has been working tirelessly for decades to build that dream.
Caroline Boucher has worked 30 years for a victory the magnitude of the 2020 Pink Buckle Futurity Championship. Aboard KN Snap Back, Caroline earned the biggest win of her life October 9–11, 2020, at the fourth annual event in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
"I'm feeling blessed— it can be a life change as a person but as a trainer, too. I [have] been barrel racing for 30 years, and it's of course my biggest victory," said the native French speaker of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Caroline has ridden and trained many talented horses in her career, including some for National Finals Rodeo qualifier Tiany Schuster and National Barrel Horse Association champion Edwin Cameron, and things finally came together at the right time on the big stage with KN Snap Back. The mare earned a total $111,732 at the Pink Buckle, and Boucher won $119,505 as a rider, making them the 2020 event's Highest-Earning Horse and Highest-Earning Rider.
"Integrity is important, and we are making plans and dream all together," Boucher said.
Keeping the Dream Alive
Caroline always kept the embers on the backburner alive for her dream of making a living with horses. She held a successful career in the printing industry for 17 years but always trained her own horses and gave lessons and clinics on the side. Though she had many requests to take on outside horses, she was too afraid to leave her steady income behind and take the plunge into training horses full time.
In 2014, everything changed for the Boucher family in the form of a tragic accident.
"My husband Olivier had a big accident in a rodeo and left him paraplegic and on rehab center for few months, and he never been able to return to his normal life as a construction worker anymore," Caroline said. "He can work for two to three hours in a row but then need to rest for few hours. He still not feeling all his legs, but he could walk. In 2015, we bought a ranch and named it Ranch Rebel, because it can let Olivier work when he can and rest when he needed to, and it turns crazy—we had so many requests, so we had to hire employees and I quit the printing and I'm training horses full time since."
Now living their dream at Ranch Rebel only 10 minutes from downtown Montreal, Caroline and Olivier board 38 horses while Caroline keeps 10-15 in training at a time and employs a full-time colt starter to help her ride and train. They spend six to seven months a year at the ranch in Canada and live on the road traveling to futurities in the United States the rest of the year.
Caroline didn't come from a background in the horse industry but has always looked up to the true horsemen and pioneers of the sport.
"'Running to Win' with Martha Josey was one of my first influence. She was in advance for her horsemanship and the importance of horse mental health, and when she explained she was so calm—it works for me when I was young," Caroline said. "Then I [watched the very] best trainers train, and I learn from looking and on my classic background."
She says her foundation of proper riding and a lifetime of dedication to improving her horsemanship helped form her feel for correctness, footwork and soundness on a barrel horse.
"I had a good coach; this is where I learn of feeling my horses and always feeling and understanding how sometime it was feeling good and sometime not," Caroline said. "It's important to know each part of your horse, where it is. This is something I work a lot on our students, to feel your horse. I always liked light-handed trainer having calm and happy horses."
Just as Caroline advocates for a strong rider foundation, she carries that same philosophy into her horses. She believes a horse with a good foundation will find success, no matter what level at which it is capable of competing.
"I really believe giving strong foundations on horses and keep them listening and paying attention to the rider are most important, because not all will make top 1D horses but if they are well mannered, good foundations, they can have a great life and give good runs and experiences and happiness to someone else," Caroline said. "I believe it's the basics that are important—you can build the biggest and luxury house, but without foundation it will fall apart at the first storm."
Caroline also adjusts her riding and training to let her horses work naturally rather than force them into a certain mold. She says allowing a natural headset and way of going keeps horses relaxed and willing yet still able to execute her basic checklist of skills she requires of a barrel horse.
"I like horse that are not pushy in rider's hand, if rider is not harsh to his mouth either," Caroline said. "I don't believe all horses need to have head collected perfectly all the time. Some just don't work being like that; they need to work more naturally. Some [are] low headed and some high headed, but they need to follow their nose, work [in four-wheel drive], balanced, light mouthed, never pushy, and strong forward [from] their hindquarters' motor."
Her expertise and years of hard work have helped change the lives of riders and horses in all levels of the industry, and a spotlight victory like the Pink Buckle has been a longtime coming for Caroline. She says it's a team effort and encourages | 1,180 |
Aston Martin V8 Vantage S and Virage storm the streets of Montreal
Last Saturday I had the pleasure of walking in the streets of Montreal aboard the brand new Aston Martin Virage.
In fact, it was an organized jointly by appointment "Aston Martin the Americas" and the Montreal dealer of the brand "Decarie Motors Inc." for automotive journalists from the Montreal area. a meeting which has enabled us to become better acquainted with the new Aston Martin V8 Vantage S and Virage.
The V8 Vantage S
Available in versions cup and roadster, the new Aston Martin V8 Vantage S comes to offer a little more than the Vantage and a little less than the V12 Vantage.
Engine rating:
V8 Vantage V8 4.7-liter 420 hp and 346 lb-ft of torque
V8 Vantage S: 4.7-liter V8 with 430 horsepower and 361 lb-ft of torque
V12 Vantage V12 6.0 liter 510 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque
Engine V8 Vantage S mates has a brand new seven-speed transmission<|fim_middle|> will close a plant in Oshawa
Toyota Canada: non-compliance with a label tires
Ford presents its robots with laser eyes and suction arm
Chevrolet Camaro Hot Wheels cabriolet Indianapolis | Sportshift II paddle shifters.
The new Virage
Also available in declinations cutting and convertible (Volante), the new Aston Martin Virage is positioned between the DB9 and powerful lightning DBS also available in coupe and convertible versions.
DB9 V12 6.0 liter 470 hp and 443 lb-ft of torque
Virage 6.0-liter V12 with 490 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque
DBS: 6.0-liter V12 with 517 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque
This superb V12 whose sonority is simply outstanding here mate has a Touchtronic automatic gearbox has six pallets II reports.
Interior Aston Martin
All interior car brand Aston Martin are among the most luxurious and most opulent of the industry. So, needless to say that these two newcomers are far from being an exception to this basic rule. The leather seats, textures and woodwork and fixtures colors were chosen upholstery design has to sharpen your senses more acute.
Great agility
Led by Ms. Beth Perrera, Director of marketing operations for North American division of Aston Martin Virage in which the new I sit comfortably behaves with great ease and facilitates high on urban circuit even if such a privileged car First and foremost roads that allow it to run a background process.
For the occasion, the organizers of the event have made a point to avoid the streets a nest-holes.
Aston Martin Vantage #9170186
Aston Martin V8 Vantage #7376204
Aston Martin V12 Vantage #7172526
Ford abandon Microsoft for BlackBerry
GM Canada | 358 |
Q of the Week: What is/was your relationship with your mom like?
Fynn's dinner plan, which didn't actually get made in the end, he opted for soup. Can you guess what it is?*Mother's Day is over, I hope yours was a good one? The highlight of mine was my boys making me both breakfast and dinner, which I thoroughly enjoyed. A brief nap in the sun in the backyard was also delightful!
I know the day can be fraught with many things, if you've lost your own mom or a child, or long for kids, or whatever your burden may be, I hope there was joy in it somewhere. In thinking about all that I got to wondering what your relationship with your own mom is, or what did it used to be? I know it's likely to run the gamut, and changes over time, but I'm really curious. Best friends and first person you call? Brief contact? None at all?
Dish washing is a chore in our house which technically falls to whoever didn't make dinner, but in reality it's usually whoever doesn't put the kids to bed. I make dinner, he puts the kids to bed, and at least half the time I wash the pile while he tackles the kids and wrestles them into bed. Somehow over the years though it's evolved into a wee<|fim_middle|> her two young ones, and another that takes the jump in a few weeks with her newly-minted son in tow. Moving with kids adds a whole other level of stress, my last two moves I was either pregnant or had a toddler. | competition. Not the washing part (he does it more thoroughly, no question, but I get it done faster) but the stacking part.
Is your holiday calendar empty enough?
Today's crafty moment : Glass "bracelets" so we can tell whose is whose. This time of year can be utterly chaotic, with the invitations and obligations tripping over each other to make a tangled web of shoulds and coulds. It can cause tension and drama, but I hope that's not happening to you? My life has changed enough in the last couple of years that it's now easier to follow the KISS principle, mostly thanks to homeschooling. We have a cello party this week, and our own holiday party next week, but other than that the calendar is pretty clear of obligations on our part, and has left room for family and friends to come visit which I'm really looking forward to :).
Holidays seem inextricably linked with food, which makes it joyous for some, torturous for others, and probably a mix of both feelings for most of us. Spending more time in the kitchen, cooking things that you don't make any other time of year, and eating more often and more heavily than usual. It's tough to keep it simple, and for many it becomes a depressing struggle with weight. How is it going for you so far this season?
When's the last time you were sick?
The garbage pail under my desk when I started this post, which was last emptied yesterday …This is an utterly self-serving question, because I've been miserable for the last 5 days with a cold/sinus mess. It's a genuine question though, because when I'm down for the count, it really puts a lot on those around me. I'm the glue, the scheduler, the gap-filler, the teacher, the most-of-the-time cook, the laundress, etc. and when I can't do more than 20% of my usual tasks it gets pretty chaotic pretty fast.
What's your biggest priority on a daily basis?
I read a SteadyMom post a couple weeks ago and the simple point was that her goal for each day was peace. Simply peace. It was more important than accomplishing lots of things, or making fancy meals, she wanted the motive behind the day's choices to be a desire for peace.
To be honest, I first sniffed at it a bit because I thought about all the reasons why that's not possible.
Happy Columbus Day, and belated Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! Hope your weekend has been a good one. It's been a crazy whirlwind here, and I'm still touching down. We had family from Quebec in town for a couple of days, and at the very last minute (around noon today) it was decided that they'd take my boys back to Montreal with them for a couple of weeks. They left at 4:30! I don't think it's sunk in yet, but it might over dinner as my husband and I have a belated anniversary dinner, sans kids. Yay for a real honest-to-goodness-I'm-actually-going-to-miss-them-soon break!!
A Cool sculpture at the Bring To Light festival we went to this past weekend. I think fall has stolen my brain cells, I swear they're leeching away as the sun gets lower in the sky! It wasn't until two hours after D's chess class started that I noticed last week's class in my planner, and realized I never wrote it in for today! I'm not feeling badly about it and am thankful that he was at the library with his dad at the time, so by the time he got home he didn't care all that much about it. Mom forgot, plain and simple!
We spent the day yesterday at the 2011 NY Maker Faire, and to say it was inspiring is an understatement. It's a gathering of inventors and hackers and crazy artists in the realms of science and techology and crafts and engineering and art. There were many hands-on demonstrations, oodles of booths, a giant recycled dragon on wheels, a life-size Mousetrap game, MakerBots printing everything imaginable, a car covered with singing fish, crazy costumes, robots, and sound-activated Tesla coils shooting out real lightning. If you have any maker crazy kids in your house, I can't recommend it enough. I think we all came home full of ideas, and my boys' schooling today is centered around capturing their memories for future use. It was an amazing day.
Tripping Over Strings, and you?
My nephew hard at work this summer with some of his birthday tape …Well, I finally stopped making excuses, and we started school today! It went remarkably smoothly, thanks to some established habits from last year, and I hope the rest of the week goes as well. I do NOT plan on waking up extra early to bake special GF scones for the next 4 days however, the lovely piles of yummy dust they ended up being. (Note to self, do not try new recipes before you're fully awake, and especially not before 4 growling stomachs are dragged to your table to start their day! Spoon bread would be a better name …) To keep the day going smoothly, I have to get my thoughts out in a mere 15 minutes so we'll see how that goes.
Q of the Week : When's the last time you moved?
As I've hinted before, I'm kind of itching to move. In fact, I asked the same question a couple of years ago, and still nothing much has changed around here! It really doesn't look like it's happening any day soon either, but I'm mostly hopeful that it still will. I have a girlfriend who just moved with | 1,190 |
Lifted peppery spice leads into an herbaceous mix of blackberries, currants and cloves. The partial Amarone method produces hints of licorice, tar and leather while remaining fresh and vibrant.
The youthful tannin structure will evolve over the next few years to become soft, supple and smooth.
Bright ruby. Dark berry and cherry compote on the nose, with black pepper and clove adding nuance. Palate-numbing, peppery red and dark berry flavors are nicely focused, showing no rough edges and light tannic grip. Combines the peppery tang of an Old World syrah with the sweetness of South Australian shiraz-a tasty marriage in my book. Finishes with very good cut and length. This is<|fim_middle|> with herbed leg of lamb. Drink now–2015. | delicious.
Impressively textured for such an inexpensive Shiraz, Mitolo's 2007 Jester is a concentrated, slightly smoky, black-olive laced wine. Briny, smoky, savory notes would pair well | 50 |
Films We Can't Wait to See
We've compiled a list of the films we're most excited to see this year. Let's get started.
In the high-stakes pursuit of big-wall climbing, the Shark's Fin on Mount Meru may be the ultimate prize. Sitting 21,000 feet above the sacred Ganges River in Northern India, the mountain's perversely stacked obstacles make it both a nightmare and an irresistible calling for some of the world's toughest climbers.
Inspired by the incredible events surrounding an attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, Everest documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the<|fim_middle|>MSP Films, the production powerhouse behind MCCONKEY and DAYS OF MY YOUTH, is proud to present FADE TO WINTER. Featuring jaw-dropping action from Alaska, Iceland, British Columbia, Japan, Colorado, Italy, and New England, this film captures the spirit of nine skiers who go to great lengths for the sport that they love.
Previous Post:3D Mountain Range Maps
Next Post:85 Years of Hand Crafted Italian Boots | fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind.
Chasing Shadows (Warren Miller)
For the fall of 2015, Warren Miller Entertainment releases Chasing Shadows, the 66th annual winter sports film.
Paradise Waits (TGR)
Media house Teton Gravity Research (TGR) announces the release of the trailer for Paradise Waits, the feature-length ski and snowboard film slated for a September 2015 release.
Matt Hunter, Matty Miles, and Graham Agassiz take viewers back into a world of light and color in the new Sweetgrass Productions film, Darklight. Check out the trailer and look for the release in October.
| 139 |
Indeed embraces the flexibility of open source by migrating to Totara Learn
Back to customer stories
Indeed is the #1 job site in the world that allows job seekers to search millions of jobs on the web or via mobile recruiting, in over 60 countries and 28 languages.
More than 200 million people each month search for jobs, post résumés and research companies on Indeed, and Indeed is the #1 source of external hires for thousands of companies.
Indeed was previously using a proprietary Docebo platform which was no longer meeting their needs. As a rapidly growing company, Indeed found that their existing LMS could not scale with their requirements, and that the platform lacked much of the key functionality they needed to deliver great training across the U.S.
Lacking the features they needed within the LMS, they ended up creating a complex series of workarounds in order to build a solution to work for them, which ended up being cumbersome and difficult to manage.
They realized that they needed a more flexible solution, and conducted user research among their own employees to establish what they really needed in a<|fim_middle|> of 24 courses at a time
Teaching Matters boosts pool of teacher leaders in struggling schools by 65%
Traemand transforms its learning experience for home improvement experts with Totara Learn | new LMS.
Having previously worked with Totara Partner Remote-Learner, a member of the Indeed team recommended they switch to Totara, so they got in touch to find out more about how they could solve their problem with a new LMS.
Indeed quickly recognized the benefits of switching from a proprietary platform to an open-source LMS like Totara Learn, and they established a powerful collaborative relationship with the Remote-Learner team. With the open source core product, Indeed and Remote-Learner are able to work together to add plugins, customizations and more to ensure that Indeed gets the exact LMS they need rather than being burdened with a system that doesn't do the job.
The key functionality Indeed needed in their LMS was a strong search feature. As a job search engine, they wanted this powerful search functionality to transition seamlessly into their LMS.
Remote-Learner built the platform with a front-and-center course search for the learner experience, ensuring people could easily track down the exact learning content they needed based on their role in the company, with Totara's audience functionality used to target content to specific groups of learners.
Opting for an open source solution like Totara Learn also enabled Remote-Learner to build a platform that fit into Indeed's company culture. With so many busy people, employees are used to scheduling time directly into colleagues' calendars for meetings and discussions, so they knew they wanted the ability to do the same thing for training. Employees can schedule training into their calendars directly from the LMS, removing an extra step of admin and ensuring the platform feels like part of their normal routine.
A great benefit of Totara Learn is that Remote-Learner managed to make learning very contextual and customized according to the needs of specific business units, which can be controlled at the platform level by learning administrators and managers.
The learning environment is designed to be appropriate to each user, showing them the training they need to complete as part of their roles, and also highlighting recommended additional training that they may wish to tackle on top of their required activities. This means that each business unit and each specific learner feels as though the platform is speaking directly to them and their needs, and that Totara just gives them what they need automatically.
While it's still very early for Indeed, they are already delighted with the freedom and flexibility they have gained with Totara Learn over their previous proprietary LMS.
There are already over 400 courses in the system, and all the course completion data from their previous LMS has been migrated into Totara Learn, meaning they can continue to assess performance and progress without losing data.
Indeed has already said that their biggest challenge currently is wanting to do explore all of the new functionality available to them in Totara Learn immediately! The great collaborative relationship with Remote-Learner means that they bounce ideas off one another and work toward innovative new solutions together. The Indeed team has found Remote-Learner to be very open to new ideas, responsive and knowledgeable, and both organizations are very happy with the working relationship and Totara Learn.
Following the platform's official launch, Indeed's L&D teams across the business intend to conduct usability testing to decide how to prioritize functionality and UX going forward, and will work collaboratively and cross-functionally to ensure that they make the most of their newfound LMS freedom.
More stories from Remote Learner
Easier course administration for CBD College with their multi-device LMS Totara Learn
Pyramind uses Totara Learn to manage a complicated schedule | 708 |
Represents a double-precision 64-bit IEEE 754 floating point number. On the JVM, non-nullable values of this type are represented as values of the primitive type double.
Represents a double-precision 64-bit IEEE 754 floating point number.
Compares this value with the specified value for order. Returns zero if this value is equal to the specified other value, a negative number if it's less than other, or a positive number if<|fim_middle|> specified that value.
Returns the value of this Double number as a BigDecimal.
Converts this Double value to UInt.
Converts this Double value to ULong. | it's greater than other.
Divides this value by the other value.
Subtracts the other value from this value.
Calculates the remainder of dividing this value by the other value.
Adds the other value to this value.
Multiplies this value by the other value.
Converts this Double value to Byte.
Converts this Double value to Char.
Converts this Double value to Float.
Converts this Double value to Int.
Converts this Double value to Long.
Converts this Double value to Short.
Returns the negative of this value.
A constant holding the largest positive finite value of Double.
A constant holding the smallest positive nonzero value of Double.
A constant holding the "not a number" value of Double.
A constant holding the negative infinity value of Double.
A constant holding the positive infinity value of Double.
Ensures that this value is not less than the specified minimumValue.
Ensures that this value is not greater than the specified maximumValue.
Ensures that this value lies in the specified range minimumValue..maximumValue.
Ensures that this value lies in the specified range.
Creates a range from this Double value to the specified that value.
Creates a range from this Comparable value to the | 241 |
Arrival at Arlanda airport
Airport coaches leave Arlanda airport every 5-10 minutes for the City Terminal in central Stockholm. The<|fim_middle|> from Arlanda Airport, and is specially designed with extra space for luggage. Please visit www.arlandaexpress.com for further information.
Powered by AppInConf | bus ride takes approximately 35 minutes and costs SEK 99. Please visit https://www.flygbussarna.se/en for further information.
The bus stop "Karolinska Sjukhuset Eugeniavägen" (before reaching Liljeholmen) is located next to the Elite Hotel Carolina Tower.
Arrival at Bromma Airport
Airport coaches leave Bromma airport for the City Terminal in central Stockholm. The bus ride takes approximately 20 minutes and costs SEK 75. Please visit https://www.flygbussarna.se/en for further information. Taxis are available outside the arrival hall at Bromma airport.
Taxis are available directly outside all terminals at Stockholm Arlanda airport. Free price setting applies to taxi rides in Sweden since the taxi market is deregulated. Choose the company and car that best suits you, you do not need to take the car that is first in line. Therefore, we recommend you to choose Taxi Stockholm or Arlanda Taxi. Ensure that you receive a taxi meter receipt at the end of your trip.
From Arlanda Airport there is a direct train connection to the Stockholm Central Station, the Arlanda Express Train. The journey takes 20 minutes, cost SEK 280. The train has 4-6 departures per hour | 274 |
As we conclude a week of sharing research and ideas at the IFFS/ASRM Annual Meeting, we also celebrate an incredible milestone:<|fim_middle|> patients seeking ART for family building, contact us! | 5 millions babies have been born with the help of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART).
The International Committee of the Monitoring of Assisted Reproductive Medicine (ICMART) shared these findings at the meeting in Boston earlier this week, and revealed an even more impressive stat: of the 5 million babies born, about 2.5 million of them were born in the past six years.
"The number of babies born through ART is now about the same as the population of a U.S. state such as Colorado, or a country such as Lebanon or Ireland. This is a great medical success story," shared Richard Kennedy, an IFFS board member.
From an agency perspective, we have experienced first hand the boom in the number of intended parents building their families with the help of gestational surrogates and egg donors. As the science becomes more and more concise and the statistics improve at rapid speed, it's become a source of hope for people dealing with infertility. The jump in the past 5 years of so represents a social shift as well – the stigma of IVF, surrogacy and egg donation is lessening as more and more people know someone who's utilized these resources. The m And with guidance from a strong team – a reputable agency, knowledgeable attorneys, mental health professionals and clinics – the process is made as smooth as possible for everyone involved. To learn more about the services ConceiveAbilities provides to | 290 |
devicedoctor.exe may be a dangerous application, according to an automatic analysis of the program's operation. This program triggers many of the "possible danger" flags detailed bellow. It is not yet known if devicedoctor.exe is a virus or an ok program that doesn't cause harm your PC. We recommend you to be careful with this program.
The MD5 checksum for this file is 13f62288a7cbc07aae784d53ff447f92.
This app runs in 32-bit mode. It can not use the full set of features of modern PC chips. This is quite normal because the publishers did not upgrade it to use the x64 instruction set.
The description written in the file is Fast, easy and safe way to update your drivers.
Publisher Device Doctor Software Inc..
Legal copyright notice Device Doctor Software Inc..
devicedoctor.exe appears to have visible windows. This is good because it doesn't operate in some<|fim_middle|> user.
devicedoctor.exe has a digital signature. Nowadays most clean programs are digitally signed.
Digitally signed by: Smart PC Solutions, Inc. | kind of invisible mode. Its activity is clearly shown to the | 12 |
Wilson's World: Previewing Saturday's 'Music For Good'<|fim_middle|> are given the opportunity to adopt angels and purchase Christmas gifts for these children.
Join WCCB's Morgan Fogarty and Wilson, Saturday, November 28th at 9 PM for Music For Good Benefiting Salvation Army Angel Tree, Presented By Harris Teeter, featuring local and regional musicians performing their favorite songs, all to benefit the Salvation Army's Angel Tree and Red Kettle campaign. Watch the show on WCCB Charlotte's CW, streaming on wccbcharlotte.com, in the WCCB app, and on Apple TV, Roku, and Fire TV. The benefit can be seen again on Sunday at 7PM after WCCB NEWS @ SIX.
Follow Wilson's World on Twitter @WilsonsWorld, Instagram @WilsonsWorld, and online at WilsonsWorld.com. | With The Salvation Army
Music For Good, Presented by Harris Teeter, airs Saturday at 9 PM & Sunday at 7PM on WCCB Charlotte's CW
Wilson's World,
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – WCCB Charlotte's CW will air a special at-home concert for the holidays this Saturday at 9PM; Music For Good Benefiting Salvation Army Angel Tree, Presented By Harris Teeter. This morning, Brent Rinehart from The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte talked with Wilson about their years-long partnership with WCCB for the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program, the Red Kettle campaign, and now the special Music For Good benefit.
WCCB Charlotte's CW and The Salvation Army operate the Angel Tree program to provide Christmas assistance to those in need in our community. Families register children age 14 and under to receive new Christmas gifts for the holidays. Once registered, each child's information is placed on an angel to be adopted. Individuals, families, groups, and companies | 206 |
Education Without Backpacks
Free and Open Education for Everyone
About ObR
Ammado
Direct deposit/ Direct debit
Results from the first 1<|fim_middle|>enkova from 137. Highschool "Angel Kunchev", Sofia; Children's science museum "Muzeiko"; Katerina Borisova, director; SEMPERIA FILMS; Andrey Asparuhov, camera; Zdravko Yonchev Photography; BUBU Studio; Magazine 8; BO Studio.
Last but not least - Thank you Ralev for the Logo Design and Superhosting for hosting the website.
Организация и екип | 4 days of our Global Giving campaign
2016-04-05 Khan Academy, News, OBROBR
A big thank you to all 199 of you who collected $ 10,136 for 2 weeks for the Bulgarian translation of the Khan Academy!
As our chairman, Ivan Gospodinov, said these days: "I hope this little story will motivate you to dare and invest wholeheartedly in your initiatives …behind successful young Bulgarians there are hundreds of supporters who believe in their ideas and their successes. Thanks to everyone who supported us not only financially but also morally! We wouldn't be able to proceed with this project for so long, if you wouldn't have constantly repeated that it makes sense. Seeing that people are already more and more willing to invest in a non-profit project, brings us incredible hope for our and other similar projects in Bulgaria!"
The campaign continues with an open end on https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-bulgarian-children-with-khan-academy/
Today the fundraising campaign for translating Khan Academy in Bulgarian begins!
For over 10 years Khan Academy has offered free world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Our cause is to translate, adopt and raise awareness for the world-famous platform in Bulgarian, so more people take advantage of this free resource. Many teachers, like Ms. Milenkova, and pupils, like Vanesa and Petur from 4th grade in Sofia's 137th Elementary School, want to use the platform in Bulgarian, their native language.
We need funds to make this possible. We have been translating Khan Academy since 2011, only via volunteer work and few individual donations. Many students throughout the country already use the 1 800 (out of 8 000) subtitled video tutorials. Several thousand interactive exercises, out of 100 000, are also translated, and we work further with content experts and academics to guarantee the translation quality.
It's clear we have much work to complete the translation of the platform's full content. So we are starting a fundraising campaign to help us fulfill our goals.
With your help, this campaign is only a step in a longer journey, since the translation and quality control of Khan Academy's full content require many more funds, together with volunteer efforts.
Your donation will help Khan Academy content reach thousands of Bulgarian children. Remember that 40 % of them do not have access to quality education.
With Khan Academy we give them a world-class free resource that saves money for private lessons and allows them to have fun while studying. It also lets teachers and parents easily track their progress and help them with their learning.
Let's make Bulgaria part of Khan Academy's global community of 26 million learners!
We will use the funds from this campaign to achieve the official "live" version of Khan Academy in Bulgarian. What remains to be done:
translate the subtitles for and dub several hundred lessons
translate and adapt several thousand exercises
With your help we can do it faster!
How to donate and/or share?
Click here for the Global Giving donation page or copy the link in your browser: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-bulgarian-children-with-khan-academy/
How much to donate?
Every dollar counts! Find the different options on the campaign page.
When to donate?
The campaign has an open end.
Thanks to our partners in producing this video: the students from grade 4 and Ms Desislava Mil | 727 |
The<|fim_middle|>) and the outstanding spas that most of these hotels boast. | Caribbean is a fantastic choice if you're looking for an opulent all inclusive holiday, but St Lucia really stands out for the quality of its resorts and the level of luxury they can offer. Today I'm going to take a look at what makes St Lucia the top option for a high-end Caribbean getaway, as well as give you some information about a few of the island's best resorts, which I've bullet-proofed below.
St Lucia is renowned for being a top spot for honeymooning couples, the island is famed for its romantic atmosphere and stunning landscapes. Its popularity among couples has resulted in many high-end couples-only resorts springing up on St Lucia, where your every need will be taken care of and where you can really unwind and relax. But as you'll soon learn it's not only couples and adults that are well-caterd for here as there are some fabulous retreats for families too.
There are many fantastic resorts in St Lucia - the following are just a couple that I've singled out for their unique attributes.
The BodyHoliday resort is located at the northern tip of the island, with access to a secluded beach where you certainly won't have to worry about any crowds. Among the many advantages of staying here is the access to an excellent wellness centre where you can have a free daily treatment, and having the choice of four fantastic restaurants each day. As an adults-only resort, it's perfect for loved-up couples.
Coconut Bay Resort and Spa is no less opulent, but it caters for families as well as couples. It too boasts an outstanding spa, wonderful restaurants and excellent water sports facilities. However, one thing that sets this resort apart is its water park, which is the only such attraction on the island - perfect for youngsters and big kids alike!
This beautiful village-style resort stands on a virtually deserted and perfectly secluded bay where the views will be something to write home about. Charming and tranquil, the all inclusive experience here includes a good range of water sports and activities galore for couples and families alike. First-class dining options will treat your palate to delectable international flavours while a plethora of water and land-bases sports await active guests in search of energetic pursuits.
Ideal for every guest of every age group, St James' Club on Morgan Bay is one truly outstanding resort catering to the needs of every discerning traveller. On one hand the resort offers a beautiful waterfront setting with seductive room views that provide the perfect setting for honeymoon couples, while on the other, families are also well looked after with a set of dedicated family suites and a superb children's club. At the St James in Morgan Bay no one's ever left out. Everyone's welcome to enjoy the fantastic all inclusive service and the long list of activities and amenities.
The Rendevouz is probably the most romantic of all, this small boutique property is the perfect hideaway for lovers seeking intimacy and seclusion. With a glorious stretch of private beach, the couples-only policy ensures romance is the only thing that fills the air (no noise from overly excited children or teens). Here you'll be able to truly unwind and enjoy each other's company as well as the varied array of entertainment options on offer. Wining and dining are also guaranteed to be excellent.
The biggest benefit of going all inclusive is that everything will be paid for upfront, so you can just enjoy the facilities at your resort and soak up the sun without having to worry about money.
As well as a wonderfully equipped and tastefully furnished room, stunning surroundings and high-quality restaurants, you'll also be able to take advantage of water sports facilities (including activities like scuba diving and sailing | 734 |
MusiFlo
Music from around the World
About MusiFlo
Marie-Mai's Latest Record "Elle et Moi"- A Dynamic Album!
musiflo French Pop November 16, 2018 November 16, 2018 1 Minute
French-Canadian singer Marie-Mai has released a new album entitled 'Elle et Moi" (Her & I). This record feels like the most personal album for Marie-Mai. You can feel the raw emotions, which makes this album authentic.
The music is a mix of different genres: pop, electric and techno. The composition of the songs is impressive. Marie-Mai composed most of the songs along with Oliver Som and others. It's a dynamic album with a complex, but structured composition. The tempo of the songs is a mix of slow and fast.
Marie-Mai's voice is stronger than ever. One can hear the confidence in her voice when she sings, as well as raw emotion and strength. She performs in sync with the music.
The lyrics have a personal touch to them, which makes them authentic and relatable. Songs like Empire, Je Decolle (I take off), and Elle et Moi (Her & I) are examples of empowerment and self-confidence that are inspirational. Oser Aimer (Dare to Love) is a song that gives hope about<|fim_middle|> love.
An example of a personal song is La Fin (The End), which refers to her separation from Fred St-Gelais (according to sources-including an interview on Radio-Canada). Exister is a song that Marie-Mai wrote most of the songs on her own. In some cases, she co-wrote songs with other artists, which is the case for the songs Elle et Moi and Un Pied Dans La Porte (A foot out the door). Koriass and Ingrid St-Pierre wrote Elle et Moi and Un Pied Dans La Porte, respectively.
The album Elle et Moi is now available. Enjoy!
Canadian Music
Published by musiflo
View all posts by musiflo
Previous Post Single Saturdays: Nicola Ciccone- Le Long Chemin
Next Post Single Saturdays: Maxime Malevé – My Saviour
Multi-Genre
Musical Soundtrack
Musical Special | finding | 1 |
Our breakfast team arrives early to open and set up the lobby. They bring fresh snacks for our continental breakfast, including pastries, fruit, and other breakfast foods.
The breakfast team is the first impression guests see of<|fim_middle|>. They work with the worship team leader, pastor, and other volunteers leading up to services to coordinate and prepare for the technical presentation.
Contact Roger Boaz if interested.
Here at the Vineyard we have multiple opportunities to meet during the week encouraging each other and growing together.
Contact Phil Novak if interested. | our community and sometimes the first person our attenders visit with on Sunday mornings.
Please contact Brenda Ross if you are interested.
Youth ministry leaders are committing to weekly small group with our teens at the community center and community activities throughout the year. Our middle and high schoolers attend Nacogdoches ISD, surrounding schools and homeschool.
Vineyard youth ministry focuses on helping our kids share and grow in their faith. Youth ministry leaders give them a comfortable place to discuss topical issues, explore the faith, and enjoy hanging out in a safe Christian environment.
Contact Phil Novak to learn more.
Children's ministry meets Sunday mornings during our regular teaching service. They still get to enjoy our contemporary worship service, then break off for their own kid-friendly lesson.
Children's ministry leaders commit to one or two sundays a month teaching a lesson from our curriculum. The lesson is prepared and includes object lessons, activities, and scripture.
Since many of our first-time guests bring their kids for church, it is important our ministry leaders make them feel welcome.
Talk with Cindy Cox about helping out.
The music during Sunday morning services is a key component to worship at Vineyard Church. The acoustic versions of classics and modern praise and worship favorites really add to the unique atmosphere of our intimate corporate worship experience.
If you are musically inclined and want to participate in our services or just want to jam with our praise team to learn more and see if this is a good fit for you bring your instrument or voice to weekly practice Thursday evenings from 6:00 – 7:30pm, Sundays at 8:30 am.
Contact Linda Stell if interested.
Our audio and visual volunteers are as essential to productions at the Vineyard as anyone on stage. They run the slides and videos, mix the audio, and control lighting during the service. Their attention to detail and familiarity with the equipment, the songs, and the people on stage all go together to set the stage for a pleasant experience.
Our volunteers may be very technical or willing to help setting up and tearing down equipment before and after services | 422 |
F-35 conducts first flight with Technology Refresh 3, the modernized hardware needed to power Block 4 capabilities
Posted by Aviation Articles | Jan 11, 2023 | The<|fim_middle|>6 Airport Operations Questions?
Sweet Sixteen for the California Capital Airshow
FOX TWO, POP ONE | Aviation Geek Club, wprss-feeds | 0 |
A developmental test team from the 461st Flight Test Squadron conducted the first flight of an F-35 in the Technology Refresh 3 configuration on Jan. 6, 2023 at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
A developmental test team from the 461st Flight Test Squadron conducted the first flight of an F-35 in the Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) configuration on Jan. 6, 2023 at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), California.
According to an F-35 Joint Program Office News Release, Maj. Ryan "BOLO" Luersen, a US Air Force experimental test pilot, piloted the mission in tail number AF-7, a specially instrumented flight test aircraft and the first with TR-3 upgrades installed. He executed a functional check flight (FCF) profile to verify aircraft airworthiness and system stability. The 50-minute flight, which took the jet to 35,000 feet at speeds just shy of the speed of sound above the Mojave Desert, marked the start of an extensive flight test campaign. Developmental and operational test flights will continue through 2023 to ensure safety and prove warfighting capabilities.
"This is a significant achievement for the F-35 program, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Mike Schmidt, program executive officer, F-35 Joint Program Office. "TR-3 is the F-35's critical computer processing electronics upgrade that will continue to provide all our pilots with the capability they need to be successful against any adversary. There is still a lot of work to do and I am confident that our industry partners and government team will get the job done."
TR-3 provides the computational horsepower to support modernized Block 4 capabilities for the F-35 including: new sensor suites, more long-range precision weapons, improved electronic warfare features, more powerful data fusion, and increased cross-platform interoperability. These capabilities provide the warfighter a combat-edge to identify, track, engage, and survive against advanced air, ground, and cyber threats. TR-3 significantly updates core processing power and memory capacity, which will allow the F-35 to run advanced software packed with state-of-the-art warfighting capabilities.
"The F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards AFB is proud to have executed yet another first-flight within the F-35 program," said Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Campbell, commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron and director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force. "Technology Refresh 3 modernizes the computational core of the F-35 air vehicle. Therefore, new TR-3 hardware and software affect nearly every aircraft feature. Today's event was just the start of a comprehensive flight test campaign that will both verify and improve the safety, stability, and performance of the whole F-35 weapon system in this new configuration."
"Today's first flight is an important step in enabling future capabilities to ensure F-35 remains unrivaled across the globe. We look forward to continued collaboration with the JPO and industry partners to deliver TR-3," said Bridget Lauderdale, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager, F-35 Program. "Our mission is to provide our U.S. service members and allies with an aircraft that will guarantee 21st Century security so they can deter and defeat threats and come home safely."
The TR-3 program has overcome technical complexity challenges with hardware and software, and is now on-track to deliver capability to the US and its allies starting in 2023. The government and industry team continue to find innovative ways to ensure delivery of critical capabilities to defeat future threats. Lessons learned in the execution of the TR-3 program will be applied across the entire Block 4 modernization program.
The F-35 is the premier multi-mission, fifth-generation weapon system. Its ability to collect, analyze, and share data is a force multiplier that enhances all assets in the battle space: with stealth technology, advanced sensors, weapons capacity, and range. The F-35, which has been operational since July 2015, is the most lethal, survivable, and interoperable fighter aircraft ever built. The F-35 will serve as the backbone of the US fighter fleet as well as 16 other nations for decades to come.
As already reported, Lot 15-17 aircraft will be the first to include TR-3 that is needed to power Block 4 capabilities.
This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. F-35A Lightning II 56th OG, 61st FS, LF/12-5050 / 2014
The F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin announced on Dec. 30, 2022 that they have finalized the contract for the production and delivery for up to 398 F-35s for $30 billion, including US, international partners and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) aircraft in Lots 15 and 16, with the option for Lot 17.
The agreement includes 145 aircraft for Lot 15, 127 for Lot 16, and up to 126 for the Lot 17 contract option, including the first F-35 aircraft for Belgium, Finland and Poland.
These aircraft will add to the growing global fleet, currently at 894 aircraft after 141 deliveries this year. The F-35 team was on track to meet the commitment of 148 aircraft as planned; however, due to a temporary pause in flight operations, which is still in effect, necessary acceptance flight tests could not be performed.
Last year, Finland, Germany and Switzerland signed Letters of Offer and Acceptance (LOAs) as an important step in their procurement of F-35 aircraft and this week Canada announced it is procuring 88 F-35As.
F-35 program participants currently include 17 countries. To date, more than 1,870 pilots and 13,500 maintainers have been trained, and the F-35 fleet has surpassed more than 602,000 cumulative flight hours.
Photo credit: F-35 Joint Program Office / U.S. Air Force
This model is available in multiple sizes from AirModels – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS.
PreviousThe day Legendary Luftwaffe Ace Adolf Galland asked Reich Marshal Hermann Goering a Squadron of Spitfires
NextVideo shows Soviet Tu-16 Badger bomber Crashing Into Sea After Buzzing USS Essex Aircraft Carrier
Quiz: Can You Answer These | 1,419 |
Amazing First Look Teaser for 'Mad Cats' - An Upbeat Japanese Film
"Fear the purr." You have to see this!! Check out the first teaser trailer for a film titled Mad Cats, marking the feature directorial debut of Japanese filmmaker Reiki Tsuno. It's premiering at the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival, the alternative version of Sundance that runs in the exact same town during the same week (more info + tickets right here). "No more depressing movies from Japan," is Tsuno's motto for this project. What should have been a young man's emotional journey to find his missing brother turns into a nightmare when he gets embroiled in a monster cats' revenge massacre against evil humans who abused them. Wait, this has monster cats in it?! The indie film stars Sho Mineo, Yuya Matsuura, Ayane, So Yamanaka, and Michael Aaron Stone. Unfortunately there's no shots of any cats in this trailer, but there's plenty of other kick ass glimpses in this upbeat, energetic 30 second tease. It looks amazing so far! I wasn't sure if this would be really worth it, but with this<|fim_middle|> that it's the budget. Budgets for indie movies in Japan are actually much smaller than ones in overseas. It is very difficult to make something exciting and flashy because they simply cost a lot. I wanted to change that." –Director Reiki Tsuno
Taka (Sho Mineo), a shiftless young man, sets off on a quest to find his missing brother Mune. Teaming up with a quirky new friend and an edgy, mysterious young girl, Taka finds himself taking on a pack of vicious monster cats determined to execute unscrupulous pet shop owners. Why are the monster cats after him? Why was his brother captured? What is the purpose of this mysterious young girl? Mysteries are about to be revealed as the journey leads to a final showdown. Mad Cats is both written and directed by Japanese filmmaker Reiki Tsuno, making his feature directorial debut after working on many short films, and working under director Lloyd Kaufman previously. Produced by Tsuno, Daisuke Urano, and Takahiro Fukiya. With cinematography by Shintaro Teramoto, and Music by Yuki Hotta and Amish Noise. The film is premiering at the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival (running at the same time as Sundance) this month. The film is still seeking distribution - stay tuned for more. First impression? Who's curious to see more of this?
Find more posts: Foreign Film, Indies, To Watch, Trailer | first look I'm totally sold. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for it.
Here's the first look teaser trailer (+ teaser poster) for Reiki Tsuno's Mad Cats, direct from YouTube:
"No more depressing movies from Japan. I had wondered why Japanese movies are so sad, serious, and depressing most of the time. I came to think | 71 |
Enjoy a total body, mind and spirit reset with this indulgent spa ritual that you can perform with ease at home. Using natural ingredients sourced from Brittany, France, the soak detoxifies, remineralizes and hydrates your skin all while calming your body and nervous system. Each use takes you to a state of bliss and lets you emerge feeling reinvigorated and ready for the world.
Provides rejuvenating benefits for your body, mind and skin.
French Grey Sea Salt feeds skin 80 vital trace minerals to promote healthy cells.
Spirulina Algar and Laminara Seaweed hydrate and nourish skin and provide protection from environmental stress.
French Green Clay liberates toxins from your pores to help you recover from exposure to impurities in the environment.
Allows you to take a break for yourself, relax and unwind.
Arrives in BPA-free packaging to ensure purity.
Simple to use with pre-measured ingredients.
One pouch provides one restorative detox beauty experience.
Fill your bathtub with warm water and then add the sea salt. Get into the tub and mix in the clay powder. Soak for at least 20 minutes, submerging your body as much as possible. Rinse your skin well without cleansing. Pat dry and then wrap a towel around your body. Rest under a heavy, warm blanket for 30 to <|fim_middle|> platensis (sustainably-farmed Spirulina). | 60 minutes. Drink 8 to 16 ounces of purified water before and after your at-home spa experience for best results. Use once per week or as needed. Pregnant women and individuals with chronic medical conditions should consult a doctor prior to use.
French green clay (Montmorillonite), Hand-harvested French grey sea salt (Sodium chloride), Laminaria digitata (Wild-harvested seaweed), Spirulina | 92 |
Flour & Rice
Herbal Juices
Tulsi Teas
Sign In & Shop
Free shipping in Ontario & Quebec on orders over $75.
$14.99 Flat Shipping - Rest of Canada
Pickles & Specialty
Two Signs that Every Organic Lover Must Know About
These are two logos that are most commonly visible on products that are sold under the 'organic' label in North America – Canada Organic and USDA. Consumers who demand pure organic products need to educate themselves on what these logos mean. And the rigorous regime imposed on the producers of organic products before they are allowed to display them on their products.
Let's start with Canada Organic. This is a certification that is granted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). To quote from the CFIA websites: "Producers of these products must be prepared to demonstrate that organic claims are truthful and not misleading, and that all commodity-specific requirements have been met."
All foods sold in Canada must comply with two important laws – Foods and Drugs Act and Safe Food for Canadians Act.
Producers and sellers in the Canadian organic space are required to meet all stipulations detailed in the act for any product categorized as food. When it comes to organic foods or products, there are additional hoops businesses have to jump through in order to qualify to win the right to use the Canada Organic logo.
Even more stringent are the steps required of those who import from foreign sources. They are put to a whole range of extra rigorous tests and verification so that the Canadian consumer is not taken advantage of. "I know it was a long and difficult journey, but I am happy we have been able to go through with it," says Sunil Kalra, CEO, Bloom Organic Bazaar. As he points out, "it gives Bloom products the credibility that customers can trust instinctively."
Use of the Canada organic logo is only permitted on products with 95 per cent or more organic content that have been certified according to the requirements of the Canada Organic Regime.
Requirements for imported organic products
"Imported organic products may be certified to the Canadian Organic Standards by a CFIA accredited certification body or be certified in accordance with an equivalency<|fim_middle|> carries these symbols, don't be impressed by labels like "Natural". It might mean nothing in the end!
← Back to The Bloom Living
Sign up for the email newsletter today!
© 2020, Bloom Organic Bazaar Powered by Shopify | arrangement established between Canada and the exporting country. Where an equivalency arrangement is in place, organic products have to be certified by a certification body accredited by that country and recognized by Canada. Imported certified organic products with 95 per cent or more organic ingredients may display the Canada organic logo on the labels. All relevant Canadian legislation would also continue to apply for the imported product."
In the cases of countries like India with which Canada does not share equivalency arrangement unlike in the case of EU and the US, the onus is greater as CFIA insists on evidence proving the organic origins in remote regions all the way back to the Canadian shelves.
The CFIA mandates that all foods labeled organic must comply with Organic Production System whether they are sourced within Canada or brought from abroad. The system is defined as "Organic production is a holistic system designed to optimize the productivity and fitness of diverse communities within the agro-ecosystem, including soil organisms, plants, livestock and people. The principal goal of organic production is to develop operations that are sustainable and harmonious with the environment."
American Gold Standard
The USDA logo granted to qualifying businesses by the US Department of Agriculture too have strict stipulations on who can who cannot display their logo.
To meet their requirement, they must be:
Produced without excluded methods, (e.g., genetic engineering, ionizing radiation, or sewage sludge).
Produced using allowed substances.
Overseen by a USDA National Organic Program-authorized certifying agent, following all USDA organic regulations.
USDA tracks and monitors the products right through their supply chain including inspecting farms and businesses at least once a year. The following actions are taken by USDA to encourage strict adherence to their regulations:
Inspecting every certified organic farm and business at least annually
Conducting unannounced and compliance inspections
Collecting samples to analyze for pesticides and other prohibited substances
Investigating alleged violations on behalf of USDA
Issuing non-compliance notices to operations when violations are found
Entering into settlement agreements with operations, with terms that correct outstanding violations and quickly bring the business into full compliance
Suspending or revoking organic certification if organic businesses fail to comply with the rules. A suspended or revoked operation can't sell, label, or represent its products as having been organically produced or handled.
Now you know what and how much work goes behind each product that | 476 |
Environmental Protection311 Search all NYC.gov websites
Air QualityWatershedEducationResiliency
SelectAbout the WatershedOpportunities on City LandsAssistance for Homeowners & LandownersPrograms for Communities & BusinessesRegulations
Opportunities on City Lands
Assistance for Homeowners & Landowners
Programs for Communities & Businesses
In order to minimize adverse economic impacts to local communities and businesses as a result of meeting enhanced watershed protection requirements, DEP funds numerous programs that help to improve environmental infrastructure—especially stormwater management and wastewater treatment—while promoting and supporting environmentally sound economic development throughout the watershed region.
Expand AllCollapse All
East-of-Hudson Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System
Our East of Hudson (EOH) Watershed has a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) regulated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). As a regulated MS4, the EOH Watershed is required to comply with the Phase II Storm Water Management Plan.
EOH Watershed MS4 Annual Report
Download the 2018-2019 East of Hudson Watershed MS4 Annual Report
EOH Watershed MS4 Interim Report
Download the 2019 East of Hudson Watershed MS4 Interim Report
EOH Watershed MS4 Notice of Intent
Download the East of Hudson Watershed MS4 Notice of Intent
Programs and Practice Measures
The Phase II Stormwater regulations require the EOH Watershed to implement programs and practices to control stormwater runoff that may be polluted.
Stormwater from a rain event or melting snow can pick up and move sediment and a variety of pollutants. Because the stormwater transports whatever is left on our lawns and roads, individual actions make a difference in determining the kinds and amounts of pollution. For more information, visit Stormwater Management in the New York City Watershed.
In the EOH Watershed, the main pollutant of concern is phosphorus. For more phosphorus information, visit Understanding the Phosphorous Issue. You can learn more about pollution prevention practices by visiting the DEC website.
If you observe illegal dumping or discharges into any storm sewers, please call (914) 232-8642 or (845) 334-7185, or email ms4info@dep.nyc.gov.
Wastewater Treatment Plants in the Watershed
Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrades
Within the New York City water supply watersheds on both sides of the Hudson River, there exists a total of 114 public and private wastewater treatment plants of varying age, size, capacity and condition. Some of these facilities are owned by local municipalities, many serve local camps, schools, hotels or restaurants, and still other facilities (six) are owned by New<|fim_middle|> DEP provides funding to many local partners such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation, Watershed Agricultural Council, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and county Soil and Water Conservation Districts to administer and implement an array of watershed programs. DEP also procures a variety of goods and services directly from local vendors and businesses to serve the City's own watershed infrastructure needs. DEP's immense contracting activity contributes significantly to local economies.
Taxes: The City pays real estate taxes on all of its watershed real estate holdings in an amount that exceeds $100 million annually. Given that the City's land holdings require relatively few local services—such as no school costs for children—City land ownership serves to reduce tax impacts to watershed property owners.
Access to City Land: DEP offers recreational access to the City's pristine watershed lands holdings which provide unparalleled regional tourism opportunities.
On a day-to-day basis, DEP staff actively participate on economic development program committees through the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) and Watershed Agricultural Council (WAC). DEP's primary role on these committees is to ensure that proposed economic development activities do not adversely impact the City's water supply and that City funds used for loans and grants meet all appropriate and necessary fiduciary standards.
Two important watershed committees include CWC's Economic Development Committee and CWC's Loan Committee. The CWC Loan Committee primarily oversees and handles requests for business loans. CWC staff meet with applicants and gather the information needed to develop and present loan recommendations, which are initially acted upon by the committee before passing to the full CWC Board of Directors (on which DEP also participates) for final review and adoption.
The CWC Economic Development Committee oversees the management of the Catskill Fund for the Future, which provides different types of loans to communities and businesses within the watershed. This committee also promotes broader economic development and tourism activities throughout the watershed by extending grants to municipal and not-for-profit groups to help fund community benefit projects such as e-business centers, new libraries, and marketing efforts that attract people and businesses to the Catskill region.
DEP also promotes tourism and economic development through its own watershed protection activities. Two key activities include opening up to the public more City-owned lands every year for recreation and initiating a recreational boating program on the Cannonsville, Neversink, Pepacton and Schoharie Reservoirs to expand opportunities for public use and enjoyment. DEP recently revised its recreational access rules to allow public access on many City-owned lands without a permit and this supplements all of the other watershed lands where the public is allowed to hunt, fish, and hike with a permit.
For additional information about economic development programs managed by DEP, please contact DEP Watershed Lands and Community Planning staff at 845-340-7700.
For additional information regarding the Catskill Fund for the Future, please contact the CWC at 845-586-1400 or visit www.cwconline.org.
For additional information about recreational opportunities on City-owned lands, please contact 1-800-575-LAND or email recreation@dep.nyc.gov.
Stream Management Planning & Training in the Watershed
DEP and its partners at county Soil and Water Conservation Districts and Cornell Cooperative Extension work closely with local towns in the Catskill/Delaware Watershed to develop management plans for the streams that feed the City's water supply reservoirs.
Stream management plans provide comprehensive recommendations for managing streams and floodplains to achieve multiple objectives such as erosion and flood hazard mitigation, fish habitat improvement, public recreation, and water quality protection. By 2011, stream management plans will have been completed for all six reservoir basins in all West of Hudson Watershed.
In those reservoir basins where stream management plans have been developed and completed, communities have adopted these plans by resolution which in turn makes them eligible for City funding to implement each plan's recommendations. For more information, see Catskill Streams – Funding Opportunities. Locally-based watershed advisory committees are being formed in a number of stream management basins to advise the implementation of the plans and to help set priorities.
To learn more about towns that have adopted a stream management plan or to find information about local watershed advisory committees, please visit the CWC website.
Download the DEP Stream Management Program brochure
Download the Streamside Living in the Catskills
Working with Partners in the Watershed
An essential part of DEP's Long-Term Watershed Protection Program includes working with the many diverse stakeholders from the eight-county watershed region. Under the 1997 Watershed Agreement and subsequent filtration waivers, several organizations and government agencies are directly implementing programs with funding provided by the City through contracts with DEP. These vital watershed partnerships help to protect water quality while promoting environmentally compatible economic development.
Two of New York City's primary watershed partners include the Watershed Agricultural Council and the Catskill Watershed Corporation. Both organizations are locally-based not-for-profit corporations that were specifically created to assist DEP with the administration and implementation of watershed protection and economic development programs. The WAC is involved primarily with natural resource and land conservation programs, whereas the CWC primarily oversees community infrastructure and economic development programs. Many other watershed partners serve in various capacities, such as oversight, advice, public education, and communication. | York City.
Specifically, 69 wastewater treatment plants are located in the East of Hudson Watershed while another 45 plants operate in the West of Hudson Watershed, including all six facilities owned by New York City (located in Tannersville, Grand Gorge, Margaretville, Pine Hill, Grahamsville and Chichester). The capacity of all these plants ranges from 1,100 gallons to 1.5 million gallons per day. Because many of these facilities release their treated effluent back into surface water, it is critical for water quality protection that all wastewater treatment plants are functioning to the highest possible treatment standard.
In collaboration with the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC), DEP funds a Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Program that includes two distinct components for existing non-City-owned wastewater treatment plants: (1) Regulatory Upgrades, and (2) SPDES (State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) Upgrades. Upgrades of all six City-owned facilities proceeded on a separate track and were completed by 1999.
The Regulatory Upgrade Program helps non-City-owned wastewater treatment plants meet the higher treatment and compliance standards of the New York City Watershed Regulations that go beyond federal or State requirements. The SPDES Upgrade Program helps West of Hudson wastewater treatment plants meet the conditions of their respective SPDES permits.
The upgrading of wastewater treatment plants in the New York City Watershed has resulted in clear improvements in the quality of effluent being discharged into surface waters. DEP's water quality sampling efforts have demonstrated significant improvements in oxygen levels along with reductions in total suspended solids, phosphorus, and fecal coliform bacteria levels.
New Sewage Treatment Infrastructure Program
The oldest and most populated communities in the Catskill/Delaware Watershed were generally built along streams in narrow valleys. These villages and hamlets have small-size lots—many on steep slopes—which make it problematic to install individual septic systems that meet current water quality standards. For these small communities, the costs of building and operating new sewage treatment plants are prohibitive.
The New Sewage Treatment Infrastructure Program provided up to $104 million in funding for the construction of new sewage treatment facilities. The Program has now been concluded. Projects were completed in the following watershed communities:
Sewer Extensions in the Watershed
The Sewer Extension Program provides central sewer service to properties in the vicinity of existing New York City-owned sewer systems whose septic systems are either failing or likely to fail. Since 1998, DEP has been working closely with the following communities in the West of Hudson Watershed to implement this program:
Town of Neversink
Town of Roxbury
Town of Hunter: Haines Falls
Town of Middletown: Village of Margaretville
Town of Hunter: Showers Road
The projects in Neversink, Roxbury and Hunter: Haines Falls are complete. The remaining three projects in Shandaken, Middletown: Village of Margaretville, and Hunter: Showers Road are in the construction phase.
Community Wastewater Infrastructure in the Watershed
Most communities in the sparsely developed West of Hudson Watershed do not require centralized wastewater infrastructure because they rely on individual septic systems to treat and dispose of sanitary waste. However, a number of hamlets and villages—often older, historic centers located along narrow valley streams and characterized by smaller size lots—need alternate wastewater management options that lie somewhere between individual septic systems and a full-scale sewage treatment plant. Two potential options include community septic systems and septic maintenance districts.
DEP is providing over $82 million to the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) to administer the Community Wastewater Management Program that supports the design and construction of wastewater treatment projects in West of Hudson Watershed communities that may be experiencing water quality problems because of failing septic systems located near streams.
The communities potentially eligible for Community Wastewater Management Program funds include the following 15 villages and hamlets, listed below in priority order:
Bloomville, Towns of Kortright & Stamford (Delaware County)
Boiceville, Town of Olive (Ulster County)
Hamden, Town of Hamden (Delaware County)
Delancey, Town of Hamden (Delaware County)
Bovina Center, Town of Bovina (Delaware County)
Ashland, Town of Ashland (Greene County)
Haines Falls, Town of Hunter (Greene County)
Trout Creek, Town of Tomkins (Delaware County)
Lexington, Town of Lexington (Greene County)
South Kortright, Towns of Kortright & Stamford (Delaware County)
Shandaken, Town of Shandaken (Ulster County)
West Conesville, Town of Conesville (Schoharie County)
Claryville, Towns of Denning & Neversink (Ulster & Sullivan Counties)
Halcottsville, Town of Middletown (Delaware County)
New Kingston, Town of Middletown (Delaware County)
For additional information regarding program rules, project eligibility, and application forms, please contact the CWC at 845-586-1400 or visit www.cwconline.org.
Economic Development in the Watershed
New York City plays an important role in the economic well-being of the watershed by actively supporting a number of economic development initiatives. Since 1997, DEP has invested over $1.5 billion in watershed protection primarily in the form of environmental infrastructure improvements. Programs derived from the 1997 Watershed Agreement directly assist local governments, businesses, and individuals in a number of meaningful ways that include but are not limited to the following:
Catskill Fund for the Future: DEP funded the $60 million Catskill Fund for the Future which is administered by the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) and represents their primary economic development program for business loans and grants.
Jobs and Internships: DEP employs hundreds of people in and near the watershed which produces a multitude of diffuse economic benefits, many of which are often overlooked or undervalued. View our Job Opportunities and Internship Opportunities.
Contracting Activity: | 1,277 |
In a year when the politics behind the Academy Awards nominations seemed to be as dramatic as the films themselves, red carpet fashion could have taken a turn for the<|fim_middle|> pendant necklace.
Julianne Moore's Chanel gown was fresh off the Spring/Summer 2016 runway. With a v-neck framed by a cool criss-cross of embroidered straps, the look was unique and elegant.
Margot Robbie chose a shimmering gold Tom Ford column gown accessorized with a long-tasseled clutch. The low-cut neckline was balanced by bold shoulders and long sleeves.
The story behind Saoirse Ronan's dress choice was simple yet touching: she wanted a gown in green, the color of her home country, Ireland. Emerald definitely suits the young star, as she stunned in the Calvin Klein custom creation. Plunging in the front and the back, the strappy details added to the fresh, chic style, which she carried off perfectly.
Deferring princess gowns and simple strapless sheaths for dramatic, look-at-me fashion, these women turned heads and made a statement. Who was on your best dressed list from this year's Oscars? | sedate to balance the controversy. Thankfully, stars followed suit with exciting statement-making fashion. My best dressed list includes these actresses, who each took the plunge in their own way.
Charlize Theron turned up the heat in a scarlet Dior gown with a sweeping train and double spaghetti straps at each shoulder. The look was accessorized perfectly with Harry Winston diamonds, featuring a dazzling | 78 |
Customer Experience, Product and Design
Digital Transformation and Operations
Enterprise Modernization, Platforms and Cloud
Cleantech, Energy and Utilities
An in-depth exploration of enterprise technology and engineering excellence
Keep up to date with the latest business and industry insights for digital leaders
The place for career-building content and tips, and our view on social justice and inclusivity
Digital Publications and Tools
An opinionated guide to technology frontiers
A publication for digital leaders
A model for prioritizing the digital capabilities needed to navigate uncertainty
The business execs' A-Z guide to technology
Bringing the tech-led business changes into focus
Expert insights to help your business grow
Personal perspectives from Thoughtworkers around the globe
Explore our extensive library
Captivating conversations on the latest in business and tech
What to expect as you interview with us
Learn what life is like as a Thoughtworker
Grads and career changers
Start your tech career on the right foot
Find open positions in your region
23 and Counting!
Careers at Thoughtworks Diversity, equity and inclusion Blog
Patti Mandarino
How It All Began for Me
It is hard to believe that I have worked for the same company for 23 years. A situation that is nearly unheard of in 2015 and nearly never in the technology industry. I am both proud and at times embarrassed by this fact.
My background was in accounting. I met Roy Singham, founder and chairman of Thoughtworks in 1986 when he hired me to help implement a lease accounting system. Later in 1992, Roy approached me to join a small team he was forming to create a consulting company. I had two young daughters and about as risk-averse as they come, but something made me do it. A gut feeling. A<|fim_middle|> an option for me, and I interviewed for an open Resource Management position. (Yes, I had to interview!) I was the first consultant to perform the RM function at Thoughtworks -- a tough job staffing hundreds of consultants and trying to find the best fit for both the clients and our Thoughtworkers.
Eventually, I went went on to work in our product group -- Studios -- as an agile coach and trainer. I truly enjoyed the teaching aspect of that role. My daughters were now in college and I had my first opportunity to live and work in another country. I went to London and worked on a large organizational transformation program in Glasgow. That experience lead me to Program Management and where I am today. The challenges of building a structure for coordinating and facilitating a large program of work have been another great learning experience for me.
I've never really had a career plan and as each project engagement ended or as something new was presented to me, I considered my options and took the path that would challenge and interest me as well as accommodate my life constraints.
Would I do things differently today? Not likely. Except for maybe taking a totally different path in college and pursue my other interest, which is nutrition and exercise. There is still time for that during retirement. But regarding Thoughtworks, the path I've taken has been both challenging and rewarding. I've gained domain knowledge in banking, finance, manufacturing, retail, gaming, government, rail transportation and the airline industries.
With my daughters out of college and soon to be leaving the nest, I have the opportunity to drive my career with fewer life constraints. A situation that is new to me. It is allowing me the opportunity to really reflect on who I am now, what I want to learn and do next.
Thoughtworks Has Evolved Too
It's been exciting to see how much Thoughtworks has grown and changed! Although Thoughtworks started with five accountants and no technical staff, the organization has always been driven by Roy's interest in technology and the desire to use it to solve our clients' problems.
I am proud of the fact that Thoughtworks has grown to attract top talent and thought leaders, and I've seen my colleagues grow to become published authors and respected speakers. I've also had the opportunity to speak and write, sharing my experiences in project and program planning and management.
Another thing that I've loved watching evolve is Thoughtworks University (TWU), a 5-week programme which brings recently hired graduates from all of our offices together for a collective learning and cultural experience in India. The program provides the Thoughtworker the foundation and support they need to operate in a consulting environment.
As Roy has always been very socially conscious, it was only a matter of time until Thoughtworks participated, drove and worked to better lives with technology. Along the way, Thoughtworks defined the organization's three pillars: a sustainable business, champion software excellence and social justice. Pillar 3, which is to ensure social impact using technology, has evolved from the occasional free work on a project for an organization that an employee may be involved in to having a fully operating vertical – Office of Social Change and Initiatives (OSCI).
Although we are much larger today, Attitude, Aptitude, Integrity are still the foundation of Thoughtworks. I can't wait to see where my journey takes me next.
Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Thoughtworks.
Keep up to date with our latest insights
Integrity helpline | sense of trust.
Initially, it was a typical start up environment - funded by credit cards, no payroll now and then, working out of a basement, everyone performing both operational and consulting roles to keep the lights on.
The Travel
Initially, the agreement was that I would work three days a week and travel was required. The travel, although exhausting, turned out to work well for me. I didn't have the challenges that working parents have while at home, for example - rush home to relieve the sitter, pick the kids up from school, or prepare a healthy dinner. When I worked away from home, I could focus on work, the team and myself. I was fortunate to have tremendous support at home. We always had a sitter come to the house versus packing them up and taking them to daycare. My husband was supportive and a great father. My parents were close by and regularly helped out with babysitting, chauffeuring and meals.
My Career Choices
My career choices have been opportunistic. The initial work we did was assisting a vendor with implementing a lease accounting package. With my accounting background, this was a natural fit for me. The bigger learning curve for me was on the systems side. As Thoughtworks moved into software development and hired operations folks, I moved into business analysis and project management roles. A natural fit for my skills and capabilities.
Later, personal factors meant that traveling every week wasn't | 288 |
Question: What Are The Functions Of Database Administrator?
What is DBA in DBMS and its responsibilities?
What skills do database administrators need?
What is database and its advantages and disadvantages?
Why do we need a database management system?
What are the advantages of a database?
What are the types of DBA?
What do you mean by database administrator?
What are the main features of database?
What is SQL DBA role and responsibility?
What is a database form and what are its benefits?
What are the functions of database?
What are database skills?
What is the role of DBA write 10 points?
Which is not a function of DBA?
A Database Administrator (DBA) is individual or person responsible for controlling, maintenance, coordinating, and operation of database management system.
Their role also varies from configuration, database design, migration, security, troubleshooting, backup, and data recovery..
Key skills for database administratorsPatience.Meticulous attention to detail.A logical approach to work.The ability to prioritise tasks.Problem-solving skills.Good organisational skills.Communication and interpersonal skills.More items…
one of the disadvantages of dbms is Database systems require sophisticated hardware and software and highly skilled personnel. The cost of maintaining the hardware, software, and personnel required to operate and manage a database system can be substantial.
Proper database management systems help increase organizational accessibility to data, which in turn helps the end users share the data quickly and effectively across the organization. A management system helps get quick solutions to database queries, thus making data access faster and more accurate.
AdvantagesReduced data redundancy.Reduced updating errors and increased consistency.Greater data integrity and independence from applications programs.Improved data access to users through use of host and query languages.Improved data security.Reduced data entry, storage<|fim_middle|> Which Is Or Which Are Grammar?
Which vs What examples? For example: "
Quick Answer: What IPhone Should I Get For 2020?
Is iPhone 7 still worth buying? Best answer: Apple
How Do I Find My Android SDK Path In Windows?
Where do I put SDK tools? Install Android SDK Platform | , and retrieval costs.More items…
The Most Common Types of DBAsWhy split the role?System DBA — Responsible for the system administration. … Database architect — Responsible for designing and implementing new DBMS for business purposes. … Database analyst – This role is somewhat similar to that of a database architect.More items…•
Database administration is the function of managing and maintaining database management systems (DBMS) software. … As such, corporations that use DBMS software often hire specialized information technology personnel called database administrators or DBAs.
Main Features of a DBMS· Low Repetition and Redundancy. In a database, the chances of data duplication are quite high as several users use one database. … · Easy Maintenance of Large Databases. … · Enhanced Security. … · Improved File Consistency. … · Multi-User Environment Support. … 1- Hierarchical. … 2- Network. … 3- Relational.More items…•
SQL Server DBA duties and responsibilities Manage SQL Server databases. Configure and maintain database servers and processes. Monitor system's health and performance. Ensure high levels of performance, availability, sustainability and security. Analyze, solve, and correct issues in real time.
A form is a database object that you can use to enter, edit, or display data from a table or a query. … Providing those users with a form that contains just the necessary fields makes it easier for them to use the database. Think of forms as windows through which people see and reach the database.
The ten functions in the DBMS are: data dictionary management, data storage management, data transformation and presentation, security management, multiuser access control, backup and recovery management, data integrity management, database access languages and application programming interfaces, database communication …
Database skills are abilities and knowledge that are required for database related roles such as database development and database administration. This is a large and diverse area of IT skills that may be specific to a particular type of database such as relational or NoSql databases.
Database administrators (DBAs) use specialized software to store and organize data. The role may include capacity planning, installation, configuration, database design, migration, performance monitoring, security, troubleshooting, as well as backup and data recovery. Manage SQL Server databases.
Here you can access and discuss Multiple choice questions and answers for various compitative exams and interviews….Discussion Forum.Que.Which of the following in not a function of DBA?b.Routine Maintenancec.Schema Definitiond.Authorization for data accessAnswer:Network Maintenance1 more row
Question: How Do You Reply To An Email With An Attachment?
How do you reply to an email with an attachment on
Question: How Much Do Pet Veterinarians Make?
How do vets make money? Veterinarians are generally
Question: | 564 |
Raw sewage released into Thames around Oxford triples since 2018
Samuel Webb
A pair of paddle boarders travel along the River Thames near Donnington Bridge, Oxford (PA)
Oxford's rivers are being polluted with raw sewage three times more than in 2018 because Thames Water's treatment infrastructure is "chronically under-funded", a report claims.
An analysis of data from on spills from sewage treatment works (STWs) surrounding the city by the Oxford Rivers Improvement Campaign (Oric) revealed they discharged untreated sewage into rivers 58 times on average and for a total of 821 hours in 2020, up from 42 spills and 599 hours in 2019 and 19 spills and 193 hours in 2018.
Water companies are allowed to release untreated water containing raw sewage into rivers as a last resort after heavy rain.
But Oric, which assessed data from the Environment Agency, Thames Water and the National Rivers Trust, claims operator Thames Water is using Stormwater Discharge Consent Permits as a way to "legitimise its unacceptable performance".
The report states: "It is quite clear from our analysis that far from being a last resort, untreated sewage is being released into the Thames and its tributaries, every week if not every day, on an entirely routine basis.
"The level of pollution is already at totally unacceptable levels and increasing at an alarming rate.
"In theory, a permit is required before such discharges are allowed. The sheer scale of spillages which are occurring indicates that either permits are being granted on an entirely casual basis or else many of the discharges are illegal, but little or no enforcement action follows.
"Either way, the current regulatory system is not working. Prosecution remains relatively rare. We suspect this is partly due to a lack of resources at the EA.
It adds: "Thames Water's wastewater infrastructure has been chronically under-funded for many years, resulting in the capacity of STWs being inadequate for the populations they serve; a problem which will only be exacerbated by climate change and future housing development."
A Thames Water spokesperson said: "We've received the report and will be looking at it carefully in the coming days.
"We regard all discharges of untreated sewage as unacceptable and will work with the government, Ofwat and the Environment Agency to accelerate work to stop them being necessary.
"We have an unprecedented amount of investment directed towards safeguarding our rivers and streams. Between 2020 and 2025 we are spending £1.25 billion on maintaining and improving our operational sites, including contributing to the health of 745km of rivers across London and the Thames Valley."
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: "Storm overflows must only be used under strict permitted conditions that control their environmental impact.
"There has been no relaxation of storm overflow permits, which set out the specific sewage flow rates that storm overflows must meet before any discharge to the environment can take place. It is an offence if an overflow occurs and this flow rate is not met.
"We will always take enforcement action, including for illegal storm overflow discharges, where appropriate to hold those responsible for environmental harm to account. Water companies were handed record fines last year, making clear that polluters will be made to pay for damage to the environment."
Suspect who betrayed Anne Frank to the Nazis identified after nearly 80 years
Evening Standard·2-min read
Ruth Davidson says mental health history meant she almost did not run as Scottish Tory leader
The former leader of the Scottish Conservatives has revealed she almost did not run for the position in case her mental health history became known. The Tory peer told the Desperately Seeking Wisdom with Craig Oliver podcast she was concerned her medical history would come out when she considered standing for the role in 2011. Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links said she wanted to be able to talk about her mental health "on my own terms" so she could "own the way in which it was presented".
You can't just buy protection from police, Diana officer tells Harry
Princess Diana's former personal protection officer has criticised Prince Harry's legal bid for Scotland Yard to provide him with armed bodyguards when in the UK. The Duke of Sussex is seeking a judicial review of Home Secretary Priti Patel's decision to strip him of his police protection team, claiming it is too dangerous to visit the UK without Scotland Yard bodyguards.
Injured man in Glasgow was shot in targeted attack, police say
A man was found seriously injured in Baillieston during the early hours of Saturday.
Man jailed for 1990 rape of teenager
Paul Shakespeare, now 66, snatched his 18-year-old victim from a footpath as she walked her dog and dragged her into bushes before<|fim_middle|> is ongoing. Dara Nelson, a police sergeant for Colleyville Police, said there were no injuries to report and that officers had evacuated the area. | attacking her.
Paris Fashion Week gets back on the catwalk after almost two years online
The city may still be deep in the throes of the Omicron surge and adapting to the latest Covid restrictions, but Paris Fashion Week will nevertheless launch Tuesday. The industry is determined to get back on the catwalks after nearly two years during which most brands were forced to retreat online.Despite the complications caused by the pandemic, the fashion community is stepping out regardless. Most fashion houses are returning to live shows as the menswear week kicks off, followed immediately
How many alleged parties were there during the pandemic?
India eyes next Test captain as Kohli era ends
After Virat Kohli's sudden resignation the spotlight turned to his likely successor as India Test captain on Sunday, with white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul favourites to take over the high-pressure job.
Australia Sends Surveillance Aircraft to Assess Damage From Tonga Volcanic Eruption
The Australian Defence Force sent an aircraft to Tonga on Monday, January 17, to assess the damage caused by an undersea volcanic eruption near the South Pacific island on Saturday.The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption triggered tsunami warnings for Australia, New Zealand, US, Japan and several South Pacific islands.Communications were still down as of Monday in Tonga, according to reports, making it difficult to know the impact the eruption had on the island."A Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon Aircraft will conduct an assessment of damage to critical infrastructure such as roads, ports and power lines, which will determine the next phase of the response effort," the Australian Defence Force said.Footage released by the Australia Defence Force shows the surveillance plane leaving an air base in Amberley, Queensland. Credit: Australia Defence Force via Storyful
Great Britain's Medallists On 'Super Sunday'
A Team GB record for an "away" Olympics.
Government called to u-turn on 'double-jobbing' plans for NI politicians
The UK Government is facing criticism over plans to allow MPs to retain their seats while being elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
SWAT team and FBI called to hostage situation at Texas synagogue
A SWAT team and FBI officers have been called to a hostage situation in a Texas synagogue, where a man is reportedly holding members of the congregation. The incident at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville | 481 |
BUFFALO, N<|fim_middle|> drivers/ice picks, etc. | .Y. – The U.S. Coast Guard advises all Great Lakes citizens and visitors who recreate on the ice to be aware of possible unstable ice due to warming temperatures this weekend.
"Any persons on the ice should be aware of the potential hazardous conditions," said Senior Chief Petty Officer Matthew Clark of the Coast Guard Sector Buffalo Command Center.
The National Weather Service forecast predicts increasing temperatures and rain over the weekend. Temperatures are expected to climb into the upper 30s and lower 40s. The combination of the warmer temperatures and rainfall may cause hazardous conditions on the ice.
The Coast Guard reminds all citizens that ice is dangerous and unpredictable, especially during seasonal temperature transitions.
Intelligence – know the weather and ice conditions, know where you're going, and know how to call for help.
Clothing – have proper clothing to prevent hypothermia.
Equipment – have proper equipment: marine radio, life jackets, screw | 184 |
It<|fim_middle|> Bend to raise my family in a healthy and inspiring environment. My son Kyle and his wife Cari (Millennials) live nearby and engage in all the outdoor adventures this amazing place has to offer.
My personal interests are The Arts, hiking, kayaking, road trips, fine wine and dining shared with family and friends. Hawaii is my favorite place to breathe deep. I hope to hear from you soon! | 's all about Lifestyle here in Bend, Oregon! I have the privilege and pleasure to sell real estate in one of the most desirable places in the country. Bend is an outdoor wonderland, with year round recreation and leisure opportunities, an inviting small town ambiance, and a vibrant and progressive vibe.
I enjoy my profession, provide personalized service, experience, expertise, and the resources to assist you in making sound buying and selling decisions.
I am a Baby Boomer, born and raised a "California Girl"… I have lived in San Francisco and Southern California. I chose | 114 |
These flowers arrived on my doorstep this morning while I was busy vacuuming and folding laundry. They were from a client that I crossed paths with one year ago. One year ago this week.
She had been my neighbor for several years. But we only crossed paths when out walking with our dogs or chasing kids around the neighborhood. When I opened up my studio last fall she reached out to me to start running and walking together.
She's a mother of four and homeschools her kids and early mornings worked best for her. We would typically run together once a week at 5:30 am and this continued as the months passed by. We started with one minute intervals and continued on that path throughout much of the winter. Occasionally we would add in longer periods of running at the end of her workout.
She wasn't interested in running outdoors or having anyone at the gym see her running (Can anyone relate?). But, once spring hit, I encouraged her that she should be proud of what she was doing – so we ventured outside. We ran around our neighborhood and soon I was showing her our city in a different way – on foot at various parks and trails. I could tell that something was changing her. She wasn't dreading her workouts or asking for breaks. She was craving the workout – and the time for herself. It wasn't so much of a chore anymore. I would see her out running when I was out with my family and it made me so happy. Others in the neighborhood noticed her lifestyle change, too.
During the time we got to know each other, she went through a difficult international adoption process. This involved her husband traveling for several weeks throughout the year. When early mornings didn't work, we would run together with our toddlers in the strollers. She still made herself a priority.
During the adoption process, she also learned that she would need to have surgery. We met immediately before surgery and immediately after she was given the ok to return to exercise. She continued to keep her routine throughout all of this.
After these two situations were finalized and family routine was setting in, I saw another breakthrough. She was pushing herself longer distances. Going to the gym and running on her own. She was really becoming proud of what SHE was doing. And she craved more.
She asked me to schedule a 10K together on the week of our one year anniversary – of our first running date. Since I was sidelined with injury, we met at the gym at 5:15 am this morning and she ran alongside me while I walked. We outlasted everyone at the gym. She did that. The treadmill stopped because she hit the time limit and she had to switch machines. She did that. I saw another breakthrough this morning. Tears welling up around mile 5.5 and then more emotions as she approached mile 6. She realized that she could do that. She did that. Doubt was gone. And she is capable of even more. Because she chose to make herself a priority – and feel good about herself again.
I'm so happy that this neighbor became a client and then a close friend. Over the past year we have run together about sixty times. That's a lot of miles and catching up and sharing.
When you think you don't have enough time. Don't have the energy. Don't have the support. Think again. It's there – you just need to find it and commit. You have it! Look around. Support is all around you. It<|fim_middle|> - and beyond.
Whether you need a custom training program or a running partner to keep you motivated - RDM offers several training options to get you started. | could be right next door. But you won't know if you don't look.
Stop Hunger Cravings in Their Tracks & Help You Shed One Pound of FAT every 72 hours?!
Flush Away 1/3 POUNDS of fat everyday by drinking this DELICIOUS RED TEA.
Want to run a 5K?
Since 2011, I have helped 700+ runners - mainly women in the Madison, Wisconsin area - start their journey to a 5K | 102 |
At Silverdale, the Fine Arts Department is an exciting and integral part of a student's education and development. God's creation is abundant in rich and varied colors and textures filled with shapes, objects, movement and music created by a variety of sources including the human voice. When God created man, He placed within each person individual gifts and talents to use to reflect His beauty in all they create and perform. In SBA's art, drama, dance and music classes, students are taught to recognize and develop their unique<|fim_middle|> to be at ease when performing for a crowd of people.
SBA offers classes in music appreciation, visual art, dance, drama, choir, instrumental band, and praise band. Also, private lessons for piano, voice, percussion and drums, hammered dulcimer, guitar, and violin are offered during the school day and also after school. Our students have ranked highly in art and music competitions both individually and in groups.
It is a wonderful thing to help students develop their God given talents, but to teach them how to use them to impact His kingdom work is truly a ministry and such a wonderful blessing. Our fine arts classroom teachers and private instructors are incredible musicians, vocalists, dancers, and artists who have a passion to help young people learn to use their artistic talents to the best of their abilities. In the world of fine arts, we are often told to keep an open mind but through Godly teachers and mentors SBA strives to lead students to have a discerning mind. He gives us the talent and our goal is to educate students who will give Him the honor and glory by using those talents to further His kingdom. | talents for God's glory. This development is a key component to a student's complete education for future involvement in their churches and communities.
SBA begins music and art education in preschool and continues through high school. Dance and drama are added in elementary and are available through high school. Performances and exhibits during the school year in chapel services, at ballgames, Christmas programs, plays, musicals, an art festival and end of year programs and concerts help build confidence as students learn | 96 |
Great Britain sweep Portugal series
USA too strong for Team GB
USA overpower Great Britain women's team
Great Britain end losing streak
Great Britain claimed the Standard Life GameOn! Series against Portugal with an 86-66 result in their second successive contest in Sheffield.
Published on 15th July 2012
Kyle Johnson was the stand out performer as he had the hot hand on 8/10 shooting in a 21 point haul.
Johnson said: " I felt comfortable after I made the first one but it was my team mates that got me the ball so I Give full credit to them.I feel like I am improving all the time but I am just trying to get my confidence back. Our preparation for the Olympics has been great and the anticipation is crazy so I just can't wait to get there."
His numbers were backed up with an excellent second half cameo from Eric Boateng who bagged 11 points in quick succession late in the game.
However, Great Britain came out the blocks slow again as they allowed the visitors to build an early lead.
Portugal raced into a 9-4 advantage on a Joao Gomez shot from beyond the arc but GB battled back to tie the scores at 11. The hosts then closed the opening period with a 6 point streak without reply as the first ten minutes ended with GB 21-14 ahead.
Johnson stepped onto the court in the second quarter scoring 9 points in his first 12 minutes of court time. He continued GB's scoring with an impressive step-back shot that resulted in nothing but net. Luol Deng contributed two scores in a 9 point blaze that saw GB take a 35-18 lead midway through the period. He leant back for a fade away shot off the glass before stopping and popping a three point dagger.
Two consecutive triples from the Portuguese brought the score to 41-29 but Johnson scored two of his own driving to the basket to give GB a 46-29 cushion at the break.
Back to back scores from Portugal opened the scoring in the second half still trailing at 49-33. Great Britain were persistent at both ends of the floor to keep their noses in front. Nate Reinking pulled up for a clean three point shot to open up a 20 point advantage at 57-37. Kieron Achara who was perfect from the three point line drilled in his third three of the game to end the quarter 61-45 to the good.
Boateng and Johnson lit up the scoreboard in the final stanza. Boateng added a quick fire eight points ending on a powerful dunk over an unsuspecting Portugal player. Johnson was five out of five on his next score from beyond the line to extend the gap to 73-57. He punished the Portuguese on the perimeter twice more; scoring his last triple on the foul but was unable to complete the four point play ending his perfect tally. The teams traded baskets from the free-<|fim_middle|>...
Great Britain's Women's squad were overwhelmed by Team USA as the Americans cruised to an 88-63...
Two agonising defeats but more signs of promise from GB
Great Britain suffered two further defeats in their build-up to the Olympics but can be encouraged...
Olympic draw completed; Russia up first for GB
By James 9th July 2012
Great Britain's first Olympic basketball fixture since 1948 will be against Russia as the twelve teams...
Four teams battle for final three Olympic spots
Great Britain are closer to finding out who they will face in their opening fixture at...
Team GB review: Sullivan impressed with team progress
The Great Britain team is now set for the Olympics and Captain Drew Sullivan remains satisfied...
Team GB final squad announced
Great Britain Head Coach Chris Finch selected the final 12 players that are going to participate... | throw line before Johnson swished one more three from the corner to finalise the scores.
Andrew Lawrence was named MVP of the series after a fine all round performance. He was modest on his acceptance of the award.
"I really appreciate it because I wasn't necessarily the highest scoring guy on the team but I feel like I did other things to contribute which has been recognised in the MVP award. I just come in and try and play my role so I am just happy with the two wins."
GB Women put in a stellar performance in the final game of the weekend beating Olympic competitors France by a 74-67 verdict in a cagey affair. GB battled back from a double digit deficit early on to square the game at 30 a piece by halftime.
Jo Leedham was the top scorer with 23 points and named MVP of the tournament. They persevered trading leads with the French until scores from Leedham and a three ball from Natalie Stafford created the winning margin.
Both national teams will now prepare for arguably the contest of the summer against reigning Olympic Champions, the USA.
Related Topics:Featured, Team GB
More in Olympics
GB teams receive rankings boost following Olympics
By James 14th August 2012
Great Britain have moved up into the world's top 25 in both the men's and women's...
Olympics: Group B Preview
By James 23rd July 2012
Here is a look at the other six teams, including Great Britain, who will compete in...
Olympics: Group A Preview
Here is a look at the six teams competing in Group A, including the defending gold...
Great Britain slumped to a comprehensive 118-78 defeat at the hands of the reigning Olympic Champions | 365 |
This leading edge method of freedom begins from an account of what we suggest by means of describing a person, in a mental vein, as a unfastened topic. Pettit develops an issue as to what it truly is that makes a person unfastened in that uncomplicated feel; after which is going directly to derive the consequences of the method for problems with freedom in political thought. Freedom within the topic is equated with the person′s being healthy to be held dependable and to be approved as a companion in interplay. This publication is exclusive between modern ways – even though it is right to the spirit of classical writers like Hobbes and Kant – in looking a idea that applies to mental problems with loose employer and loose will in addition to to political matters within the idea of the unfastened kingdom and the unfastened structure. The riding thesis is that it's only by way of connecting up different problems with freedom, mental and political, that we will absolutely savor the character of the questions concerned, and the necessities for his or her answer. The ebook doesn't now not search a entire achieve only for its personal sake, yet particularly for the sake of the illumination it presents. A idea of Freedom is a ground–breaking quantity so that it will be of huge curiosity to students and scholars in political philosophy and political technology.
The Leviathan is the mammoth solidarity of the nation. yet how are solidarity, peace and safeguard to be attained? Hobbes's solution is sovereignty, however the resurgence of curiosity this present day in Leviathan is due much less to its solutions than its equipment. Hobbes sees politics as a technological know-how able to an identical axiomatic technique as geometry: he argues from first rules to human nature to politics.
Regardless of the large impact of Michel Foucault in gender experiences, social conception, and cultural stories, his paintings has been rather missed within the research of politics. even supposing he by no means released a ebook at the country, within the past due Nineteen Seventies Foucault tested the applied sciences of energy used to manage society and the creative recasting of strength and business enterprise that he observed as either final result and situation in their operation.
'The element of those diaries, and their finished candour, supply exceptional insights into the private behaviour of many senior Labour politicians. .. the main readable political diary of the interval' Harold Lever, SpectatorTony Benn's moment quantity of diaries, which spans the years 1968-72, is a special checklist of British politics as saw either from the guts of the cupboard and the Labour occasion.
The privilege of parliamentary immunity was withdrawn from the communist members of parliament and from those socialists who had formed the Aventine opposition in protest against the murder of the socialist deputy Matteotti (12<|fim_middle|>5), and by Gwyn Williams, Proletarian Order (London: Pluto Press, 1975). An indispensable source is Gramsci's Prison Letters, which are available in a full and very well-edited translation, edited by Frank Rosengarten and translated by Raymond Rosenthal, Letters from Prison, 2 vols (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994). ), Liberal and Fascist Italy 1900–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University, 2002), and in much more detail in his The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy 1919–1929 (London: Routledge, 2004).
This attempt at analysis of the nature of that historical epoch and its critical points is at the same time the exploration of a new form of political knowledge and strategy appropriate to that epoch, rejecting forms of political action and analysis which have no bearing on modern society in its most developed form. In turn such a new political understanding depends, in Gramsci's perspective, on the working-class movement developing its own autonomous and independent philosophy of politics, and indeed a philosophy in the broader sense encompassing ideas of will and creative action, seen as a necessary condition for any subordinate group to become in its turn hegemonic and leading. | 3 deputies in all), but the law ratifying this withdrawal of parliamentary privilege only passed through the Chamber of Deputies on 9 November, the day after the arrest had been made.
For the period of the factory councils, the important works are those by Paolo Spriano, The Occupation of the Factories: Italy 1920 (London: Pluto Press, 197 | 79 |
The dataset has been developed for the reporting of resection and biopsy specimens of mucosal malignancies of the larynx, hypopharynx and trachea. The protocol applies to all invasive carcinomas of the larynx, hypopharynx and trachea (including the supraglottis, glottis, and subglottis). Salivary-type malignancies arising from mucosal glands of the hypopharynx and lary<|fim_middle|> dataset authors: Data set for reporting of carcinomas of the hypopharynx, larynx and trachea: Explanations and recommendations of the Guidelines from the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR). Helliwell T, Chernock R, Dahlstrom J, Gale N, McHugh J, Perez-Ordonez B, Roland N, Zidar N, Thompson LDR. Arch Pathol Lab Med, 2019 Apr;143(4):432-438. doi: 10.5858/arpa.2018-0419-SA. | nx should be recorded in this dataset. Mucosal melanoma is presented in a separate dataset. Lymphomas and sarcomas are not included. Malignancies arising at other sites in the head and neck region, and neck dissections and nodal excisions are dealt with in separate datasets which may be used, as appropriate, in conjunction with this dataset. Where more than one anatomically or histologically distinct primary tumours occur, a separate dataset should be completed for each tumour.
Read more on the Carcinomas of the hypopharynx, larynx and trachea dataset from the journal article written by the | 129 |
The Pull Request
American magical realism
www.thepullrequest.com
Bruno Maçães and our society of stories
Antonio<|fim_middle|> This sort of thing, even to me who makes a daily effort to understand America just enters into the realm of trying to understand some very archaic Indian religious practice or something like that, where you would need 20 years, because otherwise it doesn't make any sense. I think American ideas have become very parochial.
But let me finish with China and this question of American intellectual power. My experience in China is if an academic is above the age of about 55, then he's fundamentally influenced by American ideas. That's either where he studied or where he or she wanted to study. But if you move towards a younger cohort 35-40, say, they have no interest in America fundamentally. They are developing their own ideas and they're quite dismissive of American universities. And so there's been a break here, which you're starting to see a little bit everywhere. It's starting to be conceivable that the younger intelligent students in India will decide not to not to study in the US and 30 years ago, that was very different so what I'm trying to argue with your idea is that clearly the US is now struggling to export its way of life and its ideas in part because they're not as powerful but also in part because those ideas are no longer as as universal. Some of these things are very difficult to access. Outside the US, they just seem utterly bizarre. You know, this guy was suspended for pronouncing a Chinese word because the Chinese word sounded like the n-word. This sort of thing, even to me who makes a daily effort to understand America just enters into the realm of trying to understand some very archaic Indian religious practices or something like that, where you would need 20 years, because otherwise it doesn't make any sense. I think American ideas have become very parochial. Now, there's a flip side to that because obviously, as they become very parochial, they also become very interesting and fascinating to a limited number of people. I myself get fascinated by this and there will be many young people in Europe that are in fact fascinated by wokeness or perhaps even by Trump, because they are so different and if you're bored with liberalism, this new America is more interesting. But it does not have the ability to be a universal religion like old fashioned liberalism. That's the main point. And there are many people out there in your circles in Silicon Valley that are really worried that wokeness is going to become a universal religion. I just don't think that's even conceivable.
© 2023 Antonio García Martínez | García Martínez
Portrait by Katia Sobolski
Bruno Maçães is one of these people who very likely (and maddeningly) reads every copy of The Economist and Foreign Policy he receives. Unlike me who lets them sloveningly accumulate on a coffee table or in a Kindle, I imagine he reads them all, and stands ready to opine on everything from the European bond market to American popular film to the future of Chinese economic expansionism (all of which he does effortlessly). Formerly Portugal's Secretary of State for European Affairs during the European bond crisis, Maçães wrote his doctoral thesis under Harvey Mansfield at Harvard before writing The Dawn of Eurasia and (more recently) History Has Begun. That last work is a brilliant and timely rumination on American fabulism as revealed by such hyper-realities as Trump and COVID-19. I'll be reviewing his book, but for now, the The Pull Request Q&A.
A European once made a comment to me that every American talks about themselves as if they're the lead character in some epic made-for-TV drama, in a way Europeans simply do not. So I really agreed you touched on something real, that Americans live inside some movie and have been forever. Often, it's not a movie per se, but it's a grand narrative like Manifest Destiny, for example. What's interesting though is that unlike a typical European you're actually kind of, I wouldn't say pro-American, but you you find this to be a feature rather than a bug.
Yeah, I think that's probably also a difference between this book and some older postmodern reflections on America, Baudrillard above everyone else, because I think they regard those features as a kind of psychoanalytical phenomenon, a form of madness of dissociation. And I regard it very seriously as an attempt to deal with important philosophical problems about how to organize society.
So the approach is very different. I also think that this is kind of not so easy to see, because if you're American, it's quite likely that you'll be living inside these fictional structures. But you might not be aware that you are inside fictional structures, you might regard them as reality. On the other hand, Europeans and others will tend to dismiss it as incomprehensible or crazy, or something else. So it's not so easy to have the kind of both distance but interest at the same time so that you can you can analyze America as it is.
The book is also in a way a return to my initial experiences of living there in my 20s. And that was already then very obvious. To a European I think, in one way or another, that experience happens because the way conversations in America are to some extent scripted. Again. I don't say that as a criticism, but a lot of American life feels scripted. Even the sort of important moments in life, the high-school prom and then retirement in Florida and many other coming of age moments of your life are following these rules about what life should be like but also, in a certain way movie-like way, fictional structures that help give meaning to what happens, rather than being essentially random or traditional as happens in Europe.
But many young Europeans moving to America comment on this: that it feels like you are in an episode of Friends, if you're having a typical bar conversation in America. There's something there that needs to be captured and theorized that I think is very particular about America. And that of course now I think that has become so obvious. In a way that's what Trump does: brings that all to the surface in a way that is very disturbing to many people.
One line that really struck me from your piece, when you touch on COVID in chapter eight: "Things in America felt like a disaster movie. In Europe, they just felt like a disaster." And the subtlety in those statements, because it's true, right? A disaster movie feels very different than an actual disaster.
I was thinking about what is a disaster movie?. And there's actually a good essay by Susan Sontag about disaster movies. What is a disaster movie? By definition, it's a movie about a disaster. But in the story, in fact, what is celebrated is human action and human life because in every disaster movie, the disaster happens in the background. And in many of the classic ones that Sontag discusses you're not even sure what the disaster really is. There's a famous one called The Day the Earth Stood Still, and it's kind of this vague threat, something to do with magnetic forces of some kind, but no one knows exactly what it is. It doesn't matter, because the disaster is supposed to bring out human passion, human action, human conflict, a kind of intensification of life.
And as I was rewatching many disasters movies back in March and April and reading some of these texts the events just started to resemble them, because what happened, especially when Trump started to have these press conferences, was that the virus became rather irrelevant to the whole thing. Clearly the main actor was not the virus; it was Trump offering a kind of pretext and an occasion for politics or human drama and for these extraordinary narratives that, in fact, were being built on both sides. The Left was also building these incredibly imaginative narratives of what was happening. One of the arguments in the book is that Trump helps us understand these things.
But this is not limited to Trump. For example, Russiagate. I've been, you know, incredibly skeptical from the start about Russiagate for several reasons. Although, I try to keep an open mind, but obviously, Russiagate has been an exercise of feverish imagination. And it's taken very serious people completely on board. It's incredible as the whole thing really resembles a conspiracy theory in the classical mold.
So this is everywhere now in America and even the virus is not able to break through this. If we kind of think about there would be a sort of virus envy because you're watching a once-in-a-century pandemic, and still American life in many respects goes on. It goes on as before and the virus is taken as a pretext for the same cultural wars. And the cultural wars are more important.
As I was rewatching many disasters movies back in March and April…the events just started to resemble them, because what happened, especially when Trump started to have these press conferences, was that the virus became rather irrelevant to the whole thing. Clearly the main actor was not the virus; it was Trump offering a kind of pretext and an occasion for politics or human drama and for these extraordinary narratives that, in fact, were being built on both sides.
I think many Americans would say it's the same everywhere, but it isn't, particularly back in March or April. Say you opened a Spanish or French Italian newspaper, and it was literally like a medicine or epidemiology journal. Graphs everywhere, news about vaccines, news about the virus and its mutating characteristics and so on, and none of this really happened in America, It was, I think, a very striking difference. And in this case, by the way, I think you see something that I was interested in, in my previous book, you see this kind of substratum of common life between even China and Europe for all the differences at the level of political values. In a way Europe and China dealt with the problem as a question of humanity, control over nature, and natural threat that had to be controlled through technical and scientific means. Of course, the many people in America that would like to react in the same way but the country as a whole didn't quite react to the virus in this way. It's the United States that actually didn't look like an Enlightenment society in terms of how it reacted.
Maybe the subtle difference in your book is that you posited that fabulism entails a rejection of reality and nature, and the creation of an alternative to it. Thus, the subjugation of nature and the imposition of humanity over it is also an Enlightenment ideal. It's not a scientific notion that reads like The Lancet. However, the thought of settling the frontier is as as much an Enlightenment project as anything else.
Yeah, no, you're you're absolutely right about that. So, you know, the Enlightenment wanted to control nature but, but by knowing nature and by knowing its secrets, and reaching to the inner depths of natural forces. Contemporary America, I think wants to take the next step. You know, if we want to control nature, why not get rid of it entirely? I don't think that was an Enlightenment idea, but it's a post-Enlightenment, but it follows naturally from the Enlightenment. So I think Americans take the next leap, the next jump beyond what was the Enlightenment response. And this same argument applies to how we think about freedom. In the Enlightenment, the traditional European way to think about freedom as you wanting to limit or even eliminate all external obstacles, right: tradition, religion, family, and so on. But in the end, you have to deal with reality as it is, but why not take the extra step? If we want to be free, why not be free from reality, as well, so that we can live in a fantasy life, all the time, in our daily lives. And I think that's essentially what contemporary America is trying to build: a society that is pure fantasy life and there's nothing particularly wrong about that. If it's possible to pull off, I think that society might have a claim to be to be the end of history, not liberalism.
This is definitely a theme inside Silicon Valley. A well-known VC whose name you would recognize once said his investment thesis is simply this: anything worth doing, is done better on a screen. The idea of intermediating reality completely via screen. And this person sounds like a joke until you see what they've invested in and then it's, ah, you really believe this (and many of his portfolio companies have made it partly so).
What's interesting, though, is that you think that extends to the rest of the United States. But I guess what varies is how the illusion gets created: in Silicon Valley it would be the Singularity, this sort of nerd Rapture. For others it's video games or social media.
Or might even be might even be, as I argue in the book, religion, which in America is getting virtualized the same way. So yeah, I think there are different ways to do it. And in fact, I think the best way to do it would probably be a way that would combine all these approaches because, you know, there are problems with with a purely technological solution. A technological solution might run the danger of creating two separate worlds. I see that in a lot of this among Silicon Valley, where now suddenly everyone works remotely. And perhaps we'll have meetings in virtual or augmented reality, but what to do about the real world? Would it, as you argued in the WIRED essay that I cited, be left to the homeless and the untouchables and drug addicts and so on? There has to be a full replacement of reality by fantasy, not a separation into separate worlds of virtual cloud and real land. I see it everywhere in America right now. And, you know, the process here is to try to push forward with the idea. Everyone is trying to get there their own way.
A technological solution might run the danger of creating two separate worlds. I see that in a lot of this among Silicon Valley, where now suddenly everyone works remotely. And perhaps we'll have meetings in virtual or augmented reality, but what to do about the real world? Would it, as you argued in the WIRED essay that I cited, be left to the homeless and the untouchables and drug addicts and so on? There has to be a full replacement of reality by fantasy, not a separation into separate worlds of virtual cloud and real land. I see it everywhere in America right now.
The problem with that fantasy society, and the US has always had a fantasy, right? It's essentially: We can get to the moon in less than a decade! All of humanity will virtualize its life via the internet! And all those things actually happened because they had the technical wherewithal to actually do it. But if they don't actually possess the technical skills, if they can't pull off producing the masks or generating the vaccine, the whole music kind of stops on the fantasy.
That's the problem I'm concerned with. In the last chapter, so I don't think I, you know, I described three possible solutions: you can evade or ignore, which I think happened for a long time, it still happens here and there. Or you could dramatize and transform it into some kind of story, which I think, for the past past few months has been the leading strategy, but I don't think in the end those strategies can work. Because something like a pandemic has the ability to destroy the fantasy. We're not talking about gun violence, for example which in a way is part of the fantasy and has some intensity to it, but it's always controlled, always limited. It's always something that you can actually escape. People that want to live in a world without gun violence, probably pick a certain neighborhood go live somewhere else. So I think gun violence, which disturbing as it is to Europeans, there's nothing that poses a fundamental existential threat to the fantasy life.
When the political and moral values are at loggerheads with technology then it has to be solved one way or another. The open conflict between Silicon Valley and The New York Times is an example of that in practice. Obviously, there's still in American society considerable enthusiasm for technology, just that there is a conflict in American society. Whereas in Europe, one could argue that actually, the conflict has been resolved and have collectively decided that liberal values are more important, while among Americans the question is open.
And so I argue that you need another kind of solution, which I think will be technological. One thing that does puzzle me, as I wrote in the last chapter, I make predictions that America would turn to a technological solution. It hasn't really happened. And that's puzzling to me because as I argue in the book, traditionally, this clash between fantasy and reality in America has been solved through surveillance, kind of creating the outer perimeter of the theme park and making sure that no one can enter the fantasy world. I think that's what happened after Pearl Harbor, the creation of the CIA, and all the other intelligence organizations. And then what happened after September 11, with digital surveillance in particular, and the total information awareness idea. But I still think it's unavoidable that'll happen in America because it's the only solution that makes sense. And eventually it may even be possible to get us to the Singularity idea which in the end may even eliminate reality altogether. Through genetic engineering one can create human beings that are immune to viruses then, then viruses will have disappeared from human history. I think that's essentially the solution that America will have to work towards.
You seem like such a tech optimist! I'm reminded of a common saying here in Silicon Valley: most of the problems that startups actually face, unless you're on the hairy edge of technology such as say SpaceX, most of the problems are actually human problems, not technical problems, right? The stage I see ourselves, in what's very much still a startup nation, although that's kind of a cliche, is that the technology is all there [for contact tracing]. It's the human problem of getting it going in one direction that I think is almost unbridgeable as a national problem.
There are many ways to look at this problem, but the one I picked in the book is the conflict between liberalism and tech. There is an obvious conflict between between liberalism and tech, in the sense that tech poses many problems to some of the fundamental principles of liberalism. Starting with privacy, but also starting with this Enlightenment idea of public sphere that's free of myths and rumors, and attempts to be purely rational.
Also, inequality because obviously, some levels of inequality are incompatible with with liberalism control. I mean, if you go back to the liberal tradition, all these were seen as problems and our technology clearly embodies many of them. And so one solution to this sort of standstill that we have would be also for America to become less committed to these liberal principles. In another podcast the other day I suggested that maybe this whole thing of the of the Great Stagnation going back to the 70s, is it a coincidence that it happens exactly at the same time that liberalism becomes completely hegemonic and dominant? It starts to be very difficult to do technology on a grand scale. When the political and moral values are at loggerheads with technology then it has to be solved one way or another. The open conflict between Silicon Valley and The New York Times is an example of that in practice. Obviously, there's still in American society considerable enthusiasm for technology, just that there is a conflict in American society. Whereas in Europe, one could argue that actually, the conflict has been resolved and have collectively decided that liberal values are more important, while among Americans the question is open.
You have strong opinions on the nature of the overlap and how much culture as medically actually flows, from America to Europe these days.
This I tried to capture in the book, there's something absolutely fascinating about contemporary America and this will attract people everywhere. They will look to it and find it exotic, unusual, strange, extreme, but also very, very interesting. But I think this is similar to interest in exotic Japan or a kind of interest in Indian religion and Indian spirituality. So I think America is going to become more like that sort of fascinating, exotic world, and less the vanguard of a universal civilization, which is how we thought about American culture over the past hundred years. Those two are fundamentally different. Now there may be an effect here that I'm getting older very quickly, and so I don't hang around with the kids anymore. And maybe they are being inspired by all these American ideas but in the world that I live in, let us say in London and in the City and the business world, these American ideas are practically irrelevant.
And yet there were massive protests in London and they almost knocked over the Churchill statue.
Right, a certain interest by a limited number of people, but you immediately see an enormous reaction and you see political leaders such as Johnson or Macron saying there are not going to be statues pulled down under my watch. So the establishment is very much going in the opposite direction. You don't see this being the center of the discussion. And by the way, it's already disappearing after a few weeks. But the UK is to some extent more open to this obviously through cultural links, while in continental Europe I don't really see it. We have our race problems and dealing with them, but I don't find these ideas powerful. And then obviously, I think in India or China, they simply don't register at all, and we can no longer ignore India, China and Russia as well.
You know, Russia, sometimes I get an invitation to go teach at a Russian university for a year or two. And they can't promise me much money, but they promised me absolute freedom when it comes to political correctness. Obviously, I would have to be careful on political issues, but on political correctness, I could say whatever I wanted, and that's the bonus. So obviously, in Russia as well, it's not that these ideas aren't powerful, it's just that they're sort of unintelligible in most of the world, and it's just not the case anymore.
The kind of 60s-style US liberalism was very powerful all over the world. Everyone was making and trying to learn about it, literally everywhere. And I don't think that's that's the case now with wokeness at all. Yeah, there was a lot of interest a few months ago, but it seems to me to be disappearing.
Yeah, you go back to the 60s and 70s, when Europe was still getting over the disruption of World War Two, and they were still dazzled by John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, sure. I agree the tone has changed. But when I was first living in Europe in the 90s, nobody looked up to the US. The number of anti-American lectures I'd get the moment I switched to English and mentioned I was American, was just something else. That starry-eyed vision of America hasn't existed in Europe for a very long time.
It's been disappearing since about then. Yes. And in fact, some of the Black Lives Matter protests in Europe, were protests against the United States, not protests inspired by the United States. They were protests against the United States, a powerful country that is consumed by racism. So they might be similar to protests against Russia after Chechnya intervention, as part of it was like this painful as it might be for Americans to recognize.
I always laugh when Europeans criticize Americans for being racist. Europeans are so racist….
I totally agree. I totally agree with that. I do think the race question is very different on both sides. Europeans have a very, very serious problem with race that they haven't even started to address. No, I completely agree with that, and particularly countries like France and Belgium.
Some of these things are very difficult to access. Outside the US, they just seem utterly bizarre. You know, this guy was suspended for pronouncing a Chinese word because the Chinese word sounded like the n-word. | 4,448 |
I've used this week three personal vacation photo's and blend them.
I'll bet you will NEVER forget the beauty and grandeur of this park !!
all the rest is made by myself.
superimposed the photos upon each other, really perfect.
Fabulous blue scenery Rian. Wat een belevenis, geweldig.
Wow great photography and layering Rian!
I love this piece, Rian, with its "weaving" of three photos into a picture that tells a great story. Your son is so handsome and full of joy. The scenery is<|fim_middle|> als ik .
Je bent weer prachtig aan het freubelen geweest .
Zie er heel gaaf uit.
Ik moet ook weer eens aan de slag maar ben soms zo verslaafd aan de spelletjes ...erg he hihi.
Fijne dag Rian , leuk dat je weer even op bezoek kwam .
A fabulous and very creative piece. I love it. Yosemite is on my to do list.
Blue! Nicely done! Glad you had a great vacation in the US of A. And, I am glad you took a lot of pictures.
Yosemite...one of the most beautiful places in the world!! when I die,I want my ashes scattered there...i can't think of a better place to be for all eternity!!!! | majestic. What more could we want?
Joy, beauty, freedom and bluuuuuuue!
Beautiful in blue, Rian, fabulous photos of you and your son! Love the canvas effect of your piece.
Belated birthday wishes for the 22nd, too, hope you celebrated in style, probably did in the US!!
The blending and textures resulted in a delightful travel memory.
By the way, your autumn piece is wonderful. Very very beautiful.
Schitterende combinatie van foto's!! Prachtig in die kleur blauw.
prachtig hoe je die foto's hebt gecombineerd in het blauw!
Beautiful scenery, Rian, and excellent use of blues to illustrate it. I have never been but you have given me a taste to go. Bravo.
Rian this is a fantastic and so personal piece, great idea.
Welcome home, Rian. this is loely!
Stunning photo! It looks wonderful in blue.
Beautiful study in blue, Rian. By the way, belated happy birthday. I followed your trip to the states. You were certainly always on the move. I hope you enjoyed!!
I was lucky enough to go there a few years back, gorgeous scenery. Nice to see it in blue.
it looks like one of these old cyanotypes, just gorgeous!
and right, i´ve been there in 1998, and it is unforgettable!
Ja ik vond het ook zo leuk om jou en je gezinnetje te volgen op Facebook meis .Waren ook prachtige foto's.
Maar even over Griekenland ik vind de temperatuur heel aangenaam .
Wel warm hoor ,was nu toen wij er waren 32 graden .
Maar in het hoogseizoen is het er veel warmer .
En volgens mij kan jij niet zo goed tegen de warmte toch?
Want weet je Rian de warmte daar is wel heel anders als hier .
Ik vind het een prachtig eiland .
En onze Nellie is ook een Griekenland fan .Weet er ook behoorlijk wat van af en heeft al heel wat meer gezien | 447 |
Accessible Results
Good Causes & Winners
All Draw Games
There was a problem loading the requested data. Please try again soon.
Log in to your account and start playing
Daily Million
Draw Based Games
Telly Bingo
Lotto 54321
Winners Stories 14 Jul 2020
Beginners Luck! Portlaoise shop owner sells €1 million Lotto ticket - Only 11 days after opening his store
National Lottery confirm that it has yet to hear from Ireland's latest Lotto millionaire
A recently opened Portlaoise shop has been confirmed as the winning location for last Saturday's Lotto Plus 1 top prize of €1 million. McSorley's Centra store on the Mountmellick Road in Portlaoise, Co. Laois only officially opened its' doors to customers on 1st July and just 11 days later they had their first Lotto millionaire.
The National Lottery has also reiterated its calls for players, particularly in Co. Laois, to check their tickets as the winner of the €1 million Lotto prize has yet to come forward to claim their prize.
An ecstatic store owner, Martin McSorley was overjoyed at<|fim_middle|> Laois Lotto player incredibly becomes the 13th Lotto millionaire of 2020. Overall this year, the National Lottery has made 18 brand new millionaires through the Lotto, EuroMillions and Daily Million games. (Table below)
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on all National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage and the Irish Language. In total more than €5.6 Billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 33 years ago. In 2019 alone, €252 million was raised for local Good Causes in communities across Ireland.
National Lottery Millionaires in 2020
EuroMillions (Ireland Only Raffle
€3,886,999 (Shared Jackpot)
Kildare (Online)
Meath (Online)
Yes – you can play if you're 18 or over. Play responsibly, play for fun.
Thanks for playing. National Lottery funds good causes around Ireland.
Play Bundles
Game End Notices
Playing Online
National Lottery App
Good Causes Awards
Lottery Now
Gift Responsibly
Good Causes Fund
The National Lottery games on this website are promoted by Premier Lotteries Ireland Designated Activity Company under licence issued by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in accordance with the National Lottery Act 2013. Find out more | the news of his win and hopes that this customers Lotto luck will encourage them to become a regular shopper in the new shop.
"As a retailer, the next best thing to winning the Lotto is to sell a winning ticket to one of your customers. Some retailers could wait years to sell a life-changing Lotto jackpot prize so to do it within a matter of days is very special for everybody involved in the shop. As a brand new local business, we don't have regular customers at the moment so somebody came into our store last Saturday to probably suss us out for the first time. It's just mad to think that they essentially left the store as a millionaire. We are truly delighted for them, whoever they are and I hope that they continue to keep shopping with us for many years to come," he laughed.
Originally from Tubberycurry in Co. Sligo, Martin McSorley explained that the opening of his store was fraught with difficulties due to the on-going public health emergency but said that all of the hard work which was endured has more than been made up for with his maiden Lotto win.
"The win really is vindication in our decision to open the store. We were originally due to open the doors last February and then Covid-19 hit and it threw our plans right out the window. Following a lot of difficult decisions and very hard work, we managed to pull together and get the store open on the 1st July. We now have 14 local people employed in the store and we hope that we become an integral part of the local community for many years to come," he added.
A National Lottery spokesperson said: "We have yet to hear from this lucky Laois winner so we're asking all our Lotto players who bought a ticket for Saturday's draw in McSorley's Centre store to check their tickets very carefully. If you do happen to be this lucky winner, be sure to sign the back of the ticket and contact our prize claims team on 1800 666 222 or email claims@lottery.ie and we will make arrangements to get your prize."
The winning numbers from Saturday night's Lotto Plus 1 draw were: 04, 23, 32, 33, 38, 46 and the bonus number was 21.
The lucky | 479 |
Moving can feel like one of the most stressful things in the world, especially if you would say that are not the most minimalistic person out there. However, when it comes to packing up your old place and moving into a new place, there are some things that you can do that can make your transition much less stressful than it needs to be. As property managers in Redding who have over 20 years of experience overseeing and managing rental properties in Shasta County, we would love to help ease your transition by offering you some of our top practical packing tips when moving.
One way to get your packing done in an easy and efficient way is to pack your boxes according to each room in your home or apartment. For example, it is way more efficient and way less stressful to pack everything that you will want in your kitchen in the same boxes and everything that you will want in your living room in the same boxes rather than mixing them up. After you pack each of your rooms into boxes, the next thing you will want to do is take a sharpie and label each box with the room that it will go in such as "LIVING ROOM" or "KITCHEN". This will make moving much easier and unpacking once you are moved into your new living space much quicker as all of your items will already be sorted into which room they will be going into.
As you are packing, it is important that you separate your heavy items from your light items and put the right items in the right sizes of boxes. If you have a lot of heavy items like books, you will want to put those into several medium-sized boxes rather than one large box. This will make the boxes easier to move and will<|fim_middle|>. It also doesn't hurt to tape long pieces of tape around the entire box a couple of times just to make sure that the box is completely secured shut.
If you are a tenant and would like more information on how you can best transition into your new rental home or apartment, or if you are a landlord and would like someone to help you manage your rental properties, don't hesitate to call us at Authority Property Management. We have plenty of experience doing property management in Redding and Shasta County and would love to help you in any way that we can! Feel free to give us a call at (530) 410-6085.
Authority Property Management Inc. is a licensed Property Management Company and California Real Estate Brokerage Firm. We provide property management services in Redding CA. & surrounding areas. We specialize in managing rental properties such as single family homes, apartments, and commercial properties in the following cities: Redding, Anderson, Cottonwood, Palo Cedro, Shasta Lake and everywhere in between. | prevent them from breaking. However, when it comes to lightweight items, you can go ahead and pack as many of those items as possible into your large boxes. These items could be linens, pillows, tablecloths, curtains, etc.
The best way to secure any breakables like dishes is to wrap each item in packing paper and then to pack any spaces between breakable items in boxes with packing paper as well. After they are wrapped in packing paper, the best way to put items like dishes into boxes is to pack them on their sides and inside of each other. For example, you can wrap cups or bowls individually and then stack them inside each other on their sides inside the boxes.
Make sure that your boxes are secured by taping across the middle of the box on the top and bottom of the box as well as any flaps that may be sticking up on the box | 178 |
A nostalgia-filled pandemic project: Curate your own YouTube music video channel
By Leslie Richin
Jun. 26, 2020 | Updated Jun. 26, 2020 at 1:10 pm
If you haven't found yourself revisiting music videos during the pandemic, now is the perfect time to curate the MTV channel of your dreams.
I became a fan of MTV in the '90s when music videos aired on Alternative Nation, 120 Minutes, Amp, and of course, MTV's Top 20 Video Countdown. I recorded my faves onto VHS tapes (a mix of alternative rock/grunge, pop, R&B, and Eurodance) to pop into the VCR when friends stopped by for a visit. (For those born after these devices became obsolete, the struggle to locate specific content was real and playback quality was poor by today's standards, but we didn't know what we were missing.)
Along with millions of people who were laid off due to the pandemic, I'm constantly looking for ways to stay positive, productive, and to pass the time creatively while job searching. After exhausting my<|fim_middle|> with Wayne and Garth in 1992's Wayne's World, or discovered the operatic sounds while watching the 2018 Oscar-nominated biopic starring Rami Malek, congratulations on being exposed to one of the greatest of all time. In 2019, the video surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube, the first released before the '90s to do so.
The Rolling Stones, "Hot Stuff," 1976
Mick Jagger flaunts his frontman status in the trippy promo video for the funky "Hot Stuff," off The Stone's No. 1 album, Black and Blue. The music, as Jagger proclaims, "is mighty, mighty fine," and at 2:00 minutes in he becomes visibly consumed by his daily "dose" and it's mesmerizing to watch.
Journey, "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)," 1983
It pains me that Beavis and Butt-Head criticized this visual treasure from the '80s, but they do say art is subjective. Steve Perry gives a powerful performance of a man who still has feelings for his ex, and I for one love the drama, the gravity-defying keyboard on the wall, and the fact that at 0:25 seconds in, Perry serves up an entire mood before demonstrating how he made Rolling Stone's list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time."
Michael Jackson, "Thriller," 1983
In including Michael Jackson on this list, we're not disregarding the accusations against him that the documentary Leaving Neverland brought to light, but rather acknowledging and celebrating his historic contributions to music and his unparalleled artistic talents. MTV was "out to get you" when they announced the world television premiere of Jackson's "Thriller," arguably the most influential music video of all time. The 13-minute short film won MTV Video Music Awards for Viewers Choice, Best Overall Performance, and Best Choreography, but for some reason the zombie dance wasn't enough to win Video of the Year. I'd like to personally ask the academy, "what's the problem?"
Billy Idol, "Eyes Without a Face," 1984
Decades before Billy Idol turned environmentalist with his anti-pollution #BillyNeverIdles campaign, he was an '80s icon and hitmaker. "Eyes Without a Face" (Les yeux sans visage) was his first Top 10 hit in the U.S., peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The video, which includes Idol mirroring Elvis' signature lip curl, women slapping their buttocks to the music, and an abundance of fog and fire, was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography and Best Editing.
a-ha, "Take On Me," 1985
The music video for a-ha's "Take On Me" has over 1 billion views and made history as the first to combine live action with pencil-sketch animation. Animator Michael Patterson said, "Nobody had ever seen anything like it. We watched many people rip it off, year after year." Keyboardist Magne Furuholmen spoke with Rolling Stone about the enormous impact of the video, which won six MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Concept Video, Most Experimental Video, Best Direction in a Video, Best Special Effects in a Video, and Viewer's Choice. "I have no doubt that the video made the song a hit."
Janet Jackson, "Rhythm Nation," 1989
Janet Jackson's call for racial unity to "join voices in protest to social injustice" reminds us that 30 years later we still have work to do. "Things are getting worse, we have to make them better. It's time to give a damn." After George Floyd was killed by police in May, Jackson shared clips from her iconic dance video and the interlude pledge from her Rhythm Nation 1814 album on social media to amplify #BlackLivesMatter. "We are a nation with no geographic boundaries, bound together through our beliefs. We are like-minded individuals, sharing a common vision, pushing toward a world rid of color lines."
The renowned video won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography.
Madonna, "Vogue," 1990
Strike a pose. The black and white video for Madonna's song celebrating vogueing culture is cinematic perfection from beginning to end. The video for the best-selling single of 1990 was nominated for nine MTV Video Music Awards and won Best Direction (David Fincher), Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.
Nine Inch Nails, "Closer," 1994
You already know that "Closer" was one of the most controversial videos to air on MTV in the '90s, but if you're longing for more about the visually stimulating clip, go behind-the-scenes with director Mark Romanek as he shares his creative process and experience working with Trent Reznor. "I pretty much tortured Trent for three or four days on this video. I spun him so long… I believe he vomited… but he never complained once. I think he knew that we were making something that was going to be interesting." The video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video and Best Art Direction in a Video.
Tags: MTV, Music, Music videos, Pandemic Days, YouTube | Spotify playlists, I found myself nostalgic for music videos. Missing MTV, I turned to YouTube to build a "channel," essentially a playlist, that I filled with hundreds of videos for songs released in the '70s, '80s, '90s, and '00s. Playlists are not only easy to create, you might find the process to be rewarding and therapeutic. (This writer takes comfort in compiling old commercials, for instance.)
If you've never created a YouTube playlist before, start by searching for your "gateway" video. Click "SAVE" directly under the video and from there you can create a new playlist or save to a playlist you've already created.
I recommend watching videos on a smart TV using the YouTube app, and if you prefer an ad-free experience, you can upgrade to YouTube Premium ($11.99/month) following a one-month trial. As you add videos to your playlist, YouTube will recommend several others you might like based on the artist and genre. Get ready to fall down a rabbit hole in which hours may pass before you realize you should stand up and stretch.
Here are 10 classic videos to get your playlist started. While they sadly won't be followed by a funky MTV animated promo, you can get your retro fix here. Long live music television!
David Bowie, "Life On Mars?" (2016 Mix)
In 2016, the year David Bowie passed away, director Mick Rock released an edit of his original 1973 promo for "Life on Mars?" Rock states on his website, "I had a little jewel and I wanted to polish it into a state where it was an absolutely perfect gem. Modern technology, which obviously we didn't have when I made the original in 1973, helped. I believe I achieved my goal."
Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody," 1975
"Bohemian Rhapsody" has endured many lives. Whether you were introduced to the single upon its release in the '70s, head-banged along | 428 |
BRANDON, MB – The Faculty of Arts at Brandon University is delighted to announce the inauguration of a nine-month Aboriginal Writer-in-Residency, generously co-sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts and Brandon University. This Residency will hopefully become an annual program, with a different featured author<|fim_middle|> the Residency began. | each year.
The inaugural Residency will feature guest writer Emma Ari Beltran of Toronto. She has kindly given up her time to share her life and literary gifts with the southwestern Manitoba community for the next nine months. Her Residency began on November 15, 2009 and ends on August 15, 2010.
The Residency will offer manuscript consultations, classroom visits and other events for Brandon University students and faculty, as well as the general public. Residency projects will be announced in early December. Information will be available at that time through the Faculty of Arts Office at 727-9790.
Emma Ari Beltran was one of the featured authors at the OGAMAS Brandon Aboriginal Literary Festival, so the BU community has already had a chance to meet her and hear her read her work before | 172 |
The 2012 Ford Fiesta is having a huge impact on the European market and is the number one selling small car across the pond. Ford says the little compact car was Europe's best-selling car in September, for the third quarter and for the first nine month's of this year. The figures were compiled by an independent provider of automotive data, JATO Dynamics and were based on sales in 30 European countries. And with more changes coming in fuel-efficiency, the Ford Fiesta could be having more of an impact worldwide with the 2014 model.
According to the report from JATO Dynamics, 31,468 Ford Fiestas were sold in September, 66,603 in the third quarter, and a total of 238,345 units were sold in the first nine months of 2012. The Ford Fiesta outsold the popular Volkswagen Golf hatchback by more than 27,000 units which makes the numbers even more impressive.
The new Fiesta is sure to attract even more buyers when it gets the new 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine. The new three-cylinder engine from Ford is being used first in the European Ford Focus and will be offered in the C-MAX and B-MAX in Europe later this year. The engine has been wildly accepted in Europe already in the Focus, and should be a big hit when it is offered in the smaller Fiesta.
The small fuel-efficient engine has been highly acclaimed and gets excellent fuel-mileage. It achieves 58.9 mpg in the Ford Focus (which is the European standard for estimating mileage) and is having a big impact around the globe. "For a three-cylinder to power a vehicle like the Ford Focus with such ease proves the future is very, very bright for the internal combustion engine," said Slavnich of Engine Technology International. And Ford has also developed a new ECOnetic diesel engine in the Ford Fiesta that achieved 90 mpg in the Fleet World MPG Marathon event that was recently held in the UK.
The all-new global 2014 Ford Fiesta was unveiled in Paris and is also getting a lot of attention. It also features the fuel-efficient EcoBoost <|fim_middle|> collisions. The new enrty-level compact will also feature Ford's SYNC in-car connectivity system.
If all cars in Europe are included, the Fiesta ranks as the number two best-selling car overall in Europe. Ford is changing the game in Europe with the Fiesta, and it will be interesting to see how the new 2014 Ford Fiesta does on a global level.
It sold 27,000 units more than the Volkswagon Golf. Really? Did you mean the Volkswagon Polo? I thought the Golf was Europe's best selling car!!! | 1.0-liter technology and is expected to deliver best-in-class fuel-economy. It will be the first among its European competitors to get Active City Stop, a system designed to help drivers avoid low speed | 41 |
Force Field Analysis - Force Field Map
Understanding change/goals
Val Yonchev
What Is Force Field Analysis - Force Field Map?
This is a simple way for evaluating the forces pro and con that are at play with regards to certain change. Typically, this is a change the organization is interested in or faces.
This is a method coming from the field of Social Science and developed by Kurt Lewin.
Dave Gray has introduced a map (Force Field Map), which provides an excellent canvas for having a conversation with all participants in front of a flipchart or whiteboard.
Why Do Force Field Analysis - Force Field Map?
Change cannot be managed. It can only be facilitated. To facilitate something one has to build sufficient understanding of it
Organizational systems are complex systems and require system thinking for their understanding. Force field analysis is a way to open the door to systems thinking in situations where organisations are going through change
Provides a good understanding of the environment, which in turn could allow for Lean Change Management practices to be used for facilitating the change process
How to do Force Field Analysis - Force Field Map?
Before the meeting, draw a picture of a potential change in the middle of a large sheet of paper or a whiteboard. You can draw a literal representation (e.g., a manufacturing plant) or a more abstract representation (e.g., a metaphor). Label the picture to ensure that everyone participating will be clear on the topic.
On the top left of the page, write the phrase "Forces FOR Change". On the top right, write the phrase "Forces AGAINST Change".
Draw arrows on both sides pointing toward the image in the middle. These will be the areas that contain categories generated by the group, so make the arrows large enough to write 1–2-inch letters inside. If you like the "wow" factor of drawing live with the group but you're not yet comfortable with freehand, sketch the arrows in pencil or yellow marker and trace them during the meeting.
When the group is gathered, introduce the change topic and explain that the goal of the Force Field Analysis game is to evaluate the feasibility of that change.
Ask the players to take 5–10 minutes and quietly generate ideas about what elements are driving the change<|fim_middle|> the sorting activity is complete, begin a group conversation to create an overarching category for each cluster. For example, an overarching category for the cluster from step 9 might be "unsustainable costs".
As the group makes suggestions and finds agreement on categories, write those categories inside the arrows on the main visual.
As you categorize each cluster, direct the group's attention to the numeric scores within that cluster. Get an average for each cluster and write that number next to the related category in the arrow.
Repeat steps 8–12 using the sticky notes generated AGAINST change.
Add the quantities for and against change and write the totals at the bottom and on the appropriate side of the sheet.
Summarize the overall findings with the group, including the numeric totals, and discuss the implications of whether change should occur.
Look at Force Field Analysis - Force Field Map
Check out these great links which can help you dive a little deeper into running the Force Field Analysis - Force Field Map practice with your team, customers or stakeholders.
Wikipedia Entry for Force Field Analysis
Force Field Analysis from Gamestorming.com | . Tell them to include one idea per sticky note.
Ask the players to take 5–10 minutes and quietly generate ideas about what elements are restraining the change.
Draw a simple scale with a range of 1 to 5 on your main flip chart. Indicate that 1 means the force is weak and 5 means the force is strong. Ask them to review each idea FOR change and add a number to that sticky note, weighting that idea. Ask them to review each idea AGAINST change and add a number to that sticky note, weighting that idea.
Gather all of the sticky notes FOR change and post them to any flat surface viewable by the players.
With the group's collaboration, sort the ideas based on their affinity to other ideas. For example, if they produced three sticky notes that say "Can't continue production at current cost", "Materials cost too high", and "Overexpenditure on production", cluster those ideas together. Create multiple clusters until you have clustered the majority of the sticky notes. Place outliers separate from the clusters but still in playing\nrange.
After | 222 |
Port Eynon hostel stands right on the sea front. It's an old lifeboat station, and apparently when the tide is very high the water laps at the steps outside the door. We were able to sit in the lounge in front of the stove with the large windows giving us a view right over Port Eynon Bay, the sun coming up opposite.
Saturday morning dawned after a Friday of welcoming fish stew and<|fim_middle|> surfer's paradise, but we nearly had it to ourselves, the grassy sand dunes making a perfect lunch-spot as we dozed in the warm midday (January!) sun.
After lunch we did a circuit of the Oxwich nature reserve, which is famous for the number of different habitats it harbours. In just over a mile you can go from the sea, through the beach and sand dunes, then through marsh and woodland, right up onto the moor. Buzzards circled overhead and we admired the peaceful woodland so close to the roaring surf.
Over the hill and back to Port Eynon we paid the customary visit to the local pub before the fire was roaring away again and dinner was on the way. Later, once darkness had fallen, the stars were out in force, the milky way streaming overhead, and all well with the world.
Despite a terrible forecast for Sunday, a grey day dawned with only light spits of rain. We drove further west to Rhossili and took a walk to the end of the peninsula to admire the Worm's Head, a great rocky set of islands reachable via a causeway when the tide is out. It was a bit too wet for us to try the crossing so we walked the coast instead, with views of the cliffs where prehistoric remains have been found in caves, and finding our way eventually round to the 3 mile-long wonder of Rhossili Bay.
This sheltered beach, flanked by dunes, a hill and also cliffs, hosts the remains of a shipwreck from the 19th century, and we were even able to watch some surfers out in the water before the heavy rain started in earnest and we retired to the bistro for lunch. Waving goodbye to the Gower, we all felt suitable lucky to have laid in the warm sunshine on a January weekend, and had the wonders of the Welsh coast all to ourselves. | the haphazard parking of people who have to find a hostel in the dark beyond the end of the road. Luckily we walked from the hostel, so no more driving was needed, and as the night's rain died away and the squalls raced into the Bristol Channel, we headed out along the beach.
Beyond Port Eynon Bay we joined the coastal path around Oxwich Point, a limestone peninsula with scarred wave-cut platforms that sticks out into the Severn Estuary. The gorse was in flower and the sun was warm on our heads, wandering along the grassy ledge near the shore and admiring the crystal blue waters.
Beyond the end of the point itself, we entered a woodland that came right down to the sea, and then passed the 11th century church of St Elltyd to reach Oxwich Bay. This famous beach is in summer a | 177 |
At 10, Kyle Can No Longer Imagine What He Wants To Be When He Grows Up
For Kyle Lyons, parts of childhood are fading into memory as he learns to cope with an uncertain future. His parents fear what the pandemic is doing to him — and his Bronx neighborhood, one of the poorest in the country.
by Otillia Steadman
Posted on September 7, 2020, 3:27 pm
To mark six months since a pandemic was officially declared, BuzzFeed News is publishing The Lost Year series: six stories of six people from six different age groups across the US. Each day this week, we are profiling a new person to see what toll the coronavirus has taken on their lives. In this first installment, we meet a young boy in the Bronx.
When Kyle Lyons was younger, he wanted to be a police officer when he grew up. But now he's 10, and times — and he — have changed.
"Oh, the police officers do good things. They help people," he said of his prior thinking, in a voice that made it clear he didn't believe that any longer. "So I really wanted to be a police officer."
At some point, though, "I just stopped liking police officers."
Since his change of heart, Kyle has wanted to be many things: a wrestler, an artist who makes pottery, maybe even a professional basketball or soccer player.
But right now, having completed his sixth month cooped up in a New York City apartment, he's struggling to imagine his future.
"I haven't really put my mind to it, I guess," he said. "Maybe it's because I'm home so much. I'm just, like, not really thinking about anything. I'm usually just home watching movies, playing video games."
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit his city in March, questions Kyle had about his future that used to be straightforward have become harder to answer. Will he get to visit family in Puerto Rico this year? Hard to say. What does he want to be for Halloween? He's not really sure. What about school and his birthday? No one really knows.
To mark six months since a pandemic was officially declared, BuzzFeed News is publishing The Lost Year series: six stories of six people from six different age groups across the US. Each day this week, we are profiling a new person to see what toll the coronavirus has taken on their lives.
The High School Senior:
At 17, Noel's college football dreams are up in the air. What else will he lose this senior year?
The College Grad:
At 24, Sarah is set to graduate college amid the coronavirus — but will she have a place in America?
The Millennial:
At 35, Carrie was finally feeling secure in her adult life. The coronavirus completely derailed it.
The Nurse:
At 63, Marissa is missing her daughter's wedding dress fitting as she fights for her fellow nurses.
The Grandmother:
At 82, my grandmother has lost her husband — and the world as she knows it.
As a young Black and Puerto Rican boy in the US, there are also bigger questions that he's beginning to grapple with, like why do the police keep shooting Black people and what should he do about his friend who used the n-word?
Kyle's parents — Crystal Bourdon, 30, and Brian Lyons, 34 — have worked hard to send him to a private Catholic school where he gets plenty of personal attention, and to give him opportunities to play and explore so he can develop his own opinions about the world and find his passion.
But despite their best efforts, many of the experiences they wanted for their son have been put on hold due to the pandemic, and they worry that he's falling behind at school and losing interest in things he used to care about.
"Now, he's even saying, like, 'Nah, I don't want to do basketball.' And I'm like, 'Damn! He's been too long without it,' you know?" said Bourdon. "I'm like, 'Okay — so what do you wanna do?' He's still saying he doesn't know."
"I watched him grow through this pandemic. I watched him grow up a little bit."
Ten is usually an age of big transitions. As they reach double digits, kids typically become more independent and start building new social skills. But for Kyle, as well as countless others like him, it's meant learning how to cope with a world that seems to have been turned upside down.
Kyle first heard about the coronavirus from a girl in his class at Our Lady of Lourdes, the Catholic school he attends in Manhattan. He heard it had something to do with bats or maybe a mythical animal in China, but he's still not exactly sure. The girl in his class was scared, though, and soon Kyle started to get scared too. "In the beginning, I was worried that I was gonna get it," he said. "I thought I was gonna die."
He never told his parents how he was feeling or about his fears of dying. But they said he started asking questions about the news. He also became very diligent about handwashing and, when it became common practice, wearing masks.
Lyons said he tried to comfort Kyle and would make sure to snuggle up when they watched movies, but the pandemic has still managed to snatch away some bits of Kyle's childhood.
"Kyle was very adult about taking the responsibility on and protecting himself and others, as well as reminding us to protect ourselves," said Lyons. "He sort of became like this little leader. I watched him grow through this pandemic. I watched him grow up a little bit."
Courtesy Brian Lyons
Kyle and his dad, Brian Lyons.
Kyle is, objectively, an extremely cute kid with a big smile. He gets quiet and takes his time to think through what he wants to say when he's talking about something serious, but he can also be effusive, flopping all over the couch with his pile of curls bouncing, when he's talking about fun things like roller coasters or the<|fim_middle|> distancing, and it's been a process to negotiate who it was okay for Kyle to spend time with — something that has been common for many parents negotiating custody during a pandemic. Bourdon is more cautious by nature, while Lyons was eager to maintain some social contact. He said it was especially important to see his mom, who now lives alone in Westchester. He was also worried Kyle would become numb to other people if he was cooped up for too long.
"There's no substitute for human connection," said Lyons. "We could do the FaceTime thing and use technology...but it's not the same as being physically in front of someone and physically holding someone or telling someone face to face that you love them and you miss them."
The pair have been able to agree on a situation that works for everyone, but Bourdon said it's hard not to worry about her son when he's not with her. "Brian's kind of like a free spirit," she said. "So it can be a little nerve-wracking. But I know that he wouldn't obviously ever do anything to put Kyle in harm's way."
Courtesy Crystal Bourdon
Kyle at his grandmother's apartment.
Before New York City shut down in March, Kyle was taking ballroom dancing classes downtown. He was supposed to be in a West African dance performance through a program run by the renowned Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation at his school, and he was part of a competitive basketball training program in the Bronx called Gauchos. All of that, of course, went away.
Kyle said being stuck at home all of a sudden this spring was boring. And, more than anything, he misses his friends.
"We didn't really have anything to do, except really just watch TV or something," he said, "and you can't really go outside that much cause of the sickness."
Friendships are especially important to kids Kyle's age because they're developing more independent relationships and learning to navigate more complicated social situations, said David Anderson, who is the senior director of national programs and outreach at the Child Mind Institute. "It's a stage of a lot of transition, and a lot of move towards independence," said Anderson.
Now, the main way Kyle gets to spend time with his friends is by playing video games together online — and they've been playing a lot, sometimes several hours each day. They like a couple of games, but the main one is Fortnite, where Kyle is part of a clan with eight other boys his age. The game is enormously popular, and play has surged during the pandemic. It's primarily a battle game, but the boys are also able to chat and talk to one another over headsets while they play, so Kyle and his friends, like many others, have also been using it as a way to hang out.
"I felt kind of close to my friends because I would play with them every day," he said, "but other than that I didn't see them at all."
Lyons said he's allowing video games more often than he usually would. "That's how he's getting in touch with his friends," he said. "He's already had a tough year."
It hasn't all been fun, though. If another player is being negative or cursing while Kyle is trying to have fun, he turns down the volume. "I'll be like, Dude, you're being so negative. Like I can't concentrate with the negativity," he said.
Recently though, someone used a curse worse that couldn't be ignored. They were playing when all of a sudden one of the boys called Kyle's friend Daniel, 11, a bad word. Kyle didn't want to repeat it, but he said it starts with the letter N.
The clan has been debating what to do. The player who leads the group asked each of the members to weigh in on whether the boy who said the bad word should be banned. Fortnite and PlayStation, which is the console they use to play, have strict policies against abusive language, and this boy already has two suspensions. A third complaint could mean that he is banned from not just Fortnite, but all PlayStation gaming. It's a high price to pay, but Kyle says he's sick of it. "I really wanted him to, like, learn his lesson," said Kyle. "He's just really toxic."
Kyle and his friends usually only talk about racism "when something really, really bad happens," but with the killing of George Floyd by police in May and the protests that followed, it's been impossible to avoid.
The demonstrations came to Mott Haven on June 4. Peaceful protesters stayed out past the curfew instituted by Mayor Bill de Blasio intended to quell looting, and police surrounded and cracked down violently on the group, handcuffing legal observers and people dressed in scrubs, and leaving at least one person so badly hurt that they had to be taken away on a stretcher.
Kyle and his dad also had their own scary interaction with the police while the curfew was in effect. They were out driving shortly before curfew when Lyons said he spotted a group of police in riot gear approaching some Black boys who were playing in the street. Lyons decided to stop the car and step in. He told the officers he would record anything that happened and would file a complaint with the precinct, which he said got them to leave the kids alone.
"I thought that was just like a really stupid decision," said Kyle.
Lyons didn't initially respond to this comment from Kyle, but later said he understood where his son was coming from. "If anything happens to me, then he loses a dad," said Lyons. "That's why I let him have his opinion. 'Cause I don't ever want him to feel like he's wrong for saying something."
Bourdon said she and Lyons first started talking with Kyle about race when he was about 5 and they watched the movie Roots together. She tries to present all sides because she doesn't want him to be biased, but she said it's also important for him to understand how to behave when he interacts with police.
"I didn't want him to feel as if all police are bad," said Bourdon. "I always try to remain clear that cops are like — they're people, you know? They're not like people, they are people. So just like people in the world, there are good people and there are bad people."
When Kyle was little, he watched a lot of Paw Patrol, an animated kids TV show in which dogs work as police officers and firefighters, performing rescue missions. Lyons suspects that's where Kyle's interest in being a police officer came from. He isn't really sure what ultimately caused Kyle to change his mind, but he said they've been in the car together a few times when police stopped Lyons, and he had questions about it.
"He's seeing it and it's happening on the news, it's happening on Instagram, and it's happening more and more and more and more and more," said Bourdon. "And he's like, 'Okay, wait. So how could it not be everyone?'"
Kyle and his mother, Crystal Bourdon.
Lyons' parents immigrated to New York from Jamaica when his mom was 18, and they lived in Harlem until their apartment was shot up, Lyons said. He never got the full story, but afterward he and his brothers were put in foster care for a few years. It was a horrible, abusive experience, and when they got to go back to their parents, the family moved to Mott Haven.
Lyons started spending time at the playground at St. Ann's Episcopal Church when he was 7 or 8, and he has spent much of his life at the church since then, eventually taking a job managing the property
The church was founded in 1841 and is the resting place for some members of the Morris family, including signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, who owned much of the land in the South Bronx long before it was torn apart by Robert Moses and consigned to poverty by redlining.
The current reverend, a white woman named Martha Overall first came to the church in the 70s as a lawyer asked to represent members of the congregation who had occupied the Puerto Rican Community Development project to protest against corruption within the program. She returned as the reverend in 1993, and has expanded the church's community services, including a food pantry and soup kitchen that have continued to operate throughout the pandemic.
More than 20% of residents in Mott Haven were food-insecure, meaning they don't have enough food or their access to food is uncertain, as of mid-March, according to Hunter College's food policy center, but that number has likely grown due to high unemployment. The amount of New Yorkers in need of food assistance is believed to have doubled to about 2 million people since the pandemic began.
St. Ann's has adapted in order to keep visitors safe when they come for food, with social distancing regulations in line and a handwashing facility provided by Doctors Without Borders. The soup kitchen does takeout meals now, but Rev. Overall said a sense of community has been lost with the changes.
"I feel sad," she said, "especially for the street homeless because if it rains on a day we have the soup kitchen, they've got to eat their food in the rain, and I feel horrible about that."
Kyle holds up a careta mask in Loíza, Puerto Rico. The mask is typically used during Carnival to dress as a vejigante, a folkloric character from Spain that has been adapted with African and Taíno influences in Puerto Rico.
Although restrictions eased in New York City over the summer as cases subsided, Lyons said the neighborhood where he's raising his son still feels unrecognizable. "People here are used to coming outside in front of their buildings during the summer, opening up the pump and playing water games, blasting music, and just enjoying, and dancing with each other or sharing food," he said. While there's been some of that this summer, Lyons says that in comparison to years past the streets are barren. "Everyone is masked up, so you can't really engage with people."
Kyle still hasn't been to a water park, and they haven't been down to Puerto Rico to visit Bourdon's family this year, although they've gone to the beach a few times, and he got to spend a weekend with his best friend, Daniel.
"I almost died, but I did it," said Bourdon, whose own parents didn't allow her to do things like go away with friends when she was young. "He had a blast...so I'm actually happy I let him go."
Bourdon, who works for the state's Division of Housing and Community Renewal as an inspector for rent-stabilized and rent-controlled buildings, was sent home when the state shut down in March. She is back doing inspections again now, but everything on the books for the spring was canceled, meaning tenants had to continue living in potentially unsafe buildings.
They also investigate harassment complaints, which Bourdon said typically come up when an area is gentrifying and landlords refuse to fix apartments in order to get tenants out. Organizers in Mott Haven say the pandemic has not stopped aggressive landlords, and housing advocates worry that the pandemic may make gentrification worse.
For Bourdon, the issue is also personal. Both sides of her family moved to Mott Haven from Puerto Rico. Her mom's side has been in the neighborhood since her grandmother first moved there, and her parents met in Mott Haven after her dad moved there as a boy.
Her grandmother, who has been homebound since the pandemic began, has lived in the same building for about 50 years, but it was bought by a new landlord recently and the family is concerned that she could be forced out too. "It's kind of a stressful situation because we don't know who it's going to affect or when it's going to hit home," said Bourdon. "It's obviously affected some people in the neighborhood already."
With both parents back at work full time, Kyle has been spending a lot of his time during the week at his grandmother's apartment. He gets up early when they go to work and gets dropped at the door, while his grandma, Mary Bonilla, waits for him at the top of the stairs.
"In my head I was like, Well, Kyle will be a fifth-grade dropout because he's not going back to school in September if the coronavirus is still this bad."
Then he takes a nap or scrolls through TikTok. He plays a little bit with the other kids who live in the building, but he still misses his friends from school.
At the peak of the crisis in New York in the spring, Bourdon wasn't sure if she would ever send Kyle to class again. "In my head I was like, Well, Kyle will be a fifth-grade dropout because he's not going back to school in September if the coronavirus is still this bad," she said.
With school set to start soon, she and Lyons are scared. They're worried that it won't be clean enough or kids will be irresponsible with their masks. They've also both heard rumors that make them nervous. Bourdon had heard that if a kid was sent to school with symptoms of COVID-19, they would immediately be sent to a hospital and a social worker would be called.
"That could be lies, I'm not sure," she said, adding she planned to do more research. "But it just makes me fearful...are you automatically going to snatch them away?"
Lyons is worried that kids who go back to school could be forced to take an untested vaccine. "It's a scary choice for me," he said. (State, city, and Catholic school officials who spoke with BuzzFeed News said both of these speculative fears were unfounded.)
For now, the plan is for Kyle to return to Our Lady of Lourdes for a hybrid program, where he'll have in-person classes two days a week. But Bourdon is still afraid. "I wanted him to do complete remote learning," she said, "but he expressed to me that he didn't feel that remote learning five days a week was the best option for him."
Kyle doesn't love school, as a rule, but he's still glad to be going back. "I would just rather go back to school, sitting in front of the teacher while she's teaching the lesson," he said.
Beyond the start of the new school year, no one is really sure what the fall holds. Kyle is hoping he'll get to go to Puerto Rico for his birthday in November. Halloween would also usually be a big deal. Bourdon would typically take Kyle out of school for the day and they would go to the Bronx Zoo, which has pumpkin carving and magic shows. Then they would go trick-or-treating along 138th Street, the commercial strip in Mott Haven.
Kyle dressed as Pennywise from the movie It.
In the past, Kyle has been a skeleton, Mickey Mouse, the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, and a ninja. A recent favorite, though, was Pennywise, the murderous clown from the Steven King horror story It. It was a decidedly more adult costume for Kyle — and he said the movies scared him, but he braved it all anyway. Bourdon watched a bunch of YouTube videos to get the makeup just right.
But, much like what he wants to be when he grows up, Kyle isn't sure what he'll be for Halloween this year. Like many of the once regular beats of his childhood, it's something that's mostly a memory for now.
"I don't know. I didn't really think about Halloween this year," he said. "I don't know if I'm going to stay home." ●
For Kyle Lyons, parts of childhood are fading into memory as he learns to cope with an uncertain future. His parents fear what the pandemic is doing to him -- and his Bronx neighborhood, one of the poorest in the country.
Jackie Russo for BuzzFeed News
Otillia Steadman
Otillia Steadman is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.
Contact Otillia Steadman at otillia.steadman@buzzfeed.com. | video game Fortnite.
He and his parents live in Mott Haven, a neighborhood in the poorest congressional district in the country, the South Bronx. Bourdon and Lyons grew up in the neighborhood too, and Bourdon's family — including her grandmother — all still live nearby.
The neighborhood has been changing in recent years. Real graffiti is being replaced by graffiti murals. And, before the pandemic, the city started work on the park where Bourdon remembers playing in rubble as a child. There are nice new baseball fields and playgrounds. But it also raised worries for Bourdon about gentrification in the neighborhood that might squeeze out her family. But construction came to a halt on the park when the city shut down in March.
"I think that not only Kyle but other children are probably also falling back because it's not the same as being in the classroom."
The area has been shaped by decades of institutional racism and government failures that created fertile ground for the coronavirus to wreak havoc, taking hold in crowded public housing and potentially exacerbated by high rates of asthma, which is so prevalent because of pollution from the surrounding highways. In the first month of the outbreak, the South Bronx and Western Queens were the hardest-hit areas in New York City. In Mott Haven, 1 in every 30 people has now contracted the virus; 1 in every 361 residents has died from it.
"New York state was the hardest hit at that time. New York City was the hardest-hit city within New York state, and our congressional district was the hardest-hit district within the city within the state," Rep. José Serrano, who is retiring from Congress after 30 years representing the district, told BuzzFeed News. "So stepping outside your door was a danger."
But it wasn't just the virus. Staggering unemployment in the neighborhood — more than 30% in some parts of Mott Haven — as a result of the pandemic's effect on businesses also compounded high rates of food insecurity and already-precarious housing situations. Residents are also still grappling with a forceful crackdown on a local protest against police violence that has further diminished trust among the community.
"And we still had to deal with all these issues that came about. What happened is they were augmented [by the virus]," said Serrano. "Everything that was not going right with how agencies treated the Bronx became bigger issues — have become bigger issues during the pandemic."
Courtesy Bourdon Family
Kyle, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last summer.
Our Lady of Lourdes started remote learning on March 23. Kyle thought it would be easy at first, but it hurts his eyes to stare at a screen all day.
Math was especially challenging since Kyle was learning long division, and it took him a while to figure out how to make the symbols on the computer. "I'm not used to doing what is on a paper on the computer," he said. "At the computer, you have to click all these buttons. I eventually got it, but it was still quite hard."
Kyle is a hands-on learner, Bourdon said, and he gets frustrated when he feels the teacher is moving on too quickly. Online learning has made it hard for even the best teachers to give kids a lot of personalized attention.
"I think that not only Kyle but other children are probably also falling back because it's not the same as being in the classroom setting where the teachers are up to speed and well, up to date, [where] she knows which kid is lacking, which kid isn't, which kids to give more attention to. You know?" said Bourdon. "I think it is hard to keep up."
Lyons and Bourdon have known each other since they were little kids. Bourdon recalls being 6 or 7 when she first met Lyons, who was friends with her older brother.
Lyons said they would play together a lot as kids. They went to the playground and listened to music, and sometimes as they got older they would stay out late and kiss. "It was bliss," said Lyons. "We were ignorant to a lot of the stuff that was going on."
Bourdon dated someone else for a few years in high school, and then they reconnected when Bourdon was 18. Kyle was born about a year later, and they got married in 2010 with a small ceremony and dinner at a restaurant with their families. But they were young and struggled to communicate, eventually separating in 2018. Bourdon kept the apartment and Lyons moved a few blocks away. Kyle now splits time between the two 50-50, switching every Wednesday.
Bourdon and Lyons have reacted differently to social | 960 |
At Jumping Jack Cash, we are your number 1 option for electronics in Colorado. Why EVER pay<|fim_middle|> instruction manuals, etc. All of these items increase overall sale value because, for example, it's harder to sell a DVD player that doesn't have a remote versus one that does.
If you're looking to buy, sell or get a loan on used electronics, contact us today to learn more about the services we offer. We look forward to your business! Jumping Jack Cash has several convenient locations throughout the Denver metro area and all of them will be happy to work with you and your used electronics. | retail? We buy, sell, and pawn all different kinds of electronics from major manufacturers. We buy your old electronics for a fair price and if you're looking for a new or replacement piece of equipment, we can help.
Here is a brief overview of how we buy, sell and loan on electronics at Jumping Jack Cash.
People sell electronics for many different reasons. Some people simply don't use their device or they may sell it to upgrade to a newer version of a tablet, smartphone, TV or Blu-ray player.
With an ever-changing industry, there's no shortage of gently used electronics available. Remember, just because an item is used doesn't mean it's not functional or useful. At Jumping Jack Cash we test every item that comes into our store to make sure they still work. We RPM every item we sell: Refurbish, Price, and Merchandise. We get all our assets as close to new as we possibly can, when we can.
Price: make no mistake, when comparing prices a used device will always be cheaper than the newest release. In many cases, for high-priced items, the savings can easily be hundreds of dollars.
Value: consider if you even need the newest version of a tablet, Blu-ray player, laptop, phone, etc. Many times, the new features may not be of any use to many owners who only need their electronics to perform basic/certain tasks. In this case, a slightly older product is not only much cheaper but also completely acceptable in terms of features.
Good for the Environment: buying a used product means one less thing to go into a landfill or require recycling. Electronic waste contributes a significant amount to landfills every year.
Clean It First: appearances matter when it comes to used products and by cleaning your item first you not only save time, but also increase your value.
It Must be Functional: always test your items first. To ensure maximum value, be certain not only that it powers up but that it also functions. For example, turning on a laptop, navigating the desktop, and loading a word processing program can demonstrate a functional product.
Gather the Accessories: be sure to include all the odds and ends that an electronic item came with. Always include (if possible) charging cables, power plugs, remotes, | 461 |
If you own a building, run a business or manage a public space that<|fim_middle|> trip hazard making it the safest all-round Anti Slip Stair Nosing.
Edge Grip FRP Anti Slip Stair Nosing are pre-formed robust fibreglass panels capable of dealing with the busiest of environments. Its silicone carbon grit top finish provides an excellent slip resistant surface.
With its patented featheredge, Edge Grip FRP Anti Slip Stair Nosing can be fitted to almost any step without creating a trip hazard. Even when fitted to landings and extra deep steps, its unique design provides the most secure solution.
Two types of slip resistant grit surfaces are available, Type I, for internal applications. The smaller grit size offers good slip resistancy whilst allowing a surface that is reasonably easy to clean. Type E, with a much heavier grit profile is ideal for the rigors of the external environment.
Edge Grip FRP Anti Slip Stair Nosing are fitted using a combination of high quality adhesive and appropriate mechanical fixings. The optional fixing kits will provide everything needed to ensure a swift and easy installation. | has stairs then you are obliged to ensure that everyone using the stairs is safe. Anti Slip Stair Nosing is an excellent way to ensure that the stairs are as safe as possible.
Anti Slip Stair Nosing can reduce the chances of accidents occurring dramatically. The leading edge of a stair can become slippery when wet and even internal stairs can become slippery during rain as people track the water inside. With high quality Edge Grip FRP Anti Slip Stair Nosing from Monaco you can make sure that the leading edge of the stairs are not slippery even in the wettest conditions.
Our Edge Grip FRP Anti Slip Stair Nosing comes in pre-formed robust fibreglass panels that are incredibly durable and the silicone carbon grit top finish provides a highly slip resistant surface. We offer two slip resistant surfaces, one light grit made for interior situations and the other heavier grit made for exterior uses.
Edge Grip FRP Anti Slip Stair Nosing has a patented featheredge meaning that it can be fitted to virtually every type of step without creating a | 207 |
Recent Advances and Trends in Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry and Applications
Published on: May 1, 2018
V. Balaram
LCGC Supplements, Special Issues-05-01-2018, Volume 16, Issue 2
Pages: 8–13, 38
There have been exciting recent advances in ICP-MS instrumentation, such as the development of magnetic sector ICP-MS, multicollector ICP-MS, time-of-flight ICP-MS, and triple-quadrupole ICP-MS, as well as developments in the coupling of laser ablation (LA) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to ICP-MS. This article surveys these developments and looks to the future.
Today, quadrupole inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) occupies an invaluable position in modern analytical laboratories worldwide because of its multielement and multi-isotope capability, high sensitivity, very limited interference effects, precision, and accuracy. Over the past three decades, however, there have been exciting advances in ICP-MS instrumentation, such as the development of high-resolution or magnetic sector ICP-MS, multicollector ICP-MS, time-of-flight ICP-MS, and triple-quadrupole ICP-MS. In addition, there have been important developments in the coupling of laser ablation (LA) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to ICP-MS. This article surveys these developments and looks ahead to the future.
One of the most innovative developments in the area of analytical instrumentation during the past 50 years is the development of the quadrupole inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and the subsequent developments of magnetic sector and time-of-flight (TOF) instruments (1–3). Over the past three decades, ICP-MS, with its excellent detection limits, multielement and multi-isotope capability, limited interferences, and a wide linear dynamic range, has become widely accepted as an established technique for trace- and ultratrace-element analysis, with thousands of instruments in use all over the world not only in the forefront of major areas such as earth, environment, ocean, and pharmaceutical sciences but also in emerging areas like proteomics and nanoparticle analysis (4–8). Recent developments in microelectronics and information processing have immensely contributed to making these instruments extremely smart, user friendly, and compact (9). The quest for interference-free determination and lower detection limits has driven numerous subsequent developments in recent years, which include coupling of laser-ablation sampling with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), collision–reaction cells even in multicollector instruments, and multiple quadrupole MS arrangements. This article examines some of these recent developments in ICP-MS technology that have made considerable impact in science and technology.
ICP-Tandem Mass Spectrometry
To overcome spectral<|fim_middle|> 1448–1466 (2017).
(29) M. Dong, D. Oropeza, J. Chirinos, J.J. González, J. Lu, X. Ma, and R.E. Russo, Spectrochim. Acta Part B 109, 44–50 (2015).
V. Balaram, PhD, is an Emeritus Scientist and former Chief Scientist and Head of the Geochemistry Division at the CSIR–National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad, India. Direct correspondence to: balaram1951@yahoo.com | interferences in quadrupole ICP-MS, features such as collision–reaction cells and kinetic energy discrimination (KED) have been introduced. Recently, two manufacturers have introduced ICP-MS/MS systems (or triple-quadrupole ICP-MS) systems, which further improve on the interference-removal capabilities of collision–reaction cells. In contrast to the traditional quadrupole-based ICP-MS systems equipped with a collision–reaction cell, ICP-MS/MS is characterized by the presence of two quadrupoles with a collision–reaction cell in between, which can be operated with a variety of cell gases, although one firm uses an octopole collision–reaction cell to do the similar function (Figure 1). The first quadrupole provides a mass-selection step before the cell, which gives better control over the ion–molecule reactions taking place in the cell by removing the matrix, followed by the mass selection by the second quadrupole. This double mass selection before and after the reaction cell, together with controlled ion–molecule chemistry, enables the determination of elements difficult to determine without this capability and delivers more accurate results for complex samples. It also improves detection limits. For example, 129I in soil samples was determined using ICP-MS/MS, with the objective of investigating radioiodine released by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident. High background caused by 129Xe impurities in argon plasma gas and polyatomic ions such as 127IH2+ and 127ID+ usually make it difficult to determine this isotope using conventional ICP-MS instruments. Oxygen was used as a reaction gas to reduce the background intensity of m/z 129, principally by 129Xe. Accurate and extremely precise 129I/127I ratios obtained are consistent with those obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) (10). In another interesting application, Machado and colleagues (11) have accurately determined arsenic using ICP-MS/MS by applying mass shift reaction in the collision–reaction cell. Accurate determination of 75As+ usually is a challenge because of the well known isobaric overlaps caused by polyatomic species, such as 40Ar35Cl+, originated from the presence of elements of the matrix in the argon plasma. In ICP-MS/MS, 75As+ species are converted to 75As16O+ ions by the addition of oxygen gas into the collision–reaction cell, which allows the accurate determination of As in samples with high contents of rare earth elements (REEs), with REE-related interfering species such as 150Nd2+ and 150Sm2+. The results presented in Table I show that in single-quadrupole mode concentrations are higher than those determined by MS/MS mass shift mode, and this difference is more pronounced in agricultural gypsum samples, where REE concentrations are up to 10-fold higher than those found in fertilizers. ICP-MS/MS also showed greater ability for the accurate determination of the fission products 135Cs, 137Cs, and 90Sr, which are radioactive and have detection limits as low as 0.01 pg/mL (12). There are several such examples in the recent literature where ICP-MS/MS has been very effectively used for the sensitive and interference-free determination of various elements in several matrices (13).
Tandem LA-LIBS Coupled to ICP-MS
Laser-ablation ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) is a powerful technique for direct solid analysis with unique capabilities such as microanalysis, depth profiling analysis, two-dimensional elemental or isotope mapping, and the analysis of conductive and nonconductive materials. Another emerging analytical technique for direct solid analysis that uses LA, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), is an atomic emission technique. Recently, these two fundamentally different techniques have been incorporated into a single commercial instrument and the resulting LIBS–LA-ICP-MS setup has the benefits of both techniques. All three forms of ICP-MS, namely, quadrupole, time-of-flight, and magnetic sector instruments have been used for this kind of technique hyphenation. LIBS uses the characteristic photons generated during the relaxation of the excited atomic and ionic species to create a spectral signature of the elements, and the analysis can be performed under ambient conditions. Typical limits of detection of metallic elements reported for LIBS are in micrograms-per-gram to weight percent levels. LA-ICP-MS, on the other hand, acquires the mass-to-charge ratios characteristic of the elemental composition of the ejected particles resulting from the laser–material interaction with detection limits of different elements in the range of sub-microgram-per-gram levels. Because isotopic information can also be obtained by LA-ICP-MS, the combination of LIBS and LA-ICP-MS (Figure 2) can be used to obtain chemical information (both elemental and isotopic) over a wider concentration range. There are some exciting applications in the recent literature where simultaneous tandem LA-LIBS coupled to an ICP-MS system had an impact on qualitative and quantitative analyses applications (14,15).
Figure 1: Schematic diagram of a triple-quadrupole ICP-MS system with a collision–reaction cell located between two quadrupoles. (Courtesy of Agilent Technologies.)
Despite the tremendous advances in LA-ICP-MS and features such as high sensitivity and resolution, certain elements and isotopes remain largely unmeasurable by LA-ICP-MS. Recurring limiting factors include isobaric interferences, abundance sensitivity, and detector saturation that forces masking of specific element masses and reduced sensitivity as a result of insufficient ionization of high ionization potential elements in the argon ICP plasma. These parameters collectively make the detection of elements such as F, O, H, N, Si, Se, As, Ca, and S very challenging or even impossible with conventional LA-ICP-MS systems. As a result, other techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy are being used to obtain complementary information. However, cross-correlation between exact sample locations, excitation volumes, and resolution (spatial and depth) may vary substantially, leading to faulty results. But tandem LA-LIBS coupled to ICP-MS is used to successfully chemically correlate, image, and map major, minor, and trace elements and isotopes through two-dimensional (2D) layer-by-layer and 2D cross-sectional imaging as well as three-dimensional (3D) volume reconstruction of the elemental distribution in geological samples (16) (Figure 3). By adopting computed tomography imaging principles to visualize multiple elemental and isotopic distributions in bastnaesite mineral ore matrix, expanded elemental coverage from a single sampling event is possible. In a forensic application, Subedi and colleagues (17) used this combination technique to discriminate printing inks with information from the atomic or ionic emissions and isotopic composition (m/z) by using the fingerprint spectra of each ink sample. Such combination instrumentation is becoming very popular with several such examples having been seen in different areas of application.
Figure 2: A schematic system of a tandem LIBS-LA-ICP-TOF-MS system (29).
Collision–Reaction Cell Multicollector ICP-MS
Nontraditional stable isotopes such as V, Cu, Mo, Ba, K, Pt, Pd, Ag, Ce, Er, and Si, with small variations in natural stable isotopic composition, have emerged as powerful tracers in geosciences, archaeology, nanotechnology, and environmental health studies. Mass differences in stable isotopes also give rise to fractionation during physical processes as a result of differences in the velocities of isotopic molecules of the same compounds. Information about the differences in these isotopes can help researchers understand physicochemical processes such as mass transfer and temperature changes. For example, magnesium is one of the most abundant elements on the Earth and has three isotopes (24Mg, 25Mg, and 26Mg) with relative mass difference between 24Mg and 26Mg of ~8%. Mg isotopes can be significantly fractionated during geochemical and biogeochemical processes. High-precision Mg isotope ratios allow us to understand geochemical processes in low-Mg rocks as well as many high-Mg rocks (18). Cu isotopic composition in the human body can help to identify the sources of Cu in the body as well as processes that are responsible for the movement of Cu in the body and to understand how reactions involving copper may be affected by disease. Until recently, measurement of these stable isotopic compositions has been carried out by thermal-ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), and multicollector (MC)-ICP-MS (19). The current challenges in the measurement of nontraditional stable isotopes in complex samples by MC-ICP-MS lie in the identification and monitoring of spectral interferences, because certain molecular species can interfere directly with the atomic ions of the same nominal mass, leading to inaccurate isotope ratio determination. For example, 40Ar56Fe directly overlaps on 96Mo during molybdenum isotope ratio measurement, and the analysis of certain isotopes such as 40Ca is not possible on traditional MC-ICP-MS instruments because the 40Ar interference cannot be resolved. In addition, the low sensitivity offered in higher resolution mode is another problem because for every 10-fold increase in resolving power, there is a concomitant decrease in sensitivity. But recently one firm has introduced a collision–reaction cell MC-ICP-MS instrument with a novel design that incorporates both a "high energy" ion path (traditional MC-ICP-MS) and a separate "low energy" ion path (collision–reaction cell-MC-ICP-MS) (Figure 4) to enable accurate and precise measurement of these stable isotopes to meet the requirements of real applications. The instrument offers an ideal solution for the precise and accurate isotopic analysis of both the traditional isotope systems, and the nontraditional isotope systems.
Figure 3: Representative LIBS (a) and LA-ICP-MS (b) spectra acquired from a single location of the sample. Surface (2D) distribution maps of Ca of the same 0.785 x 0.785 mm2 area of a bastnaesite rock sample obtained simultaneously by (c) LIBS and (d) LA-ICP-MS (16).
Other Significant Developments
Instrumental Improvements
The new-generation ICP-TOF-MS instruments are becoming more popular because of high-speed, high-spatial resolution, multielement and multi-isotope imaging that became possible as a result of advances in both LA and ICP-MS technologies. Though one firm has developed an ICP-simultaneous mass spectrometer that uses a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) detector to simultaneously measure all masses from Li to U (20), for unknown reasons, the expected success has not been achieved so far. Recently, Obayashi and colleagues (21) have developed an LA-MC-ICP-MS system equipped with multiple-ion counting using three Daly detectors, which dramatically shortened the analysis time down to 1–5 s for in situ isotope ratio measurement over the conventional U–Pb age determinations using single-collector ICP-MS instruments. Conventional multiple collection using the Faraday detectors can be erroneous when the signal intensities of the analytes are unstable, particularly when the laser-ablation sampling technique is adopted. Deterioration in both the precision and accuracy of the isotope ratio measurements can be a result of the slow response of the Faraday amplifier. Daly detectors showed better long-term gain stability and wide dynamic range compared to conventional electron multipliers. Other improvements include the development of mini torch that consumes only two-thirds the argon compared to a conventional ICP torch, and improved spray-chamber systems with features such as faster temperature equilibration and extended temperature range (such as –25 °C to 80 °C with an accuracy of ±0.1 °C) for improving the performance of ICP-MS by effectively improving signal stability and reducing oxide interferences.
Figure 4: Schematic diagram of a collision-reaction cell MC-ICP-MS instrument with dual path transfer optics. (Adapted with permission from Nu Instruments.)
Femtosecond Lasers for LA-ICP-MS
One of the most fundamental limitations of LA-ICP-MS has been a lack of reproducibility, which can create problems during quantitative analysis, especially in heterogeneous materials where difficulty in matrix matching between the sample and standard may introduce errors. However, LA-ICP-MS (all forms) with its high sensitivity, capability of isotope ratio measurements, and excellent spatial resolution has seen a surge in its applications in environmental and life sciences because of the introduction of femtosecond laser systems, which offer distinct improvements in terms of matrix effects and elemental fractionation. This performance improvement is also a result of the availability of a wide variety of certified reference materials (22). In addition, the reduction of the internal volume of the laser-ablation cell for faster washout time contributed to the successful application of LA-ICP-TOF-MS to high-speed and high-spatial resolution multielement analysis (23), and also for elemental characterization of diverse samples such as toners, inks, papers, gunshot residues, fragments of automotive paints, and samples of hair and bones in forensic studies.
Speciation Studies
Analysis of animal- and plant-based foods for toxic elements such as Pb, Cd, As, Se, and Hg is of increasing importance because of raised consumer awareness and the need to evaluate and establish regulatory guidelines for these toxic trace metals and metalloids. Common examples include As, Cd, and Hg speciation in rice and As speciation in foodstuffs. For such applications, chromatographic techniques such as liquid chromatography (LC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to all forms of ICP-MS continue to be the methods of choice (24).
Single-Particle Analysis
Recently, single-particle ICP-MS (spICP-MS) has become a proven analytical technique for the characterization of nanomaterials and to provide information pertaining to size, size distribution, particle number concentration, and major elemental composition with minimal sample perturbation (25).
Quantitative Proteomics
Although ICP-MS does not directly facilitate protein identification, the high-temperature process inside an inductively coupled plasma leads to complete fragmentation of all sample molecules, leaving only their detectable atomic constituents, namely metals, metalloids, or heteroatoms (such as Se or P), which can be used as surrogates to detect complex molecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, or even small organic molecules. In this emerging area, ICP-MS is able to solve many challenges in quantitative proteomics that are hard to address by other techniques, as clearly seen in the large number of recent publications (26).
Miniaturization
Another emerging trend in the world of analytical instrumentation is miniaturization (9). Because of tremendous advances in microelectronics, instrument designs, and computer technology, today the majority of analytical instruments have moved to the bench-top and, in some cases, are available in portable or handheld options. Among other benefits, miniaturization can cut costs and make techniques more environmentally friendly by considerably reducing power and reagent requirements. Although there is a considerable size reduction in current ICP-MS instruments compared to the first-generation instruments, no ICP-MS instrument has yet become handheld so far, but with the kind of rapid advancements taking place currently in microelectronics, chip technologies, and other allied areas, that possibility cannot be ruled out for the future.
Sample Preparation Methods
Despite rapid developments and innovations in ICP-MS, sample preparation remains the main bottleneck of elemental and isotope analysis. Although laser sampling has made it possible to conduct in situ analysis on solid samples directly, most applications still require acid digestion (4). Sample preparation devices with very high digestion efficiency such as high-pressure ashers and high-pressure vessels for inorganic substances (27) and techniques such as microwave-assisted decomposing procedures for organic substances (28) are becoming more and more popular.
In all the measurements discussed here, there is a great need for stringent quality control measures. Because most analytical techniques, including ICP-MS, are comparative, a sample of known composition (reference material) is required for accurate calibration. One of the biggest challenges is the availability of calibrated elemental and isotopic reference materials for every application. However, international organizations like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Germany support accurate and compatible measurements by certifying and providing hundreds of certified reference materials (CRMs) for many applications.
Future Challenges and Opportunities
As indicated by the broad range of examples discussed here, exciting developments have taken place in ICP-MS in recent years. ICP-MS/MS instruments further improve on the interference-removal capabilities of collision–reaction cells and also improve detection limits for several elements. Tandem LA-LIBS coupled to ICP-MS can provide unique images and can map major, minor, and trace element and isotope distribution information in different materials from a single sampling event. Collision–reaction cells greatly enhance the analytical capability of MC-ICP-MS, and this analytical tool is set to make an indelible mark in the areas of environmental, biological, geochemical, medical, and even in the emerging nanotechnology fields with its outstanding performance for the interference-free measurement of some of the most challenging, nontraditional stable isotope systems, and thus can provide a wealth of information. Procedural simplicity and larger throughputs make collision–reaction cell MC-ICP-MS a better choice than TIMS.
Though considerable advances have taken place in ICP-MS technology and instrumentation in recent years, challenges still exist as a result of the complex and variable matrices of different types of samples. All forms of ICP-MS instrumentation including recently emerged systems can be used for quantification only when suitable international CRMs are available for every kind of application. Thus, the availability of a range of CRMs, and perfect dissolution procedures, are extremely important for the success of these technologies. Novel application requirements continue to pop up from time to time, and bring challenges to instrument manufacturers.
(1) R.S. Houk, V.A. Fassel, G.D. Flesch, H.J. Svec, A.L. Gray and C.E. Taylor, Anal. Chem. 52, 2283–2289 (1980).
(2) N. Bradshaw, E.F.H. Hall, and N.E. Sanderson, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 4, 801–803 (1989).
(3) P. Myers, G. Li, P. Yang, and G.M. Hieftje, J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 5, 1008–1016 (1994).
(4) M. Satyanarayanan, V. Balaram, S.S. Sawant, K.S.V. Subramanyam, V. Krishna, B. Dasaram, and C. Manikyamba, Atomic Spectrosc. 39(1), 1–15 (2018).
(5) U. Rambabu, V. Balaram, R. Ratheesh, S. Chatterjee, M.K. Babu, and N.R. Munirathnam, J. Testing and Evaluation 46(5) (2018). https://doi.org/10.1520/JTE20160645.
(6) V. Balaram, Trends Anal. Chem. 80, 83–95 (2016).
(7) L. Bush, Spectroscopy 30(6), 74–73 (2015).
(8) C.T. Kamala, V. Balaram, M. Satyanarayanan, A. K. Kumar, and K.S.V Subramanyam, Archives Environ. Contami. Toxicol. 68, 421–431 (2015).
(9) V. Balaram, Spectroscopy 31(10), 40–44 (2016).
(10) T. Ohno, Y. Muramatsu, Y. Shikamori, C. Toyama, N. Okabe, and H. Matsuzaki, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 28, 1283–1287 (2013).
11) R. Machado, C. A. Virgilio, C. D. B. Amaral, D. Schiavo, J. A. Nóbrega, and A.R.A. Nogueira, J. Braz. Chem. Soc. 27(11), 2076–2081 (2016).
(12) W. Bu, J. Zheng, X. Liu, K. Long, S. Hu, and S. Uchida, Spectrochim. Acta Part B 119, 65–75 (2016).
(13) D. Kutscher, S. Lofthouse, S. Nelms, and S.M. Ducos, Spectroscopy 32(10), 38–41 (2017).
(14) B.T. Manard, C.D. Quarles, E.M. Wylie, and N. Xu, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 32, 1680–1687 (2017)
(15) O. Syta. B. Wagner, E. Bulska, D. Zielinska, G.Z. Zukowska, J. Gonzalez, and R. Russo, Talanta 179, 784–791 (2018)
(16) J. R. Chirinos, D. D. Oropeza, J. J. Gonzalez, H. Hou, M. Morey, V. Zorba, and R.E. Russo, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 29, 1292–1298 (2014).
(17) K. Subedi, T. Trejos, and J. Almirall, Spectrochim. Acta, Part B 118, 103–104 (2015).
(18) Y. An, F. Wu, Y. Xiang, X. Nan, X. Yu, J. Yang, H. Yu, L. Xie, and F. Huang, Chem. Geol. 390, 9–21 (2014).
(19) D. Lu, T. Zhang, X Yang, P. Su, Q. Liu, and G. Jiang, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 32, 1848–1861 (2017).
(20) E. Carsten, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 399(1), 213–219 (2011).
(21) H. Obayashi, M. Tanaka, K. Hattori, S. Sakata, and T. Hirata, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 32, 686–692 (2017).
(22) A. Limbeck, P. Galler, M. Bonta, G. Bauer, W. Nischkauer, and F. Vanhaecke, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 407, 6593–6617 (2015).
(23) Y. Bussweiler, O. Borovinskaya, and M. Tanner, Spectroscopy 32(5), 14–20 (2017).
(24) B. P. Jackson and T. Punshon, Curr. Envir. Health Report 2, 15–24 (2015).
(25) M.D. Montaño, J.W. Olesik, A.G. Barber, K.T Challis, and J.F. Ranville, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 408(19), 5053–5074 (2016).
(26) O. Chahrour and J. Malone, Protein Peptide Letters 24, 1–14 (2017).
(27) S. Chen, X. Wang, Y. Niu, P. Sun, M. Duan, Y. Xiao, P. Guo, H. Gong, G. Wang, and Q. Xue, Science Bulletin 62(4), 277–289 (2017).
(28) C.A. Bizzi, M.F. Pedrotti, J.S. Silva, J.S. Barin, J.A. Nóbrega, and E.M. M. Flores, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 32, | 5,449 |
For the world of real estate crowdfunding, 2013 was perhaps the infancy period. 2014 might be characterized as childhood, with platforms making great progress but still failing to be taken seriously by the "adults." Looking back on 2015, this year could perhaps be the teen years: fantastic growth and maturation, but also an overabundance of invincibility by both platforms and investors that created some learning opportunities.
Huge Funding Numbers: As someone that remembers how hard it was to fund even a $50,000 property in the industry's early days, I'm so proud and impressed with how many platforms are hitting huge numbers in 2015. To give some perspective, Lending Club funded just over $75 million TOTAL between the start of 2007 and the end of 2009. This year, at least four platforms have already exceeded that number. The ability to fund more capital means better sponsors, who were perhaps hesitant in the past because of uncertainty of closing, are now considering crowdfunding as a strong funding option. That means better deals for investors, and has me excited.
Big Venture Capital Rounds: A number of platforms in the industry executed huge funding rounds for their businesses in 2015, perhaps highlighted by Realty Mogul's $35 million Series B in July. It's unclear how much of these rounds are equity vs credit lines the businesses can use to pre-fund deals. In either case, it's capital that will help the businesses and hopefully lead to better experiences for investors. Given the numerous conversations I've had<|fim_middle|> flipping houses. They usually have terms no longer than 1 year, pay interest only, command 10-15% interest, and have a first lien on the real estate. A common misconception is that the borrowers always have terrible credit. In reality, developers are often willing to pay this higher cost because the speed to funding (sometimes days, if they have a pre-existing relationship with the lender) allows them to command discounts from sellers for quick cash.
Property: Many hard money lenders actually focus almost solely on this item, starting with the assumption that the deal will go bad and they'll foreclose and still be able to recover their capital and interest. This works with more traditional hard money lending, which often limits loans to 60% LTV. With most crowdfunding sites going to 75-80% LTV, the next two factors still carry significant weight.
Note: You'll see LTV (Loan to Value), LTC (Loan to Cost), and ARV (After Repaired Value) all used on the sites. These are NOT the same thing and reflect very different levels of risk. I've seen deals touting a 75% ARV, but if your whole loan goes to the borrower on Day 1, the LTV is often in excess of 100%. That means they could walk that day with all of your money, and the property would be worth less than the cash. ARV matters, but make sure you are protected on Day 1 too.
Track Record: Perhaps the most obvious way of evaluating whether a borrower can execute on a fix and flip plan is knowing if he has previously completed similar projects successfully. Simply having done projects before isn't enough. Look at similar projects: neighborhoods, price range, quality, budget, level of rehab. These all matter, particularly as LTVs creep up.
Credit Score: While credit scores seem straightforward enough, this is actually a highly debated aspect of lending today. A number of successful real estate developers experienced hardships during the 2008 financial crisis. Do you consider those, or not? That's up to you. I'd like the sites to lay out their thinking a bit more clearly on this though.
One additional note on the third point above. Many loans have personal guarantees attached to them. Unless the guarantor has an exorbitant net worth, I don't give much value to these myself. I worry that these can be handed out to everyone and/or applied to multiple investments on the same site (for those lawyers out there, I'm reminded of law school and how these are both unsecured and unperfected).
Investment Structure: We'll be digging into this more deeply with our legal team in the coming months, but in short, not all "secured" loans are created equal. I put that word in quotes because, with the entrance of Borrower Dependent Notes into the crowdfunding ecosystem, that word can mean very different things on various platforms. I won't name names yet, but it appears I'm not the only one who thinks there are deficiencies out there in how investors are being protected.
Controls: Real estate projects are susceptible to many risks, including costs that exceed projections, a drop in local comps, and even national economic risks like unemployment and interest rate fluctuations. A similar loan made from Wells Fargo likely includes myriad controls, like periodic reporting and loan covenants. These often function as the canary in the coal mine, alerting the platforms (and investors) if something is wrong before things get too out of hand. Good platforms are working on integrating these into their processes.
Liquidation Plan (if any): As Warren Buffet's quote suggests, with this rising market it's been tough to see who has a good plan for when things go wrong. I think we'll learn more about this soon, but some sites have been proactive in putting together workout groups / plans.
Ultimately, these loans will always be risky, which is why you'll earn double digit interest rates when they go well. I still strongly believe that crowdfunding will play a large role in the future of real estate investing, and I believe we'll need great controls and transparency in order to make that happen successfully. Have any thoughts or questions about how you evaluate these deals? Please reach out at Ray@alphaflow.com!
"Now that you've left RealtyShares, what do you really think of the real estate crowdfunding industry and the various platforms?" That is the most common question I've received from our accredited investors, venture capitalists, and deal sponsors. In response, I've created a series of posts to share my insider's perspective on the industry and the players. Not only will I answer this most frequently asked question, but I'll share how I'd look at deals, and how I might build my own portfolio.
Many of these platforms have done extremely well in building robust sourcing pipelines and groups of active investors, like you. The result of this success for many platforms has been additional rounds of venture capital, in some cases taken at valuations you'd rarely see in other industries for companies with the same performance metrics.
That means more resources for these companies, but it also creates two potential areas to watch: (1) Big rounds come with huge expectations, and (2) Large raises can create desperation from competitors who worry about being left behind. While fundraising for RealtyShares, I met with a number of VC firms and they usually drilled down on 3 KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): dollars raised, number of deals closed, and registered investors. Marketing can help to solve the last one, but some platforms may be tempted to lower the underwriting bar in order to help boost the first two metrics. Will they? This leads to the next item I'm watching.
Unlike some other P2P investment categories, like consumer debt investors have been able to access on Lending Club and Prosper, real estate often has a longer feedback loop (i.e. do these investments perform as advertised?). Some sites focused more on short-term fix-and-flips, for which results came in a matter of months. Others have done multi-year deals – many as long as 10 years – so we'll need more time to see how those perform. As deals mature, though, we're going to get a clearer picture of which platforms and even sponsors have the best results compared to what they projected. As an investor, if you were looking to add multifamily to your portfolio, wouldn't you want to know which platform has done the best job of underwriting these? Me too. I'll be watching this closely.
As early players like Fundrise and Realty Mogul continue to prove out real estate crowdfunding, we're seeing the entrance of many new platforms looking to tap into this market. Some are being launched by those with phenomenal industry experience and see an opportunity to create niche products that aren't being addressed adequately yet (e.g. 1031 exchanges and SD IRA investing). It's getting tougher to identify who is real vs who has just slapped a website together, but I think a year from now platforms that don't even exist today will be major players offering strong investment opportunities. I'll be watching, and I'll share those I think are particularly interesting.
Want an insider's perspective? Email me your question and I'll try to address it here.
Ray@alphaflow.com. I'd love to hear from you! | with venture capitalists over the last 3 months, asking for feedback and opinions on specific platforms and founders, I think we'll see many more of these big rounds in Q1 2016.
Specialization: A few platforms like RealtyShares and Realty Mogul will still list a large variety of asset classes (e.g. single family home, office, multifamily, retail). More platforms though – particularly new platforms being launched – are narrowing their focus and working to offer their investors specialization. Patch of Land, for example, almost exclusively lists single family residential debt deals. People often debate how this fragmented industry will play out. My opinion is that I don't see consolidation coming anytime soon (more on this next week), but in the long run I see the industry breaking down by asset class more than geography. I certainly don't think this is a winner-take-all industry, as real estate is simply too big and crowdfunding is still only a tiny part of the funding ecosystem.
Wait, some deals fail? 2015 brought maturities for a number of deals crowdfunded during the Infancy period, and that meant defaults too. Many investors expressed not only frustration, but absolute outrage when some of their investments failed. I've heard it first-hand, as our users forwarded me emails from various platforms trying their best to apologize. No one wants a deal to go bad, so I empathize with these people, but experienced investors will tell you that it's part of a normal portfolio. Even Lending Club has about a 5% default rate. To address this, platforms MUST improve their transparency. Secondly, investors are thinking more and more about diversification, which may help take the bite out of defaults (see #8).
Going Offline: Real estate crowdfunding was built on words like "democratization" and "access." The mission was ostensibly to bring deals previously reserved for institutions to the masses. However, some large platforms are now doing as much as 50% of their deals offline. Great companies like Orchard are helping to connect the ecosystem (Note: We've been asked a number of times if we're competing with Orchard. We're not, and believe we have a very different vision, and may actually become a customer in the next year). That naturally raises questions of preferences for whomever is funding the offline deals. From a finance standpoint, I understand why they're seeking larger pools of capital to make their jobs easier. That said, I know venture capitalists are questioning the innovation of this space when so much business is now being done in what's basically the traditional way (see #2). Much more to come on this in January, but our solution is building a platform that gives you the same power as these hedge funds.
Welcome to the party, Institutions! Many of today's real estate crowdfunding platforms were launched by great entrepreneurs like Jilliene Hellman and Jason Fritton. Like myself, neither of these two came from an institutional real estate background prior to helping to launch the industry in 2013. This year, with the business model more proven and a strong potential for venture backing, a number of platforms were launched either by institutions themselves or professionals with years or decades of industry experience. I think you'll see much more of this in 2016.
Hints of Diversification: Some platforms are starting to put out more diversified offerings. From Fundrise's "eREIT" to others offering small pools of properties, platforms are starting to embrace the value of diversification in smoothing out bad deals (see #4). We're going to do our part to help as well. Our members have continually asked us to help them easily invest across multiple platforms with one investment. We'll share details on this after the new year, but we think we've put together something incredibly unique and powerful.
Crowdfunding Overseas: Crowdfunding is already making an impact abroad, particularly in Europe, but in 2015 we found new real estate crowdfunding platforms being launched in entirely new markets. For example, PropertyShares was launched in Australia and is scaling much quicker than U.S. platforms did in their Infancy period. U.S. platforms have always talked about tapping international investors, but U.S. investors may soon find great investments around the world.
The Best is Still Ahead: Within the crowdfunding world, we're all very excited about the progress to date. To outsiders, it often seems like the platforms must be very competitive with one another. The real competition though is lack of awareness that the space exists at all. I spoke to a director of a top platform recently, and he was just back from a real estate conference in which he said he spent 90% of his time explaining what crowdfunding even means in real estate. That's great news, as it speaks to the immense potential ahead of us.
If you've got thoughts on 2015, I'd love to hear them – Ray@alphaflow.com. Next week I'll share my thoughts on 2016. Happy holidays from all of us at AlphaFlow!
"You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out." This classic Warren Buffet quote quickly comes to mind as many investors tout the strong returns they've earned by investing in real estate crowdfunding.
Allow me to say from the start that I'm a huge believer in peer-to-peer investing. As a founder of one of the first real estate crowdfunding platforms, I've been in the industry a long time. It's incredible to look back and remember that in our earliest days we'd need 3-4 week commitments to fund a simple $100,000 single family home loan. About a year later, our customers funded a $550,000 investment in an astonishing 34 minutes!
While we were proud and excited, it also opened our eyes to the fact that many customers had stopped doing their own diligence and were simply trusting us. I have finance and investing at my core, so while it was encouraging as a founder, it just didn't feel right. Today, this leaves me still excited about P2P investing, but a bit worried that the real estate crowdfunding industry may be focused on growth at the expense of proper controls.
Investors have since taken some lumps, which has brought them to ask advice on how I look at new deals around the industry. Lets start with what is likely the most straightforward deal: first lien debt on a single family home. These investments are really disrupting what's more commonly knows as hard money, which according to LendingHome, represents an opportunity of about $30 billion annually.
For those unfamiliar, allow me to quickly level-set. Hard money loans, also sometimes called bridge loans, are most often used by those | 1,383 |
Winter 2019 has been... something else. A polar vortex hit the Midwest with no mercy and brought dangerous temperatures with it. These intense snow days make it difficult to get out, get active and get sweaty. Luckily, there have been many days this winter that are snowy and beautiful without the harsh temperatures.
Still, it can be easy to make like a bear and go into hibernation mode. The temperatures outside drop, the temperature inside goes up, and your couch looks oh-so-comfortable and cozy. We're here to encourage you to get out those layers and go outside. Here are<|fim_middle|>. Enjoy the winter season, and stay active by going for a walk and observing the sights, sounds, and smells of wintertime.
When it snows in winter, you need to put in the necessary work to keep your house, your driveway and sidewalk safe. After all, just because it snows, doesn't mean that life comes to a halt! Depending on where you live, your local city may be better about cleaning up the roads than in other spots, but you should take the necessary actions to keep your house and its surrounding areas safe. Plus, this is a great way to stay active in the winter!
So, ditch the snow-blower, get out the shovel, and head to the driveway. Your back and arm muscles will get quite the workout from a day of shoveling.
It's important to take care of yourself from the inside out and eat things that will nourish and sustain you, no matter the season. Use winter and your time in the house as an opportunity to try out new healthy recipes. Delicious, vegetable-laden soups are the perfect winter meal!
In addition, winter is a great time to take a break from or avoid alcohol. Especially after the indulgent holiday season, your body will appreciate a light detox. Consider giving up alcohol for a few weeks every so often. Your body will thank you for it!
Just because it's cold outside doesn't mean you're confined to stay indoors in winter! Use these ideas to stay active and take care of yourself, even when the temperature drops outside. | a few ways you can stay active until spring arrives.
If you live in an area where snow blankets the ground in wintertime, then a great way to stay active is by reconnecting with your inner child and getting outdoors for some play time. Bundle up in your snow pants, grab some friends and head to your local park. You can build snowmen, bring a sled and slide down the hills, and just have fun! Playing outside is a great way to have fun and also stay active while taking advantage of the seasonal weather.
Another great way to take advantage of winter weather and stay active is by planning a ski weekend. You can head to a local mountain range, or use this as an opportunity to hit a popular spot like Breckenridge or Vail, Colorado.
Skiing is an excellent calorie burner. According to Telegraph.co, on average, moderate downhill skiing burns "400 calories an hour." And this is just the skiing part! You'll also get a workout from navigating getting on and off the ski lifts, pushing yourself up from falls, and walking around on skis. Plus, your body has to put in some extra work just to keep your body warm!
However, if you really want to torch some calories and boost your fitness, you should try uphill cross-country skiing, which can burn up to 1,000 calories an hour, according to the same article! You can also try out snowboarding, which burns about the same amount of calories as downhill skiing. Both sports are incredible ways to keep yourself active in the wintertime.
There are plenty of other new outdoor sports that you can take a whack at as well, including snowshoeing or even ice skating. If you have kids or loved ones to do these activities with, bring them. Trying new activities together as a family is a great way to create new memories and maybe even start a new tradition.
If it's not snowing outside (or if it is, but you're willing to brave the cold!), get the family or a group of friends together and go for a long walk outside. The change of seasons that winter brings can be truly breathtaking, but in the hustle and bustle of daily life, it's easy to forget to take notice | 458 |
"When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" is a lighthearted song in tribute to Ireland. Its lyrics were written by Chauncey Olcott and George Graff, Jr., set to music composed by Ernest Ball, for Olcott's production of The Isle O' Dreams,<|fim_middle|>," 2015
Copyright dispute
Fred Fisher Music Co. v. M. Witmark & Sons concerned the copyright of this song (which is now in public domain.)
References
External links
Lyrics
Song from 1939
Sheet music and images
Irish songs
1912 songs
Irish folk songs
Songs with music by Ernest Ball
Songs about Ireland
Songs of the Irish diaspora
Songs with lyrics by George Graff Jr. | and Olcott sang the song in the show. It was first published in 1912, at a time when songs in tribute to a romanticised Ireland were very numerous and popular both in Britain and the United States. During the First World War the famous tenor John McCormack recorded the song.
The song continued to be a familiar standard for generations. Decades later it was used as the opening song on the radio show Duffy's Tavern. The song has been recorded on over 200 singles and albums and by many famous singers, including Bing Crosby, Connie Francis, and Roger Whittaker.
Lyrics
Verse 1:
There's a tear in your eye and I'm wondering why,
For it never should be there at all;
With such pow'r in your smile, sure a stone you'd beguile,
So there's never a tear-drop should fall;
When your sweet lilting laughter's like some fairy song,
And your eyes twinkle bright as can be;
You should laugh all the while and all other times, smile,
And now smile a smile for me.
Chorus:
When Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure it's like a morn in Spring,
In the lilt of Irish laughter
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay,
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.
Verse 2:
For your smile is a part of the love in your heart,
And it makes even sunshine more bright;
Like the linnet's sweet song, crooning all the day long,
Comes your laughter so tender and light;
For the spring-time of life is the sweetest of all,
There is ne'er a real care or regret;
And while spring-time is ours throughout all of youth's hours,
Let us smile each chance we get.
(Chorus)
The song in the news
The song gained momentary notoriety in Canada after the so-called Shamrock Summit between Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and U.S. President Ronald Reagan held on Saint Patrick's Day, 1985. At the end of the evening, the two leaders jointly performed "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling", for which Mulroney was extensively criticized in the Canadian press.
In film
"When Irish Eyes are Smiling" has been used in the following movies and short subjects:
"Return to Me," 2000
"It's A Great Day For The Irish," 1999
"The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (Ireland, April 1916)," 1993
"Young Guns," 1988 (Anachronistically, as the movie is set in 1877, 35 years before the song was published.)
"Husbands," 1970
"Ducking the Devil," 1957 cartoon
"Canary Row," 1950
"Top o' the Morning," 1949 (sung by Bing Crosby).
"The Time of Your Life," 1948
"My Wild Irish Rose," 1947
"Trap Happy Porky," 1945
"Irish Eyes Are Smiling," 1944 (This is an actual movie about Ernest R. Ball)
"My Favorite Blonde," 1942
"Notes to You," 1941
"Aviation Vacation," 1941
"Always a Bride," 1940
"The Long Voyage Home," 1940
"Tear Gas Squad," 1940
"It All Came True," 1940
"The Fighting 69th," 1940
"Let Freedom Ring," 1939
"The Crowd Roars," 1938
"North of the Rio Grande," 1937
"Roof Tops of Manhattan," 1935
"The Irish in Us," 1935
"In Caliente," 1935
"Ireland: 'The Emerald Isle," 1934
"Stage Mother," 1933
"Titanic: Honor and Glory Demo trailer," 2017
"Older Than Ireland | 892 |
N<|fim_middle|> at the event. | RL players descended upon The Star in Sydney for the 2013 Dally M Awards last night. The predicted blustery winds and rain held off for NRL's night of nights, allowing the star players and their designer-clad wives and girlfriends to walk the red carpet without fear of ruining their looks. The Burgess brothers of the Rabbitohs — Luke, Sam, Tom and George — had all eyes on them as they made their entrance with their glamorous partners — Luke with former Australia's Next Top Model contestant Yolanda Hodgson, Sam with The X Factor's Joelle Hadjia, and Tom with his new squeeze Laura Dundovic, who dazzled in white Toni Maticevski. George posed with their proud mother Julie Burgess.
Among the last to walk the red carpet were Roosters captain Anthony Minichiello and his eight-months-pregnant wife Terry Biviano, who draped her baby bump in a Steven Khalil creation with strategic sheer fabric placement. Stars of the Australian music industry were also on hand for the event, including Timomatic and Jessica Mauboy, who performed during the proceedings. Lincoln Lewis made it a boys' night out by bringing his brother Mitch along.
Click through to see all the NRL players and their WAGs | 258 |
CSER advisors respond to the edge.org annual question: What do you think about machines that think?
A wide range of CSER's advisors, including co-founder Martin Rees, responded to edge.org's annual question earlier this month. Stuart Russell,<|fim_middle|> Advisor, Professor of Philosophy, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford
CSER Advisor, Professor of Physics, MIT
Murray Shanahan
CSER Advisor, Professor of Cognitive Robotics, Imperial College, London
Stuart Russell
CSER Advisor, Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley | Max Tegmark, Nick Bostrom, George Church, Alison Gopnik, Murray Shanahan, and Lord Rees offered a range of opinions on the prospects, dangers and possibilities of machine intelligence.
George Church considered the task of applying our current understanding of human rights to artificial intelligences, while Stuart Russell confronted the difficulty of value alignment between possible machine intelligences and humans, suggesting that the extensive existing research into human motivations and values could be employed by a system also capable of studying humans itself to understand their actions.
Other responses included that of Martin Rees, who writes that we should be looking far further into the future than is customary, suggesting that over a sufficiently long time frame the replacement of biological brains by machines as the world's dominant intellectual objects should be regarded as inevitable. Max Tegmark responded to a number of arguments commonly deployed by those sceptical of the value of research into AI safety, and Alison Gopnik outlined the dramatic strides that AI researchers must make to create machines with the general cognitive ability of even small children.
Read the full responses at edge.org
CSER Advisor. Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy, UC Berkeley
George Church
CSER Advisor, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
CSER | 251 |
El Pueblito es uno de los siete corregimientos de Yarumal, Antioquia, Colombia. Su centro urbano dista 30 kilómetros de la ciudad de Yarumal, ubicado en el norte del municipio, su principal actividad económica es el cultivo de café.
Historia y geografía
El corregimiento El Pueblito está ubicado sobre una ladera de la cordill<|fim_middle|> fue novedoso ya que por las condiciones geográficas solo se podía transitar con vehículos tipo campero.
Cuenta con una capilla.
El territorio que el gobierno de Yarumal administra desde la centralidad de El Pueblito, limita al norte con las veredas administradas desde el corregimiento El Cedro, al oriente con las veredas administradas desde los corregimientos El Cedro y Cedeño, al sur con las veredas administradas directamente por la cabecera urbana de Yarumal y al occidente con el municipio de Valdivia.
Referencias
http://www.yarumal.gov.co/alcaldia/
Corregimientos de Yarumal | era central, su clima es templado y está esencialmente ligado culturalmente al corregimiento El Cedro. Era uno de los pueblos inaccesibles de Yarumal y Antioquia, de su cabecera urbana solo se podía salir y arribar a lomo de mula o caminando.
La via está en uso hace muchos años,en el 2016 y bajo la administración de Julio Areiza se hizo un mantenimiento que permitió la entrada de automóviles, algo que | 115 |
PCC welcomes Warwickshire Police's 'good' rating for efficiency
Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe
A report by the police inspectorate has found that Warwickshire Police makes effective use of its resources, plans well for the future and understands the levels of demand and public expectation.
The 'Police Efficiency 2017' report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Police and Fire and Rescue Services (HM<|fim_middle|> now starting to come on stream and when the new control room at Stuart Ross House in Warwick opens next year I anticipate that further improvements to the service delivered to the public will be made. This will all serve to make Warwickshire Police even more efficient in the years to come and ensure that the public continues to get the right help at the right time." | ICFRS), which also assesses leadership within policing, gave police in the county an overall rating of 'good' for the efficient way it keeps people safe and reduces crime.
Inspectors praised the way the force understands hidden harms and allocates resources according to demand, as well as its partnership working and collaborative arrangements with other emergency services and public sector organisations. The force's handling of emergency calls was also praised, as were the investments which have been made to deliver a new control room, supported by new command and control, call-handling and intelligence systems, alongside technology to enable mobile working.
The report stated that the force's future plans were 'supported by a clear evidence base', with the change programme overall called 'an ambitious and innovative change, pushing the boundaries of conventional policing'. The inspectors further described the force's alliance with West Mercia Police as a 'best-practice benchmark for other forces implementing similar organisational change'.
Areas for improvement highlighted were a need for the force to have effective processes in place to help it understand how well its investigative model is working, as well as a leadership skills audit, to help it understand the capacity and capability of its staff.
The inspectors also voiced concerns about the number of calls to the 101 non-emergency number which were abandoned before they could be answered, though the report noted the force was managing the operational pressures presented by its current systems and processes until the new technology is brought on stream and performance has considerably improved in recent months.
Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe said: "Ensuring efficient and effective policing is a fundamental objective of my Police and Crime Plan for the county, so it is pleasing that the inspectors have confirmed that Warwickshire Police is indeed efficient and well-led, while also making best use of the resources available to it.
"It is also reassuring to see the report acknowledge the improvements which have been delivered since the previous inspection and I will continue to hold the Chief Constable to account to ensure that similar levels of improvement continue to be delivered in future.
"I have paid very close attention to the issues with 101 as I know these are a concern to residents. I have made several visits to the force control room to meet call handlers and talk with senior management to understand the issues and the solutions that are being put in place. Since the inspection, there has been a decrease in the numbers of abandoned calls to 101, despite this being an interim period before the new control room and improved call-handling technology goes live. I am also pleased that the inspectors found that 999 calls are generally handled well, which reflects the emphasis placed by the force on protecting people from harm.
"The significant investments I have made in state-of-the art technology to support frontline policing are | 558 |
So much wine, so little time. That's a bit what it felt like walking in to the Brooklyn Academy of Music last night for the Brooklyn Uncorked festival put together by Edible Magazine (Manhattan, Brooklyn, and East End). With 2<|fim_middle|> right bit of sweetness. SerendipiTea brought along several flavors hot and cold to sooth everyone's tastebuds. For those wanting to end the evening with a jolt, Dallis Bros. Coffee delivered some much needed caffeine.
This was a really terrific event as far as being able to try out so many different offerings from New York State wineries. It was easy to see the care and attention each one of the winemakers puts into his or her craft and the chemistry that goes into getting something into the bottle for us to enjoy. This was a perfect opportunity to interact with some old favorites and to meet some new folks as well. Pairing these wines with dishes from local restaurants just makes me appreciate even more the work that goes on in the local food system to bring us these amazing things to eat and drink. | 6 tables of wines and 14 food options (according to the website), this was a cornucopia of eating and drinking options showcasing the variety of Long Island wines as well as displaying culinary talents from Brooklyn and Manhattan. My friend who went with me and I did our best to try to sample something from everyone, with apologies to those whom we missed.
It was good to see some wineries I've mentioned in previous posts at this event, too. This definitely brought together newer vintners with older ones and showcased a variety of methodologies, philosophies, and grapes. We stopped by the table where Brooklyn Oenology was featuring some of its collection to say hello to Josh, one of their staff, who was telling folks about how their wines are made from New York State grapes and the labels are designed by local, Brooklyn artists. I think that their 2009 Social Club White is still one of my top picks for a Summer 2011 wine. Their 2008 Voinier was the favorite pick of the label by the Austrian gentleman who was standing next to me.
I'd had wines from Bedell Cellars at another of Edible's events earlier this year, so I was curious to see what other varieties they'd brought with them last night. While I had enjoyed the wines I'd tried of theirs in the past, the 2010 Gewürztraminer did not hit the right notes with my palate. I found it overly floral and a bit cloying, like a way-to-strong perfume. On the other hand, another taste of Bouké's 2009 Perlant reconfirmed for me that this lightly-fizzy, crisp, clean fruit tasting wine is something that I need to add to my own collection.
In between sips, we also checked out a few of the food stations to see what creations the chefs had made to pair with the drinks. From Katchkie Farm/GreatPerformances, this Beet-Cured Salmon with Shaved Radish, Fennel Salad and Salmon Roe Champagne Sabayon was a rich bite for the eye as well as for the tongue. It had great salty, crunchy, rich notes that blended with several of the wines that we tasted, like some of the more acidic whites.
Gramercy Tavern, a favorite spot of one of my former co-workers, had what I would consider the most appropriate food festival bite of the evening. Aside from just being a colorful combination, the Fresh Goat's Milk Cheese with Shaved Asparagus dotted with red pepper was the perfect two-bite crunchy, smooth, delicate, woodsy nosh to serve while everyone was trying to maneuver through the tables of wine. I'm sure that most, if not all of the ingredients were sourced from the Greenmarket, which means that even I might be able to replicate it.
Black Cod and Asparagus wrapped in Bacon dipped in Champagne Tempura and dressed with Jalapeno Aoli, these fried-to-order bites from Palo Santo were one of the more ambitions options of the evening. I just wished they'd succeeded a bit more. The exterior with the light crunchy crust and the creamy spice of the aoli was really tasty. The interior didn't fare so well, and I found it overly chewy and gummy. That's too bad, as I had had other good things from them at another event.
Still, there was more wine to try on the main level before heading upstairs where even more great things awaited. Baiting Hollow had a few that I really enjoyed. Their 2008 White Satin blend delivered high acidity and great fruit flavors. It would be a good match with summer grilled seafood. Their 2006 Cabernet France reminded me of what I've been missing in a good, solid table red wine. Not too spicy, but just bold enough, I could definitely feel the oak and the round fruit flavors.
Raphael had an interesting 2010 Chardeaux (66% Chardonnay/44% Sauvignon Blanc) that delivered crispness and fruitiness with a nice balance of minerality and acidity. The Old Field winery had a Commodore Perry 2002 Reserve Merlot that had a lovely soft fruit finish to it. A portion of the proceeds of the sale of every bottle will be going to the relief funds for Japan in honor of their ancestor who opened up that country to the Western World.
Vandaag had these smokey, crunchy, slightly spiced Ash-Cured Duck Breast slices on Beer Bread with Watercress and Buttermilk Ranch on top.
I now think I'm completely in love with the cool, creamy, sweet, delicate, slightly licorice-y Shrimp Rolls from Red Hook Lobster Pound. Could this spell the overthrow of lobster supremacy?
Neither my friend nor I are much for cold soups, but this Chilled Zucchini and Basil Soup with local Goat Feta and Black Olive Croutons from Buttermilk Channel was really delicious and refreshing.
The Venison Paté with Cranberries and Pistachios from Les Trois Petits Cochons was really amazing, meaty (not gamey) and hearty, a slab of this, on Orwasher's bread, some cornichons, and a slather of the mustard they have made especially for them in France, and lunchtime would reach a whole new level of incredible. Their silken, earthy Truffle Mousse and smooth, vegetal Spinach Terrine with Roquefort Cheese made their table a destination stop all evening long.
McInroe Organic Farm served up these Liverwurst bites on Eli's Pumpernickle Bread with Pickled Onions. As my friend said, they seemed more pate-esque than the liverwurst we remembered of old and were nice small tastes to keep us going.
My eye was more drawn to the House-made Mortadella with Grainy Mustard and Cornichon from The Vanderbilt. Although flavorful, I think the meat-to-bread ratio was out of proportion, with the mortadella being too thick or just too big of a piece. The mustard, however, was fantastic.
This Buttermilk Biscuit with Braised Pork Belly from Flying Pigs Farm and Pickled Ramps from Blooming Hill Farm was gorgeous to look at and was very locavore in the process.
The Manchego cheese Fritter with Piquillo pepper, Asparagus, and White Anchovies from The Good Fork, tried to play several notes at once. While the fritter was o.k., the asparagus with the anchovy was the best part of this plate. I would have gone back for seconds on that.
The Cleaver Co's Wild Herb Paté was popular, as was their Rhubarb Brown Butter Cakes, which were all finished by the time I got to their table.
For me, however, the hit of the evening were these made-to-order Lamb Sausages with Spring Pickles, Mint Pesto and Feta by Rose Water. Flavorful, juicy meat with cool, sharp cheese alongside of tangy pickles, I could have eaten several plates of these.
On the sweeter side of life, these little Shortcakes with Strawberries and Cream from Grow NYC/Greenmarket were completely wonderful. I really hope that this is a sign of super-sweet-tart, fragrant berries to come this season.
The mini Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Walnut Frangipane were all gone from CAKEette by the time I made it to the back of the room to get one. This poor Rhubarb Lollipop looked like s/he was hanging on for dear life as well.
At a certain point in the evening, my friend and I became separated in the crowd. Thank goodness for text messaging, as that's what reconnected us so that we could team up and try some more wines.
The 2005 Sherwood Manor Red Blend from Sherwood House Vineyards was a big hit with both my friend and I for its soft, round red fruit notes and light tannins. They develop wines that can be kept for several years, and this is one that I'd like to try again as it develops even more complexity and character.
Sparkling Pointe lived up to its name with its variety of choices of sparkling wines. The 2001 Brut Seduction was one that my friend enjoyed as sort of a champagne/prosecco feel and taste. For me, it was all right, but not my top pick. One thing I did learn last night, is that even slightly sweet wines are not at all for me. The NV Cuvée Carnaval was discribed this way and was too sweet for my tastebuds.
Having some of the prettiest, most cheerful display of bottles, Croteaux Vineyards specializes in Rosés, which I was excited to see as I'm a fan of this beverage variety. Unfortunately, the Croteaux Cuvée Sparkle and I did not mesh. I found it way too sweet and almost too fruity in flavor.
The Grapes of Roth was a table my friend had wanted to visit. (Isn't that a great name for a vineyard?) I'm not sure that there's much I can add to the on-line review of their current vintage 2004 Merlot except to say that we both really enjoyed it. It was lighter on the palate than several of the wines I tasted. I picked up hints of plums and raspberries with tannic backnotes coming at the finish. The 2009 Late Harvest Riesling was the first dessert wine we'd had all evening. I could pick up a light caramel flavor as well as notes of fruit in it.
It was really at the end of the evening, maybe because we'd worked all our tasting muscles well, that we found some wines that we both thought were really good. Mattabella Vineyards had several bottles that we both enjoyed. The Rosé was full of summertime promise and romance with personality, unlike some of the lighter and more-insipid glasses I'd tried elsewhere. The Chardonnay has no more than 20% oak, which gives it a lighter feel. It is crisp and clean with apple/pear notes to it. I might have preferred a bit more oak, but I really enjoyed its light side. The Old World Red reinforced again that I could find a great-tasting, Italian-style table wine from NY State grapes. Their tasting room opens in June, which might be enough to tempt me to get out of the city to head up there.
Water's Crest Winery gave us our second dessert wine tasting of the evening. The description of 2009 Late Harvest Night Watch from their site is perfect. The only thing that I would add is that this is a lighter dessert wine than others I have tried, which makes it even more inviting to drink after a meal. The 2007 Cabernet Franc had strong cherry and, to me, blackberry notes. It would be an interesting wine to pair with food. The Rosé was too light for me. I was sort of surprised by it, as the other wines from this vineyard seem to be bolder in nature.
GuS (Grown Up Soda) brought along several of their refreshing flavors. My new favorite of theirs is Grape Black Currant. The currants aren't too overwhelming and the grape adds just the | 2,347 |
Le Mont-Libre est un album de bande dessinée de Daniel Bardet et Élie Klimos, le tome 7 de la série Timon des Blés.
Fiche technique
Scénariste : Daniel Bardet
Dessinateur : Élie Klimos
Mise en couleurs : Chagnaud
Année de première publication : 1994
Éditeur : Glénat / collection Vécu
Nombre de planches : 46
Synopsis
Le Mont-Libre, c'est ainsi que la Révolution a rebaptisé le mont Saint-Michel, théâtre de cet épisode à l'automne 1794. La nouvelle orientation de la Révolution incite au dialogue avec les Chouans, mais les inimitiés personnelles, les haines sont un obstacle rédhibitoire.
Orémus le défroqué est prisonnier sur le Mont et Timon ne peut que tenter de le délivrer. D'un autre prêtre réfractaire, Orémus reçoit la confession d'un secret capital. Et réapparaissent des ennemis toujours aussi déterminés, ainsi qu'un fils américain.
Commentaires
Bardet est connu pour ses talents de scénariste de bande dessinée historique (Les Chemins de Malefosse, Chroniques de la Maison Le Quéant), il s'associe à Élie Klimos pour le septième album d'une série qui en compte huit. L'épo<|fim_middle|> épisode de la série a pour cadre la région du Mont, entre Bretagne et Normandie.
le Mont Saint-Michel et sa baie
Dol-de-Bretagne
Avranches
Référence bibliographique
Patrick Gaumer & Claude Moliterni, Dictionnaire mondial de la Bande Dessinée, Éditions Larousse, Paris, 1994, .
Album de Timon des Blés
Album de bande dessinée sorti en 1994 | que choisie ici est le dernier quart du .
Lieux
Le septième | 16 |
NYC Tech Startup Fundings: Maxymiser, Contently, Zeel
Arlene<|fim_middle|> directory and appointment-booking service for patients in search of alternative health providers, such as acupuncturists, nutritionists, and massage therapists. The company posts a large and impressive list of investors on its website that includes Matt Ocko of Archimedes Capital, start-up investor (and Xconomist) Esther Dyson, Lightspeed Venture Partners' Ravi Mhatre, and Vault.com co-founder Mark Oldman.
Sponsored · Video
Fish & Richardson: Patent Law in Regards to AI and Machine Learning
A Fireside Chat with Fish & Richardson Principal Teresa Lavoie
Fish & Richardson
From Our Partners · Special Report
Robert Langer reveals secrets to early-stage biotech success
Advice for funding and future transformational opportunities | Weintraub
@arleneweintraub
The rapidly growing tech startup scene in New York has started 2012 with a funding boom. Here are some of the financings revealed just in the last few days.
—Web optimization provider Maxymiser announced January 6 that it has raised a $12 million Series B round from Investor Growth Capital, with participation from existing investor Pentech Ventures. Maxymiser—which also has offices in the U.K, the Ukraine, and Germany—offers software platforms and services designed to help companies measure the effectiveness of their websites, personalize their sites for individual users, and implement multichannel marketing strategies.
—Online freelance-writing marketplace Contently, which graduated from New York's TechStars program in the fall, raised a $2 million Series A, according to a January 6 report in Ad Age. Contently matches professional writers with companies looking for well-written content. The funding was led by Lightbank, with participation from ff Venture Capital, Consigliere Brand Capital, Scott Belsky of Behance, and Hubspot's Dharmesh Shah.
—Zeel Networks raised $1.5 million in seed funding, according to VentureWire. Zeel provides an online | 249 |
Maxillary-arch Shape Associated with the Position of the Greater Palatine Foramen
Margot de los Ríos Argumedo, Hanny Gonzales-Olaza, Dian Agustin Wahjuningrum, Amanda, Violeta Malpartida-Carrillo, Maria Eugenia Guerrero
Clinical Practice & Evidence-Based Dentistry Research Group
Dental Regenerative Research Group
Clinical & Practice Evidence Based Research
Dental Materials & Biomaterials
Department of Dental Conservation
An observational study was carried out on 103 CBCTs. The GPF position was assessed by drawing guidelines in the CBCT axial image located between the first, second and third molar and in the center of the second and third molar, performing five guidelines on each side. Also, the depths and widths of the dental arches were measured at the canine and second molar regions to determine maxillary arch shapes (ovoid, square and tapered) by calibrated interexaminers (Kappa index and Intraclass correlation coefficient). An association test was performed using the Chisquare Pearson test and the Fisher exact test (P<0.05). Objectives to determine the association of the maxillary arch shape with the greater palatine foramen (GPF) position using CBCT scans. Position C (68.94%) was the most frequent position followed by position B (19.42%), position D (7.76%), and position E (3.88%). Hence, 76.70% of the GPFs were located in the opposite to the third molars position. The Fisher's exact test showed a significant association between position C and all age groups (P<0.001). The ovoid maxillary arch was the most frequent in teeth of female patients (27.18%) followed by males (23.31%). Position C was mostly frequent in ovoid (33.98%), square (33.31%), and tapered (11.64%) arches. However, the Chi-square Pearson test did not show a significant association between these variables (P=0.332). The shape of the maxillary arch and the position of the GPF had no association
Journal of International Dental and Medical Research
Cone-beam computed tomography
Dental arch
Hard palate
Dive into the research topics of 'Maxillary-arch Shape Associated with the Position of the Greater Palatine Foramen'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Third Molar Medicine & Life Sciences 100%
Dental Arch Medicine & Life Sciences 37%
Guidelines Medicine & Life Sciences 36%
Chi-Square Distribution Medicine & Life Sciences 26%
Canidae Medicine & Life Sciences 24%
Observational Studies Medicine & Life Sciences 21%
Tooth Medicine & Life Sciences 20%
de los Ríos Argumedo, M., Gonzales-Olaza, H., Wahjuningrum, D. A., Amanda, Malpartida-Carrillo, V., & Guerrero, M. E. (2022). Maxillary-arch Shape Associated with the Position of the Greater Palatine Foramen. Journal of International Dental and Medical<|fim_middle|> located in the opposite to the third molars position. The Fisher's exact test showed a significant association between position C and all age groups (P<0.001). The ovoid maxillary arch was the most frequent in teeth of female patients (27.18%) followed by males (23.31%). Position C was mostly frequent in ovoid (33.98%), square (33.31%), and tapered (11.64%) arches. However, the Chi-square Pearson test did not show a significant association between these variables (P=0.332). The shape of the maxillary arch and the position of the GPF had no association
KW - Anatomy
KW - Cone-beam computed tomography
KW - Dental arch
KW - Hard palate
KW - Patient satisfaction
JO - Journal of International Dental and Medical Research
JF - Journal of International Dental and Medical Research
de los Ríos Argumedo M, Gonzales-Olaza H, Wahjuningrum DA, Amanda, Malpartida-Carrillo V, Guerrero ME. Maxillary-arch Shape Associated with the Position of the Greater Palatine Foramen. Journal of International Dental and Medical Research. 2022;15(1):165-171. | Research, 15(1), 165-171.
de los Ríos Argumedo, Margot ; Gonzales-Olaza, Hanny ; Wahjuningrum, Dian Agustin et al. / Maxillary-arch Shape Associated with the Position of the Greater Palatine Foramen. In: Journal of International Dental and Medical Research. 2022 ; Vol. 15, No. 1. pp. 165-171.
@article{e5420d75bd60431c836490ac0e274aea,
title = "Maxillary-arch Shape Associated with the Position of the Greater Palatine Foramen",
abstract = "An observational study was carried out on 103 CBCTs. The GPF position was assessed by drawing guidelines in the CBCT axial image located between the first, second and third molar and in the center of the second and third molar, performing five guidelines on each side. Also, the depths and widths of the dental arches were measured at the canine and second molar regions to determine maxillary arch shapes (ovoid, square and tapered) by calibrated interexaminers (Kappa index and Intraclass correlation coefficient). An association test was performed using the Chisquare Pearson test and the Fisher exact test (P<0.05). Objectives to determine the association of the maxillary arch shape with the greater palatine foramen (GPF) position using CBCT scans. Position C (68.94%) was the most frequent position followed by position B (19.42%), position D (7.76%), and position E (3.88%). Hence, 76.70% of the GPFs were located in the opposite to the third molars position. The Fisher's exact test showed a significant association between position C and all age groups (P<0.001). The ovoid maxillary arch was the most frequent in teeth of female patients (27.18%) followed by males (23.31%). Position C was mostly frequent in ovoid (33.98%), square (33.31%), and tapered (11.64%) arches. However, the Chi-square Pearson test did not show a significant association between these variables (P=0.332). The shape of the maxillary arch and the position of the GPF had no association",
keywords = "Anatomy, Cone-beam computed tomography, Dental arch, Hard palate, Patient satisfaction",
author = "{de los R{\'i}os Argumedo}, Margot and Hanny Gonzales-Olaza and Wahjuningrum, {Dian Agustin} and Amanda and Violeta Malpartida-Carrillo and Guerrero, {Maria Eugenia}",
note = "Funding Information: The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Indonesia and Faculty of Dental Medicine, Universitas Airlangga for the support this research oculd be conducted. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022. Journal of International Dental and Medical Research.All Rights Reserved.",
journal = "Journal of International Dental and Medical Research",
publisher = "Ektodermal Displazi Grubu",
de los Ríos Argumedo, M, Gonzales-Olaza, H, Wahjuningrum, DA, Amanda, Malpartida-Carrillo, V & Guerrero, ME 2022, 'Maxillary-arch Shape Associated with the Position of the Greater Palatine Foramen', Journal of International Dental and Medical Research, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 165-171.
Maxillary-arch Shape Associated with the Position of the Greater Palatine Foramen. / de los Ríos Argumedo, Margot; Gonzales-Olaza, Hanny; Wahjuningrum, Dian Agustin et al.
In: Journal of International Dental and Medical Research, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2022, p. 165-171.
T1 - Maxillary-arch Shape Associated with the Position of the Greater Palatine Foramen
AU - de los Ríos Argumedo, Margot
AU - Gonzales-Olaza, Hanny
AU - Wahjuningrum, Dian Agustin
AU - Amanda,
AU - Malpartida-Carrillo, Violeta
AU - Guerrero, Maria Eugenia
N1 - Funding Information: The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Indonesia and Faculty of Dental Medicine, Universitas Airlangga for the support this research oculd be conducted. Publisher Copyright: © 2022. Journal of International Dental and Medical Research.All Rights Reserved.
N2 - An observational study was carried out on 103 CBCTs. The GPF position was assessed by drawing guidelines in the CBCT axial image located between the first, second and third molar and in the center of the second and third molar, performing five guidelines on each side. Also, the depths and widths of the dental arches were measured at the canine and second molar regions to determine maxillary arch shapes (ovoid, square and tapered) by calibrated interexaminers (Kappa index and Intraclass correlation coefficient). An association test was performed using the Chisquare Pearson test and the Fisher exact test (P<0.05). Objectives to determine the association of the maxillary arch shape with the greater palatine foramen (GPF) position using CBCT scans. Position C (68.94%) was the most frequent position followed by position B (19.42%), position D (7.76%), and position E (3.88%). Hence, 76.70% of the GPFs were located in the opposite to the third molars position. The Fisher's exact test showed a significant association between position C and all age groups (P<0.001). The ovoid maxillary arch was the most frequent in teeth of female patients (27.18%) followed by males (23.31%). Position C was mostly frequent in ovoid (33.98%), square (33.31%), and tapered (11.64%) arches. However, the Chi-square Pearson test did not show a significant association between these variables (P=0.332). The shape of the maxillary arch and the position of the GPF had no association
AB - An observational study was carried out on 103 CBCTs. The GPF position was assessed by drawing guidelines in the CBCT axial image located between the first, second and third molar and in the center of the second and third molar, performing five guidelines on each side. Also, the depths and widths of the dental arches were measured at the canine and second molar regions to determine maxillary arch shapes (ovoid, square and tapered) by calibrated interexaminers (Kappa index and Intraclass correlation coefficient). An association test was performed using the Chisquare Pearson test and the Fisher exact test (P<0.05). Objectives to determine the association of the maxillary arch shape with the greater palatine foramen (GPF) position using CBCT scans. Position C (68.94%) was the most frequent position followed by position B (19.42%), position D (7.76%), and position E (3.88%). Hence, 76.70% of the GPFs were | 1,632 |
Matthew Smith of Urbane Publications very kindly sent out a selection of books to members of the ReviewSpot Book Club and I am delighted to share their reviews and my own of the first four books with you all.
This is Kelly Florentia's sequel to 'No Way Back'. Audrey Fox is now<|fim_middle|> life for himself in Civvy Street. Charley is the daughter of a prostitute and becomes pregnant. I really wanted to get to know these three individual characters. The second half of the book is told in the third person and here we get to know acts of kindness, sinister situations, lots of intrigue, and more. It's a dark and at times twisted tale in which morality features. Apart from kindness, there is also wickedness, empathy, love and deceit Will we finally learn the truth? This is the first book I have read by Julie Newman and I am eagerly looking forward to reading her first novel and hopefully her third! A 5 ☆ read and definitely one to take on holiday.
You can order and buy the reviewed books directly from Amazon by clicking on above images.
There will be new articles published soon with more readers reviews of some excellent books from Urbane Publications.
Lead image is copyright Urbane Publications and has been used with permission.
Read readers reviews Part 2 here.
Read readers reviews Part 3 here.
Read readers reviews Part 4 here. | newly married to Daniel, who she met on the rebound from her long term partner Nick. But in this sequel, the past presses heavily on the present and Audreys' attempts to move forward in her new life are constantly challenged. Is her present life too good to be true? As she questions some of the things happening around her, we are drawn in to a web of lies and deception.
Audrey constantly doubts herself, revealed by the desperation of her inner dialogue as events take more serious and mysterious turns. The plot necessarily gains pace after the half way mark, and the hints laid down in the first half start to make sense.
"Her Secret' is a cleverly devised story, full of unexpected twists and turns. As the lies and deceptions are uncovered and resolved, we admire Audrey's tenacity in the face of her own emotional turmoil. She has to be resourceful and decisive in order to get to the truth, whatever the cost.
Kelly Florentia has produced a modern psychological thriller which references the best of the genre, comparable with Hitchcock's Vertigo, it keeps you guessing to the end!
A slow book to start with but then I got right into this story. I loved Hannah Weybridge. There are lots of hidden secrets that make you want to read on. A great ending. This is my first book I have read written by this author. I will be looking to read more.
Wow........what a fabulous read this book is, with lots of twists, turns and suspense. It's exciting and keeps you thoroughly enthralled and not able to turn the pages fast enough. Audrey hasn't been married very long and appears to have everything she's ever wanted. A wonderful husband that loves and adores her, a fabulous family, many great friends, a very swish house and a job sh really loves and enjoys. Her life is as perfect as anyone could wish for.
But then.....she's been entrusted with a secret that she's been made to keep it to herself and not breathe a word to anyone else.
This is the beginning of Audreys wonderful life and world being turned upside down.
Very cleverly written and a great read by Kelly Florentina. Well done.
The Lighthouse Keepers Daughter has it all, romance,mystery, social media, the past and present.
Imogen recently divorced is living in a lighthouse owned by her Aunt Dorothy on Beachy Head, with the intention of writing a book. Imogen is sent pages from her father's diary which helps her to understand his past as he died when she was a child. She becomes friends with Santi a flamenco guitarist from Madrid on Social Media and offers to teach him English.
I enjoyed the book very much as it is well written, there are lots of twists and turns along the way and I am looking forward to reading another novel by this Author as this was a first for me. I thoroughly recommended The Lighthouse Keepers Daughter but you may find you can't put it down until you have finished reading it.
A slow book to start with, but then I got right into this story. I loved Hannah Weybridge! There are lots of hidden secrets that just makes you want to read on. A GREAT ending! As this was my first book by Anne Coates, I will be looking to read more of her work.
The opening of "Songs of Innocence" by Anna Coates is stark, bleak and totally gripping. It held me completely. Hannah Weybridge, the main character, is a complete woman who engenders warmth and respect in a reader. Dealing with a tragic life situation she is funny and feisty, tackling every dangerous situation that's thrown her way in this crime novel with breathtaking bravery and intelligence.
The plot 'cracks on' at an excellent pace and Coates gives the reader a packed, fascinating story.
I really enjoyed it - but goodness, all the characters like to eat! Seriously, if you enjoy thrilling crime stories, this novel is definitely for you.
Contemporary novels aren't normally my preferred genre. But having said this, I really enjoyed this book by Julie Newman.
The first few pages got me straight into the story, and wishing to read more.
Extremely well written, and the chapters not overlong.
The main characters of Helen, Martin & Charley are expertly portrayed, and all worked well with each other. Descriptive passages enabled me to feel I actually knew everyone.
Not wishing to give any of the 'plot' away, I went blissfully through this story, never realising that there would be such a surprising finale!!!!
For anyone who wishes to read a well balanced story of people's lives, with a twist to the tale, I thoroughly recommend ' The Kindness of Strangers '.
The plot of introducing us to three very different characters whose lives become intertwined in "The Kindness of Strangers" by Julie Newman reminded me of Sebastian Faulkes' novel, "A Week in December". Both novelists vividly portray the tragic consequences of those lives colliding. Julie Newman's landscape is more domestic than Faulkes' but compelling in the warning of loving too intensely.
At times, I couldn't quite believe the responses of the characters - but that may be because Julie Newman isn't frightened of exposing our dark motivations. I held my breath many a time when reading this novel!
Skilfully crafted, if you enjoy 'the dark side', you'll love this novel.
My first impression of this book when I looked at the front cover was "what's that about " by the time I had progressed through the book I understood it completely.
This book reminds me of a saying that everything is connected on this life and no spoilers here but when you read it you will know what I mean. There are three main characters Helen who is recently widowed. Martin who is suffering greatly after serving in the Afghan conflict in the army and Charley is a teenage girl who when we first meet her is the daughter of a prostitute and she has recently found out she is pregnant.
This story very cleverly intertwined these people and their lives in a way that makes you want to read on and find out what happens to each person. My only criticism is that I thought the ending was rather abrupt , I would have liked it to have gone on a bit further with what happened.
A great read that had me hooked from the beginning. This is the second book by Julie Newman and I think she is definitely an author to look out for . 5☆ read.
What an intriguing book! There are three central characters who are all given individual sections in the first half of the book and are told in the first person. Helen has recently been widowed and finds some unexpected news in a hidden filing cabinet that throws her into disarray. Martin has recently come out of the army and is suffering with PTSD. He wants to make a new | 1,397 |
NewSchools Venture Fund announced today a $150,000 investment in LearnZillion, a new web-based education tool and video library of math and literacy lessons, designed to accelerate student learning by helping teachers personalize instruction, and providing teachers with example lessons taught by some of the nation's best teachers. LearnZillion will launch a beta version on Thursday, September 22.
Our nation's teachers work increasingly long hours. Yet, as class sizes continue to rise, finding class time to personalize instruction for each student remains a formidable challenge. LearnZillion's library of high-quality, standards-based video lessons allows teachers to customize instruction with student "playlists" specifically aimed at identified skill gaps, providing targeted individual support for students that need it, while freeing up class time for activities that benefit<|fim_middle|> teachers, who laid down the initial set of video lessons this summer, will now be touching hundreds, if not thousands, of students," said Eric Westendorf, Co-Founder of LearnZillion and a former principal and Chief Academic Officer at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.
A beta-version of LearnZillion's tool will be released on September 22. An expanded version will be released on October 17. | from a group setting. LearnZillion's assessment and analytics tools allow students, parents, and teachers to track progress as students master different skills and content.
LearnZillion's video library, which is starting with math and will eventually include literacy lessons, provides teachers and school leaders with an effective professional development tool. The more than 800 videos currently in the video library feature lessons taught by some of the nation's best teachers, hailing from high-performing schools including NewSchools Portfolio schools DSST Public Schools, DC Prep, YES Prep Public Schools, and E.L. Haynes Public Charter School.
"We started this as a project at E.L. Haynes as a way to target our instruction and help teachers share best practices. Then we realized how much more powerful it would be if we invited teachers from across the country to participate. Our 'Dream Team' of | 176 |
Harpenden author celebrates debut<|fim_middle|> people. We finished by having questions from the floor and they had a lot of questions so that was really good.
"The main character is accused of witchcraft by the other midwives. On a personal front she really wants to meet a man, fall in love with him and have a big family. She is an only child and she's plain, she comes from a wealthy family and the local gentry aren't interested.
The Birth of Gossip.
"Her father's manservant is handsome and she decides that he's the one she's going to have,"
One of Pamela's inspirations in writing the story was the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which is about the Salem Witch Trials. She said: "I am really keen on fairness and justice and witchcraft has been around since BC."
At the launch, Pamela read the blurb and the first chapter of her novel, and her publisher Keith Abbott, of Michael Terence Publishing, interviewed her in front of the audience.
Pamela, who currently teaches at Oaklands College and is a member of Verulam Writers, explained how she conducted historical research over seven years to write the novel.
She said: "Henry VIII brought in a Witchcraft Act. Elizabeth I made that act much more secure and it wasn't repealed until 1951.
"Some writers like research and don't like writing. I really enjoyed both. Some times you have to stop if you start going down an interesting path and it's not relevant. I've always been interested in history."
The Birth of Gossip is Pamela's first published work of fiction, but she has always worked as a writer and editor. | historical novel
Anne Suslak
Pamela Mann at her book launch.
An author from Harpenden held a book launch in a church to celebrate her debut historical novel.
Pamela Mann, of Park Mound, wrote The Birth of Gossip, a novel about a 16th century midwife who is accused of witchcraft. The protagonist, Margory, becomes the subject of gossip and speculation when none of the babies or mothers she cares for die in childbirth.
The novel was launched by the rector Canon Dennis Stamps at St Nicholas Church in Harpenden, which Pamela attends.
Pamela, who has taught creative writing for 23 years, said: "It went really well. There was a good turnout of | 153 |
This is not a Cursed Child review
Posted on July 31, 2016 by achalaupendran
Question: if you're not exulting over Harry's latest adventure on social media, are you dead inside?
For the past few days, I've been seeing status updates, celebrations of the new Harry Potter book (or, to be more pedantically correct, script) that released this morning. The last time this happened, many claimed, was 2007, when Deathly Hallows made its triumphant and heartbreaking entry onto the scene. Since then, there has been one book (The Tales of Beedle the Bard [2007]), four movies (Order of the Phoenix also released in 2007, incredible as that might seem), news of three more movies, two versions of the same website, and finally, a play which opened its doors to the public yesterday in London.
Since Rowling seemingly bid adieu to Harry in 2007, she's released four books, three of which she didn't even publish under her own name. This is not counting the odd bits and pieces of information she dots about Pottermore, all of which, taken together, could probably build up that substantial Potterverse encyclopaedia we were promised aeons ago.
Besides this, there have been re-reads and re-reads, and controversies, and news trickling in about manga adaptations and Pokemon-Go-style HP games…so really, if you think about it, the magic's never really left to come back again.
I confessed to a friend that, contrary to expectations, I was not jumping up and down over the new book. I confessed that this made me worry whether I had died inside, if I no longer found joy in the small things and had 'grown up' too much to want to pose with a book and write inspiring things about Harry and Hermione and Sirius and all the others who populate my blog. After all, if I'm not happy about a new HP book, can I be happy about anything?
Then I decided that I would stop over-thinking it and accept the facts: I do not feel the need to 'revisit' HP because it is so much a part of my life, my literary sensibilities and my fantasy footing that I never felt it go away. There's nothing to revisit. It's all still there, and I'm still referencing Rowling's work enough in daily conversations that there hasn't been enough of a break to make a new book—or script—feel like a 'return' to anything.
And I don't think it's just me. Harry, it's safe to assume, has entered that rarefied realm of popular culture whose inhabitants are, for all intents and purposes, commercial or
I will always be watching you.
otherwise, immortal. He's right up there along with Indiana Jones, Batman and his merry rogues' gallery, Superman, even (if you're Indian) the characters of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. He's already been reinvented twice in our lifetime, played by two very different actors on very prominent platforms. New readers come across his adventures every day, in 79 different languages, and new viewers, if they have access to WB or MoviesNow, can catch up on the cinematic versions (seriously, there's a Harry Potter movie playing every other day). Harry is here to stay, and nothing proves that like the two (TWO!) theme parks that continue to attract huge crowds, huge prices notwithstanding.
Perhaps my lack of discernible excitement is thanks to this knowledge: that there's no need to 'go back' to anything about Harry, or the time in my life when I first met him, because he's always been, and will continue to be around. I remember what my life was like when I read Prisoner of Azkaban, and while some things about being 12 years old are great, not everything was wonderful. Puberty was scary, and while adulthood may suck at times, I'd choose the uncertainty of my 20-something life over not understanding what was happening to my body, or the lack of deep friendships that, now, mean the world to me.
But everyone celebrates in their own way, and just because I don't feel the excitement necessary to join in the party doesn't mean it shouldn't go on. That's a thing Harry Potter taught us, right? That people express happiness, bravery, and their ideals in different ways, make different choices. And that's a lesson the world could do with a lot more of, so really, it's all to the good that there's another book here, telling us about it once again.
Posted in fantasy, Harry Potter | Tagged Cursed Child, Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter | Leave a reply
Between the ages of 8 and 17, I kept a diary. The writing was patchy until I hit 13, when it became a nightly ritual, something I would look forward to. I'd chronicle the events of my day, conversations with friends, budding romances, but more than anything else, I'd work through emotions and thoughts that I had no idea how to express to another human being. I had friends, of course, but I was still, as I think many teenagers are, very lonely.
I've written earlier about the role certain books played in my life at this stage, but there were few people around me with whom I could discuss them. The geek community was not thriving the way it is today, and book clubs were low on the ground, especially in boarding school. The world of comic cons and fan parties was far away from me, so my search for a 'karass' remained just that: a quest with no fulfillment.
It was only after I got to college that I found a set of people who had had, if not identical, at least similar expeirences, who had grown up perhaps trusting the characters they found in books more than the peers around them, and lived their lives as Eva Luna had so famously proclaimed: 'as [they] would like it to be…like a novel.' Perhaps unsurprisingly, the diary closed its covers, and has stayed closed ever since.
But it was because of my high school experience that Jo Walton's beautiful, emotionally wrenching, Hugo-award novel Among Others struck me the way it did. Written as a diary kept by Morwenna, the book is a teenage girl's search for friends, identity, and moorings in a new world: one which no longer houses her twin sister, and has taken her far from the Welsh countryside, where they played with the fairies. But a mysterious tragedy—which becomes increasingly clear through the course of the novel—has resulted in her being taken into her father's custody, and placed in a boarding school. Morwenna finds solace in reading, specifically science fiction and fantasy, and when she discovers a book club dedicated to the genre, she realises she may have stumbled upon some form of happiness at last.
Or maybe not. As with any story, even one ostensibly told through diary entries and set in the 'real world', there are complications. You see, Mor did some magic to find herself a 'karass', the word Vonnegut used to describe 'a team that does God's will without ever discovering what they are doing.' So when she starts finding friends in the book club, or the beautiful Wim, curious about fairies and longing to see them, seeks her out and starts paying her special attention, Mor worries whether it is all natural, or whether she, like her mother, is using magic to control others, embarking on the path to becoming, like Galadriel with the Ring, a 'dark queen'.
Among Others was a really strange and unsettling, and yet comforting book. On the one hand, it was exhilarating to find out that someone whose life has taken a completely different trajectory from mine (Jo Walton and I have never crossed paths, right?) could still feel and write a story, create a character who I could see myself in so clearly. On the other hand, while it took me back to high school and the kind of person I might have been then, it also made me realise how horribly grown up I have become. Mor's ability to speak to the fairies made me, rather than entranced by her, view her with suspicion, and I kept wondering when the jig would be up, whether Wim's arrival was merely a set up to her being exposed as 'not quite there'. After all, this book was set 'in the real world', where anyone who claims to be in touch with the magical is not to be trusted, usually. At least, not in the circles I move in.
So yes, it was depressing to realise that I'd lost the easy ability to trust in magic, to believe that it's really there, and that a smart girl who talks about it is not 'crazy'. I guess I've gotten so used to seeing stories that deal with it in any capacity as 'fantasy', or 'children's lit' or 'magical realism'—so when a book glides between realism and more fantastical elements with the fluidity that Walton's does, I immediately grow suspicious, or annoyed, or wait for a catch. For all my desire for a Hogwarts letter, or a magical door to open into Middle Earth (preferably into Rivendell, which seems like a super cool place to live), I am comfortable knowing it won't happen, that these are locked away within a certain kind of book. If magic were real, wouldn't I freak out the way Mor did, and wonder how much of my life it had affected without my knowing it?
In this article on why the British tell better children's stories than the Americans, the writer comes to an interesting conclusion: it's because, thanks to their founding mythology, the British have an easier acceptance of the magical. How far that acceptance extends, whether it bleaches into fiction that is not touted as 'children's' was not addressed, but it's worth considering.
Posted in fantasy | Leave a reply
Roses and Rot
Since Susannah Clarke's brilliant Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, I hadn't read a book that dealt with the Fae, those simultaneously entrancing and terrifying Folk, in any great detail. Well, there was Patrick Rothfuss's books, but since those are epic, and not portal or 'second world' fantasy, I don't really include them here.
And then I stumbled across Kat Howard's debut novel, Roses and Rot. It came to my attention thanks to tweeting from Neil Gaiman, an author whose work I love and who I trust to give me good recommendations. So without reading anything more about the book itself, or the author (I don't really like doing the latter before I've read a book, to be honest), I went ahead and bought it.
I was not disappointed. Roses and Rot starts off slow, but Howard builds such an incredible atmosphere that you just have to surrender and lose yourself to it. Marin and Imogen are sisters, one light and one dark, one a dancer and one a writer, both prey to a horrible, hateful mother who has long desired to uplift the one and destroy the other. Despite their mother's efforts, Marin and Imogen are the best of friends, the closest of siblings, and at the start of the book, arrive together to begin a nine-month residency at the prestigious artists' and creators' retreat: Melete.
The retreat is everything the two could wish for. Marin has the opportunity to work with, and eventually, fall in love with, Gavin, a famous dancer and head of a prestigious dance company. Imogen, soaking in the beautiful surroundings, embarks upon an ambitious project: a novel that weaves together the structure and metaphor of a fairytale, the stories that had sustained her, and her sister, during some of their darkest years. In Melete, they meet fellow artists, Ariel, a singer, Helena, a tortured poet, and perhaps most intriguingly, Evan, a sculptor of extraordinary talent, who seems to disappear, and reappear, among the bridges and elf maples of the campus.
As time wears on, readers discover that Melete and its residents pay a disturbing price for their success, one that might succeed in doing what the girls' mother could never do: destroy their faith in one another, for good.
Roses and Rot is a fairy story, structuring itself as a large fairy tale with a wicked mother figure, beautiful, mysterious woods, charming mentor figures with strange pasts and magical talents, and mysterious, cursed love interests. It is also a Faery story, and that means the Fair Folk, those terrifying people who are, as an observant friend put it, 'vicious and amoral'. Howard's book really puts forth the question: what would you do to succeed in your art, to be remembered down the ages like Shakespeare and Beethoven? Many people would say 'Anything', but only those who go to Melete know what that really means.
For me, the most enjoyable bit about the novel was its atmosphere, the rich detailing Howard puts into the world of Melete, the interactions between its residents. I loved the relationship between Imogen and her mentor, Beth, the friendship that develops between her and Ariel, even the relationship between her and Evan. Howard''s strength as a novelist is her characters, her minute observations of the manner in which relationships unfold between people who begin as strangers, lodged together in a house, and how time mutates them into friends, confidantes. Her characters are eminently relatable, and her setting, gorgeous. I found myself wanting to go to Melete, never mind the strange things that happen there. The Night Market would make it completely worth it.
Also, there's a lot to be said for the fact that Howard's book actually made me want to be part of a residency. I've never seen myself as someone who can shut themselves away from the world so completely and just write, needing distractions in the form of other work or engagement with people in order to function—-but Melete…oh I could do it for Melete. There's something so luxurious about the idea of needing to do nothing but write, and surrounding yourself with people similarly engaged in artistic pursuits. Maybe some day.
The parts where the novel falters are, for me, Imogen's writing. I loved her voice, and the manner in which she narrates her own story, but I couldn't be similarly wowed by her literary work, whatever we see of it. Perhaps I've seen too many rewritten fairytales (John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things is still, for me, the pinnacle<|fim_middle|>, a greater attention to the how of the telling, than the what.
It's for this reason that I would place Roshni Chokshi's The Star Touched Queen in the realm of the fairytale, a cosmic romance narrated by the clever, wilful Mayavati (or 'Maya', as she's more commonly known). 'Partnered with Death', Maya has always been shunned when not outright bullied by her half sisters and the ladies of the king of Bharata's harem. Her only friend is her little sister, Gauri, to whom she tells nightly tales of her own spinning. Maya has a talent for riddles and for listening in on the courtly happenings, but she doesn't have what the harem ladies prize: great beauty, a respected mother, or a good horoscope.
But things seem to turn around when, during a particularly action-packed swayamvara, Maya is taken away to the magical land of Akaran by her new husband, the mysterious Amar. In her new palace, Maya meets Gupta, Amar's extremely meticulous assistant, and wanders in myriad rooms, each of which seems to have a unique treasure hiding behind its door. There is a courtyard which houses a glass garden, a room whose floor is the ocean, and perhaps most mysteriously, a tree whose fruits are candles, which enclose within them shards of someone's memory. Most importantly, in Amar and his new queen's throne room resides a humongous tapestry, each of whose threads represents one life, and it is the task of the rulers of Akaran to tend it and thereby maintain the balance of the worlds.
Of course, every mysterious palace has its troubled prince, and every troubled prince has a hidden story, whose telling, or lack thereof, causes complications. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that though Amar promises his 'jaani' that he will tell all when the moon turns, she loses patience and, enamoured by the words of a mysterious woman in a mirror, takes matters into her own hands, with tragic results.
But just as a fairytale can't exist without someone going off the path and courting trouble, they can't come to an end without the protagonist overcoming his or her problems, at least to some extent. Maya really comes into her own in the second half of the book, when she has to cross worlds and face down enemies mythical and human in her quest to win back the love and memory of Amar, the Dharma Raja.
The strength of The Star Touched Queen is its writing. Each sentence is soaked in metaphor, offering surprising images that tie together disparate elements, and yet somehow managing to paint to a picture in the reader's mind. Whether she's describing the marigold-garlanded halls of Bharata's palace, or the ice-sharp flowers of the Akaran glass garden, the scent of thunder wreathed around a mystical elephant's tusks or the bloodlust of a demonic horse, Chokshi's pen dances through words and worlds, drawing a reader gasping after it. I can forgive elements that seemed strange, unexplained (such as Maya's shadow, which sometimes goes missing, or the rather jumbled politics of Bharata and its neighbours) simply because of the beauty of her prose. It's evident that this story and Maya's voice comes from someone who has dedicated love and effort to crafting every sentence that speaks of it, and Chokshi has the talent to do this mythical, mystical world justice and more.
Finally, what does this novel mean to me, a reader from India, watching as many of the tales she grew up with took on life in a new form? I've long felt that one of the hardest things for an Indian writer seeking to write fantasy is obtaining distance from the mythological beings and elements that we might desire to use in our own work. 'Suspension of belief', I called it here. Chokshi has solved that problem by, as I said, positioning her work not as an epic fantasy set in a world that is completely her own, but retreating to the hazy realm that exists between fairy tale and myth, where certain things can be left unexplained, such as the structure of the kingdom, the geography—what prevails is the magic and the character's adventure through it all. Maya is part of something cosmic and huge, which is greater than the nittygritty of any one kingdom. Her story, and Amar's, occupies the space of myth, larger than the relatively much more human concerns of an epic fantasy. In her mistake lies the potential for imbalance between the worlds, and the death of Death itself. I'd say that's a bigger deal than who gets to sit the Iron Throne.
Would I recommend this book? Definitely. It's beautifully written, and the story is compelling. Maya is a lovely narrator, and her tale the stuff grand love stories are made of. Not to forget, Gupta is a pretty entertaining character. I'd love to read his treatises on the discourses of molluscs some day.
Posted in book review, fantasy | Tagged book review, books, fairy tales, Indian fantasy, Roshni Chokshi | 2 Replies | of literature in this genre), but her writing didn't grip me. Of course, she is a fledgling writer in the book, and her book within a book is not a masterpiece, not when we see it, at least. Luckily, these stories within stories are few and far between, and Howard takes us back to the world of Melete and its scary fairy friends soon enough.
Would I take the 'deal' that Melete offers? My answer's a bit long-winded. Once you read Roses and Rot, you can get back to me and I will fill you in. No point in my spoiler-ing it right now.
Posted in book review, fantasy | Tagged Faerie, fairy tales, Kat Howard, Neil Gaiman, Roses and Rot, Susannah Clarke, writing | 3 Replies
The Star Touched Queen
Posted on July 9, 2016 by achalaupendran
One of the hardest things about writing epic fantasy is knowing when to stop.
Stop with the worldbuilding. Stop with the background plotting and the side quests. Stop adding new characters and giving them fascinating powers or stories that derail from the 'main' quest, and end up padding your book till its the size of a respectable brick and can, conceivably, be used for the same purposes—if you don't mind your house getting a little soggy during the rain.
One of the ways to avoid that is to take the seemingly less ambitious 'narrated fairytale' route. You still have the magic, the mystery and the life altering quest, but if the setting is less clearly realized, its politics and history not so defined, it is alright. What you focus on, in this case, seems to be the voice of the person doing the telling, with all that entails: emotion, beauty, and more often than not | 381 |
RFID beyond supply chain
Greg Meckbach
Published: September 9th, 2004
TORONTO – Wal-Mart may have the most famous Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) installation, but most companies that implement the technology are not doing so to manage their inventories, according to the president of an RFID systems integrator<|fim_middle|> heap.
At the back end, there is software that detects which tag is closest to where the driver placed the cell phone. The waste collection company is able to choose better routes by ensuring the dumpsters that tend to fill quickly are emptied first, and those that are used less are emptied less often.
RFID has an advantage over bar code scanning in outdoor and industrial environments, Moroz said. For example, tags operating at low frequency can receive signals through liquids, which is an advantage for beverage producers, or for government agencies wanting to track fish.
RFID tags operate at different frequencies, each of which have their advantages and drawbacks, Moroz said.
High-frequency readers, for example, use signals in the 13 MHz band, are not susceptible to noise and can read about 50 tags per second. In addition, the signals go through some materials, which allow them to be embedded into packages.
Although Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) readers are not affected by electronic noise, the signals reflect from metal, which makes it more difficult to set up systems that enable readers to receive signals, he said.
Creative Licensing
IT Business Elsewhere: Who hacked the hardware? | .
Bob Moroz, founder and president of
Markham, Ont. R. Moroz Ltd., said a lot of the news stories about RFID have focussed on Wal-Mart, which uses the technology for supply chain management and has announced it will make RFID tags mandatory for its top 100 suppliers.
""People call me up and say, 'Could you tell me about the technology that Wal-Mart invented?'"" Moroz quipped, but added none of the 40 systems his company implemented in the past year were for supply chain management.
Moroz made his comments Thursday during a seminar on RFID organized by the Toronto Wireless User Group (TORWUG).
Target markets for RFID technology include companies that sell tickets for their services, he said. In Europe, up to 30 per cent of skiers do not wear the correct tag, and it takes a long time for staff to check all skiers to make sure they paid their way on to the hill. But RFID tags can control access by scanning skiers' tags automatically when they pass a reader on the hill.
In addition, RFID tags could have other uses, such as allowing skiers to store money on them and pay for snacks without using cash, Moroz said.
""After skiing, I don't want to have to go searching through the pockets of my snow suit to find money for a beer and a hamburger,"" he said.
Another example of a retail RFID application is Speedpass, an RFID tag that customers can carry on their key chains and use to pay for gas at Esso stations.
Other RFID applications include security, building access control and animal identification, Moroz said.
Livestock are often branded with bar codes, but the symbols can become difficult to read after the animals get dirty in the pastures, he said. RFID tags are more durable in outdoor conditions.
Other markets for RFID include garbage collection companies, said Peter Wakim, Nokia's director of new business development for the Americas.
Wakim, who also spoke at the TORWUG seminar, said one waste management firm uses a phone with an RFID kit to keep track of how full each dumpster is when it's picked up. RFID tags are placed at various levels on the bin, and before emptying the dumpster into the truck, the driver touches a cell phone with an RFID tag to the side of the bin near the top of the trash | 484 |
Now that the summer is over….
My daughter and Waffles at home this weekend.
My world is a little less crazy in September than it was in August. Of course, it's only September 2nd. But, I haven't left our desert in more than a week. The last two weeks of August, I trekked from Palm Springs to Santa Barbara to Phoenix—and my daughter and husband threw in a trip to Salt Lake City in between.
I was supposed to<|fim_middle|> before their dive. They hold their breath and stay submerged for at at least five to ten minutes. We would wait patiently, scanning the sea for a sign of the blow, and the back breaking the surface.
What a truly amazing day. How sad I was the following day to hear about the oil spill.
Here are more dolphin photos. These are from my friends with the sailboat on a recent sail they had from Santa Barbara to the islands. How I wish I had been there.
Dolphins having fun with the boat.
Two dolphins at the bow. Photo by Debbie Gardiner.
Reflections during sunset at the Santa Barbara marina.
Here are the latest photos from my friends from their June sail to "the islands." Photos by Debbie Gardiner.
We were caught in a whirlwind of activities and travel, running away from our empty nest. We went to the beach, Mexico, Utah, Las Vegas, Santa Barbara and Utah in that order in the past two months. Wheew!!! It makes my head dizzy to think about it.
Now that we have stopped running, I'm anxious to start some big projects. Emptying out the guest room and redoing the bathroom and walls. The first part of this project means I have to go through boxes and closets and books and make decisions about what to toss and what to keep.
We have an armoire with a BIG TV and VCR and drawers full of movies that entertained the kids for years. I feel somewhat sad about tossing out all the Disney classics, but they're never going to be watched on a VCR again.
I have shelves of books that have followed me from childhood. The complete set of Anne books and Narnia Chronicles I will keep. I still enjoy reading them. I'm holding on to A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, too. I think my husband wants me to get rid of them all, but they are like dear friends that I cannot part with.
I keep avoiding this chore of going through the "guest room" which at one point in our 22 years here, was called the "computer room" because before kids in 1992 it was where my first Apple computer lived. Now I'm on about Apple number nine, wanting to return to work in my computer room. I'm coming full circle becoming the person that I was before. It's a great feeling, but a little scary, too.
One of our earlier Apples.
The dolphin statue in Puerto Vallarta by Bud Bottoms. It's a twin statue to the one at Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara.
We were on vacation in Puerto Vallarta — enjoying "empty nesting" that I first wrote about here. We went to a brunch at a luxurious gringo resort — complete with every type of food imaginable — waffle and omelet stations, a taco bar, sushi, every type of seafood and protein known to man, plus gorgeous arrays of fruits and salads.
I was being so good, trying to stick to a high protein, low carb plate — salmon, pork, a taste of sushi. And then I saw roasted Serrano chilis near the elaborate Mexican dishes. It wouldn't hurt to just have a taste, would it? I plunked the single chili onto my plate next to the scrambled eggs.
Later, sitting at the table with my husband, friends, and a person we had just met, I cut off a small bite of the chili. POW! YIKES! Help me, Jesus! How could I sit still, be polite and nod and smile?
My eyes watered, I shifted up and down in my seat and I thought I was crawling out of my skin. I was ready to jump on the table and do a happy dance!
That was the all time hottest chili. Ever. So much for the high protein low carb diet — I began stuffing my mouth with bread, tortillas, chips — anything to get the soaring heat to die.
The next evening at dinner, I listened to one of our friends tell a story about when he was in college and ate his first jalapeño. He was told that the secret was to keep the chili from getting any air. So right from the jar, he slipped the jalapeño into his mouth and closed his lips tight. Then he chewed and was blasted with unbelievable heat. He said the guy who told him "the secret way to eat chilis" laughed so hard that he's probably still laughing today — 40 years later.
Now that I'm away from the freshly roasted peppers, I looked up a few things about chilis. First, serrano chilis are typically eaten raw and have a bright and biting flavor that is notably hotter than the jalapeño pepper. No kidding!
There is a thing called the Scoville Scale that measures the spicy heat of the pepper! Who knew?
What makes a chili hot? The answer is capsaicin. What is that you ask?
"Capsaicin (/kæpˈseɪ.ɨsɪn/; 8-methyl–N–vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is an active component of chili peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum. It is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact." — from Wikipedia.
If you ever have the horribly uncomfortable occasion of biting into a super hot chili — milk and dairy is the answer. I did not know this. Do not drink water, tea or coffee. Try milk, yogurt or cheese to cut the heat. The next best thing is bread, rice or pasta.
Besides the great food and hot peppers, what did I enjoy about Puerto Vallarta? Try this!
View of beach in Puerto Vallarta. | help my daughter set up her new home in Arizona this Labor Day weekend, but after my husband's shoulder surgery Tuesday, I postponed my trip. A friend lectured me about leaving my husband alone after surgery. She said that my daughter should drive home to help us out—not me drive to see her. "After all, the new house isn't going anywhere, she can get by with slowly unpacking, and you can help her at a later date," she said. My husband did need attention, just a little, and my daughter happily agreed to come home for the weekend.
It's only a short drive from the Phoenix area to Palm Springs. Four hours to be exact on one freeway—"the 10." In So Cal, we say "the" in front of every highway. They don't do that in NorCal or Washington, where I grew up.
My son lived four hours away in Santa Barbara, which is in the opposite direction of Arizona. In the words of a native Southern Californian to drive from Palm Springs to UCSB, "you take the 10 to the 210 to the 118 to the 23 to the 101." I feel so much more comfortable with the drive to Arizona on "the 10." Period. Except for the big trucks, which I don't like, it's a one-shot deal. I hope to get there soon to help her set up her new home.
I'm also anxious to get a fresh start to the fall. I'm relieved we made it through so many hurdles. Vacation, the move, the surgery, etc. are all behind us in the rearview mirror. It's time to look ahead.
Olive the cat seems to have survived another few days with Waffles.
What do you think about the end of summer and the start of fall?
Our first Thanksgiving without our kids. I'm thankful they are with dear friends and their families since they weren't able to make the trek home this year. Instead of moping around the house feeling sorry about my empty nest, we're celebrating with our close friends. It was 30 years to the day that I first met them (my husband met them through work) and we spent Thanksgiving weekend sailing with them in Santa Barbara.
Here's to friends and family and creating memories together.
My daughter's swim team sending out a Thanksgiving message with her pup.
Who are you sharing your Thanksgiving with? What traditions do you share with friends and family?
Waffles on our morning beach walk.
I was stressed the day we left for vacation. Had I packed everything we needed?
VRBO disappointed me. The condo was way smaller than it looked online. I didn't realize there was only one window that looked out into a parking lot and no ocean breeze because it was on the wrong side of the building.
After three days, I relaxed. We aren't moving into the condo for good. It's only a week and we can make the best of it. With my glass half full, I can say it's clean, comfortable and we love the location a block from the beach.
The marina in Santa Barbara.
We are outside every day enjoying the fresh air. It's such a big deal to be out of the AC of home where it's 115 degrees and more.
Sailing was exhilarating, breathtaking and yes—filled with fresh air.
We love Carpinteria because of friends. Dinners al fresco, walks along the beach at sunset, and swimming are all better with friends. We're fortunate to have best friends who love to entertain and cook for us. We're even more fortunate they didn't get tired of us after a week.
Morning beach walks are the best. They're better than my walk around the neighborhood and park at home. Waffles the pug loved his beach time and playing with new friends.
I loved having my daughter join us for vacation. I hope it's a tradition she continues for years to come.
Swimming helped me relax. After swimming masters with my friend and her daughter as a coach, I felt good for the rest of the day.
Why don't we live in Carpinteria? Why was our vacation so short?
On the lookout for Humpback Whales.
Sunday was a perfect day for sailing. I went with my daughter, who's home from college for a short break, and our friends—who own a sailboat. They live near Santa Barbara, and as an Aussie, Rob sails in and out of his slip at the marina, and the first time I went sailing with them, we were in a regatta. So, he's very good at sailing.
I'm a fair weather sailor. I like a gentle breeze, sunshine, and no waves. The weather was perfect. We watched as 14-footers raced, brightly-colored spinnakers hoisted, gliding over a glossy sea.
A couple of the 14 footers with spinnakers racing by.
Then, we spotted a dolphin. Then tens of dolphins. Soon the boat was sailing with dolphins leaping all around. Several were playing and cruising along the bow. There were dolphins leaping in all directions, tens upon dozens of them everywhere!
Then they slowed down and turned around.
We watched pelicans and gulls dive into the ocean.
Then–the spray of a whale blowing. The broad humped back, then the tail. WOW! We all yelled together. Soon we spotted whale number two. Then three. We were being treated to a pod of humpback whales.
We spent the next several hours on the lookout for whales. After the tail goes straight up the whale dives. It was incredible to hear their loud gasp for air as they filled their lungs with oxygen | 1,176 |
Retrofitting or<|fim_middle|> and match the same modules for busway and panelboard. Monitor mains, branches, or both.
All modules continue to function as long as one meter remains powered, ensuring continuous metering. It's one of the most reliable BCM systems on the market.
One controller supports up to 70 power meters. It's the highest density in the industry, supporting up to 96 branch circuits.
BCM kits come with labeled CT wiring harnesses with keyed connectors. Real-time laptop configurator displays current and phase for electrician.
We offer simpler wiring by using multi-conductor cables. Twelve CTs per cable, length options of up to 10m, and optional plenum rated cable.
Our BCM kits offer several mounting options, including: subfloor, wall mount, IT rack. DIN rail modules for in-panel and NEMA enclosures.
Continuously collects data on: A, V, kW, kVA, and power factor. Data can be shared with a BMS or DCIM system for more accurate capacity planning. | expanding an existing facility? Planning to build a brand new one? With Raritan's BCM you'll be able to reduce energy costs, track power usage, and prevent downtime -- in no time!
Most branch circuit monitoring (BCM) systems are expensive; hard to install, configure and use. But, Raritan's latest BCM design will make it easy and affordable to monitor power upstream from IT equipment racks.
Get real-time views of electrical capacity and power usage at the panelboard, floor PDU, RPP or overhead busway. Measure kWh with ISO/SEC +/- 0.5% billing-grade accuracy and chargeback customers for energy costs. And receive alerts anytime a current approaches a breaker's limit.
The new easy-to-install modular system is available as either a branch circuit monitor or busway monitor kit. Because it is modular, it can be scaled as and when needed, making it more cost effective than competitive solutions.
Our new BCM system was redesigned with help from leading customers and installers in real-world settings. Auto-correcting split core CTs snap around live circuits - in either direction - without power to equipment racks being cut off.
The BCM system can easily be configured by uploading the panel schedule via USB stick, thereby eliminating manual input errors. And it integrates with Power IQ DCIM monitoring software that helps to consolidate facility power and environmental data.
The BCM leverages the same metering and controller technology in Raritan's 3rd generation rack PDUs to track power upstream from IT equipment racks. It measures KWh with ISO/SEC +/- 0.5% billing-grade accuracy for accurate customer chargeback reports and energy efficiency initiatives.
Already monitoring equipment racks with iPDUs? Track power in the remaining 20% of infrastructure that isn't being metered.
Approximately 75% of floor PDUs and RPPs are sold without any metering capabilities. Add metering quickly with our BCM kit.
Mix | 394 |
TOPFine Dining in the Hills
Fine Dining in the Hills
By MatthewEditor
Having only opened in March 2011, Bleston Court Karuizawa has already earned a reputation as one of the top fine-dining establishments in the country. Fusing French cuisine philosophies and a classical approach with local Nagano produce and Japanese traditions, hidden away in a charming, forested setting, it should have Michelin inspectors in the reservation book some day soon.
The focus is on seasonal food. Nagano has many rivers and forests rich with fresh ingredients that Executive Chef Noriyuki Hamada taps to create his dishes<|fim_middle|> royalty while being served food fit for kings, I just hope we have chance to go back.
By Matthew Hernon
Bleston Court Yukawatan
Address: Hoshino, Karuizawa-machi, Nagano 389-0194
Website: www.hoshinoya.com | .
The creativity that has gone into the preparation, and plating, is clear from the moment our dishes come out of the kitchen. Hamada is the youngest winner of the Bocuse d'OR Japan and, along with the exquisite service we received – surrounded by elegant décor – this was a dining experience that we will never forget.
Having been driven to Belston Court by a member of staff at Hoshinoya (the Spa resort and the restaurant are under the same management), on arrival we were courteously escorted to our table and presented with a towel and a small flower.
The small details all seemed right so far. Sommelier and Head Waiter, Hirofumi Kikuchi, then explained the provenance of our dishes and just how they would be prepared; and after bread and champagne, our appetizers arrived. Six tiny round dishes, imitating a full-course meal. We were told to eat them from left to right – all in the design it seems – and the miniature cabbage soup was a stop and think moment, it had a texture that melted into the background as the fresh flavours came through and acted to intrigue as to what could possibly come next.
Following the starters it was time for the Potage du Jour and then pan-fried ayu, a sweet fish that was nicely complemented by a cucumber and green pepper sauce. Our entree, seasonal vegetables from Karuizawa Farm, needed nothing but a simple vinaigrette accent to show off their flavours. For the meat dish there were three options, Nagano style 'shinshu chicken', an assortment of roasted pork cuts and charcoal grilled wagyu beef. We opted for the chicken and were not disappointed. Served with a sake sauce and seasonal vegetables, this truly local delicacy was the highlight of the meal.
There was just about enough room for the cherry jubilee dessert, with a rich, fruity sauce cooked and poured, in a final act of theatre, at the table. That wasn't the end of it though, a huge platter of petit fours suddenly appeared, with a choice of tea or coffee. So intricate was the detail, it almost felt a shame to eat them; we did manage to get through some, though, before the waiter offered to wrap them as souvenirs.
This kind of service came as no surprise as we had experienced it all night. From the moment we walked in to the moment we left, all the staff at Bleston Court Yukawatan were extremely affable and attentive. Treated like | 514 |
Project to combat mycotoxins in Africa set to start next month
By Joe Whitworth on August 21, 2018
A three-year project to tackle mycotoxin-related food safety issues in Africa is scheduled to start next month. MycoSafe-South is a European-African partnership for use of mycotoxin-mitigation strategies in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on children and a budget of almost €800,000 ($915,000).
It aims to identify safe options for aflatoxin and fumonisin-contaminated food and feed, to reduce human exposure to fungi-produced mycotoxins from animal protein sources, and to promote education and awareness to understand mycotoxin-associated health risks in humans and animals.
The expertise and infrastructure available in Europe will help strengthen capacity of the Southern partners to tackle the mycotoxin problem, according to project<|fim_middle|>coSafe-South is not the only project in this field. MyToolBox, running from March 2016 through February 2020, is a consortium of 23 partners from 11 countries. MycoKey, running from April 2016 through March 2020, involves 32 partners from Europe, China, Nigeria and Argentina.
Applications for seed funding as part of a contest run by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Sight and Life Foundation, Mars Inc. and Postharvest Loss Alliance for Nutrition (PLAN) closed earlier this month. The contest invited ideas from students and young professionals to design a product, service, technology, application or approach for reducing or eliminating exposure to aflatoxin-contaminated foods and feed.
MycoSafe-South project partners are:
Ghent University, MYTOX-SOUTH
University of Johannesburg (South-Africa),
University OF Nairobi (Kenya),
Norwegian Veterinary Institute (Norway),
University of Liege (Belgium),
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) (Kenya)
BIOMIN Holding GmbH (Austria),
Harbro Ltd (United Kingdom)
Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) (Ethiopia)
Tags: aflatoxin, Africa, mold, mycotoxins, patulin | organizers.
Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxins produced by certain molds and can be found in food. This has implications for food and feed safety, food security and international trade. The molds grow on a variety of crops and foodstuffs including cereals, nuts, spices, dried fruits, apples and coffee beans, often under warm and humid conditions. Adverse health effects range from acute poisoning to long-term effects such as immune deficiency and cancer.
Several hundred mycotoxins have been identified but the most common include aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, patulin, fumonisins, zearalenone and nivalenol/deoxynivalenol.
Project goals include reducing aflatoxin M1 contamination in milk of different African dairy species and decreasing aflatoxins in poultry food products.
The effort is co-funded by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO), Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (NFSR), Research Council of Norway (RCN), Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), South Africa's National Research Foundation (NRF), Biomin and Harbro.
Dian Schatzmayr, development team leader for mycotoxins at Biomin, said aflatoxins and fumonisins are harmful mycotoxins that often co-occur and constitute a serious issue in Africa.
"Leveraging our leading EU-authorized technologies to combat mycotoxins, we aim to drastically reduce mycotoxin exposure in animals and limit mycotoxin carryover into food products, which should ultimately deliver real benefits for African consumers. Effective mycotoxin mitigation strategies contribute to food security, food safety and sustainability," she added.
The company will share knowledge and expertise in trials designed to demonstrate safe and efficient detoxification of mycotoxins in African dairy species, laying hens and broilers.
My | 392 |
The Nashville Sound
Something More Than Free
After spending six years with Southern rock outfit Drive-By Truckers, singer<|fim_middle|>7 to pursue a solo career. Isbell had already honed his songwriting skills during his tenure with the Truckers, and he funneled those talents into Sirens of the Ditch, a bluesy, punk-infused lesson in guitar tones and Southern swagger that marked his solo debut in summer 2007. Backed by a new band dubbed the 400 Unit, Isbell took his songs on the road and soon began penning another album, which he recorded with the 400 Unit in 2008. Released the following year, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit was another step away from his work with Drive-By Truckers, relying as much on sad, melancholic country ballads as the familiar Muscle Shoals sound.
After performing more than 200 shows annually for several years running, Isbell took a breather in 2010 and returned home to northern Alabama. The area had been hit hard by the recent economic downturn, prompting Isbell to write a new batch of songs about the war vets, barflies, and out-of-luck characters who populated the area. The result was Here We Rest, which was released in spring 2011 to critical acclaim. Isbell followed it a year later in 2012 with a live set, Live from Alabama, recorded at the WorkPlay Theater in Birmingham, Alabama and at the Crossroads in Huntsville, Alabama. Embracing his newfound sobriety, Isbell next produced an album of haunting atonement and redemption, the sparse and impressive Southeastern, which appeared in 2013. Southeastern was a smash with critics and a commercial success that introduced Isbell to a new and larger audience, with Isbell and his band touring extensively in support. In 2014, Isbell issued Live at Austin City Limits, a video release documenting a set he played for the long-running PBS music series. Later the same year, Isbell returned to the studio to record the follow-up to Southeastern; the stylistically diverse Something More Than Free was released in July 2015. | /guitarist Jason Isbell left the group in 200 | 14 |
Facial recognition and fingerprint scanning may be the future of faster check-ins.
At its most basic, biometric technology is an automated account of a person's biological and behavioral characteristics, according to the Biometrics Institute. For travel, that could mean using facial recognition and fingerprint scanning to quickly identify travelers, potentially making verification<|fim_middle|> vacation was best for them while a webcam monitored and analyzed their heart rate, providing additional data to augment the quiz results.
For resorts, the possibilities are just unfolding. "I think biometric technology would be successful in resorts, but it would have to be in particular resorts," says Alyssa Heberlig, founder of luxury concierge travel company Just Always Traveling. Resorts that are in high-traffic areas and routinely experience congested lobbies, such as those in Las Vegas, could benefit greatly from implementing a biometric-assisted check-in process for guests. High-end resorts that cater to affluent travelers would also be ideal first adopters, as they most likely have the budget to begin experimenting with biometric technology.
"I think most travelers will be open to biometric technology, and I think there is a feasibility for it in the hospitality industry that is more attainable than other futuristic tech like augmented and virtual reality," says Heberlig, who cites the quick acceptance of biometric-based Trusted Traveler program Clear. The program started in the Hartsfield-Jackson airport then quickly expanded to 39 other security services, from airports to sports arenas such as Yankee Stadium. Given the potential for fast adoption, a future in which guests regularly use biometric technology for check-in may not be that far off. | processes smoother and more efficient in airports and even at resorts.
Biometric technology has big implications for the travel industry. The global biometrics market is set to reach more than $30 billion by 2021, according to ABI Research. The Transit Security Administration has already begun testing facial-biometric technology, and Delta successfully introduced the world's first biometric terminal in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport (the biggest airport in the world) last December, two signs that biometric technology may one day be a common part of travel.
Other uses are less intuitive. AccorHotels has used biometric data to find out travelers' vacation preferences. Travelers completed a quiz that helped them discover what kind of | 146 |
We are excited to have you visiting our church! Hopefully you will want to join us here at First UMC as you learn about the many ways we have to support and nurture the spiritual growth of your children and family. We have created an atmosphere of Christian community for the spiritual growth of the child from birth through sixth grade. We strive to make all children feel welcomed;<|fim_middle|>, but also include stories and activities that are age appropriate for 4-7 yr olds. This ministry is led by volunteers from the congregation.
Graded children's choirs are available for four year olds through sixth grade. The children work through the school year preparing anthems for worship, using hand chimes, and preparing two seasonal programs. The choirs meet after school and follow Elkin City Schools calendar. Click here to learn more about our children's choirs.
Each year the Children's Council selects material for our Vacation Bible School experience. We strive to have a faith-based, active, fun-filled week for kids 3 yrs old – rising 6th graders.
We have several special events throughout the year, usually coordinating with the holidays. Highlights include a back-to-school fun night, Halloween party, Thanksgiving food collection, Christmas programs, Easter Egg Hunt, and much more. | and are dedicated to helping children know and grow in their relationship with God. Whether guided on their spiritual journey by parents, grandparents, teenagers or other adults, the children feel loved and encouraged as they grow in their knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ.
There are several ways First UMC strives to help you as parents bring up your children in the faith, including: Children's Church, Sunday School, Children's Choir, seasonal activities and much more. We hope that your children will find a place in some of these ministries.
All children are welcome in our Worship Services. For those who are interested, nursery care is provided downstairs for birth through 3 yr olds. The nursery is staffed by a paid staff person and church volunteers.
Our children's Sunday School (K-6th) classes meet at 9:45am.
Class meets in the downstairs hall near the elevator. Nursery care is provided for pre-elementary aged children in the same hall.
Our Children's Church program is designed for ages 4 yrs – 2nd grade. Children begin worship with their families. During the service, there is a special time for children of all ages to come to the front for "Children's Time" on the steps, led by various members of the staff and congregation. After this time at the steps, the children may leave the sanctuary to gather in their own worship area to participate in lessons that are coordinated with the main worship service | 289 |
Avalanche take losing streak into game against the Oilers
January 6, 2023, 3:12 a.m. ·2 min read
Colorado Avalanche (19-14-3, fourth in the Central Division) vs. Edmonton Oilers (20-17-2, fourth in the Pacific Division)
Edmonton, Alberta; Saturday, 10 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE<|fim_middle|> at Emirates Golf Club — four in a row from No. 1, three straight from No. 13, and another at No. 17 — and none of the birdie putts were from more than 7 feet. "I drove the ball better today, which put me in better positions to attack and make birdies," said t
Commissioner Gary Bettman says 'nobody tanks' in the NHL
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman defended the league's integrity on Tuesday when he refused to admit that teams tank for better odds in the draft lottery. | : The Colorado Avalanche come into the matchup with the Edmonton Oilers after losing five in a row.
Edmonton is 20-17-2 overall and 10-11-1 in home games. The Oilers have scored 138 total goals (3.5 per game) to rank third in the league.
Colorado is 19-14-3 overall and 10-8-0 in road games. The Avalanche have a +two scoring differential, with 104 total goals scored and 102 allowed.
The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season between the two clubs.
TOP PERFORMERS: Connor McDavid has 33 goals and 40 assists for the Oilers. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has scored five goals with nine assists over the last 10 games.
Mikko Rantanen has 25 goals and 22 assists for the Avalanche. Cale Makar has scored three goals with seven assists over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Oilers: 4-4-2, averaging 3.3 goals, 5.7 assists, 3.1 penalties and 6.7 penalty minutes while giving up 2.9 goals per game.
Avalanche: 4-5-1, averaging 2.3 goals, 3.7 assists, 3.2 penalties and 7.5 penalty minutes while giving up 2.7 goals per game.
INJURIES: Oilers: Evander Kane: out (wrist), Warren Foegele: out (undisclosed), Oscar Klefbom: out (shoulder), Mike Smith: out (undisclosed).
Avalanche: Valeri Nichushkin: out (ankle), Pavel Francouz: out (lower-body), Josh Manson: out (lower-body), Gabriel Landeskog: out (knee), Evan Rodrigues: day to day (upper-body), Bowen Byram: out (undisclosed), Andrew Cogliano: out (undisclosed).
Oilers call on EBUG to close out dominant win over Blackhawks
Damian Lillard scores 60 points, helps Blazers beat Jazz
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Damian Lillard scored a season-high 60 points, hitting nine 3-pointers, and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Utah Jazz 134-124 on Wednesday night. Lillard tied for second-most in the NBA this season. Donovan Mitchell had 71 in an overtime game for Cleveland against Chicago on Jan. 3, and Luka Doncic scored 60 in Dallas' OT victory over New York on Dec. 27. Jerami Grant added 19 points to help Portland win its second straight game. Lauri Markkanen led the Jazz with 24 poi
Embiid scores 47 as 76ers beat Jokic, Nuggets 126-119
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joel Embiid won the battle of MVP candidates with 47 points and 18 rebounds as the Philadelphia 76ers extended their winning streak to seven games with a 126-119 win over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. Jokic and Embiid have finished first and second in voting for the NBA's Most Valuable Player award over the last two seasons. Both are among the top candidates for MVP as this season hits the halfway mark. James Harden had 17 points and 13 assists, and Tobias
EDMONTON — Tyson Barrie scored a pair of goals as the Edmonton Oilers headed into their all-star break hiatus on a winning note, coming away with a 7-3 victory over the lowly Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night. Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman each had a goal and two assists, and Evander Kane and Ryan McLeod also scored for the Oilers (28-18-4) who have gone 7-0-1 in their last eight games leading into a break that sees them idle until Feb. 7. Jason Dickinson, Jonathan Toews and T
Canucks' Ilya Mikheyev: 'It was my decision' to play with ACL injury
After the Canucks announced that Ilya Mikheyev would miss the rest of the season with a knee injury he suffered in preseason, the forward took to the social media to clear the air.
Carnegie Initiative shines light on programs attempting to make hockey more inclusive
Here are some of the key learnings and takeaways from the Carnegie Initiative's second annual summit.
Vikings interview assistant Mike Pettine for DC vacancy
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings interviewed internal candidate Mike Pettine on Wednesday for their defensive coordinator vacancy. Pettine served as assistant head coach this season under rookie coach Kevin O'Connell. The 56-year-old Pettine has 19 seasons of experience as an NFL coach, including three stints as a defensive coordinator with the New York Jets (2009-12), Buffalo (2013) and Green Bay (2018-20). Pettine was the head coach for Cleveland for two years from 2014-15. O'Connell
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Brayden Point had a goal and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-2 on Saturday night for a franchise-record 12th consecutive home win. Victor Hedman, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Corey Perry and Ross Colton also scored for Tampa Bay, which has won three in a row overall. Nick Perbix had three assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves. The Lightning surpassed the franchise mark of 11 straight home wins set in 2019-20 and defeated the Kings for t
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Rory McIlroy delivered an exhibition of short iron play to shoot 7-under 65 in his third round and build a three-stroke lead at the Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday. The top-ranked McIlroy made eight birdies | 1,308 |
This API provides capabilities<|fim_middle|> for which the this price code is valid. | to retrieve information about a single Brand's Promotions. Including the Promotion Products, Price Group and Price Code Information.
The content type is application/json.
Retrieves all defined Promotions for the brand.
Promotion Yes List List of Promotion Elements attached to this Brand.
PromoCode Yes String This is the unique way of identifying a Promotion Code.
AlternateId No String This is the Alternate Id used to refer to the Promotion.
Description Yes String This is the descriptive name for the Promotion.
EffectiveDate No DateTime The date and time the promotion starts to be effective. yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format. Example: 2010-03-08 21:23:34.
EndDate No DateTime The date and time the promotion is no longer effective. yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format. Example: 2010-03-08 21:23:34.
StatusCode Yes int Status of the current promotion.
PromotionProduct Yes List A list of PromotionProduct elements. These define the Products that are attached to the Promotion.
Id Yes int This is the unique Identifier for the Promotion Product.
ProductId Yes int The Product Id of the product associated with the Promotion.
ParentProductId No int This would the the Parent Product associated, if any.
ProductPriceGroup No List A list of ProductPriceGroup elements. These define any Price Groups that are attached to the Product for a Promotion.
Id Yes long The product price group identifier.
EndDate No Datetime The date and time the price group is no longer effective. yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format. Example: 2010-03-08 21:23:34.
StartDate No Datetime The date and time the price group starts to be effective. yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format. Example: 2010-03-08 21:23:34.
StatusCode Yes int Status of the current price group.
ProductPriceCode No List A list of ProductPriceCode elements. These define any Prices that are attached to the Price Group for a Product.
Id Yes long The product price code identifier.
GeographicLocation Yes String Geographic Location that is valid code for the associated price code.
Term Yes int The term/length for the product associated with the price group.
Amount Yes BigDecimal The price associated with the product for the term.
Status Yes int The current status of the price for the associated product.
CountryCode No String The Country for which the this price code is valid.
RegionCode No String The Region for which the this price code is valid.
RequestedVersionType No String The Requested Version Type | 541 |
The Ten Pillars of Economic Wisdom
1. Nothing in our material world can come from nowhere, nor can it be free; everything in our economic life<|fim_middle|>, and everything that government gives to the people, it must first take from the people.
3. The only valuable money that government has to spend is that money taxed or borrowed from people's earnings. When government decides to spend more than it has thus received, that extra unearned money is created out of thin air, through the banks and/or the printing presses, and when spent, takes on value only by reducing the value of all other money, savings and insurance.
4. In our modern exchange economy, all payroll and employment come from customers, and the only worthwhile job security is customer security. If there are no customers, there can be no payroll and no jobs.
5. Customer security can be achieved by the worker only when he/she cooperates with management in doing the things that win and hold customers. Job security, therefore, is a partnership problem that can only be solved in a spirit of understanding and cooperation.
6. Because wages are the principle cost of everything, wide spread wage increases without corresponding increases in productivity, simply increase everyone's cost of living.
7. The greatest good for the greatest number means, in its material sense, the most goods for the greatest number, which, in turn, means the greatest productivity per worker.
8. All productivity is based on three factors: (a) natural resources, whose form, place and condition are changed by the expenditure of (b) human energy (both muscular and mental), with the aid of (c) tools.
9. Tools are the only one of these three factors that man can increase without limit, and tools come into being in a free society only when there is a reward for that portion of their earnings that people must temporarily channel into new tools of production as opposed to purchases that produce immediate comfort and pleasure. Proper payment for the use of tools is essential for their creation.
10. The productivity of the tools-that is, the efficiency of the human energy applied in connection with their use-has always been highest in a competitive society in which the economic decisions are freely made by millions of progressive-seeking individuals, rather than in a state-planned society in which those decisions are made by a handful of all-powerful people, regardless of how benevolent, sincere and intelligent those people may be.
We had previously published the Ten Pillars of Economic Wisdom and attributed it to "Anonymous". However the following information was provided from a reader in California today, Wednesday, July 26, 2006.
Fred G Clark and Richard Stanton Rimanoczy (Chairman and President of The American Economics Foundation, 51 East 42 St., NY, NY 10017-as of 1969, the date of my book, "How We Live", where their Ten Pillars appeared). D Van Nostrand held the copyright. The Pillars apparently were on 10 plaques in the Hall of Free Enterprise at the 1964 NY City World's Fair.
We sincerely appreciate this information so our record is correct.
…the task of the entrepreneur consists precisely in finding, in a world of perpetual change, which combination of resources will yield, in the conditions of today, a maximum surplus of output over input value, and in guessing which will do so in the probable conditions of tomorrow, when output values, cost of complementary input, and technology all will have changed. (1940)Ludwig M. Lachmann | has a source, a destination and a cost that must be paid – by someone.
2. Government is never a source of goods. Everything produced is produced by the people | 34 |
What Does the Last Name Wilkinson Mean?
The Wilkinson surname is a patronymic meaning "son of Wilkin," from Wilkin, a diminutive for William from the Germanic name Wilhelm, which in turn derives from the elements wil, meaning "will or desire," and helm, or "helmet or protection." Wilkinson is just one of many surnames derived from William, or "son of William."
Wilkinson is the 72nd most common English surname.
Where is the WILKINSON Surname Most Common?
Surname distribution information from Forebears, tells us that the Wilkinson surname is most prevalent in England, particularly in the northern half of England. Data from WorldNames PublicProfiler supports this, demonstrating that Wilkinson is most prevalent in the North region of England, followed by Yorkshire and Humberside, North West and East Midlands. Wilkinson is also more common in Tyrone in Northern Ireland, as well as throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Contrary to what you may hear, there is no such thing as a Wilkinson family crest or coat of arms for the Wilkinson surname. Coats of arms are granted to individuals, not families, and may rightfully be used only by the uninterrupted male line descendants of the person to whom the coat of arms was originally granted.
More than 130 members have joined this project for the Wilkinson surname to work together to find their common heritage through DNA testing and sharing of information.
This free message<|fim_middle|> a concentration on records and families from France and other European countries.
Browse genealogy records and links to genealogical and historical records for individuals with the Wilkinson surname from the website of Genealogy Today.
Explore over 5 million digitized records and database entries, including census records, passenger lists, military records, land deeds, probates, wills and other records for the Wilkinson surname on the subscription-based website, Ancestry.com. | board is focused on descendants of Wilkinson ancestors around the world. Search the forum for posts about your Wilkinson ancestors, or join the forum and post your own queries.
Explore over 6 million results from digitized historical records and lineage-linked family trees related to the Wilkinson surname and variants on this free website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Free mailing list for researchers of the Wilkinson surname and its variations includes subscription details and a searchable archives of past messages.
GeneaNet includes archival records, family trees, and other resources for individuals with the Wilkinson surname, with | 115 |
K ILIT AJANS
BEST WEBSITE FOR BUSINESS NEWS
Is Caesarstone (NASDAQ:CSTE) A Risky Investment?
"The biggest investment risk is not price volatility, but whether we suffer a permanent loss of capital," says Lee Lu, an external fund manager backed by Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger. . Debt is often incurred when a business goes bankrupt, so it makes sense to consider a company's balance sheet when considering a company's risks.Like many other companies Caesarstone Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ:CSTE) uses debt. But is this liability a concern for shareholders?
What are the risks of borrowing?
Generally speaking, debt becomes a real problem only when a company raises capital or cannot easily repay it with its own cash flow. Part of capitalism is the process of 'creative destruction' in which failed businesses are ruthlessly liquidated by bankers. But a more common (but still costly) situation is when a company has to dilute its shareholders with a cheap stock price just to manage its debt. That said, the most common situation is when a company manages its debt reasonably well to its advantage. When looking at debt levels, first consider both cash and debt levels together.
See Caesarstone's latest analysis
What is Caesarstone's net debt?
You can click the chart below for historical figures, but as of September 2022 Caesarstone had US$34.8 million in debt, up from US$21.8 million over the course of the year. However, he also holds US$65.2 million in cash, leading to a net cash position of US$30.4 million.
NasdaqGS: CSTE Debt to Equity History Jan 5, 2023
How healthy is Caesarstone's balance sheet?
According to the latest balance sheet data, Caesarstone has a debt of US$191.8 million, which is due within one year and a debt of US$160.6 million will be paid thereafter. Meanwhile, US$65.2 million in cash and US$122.7 million worth of his receivables were paid within his year. That debt therefore puts him US$164.6 million more than his cash and short-term receivables combined.
This deficit is significant compared to a market capitalization of US$221.3 million, suggesting that shareholders should be careful with Caesarstone's use of debt. This suggests a significant dilution of shareholders if the company urgently needs to strengthen its balance sheet. It has notable debt, but Caesarstone has more cash than it has, so I'm confident that it can be safely managed.
In fact, Caesarstone's saving grace is its low debt level. Because his EBIT has fallen 49% in the last 12 months. When it comes to paying off debt, the loss of income is the same as sugary sodas are good for your health. Arguably, we learn the most about debt from the balance sheet. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will determine whether Caesarstone can strengthen its balance sheet over time. So, if you want to know what the experts think, this free report on analyst profit forecasts might be of interest to you.
Finally, the business needs free cash flow to pay off its debt. Accounting profit doesn't cut it. Caesarstone may have net cash on its balance sheet, but it's still interesting to see how the business converts earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) into free cash flow. Manage your debt. Over the past three years, Caesarstone has generated free cash flow equivalent to 8.6% of his EBIT. That limp level of cash conversion undermines the ability to manage and repay debt.
Caesarstone has more liabilities than liquid assets, but also has $30.4 million in net cash. Despite the cash, Caesarstone appears to be struggling with his EBIT growth, so we're wary of the stock price. Arguably, we learn the most about debt from the balance sheet. Ultimately, however, all companies may have the risk of existing off balance sheets. To do so, you should be aware of the following: 1 warning sign Found in Caesarstone.
After all, if you're interested in a fast-growing company with a solid balance sheet, check out our list of net cash growth stocks right away.
Valuation is complicated, but we're here to help make it simple.
find out if caesarstone You may be overestimated<|fim_middle|> that our analysis may not take into account the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative materials. Is not …
Battery Ventures Agrees to Make Significant Investment to Drive Growth, Innovation in European Fleet-Management Technology Sector
ACP Believes in the Power of Data with Growth Investment in Cleartelligence
Is Advance Auto Parts (NYSE:AAP) A Risky Investment?
Why some advisors refuse to outsource investment management
GE Appliances planning $50 million investment into Greenville County
Denver FBI warns of crypto investment scams affecting the area
CalSTRS Promotes 2 to Senior Investment Director Roles | or underestimated by checking out our comprehensive analysis including: Fair value estimates, risks and warnings, dividends, insider trading and financial health.
View Free Analysis
Do you have feedback on this article? What interests you? contact directly with us. Or send an email to our editorial team (at) Simplywallst.com.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide comments based on historical data and analyst projections using only unbiased methodologies and our articles are not intended as financial advice. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell stocks and does not take into account your objectives or financial situation. We aim to deliver long-term focused analysis based on fundamental data. Please note | 135 |
Imagine how amazing it would be to be able to make your own clothing, curtains, bedding, or home decor. Learning how to sew allows you to do just that. Once you master the art of using a needle and thread, you can create just about anything out of fabric, opening up a world of creative possibilities.
1. Get to know the lingo.
Even though starting your sewing adventures with the vocabulary lesson doesn't seem very exciting,<|fim_middle|> the most popular sewing-related terminology can make it a lot easier to learn.
2. Decide what type of sewing you want to do.
Although hand sewing is an option, most people prefer to use a sewing machine. Not only does having a machine make sewing a lot faster but it also usually results in stronger, more even stitching, meaning that your finished projects may last longer.
If you decide to use a sewing machine, don't just buy the first machine that you find. Instead, consider visiting a store that specializes in sewing machines. This allows you to get expert advice when buying your machine, helping to ensure that you make a smart purchase.
3. Watch videos, read books and take classes.
Today, there are more educational tools than ever available that are designed to help you master the art of sewing. Watching videos online and reading books are both great options. You may even want to consider taking a class in your local area. Nothing beats hands-on training when it comes to mastering a new skill.
There are a lot of benefits associated with learning to sew. Once you develop good sewing skills, you can create a number of different projects ranging from clothing to home accessories. | familiarizing yourself with some of | 6 |
Freemantle's iconic hotel Magnetite its heritage windows
Nov 20, 2018 Written by Magnetite Australia
The National Hotel was a branch of the National Bank of Australasia in the early 1880s before it demolished and rebuilt in 1903. In 2007, this iconic landmark was destroyed by a fire and only the building outer shell survived.
Five years later, the Carnegie group bought the building and went to a great length to restore this heritage building to its former glory. This 12-room boutique hotel with a 360-degree rooftop bar will no doubt become one of Freemantle's new favourite.
Included in this $7m refurbishment project was window retrofit in the 12 new hotel rooms, to ensure absolute comfort for the guest. Preserving the character of the original heritage windows was a priority. The Carnegie group appointed Magnetite Perth to double glaze the existing heritage windows for soundproofing and thermal insulation, ensuring comfortable stay for the guest.
Magnetite Perth<|fim_middle|> reduction and temperature control and far less expensive than standard double glazing.
– Penelope | installed retrofit double glazing to all 12 rooms in level two and three facing High and Market Street. A 10mm optical grade acrylic was installed with a maximum air cavity to maximise noise reduction. Magnetite's slim line frame allows the secondary double glazing system to blend in and retain the building's façade while providing all year round comfort for the hotel guest.
Magnetite Australia
Latest from Magnetite Australia
Thank you and season's greetings. We're taking a short break
Visiting Magnetite's newest franchise in Singapore
3 Reasons to Retrofit Secondary Glazing on Your Next Home Improvement Project
More in this category: « 3 Reasons to Retrofit Secondary Glazing on Your Next Home Improvement Project Visiting Magnetite's newest franchise in Singapore »
It's FREE and only takes
a couple of minutes
The sound proof windows and doors have made a huge difference to my life, and I am so grateful.
– Leonie
The product looks fantastic and we can't get over the different feel in the apartment with so much sound blocked out.
- Terry
Excellent for sound | 223 |
Home » Podcasts » Radio Show » Boomer Generation Radio 8/12/2014: Psychologist Michael Freidman and 'Travels with Epicurus' author Daniel Klein
Boomer Generation Radio 8/12/2014: Psychologist Michael Freidman and 'Travels with Epicurus' author Daniel Klein
August 17, 2014WebmasterRadio Show0
Rabbi Address and psychologist Michael Freidman in the WWDB studios
On the August 12, 2014 edition of Boomer Generation Radio, Rabbi Address has a new conversation with Dr. Michael Freidman, psychologist and life coach based in the Philadelphia area. Dr. Freidman discusses psychological challenges confronting Baby Boomers. He previously appeared on the BGR program in March 2013.
In the second half of the program, sponsored by the Quaker-based Kendal Corporation, a provider of continuing care retirement communities, Rabbi Address speaks with Daniel Klein, an author and resident at the Kendal Community in the Berkshires, in Western Massachusetts. Klein is the author of Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life
, a book about his journeys to the Greek island Hydra to discover the secrets of aging happily. Drawing on the lives of his Greek friends, as well as philosophers ranging from Epicurus to Sartre, Klein learns to appreciate old age as a distinct and extraordinarily valuable stage of life.
Apple PodcastsLeave an iTunes ReviewPlay or DownloadSubscribe via RSSSubscribe on AndroidGoogle PodcastsShare
Listen in a New WindowSoundCloudStitcherTake our surveySpotifyPlayer Embed
Boomer Generation Radio airs on WWDB-AM 860 every Tuesday at 10 a.m., and features news and conversation aimed at Baby Boomers and the issues facing them as members of what Rabbi Address calls "the club sandwich generation." You can hear the show live on AM 860, or streamed live from the WWDB website.
Subscribe to the RSS feed for all Jewish Sacred Aging podcasts.
<|fim_middle|> | Subscribe to these podcasts in the Apple iTunes Music Store.
alzheimers, baby boomers, club sandwich generation, daniel klein, dementia, elder care, jewish sacred aging, Kendal Corporation, michael freidman, rabbi richard address, talk radio, travels with epicurus, wwdb-AM | 64 |
Choi&Lager Gallery
9 September–12 November 2017
Fünfklang
Press Release Location
Fünfklang (five-note chord) is an exhibition that demonstrates a wide variety of artistic approaches to the subject. An object may be shown completely realistically, or in the expressive mode; it may be represented in surrealist guise or as an abstract, geometric form. At times, it might dissipate into a shadowy suggestion of itself.
Christian Achenbach's paintings and sculptures have a strong affinity with the musical genre. On canvas, distinctly contoured shapes are fluid in movement, the colours interacting with each other. In his emotional sculptures, they are piled up as metal or glass columns with complicated surfaces. A confluence of static and dynamic forces are at work, which also reflect past trends such as the constructivist tradition. Achenbach was born in 1978 in Siegen near Cologne and studied at UdK Berlin (University of the Arts) under Daniel Richter and Anselm Reyle, becoming the latter's master pupil in 2007. He lives and works in Berlin.
The point of departure of Sybille Berke's work is an engagement with the wall itself, the 'drawing' taking shape in the form of forged round bars and perforated sheet iron. Sculptures are randomly placed in the exhibition rooms. Whether iron or wood, they resemble mysterious objects that might be ripe for recycling, were their function something one could define in the first place. Berke was born in 1949 in Ulm and was a master student at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf). She received many awards, but sadly died at an early age in 1998. This exhibition of her sculptures is a rediscovery of her extensive repertoire.
The sculptor Andreas Blank was born in 1976 and studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, as a pupil of Harald Klingelhöller. In 2009 he graduated from the Royal College of Art in London with a Master's degree in Fine Art. His sculptures are composed of rare stone in a variety of colours, from far-flung quarries around the world. Marble, alabaster or limestone-historically familiar in political or religious uses-are deployed in everyday contexts, producing a type of post-Modern nihilism. Blank's work belongs to the intermediate field between realism and geometric abstract art,<|fim_middle|> Her city images grapple with the phenomenon of history, such as the chlorophyll images of the fall of the Wall, nature and vegetation.
Curators: Stephan von Wiese (former Head of the Department of Modern Art, Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf), Andreas Blank (sculptor)
Press release courtesy Choi&Lager Gallery.
Wormserstrasse 23
Cologne, 50677
www.choiandlager.com
Wed - Fri, 11am - 1pm, 2pm - 6pm
Sun, 11am - 2pm and by appointment
Sign up to be notified when new artworks and exhibitions at Choi&Lager Gallery are added to Ocula. | generating a conversation between image and representation.
Frank Darius was born in 1963 and lived and worked in Düsseldorf and Cologne between 1998 and 2006; today his studio is in Berlin. His analogue photographs are presented in a series of cycles that traverse a range of styles, from objectivity and representation to abstraction and emptiness of space. He makes the process of sight into a topic in itself, reducing his subjects to the finest, linear, drawing-like structures. In his latest series, he focuses on wall shadows which call to mind the after-image a notice board displays when a picture has been removed. The photographs capture what is absent, what is barely visible. They seek to preserve long lost memories, memoranda, drawings. The time-stamped shadows serve as temporary storage spaces for familiar and trusted things, thereby emphasising the fleeting quality of human life.
Hella Santarossa's work is a hybrid of artistic techniques and genres. Born and brought up in Düsseldorf, the artist now lives and works in Berlin.
The broad spectrum of her art includes works on canvas, glass painting, metal sculpture and, here in particular, a series of transparent obelisks. The hybrid nature of Santarossa's work typifies a more independent spirit, indeed almost the spirit of a maverick-since the artist belongs to the group dedicated to Heftige Malerei (fierce painting) that emerged from the Hödicke class at HdK Berlin. She exhibited her bicycle images in the group's Moritzplatz gallery in 1979. A multi-layering of materials in Santarossa's art corresponds to the up-to-dateness of her themes, always taken from life. Images arise in a dance-like performance, and often with explicit reference to dance as a topic. | 372 |
"What do you want the Israelis to do to solve this?" Brian asked me in the midst of a loud debate over the conflict in the Middle East in John's livingroom. It was Brian, Mike, John, and myself — with John abstaining from the majority of the debate — sitting around John's house Friday night with at least one beer behind us and a mug of sake in front of us.
Earlier, just before I left work, the Australian girl, Tonya, had come into my office. After an awful day spent in a haze (for no particular reason), I just didn't care any more. This is a good thing. Rather than freeze up and doubt my every sentence with her, I was able to talk to her relatively normally. Our first real conversation, I think. I found out that she's from Brisbane, followed her boyfriend over here, they broke up, he moved to New York, and now she's stuck in Austin with its awful mass transportation and incoherent growth scheme. Two years she's been here, she says, and has only made two good friends. So I invited her to John's place for our sake party that evening. I've got two other engagements tonight, but next time, she says. Blown off again, I think.
After work, I finally make it through the traffic down to John's house to find him not there. The bathroom window is cracked, though, so I climb through and unlock the door. Perfect. Shortly after, he returns from Central Market with the sake.
"I want them to pull back to pre-1967 borders," I replied to Brian's enquiry.
We'd been talking about this for a while now. I hadn't kept up with the news during the latter part of the day, and when Brian arrived at John's from Hunt, Texas, he informed us of Powell's cancellation of the meeting with Arafat. Then I told him of the Georgia Democrat's proposal that the Bush Administration be investigated to see whether or not they might have been complicit in the World Trade Center/Pentagon/PA terrorist attacks. There are a lot of people close to and in the Bush administration who are going to profit a great deal from the war on terrorism, the politician had said. We agreed.
Brian shook his head and looked away.
"I know, I know, Eric Clapton," Brian finally submitted.
The night progessed toward its deepest point and we took a cab up to Ruta Maya. The town's South by Southwest hangover had lifted and the Spring air had attracted the masses onto the streets. In a haze of beer, sake, and pot (and for Brian, Xanax) we walked down to Lovejoy's just off Sixth Street where we ordered Long Island Iced Teas. At the bar sat John's crush, Erin, with her boyfriend.
In what has become a tradition among us, John said, "God be with us," as the first toast of the night. Our glasses clinked sharply against one another as we laughed at the irony of such a statement but still inwardly believed that an otherworldly power might yet be the only force that kept us alive on these nights.
The crowd slowly broke up over the evening. We hadn't hit the correct stride. Mike theorized that it was because we began the evening by talking about the heavy topic of the Middle East, but I doubted that because we usually talk about such things on these nights. Something else was off. John left from Lovejoy's when he tired of Erin's boyfriend shooting eye-daggers at his back.
Later, at Ruta Maya, Brian decided to walk the 2 1/2 miles back to John's house. Mike and I stayed to drink. We talked to Nick, who said he'd spent one evening at Lavaca Street Bar trying to get into my ex-girlfriend, Stephanie's, pants. She had placed 50% of the blame for our failed relationship on me. Though it happened months upon months ago, the prospect that it was partly my fault still held my drunken interest. While it's always a diplomatic gesture to assign equal amounts of blame to both parties, I don't know how honest it is in this case. Either way, she apparently did not elaborate on the subject to Nick.
Outside at 2 AM, we tried to hail a cab, but they all passed filled with<|fim_middle|> going to go home," she says.
Tonya and her friend walk away just as an empty cab passes us. I wave for it and we climb in.
We couldn't help but laugh. | other smart-enough drunks.
"I told you it would be hell to get a cab at 2 AM," I said to Mike.
"I have stopped talking about it. You're the one that's still talking about it," I said.
"All right," he said, and walked off.
I kept watching the full cabs pass down Fourth Street and onto Lavaca headed north.
"Hey, idiot!" I hear Mike yell behind me. I figure he's gotten a cab. I turn around. Australian Tonya stands near him with a pretty friend.
"I'm always out." And it's true. I'm out at least four nights a week.
"You should come to the next sake party," I follow-up.
"I will," she says in her liltingly wonderful accent.
"Well, we're | 162 |
Find all of our forms from temporary gambling authority to taxes.
Create an account in the TransAction Portal or TAP for online applications.
Learn how to use TAP with an interactive video tutorial.
Click the image to learn about gambling-related licenses and permits.
The Montana Legislature has authorized limited legal gambling in Montana. Here you can access resources that pertain to the most current legalities and regulation.
Montana has more than 1,400 licensed gambling operators and locations that offer more than 16,000 video gambling machines to the public.
Problem gambling affects everyone. For resources and where to find help follow this link.
Gain answers to frequently asked questions, guides, and links to important resources.
Access to various Montana state gambling statutes and rules.
The Gaming Advisory Council (GAC), created in 1989, advises on public policy matters related to gaming, including: amendments to the gambling statutes, additional or modified departmental rules, clarification of existing rules, operation of the Gambling Control Division.
The Gaming Advisory Council submits a report to the Department of Justice that is included as part of the Gambling Control Division Biennial Report prepared for the legislature.
Under state law, the council is made up of nine members. Legislative leaders select the legislative members while the attorney general appoints the remaining members.
Click image for a list of departments and contact information.
Montana Gambling Control Division takes gambling crimes very seriously. Use this page to report suspicious Gambling, Liquor, or Tobacco related activities in Montana.
This form is intended for people interested in receiving information and updates pertaining to the Gambling Control Division. If you select "Interested Person" in the drop-down selection, you will receive notifications for Administrative Rules updates, Gaming Advisory Council meeting notices, and general Division updates. If you select "Website Updates (Statistics & Reports)", you will receive notifications on updated reports within the Statistics and Reports Page.
Most of the forms related to the Gambling Control Division's broad licensing and permitting responsibilities are available on the Gambling and Liquor Forms page (with the exception of new Card Dealer License applications – see process below). Many applications and permits can now be applied for online through TAP by visiting https://tap.dor.mt.gov.
Note* In order to be eligible to receive Temporary Gambling Authority, you must apply online in TAP.
Montana law requires anyone dealing cards in a live card game of panguingue or poker to have a card dealer's license. The license must be renewed annually on the dealer's birthday. Click here to renew online.
Go to a local driver exam station to have your photo taken and get an application packet OR if this is a renewal of your license, click here to renew online.
If your application is approved, your standard card dealer license will be mailed to you within four weeks.
If you fail to renew your dealer license by its expiration date, within 30 days you can renew it by following the same process that is used to apply for a temporary license. You must complete the application form and submit a check for $55.00 along with two fingerprint cards. You must complete the section on the application form regarding any new criminal history information.
If you fail to renew within the 30-day period, follow the instructions for applying for a standard<|fim_middle|> temporary license will be available at the division office or, in some cases, at a local Workforce Services office, on the next business day. If your application is approved, your standard card dealer license will be mailed to you within four weeks. | license application.
Go to a local driver exam station to have your photo taken and pick up an application packet.
Call a Gambling Control Division Office to make an appointment for an interview. Division offices are located in Billings, Bozeman, Glendive, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell and Missoula.
The Gambling Control Division makes every attempt to process requests for temporary licenses within 24 hours. If you meet all of the legal requirements, your | 94 |
Home > Uzbekistan > Jambas-Kala
Jambas-Kala
Nukus. Karakalpakistan
<|fim_middle|> other end of the town, there were found the ruins of a fire temple. It was the centre of spiritual life of Jambas-Kala population. Inside the temple there still remains an oval pedestal on which the holy fire in metal altar used to burn day and night, as was prescribed by religious ritual. In the sanctuary there is a partly ruined long stone bench for the priests who were to keep the eternal fire by feeding it with fruit tree twigs. It was the place where they performed the fire purification ceremony and sang Avesta hymns.
In the 1st century the settlement was attacked by nomads. With the help of a battering-ram they managed to break the wall open and burst inside the fortress. The enormous number of metallic arrow-heads of two types found here testifies to a fierce fight that took place inside the fortress. Most of the defendants were probably killed in the battle, the rest were captured and sold as slaves. The fire temple and residents' dwellings were destroyed and burned down. Within two thousand years that followed this tragic event, rain and wind eroded away and buried in sand dunes the survived constructions, and today only the walls of the fortress still remind us of the former grandeur of Jambas-Kala.
Sightseeing Places in Karakalpakistan and Nukus
Nukus: Muinak:
Savitsky Art Museum Muynak: a graveyard of ships
Khojeyli region: Ellikkala region:
Historical and Archeological Complex Mizdakhan Jambas-Kala
Gyaur-Kala Ancient Settlement Toprak-Kala Settlement
Ayaz-Kala Ancient Settlement | One hundred and sixty kilometers northward from Urgench on the territory of Ellikala District of Karakalpakstan there lies one of the most remarkable Central Asian antique monuments – ancient fortified settlement Jambas-Kala, which dates back to the 4th century B.C. The fortress was built on a barren upland which closes a chain of hills stretching south-east from Sultanuizdag mountains.
Covered at some spots with sand dunes, these double, five-metre-thick walls reach 10 metres in height. Between the outer and inner walls of the fortress there is a 3-metre-wide passageway. The lower parts of the walls, up to the level of embrasures, is wattle and daub with streaks of brickwork, whereas the upper parts are made of adobe bricks 40x40 centimetres in size.
Around the whole periphery, the outer walls of the fortress have high, narrow arrow-shaped embrasures arrayed in two staggered rows. Between the rows, from inside, there were built gangways for accommodation of fortress defenders. The narrow 20-centimetre-wide embrasures were specially designed to shoot arrows at the foot of the walls, almost vertically downward. Therefore the bottom of the embrasures has steep slopes facing outside. Jambas-Kala is quite distinct from most Central Asian fortresses: it has neither corner nor in-wall turrets. However, the builders of the fortress provided for all the actions to repulse enemy's attacks. To rebut the assailants on the flanks there were arranged systems of three embrasures: the central one being directed straight and two side ones vectored sideways – right and left. Each group of such embrasures was built in a small arched niche which provided space for just one archer. Such systems of embrasures in the walls of the fortress alternated with a set of 20-30 ordinary embrasures.
Fortification art of Jambas-Kala architects can be fully seen in the well-preserved intricate construction built to fortify the only gate to the city. A rectangular wall projection at the gate contains a narrow maze-like passage formed by five turret-like bastions with curves at a right angle. On all sides this passage could be raked with arrows. In case the assaulters managed to get to the gate the defenders of the fortress could confront them face to face from two vaulted passages leading from the gangway inside the walls.
From the fortress gate there runs a wide 30-metre-wide street. On either side of the street there were two large residential areas consisting of about 200 dwellings. This fact allowed the archeologists to arrive at a conclusion that the adult population of Janbas-Kala was about 2000 people. In the ruins of Jambas-Kala there was found a huge amount of ceramic fragments, terracotta statuettes and various artifacts made of metal. Besides, the archeologists unearthed bracelets, signet-rings, jade and crystalline pyrite beads, and, notably, a large number of glass beads of various shapes and colours. Such glass beads were wide-spread in the northern Black Sea area, which proves well-established foreign trade connections of ancient Khorezm.
Jambas-Kala residents professed Zoroastrianism – one of the world's oldest religions which for more than a thousand years dominated a huge area between Khorezm and India, Xinjiamg and the Middle East. Across from the gate, at the | 725 |
Student creativity to be 'unleashed' in spring dance concert
Ashley Ciullo
Student dancers — 160 of them, dancers instructed by 15 student choreographers — will hit the stage to perform inventive explorations and inhibitions through dance in Cal Poly's student-directed spring dance concert, "Unleashed."
The production, sponsored by the Cal Poly theatre and dance department and under the direction of journalism senior Krizia Torres, who is also dancing in four numbers, functions to encompass a variety of powerful and diverse dance styles from performers with a<|fim_middle|> student voice in the center. I think artistic variety will certainly add to audience enjoyment," Junco said.
"A big part of being a performer is the experience of having dialogue with the audience," she said.
A video documentary Torres filmed will be shown in the lobby on the night of the event to give the audience insight to what happens behind the scenes in preparation for the production.
"I wanted to add a human aspect to the show for people to better understand what the process is like from perspectives that aren't seen when they come to watch," she said.
"People that go to school here are really talented and want to show it on stage. It's a good opportunity to show Cal Poly what the underground dance community is doing and how we're thriving through creative progress," she said.
"Unleashed" will be performed at 8 p.m. on May 28 and 29 at Spanos Theatre. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the PAC box office.
Tags Art audience choreography Dance | wide range of experience and skill level.
"The theme name of this spring dance concert is a fun, edgy way to motivate the dancers to remember that when they take the stage they shouldn't hold back on anything. Instead of thinking about their math test tomorrow, they should just concentrate on the matter at hand and that's dance," Torres said.
In addition to dance minors and members of Orchesis, Cal Poly's student dance company, members, the dance and choreography rehearsals in March were available to all Cal Poly students interested in participating.
Torres said that the production, because it includes dancers from any major and dance skill level at Cal Poly, accumulates more members than other dance concerts that happen throughout the year. She said that this year's spring dance concert significantly surpassed the active involvement of previous years, which typically have been composed of about 90 dancers.
"You don't have to be a professional dancer or a dance minor to be in it; you can participate just because you have the love of dance or you just want to try dance," Torres said.
Fifteen choreographers, including dance minors fulfilling their final project, will display their work in the production. "Everyone will bring something special to the show," Torres said.
Genres featured in the 24 dances include African, modern, tap, salsa-inspired tap and break dance, jazz, contemporary lyrical and kickline.
Faculty adviser Maria Junco, who has supported the concert as a student-run production since 1998, said that it is great to give students the opportunity to perform on stage and for choreographers to have their work presented.
"It's really important to have the | 336 |
Novels are full of new characters, new locations and new expressions. The discourse between characters involves new ideas being exchanged. We can get a hint of this by tracking the introduction of new terms in a novel. In the below visualizations (in which each column represents a chapter<|fim_middle|> novel terms the first go round and this was driving the visualization. I've since modified the algorithm to firstly ignore text blocks (paragraphs) with fewer than 5 words and secondly, given it a more dynamic colour scheme. | and each small block a paragraph of text), I maintain a variable which represents novelty. When a paragraph contains more than 25% new terms (i.e. words that have not been observed thus far) this variable is set at its maximum of 1.
In the first book – Austen's Sense and Sensibility – we can see two things. Firstly, the start of the book keeps a pretty good degree of novelty for the first few chapters. Secondly, each chapter introduces something new.
The second book – Stevenson's Kidnapped – shows a different pattern. While it starts off with reasonable novelty, this then dies out for most of the book with spurts of interest here and there.
What is surprising to me (if we take any real meaning from this approach) is that Austen's Emma – the third book – is strong out of the gate (the first 18 chapters) but fails to break the 25% novelty ceiling thereafter.
Update: After looking at the above results I drilled down on the strange behaviour in Emma. It turns out that Emma as multiple volumes within which the chapter counter reset to I. Consequently I was picking up chapter titles (I, II, III, VI, V, etc.) as | 251 |
Sarasota resident Martin Levin's advice: "Never retire!"
By Joan E. Lappin Tuesday, May 24, 2016 5:16 PM
Martin Levin, hard at work. PHOTO / JOAN LAPPIN
Many challenges accompany aging and deciding when and where to retire. It isn't really discussed as much as its importance would dictate.
I live in an intellectually vibrant community, and many neighbors read the Herald-Tribune. So I not only hear from readers but also from my neighbors who comment on what I write. One neighbor asked at a recent social gathering how I can come up with topics<|fim_middle|> the Ringling Museum, where it rotates on display, a generous gift to Sarasota from a person who has simply refused to quit.
Topics: mental agility, retirement, second career
By Joan E. Lappin Wednesday, Mar 2, 2016 5:10 PM
Topics: Gramercy Capital, inflation, Joan Lappin, negative interest rates, retirement, savings | week after week that he finds so interesting. He then observed that he thinks his brain has gone to mush since he retired two years ago. While he reads a lot, he thinks his mental agility isn't as sharp.
That made me think about my friend and mentor since 1969, Martin Levin, who discovered Siesta Key over 30 years ago. Martin was an executive in the book publishing industry throughout his "working" life after his Army service. For decades, he ran the Times Mirror Book Group that included New American Library and New English Library; Matthew Bender, a law publisher; and Yearbook Medical. This eclectic group also included Harry Abrams Art Books. If you are an artist or an art lover, you surely own a Harry Abrams book. New American Library bought the paperback rights to the first best seller of Casey Key resident Stephen King. It was Levin who approved the advance.
When Levin turned 61, he invited me to lunch in New York. He informed me that his dream had been to be a lawyer but life had intervened. By the time his military service ended, he had a wife and family to support, which left neither time nor money for law school. Levin told me that he had requested permission of the chairman of Times Mirror to attend law school at night as he continued to run this $200 million business. (In today's dollars, that would be a $2 billion business.) He wanted me to know that he was signing off for three years because his studies were going to come first.
At the time of his retirement, Times Mirror held a truly elegant party at the Pierre Hotel. Levin passed the bar and began the career he had always dreamed of. Along the way, he had bought a condo on Turtle Beach. It had a small marina right outside where he could keep a small fishing boat. He began an affiliation with Cowan, Liebowitz and Latman, a respected intellectual property law firm in New York City, as a junior attorney. His goal was to do deals in the book industry where he was so well known and respected, selling smaller companies with interesting niche product lines to larger brand names you would know.
He also began teaching at New York Law School, eventually offering a weeklong seminar he designed for up-and-comers in the book business that was offered first at Stanford, then more recently at Yale. Levin has closed more than 110 deals, or an average of one per quarter, over this 30-year interval. Lazard Freres or any other boutique deal firm would envy his record.
Most importantly, Levin has kept his brain polished and ready for action. When he would get stumped on a deal, he would head out to his boat and fish for an hour or two in Little Sarasota Bay or in Long Island Sound near his home in Rye, New York. He'd solve the problem and head back to his desk and complete his work. He was retired from one job but very actively engaged in building his next career. Levin never expected career No. 2, the one life forced him to wait decades to embark on, would last for decades, but it has.
Levin is the pied piper for working as long as you can. Now 97, he is a staunch believer that if you don't use it, you lose it when it comes to your brain agility. He has told me time and time again to keep working to remain vital. I have drunk his KoolAid! I hope to be able to keep working for many years into the future.
As for the Harry Abrams connection, Harry once came to visit Martin's home in Rye and was very dismissive of the art the Levins had on their walls. Not long later, a truck drove up with a selection of paintings that Harry had personally chosen to be installed in the house. Since their value exceeded Martin's budget, he arranged to pay Abrams off over a period of time.
Last year, Martin finally sold his house in Rye. That collection of 30 paintings has arrived in Sarasota at | 830 |
Postdigital, in artistic practice, is an attitude that is more concerned with being human, than with being digital, similar to the concept of "undigital" introduced in 1995, where technology and society advances beyond digital limitations to achieve a totally fluid multimediated reality that is free from artefacts of digital computation (quantization noise, pixelation, etc.).
Postdigital is concerned with our rapidly changed and changing relationships with digital technologies and art forms. If one examines the textual paradigm of consensus, one is faced with a choice: either the "postdigital" society has intrinsic meaning, or it is contextualised into a paradigm of consensus that includes art as a totality.
Theory
Giorgio Agamben (2002) describes paradigms as things that we think with, rather than things we think about. Like the computer age, the postdigital is also a paradigm, but as with post-humanism for example, an understanding of postdigital does not aim to describe a life after digital, but rather, attempts to describe the present-day opportunity to explore the consequences of the digital and of the computer age. While the computer age has enhanced human capacity with inviting and uncanny prosthetics, the postdigital may provide a paradigm with which it is possible to examine and understand this enhancement.
In The Future of Art in a Postdigital Age, Mel Alexenberg defines "postdigital art" as artworks that address the humanization of digital technologies through interplay between digital, biological, cultural, and spiritual systems, between cyberspace and real space, between embodied media and mixed reality in social and physical communication, between high tech and high touch experiences, between visual, haptic, auditory, and kinesthetic media experiences, between virtual and augmented reality, between roots and globalization, between autoethnography and community narrative, and between web-enabled peer-produced wikiart and artworks created with alternative media through participation, interaction, and collaboration in which the role of the artist is redefined, and between tactile art and NFTs.
Mel Alexenberg proposes that a postdigital age is defined in Wired by MIT Media Center director Nicholas Negroponte: "Like air and drinking water, being digital will be noticed only in its absence, not by its presence. Face it - the Digital Revolution is over"
Music
Kim Cascone uses the term in his article The Aesthetics of Failure: "Post-digital" Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music. He begins the article with a quotation from MIT Media Lab cyberpundit Nicholas Negroponte: "The digital revolution is over." Cascone goes on to describe what he sees as a 'post-digital' line of flight in the music also commonly known as glitch or microsound music, observing that 'with electronic commerce now a natural part of the business fabric of the Western world and Hollywood cranking out digital fluff by the gigabyte, the medium of digital technology holds less fascination for composers in and of itself.'
In Art after Technology, Maurice Benayoun lists possible tracks for "postdigital" art considering that the digital flooding has altered the entire social, economical, artistic landscape, and the artist posture will move in ways that try to escape the technological realm without being able to completely discard it. From lowtech to biotech and critical fusion - critical intrusion of fiction inside reality – new forms of art emerge from the digital era.
See also
Circuit bending
Databending
Digital Art
Glitch
New Aesthetic
New media art
References
Further reading
Alexenberg, Mel, (2019), Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media. Nashville, Tennessee: HarperCollins; .
Alexenberg, Mel, (2011), The Future of Art in a Postdigital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness. Bristol and Chicago: Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press; .
Alexenberg, Mel, ed. (2008), Educating Artists for the Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology, and Culture. Bristol and Chicago: Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press, 344 pp. . (postdigital chapters by Roy Ascott, Stephen Wilson, Eduardo Kac, and others)
Ascott, R. (2003), Telematic Embrace. (E.Shaken, ed.) Berkeley: University of<|fim_middle|>, July 2011, .
Toshiko, Saneoki. (2019). Postigital Theory of Giorgio Agamben, Ryota Matsumoto, Kim Cascone, Japanese Art and Design. Hachimato, Tokyo Institute of Art, Tokyo, Japan.
Bolognini, M. (2008), Postdigitale, Rome: Carocci.
Ferguson, J., & Brown, A. R. (2016). "Fostering a post-digital avant-garde: Research-led teaching of music technology". Organised Sound, 21(2), 127–137.
Pepperell, R. and Punt, M. (2000), The Postdigital Membrane: Imagination, Technology and Desire, Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, 182 pp.
Wilson, S. (2003), Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology.
External links
Google Books: The Postdigital Membrane
What is a paradigm by Giorgio Agamben
Post-Digital Humanities: Computation and Cultural Critique in the Arts and Humanities
Monoskop: Collection of resources related to Post-Digital Aesthetics
Postdigital Science and Education journal
Postdigital Science and Education book series
Digital art
Digital electronics
Computer art
New media
New media art
Interactive art
Visual arts genres | California Press.
Birnbaum, D and Kuo (2008) More than Real: Art in the Digital Age, 2018 Verbier Art Summit. London: Koenig Books.
Berry, D. M. (2014) Critical Theory and the Digital, New York: Bloomsbury.
Berry, D. M. and Dieter (2015) Postdigital Aesthetics: Art, Computation and Design, London: Palgrave.
Barreto, R. and Perissinotto, P. (2002), The Culture of Immanence, in Internet Art. Ricardo Barreto e Paula Perissinotto (orgs.). São Paulo, IMESP. .
Benayoun, M. (2008), Art after Technology abstract of the text written by Maurice Benayoun in Technology Review - French edition, N°7 June–July 2008, MIT, ISSN 1957-1380
Full text in English
Toshimo, Saniev. (2019). "Postdigital, Giorgio Agamben, Ryota Matsumoto" Tokyo University Press Media Research Journal Japanese Text.
Benayoun, M., The Dump, 207 Hypotheses for Committing Art, bilingual (English/French), Fyp éditions, France | 297 |
Over the last few months, I've become very interested in the teaching of consumer education in high schools, especially as it pertains to preparing high schoolers for the challenges that they'll face in the real world: going to college, paying for college, buying a car, buying a house, dealing with debt, finding a good job, spending less than you earn, balancing a checkbook, managing your money, and so on.
I am a firm believer that the reason many people find themselves lost financially is that the basic tools needed to know how to manage money isn't taught to them during their childhood. Some children are lucky: they have parents who manage to deal out the necessary lessons. Other children aren't so lucky and they wind up out in the real world without the vaguest idea of how to handle their paycheck – and that often results in years of confusion as they learn to ride that bicycle.
I should know. My consumer education came well after my school days were done and was delivered by learning from mistakes – some big mistakes. I floundered around for years before finally picking up enough pieces of the puzzle to really understand how, as a consumer, I could function in society successfully and build up my piece of the pie.
No student should leave school without the basic knowledge they need to get ahead financially – or at least keep their head above water. With that belief, I started digging into the realities of high school consumer education.
The first thing I discovered is that consumer education standards vary widely from state to state. Some states have a good program with mandatory consumer education. Other states offer no consumer education at all. Most states fall somewhere in the middle, with slight requirements but without the meat on the bone for students to really take home solid lessons.
2.0 Students will analyze relationships between the U.S. economic system and consumers.
3.0 Students will integrate knowledge, skills, and practices required for management of resources in a technologically expanding global economy.
4.0 Students will examine skills necessary for informed purchasing, solving consumer problems, and understanding ethical consumer issues.
5.0 Students will assess financial institutions and demonstrate appropriate financial management strategies.
7.0 Students will analyze the role of credit in personal and family financial management.
8.0 Students will apply management principles to personal and family decisions concerning types of insurance needed to contain and manage loss.
9.0 Students will integrate knowledge, skills, and practices required<|fim_middle|> me with it by criticizing it and offering suggestions. I'd like to eventually flesh this material out into a guide that could be made available for download to assist high school teachers and other individuals who are interested in teaching the basics of consumer education to their children.
I think it's a good idea to start with my old post on Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance on the Back of Five Business Cards. You could really break this entire curriculum down into just four small pieces.
The introductory part of the curriculum could focus just on this one little element. Show quite visually what happens when you spend more than you earn, spend the same amount you earn (living paycheck to paycheck), and spend less than you earn. Give some real-world examples of each by showing stories of real people in bankruptcy, living paycheck to paycheck, and getting ahead.
This could cover areas of how to prepare for a job, write a resume, fill out a job application, and so forth. It could also cover the value of going to school, figuring out what you should be studying (using some good stuff from What Color Is Your Parachute?), and the basics of what to expect in the real world. One could touch on things like passive income, starting a side business, and things like that as well.
This is where the "consumer" part of the consumer education comes in, covering things like how to spend less at the grocery store and the department store, how to research a purchase, the amount of cash you can save by making these little moves, how to deconstruct the cost of various bills, and so on. Throw the expenses of normal life up there and look at how they can be reduced. Deconstruct some advertisements so they can see how they work.
At the same time, show how this spending needs to be put in the context of your income and where it can be kept. How does one balance a checkbook? How does one develop a very simple budget? What does one do with the left over money (NOT just spend it)? How does one use a credit card effectively? What's the value of a savings account? One could even touch on investing here just a bit.
To me, these are the tools that kids need out of a consumer education class, and materials like this should be taught in every high school.
What elements do you think are important in a high school consumer education curriculum? What's not taught in schools that should be? I'm interested to hear your thoughts. | for careers in consumer economics.
10.0 Students will demonstrate leadership, citizenship and teamwork skills required for success in economic roles as consumer, producer, and citizen.
I understand the logic behind this basic framework, but much of it doesn't teach basic consumer education to students. The first three are better suited to an economics course and the ninth and tenth options are nice but don't really help teaching students how to succeed with their own money.
I'd like to propose a different curriculum, and I'd like you to help | 104 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.